The Darksield Chronicles

Chapter 12: Academy

Wraith POV

When he walked in through the doors, he nearly scared Volteer to death. "Gah!" Volteer jumped back in alarm. The other two guardians came running.

"Who are you?" Terrador demanded.

When Wraith replied, his voice was lower and slightly whispery. "I was recommended to look for you guardians since I wanted to enroll in the academy."

The guardians visibly relaxed. "If you want to enroll, then you will have to talk to Volteer. He can lead you to the academy and get you enrolled," Terrador replied.

Volteer stepped forward. "Before we go, may I have your name, young dragon?"

Wraith thought for a moment before deciding on the name he had picked out a long time ago when he had wanted to be a dragon. "Call me Darksield."

Volteer nodded. "Very well. Let us go to the academy." He then led the way out of the temple and into the city.

Darksield POV

Darksield and Volteer walked for about an hour in which Darksield told Volteer that his parents were killed in the war by Malefor. Volteer looked like he wanted to ask more questions, but before he could, they arrived at the academy. The academy looked somewhat like the temple, except it was smaller, and it had more open areas.

"Alright," Volteer said. "Let's go introduce you to that class over there." He pointed with a claw at a group of seven dragons, three of which, he knew. He saw Spyro, Cynder, and Flame sitting together working on something while the other four paired off.

Darksield noticed that two of the unknown dragons were boys, but the other two were girls. One of the girls was red; the other was green. One of the boys was brown, and the other was silver.

His gaze zeroed in on Cynder, and he watched as Cynder got up and walked over to a bucket filled with what looked like art supplies. She reached into the bucket and started moving things around, obviously looking for something. He noticed that she seemed to be holding herself away from a pair of blue dragons glaring at her from across the yard.

Darksield turned toward Volteer to see if he had noticed the same thing, but Volteer was busy talking to a blue dragoness roughly ten feet away from the group. Darksield guessed that Volteer was telling her about him and how he would like to become a student. His gaze returned to Cynder.

The two ice dragons were advancing toward her. "Hey, Cynder!" one of them called. "How is the Terror of the Skies doing?"

Cynder hunched over and didn't reply. Darksield glanced at Spyro and wondered if he was going to intervene. But Spyro was too far away, and the ice dragon had said it low enough that only Cynder could hear.

"Yeah," jeered the other one. "Kill any more innocents lately?"

Cynder's wings slumped and trembled with barely suppressed emotion.

Darksield felt rage billowing up inside him, and he teleported behind the ice dragons as they advanced on Cynder.

"What's wrong?" one of them asked nastily. "Did the heartless murderer finally grow a heart?"

That was it. Darksield walked up to the ice dragons and tapped them on their shoulders.

They turned. "What do you want?" one of them growled.

Darksield growled as well. "I am going to tell you once and once only. Leave. Her. Alone."

The ice dragons laughed as several other dragons arrived. "Or what? You can't take us both on."