Jefinscha was a wretched place to hold a dragon race.

The whole kingdom was miserably hot, with at least a thousand different kinds of obnoxious little bugs. 

Petra knew she had more important things to think about right then than the location, but good god was this place awful. Rhys didn't look any happier; the bright teal steed was much better suited for cool climates than warm ones.

It was the semifinals of Crelang's Great Dragon Race, and Petra, along with the rest of her team, were about to soar their way to victory.

Hopefully.

The stands around the massive stadium were packed; no matter how hot it may be in this accursed kingdom, the semifinals of the race were something no one wanted to miss. Petra and her dragon were currently hesitating near the racer's entrance to the track, waiting for her friends. There were a number of other people milling around; dragon riders, sponsors, spectators, and everything in-between.

This would be the last day of the semifinals, assuming everything went well. This year, the fliers for the kingdom of Gadan were the ones finishing off the competition- all the other kingdoms had already found their final champions in the week before.

The leader of her team, a small, dark-skinned young woman named Jesse, walked up to her. "Hey, Petra. You ready? How's Rhys holding up?"

Petra shrugged, then flicked a lock of sweat-sticky orange hair away from her face. "Ready as I'll ever be. Rhys hates everything about this, though."

The turquoise-hued dragon snarled unenthusiastically, as if agreeing with her.

"She'll feel better once you start flying." Jesse smiled sympathetically up at Petra, the top of her head being barely level with Petra's shoulder. Although she was flying for Gadan, her family originated from the kingdom of Ajiren, which was primarily known for the short stature of its native residents.

"Hope so. Where's Axel and Olivia? Are we sticking with our usual lineup?" Petra asked, only partially interested in the answers. She always found herself deep in a strange sort of apathy before races, as though the 'competitor' part of her mind wasn't willing to waste energy on having emotions.

"Liv's getting our colours; I don't know where Axel is. And yes, of course we are. Why change what works?" As she said this, Jesse reached up to pet the small coral dragon resting on her shoulder. Not many people owned dragons, and most of those who did only had one. But Jesse had two; her graceful black riding dragon, Anoss, and her small goofball of what was supposed to be a hunting dragon, whom she'd dubbed Reuben.

Petra shrugged again, then uncomfortably asked, "Any sign of the Ocelots yet?"

Jesse's expression hardened. "No." she said curtly. Petra immediately wished she hadn't asked.

The Ocelots were their rival team, who seemed to have been put deliberately in their lives to screw things up. The worst part was that they weren't just obnoxious; they were a formidable team. Had they been less of a challenge in the races, they wouldn't have been nearly so annoying.

But they were skilled riders with fast dragons, which made them not only a nuisance, but something that stood firmly in the way of the Order of the Stone winning the races.

Plus, they had a ridiculously unoriginal team name, in Petra's opinion. Most people, her team included, went with something vague and somewhat pretentious, that may or may not have a strange story behind it. She knew a few other teams who had named themselves after animals, but...the Ocelots? What, were all the bigger, more intimidating cat names already taken?

This is why I'm a dog person, she thought idly.

The third member of their team hurried over, waving their colours. "We're gold and black this year." Olivia announced, handing the other two women their armbands.

"Cool. Nice and simple." Jesse said, tying hers neatly around her left bicep. Olivia had to help Petra with hers.

Olivia's chosen steed was a ruby-red, four-winged dragon whom she called Ksuntis. He was not as flat-out fast as Rhys or Anoss, but was certainly more nimble, and absolutely owned the agility portion of the race. Petra had once seen them come out of an insane dive mere feet above the ground.

"Aaah I'm nervous." Olivia declared. Jesse shot her a complicated look. "You'll be fine. You and Ksuntis could probably do this race blindfolded and still stay on course."

"Saying that doesn't actually make me less stressed, you know." Olivia informed her, arching a dark brow.

"You'll be fine." Jesse repeated. "I went around and looked at some of our other competition, and most of 'em look like rookies."

"Just because they're rookies doesn't mean they aren't fast." Olivia shot back.

Jesse smoothed her dark, pink-streaked ponytail over her shoulder and calmly said, "We're fast too. I'm telling you, we've got this."

A male voice called mockingly from behind them, "Telling jokes before the race, huh? Claiming you've 'got this' doesn't exactly make it true."

Petra whirled around, her expression sinking into a glare. A quartet of people had seemingly appeared behind them, all in matching black vests and looking ready for trouble.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The Ocelots themselves, speak of the devil.

"Shove off, Aiden." Jesse snapped immediately. They were both the leaders of their respective teams, and had a complicated hatred for each other.

The brown-haired man crossed his arms over his chest. "Now, why in sae would I do something you tell me?"

"Because we're about to race. There's no point stirring up trouble now when you can just wait 'til the competition to see who's 'got this' and who's all talk." Olivia countered.

"This, from the team who hasn't beat us in...how many years?" Maya laughed, earning deep scowls from all three Order girls.

What she had said was only partially true. The Order had never managed to beat the Ocelots...but the rival team hadn't ever placed in the semifinals either. Most times, the two teams came in second and third in normal races, or third and fourth if there was more than one professional team involved.

But this year, Petra was sure that things would be different. Most of the 'expert' teams had either retired or were flying for different kingdoms, and the Order had considerably improved since the last big race- they were nearly a professional team on their own.

"Just face it. You sorry lot of wing lice are never going to beat us." Aiden sneered. "A fancy title and new dragon-saddles aren't hiding the fact that you're still a buncha' small-town losers."

