"Hey Forzen. Wake up."
Oh for ancestors' sake, Forzen thought as the sound of Muras' voice from outside the door woke him.
This was the last place he wanted to be right now. Since Aerus had decided he wanted to go on this big trip to a far away dragon civilisation with Cynder and some other soldiers, Forzen had ended up living with Muras again. The older purple dragon had spent all of yesterday trying to explain to Forzen that he will try better to take care of him and that he was sorry for what happened at the restaurant they went to a few days ago, but Forzen was having none of it.
If it wasn't for the fact that he started school today, Forzen would have outright ignored Muras.
I don't want to go to school.
But he had to.
"Forzen, you have school in an hour, time to get ready," Muras called from behind the bedroom door, knocking on it to try and wake up the younger purple dragon.
"Yes I know, I'm awake!" Forzen groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "I'll be out in a moment."
Forzen gave a large yawn, before he stood up and walked to the window in his room, looking out at the sky. It was still pretty early in the morning, the sun peering over the tall buildings around them and filling the sky and the city below it in a warm orange glow.
He groaned at how early it was, but eventually turned and made his way out of his room, closing the door behind him. He could smell food cooking downstairs. It was pancakes; Muras had made it twice when he was first staying with him, and as much as Forzen didn't feel like saying it out loud, he kind of liked them. At least there was something good to start off the day.
Sitting down at the table, Muras served him a plate with three pancakes on it, topped with some cream and some blueberries. Muras made his own plate and sat down at the table across from Forzen. He awkwardly looked up at the older purple dragon, before he looked back down at his plate and began eating wordlessly. His eyes never left the plate of food; it was something to distract himself from Muras. The distraction didn't last for long, as Muras tried to speak to him, to his annoyance.
"So, first day of school today. You… excited?" Muras questioned; even he sounded awkward asking Forzen this.
Forzen just scoffed. "More like dreading it," he murmured around a mouthful of food, before swallowing. "I'm expecting today to be absolutely horrible. In fact I'm almost certain it'll happen."
"Hey, school's not all that bad."
"See, this is what you don't get!" Forzen snapped, slamming a fist on the table. "I had a few kids in school try to beat me up the other day, before all of Warfang decided that I needed to die! No one trusts me! Everyone either hates me or has some ulterior motive! I don't feel safe going to school!"
Muras blinked, not expecting Forzen to start yelling at him the way he was. The young purple dragon was usually much more reserved; this was the second time in knowing him that he'd ever blown up like this; the first was in the restaurant where he claimed that Muras didn't care about him, which he wasn't wrong to believe at the time. The restaurant was a mistake. But Muras knew he couldn't be with Forzen all day every day.
"Forzen, surely the teachers will look after you," Muras said. "They looked after me when I was a kid."
"What did you not get from what I just said? Everyone hates me. They hate me because I'm Spyro's son. They hate me because I'm purple. Two evil purple warlords in a row, Muras! This is the legacy I have weighing on my shoulders. I can't prove that I'm not like them because no one will ever believe me! Malefor started out good! Spyro started out good! Who's to say I won't follow their pawsteps when I reach my twenties?"
"Forzen, you don't know that you'll—"
"Exactly. I don't know that. And that's what terrifies me. I just want to do good, I don't want to fight, I don't want to be like Malefor and Spyro. But am I truly a risk just by being here? What if everyone's right about me? I'm scared about the abuse but maybe I deserve it."
"No. You… you don't deserve that, Forzen. No one does. Don't put yourself down like that."
"So how did you get through it, huh? You came after Malefor; how did you ensure you didn't turn evil? How did you ensure that you weren't bullied or beaten every day in school? Malefor may have been imprisoned sixty years ago but his influence was still as strong as ever. How did you, a purple dragon, end up so good and… and… accepted… by everyone here?"
Muras blinked. Forzen was confused; the way Muras reacted was very odd. The way he flinched at Malefor's name this time, the way he struggled to figure out what to say, the way he looked… almost guilty. Sure, Muras was often pretty nervous and cautious around him, particularly after the last time he blew up at him, but this was a whole different level.
"I… I did turn evil. For a time. Luckily, I was able to be… brought back by some amazing young soldiers before… before terrible things happened. I hid for a few years after that. It was Cynder who brought me back to Warfang twelve years ago, and while yes it was rough, I… I found my way in the end. Everyone knows who I am. Everyone knows I am on their side. They may not like me, but I've proved myself many times that I am an ally to Warfang. It wasn't easy, and it won't be for you, but that's all I can suggest you do."
Forzen didn't know how to react to that information. Even Muras turned evil? Sure, he didn't like Muras, but he could tell that Muras had a very good heart and wasn't tainted by darkness. Had he really been under the control of darkness at one point?
"How old were you when you turned evil?" Forzen murmured.
"Twenty-nine."
"Do you know how old Malefor was? It's okay if you don't, it was a thousand years ago, according to what Jaarsol told me about him."
"Umm…" Muras stammered, wincing slightly before finishing slowly, "I… I believe he was twenty-five."
Great, so I do have to worry about my twenties, Forzen thought, feeling his heart sink and his lungs get heavy. Spyro was twenty-three, Malefor was twenty-five, Muras was twenty-nine. Is it just our destiny to be tempted by darkness when we're twenty? Is there something inside us that just… flips once we reach that stage of development? If this is what my destiny as a purple dragon is, I don't want it.
"Forzen? What's wrong?" Muras' voice cut through his thoughts.
"Are we destined to turn evil in our twenties? Is there… something inside us that causes us to change once we hit that threshold? I know it's eight years away, but I'm closer to my twenties than not. What if… what if I turn evil when I hit twenty? What if something in me just… snaps? Am I really a danger to Warfang? Maybe everyone is right. If every purple dragon is destined to go dark in their twenties, I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't even be alive; I'm a monster… a demon."
"No you are not," Muras said sternly, making Forzen jump slightly at the ferocity behind his voice. "The way purple dragons work is our body is extra sensitive to both the forces of darkness and of light. I, as well as Spyro, and possibly even Malefor, had outside factors that contributed to our turning. Spyro and I shared the same one, actually: as children, we were thrown into the Well of Souls during the Night of Eternal Darkness, and faced exposure to a massive beam of darkness that our bodies absorbed—we both would have been about your age.
"However, it manifested inside our bodies in many different ways. For me, it made me crave violence and fighting. I did everything I could to be able to fight something, whether it was join a war, or hire criminals to do something bad so I could come in and fight them. Eventually it got so strong that I couldn't control my violence. With Spyro, it created a second entity that lived inside him. It's a cliché name, but everyone knew it as Dark Spyro. Spyro remained his pure self, but Dark Spyro would always try and tempt Spyro with negative thoughts. It came out when his negative emotions got the better of him: grief, rage, sorrow. I don't… I don't know how Malefor was inflicted, but I know he had the dark energy imparted into him as well.
"To my knowledge, you haven't had any of that yet. Not one ounce of dark energy injected into you. You should be fine. As long as you avoid anything of that sort happening, you should be fine."
Dark energy? Does that include…? No. I can't ask him. He can't know just how truly broken I am, Forzen thought. It was a curse, a spell. It wasn't an injection of dark magic. Right?
No. It wasn't. It was a curse, a spell put unto me to control me. Not to have me turn. I'm fine. I'm okay.
