Graced Feather

Challenge: Accepted

Dylan was wrong. Decontamination hurt. A whole fucking lot.

As the boy leads me through the halls again, in a different direction this time, I have to reel in my growls and snarls of annoyance and pain as I walk. Each time I put my foot down, hot-white pain shoots up my leg. Even whenever I swish my tail, pain crawls its way up my spine.

Dylan is silent again, just as he was when he came to get me after the smoke got sucked out of the room by vents. He found me on the floor, panting, gazing around like a wild, confused animal. Which I was.

I follow him around one more turn, and am met with an arch carved with dragons. Dylan walks under the arch as if nothing is wrong, but some instinct inside of me says to stay on this side of the stone curve.

Dylan glances back, and realizes that I haven't followed him. "Come on, Airela. Dinner's this way. No backing out now," he says. I shake my head and take a step back, eyes on the arch. Dylan glances up at it, then back down at me. "School stories say that a man named Carter enchanted the arch to ward off evil. Or those who do not belong here. He had help, though, from a species known as the drago alogo. They were magical beings from a distant land. Drago alogo means-"

"Dragon horses," I say, and Dylan stops. "Yes. Dragon horses. Beings capable to shape-shift from human form to animal form. Their legends state of griffins that harassed them. Tried to kill their kind. Maybe that's why you don't want to move past the arch. Maybe Carter's spell works."

Carter. Carter. Carter. The name bounces around in my head, and a sense of familiarity fills me at hearing the word. I don't know any Carters, though, so I have no clue why the name means so much to me.

I edge forward, but the instinct inside of me only flares brighter. I take another hesitant step forward, my legs flashing with pain, and see a small dragon near the base of the arch move. Yes, move.

I peer down at it, but it moves no more. I dart through the archway suddenly, as if someone had lit my tail on fire or pinched me. I look back, and see Dylan standing there, smirking. So, the little bastard had pinched me. Figures.

I growl at him, and turn to walk forward. Dylan runs to catch up to me as I elongate my stride into a gallop. The farther away I get from the archway, the less pain I feel. When we're at the doors for the dining hall, the pain is completely gone.

Dylan pushes open the doors, and all talk beyond them instantly ceases. I walk in, looking around, and see a set-up similar to that of Harry Potter.

Four long tables stretch the length of the hall, from the back wall to a raised dais. I see golden-eyed kids at one, heterochromatic-eyed at another, blue-pupiled ones at a third, and perfectly normal-looking ones at a fourth. They all turn to stare at me as I walk up the central aisle between the gold-eyed and the normal-looking people.

Everyone turns to stare at me as I walk by. Their eyes tracking me makes the fur along my spine stand up, and the feathers along my neck to prickle. I wrangle in a growl before it can leave my throat, but a glance from Dylan says that he heard the beginnings of it.

Up on the dais stands two long tables, one to either side of a large silver podium that shines with a blue light. Behind the podium stands the man, who gazes down at me with greatly masked distaste and hatred. Eris sits at one of the tables, gaze on me. Thanatos sits at the other table, his gaze on Dylan.

We stop in front of the podium. Dylan bows to the man, then nudges my side when I do not do so. I simply stand and stare at the man, refusing to bow. "You refuse to bow to your elder and your leader. Why?" the man asks, folding his hands on the podium.