Learnin' the Ropes

            I spit out the food I was eating into my napkin.

            " Do WHAT?"

            " You heard me. Only three out of ten people make it through the first year. Fortuanatley, if you stay with me, you'll probably make it. I made it , and it wasn't easy,though better than not making it. "

            She stopped. " You should of known about this before you signed up! Unless.., "

            " Unless Grant was the one who recruited me, " I finished for her flatly.  " ' Cuz he threatens to kill you, makes you shoot a guy and steal a boat, then come here, instead of signing up. "

            " Oh Goodness! " she gasped. " that's the worst Grant's done yet! Oooh, I'm gonna get him this time. "

            " It was extremeley.. " she suddenly stopped me.

            " Wait. Did you say he made you kill someone? " she said, her eyes becoming wet. " Even after watching your whole family die in flames? "

            I resisted the urge to put my arm around her and comfort her; instead I asked a question.

            " How do you know my family is dead? "

            I knew the answer. It was apparent that everyone here had family members killed in fires, where they have been recruited.

            " I've heard you cry at night, " she said quietly. " For your mother, your father, for Jack... "

            I shook my head, and one of her tears spilled over, I reached out a finger and wiped it away.

            " Please don't cry, " I couldn't stop myself. I didn't like seeing anyone cry espeacially her; it was too much.

            We said nothing. Our trays of food kept a constant amount of food. When lunch was over, we continued to my next class.

            Lucky me, it was Dragon Mount.

           

            *           *           *

 

            The dragon stable was huge, and by that I mean huge for around here. There were about five dragons, and Cassidy showed me each one my name.

            " This blue one is Inferno. You'll be mostly working with her. The red one is Aquamarine, the green one is Peridot, and the golden one is Pheonix."

            It was to hard resist. At the end of the room, was a cave. One wall was completely open so it could hold it. This tree was grown by the mountainside cave for a reason; mostly another dragon rested inside.

            " That cave holds the black dragon named Doomeater, " Lilian whispered in my ear. " Only the best get to meet him. "

            Cassidy, being a flying creature herself, knew the dragons well, especially Aquamarine and inferno, which I often confused. It was easier when i was only working with one of them. Though thankfully, i didn't have to up in the air with either of them today.

            Lilian's mood was greatly improved. She had long since proved her passion for dragons.She knew each by name by two minutes in; I could tell her favorite was Peridot.

            " An August baby, neh? " I asked her afterwards. She laughed and shoved her hand in my face.

            " Nope. Try again. It's October. "

            " Dang. "

 

            The next class I had, of course, was with Lilian as the teacher. She was to teach my how to protect myself aganist the Dark Arts;which would come in handy.

            Lilian actually laughed as she taught me. " Grant will hate me for teaching you this. he likes using his fireballs aganist people because they never know what to do about it. "

            I shook my head. " I could swear that at lunch I saw a plague that said it was forbidden for us to learn the Dark Magics. "

            " It is. But Grant couldn't help that he is lichen. "

            " Oh? A what? "

            " Lichen. A zombie. Grant used to be a ShadowFirez, you know. When he was killed, the masters brought him back to life because he was so good at what he did. Grant was angry however; he turned aganist them and joined us. "

            " Oh. "

            " I feel sorry for Grant. Now, he can never die. "

 

            We practiced various manuevers in silence, and the class was soon over.

            " You and I have special permission to help jerimiah with his Light Fire classes today. Come on. "

            I can't tell you i wasn't curious. I had seen Jerimiah practicing the hand movements over and over, trying to get a feel for them ( though most the time failing ) and I wondered if he could actually pull off something today.

            His teacher was Grant, of course.

            Jerimiah stood in a cloak like Grant' s and waved his hand as we watched. Grant told him to focus and it would come. All he needed to do was think about fire.

            " I'm concentrating....  " Jerimiah said. In an instant, fire appeared. You would think that usually this would be a good thing, and that we would have cheered him on.                    

            This unfortuanatley was not true because he had set Lilian alight.

            ' Oh ship! " Lilian exclaimed, her hair burning. It was a tiny fire, but that didn't mean she didn't smack Jerimiah for it afterwards.

            " What were you thinking!? "

            " Sorry... "

            Jerimiah looked so solemnly guilty that I laughed. Everyone laughed with me, even thought they didn't know what I was laughing about.

            Suddenly I didn't miss my family so much.

