I woke up feeling as if a dragon was jumping on me. I grunted as I opened my eyes to see that it was still evening. I pushed myself into a sitting position and tried to look for the others. Beside me were pieces of the wall. Being a Datonx saved my life. Right beside me, I heard more grunting and saw Jack, Snow, and Tanya there. They seemed okay, except for Snow, who was passed out and bleeding from the head. Tanya was already checking it out.
"It's not deep, he'll live," she said. She seemed all right. The wall must have only nudged her. Jack was as bad as I was, still not speaking.
Suddenly, something bright erupted into my vision. I was confused at first, but then I saw that Jack's hands were glowing. I forgot that he had the Holy Element. He put his hands on my head, and I felt better instantly. He then moved on to Snow, who grunted when Jack was done. Then he did it to Tanya, who refused it at first, but gave in eventually.
"What about you? And what was that and why did it fall on us?" I asked, seeing that Jack didn't heal himself.
"It healed me while I was healing you guys," he answered. Snow grunted again and opened his eyes. He opened his mouth and was about to speak when I saw a fireball flying towards us. I knew that Tanya had a water Element, but it was weak and she didn't even know how to use it.
I was about to shapeshift into something big to protect everybody when I felt wind, and the fire was blown away, disappearing. I forgot about Snow. He had Wind. I stood up and took my sword out.
"Who is there?" I asked as Jack nocked an arrow beside him, drawing his bow. I heard laughing as a boy my age stepped out of the smoke. He was tall, had black hair, grey shirt, black jacket, and golden eyes. Fire was sparkling from his fingers.
"Hello there! I'm Jacob. I'm from the Tornado part... You Fate people are always so weak..." he said, shaking his head while a smirk was forming on his face. So, a Tornado guy. I didn't have much interaction with other parts, but now that I was used to the school, I started seeing other parts around.
"Did you do that? Did you try to kill us with that wall?" Tanya asked. Snow had his sword out and would have attacked Jacob already if it weren't for Jack, who was holding him.
"Kill you?" He chuckled. "No, I just wanted to say hello, and maybe scare you a little bit. However, since you have no proof that I did it, you can't report me. As far as the headmaster knows, I was on the roof with a teacher. The teacher thinks that too. Now, if you'll excuse me, I will leave now," he said as he shifted into a pigeon. I didn't expect him to be a shape-shifter.
As he was flying away, an arrow hit one of his feathers and it fell off as he cursed in pigeon language. At least that's what I like to think he did.
Snow cursed and sheathed his sword again. Tanya sighed.
"Let's just go inside, we can deal with him later... I mean, you're the War Commander, they will believe you if he keeps causing trouble," I said. I was tired; my dark form needed rest. Jack was about to argue, but he must have noticed my exhaustion, for he just nodded. Snow nodded as well, now seeming calm again. Tanya seemed unconcerned about the fact that someone tried to kill her moments ago.
We went inside and straight to bed. I fell asleep easily, with no nightmares or waking up before the alarm.
***
That day was the first free day. No training, no mentors, nothing, and we could go to the town that was close to school. After breakfast, Tanya, Jack, Snow and me, took our gold and got ready to fly to the town. It had a special dragon stables, so we decided to fly instead of walk. Jack's dragon was a dark green one named Alice, Snow's was red and black named Garr, Tanya's was blue and named Nagda, and I had a green and black named Areton.
We mounted and took off. Snow was in the lead, and I was at the back, behind Jack. Areton was as excited as I was, and we shared our happiness during the trip.
After a few minutes of flying, we were floating above the town. The stables were at the entrance, so we landed there and rented stables for a few hours. The dragons weren't sad when we left them, because they had each other to play with.
"I need to buy a new sword," Jack said, looking at his sword. It was old, and it was already too used. I nodded in agreement.
"Hey, I'll help you choose," Snow said. "Swords are my main weapon, after all. You're a really good swordsman, Jack, but you're also the best archer in the school," he added, seeing that Jack was concerned about his ability as a swordsman. He brightened up at Snow's words.
"That's nice of you to say," he said and smiled. I always admired the way Jack made life better by enjoying small things... a thing I was unable to do.
