Page 6 of Fire Dancing For Icey Dragons

The barista sets down two mugs and we take them over to one of the free tables. Zara holds her head up high and meets my gaze, seeming every bit the formidable cheer captain everyonesays she is. Despite knowing I shouldn't, I asked around about her after meeting at the food festival.

"So," I say.

She takes a short breath. "I wanted to ask how much it would cost to have the Fire Tumblers give a couple of introductory lessons to the Sapphire Sparks."

I raise an eyebrow. "That's not what I expected you to say when you asked if I'd be able to help you," I admit.

She sighs. "If it's not possible, that's fine."

"It should be possible," I assure her. What I don't say is that we want more equipment, and teaching some cheerleaders how to do very basic fire dancing will get us there a lot quicker than any of the small fundraisers we've come up with as ideas. We could really do with a couple more performances like at the food festival. They don't pay much, but it's enough to get us some of the upgrades needed.

"That's great. How much are we talking?"

"How much will you offer?" I ask, picking up my cappuccino and taking a sip. It's scalding hot, just how I like it. If anything, I could take it ten degrees hotter, but I'm not about to ask a pixie to make coffee to a dragon's temperature.

"I guess it depends on what you think you can do for us," she says. "Will there be actual fire?"

"Do you think you can handle it?"

She meets my gaze. "I can. And several members of the squad are fireproof."

I raise an eyebrow. "Is that so? What have you got?"

"To my knowledge, a couple of dragons, a hellhound, and a couple of unknowns who assure me they can withstand a little bit of flame."

I chuckle. "Ominous. Do you believe them?"

"They'd be fools to fill out the intake forms wrong. We use that information to make sure the routines don't put anyone in danger."

"Surely they shouldn't be putting anyone in danger?"

She tucks another strand of hair behind her ear. "Accidents happen, but they're a lot less serious if you've got someone with wings at the top of the pyramid."

"Ah, fair enough. It's the same in the Fire Tumblers. Those who are naturally fireproof get the more difficult stunts."

"So what does that make you?" she asks.

A smile lifts the corners of my lips. "Don't you know it's rude to ask?"

"Not if it's pertinent to my health and safety assessment."

I laugh and let my eyes flicker. I know from seeing other people do it that they've changed from my normal brown to a deeper yellow with two black slits.

To her credit, Zara doesn't flinch. Either she has nerves of steel, or she's seen a dragon do this before. I think my money is on the latter.

"Fair enough," she says. "At least that explains why you had no fear of the fireball you were throwing around on stage."

"It's hard to be scared of something when your brother first set you on fire when you were five."

She almost laughs. "I wouldn't know, I'm an only child."

Interesting that's the thing she's responding to and not the idea of being set on fire.

"So, when were you thinking for the lessons?" I ask. "And do you want us to come to you, or you to come to us?"

"I suppose it depends where you practice," she says. "We've got a lot of space if you want to come to us."

I nod. It might be better to do that, especially with the fact that not everyone on our team is going to want to help the cheersquad, even if it means getting more money for our equipment. "Sure."

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