 

            I've been here for a good few months now, and things aren't so bad. Lilian finished one of her classes early so she could take parts of my Dragon Mount class with me.

            I've got to hand it to you, she's pretty darn good. I can't hardly stay on the dragon, and she's flying loops four hundred feet in the air. Talk about wicked.

            Today I was sitting in my cabin and Grant came in with a another new recruit. it was my job to show him to his classes. He stood about five foot four- kind of short- with short blond hair. A scratch ran from the top of his left eyebrow, through his eye and to his cheekbone. He wore a cloak like Grant's, his green eyes menacing. He did not smile.

            " This is Yror. That's yee-ROAR, if yer havin' trouble pre-nouncin' it. YOu will do for him what I had Lil' do for you on yer first day, " Grant leaned in close. " Keep an eye on him he's kinda suspicious. "

            I turned and smiled fakely for the new guy, and put my hand out. " Jake Servet. "

            Yror sniffed. " I know who you are. "

            I inwardly shuddered at the sound of his voice; if you ask me, he sounded more like a she. I asked to see his paper, and he handed it to me like he couldn't wait to get rid of it. I quickly looked it over and frowned.

            " Which recruiter assigned this to you? It can't be right, " I blabbed, thinking outloud. I looked at his first class, which was Flight. This was usually only taken by Avains. Which would be understanable. This however was counter-acted by his fifth class; which was Hypnosis, taken only by Sirens, or women who can sing and get people do to their work.

            Yror snatched it back and looked it over, and handed it back. " I don't kow what you're talking about. "

                        His schedule looked something like this:

 

            01 Sunrise; Flight, Burnjester

            02 Next; Dark Ice; Anatu

            03 Lunch, No Teacher

            04 Upon Dismiss; Avain Mount, Cassie

            05 Upon Dismiss; Hynosis; Anatu

            06 Next; Light Arts Protection, Grant

            07 Free Hour; You are permitted all extra classes

            08 Circle One; Dark Arts Protection/Potions/Resources

            09 Sundown

 

            It was obviously not made by someone in the Avains, because they hadn't spelled any of the names right except one. Burnjester was supposed to be Winjester, and either way Winjester was an animal teacher, so it didn't matter either. Anatu was supposed to be Anata.           They didn't even get Cassidy right, and the whole thing was worded funny. Even an idiot could tell, in spite of these reasons, that it was a fake, because it gave no directions on where to go,

            " Erm, whatever you say, Doc. We should go get this fixed, " I told Yror. " just let me find one of my teachers really quick. "

            I turned and thought about where Lilian would be right now. Of course, she would be in my fifth hour Dragon Mount class; it was where I always found her during free-hour.

            " All right, Yror, we need to go find her. Come with me. "

            I led Yror outside, and stopped. I took about four seconds to think, and then I turned southward, towards the cave, where I knew the dragon stables would be near. As we walked, Yror adjusted his cloak so that it did not touch the ground, similar to what I had seen many women do with dresses. I shook my head. This would not be easy.

            Finally ariving, I walked in to see Lilian combing Peridot over with a scale brush, with Storm tacked to her side.

            " This is Yee-ROAR, " I told them, carefully pronouncing his name. " He's new."

            Storm was not amused. " This isn't a new recruit. I've smelt this before, " Storm sniffed vigorously. " My nose never lies. Yet I can't put a finger on it... "

            Lilian shrugged. " Maybe you have a dragon scale up your nose. I would expect after all that smelling you did around Inferno. "

            Storm growled under his breath. " Wait... I know that smell.... Yror is... is... RORY! " he pounced and bit his shoulder- or should I say her shoulder- and she went down.

            I vaguely remembered the name Rory from somewhere. After a few seconds I realized she was a high command of the ShadowFirez, and she had a high bounty on her head here at the island.

            " Minions! " the downed Rory called. " Attack! "

            In seconds the stable was full of looked what looked like a dozen Grants; each were armed with a couple fireballs.

            " Oh, ship! " I exclaimed, trying to remember my training. I realized with horror that Rory had knocked Storm aside; he was out cold.

            " Take this, Cutie Pies! My PURPLE MAGIC! " Rory said wildely, hurling huge purple iceballs at us. The dragons were getting riled up. I was barely able to dodge.

            " What do we do? " I asked Lilian.

            Lilian was already on it. In about five seconds, we had at least three dozen baby dragon summons helping us defeat the minions. While they were doing that, we were free to deal with Rory.

