The Golden Rider Book 1: The Golden Traitor

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I raced down the stairs as fast as I could.  I could hear the footsteps of the four pounding somewhere behind me.  Mason had given me a ten second head start before they would come after me to "teach me a lesson" as he put it.

I was panting by the time I reached the ground level of the Academy.  The front doors were opened, so I raced to the front.  I figured that if I could get outside, I could hide either in the Dragon stalls or in somewhere along the guard wall.  I had almost reached the courtyard when I skidded to a stop after seeing the shadows of four large Dragons just outside the doors.  I could see their yellow eyes glaring at me in the dark, and I could make out one of the shapes as Jericho.  He appeared to be smiling at me, but I knew that it was not a happy-to-see-you smile.  I gulped and darted back into the Academy.  I ran away from the stairs and had just reached the Mess Hall when the four hit the bottom of the stairs.  They quickly spotted my retreating form and continued the chase.

I ran between the empty chairs and tables of the Mess Hall cursing at my behavior back with the four.  Why couldn't I have just kept quiet back there?  Or better yet, if I had just stayed when Jacey had asked me to, then I would never be in this mess.  I would be tired tomorrow morning, but at least I wouldn't be beaten to a pulp.  Stupid Evan had just made me so mad that I couldn't control my anger!  I wondered if Grace had anything to do it.  What if she was the one who made me so angry that I had to lash out?  It would make sense, but it didn't feel like my emotions were tampered with.  That was the problem with Grace.  She made it seem natural, so it was very hard to determine if she was messing with your emotions unless you were with someone, and they would notice the black rings around your eyes.

I remained low to the ground when I heard the Mess Hall doors slam open.  As quietly as I could, I slipped into the still empty kitchen.  I wondered where Darwin had gone as I hid behind a large barrel.  It was probably better if he wasn't here so he wouldn't get in trouble either.  I could hear the four loudly banging around in the Mess Hall undoubtedly knocking over all of the tables and chairs in search of me.  It was much darker in these rooms, so it would be harder to spot me.

"Come on out Val!  You can't hide forever!" Evan taunted.

"She's not here!" Austin exclaimed.

"Try the kitchen!"  I went rigid at Mason's voice.  If they came into the kitchen, they would spot me right away.  I frantically looked around for a better hiding spot, and my eyes landed on the trash chute.  It looked a bit small, but I was probably smaller.  I figured a bit of trash would be better than whatever the four in the other room would do to me.  It was my only chance of getting out of here in one piece, so I bolted from my hiding spot just as Grace appeared in the doorway.  She turned around to call to the others before lunging at me; however, her moment of hesitation was all I needed to throw open the chute.  I threw myself down head first, and soon I was on a very steep slant downwards.

I continued in the chute for a couple of seconds before I felt myself go into free fall when the chute opened outside.  I yelped as I hit the large pile of trash, and I began to roll down knocking over bowls and who knows what else.  Finally I came to stop in a large pile of slop.

"Ew," I muttered and shook myself off.  I knew none of the others would follow me down the chute.  They wouldn't want to get dirty like I had.  I make have made them mad, but it wasn't worth it anymore to chase me.  I picked a couple pieces of gunk out of my long hair and stood up.  I sank a bit in the trash as I turned to look up at the Academy towering above me.  The back of the Academy neared the edge of a large cliff, and at the bottom of the cliff was this trash pile.  I sighed, knowing that I had a very long way to go to get back up to the Academy.  I had never wanted a Dragon more than I did now.