Dragon Academy

The Tattoos

I yell in pain.
Mark looks at me.
"I can't read his thoughts right now! Winter? Winter! Is it because you need Zandra back?! Dad please?" Mark babbled.
But the pain got stronger. My eyes strained and I shut them as my mouth burst open as another pain filled yell escapes my lips. It was a deep, gut-wrenching sound.
Zandra's hands were on my face.
"Winter!" She shook me as her voice faded and my head swam.
I came right back though as more pain shot through me.
Starting at my fingertips, this white ink becomes part of my skin. It glowed bright as it went up my arms all around them and Rose vine covered dragons went from either side of my chest to the middle but didn't touch. The Rose vines and multiple little dragons still glowed on my arms. I yelled in pain again as two dragons, one on each side, burst up my neck, onto my face. They stopped, lined up with the corners of my lips, curled with their Rose vines to be a centimeter from touching my lips on both sides.
The pain stopped, and I let out a groan. The glowing faded and came back over and over. And I fainted.

I hope he's okay. Omg wake up Winter! Please! He's cute when he's asleep though.
This isn't real sleep.
My eyes flutter open.
"Oh!" Zandra yelps and throws herself onto my chest.
I wrap my arms around her.
She's cleaned herself up and changed clothes.
She's so beautiful and smalls amazing! Like always!
*giggle* Thank you!
That's going to take some getting used to! *laugh*
I know.
"Are you okay, Winter?" Headmaster Hampton asked.
"Yeah." I answered roughly.
I'm still on the platform in the stadium.
"How long was I out?" I asked.
Zandra snuggled up a little closer to me, happy feelings pouring into me from her.
"About ten minutes." She told me.
"Now what happens?"
"Now you will receive your tattoos marking you as the first of your line. And your elemental tattoos. How long have you known about your magic?" The Headmaster asked.
"About five years."
He looked shocked.
"And no one ever found out until recently? How long have you known about the Dragon? When was the first time you turned?"
"No one knew until I told Zandra the day right before we were in the office. That was what we were talking about in the building. I first turned into a dragon about the same time I found out about my magic."
Gasps sounded like as if I had just become the king. Shocked and excited, followed by shouts of joy and people kneeling in front of their seats. Soon everyone in the stadium seats had kneeled.
"Why are they kneeling? Are they afraid?" I asked.
"No, they are showing you honor, you can tell them to rise whenever you please." Mark said.
"Um, please rise."
The people stood, watching me.
Now I was the one to be shocked.
"Tomorrow you will be crowned, but now, come so you may receive your tattoos." Headmaster Hampton said.
Tomorrow I will be crowned?
Yes, because you're Royal now.
But I... I don't know how to be Royal.
Its not that hard. Mark's voice sounded it my head.
You can read minds like I can. And you can also let people hear a thought of your's if you want.
Yes. And you will be a good Royal, Prince Stone. You May even end up as King.
He locked eyes with me for just a moment, grinned and looked away.
And I followed him and everyone else off the platform, holding Zandra's hand.