I won't turn evil.
"I'm sorry if this has made you doubt, Forzen," Muras murmured.
"Please don't do that; I don't need your pity," Forzen scowled, before taking another bite of his pancakes; he hadn't had any since the conversation started, and now they were starting to get cold. "You never told me how you managed school."
"Oh, I uhh… it was fine," Muras replied.
"Even with the legacy of Malefor looming over you?"
"I mean… yeah, I guess so. I was… never really that popular, but I never strived to be. I had just one friend outside of my adopted brother, and that was all I felt I needed. I was close to the guardians too. I was content in school. You're right, I don't know what it's like for you, and I'm sorry for assuming. But if you ever want to talk or need help, you can always talk to me, or the guardians. Hopefully even the teachers are of help, but I know you aren't believing that will happen."
"Not at all."
An uncomfortable silence washed over them as the conversation came to an abrupt end. Forzen downed his food, immediately standing up and making his way to the bathroom when he was done, not even giving a glance towards Muras. He got in and decided to run a quick warm bath to wake himself up, and to give himself a chance to relax before beginning the awful day that awaited him at school.
As he relaxed in the warm water, he sat there trying not to worry, knowing it would only make him more scared to go. He had to do it, he knew that. Worrying about what was going to happen was just going to make it harder for him to step out of the house and make his way to school. He hoped there would be some nice dragons his age that he could hopefully make acquaintances with, but he didn't like his chances.
He knew from experience how cruel kids could be, even at a very, very young age. Being around a bunch of twelve-year-olds wouldn't make matters any better. In fact, Forzen was sure it would be worse, considering they now were much larger and stronger than a mere three-year-old, had way better motor skills, and had much better control over their elements. He was expecting to be attack by much more elemental attacks than he had been earlier in life; none of the younglings in that cave had any clue how to use their elemental abilities.
Forzen was just thankful that nobody had… that element. That element was all but extinct, except for Cynder.
He shuddered just thinking about it.
With a large sigh, Forzen washed his face, before quickly scrubbing at the rest of his body, before getting out of the bath and draining it. He dried himself quickly, using his wind element to aid him, before making his way out of the bathroom and towards his room to grab his school gear.
Before long, Forzen was on his way to school, Muras walking alongside him to accompany him there, and to make sure he would be okay. Of course, being the first day, it was nerve-wracking, but the added pressure of the potential threat that would lurk around every corner was put onto Forzen's shoulders. Muras understood that now.
Deep inside, Forzen was thankful that Muras was there to at least walk him to school. He lost count of all the dirty, hateful looks that were directed at him as they walked through the streets. One or two dragons said hi to Muras, but didn't bother acknowledging Forzen, and even then, a brief 'good morning' was as far as it got for Muras. Forzen wasn't sure if that was because he was there, or if there was also as much concern around Muras as there was with him; Muras was just much more well-known in Warfang, so no one acted on their fear of him.
How Forzen wished that day would come for him.
Eventually, they arrived at the school grounds, and Forzen found himself frozen as he stood in front of the front gates. "I guess I'll see you this afternoon after school?" Muras murmured.
Forzen just said nothing as a shudder shook his form. Muras gave a sigh, wrapping his wing around the younger purple dragon. "I know you don't want to go in there," Muras said softly. "I hope it'll all go well. I won't be that person who just says 'it'll all be okay'. I know it's not like that for you. I understand your fears now. But… please stick it out and give it a go. You know the guardians asked this of you if you wanted to live here. Plus, school will help you learn a lot more than I could ever teach you, and… it's part of being a normal child. Normalcy was what you wanted, right?"
"Um… yeah, I guess," Forzen gulped. "Is bullying and abuse in schools normal?"
"Uhhh… bullying sometimes, depending on the people; it is an unfortunate event that isn't all that uncommon. Fighting can be fairly common too, but to the point of where it'd be classified 'abuse'? I can't say abuse is super common, sorry."
"Oh."
There was a brief silence, before Forzen let out a great sigh and walked forward, muttering a low goodbye to Muras. The young purple dragon didn't look behind him or even pay attention to Muras; he didn't want to know what the response was. All he wanted was to focus on school and nothing but school until he got home. He wanted to focus on surviving the social life here without getting attacked, and do well in classes, and get on all the teachers' good sides. He didn't want to cause trouble. He just wanted to learn. He wanted to do this for himself and the guardians.
Forzen was at least happy that Muras was willing to try and understand him, and wasn't trying to promise false positives on him when they both knew it wasn't going to happen. It was a start at least, and Forzen was really appreciative of it.
He tried to stay out of sight before school began. He didn't want to draw attention to himself, and he didn't want to talk to anyone. He basically just sat in the corner of the courtyard by himself, watching how everyone else talked and interacted and played with each other. There were many dragons older than him; those his age appeared to be the youngest here at Warfang Academy. The oldest of the students probably would've been around eighteen or nineteen, but there were a higher amount of sixteen-year-olds at the school.
When the bell rang, everyone packed up and made their way to their lockers to get their books and gear for the first lesson. Forzen made his way over to his; he got a bit lost trying to find it again as he had only briefly been shown during the tour four days ago, but he got there eventually, and got all his maths gear out just in time to rush over to the classroom and begin class.
Phew, I'm not late for my very first class, Forzen thought.
There were a few murmurs when he stepped into the classroom, but everyone was already so engaged with each other that he mostly went under everyone's radar. He found a seat in the back corner of the room and took it, making sure he was out of everyone's vision, except the teacher's—he knew this would be unavoidable, but he preferred only the teacher be able to see him rather than the whole class.
Eventually, a large ice dragon stepped into the room, speedwalking up towards the front of the classroom. This was the teacher, Forzen was sure of it.
"Alright, everyone be quiet!" the dragon boomed. "Roll call! Anagrol."
"Present."
"Apharia."
"Present."
Forzen blinked. This was way too familiar to him, as they had done occasional roll calls at Dark Peak for each of the kidnapped younglings cramped in the cave, probably so they could keep track of them all to make sure no one had escaped, and Forzen also assumed so they could assign names to faces so they could communicate which dragon they would take to corrupt next. At least the concept was familiar to him so he wasn't too caught off guard when the teacher got to his name in the roll.
"Follin."
"Present."
"Forzen."
"Present, sir."
Damn it, I was the only one who said 'sir'. Why did I have to be so proper and… stand out? No one else said 'sir'! Forzen thought, looking around at the class awkwardly as a few raised eyebrows and confused glances were sent his way. Now everyone's noticing me!
"Sir, huh? I like it," the teacher scoffed with a slight smirk. "Master Tegliath, by the way. Welcome. Moving on! Fravlin."
"Present."
At least that nightmare's over. Just get to teaching already, Forzen thought.
Master Tegliath made his way through the remainder of the roll call, before he began to teach. Forzen had no clue what to expect going into his first mathematics class, but he wasn't expecting it to be so hard. He'd learned a little bit from Jaarsol, and Muras had even taught him a few things, but he had mainly spent his time learning how to read and write from both Jaarsol and Muras, so he didn't have the strongest grasp on numbers and how they worked. He could do some basic addition and subtraction, knew a little bit about date and time, and he had barely touched on the concept of multiplication.
However, he was not expecting to see letters appearing in the equations that Master Tegliath was writing on the chalkboard; Forzen had assumed that maths was all about the numbers.