            " Drat! " she pouted, hurling another purple iceball, " and it was such a good plan too. Now OFF WITH YOUR HEADS! "

            She stopped throwing purple iceballs and for a second we were relieved; that is, until she switched over to the purple ice-knives. The first suprised me so much I got hit in the arm. Afterwards, I did NOT want it to happen again.

            " Wha...? " Rory was standig further away now; she was moving, and yet she was firing at us. I realized that she was backing out of the stables.

            I rolled on the floor, just to suprise her. I closed about half the distance like that, causing Rory to try to hit me, and she stopped paying attention to Lilian.

            Lilian caught this, and used the chance to make a nice size firebakll and hurl it at the poorly prepared Rory.

            Rory was hit head on, and it looked like it hurt. Her expression was both annoyed and hurt at the same time. She looked around. The numbers were not good. She turned left and pointed at the left cave walk.

            " Go Ghost Nova! Stage Left! "

            Suddenly all of the minions blew holes in the left side of the stable, and ran through them. Rory followed. I tried to hit a few with arrows, but I only got one or two in. One hit a minion in the back, bringing him down. The other hit Rory in the back, but didn't necessarily stop her.

            " Gah! " I screamed in frustration, running over to see if Storm or Lilian were hurt. Lilian could tend to her wounds, which were few; Storm was still out cold.

            Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the minion try to get up and get away, but  a quickly fixed that by giving him a nice kick in the face. I grabbeed him- or at least I guessed it was a him- by the collar of his cloak, and shook him a little.

            " You're coming with us. "

            Lilian used some spell- I didn't even want to know what it was- that bound the small minion to us. If he even tried to go ten feet away from us, he was zapped by a strange blue lightning. With this bound in place, it wasn't hard to bring the victim to Grant, though I will say that he got shocked many, many times.

           

            Grant was not amused, and even worried. " I knew they were coming soon but I just couldn't put my finger on when. There are so many questions left unanswered. "

            " Like what?" I asked, curious.

            " Like why Rory specifically asked for you, even though you're new. Rory hasn't been here since you got here. Meaning, she might have inside spies. "

            " Awww, ship, " Lilian chimed in. " We should ask Whinjester for help. "

            " Whinjester? How could she help? " Grant skeptically wondered aloud.

            " I hear from Spooks she has quite the nose, " I added. Grant through his hands up. " Fine! You're both dismissed from your classes for today so you can look into this and see if you can find any spies. "

            Lilian looked back at the minion, who was standing as far away as possible. " What about him? "

            Grant shrugged. " Dragon food. "

            I gulped. It was easy to tell that was what many prisoners became, because he said it so casually. I hope to never cross Grant.

            " So be it. "

            Lilian sent for Cassidy, who supposedly made dragon food of the minion.

            Her and I then went to find Spooky ( who was also exused because Whinjester heads most of his classes) and Whinjester.

 

            I knew Whinjester was an animal, but this was not what
I expected. Whinjester stood higher than Spooky by about half a foot- up to my stomach- her claws sharp and teeth sharper. Her coat was white with black stripes,her eyes a misty red.

            " What can I do for you?" the helmet on her head- equipped with an AATD, so translations were easily made- was much heavier looking than the one Spooky wore. Whinjester made Spooks look like a kitten.

            " Isn't she marvelous? " Spooky whispered in my ear. " Such a powerful she-beast. "

            " You're a..."

            " White tiger, yes, " she answered my statement patiently. She sat down and curled her tail around her legs. " But that reallly isn't the way to talk to a proper lady."

            " You better let me do the talking, " Lilian suggested. " You're kinda affending the poor tiger. "

            " Sorry. "

            LIlian shook her head. " So, we need your help. "

            " With what? " Whinjester automatically strightened her tail.

            " We think their may be some ShadowFirez spies on campus."

            Whinjester looked suprised. " I heard about the ShadowFirez attack."

            " Apparently Rory asked for Jake specifically, even though she hasn't been here since he has arrived. Therefore there must be spies. "

            Whinjester shook her head. " No.... it just means their watching us very carefully. Look at this this. "

            Whinjester clawed at my shirt where got hit by the purple ice knife, and the skin underneath had a purple-blue scar.

            " Tracking device. "

I shook my head, because after that fateful day when my house burned down, my life had been total madness and had not made anymore sense than a cow farmer who loves goats.

