The Secrets of Arcana

Leo

Mud, sweat, and dragon pee.

The wondrous smells of the Outskirts.

Mission: Getting as much information about the next Championship Race as quickly as possible.

Why as quickly as possible you might ask?

Cause I wanna see this meeting tonight.

Evie is never brought for meetings, no matter if they're with commoners, neighboring royalty, hell even my parents.

But now she's being brought to this one?

With people from IGNIS?

I just gotta see this.

But that's neither here nor there.

I have a mission.

I'm just strolling my way through the area, enjoying the sweet, sweet smells of dragon urine, and looking for the familiar red sleeves that any racer has identified as the uniform for the race officials.

And oh look, there one is.

Sitting on his high perch, I see one of the most irritating officials out of all the ones I've met.

Albert.

This guy is the worst.

The only thing that makes him a good official is that he stays in the booth the whole race.

But he's ASLEEP.

He gets bored watching dragons race! I don't get it! How could you get tired of this?!

Unfortunately, no more red sleeves pop out to me. So, I dreadfully stroll over to the guarded entrance to the booth and smile at the guards.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. I was hoping I could have a little conversation with the lovely Official Albert."

"Get lost kid," the taller of the two guards tells me.

Honestly, these guys seem pretty pathetic compared to other guards I've had to deal with. The one who just painfully called me a child looks like a weak tree; tall, but will fall over with one small gust of wind. And the guy to his left is just short, stout, and sad.

"Ouch. I'd like to think I've grown out of my childish nature...but y'know, I still do appreciate a good fart joke so who knows." I feel the smirk that is constantly resting on my face form at the same time the tree scowls.

"No racers in the booth."

I pout, "Well you're no fun."

And I walk away.

I mean, I get it. The booth is for officials and I-

Sike.

As I turn the first corner, I crouch down in some bushes and clear my throat before hiking my voice and yelling, "HATCHLING ON THE LOOSE!"

Now, you may think that little hatchlings can't cause too much trouble. I mean they're hatchlings, they can barely fly-

WRONG.

Hatchlings are little devil incarnates who fly super fast and can turn corners at what I believe to be the speed of light.

Those guys are impossible to catch.

So to no surprise, Tree and Teapot run, well attempt to run, toward wherever they think my voice just came from.

They're not that bright.

As chaos starts to ensue, I sneakily climb up the ladder to the booth and find my dearest friend asleep.

How?? I don't understand! Dragons are speeding past him, racing, there's chaos below him because people believe there's a hatchling on the loose, and he's SLEEPING?!

I clear my throat and get right against his ear...

"WAKE UP!!"

I don't think I have ever seen a more perfect example of being startled awake. This dude's limbs flailed all over the place and he fell off his official- I mean sleeping chair.

This guy is an embarrassment to the dragon racers name.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" he growls as he scurries up onto his feet.

I laugh a little, "Just a curious racer that's all, there were no guards at the bottom of the ladder so I thought it was an open invitation."

"Well you're mistaken. Get out!" He points towards the ladder but I just shake my head.
"I will, but I have a couple questions first. One, when is the championship race? Two, who is competing in said championship race? And three, do you think I could get some water?"

With a scowl still plastered on his face, my dear Albert actually answers, "Two weeks after the rematch race between Hades and Ash, whoever the top ten racers are by the day before that, and no; GET OUT!"

I smile, and without another word I start climbing down the ladder.

I can take a hint.

Sometimes.