Chapter 66: First Riding Class
Reynold head straight to his dorm without looking back.
He did not stop to acknowledge the stares he was getting from the crowd or the whispers that was still going on behind him after what happened with Kael.
He just walked. When he got to the dorm, his roommates were not there, their rooms was locked.
Reynold slide his name plate on his own door and the door the opened.
He pushed the door open and stepped inside. He dropped his backpack on the bed, and collapsed beside it.
For a long moment he just lay there, and staring up at the ceiling.
Different thoughts was going through his head.
His parents deatg. The reason why he applied to Wyrmwood academy. None of that has changed and it was not going to change.
Then he thought about the letter from his father dragon. If only he was able to decode the old language the letter was written on.
After a while, Reynold sighed through his nose and murmured quietly to himself.
"I think it is time I go visit the Starweaver old mansion."
He never wanted to go back to his parents old mansion. The old Starweaver mansion was outside of Terraverde City. His parents had to leave the mansion after were transfer to Terraverde City for military work.
Reynold sighed again as he reached over and checked his schedule.
He has Lunch in ten minutes.
Then dragon riding class after the lunch break.
He sat up, and looked at his cadet uniform hanging near the door, then stood up and changed into his cadet uniform.
There was no point coming back to change into the cadet uniform after lunch. He would just head straight to the riding grounds from the cafeteria.
....
The academy cafeteria was loud by the time Reynold got there.
He joined the line and waited for his turn.
He took his tray when it was his turn, and walked to his usual spot near the far end. He set the tray down and sat down.
It had been a while since he was here. He had almost forgotten this particular view.
He started eating.
At a corner, some cadets had gathered in a loose ring. Inside it, two fire mages were going at each other, with small controlled bursts of flame dancing between their palms.
They were not fighting.. anyone who dropped their flame first lose.
People on the outside were betting on who to win.
Reynold watched the scene as he ate.
The fire mage on the left was better. Reynold could tell from the way he was holding his stance. The one on the right was burning too hard. He was going to tire himself out on time.
Reynold looked away as he took another bite from his Brutto.
Soon he was done eating. He checked his time.
Twenty minutes before the dragon riding class.
He sat for a while longer, letting his food digest. Then he stood up, left his tray, and made his way out.
....
The open field behind the eastern wing was where the dragon riding section was held.
When Reynold arrived, the field was already half-filled with dragon rider cadets.
He scanned the field, and his eyes landed on Kael and Briar near the far corner. They were standing with a small group and talking.
Briar’s back was facing Reynold. Kael noticed Reynold immediately.
Reynold look at Kael back for one second, then looked away.
Then, he moved his eyes toward the far end of the field where the dragons were kept during class.
He stopped as he look around.
None of his three dragons were there.
The other cadets already their dragons, lined up in the holding area, some of them already restless, shifting their weight and making low sounds in their throats.
But no Aurion, Pyreus, and Thornox insight.
Seeing that Reynold dragon were not there, a voice from near Kael’s group.
"Hey, Starweaver."
It was a boy Reynold did not recognize. He was standing close to Kael with his arms crossed and a grin already spreading on his face.
"Your dragons are not even here." He pause. "What are you going to ride? Your dick, huh?"
Upon hearing the boy’s words, most of the cadets laugh.
Reynold did not say anything. He did not even look at the boy.
Then the sound of boots on dry grass announced the professor’s arrival.
Professor Dayne walked onto the field with a clipboard tucked under one arm and her eyes already moving across the assembled cadets the way instructors always did when they were counting and cataloguing.
She was a lean woman with close-cropped hair.
Her eyes stopped on Reynold.
"Good to have you back, Starweaver," she said. Then she looked past him to the dragon section. "Though I notice your dragons are not here."
She just barely finished the sentence.
When the sound came from above.
A deep, rhythmic beat, like something enormous moving through the air, then another, then a third.
Every head on the field tilted upward to have a look.
Three shapes dropped through the low clouds.
Aurion was the first.
The black dragon descended like a falling shadow, massive and his wingspan stretching wide as he slowed his approach, the wind from his wings hitting the field in a rolling wave that made cadets step back and raise their hands against the rush of air. His scales caught no light. He absorbed it. He landed with a weight that shook the ground, then folded his wings slowly, and turned one eye toward Reynold.
Behind him, Pyreus came down in a sharp, controlled dive, the dark red scales catching the grey afternoon, hitting the ground harder than Aurion had, his landing sending a ripple of dust outward. He pulled his wings in fast, shook his head once, and growled low.
Thornox was the last to land, the brown dragon circling once before touching down between the other two.
The field was silent.
