Moon Rising by Tui T. Sutherland Page B

reason everyone voted that I would be terrible at recruiting, whatever that is all about, so they made me Head of School instead. So I’m pretty much the boss. And I’m running your first small group-discussion class, which was Glory’s big idea, so I figure we’ll figure it out together. Any questions?”
    “Yeah,” said Carnelian. “Are we stuck with this group?”
    “That’s not quite how I would put it,” said Tsunami. “But yes.”
    “What if we would prefer to be in a group with other IceWings?” Winter asked. “Such as my sister?”
    “That’s not how the winglets are set up,” Tsunami said. “But you’ll be in some bigger group classes with her and have plenty of time to make other friends as well.”
    “I love our winglet,” Kinkajou volunteered.
    “When do we eat?” Umber asked. “Just kidding. Pretending to be Clay.” He grinned, then shot a look at Qibli. Did he think that was funny? I hope that was funny. Did I sound like an idiot?
    Oh, it’s Qibli he noticed, Moon realized, not Winter. It was impossible to ignore how handsome Winter was, especially with Kinkajou thinking about it all the time. But it was true that Qibli was good-looking, too, in a warmer way, now that she looked. His thoughts were so distractingly fascinating that she hadn’t noticed it before.
    “Ha! Actually I brought food,” Tsunami said. She cleared aside a tangle of vines and revealed a carved stone bowl full of fish, which she set in the middle of the floor. “Help yourselves.”
    “Awesome,” said Turtle.
    “Yyyyyyyuck,” said Kinkajou. “I’ll wait and have a banana later, thanks.”
    Moon took a step toward the fish, but so did Winter, and she jumped back to stay out of his way. He gave her a curious look. She’s frightened of me. Mother would be so proud. He turned away, skewering a fish on one of his claws. I guess I did threaten to slice off her face.
    “Here,” Qibli said, taking a fish and handing it to Moon. She could feel the heat rising from his sand-yellow scales as she accepted it.
    “Thanks,” she said. He smiled crookedly at her, thinking rushing, busy thoughts about what else he could do to get her to like him, and trying to fit her into a pattern of other dragons he’d known before. She had never met a dragon who had so many thoughts a minute. Consciously he was thinking about her; unconsciously he was observing that Carnelian was the most battle-scarred and probably the most unpredictable dragon in the cave, so he was angling his tail toward her, just as a precaution. And part of him was also remembering what he knew about Tsunami and the kinds of dragons she liked, while yet another part was planning to go out and survey the mountains later.
    It was almost like reading a scroll, or maybe like reading five scrolls at once. Moon wished she could escape his attention and just listen to him think for a while.
    “Right, introductions,” said Tsunami. “Carnelian? Want to go first?”
    No, muttered the SkyWing’s brain. She heaved a deep sigh. “I’m Carnelian.”
    There was a pause.
    “Anything else?” Tsunami prompted. “What should we know about you? Family, favorite color, anything?”
    Carnelian growled, low in her throat. “I’m a loyal subject of Queen Ruby,” she said finally. “I’m in the camp that believes Queen Scarlet is dead, and if she isn’t, I’d be happy to kill her myself to protect my queen’s throne. I’m here because my queen told me to be, although I should be training with my battalion and guarding her palace, not eating slimy wet fish with a bunch of spineless dragonets.” She frowned at them all for a moment. “And my favorite color is red.”
    Insecure, Qibli thought, studying Carnelian. Only comfortable when she’s fighting. Worried we’ll think she’s dumb and that Queen Ruby will find out she’s dumb and all her chances of advancing to general one day will be ruined. Is she as stupid as she thinks she is? Have to wait and see.
    Moon