by Ramy Vance
Hmm, maybe both? Alex offered and she continued to ask Chine questions about the nature of his ability. He seemed much more inclined to talk than to pull pranks at the moment. The conversation carried on easily as Alex became more comfortable moving across the dragon.
Draining all his fluid took nearly the entire day. There were slip-ups, obviously. Jollies had managed to lose some of Amber’s armor. Brath had said something to Furi to make the dragon shoot off a couple of fireballs that scorched the gnome’s eyebrows.
The only cadet who hadn’t had any noticeable issues with their dragon was Gill. The two worked together seamlessly, and he was the first cadet to be done with the draining.
The rest of the cadets finished at roughly the same time.
Alex leaped off Chine and sighed with exhaustion. She’d never been very physical, and scrambling around Chine was on a par with rock climbing. After Alex dumped her syringe, she came back to the dragon and sat down in front of him. Thanks for talking to me, she said. And for cutting out all that nonsense.
Chine leaned his head forward until he was staring into Alex’s eyes. You are an interesting cadet, he admitted. I have never met a human. There are still some…cultural differences we’ll have to explore, but you seem like you’ll be a good rider. I believe our binding was wise.
Alex, who was unprepared to have gotten such a sincere response, laughed nervously before extending her hand to Chine. “Me too,” she blurted. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
He laughed when he saw Alex’s hand and took it between his fingers. They shook, and he laid down. You should get some rest, he suggested. We’ll see each other soon.
Alex nodded before walking off. Manny followed behind her. “Oh, snap, Manny. I forgot you were here.”
Manny’s tentacled eyes swung around widely. “Don’t worry about it. I was partially here. We Beholders are able to see many different realms of reality. I can keep myself entertained. Now let’s get some grub!”
Alex yawned and stretched. “To be honest, I’m way too tired for that.” She put on the blindfold and connected through Manny’s eyes. It was a relief. “Do you think you could just escort me to my room, and I’ll catch you tomorrow?”
Manny nodded. “Up to you.” They continued down the hall to Alex’s room, where she said goodbye and shut the door behind her.
There was much Alex wanted to think through. Spending an afternoon with Chine had been more interesting than she expected. She hadn’t thought the dragon would act like a teenager after all his dignified words.
But there wasn’t time to think about that; she was hardly able to make it to her bed. She changed into her pajamas and collapsed onto her sheets.
She woke to Jollies zipping around the room and singing surprisingly loud for such a small creature. Alex put her pillow over her head. She wanted a couple more minutes of sleep. It was amazing how big a difference five minutes made.
As Alex tried to drift back to sleep, she felt a tug on her pillow. It must have been a polite warning because the next second, Alex’s pillow was ripped off her head. “Okay, okay,” Alex shouted. “I’m up. Why are you in such a chipper mood?”
Jollies stopped flying for a second, stunned. She pointed at Alex’s desk. There was a plate of eggs, bacon, and potatoes waiting for her. “Just thought you might want to have something to eat before class.”
Alex wanted to kick herself. Jollies was trying to be a great roommate, and Alex had already filled the position of the grouchy one. “I’m sorry, Jollies,” Alex started. “I’m just not a morning person. I didn’t mean to bite your head off.”
Jollies shook off the pained look on her face and replaced it with a beaming smile. “Oh, don’t worry about it,” she said. “I’m not a night person. Don’t even try to talk to me after midnight.”
“Midnight? That’s hardly early. What time do you wake up?”
“Around sunrise, like most pixies. The sun pulls us out of bed.”
Alex rolled off her bed and grabbed her sweater. Her head was beginning to hurt. That was when she realized she’d opened her eyes and looked around the room without any problem. It was only now that they were starting to irritate her.
The blindfold was on the floor. Alex grabbed it, shook it off, and then wrapped it around her head. She peered through the fabric, silently congratulating herself. It looked like she was starting to get used to the intensity of her new eyesight.
She stumbled over to her plate of food and dug in. She didn’t bother talking until she was finished.
Jollies sat on the side of Alex’s desk, watching her eat. When Alex was finished, Jollies swooped over and grabbed a small piece of leftover bacon. “You really get hungry, don’t you?” the pixie asked.
“Not usually. Just since I got here. Guess it’s stress-eating. So, how was working with Amber for the first time?”
Jollies smile disappeared for a moment. “She is difficult,” Jollies admitted. “She didn’t want to do anything Tribble was trying to get us to do. I spent most of the day chasing her around, and when we finally got to remove the armor, all she did was complain. This wasn’t what I was expecting.”
“Me either,” Alex admitted. “I remember reading about how noble dragons were.”
“I ran into Tribble and got to talk to her a little bit after class. Apparently, these are very young dragons, and since they weren’t raised by other dragons, their temperaments are different. They’re pretty much like dragon children, maybe even younger than us.”
“Interesting. That would explain a lot. So, what are we up to today?”
“We have class. Introduction to Dragon Hybrid Technologies and Their Practical Applications.”
Alex stretched before scraping the last of her food off her plate. “That’s a mouthful.” She sighed.
