It was Xurday: Forzen's third day at school. Luckily, there had been no more massive violent outbursts towards him since returning to school yesterday; the young purple dragon was unsure whether Fjor'gand had gotten in trouble for it or not, or if the teachers had told all the students at school not to start any fights with him, particularly considering how intensely violent the one on Glaenday had been.
Classes weren't too particularly awful either. Physical education still sucked, and the literature lesson yesterday had once again been a free reading session. Maths was still hard, and while Forzen hadn't had a time to meet up with Master Tegliath to get some extra help, he was finding a few concepts were a bit easier to grasp after yesterday and today's lesson with him—the extra tutoring he had from Muras on his day off on Vielday helped too.
He'd had some new classes too, going into science, magic theory, and history. He wasn't a huge fan of science and found it boring, and his teacher, an electric dragoness named Mistress Veela, didn't particularly like him much either, also it was a lot more subtle than Master Ploroth.
Magic theory was… somewhat interesting, but Master Avorin seemed quite nervous about teaching much of this information with Forzen present; Master Avorin seemed more scared of Forzen than anything, which he supposed was a nice change from the hatred from some of the other teachers in the school—Master Ploroth and Mistress Veela weren't the only ones to dislike him; in fact, he received quite a lot of hate from teachers that weren't even teaching him as well, from just walking past them between classes or in the food hall.
Master Krygour, the history teacher, also seemed to have a heavy dislike for him, but it was mainly just dirty looks that Forzen received from him. He didn't know what was going to come next, but he hoped that Master Krygour would keep everything to himself.
Really, the only teachers he'd met so far that seemed to not mind him were Master Tegliath and Master Almai. He was still unsure about Mistress Yorrine, but he wasn't willing to walk up to her and talk to her. Master Almai particularly didn't seem to have an issue with him, to the point where he visited him in the nursing room. Forzen didn't know if that was normal or not, but it was very weird. The way he talked to him and tried to look out for him was very strange too. Why did Master Almai care so much about him?
He sighed, taking another bite of the apple pie that was on his lunch tray; he had finally decided to go up to the food counter and get some food, mainly after Muras pushed him to do so after coming home hungry yesterday. The dragon serving him his food was actually really nice, and Forzen realised it was actually one of the ones who had come to his aid on Glaenday when he was assaulted.
However, his sitting situation remained unchanged, as he sat alone at his own table, trying to stay as far from everyone else as possible. He sat at the same table he had been assaulted at, as there were no other tables that had no one sitting at it, and the school hadn't bothered to remove it or try and fix the table. He sat on the other edge of the table, not wanting to sit directly at the large imprint of his face into the table, which was still slightly stained with blood. It was an awful look, and Forzen felt like it was almost a statement from the school, but he tried his best not to think about it or even look at the malformed table edge.
Recess and lunch were usually pretty slow and lonely, but at least he had some food to focus on this time to help him pass the break quickly, so he couldn't be too upset about that. He had combat again after lunch, his first lesson with Master Almai since Glaenday, as he missed Vielday's lesson and didn't have one yesterday. He had no idea what to expect from the class, but was almost looking forward to it. It was good to have a teacher who had no negative bias towards him and wanted to see him do well. It felt unusual for Forzen, even though he knew that was probably the norm and that most students would have most teachers treating them this way, but when Forzen only had two teachers that treated him somewhat kindly, he knew he could at least be thankful for that.
After combat was history, and Forzen was very much not looking forward to it. Master Krygour had said that they were beginning a new unit today, which was about some of the past major wars that Warfang had experienced. Considering the current state of the world, as well as his current social standing, Forzen dreaded the conversations that would start up in the class.
Slowly, he finished his apple pie, before pushing the lunch tray away from him and leaning forward with a sigh. He looked up at the front of the lunch hall where a clock hung above the food counter—Muras had tried to teach Forzen on Vielday how to read a clock as well, but since it was quite hard for Forzen to wrap his head around, Muras just made Forzen memorise where the hands pointed at the important times of the day, like the start of each class, the lunch breaks, and the end of school. There were still quite a few minutes left of lunch break.
