ASoftSound
Yutora
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:19:35 +0000
oO-Towels-Oo
Yutora
oO-Towels-Oo
Fuuuuuuuuu, I'm really unsatisfied with it so Im basically rewriting it. D= Nuuuuuuu!!!
Oh no... what time is it for you now :c ?
Its 4pm... oh man.
Ohhh.... get to writing! You can finish it <3
ASoftSound
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:26:52 +0000
Yutora
oO-Towels-Oo
Yutora
oO-Towels-Oo
Fuuuuuuuuu, I'm really unsatisfied with it so Im basically rewriting it. D= Nuuuuuuu!!!
Oh no... what time is it for you now :c ?
Its 4pm... oh man.
Ohhh.... get to writing! You can finish it <3
I really hope I do. <33
Saline Everwood
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:42:03 +0000
GigglexSnort
Saline Everwood
I absolutely love fantasy and adore dragons. I have an idea and now all I have to do is write it down. Anyways, I would love to join.
c: The more the merrier c:
I'm sorry to say, but I'm unable to enter. A lot of unexpected things came up preventing me to work on the story. Once again I apologize.
GigglexSnort
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:45:56 +0000
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If I'm in california, what time would the deadline be?? O_o
FGFGTHGHHGF xDDD LOL well what time is it over there for you guys? I think yall are like seven hours ahead right? XD
GigglexSnort
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:46:36 +0000
Saline Everwood
GigglexSnort
Saline Everwood
I absolutely love fantasy and adore dragons. I have an idea and now all I have to do is write it down. Anyways, I would love to join.
c: The more the merrier c:
I'm sorry to say, but I'm unable to enter. A lot of unexpected things came up preventing me to work on the story. Once again I apologize.
o: I can put you with the other person for a few days extra if ya want C: Its no problem~
ASoftSound
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:47:00 +0000
GigglexSnort
oO-Towels-Oo
If I'm in california, what time would the deadline be?? O_o
FGFGTHGHHGF xDDD LOL well what time is it over there for you guys? I think yall are like seven hours ahead right? XD
its 5:46pm right now. OH MYY GOOOOODDD, IM SHITTING BRICKS.
GigglexSnort
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:49:24 +0000
oO-Towels-Oo
GigglexSnort
oO-Towels-Oo
If I'm in california, what time would the deadline be?? O_o
FGFGTHGHHGF xDDD LOL well what time is it over there for you guys? I think yall are like seven hours ahead right? XD
its 5:46pm right now. OH MYY GOOOOODDD, IM SHITTING BRICKS.
LMFAO~ Its like 8 over here~ Lolol lets just put you for the 10 pm over there~ XD i dont want you to s**t a building o-o
ASoftSound
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:52:22 +0000
GigglexSnort
oO-Towels-Oo
GigglexSnort
oO-Towels-Oo
If I'm in california, what time would the deadline be?? O_o
FGFGTHGHHGF xDDD LOL well what time is it over there for you guys? I think yall are like seven hours ahead right? XD
its 5:46pm right now. OH MYY GOOOOODDD, IM SHITTING BRICKS.
LMFAO~ Its like 8 over here~ Lolol lets just put you for the 10 pm over there~ XD i dont want you to s**t a building o-o
OH MY GOD THAT'S SO BETTER. I'll make sure to get this story in by then!!!! lol It'll be awesome!
GigglexSnort
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 01:59:21 +0000
ANNOUNCEMENT:
-Writers~ If you need more time, you shall get it!
For the Easterntime wave of the U.S you have until 11 pm
For the Central time zone, you have until 11 pm there cause i know yall are an hour behind.
For the Mountain time zone, you have until 11 pm there (althought i don't think anyone is in that time zone i shall put it up anyway xD)
And Finally for the Pacific time zome, you get till 11 there C:
Please take the time and use to edit anything C: make it all nice and perfect~
Quote:
oO-Towels-Oo
C: Is that enough time?
ASoftSound
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:58:11 +0000
GigglexSnort
ANNOUNCEMENT:
-Writers~ If you need more time, you shall get it!
For the Easterntime wave of the U.S you have until 11 pm
For the Central time zone, you have until 11 pm there cause i know yall are an hour behind.
For the Mountain time zone, you have until 11 pm there (althought i don't think anyone is in that time zone i shall put it up anyway xD)
And Finally for the Pacific time zome, you get till 11 there C:
Please take the time and use to edit anything C: make it all nice and perfect~
Quote:
oO-Towels-Oo
C: Is that enough time?
Yes. I hope ^___^
ASoftSound
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- Posted: Sat, 28 Apr 2012 09:03:47 +0000
Username: oO-Towels-Oo
Title of story/short story: A Boy's Dragon and A Dragon's Egg
Amount of words: 6,368
Story:
“And so, we are gathered here today to remember Allison Alexander who lost his life to the fearsome world many of us defy to accept. The world that takes more than it gives. One that so few pursue… But with this world comes great honor, reputation and respect. That is how we shall remember Allison Alexander. As an honorable, brave warrior for taking the paths he chose and creating new ones where ever he went. He set standards and was a great advocator for change. May he forever rest in peace. Our condolences go out to Ms. Alexander and her younger son, Ryan who lost an important member of their family.”
“Ms. Alexander? Yes, something terrible has occurred. Your son has died… he died while in training with another student but that is all we know and all we can figure out. We’re sorry for your loss.”
“Ryan, my son. Promise me- promise you’ll never fallow your brother’s footsteps. Promise you’ll never think of going there like he did… to the place of his death. To the place with those dragons.”
* * * * * * * *
“Hey Ryan! You excited?” a girl’s voice from close behind whispers. Ryan turns around in his seat and see’s the burning curiosity in this girl’s eyes. “Where do you hope you’ll be put in? I bet you’d have hopes of being a minister or something big, huh?”
“Why would he want to go there?” another male student on Ryan’s other side joins in. “He could do so much better than be one of those clueless idiots, right Jarred?” he asks the guy next to himself.
“Yeah, like a, like a whatever you call those other things.” He says absent mindedly, uninterested.
Another girl picks up on the conversation and says, “I’ll bet he’ll go that school of Alchemy on the far West! ... oh, I wish I’d be able to go there”, she says in anguish.
“Or the School of Draconem” suggests a different male student. Ryan turns to look at this person and to try and understand why they would suggest that when everyone made it an unspoken rule to not do so. Yet, when he turned around, what surprised Ryan was not that he had said it, but the level of indifference in his tone and facial expression.
“That’s not funny, Jarred”, the first girl accuses.
So his name was Jarred. He seemed like an interesting fellow.
“I know. I wasn’t trying to be. In fact, I meant it seriously.” Jarred looks up. He stares at the girl intimidatingly awaiting her response so he could refute.
“Why would he even thing of going there?” She drops her voice to a hardly audible whisper and adds, “his brother died there, idiot.”
“So? That doesn’t mean he couldn’t go there if he wanted to”, Jarred says with increasing volume, loud compared to her soft whisper.
As they argued about something that completely did not concern or affect them, Ryan wondered if they had totally forgotten that he was there, the subject of their discussion. He watched as he realized that everyone in the classroom was glaring with what looked like disbelief on their faces, at Jarred. Jarred shrugged indifferently and turned back to what he was doing. Everyone turns to Ryan with a million questions painted on each of their faces along with the intentions of bombarding him with them. Thankfully, the teacher arrives and makes her way to the front of the room with a stack of papers in her hands.
“Hello class and look at what I have here” she says with an overly enthusiastic voice gesturing to the papers as she lays them on the desk. “Your placement letters…. This is probably the most important moment of each and everyone’s life... in my hands.”
