Chapter Two
Tough Love is the Only Way to Learn
It's been about a week since I killed the dragon and I'm just getting the hang of living here. Skurge is really helpful, and most of the Outcasts are friendly enough. Today I'm going to really start training. I'm going to learn how to fly.
There's a good amount of young dragons that I can play with, I just haven't befriended any. But Skurge said that there's going to be about ten dragons my age in the lesson. So, at noon, he leads me over to where the class is going to be held.
It's on a large outcropping of rocks at the base of the mountain. When I get there, Skurge leaves me. I somewhat cautiously walk into a bowl-like cave with the sky as the roof.
It's a bit shadowy, which makes me stand out a lot. Suddenly, something hard crashes into me and pins me to the ground. I gasp and see a young Changewing. He's a fiery orange color with black tips. Also, he looks around my age, which is good. Instantly, I know he's not trying to hurt me. Growling playfully, I fling him off with my hind legs and swing around so I'm immediately on my feet.
The young dragon gets up and crouches excitedly. "That was cool!" he complements and I lift my chin proudly, "I'm Dracen, who are you?"
"Phoenix."
"Nice to meet you, Phoenix."
"Nice to meet you too, Dracen."
He smiles and then looks around the outcropping. "So," he says, "do you know where our teacher is?" I shake my head and ask, "I thought there would be more of us. Skurge said that there would be, like, ten students."
Dracen looks at me with wide eyes, "You're Skurge's new apprentice?" I tilt my head and shrug. "So you're the one that he found? You're the one that killed a Monstrous Nightmare all by yourself?" Hmm, word spreads fast here.
"I guess," I say, shrugging, "Why?"
"That was a brilliant technique!" he yelps, bouncing a bit, "Skurge told everyone about it! You're going to be one of the best fighters ever, especially with him as your mentor! Most of us have our parents guide us around, but you've got the chief dragon!"
I laugh and lick my chest in embarrassment. We continue talking for a while and quickly become friends. A few more dragons arrive as well, and soon, an adult female Deadly Nadder calls for attention.
We all turn towards her. She is perched on a tall, pointy boulder and I can't help but admire her perfectly preened wings and bright, vibrant colors. "I am Miss Sky, your flight teacher. Now to begin today's lesson, I would like you to each stand on a boulder like mine."
I soon find a tall, pointy boulder like hers but a bit shorter. Climbing up onto it, I turn around and await the next direction. Dracen is a couple of rocks away from me. There's a small dragon that looks like, from what Skurge told me, a Smothering Smokebreath. She's ashen gray, which fades into black on her forehead, nose, paws, and jet-black rings around her eyes, which are amber. Also, she has, almost unnatural looking, long wings and a tail.
"Attention!" My head snaps around as Miss Sky speaks, "You are going to spread out your wings and flap as hard as you can. The one that gets the highest wins."
"Excuse me," All heads turn towards a young Monstrous Nightmare, "but some of us are only two weeks old. We can't possibl-"
"EXCUSES!" We all jump as Miss Sky shrieks, "I learned to fly when I was two weeks old. If I could do it, you can!" The Nightmare shrinks back a little and remains quiet.
The teacher gathers herself and returns to her normal proper tone, "Now then. Let's begin."
The students stare at her blankly. "Well?" she growls and it clicks for us.
I immediately spread out my wings and flap as hard as I can. They begin to get tired as soon as I'm two feet above the ground. We can't do this! We're too young! We haven't built the muscle to fly.
The sound of soft laughter reaches my ears and I look to see the Smokebreath gazing at me with a challenging glare. She's already a few feet above me. Growling, I flap even harder and reach the smaller dragon's height. "Higher!" Miss Sky commands. After a couple of minutes, a few students collapse. But the Smokebreath and I are still trying to get higher. My wings ache and my muscles are screaming for me to stop, but determination keeps me in the air.
Ten feet…twelve…fifteen.
"Wonderful!" The adult Nadder flies in front of us, "Higher! Higher!" I notice how her wing tips almost meet with every stroke and do the same. The other dragons grow smaller and I realize that I'm flying really high.
The Smokebreath snarls in annoyance, but she's starting to look a little pale. Next thing I know, she plummeting towards the ground.
I watch as Miss Sky rolls her eyes and dives after her. She catches the grey dragon in her talons and sets her down on the ground. Landing comes as an instinct to me, and soon, I'm back on my rock, panting.
"Nice try." The teacher cuffs the Smokebreath's head and stalks back to her perch. The gray drops her head and I feel a little pity for her. I sigh and hop down to the smaller dragon. "That was good." I say dryly. I don't know why, but it's a bit difficult to complement her. She wasn't exactly nice at first.
She scoffs and climbs back onto her boulder, "Yeah right. How'd you get so high?"
"I saw how Miss Sky flapped her wings and did the same," I mutter as the vibrant Nadder continues with her class, "Her wing tips nearly collided but didn't."
