DARRAGH: DRAGON ARDEN ERIMITIS
Copyright © 2018, 2020, 2023, 2025. Fourth Edition — 2025. All Rights Reserved. First Edition published 2018. Second Edition published 2025. Third Edition published 2023. Fourth Edition published 2025. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any for, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information browsing, storage, or retrieval system, without permission in writing from Arden Erimitis. Cover Design: Esthe Hiraya ISBN 978-1-257-92471-4
I “Once upon a time, there was a young Trihorn Snapper…” The driver of the squirrel-drawn carriage projected his voice, making it possible for his passenger to hear every detail as he steered his team of squirrels up the last leg of a steep hill. “No, no, no. Start from when I was an egg. From when you found me by the river.” His passenger poked her scaly magenta head through the carriage window, careful not to scratch the intricately designed pane with her horns. The young earthbound drakaina beamed around the side of the carriage at the thickset gnome sitting in the driver’s seat. Known by his friends as Carrick Gaelen and by his loved ones as Da, the cheery-eyed gnome toyed with his graying beard and directed the carriage over a wooden bridge. Carrick cleared his throat and continued. “Once upon a time—” “No, no. Da! Start over in that deep, silly voice you do when you tell the story. That’s the best part.” Carrick glanced over his shoulder and beamed at the grinning dragon. “Once upon a time . . .” The words boomed out in an exaggerated manner, causing the dragon to giggle profusely. “Better?” She nodded and rested her chin in her upturned palm, watching the scenery pass as Carrick drove the carriage along a switchback forest trail. “Better.” “Once upon a time, there was an egg.” He settled more firmly into his seat. “Not an ordinary egg either, for neither robin nor bluebird would dare bring this egg into its own nest. It was a lone dragon egg, dropped on the bank of the Crescent Call River—” “Why do they call it that anyway?” she asked.
“Dragon! I thought you wanted me to actually tell the story,” Carrick said in his normal voice. “You’re right. You’re right. Sorry. Continue.” Dragon’s head bobbed back and forth as they dodged an exceptionally large cluster of boulders on the trail. “Ahem. Now where was I?” “Dropped on the bank of the Crescent Call River,” she said. “Right. Dropped on the bank of the—” “But was I really dropped? I mean, the mountain isn’t right there. It’s more like I was washed down-stream from the Purple Crested Mountains, right?” Carrick sat silent. “Sorry, sorry. I keep interrupting.” “It’s okay, love. I’m really glad you want to hear the story. Seems lately you haven’t wanted to.” “Sometimes it’s hard to talk about,” she said quietly. “Plus, I’m a little nervous. The story helps.” “I know, love. I know.” He reached back and patted the top of her scaly magenta head. “It’s a big day. Being nervous is perfectly normal.” Carrick guided his team of squirrels around the final bend to the towering stone entrance of the schoolyard. “Speaking of, here we are!” He pulled the carriage to a full stop in a sunny spot on the edge of the large school grounds. Dragon unlatched the carriage door and thrust it open. Nervous anticipation fluttered in her stomach as she glanced up at the ornate lettering of the sun-speckled sign above them. Her wide violet eyes dilated as she took the words in. Breezemaple Academy for Gifted Learners. Carrick leaned back in the driver’s seat. “You want me to finish the story?”
Dragon balked. The knot in her stomach had jumped to the back of her throat, which made it impossible for her to offer any sort of audible response. She wondered if she was indeed gifted enough to be a student at her new school. “You’ll do fine today, kiddo,” Carrick assured. She shot a sideways glance at her adoptive father, who was busy steadying the squirrels in their harnesses. They were clearly unsettled by being that close to a school full of magical, and quite possibly carnivorous, creatures. “Da?” Her voice squeaked with insecurity. Carrick turned in his seat and gave her a knowing look. “Dragon, I promise things will be all right.” He hitched himself out of his seat and walked over to Dragon. Gazing up at her, he hugged her leg tenderly. “I wish Annalene were here. And Ma.” Dragon stared down at his small hand, only slightly bigger than her talon. A sudden awareness of their differences washed over her, making her even more withdrawn and insecure. “They wished they could be here too, but you know how things are in Mossbark Acres today. It’s all hands on deck.” Carrick and Dragon had made the long trip from the Gaelens’ cozy home in Mossbark Acres, a bustling and friendly neighborhood in Gnome Colony, which lay south of campus. Gnome Colony was one of several colonies of charmed and magical folk in Darragh, a land as vast and varied as the many creatures who inhabited it. And today was a special day in Gnome Colony, a day when the gnome community banded together to observe the annual Great Rebuild. Aestivus had recently ended, taking with it the worst of the seasonal storms that devastated the land south of the Purple Crested Mountains of Dragon Colony. In its wake, the optimistic gnomes addressed the destruction left behind with an unyielding, cheerful attitude and strategy. Through
dedication and comradery, the gnomes never failed to pave a way back to peace and harmony. Dragon shook the tension from her shoulders. “I’m really glad Gnome Colony didn’t get hit hard this year.” “Maith be good to us, it’s been pretty mild these past eight years. Nothing like when we first found you near the river. Poor little thing, not even hatched in your tattered old nest.” Carrick’s chestnut-colored eyes twinkled playfully. “Makes me wonder if you coming along didn’t have something to do with our lack of storms.” “Oh, come on, Da,” Dragon said, swatting the idea away with one hand. “I can’t make storms go away.” Carrick sighed. “You and Annalene are getting way too big. Seems like just yesterday you were—” His voice choked off. Dragon gazed out at the expansive schoolyard. “I can’t believe it’s been eight turns around the sun already. I miss being smaller. Remember how I used to spend so much time with you, Ma, and Annalene in the house? I miss that.” “I do too, kiddo, but you need your space to grow. We don’t want to hold you back.” Carrick jerked his thumb toward the school campus. “That’s a big reason why we enrolled you here. It’s high time you got to know your peers.” Dragon nudged him gently with her knuckle, her deep-set violet eyes bright with nostalgia. “You remember how Annalene and I used to play Gnomes and Dragons?” “Oh, that darling hat Ma made for you!” Carrick could hardly stifle his chuckles. “And Annalene’s dragon costume!” Dragon giggled giddily. Carrick laughed as he wiped away happy tears. “Those were truly wonderful days.” Dragon looked down at him, her own eyes misty with tears. “Thank you.”
Carrick cocked his head. “For what, love?” “For you, Ma, and Annalene helping me to fit in. I never told you, but doing those things . . . making me a gnome hat and encouraging Annalene to play with me in a dragon costume . . . I’ll never forget that.” “Oh, honey. She would have played in that costume whether or not we suggested it, that’s for sure. She loved it, and she loved playing with you. You two were inseparable.” Dragon cast a glance at the large white stone building that lay beyond the gate, looking more like a whimsical castle than a school. “What if they don’t like me?” Dragon asked self-consciously. “What’s not to love? You have the biggest heart! And you’re kind as can be. Trust me, everyone will be fighting hand over fist to be your friend. They’d be silly not to.” A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Really?” “Really,” he assured. “Well, I hope so. Gnomes seem to like me all right, at least,” she muttered to herself encouragingly. “Listen, kiddo. You’re in good hands. Professor Culpepper—he’s a good friend of mine. He’ll make sure you’re okay. Plus, this school has been recommended by Elder Greenwood. You trust him, don’t you?” Dragon took a moment to consider her Da’s words. “I guess you’re right.” “And after your first day—which, of course, will be an awesome first day, right?” He nudged her leg playfully with his elbow. “There’s the feast at the celebration in Gnome City tonight! “Much to be excited about, Dragon. It’s a new day. A new school. A new start.” Dragon’s anxiety started to melt away. “But how can you be sure I’ll have a good day?” He smiled up at the shining sun. “I feel it in my bones, Dragon. You’ll see.”
“Promise?” she asked, skeptical. “Promise.” He drew an X over his chest to secure his promise before walking back to the front of the carriage. “Now, let’s get this thing parked and you to the office. There’s still some paperwork I need to fill out before you head to your first class.” He grabbed the reins and waited patiently for Dragon to shut the carriage door. Dragon sat back in her seat and jammed her eyes shut, doing what she could to settle her rattled nerves. The carriage rocked and swayed as Carrick directed the squirrels to take a sharp right, increasing the queasiness of Dragon’s already upset stomach. She jolted upright the second they crossed through the entrance gate. Excitement tingled all the way to her talons as they headed up the gravel driveway. Something had shifted. Something unseen and electric hung in the air, as if the school itself had a captivating charge to it. Dragon leaned out the carriage and took in her surroundings. She spotted a team of gardeners tending to the pristinely manicured shrubbery and brightly colored trees. Only slightly taller than Carrick, the small worker creatures tended the landscaped lawn with great focus. Carrick tipped his hat to what appeared to be the group’s manager. “Morning, Pimley!” “G’day, Carrick. Blessings to you and yours.” “Greatest Good be with you as well.” Dragon gently nudged Carrick. “Pimley?” she asked in a hushed voice, eyeing the creature who was smiling and waving directly at her. “He’s from Fae Colony. A hobgoblin.” “Fae?” Her brow knit together. “Shouldn’t he have wings, then?” “It’s complicated there. Let’s simply say, at one point, he did.” Carrick took a quick swig of berry juice from the earthen mug at his side before tightening his grip on the reins.
Dragon kept her gaze on the workers. “Did? As in they fell off or something?” “They get removed.” “Removed?” Dragon gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth. “That’s horrible!” Carrick whipped around in his seat to face her. “Hush, Dragon! They’ll hear you,” he hissed, lowering his voice. “Yes. Removed.” “As in, plucked-off removed?” Dragon’s face contorted in disgust. “Never mind that.” Carrick turned around and focused his gaze on the gravel drive ahead. “It’s not right to gossip. We have other things to attend to. More important things.” Dragon grimaced guiltily and leaned back in her seat. “Sorry.” Carrick pulled the carriage to a stop near the entrance of the school’s smaller wooden stable and hopped out of the driver’s seat. Unhitching the team of squirrels, he led them into the stable to get their fill of food and water after the long trip. As he disappeared inside, he called Dragon over to join him. “Dragon! Bring the food here, dear?” “Sure thing, Da.” Dragon carried the bag of leftovers from the carriage and tipped it into an empty trough. Several of the squirrels scurried over to gobble down the vegetable scraps as the others rushed to lap up mouthfuls of cool spring water from the adjacent trough. Once the feed bag was empty, Dragon folded it in half and handed it to Carrick. “Is that what Amika is, then? A hobgoblin?” Carrick shot her a warning look. “What?” “I told you we were done with that.” “But I mean . . .”
Carrick inhaled sharply and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He took off his pointed red cap and set it on the ground, tugging his stubby fingers through his sweat-dampened salt-and-pepper hair. “Dragon. Of course she’s not a hobgoblin. Whatever gave you that impression?” “I don’t know. She doesn’t have wings either?” Dragon shrugged and shied away from his gaze. “No, Dragon. Your friend is not a hobgoblin.” “My friend?” Dragon exclaimed, quite put off by the idea. “She’s Annalene’s friend. Seems like they’re best friends, even,” Dragon muttered grudgingly. Carrick patted one of the squirrels on the head. “You don’t like Amika?” “It’s not that I don’t like her. It’s more to do with how much time Annalene spends with her.” “Because you used to have her all to yourself?” Dragon smiled and squirmed. “Maybe . . .” “It’s perfectly okay for your sister to have friends. Amika is a sweet fae. I don’t know why you don’t like her more.” “I miss my sister, is all,” she said under her breath. Then she shook the brief twinge of sadness off, refusing to let it take over her entire day. “She’s not a hobgoblin, then? Why doesn’t she have wings?” “Like I said, it’s complicated in Fae Colony. And impolite to talk about others when they’re not present.” “But . . . I’m not trying to gossip. I’m trying to understand—” “Dragon. Leave it, please.” Dragon dropped her gaze and clutched her arms behind her back, kicking the small pebbles at her feet. “Okay.” Carrick dotingly patted the squirrels’ heads before heading toward the walkway. Dragon hung back, still stung by his sharp tone. He turned around and waved her over. “You coming?”
“Yes, Da. Coming.” Dragon walked reluctantly toward him. Leaning over, she gently scooped him up off the white brick walkway and placed him near the crook of her neck, where he could sit on her shoulder. The tip of his fuzzy red cap tickled the side of her cheek, causing her to squirm a little. “Steady, Dragon,” Carrick said as he settled into his sitting spot. Dragon followed the path to the south-side entrance. She paused before taking hold of the handle, unsure what was waiting for her on the other side of the door. Would Breezemaple live up to its praise? Would it be like Gnome Colony, where Dragon had been welcomed and included as a well-loved member of the community? Gnomes were very agreeable creatures, but what about dragonkind? Not to mention, everyone else who lived beyond the friendly borders of Gnome Colony. “What is it?” Carrick asked as Dragon peered up, nearly stumbling backward from the dizzying massiveness of the tall building. A morass of emotions and unanswered questions flooded her head. Dragon shrugged. “I . . . I’m not used to being the small one in a new place, is all.” Carrick chuckled. “Too late to turn back now,” he teased. Dragon gulped audibly. “Hey, kiddo. It’s a joke. Take a deep breath, okay? Everything will be fine.” “Everything will be fine,” she echoed, attempting to force enthusiasm through gritted teeth. She took several quick breaths and grabbed the brass handle. “Here we go,” Carrick said. “Ready or not.” Dragon tugged open the heavy door and stepped inside.
II “My stars! Carrick Gaelen. What a pleasant surprise!” A cherub-faced gnome, close in age to Carrick, greeted them as Dragon stepped inside the stuffy administration office. Carrick quickly tipped his pointed red cap, the traditional greeting between gnomes. “Greatest Good, Odelia. How have you been?” Odelia pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and squinted up at Dragon through thick lenses. Dragon stifled a giggle. The glasses took up most of Odelia’s face, and through them, her eyes appeared at least three times their original size. “Why, you were such a tiny, little thing, last I saw you.” She beamed up at Dragon, her tight strawberry curls swishing back and forth energetically. Dragon had a hard time believing she had once been smaller than the gnome, for even propped up on the stool behind her desk, Odelia hardly came up to the middle of Dragon’s scaly belly. Dragon leaned in closer to get a better look at the design carved into the wood that Odelia stood upon. “Is that a toad?” “Why yes!” Odelia exclaimed. “It is a toad, indeed! Odelia wagged her forefinger playfully at Dragon. “Which would make this a bona fide toad stool!” The overly cheerful gnome chuckled loudly and slapped the desktop in amusement. “It’s nice.” Dragon smiled uncomfortably and turned away from Odelia’s overwhelmingly bubbly presence. “Did someone from the colony carve that, Da?” Dragon asked as she set Carrick on the desk beside a visitor’s logbook. Odelia butted in before Carrick could get in a reply. “Why Elder Greenwood, himself! This was one of his original designs. I believe your Da
was in that very Wood Carving 101 class with him when he was still a professor, weren’t you, Carrick dear?” Carrick straightened his round framed glasses on his face and flashed a warm smile. “I haven’t thought of those days in ages.” He chuckled to himself. “That was a delightful class, but I was terrible back then. I’m glad I’ve learned how to make something decent these days.” Odelia gasped. “Decent? Why you’ve won at least second place for the ice carving contest last Albonix, the boat carving contest in Aestivus, and I’m sure you’re set to win tonight at the pumpkin carving contest!” She adamantly counted her list of facts off on her stubby fingers. “I’m actually sitting this one out tonight. Today’s a big day for my girl and I want to make sure she has my undivided attention.” He smiled up at Dragon after scribbling his signature on a blank entry in the book. “Well, isn’t that just the Greatest Good? What an amazing Da you have, Dragon!” Odelia’s wide, cheerful smile stretched across her broad, freckled face. “Is the Elder in? After signing the rest of the paperwork for Dragon, I have a few questions I wanted to run by him, if he has time, of course.” “Oh, sugar snaps! The paperwork! The paperwork!” She pounded both her small, plump fists on the desktop. “How silly of me! I’ve plumb forgotten your student file.” Odelia nearly toppled off the narrow stool she was barely balancing on. “Is Odelia always this . . . energetic?” Dragon whispered as she leaned down to transfer Carrick from the desk to the visitors’ bench. Odelia’s coworker—a tight-lipped, lanky sphinx who’d remained quiet until then—chuckled darkly to herself as she sorted through handfuls of papers. Carrick raised a disapproving eyebrow, glancing between Dragon and the sphinx. Odelia, however, didn’t seem to have noticed either Dragon’s comment or her coworker’s amusement at her expense. “Let me pop right on in and see if
Elder Greenwood is available for a chat. Would you mind waiting a smidge? I’ll have to scoot around back and grab that file as well.” She disappeared behind the desk as she hopped off her toad-adorned stool. Dragon could only tell which direction she headed by the sound of her waddling footsteps and joyful humming. “Well?” Carrick asked, his eyes fixed on her face with anticipation. Dragon gave the office a searching glance. “Well what?” “So, what do you think?” Dragon’s brow arched. “About the administration office?” Carrick made a face. “No, silly. You know what I mean. What do you think about the school?” Dragon made her way back to the office door and pulled it open. “Odelia seems nice.” She popped her head out through the crack of the doorway and scanned the quiet hallway. “Seems easy to get lost around here.” Carrick smiled reassuringly. “It is a big school, for sure. There’s nothing like this in Gnome Colony. And it’s probably the busiest place you’ve ever been, outside Gnome City during the Great Rebuild.” Dragon quickly shut the door and took a seat near Carrick. Swinging her feet back and forth restlessly, she eyed the sphinx. The administrative assistant was dressed in a worn cornflower colored cardigan, as drab as the expression on her face. Dragon could only stare, enthralled by the expansive wings that hung limply on the sphinx’s back— they were each nearly twice as long as Dragon was tall and colored a dingy white, as if the office assistant had brushed against too many dusty bookshelves in her life. Dragon leaned down toward Carrick. “I never thought I’d get to meet a sphinx in person, Da!” “Oh, you’d be surprised who you’ll see wandering these halls.” “But she seems really different from all the books you’ve shown me.” Suddenly, the sphinx scowled at Dragon, apparently having sensed her audience as she scratched an itch through the bun piled atop her head.
Dragon averted her gaze, grateful that it had been the cheerful gnome who had greeted them, rather than this cranky lady. “I haven’t seen any dragons yet. I’m not the only one, am I?” “No, no. Of course not,” Carrick assured. “Dragons primarily attend classes in the West End of the school.” “The West End? Where are we, then?” “The South End. Here, you’ve got your administrative offices. Teachers’ offices. Auditorium. Mostly functional spaces. The actual classrooms and library are in the other areas of the campus.” Dragon’s brow crinkled in concern. “Don’t worry.” Carrick smiled and patted her on the leg. “Odelia will get you a map.” “You’ll get a map and your assigned books!” Odelia’s boisterous voice called from behind a large stack of tomes, which bobbed up toward the desktop on a hanging platform. The books jerked up and down as Odelia energetically tugged on the rope of a pulley. “Agnes!” Odelia called, her voice strained. The books swayed and trembled as Odelia struggled to keep the stack from toppling back to the floor. The grouchy sphinx slowly looked up from her work. “Sweet basil, Agnes!” Odelia cried. “Help me, please!” Agnes muttered under her breath and shuffled over, giving the books a quick nudge with her forepaw to push them onto the desktop. Grumbling, she trudged broodily back to her chair and glared at the remaining boxes of work at her feet. “My stars! What a workout! Glad you’ll be doing all the heavy lifting to read those textbooks.” Odelia laughed a little too loudly at her own awful joke as she settled back on her stool. “Carrick my dear, you are in luck! Elder Greenwood said he had an opening come available right before lunch. An unexpected cancellation. Should I pencil you in?” Carrick tipped his cap graciously. “If you would, Odelia.”
Odelia stuck the tip of her tongue out the corner of her mouth and scribbled Carrick’s name in dainty writing. “There you have it! Officially on the books!” Odelia giggled, causing her curls to dance back and forth around her face. “Now! Dragon! Let’s get that paperwork taken care of.” She looked around her desk and then gaped. “My stars! Where has it gotten to? I just had it.” She lifted the sign-in book, the appointment book, and almost fell off her stool trying to peer over the other side of the desk. “Is it over there with you, Dragon?” Both Carrick and Dragon shook their heads and shrugged. Agnes cleared her throat and pointed at the floor with one claw. There, sprawled halfway between her left hindfoot and Odelia’s stool, was the fallen file. “Oh, goodness! Would you look at that? It’s trying to escape!” Odelia giggle-snorted. “Agnes, would you be a dear?” Agnes slowly looked up and growled. If looks could kill! Odelia only gestured at the folder on the ground and batted her eyes. “Oh, Agnes. Don’t be such a grump. We don’t want to give this little one a bad first impression, do we?” Agnes’s unibrow pulled together into a funny-looking M shape. “You’re closer,” she croaked. Odelia forced a saccharine smile. Glancing at Carrick and Dragon, she held up a stubby pointer finger. “One sec.” She disappeared again in a flash as she hopped down to retrieve the folder. Grunting noisily, she hoisted herself and the folder back up onto the stool. Once there, she took a moment to catch her breath, her face flushed from the effort. “Here you go, my dear.” Pulling a kerchief from a drawer, she pushed the file across the desk to Dragon. Carrick walked across the desktop to inspect
the contents of the folder. Odelia handed him a quill and inkpot to scribe his signature in the necessary blanks, then began to mop her flushed face. “So . . . Dragon!” Odelia looked Dragon up and down and grinned from ear to ear, propping her chin atop her clasped hands. The sparkle in her cerulean eyes made them look like bright, shimmering jewels. “Did you know Breezemaple is one of the highest accredited schools in all the land? We have a tremendous faculty! Representatives from every colony in Darragh, in fact.” She glanced at the page Carrick was now signing. “Ah, yes. These references, Carrick! Such generosity! But you know us gnomes.” Agnes gagged, causing Dragon to giggle. “Dragon!” “Sorry, Da.” Dragon gathered up her books. Overwhelmed by the weight of the stack, she staggered over to the bench and set them down with a huff. “Don’t mind her, dear. You are most welcome here. Elder Greenwood is beside himself with excitement that you’ll be joining us. I do hope you find it to be the finest education the land can offer.” She leaned forward and whispered to Carrick, “Much better than that Windraine’s School for Winged Savants.” She sniffed haughtily. “Bunch of snobs, if you ask me.” “Nobody asked you, Odelia,” Agnes muttered. Odelia huffed and flashed a forced smile at Dragon. Dragon returned the smile shyly. “Well, I wouldn’t be able to attend that school anyway, right?” Odelia’s smile tightened. “Pardon?” “I said—” Dragon cleared her throat. “I wouldn’t be able to attend a school for winged savants since I don’t have wings.” The entire room froze in awkward silence. Odelia’s cheeks flushed pink as she scrambled to put the stack of paperwork back into the folder. Agnes snorted, and Odelia shot her a stern look. “Oh, my dear. I do apologize. I meant no offense.”
“It’s fine. I’m not upset. There are plenty of creatures with wings”—Dragon gestured to Agnes—“and creatures without.” She pointed to herself, Carrick, and then Odelia. “You’re absolutely right!” Odelia said, her voice jumping two octaves higher. Dragon shot Carrick a funny look. He nodded. “It’s about time we get you to class, Dragon.” Carrick turned and tipped his cap to Odelia and again to Agnes, who grunted in reply. “Thank you again, Odelia, for your help and hospitality. Would you please tell Elder Greenwood I’ll be right back? I want to walk Dragon to the courtyard to send her off.” Dragon picked Carrick up and gently placed him on her shoulder once more. “Oh, but you mustn’t run off yet!” Odelia cried. “You’ll be getting an official tour of Breezemaple!” Dragon stopped in her tracks. “A tour of Breezemaple?” “Yes! Your tour guide should be on his way right now.” Odelia could hardly contain her excitement. She seemed much more excited than Dragon, and Dragon was the new student! Dragon turned her head slightly and nudged Carrick with her cheek. “Can you come with me, Da?” “A tour? Hmm. What do you think, Odelia? Do I have time to go with them?” “I think you should be okay to tour the South End. Anything past that might be pushing it.” Carrick frowned. “The South End? There’s not really much to look at, outside of more offices.” “There’s the auditorium,” Agnes interjected.
“Yes. There is the auditorium.” Carrick met Dragon’s pleading gaze. He smiled and ran a hand over the delicate ridges of Dragon’s face. “But I was really looking forward to seeing what Dragon thought of the library.” Dragon flicked her gaze from Carrick to Odelia. “Library?” Before Odelia could reply, the office door swung open, and in walked a strange creature who stood no taller than the visitors’ bench, where Dragon’s stack of books sat. “Rainlock!” Odelia bubbled joyfully. “We’ve been waiting for you!” The sleepy-eyed turtle-like creature trotted over and reached up to place a dwarf crabapple in front of the giddy gnome. “What a delight!” Odelia picked up the tart fruit with both hands to inspect it. “How did you know they were my favorite? It’s perfect for a new batch of jams.” Dragon stared at Rainlock. Was he supposed to be another dragon? With his feathery shell as white as the first snow? Dragon inspected the odd creature with great intrigue. And he had wings? “Good day, Odelia. Agnes.” Tufts of pale teal hair bobbed back and forth as Rainlock offered them each a quick nod before nudging a second crabapple in Agnes’s direction. Dragon couldn’t tell if it was a snarl or a smile that the sphinx offered as thanks for the unexpected gift. Crabapple. That’s fitting. Rainlock toddled over to greet Carrick and Dragon. “Sir. Miss.” Rainlock extended his stubby wings and did a funny half bow, half curtsy. Dragon couldn’t help but giggle. He was an awkward little thing, whatever he was. Rainlock glanced Dragon up and down. His gaze trained on Carrick, where he sat on Dragon’s shoulder, and his face lit up with a goofy grin. “I assume you’re Dragon?” Rainlock said, his grin widening.
Carrick and Dragon exchanged a confused look. Odelia guffawed behind them, and Rainlock snickered. “Oh, you’re—I get it. It’s a joke.” Carrick slapped his knee to humor Rainlock. “Rainlock Greenclaw, at your service.” Rainlock gave Carrick and Dragon an awkward salute and bowed again. “All jokes aside, are you ready to get the grand tour of the place?” Dragon glanced wearily at the large stack of bulky books to her left. “Ah! Yes! Not to worry,” Rainlock said, as if reading her mind. “I’ve got the perfect place to keep those until we get to your classroom.” He tugged on a strap across his left shoulder, revealing the smallest of leather satchels. Dragon raised an eyebrow. “My books will fit in there? But how? I mean, look at them. They’re much too big.” “Don’t be fooled. This satchel is quite the trickster. Wait and see.” Pulling it from his shoulders, Rainlock reached into the satchel, which was not much bigger than the palm of his hand. Mumbling under his breath, he dug around for a bit and then pulled his arm out, revealing a handful of bright, colorful flowers. “Aha! Agnes, your desk could use some cheer.” Rainlock dug his other hand in the bag and pulled out the dazzling tip of a lightning bolt. Odelia gasped. “Rainlock! Not inside the school!” “Not to worry. I simply grabbed the wrong thing.” He quickly shoved his hand back in, creating a thunderous rumble as he jammed the lightning bolt back into the cramped space. “Yes. This is it.” He slowly removed a tall glass vase that was nearly three times the length of the satchel, careful not to spill any of the fresh water inside. Plopping the handful of flowers into the vase, he set them on the counter next to Agnes’s workspace. There was definitely a snarl on her face now.
Rainlock swirled around and beckoned to Dragon with one hand. “Now, then. Give those here.” Dragon handed over one of the thickest tomes in her stack, a book that was almost half as thick as Rainlock’s jutted out gut. She was curious to see how he would accomplish getting the book in his bag. “Ah. Draconian Legends. A fantastic read.” Rainlock lifted the flap of his satchel, stuck the corner of the book inside, and attempted to push the book in. It hardly moved an inch. Dragon chuckled. “Hmm.” Rainlock readjusted the book in his hand and attempted to stuff it in again, spine first this time. His face flushed with embarrassment when his satchel refused to give way to the large tome. “Well, then. Perhaps you’re right. Might be a bit too big.” He set the heavy book on the ground and drummed his chin with his claws. “Could it be because it’s too big compared to the outside of the bag?” Carrick stood up and leaned over to glance inside the open satchel. He had to hold on to one of Dragon’s neck spines to keep from falling completely off his perching spot. “On the outside? The outside?” Rainlock’s face brightened. “Of course! Mr. Gaelen! Brilliant! How silly of me.” “You can call me Carrick, Rainlock. That’s perfectly acceptable.” “Well, Carrick.” Rainlock reached nearly his entire arm into the bag this time. “You’re absolutely right. We have to shrink the book down before we can stuff it into the bag.” “Shrink it down?” Dragon whispered to Carrick, who shrugged. Rainlock pulled out three more items—a green-beaded abacus, a handful of red-and-yellow-striped parachute, and what looked to be a shadow—before reaching down to the bottom of the bag for the precise item he was searching for.
“Almost there . . .” He grimaced and grunted and grabbed around a bit more. “Aha!” A huge grin spread across Rainlock’s face as he removed the item he was looking for: a burgundy drawstring bag made of velvety material, intricately embroidered with silver thread. “This should do the trick.” “Another bag?” Dragon said skeptically. “Well, yes, of course another bag! This type of bag comes in all shapes and sizes. Some larger. Some smaller. We can fit your books in here . . .” He held up the cloth pouch in one hand. “And then put this bag into the first bag.” Rainlock gave the open satchel a bit of a jiggle with his free hand. “Is that unicorn hair?” Agnes stood on her hind legs and leaned on the countertop. Rainlock beamed. Even Agnes was enthralled with the mysterious thing. “The thread? Oh, most likely. A nice dose of a little bit of everything to give it just the right kick. Unicorn hair. Mermaid scales. Even tail of dragon.” Dragon gulped and took a step back. “Really? Tail of dragon?” “Naw, I’m only pulling your talon. Not sure what makes this thing tick, really. But I wouldn’t put it past the designer to have used a bit o’ hair of unicorn.” “Fascinating! Where does one find such a bag?” Carrick’s eyes lit up with excitement. Rainlock clicked his tongue. “One must never reveal his secrets.” He grinned playfully. “Truth be told, I wish I had a secret to reveal. The elders actually gave them to me. As a gift. A thank you for all the years I’ve served as the Breezemaple tour guide.” Odelia nodded rigorously. “Rainlock is the best.” Rainlock tugged the drawstring of the second bag loose and started stuffing the large stack of books easily inside, one by one. “See? Much better fit in here.”
Once the last of the books had been placed inside, Rainlock gave the cloth pouch a quick shake. Dragon expected to hear the bulky books thunk against each other, but the pouch remained flimsy, apparently completely empty. “That’s amazing!” “Isn’t it, though?” He rolled up the limp cloth bag and tucked it back into his satchel, clicking the flap’s locks into place and patting it three times for good measure. Dragon’s jaw dropped. “Shall we, then?” Rainlock asked and waddled toward the office door.
III “To the left, we have Elder Fairmind’s office. She coordinates all the wellness programming for new and troubled students. You’ll most likely see her in the next few weeks to help get you adjusted to the new place.” Rainlock padded along, pointing this way and that as he showed them the last of the closed offices on the first floor. Her Da had been right: there truly wasn’t much to tour in the South End. The long dim hallways weren’t much to look at— a staff portrait here or there, but not much else. Dragon did her best to stay attentive and not zone out, completely bored. “Will there be dragons in all my classes?” Her voice echoed down the hallway as they came to a stop in front of a pair of ornate doors. Rainlock nodded. “At first, yes. We want to let you sink into your settings one talon at a time.” He held up his hands and wiggled his sharp claws. Carrick gestured to the doors in front of them, pulling Dragon out of her daze. “The auditorium?” “Indeed!” Rainlock gave Carrick a nod of approval. “Notice the designs in the woodwork of the doors? Gnome Colony’s finest added those touches. Took years to actually have the things built, though. Lots of bureaucratic back and forth across three lineages of elders before they could agree on adding it to the campus. Three! Can you believe that?” Dragon nodded, pretending to follow along. “They had big plans for this space originally. But now it’s primarily used as a place for schoolwide presentations, as well as the upper-level elective courses. Provides the best space for mixed classes.” “Mixed classes?” Dragon asked. “Oh, you know. Room for tall and small alike to
fit and interact. Wouldn’t want centaurs stompin’ and clompin’ all over the fae, now would we?” “Oh. Well, that’s kind of cool.” She inspected the intricately carved doorway with new respect. “Elders like to use the auditorium for their meeting space. Some say it’s because they like the acoustics, while others say they use it because they like the sound of their own voices . . .” Rainlock chuckled uncomfortably. “Of course, those are only rumors.” He pressed his ear against the door and listened. “Ah! We’re in luck! There’s a class in session right now.” He flashed them a grin. When he spoke next, his voice was softer. “Now, we must peek in quietly. Don’t want to cause too much hubbub.” Rainlock cleared his throat and quickly tugged open one of the doors. A group of diverse students sat in the first three rows as their professor towered over them onstage. The professor’s voice washed over them as they caught the middle of her lecture. “That was when the Enchanteds first came into contact with the human realm. Now mind you, due to their dwindling levels of imagination and common sense, humans are quickly being considered for the Unfortunates List . . .” The professor paused and peered across the half-empty auditorium toward the door, looking quite perturbed. “Can I help you?” “Pardon us, madam! I wasn’t aware there was a class being held here. We’re simply showing a new student the campus. We’ll be off, then.” The entire class craned their necks around to stare at the unexpected guests, more than half of them looking quite relieved at the interruption. Rainlock quickly ushered Dragon and Carrick out, awkwardly shuffling through the auditorium doors. “Let’s move onward, shall we? Next stop, the cafeteria.”
