by Jada Fisher
He gave them all a hard stare, letting that revelation linger before moving onward to the next teacher as if nothing had happened.
“And this is Malfangrot of Vren, your dragons teacher.”
The tall, slender man introduced himself much as Kraven had and soon they were shuttling off again to the next person.
The tour seemed to go on forever, and soon Eist’s feet began to hurt just as much as her head. It felt like she had crammed far too much information into her mind far too fast. Normally, she talked to a grand total of three people a day, and although she wasn’t exactly conversing, just listening, it was still quite exhausting.
Finally, it all wound down and they were deposited in a large room with dozens upon dozens of tables and chairs. At one end was a table with piles of food on it, and Eist spotted multiple people in robed uniforms heading for it with even more heaping platters.
But before they could even approach, a group of older people sauntered up and stacked their plates high. However, that wasn’t what made Eist’s breath catch.
No, what made her heart jump were the dragons at their sides.
Their guide must have sensed or heard their collective shock, because he sighed. “Leave them alone. Those are all fifth years who are about to graduate, and they have too much to do to fend off hundreds of questions from you newbies.”
“They’re graduating?” Eist murmured.
She supposed that made sense. Most of them looked about five years older than her, but their dragons were not the massive creatures she was used to seeing. The largest of them was maybe two humans tall and about twice as wide, while the rest of them were a couple of heads shorter. That was when she realized that they were all metallic dragons, the smallest of the species. About the size of two horses, they made up for their diminutive state by spitting highly corrosive acid.
A wave of happiness followed her curiosity. In just a year, that would be her. She was so excited that she could feel her body heating up from her head down to her toes.
“Alright, now get lost. You all know the way back to your dorms and you have instructions about your first day within your packets. If you cannot read, go to the blue dorm in your hall, where a counselor will be living to help you with the day to day mundane things that no doubt will challenge those developing little minds of yours.”
And with that, he turned on his heel and headed out.
Some of the group stood around, clearly a little intimidated by the wide, open space, but Eist just marched straight for the food. After all, if she wanted to compete with all the bigger, stronger students, she was going to make sure she kept her belly full.
She grabbed one of the trenchers stacked at the end of the table and filled it as high as she could. Once she was satisfied, she went to one of the few empty tables and sat herself down.
She didn’t get much time alone, however, as two figures sat down on the opposite side of the table. She looked up, surprised to see the same handsome boy from the trials. Yacrist, was it?
“Hey, you, long time no see,” he said with a smile. “This is my cousin, Yelvin of Auber. Yelvin, this is…” He paused, and a curious expression crossed his face. “Actually, I don’t think I ever learned your name.”
“It’s Eist,” she answered carefully, still unsure of this dark-haired young man. It didn’t seem possible, but he looked to have grown over the summer, his jaw developing more and his torso even broader.
“Eist of?”
“…W’allenhaus.”
“W’allenhaus?” Yelvin asked with a tilt to his head. “Why does that sound familiar?”
“Because her parents were famous dragon riders,” another voice chimed in, so lilting and quiet that Eist barely caught it. Her head whipped in the other direction, and she saw the girl that had placed first in the trials. “They died in the great battle to stop the renega—”
“Who are you?” Eist interrupted, not wishing to go through the millions of questions that always came after her pedigree was revealed. “You placed first in the trials, right?”
“I am Dille, and yes, I did.”
“You placed first?” Yelvin asked in shock.
The dark-skinned girl looked up at him calmly, her blink slow and deliberate. “Why is that a surprise to you?”
“I, just, uh, you look very young.”
“I am of age,” she said simply.
“So, Dille of what?” Yacrist asked, clearly wishing to save his cousin from the stilted conversation.
“Just Dille,” she answered just as matter-of-factly.
“You don’t have a family name?”
“I do not have one of your family names, if that is what you mean.” Her eyes slid to meet Eist’s and she flashed a sort of knowing look. “But I do well enough defining myself without one.”
Eist felt herself crack the tiniest of smiles. It was too soon to be certain, but she was pretty sure that she just might like this strange, lean girl. She dug into her food, filling her mouth so that no one would expect any conversation from her, and let herself enjoy the peace for a moment.
So far, she was off to a good start. She couldn’t wait to see how her first day of actual lessons went.
7
Ahead of the Curve
“So that concludes most of the exceptional facts about the white dragon,” Malfangrot said, pointing to the painted wall behind him. “Does anyone have any questions?”
No one said anything or raised their hand, quite an exceptional feat considering that there were nearly forty of them crammed into the room. As far as Eist understood it, the hundred plus first-years were divided into three groups that all took their essential lessons in a rotating schedule. And yet, despite that large division, she somehow ended up in a class with Ain and his mountain of a cohort.
She didn’t know what her luck was to deserve that, but at least Dille and Yacrist were there as well. While they were seated quite far from each other, it was nice to know that she wasn’t alone with the irritating blond boy and his minions.
