"I believe in everything until it's disproved.
So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons.
It all exists, even if it's in your mind.
Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?"
― John Lennon
She could stay with her dragon and live hundreds of adventure with him. She could have all the time she wanted to see the world, to meet people and see places.
Yes, it really didn't sound so terrible.
In her free afternoon, after having lunch alone, she had decided to found where the lessons would take place.
She had always managed to find the classrooms and the study rooms by herself and a the little map she had found in her bedroom, the common school canteen and the other houses where the riders and their partner lived where also easy to find. She also discovered that the dorms were divided for type: elves and gryphons, who weren't a lot, lived in a small red building who had a lot of plants and flowers on the outside. The other riders lived in four different buildings, divided for feathered and scaled dragons, but not for squad.
She also found a giant library where she was sure she would spend almost all her free time. There were thousands and thousands of books stocked in ordered shelves, with a lot of riders inside studying and doing researches silently. Lily had to physically remove herself from the entrance, gaping like an idiot at the sight of so many books.
The rest of the day proceeded nicely. Lily didn't think much of her new long life or of the meaning and consequences of that. She simply sat down near the trees outside her room and listened to Erebos as he told her some stories of when he was young and mischievous. He loved to talk of the little pranks he did to the other dragons and all the trouble he caused.
Lily listened fondly as she wanted to know everything of her new partner, but didn't share much as she didn't have a lot to say. Her old life seemed dull and incomplete compared to his.
In the evening her squad had come back exhausted from the training and immediately wolfed down everything that was on sight. Mattia told her that finally they had managed to meet the new teachers.
There would be Miss Aurora Ayeri, a rider, who would teach them how to fly first and then how to fight in the air; Miss Violet Kennis, who would teach them the story of the battles, who they would fight and all that they would need to know about the enemies, Mister Jorah Valka would teach them hand-to-hand combat and with weapons, and then all of them would have a private teacher that would help them with their special dragons, but they still had to be assigned.
When the evening had finally come, and she was under her covers of her bed, Erebos already sleeping on her side, she felt sleep slowly creeping on her.
While the night before she had succumbed to a restorative dreamless night, she had however a feeling that this night wouldn't be as lenient. She could feel in the bones that with sleep, nightmares would come too. And she didn't want to have another one because they were always so dark, so full of pain and so real.
So real that Lily would think she was there, fighting on the back of a feathered dragon above a battlefield full of dead bodies of hundreds of creatures. So real she had screamed aloud when in her dream a knife had trespassed her stomach, and she had felt the hot scalding pain of the venom in the blade, so strong she woke up howling in agony, touching fervently her stomach for the wound that wouldn't be there.
And so, like she had foretold, another nightmare had come to make her victim again.
Erebos had woken up with her, startled by the shout and immediately jumping up on guard for the possible danger, looking around the room with blazing golden eyes glowing in the dark and teeth bared shining threatening.
It took her some minutes to reassure him that she just had a bad dream and no one was trying to kill her, to make him get down from his crouching position above her. In the end, when her heart had returned to a more stable pace and he had retaken position on the ground, this time closer to the bed, they felt that they neither could sleep more.
And so, Lily and her dragon simply stayed side by side for the rest of the night, watching the light of the moon outside play with the clouds and creating shadows on the trees, not talking, but just staying together, that was exactly what she needed.
In the morning, a big headache had made himself known while her head was hanging dangerously in her left hand on top of a huge cup of coffee that could wake the dead, but didn't seem to work on her. Huge dark circles decorated her eyes and her skin paler than usual, contrasted with her dark hair.
When David saw her tired face, he tried to cheer her up by saying that the first lesson would be with Miss Kennis and all the ways they would learn to kill the "little monsters", as he called the enemies' creatures.
And when Emma had said in annoyance that this was a class they would share with the new riders, as it was the only class they had in common with the rest of the school, Lily had just groaned tiredly at the thought of having to be with so many people.
The class was one of the few she saw the day before, not really big with at last twenty seats and empty white walls.
They managed to arrive earlier, despise waiting for David who couldn't find something, and took the seats they wanted. Lily went to Seiko and Victor in the first seats, while the others sat behind them.