Time to sit here for like five or ten minutes, bored out of my mind, Forzen thought. I should have brought my book for literature to read, but I don't know if I'm allowed to read ahead.
He slumped forward on the table with a sigh, letting out a yawn as he sat there waiting for time to pass and the bell to ring so he could get up and get to class. It didn't take long before a loud clattering sound reached his ears, and he got up and looked around to try and see where the sound had come from; a few other dragons turned towards the sound too, but quickly went back to eating and hanging out with their friends.
Forzen had to suppress his groan when he saw Fjor'gand and his gang in the middle of the room, laughing loudly and making fun of the dragon sitting at the table they were standing at; Forzen couldn't see who they were picking on as they all stood tall in front of the table, blocking his vision to see who was there. The purple dragon watched as Fjor'gand kicked something along the ground, causing another loud clattering noise. It was likely a lunch tray that he had grabbed from the person at the table and thrown onto the ground.
He could faintly hear some frustrated protests from Fjor'gand's victim, but he couldn't make out the words, particularly since Fjor'gand and his friends were laughing too loudly, not to mention the noise of every other conversation in the room drowned out the noise, making it hard to focus on one particular area. Forzen wished he had the ability to do that, but he wasn't as in tune with his sound element as he needed to be to figure out how to do that.
A thought suddenly crossed his mind, and Forzen cursed himself at the thought of it.
I should stop it and help whoever they're making fun of.
No. No, you should not, Forzen. You know what they did to you on Glaenday; what if they attack you again for walking up to them and trying to stop their fun?
It's the right thing to do. It's not right for anyone to be made fun of and have their food thrown to the ground.
They'll just start bullying you, you dimwit. What will you do then? No one will come to aid you. You got lucky with those teachers and kitchen staff. You might not be so lucky today if they attack you and try and kill you.
They won't.
How do you know that? You don't know if they got in trouble for what they did.
Whoever this dragon is… they have a common enemy with me. It's like what Master Almai said; we need to look out for each other.
Are you crazy?! You don't even know said dragon! You can't even see them! Besides, this isn't combat class, nor is this even a fight you should be in! And what are you talking about, 'enemy'? What happened to not wanting to harm another dragon.
Fjor'gand and his gang harming us kind of makes them enemies… in a much less important sense, but still. And besides, I never said I was going to attack them. I just want to get them to stop bullying this other dragon.
Alright, you do you. But you're to blame if they, or anyone else, decides to hurt you, got it?
Forzen ignored his inner voice, trying to shut it out. This was probably a very, very stupid idea, but he knew it was the right thing to do. He would want someone to stand up for him; he knew if he wanted that, he had to reciprocate, even if he was the first one to stand up for someone.
Slowly and cautiously, Forzen stood up out of his seat, walking through the room to Fjor'gand and his gang. He could hear a few murmurs amongst some of the other students watching him walk towards his target.
"Oh ancestors, is he going to enact his revenge to what happened on Glaenday?"
"He's going to kill them."
"Ancestors, we'd better get out of here before it becomes a bloodbath."
"Surely attacking them would get that monster kicked out."
"This is scary."
Am I really that scary? I am the one who's scared, can't they see that? Or are they too blind to the fact that a purple dragon is walking down the hall towards the very dragons that assaulted him and thinking that it'll end in me trying to kill them?
I'm going to regret this, aren't I?
"Hey, Fjor'gand."
The earth dragon whirled around with shock, a mix of fear, surprise and confusion in his eyes. "What in the…?! What are you doing here, moras'tov? Can't you see this is none of your business?" Fjor'gand snarled.
"I'm just looking out for a fellow victim of your bullying and rudeness," Forzen said, trying to be as calm as he could be. "Please just leave this dragon alone."
Now that he was up a bit closer to the table, Forzen looked through the bodies of Fjor'gand's gang to see who was sitting at the table, and he had to try not to show the dread that hit his heart. Sitting in front of him, with sauce and chunks of meat dripping down his face, was a lean brown dragon, marking him as a null. The null dragon was sixteen years old, four years older than him.
There was no doubt about who this dragon was.
This was Du'ryal.
Okay this was an awful decision, I should have stayed at my spot, Forzen thought, his heart racing, but he tried his very hardest not to show his fear.
