The day flew by, the 4 girls got along like a house on fire. Lark and Ria are complete opposites in both personalities and looks. Actually never mind they look pretty similar. Despite there differences the two became close in a short period of time. Blaze, Logan, Ryker and Ethan had come and hung out with the 4 girls for a portion of the day. All 8 of them even went and had dinner together in the little cafe in the housing district where they all live.
o-o
"Titan get off!" Ria woke up early the next morning to Titan pawing her face in an attempt to be fed. She shoved him off and pulled her thick blankets up around her head. Titan defiantly jumps back up onto the bed and starts pulling the blankets forcing Ria to hold onto them tighter. "Titannnn..." Ria scowls, she just wanted to stay in bed for longer.
A knock at the door gets Titan off the bed and charging at the closed wooden door.
"Ria! Open up!" A familiar masculine voice yells from the other side of the door and they continue pounding, oblivious to the internal battle Ria is having. Grumbling curse words she gets out of bed and drags her blankets along with her to open the large door.
"What? I was in beddd," Ria mumbles dragging her cloak of blankets along with her to her bed, she face plants and crawls up the bed to snuggle up into the pillows.
"Come on the tournament is soon..." Blaze heaves the massive pile of blankets off Ria, making her curse like a sailor from the cold air brushing up against her warm skin.
"It's too early... bedtime still. Mmhm."
"It's bloody midday Ria! Get your lazy behind outta that bed or imma pour a glass of water on you."
"hmph fine..." Ria slithers off the bed and crawls blurry eyed to her closet. "Temperature?"
"On the cooler side and windy-ish." Blaze sits down on her unmade bed and waits for her to get ready.
"Kay, gimme a tic..." Ria grabs a pair of black ripped jeans, a maroon hoodie with white bands around the elbow and a plain white tee. Fumbling around Ria gets changed with her eyes blurry from just waking up, she moves to the bed and slides on her black sneakers.
"Titan? You want some food before we go?" The growing pup races over to her and prances around with excitement. Yipping away at the incoming prospect of food, seriously how is the pup not fat, it eats literally everything and is a complete couch potato.
Ria grabs some minced meat from the fridge in the kitchenette and feeds the wolf.
"I'm just gonna do my hair and teeth. Be right back." Ria disappears into her bathroom and slings her Snow White hair into a two messy buns on her head and brushes her teeth. She returns to find Titan sitting by the door waiting and Blaze laying on his back staring at the plain roof from her bed.
"Come on loser let's go." Ria walks to her door and swings it open, she comes face to face with Zim and Lark as they were in the motion of knocking.
"F*ck!" Ria jumps in fright at the same time as the two girls.
"Sorry! We were coming to see if you wanted to come have something to eat with us. We can head to the tournament after." Zim shrugs and smiles softly.
"Chop chop we don't have all day." Lark claps her hands getting Ria and Blaze to hurry.
"Should we check if the guys want to come with?" Blaze adds quickly.
"Sure." Ria shrugs and marches over to their door.
"Oi Logan! Ryker! Open up!" The door swings open and shows a smiling Logan. "How are you so awake..." Ria drawls at the sight of the happy Logan.
He shrugs, "I'm an early bird."
"It sucks!" The group standing in the hallway can hear Ryker growling from inside and they all laugh.
"Wanna come get brunch with us?" Zim questions as Titan goes bounding past rushing into Logan and Ryker's room. "No Titan! Sorry..." Logan shrugs and turns around. The group peek in and see Titan bound up onto Ryker's bed and he starts whacking him with his large paws.The covers protect Ryker but you can still hear him grumble with annoyance.
"Get off!" Ryker yells at the wolf but no-one intervenes and instead Titan starts bouncing on him. "Fine don't help me then, I won't get up..."
"Fine... Titan here boy." Ria breathes after laughing at the display. The wolf jumps off Ryker and races over to sit in front of Ria. "Now get up!" She shrieks demandingly.
"Well, well, well. Looky here. The gold digger is at it again!" A high pitched voice echoes down the corridor.
"I forgot about her." Ria mumbles under her breath to Blaze who chuckles quietly. "She hates me but she loves you." Ria elbows Blaze playfully and spins around.
