Safehaven

Chapter 12

          The next morning came too fast.  When the bucket of ice cold water hit my face, I thought I was still dreaming.  Gasping and sputtering, I leaped straight up.  Smiling with a now empty bucket, Jada looked at me gleefully.  Sometimes, she could be a true pain in the rear end.  “Why on earth would you so that?!”  I spluttered, water dripping down my face.  The girl just shrugged.  “For starters, you smell terrible, plus you were sleeping like a rock.  Oh, and please put these on, Badon’s orders.”  Jada tossed me a new set of robes.  This time, they were deep orange, almost red.  Glancing around, I realized that none of my other friends were around.  You’d think that after last night I would be more careful about keeping a closer eye on them, but I obviously hadn’t learned.  Seeing my dispute, Jada raised her hands in an affirming gesture.  “Don’t worry; they just left to get a bite to eat.”  I relaxed, and quickly slipped the fresh robes on.  Ten seconds later, I was as good as new.  Jada gave me a final look over before deeming me presentable.  She quietly led me out the door.  Through the window, I could make out the new sun just peering over the tree line.  I had lived to see another day.  My pal and I passed several doors and glided down many passageways.  I didn’t know how Jada seemed to know her way around, but it was pretty awesome.  Suddenly, we came to a monstrous chamber filled with nothing but staircases.  Stone steps ranging in all sized led to different parts of the castle.  And I don’t know if it was only my imagination or the angle of the light, but I could swear that some of the stairs were blinking in and out of reality.  One moment, there would be a staircase leading to a certain floor.  The next moment, it would vanish, leaving whoever was on it stranded in mid air.  I leapt onto the bottom step of one of the stairs and waited a few seconds, just to make sure it wouldn't vanish on me.  When it stayed, thankfully, Jada and I raced up the steps, not wanting to be stranded like some of the other students, who.  We both jumped off onto a marble landing.  The huge mess hall lay just ahead.  I could smell the delicious scents of breakfast food wafting into my nose.  What I wouldn’t give for pancake right now…  But Jada yanked on my arm, signaling me to enter back into reality.  I followed her down the center of the room between the rows of tables.  Hundreds of children laughed and hollered at each other, giving the room a homey feel.  With all the rooms I had seen earlier and the vast numbers of chambers, I concluded that Safehaven must be a school.  But a school for what?  Jada stopped me at the foot of the gilded table at the head of the enormous room.  Badon sat in the golden chair I had previously seen.  He smiled when my friend and I approached.  Behind him, my other 4 buds sat shoveling pancakes into their mouths.  “Well, young ones.  It is about time you got up.”  The man took in my wet hair and sarcastic expression and chuckled.  “I see you got the little alarm I sent.  Did it work?”  He winked.  I sighed.  He motioned us to join with the other.  I sat down next to Antigone and Holly.  They both gave me big hugs and lots of hotcakes.  I was happy.  But long before I had the time to finish my late breakfast, Badon joined us.  “Alright, this is how the morning is going to go.”  The man paused as Quinton had stuffed an entire pancake in his mouth and was now choking.  Sage irritably slapped him on the back and he coughed a chuck on goop onto the floor.  He wiped his mouth and asked Badon to continue.  Hesitantly, Badon did.  “The ceremony will begin momentarily.  You will each stand in a line in front of this table.  One by one, a necklace with a red stone will be placed around your neck.  Depending on what creature appears, the time may very.  But once that happens, it is very important that you bond with the animal before it enters back into you soul.  Got it?”  None of us really understood, but we nodded anyway.  Jada must have explained everything to everybody, because they seemed to know about as much as I did.  Badon left us and went back to his seat.  We did likewise.  We waited a few minutes till Badon called the hall to silence.  With a ringing voice, he began his announcement.  “Girls and boys gathered today at the school of Safehaven,(I had been right.  It was a school!) several children came to our gates last night pursued by vanishers.”  Whispers and mutters echoed through the hall.  “They seek to join our ranks as sons and daughters of Galloren.  Do we accept them?”  A chorus of well practiced “indeed’s” filtered through my ears.  Behind his back, Badon made the gesturing finger, calling us up.  Together, we made a straight line in font of the man, facing him.  Starting with Holly, Badon placed a necklace around her neck and muttered a few words in Latin that I was not able to catch.  In a similar fashion, he finally reached me at the end of the line.  With a mischievous sparkle in his eye, he slide the stone over my head and it settled on my chest.  The six of us turned to face the assembly.  There was dead silence.  Out of the blue, gasps resounded as lightning itself came through the ceiling and struck mere inches in front of Quinton.  The light retracted, leaving a pure golden lion standing in the spot where the lightning had struck.  Nobody had anytime to say anything before the air turned hazy and a several tailed-fox came into being beside Holly.  Three more like- occurrences happened.  Soon, there was a unicorn, griffin, and a Pegasus lined up.  Sage attentively reached out to her winged horse and began to stroke its nose.  The griffin reared up and let out a deafening screech, causing Antigone to take a step back.  But despite the chaos, the unicorn just fluidly took its place next to Jada.  She looked mystified.  As my friends examined their new-found best friends, I just stood there.  I felt like a complete idiot!  Just when I was about to tear the stupid necklace off and throw it in the trash, the stone became warm.  It grew hotter and hotter until it burst into flames.  The fire licked my chin and reached its graceful arms up my cheeks.  Though strangely, it didn’t burn.  The flames continued to expand until they raced down my legs and onto the stone floor.  Slowly, they began to take shape.  As the fire rose, more and more of the outline grew clearer.  Long, graceful legs supported a sturdy and robust body.  With a noble head held high and magnificent wings spread in defiance, a full fledged dragon stood before me.  In the hall, there was not a sound.  A pin could be heard from a mile away.  I glanced at Badon, his face tight with a beaming smile.  He was not all surprised that I had called a creature of Fyr.  How did I know that this beast standing in front of me was a user of Fyr?  I hadn’t the slightest idea, but just somehow knew.  The dragon calmly looked around before its eyes settled on me.  It stepped foreword and bowed its head, silver scales flashing.  With trembling fingers, I placed a hand on the dragon’s forehead.  Immediately, a burning sensation shot up my arm and into my chest, where my heart beat rapidly.  The sensation died away.  A series of intakes of breaths made me turn around.  Everyone in the room was staring at me.  I though that I had syrup or something dripping down my face when I noticed a dim red light surrounding me.  I glanced up and almost feinted.  Wreathed in red light, a silver flame hung over my head.  It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  Badon cleared his throat, drawing everyone back.  “Ladies and gentlemen, I present unto you the child of Galloren with her mighty dragon.  I present unto you the children of the original 5 elders with their noble beasts of magic.  May they have long life full of prosperity.  Hail Galloren!”  He boomed.  The stunned audience echoed weakly.  Badon glanced at me over his shoulder and winked.  Whatever he had said had petrified the children even more.  They were  now falling out of chairs.  I looked around the room, my eyes came to the dragon.  With deep brown eyes, the same as mine, I strangely saw myself reflected in the mighty beast.  In an instant, I knew that it was a male and that it though that my robes looked funny.  Great, I had summoned a sarcastic dragon that made fun of other peoples clothing.  What else was new?