Wild and Out of Control

|chapter ten|

"There is nothing quite as humbling, or as awe-inspiring, as witnessing Threshing...for those who live through it anyway."

- COLONEL KAORI'S FIELD GUIDE TO DRAGONKIND

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|danica|

October first is always Threshing, the day of the week doesn't matter. It could fall on a Monday, Wednesday, or even a Sunday, and it would still be Threshing.

     And on every first of October, the First-year cadets that have survived this far are thrown into a bowl-shaped forested valley to the Southwest of the citadel where they'll meet their dragons...or death. Somewhere in the valley ahead of us are the dragons that we will bond with or the dragons that will be our ends.

     I hold Violet's hand to comfort her when she grows restless with anticipation. "Be calm," I whisper to her. "Be calm and brave. They can sense your fear even from here."

     "I am calm," she defends but continues to play with her fingers, a nervous tick she's had since childhood.

     "Liar," I mutter but turn back to the front when Professor Kaori steps in front of us.

     "Remember to listen here," Kaori calls from the front of the hundred and forty-seven of us First-year cadets that are left in the Quadrant. "If a dragon has already selected you, they'll be calling." He pats his chest with his hand, right above his heart. "So pay attention to not just your surroundings but your feelings, and go with them." He grimaces as if remembering something. "And if your feelings are telling you to go in the other direction, listen to that, too."

     It sounds like something he learned from experience.

     "Which one are you going for?" I hear Rhi ask Violet quietly.

     Violet shrugs one shoulder. "I don't know. I guess whichever one doesn't kill me." Violet turns to me. "What about you, Dani? What dragon will you go for?"

     "They one that chooses me of course." I look at the expanse of cadets all around me. "That is if they did choose me. There's a hundred and forty-seven of us and only a hundred and one of them. "Forty-seven of us won't bond. And that's to say if all of us survive."

     Rhi nods. "You memorized the cards, right? So you know what's out there?" she asks, lifting one of her eyebrows.

     "Yeah," Violet answers. "I just don't feel connected to any of them." She shakes her head slightly and I squeeze her hand. "Dain tried talking me into a brown."

     I scoff, annoyance creeping into my mind. "Dain lost his vote when he tried talking you into leaving," I seethe, trying to cool my temper. Losing it now would only make me look bad in front of the dragons. "What about you, Rhi?" I ask, effectively changing subjects away from Dain Aetos.

     She grins, her pearly white shining in the sunlight. "I'm thinking about a green. Maybe the one that got all up and close with Vi."

     Ahh, that one. The dragon had almost given me a heart attack when it put its nose to Violet's chest and sniffed her. Turns out it was because of the corset made from Teine's scales. It peered over to me as well, tilting its head as if it could sense I was wearing the same thing. I motion with my head to look back to the front where Professor Kaori was still speaking.

     "If you go in groups, you're more likely to be incinerated than bonded," Professor Kaori argues with someone near the center of the valley, a boy who seems to have half of his hair shaved and the other half long, brown locks. Interesting choice of hairstyle. "The scribes have run statistics. You're better off on your own."