"You don't get to order me around, moras'tov. Just because you're special and purple does not mean you're at the top of the food chain, got it?" Fjor'gand scowled, getting into Forzen's face.
The purple dragon stepped back slightly, trying to get away from the savage glare that Fjor'gand was sending his way. He swallowed, trying to calm his breathing. "I'm not saying I am, Fjor'gand. I'm just trying to do the right thing. Bullying isn't right. It doesn't make you look strong or special. You might be at the top of the food chain, but just know that you'll have further to fall once you really start to get yourself into trouble doing this," Forzen said.
"You don't know me!" Fjor'gand roared, spittle flying from his mouth into Forzen's face. "Don't you dare talk about me like you know who I am! You dare spit out these threats to my face and think you're all high and mighty for it!"
"I can promise you, that's not what I'm doing, Fjor'gand."
"Did you not learn your lesson from Glaenday, moras'tov? You are not fit to speak my name, so wash it out of your cursed mouth, or I'll do it for you. I'll rip your tongue out and wash your mouth out with your own blood."
"You know you'll just get in trouble for it."
"We didn't get in trouble for what happened on Glaenday," the fire dragon in Fjor'gand's posse piped up. "What makes you think we'll get in trouble for giving you what the devil deserves?"
"I'm sure no one would complain if you couldn't speak. No one likes a smart mouth like you," said the other earth dragon.
"Wait, what do you mean you didn't get in trouble for Glaenday?" Forzen murmured.
"Exactly what we said! No one gave a damn what happened," Fjor'gand replied with a dark smile, before he punched Forzen in the face.
Several cries of surprise filled the air as Forzen was sent crashing backwards into the table behind him, causing many students to get up from their spots and scurry away to a safe distance, not knowing what would happen next. The fight was now amongst everyone, not in the corner of the food hall where everyone could safely spectate.
Everyone was terrified of how Forzen would retaliate. But he would not give them an answer. He would not retaliate.
Forzen just stood up, before Fjor'gand immediately threw him back down to the ground by shoving him against the tables again. He felt his wing joint pop as it landed hard against one of the metal lunch trays, dislocating it. Before Forzen could recover, his face was punched yet again, before Fjor'gand spat a somewhat large boulder at his chest, winding him quite severely and making it hard to breathe as it shattered in a cloud of dust and rubble.
"That'll show you to mess with me and get in my way," Fjor'gand scowled. "Come on, guys, we're done here."
He turned and left, leading his gang with him. He turned to spit on Du'ryal as they walked past him. Du'ryal just groaned in disgust, wiping his face with a cloth. An ice dragon sitting next to Du'ryal reached out with a metal prosthetic arm and helped him clean the food off him.
"Thanks, Frozard. Ancestors, I hate those guys," Du'ryal murmured under his breath.
With a groan, Forzen picked himself up off the table, wiping his snout free from the blood that was slowly dripping from his nose. He made his way over to Du'ryal and Frozard, his voice shaking slightly with the fear of talking to Du'ryal.
"Are… Are you two okay?" Forzen asked.
"Yeah, no thanks to you," Du'ryal murmured. "Now get out of here, you purple monster."
"What?"
"Go. Leave us alone. Find someone else to antagonise."
"Antagonise? But I wasn't—"
An ice shard tore from Frozard's maw, embedding itself into Forzen's shoulder. He staggered back with a cry of pain, before pulling the ice shard out of his shoulder with a small cry of pain.
"Frozard, I'm perfectly fine to stand up for myself," Du'ryal said softly to his friend, but the ice dragon didn't pay attention to him.
"Get out of here, devil," Frozard scowled at Forzen.
The purple dragon blinked, before nodding slowly. "I'm… I'm sorry. I just wanted to help," Forzen said softly, before turning and walking back to his corner of the food hall.
"We never asked for it!" Du'ryal called out behind Forzen.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, Forzen thought, cursing himself at his stupidity. You just had to go and make things worse. You can't even do good properly without upsetting others. Are you really capable of doing good? Maybe you truly are destined to be evil. It's the path Malefor and Spyro have both set for you. It would just be easier to follow it.
