Becoming a Dragon Read online

  "John. Ah, John Wood. I've heard about you from the Keeper. He told me that you were exceptional, and I see that he is right! He told me about your project, the one you submitted for your scholarship test, and asked me to come and have a look at it, and I think I'll have to do that now. Quite remarkable. I don't think I've ever seen a score this high."

  The class was silent. Crystal wondered if John would appreciate being referred to as exceptional after yesterday. The Professor gave John his paper back. "Five answers away from being perfect. Very well done. Right, well let's move on. Give everyone their papers back; let them see where they went wrong." John passed Daisy's paper back to her, and Crystal thought she saw him exchange a smile with her. No one else was smiling at John. Getting twice as high a score as over half the class wasn't likely to endear him to any of them. If anything, it probably made them despise him even more, if that was at all possible.

  The Professor spent the rest of the lesson explaining the syllabus for the term. They were going to start with Furnace, to help them all become familiar with where they were, as many of them were new to the place, and then after that to move on to each region, to ensure that by the end of the year they had a basic knowledge of the geography of the whole kingdom. The rest of this lesson was to be spent giving them a broad overview of the country.

  The class was actually relatively interesting, mainly because the Professor made it so with his warm and friendly manner of dealing with the students, and Crystal regretted writing him off as ridiculous at the beginning of the lesson. She already had a very basic knowledge of the country but he filled in many of the gaps. The Western Principality was the part that interested the most, having never visited there but having heard a lot about it from Jenna, who had spent many holidays there. It only shared a tiny stretch of the border with the Rhino Dragons, and then other than the three internal borders with the Eastern Principality, the centre and the Northern Principality, the rest of the border was a long and beautiful coastline, dotted with exciting and varied towns and cities. It's distance from the more aggressive Blue and Green Dragons meant that it was very safe and consequentially rich and prosperous. It was rumoured to be quite wild, and behaviour that would be unthinkable elsewhere in the Kingdom was quite acceptable in the West. The people had a reputation for all being beautiful, and the students in the class from the West did nothing to spoil this reputation. The Northern Principality was the only other region with a coast, but sounded a much more drab and uninviting place.

  After the lesson finished and the students were leaving the classroom, Crystal realised that she had left a book back in the class and went back in to fetch it. She thanked the Professor for the interesting lesson before making her way down from the tower to catch up with the others for lunch.

  "How did you enjoy that lesson?" John asked as she passed him. "You looked like you were finding it very interesting."

  Crystal gave him a cold look. "Here to boast about your score? Well done. Very clever. Goodbye."

  John kept pace with her as she walked, seemingly oblivious to her hostility. "Why would I want to boast? He said that it wasn't an important test, and that really wasn't my intention. I just wondered if you had an interest in geography, that's all. I'd be happy to help you if you ever wanted."

  Crystal gazed at him in disbelief. "I like the teacher. He makes it interesting, but I have no real interest in geography, and no, I don't want to have your help with this or any other subject. I'll learn quite enough from him, thank you." She turned and marched away.

  "The offer is always there," John called after her.

  Crystal didn't see John for the rest of the lunch break, and managed to avoid John during the afternoon break by joining a group of people that included Daniel Thorne, Joel and Jerome. Jerome was from the East as well as John, but seemed to have no affection for him either, joining in and leading some of the jokes the others were making about him. Daisy was right, Daniel was a little cruel, although he could be quite amusing, and was very handsome and quite charming to her. Jerome was much harder to read. She had learned that he was the one who had come second to John in the test, and was clearly very clever and was good at reading people. He may not have John's academic ability, but he understood people and knew how to win them over. However, just every now and then there was a slight edge to what he said, a sudden meanness, but it disappeared just as quickly in the next thing that he said.

  Unfortunately for her, Arthur was right about Daisy risking her reputation. At lunch Daniel and Joel were laughing about her quite a lot, retelling some of the brief encounters they had with the young princess before back in the west, and her gullibility and childish ways. She might look charming, and was loved by the simple folk in the west, but they assured them that there was very little going on behind that vacant expression and anyone of any real value saw that very quickly. Crystal suspected that her refusal to shun John was going to cost her, as she was mentioned in connection with him a couple of times. A little unfair, as she was sat beside him in the class through no decision of her own, but then again she had been warned by Arthur not to associate with John and had paid little attention.

  When the day finally ended, Crystal left school quickly, looking around furtively to see if John was waiting for her. She walked quickly from the school building, hoping to avoid him, only to find him waiting for her just around the corner.

  "Hi, Crystal. Mind if I join you?" he asked, starting to walk beside her without waiting for her answer.

  She shook her head. "Have I ever given you the impression I want your company? How many times do I have to tell you to leave me alone?"

  John shrugged. "No one else lives near you, Crystal. Are you really that worried that you'll be seen talking to me?"

  "Yes!" she shouted at him. "You may not care what the class think of you, but I do. I don't want you dragging me down the way you're doing with Daisy."