Jollies zipped around the room to her dresser, which hung from the wall, stepped behind a curtain, and changed. “I think Dragon Tech 101 will do,” she suggested.
Alex grabbed her sweater off the floor and changed from her pajamas to her pants. She hit her dragon anchor, and her rider armor, composed of nanobots, rippled over her. “Hey, did you happen to talk to Gill today?” she asked.
Jollies poked her head out from behind her curtain. “Why are you asking?” she said, smiling mischievously.
“Just curious to know how another cadet felt about everything. I’m not interested in knowing what Brath thinks until he stops being such a jerk.”
“Makes sense. I’m not really keen on talking to Brath either. He’s nice enough to me, but he’s such a tool to you. But no, I haven’t had a chance to talk to Gill. He doesn’t seem like he does much talking.”
Alex checked the time on her dragon anchor. It was getting close to ten. She couldn’t believe she’d slept so late. “What time are we supposed to be in class?”
Jollies zipped out from behind her changing curtain and hit her dragon anchor. Her armor slid over her body as she spun in the air. “Around ten-thirty. Ready to go?”
They found the classroom for Dragon Tech 101 easily enough. Alex was getting used to navigating the confusing hallways of the Wasp’s Nest. It helped that Manny was along every step of the way.
The Beholder had met the two girls outside their dorm room as they left. He didn’t seem particularly talkative, and Alex remembered what he’d said the day before. There was a good chance his attention was on another realm of reality.
Glad he’s keeping himself busy, Alex thought. I was starting to feel bad for the poor guy, having to follow me around everywhere. Alex considered telling him she could see through Chine’s eyes and her own, if she adjusted her HUD to dim things, but she didn’t. She wasn’t quite ready to let Manny go yet. As selfish as it might be, she couldn’t discount that she was on a whole new world learning insane things. She deserved another few days of support.
Didn’t she?
Once the dragonriders got to their class, they went inside and took seats in the second row. This class was m
uch larger than their class in the stables. There were at least twenty empty seats. They were still a couple of minutes early.
Around 10:25, the other cadets started to fill the room.
Brath and Gill were among the last to enter. Brath glared at Alex as he walked by. Gill passed Alex without acknowledging her and her heart sank, but she tried to ignore it.
Samantha Choice, their professor according to Manny, entered the room at 10:30 on the dot. She was a tall human with curly bright red hair. She wore the armor of a MECH rider, and her glasses matched the deep red suit. Unlike anyone else in the class, her armor had a collection of badges over her heart.
Choice smiled at the class before taking a seat at her desk in the front of the classroom. She hit her temple HUD and began calling roll. Each student answered in turn, and when Choice got to Alex’s name, she looked up and smiled.
Once roll was done, Choice wasted no time getting to the meat of the class. She projected a large holograph of a handful of dragons and lectured on the history of the “bionic augments” being used on them. She warned the students against using a term like “tech” or “mech.”
Choice pointed at a shoulder cannon and told them, “’Bionic’ is the proper term for what we’ve created for these dragons. It is a combination of living tissue, tech, and magic—the best of each, and we are still refining it. Here are other examples of the bionics we use.”
The holograph changed, showing an underwater breathing apparatus. “Only a few dragon breeds are capable of surviving underwater,” Choice explained. “The lack of air and substantially increased pressures can burst the dragons’ lungs, which are quite delicate.”
Choice swiped right on the holograph to a similar breathing device. “From underwater bionics, we’ve also created some that allow our dragons and riders to breathe in space for limited amounts of time while equalizing rider and dragon body pressures.”
The professor swiped to another holograph as Alex leaned back in her chair. Wow, she’s just going to plow through this, isn’t she? she thought.
Her assumption was correct. Choice continued to scroll through bionic piece after bionic piece. Many of them put what Alex had seen in Middang3ard the game to shame. The game only had what Choice would have called basic armor and weapons.
The upgrades Choice showed them ranged from bionic pieces attached to the spine to increase speed and flight stability or internal implants to allow dragons to change their elemental attacks.
Alex’s favorite bionic piece was a scale refractor invented based on experiments done with octopi. The piece allowed a dragon to control each individual scale for unparalleled camouflage capabilities.
Choice turned off her holoprojector as she sat down and crossed her legs. “These bionic upgrades are available to our top-tier riders,” she explained. “The higher you go in our ranks, the more access you have. The best bionics go to the best riders. Do you understand?”
The class filled with murmurs of assent and agreement. “All right,” Choice shouted. “Break for lunch and head to your next class.”
The cadets all got out of their seats and made their way to the door. As Alex went to depart, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see that it was Choice. “Hold back for a second,” the teacher requested.
Alex stood off to the side and watched the rest of her classmates leave. She tried to avoid Gill’s and Brath’s eyes.
Once the cadets had cleared out, Choice motioned for Alex to come to her desk. “I just wanted to give you some tips,” she explained. “Don’t get dragged down by being human here, all right?”
Alex didn’t understand what Choice meant. She’d been more concerned about being the blind girl than being human. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“First-year cadets always have a problem mixing. You’re going to get hazed. Just remember, by the end of the first year, there aren’t elves, gnomes, or dwarves. There are dragonriders, and that’s it. Whoever fails to grasp that won’t make it. Do you understand? You ever need anything, just let me know. Now get the hell out of here and eat some food.”
