Hare

'Why must the sun be so bright?' The small albino whined, closing her eyes as she was guided by the SandWing officer from last night.

She hardly slept a wink last night, still in shock about her family. Every time she closed her eyes, she could make out the face of her father as he burned in the fire. Her mind kept replaying the fire's ferocious roars and cackles as it climbed higher and higher, trying to get her.

When she did sleep, it was only nightmares. She saw the flames erupt from the ground like weeds, licking at her as the scampered to her. They felt so real, she could almost feel the heat of the flames and the burning sensation along her arms and legs.

Now, with only barely a wink of actual sleep, they were forced to fly almost an hour away. Yucca City was large, but it wasn't as large as the Scorpion's Den, but still close to there. Before, she lived it the lower sections, where it was more closely knitted neighborhood, while in the upper, there was more stores and buildings.

Officer Joshua continued their way until they came to a large building, she gently bumped against his talon that was out to stop her.

"We're here, kid. Sunspot Orphanage." He said, before the sound of creaking metal met her ears.

Carefully, she cracked an eye open, seeing the door in front of them, showing the comfortable darker inside. The guard went inside first, flicking his wingtip, encouraging her to come inside.

Hare did as she was supposed to, coming inside and gently closed the door. The sound of shuffling was heard up ahead, and Hare was thankful she could finally open her eyes more.

Her ear twitched when she saw a dragon come in. It was a male SandWing, followed by a younger male IceWing.

"Fuga, Kholodno." Joshua greeted, before smiling to them gently. Fuga, the SandWing, was more of an orange color then yellow, flecks of brown scattered along his wings and back. His beady brown eyes looked at her, before looking up.

"We're full," growled the dragon, his voice sounding grimy and oily. Hare felt her blood freeze slightly, before the officer took a step.

"Fuga, she needs a home. Look, you're lucky I haven't shut you down yet from what you've been doing. Don't expect me to let this slide by too." He growled.

Kholodno, the IceWing, noticed this and let out a small cloud of ice particles. He looked behind him, towards the outside door, before looking back to Joshua.

"How much are you willing to pay?" He asked, his voice more higher pitched then Fuga's. Joshua snarled under his breath before pulling a bag out, the sound of coins rattling inside.

He tossed it to the two, before stating, "Just give her a good home, she's been though some stuff."

The two nodded to him, Fuga opening the coin pouch and looking inside.

"Rounding this up to..." he shook the bag suddenly, hearing the coins inside, "about two hundred. Fair price, though cheap since she looks like she needs a special room with no windows. Albinism?"

Joshua nods to him and Hare noticing the small flicker in their eyes. She knew her condition was rare, which is one of the reasons she suspected on why her father though her mother cheated on him. Really, the only dragons that were white were IceWings and the occasional hurt RainWing.

Fuga grumbled before nodding to Joshua.

"We'll take her. Kid, how good are you in the work field?" He asked, looking to the white dragon.

"My father is- was... an assassin. I can work as hard as you need me to." Hare said before tensing her muscles, showing how sturdy she was.

She had a broad chest, but she narrowed down from there, however, thanks to her father, her legs were strong and sturdy. Though, Hare knew she wasn't even close to being able to take down a dragon Fuga's and Kholodno's size.

Fuga was much more muscular, and his arms were around the size of her head, obvious power surging through them. Kholodno was much different. He didn't have the same muscle as his SandWing friend, but his tail spikes were large and frighteningly jagged shape. His claws were cactus pickle sharp, and, if rumors were true, she knew they would slice through her like paper.

Fuga smirked and nodded.

"Good answer. Joshua, you fill out the paperwork, Kholodno, you go show her to her room." Fuga ordered, before walking away.

The pale blue-gray dappled IceWing began to lead her down a long hallway, their claws tapping the ground loudly on the polished wooden floors.

Hare looked around, seeing a numerous amount of doors, all leading to many different rooms. The hallways was long, but it wasn't quiet. The sound of dragonets playing could be heard.

