Flash Fiction, WOF

“… twenty-eight, twenty-nine…” Butterfly dragged out the word, talons pressed against her eyes and wings beating to keep her in the air. “Thirty! Ready or not, here I come!” She opened her eyes and waited a moment for them to adjust to the empty white of the cloud she was inside.

She was wet with millions of tiny water particles which she shook off as soon as she flew out of the colorless mass. She drifted into a slow, strong air current and scanned the clouds around her.

Toucan would be the easiest to find. The RainWing would just change the color of her scales, and then it would be easy to spot the shifting patch of blue in the sky. Or, if she were hiding behind a cloud, her shadow would give her away.

That was something that nobody ever really thought about, actually. No matter the color of their scales, light couldn’t pass through a RainWing, so they still had shadows.

Her eyes fell onto a quiet, faint silhouette in the cloud to her right. She grinned and turned so she could creep a little closer… just a liiiiittle closer… perfect. Butterfly pumped her wings and flew right through the cloud, tackling a dragon the color of the nighttime sky.

Okay, not Toucan, then.

“Found you, Peacemaker,” she panted, righting herself in the air.

He gave her a crooked smile, eyes twinkling with mischief. “You gave me a heart attack,” he nodded, eyes closing briefly. “So, I guess I’m it? Dragons, you can come out now, I’M IT!”