hehe, i like my Dragon. pls R&R

"Okay everyone," Drake said. "Five minute break and possibly the chance of all of you getting to watch me get pounded," he told the pages. There was some laughter at that. Drake went over to Shia who had been sitting on the fence watching him instruct the pages for about half an hour.

"Is something wrong?" he asked her.

"Want to spar?"

"No. But c'mon and don't kill me."

"Thank you!" Shia followed the Tiger to a clear area and people gave them space, but watched intently.

After being knocked twice into the dirt, Drake called a halt.

"Now, as your punishment, you get to train the little pages. I am going take inventory of bruises." Drake hobbled over to the fence as the pages assembled.

"What do I teach them?" asked Shia. They looked like little ducklings or something.

"What you learned first. We just got done with how to fall, work on actually falling."

Shia studied the ducklings. They looked too old to be only be on falling but whatever. "Everyone, form a line."

The first in line was a girl and Shia beckoned to her. The girl came forward. Shia stood behind her, gripped her upper arms, and threw the girl about 5 feet. The girl landed without hurting herself, but the rest in line turned pale.

"Next."

Shia went through the line twice before deciding that was enough flying. "Now, we're going to pretend that you aren't facing someone strong enough to kick you hard enough so you go flying. Girl, what's your name?"

"My name's Tarra, Dragon," the girl stammered.

"Tarra, come here." The girl didn't look happy about it, but she obeyed. This time Shia stood next to them and knocked their feet out from under them. She went through the line three times before calling a halt.

"You, you, you, and you. Come here. The rest of you go do 50 sit ups, 50 push ups, then let me know when you're finished."

There was a groan and Shia grinned. She remembered that. With the four she picked she had continue to work on falling. When she was about to start throwing them again after reminding them how to fall, Tarra showed up, followed by the only other girl in the class.

"Go run two laps around the inside of the fence, and then go poke Drake for me. Run." The girls obeyed and Shia called to the boys, "You're slow! The two girls are already done with the push-ups! Hurry up boys!"

"You're a tyrant," groaned one of the boys.

"I am. Thank Drake for that, I'm just getting revenge. Now."

After the two girls had finished the laps they went and, hesitantly, poked the Tiger.

"Yes?" Drake asked. The two girls wondered if he was going to bite them.

"Shia told us to do that," Tarra said, quivering under his glare. Drake looked at his former student as she had the four boys she had been working with to do the sit-ups and had another three run two laps.

"Huh. She doesn't look too mad this time."

"What do you mean?"

"When I was teaching her and she got mad at something I had her do, she'd poke me. I'll ask her later."

The rest of the boys finished the requirements and were sent over to Drake.

"Short ones, you must now flee to archery. So long." The pages took his advice to heart and ran. "So Shia, what's wrong?"

The Dragon went and sat next to him. Slowly she said, "I spoke with my parents."

Uh-oh. "What did they say?"

"I was disowned and then we had a general fight because they said that I'm wasting my life and had ruined their name."

"What did you say?" Shit…

"I said that even if I was wasting my life, at least I was enjoying it, and that their name mustn't have been very good if me becoming the Shang Dragon ruined it." Her voice started shaking. "They said, that, that-." Her voice was shaking too hard now for her to continue.

"Yes?" Shia just shook her head and fought to keep from crying. Drake put his arm around her. After a few deep breaths, Shia had herself under control enough to continue.

"They said that I must be lying that I'm the Dragon, because I could never be the best at anything. And that no one would care if I got killed so I might as well stop pretending."

"Who said that?" demanded Kruse who had come up unnoticed. His tone was soft and deadly.

"It doesn't matter," said Shia.

"It was her parents," answered Drake. She had wanted to come back her after getting her title to see her parents. She had wanted them to forgive her for running away.

Kruse could think of several things to say about them, but held his tongue. Shia didn't want to hear it.

"Come on little girl," he said instead. "I'll show you around the palace so you don't get lost."

Shia's mouth twitched at the joke and followed him. Drake went to go talk with some friends, irritated.

"What are you doing?" asked Jon.

"Wondering if I should draw a map for our favorite directionally challenged Dragon," sighed the Wyvern.

"That won't help," muttered Shia.

"What do you mean?" asked Thayet. Shia's face turned bright red and Kruse laughed.

"You know you want to tell them," said Kruse.

"No I don't," snapped Shia.

Kruse grinned. "She can't tell left from right."

"Yes I can. Uhh, that ways right."

"Moving on. So it's easy for her to get lost. When we were coming here I didn't let her go off on her own, else I'd have to go find her." The king and queen laughed.

"It's not funny!" Shia snapped. "After I'd passed the Ordeal, I had to live a year on my own, and I came back two weeks late because I kept getting lost." The king and queen were laughing o hard they had tears in their eyes. The Dragon, as sure of herself as she was, had direction problems.