Battle Scars | Book 1 (DISCONTINUED)

Ch. 2: Dragon Trainer?

It was late morning in the dragon training academy, where a group of young dragon trainers were having their daily class.

It wasn't exactly a peaceful day for the students so far.

"Gael, on your left!" Wendy, a girl with long blonde hair and grey eyes shouted to the black haired boy on the other side of the arena.

"Huh?" Gael looked over at her, not hearing what she'd said. He didn't see the outline of a figure crawling towards him, and was pulled out of the way just in time by a towering green Monstrous Nightmare before a blast of green acid hit him. The red Changewing materialized on the wall beside him, sizzling acid dripping from its mouth. It bit at Gael again, causing acid to fling onto his knee and singe his clothes, but the Nightmare carrying him yanked him away again and threw the opposing dragon onto its back with its tail before it could do any serious harm to the boy. Gael was then thrown onto its back.

The Nightmare's rider commanded it to attack, and a blast of fire hit near the Changewing's feet, causing it to scurry away and disappear once more.

"Thanks, Mishal!" Gael smiled at the boy on top of the Monstrous Nightmare's neck, who had spiky red hair and bright green eyes with a scar across his left cheek. Mishal rolled his eyes, his dragon grabbing Gael by the leg with its tail and throwing him onto the back of a purple Nadder.

"Jeez..." Gael grumbled, sending a glare Mishal's way. His frustrated expression disappeared however when he heard his dragon let out a happy squawk. He smiled at Scatterspine, scratching her under the chin. The Nadder perked up in surprise when she heard a scream come from nearby, and looked over to see a yellow Zippleback with two riders on each head, one clinging tightly to its neck in fear.

"Where- where did it go?!" Drew cried, glancing around frantically for the Changewing. "I don't wanna die!"

"We aren't gonna die, idiot!" his older sister Delanie shouted at him. The two could easily be mistaken for twins because not only were they only a year apart in age and were a similar height, they both had black hair with dark brown eyes. Drew's hair was about chin length while Delanie's reached all the way to her lower back. It would probably be much longer if it wasn't braided.

Wendy was standing side by side with a short chubby boy with dark skin and curly dark brown hair, a very agitated red Gronkle by his side. The albino Thunderdrum next to Wendy opened its giant mouth and sent out a high-pitched wave of sound, using its voice to locate the Changewing. Once it was done it swung its tail at the wall, hitting an invisible force that revealed itself to be the Changewing. While it was dazed, Mateo took this chance and climbed up onto the back of his dragon. The giant red Gronkle pinned the Changewing down with his front paws, receiving an angry hiss from the camouflaging troublemaker.

"We got him!" Mateo announced, patting his dragon's head.

"Good job Mateo," Gael said as he dismounted Scatterspine and walked over to the trapped Changewing. It hissed at him and disappeared, but they all knew it was still there. They could all see its faint but visible outline on the ground.

"Well, that could've gone better, but..." Astrid Hofferson walked into the arena after watching the students' training session. "Good job, nonetheless."

"We could've died..." Drew grumbled, leaning on his dragon's head. Criss nodded in agreement, while the Zippleback's other head, Cross, just rolled his eyes.

"What do we do with this Changewing?" Mateo asked. "Glum can't hold it down forever."

"Now that it's down, the next part of your training is trying to tame it!" Astrid announced, receiving surprised and frightened looks from the students. "Who wants to go first?"