World of Dragon Riders: Book One

Chapter 6 - Tour and Class

 The tour was quick but very detailed! Soren and Lance were shown every part of the school with quick and informative chats, and Sky And Duststorm were shown the parts that dragons used of the school... or could actually FIT inside of! Some parts were crossover zones for dragons and the rider students and staff. That's where they regrouped with their dragons and the other riders and dragons. Sky grabbed Soren, tossed him onto her back, and flicked Lance up onto Duststorm's.

"Hey to you too Sky! Please be careful next time, that really hurt!" Soren groaned, rubbing his back. Sky snorted, and whipped to Oakwood and Rollan who were tossing Talia onto Stormchaser, playfully.

"So how was your tour you guys?" Sky grinned, teasingly.

"Oh shut up Sky. How was yours? Ladies first." Soren retorted.
Lance sniggered, Duststorm gawped in awe, the others... they were just oblivious. Sky swatted her Rider with a powerful flick upwards of her wings to teach him a lesson for that.

"What?! You ARE a lady Sky!"

"Pfft. You just said that to annoy me HOWEVER." She huffed, trying to sound dignified.
Lance snorted at that, but a swift glare from Sky and Duststorm slapped him with his tail.

"Alright everyone. No need to get violent." Oakwood yawned, he seemed tired from the earlier excitement and mayhem of the initiation. Stormchaser was the worst, droopy wings and eyes, limp body, and constant yawning... before she collapsed in sleepy ness with Talia collapsing forward on top of her. Oakwood caught her before she slammed into the floor from Stormchaser's back, the dragoness was VERY tall.

"Great... guess who's dragging Stormchaser home AGAIN." Oakwood sighed, annoyed as he had to carry her home when he himself was tired.
Rollan handed both Soren and Lance schedules, satchels, workbooks (what? It's a school!), stationary, ink, research books, scrolls and parchment, and some proper riding gear.

"First school day starts tomorrow morning! You'll know when students should be waking when you hear Marine and the other elders knocking on doors... wait that's mostly the Senior Riders. Well, guess you'll figure it out when the gong sounds twice. It sounds once for opening, twice for starting of school! Got it?" He doesn't wait for an answer. "No or yes, I am NOT good at explaining things." And Rollan barks an order at Oakwood, startling him out of his sleepy wobble, and he bolts for the Senior Rider Quarters.

"Wait Rollan. There's quarters for Riders already around?" Soren said, kinda worried.

"I know, I know. You guys gotta place of your own. You live in this years quadron of houses for students. Each year a new plot of houses is built depending on the 'prophesized' amount of students and citizens that will begin to start living here! So umm... they kinda keep building or popping out of nowhere, magic stuff, all over the year... so to fit the growing population. Most of our people aren't Riders or Magic-Users though." Rollan explains, grinning. "Also we just refer to our area, kinda of area because several Senior Riders live in the general vicinity, as the Senior Riders Quarters. Me, Talia, Riley, Alex, last two are friends of mine and Talia, friend zone, live in one house with our dragons. Talia's Ryan's cousin, random fact- GET UP OAKWOOD AND GO TO BED AT HOME WILL YOU?!"

"Oookaaaay.... guess we should be going then! Guess we'll... look around a little around the village, before we head home for the night. Right guys? It'sfinewithyouokayGREAT!" Sky grabs Duststorm and drags him off outside with Lance onboard. Soren waves good-bye to Talia, Rollan, Stormchaser and Oakwood. Tomorrow is another day!

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Both the new riders thought school would be worrying to go to, especially since Soren wasn't from the World of Dragon Riders (as he calls it). He was right. Many students immediately noticed he had something different about him, dragons especially, and Sky had a habit of swatting any dragons who she'd catch staring.

First day of school and already people are staring at me like they hate me.

Totally kiddo.

Don't DO that Sky! You scared me!
Sky mentally raspberries him.

