Facing an Angry Dragon

Week 7 Day 1 Alontil

When Sky walked into class on Alontil, she was expecting to be the first one there but instead she found Jin half-lying on the desk asleep. She debated about waking him but decided she should. Shaking him gently, she called his name.

"It was just a joke." He said as he bolted upright. Then he blinked several times and looked around.

"Jin, its just me." Sky told him. He blinked owlishly at her and rubbed his eyes.

"Happy murderess?"

Sky frowned, "My name is Sky. What are you doing here?" Jin sighed heavily and pouted.

"Pharon, the AR student who was teaching this class, got hurt in a challenge so they assigned me to fill in for him, but it's so early." He whined spreading his arms and collapsed on the desk again.

Sky smiled and asked, "If you're our teacher, will you give me last week's exercise test? Pharon never tested me on the exercises. I can do them though."

Jin's mouth twisted as he said, "Fine, I'll do it but later." Sky gave him a wide smile.

"Great! I'll be in the first practice room on the left."

As she skipped away, Jin muttered, "It's too damn early for this."

Same day

Sky was working on a new spell from her Advanced Spoken Magic book, calling lightning, when the door to the practice room burst open. She jumped back instinctively as the door struck the wall with a crack. Seeing the wide-eyed, flushed, snarling expression on Instructor Drakkon's face, she flinched and covered her throat.

"You are a godsdamned moron!" Instructor Drakkon told her in a shaking, tight voice.

"I- uh- what-"

He snarled, "Did it never occur to you to tell someone you were a rank Gral before you stupidly went and bought rank Xinet?" He demanded walking towards her. Sky swallowed and tried to step back but hit the table.

"My rank was in my file. I thought you knew." She protested.

Instructor Drakkon stopped short and Roared. It was a terrifying, full-bodied, vicious thing that left Sky paralyzed in fear.

A few seconds later, her head cleared and the claw clenching in her gut disappeared. Still Sky remained silent, waiting for Instructor Drakkon to say something as a white mist curled up from his nostrils. He didn't.

After two minutes of him scowling at her, Sky hesitantly ventured to ask, "Why is it such a big problem anyway?" Instructor Drakkon snarled.

"It is such a big problem," he said, "because several people saw the rankings before I had a chance to seal your records. They saw that you, a female, were the highest ranked student in the year. Luckily, most people would have thought this was a mistake but everyone in the school will have heard of it before the week is over. And those who do believe it will give you a lot of trouble." Sky paled. She'd never looked at the rankings. She'd just assumed that either Uriel, Rage, or Lorien, if not all of them had achieved rank Xinet already. She'd been wrong and because of that she'd painted a huge target right on her back.

Just then the door opened again and Jin peeked his head in. He let out a relieved breath.

"Whew! I thought I'd come in here to find the murderess in pieces." He said with a smile. Then his mouth twisted. "Glace, you really shouldn't have done that. The humans all caught the Dragon Fear. I had to stop one from jumping out a window to get away. The rest who could move ran off." Instructor Drakkon just glared at him.

Sky frowned and said, "My name, again, is Sky."

Jin snorted in derision, "Sure, sweetheart." Sky's frown deepened. "So, what's going on?"

"Skylar was being a moron." Instructor Drakkon answered coldly. At least that mist had stopped escaping his nose.

"I- I made a mistake, alright?" Sky retorted. Instructor Drakkon whirled on her and snarled again. The mist reappeared. Sky immediately covered her mouth as her eyes widened in disbelief over what she'd just said.

Jin frowned and asked, "Are you Sky Maren?" Sky's eyes hardened and she stole a glance at Instructor Drakkon. His face was now impassive, except for the mist. Sky nodded slowly. "Great! Mia asked me to tell you, 'She and a team of healers have been working nonstop since Clayden to fix your mess. If you do something like this again, there will be severe consequences.' Does that mean anything to you?" Sky blushed and looked at the floor avoiding Instructor Drakkon's gaze.

"Yes, I just lost my temper. I won't do it again." Jin nodded.

"Okay. I think I am awake enough now to do your exercise test," He said cautiously, "if you're done with her."

Instructor Drakkon looked at Sky, "Your bloodwork came back. It matched the previous sample. This means your form is stable and you no longer need to be escorted everywhere, so you're on your own. I'd recommend adopting a pseudonym." With that Instructor Drakkon left. Jin frowned puzzled and looked at the door.

"What was that about?" He asked. Sky shrugged.

"I bought some ranks with the points I got from beating Pharon and he got upset. He had every right to. I was acting stupid."

Jin smiled coolly at her, "Well let's get on with it. The exercise was what?"

"Making a pool of shadow and a stream of current and Levitation." Before Jin could say anything else, Sky made the pool of shadow. He stared blankly at it. Then she made a long, winding ribbon of wind. Finally, she cast Levitation on her open Advanced Spoken Magic book.

She smiled at him as she said, "Fin." The book dropped into her outstretched hands. Jin didn't even bother smiling.

"Fifteen points." He said turning and leaving the room. Sky returned to her studying.