"There's my bestie!" Ria sarcastically smiles at Julie, "What can I do for you Juju?"
Julie scowls but looks at Blaze, fluttering her eyelashes at him. "Wanna eat with us today Blazey-boo?"
Blaze clearly is trying hard not to laugh as his face turns slightly red. "I'm good," He slings an arm over Ria's shoulders and smiles at Julie. Her eye's narrow in outrage and she spins stalking away flicking her long hair over her shoulder in the process.
"Who's the lover-girl?" Lark points down the hall towards Julie.
"That's Julie, she used to bully me when we were little. Tipped paint on me on the first day of school, and Blazey-boo being the gentleman he is rescued me. She definitely doesn't like Blazey-boo either." Ria smirks at Blaze's red face as he attempts to act nonchalant about the unrequited affection aimed at him.
Everyone belly laughs as Ryker exits his room, "What's so funny?" He closes his door behind him leaving them all standing in the empty hall laughing like idiots.
"Just a girl." Ria smirks again and walks down the hall, Titan on her heels and everyone else close behind.
o-o
"Let's go sit in the park." Zim points to the pretty park opposite the cafe, barely anyone is out and about. Most of the students would be on their way to the tournament, getting food or sleeping still.
"Fine by me." Lark shrugs and Ria nods.
The three guys just agree not particularly caring about where they eat as long as they get food.
Each of the group members purchased their subs and they walked into the near empty park. Together they sat under a willow tree and started eating their food, the whole time Titan constantly attempts to steal everyone's food and sulks when he fails.
"Hey! Zim, Lark what's up?" Two guys around Ria's age come wandering over with untouched subs in hand.
"Hey Kalan, Hey Thalium." Lark smiles at the two tall guys approaching the group. Titan hops up and sniffs them both curiously his ears twitching every so often as he sniffs all around the pair of strangers.
"Uh sorry. Titan leave them alone." The pup whines at the command but walks away and lays down next to Ria still keeping his eyes on the two new strangers.
"Everyone this is Thalium a rider and Kalan his Isalor, they are from my town." Lark smiles gesturing at the two boys before taking a generous bite of her sub.
"Nice to meet ya, I'm Logan a rider." Logan sticks his food covered hand out grinning at the two new guys. Thalium takes it in his and shakes gently before hastily pulling away in an attempt to not look rude.
"Ryker, his Isalor." Ryker nods at Logan and goes back to eating his sandwich. Without much care about the newcomers.
"He just woke up, ignore him, I'm Ria a rider." She smiles and pats Titan's head. "This is Titan."
"...wait is that a wolf?" Kalan looks at Titan curiously.
"Yes... why?" Ria looks up suspiciously.
"I love wolves." Kalan shrugs grinning.
"Ok..." The quick interaction left Ria feeling odd, who were these people? Something was up.
"Blaze, her Isalor and a rider, she's also my Isalor." Blaze tips his head to Ria and both guys look at them strangely.
"Didn't know that was possible." Thalium, who hadn't said much shrugs.
Everyone sits in silence for a bit just eating their sandwiches.
"Did you hear about the girl that was attacked by the wolves yesterday after she landed here? Apparently no-one helped her, and the people that tried were restrained. It's sad, first day. I heard she won though." Kalan breaks the silence and looks up from his sandwich. "Luck I think, if she did it again I bet she'd lose."
The whole group stares at him and turns to Ria and back to Kalan.
"What? Is it just a fake rumor?" Kalan keeps speaking, unsure why everyone is giving him funny looks. Thalium is trying to keep a straight face having already worked out what was happening moments earlier.
"He's slow, sorry." Thalium chuckles and resumes eating.
"I'm not slow! What?" Kalan defends himself but is still unsure and in an attempt to cover his mistake takes a bite from his sub.
"It really was such a rough battle, I mean, the poor girl. I heard her wolf just sat there too not even helping." Ria sarcastically adds, making it clear what was happening.
Everyone just chuckles and Kalan looks around confused, his eyes landing on Titan then shift slowly over to Ria and back again to Titan. He does this a few times until it dawns on him.