“What class was that?” Dragon asked Carrick as Rainlock shuffled ahead, never glancing back to see if they were even following. “I think it was How to Train a Human 101.” “How to Train Your what?” “Well, you know, ideas and speculations on what would happen if we were to ever cohabitate with humans,” Carrick answered matter-of-factly. “Which, of course, we know will never happen.” “Right . . .” He tapped her shoulder, near where he sat. “Come on, then. Let’s catch up.” “Do you do this all year?” Carrick asked. He clutched tightly to Dragon’s neck as she headed up the last set of stairs. “Or do you teach at all?” “Goodness, no!” Rainlock answered. “I’m a tailor by trade. Started out learning under my father’s father, Starleaf Greenclaw. Back then, everyone called him Stitch. We turtledoves are quite handy with our claws. They’re great for weaving and knitting, as well as tearing stitches out. My father’s father suited the best and brightest in all the land.” Carrick glanced up and caught Dragon yawning. He poked her gently to get her to stop. “Sorry,” Dragon whispered. “For someone with such a cool satchel, I thought Rainlock would be more interesting.” “Don’t be rude, Dragon. He’s taking time out of his busy schedule to show us around. Keep that yawning up, and I’ll go get Agnes to finish the tour.” Dragon laughed and gently nuzzled him with her cheek, careful not to knock him off her shoulder.
“As for this,” Rainlock continued, “we don’t get that many new students. Mostly at the beginning of a term.” “Only once a year, then?” Carrick asked. “There are two terms per solar year. One starts at the tail end of Aestivus and runs through the first week of Albonix. The second term starts at the first snowmelt, right before Fairweather.” “Me starting late in the term probably isn’t a good thing, then,” Dragon said uneasily. “I’ll be behind the rest of my class.” “Oh, don’t you fret, Dragon,” Rainlock assured. “Professor Culpepper will do everything he can to make sure you’re up to speed with your class.” “All the Greatest Good is in store for you, Dragon, don’t you worry,” Carrick added. “All will be well. You’ll see.” “Okay, Da,” Dragon said, wanting more than anything to believe him. “So, um, Rainlock . . .” Dragon forced a smile and attempted to join the conversation. “What’s the most interesting creature you’ve made a suit for?” Rainlock paused midstep.“Now that’s a fantastic question. Hmm . . . let me think. Merfolk are always a bit tricky. All those scales. Snag extremely easily on most any fabric. Centaurs detest suits, but I imagine they’d be an interesting lot to fit.” Rainlock led them to the end of the hall, where a waft of delicious smells lingered in the air. “The sylph would be it, I think. They actually have to bring me their fabric. Pure sheets of rain. Always interesting when there’s a storm. That’s where that lightning bolt came from, in fact. Shook out a broody sheet of rain to make a jacket, and it fell straight out of the folds. The good sir I was fitting offered it as a token of appreciation on top of my pay. He apologized for the unexpected static, of course.” Rainlock chuckled to himself. “That was, without a doubt, an interesting day.” Rainlock pushed open the heavy door at the end of the hall. “Ah! Here we are. Dining hall. Smells like they’re working on lunch.” Muffled clanking and
clinking sounds came from behind the closed doors of the kitchen, where the next meal was surely being prepared. Dragon had to do a double take. Cloudy, wispy figures with almost humanlike features swooped and swished around above the scattered tables, carrying armfuls of linens and other table-setting supplies. “Are those ghosts?” Dragon asked, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. “Well, speaking of sylphs,”—Rainlock laughed heartily—“that’s Penelope, Caela, and Zephyr—three of my favorite gals on campus.” He waved at the wispy figure setting the table closest to them. “Lovely to see you all on this fine day!” They replied in unison with a singsong greeting that sounded like a strange combination of leaves rustling in a chilly breeze and birdcall. Dragon waved shyly as she watched the trio go about their work. “Now, in the North End, you have different classes on each level. Gnomes, fae, and sylph are downstairs. We try to keep them on the lower floor so they don’t have to worry about taking too many stairs. Don’t want to tire them out before they even get to class, right? Most of them attend their own colony schools, anyway, but we are increasing our numbers each term. The second and third floors are trolls, ogres, and cyclopes. Winged folk primarily attend their classes in the East End. There are even elevated classrooms up past the rest of the campus to allow them to stretch their wings.” “What about fae?” Dragon asked. “And dragons with wings? Obviously, sylphs fly too. Do they take any classes with the winged Enchanteds in the East End?” “Oh, well, no. Not unless they’re upper level and cross-training with other colony talents. Our classrooms are primarily structured to accommodate the physical differences of our students.” “Except if they have wings.” “Well, no, that’s not necessarily the case…”
“It is necessarily the case,” Dragon argued. “You just said winged folk take classes in the East End. That there are special classrooms that allow them to enjoy their physical traits more freely. Except if they are fae or dragons or sylphs. All those students have to stick with their kind. Right? That’s hardly fair. Seems as though some students get more options than others.” Rainlock attempted several unintelligible sputtering sounds as his defense, finally yielding to her argument with a submissive bow-curtsy. “You’ve got a clever gal there, Carrick. You should get her signed up for debate.” Carrick chuckled and gave Dragon’s neck a pat. “She’ll keep her professor on his toes, that’s for sure.” “We’re not a perfect school,” Rainlock admitted. “Nor do we claim to be. But we are always pushing toward progress. We are one of the only schools that cater to such a diverse student body. Each new term, the elders work to bring about more inclusivity, regarding both educational content and physical accommodations. Progress takes time, of course. I humbly beg you to please allow for grace as we slowly make our way in that direction.” He bow-curtsied again. “I guess some progress is better than no progress. But it still isn’t fair,” Dragon said. “I agree. Wholeheartedly. We at Breezemaple do want the best for our students, I can promise you that.” “I heard the elders are trying out some new things next year,” Carrick said. “Testing out some ideas for language learning, maybe Tending Talents 101.” Rainlock sighed. “That’s all speculation as of right now. Not all the elders are in agreement.” Carrick and Rainlock grumbled in unison. “What’s that about?” Dragon asked.
“There’s been some trouble with one of the elders,” Carrick said. Rainlock shot him a wide-eyed look. “But that’s none of your concern, of course,” Carrick added quickly. “School politics, is all.” Suddenly, Carrick’s face lit up. “Hey, Rainlock, we almost forgot. The library.” “Of course! Of course! We can head there straight away. We’ve pretty much covered all we can in this area, anyway.” Rainlock waved Dragon and Carrick back toward the stairwell. “It will have to be a short visit, though. You do have your meeting,” “Absolutely,” Carrick agreed. “We can afford a quick pop-in, but then we must head back. My meeting with Elder Greenwood is very important.” “Sound okay with you, Dragon?” Rainlock asked. Dragon nodded. “Sounds good.”
IV Carrick gave Dragon’s neck a tight squeeze before she set him on the ground in front of the administrative office. Dragon avoided both his and Rainlock’s gazes as she wiped the corner of her eye, embarrassed that she was upset to be going off to her class without Carrick. “I know, Dragon. It’s the first time you’ll be away from any of us. It’s okay to be nervous.” Carrick touched the top of her foot. “Remember, I’ll be here on campus if you need me, for any reason.” Dragon sniffled and wiped her scaly snout. “All day?” “All day.” Carrick smiled up at her and pulled the campus map from his back pocket, holding it up for her to see. He unfurled the worn parchment and pointed at the circled area in the West End. “Room 202. See? Now I know exactly where to find you. Okay?” Dragon stared blankly down at the campus map in her hand. “Okay, Dragon?” he repeated, waving his hand to get her attention. Dragon shook herself out of her overwhelmed daze and focused on Carrick. He gestured for Dragon to kneel so he could speak to her more privately. “Listen, kiddo. I know this is overwhelming. It’s a strange place, and you don’t know anyone here yet. Take it one step at a time, and you’ll do fine.” “What if I don’t make any friends?” Her panic was starting to build again. “I’ve spoken to your teacher and requested for him to allow you to leave class if you need to. For any reason, okay?” Carrick turned to Rainlock. “You said Elder Fairmind would be available, if necessary, to help her with adjusting?”
“Zinnia? Oh, yes, of course,” Rainlock replied. Dragon’s eyes narrowed with uncertainty. “Not to worry. She’s lovely. Wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Rainlock’s gap-toothed smile was extra reassuring. “You see?” Carrick said, turning back to Dragon. “Everything is okay. I’ll be here if you need me. Elder Fairmind is here if you need her. Let Professor Culpepper know straight away, and he’ll send you to find one of us.” A large teardrop splashed to the floor right between Carrick’s feet. “But I don’t know Elder Fairmind. How am I supposed to find her?” Carrick and Rainlock both pointed at an office down the hallway. “That’s her. Right in there,” Carrick said. “She’s a unicorn! Only one on campus. It’s pretty hard to miss her,” Rainlock added. “If you do get to meet her today, you can ask her if they used any of her hair in my funny little pouch.” Rainlock winked, and a smirk tugged at the corner of Dragon’s mouth. “I love you, Dragon. You’ll do great today, I know it.” Carrick gave Dragon’s ankle a quick hug and blew her a kiss. Before heading into the administrative office, he turned back to Rainlock. “Please take good care of my daughter. She means the world to me.” “This is my stop.” Rainlock pointed down the hallway to one of many open doorways. “That’s Professor Culpepper’s class.” Dragon’s head spun. She couldn’t quite tell if she was excited or about to vomit from nervousness. Rainlock tugged open the flimsy magical pouch he’d pulled from his satchel and gave it a good shake. Dragon’s textbooks tumbled out, one by one, landing on top of each other with one big thump.
“Remember what your Da said?” Dragon nodded. “I can leave if I need to.” “And if everything goes okay?” He offered her a hopeful smile. Dragon stared off in a daze at the crowd of students growing around her. “I’ll meet him by the stables.” “Fantastic!” The period bell clanged loudly in the crowded West End hallway, urging everyone to hurry faster to their next class. “Well, this is it! Your first day!” Rainlock gave her an encouraging pat on the arm. “Jump on in and knock ’em dead, Dragon!” Before Dragon could even say goodbye, he shuffled off into the crowd without another glance back. Dragon frowned. “Well, he was sure in a hurry.” Left to navigate the swarming hallway herself, she ducked out of the crowd of students and backed up against the stone wall. Avoiding making direct eye contact with any of the passing students, she tried with all her might to fight the panic rising up inside her. Dragon felt completely out of her element, even though she was that much closer to finding a connection to her own kind for the first time. Dragon flinched each time a group of students nearly trampled her textbooks. Scrounging up what little courage she had, she ducked back into the crowd and crouched down to guard her books from getting stomped on by all the passersby. Her hands shook as she hefted her belongings off the ground. Careful not to bump into anyone, she slowly rose and made her way down the hall toward room 202, balancing her books with each step. She watched the sea of faces pass by, feeling twists of envy in her gut as groups of friends, clearly unconcerned with fitting in, chatted as they rushed to their next classes.
A flash of something down the hallway caught Dragon’s attention as the crowd started to clear out. Almost as if pulled against her will, she locked eyes with a student headed straight toward her. This was finally it—her first encounter with another of her kind. The confident drake who headed in Dragon’s direction flashed a captivating side-grin, which set off a twist of self-consciousness in Dragon’s stomach. Nearly three times her size, he was entrancing, with iridescent silver scales that were almost as hypnotizing as his eyes—cool and collected, like pools of gold starlight trapped in ice. Dragon couldn’t pull herself away from his gaze. He had an air about him that spoke of self-assuredness and inaccessibility, which triggered a sense in Dragon that she would have to go above and beyond to impress him. He strode past a group of starry-eyed drakainas, making sure to charm each of them with another of his self-satisfied grins. He was clearly enjoying soaking in their interest and attention. Something strange shifted inside of Dragon—a sudden need to be taller, more confident, and to definitely have a set of wings like his. She’d never felt like this before —struck by a sinking realization of how unremarkable she was compared to her peers. Everything inside of Dragon yearned to be less of who she was and more of what the other students appeared to be— someone who could be considered a “real” drakaina and not some awkward outcast. Dizzy with anticipation, Dragon’s heart did a quick somersault as he approached, and she had to catch herself from dropping her heavy books. What could she say to get his attention? She attempted an awkward wave, jutting one arm out and waggling her talons while balancing her things in her other arm. The moment she’d built up enough courage to introduce herself, the attractive drake rudely pushed her aside, completely oblivious to her presence. Knocking her books to the floor as he rushed past, he greeted a group of his friends right behind her.
Dragon’s face flushed hot with shame, and she knelt to retrieve her things. “Sorry. Sorry.” Why am I apologizing? Dragon thought to herself, frustrated and confused by her reaction to his rude behavior. It wasn’t like she had done anything wrong. The handsome drake and his friends pushed past her. He was flanked by two stout, dark-scaled drakes and a foul-mouthed phoenix, who were all cackling as they stepped completely over Dragon and headed into a classroom. Her classroom. Room 202. “Great,” Dragon muttered under her breath. She had wanted one thing, above all else, to go right on her first day—the simple task of making a good impression on her peers. Clearly, it wasn’t going to be as simple as she had thought. Dragon bit her lip and stood back up, forcing away the urge to tear up with each step forward. She hesitated at the door, listening in on the loud murmur of socializing. The wicked cackle she’d heard earlier from the haughty phoenix echoed out into the hall. Dragon flinched and took several deep breaths, repeating Rainlock’s advice in her head. Jump on in and knock ’em dead. “You must be Dragon Gaelen.” Wingless and bespectacled, the professor stood up from behind his battered oak desk. Miscellaneous trinkets and piles of stacked books were strategically strewn across its surface, next to a nameplate chiseled in marble.
Professor Direth Culpepper. All words escaped Dragon as she stared up at him, her mouth gaping open. Her heart hammered in her chest as she attempted to say something. Anything. The professor gave her a warm smile. He had the kind of eyes that revealed the depth of his character: wisdom, kindness, and something worth trusting. “Professor Culpepper.” He had to lean down to shake her hand. “Um. Hi,” she finally managed to squeak out. “Carrick and Elder Greenwood have told me such great things about you.” Dragon’s magenta cheeks turned scarlet. “Well, welcome. Welcome. It’s a pleasure to have you in my class.” He leaned over and nudged his spectacles up the bridge of his nose, getting a better look at the books in her arms. “Looks like Odelia got you all set. Draconian Legends. Very good. Dragon Physics. Well done. Colony Clans 101. Fantastic. Oh! Hold on a second. Looks like she missed one.” Professor Culpepper waved Dragon over to a tall bookshelf behind his desk, one of many lining the walls of the classroom, heavy with texts and sealed, unmarked jars of ingredients. Dragon glanced around at her classmates while the professor fished through his crowded shelves. She shyly took in her surroundings, taking note of how everyone seemed more preoccupied with gossip than getting ready for class. There was not a Trihorn Snapper in sight. She was grateful, though, that she wasn’t the only earthbound dragon in the room. Nor was she the smallest. There was a male about her height over in the far left corner of the room. Dragon smiled and raised her hand to wave, but the student took no notice of her efforts to befriend him. Glancing briefly around the room, she caught sight of the group from the hallway gathered in the back of the classroom near the handsome drake’s desk. By the look and sound of it, he appeared to be sharing a very amusing story.
Dragon sized them up, one by one, paying special attention to the phoenix who had laughed at her earlier. Another snarling cackle erupted from her the moment Dragon focused on her. There was something deeply unsettling about that particular student. Something Dragon couldn’t quite put her talon on. She shuddered, unable to shake the uneasy feeling. “I’m glad she won’t be in my class,” Dragon muttered under her breath and turned away before the group could catch sight of her staring. Professor Culpepper stepped out from behind his desk with a thick green tome. He dusted off its jacket before reading the title aloud. “Eggs of Our Ancestors. You’ll be needing this one.” He was about to set the book on top of Dragon’s stack when he finally seemed to notice how much she was struggling to keep it balanced as it was. “Dear me. Let’s get you to your desk to put those things down.” He removed three books from the top of Dragon’s stack, immediately easing her burden, and guided her through the crowded aisles. “That way, you can get settled in and meet your classmates.” Dragon tried to ignore the snickers and whispering that followed them. This was nothing like the warm, welcoming community in Gnome Colony. This crowd already left a bitter taste in her mouth; they were divisive at best and unbelievably rude. Dragon froze when she finally realized where Professor Culpepper was leading her—straight into the lion’s den, to the empty desk behind the golden-eyed drake. “Aw, no! Not by him,” Dragon grumbled under her breath. She smoothed down the scales on her face self-consciously. Professor Culpepper glared at the phoenix, who was flashing Dragon a nasty look as they passed. The professor set his own armful of books on the desk, before nodding to Dragon and addressing the golden-eyed drake. “Azric. This is Dragon.”
Azric refused to even glance in her direction. Another cackle broke from the phoenix’s throat, this time aimed at Dragon. Dragon scowled down at her slate-topped desk. Professor Culpepper cleared his throat. “Azric! Don’t be rude. Let’s greet the new student, please.” Azric sighed and turned to Dragon, his golden-flame eyes burned through her. Dragon’s voice caught in her throat. “Hi,” she squeaked. “Hey,” he said flatly and turned away again. Professor Culpepper nudged Dragon gently toward her desk. “Go ahead, then. Get settled in. You’ll be next to Kora.” He turned to head back to the front of the classroom and stopped abruptly in his tracks. “Oh yes. I almost forgot. You can keep your things in those cubbies over there.” The professor pointed at the wooden shelves behind her desk. “Kora?” Dragon asked, cocking her head to the side. “That’s me, brainiac,” the phoenix snapped. “But.. but… you’re not a dragon. How can you be in this class?” ‘That’s none of your business,” Kora bit back, slamming hard into the seat next to Dragon, bumping her on purpose. Dragon rubbed her tender shoulder and scooted her seat to the right, making a personal note to stay as far away from that girl as possible. Dragon leaned forward and tapped on Azric’s shoulder, trying to ignore her nasty neighbor as best as she could. “Um . . . which book do I need today?” Azric swiveled around in his seat and gave her an annoyed look. “The green one.” Dragon grabbed Eggs of Our Ancestors and set it on the desk. “Not that green one,” Azric snapped. “The other one.” “Sorry,” she replied. Again with the apologizing? Stop that!
“All good back there?” Professor Culpepper called. “Yup. I’ll put these up.” Dragon averted her eyes from Kora’s glare and tucked the remaining books into the closest available cubby. “Very good!” The professor gave Dragon a nod of approval and headed to the podium to start his lecture. Taking a deep breath to steel her nerves, Dragon turned around and slowly walked back to her seat. Professor Culpepper called for the students’ attention, sending the class scattering to their assigned seats. Dragon flipped through the pages of Colony Clans 101, unsure where the class currently was in the book. Trying with all her might to not ask Azric for any more assistance, she leafed through the chapters. There were hundreds of interesting things that jumped off the page at her. Tables comparing the average lifespans of different clans in Dragon Colony. Diagrams of dragon anatomy. The wingspan charts were especially interesting since she didn’t have a pair of her own. Despite all the interesting subjects though, she was failing miserably at grasping where in the book the teacher was directing his lecture. Finally giving in, she tapped on Azric’s shoulder again to ask for help. “What?” Azric demanded before she could get a word out. “What do you want?” Dragon glowered. What’s his problem? “Did you have something to say, Azric?” Professor Culpepper asked from the front of the class. Azric stared at his book and clenched his jaw, refusing to respond to the teacher. “Azric! Eyes up front, son!” Azric shot him a hateful look, but the professor held his gaze, standing his ground in the face of the student’s insolence. Everyone stared at Azric, watching and waiting to see what he would do next.
Unable to stand the tension, Dragon shot her hand up in the air and waved to get Professor Culpepper’s attention. “It was me, sir. I was asking him where I needed to start reading.” A friendly smile spread across Professor Culpepper’s face, his calm demeanor returning. “Of course, dear. We are on page 396. Top of the second paragraph.” She had only been a few pages off! “Got it. Thank you,” Dragon said shyly, returning her attention to the book. She could practically feel Kora’s gaze burning through her entire left side. “Dragon?” Kora sneered. “Isn’t that a little obvious? Really original! Is your last name Dragon too?” Everything about the phoenix was sharp and jagged: the flame-colored plumage that fanned out around her face and neck, her personality, her laughter. Even her pupils looked like sharp obsidian daggers, ready to slice anyone at the first opportunity. What is it with everyone? Dragon silently fumed, staring hard at her book. Her nostrils flared as she took deep breaths and kept her focus on the page in front of her. “Kora! Eyes up front,” Professor Culpepper called. “Kora. Eyes up front,” Kora repeated mockingly. She gave Dragon one last dark glare before turning back to her own book. “Would you please read aloud the next paragraph?” Professor Culpepper asked. “Read the next what? No one else is reading aloud!” Kora argued. “I don’t care if no one else is reading aloud. I’m asking you to do it.” Dragon felt sorry for the teacher, having to deal with those two every day. “I’ll do it, Professor!” she offered. Azric turned around and shot her a look of disgust. “Kiss up,” he said under his breath.
“Of course she’ll do it,” Kora bit out. “She’ll do it because she wants to be so nice and kind, just like all those gnomes who raised her.” Dragon’s talons scraped the underside of her desk as she clutched onto it for dear life. She had to fight the desperate urge to run as far away from the classroom as possible. Professor Culpepper snapped his textbook shut and summoned Kora to the front of the class with a curl of his index finger. Kora strutted past the other students pridefully and stood with her arms folded in front of the professor’s desk. She looked the teacher up and down and shrugged. “What?” Professor Culpepper measured her up through narrowed eyes. “This is my classroom, you hear me? And in my classroom, you’re going to do a better job at making nice with the new student. Understand?” Dragon gulped and avoided all the stares now aimed at her. “Forget it! I have no interest in getting to know this . . . this . . .” Kora whipped around and shot Dragon an accusatory glare. Her cold heart seemed to chill the room as she hissed and snarled at Dragon. “Imposter!” Dragon’s hammering heartbeat filled the cruel void of silence as shame flooded her body. “How do you know about my family? Who told you?” She shot the teacher a questioning look. “Did you?” All Professor Culpepper could offer was a sheepish shrug. So much for him being on her side. “Yes, yes,” Kora snapped. “We all know you were raised by gnomes. Word got around about how weird you are.” Hot tears welled in the corners of Dragon’s eyes. I wish word had gotten around about you being such a pain in the tail. “It wasn’t your right to tell them,” Dragon said in a small voice. It was all she could get out under the circumstances.
“I’m sorry, Dragon,” Professor Culpepper said. “I did tell the class about you. To help them get to know you better before you joined us. I was only trying to help. But you’re right. It wasn’t my place.” “Well, you didn’t help, did you?” It was the first time Dragon had ever talked back to an adult. “Da said I could trust you!” Dragon seethed. Forget meeting her Da at the stables at the end of the day. She wanted to use her get-out-of-class-free pass. Now. “What’s wrong? Dragon upset that she doesn’t fit in?” Kora teased. “Scale up! That’s what’s wrong with you. Those gnomes made your skin too thin.” “That’s it, Kora. Go see Head Director Thackeray. Now!” Professor Culpepper roared. Kora strode out of the classroom, head held high, cackling defiantly the entire way out. This was the worst first day. Ever.
V Dragon spent the rest of the day sulking in the girls’ bathroom. She had told Professor Culpepper that she needed to leave the class and calm down, which he had easily agreed to, given the upsetting experience with Kora. He had encouraged Dragon to go speak with Elder Fairmind, hoping she might find some comfort in talking about what happened. The problem was, Dragon didn’t want to talk about it. Not with Elder Fairmind, not with Professor Culpepper, and possibly not even with her own family. Everything she had been told about how her first day would turn out was a sham. The Gaelens had had all these high hopes for how great sending her to this school would be. But it wasn’t great at all. It ended up being a complete nightmare, and Dragon was hardly in the mood to hear some unsolicited pep talk about how things would get better. She had been completely humiliated and was frustrated with her family and Professor Culpepper, and nothing Elder Fairmind did or said could possibly fix that. Talking about what had happened with Kora wouldn’t change the fact that Dragon would have to be in the same class with her all year long. Words wouldn’t help that—only moving to a new class, which was most likely out of the question. Kora should be the one to move classes anyway. She was the one that didn’t belong. “Knock ’em dead,” Dragon said, mimicking the advice Rainlock had given her. “More like I should knock them out!” Dragon huffed. The burning outrage that tore through her chest was strange and startling. She wasn’t typically one to get furious like this, but then again, she had never been in a situation that truly tested the full range of her temper. She had never experienced anything like this in Gnome Colony. Despite being unlike
everyone else, she had always been welcomed and treated with respect, no matter what. That was the gnome way. Being in a classroom full of her own kind, though, didn’t seem to make much of a difference. She could look the same as them on the outside, but on the inside, she was obviously different. Why was it such a problem that gnomes had taught her to be kind and respectful to others? She would much rather be that than anything resembling how Kora and Azric had acted in class. Dragon wanted to throw her books at the wall. Scream her heart out. Run as far away from this place as possible. She wanted to go home and cry in her cave, but she couldn’t leave. There was too much resting on the expectation that today was going to be wonderful. Her Da had been certain that everything would go perfectly today. He’d felt it in his bones. Could she tell him how things had really turned out? That all his hopes and dreams for her fitting in at school had been wrong? Should she forget what her Da thought and leave and never come back? It was tempting, certainly, but leaving without telling anyone would only cause more problems. Dragon knew, deep down, that she would eventually have to return to class at some point and face her peers, which meant running away wouldn’t solve anything. She was infuriated and not sure what to do. She couldn’t let those two students control everything, but she also couldn’t bring herself to go back to Professor Culpepper’s class. At least, not today. “It’s not fair! I didn’t do anything to them.” Dragon’s sobs echoed throughout the empty bathroom. Everything inside her ached and felt strangely out of place. This anger felt raw and new, and she didn’t know how to even grasp at the edges of it without hints of guilt taking over. Being around gnomes all her life had created a buffer for her when it came to facing difficult feelings; their very nature was to spread positivity and love to everyone they met.
Even in the rare moments when Dragon had gotten close to processing the loss of her parents, the Gaelens had kept her cushioned with cheeriness and uplifting encouragement. Her Da had always provided an outpouring of pep talks, and Ma endless warm snuggles. Dragon knew she should be grateful to her adoptive family, but today, she only felt alone. The hollow place in her heart where her lost parents should have been suddenly felt like a vast, unpassable trench. What would they have said to her in times like this? What words of wisdom would they have shared with Dragon to help her face Kora? Dragon had never met her birth parents; how could she miss something she’d never had this badly? She’d been too young to experience or understand how severe the separation truly was when it happened. Yet today seemed to be the perfect time for all of it to come to a head; now more than ever, she wanted her dragon mom to turn to. Possibilities of growing up in Dragon Colony with her parents flashed through her imagination and brought on another crippling wave of sadness. What if living with and growing up around her own kind would have kept this from happening? If her being raised by gnomes was completely removed from the equation, would that have settled the differences between her and Kora? Would that have given Dragon a fighting chance to actually fit in at school? Oh, who was she kidding? Kora seemed to get a kick out of making others feel miserable about themselves; it seemed inevitable that she would have found some petty thing to quarrel over with Dragon. Dragon’s thoughts flicked back to comparing the Gaelens to her birth parents. She knew it wasn’t a fair comparison; she tried with all her might not to go there. The Gaelens did everything in their power to protect and love her. But had they done enough to encourage her to explore how she really felt about losing her family?
The world simply couldn’t fall apart in a loving gnome home. There was no room for it when laughter and joy were always around. Dragon only knew the gnome way of getting through things: rolling up one’s sleeves and getting to work with a positive attitude. What would have been the dragon way? Dragon was starting to think the Gaelens’ well-intentioned efforts to keep her protected were actually preventing her from knowing her true feelings. There was a depth to her pain that she had never been allowed to reach, and only now was she beginning to recognize that. All the teasing had somehow awakened Dragon’s awareness of that empty feeling in her chest. The same empty feeling everyone in Gnome Colony seemed hard pressed to prevent her from getting lost in. The bathroom at school would not have been her first choice of locations to face all of this, but it was all she had right now. In that cramped space, Dragon allowed the truth of her anger and disappointment to come out through tears and snot and shaky hands. She allowed it to be and offered no attempt to fight it or run from it for the first time ever. As soon as she stopped fighting it, it stopped fighting her. After the third tardy bell clanged loudly in the hallway, Dragon decided she had been cooped up in that cramped space long enough. She couldn’t stay in there all day, nor did she want to. That left her one option—go wait for her Da near the stables until school was over. The more she considered the idea, the more she was convinced it was the best thing to do. Professor Culpepper was already under the impression that she was meeting with Elder Fairmind. She doubted her teacher would have been able to get word to the office about what had happened, which meant her Da wouldn’t even know anything was wrong, either. No one would suspect to look for her there. The solution was obvious. “The stables, then.”
She unlatched the lock on the stall door and wiped the tears from her face. She figured she would have to take the long way around the building to avoid going anywhere near the South End. Luckily, there were two exits in the West End. She could go out the closest one, circle around the north side of campus, and make her way back to the stables. Satisfied with her plan, she approached the sink and splashed a handful of cool water on her face. Patting her cheeks dry, she stared at herself in the mirror, taking in the shape of her wide violet eyes, the intricate patterns of purplish scales that traced up each side of her face, and the three curved horns atop her head. “This isn’t about you, Dragon. Don’t let them get to you.” As soon as she said her own name aloud, though, Kora’s cruel voice rang through her thoughts. Dragon? Isn’t that a little obvious? Dragon tried to shake the hurtful words from her head, but there was some small part of her that sided with Kora, even though she hated to admit it. Why had the Gaelens chosen that name for her, anyway? Dragon smiled when she poked her head through the stable doors and found the squirrels nuzzled together in a sleepy heap of fur and feet. “Hey, guys!” She stepped through the stable doorway, stirring them awake. The squirrels chittered and bucked about, making strange squawking and screeching noises the closer she got to them. “Hey! Hey! Settle down, guys. It’s only me.” Dragon shushed them, backing away a little in hopes of calming them down. “That’s weird. You guys never act this way toward me at home.”
She attempted to step closer once more, but it only caused more of them to cry out and cower. Fearing their distressful noises would bring attention to her whereabouts, she backed completely out of the stable entrance. As they quieted, she scowled and crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine! I’ll wait out here, then.” Dragon grumbled, upset that even creatures that were typically friendly wanted nothing to do with her. She padded over to a shady spot beneath a flaming-red tree next to the building. “Nothing’s going right today. What’s the deal?” She plopped down in the tall grass and reached for a handful of dried leaves near her feet. Taking in a deep breath, she released the remaining tension of the day in a single exhale. The fresh air and sunshine certainly helped her mood. She picked a vibrant orange leaf out of her handful and traced the veins with her talon, careful not to tear its delicate structure. “Hey!” Carrick called from the gravel pathway. “What are you doing here already?” Dragon tossed the leaf aside and pushed herself up off the ground. “I, um. Um . . .” Carrick’s expression grew concerned. “Aren’t you supposed to be at lunch?” “Lunch? Lunch! Oh yes. Well, I got a little nervous with everyone in the cafeteria. I wanted to come out here instead.” “Hmm. Okay. Well, did you at least get enough to eat?” Dragon’s tummy grumbled her reply. Carrick chuckled. “I guess that’s a no.” “I wanted to save room for the big feast at home.” Dragon flashed an extra-toothy grin and rubbed her teal belly. “Anyways, why are you out here?” “Well, being lunchtime and all, I wanted to see if these guys were getting hungry.” Carrick pulled open one of the stable doors and peered inside. “Hmm. That’s odd. They’re pretty riled up in there. Did something happen?” “I know. I tried to go in and pet them, but they panicked on me.”