Mrs. Sacston was one to do lots of blabbering instead of ever getting to what had to be done. So when she went for that first letter on top of that pile, you knew she was just as nervous as everyone else in the room. You could feel the tension, how much everyone’s life rested on what was about to be revealed. As the she reached for the first letter, as she held it in her hand and ripped open the envelope with the other, Ryan only remembers what happened when his letter was up.
* * * * * * * *
Ryan walks into a wide, empty, indoor field. He spots some twenty students sitting on about five rows of benches lined up along the farther edge of the field. It looked like all the students were already there and settled. He goes to join them and as he sits, he overhears two male students talking.
“I heard our instructor for this class is the best dragon flyer out there”, one of them says. “He’s a legend.”
“Wow, really?” says the other.
“Yeah, I don’t even know how they got him to teach here.”
A few minutes later, the door from which Ryan had entered opens in what seemed like slow motion. A tall, dark man in a long coat emerges and makes his way towards the students.
“It’s late spring, why would someone be wearing a coat?” one of the students mutters.
Everyone stares at the man in awe. What a mysterious person indeed. He stops about ten feet away from the students and takes his stance with his hands in his pockets, feet spread out about a foot. He looks over the students slowly and it feels like ages before he begins to speak.
“I am Professor Rodriguez, your instructor for this course. This class will go by fairly quickly and I assure you, you’ll never forget what you learn here. If you do happen to forget, may God have mercy on your soul. Anyways, here is where you will learn how to fly your dragon and how you will choose one. You may be thinking that choosing a dragon will be easier than flying, but that is not the case. There are rules that come with choosing as I will explain to you in just a bit. First let me say, everyone will choose their dragons at different times within the semester. Once I feel you have learned enough and are ready, I will refer you to the library which is where you will find a dragon. Details on that will be made available to you once you are referred. Any questions thus far?”
A blonde and somewhat burly boy raises his hand and the professor points to him gesturing for him to ask his question. “How will we learn to fly dragons if we haven’t chosen them yet?” the boy asks.
“Well, we have what you may call ‘sample dragons’ which you will practice with in the meantime which brings me to my nest point; the rules of dragon choosing.” The professor smiles like a kid on Christmas as if there was nothing more interesting than what he was about to teach the students. “The bonds between a dragon and its master are very sacred. Nothing can destroy it, not even death itself. You choose a dragon, and it chooses you. If either one ever dies for any reason, the other can not, under any circumstances command another dragon nor can the dragon be commanded by any other human. It is an unspoken rule that you must die with your dragon. That is how deep the connection between dragon and man is! You only have one dragon, one master. That’s it. It is our law, it is our code. Obey it…Now, you might be thinking as to why we take this so seriously. Well, you’ll know when you choose your dragon.” The professor pauses and looks over the students to make sure they captured the gravity of the situation. When satisfied that everyone had paid attention, he continues. “So, these ‘sample’ dragons are ones that will most likely never find a partner for… special reasons, or whose master has already died and they were left behind. In other words, reject dragons…. Now, shall we get started?”
The professor smirks and suddenly the floor begins to tremble. The students look at each other in panic as the professor just stands there and watches with that smirk on his face. Seconds later, the stone wall behind him starts rising up slowly. They were on a pretty big, circular sand field surrounded by stone walls that reached pretty high up about five stories into the ceiling. Ryan didn’t understand why this “classroom” was so big but the realization of it hit him like a ten pound sack of flour when something began pounding its way through the whole in the wall and onto the field.
Ryan had never seen a dragon before. Had no idea what they looked like and honestly, he had never given much thought to it. But when that creature walked out, there was no doubt in his mind that that was a dragon. This one in particular was very muscular looking, reddish and purplish skin with topaz eyes. There were five men yanking on one end of a chain whose other end was around the dragon’s neck in a collar like thing. The men yanked and pulled the dragon out closer and closer to the students and although they were still far enough away, the students staggered back abandoning the benches and against the farthest stone wall. The dragon seemed reluctant to come out and the more they pulled, the farther it stretched out its wings in reluctance.
“I wonder what category of reject that one is…” wonders a boy next to Ryan.
The dragon was getting upset, spitting fire and flapping its wings violently against the men. Everyone watched as they tried to calm it down until they finally succeeded by giving it a sack of apples. Everyone laughed nervously, trying to relax themselves, as the dragon caved to the sack of apples. It suddenly didn’t look as threatening.
“She’s such a sweetheart” says the professor endearingly while everyone tried to see what part of a fearsome dragon was sweet. “Okay, who’s first?” he says enthusiastically and although all the students were as far back against the wall as possible, at the sound of that question, somehow, they managed to go even further back.
“I’ll go” the burly blonde boy says confidently.
“Wonderful!” says the professor, exuberating excitement even though he was breathing such mysteriousness at the beginning of the class. He places his hand on the small of the blonde boy’s back and asks “what is your name brave sir?”
All this sounded like a circus to Ryan. All the lethal and dangerous stunts and volunteering was making him nervous. He never did like the circus. And now, he had to be in one….with dragons.
“It’s Jeff” the boy said in a husky tone.
“Alright Jeff, come with me. Everyone else watch.”
The professor took him and they made their way towards the dragon. Once there you could see the professor telling Jeff something but they were too far away to decipher what was being said. After a few moments, he leads Jeff closer to the dragon, petting it and finally, helps him up on top of it. He tells Jeff a few things, steps away and seconds later, the dragon is a foot off the ground, flapping its wings, its chains clacking. The boy’s face becomes filled with excitement and such happiness that it was clearly visible to the students watching.
Everyone claps and cheers and howls for him while Ryan became suddenly jealous of that boy’s happiness. Along with that jealousy came a wave of hope. And for some reason, Ryan was glad he chose to come to this school despite the fact that everyone back home was against it. He came from a small village where everyone knew everyone and they all knew everything about everyone. Too close for comfort he had always thought.
When his brother died, his mother lost it. She went hysterical. Everyone in the village saw her like a disease; someone on the verge of destruction with nothing left except one son. Many around the town would tell Ryan how lucky his mother was to have him there to take care of her, that he was a good kid for staying and being so well behaved and yet others pitied him. Such a smart boy. Too bad his life will be thrown away taking care of his mother, one lady had said. And it was true. She sucked the life out of him as she did with his older brother when he was still around. They resented her and so he wondered if that was the reason his older brother left to come here when he got the opportunity. And maybe it was the reason why Ryan left to come here as well.
Jeff was now on his way back to the benches with a big, cocky smile on his face. “Let’s see anyone try to beat that. I got that dragon off its feet in seconds” he said overconfidently.
Professor Rodriguez walks up once again to the students with the same, previous question on his face. With raised eyebrows he asks, “anyone?” but no one takes a step forward. “Cmon. All you have to do is get it off its feet. That is all.” With everyone as skeptical as the next person, he picks the guy closest to him and drags him up to the dragon.
He goes through same thing as the last boy and in the same amount of time, he succeeds at getting the dragon off its feet. A few more students go up and do the same and one by one they all came back with smiles of achievement on their faces until there is only one person left.
“Mr. Alexander, come up, it’s your turn.” Ryan’s eyes widened as he realized it was his turn. He gets up and crosses to the field with the professor by his side who could feel his anxiety. “You nervous?” he asks Ryan. Ryan takes a deep breath and the professor takes it as a yes. “You’ll be the last one for today so give us a show.” He gives Ryan a smile of encouragement and helps him up the dragon. “Okay, so just concentrate and keep calm. The dragon will be able to feel what you want it to do so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Wait, how will I know it will be able to understand to me?” Ryan asks a bit panicked.