Just how far behind am I? Should I know all this stuff by now? the purple dragon thought.
It didn't take long for him to realise that the letters were placeholders for unknown numbers, which put the equations in a bit more perspective, but the concept of then moving things around in an equation to find out what numbers the letters were confused him. He had never thought of equations this way before; he knew that two plus two was four and three times two was six, but he'd never seen it as two sides of an equals sign.
He was going to have a lot to catch up on.
Master Tegliath didn't seem to mind him, so maybe Forzen could ask him for some extra help after class. He didn't want to put his paw up and ask now; that would be putting way too much attention towards him, and it was embarrassing to be so behind. He would much rather try and understand what he could now and ask for help one-on-one with the teacher.
However, he didn't know if that was normal to do at school. Was he allowed to ask for help? Everyone else seemed to be understanding what was going on so no one was currently asking for help. Or were there other students like him that were struggling but not wanting to speak up about it?
Before long, Master Tegliath was writing out some questions on the chalkboard for everyone to answer now that he had finished teaching the main concept. He wrote up ten exercise questions, going from easier to harder, with each of them requiring the students to find out an unknown number.
Wanting to at least show he was willing to put in the work and give it a go, Forzen attempted to answer the questions, but could only really provide answers for the first four. He had no idea if they were right or not, but he gave them his best effort. Questions five to seven were hard; he'd never seen those curvy lines—brackets, Master Tegliath had called them—before, and had no idea what to do with them. He also had never heard of division before; over the course of the lesson he had learned to do the inverse of an operation when moving something to the other side of the equation, knowing that addition became subtraction and multiplication became division, and vice versa for both, but he had no idea what that was.
Forzen spent so long on the questions before Master Tegliath had stood back up in front of the chalkboard from his desk, that he never got a chance to even look at questions eight to ten. As Master Tegliath took the class through the answers on the chalkboard, embarrassment washed over Forzen when he realised he didn't even get questions three or four right. He only got two of the four questions he had fully answered right, leaving him with six more questions he hadn't ended up with an answer to.
When Master Tegliath showed the answers and the working, Forzen was still lost. At least he was properly starting to understand now that everything in the brackets had to be done first, and that anything inside the brackets was multiplied by the number that was sitting next to the brackets if there was no operation symbol beside it. He was slowly understanding the concept of division too when Master Tegliath was going through the questions with the class; it was like a backwards multiplication.
But it was all so much for Forzen to try and wrap his head around at once. He was so behind that it felt almost unfair that he had to keep up with everyone in the class.
It didn't take long before the class was over, and Master Tegliath had excused the classroom. Everyone was quick to leave the classroom, wanting to get out as soon as they could and then wander slowly to their next class. As the stream of students funneled through the door to the classroom, Forzen stayed behind to make sure he was the last to leave, mainly because he didn't want to be seen out at the front of the pack, but also so he could stay behind and ask Master Tegliath for help.
"Excuse me, sir… u-u-uhh, Master Tegliath," Forzen said softly once the last few students had left the classroom.
The ice dragon jumped slightly at the desk as he packed his own gear up, not expecting anyone to have stayed behind, his back facing the rest of the classroom. He turned around, blinking when he saw Forzen there. "I appreciate you calling me 'sir', but really, 'Master Tegliath' is perfectly fine," the ice dragon said, appearing a little unsettled by talking to the young purple dragon one-on-one, but trying to hide his discomfort. "Forzen, was it? What's wrong? You should probably go on to your next class so you're not late."
"I know, I'll go soon but… I just have a question," Forzen murmured. "Is there a time, maybe after school or something, where you could… I guess… help me with some of the concepts? I've… never really done much math as I never really went to school growing up so… I… didn't really understand much of today."
"Why didn't you ask for help if you weren't understanding things? That's what us teachers are here for: we help teach the students."
"I… I was embarrassed. And I didn't want to bring too much attention to myself… you know, being purple and new and all that."
Master Tegliath just nodded, as if he hadn't really thought of that. "I guess that makes sense. We are aware of your situation after all; the principal was sure to let all the teachers you were going to have know a little bit about you so we were prepared and… not caught off guard by a sudden purple dragon being present," he said with a shrug.
"I also didn't want to slow the lesson down since… well… I don't even really know much about stuff like division," Forzen said, taking every piece of strength within himself to not get caught up about the fact that the principal had blabbed about him to all of his teachers, although at the same time, he understood why.
Master Tegliath nodded. "Well, I'll see what I can do and I'll let you know. I do have many other classes so I am a bit busy, and do also continue work once all the students leave for the day," he explained. "I recommend you go talk to whoever's taking care of you—Muras, I think it is—to help you with some of these concepts, but I'll let you know if I have an afternoon after school free and we can spend maybe an hour or so going through some of these assumed knowledge concepts if that sounds alright."
"I… yes, that sounds great. Thank you," Forzen said with a small smile.
"Great. Anyway, we both have classes to get to. You better head off to your next class."
"Okay, I will. Thank you!"
With that, Forzen turned and almost sprinted to his next class, which was literature. As he ran, he couldn't help but think about the conversation he had just had with Master Tegliath. His unease around the young purple dragon was very noticeable, but Forzen was just glad he was willing to actually have a conversation and not try and be rude to him, even going so far as to potentially offer help to him.
Maybe the teachers weren't so bad after all.
Maybe all his teachers being aware of his current situation being an escapee from Dark Peak and being under Muras' care and having the guardians make him go to school was working to his advantage.
Maybe school wouldn't be so bad.
Literature was a pretty chill class. It was basically free reading time, where all the students were just told to find a spot to sit and read the assigned reading they had for the term. It was a smaller novel called Siren's Call, a romance story about a young dragon who fell in love with a dragoness with siren powers, who had used them against him to try and allure him towards destruction like a siren normally would, but they both ended up actually falling in love with each other. Forzen thought it was a bit weird and didn't really like the sound of it, but knew he had to read it since it was a required reading for the subject.
So, he sat down and read it, beginning from the start. He was a few chapters behind the class, and with how slow Forzen was at reading, he knew it would take him quite a while to catch up. He was definitely going to have to take the book home and read it in his own time.
Playing catch up was going to be the death of him if every single class required him to do this.
He got through about three and a half chapters during the class, before Mistress Yorrine dismissed them to recess. Forzen was just happy he got to sit and take the book at his own pace without any interruption or struggle. He didn't know what he thought of Mistress Yorrine; she sat at her desk doing her own work while everyone read, so he didn't know what she thought of him either. The ice dragoness was easily the type of person who was into books, Forzen could tell, mainly due to the sophisticated way she talked and how her posture was; the fancy eyeglasses she wore added to that look too.
Recess was pretty uneventful. Forzen didn't even feel comfortable going up to collect food from the food hall's kitchen, so he sat in the very corner of the room, alone. He didn't talk to anyone, and he didn't even bother looking at anyone. To help pass the time, he had brought Siren's Call with him to continue reading, as well as to get caught up on the book so that he was up to the same spot as most of the class was; it was the only bit of schoolwork so far that he felt he could actually do on his own, so he took comfort in that fact and wanted to make the most of it.