            And then she bit me.She bit me. I yowled, because it hurt, and because I wasn't expecting it. Whinjester took her teeth away, and the mark was gone. She spat, and the spit was blue.

            " Yuck. Dark magic tracker venom. Gross."

            " Um, thanks..." I mumbled, though I knew my arm would be sore for days to come.

            " You're welcome, " She said, and trotted away, probably back to whatever cabin it was she's in. Spooky sighed.

            " What a charming young lady. Someday I'll make her mine."

            I looked at Spooky in suprise. " Young lady?"

            " She's a year younger than I am. "

            " But she makes you look like a kitten! "

            " So? " he shrugged and treaded towards Conder, his tail flicking in amusement.

            Lilian shook her head and laughed. " That blasted cat of yours is always getting on Storm's nerves, and now he's padding after Whinjester! Such a big ego. "

            " Yeah........" It was getting dark now, the sun setting. It was about time to go to bed.

            " Hey Jake... " Lilian's eyes sparkled. I knew she had a mischevious idea. I knew it was a bad idea to let her talk. But I did anyway.

            " What is it?"

            " Want a late night lesson on dragon riding? "

            Of course. She wants to ride the dragons.

            " Lil, you know I couldn't ride a dragon if it would save my life. "

            " Fine, I'll let you fly then," She started walking towards the stables. " We're only allowed to one dragon out late at night. If we hurry we can get there before anyone else does. "

            " Let me fly? "

            " Yeah, if I fly you might throw up. "

            " Right. "

 

            We arrived at the stables, and the dragons- all of them, thankfully- looked up at us with excitement. I would have guessed that not many people had taken them out today. I looked at them. Which one?

            " Which one should we take? " I whispered.

            " Pheonix."

            She decided instantly, and I could see why. Pheonix was by far the biggest and Lil had rode him only once or twice.Each dragon was equipped with a saddle and reins. Pheonix could ride up to five people.

            A set my hand down and jumped when I realized that in the dark, I had set my hand on Lilian's. I quickly took it off.

            " I uh...um.....sorry, " I blushed and put my hands in my pockets.

            " Uh..... that's okay. Let's ride. "

            I climbed onto the dragon and then lended Lil my hand to help her up. I grabbed the reins. " You think I can do this? "

            " We're about to find out, " Before I could say anything, she slapped Pheonix in the hindquaters, and he was off. I hadn't been strapped into the saddle, so it flew out from under us, because neither of us were strapped in. Lilian went into hysterics.

            " I thought you were strapped in?!? "

            " Nope. "

            It was too late now. I was going to have to ride Pheonix bare-back. I gripped the reins tighter and prepared for the ride of my life. Up we went, up about 200 feet.

            " Jake.... it would be a good idea to go back. "

            " Pheonix doesn't want to. "

            Indeed, Pheonix did not want to.The golden dragon shook its mighty head. It was flying whether they wanted to or not.

            " Take it easy, then. "

            This was, of course, also aganist Pheonix's wishes. We were up to four hundred feet within two minutes.

            " I said take it easy! " Lilian's grip was so tight I wondered if it would leave bruises.

            I gripped the reins tight.

            I refuse to be a coward just because this dragon is an arrogant useless reptile.

            Lilian's eyes widened as I stood.

            " What are you doing?!" she yelled.

            I ignored her and focused on my flying. We went higher and higher into the clouds. My one thought: show this dragon who's boss.

            Pheonix seemed to get the idea, and flapped higher.Lilian was freaking out in the meanwhile. Of course, I continued to ignore her.

            " Hold on. We're doing a loop."

            " Without a saddle to strap us in?! You're gonna kill us! " Lilian screeched, and held as tight as she could.    

            I sped the dragon up, faster and faster, hoping gravity wasn't stronger than physics.

            And I turned sixteen loops, without either of us falling off.

 

            *   *  *

 

            " Jake, that was amazing! " Lilian gushed as we landed softly.

            " Well, yeah, I guess... " I rubbed my head and blushed, glad for the dark hiding it.

            Pheonix seemed mightily impressed. He swished his tail, and as I tried to get off, he wouldn't let me.

            " Uh, Lil, the dragon won't let me off. "

            Of course, Lilian had already discovered that she couldn't get off either. Pheonix began turn around and walk. He was walking towards the cave.

            " Pheonix is taking us to meet Doomeater, " she whispered, with a rare of mixture of both awe and fear.

