Chapter 8: The Rainforest

Basilisk

Tangermean, I mean- Tangerine original aggressiveness had worn off, probably because I made myself look like a dork without basic listening skills, sort of my fault, still her "aggressiveness if it could even be called that, it was honestly just really disappointing, and right now violence seemed like the best way to get his mind off of things.

Sadly Tangerine didn't share his outlook, popping up in front of him. Curiously asking not to his surprise, everyone asked at some point, so it wasn't a fair reason to get annoyed at her, "Why aren't you more colorful?"

Every single time. Did it even matter? It didn't help that Tangerine if she stood on her tippy toes would be as tall as him if not taller, and apparently she was 9, he was 14. I turned my head away from her peering eyes staring into my soul. "Why are you such an odd shade of orange?"

"Um I dunno." was her response before instantly changing the subject with a giggle scattering several crabs underneath her talons, "What do you think came first the color or the fruit?"

I swept my tail across the sand, thinking real hard before giving her an almost exact mirror response unintentionally, "Uh, I dunno…"

I just genuinely didn't know.

Tangerine seemed to notice, and jumped up, "Oh I know, we can build a sand castle! My friend, Melody, is super nice y'know, and she once brought sand back from the desert because she likes it there because it's so sunny! So all of my friends pitched in to make a pretty big sand castle, but now I have an entire beach. I can't wait to tell them."

I eyed her oddly, and felt stupid once more. It should have tipped me off she wasn't normal, this just seemed to seal the deal. Sure some Skywings certainly didn't live near the beach, but there were too many weird coincidences. Too… "You're not a normal Skywing are you?"

Rainwingy.

Her head shot up from the mound of sand she was making, speaking entirely too fast, "A normal Skywing? What do you mean, I'm orange like you said." She then gestured to her horns. "Completely skywingy horns." Okay seemed like she used the same vocabulary as me when referring to tribes, double suspicion. "And look at these wings, pretty big huh!" Tangerine continued proudly spreading her dark brownish wings. "Pretty sure I'm a normal Skywing, then again, I do have this cool pink spot on my chest, but that's just color."

Wasn't referring to that but okay stranger. "No. You're very Rainwingy. The name, your personality, they are dead giveaways."

Rainwings were seen as lesser dragons in the kingdom, they had to be threatened into an alliance, nobody would name their dragonet anything close to a traditional rainwing name.

"Well I um-" she started holding one of her talons up as if she was interjecting me,

I cut her off, lashing my tail back and forth, "You're an atrocious liar, even worse than me, and Sh- one of my friends calls me the worst liar she ever met."

Tangerine once again shifted uncomfortably in the sand and tilted her head down, horns brushing against some branches, before seeming to regain some courage, "Well you're a Rainwing so I guess it was obvious to you, and yeah I live in the Rainforest! It's so nice there!"

She then paused before quickly adding with a small stutter spreading her wings in alarm at what she feared would be offensive, "N-Not that here is bad or anything! It's just… It's not home, it's so much easier to fly around though, but it's sort of dull don't you think? The Rainforest is beautiful!"

Tangermean was awfully skittish, it's like she was walking around glass around me. I equally liked the power I felt whenever she would mumble on like a chipmunk, and felt the need that a decent dragon would reassure her.

I decided to ignore that little voice in my head. "By the winds above you even talk like one." I groaned with an exasperated sigh, he fancied himself different from the other Rainwings, his scales even seemed to prove it, he didn't wear his emotions on his scales like all the other flappity mopey Rainwings too busy smelling the flowers than to look up and see the issues in the world. It was a negative stereotype that bothered him to no end, and if he had any ounce less of self-control he'd be scratching her across her obnoxiously happy snout.

She seemed to be able to read my expression because she immediately said, without a hint of fear or hesitation, maybe she wasn't as skittish as I thought, I wasn't very good at reading dragons afterall, " There's nothing wrong with that, it's pride for my homeland, if I didn't love my tribe, then… well who would I be?" exasperation leaking into her voice, "You Sky Kingdom folk, are so stuffy, loosen up a little, you might even have some fun, and the rainforest is beautiful, there is so much diverse wildlife and places to explore!"

She was still talking like a rainwing… great. I looked boredly down at my talons pretending as if they were the most important thing in the world, utterly and absolutely fascinating, no emotion, just like the palace freaks, "Look Tang-er-mean. That sounds wonderful and all but I don't even know what the rainforest looks like." Lie.

She half gasped and half shrieked.

Yeesh talk about dramatic. It was just a place, nobody needed to, it wasn't even that impressive, even though the most he could remember was nearly being strangled by vines, or being shoved into swampy water he was sure that was all that mattered about that place. He couldn't help but feel a sense of not quite fear, just a sick quenching powerless feeling.

