As mankind approached the end of their Dark Ages and began to think and question again, the dragons disappeared. Bound by a curse in human form, the dragons despaired, for it would not be broken until an heir of the Dragon King was found. But his ch...
Elodie whirled around to see Adelaide, Renee, and Penny.
"Sorry, birthday stuff," she said, thinking quickly for an alibi— for the truth was too strange. "I did get my case done, though."
"Yeah, I saw that, and Hannah's satisfied, but it really would've been nice to see you at practice," Adelaide said pointedly.
"Well, I took a night off to celebrate," Elodie said.
"Took a night off?" Penny reached to feel Elodie's forehead for a fever. "Are we talking to the same Elodie Durand that wrote Congress cases during Christmas?"
"To be fair, Christmas isn't a holiday I celebrate," Elodie reminded them. "I didn't do anything during Diwali this year."
There was blinking incomprehension spread across the three faces.
"Festival of Lights?" Elodie tried. "Come on, I even invited you guys to my family's celebration, and you said you were too busy. Isn't any of this ringing a bell?"
They all had the decency to look embarrassed.
Elodie sighed, shifting the weight of the books in her arms. "Look, I have to get to class. But I'm still in Speech and Debate, I'm still managing. I just took one night off. Get over it."
"Look, we're just concerned," Renee said. "You've been in Speech and Debate for three years and don't have even one placing under your belt."
Elodie felt as if she could spit fire right then and there, but tried to keep her composure.
"You know what?" She couldn't help the vehemence in her voice. "I'm not talking about this right now. I'll see you in class."
"Stop right there, Elodie Durand!" Adelaide's voice rose higher in desperation to regain control over Elodie. "You can't sit with us at lunch if you walk away now!"
Elodie found herself laughing uncontrollably at the juvenile antics of her friends. Then again, were they really her friends?
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Kira had a free period right before her lunch, so she headed into the library. Dragons had been creatures of literature and lore for so long, she knew there had to be some book on them that wouldn't be straight from the creatures' mouths.
Her dad taught her to look for the truth, and that meant collecting as many sources as possible. And as many unbiased ones as was possible in a world with ever-increasing biases.
She sat down at one of the student computers and pulled up the card catalog. A quick search revealed that the books on dragons that were not some adventure story that Kira may have preferred to read were in the Legends and Mythology section.
She hopped up and headed to the back of the library, where all of the more controversial content was kept. After all, Goldwater Harbor was not far from Salem, and was known as a refuge for those who fled the Trials there, as well as all over Massachusetts.
