Strolling into the town square, I hear a boy complaining to Hunter. "Why aren't we allowed to pack any of our stuff when she is?"
"Because," Hunter sounds incredibly exasperated "the academy has prepared for five boys. Not four boys and one girl. The uniforms will not fit her and she has no roommate! Stop complaining! She isn't complaining and she wasn't expecting to go to the academy!" I clear my throat and they both spin to face me. He looks at me for a second, dark eyes scanning my bag before he turns to the rest of the mages. "Alright." Hunter rubs his hands together. "We will be taking four dragons with two of you on each." Four dragons land right after we split into groups. I'm with some water mage. I think his name was Henry or something. Hunter doesn't say anything, just points us to our respective dragons. My group gets a cream-colored dragon with a rider who has black hair and green eyes. The dragon lowers his head and evaluates us. He snorts derisively and turns away, obviously not impressed.
Chapter 3 -
The rider introduces himself as Vlad and his dragon as Lance. He totally ignores me which is fine. He seems rude. I walk up to Lance and start petting his face. The scales are smooth and almost soft, though they are hard as diamond. Vlad glares at me before taking my hand off his dragon.
"It's not polite to touch a dragon without permission." his voice is hard and emotionless, not betraying what he's thinking. I blush lightly before nodding my understanding.
He stares for a second before turning and asking Lance's permission to get everyone up on his back and situated for the long journey ahead of us. Lance nods his large head and turns his back towards us. Vlad comes over and lifts Henry onto the spot behind the large saddle. I go up next but Vlad doesn't help me, he just tells me to get on behind Henry. Lance's back is nearly 6 feet tall, but my training takes over and I walk away from the dragon. Everyone has now stopped what they are doing to watch me.
I turn around to face Lance's back before running at it. Right as I am about hit his stomach, I launch myself into the air, twisting gracefully into a front somersault so I'm facing forwards, and land right behind Henry without so much as a wince from Lance or me. All the dragon riders laugh with the exception of Vlad and Hunter. Vlad says nothing and vaults into the saddle, much like I just did. We wait for a moment while everyone else gets onto their dragons.
Everyone is safely on and secured before the dragons start to take off. Lance goes first, beating his massive wings and jumping, his powerful hind legs bunching up and extending fluidly. He rises up a good hundred meters into the air before the second dragon takes flight. The air whips my long, blonde hair out of its braid and the strands fly in my face as I search the clouds for our town. The town is fading into the distance until all I can see is a speck of black against the ever-growing forest. Before long, that speck fades as well and I search for something else to watch. Vlad looks back at us and starts to quiz us on the villages and cities we're passing. With each village passed, we gain more dragons in the train. Hunter and his dragon, I think he told me his name was Reyna, is in the lead with Lance and the other dragons from my village following.
"What was the city we just passed called?" Vlad questions. We are all stumped for a second until the answer comes to me.
"Dragomir?" I answer.
"Correct," replied Vlad. "Who can tell me how many types of dragons there are?"
"Six general categories, with more subcategories being discovered each year," this time Henry responded.
"Good. Can you name the six general categories and five subcategories?"
"Elemental (storm, water, earth, fire, air), western, eastern, northern, and southern." I respond without thinking very hard. When I became a performer, my father made me learn the dragons by heart so I would know who was watching our shows.
"Good," Vlad asks some more questions but I stop paying attention and answering when a huge castle comes into view.
"Windemere Fort," calls Hunter from the dragon next to us. All the dragons land, starting with Lance and ending with a large orange dragon and Hunter. I look around and see the other dragon's from different cities landing. There are a total of 20 dragons. 5 cities and 25 dragon riders. I quickly hide my hair in my hood so I look like a boy - I don't need to be answering all kinds of questions. Everyone gathers around a stone platform where all the riders are standing, with Hunter in the front.
Hunter clears his throat rather loudly, and, when that doesn't get their attention, I hear him ask his dragon something. His dragon is the large orange one from the ride over. He roars and breathes a short burst of flame at the sky. All the kids immediately stop talking and look to the front.
"Alright!" Hunter rubs his hands together "This year, we have a 25 dragon riders with us. 15 of each fire, earth, air, and water mages. 2 mind wielders, 5 wizards, and 12 shapeshifters. While you are here, on no account other than a direct order or attack, are you allowed to use your magic. This year, we also have an unexpected addition." I stare uneasily at the dragon rider, "In the village of Stone Heart, only 4 dragon riders were found. Then, we found the last one. Will she please come up here."
I slowly make my way up the stage, studiously ignoring the whispers that came with Hunter's revelation. When I stand next to the intimidating man, Hunter nods his head. "This is Liora. " The whispers intensify and everyone in the yard has a stunned look on their face. Hunter clears his throat and this time, everyone is silent. "Liora is a dragon rider. Everyone is to treat her with respect. If I hear that someone has been mean to her or is making her feel unwelcome, they will answer to me. She was not expecting to come here and we sure weren't expecting it either. Since she is the only girl, she will room by herself and no one is allowed to go into her room without her, or the headmaster's specific permission."