He slammed his paws on his table, before lowering his head into his paws and digging his claws into his flesh, causing small beads of blood to run down the back of his head.
No. No, that's not true. I will never be like Spyro. I will never be like Spyro.
He choked on his breath, trying to hold back a sob, trying to hold back the tears. "I will never be like him," he whispered to himself with gritted teeth, his arms trembling and teeth gritted so hard that his jaw hurt.
The bell rang, and Forzen looked up at the clock. The time looked right; it was just how he memorised for the end of lunch. It was time for class with Master Almai. He just hoped he would take it easy on him today, particularly with his still dislocated wing. He tried to reach back to put it back in place, but he couldn't reach his wing joint. Damn it, now I have to go the rest of the day with a dislocated wing, Forzen thought.
With a sigh, he got up and started to make his way to the classroom. As he walked, he saw Fjor'gand walk up beside him. "You better behave today, moras'tov. No spectacles that involve Master Almai giving us all a scolding, you hear?" the earth dragon scowled. "If you do, you're dead."
Before Forzen could even respond, Fjor'gand sped up into a small jog, making his way past Forzen and away from him. He just shook his head, knowing that this was to be expected. He wasn't safe at school, he knew that. Everyone hated him and believed he was evil. There was no way he was going to get any respect from anyone—except for Master Almai and maybe Master Tegliath, but he had no idea why they were being so nice to him, particularly Master Almai.
As Forzen had thought on it longer, he would've expected Master Almai to be way more hateful towards him, having been in the military throughout the beginning of Spyro's fall and experiencing all the horrors that he had done. Why did Master Almai not see Forzen the same way, being so very capable of so many horrible things?
He walked into the class, sitting in the back corner of the tiered seating in front of the training rings. He was one of the first few students into the classroom, and watched as all the other students walked in, took one glance at him sitting in the back corner, making sure they all crowded up in the far front corner to distance themselves as much as they could from him.
Master Almai was the last dragon to enter the room, stepping in and briefly locking eyes with Forzen. Forzen could see his expression lower into a sad frown, and so the purple dragon immediately pulled his eyes away from his teacher's, not wanting to feel any pity from him.
Luckily, Master Almai didn't seem to linger on it too much either, as he immediately began the roll call without any extra hesitation, before starting the lesson.
"Alright, everyone. Today, I think we'll take our rounds solo and go for efficiency. I want to see just how quickly and cleanly you guys can individually defeat five enemies," Master Almai explained.
"Master Almai, will they be as hard as the dummies you put us against on Glaenday?" a fire dragoness asked.
"No, Ifiera. Since you will be fighting by yourself, I will not make them as challenging. I still want to give you guys a challenge, so don't expect it to be easy, but it should still be very possible for those of your experience and skill level," Master Almai explained.
A chorus of relieved sighs went around the class. "Thank the ancestors, those things sucked on Glaenday," a lightning dragon murmured.
"They were way too strong, it was ridiculous," an earth dragoness agreed.
"That was why I had two of you together and was focusing on teamwork," Master Almai explained. "And remember, this is intermediate combat. It's quite a complex, difficult level of assessing your combat skills that can get pretty intense. It's my job to challenge you. Be thankful you're not an expert, or worse yet, in the military. Now that training is hard."
"Oh yeah, you used to fight against real shadowclaws for practice, didn't you?" an ice dragon piped up. "That's actually so crazy!"
"We had to simulate real ones because in reality, we were going to fight hordes of genuinely real ones and had to prepare. But I digress; we have training to get to. Five enemies, as quick as you can, and as cleanly as you can. Don't take your time trying to tear apart the enemy when one swift stroke could be all that you need to win. Focus on trying to get killing blows. On top of that, these dummies will have ink in them, replicating blood. As part of efficiency, make as little mess as possible. Sometimes, we want to avoid mess. Got it?"
"Yes, Master Almai," the class responded.
"Great. Now who wants to go first?"
"I will!" a familiar voice shouted as a dark green paw shot up in the air.
"Alright, Fjor'gand. You're up."
Master Almai stepped aside as Fjor'gand got up and made his way towards the ring, chuckling under his breath. "I'll show all you losers how this is really done," he murmured under his breath; only a few dragons heard this, including Forzen.