The professor smirks as if he’s heard that question a million times before knowing there was no need to worry. He chuckles light heartedly and says, “Don’t worry. If your intentions are honest, it’ll know.” He enthusiastically pats the dragon on the back signaling for them to start.
Ryan turns to the dragon with a look of panic. He couldn’t cope not knowing what was going to happen next. He wasn’t a risk taker and by all means, coming to this school was the only risk he had ever taken. And ironically enough, if was the most dangerous risk anyone could make. In fact, being on a dragon was pretty lethal in itself. Grapping the dangerousness of this current situation, Ryan tries not to panic. He should calm down and focus on flying this dragon and more importantly, not dying.
But how the hell was he supposed to fly this dragon? “Okay”, he mutters. He takes a deep breath and not knowing what else to do, he decides to introduce himself.
“Hey there, dragon. I’m Ryan. I don’t know what everyone else did to fly you but I’m hoping you’ll do the same for me… I don’t even know if you understand what I’m saying right now, ha.” Ryan chuckles at himself, in disbelief that he’s talking to a dragon. He sits there not knowing what to do to get it to fly or to get it off the ground at least. Everyone else had already gotten the dragon off its feet by this point so why wasn’t it flying or even moving now? Was it tired? If it was, it certainly didn’t look like it. It was a million times his size so it wouldn’t get tired just by carrying tiny students on its back. Was he too heavy? No, that couldn’t be it. Jeff was way heavier and he flew just fine.
Ryan looks back at the professor a few feet away and notices him wearing an expression that mirrored his own. They were both equally as puzzled. Ryan looks back to the other students and sees a variety of expressions within them. Some kids were puzzled, others more confused. The rest of them had looks of superiority. More confidence in themselves since someone hadn’t gotten the dragon to fly and they did.
He looks back at the dragon whose face was obstructed from view due to the way it was tilted. He leans to the side to get a good look at what might be wrong. He looks the dragon in the eye and what he sees catches him off his guard. Maybe he hadn’t noticed before but the dragon’s eyes had glazed over. The dragon was not there and it was clear its mind was somewhere else. As he continued to look at the dragon curiously, a tear dropped down its eye. It was crying? The dragon was crying?? What had he done to make a dragon cry?! He stared in shock at the dragon until Professor Rodriguez came up to see what was wrong.
“What happened? Why is she not flying?” he asks.
“I- I don’t know-“, answers Ryan, not sure whether or not to tell him that he made the dragon cry.
“Did you do something to upset it or anything?”
“N- no”, he stutters. “I don’t know what would upset a dragon unless introducing yourself counts.”
“Well, okay. Maybe she’s just tired. She’s not as young as the other dragons… and she’s been through enough. C’mon I’ll help you down. We’ll try again next time.” He helps Ryan down and he makes his way back to the benches. As he gets closer, he hears the snickers and chuckles from the other students.
“What’s a matter? Couldn’t get a dragon to fly like the rest of us?” mocks Jeff. “I guess being someone brother doesn’t help now does it?” he shoots at Ryan.
Jeff and Ryan glare at each other but their contact is broken when the professor comes. “We’ll continue class tomorrow. That’s it for today and I hope you all enjoyed your first class. You are all dismissed”, he says with a wave of his hand and the students make their way to the exit. Ryan fallows behind, bummed that he didn’t get to experience the satisfaction of flying a dragon for the first time like the rest. He tries to come up with an explanation as to why the dragon flew for everyone else but him. If someone had gone after him would it have flown? He continues to contemplate and before he knows it, everyone is gone. He lost the crowd of students he fallowed out the classroom, and by looking around, he knew he was lost. He had wondered off. He hadn’t seen these buildings on the first day when he arrived at the school and was given a tour. It was getting dark so he figured he might find someone inside one of the many stone buildings to ask for directions. He picks the building closest to him and walks toward it. As he is about to enter someone suddenly comes out and they crash into each other, knocking Ryan to the floor.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry!” says a small voice. Ryan turns around and sees a small girl with light brown hair tied to the side with an orange ribbon. She extends out her arm to help him up.
“It’s quite alright” Ryan reassures, taking her hand and getting up.
“It’s my fault. I wasn’t looking up because I was reading. I’m sorry.” She studies Ryan carefully and asks, “How strange, not many males in this school come to this library, what are you doing here?”
“Oh, well I got lost and I was hoping I’d find someone in there and ask them for directions”, explains Ryan. “Wait, I didn’t know girls came to this school…”
The girl giggles slightly at Ryan’s bewilderment and says, “I’m studying draconology here. There’s a lot more to learn so those who are placed in it get placed two years earlier.”
“Draconology?” Ryan asks still as confused.
“Yeah. Like dragon science. I want to be able to help cure dragons when they’re injured or sick. A dragon doctor you could say”, she says with pure excitement in her eyes. “So where are you headed? I know the school pretty well.”
“Student housing. It’s getting pretty dark.”
“Ah, you’re not that far. Just take that road and you’ll end up there in no time.”
“Okay, thanks a lot”, Ryan tells the girl and he goes on his way. She sure was younger than the rest of the students here but it was evident how smart she was. Hopefully they’d run into each other again, Ryan hoped.
* * * * * * * *
“You ready to try again?” asks the professor to Ryan who was standing a few feet away from the same dragon as yesterday. Mr. Rodriguez let Ryan go first to see if he’d have better luck this way. Ryan nodded skeptically once again and Mr. Rodriguez helped him up. He slid onto the dragon’s back, careful not to do anything to upset it. He held onto it gently and closed his eyes. He wanted nothing else but for it to fly. He wanted it so badly that the desire almost crushed him.
C’mon, just….fly!
And not a second later, he felt all the forces of the earth pushing him down. He opened his eyes and was blown away to see that he was suspended a good twenty feet up in the air. He could hear the students’ gasps as the dragon flapped its wings under him with such vigor and strength. It was like a totally different dragon than the one he had made cry yesterday. Maybe it was a good idea to go first.
Professor Rodriguez whistles signaling for the dragon to come down and it obeys. It descends and lands softly on the sand as the professor walks over to help Ryan down. “There you go, you see!! It all worked out. Good job, kid” says Mr. Rodriguez slapping him on the back. Ryan smiles and is glad that he finally had his turn. Sure it was a bit later than the rest but better late than never. He walks to the benches as the next kid walks up for their turn. Ryan sits down and watches the boy. He was already on the dragon but something didn’t seem right. In fact, it looked familiar. The student had the same puzzled expression Ryan did when the dragon wouldn’t fly yesterday.
The professor signals for the next person to come up and once the second student was on the dragon, it still would not fly. Student after student go up to try and make it fly but to no avail. Finally, he calls Ryan back up and asks him to give it another go to see if it’ll fly with him. Ryan slides back on and the dragon instantly shoots up as much as the chain would letit. What was going on? Now it only flew for Ryan? The professor whistles for the dragon to come back down and it does. Ryan slides off and sees everyone’s horridly confused faces, including the professors.
“Okay, even I have to admit this is weird”, he says to Ryan. “Since we don’t know what exactly is going on, we can’t do much about it. I guess we’ll just jump in to the next activity.” Ryan and Professor Rodriguez walk back to the benches where everyone was seated with their confused and appalled faces. Ryan sits down and the professor explains what they’re going to do next. “Well, I guess we’ll have to skip ahead a bit. I really wanted everyone to get accustomed to flying the same dragon twice but only one person was able to do so.” Everyone turns to Ryan suspiciously since he was that one person. “Well anyways, since there are twent-five of you, you will be split into five groups and each group will be assigned a different time slot. For the next few months, each group should come during their assigned time slot. Then each of the five students in a group will be assigned a different sample dragon and you will train with me during the time allotted.”