  John looked shocked. "How do you mean? What am I doing with the princess?"

  "No one likes you! No one likes a know-it-all, which you are, and they didn't like you much before that test. Daisy is the only one who has time for you, so how do you think her popularity is going to fare over the next few days? It's the second day of school and people are already talking about her behind her back, and not in a nice way. She's a princess. You'd expect her to be popular, but thanks to you she's being ridiculed."

  John looked genuinely concerned about this. "Oh, I didn't realise. I hadn't encouraged her—well, not intentionally anyway. She's just, well, pleasant to me. I don't think it's in her nature to be unpleasant to anyone. Do you really think she should be punished for that?"

  Crystal sneered at him. "That's your choice, John. You're the one ruining her chance of making friends at school."

  John frowned and looked away from her. "Alright, thank you. Thank you for telling me. I'll need to think about what to do." He continued walking beside her in silence.

  "Well, are you going to go?" she asked. "Do you want to ruin my life as well as Daisy's?"

  John looked back at her. "No. I don't. I just want to talk to you."

  "Well, I don't want to talk to you, so please just go away. I thought I'd made that clear."

  John walked with her for a few seconds longer, not responding, before nodding and turning away. He looked quite sad, and she would have felt guilty were it not for the knowledge that had she not done this, she would end up just as unpopular as him. This was his mess, not hers, and she didn't care why he wanted to speak to her; she was going to have nothing to do with him.

  Chapter 6: The Village

  Perak crouched at the top of the hill, staring intently at the little village in the distance. It was early in the morning, still dark, and no lights were visible in the small settlement. He had viewed this place from four different vantage points now, and had a reasonable knowledge of the layout of the buildings. He wasn't sure, but he thought there were about twenty adults in the village and about ten children, which was a
n unusual ratio for these remote Red Dragon communities, but was perfect for his purposes.

  He glanced back at his men, who were waiting patiently in their makeshift campsite. They had already cleared away all evidence that they had stayed there overnight, and were all wide awake and ready to do his bidding. The morning light would reach them a few minutes before it reached the village, giving them an invaluable advantage; so much so that Perak found it hard to believe that anyone would willingly choose this location as a place to live. Still, being so deep into Red Dragon territory probably made them feel safe. He smiled and shook his head at their folly. Nowhere would be safe from his forces when he ascended up the ranks, which he felt certain he would do.

  Down below in the village he saw that a lamp had just been lit in one of the buildings. People had already started to wake up. Unfortunate, but not unexpected. These small communities so far away from the big cities tended to live their lives according to the daylight hours, and some would always wake up a few moments before sunrise. He could see some movement, but could not make out how many people were up and about. He glanced towards the dim glow that heralded the sunrise, and the time when he and his men would be able to transform. As a dragon, his vision would be much more powerful, and he would be able to see the villagers perfectly. Still in darkness, they wouldn't be able to transform. Just as was the case with Blue Dragons and all others, transforming at night was fatal for a Red Dragon. This meant that they wouldn't see him coming and would be totally unprepared to defend themselves.

  "Get ready," Perak told his men. "The time is nearly here. You know the plan; now is the time to put it into action. Remember, stay low in your approach, and remain silent! Scream a battle cry, and I'll rip your throat out myself."

  Perak shouldn't have had to remind them of this, but surprise was a weapon rarely used effectively by his comrades. Fear was their favourite weapon, and nothing was more effective at striking at the nerves of their enemies than their piercing, blood-curdling shrieks. Now, however, was not the time to use this weapon. He didn't want to fight frightened foes; he wanted to silently butcher sleeping ones. The glory of a big dramatic battle didn't particularly interest him. All he cared about was killing as many Red Dragons as he could.

  The first ray of light appeared from the rising sun, and Perak found it hard to hide his excitement and anticipation. He transformed as quickly as he could, knowing his men would follow his lead, and within five seconds, six Blue Dragons were crouched hidden in the tall trees at the top of the hill. Perak took one final glance at his dragons before launching into the air. He flapped his wings just once before settling into a low, silent glide; in his peripheral vision he could see Eric to his left and one of the novices to his right, knowing that Ivan and the other dragons would be flying some way behind them.

  Now airborne, Perak could see perfectly, and spotted three adults moving in the village. His chances of landing unobserved were very small, but still possible. Although flying in the shadows was not dangerous as flying at night would be, it did weaken them and made them all very uncomfortable, but Perak insisted they all did so, knowing that surprise was their greatest weapon in this attack. The Blue Dragons bore down silently on the villagers, approaching very quickly now. The three Reds were not looking towards them, and might not even notice them. He trembled in anticipation; would they have a perfect attack?

  Perak quickly barked orders to the two beside him. He selected the villager in the middle for himself, and directed Eric to the one on the left and the novice to the one on the right. This should be easy. If his men attacked as he had taught them, they should be able to silently decapitate these three villagers with one blow each. Five seconds to impact, four, three, two, one… Perak struck the unsuspecting villager with an outstretched claw, decapitating him instantly, and the man died without making a sound. He glanced to his left, and saw that Eric had silenced his target in exactly the same way. A half scream to his right alerted him to the fact that their luck had ended. The novice was a fraction of a second behind them, and killed the villager with a vicious slash across his torso, but not before he had let forth a scream at the sight of Perak and Eric attacking his companions.