They enter class, and boy were there stares. First class for new students included their dragons being with them... not good as Sky felt short-tempered today and was staring at everyone she got 'vibes' from.

"I don't like this ONE bit kid." She murmurs to him.

"Since when do you call me kid?"

"Alright everyone! Welcome to Dragon Rider Academy! Or... whatever other people tell you to call our school!" The dragon at the front starts off. Soren quickly finds and empty seat beside a female rider with a Dragoness who blocked out every sound. Sky was wide-eyed at the dragon, and Soren realised it was Marine the Elder Sea Dragon. "PLEASE refrain from staring at the new student, Soren, (*mentally* Hi! Remember me?) and focus your eyes and ears on ME. I am your homeroom dragon teacher for the day, rosters will keep your teacher, more like monitor, different each day!"

"Psst."

"Ahem, so beginning with the fact we DO have a new student..."
Soren silently groans and slumps in his chair. "I've decided we should introduce ourselves! Like every OTHER year we do! No matter if there is or is NOT a new student! Oh why do I not just say RIDER?! We'll start at the front!" She looks at the rider sitting on the desk in front on the left. A male rider with a sleepy dragon who seemed to be a Snow Dragon (Snow and Ice are two different dragon species). "Please say your first name, possible nickname or PREFERRED name. The name of your dragon companion, and a random fact about you." the boy got up and introduced himself as Gray.

"Name's Gray, this is my friend Orca (the dragon), and my family are refugees."

"Next." a female rider with a constantly twitching Dragoness.

"Hi! My name's Summer, this is MY friend Sparktail!" Sparktail was twitching as if to hold in a ball of fiery energy. "And I was born here in town!" Sky 'oohs' at this, and Summer smiles back.

They could become friends. Marine and Soren think simultaneously.

"Next rider." Another female and dragoness.

"Name's Roxy, this is Crescendo. My family love music." Crescendo is nodding and bopping her head to a beat she's humming.

"Next." A male rider and dragon. Introductions continued smoothly.

"Dylan and this is Cerulean."

"Ryan and this is Fireworks."

"You can also call me Flame! Classic Fire Dragon name!" Ryan slaps himself. Ryan was one of the new students at initiation.

"Luna and this is Crescent. Try not to mix her up with Crescendo... please."

"Gale and this is Hurricane."

"Kent and this is Zephyr."

"Harper and this is Shadow."

"Will and this is Ray."

"Lance and this is Duststorm." Soren falls backward when he realises his friend had snuck into class when he wasn't looking.

"Nate and this is Rowan."

"Bridgette and this is Yin." The duo sitting next to Soren and Sky. Sky waved at Yin, Yin nodded back. Soren notices Bridgette is staring at him as if to tell him something. She was the one hissing for his attention this whole time during introductions.

What?

Meet me later! Outside, by the giant oak!

Why?

Just say you will!

"So today everyone, thanks for the introductions- Sky, cool it! Geez, everyone quit STARING at Sky and Soren or I will personally give you all the SLAP!" Several grumble, mostly everyone but Ryan, Summer, Lance, Bridgette and their dragons. Then it hits Soren. No one else he's ever seen have a rider of the opposite gender! Female riders have female dragons, male riders have male dragons! Only Dark Riders did such a thing. "Okay! Now that that's out of the way... let's begin with schedules! This is homeroom, just pointing out, so it's where you meet at the start and end of every day, capiche? For different studies we have put you in groups with certain riders and dragons who we think you'll get along SWELL with!"

Ocean pun! Get it? She's a SEA dragon! Swell... something to do with the sea...

Isn't it with the waves or something? WHY AM I TALKING TO YOU NOW?

Bridgette raises an eyebrow at him. Soren frowns back.

