The Future is Bright

I'm burning

Rightfully so, seeing as the dragon soared through the clouds and immediately set upon tearing our ship apart. But you can see my distress as I was trying to save all our hard-working (and shapely) butts.

I, Ineza Flingan, was trying to stop the horrific fire breathing creature, unlike most of the men on the ship, when a few sparks from the fire caught on my unnecessary white frilly dress. It wasn't my fault; I'd much prefer a pair of comfortable pants. But it's one of the few rules the captain has: dress your gender. They don't care how you act. You can act feminine as a boy or masculine as a girl, but dress the gender you are or believe yourself to be.

I, am personally not one of the few who genuinely feel myself to be of the opposite gender of how I was born. I just prefer pants.

But Captain is a hypocrite, seeing as they dress as a different gender each and every day. And I'm not complaining. The outfits are gorgeous, and that's coming from a girl who could care less about how she looks.

As I run below deck to sound a.l.a.r.m. ( a loud and rousing measure), the lamps go out, leaving just the occasional torch mounted on the wall. Sprinting down the hallway, trying to save the rest of my crew, I don't have time to stop and pull one off the wall. But the dress I'm simultaneously running with and stomping out provide enough light for me.

I've completed putting out the fire on my dress by the time I get to my location, so it's fully dark in the engine room. But I've been on this ship for a long while now, so I know exactly how to navigate the tanks and gears and such. But as I near what I hope is the a.l.a.r.m. lever, a green light flashes in my eyes, scaring the wits out of me.

"Flingan?" The holder of said flashlight questions.

"Captain?"

Captain turns the light on themself, lighting their now girlish face. Rhinestones line their winged eyeliner, and the light also illuminates their white corset-blouse, dying it a dull green.

"It seems I'm not the only one who had this particular idea." I grin.

They raise an eyebrow. "Great minds think alike." Captain responds.

A roar sounds out side, and we both remember the job we came here to complete.

"I've the lever Flin, you go make sure the rest of the crew is safe." They say, turning to the task at hand. I follow my captain's orders, sprinting outside to check on my crewmates.

It looks like most of them have regained their sense and have set upon shooting the dragon out of the sky. I'm proud of their courage, but it's not really helping. The only person truly helping is Vaston, the only other magic type on our flying ship.

He vaults fire back at the angry dragon, while simultaneously putting out the fires around him. He's so amazing.

"Ineza!" I turn at the sound of somebody calling my name. And internally groan. It's Renon, the strongest and arguably the worst male on the ship. I've met bears with better attitudes.

"Why didn't your voodoo seer magic see this comin', eh?" He's the only person who doubts my "voodoo seer magic", even though I have been correct many times. I did not forget the time I guessed that he would dump a bucket of water on Leyo, and neither did she.

"I told you," I sigh for the hundredth time, "I only do that when I'm dreaming. Unfortunately, I did not dream last night."

Renon huffs before turning his revolvers on the red beast. I don't want to be utterly useless in this situation, so I join Bethesda and rolling out the cannon. But once we've accomplished this, we realize neither of us have matches. And what use is a cannon if you can't light it?

"Vaston!" I shout to the fire-bearer. "Think you could light this for us?" I ask.

He turns to me and winks before wagging a finger. A trail of fire slithers along the deck before making it's way to the cannon aimed at the dragon. Beth and I duck a ways back, and others scramble out the way.

BOOM!

Our large gun fires straight at the dragon. Bethesda wasn't lying about her aim.

It hits the fearsome creature on it's deep-red arm, injuring, but not killing. It unleashes a loud screech, dang near shattering my eardrums. It flies away though, and it seems we'll get to live another day.

A cheer erupts from our group, and it looks like Beth and I are the heroes of the day.

"That was a close call." Vaston wipes sweat from his forehead and smiles at me.

Simply put, I swoon.

I'm beginning to think I shrieked out loud when I see the other's faces of terror. We all run over to the railing, and what do we see? The dragon is still here, except attacking from a different angle.

The underside.

Where the engine room is.

Where Captain is.

Where my best friend is.

I start to sprint back to the engine room, when I see it.

The hallway leading there is on fire. It looks like the torches lining the walls collapsed in the midst of the chaos, trapping my best friend in the engine room. And they might already be dead.

I begin to charge in when a hand grabs my waist and hauls me back. I turn to protest when I see it's Vaston, holding up a finger, a tiny flame at the tip.

"Looks like you'll need me." He says. For the love of Jesna, who wouldn't love this guy?

But we're only ten steps in when his hand stops working, and he turns to me, eyes a little wet.

"There's too much fire Ineza. I can't control it all."

And those are the words that knock my breath out of my chest. The thought of never seeing Alino again is like the thought of a fairy, the most pure beings in the living world, being evil. You can't fathom it.

Suddenly I'm on my back, in a cold sweat like I fell through a frozen pond despite the fire around me. I thrash around in-

Wait.

I open my eyes that had I closed and I'm back in my room on the ship. I look down t the bed at the covers tangled between my legs. The sheets under me are hot and damp with my sweat. It was just a dream? Still you can never be sure, so I pull on the nearest dress, not caring that it's white and frilly, and sprint to the deck.

I bump into a tall and unnecessarily muscular when I hit the top of the steps, and the person turns around.

"What's wrong with you Seer? Seen a ghost or somethin'?"

I push Renon out of the way. " 'Scuse me." I say, not bothering with apologies.

"Hi Ineza!" A few others call.

"Nice dress Flingan." Beth tells me as I scoot past her to get to the railing. Nobody's acting suspicious. But if I could just see them I could clarify-

"Going somewhere Flin?" A familiar voice says. I push Leyo from in front of me and almost burst into tears at what I see.

I gather Alino into a tight hug. It might crush their spine, but oh well. Such is the price of life-long friendship.

"Woah. What's wrong Inez? Missed me?" They chuckle.

I look up at them. "You have no ide-" I pause at the sight of their winged eyeliner.

"What? Love it, don't ya?"

It is very pretty, but the rhinestones lining it spark up a memory of something in the corner of my mind. Where have I seen this before?

That's when I see it over their shoulder. A flash of deep-red cutting through the clouds, almost undiscernible with the overcast sky.

ROAR!

Oh no.