* * * * * * * *
And so for the next three months, each group came at their allotted times and each student was assigned a dragon to practice with. For the first month they practiced walking and running around the field with the dragons. For the second month, they learned more about how to fly inside the field. For the third month, they were allowed to fly in the forest in back of the school. They all learned pretty quickly and pretty soon, the professor began to make referrals.
* * * * * * * *
One particular day, Ryan was running late to class. He ran as fast as he could until he reached the enclosed field. He opened the door and instead of seeing everyone flying around like they usually would be, they were standing with the professor who was telling them something. He goes to join the rest of his group and the professor welcomes him. “Nice of you to join us, Mr. Alexander. I was just telling the rest of your group here how I have decided to refer all of you.” Ryan turns to the rest of his group to see if this was some sort of prank or April fool’s joke even though it wasn’t April but the happy and excited looks on everyone’s faces convinced him otherwise. “I’m very proud of you all and we can go right now if you all would like.” He gestures for them to fallow him and they exit the field. They turn left and walk straight for ten minutes. As they walk, Ryan realizes that they’re approaching the library where he bumped into that girl a few months back.
They walk straight towards the library and eventually go up the small steps and inside the building. Then, as if on cue, Ryan and the other four students gasp at the amazing, breath taking sight of the inside. The building was three stories high with an enormously long chandelier hanging down from the very top of the high ceiling. The chandelier was surrounded by one grand staircase that rapped around it and lead to each floor. Books from floor to ceiling covered the walls and then a familiar voice asks, “Are you all here for the choosing?” Ryan turns around and sees the same girl that he bumped into.
“Indeed we are” says Mr. Rodriguez.
“Alright, fallow me”, the girl says jubilantly as she starts walking towards the staircase. Everyone fallows as she goes behind the stairs and descends down to the floor below. They walk through a dark tunnel made of stone and they stop at the end of two metal doors. The girl presses her thumb on a small black screen next to the doors and after a beep, she open them. There they meet an older woman who seems to be in her middle thirties wearing a lab coat.
“Good job, Ciela” she says smiling at the girl.
“Thank you”, she says smiling back. They stand next to each other and face the group.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Starlit and today, I will explain to you the process of finally choosing your dragons. Beyond these doors is a secluded forest, but not just any forest. The entire school was made precisely to envelop this forest for it is the forest of dragons. All the dragons of the world originate from this one forest and it is where you will encounter your fated partner. I understand you might be nervous and that different thoughts are currently rushing through your heads such as how will you find a dragon and how will you know that’s the one but I assure you, it is pretty simple. Simply, and this might sound strange but, the first dragon you find, is the dragon you are meant to choose. No one has ever come out of here without having found a dragon so I’m sure there will be no problems. Your professor and I will be watching to oversee the process. So I bid you all good luck and Ciela here will escort you in.”
Ciela gestures for everyone to fallow deeper into the tunnel. They come across one door and she says, “you will go in separately so whoever would like to go first can go now”. One of the students volunteers and goes in. They continue deeper into the tunnel passing three more doors and each time, a student goes in. Ryan and Ciela reach the fifth door and Ciela stands next to Ryan looking forward towards the door.
“Are you going in too?” asks Ryan skeptically.
“It’s part of my training. You know, just in case someone or a dragon gets hurt. This where they live too so I check on them from time to time” she explains.
“‘In case someone gets hurt’?” asks Ryan. It seemed he was always confused in this school.
“They don’t tell you this but it’s really dangerous in there. People might never come out of there without a dragon but some people never do come out. These dragons want to be chosen so sometimes, they’ll fight against each other.”
“What?!” He yells.
“Good luck, Ryan”, Ciela says in her small voice. She turns to him, puts something in his hand, and says, “make your brother proud. Don’t let his efforts be in vain”.
Ryan’s eyes widened for he has no recollection of ever telling her of his brother. He opens his mouth to ask but she opens the doors and walks in. He fallows after her but once inside, he doesn’t see her. She completely disappeared. Without a clue on what to do, he remembers her putting something in his hand. He opens it and finds what looks like a small earpiece and puts it in his ear.
“Nice of you to join the conversation”, says Professor Rodriguez coming from the earpiece. I’m here to help you in case you run into trouble.”
“Professor, how does everyone know who I am? More importantly, how does everyone know who my brother is?” asks Ryan remembering the first day of class when the professor knew his name as well as Jeff who knew about his brother and Ciela too. He hadn’t caught it that first day since he was used to everyone knowing who he was in that small town of his but it was crazy that these people he knew nothing about, knew things about him.
“Now’s not the time, just find a dragon and get out”, replies the professor.
Ryan decides to cooperate because the less time he was in here, the better. He walks forward and into the trees until he reaches two separate roads. He chooses the one on the right and continues walking. He walks around for a good twenty minutes until he hears some rustling behind him. He stops and slowly turns around. He walks towards the rustling which is strange since he’d usually run away from unidentified noises but for some reason, decided to pursue it. The rustling continues and out of the darkness emerges a dragon. Ryan’s heart starts pounding louder and faster by the second. He slowly backs up to give room for the dragon to come out and eventually it does, stepping out onto the light.
It’s that dragon, Ryan thinks in disbelief. “The one that cried”, he mumbles out loud. The dragon with topaz eyes looks at Ryan and bows its head down in front of him.
“Ryan, you can’t choose that one. Walk away”, orders Mr. Rodriguez but Ryan can’t hear him because of the loud pounding in his heart. Without thinking, he takes a step towards the dragon. “Ryan, get away, you can’t choose that one!” the professor yells. “How did that dragon get in there!?” he asks, although not to Ryan. Ryan walks up to the dragon and lays his hand between its eyes. “Ryan, listen to me! If you get on that dragon, you will be violating our deepest, most sacred code of conduct. The dragon in front of you has already seen its chance! Has already chosen an owner once before! But he died and it didn’t! We don’t know why it didn’t choose to die along with its partner but you must absolutely not choose this dragon, are you listening?!?”
Ryan walks around the dragon and climbs on its back, accepting its request of partnership. The dragon spreads out its wings and takes off. They soar up fifty feet in a second and Ryan holds on for dear life. The dragon begins to fly forward until suddenly, another dragon comes up in front of them and clashes with them sending Ryan and his dragon down to the ground, fifty feet a second with great force. Ryan gets thrown against the ground, knocking the air out of him. He tries to get up but can’t see due to the having been thrown to the ground from the sky. He then hears loud screeches, fire spitting and growling and opens his eyes. His vision is blurry and so he tries to focus until he sees two dragons wrestling in midair. They charge at each other over and over again with everything they have. Ryan’s dragon scratches and punctures its claws into the other’s belly. Weak but with just enough fight left in him, the other dragon bites Ryan’s dragon in the neck and rips out its flesh, pushing it down to the ground.
Having used up all its strength, the other dragon falls into the forest while Ryan’s dragon falls ten feet away from him. He rolls over and crawls towards it. Once he gets to it, he leans over seeing the wounds inflicted on the dragon and finds tears forming in his own eyes. This dragon was older than the others, he remembers Mr. Rodriguez saying and so it was less possible that it could survive this. He watches the dragon’s breathing gradually decrease. Why was it that it had to die now when they barely had just chosen one another? He didn’t know why or how, but it felt as if they had known each other for more than the three days they were able to see each other. Was this payback for breaking the code?