We got to a room and a camera was positioned on me. There were many people in the room, all who I knew were Royals. Everyone else was around school in classrooms watching what was happening now through the camera's video displayed on the classroom TVs. I looked straight into the camera for a moment, wondering if I would be mocked as soon as the rest of the students had the chance.
I looked away, toward Mark Hampton who walked toward me.
"I will be giving you the Spirit tattoo. I hope that your magic and your mind is ever strong."
"Thank you." I said, offering him my left wrist.
He paused, now fully seeing the cuts and scars I had left there.
His eyes met mine and I think I saw a glimpse of understanding.
He took hold of my wrist, putting it on a tattoo table to keep it still.
He brought the needle to my arm and I watched as he worked. Making lines, wiping off blood and spare ink, and redrawing to make the tattoo darker. The tattoo was gold, and infused with the Spirit element. The tattoo artist would get to pick of a few choices which charm of that element was in the tattoo.
He created a rose and I could feel the magic. The charm would help keep me sane through the darkness and madness created by using Spirit. I smiled at his choice.
As he finished, he stood and smiled at me.
The rest of the tattoos were given, in a line going from an inch from the crease of my elbow, and over multiple scars.
I now had a rose, a flaming heart, a leaf in the breeze, a spring of water and a shattered rock with shards floating.
Mark stepped forward to me again.
"I will be giving you the last two of your tattoos. A Stone Dragon as your Family Crest and in the hollow where your neck meets your collarbone, I will tattoo a golden Sword."
"Okay." I said.
"Your crest will go on your back. Turn around please." Mark requested.
I turned around and rested my chin on the chairs back. I was already shirtless, still just in sweatpants.
This tattoo took hours, covering most of my back with a bright white and crystal ice blue dragon made of stone. Being a vampire, Mark was able to make it very much so faster. But a tattoo can only be so quick.
Five hours later, he stood and stepped back. He got a different type of needle, like the one used for my magic tattoos, and did the golden sword.
This needle is made of silver, the easiest metal to infuse with magic.
"Soon will be a dinner party in your honor. You will go shirtless for the rest of the day and I will bandage your tattoos before you will go to sleep. Then they will be kept bandaged until I think they are healed enough. Come." He said.
I followed him to a room, it was a small restroom.
On a chair was a pair of white underwear and a pair of pants. The pants were made for me.
"The seamstresses had to work some of last night and all morning to make these. White and crystal ice blue, your Royal colors. They will fit around your waist and hang off your hips, loose and baggy around your legs and wider around your feet. They will touch the ground." He said.
Next to them was a pair of white converse.
"I figured converse might be more comfortable for you than dress shoes. No one will see your shoes anyway. I suggest putting them on before the pants so you don't have to fix the pants to cover them."
"Okay. Thank you."
"Go ahead and get dressed, I won't look. I have to stay so I can help you get ready. I'm going to redo your makeup, and put your hair into a tight twisted bun. I'll also pin your bangs into the bun."
I tugged off the sweatpants after he sat in a chair facing the wall.
I put on the underwear then noticed some socks. Good, I needed those.
I heard a giggle in my head and I smiled. Zandra thinks I'm funny.
After the socks and Converse, I pulled on the pants.
The pants were everything that Mark described.
After I was done and Mark had styled me to how he wanted to, we left and headed to the giant cafeteria on campus.
It had been set up with the food lines closed to where there were only three different single wide doors. Dark wood tables were set up and I knew that at least all of the royals and school students would be in here. The thousands of visiting quests that were just spectators had now gone back to their hotels to wait for tomorrow.
"You will sit there at that large table with The Headmaster, Zandra, and I close by you. I wanted to show you this before it was time."
We left the cafeteria, and headed outside. We were just going for a walk to wait, pass time.
We walked around campus and people I didn't know waved and smiled at me.
Samuel stopped me in my path. He had about twenty people with him. He smirked.
"So I see that you got some of your scars covered."
I was about to speak when Mark stepped in front of me. And that's when I saw the the Guardian crest on the back of his neck since he had put his hair up like he had mine.
It was an image of a shadow holding a sword standing in front of a young woman.
Guardians are always viewed as shadows.
"Leave Prince Stone alone." Mark said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I didn't know being Royal meant no one could talk to him."
"You didn't come to have a friendly chat. Now beat it!" Mark growled, baring his fangs.
"Fine, I'll see you later, Prince Stone." He said sarcastically.
He turned and left.
"Would you like me to make sure he doesn't have the chance to talk to you later?"
"I'll be alright." I said.
We sat down on a bench by a pond near the building I had been in with Zandra.
"You looked at me weird when you saw my cuts. Why?" I asked.
He sat quietly for a moment and then pushed up his left sleeve as far as it could go. Scars were all over his arm
Even his bicep and tricep. The scars were deep, but light colored.
"When I was young, for about ten years of life before I was eighteen, I lived here on campus with my mother. She would beat me and since I had no money for food because she wouldn't give me any, I starved most of the time. Unless I was with my friend Joseph. His mother, Meredith,didn't tell anyone because she knew it would bring me disgrace. So she would feed me as much as I could when I was with them."
"Meredith? Joseph? Like Droscov? The Queen?" I gaped.
"Yes, his mother was the Queen."
"Wow you were friends with the Queen's son!"
"Still am best friends with the Queen's son." He said.
"That's pretty cool." I said.
He laughed.
"Now come on. It's time to go."