The Dragon King

Fight or Flight

After breakfast, we walked to Creatures of War. Mr Allegro was waiting inside and nodded to us

"Amy, good to see you! How is the package?"

It took me a few minutes to work out which package he was referring too. We were all so used to Polly clucking about - according to the boys Polly has commandeered Electro's old bed.

"Um, good thank you sir!" I said cheerfully as we all took our seats. Thomas' Anchemi all walked in, covered in bruises. One guy even had his arm in a sling. Thomas was nowhere to be seen.

Stephen looked them over. "Wow! What happened to you guys?"

The biggest, beefiest and most likely stupidest looked up. He grunted.

I laughed. "Let me guess . . . . . A fight?"

The guy with the sling was the smallest of the bunch (although he was still about 3 of me) and he huffed as he flopped into his chair. The chair broke. And I mean, seriously broke. All four chair legs collapsed inwards and splinters flew everywhere. Luckily, school rules now dictated that we had to wear our armour incase the school was attacked.
Mr Allegro sighed. "Benson, stand up and take this mess to the bins by the kitchens,".

I who was arranging my 27 highlighters into colour and size - 5 of them were glitter highlighters looked up as he asked: "Have you got enough highlighters there Amy?"

I smiled as I whacked Barney's hand away from knocking one of the highlighters on the floor.

"Yes sir" I said meekly.

He chuckled. "And um Amy um how is your Anchemi?"

I looked at him. "It's good thank you sir. We learnt to fly and we use our element,".

He nodded as the rest of the class trickled in. "Good"

I looked at my Anchemi to find them smiling to each other. I glanced at the desk to find they had hidden the highlighters! As Mr Allegro started talking they handed them back to me and we all used them as we wrote notes on the Soulstealers and the Wraiths before moving onto new creatures.

"Firstly" Mr Allegro began, "Morphius Escucha. These nasty creatures will try to scan you and morph into your darkest fear or your most loved person. For example, what are you afraid of Ollie?" A mage, who sat at the back of the class, jumped:

"Um, heights I guess"

We all turned and stared at him. Most mages will join a dragon and their rider as a bodyguard of sorts. Only a very few did not. Stephen voiced my unspoken question: "so what are you going to do when you become bodyguard to a rider?"

The boy, Ollie sniffed. "I will not get on one of those stupid, ugly reptiles,". Considering that ten people in a class of fourteen were Dragon Riders and in their own Anchemi, he was a lot braver than me to say it. Never the less we all jumped up in anger.

"Enough!" Mr Allegro shouted. "Ollie, you ought to think about who you are speaking to before you say some comments. I as a matter of fact am the Rider of the Fire Dragon Effuscia. However, that has given to me a very good example. When the Morphius Escucha cannot morph into your fear because it is impossible, like yours Ollie - how would you turn into a scary height? Instead the creature will turn into the person you love most, like a parent or sibling, maybe even a girlfriend. For Dragon Riders it will most likely morph into your dragon, so accurately that you would not even be able to tell the difference between it and your own dragon".

My mind flicked to Liam. Would Phantom count as his person he loves most? Or would our father? For me it would be Electra. Things such as family appear to pale and lose importance when you have a dragon.

Mr Allegro continued. "To kill it, a simple blast of fire will obliterate it. And on that note, onto our next creature, Sarsians!".

I blanched. Adam looked at me curiously and mouthed "Are you ok?".

I nodded and looked away.

Mr Allegro changed the projector to an image of the Sarsians. A memory flickered:

A giant scorpion was approaching. It's eight legs were raven black  and they each made a funny clicking noise as they moved. It's pincers were big but not massive, meaning the sting would be far, far worse.

It's body was covered in plate like armour, which all overlapped and moved with the scorpion. It's sting was higher than me and glinted in the dim light. I raised my sword and the scorpion struck. I twisted around and swung my sword down. It hit the armour with a clack but just slid down the body. It launched itself at me and I leapt to the side, twisting round as it flew into the tree and landed on it's back it's legs wriggling grotesquely in the air. I raced forward and plunged my sword into the unprotected underside of the scorpion.

All of a sudden there was another crack and I flung myself to the side as a second scorpion flew at me, only to get roasted as Electra roasted it. The smell of burning, putrid meat filled the air.

"Amy,". Electra roared. "I think these are called Sarsians. They were once allied to the first Dragon King but when one of them killed a dragon, they were banished from his kingdom under the penalty of death and fled. When they were found in one of the forests, the King took pity on them and decided to let them live but he removed their ability to tactically think so they may never rise up against him.

If you recognise the flashback, it's from The Academy of Alactria. What do you think of The Dragon King so far?

Please comment and vote!

Whekim