“Ryan! Ryan!” Ryan looks up and makes out a small figure running towards them through the blurriness of his tears. Ciela slows down as she gets closer and kneels on the dragon’s other side as she realizes that they’re injured. She takes a look at the hardly breathing dragon and says, “She won’t make it, Ryan”, looking up at him sand seeing the tears coming down his face at the acceptance of her words.
And for once she does not wear a smile on her face. Instead she wears one of anguish and sympathy for the both of them. Usually, when Ciela was in here, she would only see the happy faces of the people who came out of here with a dragon at their side, but not this time.
“She was your brother’s dragon”, Ciela says and Ryan is startled and confused at her words once again. “I was here two years ago, when they chose each other. It was also here where he died.” Ciela pauses and lets Ryan take it all in as he watches the dragon begin to struggle for air. “He died fighting another dragon and its master who also died. We haven’t found anyone who knows why they fought but all I do know is that he told this dragon to not die with him and to stay alive. He didn’t believe that a dragon should die with their partner and nor did he believe that once their master died, they couldn’t find someone else. He kept him alive so you could come here and prove that it shouldn’t be that way.” Ciela and Ryan look at one another as the dragon’s breath came to a stop. A tear comes out of Ciela as well as Ryan as they watch the dragon’s soul depart from its eyes.
After a few minutes, Ciela gets up. “Come with me”, she tells Ryan. She helps him up like she did the day they met. She takes his hand in hers and leads him into the forest until she comes to a stop outside a cave at the edge of the forest. “This is why I came looking for you”.
They enter the shallow cave and Ciela gestures towards something. Ryan moves up closer and sees a nest in the center of the cave. They kneel down beside the nest on either side and look down at the large egg resting in it. They look at it in amazement and wonder as the egg begins to shake. A crack appears in the shell and a second later, another one. Pretty soon more cracks appear until finally, shards of the eggshell begin to fall off. One by one, the creature inside is exposed. It crawls out and expands its little reddish and purplish wings. It coughs and releases a small fire breath and then it opens its eyes for the first time, and looks up at Ryan with its topaz eyes.
Title of story/short story: A Boy's Dragon and A Dragon's Egg
Amount of words: 6,368
Story:
“And so, we are gathered here today to remember Allison Alexander who lost his life to the fearsome world many of us defy to accept. The world that takes more than it gives. One that so few pursue… But with this world comes great honor, reputation and respect. That is how we shall remember Allison Alexander. As an honorable, brave warrior for taking the paths he chose and creating new ones where ever he went. He set standards and was a great advocator for change. May he forever rest in peace. Our condolences go out to Ms. Alexander and her younger son, Ryan who lost an important member of their family.”
“Ms. Alexander? Yes, something terrible has occurred. Your son has died… he died while in training with another student but that is all we know and all we can figure out. We’re sorry for your loss.”
“Ryan, my son. Promise me- promise you’ll never fallow your brother’s footsteps. Promise you’ll never think of going there like he did… to the place of his death. To the place with those dragons.”
* * * * * * * *
“Hey Ryan! You excited?” a girl’s voice from close behind whispers. Ryan turns around in his seat and see’s the burning curiosity in this girl’s eyes. “Where do you hope you’ll be put in? I bet you’d have hopes of being a minister or something big, huh?”
“Why would he want to go there?” another male student on Ryan’s other side joins in. “He could do so much better than be one of those clueless idiots, right Jarred?” he asks the guy next to himself.
“Yeah, like a, like a whatever you call those other things.” He says absent mindedly, uninterested.
Another girl picks up on the conversation and says, “I’ll bet he’ll go that school of Alchemy on the far West! ... oh, I wish I’d be able to go there”, she says in anguish.
“Or the School of Draconem” suggests a different male student. Ryan turns to look at this person and to try and understand why they would suggest that when everyone made it an unspoken rule to not do so. Yet, when he turned around, what surprised Ryan was not that he had said it, but the level of indifference in his tone and facial expression.
“That’s not funny, Jarred”, the first girl accuses.
So his name was Jarred. He seemed like an interesting fellow.
“I know. I wasn’t trying to be. In fact, I meant it seriously.” Jarred looks up. He stares at the girl intimidatingly awaiting her response so he could refute.
“Why would he even thing of going there?” She drops her voice to a hardly audible whisper and adds, “his brother died there, idiot.”
“So? That doesn’t mean he couldn’t go there if he wanted to”, Jarred says with increasing volume, loud compared to her soft whisper.
As they argued about something that completely did not concern or affect them, Ryan wondered if they had totally forgotten that he was there, the subject of their discussion. He watched as he realized that everyone in the classroom was glaring with what looked like disbelief on their faces, at Jarred. Jarred shrugged indifferently and turned back to what he was doing. Everyone turns to Ryan with a million questions painted on each of their faces along with the intentions of bombarding him with them. Thankfully, the teacher arrives and makes her way to the front of the room with a stack of papers in her hands.
“Hello class and look at what I have here” she says with an overly enthusiastic voice gesturing to the papers as she lays them on the desk. “Your placement letters…. This is probably the most important moment of each and everyone’s life... in my hands.”
Mrs. Sacston was one to do lots of blabbering instead of ever getting to what had to be done. So when she went for that first letter on top of that pile, you knew she was just as nervous as everyone else in the room. You could feel the tension, how much everyone’s life rested on what was about to be revealed. As the she reached for the first letter, as she held it in her hand and ripped open the envelope with the other, Ryan only remembers what happened when his letter was up.
* * * * * * * *
Ryan walks into a wide, empty, indoor field. He spots some twenty students sitting on about five rows of benches lined up along the farther edge of the field. It looked like all the students were already there and settled. He goes to join them and as he sits, he overhears two male students talking.
“I heard our instructor for this class is the best dragon flyer out there”, one of them says. “He’s a legend.”
“Wow, really?” says the other.
“Yeah, I don’t even know how they got him to teach here.”
A few minutes later, the door from which Ryan had entered opens in what seemed like slow motion. A tall, dark man in a long coat emerges and makes his way towards the students.
“It’s late spring, why would someone be wearing a coat?” one of the students mutters.
Everyone stares at the man in awe. What a mysterious person indeed. He stops about ten feet away from the students and takes his stance with his hands in his pockets, feet spread out about a foot. He looks over the students slowly and it feels like ages before he begins to speak.
“I am Professor Rodriguez, your instructor for this course. This class will go by fairly quickly and I assure you, you’ll never forget what you learn here. If you do happen to forget, may God have mercy on your soul. Anyways, here is where you will learn how to fly your dragon and how you will choose one. You may be thinking that choosing a dragon will be easier than flying, but that is not the case. There are rules that come with choosing as I will explain to you in just a bit. First let me say, everyone will choose their dragons at different times within the semester. Once I feel you have learned enough and are ready, I will refer you to the library which is where you will find a dragon. Details on that will be made available to you once you are referred. Any questions thus far?”
A blonde and somewhat burly boy raises his hand and the professor points to him gesturing for him to ask his question. “How will we learn to fly dragons if we haven’t chosen them yet?” the boy asks.