"Alright," he quickly changes the subject. "Now, there is a welcome banquet starting as soon as we're done here where you will get your room assignments and roommates. The dragon riders will be split up between rooms and you may get an older student to room with. Tomorrow morning, mages, report to your classrooms. You will find a map of the campus on your bed. Dragon riders, tomorrow is the egg picking where an egg will either chose you or you will go home." What, I think, no one said anything about going home when you're a dragon rider.
"Report to the banquet hall. Okay. Follow the rider you flew in with to the banquet hall."
I find Vlad near the front of the pack and walk behind him with Henry at my side. Vlad points out some rooms here and there. "That is the hatchery and over there is the training field. Oh! And my personal favorite, the flight course."
The other dragon rider trainees are being given similar lectures and I study them as we walk. Most are tall and strong looking with a graceful air about them. Some have soft facial expressions, while others look bored. Vlad stops in front of two massive oak doors that I assume lead to the banquet hall. His hands go out as he pushes them wide open. My ears hear hundreds of voices talking over each other as the older student crane their necks to get a good look at us. I notice that there is no real seating chart because everyone looks scattered around, sitting with people who are all different kinds of mages.
I can easily tell who the popular ones are. They are laughing among themselves and paying hardly any attention to the people around them. I make a mental note to avoid them as much as possible, they don't look friendly. During the walk over, I make sure that my hair is safely inside my hood, praying that Hunter won't embarrass me again. Sadly, I am mistaken; Hunter tells everyone to line up on yet another stage. We will touch the stone again to show everyone what magic we had. Then, a school group would claim us. That meant, he explains, that when we touched the stone, we would get chosen as the newest member of the group. I sigh. This will be a long evening.
I am about to walk to the middle of the new boys when Vlad stops me and tells me to go to the back of the line. I am confused but do as I am told. The first people are claimed rather quickly, and then the first dragon rider comes. He touches the stone and is immediately claimed by a not-so-nice-looking group of people who have matching tattoos on their arms. All the dragon riders are claimed by one of three groups: the ones who had claimed the first guy, a group of artistic looking guys, or ones who look too cheerful for my tastes. The jocks, who I noticed never claimed anyone, look more interested now.
All too soon, it is my turn, and I walk up and touch the stone. The same thing happens as before; golden lights flow around me and the air picks up. Then, of course, Hunter comes up behind me and I can feel his intent to take off my hood. Using my acrobatic training, I swiftly fling myself out of the way, managing to stay on my feet the entire time. However, as I'm moving, my jacket's hood falls and my lightly braided hair is revealed.
I turn to look at the audience and see their shocked faces. I shrug - better get this over with. I take off my jacket and the audience gasps as they see my performers attire. Performers are generally a wild group of people who most look down on until they need entertainment.
I touch the stone again and the audience visibly tenses. The lights, I notice, are actually pinpoints of brightness with vibrantly colored tails, swirling around each other. For a while, no one speaks and Hunter just waits.
Then a deep voice says, "We'll take her."
I take my hand off the stone and look for who had "claimed" me. My stomach plummets when I see it is the "jock" table. I sigh and walk slowly to them. One - he has red hair, freckles and green eyes - pulls out a chair for me. I slowly sink into it and wait for someone to talk. A guy with blonde hair and brown eyes spoke first.
"Are you really a dragon rider?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Is that the only answer I will get out of you?"
"No."
He throws his hands up in the air. "She speaks!" I roll my eyes but smile a little at his antics.
"Hi!" he says "I'm James, he -" he jerks his thumb to a guy with black hair and blue eyes "- is Garrett." I learn that the redhead is Brenden and the brown haired guy is Alex.
"I'm Liora." They all nod their heads. "Are you all dragon riders?"
"Yeah," replies James. "This is a riders-only group. "
"Oh." I sigh a bit. "Why'd you choose me?"
"You seemed mysterious," Garrett says simply. "By the way, are you actually a performer?"
"Yes," I begin quietly, "I am a performer. My parents died when I was young and the troop leaders took me in." Garrett seems stunned for a moment but he quickly recovers.
"What kind of dragons do you have?" I'm curious. The only dragons that came to Stone Heart were small, messenger dragons.
"I have a fire dragon named Sarli," says Brenden. "Alex has an earth dragon named Foley, Garth's is a southern type and is named Dreamer, and James has a northern one named Tarch."
"Cool." I begin to wonder what my dragon will be, but my thoughts are interrupted by Alex loudly talking about a performance he saw once.
During the rest of the dinner, which is lamb stew with bread and cheese, the group and I are talking and they give me my schedule and room assignment. I am in the west tower with James, Alex, Brenden, and Garth but I have no roommate. My schedule is:
7:00 am --- Breakfast
8:00 am --- Flight and Aerobatics
10:00 am --- Anatomy/Science
11:00 am --- Strategy
12:00 pm --- Lunch
1:00 pm --- P.E./ Capture the Flag
3:00 pm --- Survival
4:00 pm --- Combat
6:00 pm --- Free period
9:00 pm --- Dinner
11:00 pm --- Curfew
The guys tell me that P.E. and Combat are the best classes, and they start telling me stories about how Alex once got almost stepped on by a dragon. I laugh along with them, and for the first time today, I feel at ease and happy. Dinner ends and they lead me to my room. James advises me to get a lot of sleep because tomorrow, he says, will be exhausting. I thank them and walk into my room. I barely notice the beautiful navy and purple decorations before falling onto the bed and slipping into sleep.