Samantha Edwhan

Alita's Youth

Chapter 6

Winter 2832

Snow fell thick across the island. On the beaches of Tribe-Ali, it rarely stuck around. But with how cold it was that morning, the snow was settling into a thin layer on the sand. Dragons gathered near the entrance to the caves. A few were playing music off to the side while others were passing out food to everyone.

It was Evelyn and Kyle’s thirteenth hatchday celebration. They were a week apart in age, but as the eldest of Clyde’s offspring, they were permitted a birthday party each year. The entire Tribe got involved. So, despite the freezing weather, they were all outside, enjoying the celebrations.

Alita was gathered with Evelyn, Matthias, Cloe, and Erika. They were in the midst of a scavenger hunt and were racing around together in search of each clue. Alita was glad they’d been allowed to choose their group. Or rather, Evelyn and Kyle were allowed to, then everyone else got split into their own groups. Even though Evelyn didn’t spend much time with Alita’s other friends these days, she was glad that Evelyn chose them all. For a change, it felt like everyone was all together and having fun.

“Over here!” Erika waved a wing from where she stood by the brush that led to the cove.

Alita and the others hurried over to her. Erika picked up a small stone. It was painted red and stood out against the green foliage. When she turned it over, there was a jagged line engraved into it.

“Here.” Erika passed Alita the stone. “I think we’re supposed to open it.”

Alita took the stone in her forefoot and turned it over a few times. She barely needed to focus on her element to feel that the rock was hollow. It had recently been shaped by another Rock Dragon and something brushed the walls inside it.

Sitting back and splaying out her wings for balance, Alita took the stone in both forefeet and focused on the jagged line. She willed the rock to crack along the line, then to spread in a ring around the stone. It fell apart in two pieces easily and a small piece of paper fell out of it.

Cloe picked it up. “To find your next clue, search where nestlings stretch their wings.”

“That must be the main cave!” Matthias exclaimed.

“Let’s go then!” Erika rushed away, heading for the cave entrance.

The others hurried after her. Alita went to follow when she felt a tug on her wing. She turned to see Evelyn standing behind her.

“Why don’t we go do something else?” she suggested. “Just the two of us.”

“But we’re playing a game already,” Alita said, baffled.

“Please?” Evelyn asked.

Alita smiled slightly. “Alright. If you’re not having fun, let’s go do something else.”

Evelyn grinned. She turned and raced across the snow covered sand, heading down the beach. Alita hurried after her, doing her best to keep up without slipping on the wet snow.

“Here!” Evelyn said, stopping and spinning around suddenly. Alita nearly crashed into her. “Let’s make a little house like the ones in Hiza Calndom.”

Alita laughed. “How would we even do that?”

Evelyn grinned at her. “Well, you’re a Rock Dragon. You can literally make the ground come up in the form of a house. And as an Ice Dragon, I could make windows out of snow and ice. Ooh! We could make a skylight!”

Alita couldn’t help but smile at the idea. “That sounds great!”

Evelyn turned and pointed to a patch of snow a few metres away. “Here is where I think we should do it.”

Alita nodded and focused on the area. She focused on the feeling of the sand, and the clay deep beneath it. She dug her feet into the ground and willed the clay to rise up in a hollow cube shape. She focused on the shape to make a couple of windows, a gap for a doorway, and a roof with a small hole in it for the skylight.

Evelyn took over from there. Alita watched her squint at the snow for a long moment. The snow shifted and condensed but it didn’t form clear ice. After several seconds, she spat a breath of ice onto the ground. Alita flinched away from it in surprise.

Evelyn cast her an apologetic look. “Sorry.”

Her focus returned to the ice and she made it take the form of a square. The ice then rose and implanted itself into one of the window holes Alita had made. It looked almost like a glass window. It was uneven and rippled a little, but Alita could look through and see a slightly distorted view of everything behind it. Evelyn did the same process of each of the other windows.

When she was done, she grinned and rushed towards the hut. “Let’s go inside!”

Alita quickly followed her, pausing in the doorway to marvel at the interior. It wasn’t much. The walls were a mix of clay and stone, with colours of grey and brown swirling throughout. The ice windows looked the same as they did outside. Rays of sunlight filtered in through the ice covered skylight in the flat roof, filling the space with yellow and blue shades of light.

The hut was small, barely big enough for the two of them to run around in. Alita didn’t care though, and neither did Evelyn it seemed. She was excitedly peering through each of the three windows and eyeing the smooth surfaces of the walls. She didn’t even notice when Alita dropped into a crouch and snuck up behind her.

“Boo!” Alita pounced in front of her and flared her wings as much as the small space would allow.

Evelyn yelped and scurried backwards. Her feet tangled up beneath her and she landed on her back on the ground. Alita giggled.

“That was mean!” Evelyn said, frowning at her.

“Sorry.” Alita lay down beside her and rolled onto her back. “I wanted to get back at you for scaring me before.”

“Well, you succeeded,” Evelyn said. She cracked a grin and Alita knew she wasn’t mad.

The light from the skylight caught in her eyes and she looked up. It had the same rough texture as the ice windows, but the sunlight seemed to flow in more from the skylight, lighting up the hut. Alita gazed up at it, taking in all the colours and textures.

“It’s beautiful,” Evelyn breathed.

“Yeah,” Alita agreed. “We made that.”

Evelyn grinned. “We made that.”

“Do you think all the houses in Hiza Calndom are like this?” Alita asked.

“I think this is a bit small to compare,” Evelyn said. “I’ve heard that the houses there have multiple rooms. They have places for dragons to sleep, to eat, to talk with friends and family, all that.”

Alita made a small hum. Her little, four wall hut seemed a bit ridiculous by comparison.

“Evelyn rolled onto her side and smiled at her. “Mother and Aunt Tiffany even said that the houses vary in size. Like the castle is huge with lots and lots of rooms!”

“How do they know that?” Alita asked.

“Chieftain Clyde has been there to meet with High Caln Gerold,” Evelyn explained. “I don’t think he’s gone there for a while, but Mother said he attended Prinze Griffin’s wedding too.”

“Well, it would be weird if he didn’t, right? That’s his brother,” Alita pointed out.

Evelyn shrugged her wings. “It’s also a duty as Chieftain to attend formal events like that. He would have attended even if they weren’t brothers.”

Alita hummed in acknowledgement again as she stared up at the skylight. After a moment of silence, she said, “We should show this to Matt, Cloe, and Erika.”

“We can.” Evelyn didn’t sound particularly convinced. “But I’d like it more if this were just our thing.”

“Our thing?” Alita echoed, looking around her. “You know everyone outside can probably see this, right?”

“Yeah, but the inside is beautiful,” Evelyn said, smiling. “We could keep this our secret.”

Alita smiled back at her. “Sure. That sounds nice. When we have to leave, we can collapse the hut and only reconstruct it when we want to use it.”

Evelyn grinned. “Yeah!”

Alita looked back up at the skylight. She wanted to remember every colour, every texture before they had to leave. It was times like these when she really enjoyed her friendship with Evelyn. Sure, she liked hanging out with Matthias, Cloe, and Erika, but they almost always spent time together as a group. With Evelyn, it was just the two of them, and Alita knew she wouldn’t want her best friend to be anyone else.