Tangerine's jaw practically dropped and hit the ground with a large thud, "You've never been to the rainforest?" she exclaimed.

I shrugged, it wasn't really worth mentioning, "I was born there, left and never looked back." If there was anywhere that was even mildly interesting it was this beach, simply because of all the treasures that he and Shell could spend hours looking for, and Shell spoke so vividly of the Sea Kingdom that it made him want to see it… wasn't that what Tangerine was doing though…

Tangerine looked scandalized, "You're missing out on so much though! Not that the Rainwings are superior to all tribes, don't tell anyone I said that, I'm sure your Sky Wing culture is just as rich and fascinating and that's why I'm here, to learn." Then in a softer less surprised half disbelief voice, she added, "What about we trade cultures? You're a Rainwing who's never lived in the rainforest, and I'm a Skywing who hardly ever sees the sky! What a beautiful misfit friendship this could be! That is of course, if you want to be friends?"

I flattened my ears and frills but accepted, it didn't seem exactly fair to grant the right to gush about a colorful hidden world to only one dragon, even if she was vastly less annoying. Tangerine was ecstatic though so that made me feel like I did something right. "So what exactly am I missing out on? Eating fruit? Because I prefer meat."

Tangerine looked incredibly proud, and stood a little straighter, seemingly putting on an impression of a teaching voice, "Now my pupil, observe as I hang in a tree."

She flew into a nearby tree and coiled her much shorter, stiffer tail around the dark brown's tree's trunk before sort of trying to coil upwards, scrambling her arms up so her claws up to catch the tree branch before she fell, "Ta da! It's a little improvised but I've gotten really good at hanging from trees."

"Uhm… nice job. How is this useful?" complimented Basilisk trying to keep the disinterest out of his voice, and trying to stare her in the eyes, he was pretty sure that was a way of telling someone you were alert and paying attention and interested. He already did this on a daily basis.

He thought this was dumb because it also meant that someone wanted to go at you but it wasn't like he was going to rewrite their language.

Now it was her turn to flatten her ears and adjusting her fake glasses, before reading off a fake paper, while sitting in a fake chair, Tangerine was just sitting on air, yep it was confirmed this dragon was a dork, "Now class, you might think, how is this helpful? And for that we have our lovely Queen to thank, Queen Jinx, says we can hang from trees and swoop down, that seems like something you'd be interested in, although I can't really do that as I need my front claws to grip the tree."

I had never thought of that before, huh… stealth attack mode, drop down steal a kid, and pop up before anyone could see him… he was pretty sure that wasn't the intention but who cared?

"We are also great at seeing other rainwings in disguise, once you're around them long enough you start to see the tiny changes, I don't think that's something I can teach you can just sense it! It's home really, and that's what makes it so amazing, sorry I can't really describe it with just a few short words." continued his newest orange friend dragon, self proclaimed friend at least.

"It's not your fault, you don't need to apologize." I reassured her, even if Tangerine was annoying, at the very least she was passionate.

She perked up a bit, it seemed to be her turn now because right after she asked me a question I had no answer to making a wide gesture to the sea, and the fishing nets that he loved watching in the crystal clear water, Shell would have loved today if she was here, and maybe she was just underwater, beside the fishing nets were some poorly made canoe's, again, why didn't they just fly, "What about you? What makes this place home?"

I looked around at the cloudy skies, the large wide open skies, this wasn't a home, it was simply where he stayed, he didn't even have a set house, he had a place he frequented because he liked the sound of the waterfall. He didn't have a home… not like the one Tangerine seemed to describe.

"Uh.. are you okay? You're spacing out." she said nervously, extending her forearm and hovering over my shoulder, wondering if it would be okay to touch me.

"I'm fine." I said curtly, she continued looking at me with concern. What was home… other than Shell he had no place tethering me to this place. Shell… Tangerine, everyone but him seemed to have some sense of purpose, a place to return too… some days he could forget but right now it came crashing back towards me.

Tangerine was quiet looking around at anything but me, the way the waves would crash against the rocks, or the seagulls circling ahead, or even the pesky crabs on the beach. "You know…" she said, her gaze distant and contemplative, "The Rainwings are super duper nice and welcoming, they accepted me into the tribe instantly!"

If only that were true, if his tribe had been the "oh so shining idols" this daft orange as a sunrise dragon seemed to think they were then he wouldn't even be in this situation right now.

Or maybe it was just his dysfunctional family that was the problem.

Maybe revenge was his purpose. I turned towards Tangerine ready to strike a deal, Shell wasn't around to contain him so he might as well have a bit of fun.