“Well, we have what you may call ‘sample dragons’ which you will practice with in the meantime which brings me to my nest point; the rules of dragon choosing.” The professor smiles like a kid on Christmas as if there was nothing more interesting than what he was about to teach the students. “The bonds between a dragon and its master are very sacred. Nothing can destroy it, not even death itself. You choose a dragon, and it chooses you. If either one ever dies for any reason, the other can not, under any circumstances command another dragon nor can the dragon be commanded by any other human. It is an unspoken rule that you must die with your dragon. That is how deep the connection between dragon and man is! You only have one dragon, one master. That’s it. It is our law, it is our code. Obey it…Now, you might be thinking as to why we take this so seriously. Well, you’ll know when you choose your dragon.” The professor pauses and looks over the students to make sure they captured the gravity of the situation. When satisfied that everyone had paid attention, he continues. “So, these ‘sample’ dragons are ones that will most likely never find a partner for… special reasons, or whose master has already died and they were left behind. In other words, reject dragons…. Now, shall we get started?”
The professor smirks and suddenly the floor begins to tremble. The students look at each other in panic as the professor just stands there and watches with that smirk on his face. Seconds later, the stone wall behind him starts rising up slowly. They were on a pretty big, circular sand field surrounded by stone walls that reached pretty high up about five stories into the ceiling. Ryan didn’t understand why this “classroom” was so big but the realization of it hit him like a ten pound sack of flour when something began pounding its way through the whole in the wall and onto the field.
Ryan had never seen a dragon before. Had no idea what they looked like and honestly, he had never given much thought to it. But when that creature walked out, there was no doubt in his mind that that was a dragon. This one in particular was very muscular looking, reddish and purplish skin with topaz eyes. There were five men yanking on one end of a chain whose other end was around the dragon’s neck in a collar like thing. The men yanked and pulled the dragon out closer and closer to the students and although they were still far enough away, the students staggered back abandoning the benches and against the farthest stone wall. The dragon seemed reluctant to come out and the more they pulled, the farther it stretched out its wings in reluctance.
“I wonder what category of reject that one is…” wonders a boy next to Ryan.
The dragon was getting upset, spitting fire and flapping its wings violently against the men. Everyone watched as they tried to calm it down until they finally succeeded by giving it a sack of apples. Everyone laughed nervously, trying to relax themselves, as the dragon caved to the sack of apples. It suddenly didn’t look as threatening.
“She’s such a sweetheart” says the professor endearingly while everyone tried to see what part of a fearsome dragon was sweet. “Okay, who’s first?” he says enthusiastically and although all the students were as far back against the wall as possible, at the sound of that question, somehow, they managed to go even further back.
“I’ll go” the burly blonde boy says confidently.
“Wonderful!” says the professor, exuberating excitement even though he was breathing such mysteriousness at the beginning of the class. He places his hand on the small of the blonde boy’s back and asks “what is your name brave sir?”
All this sounded like a circus to Ryan. All the lethal and dangerous stunts and volunteering was making him nervous. He never did like the circus. And now, he had to be in one….with dragons.
“It’s Jeff” the boy said in a husky tone.
“Alright Jeff, come with me. Everyone else watch.”
The professor took him and they made their way towards the dragon. Once there you could see the professor telling Jeff something but they were too far away to decipher what was being said. After a few moments, he leads Jeff closer to the dragon, petting it and finally, helps him up on top of it. He tells Jeff a few things, steps away and seconds later, the dragon is a foot off the ground, flapping its wings, its chains clacking. The boy’s face becomes filled with excitement and such happiness that it was clearly visible to the students watching.
Everyone claps and cheers and howls for him while Ryan became suddenly jealous of that boy’s happiness. Along with that jealousy came a wave of hope. And for some reason, Ryan was glad he chose to come to this school despite the fact that everyone back home was against it. He came from a small village where everyone knew everyone and they all knew everything about everyone. Too close for comfort he had always thought.
When his brother died, his mother lost it. She went hysterical. Everyone in the village saw her like a disease; someone on the verge of destruction with nothing left except one son. Many around the town would tell Ryan how lucky his mother was to have him there to take care of her, that he was a good kid for staying and being so well behaved and yet others pitied him. Such a smart boy. Too bad his life will be thrown away taking care of his mother, one lady had said. And it was true. She sucked the life out of him as she did with his older brother when he was still around. They resented her and so he wondered if that was the reason his older brother left to come here when he got the opportunity. And maybe it was the reason why Ryan left to come here as well.
Jeff was now on his way back to the benches with a big, cocky smile on his face. “Let’s see anyone try to beat that. I got that dragon off its feet in seconds” he said overconfidently.
Professor Rodriguez walks up once again to the students with the same, previous question on his face. With raised eyebrows he asks, “anyone?” but no one takes a step forward. “Cmon. All you have to do is get it off its feet. That is all.” With everyone as skeptical as the next person, he picks the guy closest to him and drags him up to the dragon.
He goes through same thing as the last boy and in the same amount of time, he succeeds at getting the dragon off its feet. A few more students go up and do the same and one by one they all came back with smiles of achievement on their faces until there is only one person left.
“Mr. Alexander, come up, it’s your turn.” Ryan’s eyes widened as he realized it was his turn. He gets up and crosses to the field with the professor by his side who could feel his anxiety. “You nervous?” he asks Ryan. Ryan takes a deep breath and the professor takes it as a yes. “You’ll be the last one for today so give us a show.” He gives Ryan a smile of encouragement and helps him up the dragon. “Okay, so just concentrate and keep calm. The dragon will be able to feel what you want it to do so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Wait, how will I know it will be able to understand to me?” Ryan asks a bit panicked.
The professor smirks as if he’s heard that question a million times before knowing there was no need to worry. He chuckles light heartedly and says, “Don’t worry. If your intentions are honest, it’ll know.” He enthusiastically pats the dragon on the back signaling for them to start.
Ryan turns to the dragon with a look of panic. He couldn’t cope not knowing what was going to happen next. He wasn’t a risk taker and by all means, coming to this school was the only risk he had ever taken. And ironically enough, if was the most dangerous risk anyone could make. In fact, being on a dragon was pretty lethal in itself. Grapping the dangerousness of this current situation, Ryan tries not to panic. He should calm down and focus on flying this dragon and more importantly, not dying.
But how the hell was he supposed to fly this dragon? “Okay”, he mutters. He takes a deep breath and not knowing what else to do, he decides to introduce himself.
“Hey there, dragon. I’m Ryan. I don’t know what everyone else did to fly you but I’m hoping you’ll do the same for me… I don’t even know if you understand what I’m saying right now, ha.” Ryan chuckles at himself, in disbelief that he’s talking to a dragon. He sits there not knowing what to do to get it to fly or to get it off the ground at least. Everyone else had already gotten the dragon off its feet by this point so why wasn’t it flying or even moving now? Was it tired? If it was, it certainly didn’t look like it. It was a million times his size so it wouldn’t get tired just by carrying tiny students on its back. Was he too heavy? No, that couldn’t be it. Jeff was way heavier and he flew just fine.
Ryan looks back at the professor a few feet away and notices him wearing an expression that mirrored his own. They were both equally as puzzled. Ryan looks back to the other students and sees a variety of expressions within them. Some kids were puzzled, others more confused. The rest of them had looks of superiority. More confidence in themselves since someone hadn’t gotten the dragon to fly and they did.
He looks back at the dragon whose face was obstructed from view due to the way it was tilted. He leans to the side to get a good look at what might be wrong. He looks the dragon in the eye and what he sees catches him off his guard. Maybe he hadn’t noticed before but the dragon’s eyes had glazed over. The dragon was not there and it was clear its mind was somewhere else. As he continued to look at the dragon curiously, a tear dropped down its eye. It was crying? The dragon was crying?? What had he done to make a dragon cry?! He stared in shock at the dragon until Professor Rodriguez came up to see what was wrong.
“What happened? Why is she not flying?” he asks.