Carrick stepped back in shock. “They got scared of you? Wow. That’s a first.” “I know.” “Well, I guess it makes sense. They probably smell predators all over the place here. Can’t really force them out of survival mode, can we?” “Da?” “Hmm?” Carrick ran his hand through the brown fur of one of the smallest squirrels, picking out little strands of hay and dust. “You know how you said I could leave early if I wanted to?” He turned to her, his attention diverted from grooming the scared little animal. “Yes, of course! Is everything okay?” It was the perfect opportunity to tell him everything, about how Kora and Azric had been extremely rude to her, how she had needed to go calm down in the bathroom. She could tell him about how upset she had gotten when she found out Professor Culpepper had told his class about her being raised by gnomes and how she was teased about her own name. “Everything . . .” Was horrible! Was a catastrophe! Dragon tried to swallow the lump in her throat and force the words out. “Everything was okay. I just want to go celebrate the Great Rebuild with everyone at home.” Dragon stared down at her feet, unsure why she kept lying to him. She never lied. She never got angry. Her stomach churned with a sour mixture of guilt, shame, and frustration. “Are you sure? You look a little . . .” Carrick stepped closer and searched her face. Dragon averted his gaze and forced a smile. “I’m hungry, is all,” she said before he could finish his sentence. It was as though the original lie had taken root inside her and was sprouting offshoots of more deceit. Carrick’s brow raised with uncertainty. “Hungry?” “I’m fine, Da. Really. I just want to get home to celebrate.”
Carrick turned back to the squirrels and started securing the harnesses to their backs. “Hmm. Okay. Well, let me get these guys settled down and bridled, and we can head out.” Carrick pulled the carriage to a stop near the far end of the parking grounds of Central Gnome Square. The place was packed. Every gnome family, big and small, was gathered there, already enjoying and celebrating the fruits of the Great Rebuild—an entire week dedicated to cleaning up and restoring the colony from seasonal storm damage. The last day of the Great Rebuild was always one of Dragon’s favorites—a colony-wide feast to cap off all the hard work. There was singing and dancing and multi-generational storytelling. Craft-sharing circles and barter markets took up nearly a third of the park’s green space. Younger gnomes gathered in groups and tried their hand at toy versions of woodworking tools, while their parents enjoyed live music across three different stages, dancing and chatting as they enjoyed refreshments from an assortment of food tents. There was even a live auction area where trees that had fallen during the storms were gathered and showcased for craftsmen bidding wars. Everyone wanted the best selection of burls to create their next masterpiece. A massive, multistoried treehouse—complete with layered decks and winding staircases— was the epicenter of the celebration. The building, known throughout the colony as Town Center, was such a unique place, comprised of not one but four separate large oak trees that had, at some point, started growing together into one massive tree. It was one of the most
sacred places for gnomes, and it housed all the offices and meeting halls of Elder Greenwood’s administrative committees. Everything was adorned in warm colors and sunflowers, the symbol that colony members had voted on to represent renewal after hardship. Rows of towering live sunflowers stretched outward from Town Center to the edges of the park, creating a spoked wheel of blooming beauty. From the heads of those plants hung strings of outdoor lanterns, which would form a dazzling canopy of candlelight once the sun set. Dragon took in a deep breath of the crisp air and closed her eyes to savor it all. The laughter and cheerful environment were such a change of pace from the rest of her day. “There’s that smile,” Carrick said, hopping into the palm of her extended hand. “I’ve been wondering where it’s been the whole ride home.” Dragon gently lifted him and placed him in the crook of her neck. “It’s a lot to take in for my first day.” It was the closest she could get to confiding in him. “You’ve been really quiet since we left campus. Is everything okay?” Dragon bit her lip, deceit still churning her gut. She debated telling him the truth before they joined the others but decided asking questions was easier than telling truths for the time being. “Was it difficult raising me?” she asked. “Well, that’s an unexpected question. What do you mean exactly?” Carrick pointed to and then waved at his wife and daughter, Aideen and Annalene, who were off enjoying themselves in a dancing circle. “I mean, did anyone give you a hard time? For bringing a dragon into your home?” “Hmm. Well, I think there was some concern about safety, of course.” “For your safety, right?” Dragon asked.
“Actually, no, for yours,” he explained. “We wanted to make sure you had all the proper nutrition. The right amount of space to grow in. There was a lot Ma and I had to learn. It was pretty overwhelming at first.” “Did you ever regret it? You know, adopting me?” she asked quietly. “Dragon! What kind of question is that? Of course not. We love you. We’ve loved you since the first day we found you, and we will always love you.” Dragon watched the sea of red and green pointed caps bob up and down as clusters of gnomes moved around the park grounds. “But no one teased you or made you feel bad about having me in your home?” “Have you ever known a gnome to tease anyone?” Carrick asked. “Well, no. I guess not. But it is kind of strange for a dragon to live with gnomes, right?” Her secret burned inside her, threatening to break its way out into the open. “Where is all of this coming from?” Dragon held her tongue. If she wasn’t careful, she would soon let it slip that she’d been lying to him. Better not disappoint Da. Better hold on tight to this. “Dragon! Da! You’re missing all the fun!” Annalene hopped up and down as Aideen waved excitedly. Their matching blonde plaits bounced on their shoulders as they bobbed and weaved through the throng to get to Dragon and Carrick. “Hey, Annalene. Hi, Ma!” Dragon called as she set Carrick on the ground. Annalene gave Dragon’s ankle a huge hug as their parents embraced. They brought over some food for Carrick and Dragon—his heaped on a plate, and hers piled up in a pull wagon. She had the perfect variety and quantity to satisfy her taste buds, as always. Dragon lifted the large cauldron of stew from the wagon and slurped a couple of spoonfuls before noticing the look on Annalene’s face.
She knew that look— her vibrant blue eyes were wild with excitement. It was the same look Annalene got on the first snow of Albonix or the first blooms of Fairweather—the look of being on the verge of bubbling right over with joy. She was practically bouncing up and down. Great. Time for more lying. Dragon tried to play coy. “What?” “Are you kidding me? What do you mean, what? You know what! How did it go?” “Yes, honey, tell us how wonderful everything was at Breezemaple today,” Aideen said, linking arms with her daughter. Boy, did they have it all wrong. “It was, well . . .” Dragon tried to find something to offer them that wasn’t completely fabricated. “Overwhelming.” Maybe not the full truth, but at least it wasn’t a lie. A smile lit up Annalene’s face. “Overwhelming as in good overwhelming, right?” Dragon sighed. There was no way around it. She was going to have to tell them. “Attention! Attention!” Sighing with relief at the distraction, Dragon turned her attention to the elderly gnome who was pacing back and forth on one stage, holding a megaphone. She smiled. “Elder Greenwood sure knows how to clean up.” He was dressed to the nines, sporting an eccentric pinstripe suit and tie. His cinnamon-colored curls flared out from underneath a tweed duckbill cap. It was the only time of year he could be seen in anything outside his typical red pointed cap. The jubilant music died down, and everyone turned their attention to the stage. Elder Greenwood took a bow and beamed out over the cheering crowd.
“Ladies and gents, I want to thank you all for such a wonderful spread. Look at this glorious turnout. You have absolutely outdone yourselves this year, my friends!” He gestured then to the band members standing upstage. “How about a round of applause for our fabulous musicians of the night? You guys are fantastic! Such delightful music. You’ll have to teach me some of those tunes.” The cheering grew louder. “All right. All right.” Elder Greenwood tapped the tip of his cane on the stage three times, and the crowd calmed. “Let’s settle down now. I have a few announcements to make. “We have the winning bidders of the live auction. Odelia, dear, could you come up here and give me that list of names, please?” Apparently, her assistant duties extended beyond Breezemaple. Odelia hopped up the steps to the stage and waved a piece of parchment in the air for all to see. The crowd went wild. “Here we are! Drumroll, please!” Elder Greenwood quickly scanned over the list of names and gave a hearty chuckle as a collective pattering of hands against knees sounded all around him. “Ahem! Winner of the burliest of burls: the one, the only, Carrick Gaelen!” Everyone cheered and clapped. Carrick bowed and waved as he slowly made his way up to the stage. “Wait. How did he make a bid?” Dragon asked. “He’s been at Breezemaple all day.” “Oh, I placed the bid for him, of course,” Aideen said. “He’s had his eye on that piece all week. Hasn’t been able to stop talking about getting his hands on it.” Aideen grinned and waved at Carrick, who stood onstage next to the elder, awaiting his prize.
“Next, the winner of the split-wood sections goes to . . .” Elder Greenwood cupped his hand near his brow and scanned the audience. Another pattering of hands against knees sounded. “Commander at Battle of the Badger. One of the original founding members to create this cherished event, and seven-time champion of the annual pumpkin and ice carving contests. Let’s hear it for Dermot Yearling!” A hunchbacked gnome with sandy-white hair grunted and wheezed his way up to the stage, leaning heavily on his crooked walking stick the whole way there. Dragon could hardly imagine how he could carve anything at his age, but apparently, he was still one of the colony’s best. The details on the rest of the winners blurred together in a haze. There were much more pressing matters for Dragon to be concerned with beyond who ended up with which piece of storm debris. Would she have to tell her teacher how she really spent her day? Or worse, would her Da find out from the teacher what had really happened and be utterly and completely disappointed in Dragon for lying? Would her classmates still give her a rough time, even though the professor had warned them against it? Would she be able to stand up for herself if they didn’t back down? It was all too much to deal with. Dragon’s stomach soured, forcing her to put her food down. The weight of her problems was seriously putting a damper on her ability to enjoy the festivities and had pretty much ruined her day up until this point. It was a time to celebrate and have fun, but Dragon was struggling to get into the spirit, even though her favorite part of the afternoon—the pumpkin carving contest—was about to start. She couldn’t shake the feeling that going back to class tomorrow would not be any better than today. In fact, she feared it would be worse. How could she possibly get through it without letting anyone know what was going on? The urge to run off to her cave surfaced once more.
“Hey!” Annalene waved her hand to get Dragon’s attention. “What’s going on with you today? You missed the announcement.” “The announcement? What announcement?” “Dragon! Seriously. Stop it. You’re freaking me out.” Annalene pointed around at the crowd, who had all eyes on Dragon. “Elder Greenwood is congratulating you on your first day of school. He’s talking about your upcoming birthday. Pay attention!” “Oh! Um . . . thank you?” Dragon shouted over the applause through her cupped hands. The crowd egged her on, encouraging her to go up to the stage to say a few words. Embarrassed by the attention, Dragon shied away from the invitation. “Um, no thank you! I don’t want to disrupt your fun. But I do appreciate the support. Truly.” Dragon looked out over the hundreds of smiling faces. She was humbled and awestruck by all the support and joy. She took a deep breath in and let her worries melt away as the rush of cheers and compliments washed over her. These gnomes were rooting for her, they believed in her, and their optimism was infectious. Maybe everything would be okay. After all, she didn’t need two mean students to like and accept her when she had all this. Upbeat music filled the air again as ten burly, bearded gnomes teamed up to roll several massive pumpkins up onto the main stage. Dragon almost had to turn away out of fear that one of them might lose his grip on the hefty produce. One wrong move, and all ten of them would surely be squashed. Holding up their chisels and other carving tools, the contestants rallied the audience for support. It was time for Dragon to get her priorities straight and enjoy what she could of the rest of the celebration. There was no use in wasting any more time on worry. Tomorrow could wait. She had a lot to look forward to in front of her. Her twenty-fifth birthday was coming up soon—only several moons away, in fact—which, in dragon years, meant her fledgling years would soon be behind her. Her spirits
rose with the tempo of the music as she watched the crowd dance and laugh the day into night. Dragon made a promise to herself the moment they started lighting the lanterns. She could turn this whole thing around, and she would. She had to make the best of it, no matter what. Today had merely been a fluke, a blip on the radar. Tomorrow would be better. Tomorrow, she would tell the Gaelens. But for now, it was time to enjoy the show.
VI “I can’t do this. I can’t. I don’t know why I thought I could.” Dragon clenched and unclenched her fists, her sharp talons leaving imprints on the heels of her palms. She was right back where she had started—the same crammed bathroom stall that she had run to on her first day. She was afraid her excuse to go to the library was wearing thin on Professor Culpepper. With all those hours spent “studying,” her grades surely didn’t reflect it. She should have told him this time was due to her feeling ill, which wasn’t far from the truth. Kora’s daily dose of bullying truly made her sick to her stomach. Resentment burned in Dragon’s chest as she attempted to keep her balance on the closed toilet seat. How had it come to this? She had sworn she would try her best to make things work at school, but Kora kept getting the best of her. No matter how hard Dragon tried, her anxiety and anger won every time. Day after day, attempt after attempt, Dragon tried everything to cope. She tried ignoring Kora. She tried befriending Kora. She tried challenging Kora. Nothing worked. And all through class, Azric just sat there in front of her, unmoving. Uncaring. Sometimes he laughed; sometimes he acted cold and unfriendly. Never once did he lift a talon to stop his friend from harassing Dragon. Dragon screeched through gritted teeth. “This place was supposed to be safe! I was supposed to finally fit in! Why can’t I just fit in?” She pounded her fist against the wall. Without warning, a group of girls shoved open the bathroom door. Their giggles echoed between the stalls as they rushed toward the sinks. It sounded
like a group of four, maybe five, students. Dragon clapped a hand over her mouth and peeked through the crack of the stall door. There were only three of them: a hydra, a troll, and a sylph. Quite the surprising trio. The hydra, though, explained the extra voices. “Shae! Go check to see if anyone’s here,” commanded one of the hydra’s three heads. “Don’t want to get snitched on, do we?” She was short for her age, but by the look and sound of it, she was the leader of the pack. She primped the long dark locks of her middle head as she pointed behind her at the line of stalls. Shae, the sylph, quickly swooshed back and forth past the stalls. “All clear.” “What about that last one?” grunted the troll. Dragon held her breath and stood perfectly still. The last thing she needed was a group of gossipy girls spreading rumors about her hiding in the bathroom. Kora already had enough ammo to use against her. Shae did a few aerial twirls and somersaults before approaching the only stall with a closed door. “This one’s broken, Gloris. No one’s here.” Dragon let out a stifled breath, relieved she had thought to slap an “Out of Order” sign on the door before she’d locked herself in. Shae quickly returned to the other two girls and swooped in circles above her friend’s multiple heads. “Stop that!” the hydra demanded. “You’re messing up my hair.” “Oh, Lydia, give it up,” Shae snapped back. “I don’t know why you bother with that. You’re obviously the prettiest one on campus.” By the sound of the sickly-sweet admiration in Gloris’s voice, she was probably batting her eyes at Lydia. “It takes a lot of work to make three heads beautiful.” Lydia blotted each set of her lips on a piece of tissue before throwing it in the trash. The three of them proceeded to stare obsessively into the tall mirrors, inspecting their reflections for imperfections. They chattered nonchalantly,
making no effort to actually use the bathroom. It was a strange place to pick for cutting class, but then again, who was Dragon to judge? Though they didn’t have the same reasons for being there, they were all guilty of skipping out on class. Dragon, however, felt more justified in being there; she needed an actual escape, while they were probably nothing more than bored. “Did you hear about the new girl?” Lydia’s left head asked as she adjusted her button-up top. “Oh, you mean that dragon?” Shae was practicing more somersaults above their heads. Dragon’s breath caught in her chest. They were talking about her. “What was her name again?” Lydia’s right head asked. “Dragon,” Gloris said. “I know she’s a dragon. I’m asking what her name is,” Lydia’s middle head snapped. “No. Her name is Dragon,” Gloris said. “And gnomes raised her too. I’m surprised they weren’t concerned that she would eat them. I mean, dragons eat meat, right?” Dragon clenched her fists. “Wait,” Shae said. “They named her that? On purpose? Why would they do such a thing?” Dragon’s talons broke skin this time, but she couldn’t feel it at all. “Surely they know how ridiculous . . .” Dragon felt only rage. “I mean, they could have easily named her something more sensible . . .” Humiliation. “Well, I feel sorry for her . . .” Dragon choked out a low growl, silencing all three girls. “H-hello? Who’s there?” Gloris’s voice wavered as she backed up behind Lydia.
“I thought you said no one was here!” Lydia shoved Gloris in front of her and backed toward the door. “Shae! Go see who’s there!” “Why do I have to do it?” Shae shot back. “Why don’t you do something for a change?” Before the three girls could figure out a way to decide who was going to actually approach the stall, a loud clanging sounded overhead. Saved by the bell. Shae gasped. “Professor Bentley will be down our throats for not coming back on time.” “Let’s get out of here!” Gloris said, already rushing out the door. The others followed, shooting several backward glances at the last stall before dashing out of the bathroom. Dragon poked her head out the bathroom door and scanned the hallway for any signs of life. Dragon thought the coast was clear, but then a beautiful fair-haired unicorn gracefully trotted around a corner. “There you are.” “Oh, um. Hi.” Dragon waved awkwardly and pivoted away from Elder Fairmind. “I was j-just on my way b-back . . .” She pointed in the general direction of Professor Culpepper’s class. Elder Fairmind’s long mane swished as she shook her head. “No need for lying, Dragon. I know you’ve been in there most of the day.” Dragon’s eyes bugged out. “How did you . . . ?”
The unicorn’s single horn shimmered with an iridescent blue glow in the dim torchlight. She searched Dragon’s face and offered a compassionate smile. “Come. Let’s talk.” Dragon followed Elder Fairmind into her office. Her tidy workspace was spacious and inviting. Dragon felt a twinge of disappointment as she looked around the room; she’d half-expected everything to be decked out in rainbows and clouds. Only cool colors were represented throughout the room, with an emphasis on purplish hues in most of the accenting decor. All the furniture had been crafted for the elder’s height, which made for some very interesting-looking bookshelves. All four of the hand-carved bookshelves had solid wood bases ornately carved with unicorns galloping through dense forests. The shelving that held her numerous books—which, oddly enough, were grouped by color—started right above Dragon’s head. The elder nodded Dragon over to a comfortable sitting area near a west-facing window. “What a beautiful view!” Dragon exclaimed. “That’s Sapphire Sands Lake, right?” She stood on her tiptoes and stared out the stone-mullioned windows, straining to get a better look at the massive tree that bowed out over the cliff edge. Once she did, she immediately recognized the delicate leaves and long, sweeping branches that swayed and brushed across the tall grass, like gentle fingers combing softly through the meadow. “Oh, wow! Is that a berrywine maple?” Elder Fairmind paused in nestling herself among a pile of floor cushions. “A truly Enchanted tree. You’re familiar?” “It’s one of Da’s favorite trees. He made most of the furniture at home out of berrywine maples torn down by the storms. They tend not to make it through the strong winds and get uprooted and carried in the flood waters. “But that one! Look how huge it is! And it’s still standing.” “That one is quite resilient, isn’t it?” Elder Fairmind said.
Dragon whipped around, suddenly realizing she had been rambling on about trees. “Sorry.” “No need for apologies. We can talk about whatever you want here.” Elder Fairmind gestured with one hoof to Dragon’s seating options. Several fluffy floor cushions rested next to the elder. That spot was too close for comfort. Dragon looked at the other options, which provided a little more breathing room. To her left stood a set of wooden chairs, small enough to fit in the Gaelens’ living room. Too small. All that remained was a choice between three squat armchairs near the window. “Take your pick,” Elder Fairmind said, her voice calm and even. Dragon chose an armchair with a fuzzy turquoise throw draped over the back. Sitting back stiffly in the chair, she glanced around the room, trying to get comfortable. She instinctively clutched the blanket and stared down at the talons of her feet, unsure who was supposed to start talking first. “Why don’t you tell me your favorite thing about school?” Elder Fairmind asked, breaking the silence. Dragon slowly lifted her gaze to meet Elder Fairmind’s. Her favorite thing? The question was almost laughable. Was it some sort of test to see if she would get upset? “You can already sense when I’m lying, right?” Elder Fairmind nodded once. “It’s one of my gifts, you could say.” She gestured to her horn with one hoof. “I guess there’s no point in trying, then.” Dragon inhaled sharply, unsure where to start. “I take it you don’t like much about the school.” Dragon stared down at her lap. “It’s not what I expected.” Silence fell between them, a comforting, safe kind of silence. Elder Fairmind wasn’t pushing or forcing Dragon to talk. She could simply share whenever she felt ready to.
“Well . . .” Dragon finally said. “There are these two students in my class.” She bit her quivering lip. Elder Fairmind fluttered her eyelids closed and nodded, taking a few steady breaths. “Yes. I see. They’ve shamed you into silence. This isn’t good. Not at all.” Dragon sat upright. “I won’t get in trouble for talking about this, will I?” Elder Fairmind’s eyes shot open. She leaned forward and reached a hoof out to comfort Dragon. Dragon recoiled, lifting her knees to her chest. “It’s okay, Dragon. You’re safe here.” “Da always said it’s not good to gossip. I don’t want to get in trouble for talking about others.” “Dragon, sweetheart, there’s a big difference between telling others when someone is hurting you and talking badly about others when they’re not there. This isn’t gossip, honey.” Dragon fidgeted with her hands and avoided the unicorn’s gaze, turning her focus to a nearby shelf. There was a simple earthen container on the top shelf that held three large feathers. Elder Fairmind followed Dragon’s gaze. “Those are griffin feathers,” Elder Fairmind said, changing the subject. “Griffin?” “A friend gave me some when he was molting. They’re said to bring good luck and protection.” Dragon stared hard at the feathers in the mud-colored jar, as if looking at them long enough would summon the protection that she needed against Kora. “And your professor made me that vase.” Dragon met Elder Fairmind’s gaze. “Professor Culpepper? Really?” The unicorn nodded once. “He has a real knack for ceramics, even if he doesn’t breathe fire.” Dragon challenged herself to keep her focus on Elder Fairmind’s kind blue eyes, but no matter how hard she tried, she eventually had to turn away. Even
though the elder’s presence offered Dragon a deep sense of calm and comfort, there was still something that made her uneasy. After all, talking to a unicorn for the first time was pretty intimidating. “These students in your class,” Elder Fairmind said, gently bringing the delicate subject back into focus. “Are they mistreating you?” “Do unicorns need protection?” Dragon asked, avoiding the elder’s question. She peered up at the three griffin feathers. Elder Fairmind nodded. “Of course. Everything needs protection sometimes. None of us are completely invincible . . . yet.” She winked. Dragon attempted a smile. “Are you afraid of them?” Dragon tilted her head to the side and considered the question. “No. Not really afraid.” “Angry, then?” Dragon nodded vigorously. Even though Elder Fairmind was making this whole honesty thing really easy for her, Dragon still struggled to put her feelings into actual words. “Have you talked to anyone? Your family?” Dragon frowned and played with the blanket’s fringe. “It’s as if they don’t want to hear about anything bad. They keep insisting that everything is perfect. That Breezemaple is perfect. I can’t tell them it’s not.” Dragon felt strangely relieved that she could finally open up to someone about what had been going on inside. How had she managed to keep all of this stuffed down for this long? “Do they know something bad is happening to you at school?” “Well, no. Not exactly. I mean, I get the sense that my sister suspects something. She won’t leave me alone about it.” The pressure and tension in Dragon’s body eased, and she got a little more comfortable in the chair. “And you won’t tell her because . . . ?”
“I’ve lied to them too much. If they ever found out . . .” Dragon sniffled. “You don’t understand gnomes. They’re like the happiest little . . . the friendliest . . .” Dragon tried with all her might not to burst into tears. “And the rest of the world isn’t like that?” Elder Fairmind asked. Dragon shot forward in her chair. “Are you kidding me? You saw me hiding out in the bathroom. Those other girls that were in there? They’re not even in my class, and they were talking about me. Making fun of my name.” Elder Fairmind nodded. “I see. And you feel not only alienated by your peers, whom you thought you would fit in with because they’re more like you on the outside, but disillusioned that your family gave you very little warning that the world outside Gnome Colony could be a little harsh?” “No warning!” Dragon threw her hands up in exasperation. “Nothing! Nothing at all.” “That can be very confusing and frustrating.” Elder Fairmind leaned closer. “Your feelings are valid, Dragon.” Dragon didn’t recoil this time when the elder patted the top of her hand. “Lying won’t do, though,” the unicorn continued. “No one can help you if you don’t let them know you need them to.” Dragon dropped her gaze to her lap, sulking. “I know. I’m sorry.” “And if gnomes are as loving as you say they are, they will understand.” Dragon lifted her head a little. “They will?” “Your Da may be disappointed at first; no one likes to be lied to. But I think they’ll be more upset that you felt you couldn’t trust them with your feelings.” A smile spread across Dragon’s face. “You’re right. They would understand.” She chewed on that last bit for a minute. “But why wouldn’t I tell them? Why would I lie? They never raised me to do things like that. They’ve shown me nothing but love all my life.” “You want my honest opinion?” Dragon nodded again.
“When we’re scared, we get defensive. When we get defensive, we can do some pretty awful things. Things we regret. Things we wouldn’t normally do.” Dragon flinched. “Trust me, though. You’re not the only one who does it. Fear has a way with all of us.” Dragon found it odd and slightly comforting that Elder Fairmind had a way of offering the truth that both stung and reached her where she needed it most. “You’ve never met your real family, right?” Elder Fairmind asked then, changing topics. “Real?” Dragon frowned, suddenly irritated. “The Gaelens are pretty real when it comes to family.” Elder Fairmind nodded. “My apologies. You’re absolutely right. What I mean to say is your birth family. You’ve never met them, correct?” “I don’t even know if any other Trihorn Snappers exist. I sure haven’t seen any. How would I even know if we were related?” Dragon had a hard time concealing the edge to her tone. Elder Fairmind closed her eyes again and exhaled slowly. “The Gaelens have been the only family you’ve known. They brought you in, invited you in as one of their own.” Her eyes fluttered back open. The intensity of Elder Fairmind’s gaze set Dragon on edge. “But you’re not gnomekind, and there is something inside you that recognizes that. Something that pushes them away because of it.” The unexpected words shot through Dragon’s heart like a thousand searing spears. “I thought you were trying to make me feel better?” It took everything in her not to scream those words in Elder Fairmind’s face and bolt straight out of the office.
“Oh, my dear. It’s nothing to be offended about. You are a dragon. You will never be a gnome. That’s a simple fact. You can learn like them, live like them, and act like them, but ultimately, you are one hundred percent drakaina.” Dragon pulled her legs close to her chest and leaned her forehead on her knees. “I growled at those girls in the bathroom! I’ve never growled in my life. Not even once. I’m going to end up a bully like Kora.” “Professor Culpepper. He stands up for you when they act out, right?” “Sometimes. He could probably do a better job of reigning those two in. They’re terrible. And not only to me. It’s as if their friends only stick around to avoid the brunt of the abuse.” “You’re probably right. There’s always some benefit to keeping your enemies close to avoid getting harmed as well.” Elder Fairmind scanned Dragon’s face. “Is that why you want him to be closer to you? Is there a hope he could maybe protect you from Kora?” Elder Fairmind didn’t even have to say his name; Dragon knew exactly who she was talking about. Dragon’s entire body flushed hot. She snorted and looked away. “Who, Azric? No way! He’s the worst.” Elder Fairmind smiled and tapped her shimmering horn once. “Fine. Maybe. But don’t get me started on how much I kick myself for it.” Dragon’s jaw tightened. “Why should I want to be his friend if he acts that way toward me?” “Was he the first?” Elder Fairmind asked calmly. “The first? What do you mean, the first?” “I mean dragon. Was he the first of your kind you encountered on campus?” Dragon nibbled on her talon, hesitating. “Yes. He was in the hallway before I got to class.” Her cheeks flushed hot with embarrassment. “ It was silly of me, I get it now. It’s just I was really
excited to finally meet another . . .” The words burned their way up from Dragon’s heart and stuck in the back of her throat. She swallowed hard to try and regain her composure. “Some part of you linked to him in that moment, when you thought he would be a friend. Something had been missing for such a long time, that when you finally saw it in front of you . . .” Elder Fairmind’s eyes took on a faraway look as her voice trailed off. Dragon waved a hand in the unicorn’s line of sight. “What are you doing?” Elder Fairmind’s pupils shrank, and she shook her head, her beautiful mane swishing back and forth. “Sorry. I was picking up the In-Between.” Dragon squirmed in her chair. “In between what?” “No. The In-Between comprises all the unseen messages moving around us all the time. My horn is like an antenna, allowing me to pick up on messages that don’t get spoken.” Dragon looked away uncomfortably. “Um, okay. Anyway, are you done with all that? I don’t really like it when you try to read my thoughts.” Elder Fairmind grinned. “What?” Dragon asked. “See! You can be honest.” Dragon tried not to smile. “I guess.” “I respect your boundaries. You are perfectly right. It is impolite to scan someone for her unseen messages without permission. Please, forgive me.” She bowed. Dragon chuckled at the formality of her apology. “It’s okay. Can you please try not to do it again, though?” “Sometimes this thing gets carried away. If there is something important, it hones in even more. There are a lot of burdens you are carrying, but you don’t have to do it alone. I know it’s been hard trying to find your place here. But I promise, this will pass, and you will find your way.”
Dragon shook her head. “Nobody likes me here. It’s weird. Everyone in Gnome Colony practically adores me. Why is everyone here so different? And why is Kora with a bunch of dragons?” “That’s a long conversation that we’ll have to save for later. It’s time for you to go back to class.” “But—” “Do your best, and reach out to those you know are your allies. You aren’t meant to cower in fear. That is not the Breezemaple way. Let your teacher know. And your parents. Let them help you, Dragon. They love you and want to help, but you have to let them in.” Dragon nodded as the period bell sounded. She flashed Elder Fairmind a concerned look. “It’s okay. I’m right here if you need me. Professor Culpepper can help you too. You’re not alone.” Dragon pushed herself up from the chair and tottered past the pile of pillows. She stopped at the door and turned around. “Thank you, Elder Fairmind. For helping me get to the truth.” “Anytime, Dragon.” The unicorn rose from the ground and joined Dragon at the door to see her out. “Oh, and Dragon.” She nodded her horn at the door once, and it creaked open effortlessly. “You can call me Zinnia.”
VII Dragon pushed open the classroom door and reluctantly poked her head in. “There’s the Gaelen family pet!” Kora snarled. Several students joined in on the laughter coming from the back of the room. Dragon’s nostrils flared as she took in a deep breath and tried to ignore the comment. She searched for her teacher, who she found rummaging through some bookshelves on the far side of the classroom. “Professor Culpepper?” she called. He was too busy pulling armfuls of this and that off the shelves to hear her. “Ahem. Professor Culpepper?” Dragon called again, this time louder. “Hey, Teach!” Kora yelled. The entire class burst out laughing. Professor Culpepper turned around, nearly dropping everything he was holding. “Excuse me, young lady. You do not address me that way!” Kora jerked her thumb toward the door. “She’s trying to get your attention.” Dragon was shocked that Kora would attempt to help her instead of slamming her with another nasty comment. Professor Culpepper’s face brightened, and he set his things down on his desk. “Dragon! You’re right on time for the surprise!” “Surprise?” Professor Culpepper waddled over to the door, his bulky tail swishing back and forth behind him. “I’m going to change things up a bit today. I’m glad you’re back from the library; I’ve got something especially for you.” His eyes gleamed with a hint of wonder.
“Actually, I was in the bathroom.” “Okay.” Professor Culpepper looked around awkwardly. “Well, I don’t need to know all that—” “I mean,” Dragon said, cutting him off. “I never went to the library. I was in the bathroom the whole time.” Professor Culpepper drew his brow together in a frown. “The whole time? Why would you—” “You were in the bathroom? What, did you forget how to use the potty?” The class roared with laughter, following Kora’s lead. Professor Culpepper flashed Dragon a look of irritation and shook his head in disgust. “Ignore her. I’ll deal with that later,” he said in a hushed voice. “Now what’s going on? What do you mean, you were in the bathroom?” “I . . . I . . .” Dragon’s pulse hammered in her temples as she tried to block the pointing and snickering from her mind. “Can I talk to you outside? For a minute?” “Of course. But it can’t be too long. You know how these kids get when they’re unsupervised.” The professor put one of the more responsible students in charge and followed Dragon out into the hallway. “Okay. I think we’re good.” He crouched down to meet her at eye level. “Now, tell me. What’s going on?” “I . . . well . . .” Dragon’s hands started to shake as she considered what she was about to do. Professor Culpepper gently placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. “Go on. It’s okay,” he encouraged. “Well, I . . . I’ve been lying. About where I’ve been.” Professor Culpepper jerked back, frowning. “Lying? What do you mean, lying? That’s not a typical Gaelen thing to do.”
“I know. And it’s not like me to do something like that. But I was talking with Elder Fairmind—she told me I could call her Zinnia,” Dragon rambled nervously. “Anyway, Elder Fairmind said I need to tell the truth.” “Okay.” Professor Culpepper crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, what is the truth, then? Cutting class is a big offense. You could get in big trouble for that, young lady!” Dragon nodded and blinked back the budding tears in her eyes. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ve actually been hiding.” “Hiding?” Professor Culpepper bellowed. “Shh! Please don’t shout that out. I’m embarrassed about it, sir.” His eyes softened from anger to concern. “What in the world are you hiding from?” All she had to do was say the name. That’s it. She wouldn’t get in trouble. Zinnia had promised. Say the name already, Dragon! “I . . . well . . .” Dragon backed up against the classroom door. How had talking with Elder Fairmind been so easy? The door suddenly opened behind her, causing her to stagger forward. “Oh, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you,” said the lanky winged dragon who poked his head around the door. “Sir, you better get in here! Kora’s at it again.” “One moment, Sam. I’ll be right in.” Professor Culpepper turned back to Dragon. “Out with it, Dragon. What are you hiding from?” “Can you not yell at me, sir? It makes it harder to tell you.” Professor Culpepper waved a hand at Sam, signaling him to return to the classroom. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to yell. Kora’s worn my last nerve today. I’m concerned. Truly, I am.” He took a deep breath. “Please. I want to know why you’re upset. Why you feel like you have to miss class over something.”