"First group! Will, Harper, Kent, Gale and Luna! Then Ray, Shadow, Zephyr, Crescent And Hurricane." The five in that group grin. "Second Group! Nate, Dylan, Roxy, Gray and Summer." They smile too. "Third and final group! Ryan, Lance, Bridgette and Soren! With Fireworks, Duststorm, Yin and Sky! You can assign group LEADERS or what not... they do it every OTHER year!" Marine grins, happily. "SOOOOO! Group Names are a thing too! Try to brainstorm one so it's easier than Group 1, 2, 3, etc! Some classes are bigger, by That I mean homeroom... so they'll have more groups." She turns to the covered chalkboard behind her and pulls off the sheet. "Group 1's first class is Proper Dragon Care! Group 2 is History (they groaned)! And with ME is Group 3! We are doing Dragon Riding training with the seniors! Isn't that EXCITING?!" Ryan and Lance faint, Bridgette whoops, Soren is focused on his surprise, Sky whoops, Yin nods, Duststorm faints, And Fireworks 'YAHOO'S' in excitement. "P.S. we may get new students later on in the year, meaning more may be added into this homeroom, meaning more groups! I AM PUMPED!"

Glad to see the TEACHER is enthusiastic!

Aye... WHY AM I STILL TALKING WITH- AHHH!
Bridgette bursts out laughing hysterically, and Soren slams his head on the table. And soon enough people leave to find their way to class, while Group 3 remain in homeroom with Marine till the seniors show up.

Time Skip:

"Thank you SOOO much for taking time out of your days to come help us teach CLASS today you guys! Soren, Lance, Ryan, Sky, Duststorm And Fireworks... you may recognize these two!" Marine points to a rider and dragon duo... who happens to be Rollan and Oakwood. Soren waves hello. Bridgette is bouncing inside from excitement, filling her still active telepathy-link with Soren full of excited thoughts.

"It's an honour to be here!" Rollan grins at Soren and Lance, Oakwood playfully bumps Duststorm. "I'll introduce the others. This is Olivia and her dragoness Violet, she's a Nature Dragon. This guy (points to the only other male rider and his dragon) is Shaun and his dragon Smoke, he's a Fire Dragon. And finally, this is Felicia and her dragon Canyon! He's an Earth Dragon." Oakwood bumps him, and he shoves back. Smoke just kicks them back at each other.

"All of US are in the same homeroom group!" Felicia grins, proudly. Canyon nods and Shaun just seems to groan in boredom. "Hey Marine where's-"

"That don't matter! He's busy right now and can't attend as my rider... unfortunately. ALRIGHTY OH! I'll let you seniors do the talking... and WHERE'S THE OTHER GROUPS?!" Soren notices that no one else has showed up, multiple groups for one class... and their's was the only one. His heart plummeted.

"We can't exactly wait Marine." Smoke sighes. "We should just get it over with."

"Agreed." Shaun walked off to Smoke and hopped on. Bridgette seems to be bouncing around on the inside and Soren decides to hop on Sky.

"Fine... you guys start, I'll find the others!"

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Bridgette says, climbing on top of Yin, who was meditating the entire time. "So what do we do first? Stunts? Battle formations? Tell me!"

"Patience young one, or your over flowing energies will knock your friend over." Yin points to Soren, who is still mentally linked to Bridgette, who is appearing to look sleepy.

"Whoops."

"Haha! Nice ideas Bridgette, but let's see what Shaun decided on. We got him to choose, otherwise the rest of us would've argued on one." Rollan jabs a finger at bored-faced Shaun. He was mentally running through the discussion he had with Smoke before and sighed.

"We decided on practicing Battle Training on Dragon-Back. Pair-Up with a team-mate, Soren and Lance preferably no with each other, and then we'll pit you against two seniors."

"GREAT! That means we can be team-mates! Right Soren?" Bridgette celebrates by elbowing Soren while both are on Dragon-Back.

"Uh Yeah... sure..." He looks at Lance, who is fist-bumping Ryan.

This may not end well for my stomach.

What? It's BATTLE training! Not stunts! You afraid of heights?

NO! Never! WHY ARE YOU STILL IN MY HEAD BRIDGETTE?!