The Sixth Dragon Rider

Part 24

Aura woke to the feeling of sharp claws pricking her back and a cheery voice ringing through the air.  Groggily she made a clumsy swipe at the dragon prancing across her back before rolling onto her side and burying her head under a pillow.  After her talk with Janson she had stayed awake long into the night, dissecting their conversation word-for-word, and thinking about everything she had said and revealed.  By the time she had finally calmed down enough to drift asleep the moon had already risen to its peak in the sky, and was beginning to descend from its perch in the sky and make room for the morning sun.  The lack of sleep gave Aura little desire to rise from her bed and even less to go to class.  She was beginning to debate whether or not to go to Combat class at all when a small snout wiggled its way under her pillow and stuck itself in her face.

"Rise and shine sleepyhead!" Nirvana cheerfully shouted, pushing the pillow off Aura's head, "It's time to start the day!"

"Go away.  Let me sleep," Aura mumbled, attempting to pull her pillow back from the dragon, who proceeded to throw it across the room.

"Nope!  We have things to do, people to see!  No time to waste!" Nirvana said, lighting the candles around the room and casting it in a flickering orange light.

"I don't want to go see people," Aura muttered, turning away from Nirvana's voice and burying herself under her blanket.

"Of course you do!" Nirvana said, flying back up on the bed next to Aura and giving her a prod with her claws.

Aura gave no reply and only buried herself deeper into the pile of blankets on her bed, determined to stay asleep.  Nirvana gave a huff of annoyance and prodded Aura's back a few more times to try and get her to respond.  When Aura continued to remain unresponsive and motionless Nirvana took a tight hold of the blankets covering the bed and pulled back on them as hard as she could.  The blankets tumbled off the bed with Aura still wrapped inside them and landed on the floor in a heap.  There was an audible thud when Aura hit the ground and it was a long moment before she untangled herself from the blankets and sat up squinting in the candlelight with a displeased look on her face.

"Was that really necessary?" Aura asked disgruntled as she stood up and pushed the blankets away.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Nirvana replied in a serious tone, perching herself on Aura's shoulder.

"How is me missing Combat class a desperate time?" Aura asked as she dug through her wardrobe.

"Because today is your day to prove yesterday wasn't a fluke!" Nirvana said.

"What are you talking about?" Aura asked as she pulled on her clothes.

"You know, yesterday.  When you finally started to prove yourself as a capable dragon rider and all that.  You can't have people thinking that was a fluke now, can you?" Nirvana said.

"No, I suppose not," Aura replied as she secured her hair back in a braid and began to walk out of the room. She quickly grabbed her bag with everything she needed for the day and had just stepped outside the door when she realized Nirvana was no longer on her shoulder

"Shoes," Nirvana called from back inside the room where she was sitting next to Aura's boots.

"Right," Aura said, hurrying back into the room and grabbing her boots and pulling them onto her feet.  Once she was ready to go she scooped Nirvana up off the ground and put her around her shoulders before heading out the door again.  As they wound down the staircase from the tower Aura glanced out the windows at the light seeping over the horizon line.  "Probably not going to have time for breakfast, are we?" she asked, though it wasn't really a question.

"Well, if you'd woken up when I'd told you to..." Nirvana said, letting her voice trail off at the end.

"Okay, I get it," Aura said in a mock annoyed voice, "You were right and I should take this as a lesson and always listen to you from now on."

"Exactly," Nirvana said in a satisfies tone as they came to the bottom of the tower and exited into the busy halls where all the students were rushing to their classes.

People jostled each other back and forth as they pushed through the crowded passageway, the clamor of voices making it impossible to hear anything above the noise.  Aura quietly moved against a wall and tried to move with the flow of the crow.  The general boisterousness of the boys always made Aura uneasy and she preferred to move between classes with drawing as little attention as possible and staying out of the crowds if she could.  It had only taken a few weeks for her to discover that the castle possessed quite a few smaller, less direct passageways she could use to get between her classes and those were mostly what she used to get around except for in the mornings when she was forced to exit from the staircase in her tower right into one of the most populated hallways.  

As she walked she ran through a mental checklist in her head, trying to make sure she'd remembered all her assignments and materials for class that day, trying to block out the noise around her.  Her general lack of attention kept her from noticing anything around her and when the rest of the people in the hall stopped moving in front of her she kept walking and nearly ran into the person sin front of her, causing her to slip and fall onto the floor.  Her bag spilled onto the floor around her, scattering books, quills and parchment and making a general deal of noise.  Aura immediately felt her face flush over and everyone turned to look at her, including the boy in front of her whom she had almost run in to.  He looked almost as if he was going to offer to help her before he noticed the hostile and annoyed expression that had slipped onto Aura's face after the embarrassment had left it, and turned away.  Mortified at what had just happened Aura ignored everyone around her and hurried to shove all of her stuff back into her bag before quickly standing up again.  By the time she was done everyone had started moving again and she was able to slip back into the moving crowd without any further mishaps.

When she was finally able to exit the crowded halls into the open space that was the courtyard Aura felt her whole body relax.  Determined to put what had just happened behind her Aura quickly gathered herself before hurrying over to the corner of the courtyard where the rest of hr Combat class was standing.  Jerald was pacing in front of the class and looked up with an annoyed expression on his face when Aura joined the rest of the group.

"Finally decided to join us, did you?" He asked in a slightly nasty tone, "A word of advice, the sun doesn't wait on you to rise, and in the future this class won't be waiting on you to start, so you better be on time from now on.  Got it?"

"Yes sir," Aura said meekly, recognizing the fairness in what he said, even if it was in a harsh way.

A look of surprise seemed to cross Jerald's face for a second before he gave a nod of satisfaction and turned to address the entire class.

"And I take what I said earlier back," Aura  added to Nirvana in her head once Jerald's attention was elsewhere. "You weren't right about getting up out of bed this morning and the only lesson I'm taking from today is that when I feel like staying in bed I very well will, and it will probably turn out to be for the better" she added, in a stubborn tone.

A/N:  Hey guys, I hope y'all have enjoyed this chapter.  Feel free to comment and editing mistakes or any ideas you have.  Also I want to get your opinions for the next chapter, should  I make it about the Combat class that is about to happen, another class she has this day or skip straight to the library and Janson?  Thank you all for your opinions!  I love y'all so much and I hope you have a great day.

Bye for now, Kat