“It’s not something. It’s someone.” Dragon looked away and fiddled with her hands uncomfortably. “I don’t want to disappoint you. Or Da. Or anyone. But it’s Kora.” The professor exhaled sharply. “Kora? You’ve been hiding from her?” “You see how she treats me, right?” Professor Culpepper gave her a solemn look. “Of course I do. It’s inappropriate and disruptive and—” “And it’s why I’ve been avoiding class,” Dragon interjected. The professor straightened his spectacles and ran a hand over the scales on top of his head. “This has gone on long enough! She will not control my classroom any longer. I can only do so many favors for my friends—” Dragon cocked her head to the side. “Favors for your friends?” “Azric’s parents.” He shook his head and bent down to meet her at her level. “Never mind that, though, Dragon. I will speak with her. And Head Director Thackeray. You have my promise. We’ll get this fixed.” “Please, sir. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.” “Dragon, her behavior is what’s getting her in trouble. Not you. You have nothing to worry about there.” Sam poked his head through the doorway. “Sir, please. We need you back in here.” Professor Culpepper nodded. “We’ll be right in.” Sam shut the door and yelled over the ruckus for the class to settle down. Professor Culpepper placed both hands on Dragon’s shoulders. “I know it may be difficult for you to go in there, Dragon, but I will take care of this. If you want, I can talk to your Da—” “No.” Dragon jutted her chin out. “I have to tell him myself. I have to be responsible for my behavior. I was wrong.” Professor Culpepper nodded. “Even though what you did was wrong, you did the right thing by telling me.” Dragon smiled. “Really?”
“Yes, really. Now I can step in and help put to rest what’s been bothering you for much too long.” Elder Fairmind had been right. All Dragon had to do was speak up, and her teacher was willing to step in and do something to actually change things. All that silent suffering could have been completely avoided. She just wished she had the courage to have told someone sooner. Professor Culpepper cleared a spot at his desk and gestured for Dragon to take a seat. “We’d better have you stay up here until I can figure out what to do about a new seating chart.” Dragon flashed him a timid smile. “Thank you. I appreciate that.” “Again, I am truly sorry it’s come this far,” he said. “You’ll have to hang tight for a bit while I figure out what to do about that group.” “Oh, look,” Kora taunted from the back of the class. “Not only is she the Gaelens’ pet, she’s the teacher’s pet too.” Dragon couldn’t hold back the look of defeat, which made Kora grin even wider. Professor Culpepper whipped around and wagged a knotty finger straight at Kora. “This is your last warning, young lady. I’ve had about enough of that.” “Ease up, Teach,” Kora said coolly. “It’s only a joke.” She chuckled cruelly, sulfur smoke puffing from her nostrils with each self-satisfied snicker. “One more peep out of you, and I’ll have you expelled for harassment.” “Harassment!” Kora scoffed. “Okay, now you’re talking crazy.” “Kora Straightheart! I mean it. You hold your tongue for the rest of the day, or so help me . . .”
Several students gasped and started into whispered side conversations. Professor Culpepper stormed up to the front row of desks. “Enough!” he roared. The chattering stopped immediately. An unnatural tension hung in the air as the students glanced at one another in complete shock. “That’s more like it.” Professor Culpepper smoothed the scales on his stout belly. “Now. I have something important to share with you all today.” He waddled back over to his desk and picked up a decent-sized chest. “I’ll need your full attention because I will be trying something a little different today.” He brought the chest over to one of the desks in the front row and plopped it down with a heavy thud. “Please turn to ‘Draconian History’ in Eggs of Our Ancestors. Page 295.” Dragon glanced at the stack of unfinished work tucked into her textbook, which she had left open on the desk next to Kora. She winced. There was no way she would even attempt to go back there to get her things. She would have to follow along by listening. The professor creaked open the lid of the chest and lifted out handfuls of sparkling objects. “What are those?” asked one of the Spottedhorns from the second row. “These are some of the most important things you will learn about in my class.” Kora craned her neck to see above the student in front of her. Professor Culpepper grinned as he placed one of the sparkling objects on each desk in the front row, encouraging the students to inspect them and pass them around the room. Even Kora appeared to be interested in what he had to share today. “These,” he explained, “are pieces of dragon eggs.” From the outside, the shells looked quite unimpressive, similar in shape and texture to small mossy boulders. It was the inside of the shells that was
most remarkable: they were lined with what appeared to be different varieties of crystals. Professor Culpepper cleared his throat. “The best way to study dragon history is to look at where each clan came from. Please read through the first paragraph of Chapter Eleven silently.” Dragon’s spirit lifted as she watched the eggshell pieces being passed around from student to student. For the first time since she’d started at Breezemaple, she was actually excited to be in class. “As you may observe,” Professor Culpepper said, striding back and forth in front of the class, “the outward appearance of these shells helps to camouflage them among their surroundings.” He placed a small shard in front of Dragon and winked. Her stomach did a flip as she turned it over in her hands. The inside was lined with beautiful purple and mauve crystals. “Now, as you may notice in Section Two, the book states that dragons have a special link with their eggshells.” Several hands shot up in the air. “Yes, Sam,” Professor Culpepper said. “What does that mean, a special link with the eggshell?” Sam pointed to a paragraph in his book. “These are no ordinary crystals lining these eggshells.” Professor Culpepper adjusted his glasses and rocked back and forth on his feet. “Now, I’m sure we all know that silly story about griffins bringing baby dragons to their parents. That isn’t how things work. Dragons have to grow inside a fertilized egg.” Several students made gagging noises. “That’s enough of that, now. It’s perfectly natural to talk about how we come into life.” He picked up one of the pieces and held it up above the students’ heads. “Our growing bodies develop within these protective shells. But . . .”
He set the shell down and leaned forward on the desk. “Growing alongside us inside these shells are our distinctive crystals. Each dragon has a different crystal. Some dragon clans share similar types of crystals, but no one crystal is ever the same.” Kora leaned forward in her chair, apparently eager to get her hands on one of the shards. “Each of your crystals will eventually determine who you become as an adult dragon.” The room buzzed with excitement; it was a rare occurrence for Professor Culpepper to get the class this revved up. “Your purpose as a dragon—”Professor Culpepper engaged the dumbstruck students by pointing at several individuals in each row”—is to reach your full potential. How does one accomplish this, you may ask?” He tapped his chin and paced again through the aisles of desks. “You can only accomplish this arduous task by embracing, studying, and incorporating the very properties of the crystal that chose you!” He pointed a talon at several wide-eyed students, who listened, entranced, mouths gaping. It was as if his words had charmed the entire class with some spell, for all at once, they took to their textbooks to inquire about their own shells. “But—there is no guarantee that every dragon will reach their potential.” He darted a narrow-eyed glance at Azric. “Sometimes, dragons can stray from the path they were meant for if circumstances are less than ideal in their upbringing or home environment.” Azric snarled under his breath and shifted in his seat. Professor Culpepper had obviously touched a nerve. “Once a dragon achieves the Honorable Elder status, they hopefully will have taken on those characteristics completely. I don’t know much of the exact how or why, myself; that still remains a mystery to me.” His eyes shone
with a twinkle. “But your specific crystal will somehow awaken an innate gift in each of you.” As if the professor’s words had been a cue, something quickened within Dragon’s chest. Her arms and legs started to tremble as a warm, uncomfortable sensation spread throughout her body. She shifted in her seat and gave her arms a shake, trying to get rid of the feeling. “Um, Professor?” Dragon clutched her unsettled stomach with one hand and waved the other at the teacher. “I don’t feel very well.” “What the—” Azric blurted out from the back of the room. Dragon felt a sudden flash of heat expand out from the center of her belly. She glanced down and gasped. Her ridged abdomen was hot to the touch and glowed with swirling waves of teal and magenta, as though an internal flame had been ignited. Kora laughed maniacally as the other students abandoned their desks to point and gawk. “Stop that! All of you! Get back to your seats!” shouted Professor Culpepper, trying desperately to regain control of the class. Dragon’s eyes darted around the room in search of the nearest exit. She gasped for air frantically as the luminous colors overtook the rest of her body. “Professor Culpepper!” She scrambled to cover her exposed belly. “Make it stop!” She screeched and stumbled toward the door. Waves of panic washed over her as she reached through the swarm of students for the door handle. The mob rushed her and grabbed at her arms and legs, trying to stretch out her body. She felt like a trapped animal being examined. Dragon cried out and flailed, breaking free of their grasp before they could pin her down completely. She wailed for her teacher once more before pushing her way through the crowd toward the exit, the crystal shard still clutched in her hand.
VIII Opting for a steep deer trail over the exposed switch-back road to Fairyway Woods, Dragon descended the hill toward the bank of Crescent Call River. “I’m never going back there! They can’t make me!” Dragon growled as she rushed through the dense forest. She didn’t care that she was supposed to meet her Da after school for a ride home. Nor did she care that she would get in trouble for leaving campus early, despite Professor Culpepper’s warnings. Dealing with the consequences of her actions was the last thing on her mind. The only thing she cared about was getting home as fast as her feet could carry her. Her head swam with a mixture of humiliation and anger. She couldn’t make sense of what had happened in the classroom, of the way her stomach had reacted. Had her body finally decided to give up and revolt in defense against Kora’s behavior? Whatever was going on, Dragon couldn’t ignore it or the fact that her entire class had practically jumped on her as if she were some sort of wild animal. Dragon roared as another wave of humiliation washed over her. “What’s wrong with them? Why would they attack me like that?” She swiped at her eyes to clear away the tears that blurred her line of sight. She shoved her way through a series of brambly bushes, ignoring the beautiful scenery around her. Veering away from the trail, she lost her footing on a pile of slippery decaying leaves and went tumbling, head over tail, down the hillside. The piece of eggshell she’d been clutching flew from her hand, and the colorful light show in her belly finally stilled. The rough terrain rushed past her in a blur of vibrant colors as she crashed past boulders and trees, all
the way down. She tore through the undergrowth at the base of the hill and skidded to a final stop with a yelp. Dragon slowly lifted her throbbing head and looked around. “Oh, come on!” She pounded both fists on the ground, spooking a flock of birds into flight. She had ended up farther upstream of the bridge to Gnome Colony than she’d intended. Dragon flopped face-first on the ground and sobbed into the warm sand of the riverbank. Feeling completely defeated, she wasn’t sure what hurt more: her wounded pride from the ridicule in class or the blunt trauma of the nasty fall. Both had her aching, through and through. An image of the berrywine maple near Sapphire Sands Lake suddenly flashed through her thoughts, followed by Elder Fairmind’s haunting words. That one is quite resilient, isn’t it? Dragon stopped crying and slowly sat up. She rubbed the bruised and tender parts of her body that had gotten banged up during the fall and dug her feet into the sand. She wanted to be as resilient as that tree, withstanding every storm that threatened to uproot it. She wanted to be stronger, more confident in herself, but everything within her quarreled over whether she wanted to be more gnome than dragon or more dragon than gnome. She knew Elder Fairmind was right. She could never fully be a gnome, but she did appreciate all the valuable traits the Gnome Colony community had offered her as a growing whelp. A cool breeze hit her cheek then, and with it came a sudden sense of peace, washing away all remaining traces of her sorrow. Dragon listened to the sounds of the forest: The peaceful rush of water at her feet. The rustle of small animals scurrying around in the brush. The faint cry of a hawk as it circled high above the canopy. The bubbly laughter of gnome children off in the distance. Dragon scrambled to get up. “Children? What are gnome children doing this close to the river?”
An unfamiliar motherly instinct took over, driving her to search up and down the riverbank for any sign of small conical hats bobbing up and down. “Wait a second.” Dragon recognized this place. It was a familiar split in the river, where part of it branched off toward Gnome Colony. The bent tree with the rope swing still stood, but all signs of the stone towers that Annalene and Dragon had built when they were small had long been washed away by the river’s strong currents. On the other side of the hill beyond the Crescent Call River, canals ran through the northern neighborhood of Roothollow Way. Those canals had been an innovative and effective development aimed to help channel the floodwaters away from the outskirts of town, and they ran right past Dragon’s childhood home. Being back in this place brought a smile to her face. The playful voices called to each other and burst into fits of giggles. Dragon chuckled, unable to resist the infectious laughter. Something inside her tugged her toward the cheerful gnome children—a hint of nostalgia, perhaps a desire to forget the day’s troubles? Dragon slowly waded across the sandbar and shook the water from her body once she got to the other side. “Goblin! You’re a goblin!” a young female voice called. Dragon quietly crept through the woods to the top of the small hill and hid behind a berry bush. She peeked through the branches, careful not to startle the children. A pair of gnome twins, a boy and a girl, played in the front yard of Dragon’s old house across the canal. Her heart swelled as she watched them argue and play. “That’s not fair! You always make me play the goblin!” the gnome boy cried, waving a stick in the air. “Well, if you didn’t smell like one, maybe you could play something else.” His sister pointed and giggled, adjusting her green cap. “I do not smell!”
Dragon had to stifle a laugh. Even she could smell the gnome boy’s feet from where she crouched. The children reminded Dragon of her and Annalene, when they would dress up as each other and have tea parties in the yard. When Dragon was big enough to walk, Aideen had made a special gnome hat for her and a purple dragon onesie for Annalene to romp around in, complete with tail spikes. What fun they’d had playing Gnomes and Dragons back then. In the snowy months of Albonix, Carrick had taught them to ice skate along the frozen canals and build tall snow gnomes. Reflecting on the fond memories brought the twinkle back to Dragon’s eye. Not much had changed about the house— a modest cob structure big enough for a growing gnome family. It still had the same sky-blue shutters, though with a different coat of paint. The tree out front looked a lot smaller than she remembered. Even the small raised garden plot was still in use. That had been one of Dragon’s favorite places, where Aideen used to show both girls how to care for flowers and savory herbs. The twins’ mother stepped out on the covered porch and shook out a rug. Dragon ducked behind the bush to stay out of sight. The mother called for the twins to come have lunch, and the little boy and girl chased each other around once more before dashing for the front door. They each gave their mother a big hug and nose nuzzle before all three went back inside, leaving Dragon alone with her thoughts in the quiet woods. Dragon slumped to the ground. The magic and wonder seemed to disappear the moment all three gnomes went back inside their house. She missed spending time with Annalene like that. Ever since they moved to Mossbark Acres, they had grown further and further apart. Dragon completely blamed herself for it too. It hadn’t taken Dragon very long as a whelp to outgrow her old room, and eventually the house altogether. That had been the necessary motivation for
the Gaelens’ decision to relocate from a home that had been passed down through Aideen’s family line for three generations. They’d been lucky to find a new house, even one on the other side of the colony, where Dragon could easily access the foothill caves in their backyard. The Gaelens had all agreed that it was high time to expand their home, but Dragon always felt guilty that they had to leave because of her. Annalene ended up getting a more spacious room to herself, Carrick had finally had enough land to develop an annual harvest that fed them all without any problem. And Aideen even got a much bigger garden plot to tend to. Everyone had seemed happy about the move. Except Dragon. True, her cave allowed for plenty of room to grow, but it also made for long hours of isolation from her family, especially in the cold months of Albonix. Annalene spending more time off in Fae Colony with her friend Amika only made matters worse. She was not only Dragon’s sister but her only friend. Dragon felt alone at home and at school, and it didn’t seem like there was anything she could do about it. Dragon glanced up at the afternoon sun. It was still much too early to go back home, despite the long walk. Though she’d have to take the wagon trail that wound through Brightbirch Pass south to Mossbark Acres, Aideen wouldn’t expect her and Carrick to get home until right around dinner time. That was hours away yet. She might as well stay put and get some rest after all she had been through. Dragon laid her head back on a mossy rock and sighed heavily. She was not looking forward to dealing with an angry Da. Maybe she could run off to Dragon Colony. She laughed at the ridiculousness of the idea. She knew nothing about surviving by herself in the woods, let alone whatever terrain Dragon Colony offered. Considering their moody ways, Dragon could only imagine the living conditions of all those clans she had seen on the Dragon Colony map in her
book. No wonder dragons acted the way they did; they didn’t have access to any of the beautiful countryside, quaint cobblestone streets, or whimsically fun thatched-roof houses of Gnome Colony. She wouldn’t be surprised if their attitudes resulted from being crammed into craggy living spaces up in the mountains. Dragon smiled to herself. Oddly enough, being different had its perks, if only for the moment. Dragon rolled onto her side and closed her eyes to get some rest. She would go home and face whatever consequences lay ahead, no matter how much she might want to stay in the woods. But not right now. All of that would have to wait until she got in a good nap and some time to savor the comfort of her cherished childhood memories. Dragon peered through the kitchen window and spotted Aideen stirring a large pot of stew. There was no sign of Carrick, neither in the house nor out in the garden. She had made sure of that before attempting to cross the fields to get home. Dragon tapped on the stained glass and then flinched. She was surely in for a good talking to. Aideen whipped around and brushed her flowing blonde hair out of her face. She beamed at Dragon before pushing the window open. “Ah, good! You made it home okay!” Dragon’s brow arched in surprise. “Made it home okay?” A nervous flutter quickened in Dragon’s gut. Was it possible that Aideen knew she had left school without Carrick? Aideen took a sip from the hot stew and shook a dash of spice into the large pot. “Well, yes. I assumed Da told you he was staying late.”
Dragon scowled. “Staying late? What, he thought I would be fine walking all the way home by myself?” The irony of the situation irritated her. “Who said anything about walking? Didn’t you fly here with your friends from school? That’s what the message from the school oracle said.” “Ma! I don’t have—”Dragon cut her words short before she could say friends. “Wings. I don’t have wings. How am I supposed to fly?” She had to watch her temper. She was not only tired and hurt but also very hungry after missing lunch. Not a good combination. “I don’t know. Ride on someone’s back? I didn’t think anything of it. Anyway, that’s not the point. Da didn’t tell you he was staying at Breezemaple? And you didn’t come home with friends? Then how did you get home, Dragon?” Dragon looked down at her feet and bit her tongue. Panic rose in her chest as she struggled to respond. “Answer me, Dragon. Did you walk all the way home?” Before she could answer, the front door swung open, and Carrick walked in, his red cap in his hands and his head hung low. “Aideen. Honey. I have some bad news.” Carrick set his cap down and pulled what appeared to be a pack off his back. It turned out to be a fairly large green tome. Dragon poked her head through the kitchen window and beamed at Carrick through the open doorway to the living room. “My book! You got my book from class?” Carrick’s head jerked up. A rosy flush returned to his ashen face. “Dragon! You’re here! Oh, thank the stars!” “Carrick Gaelen!” Aideen snapped, her tone sharp. “You tell me right now why you sent word with the oracle that Dragon was coming home with her friends! You let her walk home all by herself?” Her eyes flicked from Carrick to Dragon. “Honey, listen. I need you to stay calm now, okay?”
“Stay calm? I’ll stay calm when you tell me what’s going on. Why did you lie to me, Carrick?” “Technically, I didn’t lie to you, sweetheart.” Aideen waved the spoon in her hand threateningly. “Technically! You better save your technicalities for someone else, Carrick Gaelen!” “Aideen. Honey. I’ll explain everything. Let’s take a few breaths, and put down the spoon, okay?” Dragon couldn’t tell if it was due to the steam from the bubbling stew or her flustered state, but Aideen’s already-rosy cheeks flushed darker. There had only been two other times Dragon had ever seen her Ma this worked up. Once had been due to a baking snafu, when some of her best pies had been destroyed right before the annual Albonix baking contest. Some wild creatures had gotten hold of them while they were cooling outside on the dining table. The other time had been when Dragon and Annalene were younger and had snuck into Aideen’s private garden, smashing some of her most beautiful flowers to pieces. They were unforgettable and unfortunate moments, and they had proven it was best to avoid getting on Aideen’s bad side if at all possible. Aideen scowled. “You two have some serious explaining to do!” “Honey, breathe!” Carrick dodged a couple of swipes of the spoon before he managed to confiscate it from Aideen’s shaking hand. “It’s an easy explanation. I promise.” “An easy explanation? What if she got hurt, Carrick?” “Well,” Dragon interjected, “I actually did. I fell down the side of the hill—” Carrick shot Dragon a ‘you’re not helping’ look. “You see? This is what happens when we stop being overprotective of our girls. That would never have happened on my watch.” Aideen stormed over to the sink and plunged her hands in the soapy water with a splash. Dragon had never seen the Gaelens argue like this. It was unsettling.
“Now, honeysuckle.” Carrick held up a hand in surrender. “Let’s not start saying things out of anger.” “I left school on purpose,” Dragon blurted out. She didn’t care that she would have to finally tell the truth. She wanted the chaos to stop. She wanted them to stop arguing. “And I stole an eggshell. And I lost it when I fell down the hill.” Carrick’s eyes softened with compassion. “Direth told me what happened, Dragon. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.” “Stole an eggshell?” Aideen asked. “What are you talking about?” Dragon couldn’t hold it in anymore.“There are these two students in my class, and they make fun of me,” she gasped out in between sobs. “Well, one makes fun of me, and the other one just laughs with his friends. And they do it every day, and I’ve been hiding in the bathroom to avoid it, and I was lying to everyone about everything. “And I know you didn’t raise me to lie or steal or cut class or run away, but I did. All of it. And I’m sorry,” she choked, her eyes full of streaming tears. Carrick walked into the kitchen slowly. “Dragon! Oh, honey. I had no idea.” He reached up in a gesture to pet her muzzle. Dragon knelt and welcomed his embrace. “You should be mad at me. I lied to all of you. I did all those things.” “No, it’s okay, honey. It’s okay. You’re okay. That’s all that matters.” A loud clatter came from the sink area where Aideen was scrubbing relentlessly at the sink full of dishes. “Aideen,” Carrick said. “Settle now. We can finish that later. Come over here and give us a hug.” Aideen threw the scrub brush into the sink. “It’s unacceptable! All of it!” She turned to face them. “When did we become a family that keeps secrets? That tells lies?” Carrick offered Aideen an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry I told the oracle a lie. I stayed on campus to help with the search party. My intention wasn’t to upset you.” “I would have come and helped,” Aideen cried. “I would have. You know that, Carrick. You should have told me!” “There was nothing you could have done, Aideen. I had the carriage. You would have been stuck here worrying. I didn’t want that.” “I could have found a ride!” she argued. “Aideen.” Carrick shook his head. “It’s done. She’s here now. Let’s leave it be.” Aideen huffed and crossed her arms. “Please. Come over here. Dragon needs us. Look at our darling girl. We can’t be mad at her, can we? Look at her. She’s been hurting this whole time with no one to help.” “I don’t understand. Why couldn’t you tell us?” Aideen’s bottom lip quivered. A huge lump caught in Dragon’s throat, making it impossible for her to answer. Aideen sighed and nodded. “Are you hurt?” she asked as she made her way over to join them. Dragon shook her head. “I’m okay now. A bruise here and there. Nothing broken or anything.” Aideen caressed Dragon’s cheek. “Where did you fall?” “Close to Roothollow Way. I landed over by the river bend. Remember where Annalene and I used to play?” Carrick laughed softly. “Those river stone forts. How could I forget?” “I saw our old house. There were kids playing in the yard.” Dragon sensed by the look on Aideen’s face that she had touched a nerve bringing up that memory. She pulled away. “Where is Annalene, anyway? I wanted to talk to her. About what I saw.”
“She should be home any minute now,” Aideen said, her gaze revealed a momentary mournful look. “She’s working on some special mushroom-foraging research project at school. You know how she is when it comes to extra credit.” “Oh. I thought maybe she was with Amika or something,” Dragon said snidely. Aideen’s brow creased. “What was that? That comment about Amika.” Dragon grimaced and looked away. If she was going to start being honest, she might as well be honest about everything. “I guess I’m just jealous,” she grumbled. “Jealous of her? Why?” “Well, when I was at the old house, I realized how much I miss being part of your lives.” The grief that had surfaced in Aideen now hit Dragon’s chest, causing her to double over with a strangled sob. “Dragon, you are always part of our lives,” Carrick said. Dragon wiped the tears from her face.“Technically, yes, but I don’t . . . I can’t . . .” Dragon snorted, frustrated. “Annalene and I used to spend every day together. Now it’s like I never get to see her. She’s always with Amika.” “She’s not always with her, Dragon. Annalene spends a good amount of time at school too.” “It’s not only that, though. You guys are all in here. I can’t be with you in the house anymore. I’m stuck up there in my cave.” “But we have our dining area outside to include you,” Carrick said. “Carrick, stop. Listen to her. She’s trying to tell you how she feels, and you’re dismissing what she has to say.” Aideen rubbed Dragon’s hand. “I get it now. Why you haven’t told us. We haven’t been listening. We haven’t been paying attention. Sometimes, you can try to tell others how you feel, but they may not always listen.” Carrick scowled playfully. “Ouch, Aideen.” “I’m guilty of it too, Carrick. This has been going on for weeks, right?”
“Since I started school there.” Aideen covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head. “I shouldn’t have been angry earlier. I’m so sorry. We should have seen something was wrong.” Dragon tried to shrug Aideen’s guilt away. “Annalene caught on, I think. She kept asking me questions about school, but I wouldn’t tell her.” “You wouldn’t even confide in Annalene?” Carrick asked. Another wave of tears kicked up.Dragon shook her head as she sobbed silently.“Not even her.” Carrick joined Aideen in taking Dragon’s hand as best as he could. “I’m sorry, honey. We’ve failed you in a big way. I mean, we were told that you would go through changes adjusting to the new environment. Not to mention, your birthday is coming up.” Dragon’s face brightened with a timid smile.“The big one,” she added. “I know! The big one.” Carrick removed his spectacles and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Honey . . . I don’t know what to say.” “Have you eaten?” Aideen asked. Carrick flashed her a look of confusion. “Eaten?” Aideen held her hand up to shush him.”A girl has to eat after a difficult day, right?” Dragon bowed away.“Well, no. Not since breakfast.” Aideen shook her head in disapproval.“Okay. First things first. We can talk more about all of this over dinner. Right now, you need to get something in your stomach, even if it’s only a little snack.” Aideen went into action, bringing over a plate of millet biscuits. “You’ve had a really rough day. Take some of these, and we’ll figure out the school thing later, okay?” “Aideen . . . we really need to talk about this,” Carrick argued. “She needs a snack and some rest. She’s been bullied. She fell down a hill. She’s hungry, and she walked all the way home. Give her a break, and let her get some rest before we have dinner.”
Carrick sighed and shrugged. “Okay. Fair enough.” Dragon grabbed three biscuits off the top of the pile. She flashed Aideen a grateful smile. “Thank you.” Carrick walked over and took Aideen in his arms, kissing her on the cheek.“Ma and I will talk things over and figure out what we can do here to change some things.” He turned back to Dragon, his face stern. “Have you told anyone else at school about what’s been happening?” “Elder Fairmind, and Professor Culpepper knows now. I told him before the stomach thing.” “Stomach thing?” Aideen asked, pulling away from Carrick’s embrace. “I’ll explain later. I don’t really want to go into that stuff yet,” Dragon said. “Well, head on up to your cave, Dragon, and rest as much as you can before dinner. I’ll send Annalene up to get you when everything’s ready.” Dragon hesitated, nibbling on one of the biscuits. Aideen turned her attention back to the stew. “Was there something else you needed from us, sweetheart?” “Um . . . can I have a couple more biscuits?” Aideen and Carrick both laughed. “Absolutely. Take whatever you need, honey.”
IX Dragon pushed open the knotty hardwood door to her cave and stepped inside. Her talons clacked loudly on the flagstone floor as she padded over to her favorite tweed armchair. She set down her copy of Eggs of Our Ancestors and began lighting the beeswax cave lamps, one at a time. After establishing enough reading light, Dragon sat down and stretched out her aching feet. She leaned closer to the soft glow of the lamplight and opened the textbook to Chapter 11. Depending on the clan of dragon, it can take up to a year for an egg to hatch. It should be noted that dragons may not necessarily inherit the same form of crystals as their parents, but it is common that they do. It is of great importance that the parents of a young hatchling note the type of crystal that lines the hatchling’s shell in order to best encourage the development of their wyrmling’s inner qualities. Dragon flipped forward to the specific types of eggshells and gasped, nearly dropping the book to the floor. Her hands shook as she stared down at the page, which showed an amethyst-lined egg—identical to the one her professor had given her in class. According to the book, this specific egg was connected to the Trihorn Snapper clan. “What?” Dragon shouted. “No way! That can’t be the same one!” Her eyes darted across the page as she read hungrily through each paragraph. Amethyst-lined eggs carry vital energy. When activated, the crystal may be used to assist with engaging in worrisome thinking. Once a dragon has fully activated their inner properties, they will be able to assist others who are distraught or anxious.
That small piece of eggshell from her class was the closest thing she’d ever come to her family—her true home—and she hadn’t even known it. “Was that why my body was acting weird? Because it’s from my clan?” Dragon searched the pages for some kind of explanation about the connection between dragons and their eggshells, but she could find nothing in detail. All she found was distinct measurements of an egg, a series of growth cycle charts—nothing that touched on what Professor Culpepper had talked about in class. She flipped to the back of the book to see if there was an index that she could use to search for the specific topic. There was nothing but a works cited page and information on the author of the book, Mona Moongrove. Dragon slammed the book shut. How had she managed to lose the only thing connected to her family, to her clan? A light tapping sounded at the door to her cave. “Come in!” Dragon called, setting the book down next to the leg of her chair. The gnome entrance door creaked open, and Annalene poked her head through. “Hey, Annalene.” Dragon waved for her to come in. “I’m a little sore, and Ma wants me to stay put.” “Dragon! Oh my gosh. Ma and Da told me everything. Are you okay?” Annalene scaled Dragon’s leg to sit in her lap. “Everything? Including about Amika?” Dragon winced, hoping her parents hadn’t mentioned her true feelings about the fae girl. Annalene snuggled back against Dragon’s arm. “What do you mean? What about Amika?” Dragon looked away. “Never mind. It was something we were talking about when I got home.” “Okay. What were you talking about, then?”
“Well . . .” Dragon fiddled with the fabric on her armrest. “Wait. Da said you would come get me when dinner was ready. Did they finish already?” “No, they’re still working on it, but I wanted to come talk to you. I miss you.” Annalene smiled. “Well, yeah. I miss you like crazy. That’s kind of what I was talking to Ma and Da about.” “I don’t understand. What does that have to do with Amika?” Dragon grimaced. She was afraid to tell her about the feelings she’d been harboring for months. “It’s . . . well . . . you’ve been hanging out with her a lot.” “Okay? What’s wrong with that?” Dragon sensed Annalene’s immediate defenses go up, causing her to struggle with how to better articulate how she felt. “You two are inseparable now,” she attempted, unable to hide the honest bite of defense in her own tone. “And?” Dragon uttered a sigh of defeat. It was now or never. “Fine. Ok. We used to be inseparable. Now I hardly see you anymore because you’re always at her place.” Annalene’s nose scrunched up in defense. “I’ve only known her for, like . . .” Annalene ticked the calculations off on her dainty fingers. “Fourteen moons, give or take. Plus, I’m not always at her place. She comes over here sometimes.” “Right, but I can’t hang out with you two.” “Why not? You’re more than welcome to join us.” “No, I can’t. You always hang out inside. With Ma and Da. I can’t go in there, remember?”Dragon sniffed back the urge to cry. “And if I have to tell you that, it’s like you don’t understand at all why I could possibly be upset.”Her voice wavered with the insult of having to overexplain her side of things.
“I see your point.” Annalene sighed and looked away. “Well, she’s having a hard time adjusting to her new school. I’m only trying to be a good friend and be there for her.” Dragon gave Annalene a disgusted look and pointed at herself. “Hello? I’m having trouble adjusting to a new school. Don’t I count?” Annalene took a step back, flustered by the outpour of Dragon’s anger.“Of course you count, Dragon. But I didn’t know you were struggling. Amika opened up and told me about it. You didn’t. I can’t read your mind or anything.” “Not everyone can open up and talk about how they feel, okay?” Dragon almost wished she hadn’t let Annalene in. “Speaking of reading minds, Amika has this amazing gift that lets her talk telepathically with animals. Isn’t that the coolest?” Dragon stared at her sister in disbelief. Here she goes again. Amika this, and Amika that.It’s like nothing was getting through. “I need you too,” Dragon pressed. “I’m your sister. And you’re, like, the only friend I have. Don’t I take precedence?” “Oh, come on. You have Ma and Da.” “You can’t be best friends with your parents. And they’re not even really my parents, anyway. I’m a sore thumb, sticking out here. I thought . . . I thought that going to this school would solve that problem. That I would find more of my kind to fit in with. But I was completely wrong about that, unfortunately.” “Every single dragon gives you a hard time? They can’t all be that bad.” “Most of them, yes.” “Have you met any more Trihorn Snappers yet?” Dragon shook her head. “That’s the weird part. I haven’t seen any Trihorn Snappers either. At least, not in my class. I mean, I also haven’t really wandered around campus much because I’ve been hiding most of the time. It’s pretty intimidating to walk the halls knowing you’ll be made fun of.”
