The Sixth Dragon Rider

Part 4

The dining hall was crowded as Aura turned around with her tray, desperately searching for a seat. She wandered her way through the crowd, but all the tables were full, and most people were ignoring her. Finally she found an old table at the back of the room, that looked like it hadn't been used in a while. Aura picked at her food, steak and potatoes, and tried to drown out the sound of everyone else happily chattering away with friends.

Nirvana was sitting with her tail curled delicately around her legs on the chair next to Aura. Every now and then Aura would toss her a bit of steak. After a while, sensing Aura's loneliness, Nirvana began to talk to her, in her head of course, and as much as Aura enjoyed talking to the dragon, it wasn't the same.

Finally people began to get up and leave and assuming it was time to go to the assembly mentioned in the note, Aura picked up her tray to follow them. As she walked by a table though, one of the boys stuck out his foot and tripped her. She had noticed the boys earlier, a group of mean looking people, with scrunched up faces that made it appear as though they were eating something sour. Now though her tray flew out of her hands and she fell flat on the ground as it came crashing back down toward her. Suddenly, though, Nirvana leapt out of Aura's pocket, where she had been about the size of a small rodent, and knocked the tray out of the way, growling at the boys who had been laughing. The dragon continued growling as she walked over and helped Aura to her feet, now roughly the size of a large dog. With her teeth bared Nirvana looked fearsome and the boys backed away mumbling apologies.

"Come on let's get going, girl.  Now, if one of you would be so kind as to point me to where the assembly will take place?" Aura said, at first to Nirvana, then to the crowd.

"Uhh, sure just go down the hall and take a right, farthest door on the left with the dragon carving," a boy stuttered.

Nodding her head in thanks Aura waved her hand and beckoned Nirvana to follow as they walked out of the dining hall.

As she walked towards the assembly room Aura marveled at her victory in the dining hall.  Well, Nirvana's victory technically, but it still had proven, in at least some small way, that the pair weren't just a couple if weak imposters the boys could mess with however they liked.  She only hoped that the opinion they'd just formed would last.   Finally reaching the end of the hall Aura stepped up to the grand doors and marveled at the carving upon them.  When the boy had said dragon carving she'd been picturing a simple almost crude carving.  But this, this was a masterpiece.  More intricate than any carving she'd ever seen, the carving depicted an epic battle between the dragon riders and some foe.  Oddly enough, whoever the riders were fighting was the only part of the carving that lacked intricacy, making hard to identify who exactly they were fighting.  But maybe that was an artistic choice, to show the riders could face any foe, still it it was weird.

Suddenly the chatter of voices and people walking stole her out of her reverie and she realized just how long she'd been standing and staring at the door.  Not wanting to look like a total doofus for doing such, Aura hurried to push the doors open and take a seat inside the room.

The massive room soon filled with people after Aura.  After rushing inside to avoid embarrassment she had quickly taken a seat in a section that seemed to be marked for newcomers.  Just as she had settled down the first wave of people had come in and she let our thankful sigh of relief, glad that she'd avoided at least that one little bit of embarrassment. The room was filled with chattering and laughter but that quieted down as soon as the man who had directed Aura when she arrived, came on stage.

"Hello all, I am Ragark for those of you who don't know and I am the leader of Stonehaven. As you most likely know we are a school for dragon riders, we train you to be the best so you can continue the legacy of the riders and protect our land one day as we, your teachers do and our predecessors did and theirs before them. There is more on that subject, but your teachers will fill you in on that. For now I will just tell you that you will have three main classes: combat, basic skills, and dragon teachings. In combat you will learn combat just as the name says, basic skills will be for discovering and developing your unique skills that you gained when you bonded to the your dragon and dragon teachings will be for learning about dragons and our history involving them. You will do your classes in groups, unless you prove to be so incompetent that someone must teach you individually. Anyway, I think it is time we welcome our new dragon riders and give them the induction ceremony," a rousing cheer rose from the crowd as Ragark pulled a dulled sword from the sheath in his hip and continued, "First we will have Ivan of Haleec, please come forward. Thank you, now Ivan this induction will just be me welcoming you doing a small induction ritual. Now if you would please kneel before me, very good.  I am just going to rest this blade on your head like so and say the induction ritual words which go like so, 'Ivan of Haleec with this ritual you are now hereby a student of Stonehaven, brought here to learn so that you may one day protect'.  And with that we're done, welcome Ivan! Next we will have Tellern of Selvic, please come forward."

And the ceremony continued with each of the five chosen coming forward and being inducted in. Each of the boys looked nervous, although they looked better when they were officially inducted and stepped back. Butterflies attacked Aura's stomach and she fidgeted while she waited. Noticing that none of the others brought their dragons she looked down at Nirvana and told her she would get her after the ceremony.

"Now this year we have another dragon rider who will be joining us, so Aura please come forward," Ragark's voice rang out across the crowd.

Aura rise shakily from her seat and  walked up onto the stage into the bright torchlight and looked down at the crowd. They were all staring at her and she felt quite sick. Taking a deep breath though she calmed her self down and tried to look at peace.

"Thank you for coming up Aura, now as many if you know we've never had a sixth prodigy in any class that ever attended this school, nor one that is female, which makes you an unusual case. However our ancient rules do state that in cases like this all people who have bonded with a dragon have the right to be inducted and they mention no restrictions due to gender, so step forward Aura so that I may bring you into this great school ," Ragark announced, as Aura took a few shaky steps forward and kneeled at his feet.  Then she bowed her head as he pressed the blade to it and began the words of the ritual, "Aura of Elvendale with this ritual you are hereby a student of Stone Haven, brought here to learn so that you may one day protect. Now all other students will carry on as usual after this and new students will head to their rooms, if your schedule has not already been delivered it will be, you do not have any planned activities tonight though, so you will start with that schedule tommorow.  You are all dismissed now."

Aura quickly left the stage and hurried back to where she'd been sitting before she was called up to the stage.  Nirvana was still curled up on the chair Aura had previously been sitting in, eyes closed with little puffs of breath coming out of her mouth, indicating that she was asleep.  With a small chuckle Aura scooped the dragon up and placed her around her shoulders. 

Beginning the long walk back to her room on the opposite side of the school, Aura felt a small ounce of dread form in her stomach.  Today the boys had already shown that they didn't want her here, what would they do now that they knew she was staying?  With a sigh Aura reached up to pet Aura and sent out a little prayer to anyone who would listen, hoping for the best.

A/N: Hey, I hope you guys are enjoying the story and please tell me if you are. If you think I could improve it please tell me. Constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged. Have a good day!

Bye for now, Kat