Due to the food hall being much more open, and having many, many more students occupying it, Forzen couldn't help but periodically look around as he read, watching the many students both his age and older sneaking cautious, wary looks towards him. Forzen could tell they wanted to walk up to him and punch him, but by their expressions and body language, Forzen could tell they were too scared to, for fear that the 'evil purple dragon' would kill them in retaliation.
Forzen's sound element allowed him to hear the murmurs of the students a few tables away or walking past his table, whether he wanted to or not. He was okay at controlling his sound element, but there were times, particularly when he was stressed, where the powers would start kicking in on their own and he was able to hear everything, unable to tune out the noise. It made reading hard, but still, Forzen persisted, wanting nothing more than to just do his schoolwork.
When recess was over, it was straight to the oval for physical education. Great, sports. Out in the open, competing against other students, Forzen thought. This is going to be hell.
The whole way there, it was almost like he was treading on eggshells. He was outside, nowhere to hide himself, and his bright purple scales gleamed brilliantly in the harsh sunlight shining down on them. He stood out.
Master Ploroth, a large fire dragon with a strong but lean build, was already on the oval waiting for them. "Hurry up, everyone! You know what I say: 'on time is late and early is on time', now get moving! All of you are already late!" he barked.
Forzen watched as the dragons he was following started to pick up their pace into an even jog, and so Forzen broke into a jog too, following behind them, not wanting to fall too far behind, and particularly not wanting to get in trouble with the teacher. He could tell already that Master Ploroth was not one that he was going to like.
Once everyone made their way towards Master Ploroth, stopping in front of him, the fire dragon immediately began the roll call. Forzen, from the back of the group, looked around and analysed his class. His heart sank when he saw Fjor'gand standing at the front directly in front of Master Ploroth.
Damn it, why does he have to be here? Forzen thought. Why is he in my class to begin with? He's fifteen! He's three years older than most of us. Did he get held back a few years or something?
"Forzen, are you deaf?" Master Plogoth's booming voice bellowed.
He blinked, shrinking into himself. "Uhh… no, sir," Forzen stammered.
"Answer your name when I call it out, dimwit. Are you here, Forzen?"
"Y-y-yes… Yes, I'm present."
"Good. You'll do well to pay attention in my class."
Ancestors, that's embarrassing, Forzen thought once Master Plogoth began to move onto the rest of the roll. Already in trouble and already called out in front of everyone.
Everyone's looking at me!
Forzen shrunk into himself even further as he looked around, seeing several pairs of eyes glancing back at him occasionally. On the other side of the group, he could see Fjor'gand giving him the meanest grin he could muster. Forzen knew he wasn't going to escape Fjor'gand's bullying for the rest of the day.
"Alright! Now, to start off the day, I want everyone to do ten laps of the oval! I expect to see everyone finished in under ten minutes," Master Plogoth said. "Alright, now go!"
To emphasise the 'go', Master Plogoth slammed his tail on the ground with a large thud, jolting everyone who wasn't paying attention into action. Every student broke into a jog, making their way to the track and starting to run around it.
Forzen knew he would be pretty good at this; he had pretty decent stamina due to the long training sessions that Spyro had forced him to do, which Jaarsol had never liked but she had been forced to teach him for that long anyway. Even the sessions with Muras had been long and grueling. But, Forzen didn't want to make himself look amazing or stand out. He just wanted to be normal, average, someone who didn't stand out. The problem was, that would place him in amongst the large majority of the rest of the students, and he didn't want to be among the largest group of students.
So, he purposefully fell back slightly, jogging slowly along the back of the back, knowing that he wouldn't get called out for being incredible at this, and he wouldn't be among eighty percent of the rest of the class.
This strategy didn't help him much either, as when he finished his ten laps, Master Ploroth was not impressed. "Fjor'gand, good job. Margrith, a bit sloppy on lap eight but you did good. Ulvar, you can do better. Forzen, that was awful," Master Ploroth said.
"Wait, what?" Forzen murmured.
"I've heard good things about your abilities from the principal and the guardians. I expected better from you. Be honest, were you holding back?"
"No! No, I wasn't!" Forzen exclaimed, not realising how overly defensive he was becoming.
"Don't lie to me, purple boy. I know when someone's holding back when I see it."
"I… yes, I was holding back."
"Well don't. I expect the best from everyone in this class, including you. And I don't want a purple worm like you lying all lesson to me about what you're capable of. Academics-wise you might be handicapped, but I know you have skill in the physical."
"Sorry, Master Ploroth."
"As punishment, ten more laps! Everyone!"
A chorus of groans and curses aimed at Forzen filled the air. "Twelve!" Master Ploroth snapped at the sound of the complaints. "Any more complaining or slacking and I'll add more! Now go!"
His tail slammed the ground again.
With an internal sigh, Forzen joined the rest of the group in the jog, picking up the pace to something that would be a bit more natural for him. He was in the front seven students of the group, right behind Fjor'gand. The earth dragon in front of him turned back and scowled, shaking his head.
"What's your deal, huh?" Fjor'gand spat. "Are you trying to wear us all down so you can attack us later? I know most of us have combat classes up next, so is that your goal? You going to try and kill us all in combat?"
"No, I would never," Forzen replied, trying to appear as calm as possible. "Hurting anyone is the last thing I want to do."
"I find that hard to believe, devil."
Forzen wasn't expecting the sudden earth missile that was sent his way. Adrenaline took over him and he bolted to the side, dodging the earth missile. However, another dragon was coming up beside him to overtake, and in the motion of dodging, Forzen had thrown himself into the poor ice dragon that was now being sent sprawling to the floor.
Meanwhile, Fjor'gand's earth missile made contact with the leg of the fire dragoness running a few metres behind Forzen, causing her to stumble and fall as her leg gave way underneath her. This sent her crashing backwards into the larger group of dragons running, causing the majority of them to fall over like dominoes.
Frustration welled up in Forzen's chest as he heard Fjor'gand's nasty laugh fade away as he bolted away from him, several of the other dragons running past them. He slowly got up, turning around to offer the ice dragon he had collided with a paw up. The ice dragon just slapped Forzen's paw away, before getting up himself and immediately continuing the run.
The purple dragon sighed sadly as he followed the ice dragon's example, breaking into a jog again and completing the last of the twelve laps.
"Forzen, what in the hell was that?" Master Ploroth grumbled when the run was over.
"What, when Fjor'gand attacked me and I was forced to dodge? I didn't intend to knock over another classmate, I promise."
"I don't care. I had planned to play some pawball today but I think a few more laps is required of everyone, am I right, Forzen?"
"Wait, why are you—?"
"The answer is 'yes', purple worm. Now, ten more laps. Go!"
As they started running, Fjor'gand passed him with a smug smirk and a low chuckle. He did that just to get me in trouble, knowing Master Ploroth would be on his side! Forzen thought. What a self-centred, deceitful, awful brat! And Master Ploroth is calling me evil for lying! I can tell this class is going to be an awful one.
Everyone spent the rest of the entire lesson running, as Master Ploroth had given them even more laps to run after their third set of laps, mainly because there wasn't any time to start a proper game of pawball. Forzen spent the whole lesson hearing everyone muttering curses under their breath towards Forzen for making them do nothing but run laps, particularly since it was all punishment. It felt almost like Master Ploroth was trying to make everyone hate him; Forzen hated to admit it, but it was working.