A small, slightly limping dark greenish brown MudWing hobble away from a bright yellow and pink RainWing. The two were laughing and playing, running down and past them, making Hare step out of the way. She noticed how the MudWing was missing a bit of his tail, but she only noticed as they ran by. It was relatively hard to spot, but she was known to catch small details.

Hare glanced in one of the rooms as they past, seeing a small SkyWing on the foot of her bed, she had her wings out, before she jumped off, trying to fly. She only landed with a grunt, letting out a groan of pain as she tried to recover.

"Spitfire, you practice flying outside." Kholodno said, walking past the room, not even bothering to look. Hare figured this was something the small SkyWing did on a regular basis from the sound of little concern the IceWing had.

Hare heard a few snickers, making her look over. There were two young SandWings, both female, and both had gorgeous scales. One had beautiful pale orange brown scales, a pale yellow underbelly, and dazzling black eyes.

She looked to Hare and smirked. Hare's ears went down, realizing that she was staring. She looked at the ground as she heard talonsteps coming close to her.

Kholodno flicked his ear.

"Rhino," he growled, "don't start."

Hare looked to the other, seeing a pale white gold SandWing, the other one. She had a birthmark on her shoulder, a large brown spot that took up most of her shoulder.
"Mr. Kholodno, I just want to say hi to the newbie," she whined. The headmaster only looked at her with a skeptical gaze. Rhino took this small moment of time to glare at Hare.

"Stay away from my best friend, hybrid." She growled, uncurling her tail, showing her the deadly barb at the tailtip. Hare flinched.

She wasn't a hybrid. She was just... diffrent. She was just born with no colors, unlike them. A small seed of envy felt like it was suddenly place deep in her heart, seeing all of different colors on everyone.

Kholodno let out a small shot of frostbreath, making Rhino step back, glaring at her. The IceWing made a motion for her to keep following him, to which she did.

Hare stayed close to him, feeling how cold his scales were. The ice dragon looked to her, before taking a sharp turn down to another hallway, then down a flight of stairs. Hare felt a bit uneasy, but knew she had to keep following.

They came to a diffrent part of the building, but it was a lot dirtier, and it looked like it hadn't been clean in a year. It had a musty smell, and Hare swore she saw a mouse run by.

"We couldn't take the hatch, couldn't risk that blizzard brain knowing about where we had you." He snorted, before opening a door.

Inside looked like a jailhouse. There was no window, and no actual beds. It was just old animal pelts on the cobbledstone ground and raggedy old blankets.

Hare looked to Kholodno, as though asking for a silent explication. He didn't reply to her, only pointed to a pile of pelts in the corner.

"That is your bed. Your roommates are almost done working, they'll be eating tonight. This will be your only free meal. You will wake up before dawn, and get ready to start working as soon as the first sunlight of the sun is up. After you get done, you will be fed, got it?" he asked, looking to her with emotionless eyes.

Hare shivered under his unblinking gaze, but nodded.

"Yes, sir." She replied, only to receive a huff of an ice cloud.

"Good. The more weight you pull around here, the more you'll be fed. If you don't work you don't eat." He explained more, earning a nod.

"Good." He growled before turning and leaving.

***

After a while of waiting in the room, did Hare finally hear something.

Talonsteps.

She looked to the door, seeing two dragons come in. The first one was large and bulky, like a MudWing almost, but had white all over her.

The other was fully black, but two blue eyes could be seen. She couldn't make out what the dragon way, but the smell of a heavily infected wound made her crinkle her nose. She noticed it was the deep, open wounds on them that made the smell.

The MudWing looked to her, a large smile on her face.

"You must be our new roommate!" She said, coming over. Hare took a step back, her eyes narrowing at the light reflecting off of her from the candle in the room. Both of their white scales bounced the light off of them, but she had a hard time looking at the MudWing.