"I know a good sword shop in the town, I bought my sword there. It's pretty cheap, but the swords are very good quality," Snow said, and Jack nodded. I was about to follow them, but Tanya pulled me back.
"No, I need you to help me choose daggers. My mentor told me I needed to learn how to use them, and the ones that the school gives us are dull and too small for me to hold," Tanya said, her eyes pleading. I sensed that it wasn't just daggers.
"Sure, I'll help you. Let's meet here in an hour, okay?" I said, and everyone nodded as we split up. I overheard some older students talking about a good dagger shop somewhere east, so that's where we went.
"I wanted to tell you something. It's about Snow, I..."
"Yes, you're in love, I know," I said as she blushed.
"That's true, but that's not what I wanted to say. I think that Snow is hiding something," she said.
"Well, of course he is. Who knows what happened to him while he was with that mysterious Assassins Guild. Who knows what other shady things they do," I said.
"I don't think that that's what happened," Tanya said, and for the first time I realized that she wasn't as dumb as she looked.
"I believe that he was with them for some time, but there's something else. The quest he was sent on doesn't seem real as well. Kill a guild full of assassins? I doubt it. There's something else," she said, and that's the first time I thought about that. It was likely.
"Now that you mention it, it does seem possible that something else happened. We should wait, maybe he'll tell us on his own. If he doesn't, we'll ask," I said, seeing that we were near the shop. She nodded and we entered it, not mentioning the topic while we chose daggers.
In the end, we went for nice but not very good-looking daggers that were the perfect handle size for Tanya. They were made of steel, which wasn't very expensive, comparing them to the other daggers that were being sold.
We returned to the meeting place to see Jack and Snow waiting for us.
"Look at my new sword," Jack said happily, pulling out a nice looking sword, obviously sharp.
"It looks great," I said and Tanya agreed.
"Let's buy something to eat, I'm starving," Jack said, and we all agreed.
"Jack knows the best food places," Snow said, and Jack took the lead.
After a few minutes of walking and talking, Jack led us into a small tavern. It had a fireplace and looked cosy. There were just a few people in there, and we found a place to sit easily. Just as we sat, an elderly woman approached us.
"Hello dears, what would you have?" she asked nicely, and we all looked at Jack. He shrugged and ordered something for all of us. I didn't understand the word he used, but it must have been a meal.
"What did you order?" Snow asked, clearly having no clue himself.
"Some meat and vegetables. Nothing special," he said. Snow nodded.
"What do you think about the school?" Jack asked, turning to Tanya and me.
"It's fine. A lot of secrets within it, though. Like the mentor thing.... And me being a Datonx and Tanya an Atonx..." I said. Yes, I was still a bit angry that nobody told me. Tanya rolled her eyes.
"I like it. I like the dragons, the mentors and the training," she said.
"That's all nice, but the best thing is the Tournament," Jack said, and Snow nodded enthusiastically.
"It's a thing where all three parts compete in something. There are three different competitions- dragon flight, fighting with both weapons and Elements, and a team game, which includes both Element fighting and dragons. There are five teams in each category, for all the years. Snow competes in the fighting. Except for the team battles, there is one person from each year in the team. I'm in the team as an archer. There are five roles. They'll tell you about it soon enough. They'll be choosing representatives from your year soon. I'm the archer role. The flight representative isn't chosen yet. It's fun, and Tornado won last year. We need to win now. So, if you're chosen, train hard," Jack said seriously.
"Seems fun," I said. I loved competitions. Tanya was agreeing happily beside me. Snow nudged Jack.
"Hey, the purpose is to have fun, not to work yourself to death," he said and grinned.
"Yes, but we haven't won for 2 years. Earthquake won before Tornado, and we won before them. We need to win this one," Jack said, his happy self gone.
"He's always like that about the competitions, but once the trainings start, he becomes relaxed again. Don't worry," Snow explained and we all laughed. Well, except Jack. He was still looking serious and lost in thought. I shrugged as the woman brought food.
It was meat, and it was delicious. It was pork with carrots and some other vegetables. We got juice along with it. It was even better than school food, which I didn't think was possible.
After we finished, we decided to get back to theschool. Snow said that he expected the headmaster to announce the chosenmembers of the first year for the Tournament at dinner, so we hurried towardsour dragons and flew back.+pB:=