The Dragon Academy

Chapter Three ~ Flying and Fright

Virginia sighed for the third time in the last ten minutes. Flying was incredible, and Virginia found it amazing, but the awe-inspiring view and the indescribable feeling of being up in the air were beginning to fade and she found herself getting bored. If they could just go a bit faster or do a few flips to pass the time it would be a lot more fun, but the Dragons seemed to be going slowly and carefully so as not to disturb the humans' "delicate constitutions." Then again, maybe they had a point. Just looking to the side, Virgnia could see the skinny boy in Arien's other claw (was his name Charles?) with his eyes squeezed shut and clinging to Arien's forearm for dear life. Charlotte's continued screaming and the sound of Lucy vomiting for the second time didn't help matters, but it became unbearable when Sam decided to rid himself of his own boredom.

"Hey Virginia!" He yelled back to her, since Arien was the last in the line of Dragons.

"What?!" She yelled back.

"Your Dragon alright?!"


"Yeah! I think so! Why?!" The other Dragons glanced back at Arien worriedly.

"Well, I just thought that he would have fainted from your smell by now!" The other humans who heard this comment laughed derisively while Virginia's cheeks burned. Before she could think better of it, she replied:

"If you're so worried about the Dragons collapsing from our smell, maybe you should have thought to bathe before they arrived! I can smell you from here!" While the humans didn't laugh outright, Virginia could see the ones near her holding in their giggles. Arien himself seemed to be chuckling, at least, judging by the vibrations coming from his chest.

"You won't be laughing for long! You think that you're all that, don't you?!"

"Right," she said sarcastically, "Because your constant, heart-warming compliments really make me feel good about myself. But if I do have a big head, I must've gotten it from you."

"Why you little-!"

"We'll be arriving soon children." The leader, Dren if she remembered correctly, butted in, probably in an attempt to end the conversation.

"How much...sooner...?" Lucy yelled before groaning and once again holding back the contents of her stomach.

"Er...I'd say another few minutes! Don't worry, you'll know it when you see it!" Virginia kept her eyes peeled as she eagerly awaited a sight of the famous Dragon Academy. She, as well as any human you asked, didn't know that much about it, other than the obvious. It was where the few lucky humans who were chosen, in a tradition that was held every few decades, were taken to learn the secrets of the Dragons at the legendary Dragon Academy. An enormous school supposedly in the Dragons' capital city, (again, no one knew that much about it,) it was where younger Dragons from all over the continent went to learn the ways and traditions of their kind, as well as the occasional human. Other than that, Virginia didn't know anything other than speculation and rumor, which she had had to much bad experience with to take seriously.

"There it is!" One of the others shouted, jarring her from her thoughts. She didn't get the chance to figure out who had yelled, since what she saw next wiped her mind of thought and left her mouth agape. A majestic mountain range rose suddenly from the barren fields surrounding it, so tall that the top quarter of it was hidden by swirling clouds. Crisscrossing rivers and waterfalls streamed down its side until disappearing from sight in a dark chasm that fenced in the base of the mountain. Flocks of birds cawed around the forest that covered the bottom half of the blue-gray summit, so all-in-all in looked like a regular mountain. Or, rather, it would if it weren't for the buildings carved into the side of it. A thin slice of the mountain had been sliced away, by nature, sorcery, or Dragon claw she wasn't sure, but revealed inside was a pearly golden rock that sparkled in places and seemed translucent in others. Buildings had been carved into this gleaming substance, large windows letting large and small Dragons come and go as they pleased, glimmering like jewels against the strange metal. (It was metal, wasn't it?)