"I'm Malamute, and this is Humu." She introduced herself, pointing to the other.

"My full name is Humu Humu Nooku Nooku 'apua. Everyone calls me Huma for short though." He explained.

'Some kind of fish name, I guess he's a SeaWing then.' Hare thought to herself. The jet black dragon looked to the candle, seeing the flame slowly begin to grow darker. Malamute looked to the candle as well, letting out a sad sigh.

"We'll have to ask someone to light us another one." She said sadly, watching the flame go out before her eyes. The whole room with dark in a matter of seconds, until dim light green stripes lit out.

Hare had guessed right, seeing as Humu did turn out to be a SeaWing, finally able to see his stripe glow dimly.

"I can find another one." He mumbled before making his way to a tiny closet.

Hare's eyes finally felt at ease, the darkness welcoming her sensation eyes. The sound of someone fumbling somewhere within the room could be heard, before the stripes came back.

"Found one, just gotta find a match now-"

"Here, let me." Hare spoke before a plume of fire formed in her throat. She softly breathed out, the flames traveling to the wick, whith soon had a small flame dancing on top of it.

Malamute and Humu could finally be seen, though Hare had to squint slightly from the brightness of the flame. Malamute let out a small cry of laughter, "Whoa! I didn't know an Icewing hybrid like you could breath fire! I wish I was that lucky, I can't breath fire or frostbreath."

Hare felted hurt again.

"I'm not a hybrid." She said flatly, her wings twitching slightly as she looked at them. Malamute tilted her head a bit, before gasping, "Oh my gosh! I'm sooo sorry! You must be an albinic then, right? By the good name of Clay, what was I doing? Accusing you of being a hybrid, how rude of me!"

Hare looked down, softly muttering, "It's not the first time, nor will it ever be the last."

"The fire is making your eyes hurt, isn't it? Do you need me to put the flame out? I can if you want, I have a little night vision," said the strangely colored dragon.

Yellowish white teeth could be seen, telling her Humu was smiling widely.

"It's great to know I'm not the only one with a scale condition. I was born with one myself, but I can't remember the name for the life of me, haha!" He laughed loudly.

Hare looked up to him, before smiling slightly to them. "I never told you my name, did I? My name is Hare." She said, tapping her talon slightly of the flooring.

Normally the young albino was good at controlling her tics, but it was another ball game when she was nervous or uneasy about something.

Malamute smile widen, as she let out a bark of laughter, "It's great to meet you! Me and Humu were getting a bit curious on who our new roommate was. We knew it had to be someone they didn't feel like putting on display for adults to see."

Hare tilted her head, slightly confused.

"What do you mean?" She asked. Humu spoke up, his voice slightly stern as he explained.

"Malamute is a Mud and Ice hybrid, and I was born with no other coloring, besides my stripes of course, but still. Mister Fuga and Mister Kholodno don't like us to be the first faces that greets the adults, scared we'll run them off. It's rude and offensive to us, but they don't seem to really care. Once on a Brightest Night does it feel we get shown to adults. Our last roommate was a spotted NightWing named Stonehopper, but he had to leave since he got old enough to get out of this dump. We do all the work around here, and if we don't, we don't get fed. I'm guessing you passed by the upstairs?"

Hare nodded, remembering seeing the diffrent dragons. They didn't have anything wrong with them, they were normal.

"They're up there cause they're spotless little minnows to those two squidface idoits. I'm sure if they had something wrong with them that made this turn their noses up, they'd be down here with us. It's not right to pick out the good meat and get rid of the leftovers, ya know?"

Hare nodded again, before Malamute spoke up.

"Guys, it's getting late, we should go to best, and work hard tomorrow. We can show you what to do tomorrow, Hare, give you the basis of what we do everyday." She suggested.

Hare gave another nod, before they all went to their own pile of pelts, before laying down.

"I'll work. I'll work as hard as I need to, to show them that just because we are diffrent, does not mean we are weak."