Dawn of Dragons

Chapter 15: Lunch

""Lunch...Lunch!" Aria found the wide double doors, and stepped inside.

Immediately, she was engulfed in rich smells, and laughter and conversations greeted her. Aria looked around in awe, then realized that her stomach was growling, so she joined the line to get lunch.

When she arrived to the food, she couldn't decide what she wanted, so she just grabbed the nearest thing, which just happened to be a salad, and ran off.

Aria looked around the room, and saw that students were freely mingling around with others, and a flash of bright red hair. Ember!

She ran towards it, and crashed into another student who was passing by.

Her food flew into the air, lettuce and tomatoes letting gravity take over and falling to the ground. Aria screamed, before they all stopped falling, and the salad flew back into the air and placed itself into her bowl, before slowly floating over to Aria's hands. Aria crouched on the ground, shocked, before slowly looking up to look at her savior.

A blonde girl that was taller than her by at least three inches glared down at her. Her hand was outstretched, palm open, toward the bowl in her hands. Aria realized that she had used the power of air to save her food. And when Aria looked closer at her eyes, she realized that one of them was a dark, rich shade of blue, and that the other was a pale, grayish green that faintly glowed.

It looked just liked Skie's eyes.

A wave of sadness passed through Aria. What was going on with Skie right now? Was he still alive?

The girl that she had bumped into still glared down at Aria. A bunch of other girls flocked around her, whispered to each other, and gave the occasional giggle. Aria realized that the entire cafeteria had silenced. What was she waiting for?

"I'm...sorry." Aria muttered.

Like a pin being dropped in a silent room, the whole cafeteria burst back into chatter. The girl shot her a withering glare before snapping, "Don't mess with me, girl. You don't know who you just bumped into." She sauntered away, and her gang of girls followed her. As they were walking away, Aria heard snippets of chatter, and the word "Vera" and "Princess" being repeated over and over again.

That was weird, Aria thought. She stood up, and walked over to Ember, aware that eyes were following her the entire time. When she reached her, she slid down into the seat across from her.

"What are you doing?" Ember hissed at her. "Who do you think that is?"

"I dunno," Aria replied, still confused. "I heard the name 'Vera'-"

"Shhhh, don't use her name so casually!" Ember shrieked, and used her hand to completely cover her mouth. Aria waved her arms around frantically, before a voice interrupted them.

"Ember, let the poor girl go," A high pitched voice said. Another girl slid down beside Ember.

She had pale blue eyes that looked almost silver, close to the color of Aria's right eye. And her hair-it was pure white. Thick waves of snow-white hair cascaded down her back. "Hi, my name is Wynter," she introduced herself. "I'm an Ice Dragon."

"HimynameisAriaimachaosdragon," Aria mumbled, still staring at her pretty and delicate features.

"What was that? I didn't hear you," Wynter politely asked.

Ember slapped her playfully on the back. "What she meant to say was: 'Hi, my name is Aria I'm a Chaos Dragon."

Wynter arched her perfect eyebrow slightly. "Chaos? That is rare indeed."

Aria puffed her chest out. "I know."

"Anyway, now that you have bumped into the Princess, I don't think you'll survive one week here." Ember said, shaking her head.

"Princess? Who's Princess?"

Ember slightly shook her head at the direction of Vera. "She's the Princess. Only her close close friends can address her by her casual name, but we mostly all call her Princess, even the teachers."

"Why?"

"Her kind is extremely rare." Wynter cut in. "She's a double element Dragon. You might have noticed already, but she controls the power of water and air."

"Wow..." Aria muttered. So who cares if someone has a double element? Aria was one herself.

"You don't sound very impressed," Ember said. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Oh, me? I'm totally fine," Aria said, smiling sheepishly. "It's just I'm feeling a bit tired, I just had History with Professor Desaraih." She stabbed her fork into her salad and slowly started chewing on the leaves.

Ember made a face. "Oh, Professor Desaraih, don't worry, my friend. Everyone has to go through the pain of being her student." She looked over Aria's shoulder, then immediately dropped her eyes down. "Bad news," she muttered. "The Princess is looking this direction."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Aria, darling, if the Princess has your eye on you, you're dead." Wynter said, like matter-of-fact. "If you irritate her in the slightest manner, she challenges you to a duel, and then humiliates you in the arena. In the past week, she already challenged four people and beat them all to a pulp. The hardest part is dealing with two elements." As if on cue, Vera had sauntered over to their table. Everyone's eyes followed.

"What's your name?" Vera asked.

"Who, me?" Aria asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Yes, you," Vera said.

"Uh...It's Aria."

"Aria..." Vera murmured thoughtfully, as if trying out the sound on her tongue. "Listen carefully, Aria.

"By the rules on the Dragon Academy, I hereby challenge you to a duel. Weapons of any choice, first person to surrender loses. Do you accept?"

"Don't accept!" Ember hissed in her ear. "She'll humiliate you so much you just want to crawl in a hole and die."

Vera shot an amused glance at Ember. "And what are you to stop her?"

"Like hell I can!" Ember spat. "Let's see what you can do, you little bitch-"

"Stop!" Aria shouted. "I accept the challenge."

Ember stumbled back, shocked. "Aria!"

Aria turned back to Vera, and nodded slightly to her. "I accept the challenge. Do I need to repeat myself? I will duel you in the arena."

Vera stood back. "Glad to know at least one person in this school is sensible. Since you just arrived. I'll give you one week to prepare for the duel. Then, we meet in the arena. See you there, Aria."