Petra curled her fingers into tight fists. It was illegal for riders to interact during the actual race, but that wouldn't stop her from pummeling him right now.

Before she could start a fight, a new voice chimed in. "Hey, Aiden, knock it off. Let's just go."

Her eyes darted to the speaker. She had hardly noticed the other two Ocelots standing slightly behind Aiden and Maya. She didn't know Gill very well...but she was all too familiar with Lukas.

The young blond man was supposed to be the 'nice one' of that group, but Petra wasn't seeing it. He seemed nicer only because he wasn't as outspoken as Maya or Aiden. In her experience, he could be just as mean as the first two, just in a subtler way. 

He also had an odd relationship with the leader of the Ocelots, though Petra hadn't yet found out the details of it.

Aiden turned to give Lukas a sharp look. "What is it with people and trying to order me around today?"

"Aiden, seriously. They're not worth it." The blond said calmly. "We need to go get our colours, and there's not much time left."

The leader hesitated for a moment more, then let out an annoyed huff and turned away. "Fine. We'll see you losers on the track." He said as the Ocelots stalked off, leaving the three women to their anger.

For a moment, Lukas glanced back, catching Petra's eye. He held her gaze for a few moments, then smiled slightly and turned away.

"I think I'm going to kill him someday." Jesse said thoughtfully. Her voice was eerily calm.

"Fine by me." Petra snarled. "Let's take them all out at once, actually. We can make it look like an accident."

The leader glanced over at Olivia, who was scowling. "You don't think those tricks'll do anything in the race, do you?"

"They'll be disqualified if they do. Doesn't mean they won't try, though."

Right then, Axel hurried up to them, completing their team of four. "Where have you been?" Olivia chastised. Her voice had taken on a snippy tone since the encounter with their rivals, which Axel noticed immediately. He paused in his tracks, raising a dark eyebrow at her.

"Just looking around. There's always so much to see at the semis." he explained cautiously. He had a point- dragon races as significant as this were always packed with interesting people and things, but Olivia wasn't in the mood to listen.

"Yeah, well, we have a race to win. We should get to the track." The umber-skinned woman said, tossing the extra black-and-gold armband to Axel.

"We still have some time." Jesse contradicted mildly. As if it had heard her, an amplified voice suddenly called, "Dragon riders, begin making your way to the track! I repeat: Racers, head to the track!"

Jesse laughed. "Whoops. Guess I was wrong."

Without saying a word, Olivia turned and stalked off towards where their dragons were waiting. Officially, Petra was supposed to have kept Rhys in the makeshift stables with the others, but the beautiful teal dragon was horribly claustrophobic and got quite irritable if she was stuffed into a tight space with unfamiliar dragons.

And if they were to have any chance of winning, they couldn't afford to deal with claustrophobic reptiles.

As the team was heading into the stables behind the stadium, Axel leaned in to whisper to Petra, "Dare I ask what happened before I showed up?"

Petra let out an annoyed huff. "The Ocelots deemed it necessary to show their nasty faces. The usual mocking, you know."

"Ahh. Yeah, that seems to be the recipe for riling Olivia up." He commented. "Well, I guess we'll just have to prove those tricks wrong, yeah?"

Looking over at him, Petra smiled lightly. Axel may have been one sae of an intimidating guy, but he was eternally positive. "Of course."

Leading Rhys by the long blackrope cord attached to her bridle, Petra approached the riders' entrance to the track. Dragons of all shapes and sizes were beginning to head that way as well, and she hurried to get ahead of the worst of the throng.

The Order had their lineup memorized by heart. Jesse, the leader of the team, was always first. Anoss was wicked fast- with any luck, she should be able to get ahead of the pack. 

Olivia was next. The second lap was when riders were required to weave through a number of obstacles set high above the track, which tended to knock several participants out of the competition. Liv and Ksuntis, however, would have no problem getting through the obstacles and keeping the lead that Jesse would hopefully get them. 

The third lap was when things would start getting rough, which was when Axel and Elan did their best. The forest-green creature could muscle past other dragons like they weren't even there, and even though riders were not allowed to interact during the race, there was nothing stopping their mounts from engaging in tail-whipping, fire-breathing, or any other natural offenses. 

Then came Petra. She and Rhys were the fastest of the team, and if all went well, they would be the ones sailing across the finish line to victory once and for all.

There was a large space reserved for the waiting riders and their dragons, and she stood off to the side while the other teams filed in and the first-lap fliers took their places, including Jesse. Axel and Olivia came up to her, both leading their dragons. Reuben was now resting on Axel's shoulder, though his clever brown eyes were angled towards the track where he knew his mistress was.

Axel seemed as alert and excited as he always did before a race, though Olivia seemed highly nervous and still a little irritable. She glanced up at the stands full of cheering people, then quickly looked away again.

"You ready for this?" Axel asked. Petra grinned. "You know it."

After a few minutes, the announcer called, "First-lap fliers, get in place! All other riders, clear the track! Spectators, hold onto your hats, because the race is about to begin!"

"Ugh. Is that Soren commenting again? When is someone gonna fire him?" Petra grumbled.

Axel shrugged. "He's not a bad commentator. I mean yeah, he's dramatic and obnoxious, but he could be worse."

"He's biased." The redhead snapped. "He completely ignores some of the best fliers, depending on which team they're on."

Before the tall man could say anything to this, the orange-haired commentator was speaking again. "Riders, I hope you're ready! On your mark!"

Petra watched as the line of dragons sunk down into predatory stances, preparing to leap into the air.

"Get set!"

They all lifted their wings, poised and ready for the signal.

"GO!"