When the other riders arrived few minutes later, the squad was immediately surrounded by excited students that wanted to talk to the new special entry of the Academy, and Lily immediately understood why they were put in a different building.
They bombarded her, who already had a headache, with questions and questions of who she was, where she was from and how old she was, of the name of her dragon and if she had already flown with him. As she watched them, chatting happily to her squad, she thought they somehow resembled the children of the orphanage with their annoying incessant questions.
A particular beautiful girl, with almost white hair and light-blue eyes, seemed to be particularly insistent and also arrogant when Lily said she didn't like to talk about herself.
"What? Are you too good for us?" she asked, a sneer on her face.
"Of course not." Lily replied kindly, not bothering to take offence "I just don't like to talk about myself to strangers"
The rude girl, who had to have the same age, just looked at Lily in arrogance and then turned around, waving her long hair and almost slapping her face with them. She walked to the seat next to Zack and greeted him with a sweet 'hi'.
"Don't mind her" said Seiko at her right "she did the same with me and Emma, but not with the boys. I guess she is just jealous."
"Why would she?" she asked curiously. If she was here it meant that she had a dragon, so there would really nothing to be jealous of.
"Chantal met Zack when she arrived at the Academy, and she hasn't left his size since then" answered Victor, annoyance in his voice, clearly he didn't like the girl "She always come at the end of the training to talk to him. I think she likes him"
The door burst open and an older woman marched with long and strong steps into the class, interrupting all conversations.
She was in her fifty, with brown hair, that had some white locks, tied in a long braid that rested on her back. She had fierce and stern brown eyes that scanned hard the class who was watching her in stunned silence. The woman went to her teaching post and greeted the class.
"Hello everybody, I am your teacher in history and knowledge of the old wars and enemies. My name is Violet Kennis, but you will call me simply Miss Kennis" she said severely, voice deep and rough "in this class there will be no test as this isn't a normal school. You will look after yourself and your squad so if you don't study the consequence will be on you and your partners. Do you have any questions?" she asked.
When no one raised their hand, too surprised of her harsh demeanour, she quickly went to the board taking out an old beamer and started to show old photos.
"We will immediately start with these imagines that show creatures you are gonna fight one day. Someone can tell me who those two are?" asked Miss Kennis.
The first picture was a little blurry, as if someone had taken it quickly. It represented a creature similar to a dragon but without the two front legs, the scales were dark green while the wings had a lighter tone. It was staring in the distance with bloodshot eyes, searching for its prey. It was big as a scaled dragon and on his shoulder laid its rider, a strange creature with its face resembling a strange black skull, with red eyes and mouth; on the top of his head, horns similar to dead branches of trees were sticking up, looking like a horrible and distorted crown.
"If I remember correctly those are a Wyvern and its Ghoul, Ma'am" replied Victor, answering the question.
"Excellent, Mister...?" she replied, appearing a little pleased.
"Victor Freeman, Ma'am" he said.
"Then Mister Freeman, do you know anything of those creatures?" she asked indicating the picture.
"I know that a Wyvern is really similar to a dragon, being distant relatives" he answered "few of them can breathe fire, and they don't have front legs; they are the air force of the enemy. The one on the top is a Ghoul, its rider. They are extremely skilled in air combat, but in case, they are also good at fighting on the ground"
"Really good" she replied pleased "Finally someone who come here already a little prepared" she said looking with disappointed at the rest of the class "Wyvern are distant relatives of dragon as Mr. Freeman said and just hold some differences in physical structures, while Ghouls are basically the assassins of the sky. They are extremely good archers and can kill you with an arrow while flying at great speed. They are also skilled combatants on the ground, usually with swords or spears, but still prefer to stay up on air"
She the turned and showed them a new imagine that represented two creatures side by side, watching coldly ahead. One seemed resembled vaguely a human with torn old clothes, but the flesh coming of on the side of the face made it clear it wasn't; the other was extremely taller and appeared to have the physic of a female. It was naked but full of scales, with small spikes pointing in every joint and from the back, but they were longer there.
It was red and the muscles tensing under the scales and the long fingers/thorns seemed to be able to snap a tree easily, or stab someone like butter. She couldn't see their eyes, the photo too distant for that, but she imagined them to be cold, lifeless, without emotions, like a puppet animated only by wires, only made for killing.
