Chapter Eight: Making Friends

Jonathan: I watched Estelle with great interest. Trahern peeked in.

Who's that, Jonathan? I don't remember seeing her before

I grinned. "That's Estelle, Trahern. She's just hatched." Trahern stuck his nose in and snorted. Estelle fell over backwards, squawking in alarm.

Amara hurriedly picked her up, snuggling her close. "It's okay, sweetie. I'll take care of you." she glared at Trahern. "Be more careful!" Trahern looked a little sheepish, so Amara walked over and patted his nose. "I'm sorry I yelled." then she held up Estelle so they could touch noses. Estelle sniffed, then sneezed. "God bless you!" Amara said.

Bless you, Trahern said a few seconds after Amara. Estelle cooed and fell asleep. The week passed quickly, with Estelle getting into nearly all the predicaments our dragons had gotten into.

Dad seemed to like Estelle, so he wasn't mad that she was the seventh dragon. In fact, both Mom and Dad loved her. She never destroyed anything, and she was very obedient. Tell her no, and she never got into whatever it was again.

When she was too big to stay in the house, the other dragons looked after her. It was kind of funny to see her, the little white dragon, next to all the others. They could all look over the roof just by raising their heads a little. Little Estelle had to stand up and stretch her neck up as far as it would go. She grew quickly, though, and it wasn't long until she wasn't going to get any bigger. She was younger and more immature, but the other dragons included her in their games. I smiled as I watched them playing one day, laughing as Conan and Amaris joined them.

Suddenly, an unknown brown female dragon with chartreuse spikes and wing bones joined in the game. I ran outside with Alina not far behind. A girl puffed up a few minutes later. She looked around our age, and had wavy brown hair.

"So sorry." the girl panted. "Larita loves to play games, and she couldn't resist when she saw this one. We live across the street," the girl said, extending her hand. Alina and I shook her hand, making polite noises as the girl introduced herself as Haley.

Larita walked over and said something to Haley, who grinned and excused them. "We have to go home, my mom wants us." they left.

"What did you think of them?" Alina asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Larita is all right, but Haley is sort of weird."

Alina laughed. "I agree. C'mon, maybe we can get a snack and then go to the library."

I took off running. Since my legs were longer, I beat Alina to the house. I grabbed the last two cheesesticks and hid one behind my back. Alina skidded inside and looked inside the refrigerator, then glared at me.

"You ate the last cheesestick, didn't you?"

I put a falsely innocent look on my face. "Why do you say that?"

Alina tackled me, laughing. "How could you eat it, wretch!"

We tussled for a while, then I finally took the cheesestick out of my pocket and gave it to her. She smacked my shoulder, then went to ask mom if we could go to the library.

Mom, of course, said yes, probably trying to get us out of the house. Alina and I went outside to call Trahern and Javis, talking about stuff in general.

"Jonathan?" Alina asked suddenly.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Why do you think they chose us? The dragons, I mean. And what is our purpose? We were brought together for a reason," Alina finished, patting Javis's shoulder affectionately.

I shrugged, shivering as Trahern took off. The sensation of leaving your stomach behind never ceases to annoy. "I really don't know, Alina. Maybe there isn't a reason. Maybe they just liked us. Or maybe we're really from another planet engulfed entirely in war and were brought here to be safe and we're really royalty?"

Alina snorted. "Yeah, right. And I'm the queen of England."

We flew the rest of the way in silence, thinking.

A/N: That was short, sorry. But...why were the kids and dragons brought together? Why do all the neighbors have dragons, too? Is there really a possibility that they were brought together for a reason? Read, review, and find out! No reviews, no chapter nine.