The Rise of The Dragon Queen

Chapter 3

The following morning, I was woken up by the ringing of a bell. The high-pitched sound, although muffled by the walls, reached my ears and I groaned as I rolled over, opening my eyes. Sunlight poured into the room from the window and the whiteness of the walls added to its intensity. I rolled back over and could barely see Vixia rubbing her eyes through my blurry vision.

"Good morning," she mumbled groggily. Her ears shifted back as she yawned and stretched, flinging one of her legs over me. I smiled.

"Morning." I gave her a quick kiss on her forehead and pulled her into a hug. She buried her face into my neck, her soft ears brushing against the sides of my face. We stayed like that for a few minutes, almost falling asleep again before someone knocked at the door.

"Time to get up," a masculine voice called from beyond the room. "Breakfast is ready." The voice was unfamiliar, but I found myself comforted by the fact that it wasn't Sparrow's. Vixia, already slightly more alert than me, lifted her head at the mention of food. Her ears perked up as she looked toward the door.

"You don't have to tell me twice." She let go of me and rolled away. I laughed at her as I sat up, finding that she had already crawled out of bed. Now she was heading for the closet, ready to grab her clothes.

"I wonder what kind of quest they'll have for us today," she began, opening the closet door. I stretched and climbed out of bed, following her lead.

"Me too," I replied, reaching around her to retrieve a black tank top. "Can you pass me my pants?"

Vixia handed them to me and picked out her own clothes as I got dressed. She laid them out on the bed as I pulled on my top.

"Have you seen the brush?"

"I put it in the chest yesterday. Here."

"Thanks."

It wasn't that different from how our morning started at home, but something felt off. When we were home, we at least had some idea of what our day would look like. Now we were at the command of the guild, and Nesryn would dictate our schedule for us. I dismissed the thought as I buttoned my pants and pulled the hem of my tank top over my hips. Vixia caught my attention when she did a quick twirl in her new uniform.

"How do I look?" she asked. I caught a peek at a tiny protective sigil that she had drawn on her hand when she fidgeted with the hem of her dark blue skirt, which overlapped her white tunic. She paired them with long combat boots and a navy bow that held her silver hair back in a ponytail. As a magic user, she didn't wear much in terms of armor. She was staring at me expectantly, waiting for the same response I gave her every morning.

"Adorable," I answered with a smile. In comparison, I was wearing a black tank top with matching pants and dark brown boots. A sleeveless jacket covered most of my top and I had strapped my new dagger to my thigh. I normally wore light clothes to keep my mobility up after putting on armor, which was just a breastplate and pauldrons. I was tugging on my long fingerless gloves as we looked toward our armor and weapons in the corner of the room.

"Should we put them on?" Vixia asked. I shrugged, but we didn't have much time to think it over because the same voice from before shouted again, this time quite a bit farther away.

"Last call!" Vixia and I looked at each other, then immediately rushed for the door.

As soon as we left our room, the sound of numerous voices met my ears. We rushed down the hall and toward the staircase to find that a majority of the guild was already seated at the tables downstairs, eating breakfast.

"Crap!" Vixia whimpered. "I hope we didn't miss the food!" I laughed at her as we headed down the stairs. The smell of the food led us to the bar on the first floor. The counter was lined with different dishes, from vegetables to porridge to thick slabs of meat. After we grabbed our plates and heaped them high with food, we began our search for a table.