"What are these?" she asked, letting her eyes roam in the class. She stopped behind Lily and then continued.
Lily hesitatingly raised her hand.
"Yes Miss?" asked the teacher.
"Lilith Matthews Ma'am" she replied and then started her explanation "This photo show us an Abbadòn and a Daitya. An Abbadòn is a creature created by dark magic, using dead bodies and darkness. They are quite good fighters and what they may lack in skills is compensated with numbers. If I remember well, they can be killed only with obsidian."
"This is indeed correct, Miss Matthews" replied the teacher "the Daitya?" she asked.
"The Daityas are one of the deadliest creatures that fights on the ground" said Lily, trying to say everything she remembered about them "They can be tall to almost two and a half metres. Their arms and hands are their weapons and they contain a venom that if injected, can kill a man in just a few hours. They are fast and strong, so strong that they could rip open the throat of a feathered dragon without problems"
"Very well, I'm impressed with the two of you. Not a lot of students know these things when they arrive. Where did you find the informations?" asked the teacher a little curious.
"Books Ma'am. I just love reading" she answered, and Victor nodded in agreement.
Miss Kennis simply nodded and then proceeded to show another imagine. It too was taken inside a forest, near a little pond.
At first Lily thought that the teacher had made a mistake. It showed a dark imagine of what seemed to be a little girl, around ten or eleven years old, with long black hair. At a second glance however, the hair on her back stood up.
That... that thing wasn't human.
The cold hard yellow eyes staring back motionless was enough as proof. There was nothing in them, but what also give her chills on her back, was the uncanny similarity of a child, something innocent and fragile, but enchanted with the power of destruction. She knew what it was, but she had always thought them as legends. Nowhere in her books she found a single imagine of them, just scary tales.
"Uhmm, Miss Kennis it's a child" said a confused boy from the back of the classroom.
"A child you say?" she replied, raising an elegant eyebrow while looking back at the photo.
"This is no child" she said harshly, glaring back at the one who had spoken who shrank in his seat.
"This is one of the most silent and deadliest assassin that our enemies have on their ranks. These 'children' as you called them, slayed without difficult and without any remorse, hundreds of riders and soldiers. If they wanted, they could rip you open in this precise moment, and still manage to get away from all of us. They are so skilled that even the best of us have problem fighting them. They are too fast, too little and too clever for everyone's sake. It's extremely difficult to catch something like that" she finished, voice full of anger for some unknown reason. Lily thought that probably she had encountered one of them as she looked at the hateful expression directed at the photo.
"If you want to know, the person who shot this image was killed on spot moment after" she added. A shiver run through the class.
"How can someone kill them?" asked a girl fearfully.
"To destroy a Phantom you must stab them with obsidian daggers" Miss Kennis replied "Never be fooled by their sweet innocent looks. They will have no seconds thought of killing you. The rule to survive in a war, even if it may seem harsh, is to kill or be killed. These creatures won't show you compassion, they don't have feelings, no moral compass, no kindness. They don't understand the concept of affection or love, and they won't stop when you beg them. The only thing they think about is to kill as many of us they can" she said.
The lesson then continued for more than two hours. They discussed the strong and weak points of these monsters and how they should be, theoretically, defeated.
It was an interesting lesson, and she and Victor were usually asked questions on what they know about them, which they usually responded, even if they lacked some informations, but the teacher told them that it was probably because not everything was on public books.
Lily felt particularly good knowing that for once she was good at something, prideful that all years spent on reading the old torn books that had been so easily discarded had paid off. At some point, she also promised Victor to visit the library with him and study together with Seiko and share information between them.
"My duty is to prepare you to know these creatures" finally concluded Miss Kennis at the end of the lesson "I have to let you know how to use all their weakness at your advantage and to not repeat the errors we have made in the past. As some of you may know, at the front there was some activity, and we believe a new war will start soon. So you better prepare yourself, because war doesn't spare anyone."
And with that she closed the old beamer and went outside, without saying goodbye, leaving a shocked class staring at the now empty board.
Well — Lily thought as she started to exit with the others — that was quite a dramatic exit.