Chapter 31:
ANOTHER PLOT TWIST

OC knew that she should have rushed to the Rainforest as quickly as possible. She knew that she should have apologized to Subzero and asked him to join the quest. She knew that a real hero would have set off on her epic adventure without looking back.

But she didn't. She couldn't. She wanted her dance with Hotness... her happy ending.

Just one dance, she reasoned. One more happy, sappy scene before everything falls apart. Is that too much to ask for? Selfishness is relatable. I'm just being relatable!

Shoving down all of her emotions made her feel like she had just eaten an egg. Or one of the other million things that she was allergic to. But she managed to hide her nausea as she dragged herself to the party. She would have this date, this dance, this ending. No matter what. "This is what you wanted," she growled to herself, "this is what you wanted, OC."

Something strange and dark and horrible stirred inside of her. She told herself it was just the stomachache. It wasn't.

The entire school (except, of course, for all the dragons who were dead and/or missing) had shown up for OC's victory party. The dining hall was positively packed, with dragonets everywhere dancing on tables and chasing terrified prey animals around. The dragonets of destiny rushed to and fro, trying to chaperone everyone and keep the story rated K plus. Starflight did his best, but kept running to stalagmites because he was so useless and blind.

OC stopped at the entrance, soaking in all the drama and fun. Something seemed... off, but she quickly squashed down her unease. There was a snack table nearby, stacked high with raw elk meat, still-twitching birds, and mini quiches. OC picked up a quiche, nervously nibbling it as she scanned the dance floor for her friends. For one warm, attractive friend in particular.

Though the dining hall was still as boringly-decorated as ever, OC's mere presence seemed to brighten the whole party. A giggling winglet cheered and did the SandWing Shuffle. Red and Herring danced by together, thinking about how they had miraculously forgiven each other.

And there, in a corner with OC's two less attractive friends... was Hotness. Their sheer romantic magnetism pulled them together from across the hall (though they both had to step over a few puddles of fruit punch and blood).

"Wow, OC," Hotness said, his hot chocolate voice as warm as ever, "you're so relatably -"

"Thanks," OC rushed on, awkwardly eager, "let's dance now!"

"Oh, okay!" Hotness flashed an adorably hot grin and led OC out to the makeshift dance floor, where everyone was trying to dance.

A student band was playing their vaguely medieval instruments. Music would have been a great way to give this story some rich history and worldbuilding, but unfortunately Jade Mountain Academy's band was so terrible that nobody could even tell what song they were trying to play. Yet another sad result of the school cutting its art programs in order to fund Clay's ham addiction.

"This music sure is... something," OC said, trying to stay positive as the SkyWing behind them made his primitive bagpipes scream.

About halfway through the "song", Tsunami mercifully stopped the band in order to make her toast to OC's relatable squad of friends. She raised a goblet of completely-nonalcoholic-liquid and crowed, "Hey, everyone, let's give it up for the mystery solvers!"

OC relatably blushed and tried to hide behind Hotness's attractive wings. Then a crowd of admiring students gathered around them, and before OC knew it, they were all being playfully pushed toward the dragonets of destiny.

"Who would have thought these guys would turn out to be our greatest heroes?" Tsunami crowed. She downed her completely-nonalcoholic-beverage and reached out to pat OC and Muddy with her wings. "This MudWing is so shy that she stutters more than Starflight!"

"A-a-actually," murmured Muddy, "m-my s-s-stutter is a m-medical c-condition caused b-by an injury to m-my -"

"And guess who's the biggest hero of all?!" Tsunami went on loudly. "OC!"

The dining hall roared with cheers for OC and her friends. Mostly for OC, really, because she was just so relatably heroic.

"OC! OC! OC!"

All the students of Jade Mountain Academy raised their voices to cheer for their new favorite hero. OC was relatably surprised to see the same dragonets who had, just yesterday, been bullying her for her heritage and appearance now applauding and begging for her autograph. Even she could see that this was a bit of a lazy plot.

Their positive thoughts slammed into her like a tidal wave. Apparently they were now all obsessed with her. Clay even stopped dreaming about food just long enough to think, Wow, she's so cool! I wanna give her a big hug! He flung his wings out, striking his friends right in the snouts.

