“I love opening nights.”

   The dragon flicked one ear but didn’t respond, keeping its eyes-gold, sparkling, almost like magic flaring to life itself- stuck to the questionable band of students preparing instruments on the large stage far below.

   The hippogriff tried again, this time flopping in an ungainly sprawl of limbs onto the giant tree branch. “I think they just recruited people who weren’t against the whole ‘exposing yourself to the entire school’ bit. Foolish lumps, the lot of them.” She snickered, hoping to elicit something similar, but the creature just remained curled and regal, looking absolutely unmoved by anything she’d just said. Her beak clacked in irritation. “Oh come on, can’t you at least pretend to be interested?”

   This time those gold eyes did turn to her, almost lazily but no less piercing. “Isn’t the whole idea of this supposed to be not t o make friends?” She jerked her head at the assembly of animals that had been gathered-what the administration would deem a‘show', or even worse, a concert- from the smallest creature to the largest. Though there was no trouble fitting them,given that the theatre itself was designed to be roughly Greek in nature- a large, flattened stage surrounded in a circular pattern by hundreds of sprawling, gargantuan trees, the largest possessing branches wider than her own wingspan. Thus, they could fit even the most inconveniently-sized students, and for those that could not climb, there were ground-level platforms.

   As for the students, they were all currently shifted into their beast forms; one would have to have to have lasted beyond fourth year to come to a Shift Gathering in human form, otherwise risking expulsion. Yet attendance was required, and it was beginning to get a bit cramped.

   The hippogriff studied her. “For now, yeah, friends are usually a no. But once you get past the first four years, it’s a total free-for-all. And believe me, you-” she gave the dragon a lingering once over, “-Are going to need friends.”

   The reptile snorted, but the amusement didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m the only dragon you guys have seen for five hundred. I think I’ll be okay.”

   She really doesn’t know how this goes, does she?

   “No,” the hippogriff drawled, “You’re not. You’re going to have those who want you for your power, and those who resent you for it. But friends, allies- now those are going to be a bit harder to find, especially considering that everyone’s terrified of you.”She eyed the giant branch that was currently empty save for the two, giving the winged reptile a Look. She huffed in response, just a bit of smoke escaping her nostrils, and the slightest bit of yellow curling around the opalescent scales of her eyes.

   The hippogriff raised her brows pointedly, and, if possible, the yellow grew more prominent.

   “It’s not magic,”the dragon growled, guessing her thoughts.Her leathery wings shifted in what might have been unease if she didn’t know any better.

   Huh.

   “Of course it’s not magic, because there hasn’t been any in... oh, what was it? Five centuries, give or take?” She adjusted her own wings, stretching until the primaries brushed the encroaching canopy. Her point had been made, but the dragon had gone back to staring coldly at the downstairs ensemble.

   She sighed, tone softening. “No one knows what you are, exactly. They don’t know why you’re here,or what it might mean, and that makes them... nervous.” She hesitated, claws scratching halfheartedly across the bark. The dragon’s gold eyes tracked her movements with a razor-like focus, and something in the hippogriff startled at the full force of that attention; like that small, primitive part of her had debated the options, and deemed flight the more appropriate response. She averted her gaze.

   “But that’s kind of the thing-they’re always nervous,and having a species that everyone thought was extinct suddenly just pop up on the telly? It’s more than a bit worrying, you know? Especially when you have more magic than... well. Anyone I’ve ever met.” She finished her spiel with what she hoped was an earnest expression, probably looking like an idiot with her ridiculous bird eyebrows; and if that last part came out just a bit flirtatious, well.

   The dragon was certainly looking at her now, with more than a little astonishment alongside the ever-present mistrust in her long, reptilian features.

   Ha!

   “I think it’s pretty obvious what I am,” she said flatly, her expression having gotten over its momentary lapse of emotion and reverting back to what she had taken to dubbing ‘ the frost queen’ in her head. The hippogriff eyed the gigantic, membranous wings, spiraling horns,and body entirely covered with scales, giving her an expression that very plainly meant Duh.

   “Yes,and we found you robbing banks and looting mansions in the heart of Skinless Manhattan. But where did you come from?”

   The dragon turned her head, looking at her full-on for the first time, voice utterly devoid of feeling. “Well you see, when a man and a woman love each other very much, and one or both of them happen to have Pack blood-”

   She barked a sudden laugh (which, in reality, was more of an unhealthy abomination of a squawk and a screech) and to her astonishment, the tiniest bit of a smirk pulled at the dragon’s face. Before she could comment on it, the crowd quieted and the ‘orchestra’ began to play- if one could call it that, based on the frankly horrendous sounds originating from some of the brass instruments. By the time she looked back over, the other’s features had smoothed, any trace of amusement gone.

   She sighed. Damn, I was just getting there. The dragon had talked to hardly anyone since her arrival-mostly because everyone was at least wary of her-but still. This was the first time anything interesting had happened since coming to this ridiculous school, and if nothing else, she wanted to at least get to know the new student that had single handedly ripped their world off its hinges. But, she always was a bit too optimistic, especially right before she opened her giant beak.

   “My mother’s Skinless,” the dragon murmured, eyes still trained on the show. “She hardly knew my father, only met him for a night. And then he left, and she never saw him again.” She inclined her head, leaving the statement open even though they both knew what she meant.

   That’s where the dragon shift came from.

   And, more than likely, any answers that they needed to know. The hippogriff absorbed this silently. The dragon watched her warily with- insecurity? Oh dear, she’d have to fix that. “So you weren’t raised in a shifter household?”

   Her eyes grew dark, and she sneered. “No, I did not.” Well. There was absolutely a story there, but she could dig for that later. Right now- Holding out one massive, taloned hand, she delighted in the gobsmacked expression that the dragon was now sporting, along with a bit of light blue curling around her cheekbones.

   “Mirabella, but anyone who I care about calls me Mira. Bella,” she winked, “Is preserved for the idiots.”

   A slender, clawed limb reached hesitantly towards her own, and then cool scales were pressed against the rough texture of her talons.

   “Oriole.”

   This, she thought, as theorchestra’s playing reached a particularly horrible crescendo, is going to be the beginning of a wonderful friendship.