Academy of the Dragon Riders

Chapter 7

"Hey Ari!"

Enrys waves me as I return to the arena. I've just spent, somehow, an exhausting hour of Ice training, and now it's time for a two-hour Novamix practice.

The four boys waiting for me look about as tired as I feel, as sword training is more physically taxing while Elements are more mental. I am really looking forward to being able to see Kaliyah for the first time today. She's been talking to me throughout the day, providing some comedic relief among the boring classes I've had.

"Hey," I say, surprised by how tired I sound.

Saro frowns. "Why are you so exhausted? I mean, all you did was shoot Ice out of your hands."

I laugh. "You'd be surprised."

"Guys," Caylen says. "We're wasting time."

"Hey! It's not like we have homework or anything we have to do today," Saro says.

"It's not that," Ladon says.

"Then what is it?" Saro asks.

"We want to see our dragons, Saro," Enrys says, his tone sending the message 'duh!'

"Ah," Saro says. "Makes sense."

Enrys leads the way to the room housing our dragons. He opens the door and I see my dragon in one of the now-familiar caves. I make my way over to her and smile.

"Hey," she says.

"Hey, Kal," I answer.

"Rough day?"

"No, not that. Just...boring."

Kaliyah's light laugh sounds in my mind. "Same here. These guys," she points her snout towards the other dragons. "They aren't that interesting. Especially Odyst. He isn't exactly the brightest star in the sky."

I laugh out loud at this. The other Riders look over at me, confusion drawn over their faces.

"What's so funny?" Saro asks.

"Kaliyah says that your dragon is stupid, Saro," I say. Kaliyah and I silently laugh together.

"What the heck?" Saro says, his voice unusually high, which only fuels our laughter. "If only I could hear my dragon, you'd be sorry for–"

"Saro!" Caylen says, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Shut up!"

Everyone, except Saro, of course, starts laughing quietly. Saro looks angry, his brows knitted together.

"You'll be sorry I'm your captain today."

That bold statement shuts all of us up.

"He's trying so hard to be tough, isn't he?" Kaliyah says.

"Be quiet! You're going to make me laugh," I tell her, knowing that Saro has the power to give us awful consequences as our team's captain.

"But underneath that tough shell, he's just a sensitive little guy."

"Stop it!"

"Get your butts into the arena!" Saro shouts, his voice normal again. I can tell he's adding some authority to it. That's when I realize that he is genuinely mad and not joking around like normal.

All of us obey his command. We quickly pull our flysuits on. I tell Kaliyah to follow me out, and we make our way into the huge room. I grab a saddle and reins on the way, as well as a Novamix ball. I take a few minutes to put the saddle on Kaliyah as I try to remember how Aiden taught us out to do it.