"Hmph," the grey dragon huffs, "You're clever. I'm Ash, by the way." I laugh and look at her up and down, "I can see why. I'm Phoenix."
She's about to say something else, but Miss Sky calls us out for talking. Inwardly giggling, I stay quiet and focus on the class. "As I was saying before that rude interruption," she glares at Ash and I. Hey it was your choice to stop the lesson.
"you're probably wondering why I didn't have you practice flying in any other way. Yes, I know it was hard and outright, but the Outcasts believe that tough love is the only way to learn. You can't just do it the easy way when someday flying will save your life. You will thank me eventually, because most of you will become strong fliers." She looks at me, Ash, and some of the others that did pretty well.
"Those that are not going to become great fliers will do well on the ground." She looks at those who fell first.
"Once you all are strong enough and have achieved flying without passing out, we'll start practicing flying with something in your paws. When you achieve that, which takes the longest to learn, you will nearly be teenagers, but not quite yet. When I feel you are ready, I'll take you into a storm, where you'll learn to really fly."
My classmates gasp, some in excitement, others not. I shuffle my paws and ruffle my wings. I can't wait to fly in a storm! It will be so cool!
Dracen catches my eye and I can see he's excited too. Turning to Ash, I can see the same expression on her. I guess I can count her as a friend.
Miss Sky dismisses the class and Dracen races to my side. "Can you believe we're going to fly into a storm?" he exclaims, "I can't wait!" I agree and notice Ash walk on my other side. "I bet she's preparing us to carry something in our paws first in case one of us falls."
I nod, "Yeah. When she went to catch you she rolled her eyes. It was like she wasn't worried at all, just annoyed." The grey and black dragon huffs again, this time puffing out a bit of smoke. Then, she perks up and asks, "So, what's your specialty?"
I tilt my head, "Specialty?"
"Yeah," Dracen says, "Every species has one. I can blend into almost anything and I can hypnotize. Well, I'm learning to anyways." Huh. I didn't know that about Changewings.
Ash speaks, "And Smothering Smokebreaths pump out smoke from their skin and mouths to hide them or confuse bigger dragons. Not to mention we have a wicked bite." She clicks her teeth and gives a toothy smile. Dracen and I laugh. Hmm, what is my specialty? "Well, I guess I have that plasma blast thingy." I say, shrugging, "And…that stealth stuff."
Dracen raises an eyebrow (I don't care if dragons don't have eyebrows, you get the point!) and says skeptically, "That stealth stuff? Really?"
"I don't know!" I groan, annoyed. He and Ash laugh. We continue walking down to the village when Skurge suddenly appears in front of me. Dracen lets out a small gasp and he and Ash straighten up, trying to look as formal as possible. I give them a weird glance and look up at the 'chief dragon'.
He doesn't pay any mind to the other young dragons and asks me, "How was your class?"
"Good, but tiring." I reply, "Miss Sky made us fly straight up into the air without teaching us much. She only told us to flap our wings and then left us to figure it out by ourselves."
He shifts a bit and says, "I've heard. She said you flew the highest and lasted the longest. I'm impressed; and I see that you've made some friends." He looks at Dracen and Ash, who seem to burst with pride as being addressed.
"How 'bout you guys go find your parents? I need to have a word with Phoenix." They look a little disappointed, but don't dare disobey him and shamble away. I call out, "Bye!" and look back at Skurge. What does he want to talk about? I hope I didn't do anything wrong. He leads me away with a sweep of his spike-covered tail. Hehe, if I did something wrong…I'd be dead.
My mentor leads me to where I sleep and I give him a confused look. He ignores it and says, "I'm going to train you along with your teachers. Now that doesn't mean I'm going to be at your classes, but I'm going to give you classes whenever we have time. Now before you ask why," he raises his tail for silence and I close my mouth, "I just want to make you the best…soldier there is. Remember the deal we made; I train you to help us get our vengeance on Berk, and you live here. But I think you're comfortable with that already."
He gives me a stony look and I hesitate. Then, I ask, "But won't the teachers notice that I'm getting unusually better? And won't it be a bit unfair for the other students?"
He pauses for a moment, then says, "You know what, kid? Life isn't fair. A lot of dragons here have learned that the hard way." I'm slightly taken aback by his answer, but he continues, "And I'll leave most of the training that they're teaching to them. I'm going to teach you other things…."
I'm a bit… nervous about what the 'other things' are. However, Skurge speaks before I can say or ask anything, "We start tomorrow. See you later. I'll bring you back something to eat after today's hunt."
With that, he slithers away, leaving me gazing after him.
Like the friends I made for Phoenix? R&R (I don't understand why it's rate and review. Read and review makes much more sense).
And my reply to The Flame's (previously known as Guest) review: um... *troll face* is a facial expression. That I was wearing. You've probably seen it before, look it up on google images