Unfortunately, Starflight was still useless and blind, so when Clay's wing accidentally smacked him, he stumbled and fell faster than the second Wings of Fire story arc. Fatespeaker, who had been hanging out suspiciously close to Starflight, went down with him.

OC watched, horrified, as a ridiculous chain reaction of stumbling and roaring and dragon-themed cursing unfurled. Fatespeaker's tail tripped Kinkajou, who said something quirky and bumped into Turtle, who dropped his plateful of oysters and, somehow, slipped on them, sending him slamming down onto the ground. Peril, who had been standing next to Turtle and minding her own fiery business, stepped aside to avoid burning his face off... and accidentally bumped into a whole row of flammable streamers. "Oops."

Before could Peril even react angstily, half the hall was on fire. Students screamed and flew for the windows, which Fatespeaker had accidentally blocked off with her creative wall-hangings. Cute, but deadly. Clay splashed a bowl of punch down on a flaming snack table, but it was too late. All those cheap paper streamers had turned the dance into a death trap.

The fire soon spread to the huge congratulations banner, and by the time Tsunami put it out with her tail, the only words left were: ANOTHER PLOT TWIST.

OC gulped. If that wasn't foreshadowing, what was?

Then, looking back at the panicking dragonets of destiny, she finally realized what was wrong. Sunny was missing.

Also, their entire school was a burning mess. But the Sunny thing was what really worried her. Guilt crashed down on OC. Sunny risked it all to warn me, and now she's gone, while I'm here celebrating?!

"Stupid SkyWings!" screamed random NightWing student. "I bet this was all a plan to kill us!"

Even though everyone had literally just watched the accident that started the fire, the tensions and prejudice that had been not-so-subtly bubbling throughout this story suddenly returned in full force. A not-so-subtle battle broke out in the middle of the burning hall.

So the students of Jade Mountain Academy weren't quite as peaceful as they had seemed. I should have known that character development was too rushed! OC thought with despair.

Muddy and Expendable crouched behind an overturned snack table, blasting fire and mini quiches at the other crazed students. OC hurried over to help, but was surprised to see that her two friends were actually doing pretty well. Muddy slapped Expendable back to sanity whenever he started tragically monologuing about OC, which kept Muddy herself distracted from her heartrending flashbacks. For two terribly incompetent dragons, they made a shockingly competent team in battle.

"G-g-get out of h-here, OC!" shouted Muddy. "W-we'll hold them off!"

"Yeah!' Expendable grinned and lit a screaming SeaWing on fire. "Hey, does this count as a heroic sacrifice for OC, because -"

"N-not n-now, Expendable!" Muddy slapped him.

"Thank you!" OC wept sparkling tears of gratitude. "You two are the best friends I could ever -"

Muddy gave OC a shy shove. "D-d-don't make m-me slap you t-too!"

As OC turned to Hotness, her grateful tears of friendship turned to sadder, sparklier ones of grief. She had gotten her dance, but at what cost? The song hadn't even been romantic. It hadn't even been a song, really. Maybe this was a sign for her to stop ignoring her destiny.

"I'm sorry, Hotness," she whispered. "You've been so kind and wonderful and hot, but... but I have to go." She met his dark eyes and felt her scintillating heart break into a million pieces. "I have to do this. Alone."

Hotness, who had no idea what she was talking about, stared back in heartbreak and confusion. Mostly confusion. He grabbed her talons in his. "OC, why...?"

OC turned away. The her character development had gotten so convoluted that she knew there was no point trying to explain. And she couldn't bear to hurt Hotness any more than she already had. She gazed out at all the fire and destruction. A single, shining tear rolled down her snout. Then she wrenched her talons away from Hotness and spread her wings to fly.

"OC, wait!" cried Hotness. "OC!"

The mob of fighting dragonets conveniently swarmed around them, allowing OC to slip away. More tears poured down her face and sad colors flashed across her wings, but she forced herself to leave. Someone had conveniently smashed a window open, so she tried to squeeze through it, got stuck, and managed to wiggle out while still crying dramatically.

She had to be a hero. She had to win this quest.

Because if I'm not a hero... what am I?