“I- I don’t know-“, answers Ryan, not sure whether or not to tell him that he made the dragon cry.
“Did you do something to upset it or anything?”
“N- no”, he stutters. “I don’t know what would upset a dragon unless introducing yourself counts.”
“Well, okay. Maybe she’s just tired. She’s not as young as the other dragons… and she’s been through enough. C’mon I’ll help you down. We’ll try again next time.” He helps Ryan down and he makes his way back to the benches. As he gets closer, he hears the snickers and chuckles from the other students.
“What’s a matter? Couldn’t get a dragon to fly like the rest of us?” mocks Jeff. “I guess being someone brother doesn’t help now does it?” he shoots at Ryan.
Jeff and Ryan glare at each other but their contact is broken when the professor comes. “We’ll continue class tomorrow. That’s it for today and I hope you all enjoyed your first class. You are all dismissed”, he says with a wave of his hand and the students make their way to the exit. Ryan fallows behind, bummed that he didn’t get to experience the satisfaction of flying a dragon for the first time like the rest. He tries to come up with an explanation as to why the dragon flew for everyone else but him. If someone had gone after him would it have flown? He continues to contemplate and before he knows it, everyone is gone. He lost the crowd of students he fallowed out the classroom, and by looking around, he knew he was lost. He had wondered off. He hadn’t seen these buildings on the first day when he arrived at the school and was given a tour. It was getting dark so he figured he might find someone inside one of the many stone buildings to ask for directions. He picks the building closest to him and walks toward it. As he is about to enter someone suddenly comes out and they crash into each other, knocking Ryan to the floor.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry!” says a small voice. Ryan turns around and sees a small girl with light brown hair tied to the side with an orange ribbon. She extends out her arm to help him up.
“It’s quite alright” Ryan reassures, taking her hand and getting up.
“It’s my fault. I wasn’t looking up because I was reading. I’m sorry.” She studies Ryan carefully and asks, “How strange, not many males in this school come to this library, what are you doing here?”
“Oh, well I got lost and I was hoping I’d find someone in there and ask them for directions”, explains Ryan. “Wait, I didn’t know girls came to this school…”
The girl giggles slightly at Ryan’s bewilderment and says, “I’m studying draconology here. There’s a lot more to learn so those who are placed in it get placed two years earlier.”
“Draconology?” Ryan asks still as confused.
“Yeah. Like dragon science. I want to be able to help cure dragons when they’re injured or sick. A dragon doctor you could say”, she says with pure excitement in her eyes. “So where are you headed? I know the school pretty well.”
“Student housing. It’s getting pretty dark.”
“Ah, you’re not that far. Just take that road and you’ll end up there in no time.”
“Okay, thanks a lot”, Ryan tells the girl and he goes on his way. She sure was younger than the rest of the students here but it was evident how smart she was. Hopefully they’d run into each other again, Ryan hoped.
* * * * * * * *
“You ready to try again?” asks the professor to Ryan who was standing a few feet away from the same dragon as yesterday. Mr. Rodriguez let Ryan go first to see if he’d have better luck this way. Ryan nodded skeptically once again and Mr. Rodriguez helped him up. He slid onto the dragon’s back, careful not to do anything to upset it. He held onto it gently and closed his eyes. He wanted nothing else but for it to fly. He wanted it so badly that the desire almost crushed him.
C’mon, just….fly!
And not a second later, he felt all the forces of the earth pushing him down. He opened his eyes and was blown away to see that he was suspended a good twenty feet up in the air. He could hear the students’ gasps as the dragon flapped its wings under him with such vigor and strength. It was like a totally different dragon than the one he had made cry yesterday. Maybe it was a good idea to go first.
Professor Rodriguez whistles signaling for the dragon to come down and it obeys. It descends and lands softly on the sand as the professor walks over to help Ryan down. “There you go, you see!! It all worked out. Good job, kid” says Mr. Rodriguez slapping him on the back. Ryan smiles and is glad that he finally had his turn. Sure it was a bit later than the rest but better late than never. He walks to the benches as the next kid walks up for their turn. Ryan sits down and watches the boy. He was already on the dragon but something didn’t seem right. In fact, it looked familiar. The student had the same puzzled expression Ryan did when the dragon wouldn’t fly yesterday.
The professor signals for the next person to come up and once the second student was on the dragon, it still would not fly. Student after student go up to try and make it fly but to no avail. Finally, he calls Ryan back up and asks him to give it another go to see if it’ll fly with him. Ryan slides back on and the dragon instantly shoots up as much as the chain would letit. What was going on? Now it only flew for Ryan? The professor whistles for the dragon to come back down and it does. Ryan slides off and sees everyone’s horridly confused faces, including the professors.
“Okay, even I have to admit this is weird”, he says to Ryan. “Since we don’t know what exactly is going on, we can’t do much about it. I guess we’ll just jump in to the next activity.” Ryan and Professor Rodriguez walk back to the benches where everyone was seated with their confused and appalled faces. Ryan sits down and the professor explains what they’re going to do next. “Well, I guess we’ll have to skip ahead a bit. I really wanted everyone to get accustomed to flying the same dragon twice but only one person was able to do so.” Everyone turns to Ryan suspiciously since he was that one person. “Well anyways, since there are twent-five of you, you will be split into five groups and each group will be assigned a different time slot. For the next few months, each group should come during their assigned time slot. Then each of the five students in a group will be assigned a different sample dragon and you will train with me during the time allotted.”
* * * * * * * *
And so for the next three months, each group came at their allotted times and each student was assigned a dragon to practice with. For the first month they practiced walking and running around the field with the dragons. For the second month, they learned more about how to fly inside the field. For the third month, they were allowed to fly in the forest in back of the school. They all learned pretty quickly and pretty soon, the professor began to make referrals.
* * * * * * * *
One particular day, Ryan was running late to class. He ran as fast as he could until he reached the enclosed field. He opened the door and instead of seeing everyone flying around like they usually would be, they were standing with the professor who was telling them something. He goes to join the rest of his group and the professor welcomes him. “Nice of you to join us, Mr. Alexander. I was just telling the rest of your group here how I have decided to refer all of you.” Ryan turns to the rest of his group to see if this was some sort of prank or April fool’s joke even though it wasn’t April but the happy and excited looks on everyone’s faces convinced him otherwise. “I’m very proud of you all and we can go right now if you all would like.” He gestures for them to fallow him and they exit the field. They turn left and walk straight for ten minutes. As they walk, Ryan realizes that they’re approaching the library where he bumped into that girl a few months back.
They walk straight towards the library and eventually go up the small steps and inside the building. Then, as if on cue, Ryan and the other four students gasp at the amazing, breath taking sight of the inside. The building was three stories high with an enormously long chandelier hanging down from the very top of the high ceiling. The chandelier was surrounded by one grand staircase that rapped around it and lead to each floor. Books from floor to ceiling covered the walls and then a familiar voice asks, “Are you all here for the choosing?” Ryan turns around and sees the same girl that he bumped into.
“Indeed we are” says Mr. Rodriguez.
“Alright, fallow me”, the girl says jubilantly as she starts walking towards the staircase. Everyone fallows as she goes behind the stairs and descends down to the floor below. They walk through a dark tunnel made of stone and they stop at the end of two metal doors. The girl presses her thumb on a small black screen next to the doors and after a beep, she open them. There they meet an older woman who seems to be in her middle thirties wearing a lab coat.
“Good job, Ciela” she says smiling at the girl.