Somehow, Master Almai hadn't heard his remark.
Fjor'gand stood confidently in the ring, puffing his chest out proudly, before the energy barrier went up around the ring. "Alright, Fjor'gand. Five dummies coming your way. Begin," Master Almai said.
The earth dragon burst into action the moment the five dummies materialised in front of him. Rushing forward, he leapt into the air and swung his clubbed tail around, slamming it into the head of one of the dummies and sending it flying sideways into two other dummies. He landed on the ground and immediately had to duck to dodge a tail swing up over his head as the fourth dummy tried to smack him in the head too.
He quickly got back to his paws and leapt backwards away from the fifth dummy trying to claw at him, and he clawed back, scoring some hits. Ink started to spray from the wounds as Fjor'gand clawed through the straw. He eventually clawed deep enough into the dummy to fit his paw into the wound, thrusting his claws in and pulling out the dark crystal inside, tossing it to the side. The dummy fell to the ground with a thud.
Fjor'gand then was tackled to the ground by two of the other dummies, raking their blunt wooden claws down his face and chest; they weren't enough to cause serious damage, but blood was still drawn. With a low growl, Fjor'gand shot two earth missiles out of his maw, landing into the eyes of one of the dummies, causing it to cry out in pain and leap off him. Another earth missile shot out of his maw towards the second dummy pinning him to the ground; it slammed into its chest, causing ink to spill down it. It wasn't deep enough to pierce the crystal in its chest though.
As it staggered off him, Fjor'gand picked himself up and tackled the second dummy to the ground, grabbing a hold of the end of the earth missile protruding from its chest, and pushing it further into its chest with all his might. More ink was pushed out of the dummy's chest, before there was a crack and it lay still, purple mist rising from the wound.
There was a roar as a third dummy launched itself at him. Reacting quickly, Fjor'gand pulled the ink-stained earth missile out of his downed opponent's chest and thrust it into the chest of his new attacker. The sharp piece of rock went all the way in due to the speed that the dummy had launched itself at Fjor'gand, and with a spray of ink and purple mist, it also fell silent.
Fjor'gand tossed the dummy into another one that was running towards him, sending it sprawling to the ground underneath the corpse. He then turned to the other dummy still standing, before narrowly dodging a bite that was aimed for his throat. He swung his clubbed tail around, slamming it into the dummy's head and sending it staggering backwards, dizzy and its head swollen and dripping slightly with ink. He leapt forward to try and whack it in the head with his club again, but it dodged, sending his club slamming into the ground.
The earth dragon leapt forward and tackled the dummy, pinning it to the ground. Adrenaline filling him to the brim, he raised his clubbed tail and slammed it into the dummy's head three times with such incredible force that it very much broke its face, deforming it and covering it with ink.
Forzen winced as he watched Fjor'gand do this; he knew it was very possible he would be in that situation, and being a bloody mess with a horrifically bashed-in face was not a spot Forzen wanted to be in. He was just glad it was the dummies in the ring and not him.
Fjor'gand was eventually pulled off the dummy by the other one, and it bit hard into his neck, throwing him to the ground. He grunted in pain as he landed flat on his back. Another earth missile shot out of his maw, catching the dummy in the throat as it soared towards him. It landed with a crash on the ground, allowing Fjor'gand time to get up. He watched as both dummies prepared to also get back up, but they were immediately stopped as Fjor'gand summoned two massive earth pillars out of the ground, impaling the dummies through their chests as purple mist began to spill from the entry and exit wounds.
"And that's five; good work, Fjor'gand. That was three minutes and thirty-seven seconds: a pretty good speed," Master Almai said from outside the ring.
"Thank you, Master Almai," Fjor'gand said with a smirk.
"However, I also asked for clean kills. There's quite a fair amount of ink on the ground. Not bad, though; could be worse. Could be better too. Three out of five for clean kills."
"What? Not even a four or a four and a half?"
"Not even a four. Now sit back down."
