COBALT: The Red Phantom (Book One)

Chapter 11: The Impossible Request

          Káel sat on his bed, the evening light pouring through his window in a washed pool of icy blue. Truvius disappeared again after supper, and Káel had been contemplating telling Vera about the strange room all the way to the boy's dorm. She was still unpredictable though, so he settled on saving the reveal for a time that felt right, if it ever came.

          Phantom had walked through the window to the outdoors, and Puff was sitting on the pillow beside him, licking the dirt and cobwebs out of his paws with his barbed, purple tongue. He'd gone back to being a fluffy dragon, rather than the scaled one he'd witnessed in the room, and Káel was too tired to think about how the dragon had done it.

          With a sigh of crushing boredom, he looked at the white envelope on his nightstand and grabbed it. He hadn't fully inspected its contents and was curious as to how it had gained its weight, relieved when the first thing he pulled out was a map of the entire building. After pouring out the pin and pen, it got significantly lighter, and just had the package of papers with the waiver form.

          He flipped to the back of the booklet, and looked at the empty signature line, a string of fine print catching his eyes. 

          If under the age of 20, a parental signature is required. 

          He chuckled at the line and grabbed his pen. "Good luck." 

          Bracing the page against his knee he scrawled his signature across the strange feeling paper, and the moment he lifted his pen the paper vanished in a shimmery light, causing the pen to slip away in his surprise. He still had another five years to tack on before he turned twenty, dragging his thoughts to linger on if that counted as fraud or not.

          Puff stopped his beauty bath and jumped down to attack the pen, snatching it up between his teeth and throwing it in the air. As it dented the floor with a messy landing, the pen rolled under the bed, causing Puff to flop onto his side trying to reach his fluffy paws under the frame. Káel watched emotionlessly as the dragon failed to shove its cuffed arm under the bed, then turned its attention to the metal restriction, gnawing at it ferociously.

          His fangs were getting dangerously close to his actual arm, forcing Káel to intervene and push his scrunched snout away from the metal. Puff bit at his sleeve in protest, latching onto his arm with a soft growl as he repeatedly missed kicking Káel's wrist. 

          "Hey..." Káel said softly, his voice spiking as Puff stuffed his hand in his mouth. "Hey!"

          The dragon flinched, his slitted eyes widening as he gave Káel's glare a muffled warble.

          "Let me look at that, ok?" He knelt down beside, sliding his slimy hand out of Puff's deceivingly large mouth so he could grab the cuff.

          Puff warbled questionably as Káel inspected every side of the contraption. It was shabby, caked in scrapes and rust, with a small yet prominent keyhole. 

          With something small enough I can get in there, Káel thought. 

          For once he wished he was back at school so he could grab a bobby pin from one of the girls and test out a tempting stereotype.

          "What are you doing?" Phantom snapped, a sufficient amount of shock lacing his voice as Káel jumped in surprise. 

          "Christ!" Káel's wide eyes squeezed to a squint with a bitter frown as he stared at Phantom, his head was sticking out of the wall in a way that would freak anyone out. "Could you stop sneaking up on me?"