“Next largest is the red dragon. Unlike the white dragon, there is more than one of them at a time, but since they are so large and demand so many resources to grow appropriately, only a small handful of them are born each generation.”
Eist was already familiar with all of this, courtesy of her grandfather, but she still dutifully paid attention. The last thing she wanted to do was appear disrespectful.
“They have the largest spread with the flame they can exhale, but it loses much of its impact due to that, meaning it doesn’t burn nearly as hot as other dragons. Also, due to their size, they are not speedy flyers, but once they do get momentum built up, they have a solid muscular structure that allows them to fly for long distances.”
He continued to talk about the average speeds and strengths of the great beast, but Eist wondered why he wasn’t getting to one of the best parts—which was that red dragons could generate shields that could protect both them and their rider at a distance.
A gentle poke in her side nearly surprised Eist out of her seat and her head snapped up to find the teacher staring at her. Clearly, he had asked a question, but she had definitely missed it in its entirety.
Her blood surged to her face and it rushed past her ears, reducing the world to a steady thumping. His mouth was moving again, but the words couldn’t make it through the thrum.
Eist could feel all of the eyes in the room on her and panic set in. She knew she looked a fool, but she didn’t want… They couldn’t know—
Her arm flung forward, knocking her ink pot to the ground and splattering black everywhere. There was a general chorus of dismayed shouts from the people it splashed on, and a chorus of laughs from Ain and his lot behind her.
Her cheeks burned further but rushing to clear it gave her the excuse to dodge the question. Surprisingly, Dille bent down to help her clean up, but the girl had a suspicious look on her face that Eist wasn’t keen on addressing.
After a few moments,
everything was back to normal and she slid into her seat at her table once more. The teacher had already begun his lesson again and had moved onto the blue dragon.
Eist tried to let her embarrassment simmer down, but it was hard with the snickering she could still feel bouncing off her back. So far, on the first day of class, she certainly had made an impression.
Too bad it wasn’t the kind she wanted to make.
Eist pored over her notes, even though she was familiar with all of the differences between dragons. The blues were slightly smaller than the reds. They were actually rarer then red dragons for an incredibly fascinating reason, which was that they were always born in pairs.
As far as Eist knew, they were the only dragons to ever share eggs, and they had a natural affinity for siblings and twins. In fact, if she recalled correctly, only twice had a blue dragon set not chosen relatives, and one of those times was with her parents.
The thought made her smile a bit, nostalgia filling her.
Artox and Aftyx had been quite the pair, with one generating lightning from between his horns and the other breathing a spray of ice—as pairs of blue dragons were wont to do. Artox had been overly friendly, often nuzzling Eist until her hair was standing on end, and Aftyx had been straight up mischievous, getting into trouble whenever he could.
Meanwhile, green dragons were agile, and the poisonous gas breath—
A muffled knock on her door startled her out of her review and she got up cautiously. It was only the first full day of Dragon Academy, so she couldn’t imagine that anyone needed to visit her yet for anything.
Nevertheless, she opened the door to see Dille standing there and looking just as perplexed as she did in class.
“Can I help you?” Eist asked, standing in her doorway with crossed arms. Although the girl had indeed been kind to her in class, that didn’t mean her motives were pure now.
“May I come in?”
“I’m studying, actually.”
Dille’s mouth tilted downward ever-so-slightly. “I would rather not have this conversation in the hall where anyone might hear.”
“Fair enough.” Fearing the worst, Eist stepped to the side and let her in. The girl walked around the small dorm, seeming to take everything in.
“Where’s your bedmate?” she asked, pointing to the empty cot.
“Apparently, they still haven’t shown up. They’ve been sent a raven, but it hasn’t returned yet.”
“Lucky.”
“I suppose.”
There was a crackle of tension in the air and Eist could feel that Dille was examining her just as hard as she was the strange girl.
“So, do you want to explain what happened in class today?”
“What do you mean?”
“The part where you spilled ink all over an entire row.”
“Arm cramp. Happens to the best of us.”
“You know, if something is bothering you, you don’t have to—”
“Is there something else you needed?” Eist asked quickly. This was the issue with getting to know people. It was nice at times, but far too often, their concern leaked over, making mountains out of molehills that they didn’t need to be involved in.
“No, I just…” She sighed and went to the door, which filled Eist with no uncertain amount of relief. But before she left, she turned slightly. “It’s obvious that I am very different here,” she said, her dark eyes boring into Eist’s. “And that can be…difficult.
“I can’t say why, but from the moment I saw you pull yourself up after that idiot of a boy almost disqualified you, I could tell that you knew exactly what that was like too. I don’t know how, but I just could.
“People are saying you’re slow, but I don’t believe that for a moment. I think it would be better if you and I stuck together, rather than letting them isolate us as they would like.”
She waited there a moment, as if she wanted Eist to say something, but Eist didn’t have any words. With just a slight tip of her head, the dark-skinned student slipped out, shutting the door behind her.