“And they make fun of you every day?” “Every day.” “All right. That settles it. I’m going up to your school to beat me up some dragons, then.” Dragon chuckled. “Well, Kora’s a phoenix. She’s terrible. She’d gobble you up in an instant.” Annalene’s eyebrows shot up. “Literally? She’d eat me?” “Oh, well, maybe not literally. But I don’t know. I wouldn’t put it past her. Better safe than sorry with that one.” “What’s a phoenix doing in your class, anyway? Shouldn’t she be with her own kind?” Annalene asked. “I can’t seem to get a straight answer from anyone on that. Apparently, it’s because of some favor that my professor is doing for another student’s parents. I don’t even know what that means.” “What about the staff there? Isn’t there an elder who can stop the teasing?” “Professor Culpepper doesn’t really do or say much. He attempts to step in every once in a while, but really, nothing changes.” “That’s your teacher, right? That’s ridiculous. Why wouldn’t he do something about it? Why would he let that happen in his class? It’s his class. He can make it stop, right?” Dragon shrugged. “You’d think he would.” “It’s not right. We have to tell someone about what’s happening. Da can talk to Elder Greenwood. He’s the one who got you into that school in the first place. He has to have some say there, for sure.” “Maybe. I have to wait and see what Ma and Da say about the whole thing. They only found out today.” Annalene crossed her arms. “About that. Why are we only learning about this?”
“Well, I kind of tried to tell Da, but he kept going on about how great a school it was. How Breezemaple was the best. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him.” “Were you hoping things would eventually get better?” Dragon nodded. “But they aren’t. They aren’t getting better at all.” Annalene inhaled sharply. “Well, I won’t let them do that to my sister.” She held up both her small fists. The small gnome door creaked open, and Carrick stepped through, smiling. “You girls look as if you’re talking about something juicy. New crush at school, Dragon?” Carrick walked up to Dragon’s feet and winked. Annalene flashed him a horrified look. “Da!” “What? Isn’t that what you girls gossip about? Cute boys?” Dragon frowned. “Hardly.” “Well, whatever you’re talking about can wait. Dinner’s ready.” He turned and headed back to the door of the cave. As he did, Dragon felt an urgent question rise within her; she wanted to ask him about something that had been eating at her since her first day of school. “Da,” Dragon called, as his insistence on waiting dredged up the question that had been bugging her for moons. “Why did you name me Dragon?” Carrick paused and turned around. Annalene quickly hopped off Dragon’s lap and headed toward the door herself. “I’ll let you two talk. I’ll see you down there, Dragon.” Annalene gave Carrick a quick kiss on the cheek and headed out the small door. Carrick wandered back over, and Dragon leaned down, picking him up and setting him on her lap. “Is that what you two were talking about?” he asked. “No, not that specifically. But I was telling her about what has been going on at school.” “Does it feel better?” “Does what feel better?”
“Getting it off your chest. Does it feel better to share with us what’s going on?” “I mean, I guess. It’s not fun to talk about, that’s for sure.” “Well, sure,” Carrick said. “I don’t expect that to be comfortable.” “But why did you?” Dragon pressed. “I mean, couldn’t you have come up with something less . . . less . . .” “Is that what they’re giving you a hard time about? Your name?” “That and everything else about me. They call me your pet. Because you ride on my shoulder.” Carrick frowned and shook his head. “Kids can be cruel, that’s for sure.” “Even gnome kids?” “Even them. It’s a phase, I think.” “That’s not like a dragon trait, right? I’m not that way.” “Everyone has to go through some kind of growing pains at some point.” “But that doesn’t make it okay,” Dragon insisted. “Of course not. Their behavior is definitely not okay.” Carrick ran his hands over the back of Dragon’s. Against her scales, his calloused fingers felt rough and rugged. “We named you Dragon because naming you anything else wouldn’t have been fair. Offering you something from the gnome family line didn’t fit, you know?” “Right.” Dragon frowned. “But if you heard how they made fun of me at school, you’d think that name wasn’t fair, either.” Carrick clutched her arm. “I know it’s hard to understand, but there was no way that Ma and I could have foreseen this happening. We thought we were doing right by you by not assigning you a foreign gnome name. Wouldn’t that have been worse, don’t you think?” “I don’t know. They seem to find whatever they can to make fun of me.”
“Dragon, you are beautiful, and enough just as you are. Know this, through and through. There is nothing wrong with your name. It is who you are, at the core of everything.” “But I don’t feel like enough. I don’t fit here, and I don’t fit in with other dragons. I don’t have a place anywhere, Da!” She started to tear up. “You are part of our family—you always will be—but I do understand that you still feel lost and not part of a true dragon family.” Dragon kept her gaze downcast. Her Da’s eyes suddenly twinkled. “We have a surprise for you.” Dragon sniffed. “A surprise?” “Yes, little miss. But you have to wait until after dinner.” “Is it a good surprise?” “Of course it’s a good surprise. You’ve had a bad enough day. It’s a little something Ma and I wanted to share with you after we eat.” “Okay.” “You ready to head downstairs?” “Promise I’m not a pet if I carry you on my shoulder?” “I promise, Dragon Gaelen. You may not be my blood, but you are absolutely my family.”
X “I can’t believe how beautiful it is tonight.” Dragon sat back on her tree-stump chair and gazed up at the moonrise. Annalene wiped her face with her napkin and followed the zigzag trail of the moonbugs overhead. “It’s weird that they’re still out and about. I mean, they’re beautiful and all. But weird.” Carrick wrapped his arms around Aideen’s waist and glanced up at the trees overhead. “It’s those unseasonably warm blasts that keep coming through. Confuses them, for sure. And the plants.” He pointed up at the leaf buds emerging from the tips of the branches overhead. “Everything set to hibernate for Albonix has been disturbed by the up-and-down temperature changes lately. Look at them. Blooming when they should be sleeping.” “Well, I hope the moonbugs get the message soon,” Aideen said. “I’d hate for a freeze to wipe them out completely. Their poor wings can’t handle the Albonix cold.” Several of the larger moonbugs, which were almost double the size of the Gaelens’ dishware, decided to take advantage of the unguarded leftovers, darting over to try to sample Aideen’s cooking. Annalene swatted one away from her unfinished plate. “Annalene!” Aideen said. “What? I’m hungry! They can get their own bug food.” The moonbug searched the table with its prismatic, thousand-lensed eyes and made a mad dash for the uncovered main dish, knocking over glasses with its spindly legs as it passed. “Go on! Get out of here!” Annalene shooed it away from the dish, swatting the bug’s glowing rear with her cloth napkin.
Aideen wiggled out of Carrick’s embrace and put together a small plate of food, setting it near the barren firepit. “You’re absolutely right, Annalene. They certainly can get their own plate.” The moonbugs chirped and swarmed around Aideen. She giggled and reached out to pet one. “Oh, wow. Their exoskeleton is really smooth. Like . . . like . . .” The moonbug blinked all six of its eyes and twitched its fuzzy antennae. “Dragon scales?” Annalene offered. “No. Dragon scales are a little bumpier.” The moonbug nuzzled Aideen’s hand with its head and shook its bottom, which lit up and began flickering on and off. “More like a snake.” “And you must know what a snake feels like from way back in your snake-wrestling days,” Carrick joked. “Oh, come off it, Carrick. You know very well I haven’t wrangled any snakes. What I meant was that it feels like what snakeskin looks like. Smooth.” Annalene chuckled. “I think it likes you, Ma!” “Aren’t you worried you won’t be able to get rid of them if you put out food like that?” Dragon asked. “She has a fine point, you know,” Carrick said. “You wouldn’t want them to freeze because you insisted they become our outdoor pets, would you?” Annalene teased. The word pet made Dragon squirm in her seat a little. “Fine. Fine. Only a little handful more, and then I’ll shoo them off.” The moonbugs took turns gobbling scraps from Aideen’s hand, careful not to clamp her fingers in their pointy pincers. “Da?” Dragon said. “Yes, my wonderful Dragon?” “You mentioned that you and Ma had something to share with me. A surprise?”
Aideen gasped. She set the rest of the food on the ground and waddled over to join Carrick, abandoning her new friends. “Did you tell her what it is?” Aideen asked. Carrick gave her a disappointed look. “Of course not, Ma. It’s a surprise.” Aideen clapped her hands together excitedly. “Oh, goody! I can’t wait to see what she thinks.” “What are they all excited about?” Annalene asked. Dragon shrugged. “I honestly have no clue. I guess we’ll find out?” Dragon helped Annalene clear the dishes off the table, bringing them over to the outdoor sink area. Annalene dropped in a handful of soapberries, and Dragon stuck her hand in the warm water, sloshing it around to agitate the bubbles. “I’ll go grab the centerpiece and tablecloth.” Annalene walked back over to the outdoor dining area. She quickly grabbed a candlestick in each hand and tucked the crumpled up checkered tablecloth under her arm. “What do you think it is? This surprise they keep talking about?” Dragon asked, shaking sudsy water from her arm. “I think I might know, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise.” “Oh, come on. You can tell me.” “No way. I’m not saying a word.” Annalene drew her thumb and forefinger across her lips as though sealing them shut. “Fine sister you are,” Dragon teased. “Hey! I’m doing it for your own good. You can’t know everything all the time. Leave some room for mystery, Dragon. Sheesh!” Aideen practically leaped out the back door of the house, Carrick following with his hands behind his back. “Okay! Who’s ready for the surprise?” Annalene laughed. “Ma! Settle down. You’re going to pull something.” Aideen stopped mid-prance and put her hands on her hip. “Hey! I’m not that old!”
“You’re almost two hundred, Ma,” Annalene said matter-of-factly. “Doesn’t look a day over ninety-nine!” Carrick said, giving his wife a peck on the cheek. Aideen gave him a nose nuzzle. “See? This is why I chose you as my husband.” “Ma’s excited because we’ve been waiting a very long time to give this to Dragon,” Carrick explained. “Is it the thing?” Annalene mimed a large box shape with her hands. “You know? The thing?” “No, no. That’s another surprise for later.” “You have two surprises for me?” Dragon asked as she towel-dried the last of the dishes and set them on the dish rack. “Annalene! Stop ruining all the surprises!” Aideen said, still dancing giddy circles around her daughter. Annalene scoffed. “I’m not ruining anything! I haven’t told her a thing!” “All right, you two. That’s enough,” Carrick said. “This surprise is getting heavy.” “Okay, Dragon. Are you ready?” Aideen asked. “I mean, sure? I don’t really know what to expect.” Carrick pulled the object out from behind his back. “But that’s clearly only a mossy rock,” Annalene complained. “How’s that supposed to be a surprise?” “No, no, no!” Dragon’s hands started to shake, and that unsettling feeling rose up in her stomach once more. “That’s not a rock.” All three Gaelens gasped as the internal light show danced beneath Dragon’s scaly flesh. “Please! No! Not again!” Dragon hid her stomach under her arms. “Stop. Put it away! I can’t go through this again.” Aideen rushed up to Dragon and offered her comforting hugs around her ankle.
“Dragon, honey. Shh. It’s okay. You’re okay.” Aideen waved a hand at her husband. “Carrick! Put that eggshell away!” Carrick quickly backed away and set the piece of eggshell on the ground, crystal side down. “What! What’s happening? What did I do?” Aideen hushed Dragon and reached up to take her shaking hands. “See? It’s ok now. He put it away.” Carrick looked shocked and pained. “Dragon… I…” He took a step back and searched Annalene’s face for answers. “What do I do? I didn’t know that would happen.” Dragon pulled away and sat down, separating herself from the rest of the family. She took several moments to steady her breath as the flickers of light slowly faded from her stomach. Carrick approached her cautiously, giving Dragon enough space to process what happened to her. “Honey, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. I thought you would be excited about seeing part of your eggshell. Professor Culpepper told me there could be some possible changes, but that . . . I was not expecting that.” Dragon sat up. “It is my eggshell, then? I knew it!” Aideen nodded. “Da and I have been waiting to give it to you. Maybe too long it seems.” Aideen frowned. “But we were told to hold off until closer to your twenty-fifth birthday. We were actually going to give it to you at your party, but obviously we couldn’t resist the opportunity to share it with you now.” “Why her twenty-fifth birthday?” Annalene asked. “Because her twenty-fifth birthday will mark Dragon as an official adolescent.” “Oh, like how I became an adolescent on my sixtieth birthday?” Annalene asked. “Exactly,” Carrick said.
“And you’ve had that piece of shell this whole time?” Dragon asked. “It’s what you hatched from. We kept most of it. Your Da gave a smaller piece to Direth to share with you in class.” Aideen clapped both hands over her mouth. “Oh, that’s what you meant by the stomach thing. Oh my.” “It was horrible, Ma. What you saw? Yeah. That’s what happened. In front of my whole class. And everyone was laughing and pointing.” “And that’s why you ran away.” Carrick nodded. “Honey, I . . . I honestly have no words. Direth didn’t give me all the details. There wasn’t any time. We were completely focused on finding you safe.” “You can’t make me go back there, Da. You realize that, right?” “Well, you have to go back,” Annalene said, “because I have to beat up some dragons. And a phoenix. And you have to be there to watch.” “Annalene! That’s hardly the gnome thing to say!” “It’s okay, Ma,” Dragon said. “I already told her it was a bad idea. Even though I wouldn’t mind seeing it happen.” “What’s gotten into you girls? All this fighting talk?” Aideen said with disapproval. Carrick held up a hand to silence her. “Aideen. You know they would never lay a hand on anyone.” “Well, even still, they shouldn’t talk that way,” Aideen grumbled. “According to Direth, this is normal. All dragons go through changes when they imprint with their shell.” Dragon gaped at her Da. “They do?” Carrick nodded. “Maybe you’re just maturing a little faster than your classmates.” “You’re probably right. Most of them do act like idiots.” Dragon chuckled to herself. “Dragon!” Aideen exclaimed. “That’s unacceptable.” Dragon cowered. “Sorry, Ma. But I mean, they really do.”
Carrick nodded apologetically. “I’m sorry, Dragon. We didn’t know. We never meant to hurt you and would never want to see you hurt.” Sheepishly, he added, “I guess the Council of Elders didn’t know what interspecies integration would truly look like at a school like Breezemaple. I guess we all merely assumed the best. We failed you, and I . . . I’m sorry.” He reached up and rested his hand on the back of Dragon’s calf. “You let us know if or when you’re ready to go back. We won’t make you do anything you don’t want to, sweetie.” “No! That’s not fair! You can’t let them win!” Annalene contested. “Annalene, honey,” Carrick said. “Let’s calm down and let Dragon make the decision for herself. If she doesn’t want to go back to that school, we won’t make her.” “But you can’t do that.” Annalene rushed up to Dragon’s feet. “You can’t let them get the best of you, Dragon. If you don’t go back, they’ll know they won.” “It’s not about winning or losing, Annalene,” Carrick said. “But it is. Don’t you see? That student Kora —she’ll know that her behavior made Dragon cower. You can’t let her do that to you, Dragon.” Dragon glanced back up at the stars. She didn’t like the idea of Kora getting the best of her, nor did she want her whole class to get it in their heads that Dragon was a coward. “She’s right. I do have to go back. Even if I don’t want to.” “But, Dragon . . .” Aideen said. “It’s true, Ma. If I don’t go back, Kora will keep doing what she does, and nothing will change.” “What if it isn’t your job to force her to change?” Aideen argued. Dragon shook her head. “It’s not about changing Kora, Ma. I have to learn to stick up for myself. Luckily, I’ve never had to do that here in Gnome Colony, but now I have to. And I can’t keep running away when things get difficult.”
Carrick played with his graying beard and grinned up at Dragon. “That’s a really mature way of looking at things.” He glanced teasingly at Aideen. “I think I should take credit for that, right, Ma?” Aideen stuck her tongue out at him and giggled. Annalene covered her eyes and shook her head. “You two . . .” “Well, maybe you were right, Da.” Dragon smiled. “Maybe I am more mature than those other dragons in my class after all.” “Maybe even more mature than them.” Annalene jerked a thumb toward her parents, who were chasing each other in a tickle war around Dragon’s feet. A sudden calm washed over Dragon, and she felt safe to approach the eggshell, one step at a time. On her terms. She reached down and picked her eggshell up off the ground. It was at least three times larger than the shard she’d received in class. Annalene pointed at Dragon’s stomach, which was only fluttering slightly with color and light. “See? It looks as though you might simply need to practice getting used to it.” “It’s really beautiful to finally see you connect with it,” Aideen said. “Please don’t ever let anyone make you feel ashamed of that, Dragon.” “Easier said than done. Those students in my class—they treat me like I’m some sort of weirdo or something. It’s horrible.” “I’ll make sure to talk with Direth about that,” Carrick said. “We’ll get this taken care of, okay?” “Okay.” Dragon smiled. “I just want to be me. Even if I’m still trying to figure out what that means. I don’t know why that’s so difficult at that school.” Dragon turned the eggshell around in her hands and allowed her body to sync with the crystal. Her internal glow flickered on and off as she waited for the rush of the connection to settle.
“This is who you are, Dragon,” Annalene said. “Who you’re meant to be. Don’t ever forget that.”
XI “Can I have a little more of that mushroom casserole, Ma?” Dragon asked around a mouthful of breakfast. Aideen hopped up onto the dining table and scooped three large spoonfuls of yesterday’s leftovers onto Dragon’s plate. “Are you sure you don’t want me to cook you up something fresh? Warm berry cakes, maybe?” “Nuh-uh. Thith ith good,” Dragon muttered as she shoveled another bite into her mouth. Aideen sat back down. “Dragon, honey. Slow down. It’s not like you’re in a rush or anything.” The rhythmic sound of crickets and frogs all around signaled that dawn was not due for several hours yet. Dragon gulped down several sips of cool berry juice and set her cup on the table. “Sorry, Ma.” Dragon wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I don’t know what’s come over me. I’m famished all of a sudden.” Aideen smiled and took a bite from her own plate. “It’s not like you aren’t already eating as much as all three of us. Maybe all that eggshell stuff is causing some sort of growth spurt?” “I don’t know. Maybe.” “You’re sure you want Da to drop you off at school this early?” Dragon nodded vigorously and finished her bite. “I want to try to get there before anyone else.” “But will the campus even be open?” “Da said he has access to the gate key. Either way, we should be okay,” Dragon said. “Plus, there’s a spot I want to show him before I go to class.”
“Okay,” Aideen said, a hint of uncertainty in her tone. Carrick closed the back door behind himself, careful not to drop his armful of thick blankets. His small feet crunched across the dry leaves as he made his way over to greet them. “You ready yet, kiddo?” “Almost, Da.” Dragon stuffed the last bite in her mouth. “Don’t worry about the plate, love. I’ll get that. You two be safe.” Aideen gave Carrick a kiss on the cheek. “Love you, Ma. Thanks for heating up the leftovers for me.” Dragon leaned down and offered her cheek for a kiss. “Anytime, sweetheart.” “Are you heading back to bed, then, love?” Carrick asked. “I’m not really tired. I think I’ll get some baking done before Annalene gets up.” “Ooh! What are you planning?” “It’s about time I start on some seasonal sweet breads. The Albonix baking competition is only a moon away. I need to have everything ready for perfection.” “Good luck getting Annalene to stay asleep while you do that,” Dragon said. “One whiff, and she’ll surely rush to the kitchen for samples.” “Well, I know I can’t wait to be your test subject once we get back,” Carrick said. “Neither can I.” Dragon smiled and waved before ducking into the back of the carriage. “I’ll make sure to set aside some slices, then. Love you both!” Aideen blew a kiss and waved as the carriage pulled away from the house toward the open wagon trail.
Carrick pulled the carriage to a stop outside the secured campus gates and hopped out. With a simple twist of the key in the lock and a tug, the gates pulled open effortlessly. “You sure it’s okay we’re here this early?” Dragon asked sleepily. The full moon was slowly making its gentle descent and would soon greet the amber glow of dawn. “It’ll be fine, I promise. I’ve cleared it with Elder Greenwood.” Dragon poked her head through the opening behind Carrick. “Should we close the gate?” “We should be fine. It’s about time for Pimley and his crew to come work on the grounds anyway.” Carrick tugged the reins to the left. The team of squirrels headed east along the gravelly trail, toward the quiet stables and rising sun. “The tree is that way, Da.” Dragon pointed toward the lake. “And it’s a berrywine maple, you say?” “Yup. It’s massive and growing right on the cliff on the other side of that small hill.” “I’m sure it’s beautiful this time of day. Have you ever seen the sunrise at the lake before?” Dragon shook her head. “No. We never get here that early.” “Well, my dear. You are surely in for a treat.” Newly fallen leaves, not quite fully seasoned with color, crunched underfoot as Dragon padded toward the outskirts of the West End. It was only a short walk from the stables to the overlook, and Dragon was bubbling with excitement to share with her Da what could possibly be her new favorite place on campus.
“Wow! What a view!” Carrick exclaimed when Dragon crested the small hill. “I’ve heard about this tree. It’s known as the Enchanted Maple.” “It’s even more beautiful up close,” Dragon said. The dark silhouette of the large tree stood out against the setting moon like inky veins tracking their way through a luminous orb of light. “Oh, all the things I could carve with that tree,” Carrick said. “Da! That’s terrible. How can you possibly think about cutting down such a beautiful tree to carve it into something? I mean, look at it. It’s probably twice as old as you are.” “But the older the tree is, the better the carving wood,” Carrick said. “Da!” Dragon cried. “You know I would never. It’s sacred. Even climbing it is off limits.” They reached the base of the tree and craned their necks to take in the majestic hardwood. “How did you come to find this spot in the first place?” Carrick asked. Dragon turned around and took a rough guess, pointing at the turret near the South End. “Elder Fairmind’s office. Over there somewhere. I went to talk to her about what was going on at school.” “You spoke with Zinnia after all? That’s good.” “It took me a long time. And actually, she kind of forced me to go with her. But from her office window—that’s where I saw the tree.” “Forced you?” Carrick’s voice took on a protective edge. “Well, not forced me, really. She caught me hiding out in the bathroom and told me to come with her to her office.” Carrick let out a sigh of relief. “That’s hardly forcing you, Dragon. I’m sure you could have said no.” “Maybe. But at the time, I didn’t really feel like I had a choice. She’s an elder, after all, right?” “You have a point there. Elders do have their say on campus, that’s for sure.”
A sudden flash of light off in the distance caught Dragon’s attention. “What was that?” She made her way carefully along the rugged overlook trail. “What was what?” Carrick asked, clutching tight to Dragon’s neck to keep from falling off her shoulder as she trekked through the bushy terrain. “That light. Right over there.” Dragon pointed toward a set of flowering shrubs nearly twenty feet from where she stood. “I didn’t see a light. Maybe a storm is on the horizon?” “A storm? Da, look at the sky. There’s hardly a cloud in sight.” “Well, I don’t know. I’m just trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why there would be a flash in the—” The bush Dragon had pointed at started to glow. “See? That. That right there. What is that?” “A reflection of the moon, perhaps?” Dragon laughed. “Off what? Bush leaves?” “I honestly don’t know, Dragon.” The bush glowed again, and a loud rustling made Dragon stop dead in her tracks. “Um, Da. I don’t think we’re alone out here.” She started to backtrack up toward the tree. “Maybe we should get out of here,” Carrick agreed. “There’s no way any of the staff would be this far off campus.” Crack. The sound came from a branch beneath Dragon’s foot, and the glowing bush immediately darkened. A series of footsteps set off into a sprint, and without warning, a glowing orb emerged from the overgrowth and took to the sky. Dragon gaped as she realized the glowing orb was a beautiful, luminescent dragon, who held the source of the bright light in her hands. The dragon flapped iridescent wings and soared high above Dragon and Carrick, tucking the glowing object into a satchel that was draped over her shoulder. “Who’s there?” a calm voice called out over the water.
Carrick cupped his hands around his eyes and squinted out over the lake. “I think it’s a dragon.” “Of course it’s a dragon. The question is, who?” The unfamiliar drakaina whooshed toward them. Moonlight ricocheted off her smoky-white horns and opalescent scales, creating a soft rainbow halo around her silhouette. “Oh, it’s you,” the drakaina called down to them. Carrick grinned and waved. “Well, hello there, Mona!” “You know her?” Dragon whispered, backing away from the cliff’s edge. “Sure. She’s your teacher’s apprentice.” “My teacher? Well, what’s she doing here?” “You can ask her yourself. She’s right there.” Carrick pointed up at Mona, who was bobbing up and down above their heads. She looked as if she were treading some unseen body of water. “You’re Dragon, right?” Mona flew in closer. “In Professor Culpepper’s intro class?” Dragon looked Mona up and down. As she did, her shoulders tightened, and her stomach churned. This was another dragon. Would she treat Dragon the same way the others had? “My name’s Mona,” the drakaina said, settling to the ground and extending her hand. “My office is about three doors down from Professor Culpepper’s. It’s nice to meet you.” Dragon gave Mona a suspicious once-over, debating whether it was safe to receive the outstretched hand. “Go on,” Carrick encouraged with a nudge of his elbow to her neck. “She won’t bite.” “Da!” Dragon protested, embarrassed. “It’s okay,” Mona assured. “I know you’ve been having a rough time with the other dragons in your class. It makes sense you would be cautious.” “Professor Culpepper told you about me?” Dragon asked, outraged.
“Only good things, Dragon. Only good things.” Mona smiled and waved a hand toward the tree. “Do you mind if I join you?” Dragon glanced at Carrick, who gestured for her to set him on the ground. “I can leave you two to talk, if you’d like?” “No, Da! I wanted to share this with you.” Dragon lowered her voice. “Don’t leave me alone with her.” “If you’re worried that I’ll tease you like those other immature bullies, you can rest assured, I’m not like that. I’ve been very much looking forward to meeting you, in fact.” “Are you sure you don’t want to talk to her?” Carrick pressed. “She might have a lot of answers you’ve been looking for. You know, like about imprinting.” Dragon took a moment to consider his suggestion. “Where will you go?” “Oh, you know. I’ll mosey around. The sunrise is quite beautiful on campus this time of year. The sun peeking right above the horizon—when it hits those trees at the perfect angle, it blazes straight through the reds and yellows. It’s one of the most beautiful sights, if you ask me. Before you know it, all those changing leaves will have fallen. I’m lucky to get a moment to see it while I can.” Dragon glanced over at Mona and debated going with Carrick to walk around campus. “If you don’t want to talk, I understand. Like I said, I’m only a few doors down from your classroom, if you ever need me.” Her peaceful presence was comforting, quite a contrast to all of Dragon’s experiences with her peers thus far. Mona lifted off the ground with a single whoosh of her wings. “Wait!” Dragon called. Mona smiled and touched back down on the ground. “Yes, Dragon?” “I . . . I want to talk. If that’s okay?” Dragon looked down at Carrick for his approval.
“Of course that’s okay. You’ll be fine. I know Mona personally. Plus, she’s the author of that book you’re reading in class.” “Wait, what?” “It’s true,” Mona confirmed. “I’ve helped author a number of books for the intro classes. I’m working my way toward being a professor myself.” “And you’ll take good care of her, won’t you, Mona?” Carrick winked. “Absolutely, Carrick. You have my word.” Dragon started to panic as Carrick gave her a quick hug around the ankle. “But that’s what you said last time, Da. That everything would be okay. And it wasn’t.” She started to tear up. The confidence she had had this morning was starting to wane. “What can I do to help you feel more comfortable, Dragon?” Mona asked. “I know it hasn’t been easy.” “I . . . I don’t know. I can’t trust you simply because you want me to, you know?” “You are absolutely right. Building a connection of trust does take time. But I promise to show you, with my actions and not merely promises, that I am not like the others.” “The thing is, Dragon,” Carrick added, “if Mona shows up and acts in ways that prove she has a good character, but you still decide to see her through a lens of doubt or fear, you’ll never be able to trust her. No matter how hard she tries and no matter what she says or does. There has to be part of you that’s willing to let go of your perception that she wants to and will hurt you merely because she can.” “Carrick is right. It takes two to build trust, but if you’re willing to step out—even though you can’t see all the proof yet—I promise to act in integrity toward you. Always.” Integrity was something familiar to Dragon. The Gaelens frequently advocated it. It was a family value that had been taught down through the
generations on both sides of the family. Integrity sounded promising, something Dragon was actually willing to consider. “Okay,” she said. “But I can’t promise I’ll get there right away.” “It’s okay. It will take however long it has to take. As long as we both agree to keep mutual respect in mind, everything will be okay.”
XII “So, Dragon. Tell me something about you. What do you enjoy doing?” Mona patted the ground beside her for Dragon to join her by the tree. That was easy. Dragon could answer that without even blinking. “Oh, I’m a book dragon, for sure. I love reading all kinds of books. Practically anything you put in front of me.” Dragon sat down and leaned against the trunk of the tree, mindful to maintain enough space between them to keep a comfortable distance. “Did you know that dragons haven’t always been able to read?” Mona asked. “It’s actually a fairly new development in the last three hundred years.” “Really? What did they do before they could read?” “Oh, I don’t even want to think about it. Sounds absolutely dreadful, if you ask me. And don’t even think about bringing up reading to the more traditional dragons. They simply won’t have it. Too human if you ask them.” Mona laughed. “Is that what an Unfortunate is?” Dragon asked. “A creature who can’t read or write?” “Unfortunate? Where did you hear that term? I know Professor Culpepper isn’t teaching that in his intro class.” “Well, Da tells me all sorts of things. He reads a lot, like I do.” Dragon picked up a handful of twigs and started breaking them into smaller pieces and tossing them down into the water. “Plus, I heard a professor talking to her students about them. Something about humans being considered for the Unfortunates List.” “Well, it’s much more complicated than simply being able to read and write. If that were the case, then dragon elders would be Unfortunates, right?
And if humans can read and write, then they wouldn’t be moving in that direction, either.” Dragon scratched her scaly head. “I . . . I guess so? What is an Unfortunate, then?” “One who has lost touch with their deepest knowing. The natural talents that have been passed down from generation to generation. That’s the simplest way I can explain it.” “What’s so terrible about losing touch with all that?” Mona covered her mouth with one hand and shook her head. “Despair. Destruction. Tearing away at the fragile thread of life as we know it. All of that and more.” “And that’s happening here?” Dragon asked. “Those terrible things are happening in our land?” “We all have our gifts here: the merfolk, the dragons, the trolls, the gnomes, the fae, all of us. Each colony works a little differently than the next. The more we tap into our natural gifts, the more we flourish. But some colonies worry mostly about survival and have moved away from their gifts. They’ve lost touch with the ways of the elders from days past.” “And humans are like that, then? Only worrying about their own needs? Losing touch with that . . . what did you call it? Fragile thread of life? Seems as though Da has always talked about them as if they had more . . . I don’t know . . . magic or something. Something special about them.” “At one point, we had a harmonious relationship with them. We shared our gifts openly and freely. There was peace between us when they revered us and saw us as magic, as something special. Some in their realm still seek connection to the Enchanted. But yes, there is something happening in the human realm. Something that is threatening their access to the Enchanted. To the things we have brought to life in their world.” Dragon leaned in closer. “Like what?”
Mona wore a strained expression. “Honestly, I’ve said too much already. I’m not even supposed to be talking to you about any of this. You’re barely learning the differences between gnomes and dragons. That’s a far cry from the severed connection between our realm and the humans’.” Dragon looked at the ground. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.” Mona lifted Dragon’s chin to meet her gaze. “Don’t apologize for asking questions. It’s okay to want to know about the world you live in. To want to know more about who you are and where you came from. Humans are a delicate subject here, is all. Some completely forbid speaking of them. There’s a history of violence against us, from those in the human realm.” “Violence! I’ve never heard Da say anything like that before.” Mona gently took hold of Dragon’s shoulders. “That’s why it’s best if we keep to things in this realm for now. To not complicate things any more than they need to be. You need bite-sized pieces of information, not an entire archivist’s work.” “Is that what you want to be? An archivist?” “Sort of. I don’t want to be stuck behind a desk all day, though. I want to share the information with others. To offer insight, a bridge to understanding who and what we are.” “I think you’d do well with something like that. You seem to have a knack for sharing things with others.” Mona chuckled. “Anyway, I’m far from that at this point. I have at least a hundred years’ work left before I could obtain that kind of position. I have to finish my apprenticeship and become a professor here at Breezemaple. And I want to stretch my studies farther than this campus.” Mona gazed out over the shimmering lake. “I don’t think it’s my future you’re really interested in learning more about, though.” Mona turned her attention to Dragon and smiled. “Is it?” “Well, no. I mean, I don’t know,” Dragon said. “You know so much stuff. It’s all fascinating.”
