Chapter #9

Aurora's Pov.

We stepped into the Weapon Mastery class, Mr Victor welcomed us in. I went for the front seat this time, avoiding Scarlet at the back.

"Welcome, Gifted mixers." He gave an enthusiastic smile, his lean figure and medium height beaming in his black turtleneck and black jeans, he looked like a ninja without his mask.

He waited patiently as we came in slowly, obviously worn out from the last class.

"Today's lesson might be a little challenging for you. I will teach you how to link your powers into a weapon."

Everyone seemed curious at that statement as they began whispering, I raised my hand.

"Yes, Aurora?" He gestured for me to ask. I stood up.

"Why would we need to learn that?" I asked.

"It'll give you a great advantage and enhance your weapon's strength in battle. It'll also work on any weapon."

I sat down.

"I'll need a volunteer to demonstrate this with." He called.

We all maintained silence while he glanced at all of us one by one, then his eyes stopped at me.

"Aurora, why don't you help me with the demonstration?" He offered a hand in front of me.

"Um..." I reluctantly placed my hand in his and he pulled me up into the big space in front of the class. My face flushed at the sight of the others on me, eyes wide.

He went to his desk and pressed a button I didn't see. The wall beside the desk slid open like an elevator door revealing shelf upon shelf of weapons, all sorts of weapons. He picked out two short swords meant for practice and threw one my way, I caught it with ease.

"Now, watch me carefully." He instructed, his voice low but serious.

He was a master fire user, I watched him as he closed his eyes and slowly the blade in his hand began to ignite. The next thing I knew, the whole sword was swallowed up in flames but didn't burn up, it just stayed engulfing the sword, all except the handle. He opened his eyes as everyone wowed and applauded including me where I stood.

He gave a slight bow then turned to me.

"Now Aurora, focus on your powers and your weapon. Try combining them in your mind."

I followed and closed my eyes, I pictured the weapon in my hand and my water powers. I imagined them clashing and coming together as one, but when I opened my eyes my sword was still in my hand, the same way it was. I heard some of them chuckle from behind.

"Don't worry, like I said, this can be a difficult task. Try again and this time focus and try to feel your powers take effect."

I closed my eyes again, this time I thought about water, the way it flows so effortlessly and air, the way on danced around freely on command. They had a lot of similarities, but also equal differences. Then I thought of ice, how cold it was, how tingling it felt when in contact with skin, and finally I imagined the sword on my hand, the elements infused within it, as one.

"Wow!" I still had my eyes closed when that sound came from everyone's mouths. I opened my eyes and saw my sword, it was gleaming as it was coated in ice, and the ice made it twice as sharp, twice as strong as it was. It was like I could feel exhilaration coming from the sword, out of shock, I dropped it.

"Very well done, Aurora." Mr Victor came close beside me. It didn't seem to bother him that I let go of the sword and it returned to normal. He casually picked it up and asked me to return to my seat. "Would anyone else like to try?"

After a moment of silence, Scarlet stood up. "I'll do it."

She grabbed the sword from his hand and lit it up within seconds. I was a little impressed, but used to her obnoxious, boisterous competitive manner, no one clapped though. I stifled a laugh. She looked around like as if expecting an applause but still nothing.

"Thank you for that, Miss Miller." Mr Victor briskly took the sword back, quenching the flames. He returned them to the shelf. He took out eight wooden sticks, handed each of us one and ushered us to the training room.

"Find someone to train with, and I'll be right back." He disappeared out the door.

"Hey Aurora." A male voice called from within the crowd, Kendal came in front of me.

"Hi Kendall."

"Wanna pair up?"

"Sure." We found a space at a corner while others separated into twos. I took a fighting stance.

"So, how's it feel being Dylan's new sweetheart?" He was always one to joke around, I was used to his humor by now.

"Haha, very funny." I said as I threw him an attack which he blocked.

"Do you like him?"

"He dumped wine all over me so... No!" I ducked from his sweeping strike.

"Do you love him?"

"You're crazy!"

"You're dodging the question. You wanna kiss him, don't you?"

For a second, it seemed to trigger my temper. Imagining myself in the arms of someone like Dylan, sure he apologized, but I wasn't ready for anything else. Kendal needed to shut up immediately. I swiftly countered his attack and swung the stick straight to his right thigh. He pulled away in a grimace. The anger seemed to leave after that.

"Are you sure... you're not a redhead?" He asked between gasps.

"Yeah, why?" I touched my hair, it always seemed to maintain a cool temperature. It felt cold at my touch.

"For a girl with white hair, you're really a hothead." He staggered.