The walk to the next class was just as awful. Throughout the course of the lesson, the students had slowly started to gain the confidence to start pushing Forzen around, particularly after Fjor'gand had decided he would be the first to antagonise and attack Forzen. It wasn't too bad, just being heavy pushes and shoves as they walked past him, but Forzen had almost lost his balance several times, almost sending him slamming face-first into the pavement as they walked into the combat building where all of the arenas were.
Forzen was not looking forward to combat; Torialis had put Forzen into the intermediate combat class. Fighting was the last thing Forzen wanted to do in school, particularly at a more advanced level than normal. He was hoping he would get put into the lowest level of combat, considering he was new to the school, and that he wouldn't have to put in so much effort, but now the expectations were already put pretty high with him being put into the intermediate classes, by one of the guardians too. He swore he was the only one here to be partially enlisted by the guardians and have them personally pick what level of combat class he was to go to.
There were four levels of combat classes: beginner, novice, intermediate, and expert, the latter of which was saved for much older, more experienced dragons in their very late teens, usually sixteen to eighteen. Forzen was placed pretty high in the ranks, and he didn't like that. He didn't even think he was that great of a fighter, since he hadn't had much experience outside of training dummies and the few dark dragons he had fought upon his escape from Dark Peak. He didn't want to change that either, as he knew that combat classes probably would involve many duels.
The last thing he wanted to do was fight a fellow dragon. He was only hoping that they would be fighting against dummies.
Luckily, that was the case, as Master Almai, a large earth dragon who actually used to be a member of the military up until ten years ago, had put each of them in pairs and made them work together to fight against a bunch of dummies. Unfortunately, instead of being shaped like apes, the dummies were shaped like dragons. Forzen was glad however that they wore the colouring of shadowclaws, meaning he could truly class them as a proper opponent; it made sense that they were learning to fight against other dragons since they were their enemy, but it was also way too dangerous to fight against actual shadowclaws conjured up in the ring. Forzen didn't even know that it was possible to create these types of dummies in a dragon form until now.
Forzen had been paired up with an earth dragoness named Giaala, who didn't seem too impressed to be in a pair with him. Luckily for him, she had sucked it up and gone with it, not wanting to cause a scene or get in trouble with Master Almai. However, when it was their turn to come up and step in the ring, Giaala walked close to him and threatened him under her breath. "I'm only in a pair with you because Master Almai asked us to be in a team. But I want nothing to do with you, so don't expect me to come to your rescue if you get caught in a rough situation," she whispered, before adding with a smirk, "Not that you'll need it anyway, little purple devil."
"Alright, Forzen and Giaala, you have three minutes to beat as many shadowclaw dummies as you can and survive," Master Almai boomed, his voice thick and deep. "Giaala, remember your training. Forzen… I'm surprised Master Torialis put you here especially considering you've missed many of our lessons on how to fight these things. Good luck."
"I should be fine. I know these creatures well," he said with a small voice.
"Yeah, the little devil grew up with them!" Fjor'gand blurted out from the seating on the other side of the ring.
"Fjor'gand, that's enough out of you!" Master Almai snapped. "I'm well aware of where he comes from."
"So why are you letting him in the ring? What if he tries to kill Giaala in there?" another student, a lightning dragon, called out.
"ENOUGH!" Master Almai roared, slamming his paw down on the ground with a huge thud; Forzen swore he could feel the ground shake from the impact. "If all the guardians, as well as General Cynder, trust him enough to allow him to be at this school as my student, then I trust him. Now, my job is to sit here and teach, coach, and grow you. Your job is to listen and follow my instructions. I don't want to be the harsh ex-military teacher but I will pass out punishment after punishment if any one of you insult one of my students and get in the way of me trying to teach him, do you understand that?"
"Yes, Master Almai," a chorus of nervous voices echoed around the room.
"That goes for you too, Forzen. I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but if you dare try to be sneaky and try to harm anyone behind my back—"
"I would never, Master Almai," Forzen interrupted. "I will never harm another dragon. I've seen enough harm come to innocent dragons and I refuse to add to that."
"But aren't these dummies dragons? Aren't the shadowclaws and venomfangs and all them dragons as well?" the lightning dragon from before asked.
"Fine, any dragon that isn't affiliated with Spyro will not see harm come from me. Spyro and his Dark Army are the real enemies here," Forzen clarified. "Now can we please start the fight? I don't want to delay it any more than we have to; I just want to get in, do the match, and then get out."
"Sounds good," Master Almai replied. "Now, enter the ring you two."
Forzen and Giaala exchanged a brief look at each other. Forzen noticed Giaala wore both hatred and concern, both towards him, on her face. He tried to appear neutral, but he knew his face was betraying his own fear. He was scared to fight. With a huff, Giaala turned and stomped into the ring, Forzen slowly following her. They both came to a stop on one side of the ring, staring into the middle of it where the dummies would soon emerge from. Giaala looked beside her at Forzen and gave another huff, before quickly speed-walking over to the other side of the ring to physically get away from him.
The purple dragon just shook his head with a sad sigh. He didn't want to do this any more than Giaala did; he'd be much more comfortable if he was on his own, but that wasn't the case. He just didn't want to get in trouble with any teacher, let alone Master Almai, so he did what he had asked without question, even though he dreaded it in the back of his head.
At the very least, he could be thankful that Master Almai was on his side.
"Begin!" Master Almai boomed.
The moment the first three shadowclaw dummies manifested, they immediately leapt into action, all three of them lunging towards Forzen. He could faintly see two more appear and start attacking Giaala, but he was too focused on trying to protect himself that he had to briefly ignore his fighting partner.
Strong gales tore from his maw as he sent two of the shadowclaw dummies slamming into the near-invisible barrier that had now been erected around the ring. The third dummy knocked Forzen to the ground, pinning him down. With a loud roar, the dummy raised its wooden claws to rake them across Forzen's chest, but the purple dragon was quick to let out a burst of lightning from his body, throwing the dummy off him as it writhed with heavy spasms. Forzen was quick to get up and sweep his tail around, knocking the first shadowclaw dummy down as it lunged towards him.
The second dummy was also rushing towards Forzen, but he whirled around and sent his tailblade straight through the straw that made the dummy's chest area, feeling something shatter inside it.
Just as I thought, the essence crystals are in these dummies as well, Forzen thought. I wonder if the overloading trick will work on these dummies too.
Forzen pulled his tailblade free from the straw chest of the second dummy, causing it to slump to the ground dead, before whirling it around and slicing it across the face of the first one, which had now recovered. It cried out in pain, before Forzen jumped on top of it and bit down into its neck, letting lightning build up in his mouth before releasing it into the dummy's form. It writhed violently for a few seconds, before its chest ruptured as the essence crystal burst and the lightning burst out of it, igniting the straw.
The purple dragon then dove to the side as the last remaining dummy lunged at him. It landed on all fours, before whirling around and lunging at Forzen again. A deafening sound-enhanced howl tore from his throat, knocking the dummy down to the ground as it clutched its ears.
In his peripheral vision, Forzen could see Giaala struggling against the two dummies that had attacked her at the start of the fight. He noticed them overpowering her, knocking her to the ground and starting to beat her face in.
Forzen bent down and picked up his opponent in his jaws by the neck, before lifting it up and hurling it towards Giaala's attackers, knocking them off her. He then leapt at his last opponent and ripped its head off with ease—the dummies being made of straw made it easier for him to do that.