Forzen had to try not to smile as he watched Fjor'gand return to the seating, grumbling under his breath how unfair the criteria was. He sat back and watched as the rest of the class went through the ring, attempting the same task that Master Almai had given him. Most of them took a little longer than Fjor'gand to do the task, most of them over four minutes, and some up to five, and the majority of them only got three out of five for cleanliness; there was the occasional two, and even more occasional fours.
I don't know if this is being cocky or not, but if anyone's gonna get a five it'll probably be me, Forzen thought. No one else is using my overloading method. To be fair, only lightning dragons would be able to do it, but none of them are even trying to do that. Maybe they don't know it's possible; after all, Muras looked pretty surprised when I did it.
"Alright, Forzen. You're up!" Master Almai said.
The purple dragon blinked. He wasn't expecting his turn to come so soon, but he supposed it was bound to happen this lesson. As he got up, he felt pain flare through his back. Ancestors, I forgot about my wing, he thought, wincing. I don't want to draw attention to it in the middle of class, so I guess I've gotta stick this out with a dislocated wing.
It's not the worst pain I've had, I'll be fine.
Forzen caught sight of the concerned look that Master Almai was giving him; he was sure that Master Almai had noticed the dislocated wing, too. He opened his mouth to ask, "Forzen, are you—?"
"I'm doing this, okay?" Forzen interjected with a huff.
"I… okay," Master Almai murmured, before bringing up the energy barrier around the ring once Forzen had stepped in. "Five dummies, as fast and as clean as you can. Begin."
As Forzen had seen countless times in the last few minutes, the ring became populated by five dummies, ready to attack. He let out a loud shriek, sending all five of the dummies slamming into the back of the ring as deep indigo sound waves shot towards them. He leapt onto the first dummy, thrusting his claws into its neck and letting deadly waves of electricity pulse out of his claws and into its body. The dummy thrashed for a few seconds, before there was a loud shattering sound and a puff of purple mist from its neck, before it collapsed.
Without hesitation, Forzen jumped off the dummy and onto the second one, proceeding to follow the same process. A shatter and a cloud of purple mist later, the second dummy collapsed to the ground too.
Forzen was not so lucky when he tried to attack the third dummy. He leapt on top of it, but the other two dummies pulled him off, yanking him by both of his wings with incredible force. He cried out in pain as his dislocated wing was tugged on, but a new pain tore through his other wing as he landed on it, spraining it quite badly. The dummies jumped on top of him, pinning him to the ground as he lay on his back, his wings splayed out uncomfortably underneath him.
Wanting to get them off him as quickly as possible, a massive gust of air tore from his maw, sending the two dummies flying into the air. Forzen hissed with pain as he rolled over, trying to get up to his paws, but he was knocked down again as the third dummy had recovered, running forward and punching him across the jaw, sending him collapsing to the ground again.
Another gale left his throat, the forceful winds throwing the dummy's paws from underneath it as it landed on the ground with a thud. Now, Forzen was finally able to get back to all fours, leaping out of the way as the fourth dummy now lunged at him. Directing the elemental energy to his paws again, Forzen instead formed the lightning into large orbs, before throwing them at the remaining dummies. They shook with heavy tremors as the electricity coursed throughout their bodies, and Forzen used this to tackle the third one to the ground and slay it with the same method as the other two, shoving his claws in its neck and discharging large amounts of electricity into its body.
Three down, two to go.
He turned and lunged towards the fourth dummy, but it turned and swatted him out of the sky with its tail, sending him landing with a thud onto his stomach. All the air left his lungs, and he lay there on the ground, winded and groaning. He was brought back to his senses as he was punched in the face yet again. He saw the dummy's fist lowering down on him again, but he reached out and bit down on it, instead directing the electricity to his teeth.
The dummy jolted and cried out as the lightning ran through its body, but it didn't die from it. It was pretty badly hurt from it though, so Forzen took this time to slowly struggle to his paws and bite down on the dummy's neck injecting more electricity through his teeth much closer to the vital parts of the body. The taste of the ink dripping into his mouth sickened him, but he much preferred it be ink than blood.
Forzen felt the dummy fall limp in his jaws, so spat it out and watched as it slumped to the ground, silent. He turned towards the last dummy, just in time to watch it launch itself at him. He just barely had the time to dodge, but not without getting some claws flashing across his chest, opening up some thin scratches that bled lightly.