"You're the girl that fought the wolves..." A look of pure admiration settles on Kalan's face. However it's clear he doesn't quiet believe she did it all from skill or talent.
"Yup, super heroic. I know." Ria poses pretending she's having photos taken of her.
The whole group bursts into laughter and Kalan's face goes red.
"It's cool, they weren't fighting to kill. I've fought wolves that were." Ria visibly shakes from the memory before smiling at Kalan. "Now... you guys wanna watch the tournament?"
"Uh no, seriously. Uuuh." Blaze fake pouts but stands up and stretches.
"Come on! We want good seats!" Logan stands up and stretches the rest of the group follows suit.
"Race you all across the bridge?" Lark shouts taking off.
"You're on women." Ryker growls taking off, everyone else follows. The bridge is maybe 200m long so everyone sprints after Lark.
Ria and Blaze easily gain on her and shoot past, Kalan isn't far behind and surprisingly Zim catches up too. Titan bounds next to Ria and the two add a burst of speed and shoot past everyone leaving them all behind except Zim. She keeps pace with Ria the whole time.
Nearing the end of the bridge the two girls and the wolf add even more speed until they reach the end, both slowing to a stop. Although both are puffed out neither is as puffed as the rest of the group. Titan bounds around everyones legs barking happily, and huffing at how long it took them.
"How... are... neither... of... you... dead...and...so...bloody...fast...?" Ryker puffs as he lays down on the concrete floor. Scowling at the two girls who have already caught their breath again. They both shrug and smile at each other.
"Nice race, I think I won though." Zim bumps Ria's shoulder playfully.
Ria scoffs, "Yeah right, it was a draw."
"Fine..." Zim rolls her eyes playfully.
"You're fast, I haven't had that close of a race in ages." Ria chuckles looking at Blaze.
"I forgot how fast you were Ria, I do believe you've gotten faster though." Blaze bends over with his hands on his knees.
"Enough rest, come on," Ria and Zim turn to walk away not waiting for the others, everyone else keeps attempting to catch their breath and no one follows.
"We will save you all seats!" Zim calls over her shoulder as they march towards the stadium where the game is being played.
The stadium looks more like the snow globe then a stadium, the actual ground where the players run around is underground. The stands go up about 4 or 5 tiers as the game is also played in the air, the top is covered by a glass dome to stop anyone from leaving or flying in, in the middle of the game. The stands are protected by runes so the elements of the dragons can't hurt anyone and just rebound off. At least, that is what Harley told the girls yesterday.
"We need how many seats? 8?" Ria nods at Zim. Together with Titan they walk in and find a large crowd has already formed.
"Tier two? We can see the ground and air?" Ria calls over the shouts of the audience, although the games haven't begun yet there are loads of people here and they are all chatting loudly.
The two girls make their way up to tier two and find 8 seats in the front row. They sit down and look around. There are people everywhere, some have face paint on while others are wearing jerseys or holding posters and signs.
"I'll send Titan to get the others." Ria calls over the noise to Zim who sits just a few seats away, she nods in acknowledgement before looking at the grounds.
"Titan go get Blaze and the others, guide them here." Ria affectionately pats the wolf's head and it bounds away. A few heads turn to watch him bound past but no-one stops him.
10 minutes later the group of 6 walk down the stairs and reach the two girls who are sat sprawled out across the chairs they claimed. They shuffle down and sit in the spare seats, from left to right they sit; Zim, Lark, Ria, Blaze, Logan, Ryker, Kalan and Thalium. Titan is sat at Ria's feet snoozing in the cool shade.
"Hello everyone! Welcome to the annual opening game of the Drakon Tournament. This year the game features our two top teams from the previous year, Swish Swallows and the Tracture Trampers." The headmaster bellows into the microphone from his spot in the teachers stands.
The crowd goes crazy as two teams run out onto the field, each team is followed by a group of wolves and a group of dragons in the sky with their rider's on their backs. In total on either team there is about 16 players. Eight people on foot, four wolves and four riders with their dragons.
"Why are their eight on foot for each team when there are four riders? There should be four Isalors then...?" Ria whispers to Blaze who shrugs, he doesn't know either.