Professor Dayne looked at the three dragons for a moment. Then she turned back to the cadets.
"Right," she said. "They are here." She tucked the clipboard tighter under her arm. "Let’s not waste time."
She moved to the center of the field and waited for every eye to settle on her.
"For those of you who were here last week, this is a continuation. For Cadet Starweaver, who is joining us for the first time.." She glanced at Reynold briefly. "I will give a short debrief."
She paused.
"Dragon Riding. Course designation DR-204. What this class is, at its core, is you and your dragon learning each other in motion. First, you learn to mount without being thrown off your dragon back. Then you learn to stay on during flight without falling off. That is the threshold. Everything after the threshold like commanding breath, aerial halt, combat positioning, none of that is possible until you learn the threshold." She looked across the group. "Most of you are still working toward it and a few of you are almost there." She pause.
"We go one at a time. You fly from here to the red marker at the north end of the field. You turn, you come back, you land. That is it." She looked down at her clipboard. "Cadet Jaxson. You are first."
Jaxson walked to his dragon, he gripped the harness, and started climbing.
He almost slid off at the side during the mount.
His left boot caught the ridge of the dragon’s shoulder wrong and for one moment his whole body swung out sideways. But he grabbed the neck harness with both hands and pulled himself up, breathing hard, and then getting his legs underneath him.
The dragon took off.
Jaxson posture was stiff all the way to the north marker. His grip was too tight, his body was too rigid. He was fighting the movement instead of moving with it. He reached the marker, the dragon banked, turned, came back, then landed.
Jaxson climbed down and exhaled like a man who had been holding his breath the entire time.
"Cadet Coldwater" Professor Dayne said.
Briar walked forward.
Reynold watch with a blank expression.
Briar mounted on his dragon without stress. His dragon, a mid-length copper-brown, responded to him immediately.
Looking at this, Reynold believed it that Briar was getting good with his dragon riding .
Briar flew to the north marker and came back smooth. He also landed clean. Climbed down with his eyes already moving toward Reynold.
Reynold looked away quickly.
"Cadet King."
A girl went next. She was smaller than most of the cadets, with dark hair pulled back tight. She mounted without much trouble. She was slower than Briar but she was steady.
She landed and climbed down.
And immediately as she climbed down, she pressed one hand against her dragon’s side and vomited onto the grass.
The sound that most of the cadets let out was somewhere between disgust and sympathy. Some cadets pulling faces, a few of them taking a step back.
Professor Dayne was already moving toward her.
"King. Are you alright?"
The girl straightened and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and nodded once. Her face was pale.
"Yes, Professor."
Professor Dayne looked at her for another second, then turned back to the field.
"Cadet Starweaver."
Reynold walked forward.
He stopped in front of his three dragons and stood there for a moment, looking between them.
The field was quiet now as moat of them were paying attention to know which dragon Reynold would ride.
Aurion was watching Reynold with his calm eye. Pyreus has his head low, the growl in his throat was barely audible. Thornox stood still.
Reynold walked to Pyreus first.
He raised his hand and pressed his palm flat against the side of the dragon’s head.
Pyreus went still, then his growl faded. One eye slid halfway shut, and the dark red scales along his jaw shifted as the dragon leaned into the pressure slightly.
Reynold stepped back and moved to Thornox.
Same thing. His hand was on the brown dragon’s head, and Thornox turned toward him slowly, a deep sound moving through his chest like an acknowledgment.
Then Reynold walked to Aurion.
The black dragon was already looking at him. Had been looking at him since he walked over. Reynold put his hand on the side of Aurion’s head, and Aurion did something the other two had not done — he exhaled, a long breath that came out through his nostrils and hit Reynold’s face warm and heavy with the smell of something burnt.
Reynold kept his hand there for a moment.
Then he grabbed the harness and climbed.
Mounting Aurion was not easy. The dragon’s back was higher than most, and his scales, while not smooth, did not give easy grip. Reynold hauled himself up, got one leg over. He felt the harness pull taut, and then he was up.
He heard someone in the crowd say something he did not catch. Someone else laughed.
Then Aurion moved.
The black dragon rose without warning, he simply opened his wings and the ground dropped away, and Reynold’s stomach did the same. He pressed himself flat against Aurion’s back, with both hands locked into the harness, the wind cutting past him immediately.
They were already high.
Too high and faster than he had expected. The field shrank beneath him. He could see the whole eastern wing of the academy from up here, the rooftops. The wind was loud against his ears.
He tried to raise himself and his upper body lifted maybe six inches and the drag nearly threw him sideways. He slammed back down against Aurion’s spine and gripped tighter, breathing through his teeth.