I laughed. "That has nothing to do with my hair." I flipped it dramatically in his face. "And I'm not a hothea--"

I turned to face him but he was gone. My senses seemed to go crazy, I was sensing danger coming from behind me, I could practically feel it up my spine. Time seemed to freeze as I had enough time to spin round and grab the stick Kendal had swung at me with my free hand. We both gasped.

"Huh! Quick reflexes." He complemented, the surprised look still stuck to his face.

I yanked his stick toward me pulling him forward and wacked him in the head with mine. I then let go of his.

"Hey!... Remind me never to get on your bad side again." He rubbed at his head.

I smiled. But before I could open my mouth to make words Mr Victor came back in.

"I'm dismissing you early today. Mr Cue says he has some news for you." He announced.

Mr Cue thought our Magical Creatures class. We returned our weapons to the shelf and exited.

Twenty minutes later, we were standing in the huge dome where the school kept all different sorts of animals. There were Griffins, Pegasus, Unicorns and more. But the ones that excited me the most were the dragons. Mr Cue was in charge of all them, he chose what they would eat, trained them, tamed them and so on.

The first room we entered wasn't a classroom, it was some sort of waiting room with a few sofas, coffee tables in front of them and water dispensers. The room was also well decorated with black marble floors, dark walls with two or three chandeliers floating above. Mr Cue was inside waiting for us.

"Welcome students!" He stood in front of us, his enormous frame shaking with every word that came out of his mouth.

"Why did you ask for us?" Someone asked from behind us, I didn't know who.

He gave a little smile before answering. "The headmistress just sent me a letter."

"Ahh!" Scarlet gave a yell of excitement. She knew what he was going to say but he completely ignored her.

"She has given approval of your readiness to have access to your very, own, dragon."

The rest of the class gave out loud cheers of celebration. Whenever someone worked hard enough in mastering their powers, the headmistress would decide whether the person was ready to own a dragon or not. Not everyone had the luck of owning one, only the best of the best. And we had now been chosen to have dragons each.

"Now if you'll all follow me, I'll lead you to the dragon's keep." He opened one of the many doors that were around the room. He went to the one with the golden symbol of a dragon on it and we followed.

There was an extremely large and deep tunnel lit with floating bulbs of light atop us. As we went on, someone held my hand. I turned to see Stacey, her face went white, I was worried she was suddenly going to faint.

"Stacey, you okay?"

"Uh..." She trailed off as her eyes darted towards something. I tried to follow her gaze but I was interrupted by a sudden roar.

On the left side of the wall was a large cell, big enough for at least a hundred people to fit in and sure enough, there was this beautiful, humongous dragon on it. It was detailed with golden beautiful scales that seemed to glimmer every time it caught a light ray from the magical bulb above it. It towered majestically over us and gave a roar of excitement when it's eyes rested on Mr Cue. The kind a dog would give after seeing it's owner. Stacey's grip tightened around my arm.

"You're scared." I realized.

"Uh..." She trailed off again. "Just a little." She gave a nervous giggle but didn't smile.

Mr Cue came in front of the cell and the dragon lowered to his level, he patted his hand on the dragon's head. It seemed content and gave a satisfied purr, it was nice to listen to.

"This is my dragon, Iris." Her ears pointed up at the mention of her name. "Dragons need time to bond with their owners, they will be very hostile at first. It's up to you to build a relationship with them, feed them, fly with them."

He left his dragon and went deeper into the tunnel, as we continued, more and more cells became visible. Different and beautiful dragons all the same size stood eyeing us, some were asleep but opened their eyes when we came near them. Some cells were opened with students tending to their dragons, some were locked and some were empty. I recognized a few of the students, Eris was at one corner attending to a large, blue dragon. It was truly beautiful.

"The cells without a name sign on it means they have no owner yet. Every choice is final, so choose wisely." He spread his arms, dismissing us. "Feel free to ask other owners if you need assistance. I'll be back shortly."And with that, he marched off.

"This is so cool!" Kyle and Kendal shouted at the same time.

"Hell yeah!" Came Brandon. Everyone ran off excitedly, inspecting the dragons. I stood there because Stacey wouldn't let go of me.

"Stacey, I'm afraid if you keep squeezing my arm I'm gonna lose feeling of it." I winced as her nails started to dig into my skin.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She immediately let go, allowing blood to flow back into my arm.

"Come on." I took my her hand in mine."I'll help you choose if you want."

She seemed to relax at that. "O-okay."

We went deeper into the tunnel along with everyone else. They were all jittery. I couldn't help but feel excited too. Having my own dragon, I was beginning to imagine all the things I could do with it.

