Sophia was careful to give the dragonettes a wide berth as she passed them. Many were practicing their fire skills, which took a little while to develop, but more importantly, it required them to hone their aim. Most of the dragonettes hadn’t mastered it and rogue fire spraying around like an out of control hose was the result.
“Did you bring your phone?” Lunis asked her when she was close enough to hear him over the ruckus of the angel dragons at her back.
Sophia withdrew the mobile from her pocket, held it up in the air, and waved it back and forth. “Why?”
“I have friends I need to talk to.” The blue dragon hid a smile.
She pulled the phone back. “By friends do you mean a rooster named Goose and a penguin named Tex?”
“Hey, don’t judge me if my best friends are all campers on Animal Crossing.” Lunis pretended to be offended.
Sophia laughed. Evan had spread his Animal Crossing addiction to the blue dragon—a wholesome game where they harvested the orchard, fished, and fulfilled requests for the various characters. It was a smart game that gave constant rewards, offering dopamine hits over and over again.
“Don’t you have it on your iPad?” Sophia asked, then shook her head while listening to the question she’d asked out loud…to her dragon.
“One of the dragonettes broke it,” he admitted. Annoyance flared in his eyes as he glanced at the group wrestling in the distance.
Sophia nodded. “The youth these days don’t know how to take care of things.”
“The last time I try to teach them about technology,” Lunis complained. “Anyway, I’m sure my friends miss me, and I need to compete in the fishing tournament. Hand over the phone.”
“A please wouldn’t hurt you.”
“It might,” he countered and winked at her. He wrapped the end of his tail around the phone in her hand and jerked it free, then tapped on the screen with the claw of his good foot. “Ooooh, look at that. I can dress up some of my friends since I’ve leveled up our friendship.”
Sophia laughed. “Yes, that’s how friendships work. Once you get to a certain level, then you can start telling your friends what to wear.”
Lunis glanced over the phone and raised an eyebrow at her. “Are we to that level yet?”
She rolled her eyes and drew her attention to his injured leg. Lunis had sustained injuries when they’d battled the Tarrasque. Sophia knew because of their telepathic link that he wasn’t letting on to how much it inhibited him. She’d been grateful to see Lunis on the Expanse after the battle, believing he’d recovered. However, he then spent all of his time on the lawn, unable to fly up to the Cave since he couldn’t spring off the injured leg.
However, Mahkah, who wasn’t prone to optimism but rather realistic expectations, had stated that he thought Lunis could make a full recovery. He needed time at the Gullington where Quiet’s powers could heal him. Still, it was hard for Sophia to know that her dragon was suffering and there was nothing she could do about it. She decided not to bother him with it right then. He downplayed how bad it was because he didn’t want to make her worry. She understood that and would do the same in his position.
“So how are your real friends doing?” Sophia indicated the older dragons lounging by a field with the herd of sheep. Thankfully, Lee’s water treatment fixed the sheep all over Scotland and they were no longer exploding, making them once again the main staple of the dragon’s diet.
“They’re grumpier than ever.” Lunis’ gaze flicked up briefly to regard the four large dragons before his attention returned to the phone held in his tail. “Oh, I got a new t-shirt!”
Sophia was about to question this when she realized he was referring to the game he was playing. “It will take the old dragons some time to adjust to having the dragonettes in the Gullington. They had it all to themselves for centuries. It has to be weird.”
“Everything is weird to the old fogies,” Lunis supplied. “They don’t do change very well.”
“Well, that’s something I’d like to see different with the new generation.” Sophia studied the large dragons regally bathing in the sunlight.
“I think they’ll take after you as the one who spawned the new batch of eggs. What will be interesting is when the first few new riders come to the Gullington. New personalities, and you possibly having to share a bathroom with another girl rider.”
Sophia scoffed at him. “I’m not sharing my bathroom. I hadn’t thought much about another girl rider, but it makes sense there would be some this time around.”
“Then you won’t be the only female rider,” Lunis teased. “You’ll have to share the attention.”
“As the only girl among four ancient guys, I’m okay with that,” Sophia related. “Yeah, Hiker is sending us after the demon dragonriders so I might bring some new friends back with me.”
Lunis shook his head. “Demon dragonriders won’t come here.”
“That’s what most assume too, but there’s hope that they might be different—being a part of the new generation and all.”
“That’s not hope. That’s being unrealistic.” Lunis’ tongue hung out of his mouth as he played his game and thought out his strategy for maximizing resources so he could upgrade the campsite. “I was talking about when the angel dragons return with their riders.”
Sophia’s eyes widened. “Wait, some angel dragons left the Gullington? You didn’t tell me.”
“You didn’t ask,” he teased and scrunched up his face as he played.
“Do you think they’ll magnetize to riders?”
“If they do, then it will show up on the Elite globe, and you’ll know about it,” Lunis answered. “It’s hard to tell. Not all dragons elect to have a rider. They also don’t do it straight away. Sometimes a dragon chooses to live a few hundred years before they magnetize. I’m codependent, so I magnetized to you right away.”
Sophia laughed. “Yeah, when you were still in the shell.”
He glanced at her with a fond expression on his face. “I knew. What was the point in waiting?”
“There wasn’t one.” She smiled at him. “Now we have more time together, and none wasted.”
Lunis agreed with a nod before looking back at the phone. “But yes, if the old fogies are grumpy about the dragonettes, imagine when there are riders here. The dynamic is about to shift.”
Sophia thought about this for a moment. It was exciting to think about the Castle full of riders once more, like how she’d seen during the reset point when she time-traveled to the past. However, the idea of a bunch of new riders entering the Gullington was also a little intimidating. She’d had the opportunity to be the first in a long time, and she and the guys had bonded because of that.
They’d only had each other for all this time. How would things change for everyone when the dining hall was full for meals and all the bedrooms occupied? Sophia tried not to worry about it, but change was inevitably one of the scariest things for anyone, her included. To make things more intimidating, she would be the field leader of these new dragonriders. The guys had accepted this from the beginning because Sophia stood up to Hiker, which he needed. She didn’t blindly take orders like the men. But exerting this dominance over new dragonriders, well, that could be challenging. If they found out that she was almost as new as them, would they still follow her? There were so many questions that arose from the change that would inevitably happen. Sophia knew there would be time to adjust. There would be sleepless nights to worry. There would be many late-night discussions over the matter with Wilder. Right now, Sophia wanted to spend her time as wisely as possible.