  Perak landed immediately, before quickly running towards one of the buildings, preparing to attack it. Eric and the novice landed just beside him and followed his lead. Above, he could see Ivan and the other two dragons circling the village. They had to act quickly, to take advantage of the villager's inability to transform until the sunlight reached them. They selected a building each and smashed through the doors with powerful kicks, before flooding the rooms with their blue flames. Tortured screams let them know that they had been successful, but unfortunately also alerted the rest of the village to their presence— if the first scream hadn't done that already. Doors sprung open around the village and people peered out into the half-light. Eric ran towards the nearest of the buildings and snatched a middle-aged man from the open doorway. The man's scream died abruptly as Eric crushed him in his jaws. The other Blue Dragon approached another building and found the door slammed shut. He smashed it open and blew flames into the building, but no screams were heard. The inhabitants had almost certainly taken shelter already. He was too large to enter as a dragon, but couldn't risk changing back to human to enter. He ripped at the doorway, pulling chunks out of the building to enlarge the entrance. Perak shook his head in frustration, but knew it was necessary and turned to the nearest building to follow suit. All the doors were slammed shut now; the Red Dragons were trying to buy time, stalling the attack from the Blue Dragons until they had enough light to transform and fight.

  Torch the buildings! Perak cried out to his troops. Flush them out. His dragons immediately started torching the wooden roofs of the houses, sending a stream of fireballs into the few remaining buildings, setting them all ablaze. Perak turned his attention back to the building he was beside, and threw his weight at the door, sending it flying across the room, colliding with one of the terrified residents. Perak stuck his head in cautiously, looking for other Reds, and narrowly dodged a pitchfork. He replied with two fireballs, and his assailant screamed in agony, his clothes and hair having burst into flames. The other inhabitant was an elderly woman, who was cowering on the floor not far from him. Perak reached in with one long clawed leg and swung at her, ripping her open and killing her instantly. The other inhabitant had fallen silent, having succumbed to the flames, so Perak withdrew from the building and assessed how his dragons were progressing. Eric had moved on top of the roof of one building and had collapsed the wooden beams with his weight. Perak could see him shaking a man in his jaws like a dog with a rat. The sunlight had just reached the village, and two reds were in the process of transforming, but this had not escaped Ivan's attention. He and his two companions swooped past and struck the two of them down before they could even form wings. After that the only sound was the crying of children; all the adults were dead. The whole attack had lasted less than two minutes. Perak cursed himself for ordering the torching of the buildings; it had been totally unnecessary and drew unwanted attention to the village. His dragons scurried around, double checking each building and rounding up the children.

  All dead, sir, Eric reported once they were finished. Just the children left.

  Perak nodded. Eric was an excellent soldier and would go far, he would see to that. How many children?

  Ten, sir. Two of which perished in the flames, but they were boys, so no loss.

  Perak nodded. How many of the survivors are female?

  Six of them, sir. A good haul, all things considered.

  Perak nodded in agreement. Dispose of the boys, and then we'll depart. Carry one girl each. Excellent work, men. You will all receive commendations. Now, move!

  Chapter 7: Learning to fly

  Friday had finally arrived. The day they had all been waiting for. It was not that their first week of school had been dull, or even that they had great plans for the weekend; no, it was that their
first proper flying lesson was going to be today. Concentrating on the work during their morning lessons was very hard, as it was their final lesson of the week that they were all looking forward to, and Crystal could think of nothing else.

  As soon as they arrived at their classroom after lunch, their flying master, Captain Stone—or Professor Stone, as he told them they should call him while he was their teacher—instructed them to leave their things in the class and to follow him. Their class were joined by the four other classes for this lesson, and they all followed Professor Stone in single file from the school building in the direction of the edge of the inner city, towards the amphitheatre, which was originally used for public performances, but had been temporarily set aside for their lessons while the school developed their own facility. The amphitheatre was a large grassy bowl, several hundred metres in diameter, and was only a short walk from the school. The path led to the nearest edge of the amphitheatre, where there was a wooden platform that projected into space like a giant diving board with a long drop from the far end. There were two large wooden huts to the left and right of the path, which had a temporary look about them, as if they had been erected in a hurry.

  "Right, students," Professor Stone began, raising his voice so all one hundred and twenty students could hear. He looked quite young, maybe not even thirty years old, and looked as excited as the students were. "This is what you have been waiting for all week. We like to save the best till last. By the end of today, all of you have will have learnt the basics of a simple, straight glide." There were a few groans from the more adventurous students, which he ignored. "Some of you may be a little nervous, but I assure you that you will all master this with ease. Before we begin, I would like to ask how many of you have been taught anything about how to fly by your parents."