"Are you alright, Giaala?" Forzen asked.
"I can fend for myself!" Giaala snapped back.
"You're my partner in this fight; we're supposed to look out for each other and help each other," Forzen replied as one of the dummies attacking Giaala launched itself at him, to which he used a bolt of lightning to send it flying back into the barrier wall. "Now I've never fought alongside anyone before but if I know this concept, you should be very familiar with it."
"Can it, purple dragon. I'm perfectly fine."
Giaala released a rapidfire shower of earth missiles at the other dummy that was now back on all fours. It staggered backwards as the earth missiles pierced its body, but it was mostly unfazed and leapt right back into action once Giaala's attack ended. She summoned an earth pillar that shot up right in front of the dummy, sending it crashing into the thick rock and sliding to the ground, slightly concussed.
Meanwhile, the second dummy had stood up, now joined by two more dummies that had been summoned in, and all three of them attacked the pair of dragons. Forzen and Giaala both dodged the first two dummies that leapt at them, but the third one targeted Giaala. She hadn't fully recovered from the first dodge, and was too slow to dodge the second attack, and so the dummy sent her sprawling to the ground.
Forzen rushed forward and clamped his jaws around the dummy's tail before yanking it backwards, pulling the dummy off Giaala. He then thrust his claws through the soft straw and felt the crystal suspended inside the dummy's body, crushing it.
Before he could realise what was going on, he felt dull wooden claws scraping down his back and a long straw tail sweep his feet out from underneath him, and he collapsed on the ground. Lying flat on his stomach, he tried to get up, but one of the dummies thrust his head into the ground, holding it firmly in place. He could feel a second dummy holding his tail and back limbs down, before the third one started beating at his back. Being dummies made of straw and wood, they were much less dangerous than a real dragon with teeth and claws, and less durable than a scale-clad dragon, but they still packed quite a heavy punch.
Forzen felt the dummy holding his head lift it into the air, before thrusting his face down into the ground again. As his head was raised, he briefly saw Giaala standing a few metres away, unoccupied by any opponents, just watching him.
"Help me please," Forzen croaked, before his head was slammed into the ground again, the other dummy still going to town on his back; it was definitely badly bruised by now.
He was expecting some weight to be pulled off him due to an attack from Giaala, but nothing happened. His head was lifted up again; she was still standing there. Back into the ground his face went. For a fourth time, his head was lifted up, but Forzen was quick to move this time, knowing he had to be the one to help himself.
Forzen let lightning build up inside himself, before letting it out in a massive explosion, sending all three dummies flying into the air. He staggered to his paws, dazed and in pain from his looming concussion and his back. He gave a brief look at Giaala, her face defiant and firm, and Forzen knew that he was never going to receive her help.
He shook his head, before turning to look at the three dummies lying on the ground. He was prepared to lunge at them, before they suddenly disappeared.
"Three minutes is up!"
Master Almai's booming voice signalled the end of the match, and Forzen took this chance to sit down and calm his breathing and adrenaline. A few moments later, Forzen noticed three red gems get dropped in front of him. He looked up and saw Master Almai standing there, having given him the gems, but the large earth dragon was looking past him at Giaala, a disapproving look on his face.
"What happened, Giaala?" Master Almai demanded.
"What do you mean? They were too hard to fight," Giaala murmured.
"I know that. The whole point of this exercise is to practice fighting with a partner, you know that. We've been working towards this all term. I purposefully made these harder to fight on your own, because you're supposed to work together as a team. Combat isn't all about how you perform on your own, Giaala."
"Forzen seemed to be fine on his own. I didn't think I needed to do anything at the end. He had them all and was taking care of them."
"Yeah, and ended up with a concussion and a badly bruised back because of it, something that in the field can seriously handicap you, and you won't have red gems easily at your disposal or the ability to magically make the enemies disappear when it gets too hard. Forzen's greatly skilled, I think everyone can see that, but even he was outnumbered. He had the right idea this whole match when he helped you out. Why couldn't you return that?"
"I didn't ask for his help."
"What's this about, huh? The fact that he's a purple dragon? You heard what I said earlier. He is a fellow student of my class, and you are to treat him with respect. He is fighting on your side so I expect you to be looking out for him the same way he looked out for you. In a real fight, if he hadn't come to help you when you were knocked down, you probably would've been killed. There's a good chance Forzen would have been killed too if those were three real shadowclaws. Those dummies are but a fraction of a shadowclaw's real power, and this isn't even getting to venomfangs or fearbringers, mind you."
"Why are you training us like this anyway? This isn't the military."
"If this was, I would be much stricter on you right now. General Cynder does not exert this much grace when someone puts their fellow soldier in jeopardy."
Forzen flinched at the mention of Cynder's name, but stayed quiet as Master Almai continued to scold Giaala.
"This is intermediate combat, the level where we start to get serious. It never used to be this serious, but living in a time of such long-lasting war, we have to be serious about this. I'm not looking to make soldiers out of you; I'd probably be starting to look for those qualities in the expert class. But I do expect that you are able to hold your own and protect those that cannot protect themselves… so you can protect yourself. I don't expect you in the front lines, but to be able to protect yourself and others when things get rough in the middle of a siege and you can't run from a fight. Your stubbornness to protect your partner could have gotten him killed."
"But he's a—!"
"Right now, I don't care who or what he is! Just now, he was your partner, fighting alongside you, not against you! He stuck his neck out for you to protect you! I expect that to be mutual! When it comes to life and death, I expect all petty grievances to be pushed aside, because in moments like that, they don't matter. Right now, Forzen is on our side and he has given us no reason to resent him. If General Cynder and the guardians are willing to give him a chance, then so should we."
Master Almai looked up and addressed the whole class. "Do you all understand that?" he growled.
Silence.
"I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?!" Master Almai thundered with a heavy slam of his paw.
"Yes, Master Almai," the class echoed in a nervous chorus.
"Thank you. I don't care what happens outside of this class or even outside of the school grounds. But in my class, you will treat Forzen with respect, as I have just seen him go out of his way to protect someone he doesn't even know, and someone who hated him. I get the feeling he would do the same for everyone else. Treat him with respect, and look out for him in team exercises like this. And I pray to the ancestors if there's a time you find yourself in a real battle, fighting alongside Forzen, you do your damned best to put aside all your grievances and look out for him."
An uncomfortable silence washed over the class. The large, intimidating earth dragon looked around the class, making sure to catch the eyes of each of his students, before he turned back to Forzen and Giaala.
"You two, back to your seats," he said quietly, his voice deep but smooth as he spoke gently. "And Forzen, good job."
"Thank you, Master Almai," Forzen whispered as he stood and made his way back to the seats, limping slightly.
"Alright, Hargould and Thrazo, you two are up next. Same test, same dummies. Up you get, let's go."
Forzen made his way into the back corner of the room, sitting on the top row of seats and leaning against the wall as he watched the rest of the students come out into the ring and fight. He watched as they fought in tandem with their partners, looking out for each other the same way he had done for Giaala. He had looked out for her in his peripheral vision, noticed how many dummies had gone to attack her, and had tried to look out for his partner. It had hurt him when he realised near the end of the fight that she didn't reciprocate the action, and never would.
He was thankful for Master Almai, speaking up for him like that, but at the same time, he wished he didn't. It was embarrassing. Not only that, he knew everyone else would hate him for it. That was a very harsh scolding.
