Racing the Storm

Chapter 2

"All Somerset Academy students, you will not be able to depart as scheduled. After I am done speaking please make your way to the dining hall so that you may eat and find sleeping accommodations for you all," He began. 

The crowd started talking quickly, wondering why they still had to be here. The uneasy feeling Thalia had in the beginning grew tenfold. The pit in her stomach took over her whole body, an intense feeling of dread gripped her like a vice. 

"Settle down," Headmaster ordered. 

Thalia sat tense in her seat with goosebumps covering her arms and legs. She knew it wasn't from the cold.

"For my Ridgeview kids, I have news. An academy in the Western Hemisphere as informed me that they were attacked....by a dragon branded with Timber Creek colors."

A gasp shot through the crowd. Thalia felt her throat tighten. Her mind was going faster than her and Tuuka in a race. Nothing made sense. Dragons don't fly that far for any reason, Thalia knew that. Every rider learned migration patterns in their first year at Ridgewood. 

Tuuka growled lowly feeling the aggressive energy in the air. Thalia cautiously reached to console her dragon. His scales felt cold to the touch, as if his body heat dropped the moment it got dark. Thalia slowly rubbed her hand up his face, taking her hand off to restart her soothing strokes. 

"I ask that you all remain calm. I will be contacting a few of you all to come along with some faculty members and fly to the continent to help investigate," The headmasters soothing voice continued.

Thalia turned back to look at the tall man on the field, pausing her pets for her dragon. The lizard beside her grumbled and turned his empty gaze towards the man as well.

"We do not know how this dragon got there, we will however bring them back. Please go to your dorms and stay there until directed otherwise," the headmaster finished.

Thalia straightened her posture. The number on her racing coat, 19, stretched with her torso. She bounded to her feet and rushed down the bleachers. Her head pounded now from all the thinking she was doing, she could almost feel the long night ahead.

Tuuka crouched to allow her to mount and lifted off the ground in to the night sky. The stadium below was starting to turn off its florescent lights as students, mostly in purple and gold, rushed to get to shelter for the night. Tuuka's grey and light blue wings carried her silently to Holloway Hall, the dorm hall built in gothic style.

 Its' spires stuck out, daring to scratch at the sky and all it's creatures. Daring the heavens to come down at meet it halfway. Grey stone matched the stormcutter beneath Thalia, but the stone dragons that guarded the entryway from their tiny perches wouldn't dare let him take the credit. Thalia remembered thinking on her first day how fierce the fake dragons looked, and how they struck a feeling of fear and admiration in to her before she even saw a real dragon.

The dragon landed at the front door and lowered himself so his precious rider didn't have to leap to get down. She slid down with ease and turned to thank him for his performance. Empty blue eyes stared back at her. It seemed to be the thing that bothered most people about her dragon, but to her, it was his best feature.

She could see the emotion in them even without a pupil. All the care, all the worry, it was held in those two light blue orbs. He was alive. Not dead or reanimated like some joked. No, this was a living breathing creature who felt the same emotions Thalia did, and probably felt them for longer. It fascinated her constantly how such a powerful creature could hold such a gentle look in his eye. She couldn't help but wonder what those eyes had seen before her.