            The cave loomed before us.Inside I knew there was the powerful black dragon, who probably already knew we were coming. I'd heard about how hard it was to get to him- some had gotten so lost they never came out. As soon as we were at the mouth of the cave, Pheonix tossed us in and sat at the entrance.  He was not letting us pass even if it would save his life.

            " What now?"

            " I dunno. "

            I stood up , dusted myself off, and then went to help Lilian up, who was probably starting to think this was her worst idea ever.

            " This was a stupid idea!!" See? I called it.

            While she riled on about that, I took a look around. I doubted we would be able to see our way through, because not only was the cave dark, it was also night time. The way ahead split into four passages. Each looked almost identical. Except...

            " Hey Lil. Watchout for this passage. It's about to cave in, " I told her, waving at the third passage. " I wouldn't suggest it. "

            " How do you know its gonna... " she reached out and touched it, and the whole passage way caved in, almost taking her with it, but not actually doing it.

            " AIEE! " she said in suprise, pulling her hand away.

            " Told you. "

            " JACOB SERVET WHAT THE HECK!"

            I shrugged. " One, I had a feeling, secondly, it was obvious, and D, my name isn't short for Jacob. It's just Jake, " I said sarcastically.

            " Oh. "

            I chuckled to myself. Poor Lilian was so freaked that she hadn't noticed my horrible numbering.

            " What's so funny? "

            " Nothing... "

            Lilian sat back down and I felt my way into the second passage. Way down the path, I could see a blue glow. And then it was gone.

            " This is the right way, " I said, suddenly sure. " I don't care what you're doing, but I'm gonna find this dragon.

            Lilian nodded her agreement and stood up to follow me. As we went, the path became narrow, and eventually we were down on our knees. Then, we came to a dead end.

            " Jake..... you brought us to a dead end. "

            This was surely wrong. It couldn't be that this was a dead end. Without thinking, a pushed my hand on the wall. It opened up.

            " A secret passage! Oooooh, Jake you're a genius! "

            I beamed and stepped into a clearing, a large area surrounded by crystals that shone a vibrant blue color, making all the walls look blue too.   

            I ignored all of this, because my eyes were glued on the really big black dragon that was sitting in the middle of it all.

            "I am Doomeater. Step forward, Master Jake, "

            I always hate it when people  tell me to step forward, because it makes me nervous and makes me not move forward.

            " I said,step forward, Master Jake."          

            This time I decided I would rather not be dragon chow and stepped forward, until I was right next to the dragon.

            " The war time is coming.Mistress Lilian, go fetch Master Grant. "

            Lilian instantly turned tail back into the tunnel to fetch " Master " Grant. Apparently she also didn't want to be dragon food, and didn't blame her for that. I was scared witless, however, of being left alone with this huge dragon, because he was as big as my entire village, and I'm sure he could kill me if desired.

            " Jake........ war time is coming. I need you to lead the battle patrol. "

            " Ok, ok,I'll lead the..... wait, what?! "

            " You, will lead, the battle, patrol, " he said, word by word. I searched his massive head for an AATD. He had none. His voice was all his own.

            " Why me? "

            "  If I knew that, " said Doomeater, " I would tell you why. I am the prophet, I am the seer...... and I see, and I prophetize, that if you lead this war, we will win. If you do not, our demize is secured. "

            Grant stepped in at that moment, and dropped to his knees at the foot of the dragon. " What do thy prophetize? "

            " You just missed it, " I said lamely.

            " You will have Jake lead this war, " Doomeater demanded forcefully. " Now is the time. Take Lilian, Spooky, Cassidy, Storm, Whinjester, Jake of course you will go, Grant, let's see......... , Cassel and Jerimiah. "

            " And Jerimiah? He can't do anything but light Lilian on fire! " Grant argued, turning around to look at Lilian who was standing in the doorway.

            " He must go, " Doomeater said finally. " And so will I. "

            Grant was so suprised he could barely speak. " But Doomeater, you haven't been out in so long... "

            " Yes, but look how fat and lazy I've become. Have the party ready by sunset tommorrow.  I'll be waiting by in Festival Hall. "

            Doomeater spread his wings, and I didn't have long enough to wonder abut what he was doing, because he flew up, and blew a hole in the ceiling, and away he flew, towards the Festival Hall. The moonlight filtered in through the huge hole, making everything even shinier and more beautiful.

            " Sleep well, " Grant grumbled. " I can tell I'm not gonna like this. "