Eist sighed and flopped down onto her cot. Isolating herself had always been her goal. After all, most dragon riders spent a majority of their lives alone, but the girl’s word rang true to a part of her that she had always fought to keep out.
Shoving that down, Eist pulled over her parchment to study some more. Emotions were for after she became a dragon rider. All there was time for now was her work.
8
An Even Playing Field
Eist laced up her boots and headed toward ‘the yard.’ It was an area marked on her map that she recognized as the first grassy and dirt expanse she had come through.
She smiled to herself in excitement. According to the schedule in her welcome satchel, she was due for physical training for the first half of the morning, and she couldn’t wait to get started. Granted, she thought that way about everything that had to do with dragon riding.
She had made sure to break her fast as early as she could in the grand dining area so that she wouldn’t accidentally make herself sick with what she was sure would be a very intense workout. Grandfather had told her stories of how all the workers at the academy with free time would show up to the first physical day for new initiates to watch and bet on who vomited or passed out first. She fully intended on making some of them lose their money.
“Remember, people will always underestimate you because of your stature and womanhood, but that is not a weakness, it is a strength. Use that to your advantage.”
Her grandfather’s words repeated in her head as she followed the path on her map. No matter what Ain or the others would say, she had to remember that she had an edge on all of them. It was up to her to take advantage of that, or let their irritating presence undermine all the work she had done to get this far.
She set her teeth on edge and shook her head emphatically.
No way. The blond boy and others would just be footnotes in her story. She would never let them divert her from her destiny.
She trotted through the last set of large doors to the outside, the bright light blinding her for a a moment, but as her vision cleared, she saw a few people were already there, including Dille.
Eist hesitated a moment, their conversation from the previous night running through her head again. After a brief internal debate, she came up alongside the girl and joined her in her stretches.
Dille turned her head once, taking inventory of the girl next to her, and offered only the slightest smile before returning to her task.
And that was how they continued as more and more people joined them. Eist was in the middle of a deep lunge to stretch out the back of her legs when she felt footsteps pounding up the ground behind her with a purpose.
Quickly she rolled forward, twisting and popping up to see Ain bent over as if he had been about to push her. Her cheeks puffed outward and she was ready to give him a piece of her mind when suddenly a dark, slim hand sliced through the air, chopping right into the young man’s neck.
He let out a strange sound and gasped, nearly falling to his knees. Suddenly, his muscly friend came between Dille and Ain, staring down at her like a dragon eyeing a particularly spiteful kitten.
Oh no, that wouldn’t do.
Without thinking, Eist rushed between the two so that her chest was almost touching the massive boy’s middle. What he got out of being the shadow of a weaker man, she didn’t know, but if he wanted to make a scene, she would be more than happy to make sure he learned a painful lesson. Or at least try to.
“Oy, what’s going on here?”
The tension broke as they looked to the source of the voice. Walking toward them was an incredibly tall young woman, equal in height to Ain’s muscle-bound friend. Even from the distance she was at, Eist could make out her blazing red braid and her thick bands of muscle.
“Who is that?” Dille breathed behind her, sounding quite awed.
No one had the answer, of course, but Ain rushed to stand uprigh
t and look smooth again. “Nothing,” he said quickly, puzzling Eist. Surely it would have been easy for him to tattle on Dille. Then again, maybe his pride was stopping him. Who wanted to admit that the tiny foreigner had gotten the best of them with a single strike?
“There was, uh, a bug, and it flew into my mouth.”
“I see.” The woman shrugged, her massive shoulders rippling as she moved. Eist found her own jaw falling open a little. She didn’t realize that a woman could be so…large. It was inspiring. Eist bet that she could crush a head between her muscled thighs and not think twice about it. “Enjoy the extra fuel then. You’ll need it.”
Then she strode to the center of the group, posting herself there like a structure built of stone. Giving everyone a hard eye, she began to speak.
“I am Ale’a of Dannin, and I am here to take you through your beginning calisthenics until Master Bartross arrives. So, since all of you were gracious enough to turn up early, you’ll be rewarded.”
Rewarded? That sounded nice.
“You only have to run ten laps around the court. So, get on it!”
That did not seem to be a reward. The students around Eist exchanged glances, as if they were unsure, but Ale’a made the situation quite certain with her next bark.
“Well, get going!”
That got everyone going, and they rushed off like a spooked herd of animals. Eist, however, hung back, setting her own steady pace that she knew she could maintain without eating up too much of her energy for the rest of the day.
The hardest part about running was that it was boring. It was just step after step and a focus on breathing. And while she was good at it, Eist often found herself wishing that there was something more exciting to do than just go in circles while building up her body’s strengths.
Someone in front of her stopped dead and she swerved to the side just in time to see them heave their breakfast. Clearly, they had eaten too much. She altered her breathing pattern to inhale from her mouth until she was far enough away to not worry about accidentally catching the smell.