"The rules are easy, everything is allowed except runes. If you are seriously injured you can't die because of the runes around the stadium you will just be knocked out. The aim is to catch the two flags from the other team. Wolves if you shift please put clothes on straight away, the newbies aren't used to it yet. Plus, just no." The headmaster speaks clearly into the microphone. Most of the new student's mouths drop open in surprise.
"Werewolves...?" Ria murmurs more to herself thinking she misheard.
"I heard it too Ria..." Blaze looks at Ria before turning back to the Headmaster.
"Oh and Vamps no drinking blood, there will be blood at the feast after the game. Let the game commence, 10 minute grace period. No cheating!" The headmaster's voice fades and the field turns to chaos as dragons fly off, wolves run into the trees and the vamps and Isalors spread out.
"Vampires? No, that's not possible." Ria shakes her head and looks out at the field in front of her.
How are they not burning? It's sunny.
"Vampires and Werewolves? Are they joking?" Lark turns to look at Ria, they both have identical expressions and both Blaze and Zim notice.
"You guys look the same when you do that. You look like twins." Zim chuckles and the two girls look at eachother.
Blaze nods, "You really do."
"That's weird... but not as weird as Vampires and werewolves..." Ria's voice trails off.
"There's no way they're real, we would know! Right?" Lark's voice trails off uncertainly.
Zim watches the pair of girls, they are both bewildered by the possibility.
"Well, dragons are real so why can't Vamps and Werewolves be?" Blaze points out as though it's obvious.
"I guess, but at a Dragon school?" Ria butts in still unsure.
"The academy is called Drakon Academy, literally meaning dragon." Lark adds as back-up.
"Although Drakon means Dragon it also means 'the one with a deadly glance.' So is has a double meaning behind the academies name." Logan who seems logical points out from beside Blaze. "It's not so surprising, didn't your families tell you stories growing up about them?" Logan looks between the group.
"Yeah mine did." Kalan adds to the conversation.
"Me too."
"Yup."
"Sorta I guess."
"All the time." The whole group answers except Lark and Ria. They glance at each other, neither responding.
"Oh totally! My family always spoke of werewolves and vampires every night before bed!" Ria looks at the group clearly being sarcastic.
"I didn't know I was adopted, sorta, until 10 minutes before we left to come here to the academy, there was a lot my adoptive parents didn't tell me." Ria just looks out at the game, the dragons were flying around shooting their elements at the other riders and players down in the forest. A few stray bolts hit the crowd but the protective runes reflect them back into the field.
"Yea, my family never told me either. I mean I've read books but my parents never taught me. My adoptive mother died when I was smaller and my adoptive father was abusive after she was gone. I spent most of my time out." Lark shrugs and looks out at the game too.
Everyone just stares at the two girls sadly but turn their attention back to the game realising they shouldn't push them any further. Titan who was still seated at Ria's feet stands up and licks Ria's hands and rubs himself against her legs. She pats him affectionately and smiles, the confusion clearing as she rubs his head. Titan turns and rubs himself on Lark too, she smiles down at the wolf pup and rubs his back gently. He rumbles and sits down between the two girls dozing off.
The game continues, the crowd roaring as the Swish Swallows take one of the other teams flags. The play they used was good, the four wolves charged the pair with the flag from each side and a dragon shot a bolt of lightning at the person without the flag. He dropped to the floor unconscious and the person with the flag glared up at the dragon. It appeared to be a girl, she had short blonde hair and cargo pants with a plain black tee on. The girl speed away in a blur of movement but surrounding the clearing, hidden were 2 vamps and 2 Isalors. Or at least that is what Ria presumed. The runaway vamp was caught by the closest opposing Vamp and tackled to the ground. They wrestled for a second before a guy stepped up and pulled the flag from the girls grip. The flag was tossed to the dragon rider who flew up and paraded the flag around the stadium to the cheers and boos of the supporters of either team.
All the first years are cheering not really minding who wins as no-one has emotional ties to either team yet. Most of the other first years have the same expression as Ria and Lark, a face full of confusion, while some don't seem to care or even are smiling now that others know about Vampires and Werewolves.
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Ok, so what do ya'll think?
Any ideas or thoughts on my story so far?
- Brax Xx