“Thank you”, she says smiling back. They stand next to each other and face the group.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Starlit and today, I will explain to you the process of finally choosing your dragons. Beyond these doors is a secluded forest, but not just any forest. The entire school was made precisely to envelop this forest for it is the forest of dragons. All the dragons of the world originate from this one forest and it is where you will encounter your fated partner. I understand you might be nervous and that different thoughts are currently rushing through your heads such as how will you find a dragon and how will you know that’s the one but I assure you, it is pretty simple. Simply, and this might sound strange but, the first dragon you find, is the dragon you are meant to choose. No one has ever come out of here without having found a dragon so I’m sure there will be no problems. Your professor and I will be watching to oversee the process. So I bid you all good luck and Ciela here will escort you in.”
Ciela gestures for everyone to fallow deeper into the tunnel. They come across one door and she says, “you will go in separately so whoever would like to go first can go now”. One of the students volunteers and goes in. They continue deeper into the tunnel passing three more doors and each time, a student goes in. Ryan and Ciela reach the fifth door and Ciela stands next to Ryan looking forward towards the door.
“Are you going in too?” asks Ryan skeptically.
“It’s part of my training. You know, just in case someone or a dragon gets hurt. This where they live too so I check on them from time to time” she explains.
“‘In case someone gets hurt’?” asks Ryan. It seemed he was always confused in this school.
“They don’t tell you this but it’s really dangerous in there. People might never come out of there without a dragon but some people never do come out. These dragons want to be chosen so sometimes, they’ll fight against each other.”
“What?!” He yells.
“Good luck, Ryan”, Ciela says in her small voice. She turns to him, puts something in his hand, and says, “make your brother proud. Don’t let his efforts be in vain”.
Ryan’s eyes widened for he has no recollection of ever telling her of his brother. He opens his mouth to ask but she opens the doors and walks in. He fallows after her but once inside, he doesn’t see her. She completely disappeared. Without a clue on what to do, he remembers her putting something in his hand. He opens it and finds what looks like a small earpiece and puts it in his ear.
“Nice of you to join the conversation”, says Professor Rodriguez coming from the earpiece. I’m here to help you in case you run into trouble.”
“Professor, how does everyone know who I am? More importantly, how does everyone know who my brother is?” asks Ryan remembering the first day of class when the professor knew his name as well as Jeff who knew about his brother and Ciela too. He hadn’t caught it that first day since he was used to everyone knowing who he was in that small town of his but it was crazy that these people he knew nothing about, knew things about him.
“Now’s not the time, just find a dragon and get out”, replies the professor.
Ryan decides to cooperate because the less time he was in here, the better. He walks forward and into the trees until he reaches two separate roads. He chooses the one on the right and continues walking. He walks around for a good twenty minutes until he hears some rustling behind him. He stops and slowly turns around. He walks towards the rustling which is strange since he’d usually run away from unidentified noises but for some reason, decided to pursue it. The rustling continues and out of the darkness emerges a dragon. Ryan’s heart starts pounding louder and faster by the second. He slowly backs up to give room for the dragon to come out and eventually it does, stepping out onto the light.
It’s that dragon, Ryan thinks in disbelief. “The one that cried”, he mumbles out loud. The dragon with topaz eyes looks at Ryan and bows its head down in front of him.
“Ryan, you can’t choose that one. Walk away”, orders Mr. Rodriguez but Ryan can’t hear him because of the loud pounding in his heart. Without thinking, he takes a step towards the dragon. “Ryan, get away, you can’t choose that one!” the professor yells. “How did that dragon get in there!?” he asks, although not to Ryan. Ryan walks up to the dragon and lays his hand between its eyes. “Ryan, listen to me! If you get on that dragon, you will be violating our deepest, most sacred code of conduct. The dragon in front of you has already seen its chance! Has already chosen an owner once before! But he died and it didn’t! We don’t know why it didn’t choose to die along with its partner but you must absolutely not choose this dragon, are you listening?!?”
Ryan walks around the dragon and climbs on its back, accepting its request of partnership. The dragon spreads out its wings and takes off. They soar up fifty feet in a second and Ryan holds on for dear life. The dragon begins to fly forward until suddenly, another dragon comes up in front of them and clashes with them sending Ryan and his dragon down to the ground, fifty feet a second with great force. Ryan gets thrown against the ground, knocking the air out of him. He tries to get up but can’t see due to the having been thrown to the ground from the sky. He then hears loud screeches, fire spitting and growling and opens his eyes. His vision is blurry and so he tries to focus until he sees two dragons wrestling in midair. They charge at each other over and over again with everything they have. Ryan’s dragon scratches and punctures its claws into the other’s belly. Weak but with just enough fight left in him, the other dragon bites Ryan’s dragon in the neck and rips out its flesh, pushing it down to the ground.
Having used up all its strength, the other dragon falls into the forest while Ryan’s dragon falls ten feet away from him. He rolls over and crawls towards it. Once he gets to it, he leans over seeing the wounds inflicted on the dragon and finds tears forming in his own eyes. This dragon was older than the others, he remembers Mr. Rodriguez saying and so it was less possible that it could survive this. He watches the dragon’s breathing gradually decrease. Why was it that it had to die now when they barely had just chosen one another? He didn’t know why or how, but it felt as if they had known each other for more than the three days they were able to see each other. Was this payback for breaking the code?
“Ryan! Ryan!” Ryan looks up and makes out a small figure running towards them through the blurriness of his tears. Ciela slows down as she gets closer and kneels on the dragon’s other side as she realizes that they’re injured. She takes a look at the hardly breathing dragon and says, “She won’t make it, Ryan”, looking up at him sand seeing the tears coming down his face at the acceptance of her words.
And for once she does not wear a smile on her face. Instead she wears one of anguish and sympathy for the both of them. Usually, when Ciela was in here, she would only see the happy faces of the people who came out of here with a dragon at their side, but not this time.
“She was your brother’s dragon”, Ciela says and Ryan is startled and confused at her words once again. “I was here two years ago, when they chose each other. It was also here where he died.” Ciela pauses and lets Ryan take it all in as he watches the dragon begin to struggle for air. “He died fighting another dragon and its master who also died. We haven’t found anyone who knows why they fought but all I do know is that he told this dragon to not die with him and to stay alive. He didn’t believe that a dragon should die with their partner and nor did he believe that once their master died, they couldn’t find someone else. He kept him alive so you could come here and prove that it shouldn’t be that way.” Ciela and Ryan look at one another as the dragon’s breath came to a stop. A tear comes out of Ciela as well as Ryan as they watch the dragon’s soul depart from its eyes.
After a few minutes, Ciela gets up. “Come with me”, she tells Ryan. She helps him up like she did the day they met. She takes his hand in hers and leads him into the forest until she comes to a stop outside a cave at the edge of the forest. “This is why I came looking for you”.
They enter the shallow cave and Ciela gestures towards something. Ryan moves up closer and sees a nest in the center of the cave. They kneel down beside the nest on either side and look down at the large egg resting in it. They look at it in amazement and wonder as the egg begins to shake. A crack appears in the shell and a second later, another one. Pretty soon more cracks appear until finally, shards of the eggshell begin to fall off. One by one, the creature inside is exposed. It crawls out and expands its little reddish and purplish wings. It coughs and releases a small fire breath and then it opens its eyes for the first time, and looks up at Ryan with its topaz eyes.
ASoftSound
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- Posted: Wed, 02 May 2012 03:37:12 +0000
Yutora
Good luck <3
I'm so anxious! lol
Yutora
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- Posted: Wed, 02 May 2012 03:56:02 +0000
oO-Towels-Oo
Yutora
Good luck <3
I'm so anxious! lol
As am I!
I always end up super nervous the moment I send in my entry.