They had lunch next, a time of the day largely unsupervised by the teachers as they too had their own lunch break. He noticed there were maybe two or three teachers out in the food hall during recess, and knew it would probably be the same for lunch. If he got attacked, there was a good chance that the teachers wouldn't see. And if they did, there was a good chance that they wouldn't care. He had gotten lucky with Master Almai and Tegliath so far. He was unsure what Mistress Yorrine thought of him, and Master Ploroth definitely hated him; the way he picked on him and gave out punishments to the entire class to put an even bigger target on his back was clear as day.
Forzen was terrified to go to lunch.
Once the class was over, he followed the class at the back of the pack out towards the food hall. Much like in recess, he didn't go over to the food table to get food. He just found a spot in the corner of the hall and sat by himself. His stomach rumbled in protest, but he knew he could last until dinner tonight. He'd been without food before.
"Hey."
Forzen knew that voice; it was Fjor'gand. Holding in his sigh, he continued to look straight ahead, refusing to look beside him towards the fire dragon.
There was a sharp poke in his shoulder.
"Little devil, look at me."
I will not give him the satisfaction he's looking for, Forzen thought.
"Are you there, moras'tov?"
"Just go away, I'm not in the mood for this," Forzen groaned.
"What are you in the mood for, moras'tov? Murder?" another voice piped up.
This finally got Forzen to look to his side, and felt his heart sink as he saw Fjor'gand with his whole gang standing in front of him. This better not be a frequent thing, Forzen thought.
"Absolutely not," Forzen said, trying to keep his cool as to not agitate the gang. "That would be the last thing I would ever want to do. I don't even like fighting."
"You fought way too well in there for someone who hates fighting," Fjor'gand said. "You're hiding something from us."
"I was raised in Dark Peak. I was forced to train and learn how to fight. It doesn't mean I like doing it. The only thing I want to use my combat skills on are the very dragons that imprisoned me. The only dragon I want to use my combat skills even more than the Dark Army is that devil of a purple dragon that tarnished the legacy of all us future purple dragons. You're calling the wrong purple dragon 'devil', I can assure you that, Fjor'gand."
The earth dragon reached out and clawed Forzen's face. The purple dragon just took it, feeling pain flare throughout his face as blood began to drip down his snout. "You don't have the right to speak my name, moras'tov!" the earth dragon scowled. "Not after what you pulled during physical education and intermediate combat. Are you here to sabotage our classes and get us all into trouble?"
"What are you talking about? It's obvious Master Ploroth was picking on me, and I did the right thing in combat today!"
Fjor'gand clawed Forzen across the face again. "You dare talk back to me?" he spat, his dark green eyes burning with rage. "You're lowly scum that doesn't deserve to be here! You don't deserve to be amongst us, learning everything we're learning, eating the same food we're eating, talking to all of us like we're equals! We are not equals! You're a monster! A devil! You deserve to die! You deserve to go back to Dark Peak! You deserve to go down to hell!"
"You're calling me the monster? You're the one who's attacking me!" Forzen murmured, shrinking in on himself.
He knew what was coming next.
"If you won't take yourself back to hell, we'll kill you and send you there ourselves!"
Before Forzen could try and dodge, Fjor'gand reached out and grabbed the back of Forzen's head, slamming his face into the table at such incredible speed and strong force that it left an imprint of his head into the table. After about seven or eight impacts against the table, Forzen felt jaws against his nape, as one of Fjor'gand's gang members bit down and pulled him off his seat, throwing him against the wall.
He barely had time to slide down to the ground as Fjor'gand and another gang member, another earth dragon, leapt forward and grabbed a firm hold of him, pinning him against the wall off the ground; only his tail touched the ground as it lay limply underneath him.
Pain seared through his shoulders as he felt earth missiles piercing through them, going in one side and out the other, sticking him to the wall. Both earth dragons continued to fire earth missiles at him, piercing through his paws, his wings, and the base of his tail. They then stood back, looking up at him with dark grins of satisfaction.
Forzen felt his blood soaking his scales, hearing it dripping down on the floor. His nose burned with pain as blood streamed down it and into his mouth, which was flooded with an overwhelming metallic taste. He opened one eye slightly, the other one unable to open, as both were so incredibly swollen and bruised from the impacts against the table.
As he looked around, he saw every student staring at the scene, each and everyone cheering and shouting for more blood to be spilled.
"Now, burn," Fjor'gand growled.
The fire dragon in his posse opened his mouth, the back of his throat glowing an ominous orange as fire built up in his maw. Forzen closed his eyes, waiting for the horrible burning sensation of fire to overtake him.
But it never came.
"WHAT IN THE ANCESTORS' GREAT NAMES IS GOING ON?!"
Three teachers and two of the kitchen staff had run up to the scene unfolding in the corner of the food hall, grabbing each of Forzen's attackers and pulling them back; Forzen had no idea who any of the teachers were.
There was more angry shouting from the teachers, but Forzen couldn't make out the words as his concussion claimed victory over him, sending him into the realm of unconsciousness.
"Oh, thank Aloelle, he's waking up!"
Forzen opened his eyes to a blurry purple figure in front of him. "Muras?" Forzen croaked. "What happened?"
Forzen tried to sit up, but collapsed back to a lying position in the bed he was in as his head spun. "Forzen, slow down. Lie down," Muras pleaded.
"You suffered a very heavy concussion," a soft, feminine voice sounded from behind Muras, and when Forzen's vision cleared, he saw a nurse standing behind Muras, a relieved look on her face. "Those students did quite a number on you."
"Yeah, no kidding," Forzen coughed. "I expected it."
"You can protect yourself, you know?" Muras said, breathing slowly to try and calm himself down. "There's no need for this level of violence in school. This… this is beyond bullying."
"I refuse to fight any dragon, even if they attack me first. I will not stoop so low to harming another dragon on purpose. I will not become the dragon that Spyro is."
"Forzen, there's a level where self-defense is important!"
"I. Will not. Fight another dragon."
Muras stared at Forzen with disbelief, swallowing and shaking his head in worry. Forzen knew the older purple dragon had nothing more to say, and there was nothing he could do to convince him to implement self-defense. Even the nurse standing behind Muras looked pretty surprised.
"Look, I know I will have to do duels in combat class, I get that. And I'll do it, for the class. But in moments like this? No way. I will not lay a claw on any dragon, regardless of how far they go, regardless of how much they hurt me and pull me apart. I've seen way too many dragons get pulled apart in Dark Peak. I will not contribute to that."
A brief silence overtook the room, before the nurse broke it with a sigh. "You're lucky it was mainly pierce wounds from earth missiles. They can be healed with red gems, and while the cuts on your face are deep, they can also be healed, although there is a very small chance they might scar," she explained to him. "The concussion and bruising will last for a while. I want you to take the rest of the day, and tomorrow off school to recover. Come back on Marouday. Nurse's orders. I'll let the principal and your teachers know of your current state, as well as the incident that happened in the food hall."
There was a sharp knock on the door to the school's nursing room. The nurse turned and looked out the window, before nodding. The door opened, and Master Almai walked in. "Master Almai? What are you doing here?" Forzen croaked.
"I heard about what happened, and I am appalled to hear about it especially after the scolding I gave everyone in class," the large earth dragon said. "I wanted to come in and make sure you're okay."