Holy sh!t
Reynold just stayed flat.
He turned his head to the side, squinting against the wind, and saw them.
Pyreus and Thornox were behind him and slightly below, flying in loose formation.
Pyreus was angled like he was watching. Thornox was further back.
Reynold faced forward.
Aurion banked toward the north marker, a long sweeping turn, and Reynold felt his body try to slide with it. He adjusted his leg position, and pushed his weight into the opposite knee, and hold. The bank levelled out.
The north marker passed beneath them.
Aurion reversed.
The dragon did not circle. He pulled up, rotated his body in the air, and turned, and for one stomach-dropping second, Reynold shifted to the wrong angle entirely. His grip was the only thing between him and open sky. He felt the harness go taut against his hands, heard the leather creak, and then Aurion levelled and they were heading back and Reynold was still on.
He exhaled.
The field came back up beneath them. The cadets, the professor, the holding area, all of it reappearing as Aurion descended.
The black dragon hit the ground with a controlled force that moved up through Reynold’s whole body.
Behind them, Pyreus and Thornox also landed.
Reynold stayed on Aurion’s back for a while.
He did not move immediately. He was breathing fast. Dammit! This small ride already cost him some of his energy. His hands were still locked into the harness. He loosened them slowly, finger by finger.
That was not pretty.
He then climbed down carefully, dropped the last foot to the grass, and stood up.
Kael was riding his dragon.
Reynold was not watching.
He walked quietly to the corner of the field, near the fence line, and crouched down.
He pressed one hand against the ground, then let his head drop slightly, and just breathed. After a moment he spat into the grass, because of the rawness in his throat from the cold air.
He stayed like that for a while.
Then he stood and leaned against the fence.
The class continued. The rest of the cadets went one at a time.
By the time Professor Dayne called the session, it was already late afternoon.
Reynold made his way to the academy library.
He was almost close when he heard voices.
He stopped.
At the front near the entrance, there was a group of Wyrmwood cadets standing.
Most of then has this embarrassed look.
On the other end, four figures were also standing.
They were not Wyrmwood cadets. Their uniforms were dark red. Noble-High Academy.
Reynold recognized the uniform. Noble-High. Noble-High relationship with Wyrmwood academy was never been warm. They were larger, wealthier, with higher average scores and a long institutional memory of looking down at other academies.
"Our top year 1 student needs silence to study," one of the Noble-High cadets was saying.. "The library is closed to Wyrmwood students until he is finished."
"This is our library," one of the Wyrmwood cadets said.. "You cannot just forbid us from entering."
"We have permission from one of your own faculty so we can." The narrow-faced boy glanced around at the group below him. "If your strength was worth anything, maybe this conversation would be different. But it is not, so it is not."
Some of the Wyrmwood cadets had bruised faces and at least two had split lips.
They had already tried the other approach which is fighting.
Reynold stood as he observed all this.
Then a few of the Wyrmwood cadets near him noticed he was there. Some of them opened their mouths to say something and then stopped.
Reynold started walking to the library entrance.
One of the Noble-High cadets stepped forward. He was taller than the narrow-faced one, and broader in the shoulders.
He reached out and grabbed Reynold’s arm and pulled him back.
"You cannot enter."
Reynold stopped and he looked down at the hand on his arm. Then he looked up at the boy’s face.
"Why not?" he said.
The boy’s expression did not change. "Our top one student is inside. He does not need disturbance."
Reynold loom at the the boy for a moment.
"This is Wyrmwood Academy," he said. "If your student does not want Wyrmwood students in Wyrmwood’s library, then he should go back to Noble-High, where he can have all the quiet he wants." He paused. "And you should go with him."
He looked down at the hand on his arm.
Then he reached over, took the boy’s wrist, and removed the hand.
He started walking again.
"What the.."
The boy moved fast and swung.
Reynold was not expecting it. So the blow came from the side and landed on his cheek. It was solid enough that his head turned sideways.
Reynold went still.
Then, he touched his cheek with two fingers, pressing lightly against the spot where the blow had landed.
Then he turned.
The boy was already pulling his arm back to blow Reynold again..
Reynold stepped into it and hit the boy square on the nose.
The blow landed with the full weight of his shoulder behind it, and the boy’s head snapped back and blood appeared immediately, and running down over his lips.
The boy let out a sound that was between a shout and a cry. He grabbed his face and staggered sideways, sinking down against the railing with his other hand pressed to his nose, and blood running between his fingers.
"Yes! That serve him right."
"You can’t come to Wyrmwood academy snd act like you owned this place.." Wyrmwood cadets started murmuring.
The other three Noble-High cadets rush forward but Reynold was already inside.
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