Crescent High

Chapter 22

I was back at Crescent High after the winter break and I was so excited about seeing my friends again. We didn't get to meet up on the train, apart from Reef, since we live in the same village. But that had to wait. Everyone was called to the main hall though I had no idea what for.
When I got there, I could see students all around the main stage, and I sat right near the front. Slowly the room filled up, and eventually, Professor Ereliar came to the stage.
"First Years," he began, and the hall went silent. "Welcome back. I hope you all had a lovely holiday and did all that you wanted to while you had the chance.
However, now you are back at school, and you need to get into the mindset of a student again."
As he spoke, I could feel the mood drop with every word that left his mouth, the joys of the winter break lost by the end of his sentence.
"On another note, we are introducing a new class to your curriculum. Miss Palmer will tell you more." The headmaster stepped aside as a young woman took the stage. She had cropped, mousey brown hair and emerald green eyes that perfectly complimented her olive skin. Freckles were dotted along her nose and cheeks, and I could see small dimples when she smiled.
"As the professor said, I am Miss Palmer, the new teacher for a subject that I know you will be very excited about."
I took a sharp breath as I realised what it was - something that Reef had told us about at the very start of the year.
"I will be your Dragon Riding instructor." She smiled at us, and the hall burst out in applause. I joined in, scanning the hall for the faces of my friends. "I can see that you are all very excited about this, which is why you all have your first class with me later today. The professor has updated your timetables to include it, although you will have one more class on a couple of days each week."

The headmaster stepped back up and dismissed us form the hall, the whole year flooding out into the lobby. I could barely hear myself think, it was so loud, with the chatter of 150 students filling the space and echoing around the high ceiling. Looking up, I stared at the roof; there was a large mural of a map of the city, with the school right in the centre of the beams marking out the different provinces that the city was divided into.
I felt a tap on my shoulder, and whipped my head around. "Yes," I snapped. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Rose, I didn't know it was you." She embraced me in a hug, and we greeted each other warmly. "How was your winter?" I asked.
"It was great, Nyx - we went to the Silver Coast to see my grandparents and cousins for the holiday. It was so warm there, and we went swimming pretty much every day." Rose seemed really excited about her holiday, and I told her about mine.
"So then, Mum told me that we were moving to Colorosa to see my baby cousin, Kaitlyn, grow up, in about half a year. And, we're building our own home as well, so we can put whatever we want in there. I'm thinking of seeing if we can have a 'music' room, or somewhere that I can practice without being disturbed." I smiled at Rose, with a knowing grin, and she grinned back at me.
"Hey guys!" I heard a familiar voice behind me. "Forgotten about me, have you?" I spun on my heel. Megan was standing there, smirking, her deep brown eyes sparkling in the light from the chandelier hanging above us.
"Meg!" I screamed, and ran to hug her. "How are you?" She pushed me away.
"Sorry, I don't like being hugged, but to answer your question, I'm fine, perhaps better than ever. You?"
I replied with all that I'd just told Rose as we strolled leisurely to our room, chatting about all of our breaks. Both of my roommates went to amazing places, and had amazing stories to tell. Megan had gone to The Islands, a beautiful part of the world that had the bluest water and the most brilliant scenery. Rose had gone to a place where the waters shone silver under the moonlight that almost always was risen in the dark skies of the Silver Coast. And I, I had stayed at home, not doing anything exciting apart from seeing my family. I had no exciting stories to tell, no tales of great places and exciting  adventures.

"OWWWWW!" I rubbed my head, as I stumbled away from the door onto my behind. "My head feels  ouchie." Quickly, I stood up and unlocked the door, brushing off the incident and running into the room to collapse on my bed.
"Nyx, are you ok?" Rose asked me, a concerned look on her face. "It looked like a pretty painful bump."
My attention moved to Rose as I replied, "What on Everitia are you talking about? Nothing happened, Rose. Have you hit your head?" We both laughed, and I sat up. "I think I'm going to have a read for a bit -  there's something I want to research for History before tomorrow." Grabbing the book from my bag, I rolled onto my stomach and opened it to the last page I read.
"Whacha researching?" Megan asked, and I looked over. "I'm just curious."
"Oh, dragons. I want to see what they were like cause of the new class and everything." I didn't tell her about the egg, and I wasn't planning on it either. "By the way, what are your thoughts on the new class anyways. I'm really excited about it; it seems like so much fun!"
"Yeah, it does, and I can't wait to start it.  Don't we have our first lesson today?"
"We do! When do you think it is?"
We continued to chat about the new term as I skim read the pages of the book, looking for any key information about what the egg could do. I felt like there was only one explanation - it must be the Void Dragon, as there were images of what that species' egg looked like, and they matched perfectly with the egg that I had hiding under my bed. But what did that mean for me? Isn't the bonded of the Void Dragon the Void Sorcerer. I didn't know, but I was pretty sure that my theory was correct.

"Come on, it's lunch time," Rose said behind me, and pulled me up. "We'll find out when we have Dragon Riding then."
I sprung up, realising that I didn't have my uniform on. "Give me a minute, you head down and I'll meet you there."
The others went off and I quickly got changed. As I was leaving the room, I heard a cracking sound coming from my bed. The egg!

*Motivation. Yay, another chapter less than a month after chapter 21. In fact, it's 13 days, so under 2 weeks. Hope you enjoyed, and I'll try to be as fast for the next one as well 😀*