Mona watched the breeze play through the branches of the maple, a pained look in her eyes. “I used to get made fun of for that, you know?” “You were made fun of? But how?” “I was always called a know-it-all. Snobby. ‘You think you’re better than everybody else’ . . . all because I was quiet and kept to myself.” Dragon stared at the ground, the familiar lump of shame and sadness choking her. “I . . . I’m sorry you were treated that way. You’re incredibly nice. It doesn’t make sense that anyone would treat you that way.” “Nor you, Dragon. And that’s exactly why I don’t tease others. Because I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end.” Dragon looked up, startled by Mona’s words. “It hurts. Even when everything they say about us isn’t even true.” Mona sniffled slightly. Dragon nodded and bit the inside of her cheek, unsure what to say. Mona wiped her cheek and pushed herself up off the ground. She offered her hand to help Dragon up. “Come. Let’s go for a walk. There’s still a lot we have to talk about regarding imprinting before we both have to get to class.” Maybe it was because Mona trusted Dragon enough to share her private thoughts or because she’d risked sharing forbidden information about humans, but something inside Dragon shifted the moment she took Mona’s hand. All resistance and defensiveness she’d initially had toward Mona were completely dispelled. “What was that light you were shining earlier, anyway?” Mona reached into her satchel and retrieved a large piece of crystalline shell. “Rainbow moonstone is my crystal.” Mona’s stomach turned pearly and translucent, as though her skin had transformed into a scaly diamond casing, ribboned with light and color. A glowing orb swirled at the center of her stomach, matching the ethereal light
emitted from the shard of eggshell in her hand. Mona’s eyes clouded over with cataracts of spinning light as the lightning storm of magic and mystery erupted within her. “Whoa! That thing lights up? That wasn’t only your body?” Dragon leaned in closer to get a better look at the intricate pearly-white crystals. “I was the only thing that lit up when I got close to my egg. That would be amazing, to see my shell light up too. All those glowing purple crystals.” Mona slowly moved the shell away from her body, and the light sputtered out in short, bright flashes. Her flesh morphed back to its original rainbow-moon coloring, and she smiled at Dragon. “You have to learn to harness the power of your crystal. Your body has to learn how to handle the shifts that it goes through. It takes a lot of guided practice, which is what I was doing when you saw me earlier in the bushes. It’s difficult to be discreet when everything glows like that.” Mona tucked the eggshell back into her satchel, out of sight. “Breezemaple typically only allows students who have reached their formal year of study to discuss the details of imprinting. It can get a little tricky if the imprinting isn’t monitored properly.” “What do you mean, formal?” Dragon asked. “It’s the fourth year for students of Draconian Studies,” Mona explained, “though I started imprinting halfway through my tertiary year.” “Well, that’s weird. I’m only about halfway into my primary year. Why would Professor Culpepper show it to me that early?” “He may have figured you’re way ahead of your class, or he could have simply gotten ahead of himself. He was excited to share that connection to your dragon roots with you. I’m sure he meant no harm.” Mona nudged Dragon and winked. Dragon looked away shyly. “I see what you mean about it being tricky when you imprint. It was kind of a disaster when it happened in class.”
Dragon lowered her head in embarrassment. “Everyone started laughing. That’s why I left school.” Mona nodded, searching Dragon’s face. “I don’t blame you. I would have left too if that had happened to me.” “Yeah?” “Absolutely. It’s instinct to want to protect yourself.” Mona guided her toward the cobblestone walkway that led to the West End gate. “I think it’s more than me trying to protect myself. It’s gotten to the point where I try to avoid conflict at all costs.” Mona sighed and nodded. “It’s terrible how they’re behaving toward you. Professor Culpepper did tell me about what’s going on. He thought maybe I could offer some insight and guidance.” “To me?” Dragon asked. “Actually, to Azric. He’s my cousin.” Mona unlatched the unlocked gate and pushed it open with a loud creak. Dragon hung back in shock. “What? Your cousin? No way he’s your cousin. You’re . . . you’re . . .” “Actually nice?” Mona laughed. “Exactly.” Mona shook her head. “That boy has still got a lot to learn.” “Why do they act that way?” Dragon asked, her curiosity piqued. “Some are prideful and think themselves above the rest. Which is funny, because that’s one of the things others used to say about me. The difference is, it’s actually true about Azric.” Mona gazed up at the sky, where soft pink ribbons of clouds were quickly deepening to orange and plum. They walked along the rosebush-lined walkway to the massive West End entrance of the school. “One thing I know for sure is that they’re a bunch of jerks laughing at something they don’t understand yet. Each of them will come to imprint in their own time, just you wait.” Mona offered Dragon a knowing wink.
“The main thing to keep in mind is that you’re probably evolving faster than they are. You’re still new to all this, but you’ll soon come to realize that dragons are creatures of comfort. Anything outside the norm will always come across as . . . well, scary. And typically, scary leads to feeling defensive.” “Well, I don’t care about what’s scary and intimidating to them.” Dragon frowned. “They need to leave me alone.” “You do realize, all that puffing themselves up is only fear, right?” Dragon huffed in disbelief. “Fear? They don’t come across as very afraid. Kora speaks her mind and acts however she wants to without care of the consequences.” “Yep. She’s just an arrogant phoenix because she’s one of a kind. She has to push others away like that because she’s afraid of getting hurt.” “Pfft. As if anyone would hurt her. You should see how everyone in my class treats her. They practically worship the ground she walks on. It’s disgusting.” “And all of that is fear too. They see how she is. You think they want to be her target? No way!” “You said I could ask questions, right?” Mona nodded once, gesturing to the door for Dragon to step through into the building. “Why is Kora in my class?” Mona paused mid-step. “That’s actually a question I can’t answer. I’m sorry. It’s a boundary I’m not supposed to cross. You understand right?” Dragon gazed up at the vaulted ceiling and smiled to herself. “Boundaries. Funny. Elder Fairmind and I were talking about this very thing.” Mona smiled. “Zinnia does know her stuff. Did she tell you how fear turns into apathy? Indifference? Complete separation from connection? Remember what I mentioned earlier about losing touch? That’s where Kora’s headed if she doesn’t get it together soon.”
“That’s . . . really scary to think that she’s headed toward that.” Dragon almost felt sorry for Kora. Almost. “There may still be hope. But it’s going to take nothing short of a miracle.” Dragon buckled over with laughter. “What? What’s so funny?” Mona asked. “I don’t know,” Dragon said through peals of laughter. “This whole time, I had her built up in my head as this mean, powerful creature, when really she’s no more than a bratty little bird.” Mona joined in the laughter. “Make no mistake of it, if she were to step into her power, she would be a force to reckon with, but you’re right. Everyone walks on eggshells around her to avoid challenging her. She really does need to be put in her place.” “Well, I hope someone does it soon. She deserves what’s coming to her.” “Do you think you could do it?” Mona asked. Dragon’s face screwed up tightly. “Are you crazy? No way.” “Why not? You just said you wished someone would stand up to her.” “Well, yeah, but not me.” Mona tilted her head to one side. “And why not?” Dragon couldn’t think of a single reasonable excuse outside her being too terrified to do it. “It’s all fear, Dragon. If you remember that, then all of this will get a lot easier.” She glanced up at the sky, using the rising sun to gauge the time. “It’s about time for us both to get to class.” “Mona.” “Yes, Dragon?” “Thank you for taking time to talk with me. I know you were busy practicing your imprinting before we startled you.”
“It’s my pleasure. I see and understand why you’ve learned to become guarded. Give it time. You’ll meet others who love and accept you as you are. No trying or forcing.” “I already have the Gaelens and Gnome Colony. They all seem to have no trouble with love and acceptance.” “Then cherish that, Dragon. Keep that love as close as you possibly can.” Mona pulled open the door and followed Dragon inside. “I have a book I think you’d enjoy. In my personal stash. I’ll make sure to drop it by Professor Culpepper’s room by the time class starts.” “Thank you, Mona. For everything.” “Thank you, Dragon, for stepping out and giving me a chance.”
XIII “Dragon!” Professor Culpepper yanked off his reading glasses and set his book down on the desk. Pushing himself up from his worn leather chair, he rushed over to greet her in the doorway. “Oh, thank the stars above and beyond, you’re okay.” He cradled her face in his hands. “I cannot begin to tell you how worried I’ve been.” Dragon played with the brass door handle of room 202, avoiding his gaze. “I’m sorry I left school. I know you told me I would get in a lot of trouble—” “Nonsense!” he bellowed and reflexively pulled her in for a hug. Dragon stood there rigidly, her arms at her sides, unsure how to respond to his kind embrace. “What matters is that you’re safe now.” He pulled away and held her out to look at her. “And you came back? Oh, my girl! Do you realize how brave that is? After the way they treated you?” Dragon’s courage wavered as images of the students storming toward her flashed through her mind. “I mean, I guess I thought it was the best thing to do. To not let them get to me?” “Well, I can assure you, I’ve already spoken with Elder Greenwood and Head Director Thackeray. We are all in agreement that several changes must be made. In fact, I’ve made sure they give Kora and Azric a stern talking-to this morning.” Dragon flinched. “What kind of changes?” Here it comes. All those consequences Dragon had been afraid of facing—she would probably be looking at suspension. Or worse. “I’ve put in a request to have you transferred from my class.” Dragon’s heart dropped. “What? But, Profess—”
He held up a hand to stop her protest. “I promise you, this is not a punishment, Dragon. Quite the opposite, in fact.” There was a twinkle in the sickle-shaped depths of his eyes. A hint of something up his sleeve. “I think you’ll be quite pleased with these changes. We’re working together to assure that you’ll excel here at Breezemaple. Up until this point, you’ve been stifled. Right here in my own classroom. And despite the challenges you’ve faced, you’ve managed to bring in high marks on most of your work. It really is impressive, Dragon. You’re quite a remarkable and resilient youngling.” His words recalled to her mind an image of the berrywine maple standing against the setting moon. “You’re clearly an advanced student, and we have not done our best to acknowledge that. I could have done better—should have done better—to keep you engaged and protected. To make up for my missteps, I have enlisted a private tutor to help you with your studies. Someone I highly recommend who can help guide you so you can do your best from here on out.” Dragon covered her mouth with both hands and gasped. “And . . . you’ll have the entire library to yourself to engage in your studies. Well, you know, outside Breezemaple staff, of course.” “I . . . I don’t know what to say.” She could hardly contain the giddy giggle threatening to escape. “It’s the least we can do to ensure your success here, Dragon. You have such an impressive amount of potential, my girl. And we don’t want to see it go to waste over a handful of unruly students, now do we?” Dragon was in such shock that she couldn’t bring herself to even thank him. “I’m assigning you to my assistant, Mona. You’ll do well under her supervision. I know you haven’t met her yet, but—”
“Mona?” A smile pulled at the corner of Dragon’s mouth. “I know Mona. I met her this morning, actually. She’s pretty wonderful.” Professor Culpepper clapped his hands together. “It’s settled, then! We’ll work to transition you as soon as possible. It may take a few days to work out the details with the administrative office, but we’ll get you taken care of.” He waddled back to his desk and put his glasses back on. “Oh, Dragon!” Professor Culpepper snapped his fingers. “I almost forgot. There will be a quiz today in class. You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to. It wouldn’t be fair, given recent circumstances.” “No. That’s okay. I can take it. I’ve had some time to get the reading done.” “Are you sure? I could assign you some sort of extra credit or something to make up the grade. Something you would really be interested in.” Professor Culpepper winked. Dragon’s ears perked up, and her pulse quickened. “Extra credit? What kind of extra credit?” “Oh, probably a simple research paper. Something like that.” Dragon’s mouth pulled into a toothy grin. “Research?” “Mm-hmm. Something covering the importance of dragon eggshells and their properties. Maybe throw in little tidbits about imprinting? You seem to be the expert in our class already.” Dragon’s face blanched. Professor Culpepper straightened. “What? What is it?” “Oh my goodness, Professor Culpepper. The eggshell! How can I make it up to you?” “Eggshell? What eggshell?” “The one you gave me. In class. Before I ran off. I lost it when I fell down the hill.” Professor Culpepper staggered backward. “You fell down a hill? Dragon!” “I was trying to get home and was going too fast.”
Professor Culpepper pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead and sighed. “Dragon.” “It’s okay.” Dragon waved her arms to show off her unscathed torso. “I didn’t get too hurt. Only a couple of scrapes and bruises. Nothing to get too concerned over.” The professor shook his head and grinned. He pulled open the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a thick tome—The Official Guide to Dragon Eggs. “Here’s a special book you can use. None of the other students in this class will have the privilege of getting a peek at it.” He tapped the cover three times with his talon. “Strictly tertiary year stuff, we’re talking.” “Tertiary year?” Dragon felt about ready to jump out of her scales with excitement. “I mean. I guess I can do a research paper instead. If you really want me to.” Professor Culpepper burst out in a wheezy chortle. Dragon joined in the laughter but then turned away when he fell into a fit of coughing. She didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by staring awkwardly. It took him several moments to finally catch his breath. “You okay, Professor?” Dragon asked shyly. Professor Culpepper slapped his leg and cleared his throat before sitting back down behind his desk. “You’re something else, Dragon, you know that? Really something else.” As expected, the central courtyard, heart of the Breezemaple campus and home to the academic library, was barely buzzing with students at this time of day. There was an extra skip in Dragon’s step as she made her way along the cobblestone path toward the large building topped with a dome of opaque glass.
She absolutely loved this time of year, especially right before the bitter cold set in. Dragon took a deep breath in and savored the far-off smoky, earthy scent of burning hearths and decaying leaves. The trees were exactly as Carrick had said they would be; everywhere Dragon looked, rows of dark limbs forked their way through flaming crowns of yellow, orange, and burgundy. It was all so dreamlike—the way the golden light fell on the dewy blue mist still hanging in the air. No wonder her Da had opted to take some quiet time to enjoy the captivating grounds. Dragon couldn’t wait to tell the Gaelens about Professor Culpepper’s decision to pair her with a private tutor. No doubt they would be as ecstatic about the change as she was. She couldn’t believe she would get to spend her days at the library instead of having to deal with the stress of avoiding Professor Culpepper’s classroom. And with her new friend Mona too! It all sounded too good to be true. No more walking on eggshells around Kora and her miscreant friends. No more shame. No more hiding. Dragon would finally get the space and freedom to be herself. A deep calm settled in her heart as she tugged open the entrance door, grateful and ready for some much-needed relief for a change. Dragon quietly clacked her way across the polished marble floor of the library and gazed upward at the celestial mural displayed on the inside of the building’s domed roof. It was always the first and last thing she did anytime she visited; each time she looked up, the stars were mysteriously repositioned, as if the mural were as ever changing as the natural night sky. When Dragon had originally visited the library on her first day of school, she had missed out on the full tour due to Rainlock’s relentless yammering over the history of scribes. He had spent so much time lecturing that they hadn’t gotten to see much of the building’s underground levels before they had to rush back to get Carrick to his meeting with Elder Greenwood.
Despite how often she told her teacher she came here to study, Dragon had only visited a handful of times, exploring a little more with each trip, but it was absolutely her favorite place on campus. She loved everything about the library. The extensive labyrinths of hand-carved bookshelves, no doubt constructed by members of Gnome Colony. The wondrous seven columns that ran the depth of the building and weren’t only an aesthetic accent—they had actual bookshelves and spiraling staircases built into their structures. She loved that the lowest underground level was partially underwater, with beautiful sitting pools for the limited merfolk who attended classes on campus. The team that had designed the library had incorporated underground canals that ran from Sapphire Sands Lake all the way east to the open sea, to allow easier access to those who wanted to pursue their formal education at Breezemaple. There were also quiet meeting rooms and study spaces available, each furnished with a variety of couches, chairs, and tables for students of all sizes. It was things like that, those elements of inclusivity, that offered Dragon a firm reminder that whoever originally designed the school wanted to demonstrate that this was a campus concerned with making students feel welcome, like they belonged. Everything she had experienced in Professor Culpepper’s class seemed to be an anomaly. All the prejudice and judgment from her peers were clearly not in alignment with the higher mission and vision of the school. Mona had helped Dragon see that those students were not the majority; they were the minority. It had been difficult, however, to get that perspective from a cramped space in the girls’ room. If it hadn’t been for her fear of getting caught by any of the staff, she would much rather have taken refuge in the library than in a dirty bathroom stall. Dragon’s favorite place to explore was Lower Level Two, the floor right above the underwater reading rooms and right below the cushy reading nook (her second favorite spot in the library) that was tucked in between the
Periodicals and Reference sections on Lower Level One. There weren’t any actual books on Lower Level Two. Not even a single framed map of the colonies. The only thing on that floor was a room with four bulky doors, each painted to look like a worn tome cover and each facing one of the four cardinal directions. The doors were numbered, one through four, and were locked to student access. That was probably what intrigued Dragon the most about that room, the fact that those doors could lead anywhere with a single turn of a key. Standing there too long always made Dragon’s palms itch to try a handle, any handle, but student access was forbidden. It made her wonder, though, at what point a student could finally get clearance. After her third visit—and hours of imagining the hundreds of possibilities behind each door—Dragon finally asked Carrick where they led. Carrick had explained that behind those doors were private tunnels that led to each of the four towers on campus, where the archives were housed. It wasn’t as elaborate a story as what Dragon had come up with, but it did pique her interest nonetheless. Now, as Dragon headed toward the stairs and her reading spot on the first lower level, she realized she was missing something important. Something that would be critical to completing her writing assignment. Making a beeline for the circulation desk, she rang the dusty help bell at the front desk and waited patiently, tome under one arm, for a staff person to assist her. Several moments passed before a large stack of books sluggishly wobbled toward the countertop. An unseen staff person set the large stack of books on the desk with a loud grunt and quieted the echoing ding of the bell with their furry hand. Dragon immediately recognized the irritated sound of the grunt. “Can I help you?” Agnes asked nasally as she stepped out from behind the pile of books. She stretched her wings slightly, letting loose some soft plumage, which dropped onto the clean floor. She swept the white tufts under the desk with her foot and slowly lifted her gaze.
“Oh. It’s you,” Dragon said. “I thought you only worked in the office.” Agnes stared at her blankly. Dragon flashed her a toothy smile. “Um, yes, anyway. Do you happen to have some parchment and a quill?” A disapproving look flashed across Agnes’s face. “Does this look like a classroom to you?” “Well, no, but I thought you might have some laying around somewhere . . .” Dragon’s voice faded away, and she took a step back from Agnes’s cold gaze. It was clear that the sphinx was unwilling to offer Dragon any real help, let alone writing supplies. “Never mind.” Dragon turned to leave. “I can finish the writing part at home.” “Anything else?” Agnes croaked out. “No, Agnes. Thank you.” Dragon tried another smile, but Agnes was clearly unmoved by the attempt at charm. “Have a good day.” Dragon waved in vain and walked over to the nearest column to head down the stairs. She glanced over at the circulation desk one more time as she clomped down to the next floor. Agnes was still sneering at her like some grumpy stone statue. “Sheesh! She needs to get out more or something,” Dragon said under her breath and headed downstairs. After dodging a pair of fae in a relentless search for reading material—they fluttered this way and that around the column’s built-in bookcase—Dragon padded toward her favorite comfy armchair and plopped down with a sigh. She pulled her tail out from under her, draped it over the armrest, and stretched her legs out in front of her. “Imprinting . . . imprinting . . . imprinting. Where should I start?”
She nibbled on a talon and flipped through the pages of her book, stopping at the image of an eggshell whose crystal pattern looked very familiar. It was the same luminous color of Azric’s scaly skin. Dragon looked left, then right, feeling a little intrusive to be reading about his crystal’s properties. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t want anyone reading about his personal life, let alone the type of dragon he would eventually become. Eggs lined with the black moonstone carry great strength. Once activated, this crystal assists with deep intuitive abilities and enhances expressions of empathy within the heart of the destined dragon. The potency of this specific crystal encourages a dragon to express compassion and understanding toward all things. Dragon scoffed. If every dragon was meant to mature to represent the characteristics of their crystal-lined eggshells, then Azric had better start polishing up his words and actions. He certainly wasn’t acting in alignment with the future being foretold in these pages. . . . The potency of this specific crystal encourages a dragon to express compassion and understanding toward all things. . . “If Azric treats anyone else as badly as he treats me, no doubt it’ll come back to haunt him.” She spoke the ominous words aloud with the potency of a cast spell. “I’m sorry, what was that?” All the color drained from Dragon’s face as she glanced up. Azric was leaning on the end of a bookcase, swinging a small velvet pouch in circles with one hand. “Azric!” Dragon dog-eared the page and tossed the heavy tome to the ground. “What are you doing here?” She attempted to slide the book under her chair with her foot, but Azric walked forward and stepped on it before she could get it completely out of sight. “What’s this?” Azric leaned down and picked up the book.
“It’s nothing. Give it back, okay?” Azric wagged his finger and clicked his tongue. “Not until you tell me what you were talking about. Something about me doing something to you?” Dragon’s heart hammered in her chest. “I didn’t say you did anything.” She reached for the book, but he held it above her head. “Funny. That’s not what I heard. Something about me treating others as badly as you . . .” He cocked his head to the side. “Sound about right?” Dragon’s face flushed. “You weren’t supposed to hear me,” she muttered. “Right, but I did.” Azric flipped through the pages and stopped toward the middle, where Dragon had dog-eared the page. “Let’s see. What have we got here?” Both his brows shot up, and his face darkened. He slowly lifted his gaze from the page. “You wanna tell me why you’re reading about my shell?” “I . . . I . . . it was for a paper.” Azric recoiled and tossed the book to the floor as if it were suddenly crawling with bugs. “You’re writing a paper about me?” “No. It’s not like that. The professor—he wanted me to write a paper. For extra credit.” “Okay. And what has that got to do with me?” “Well, nothing. I only happened to turn to that page. I was looking for information about imprinting.” “Imprinting? What’s imprinting?” A sudden calm came over Dragon as she watched him squirm uncomfortably under her gaze. Mona had been right. All those students in Professor Culpepper’s class really had no clue. Something about Azric’s ignorance stoked Dragon’s courage. She leaned over and grabbed the book. Flipping through the index, she found the page she was looking for and started reading an excerpt aloud.
“It means…” Dragon pointed to the page with her talon, “when a young dragon, most likely in its adolescent stage, recognizes and pairs with its birth shell.” Azric gave her a funny look. “Okay? That still doesn’t explain why you were reading about me. About my particular crystal.” “I told you,” Dragon said, her nostrils flaring, “it was an accident. I didn’t mean to turn specifically to that section.” “Right,” he said haughtily. “Look!” Dragon snapped the book shut and set it next to the claw-footed leg of the chair. “No one invited you here in the first place. You can leave.” “Look at you, getting all defensive.” Dragon pushed herself up from the chair and stepped up on the cushion. She needed to look Azric right in the eyes. “It’s because I’ve had enough of how you treat me. How all of you treat me.” She balled her hands into fists and locked her livid gaze on him. Azric exploded with mocking laughter. “How I treat you? Have fun with all that, crazy. You act as if I mistreat you or something. Why don’t you talk to Kora? I’m not the one you should have issues with.” Dragon took a moment to reflect on all her interactions with Azric in Professor Culpepper’s class. She couldn’t recall a single time he had outright initiated the verbal attacks; Kora was more than happy to take care of that. “Okay, fine. Maybe you’re right. Maybe you never started anything.” Azric smirked. “See? Now you’re making some sense.” “But you never attempted to stop anything, either!” Dragon bit back. It was an odd blast of angry words that caught them both off guard. “What are you saying?” Azric asked warily. “Professor Culpepper sent you to go speak with the elders in the office, right?” Azric shrugged. “And?”
“Well, obviously you wouldn’t have had to go talk to them if you were completely innocent.” Azric flexed his jaw and glared back at Dragon. “What’s your point?” “What I’m saying is—what you heard me talking to myself about earlier—is this . . .” Dragon dropped down and grabbed the book, flipping back to the section on moonstone eggshell crystals. “This specific crystal encourages a dragon to express empathy.” Dragon closed the book and looked up at him. “That’s supposed to be you, Azric. You’re supposed to, at some point, become compassionate and understanding toward others.” “Yeah, so?” “Azric, you seem like a smart fellow.”He flashed a charming grin.Dragon sat down in the chair and cuddled the book in her lap to avoid looking at him. “But are you smart enough to tell when one of your classmates is in pain?” Azric’s grin faded. “Huh?” “I said . . .” Why is it so difficult to get these words out? Dragon’s heart fluttered like a wild bird desperately trying to escape a cage. “Can you, or can’t you, tell when someone is in pain? Because that’s what empathy is, Azric. It’s paying attention and caring about what happens to others because you actually feel something.” Azric looked away, his face flushed and flustered. He didn’t have to answer her; Dragon could tell she’d gotten her point through to him, crystal clear. “Fine. I’ll leave.” He tossed the small velvet pouch he’d been spinning earlier carelessly into her lap and turned to go. “But Professor Culpepper wanted me to give you that.” Dragon watched him head back toward the staircase before pulling open the drawstring. She shook the contents into her hand—a small piece of Trihorn Snapper eggshell fell into her palm. “Azric!” Dragon called.
She heard his footsteps pause on the staircase. “What?” he replied, his voice irritated. “Can you come back for a second, please? I don’t want to yell at you across the library.” Several seconds passed before she heard the whoosh of his wings flapping. He landed on the other side of the bookcase and slowly turned the corner. “What?” he repeated. “Did you come here only to give me this?” Dragon held up the piece of her eggshell. “Well, the elders said I needed to make amends to you. For my behavior. Since I was on my way over here, Professor Culpepper asked me to bring that with me.” “Wait a second.” She dropped the shell back in its pouch and looped the string over her head. “You’re telling me you came here, judgments flying and teeth bared, knowing full well that you owed me an apology?” Azric gave a low snarl. “Look, I didn’t want to. I still don’t think I did anything wrong.” Dragon flashed him a look of disgust. “That. That right there. That’s your problem. You act as if you’re completely innocent.” “Aren’t I?” Azric snapped. “No, Azric. You’re not! If you have the ability to help someone out and you purposely avoid that at all costs—” Azric rushed at Dragon. “What am I supposed to do? Tell her to shut up or something?” Dragon cowered and lowered her gaze. “That would be better than laughing.” “I don’t laugh,” he spat. Dragon glowered up at him. “Okay, fine,” Azric shouted. “Maybe I laugh sometimes. But not all the time. And so what? It’s just a joke.”
“It’s not just a joke. Kora means it when she rips into me, and when you don’t say something to stop her, that’s almost as bad as you teasing me directly.” “No, it’s not!” Azric argued. “Oh, how would you know? You’ve probably never been teased a day in your life, the way everyone fawns over you!” Dragon roared. “Either way, I don’t deserve to be made fun of.” Something crucial shifted inside Dragon in that moment. Maybe it had something to do with the imprinting that Mona had spoken to her about. Maybe it was the piece of eggshell in her pouch. All Dragon knew was that she had finally been able to summon the courage she had needed all year to defend herself. “Excuse me!” Agnes hollered from the ground floor above. Flapping sounds came from the direction of the staircase, and Agnes soared over to where they were arguing. She glared down at them over the brim of her spectacles. “Keep it down, you two, or I will make sure you’re never allowed on these premises again.” Dragon cringed. “Sorry, Agnes.” Agnes flew back toward the column staircase, muttering about kids having no respect these days. “That’s my cue.” Azric lifted off the ground. “Didn’t you say you were going to apologize?” Dragon asked. Azric slammed back down on the ground and charged at her.“Why’s it even important that I care? You’re not all worked up and getting in the faces of any of our other classmates. Why me?” “Azric! Be quiet. You’ll get us kicked out!” Dragon hissed. “You need to explain why I’m singled out here, Dragon,” Azric growled. Dragon chewed on the inside of her cheek and avoided his gaze. “I know it sounds silly, but you were the first.” “I’m sorry, the what?” Azric stormed.
“Stop it! Stop yelling. I’ll tell you, but you have to stop. I don’t want to lose this place too.” Dragon turned away. She didn’t dare let him see the single tear trickling down the side of her face. She wiped it away with a shaky hand and took a deep breath. “The first dragon. You were the very first one I saw.” “On campus?” “No, Azric. In my life.” There was no way to hold it back now. Tears slowly ran down her face and dropped onto the smooth cover of the book in her hands. “And I thought you saw me. Like really saw me. In the hallway. And that you were excited to meet me too, except now that I think about it, why would you be excited to see me? You didn’t know I was coming. You didn’t know it was my first day.” “Dragon, you’re rambling. And not making any sense. What are you talking about?” Azric’s tone was icy and sharp with irritation. “In the hallway.” Dragon wiped the tears off the tome’s cover and set it on the chair behind her. “My first day of school. I’d been waiting my whole life to meet another dragon. And there you were, blazing straight toward me. At least, I thought you were coming toward me, but you were going over to meet your friends. To meet up with Kora. You rushed right past me. I was invisible then, and I’m invisible now.” “You’re obviously not invisible. I’m talking to you, aren’t I?” He started pacing near the Periodicals section, his irritation palpable. “Are you, though? You’re talking at me. But you don’t see me. You don’t really hear me. You keep telling me I’m crazy and rambling and not making any sense. But it’s you who won’t listen.”
Dragon buried her face in her hands and turned away. “I thought you’d be more like me. Turns out, maybe Kora’s right. Maybe I am more gnome than dragon. Maybe dragons really aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.” An evil, breathy snicker sounded from the other side of the Periodicals section, right behind Azric. Dragon and Azric immediately froze. They knew exactly whose laugh that was. “Talking about me behind my back, are we?” “Kora—” Kora held a hand up to Azric’s mouth to silence him. “Looks like we have a new friend, Azric.” Kora snaked between them and sized them both up. “Kora, stop it,” Azric said. “We’re not friends.” Dragon looked away. “Obviously.” “Well, what is this, then? A lover’s quarrel?” There was an edge to Kora’s voice, a terrifying, toxic possessiveness. “Of course not!” Azric protested. Dragon snorted. “Don’t act so offended, Azric. It’s not like I’m a terrible catch.” Kora arched a feathery eyebrow and shot Dragon a threatening look. “Look at this one getting bold all of a sudden.” “I’m right here, Kora. Stop talking like I’m not right here.” Dragon stood her ground with shaky knees. It had to be the crystal in her possession. Dragon wouldn’t have dared talk to either of them like that otherwise. “Listen here, wyrmling. If I ever see you talking to Azric again—” Azric cleared his throat and stepped in. “You don’t own me, Kora. I can talk to whomever I want.” Kora wheeled around and turned on Azric. “Excuse me? Don’t tell me you want to talk to her.” “Knock it off with the threats. Let’s go already.” Azric tugged at Kora’s arm, but she snatched her hand back. Her crimson eyes looked demented.
“What do you think you’re doing, Azric?” “I’m saying, let’s go. It’s not worth our time.” Something in the air shifted, making Dragon’s scales prickle up, as though the pressure in the room had suddenly dropped with the tingly threat of an electric charge. Dragon snatched her book and made a dash past the arguing pair, purposefully knocking Kora out of her way. “Why you little—” Dragon turned to face her head-on. “Oh, shut it, Kora. Get over yourself. You only pick on others because you’re insecure. If you were really sure of yourself, you wouldn’t have to force everyone to like you.” “Dragon . . .” Azric gave her a warning look. “Well, if you won’t do it, Azric, then I will,” Dragon said through clenched teeth. “I could pick my teeth clean with you!” Kora roared. Several small books dropped from their shelves as the room started to tremble. “Kora, let her go. She’s nobody. Just forget it.” Azric struggled to hold Kora back from launching herself at Dragon. Dragon ran, rushing up the stairs and hitting the floor on all fours, moving as fast as she could toward the library exit. “No running in the library!” Agnes croaked as Dragon raced by. “Agnes!” Dragon called over her shoulder. “You might want to check downstairs. I think someone’s trying to steal books.” “Stealing books? Not on my watch!” Agnes slammed her book shut, zoomed up and over the checkout counter, and zipped downstairs to the first lower level. For an older sphinx, Agnes sure had a good bit of vitality left in those wings. “That should keep her busy for a while,” Dragon huffed as she flung herself out of the building and onto the cobblestone pathway outside. The glass roof rattled and shook, and the entire foundation of the library started to quake.
Dragon took off at a sprint toward the West End courtyard entrance. “Mona! Professor Culpepper!” she screeched, as loud as she could. She had to find one of them before Kora could catch up with her.
XIV Dragon stumbled down the hallway and slammed through the door of room 202. Several of the students gave her funny looks as she searched the room for her teacher. “Professor Culpepper!” she gasped. “Where’s the professor?” “He stepped over to Professor Steelewater’s classroom for a moment,” Sam said, looking puzzled. “Everything all right?” “No!” Dragon panted. “Everything is not all right.” She crashed into a desk on her way out. “Hey!” Sam called after her. “Watch it!” Dragon rushed over to room 208 and banged loudly on the door. “Come on in!” Mona’s voice called from behind the closed door. Dragon swung the door open and hurried inside. “Hey, there, Dragon.” Mona flashed her a grin. “I was about to head over to Professor Steelewater’s to talk about the new tutoring agreement with Professor Culpepper. Pretty exciting stuff, huh?” “Mona, you can’t go out there,” Dragon said through the tightness in her chest. “We have to stay in here.” Mona looked alarmed. “What do you mean, we have to stay in here? What’s going on?” “It’s Kora,” Dragon said between gasps. “And she’s raving mad. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was headed this way.” “Mad? Why is she—” The bloodcurdling roar of a drake echoed through the hallway. All the delicate glass trinkets on Mona’s desk shook and shattered to the ground. “Azric!” Mona cried, reaching for the door.
