American Dragon
Jake was exceptional. He was the exception to the rule.
He must be the exception to the rule.
That was what Rose clung to after the fall equinox. After he showed her the truth.
The Huntsmaster had sent her back to the Academy. It wasn't unexpected, he had already threatened to do that if she wouldn't slay a dragon soon. What she had dreaded before, became a relief.
It meant not seeing Jake for a while and she was unbelievably happy for that. Until she had her thoughts and emotions under control, it was the best not to see him.
The Academy was a reminder of who she was. She was the Huntsgirl, destined to slay evil beast.
But it was, too, a reminder of her failures.
The other students whispered about her. She could hear them.
She – the Huntsgirl, the prodigy, the Huntsmaster's apprentice – got sent to the Academy. There was awe, certainly. But others gossiped about her.
'What had she done to be here?'
'What did she do to get benched?'
'Why was she here?!'
Rose listened to the teacher, talking about evil beasts. And she tried, tried so hard to search for the fire within her – her parents were killed, killed by an evil, disgusting lizard! They were KILLED! - and the tight knot of righteous fury built itself in her stomach but this time it was accompanied by the lingering doubt.
All magical beings were evil but Jake was an exception!
Right?
This doubt didn't let her go. It didn't let her sleep and it made her tired all day.
Jake was good. Jake was caring. Jake was silly.
He made her laugh. He made her happy. He was an adorable, funny dork and she was completely smitten by him.
But Jake was also a dragon. He was the person that she hunted for months. He was this cocky arrogant dragon who taunted her. He was the one she had wanted to skin.
But she simply couldn't hurt – couldn't kill, couldn't slay – her crush.
He was good.
Looking back, the dragon had always held back, never intending to kill her while she had threatened to skin him-and that was hard to swallow.
The dragon had always gone off about how wrong she was and about how magical beings were not all evil.
Jake was good, she knew that. It was a fact and she hold on to the only thing she knew for sure.
The girl was haunted. After bedtime, while her rooming partner was sound asleep, Rose laid awake.
'Maybe he was just naïve. Maybe he was just oblivious.' The girl theorized, her hands clenching around her bedsheets with her classmate's snoring in her ear.
After all, how long did it take him to realize that his classmate was part of the Huntsclan?
Rose was sure there was a day she could laugh about how oblivious they were regarding who they really were (the mess with the scarab and the play was… well… a mess) but that day was not today.
Fury and doubt both gnawing at her, Rose must find evidence to prove one fact and to disprove the other.
For the first time, the girl listened more carefully to what the teachers said. To her never-ending horror, she found gaps. Terrible, earth-shattering gaps.
As the truth hit her, it hit her hard, and that at a rather inconvenient time: In the middle of the class. Huntsgirl raced to the bin and vomited.
No, she thought she was doing good. Ridding the world of evil. She thought she was good, but she doing evil, so she was evil.
Her head was buzzing. She felt sick.
But she was manipulated! Did that count?
She was manipulated to do bad. She wanted to be good but ended up-
'Good' and 'evil' swirled around in her head and made her even more confused. Her headache got worse.
The girl couldn't look at the Huntsteacher – murder, murder, murder – as she was sent to the Huntsdoctor.
The next weeks were spent with the question 'What now?'.
The girl knew what she would not do: tell anyone.
She wanted to get out of here and started working on that. It was easy to convince the teachers to let her help during lesson, arguing that sitting there and listen to things she already knew, were a waste of her talent.
She may behave like the perfect student she always was but staying in the good book of the Huntsclan would certainly help in the long term. Huntsgirl – and more importantly, Rose – had decided to go against the Huntsclan.
And she would bring them down.
Much later…
"I wish Rose was never taken by the Huntsclan!"
She heard him despite being several meter in the air. Her mouth opened, she wanted to scream but no words came out of her.
No! Didn't he know?
Didn't he know that she'd prefer death over never knowing him?
Rose couldn't live without him.
Jake was special. He was unique.
He was… He was…
Exceptional.