Alex didn’t waste any time leaving Choice’s classroom. She was a little too intense for her. Manny was waiting outside the door and followed Alex as she tried to navigate to the mess hall. It took time, but she found it soon enough.
The cadets had already split into their cliques. Alex didn’t want to wait around and see where she was going to sit, so she grabbed her food and found a place away from the crowd. After a couple of minutes, Jollies flew over and sat with her.
She put her plate on the table as a few other pixies came over to join them. “I was wondering what was taking you so long,” Jollies said. “Hey, guys. This is Alex.”
The small group introduced themselves, but before they could say more, Alex felt eyes staring at her. She turned to find Brath behind her. “Can I help you with something?” she asked.
Alex couldn’t stand to look at Brath and that ridiculous beard of his.
Even though Alex knew Brath was her age, the beard gave him the appearance of a very grouchy old man. “What’s with your HUD?” Brath asked. “It’s all misty, like you’re wearing a blindfold or something.”
Alex looked at the other cadets. People were starting to take notice. This would become a scene shortly. She knew enough about high school to recognize that this was a defining moment for how the rest of the cadets would see her. “I’m kind of blind,” Alex said, “if you haven’t noticed.”
“Was that what Choice wanted to talk to you about? Give you special attention because you’re the little blind girl?”
Alex scoffed and turned back to her food. “You already used that one, Brath. If you don’t have anything original to waste my time with, you can leave.”
Brath stood there, his jaw slack with surprise. “Don’t you talk to me like that, human!” he shouted.
“Oh, a jab against me being human? Didn’t see that one coming. You want to make fun of me for being a girl next, or have you run out of crappy tropes?”
Brath stood there in silence for a while, then folded his arms and walked off as the rest of the cadets started to snigger. Soon they lost interest, and a few even patted Alex on the back as they passed her.
After the cadets cleared out, Alex could see Gill watching from a distance. Their eyes met, and Alex felt her face flush as he unceremoniously walked off, leaving her alone with the butterflies in her stomach.
Alex had to attend one more class before the day was over. Jollies, Manny, and Alex headed to the Introduction to Dragons class.
Most of the cadets from the previous class and lunch were in the classroom already. Brath was nowhere to be seen. Gill was sitting at the back of the room, staring into the distance. Alex had a very difficult time taking her eyes off him.
Fier Timles walked into the room. Alex was confused as to the teacher’s species. Fier’s skin was scaly like a dragon’s, as were most of the facial features.
Two long horns stretched from Timles’ forehead to lower back.
A long, thin robe covered the body and wrapped around the neck. Fier was extremely slender and looked more like a snake than a dragon. Alex couldn’t discern the teacher’s gender, but she decided Fier must be female. Any creature with so many amazing curves must be female. Maybe there weren’t any differences for her race.
Fier took a seat at her desk and put up her feet. “All right, this is one of your prerequisites,” she droned. “Not my favorite class to teach because it’s boring as all hell, but we’ll go ahead and get through the worst of it.”
A holographic image of a dragon appeared in front of the classroom. “Take notes if you want,” she said. “There might be a test or something. Here’s your first type of dragon: classic red. They’re what everyone thinks of when they hear ‘dragon.’”
Fier went through each slide, pointing out the differences between species of dragon. It wasn’t anything particularly new to Alex. There was a lot of talk about dragon b
iology, but Alex didn’t pay close attention. The teacher didn’t look excited about delivering the lecture, so it couldn’t be too important.
The lecture about the various species was straightforward. Lightning dragons were born of thunder and lightning and were partially composed of electricity. Fire dragons were cousins of red dragons, being born in fire and commanding the power of flames to lesser or greater degrees.
Earth dragons struck Alex as interesting. They seemed to have the least elemental power, and Fier rushed through their description quickly. Alex cast a look over her shoulder to see if Gill was paying attention.
Gill was balancing his pencil on his fingertip. He looked up and caught Alex staring, and he placed his pen back on the table and turned to gaze straight ahead at Fier.
“Now, ether dragons have an interesting history,” Fier continued.
Alex’s ears perked up, and she turned her attention back to Fier’s holographic slideshow. “Even less is known about ether dragons than earth dragons. We know that they’re the youngest species, and their elemental properties fluctuate greatly from dragon to dragon.”
Fier switched images again, showing an ether dragon amid a massive explosion. “We’ve read tales of ether dragons able to create some kind of gravitational vortex, which could allude to the real source of the dragons’ power. The last story of that happening was a couple thousand years ago, though. It doesn’t seem like any living ether dragon knows about this ability.”
The class continued for almost three hours, and the teacher took no breaks. She described species after species. There were many more species of dragons, drakes, and wyrms than Alex would have ever guessed.
At the end of the class, Fier packed her bag, turned to the cadets, and said, “All right, there you go. Learning everything you can about every kind of dragon isn’t going to help any of you. Research your individual dragon and go from there. Read your textbook. Next class is…I don’t know, I’ll email you or something.”