Dragon grabbed hold of Mona’s wrist. “You can’t go out there, Mona!” “Stay here, Dragon. I have to see what’s going on.” Dragon tugged on her arm. “But—” “It’s my duty as staff. We have to protect our students.” Mona motioned to the far side of the office. “Stay there and keep quiet, okay?” Dragon nodded and backed into the far corner. Mona took in a deep breath to steel her nerves for the inevitable confrontation. “Mona, wait. Be quiet,” Dragon whispered. She pointed to the small space beneath the office door. A shadow passed by once and then stood outside the door for a moment. Without warning, a roar of fire blasted the other side of the door, sending flames shooting underneath, nearly scorching Mona’s feet. Muted screams and the sounds of students filing from their classrooms echoed down the hallway. “Kora! Get away from there!” That was definitely Azric. By the sound of it, he was near Professor Culpepper’s room and heading their way. Dragon and Mona listened, on edge, as a scuffle sounded outside the door, followed by muffled arguing. Another blast of fire erupted under the door, sending Mona and Dragon scuttling backward. As they did, Dragon’s book slipped from her grasp, straight into the scorching flames. She screeched in horror and reached for it, but the fire had already engulfed it. Mona rushed forward to stamp out the singed pages before the blazing book could destroy anything else in her office, crumbling the remains of Dragon’s prized gift. Once the fire was out, silence settled around them, inside the office and out. Dragon dared not move a muscle. She clapped a hand over her mouth to quiet her shaky breathing and glanced over at Mona to see if the coast was clear. Mona slowly walked toward the door and gently tapped the door handle to see if it was hot.
She was about to turn the knob and peek outside when the sound of bodies crunching and crashing against the walls signaled a violent tussle. Azric screeched and landed with a thud against the door. Dragon’s face blanched. Mona pressed her cheek against the door and listened for signs that he was still breathing. “Azric? Are you okay? Can you hear me?” She quietly tapped her talon against the door three times. No answer. “We have to help my cousin,” Mona whispered. “We can’t just stand here doing nothing.” “How exactly are we supposed to do that? Kora’s right outside! We’ll get killed if we go out there.” It was an odd turn of events for Dragon to be put in the position of having to offer Azric help. Especially after all the times he never lifted a talon to offer her aid in her times of need. “I have to alert the office,” Mona whispered. “You can’t.” “Dragon, I have to. He needs me.” A loud clang of bells sounded all around them. “Sounds like someone else got word to the office,” Dragon said. “Well, we still have to help him.” More short bursts of intense argument exploded down the hall. Mona took the opportunity to peek outside to check on the fight. “Azric!” Mona cried. Dragon ran to the door and craned her neck to get a better view. Kora’s wings were ablaze as she spat fireballs and accusations at Azric. Something about him turning his back on her. Azric dodged each attack and offered calmer tones to try and talk some sense into Kora, but it was as if something inside her had completely snapped.
“Dragon! Get out of here!” Azric screeched as he ducked behind a classroom door to shield himself from another trail of luminous sparks. Kora whipped around and caught sight of Mona and Dragon. She gnashed her jagged teeth and cackled maniacally as she reared around to attack. Azric jumped on her back and attempted to lock her in a choke hold, but the flames on her back engulfed him completely. He yelped in pain and fell to the floor in a heap, wings singed and raw. “Everybody, get to the emergency exits!” Mona yelled down the hall at the gathered crowd. Despite her warning, everyone stood there staring, stuck in a stupor, as Kora charged down the dark hallway, her blazing body charring the stone walls as she raged toward Dragon. “On my mark!” an unknown voice cried. “Ready? Fire!” In a haze of frosty mist and smoke, three icy-blue dragons from the Bluemist Whisperer clan spit freezing venom at Kora to extinguish her blistering fury. “We have to get out of here, Dragon!” Mona urged, and she rushed toward Professor Steelewater’s classroom. Dragon followed, but she stopped short of the doorway and locked eyes with Azric. “What are you doing?” Azric yelled, waving her away from the fight. “Get out of here! Now!” He threw himself into action before Kora could make a move on Dragon, slamming into Kora’s side with all his force. Crack! Kora thundered a sickening cry and tackled Azric, twisting his body this way and that. Laughing sinisterly in Azric’s face, she forced him into an unnatural position on his knees. Azric whimpered and struggled to get free. “Again! Fire!” The Bluemist Whisperers sent out another burst of icy venom, this time aimed directly at Kora’s face. Kora bucked and cried, losing her grip on Azric. He scrambled away from her, shakily dragging himself out of her reach.
Kora crouched low to the ground, her eyes transfixed by the throbbing vein in Azric’s jugular. She lunged at him and snatched him up by the neck. Azric fought back weakly, but he couldn’t keep Kora from slamming him head-first against the wall. Dragon fought the urge to run to him, unsure if moving from her spot would get them both killed. He looked breathless and on the edge of defeat, but there didn’t appear to be any visible sign of a major wounding. Dragon searched around for something, anything, to throw at Kora to distract her. Kora whipped around to face the team of Bluemist Whisperers. Her crazed eyes dilated, and she licked splattered drops of Azric’s blood from her chops. She was definitely possessed by some force of wild rage that not even Azric could hope to contain. “Azric! Run!” Dragon cried. The sturdy walls of the stone building started to tremble. Dragon held on to the rattling doorframe to keep her balance. Frozen and helpless, she watched as her class was corralled by one of the neighboring professors. The panicked assembly of students fled, finally, as fast as they could toward any of the nearest exits out of the building. Mona helped Professor Steelewater direct her class toward the classroom’s large casement windows to escape onto the campus lawn. “Dragon. Come on!” Professor Steelewater yelled and climbed out the window. Mona tugged on Dragon’s arm. “Let’s go. We’ve got to get out of here.” Dragon stood, unmoving. “What about Azric? We can’t leave him there.” “There’s nothing more we can do.” Mona pointed at a large figure in the frenzied crowd. “Help is coming. See?” Professor Culpepper pushed through the chaos, leading a small team of his colleagues. It looked like they were planning to ambush Kora. They slowly
formed a circle around her, blocking her from getting to Azric or anyone else beyond them. Kora held still, like death waiting patiently to claim its next victim. Her eerie glazed-over gaze made her look as if she were entranced and summoning something dark and evil within herself. Fighting her in this state was clearly not a reasonable approach to the situation, but the professors seemed determined to stop her, at any cost. The building quaked again. Flames snaked out of Kora’s nostrils like a pair of forked tongues. Her eyes flicked away from Professor Culpepper to lock their hypnotic gaze on Azric. Azric tried to back away, but wherever he moved, Kora’s eyes followed, like a hunter tracking its prey. Professor Culpepper glanced over at Dragon mere seconds before Mona scooped her up by the waist and dragged her toward the emergency exit. The solemn look on his face offered a bleak goodbye. Small pebbles and mortar dust toppled to the ground from the classroom’s walls as the building’s foundation rattled violently. The room seized and quaked with shifting heat and pressure. They had to get out of there, and fast. Dragon and Mona bolted toward the open window. Mona took to the sky and swooped down over the heads of the terrified students, urging them to head either north or south to get out of harm’s way. “Let’s stay calm, everyone,” she shouted. “Everything will be okay.” Dragon lifted herself up onto the windowsill and was readying herself to jump out when a crackle and spark of flames erupted behind her like a backdraft. Everything flashed white, and Dragon’s enflamed body shot out past the swarm of horrified students. A screech, the sound of electrocuted fury, tortured the ears of everyone witnessing the horrid scene. Fiery chunks of demolished West End classrooms hurtled in every direction.
Dragon thudded to the ground limply at the edge of the cliff overlooking Sapphire Sands Lake, pieces of scorched glass and stone strewn around her like a series of concentric fairy rings. In a strained attempt at stumbling to her knees, Dragon crumpled to the ground as one of her legs gave out beneath her. “Are you okay?” Dragon could barely make out what Mona was saying over the screams and clamor. Dragon rubbed the soot from her eyes and tried to get up again, groaning and clutching her aching limb. Something large and menacing was shooting straight at Mona’s blurry figure. “Mona! Watch out!” Dragon yelped and ducked for cover as sizzling hunks of Breezemaple whizzed past them, clear over the lake, and straight into the foothills of the Rosemist Mountains. The entire southern tree line started to catch fire as more debris shot out into the forest across the lake. Dragon shook her dizzy head and cupped her hands over her ringing ears. She coughed and gagged as she patted down the remaining flames that tracked up her arms. Panic rushed through her and she grabbed at her neck, hoping her eggshell pouch hadn’t been lost in the blast. Still there. Dragon’s hands shook as she carefully removed small splinters of glass that had embedded themselves in the weak spots of her scaly hide. “Dragon.” She gazed weakly up at Mona. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get something to help.” Mona zipped over and plucked off segments of the lush, leafy foliage and vines of a nearby climbing plant. She hurried back and quickly busied herself with tending to Dragon’s cuts. She was almost done patching everything up when a second wave of blistering lightning thundered out of the building. Every window of the West End pulsed with hissing cyclones of fire. Mona and Dragon tried to cling to one another to brace themselves for the impact,
but the powerful shock waves knocked them to the ground. They held each other and shook, miraculously unharmed by the traumatic blow. Tears flowed in tense silence as they both somberly took in the tragic sight. They watched with bated breath as staff members worked diligently to tame the chaos of screaming students who now flooded toward the farthest edges of campus. Dragon frantically scanned the streaming crowds. “Da! Where’s Da? Please let him be okay.” She tried to get up again, but the achiness of her entire body overtook her. She fell down and cried out. “I have to get to him. Mona! Please.” “Dragon, we can’t go anywhere near the building right now. We have to wait.” “I can’t wait. What if he’s hurt? What if he needs me?” “Dragon, calm down. You’re going into shock. Take a deep breath. We need to wait and let the rest of the staff take care of everything.” Several members of the Council of Elders arrived then to offer their assistance. Some of them stoically shouted orders through megaphones in an attempt to assign stations to available staff members. Crackled voices called through the speakers and ordered all Bluemist Whisperers and Windtails to the building immediately. Dragon stared up in awe as billowing storm clouds built up in the south. They looked menacing and were coming in fast. A young battalion of brave dragons circled the building like a flock of migrating birds. “Won’t they get hurt?” Dragon turned away and sobbed, unable to watch anyone else sacrifice themselves to the flames. As Dragon wept uncontrollably, Mona scooted closer to hold her more tightly. “Those clans breathe sleet and ice, Dragon. They’re being called to help put out the fire. It’s possible they could get hurt, yes, but sometimes . . . sometimes you have to step up and do the right thing. Even if that means . . .” Mona trailed off somberly and lowered her head, unable to speak the words they both dreaded to hear.
The sky thundered, and a light drizzle formed, as though the sky shared their sorrow. The army of Bluemist Whisperers and Windtails were winning. A dense cloud of sleety breath rained down on the building, smothering every feverish flicker that attempted to leap skyward. Dragon and Mona flinched every time Kora’s tormented screams rang through the blazing building. Everyone watched mutely, entranced by the brilliant war of fire and ice. A deafening crash and an explosion of flames shattered through the remaining walls of the westernmost tower. Soul-splitting screeches shook the ground, and Kora burst out into the sky in an ominous tornado of fire. The darkened profiles of the Bluemist Whisperers stood out against the blinding cyclone as the dragons bounced and bobbed in an effort to contain the scalding storm. Kora surged toward the distant mountains on the horizon, smoke and fire trailing behind her. The sprinkle of rain quickly kicked up into a downpour directly over the worst parts of the fire; fresh rainfall pledged its necessary contribution to help extinguish the last of the flames. It was almost as if Kora had called it forth to clean up her mess—if she’d even have the heart to do so. The elders shouted out a new set of orders at the dazed crowd once the fire appeared to be mostly out. All winged creatures were to either report to the building to help fetch any possible survivors or act as emergency messengers to alert the students’ families of the tragic situation. Dragon teared up as she thought about the possible fates of Professor Culpepper and Azric. “I have to go, Dragon.” Mona hesitated, unsure which direction to fly. “Will you be okay?” Dragon surveyed her wounds and nodded. “Yes, I think so. Can you find Da?” Mona’s face lit up. “I was going to try to help find Professor Culpepper, but I think someone else got there first.” Dragon turned to see what Mona was looking at.
Off in the distance, Azric was flying in from the North End of campus. Wounded and weakly flapping away from the scorched building, he carried Professor Culpepper in his arms. They didn’t have time to celebrate, though; a second call over the speaker demanded that Mona report to her duties. All remaining students and staff were ordered to stay put until further notice. “I’ll go find Carrick,” Mona said in a hurry. “Stay put, okay?” Dragon nodded slowly, still holding her throbbing head in her hands. “Please be safe, okay?” “The worst is over now.” Mona watched as more of her peers took to the sky. “At least we hope so,” Dragon said. “Kora won’t come back, will she?” “I’m not sure. But if she does, we have to be ready. She’s much more powerful than we anticipated.” Mona placed her hands on Dragon’s shoulders. “I’m going to look for your Da. Stay here; I’ll be back.” Mona took off over the thick crowd and soared above the scorched building. Dragon tried once again to get up to join the rest of the students, but her body ached even more than she realized. She crawled slowly over to the berrywine maple and slumped down against its trunk, succumbing to the helpless reality that all she could do now was wait for help.
XV The perfect amount of sweetness burst within Dragon’s mouth as she bit into a ripe strawberry. “Did you ever figure out where Annalene was?” Dragon asked, licking her talons clean of the sweet berry juice. She could practically taste all of Aideen’s dedicated work and love in the garden in each bite of her breakfast. Aideen leaned down to sweep a pile of collected dust into the dustpan. “She’s fast asleep in her room. Amika brought her home last night after the storm. They were both pretty shaken up.” Dragon sat up and groaned. “Amika brought her home last night?” Aideen gave her a ‘take it easy’ kind of look. “Apparently, Annalene got caught in the woods right when the storm hit. She was going to stay there, but after the fires—” “Fires? What fires?” Aideen leaned her broom against Dragon’s nest. “I thought you knew.” Dragon shook her head and grimaced. “I don’t remember much. Ugh. I can’t even move without everything hurting.” “I’m sorry, sweet pea. I’ll have Da take a look at that after you get some rest, okay?” Dragon leaned carefully back against her moss pillow. Aideen slowly climbed up into Dragon’s nest, careful not to disturb her sensitive wounds. She stood on her tiptoes and inspected some loose bandaging around Dragon’s leg. Dragon winced. “Sorry, love. I have to make sure it stays covered up.” Dragon sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. “I know. It just hurts. All of it.” She jammed her eyes shut. After several moments, her breathing
steadied, and she carefully shifted her weight to get more comfortable. “Can you tell me more about what happened with the fires?” “The oracles said the entire northeast side of the Rosemist Mountains went up in flames. It’s a charred mess.” Aideen ran her hand gently over the top of Dragon’s clenched fist. Dragon drew in a shaky breath.“I barely remember some of the building fly past us, but I never thought it got that bad.” “Well, it is the tail end of Kismet. All of those fallen dry leaves make the perfect breeding grounds for a forest fire.” Tears streamed toward the back of Dragon’s reclined head and hit her pillow. “The mountain. All those creatures in the woods.” Aideen lowered her gaze and sighed, clutching the broom closer. “I know. It’s devastating.” “All because Kora couldn’t stand the truth,” Dragon said grimly. “I don’t know what caused the fight, but I’m glad you’re okay. Luckily, no one was gravely hurt, thank the stars. Maith has been good to us. Everyone is back home, safe and sound.” Dragon carefully turned her head to face Aideen. “Ma?” “Yes, love?” “I’m sorry I didn’t open up and tell you what was going on inside earlier. I guess I was just ashamed and afraid of disappointing you all.” “It’s okay, Dragon. It really is,” Aideen said. “But you were extremely upset when you found out. You looked like I had broken your heart.” “I was upset because I felt . . .” Aideen’s gaze flashed upward as she struggled to find the right words to express herself. “I couldn’t keep all those bad things from happening to you. I didn’t even have a clue that you were struggling, and that made me feel helpless. Powerless.” “But not telling any of you only made things worse. I got to the point of lying to hide everything. I had to lie about the first lie to cover it up. And then
it snowballed. That was the biggest thing I was afraid of: you and Da finding out about the lies.” “Dragon, honey. None of us are perfect. I lost my temper. Da didn’t tell the truth about you leaving school. Sometimes, we slip up and do the wrong thing because we’re afraid.” “It’s more than that, though, Ma. I’ve pushed you all away. Everyone in this family. Amika, whom I honestly don’t even know. Everyone in Gnome Colony.” Dragon fidgeted with the end of her thin blanket. “Powerless. I think that’s what I’ve been feeling too. I think partially because I’ve been angry and feeling really sad about losing my family. And gnomes . . . no offense, but they’re too happy sometimes. I didn’t realize how lost I’ve felt. How sad I really was.” Aideen reached for Dragon’s hand. “It hasn’t been easy for you; we know that.” She wiped away the tears that trickled down her rosy cheeks with her blue checkered apron. “Being at Breezemaple has taught me some things I didn’t expect. You know how you and Da expected it to work out for the best? I thought—hoped—I’d be able to fit in. Because . . . because I finally met others like me.” Aideen placed her hands in Dragon’s palm and nuzzled her cheek against the heel of Dragon’s hand. They shared a quiet embrace and allowed the tears to come. “I was focusing too much on fitting in at Breezemaple. I didn’t realize . . .” Dragon gently smoothed the back of Aideen’s hair with her thumb. “I didn’t see that I do belong here. Probably more than with any group of dragons I’ve met. You’ve taught me the importance of kindness. Kindness toward everyone. And Da—Da taught me about dedication. I know without a doubt I got my love for books and learning from him. And Annalene.” Dragon
smiled and drew her knees in closer to her chest. “I guess you don’t realize what love truly is until you come face-to-face with the absence of it.” “Unfortunately, you’re right. It is easy to take things for granted,” Aideen said with a compassionate smile. “Well, I don’t want to take any of you for granted anymore. No one cares about me the way that you all do. And I don’t want to lose that. It’s not worth losing the ones who love me because I’m too busy looking for acceptance from those who will never even attempt to understand me.” Aideen sat up and wiped her own cheeks with the back of her hand. “What about your friend Mona? She helped Da and his group of friends carry you on that stretcher. She cares about you, right?” “Well, yes. Mona does seem to care about me. But she’s about the only one.” “And your teacher?” Dragon lifted her leg to elevate it on top of her piled-up blankets. “You’re right. Professor Culpepper does care too.” “See? You have more in your corner than you thought,” Aideen said. “Have you heard if he’s doing okay? The last I saw him, Azric . . .” Dragon’s eyes welled up again.“It’s okay, Dragon. He’s doing okay. They took him to the school’s infirmary for observation. I heard that place was pretty full yesterday. They had to recruit more medical assistance from Fae Colony. Apparently, one of the elders got knocked unconscious from the blast. Some unicorn named . . . named . . . something that starts with a Z.” Dragon shot up, oblivious to any pain at that moment. “Zinnia?” “Whoa, Dragon. Settle, now, settle. Yes, I think that was her name.” “Elder Fairmind . . . was knocked unconscious?” Dragon cried. “I mean, I guess. I don’t know all the details. Do you know her or something?”
“She’s my counselor. At school. We’ve talked about some things. About this stuff, actually.” Dragon grumbled and slumped down against the headboard of her nest. She crossed her arms and promptly flinched. Now that, she felt. Aideen’s eyes saddened. “I’m sorry to hear that. I think Da said she’s doing okay now. There was a bit of a scare there for a while. Talk of a coma.” Dragon shook her head. “Why did she have to do that?” “Dragon. I hardly think she put herself into a coma on purpose.” “No, Ma,” Dragon snapped. “Not Elder Fairmind. Kora! Why did Kora have to hurt so many . . .” Dragon balked at the look on Aideen’s face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you. I’m really upset about what happened. I hate that girl!” Aideen took a moment to give Dragon some space to calm down. “I would be careful with hate,” she said after a while. “It’s a powerful word.” “It’s obviously a powerful emotion too. Kora—she hates me. She was chasing me because she hates me. And all those creatures suffered because of me.” “Dragon,” Aideen said sternly. “You listen to me. This is not your fault in any way. You can’t control how Kora acted.” “Yeah, but I started it.” “You started all the bullying? I hardly think that’s true.” “Well, not all the bullying, but I said something to her. It’s what got her all fired up. I shouldn’t have said it.” “What did you say to her?” Aideen asked quietly. “I told her she was insecure. That she has to force others to like her.” Aideen recoiled. “See?” Dragon huffed. “I told you. I did start it.” Aideen shook her head. “I don’t think you started it. I think you were dealing with a vicious creature who had it in for you since day one. I’m surprised she didn’t hurt you for saying that.”
“Well, she almost did. Azric stood up to her. To stop her from hurting me.” “I heard he got pretty banged up,” Aideen said. “Was it wrong?” Dragon asked. “To tell her that?” “I don’t think it’s wrong if it’s the truth. But sometimes others can’t stand to hear the truth. They can even go to great lengths to avoid it.” “I still feel like it’s partially my fault.” “Dragon. You were standing up for yourself. Kora sounds like a bit of a tyrant, the kind of girl who can’t control her emotions or be put in her place. I guarantee, no matter when you chose to stand up to her, she would never have liked it. Not one bit.” Dragon raised her gaze. “And that’s her, Dragon, not you. You understand me?” “I think so.” “Listen. I need to get back downhill and get food ready for today. You may have some guests who want to check to see how you’re doing later.” “Guests? What kind of guests? Like gnome guests?” “Let’s focus on you getting some rest for now, and you’ll see at dinner, okay? Your body needs to recuperate from yesterday.” Aideen climbed down the branchy side of Dragon’s nest and headed toward the cave door, her cleaning supplies in hand. “I’ll be back before you know it. Sleep tight, now, okay?” “Okay.” Dragon yawned. “Thank you, Ma. For taking care of me. I love you guys. I do.” Dragon shifted under the covers and closed her eyes to nestle into her bedding. “Love you too, Dragon,” Aideen said and headed out the gnome entrance of the cave door.
A gentle knock at the door pulled Dragon from her sleep. She raised her head from her moss pillow and called out groggily, “Come in!” Carrick poked his head through the smaller cave entrance door and waved. “Hey, there, Sweet Pea. How are you feeling?” “Hi, Da!” Dragon slowly sat up in her nest and shifted her tender leg to an elevated position. The long nap seemed to have helped with the pain, even if the swelling hadn’t gone down much. “I feel a little better. Not sure if I can walk yet, though.” Aideen stepped past Carrick into Dragon’s cave, her arms full of ointments and compresses, and climbed the side of the nest to help rebandage Dragon’s wounds. “You haven’t tried that, have you? I told you to keep that leg elevated.” Dragon laughed and offered her cheek to Aideen for a kiss. “Yes, Ma. I’ve been doing laps around my cave instead of resting.” Aideen swatted at her hand. “That’s not funny. You’ll never get better if you rush things.” “I promise, I’m not trying to walk on it.” “Good.” Aideen finished tending to Dragon’s bandages. “Now, do you want to eat up here? Or would you rather have a friend fly you down to the table?” She grinned and pointed to the cave entrance, where Dragon immediately recognized the sparkling opalescent hand waving at her. “Mona! Oh my gosh! What are you doing here?” Mona glided gracefully over to Dragon’s bedside. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.” Mona hesitated for a moment. “There’s someone else here who wants to make sure you’re okay.” “Someone else?” Dragon asked.
“Well, actually two someone elses,” Annalene said cheerfully as she popped through the smaller doorway, waving and smiling. “Dragon! Are you feeling any better? We’ve been really worried about you!” She nudged a teal-skinned impish fae in front of her. “Amika?” Dragon scrunched up her snout and tried to hide the irritation in her voice. Amika waved a dainty hand at Dragon and stepped to the side to make way for the other unexpected guest. She looked about as uncomfortable being there as Dragon felt at having her in her private bedroom. “And . . .” Mona stepped over to the doorway and tugged on the arm of someone standing outside. Dragon rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t still dizzy from the head injury. “Azric!” Dragon pulled her covers up to her neck and blushed from head to talon. “What are you doing here?” She looked straight at Mona. “What is he doing here?” Azric’s left wing was bound in bandages and he had a number of nasty scabbed-over lacerations on his torso and jawline. He rubbed the back of his neck and kept his gaze locked on the ground. “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I wanted to make sure you got home in one piece.” Dragon felt a rush of emotions: Embarrassment. Vulnerability. Relief. Empathy. Then all those rude comments he’d made in the library suddenly flashed through her thoughts. Kora, let her go. She’s nobody. Just forget it. She’s nobody. Nobody. Dragon’s face flushed hot, more out of anger now than embarrassment, and she opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind.
“Ahhhrggg!” Amika cried out and fell to her knees, clutching her head. “I think I’m going to be sick.” “Oh, not again! Amika!” Annalene rushed to tend to her friend. Dragon’s gut swirled with jealousy as she watched her sister dote on the ailing fae. Mona crouched down to inspect Amika. “Not again? What’s wrong with her?” “Just give her space.” Annalene guarded Amika, who had doubled over and was dry-heaving. “I need to get her downstairs, to lay down. I’ll see you down there, Dragon.” Annalene flashed Dragon an apologetic look and ushered Amika out the door without a wave goodbye. “Fine. See you later, Annalene,” Dragon grumbled. “Maybe we should go too,” Carrick said, nodding toward the door. “I mean. I can leave,” Azric offered. “I don’t have to stay.” Carrick shot Azric a stern look. “No, son. You’re going to stay and help, remember? We could use some help getting wood for the fire.” Carrick’s tone both surprised and confused Dragon. Why was he acting so harsh toward him? It was completely out of character for Carrick to offer anything but hospitality to guests in their home. But this? This was outright irritation. Yet he was insisting Azric stay? “See you at dinner, Dragon,” Azric said broodily and headed out the door. “We’ll see you both down there in a few. Mona, would you help Dragon down to the dinner table, dear?” “Absolutely, Carrick,” Mona said. “And don’t feel like you have to rush. Dinner’s still on the stove. Take your time, okay?” Carrick blew Dragon a kiss before pulling the small door closed behind him. Dragon scowled and looked over at Mona. “What was that all about?” “Who, Azric?” “Well, him too. Why is he here, anyway? And then Amika? Getting everyone’s attention with her . . . her . . .”
Mona gave her a cross look. “Dragon.” “What?” “That’s not necessary. She isn’t feeling well. It probably has something to do with her gift.” “Obviously her gift isn’t such a gift if it does that to her,” Dragon sniped. “Dragon!” “What? I’m supposed to be the one that everyone’s worried about. Not her! This is my house. I deserve the attention.” “You must be hungry,” Mona said coolly. “Hmph.” Dragon crossed her arms and winced, forgetting how last time that hadn’t been the best idea.“And in a lot of pain.” Mona threw up her hands in resignation.“Whatever. Look, you’re right, Dragon. It is your home, and you have every right to want the attention of your family, but this isn’t a competition for your sister.” Dragon muttered something under her breath and looked away. “The Dragon I know has a little more compassion in her,” Mona said, flashing Dragon a critical eye. “Don’t we have to get downhill or something?” Dragon asked, irritated. Mona waited a few moments before responding. “It really is great to see you’re doing better. I was really worried about you.” Dragon grunted and attempted to stand. “Here, let me help you.” Mona crouched low to the ground and gestured for Dragon to hop on her back. “I never got to thank you for everything,” Dragon mumbled as she tried to climb onto Mona’s back. Her hurt leg made it difficult. “For staying with me through . . . through . . .” “It’s okay. You’re welcome.” Mona smiled and helped Dragon reposition herself more comfortably. “Don’t worry. We don’t have to talk about it. That was a really horrible day that I think both of us want to forget.”
Dragon nodded and draped her arms around Mona’s neck, holding on as they carefully made their way out the door.
XVI Dragon hadn’t said much over dinner, partially because she was nervous about Azric being at her home, but also because Amika continued to fall victim to frequent spasms and outbursts. It made Dragon uncomfortable and made her wish that Amika hadn’t bothered to come. Dragon didn’t know if Amika was truly in pain or if she had some strange aversion to dragons, but anytime Azric, Dragon, or Mona opened up to share, Amika would fall over in another fit. It hardly seemed random and never appeared to happen with any of the Gaelens. Dragon was almost completely convinced it had something to do with her and the other dragons specifically. She probably hates dragons. Dragon cringed self-consciously and flashed a quick glance at Amika. She couldn’t help but wonder if what Annalene had told her about Amika was true, that she really could read the thoughts of others. It made her uncomfortable and guarded thinking that anyone could have the ability to pry into the privacy of another creature’s mind, let alone hers. Dragon glanced over at the moonbug near Amika’s feet. The quiet fae placed her forehead to the bug’s. I still can’t believe that bug has an actual name. I mean, seriously. What kind of name is Nylin for a bug? Did she give it to him? Did he name himself? After several moments, Amika pulled her forehead away and giggled. Dragon shuddered and focused her gaze on her food, even though she didn’t have much of an appetite. How could that moonbug let Amika do that to him, without question or quarrel? When Annalene had introduced the moonbug to Dragon before dinner, she had likened Amika’s relationship with the creature to Dragon’s
relationship with the Gaelens. It was not a pet but her adopted family, of sorts. Dragon assumed Annalene had brought up the analogy on purpose because she figured Dragon would appreciate it, but that was far from the truth. This beautiful, nearly perfect fae—outside her recent weird fits—had suddenly dashed into their lives and stolen her sister away. What was there to appreciate? Dragon wasn’t even sure which possibility unnerved her more: that Amika might be able to sense Dragon’s dislike for her or that Amika might pick up on and even read the complexity of feelings Dragon had for Azric. Not even Annalene knew about Dragon’s torn feelings of attraction and repulsion for Azric, and she definitely didn’t want Amika to know if no one in her family even did. “Who wants pie?” Aideen’s cheery offer stirred the quiet crowd. Everyone’s hands shot up without a second thought. “Great! Annalene, come help your Ma get some more plates, honey.” Dragon watched Annalene baby Amika as they carried the dirty dishes over to the dishwashing station. Amika did look a little green around the gills for someone with such a teal complexion. “I can start on dishes,” Azric offered. “We can get to those later. How about you help me get that fire started? You don’t happen to be a firebreather, do you?” Carrick waggled his eyebrows. “Nope. Nighthour Glider,” Azric said, visibly crabby. “Very well, then. We’ll do it the old-fashioned way.” Carrick grabbed his flint fire-starting kit from the shelf near the sink. Mona and Dragon sat at the cleared table and quietly gazed up at the stars. “Beautiful night,” Mona said. They exhaled at the same time, which sent Dragon into a fit of giggles. She glanced over at Carrick and Azric, who were gathering kindling for the fire. “It’s weird having him here.”
Mona smiled knowingly. “He really wanted to make sure you were okay.” “I know. You told me. But it’s still weird.” “You know, they’re talking about closing down Breezemaple,” Mona said, changing the subject. Dragon straightened in response to Mona’s sobering statement. “Are you kidding me? Why? I thought only part of the building had been damaged.” “Everyone’s afraid of another fight. Azric and Kora really stirred things up. There’s talk on campus of Azric starting it all. Picking a fight with another student is a grave offense. Rumors are flying about all dragons being bullies and there’s this new running assumption that we’re all the same.” “And dangerous,” Azric said, butting into their conversation unexpectedly, his arms full of kindling. “The Council of Elders are meeting tomorrow to discuss having an emergency assembly to talk with students and their parents about the . . . the incident with Kora and me.” “They want to try to reassure everyone that not all dragons act that way,” Mona explained. Azric winced at the mention of his behavior. “Maybe she needs some kind of eggshell to tune in to in order to get her act together,” he jabbed as he stacked the load of dried grass and twigs in front of the nearby fire pit. That was clearly aimed at Dragon regarding their conversation about imprinting. Dragon shot Azric a hateful look. For someone trying to make amends for his past behavior, he was doing a pretty shoddy job of it. Azric clicked the fire-starting materials together, sending several sparks into the pile of dry kindling. The kindling ignited on impact. Something about the sight of the growing fire gave Dragon an uneasy feeling. Almost on cue, Dragon heard a thunk and a gasp come from the direction of the dishwashing station. Dragon glanced over and saw Annalene fanning Amika’s face. The fae had dropped a dish into the sink of sudsy water and was clutching her head in her hands. Azric chuckled. “There she goes again.”