"With all due respect, I think the scolding was part of the reason why Fjor'gand and his gang attacked me."
There was an uncomfortable silence as Master Almai thought about that being a possibility.
"I take it you're one of Forzen's teachers?" Muras questioned.
"Yes. Master Almai," the earth dragon said, turning to Muras and reaching out a paw, to which the older purple dragon took it and shook it firmly. "I'm his teacher for intermediate combat. You must be Muras, his primary caretaker?"
"I…" Muras started, before looking over at Forzen cautiously, noticing the way the younger purple dragon flinched at the word 'caretaker'.
"Y-yes. He is," Forzen eventually murmured, causing Muras' eyes to widen in surprise.
"Well, I just want to apologise on behalf of the entire school for what happened today. To both of you," Master Almai said softly. "What happened just now wasn't right, and what happened in class today was unfair as well."
"Enough with the pity party. You don't really care for me; you can tell me what you really think of me," Forzen snapped, looking up and seeing Master Almai almost recoil with shock at what he was saying. "I can take it. I've been hated and beaten all my life. What's one more dragon that hates me in the long run?"
"Forzen… I'm not just saying it."
"What you said in class was just to keep everyone in line and to make sure they abided by your rules, right? You said you didn't care what happened outside of the classroom. So why the hell are you here?"
"I didn't realise it would be this bad. Forzen, this isn't petty grievances. It's not even bullying. It's full on assault," Master Almai said carefully, before turning to Muras. "I hope this is all coming as a shock to you too, Muras."
"I'll admit, I was originally blind to the possibility of what might happen, but Forzen and I had a talk this morning that showed me just how bad the hatred could really get. I just… I didn't expect it to be this intense so soon," Muras murmured. "I was hoping I would get the chance to prepare myself to seeing Forzen end up like this, not to see it happen on day one."
"I just… why didn't you defend yourself, Forzen? You had every right to," Master Almai questioned.
"You heard what I said in class today. I will never harm another dragon. When you've seen all that I've seen, I'm sure you would refuse to hurt anyone purposefully too, even if it was just a few scratches."
"Forzen, I don't know what horrors you've seen in Dark Peak, but just know I've seen some horrible stuff too. I was in the army up until ten years ago. I was one of the many corrupted by Naar'voth in Armageddon. I have experienced some awful things… I did some awful things under Naar'voth's possession. So… I kind of understand you, at least a little bit.
"That's why I left the army. It was getting too much for me, and I knew I would be of much better use being able to teach the next generation to fight for themselves and protect themselves in a time like now. I saw too many young dragons pass in my time in the army, both during the Dark War and in this current one. If I can pass on all my knowledge to help make sure the next generation can protect themselves, then I believe I'll be making the best use out of my skills than I ever could in the army.
"But… not using self-defense? That's crazy to me. You could have died there if the other teachers hadn't stepped in. It's not worth getting yourself mutilated trying to stand by that moral."
"And if I fight back, then what?" Forzen challenged. "They'll just see me as the enemy. They'll see me as the devil they want me to be, because now I'm fighting back. That's when they'll come together and fight as a unit. Because now they're fighting against me, rather than alongside me. They want me dead, the lot of them. So no, I will not fight back. I will not give them the devil they want me to be. Because I am not that. I am not the Dark Overlord, or the Dark Master, or the Dark anything. I am just a purple dragon, trying to survive. To be able to live here, the guardians said I must learn and be in the school. That's the only reason why I'm here."
Master Almai just stared at Forzen, before slowly nodding his head. "I understand," he said softly. "Not fully, of course, but… I can see where you're coming from. Not being a purple dragon myself, I don't truly understand the hate and hardships that you have to go through. I've known Muras to be trustworthy for the last few years from General Cynder. There's every reason for me to believe you are the same, particularly if you have Muras, the guardians, and General Cynder on your side."
She's hardly on my side, but believe what you will, Forzen thought, trying to hold back his scoff.
"I just… didn't think the hate would truly be this bad," Master Almai said.
"Think about it for a second. This is something I don't like to talk about, but… I'm Spyro's son," Forzen explained.
"I know."
"Think about it. I'm Spyro's son."
"They think you're like him," Master Almai murmured after a few seconds, his face going pale as it all clicked.
"That's why the hate is so violent. That's why I'm doing everything in my power not to provoke anyone, to do the right thing, to not fight back if I'm getting attacked, and to look out for my fellow classmates if they're in trouble despite the fact that they despise me. I'm trying to be everything my devil of a father is not."
Master Almai nodded slowly, letting out a sad sigh, before looking at the clock on the wall; the mechanical contraption was a recent invention made by the moles over the last five years, making the ability to tell time much easier. "Alright, I need to go to my next class. I… I wish you a good recovery, and I'll see you back in class on Marouday," Master Almai said. "And just know, I'm on your side, okay Forzen? I've got your back, even if I'm the only teacher who truly thinks that, who truly sees you for who you are, who really wants to see you flourish."
"I want to believe that, I really do, but—"
"It's true, whether you want to believe it or not. I'll do my best to see if I can get the assault to stop; there's no way I want that continuing in this school. No student deserves to feel unsafe. Even someone like you," Master Almai said, before turning to Muras. "If there's some time you and I can catch up later, I would like to speak with you. I have to go teach now, but let me know what times suit you and I can try and make time for it."
"Alright, thanks Master Almai," Muras said.
The large earth dragon just nodded, before he turned and left the nursing room. Muras turned back to Forzen, a sad look on his face. "Are you alright to stand and walk back home, or do you want me to carry you?" Muras asked. "I know it'll be much comfier resting at home than in the school nursing room."
"I… I think I can stand," Forzen muttered, rolling over and doing his best to get off the bed. He set his paws down on the ground, managing to stand with shaky paws for a few seconds, before his legs gave way underneath him and he collapsed to the ground. Muras was quick to shove his large paw underneath Forzen to catch him.
"Nope, I'm carrying you," Muras said firmly, before bending down and picking up Forzen gently by the nape, being careful not to agitate the half-healed bite wounds on it.
The older purple dragon placed his mentee gently on his back, before he turned and also made his way out of the nursing room, beginning the walk home.
Hopefully Marouday goes better than today, Forzen thought. I don't think I could stand every day being like today, particularly the assault part.
This chapter also ended up being waaaay longer than I intended hahaha, some of those later scenes really just wrote themselves. Getting into the flow of the chapter was a bit rough (school scenes are tricky) but by the time I got halfway into the chapter I was really able to just go lol (I ended up writing the last 6000 words in one writing session yesterday, which that doesn't happen often)
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Dragon of Mystery: Yeah, Cynder's essence core hasn't really been brought up at all yet in Outcast, but in Demonised it was mentioned that her essence core was brought to the point where it had almost died; it was able to heal but it was so damaged that there is some permanent damage that's still there, meaning that if she's not keeping her elemental usage at a reasonable level, it will start to hurt and wear down on her essence core too much. She very rarely uses convexity, and so using it so much in the span of a short time frame affected her essence core quite a bit.
FoxyWithTheMoxy:Thanks for the review! Glad you've been liking this so far! In time, those answers will be revealed; they all have answers hehe.
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Hope you enjoyed this chapter! It was good to get back to writing stuff with Forzen. Let me know what you guys think, and I'll see you with another chapter soon!