Samantha Edwhan

Alita's Youth

Chapter 5

Spring 2829

It was mid-morning when Alita heard the news. She was resting in her family’s nook of the caves when a commotion near the main entrance echoed through to her. She made her way through the tunnels, ears perked, until she reached the main cave. Several dragons of varying ages were talking in hushed, but excited, voices. Alita quickly realised they were all Rock Dragons.

“Did you hear? Clyde just welcomed in a new Rock Dragon,” one dragon said.

“Apparently she has a son too,” another added.

“Is he also a Rock Dragon?” a third dragon asked.

The first two nodded and the third grinned. Alita stared at them as the news set in. There were new dragons on the beach. They were Rock Dragons. One of them was young.

“Um, excuse me?” Alita approached them hesitantly. “How old is this new, young dragon?”

The dragons grinned down at her. One said, “I do believe he’s about your age. He’ll be in your lessons.”

Alita blinked a few times. A grin spread across her face. “Really?”

The dragon nodded. Alita’s grin widened further and she spun around, hurrying out of the caves. She had to find her friends and tell them. She had to find and meet this new dragon. A Rock Dragon her age! Matthias was the only one, but now there was another one.

The sand was warm under her feet, though Alita barely noticed it as she bounded across the beach, looking around for her friends. She spotted Evelyn first. She was with a few other fledglings near the water. It wasn’t a lesson, exactly, but perhaps a study group. Kyle and Kailey were there too. The three of them were talking and poking at the sand between them. As Alita got closer, she realised they were pointing at a crab, which snapped its claws back at each of their claws.

Alita ignored that and hurried right up to Evelyn, barely able to contain her excitement. “Hey, Evelyn. Have you heard about our new classmate? He’s a Rock Dragon like me!”

Evelyn looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. “So? There are plenty of Rock Dragons in the Tribe. Like your brother, Liam, or that oddball friend of yours.”

“Yeah but they’re the only two close to my age,” Alita explained, ignoring that Evelyn had just referred to Matthias as an oddball. “This dragon is completely new. Besides, Rock Dragons are the rarest in the Tribe.”

“So? They’re one of the most common in the Calndom,” Evelyn retorted.

Alita shook her head. “You don’t get it. Imagine if the only dragons who shared your element were your family and a few others. You’d be excited too. Maybe he knows things we don’t about how to control rocks.”

“I doubt it. I heard he’s behind in his schooling,” Evelyn said, rolling her eyes. “Also, Alita, Clyde is my father so most of the Tribe are my family.”

She pointedly waved a wing at the other fledglings nearby. Alita glanced at them. Almost all of them were Clyde’s sons and daughters.

“That’s different. You don’t see Clyde as a parental figure.” Alita looked across the other side of the beach and spun around as she caught sight of a grey-brown dragon approaching. “There he is! The new guy!”

He was about a year older than her with brown eyes and rounded horn tips that curved slightly downwards. His face tensed a little as he reached them and he stood stiffly across from Alita and Evelyn.

“Hello. My name is Korbin,” he said, dipping his head a little in an awkward bow.

Alita beamed at him. “I’m Alita. I’m a Rock Dragon too.”

Korbin smiled. It was a little crooked. His face when he smiled made Alita’s stomach tickle.

“I hope we get lots of time to become friends,” Korbin said.

Alita grinned and nodded. “Me too.”

“So what are you doing?” Korbin asked after a moment, glancing down at the crab.

Alita followed his gaze behind her. “Oh, um, I’m not too sure actually.”

“We were trying to identify it,” Kailey explained.

“There’s a few crabs on the beach,” Kyle explained. “Whenever we see one, we try to figure out what type it is. I’m Kyle by the way.”

“And I’m Kailey. Nice to meet you,” Kailey added quickly.

Korbin smiled and nodded. He glanced at Evelyn. “What about you? What’s your name?”

Evelyn glanced at him, a small frown on her face. “I’m Evelyn.”

“Good to meet you all,” Korbin said, smiling crookedly again.

“Uh huh.” Evelyn crouched down, focusing squarely on the crab.

“So what kind of crab is it?” Korbin asked.

“Purple rock crab,” Evelyn said bluntly.

“No way,” Kyle retorted. “It’s gotta be a hairy clawed crab.”

Evelyn gave him a look. “Are you listening to yourself? It’s purple. That makes it a purple rock crab.”

Alita stared at the crab for a second, then nodded. “She’s right. That’s a purple rock crab.”

Kyle frowned. Alita had learned that he hated being proved wrong.

“What does a hairy clawed crab look like then?” Korbin asked.

“They’re more of a grey-green,” Kailey explained. “And they have little hairs on their pincers and legs.”

“Oh, is that why you were trying to poke it before?” Alita asked.

Kailey nodded. “We wanted to see if it had hairs on its legs but it kept trying to snap at us.”

“And it’s too purple to be one of those anyway.” Evelyn shot Kyle a smug look. “See Kyle? It’s a purple rock crab.”

Kyle growled and slammed his foot down on the crab. The others jumped back with small yelps. Kyle closed his forefoot around the crab and squeezed. Alita heard a few cracks from his fist.

He smiled smugly back at Evelyn. “Now it’s a dead crab.”

With that, he dropped the crab back on the sand and began walking away. Alita stared down at the crushed crab body, feeling a small twist in her chest for it.

It was only a crab, she thought. Just trying to live its little crab life. And Kyle killed it just because he was wrong.

Kyle had always been different from Alita and her friends. He mostly hung out with Kailey and her older brother, Michael. In recent years, though, he’d seemed to change. He was becoming… mean? Alita figured that’s what it was. She didn’t like him as much anymore.