“Shh. Azric. Don’t be rude.” Mona gave him an irritated look and settled her concentration on Amika as well. “Fine.” Azric sat down on one of the stumps in front of the fire. Dragon watched as Annalene guided Amika away from the dishwashing station and toward them. “Amika, why don’t you sit down over here?” Annalene said as she led Amika closer to where the dragons were talking. As soon as they got within feet of the three dragons, Amika buckled over and cried out in pain once more. Dragon cocked her head to the side. “I think it’s us, Mona.” “What?” Mona’s eyes flicked from Dragon to Amika. “What do you mean, us?” “I’ve been watching her all night. Those attacks? They only seem to happen when you, me, and Azric are either close to her or talking about something upsetting.” “Really?” “Seems like it to me. It’s annoying, really. Why did she even come if she can’t stand to be around us?” “Maybe she’s prejudiced?” Azric joked as he flipped a large log over in the fire. Mona scoffed. “Prejudice doesn’t give you physical symptoms, Azric. That’s ridiculous.” “You never know. Maybe it could?” “Hmm. I wonder.” Mona tapped her chin with one talon. Dragon inched closer to Mona. “What?” “Nothing. Never mind, it’s nothing. I’m curious if you’re right, though. I’ll have to start paying attention.” “Do phoenixes have eggs like us? Like what Azric said?” Dragon asked. Azric glared over in her direction. “Dragon. I was kidding.”
“I’ll have to look in my library of tomes,” Mona said, a faraway look in her eyes. ”There might be something similar to her kind. It’s definitely worth looking into.” The burning wood crackled and popped as Carrick poked and prodded it into position. A hushed murmur of conversation flowed easily around the fire pit as the group ate Aideen’s delicious pie and talked. Dragon glanced at everyone gathered through the swirling wisps of smoke. She kept a close eye on Amika. So far, it seemed like her hypothesis was correct; any time Dragon even attempted to talk to Azric, Amika would have a reaction. Outside of Amika’s irritating spells, Dragon was really enjoying herself. She had never had friends come to her home before, and here were Azric and Mona, casually eating pie with her family. Dragon kept expecting to wake up at any moment, because it all seemed too good to be true. “We have to do something about Breezemaple,” Carrick said in between bites. Both Mona and Dragon looked over in Amika’s direction. She was attempting to enjoy her slice of pie, but she was having difficulty holding her fork steady. “Mona,” Dragon whispered. “I saw that too.” “He’s right.” Azric was staring at the dancing flames, completely unconcerned with anyone else around him. “But I’m not sure we can do anything.” Carrick piped up. “The last time the council had to call an assembly together like this was when they were in the planning stages of creating
Breezemaple in the first place. Having mixed classrooms was unprecedented at that time.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Do you realize it took years to convince the Darragh colonies that integrating Enchanteds was a positive and necessary thing? And now this assumption about dragons.” He shook his head in disgust. “All this unnecessary controversy and conflict. I would not be surprised if the council is being pressured to close Breezemaple down because of an overflow of bigoted complaints and smug I-told-you-so’s. I swear, creatures big and small can get incredibly small-minded when they’re afraid.” The dying fire popped and sent a bright wave of red-hot embers into the sky. “Mona, keep an eye on Amika,” Dragon said. “I’m going to try something.” “You’re not planning on purposely irritating her, are you? In case it is something connected to us?” Dragon gave her a sheepish look. “I don’t know how else we can find out what’s going on with her.” “Dragon!” Mona protested. “That’s terrible.” “Please. Can you watch her? I promise not to try anything too crazy, okay?” Mona shook her head disapprovingly but kept her eyes locked on Amika. “Da, can students attend this meeting that the council will be having?” Everyone except Amika looked at Dragon. “I’m not sure,” Carrick said, a look of intrigue on his face. “Why do you ask?” “Well, I’ve been thinking. I have an idea I’d like to propose to the council. If they’ll allow it.” “What’s the idea?” Azric mumbled skeptically around a mouthful of pie.
Dragon immediately glanced at Amika to see if she was having any kind of response. Nothing too impressive yet. A squirm here and a squirm there. It seemed like Azric had the most effect on her. “Well, I don’t want to say anything that might get anyone’s hopes up yet. I want to see what the council says before I share anything more.” “Well, if you have a plan, I want to go!” Annalene enthusiastically chirped. Dragon fidgeted in her seat. It was now or never. She hoped that what she was about to try wouldn’t be too overwhelming for Amika. “Azric,” Dragon said. He looked over and locked eyes with her. Amika squirmed a little more in her seat and set her plate down. “Yeah?” “My plan has to do with Kora. I want to talk to the council about the fight.” Azric’s vibrant gold eyes flashed with darkness, as if a shadow were passing through him. It was only a brief moment of reaction, but it was enough to test Dragon’s theory. Amika groaned and pulled her legs up to her chest. “Amika!” Annalene panicked and bolted to her friend’s side. “Okay,” Mona whispered, “you can stop whatever you’re doing now, Dragon.” “It’s not me. It’s Azric. Look.” Dragon pointed at Azric. He was brooding over the fire with a stick in his hand. Every time the fire crackled, he jammed his stick in to try to control the flames. His jaw was clenched, and his free hand formed a tight fist. Amika’s eyes rolled in the back of her head. She looked on the verge of fainting. “Dragon, what did you do?” Mona asked as Carrick and Aideen tried to offer Amika some assistance. “I . . . I had to see for myself.” “Right, well, you went overboard. Now I have to help her.” Mona closed her eyes.
Dragon panicked. “Help her? What do you mean, help her?” “Hush now. I have to concentrate and help settle things down. She’s too worked up now.” Dragon bit her talon and watched as the Gaelens worked in a frenzy to help Amika come back to her senses. A cool breeze passed through the yard. Both the fire and Azric settled down after a few moments, which seemed to help Amika come out of her semi-conscious state. She blinked her eyes several times and looked around. A rosy hue blossomed on her freckled teal cheeks. “Oh my stars, Amika. You’re okay!” Annalene cried and gave Amika a hug. Carrick rushed to bring Amika a glass of cool berry juice, and Aideen wrapped a throw around her shoulders. Amika turned her head away from the fire, and locks of her long ebony hair fell in front of her face, as though hiding her away from the attention. “Everything okay, honey?” Carrick asked. “You scared us there for a minute.” “I think so. It’s been a rough couple of days.” She tapped her temple tenderly, and Carrick nodded. Apparently, he knew about her gift as well. Dragon felt guilty for instigating the attack and sulked in her seat. Mona opened her own eyes and looked around. “Much better.” She stood up to check on Amika. “I think it’s high time we called it a night,” Carrick said, ushering Annalene and Amika toward the house. He glanced back over his shoulder at the fire. “Azric, you still good on that offer to help with the dishes?” Azric broke his stick into small pieces and tossed them into the hungry flames. “Yeah. I’ll be there in a sec.” Aideen stacked up the last of the dirty dishes next to the sink. “If you can, make sure to pour the dirty water out over there near the compost. Please?”
Carrick glanced up at the stars to check the time. “Amika, would you like to stay the night? It’s a little late for you to be running around the woods by yourself.” “Sure,” she replied softly. “I’d appreciate that.” “Mona? Azric? We can make up some nests near Dragon’s cave?” Dragon glanced at Carrick, startled. “My cave?” She blushed. Azric focused his attention on scrubbing pie filling off a small plate. “I’ll leave as soon as I finish helping with the cleanup. Thank you, though. I appreciate the offer.” “We’ll be okay,” Mona added. “We Nighthour Gliders can find our way in the dark perfectly fine.” She winked at Dragon. “I helped Azric get here, so it’s no trouble that we get out of your hair so you all have some quiet privacy after a rough evening.” “Good night, you guys!” Dragon called after Annalene and Amika, but they had already headed inside the house. “Azric, do you need some help there, cousin?” Mona walked over and examined their workload. “This stuff is fragile. Try not to break it, okay? I don’t want to have to ask Direth to make them a new set.” She picked up one of the scrub brushes. “Mona,” Dragon called from the dining table. “Can you help me get over there? I want to help you guys.” “Don’t even think about it,” Mona said. “You can’t stand on that thing. You need to give it some rest.” “Well, can I sit over there and talk with you guys, at least?” A dry dish towel suddenly came flying at Dragon, smacking her in the face. “Hey!” Azric chuckled as he went back to scraping at caked-on food with his talon. It was the first sign of a smile all night. “Go ahead and get her, Mona. She can help with the drying.”
“That’s about everything.” Mona set the last of the clean dishes on the rack for Dragon to towel dry. “Are you okay to walk Dragon back to her cave, Azric? I have an early morning. I have to prepare the agenda for the meeting tomorrow.” Azric cleared his throat and avoided Dragon’s gaze. “Um, I’d feel more comfortable if we both walked her back.” He shrugged. “It’s my wing. Just don’t want to hurt it more if I have to fly home.” Dragon’s brow pulled together in a skeptical look. Somehow she knew him not wanting to be alone with her had nothing to do with his wing. “Okay, then. That’s fine,” Mona said, wiping sudsy water off her legs. “We need to be at Breezemaple by midday, right?” Dragon asked. “Should be around that time. Depends on whether everyone shows up when they’re supposed to. Sometimes we have a few stragglers.” “I assume the meeting will be in the auditorium. Will there be a lot of elders?” Dragon fidgeted nervously as she considered her bold decision to step in front of the council to offer her thoughts on what needed to happen to help restore a sense of peace on campus. “Only about half the colonies generally participate in Council of Elders meetings.” “So, like, fifteen show up?” Azric asked. “That’s not too bad.” “Give or take,” Mona agreed. Recognition flashed through Dragon. “Elder Fairmind. Ma told me about her. Is she doing okay?” Mona nodded. “She pulled out of the coma after several hours, but she’s doing really well now. She should be at the meeting as well.” “Really? Even after a coma?” Azric asked. Mona shrugged. “Who knows, with unicorns and their healing abilities?” Azric stacked the dried dishes on the shelf and dropped the scrub brush into the sink.
Mona walked over to the sitting area by the fire pit and rummaged through her bag. “I’ve been thinking about what Azric said earlier. About not having an egg to imprint with, which could cause complications. Your Da looked through one of his books from his library and found something really useful. Apparently, phoenix eggs are pure crystal, not just crystal-lined. Here. I was reading over some materials after Azric made that comment.” Mona handed a thick, burgundy book to Dragon. “Take a look at that.” Dragon scanned the pages several times before reading an excerpt aloud.“Similar to dragon clans, whose crystal-lined eggshells offer insight to the nature of their character and potential,, phoenixes are destined to emerge from a solid crystal eggshell made of pure rose quartz. Rose quartz eggs carry the potential for the most powerful form of love: unconditional love. To activate this stone egg, a phoenix must first apply compassion and forgiveness toward self and others . . .” Dragon gave Mona a skeptical look. “Unconditional love? Really?” “Keep reading. You’ll see why this is important.” Dragon sighed and returned her gaze to the page. “This crystal assists in approaching painful situations from the past with understanding and embracing harmony toward situations that have left painful marks in the heart.” Dragon paused. Something about that paragraph tugged at her. She looked over at Mona. “She’s becoming an Unfortunate?” Mona nodded slowly. “Without the activation of her crystal, her negative thoughts and perspective will stay trapped within her. Don’t you see? Without her eggshell, her anger is poisoning her heart. She can’t see anything beyond cynicism and anger.” “She’s losing her connection,” Dragon said, the complexity of the situation finally setting in. “But how did she lose her shell in the first place? I mean, I somehow didn’t lose connection to mine.”
“That’s because you still have access to it. You had help getting back to your shell.” Azric dragged over a stump stool and sat next to Dragon. “I was considering telling you something private before Amika started acting all funny.” His face twisted into a scowl. “What’s with her, anyway?” Dragon straightened up and tapped his knee. “You, actually.” “I knew it!” he stormed. “She is prejudiced!” “Would you stop that?” Dragon said. “She is not. She just has a gift. She can sort of read minds.” Azric stood up and stepped backward. “What?” “Calm down, Azric,” Mona said. “It’s fine. She can’t actually read anyone here. It’s more of a sensing of what’s going on. Emotionally.” “And your little angry outbursts at the fire about did her in,” Dragon added. Azric looked like he was going to be sick. “I did that to her? Me?” Mona and Dragon nodded. “But I didn’t even say anything to her,” he screeched. “I wasn’t yelling or threatening her in any way. How could I have that effect on her?” “Shh. You’ll wake up the Gaelens,” Mona said. “Remember what I was reading in the library? About how you need to have compassion—” He waved his hand to cut Dragon off. “I know, I know. I remember.” “Some are more sensitive to what we put out than others,” Mona added quietly. Azric sat back down and smoothed his head spikes with his hand. He shook his head in bafflement. Dragon almost felt sorry for him. “There’s more,” Mona said. Azric and Dragon exchanged an unsettled look. “This part affects you, Dragon. Brace yourself,” Mona said. “I’m afraid what I’m about to tell you isn’t in there.” She took the book from Dragon
and set it on the ground next to Dragon’s feet. “It’s knowledge that not many are privy to.” Mona knelt down to Dragon’s height and placed her hands on Dragon’s shoulders. “Kora was born of the very storm that separated you from your family.” Dragon blinked wildly. “I’m sorry, what?” Mona took a moment to let the words sink in. “You know me and my hunt for knowledge. I did a little digging and found that those types of storms are necessary for any new phoenixes to be born.” An image of Kora’s silhouette against the destructive fire flashed through Dragon’s mind. “I know she was terrible to be around, but you have to try to understand what she’s been through.” Dragon frowned at Mona’s attempt to defend Kora. “She blamed herself,” Azric added quietly. “For all of it. For you and any others who suffered from the impact of her birth. For her parents’ deaths.” Dragon managed to find words despite her confusion. “How do you know all of that, Azric?” “My family took her in. Like how the Gaelens took you in. She lost everything, Dragon. Everything.” Azric’s downcast gaze had a pleading look to it. “All that loss and sacrifice in exchange for her being born. You have to understand how much she hates herself. And her parents for starting all of this. She had no choice, and she had no choice when she lost them. If they hadn’t tried to conceive her, they’d still be here. You’d still have your parents. That’s her anger, Dragon. She bullies everyone around her because she hates who she is and what was lost because she exists.” Azric glanced up at the sky, his gaze set in the direction Kora had flown in the day before. “I guess my joke about her imprinting actually was a thing then. It probably would have turned out differently if her eggshell hadn’t been completely destroyed. It could have helped her.”
Dragon wasn’t sure how, but a hint of compassion managed to find its way into the difficult, painful places of her heart. Tears silently spilled to her lap as she quietly reflected on the loss of her own parents. She sniffled. “Can it be fixed?” “Can what be fixed?” Mona asked gently. “Kora turning into an Unfortunate. Can she be helped at all?” Azric placed his hand on Dragon’s shoulder. It was the closest they had ever been to each other, and his presence made Dragon’s heart thump wildly. “I want to try to help her,” he said. “If it’s at all possible. You read the book; she’s not supposed to stay that way. It’s not who she truly is.” “But we don’t even know where she went or how to find her,” Mona said. “Let alone whether there’s even a trace of her eggshell left up in the mountains,” Azric agreed. “We could go there,” Dragon said. “We could look?” Mona shook her head. “It’s too risky. There are other things we have to worry about right now. Her actions created a bit of a ripple.” Azric paced back and forth in front of the Gaelens’ back porch. A sudden realization came to Dragon.“You knew she had that anger in her. That’s why you said all that stuff in the library. The whole calling-me-a-nobody thing. I thought you were being mean, but you were actually being protective.” Azric turned and locked eyes with Dragon. Something passed between them in that moment, some silent understanding. Dragon’s breath caught in her chest as she tried to hold his gaze. He clenched his jaw and looked away. “Mona, I think we have to get going. You said yourself, you have an early morning.” “Oh. Okay.” Dragon struggled to hide the embarrassment that surely showed on her face, confused by Azric’s sudden shift toward reclusiveness. “Were you still going to take me up to my cave?” she asked shyly. Azric only stared at the ground. His silence gave Dragon her answer.
Mona gave Azric a disapproving look and sighed. “I can take you, Dragon. I have to get my bag first.” She walked over to the firepit to grab her things, leaving Dragon and Azric alone. “I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow, then?” Dragon asked, trying to engage him with a smile. Azric averted his gaze and nodded. Dragon squirmed in the uncomfortable silence and waited, on edge, for Mona to come and get her. “Okay, well, have a good night, then.” Dragon cleared her throat and flashed him a smile. Azric nodded and walked toward the far end of the yard. As he left, the prickly chill of Dragon’s guard went up. She felt like a hurt yo-yo trying to decode all of Azric’s pulling and pushing away. “Are you ready?” Mona asked, ducking her head through the strap of her bag. “Is he okay?” Dragon asked, tracking Azric through the dark edge of the woods. “He’ll be okay. I think he’s shaken up by everything.” Mona leaned over for Dragon to climb up. Dragon scrambled onto Mona’s back. “But it wasn’t something I did, right?” she asked self-consciously. Mona lifted off the ground and whooshed through the chilly night air toward Dragon’s cave. “I wouldn’t worry about it. I think he just wants to be alone right now to process all of this,” Mona called over her shoulder before touching back down on the ground. Dragon carefully climbed down off Mona’s back. “You got it?” Mona asked as she helped Dragon open her cave door. “I’m good.” Dragon smiled up at Mona. “Thanks again for everything. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Get some rest, and we’ll see you at the meeting.” Mona lifted off the ground with several flaps of her wings. “Good luck tomorrow! Whatever your secret plan is, I’m rooting for you, Dragon!” She looped the loop through the air and took off toward Azric, darting this way and that across the starry sky. An unfamiliar longing tugged at Dragon’s heart as she watched the shadowy figures of Mona linking arms with Azric to help him fly, toward the frozen peaks of Dragon Colony. She wasn’t sure if it was a yearning to have wings so she could join them in the sky or if it was something else. A smile curled at the corner of her mouth. Azric had been to her house. He had met her family. He had come here on his own, to see her. Dragon’s stomach did a little flip as she made her way over to her bed. Something had changed between Azric and her that night. Maybe he sensed it too and that was why he had decided to leave. Either way, it was a lot to process for her already tender heart—this complicated and confusing new feeling.
XVII Dragon gobbled down a bowl of hot oats and smiled from ear to ear, completely elated. Today was the big day. Not only was she going to be presenting her idea to the Council of Elders, but she would also get to see Azric. She toyed with the crystal pouch around her neck and imagined him standing right by her side, stoic and supportive, while she tackled the difficult task of public speaking. Dragon grinned and stared off at the row of remaining sunflowers that lined Ma’s garden. It was official; she had developed a crush. Dragon really preferred seeing Azric in this new light. The fact that he took the time to show up and make sure she was okay kept cycling through her thoughts, causing her to take another toothy-grinned bite of her food. It was much better than viewing him as some sort of cold, heartless— “Good morning, Dragon.” Dragon nearly choked on her mouthful of breakfast when she glanced up from her bowl. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t seen an unfamiliar drake approaching the table. “Uhm, Hi?” Dragon wiped her face and attempted to stand up on her wobbly leg. He caught her before she could fall completely backward over her stump stool. “Careful,” he said, chuckling. His deep-set slate-colored eyes had a gentleness to them that made Dragon feel immediately at home. “Malakai, son! It’s good to see you!” Carrick called from the squirrel-drawn wagon. “I thought we were going to meet you at the school later.”
The morning sun reflected off the sheen of ice-colored scales on his head when he bowed once to greet her Da. “I wanted to make sure your daughter was ok, sir. She had a nasty tumble from the blast.” He turned back to Dragon and smiled, his eyes shining with kindness. “Are you doing ok?” Dragon’s stomach did a double flip as she tried to hold his gaze.” I.. I.. I mean yeah, I suppose,” she stammered self-consciously. “Do I know you or something?” “I was one of the Bluemist Whisperers that came to your aid during the fight. I helped put out the fires,” he said, winking. Dragon blushed and couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face. “You did?” All thoughts of Azric immediately became eclipsed by the warmth of Malakai’s presence. Malakai’s smile deepened as he held Dragon’s gaze. “I wanted to make sure you were ok. You had all of us pretty worried.” Dragon had to gulp back the swarm of nervous butterflies that fluttered in her chest and turn away. “Well, thank you,” she said quietly, sneaking an upward glance at him. “You headed to Breezemaple for the council meeting?” he asked, eyes twinkling. Dragon froze, afraid he could hear her heart thumping wildly. “You know about the meeting?” He placed his hand on top of hers, sending a warm rush of jitters through her body. “If you want, I could fly you there?” Dragon’s heart dropped down to her talons. “Fly! What do you mean, fly?” “Well, yeah, how else were you going to get there?” A wave of dizziness hit Dragon full force. She was expecting to go with Carrick and the girls up to the school, not fly all the way there with some new handsome stranger. That would mean she would have to climb on his back. Hold onto his neck.
Dragon’s hand twitched involuntarily. “I usually ride in the back,” she squeaked nervously. Malakai’s brows shot up in amusement. “In the back?” Dragon pointed over at the carriage. “Those squirrels pull you all the way up those hills? That must be a lot of work.” “Hey!” Dragon said. Malakai threw up both hands in defense. “Oh no, wait! I didn’t mean it like that.” Dragon put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side. “Well, how did you mean it, then?” she asked, surprised by her own playfulness. He chuckled and glanced down at the ground. “All I’m saying is you could come with me. That way, you can get to the meeting faster.” “Why?” Dragon blurted out without thinking. “Why come with me?” “Well, no not that. Why did you come all this way for me? You don’t even know me,” Dragon said. Malakai played with the spikes on his chin and stifled a grin. “It’s a beautiful day. I knew you were on the mend.” He reached out one hand. “I guess I just care, is all.” Dragon bit her trembling lip and turned away. “Hey. It’s all good. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. No pressure or anything. I just wanted to see if you wanted to have a little fun before you have to go to that boring meeting.” “Dragon! It’s time to head out!” Carrick called from the driver’s seat. “Coming, Da!” Dragon yelled past Malakai’s face. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to…” Malakai leaned over and took Dragon’s hand. “It’s ok. I’ll see you around, ok?“
Dragon watched, mesmerized, as Malakai took off into the sky and spiraled up through the low-hanging clouds toward Dragon Colony, a slight twinge of regret twisting in her gut that she hadn’t gone with him. The caravan of tired squirrels scampered up to the base of the South End stairway and came to a stop. Azric swooped above their heads several times before gently landing on the rafters. “Looks like you got here in one piece,” Azric said, chuckling as he watched Dragon struggle to get out of the carriage. The panting squirrels chattered in what sounded like disagreement. Carrick tied the squirrels to the staircase railing to keep them steady and walked Dragon over to the stairs. “Nice day for a fly!” he called up to Azric. “Too bad Dragon didn’t agree,” a deep voice replied from behind them. Dragon whirled around and saw Malakai treading air above their heads, that same warm smile completely captivating her. “Malakai! You made it.” “What’s he talking about?” Carrick asked Dragon. “Nothing. Nevermind. He just wanted to give me a ride here is all.” Dragon rubbed her thumb and forefinger against the crystal in the pouch around her neck. “That looks nice on you.” Azric called, trying to get her attention. He flashed Dragon his dashing grin, but she ignored it. She didn’t have time for his fake niceties after how cold he was to her last night. There were important things on her mind, like how nervous she was coming here to discuss her idea with the Council of Elders.
“I’ll join you in a minute. I have to take care of these poor little critters first.” Carrick pulled out a bucket of breakfast scraps and doted on the exhausted squirrels. Dragon paused at the foot of the towering staircase and looked up. Malakai chuckled. “Need a lift?” “Go on, Dragon. It could be fun,” Carrick said as he petted and fed the squirrels. “Da! Don’t encourage him!” Dragon looked up at the intimidating set of stairs and then down at her leg. “Bundlesticks! Why don’t they have a ramp or something?” Annalene and Amika mounted the smaller set of steps and headed up to the South End entrance. “Are you coming?” Azric called down, tapping his foot impatiently. “They’ve probably already started.” Dragon stared up at the tall stone building and fidgeted. “Do you think I could take you up on that offer for a ride?” she mumbled. Malakai darted down and flapped to a halt right above Dragon’s head. She didn’t need to be stories high above the school to get an adrenaline rush; she got one merely watching him zip around all over the place. “I’m sorry. What was that?” Azric asked. Dragon glared up at the rafters. “I was just asking Malakai if I could get a ride up there.” His deep golden eyes narrowed. “I thought you could walk by yourself?” Dragon bit her tongue to keep from saying something snarky. “Well, obviously I can’t walk that well if Da had to drag out the squirrels to get me here.” She pointed at the extensive team of harnessed rodents. “I suppose I could give you a lift, but no strangling me, got it?” Malakai said privately. Dragon snorted at his unexpected joke. “I won’t try to kill you. Promise.” She drew an X across her chest with her talon to seal the deal.
“Can you two hurry this up already? We have a meeting to get to,” Azric yelled impatiently. “Well, hop on, then.” Malakai turned his back to her and knelt down. Dragon stared at the cascading spines on his back and hoped she wouldn’t get poked. She made the mistake of lifting her good leg up first to climb on. “Ow! Ow! Ow!” She wobbled and fell forward, smashing against his scaly back. “Graceful, aren’t we?” Malakai joked. “Oh, come on! I’m trying.” Dragon glanced to her left at the nearby handrail and came up with a better plan. “Here. Come with me.” She grabbed his hand without thinking and led him closer to the side of the stairway. “Crouch down again. I think this will help.” Malakai paused for a moment and smiled down at their clasped hands before squatting down without protest. “Sorry. Sorry. I just…” Dragon stammered through a toothy grin. Malakai couldn’t take his eyes off her. “It’s ok, love.” Dragon blushed and immediately pulled her hand away. Only her Da had ever called her that. She sucked in a breath through clenched teeth and braced her weight against the handrail to help her wriggle carefully up his back. She settled into place and then flung her arms around the thick of his neck, causing him to gag. “Sorry.” She shifted her hold and chuckled. “That was an accident.” “You got it?” Malakai hopped around a few times to test her grip. Before she could answer, he whooshed up into the sky. He swerved away from the building and climbed higher through the clouds. Gusts of cool air whooshed in their ears as he tumbled and turned, somersaulting their cares away. Dragon had to hold back the urge to vomit from all the twisting around. She was clearly not fit for flying.
Malakai dove around in circles and yelled something through the screaming wind, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. “What!” she shouted at the back of his head. Dragon fought her gag reflex again when he flexed his wings and spun them into one last loop before descending to the top of the stairs. His massive wings puffed out on either side of them, creating enough drag to slow them to a gentle stop. Dragon toppled backward away from him as soon as they touched down right in front of the South End doorway. Azric defiantly stood his ground as the wind of their descent swooshed past him. “You done? Meeting’s waiting.” Dragon took a moment and clutched her dizzy head and leaned on the railing to regain her footing. Malakai leaned over and spoke quietly in Dragon’s ear. “I said”—Malakai flashed her a teasing grin—“that’s for choking me.” Dragon laughed and took in a deep breath to help clear her head. “You still feel nervous?” Malakai asked, pushing open the entrance door. Dragon paused and gave her body a quick check-in. Steady heartbeat. Dry palms. Normal breathing. Their spontaneous detour had successfully burned off the tension in her body. “Actually, no. How did you do that?” “Sometimes a kick of adrenaline makes everything else go away.” “Wow. I really do feel much better. Thank you, Malakai.” “One of the perks of having wings,” he said, gesturing for Dragon to head inside. Azric huffed and pulled open the second double door for himself. “Okay. You ready to do this?” “As ready as I’ll ever be.” Dragon clutched the pouch hanging from her neck to summon courage from her crystals. “I’ll see you around, Dragon. Good luck!” Malakai said, giving her another one of his charming winks.
Azric pushed open the large double doors, careful not to disrupt the meeting in session. Dragon covered her mouth and coughed; a damp, smoky smell clung to the walls like a second layer of paint. Representatives of twelve Darragh colonies were gathered around a large conference table in the center of the stage. They looked like they were in the middle of a performance rehearsal. A single candlelit chandelier hung precariously above the large group, allowing them barely enough light to see the papers in front of them. Azric and Dragon walked down the center aisle toward what looked like a heated discussion. Several members seemed to be tangled in a debate. “Prejudiced? How dare you call me prejudiced!” a portly centaur argued. Azric and Dragon exchanged a concerned look. “I’m simply stating that your perspective is outdated,” Elder Greenwood pressed. “We have several dragons on the council.” He gestured to Mona and Professor Culpepper, who were quietly taking notes. “Including the head director himself.” “It only took one dragon to create an unfavorable ripple in the perception of all dragon clans,” said the council member representing Fae Colony. “But who’s to say Shadrek isn’t correct?” She rubbed her graying temples in a way that said she was trying to fend off the beginnings of a throbbing headache. “You mean to tell me you agree with Elder Broadfield!” Head Director Thackeray shouted, apparently agitated by the direction the conversation was heading. He slammed his fist on the table. “Preposterous! Her actions don’t speak for the lot of us!”
A buzz of bickering between members of Sprite Colony and Sylph Colony echoed against the vaulted ceilings like a swarm of angry bees about to descend on the whole group. Dragon and Azric dared not move a muscle. “I believe what Uncle is trying to say—” a younger auburn-haired centaur piped in. “Larak, please,” Elder Broadfield spoke sharply, cutting off his nephew. “I’m fully capable of speaking for myself.” “Mr. Magerian has as much say in this discussion as any of us, Shadrek. He is your nephew, and you invited him here as your guest.” The cool-headed representative from Sphinx Colony nodded in Larak’s direction. “As I was saying, what I believe Uncle is trying to say is that dragons, as a race, are not necessarily dangerous, but there may be others who could lose control as well. He may be concerned that if Breezemaple and other schools throughout the colonies don’t step up to address their lack of formal education—” “Breezemaple has the finest faculty—” “Head Director Thackeray, please. May I continue?” Larak’s confidence was stunning. Head Director Thackeray grumbled but waved for him to keep speaking. “If dragons are not offered the proper mentoring and training, you know as well as I do that there is a real risk of them losing control of their powers.” Elder Broadfield huffed. “That’s not at all what I was trying to say, Larak. Thank you for your inaccurate summation of my stance.” He brushed a speck of dust off the faded tattoo on his arm. “Dragons are a nuisance, and they should be expelled. The lot of them.” The last statement was specifically aimed at the head director. “I’ve had about enough of you and your bigoted belligerence!” Head Director Thackeray stormed. “Moriba, take this. You run the meeting! I’m
done with this.” He thrust the gavel at the sphinx, his second-in-command, and pushed his way downstage to the stairs.
XVIII Moriba stood, her wings outstretched to encompass her expansive and regal presence on the council. Azric cleared his throat, interrupting Elder Moriba before she could speak. “Excuse me, Your Eminence?” Dragon rarely ever heard Azric speak in such a respectful tone. Elder Moriba cast her cool gaze out on the two young dragons. Azric walked slowly down the center aisle toward the stage, hands raised as if offering himself up in surrender. “Azric, is that you?” Professor Culpepper squinted, trying to make out their figures in the dark auditorium. “And Dragon.” The echoes of Dragon’s voice carried throughout the large room. Head Director Thackeray stormed toward Dragon and Azric. “This is a private meeting. The school is closed, as I am sure your family has been informed. We will send out an announcement once the campus is fully functioning. Good day.” He attempted to shoo the pair toward the exit as he headed for it himself. Dragon’s stomach knotted as she watched the elder push angrily out the double doors before returning her attention to the stoic sphinx. She had been relying on the head director to support her through this. Now what? If the head representative of the Council of Elders was that upset and ready to throw his hands up, they were most likely in for some heavy pushback. “We have something to say,” Azric said. “Something I think you may be very interested to hear.” He still didn’t have a clue what Dragon was going to
say, but he kept his eyes on her and nodded toward the stage, encouraging her to step forward and share her thoughts. He nudged her arm gently. “Go on.” The representative from Cyclops Colony polished his monocle, while the rest of the council leaned forward in their chairs and peered into the darkness, giving Dragon their attention. “Excuse me, council members.” She nodded to Elder Moriba. “I don’t mean to intrude . . .” Dragon reached for the eggshell in the pouch hanging around her neck and fiddled with it as she spoke. Her voice shook as much as her hands. “It’s just . . . Elder Greenwood, I think you’ll appreciate what I have to say.” She turned her attention to the council member she felt most comfortable addressing. He was not only originally from Mossbark Acres but would also be the most familiar with the concept she was preparing to share. “It’s an idea. About rebuilding Breezemaple.” Elder Greenwood smiled as Dragon fumbled with her words. “Go ahead, dear. You have our attention.” Seeing no visible signs of dissension, Dragon continued. “Well, it has to do with the storm, really. Kora’s firestorm.” A collective grumble sounded onstage. Dragon waited for them to settle before speaking again. “I thought about how in Gnome Colony, everyone always comes together for the Great Rebuild.” Dragon squirmed under the elders’ gazes. This was even more difficult than speaking up in class. “Yes, of course.” Elder Greenwood nodded. “The Great Rebuild—a fine effort of community members willing to come together to turn a tragedy into . . . into . . .” He stopped, looking as though a light had gone off in his head, and rose abruptly from his seat. “What exactly are you proposing, dear?” “I was thinking, what if we did that here? At Breezemaple?”