"Aurora, hold on." Stacey stopped moving a second ago and I had to walk back to her. She was in front of a dragon cell, it was a pure black colour. But unlike its unfriendly color, it had gentle green eyes, beautifully coloured. For some reason it started reminding me of Dylan's eyes, they were almost the same colour. If he had a dragon, I felt certain he would have chosen this one.

"What do you think?" She asked without removing her eyes from it. The dragon held her gaze, but in a strange, unfamiliar way.

"Dude! I'm totally choosing this one!" I looked around and saw Cody at the cell next to the black dragon's. It had a dark brown colour with spikes poking out of its back.

"Awesome man!" Terence was at the opposite cell examining the one in it.

"Do you like it?" I asked her.

"I don't know, maybe. His eyes remind me of Dylan though." Looks like I wasn't the only one.

"I'll leave you to think about it." I left her but she didn't even seem to notice my absence as she kept staring at the scaled creature.

A few more minutes later I was getting tired of looking. There were plenty of dragons, all beautiful in their own ways. Some were identical though.

"Having trouble choosing?" My heart almost jumped out of my throat at the sound of the voice. I turned around and relaxed when I saw Mr Cue behind me. He wasn't even looking at me, he was looking at the dragon cell I had stopped at.

"Um..." I didn't even know how to answer, my heart was still pumping loudly.

"Might I give a recommendation?" He lowered his voice, finally noticing my shocked expression.

At the risk of fumbling for words, I settled with a nod.

Without another word, he started deeper into the tunnel. I followed closely, our steps making thumping sounds against the hard, smooth wooden floor. How long was this tunnel? Did it even have an end?

We walked on in an awkward silence until we finally got to the end. Was he reading my mind about the tunnel? Last I checked his gift was super strength. He turned to the cell at the left and I saw the most beautiful dragon I had seen that day. It was enormous with sparkly white, silvery scales. It was so poised and elegant, but still intimidating and regal, I was at a loss for words. It gave an unfriendly 'Grr' at the sight of us.

"This one of our oldest dragons. No one has been brave enough to control him."

"I can see why. He's so scary." I couldn't even afford to blink, I was afraid it would disappear if I did. But Mr Cue kept a straight face, he must have seen things like this all the time.

"Do you want him?" He asked casually but I faced him, eyes wide.

"But you said he's hard to control."

"True." He said. "Hard for any gifted student, but who knows, it might work differently for a mixer."

"But why me? I'm not the only mixer. How about Scarlet, she claims to be better than me."

He gave a silent chuckle in return. "I doubt someone like her would even like this. She seems courageous, but she's far from brave."

"And I'm not?" I was confused, I waited for an answer but he didn't speak again. He just turned and walked away but stopped a few feet from me.

"I don't tell you this often, and I shouldn't... But I see something in you that I don't see in anyone else. I feel you would be the most appropriate person to own him. That's why I kept him especially for you."

"You... Wha--" But he was too far down the tunnel to hear me. He soon disappeared.

I turned back to the dragon and found myself deep in thoughts. He saw something in me?? He kept this dragon for me? How did he even know I would come to own this? It must have taken more than a year to raise him, and that's far before I was here.

The dragon's gaze seemed to calm, it's reptilian eyes seemed to widen, grow softer maybe.

"Um, hello." I tried speaking to it. It's gaze remained ominous, it's beautiful orange eyes didn't waver for a second. Was it understanding me?

"D-do you have a name?" I asked, his 'Grr' sound came again but in a much lower tone. Was he trying to answer?

To my unexpectedness, he got up and inched closer to me.

"Uh, do you want me to pet you?" I soon found my hand stretching in through the metal bars. Whatever I was thinking was cleared away in a loud SNAP!

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It all happened so fast but time slowed at the same time. All I saw as I put my arm through was a large open mouth, huge razor sharp teeth that were going to envelope my hand within the next second. All in that time I knew it was too late for me to do anything, all I could do was wait and brace for painful impact.

The next second was even scarier, something that felt like a strong wind immediately pulled me away. I stumbled back and allowed my body lean into my new airy saviour. Once I was away and had feeling in me again, I then realized it wasn't a wind that just saved me. A pair of strong arms were wrapped tightly around my waist and stomach, I could feel the muscles of the owner flex and tense up under my touch. I could also feel the rise and fall of the person's chest against my back. Was I being hugged backwards? Was this person saving me or trying to squeeze the air out of me?

But there wasn't any time to think of that. I broke free and turned to meet Dylan's worried face. No, not worried, rather terrified and shocked. His eyes were wide open and his brows were very wrinkled. If this was a completely different situation I swear I would have laughed, but it wasn't.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"