The purple dragon whirled around and let out another screech with his sound element, watching as the dummy lowered itself to the ground, paws against its ears as it cried out in pain. He let the attack go on for a few more seconds, before rushing forward, punching the dummy in the head twice, before digging his claws into its neck and electrifying them one last time.
A shattering sound was heard, and with the purple mist that followed came silence. Forzen slowly stepped off the dummy, before the five dead dummies dissipated. He turned to Master Almai, who looked at him with wide eyes. "Two minutes and fifty-eight seconds, a killing move I've never seen, and the cleanest round we've had all day: five out of five," he murmured.
Forzen shrunk in on himself, worried that he'd scared one of the only teachers who had gone out of their way to show any care for him. He looked around the room, seeing the rest of his classmates stare at him with awe and fear.
"Uhhh, thank you, Master Almai," Forzen said softly, bowing his head slightly, before turning and walking out of the ring and towards his seat.
"Forzen!"
The purple dragon flinched as he reached the stairs to the tiered seating, suddenly wondering if he was in trouble. He turned around, looking cautiously at Master Almai with big, worried eyes.
"Calm down, Forzen. You're not in trouble. You're dismissed for today. Go to the nursing room and go get your wings checked out. They don't look too good."
"I… Thanks, Master Almai," Forzen said with a nod.
"Who's your next teacher?"
"Master Krygour, sir."
"Alright. If you end up being late, let him know that I sent you to the nursing room and that they were doing what they needed to do. If he has a problem with it, he can come to me about it. Not to you. Got it?"
"Yes, understood."
"Great, now go."
With that, Forzen turned and made his way out of the classroom and out towards the nursing room. It was a bit awkward getting called out in front of the class like that, but he was at least glad he was going to get his wings checked out. Getting the dislocated wing pulled on had not been a fun experience, and the sprain in his other wing hurt immensely too.
He got to the nursing room and knocked on the door. "Come in!" he heard the nurse call from inside.
Forzen opened the door and stepped in, noticing the same ice dragoness from Glaenday in the room. The nurse turned to him and sighed. "Twice in one week, Forzen? What did they do this time?" she groaned.
"Nowhere near as bad as Glaenday, but… they dislocated my left wing. I just came from combat and the simulation match made it worse, and also sprained my right wing. Master Almai told me to come here to get them looked at," Forzen explained.
The nurse gave a sigh before she stood and walked up to Forzen, gently touching his wings as she had a look at them. "Okay, the sprained wing isn't too bad; it can be healed with red gems. I'll have to set the dislocated wing and maybe give you a few red gems for that too, but it should be fine afterwards, maybe just a bit tender," she said.
"Okay, that sounds good."
"I'll start with setting the dislocated wing."
"Okay."
Forzen winced as he felt a paw push down against his back and another paw grab a hold of his wing just above the joint. "Alright, I'll set it on three. Nice deep breaths. One, two, three!"
CRACK!
The purple dragon couldn't hold back his cry of pain, but the pain quickly subsided as his wing was put back in place; it felt way more natural to him now. He flexed his left wing softly, feeling it move the way it should.
He looked up, watching the nurse move towards her desk and pull out some red gems from her drawer. "Alright, here's some red gems. I'll break these over your wings and they should be fine in no time," the nurse said.
It was always weird feeling the red gems work their magic on him; it was never something that he had experienced until that day where he had shown off his power to Cynder, Muras and the guardians. He still wasn't sure if he liked it or not; it was warm and soothing but it was also ethereal and mystical. It almost felt unnatural, even though dragons had been connected to these gems since the dawn of time.
Eventually, it was done, and the nurse stood back. "Any pain?" she asked.
"Um… no, nothing's hurting now," Forzen replied.
"Good. Well I'd better let you head back to class. The next one is starting in about a minute, so you might as well get your stuff ready for your next class."
"I will. Thank you."
With that, Forzen turned and left, quickly making his way to his locker to grab his history stuff. By the time he got to class, everyone was already seated and ready to begin class. He tried to sneak in as quietly as he could, making his way to the back corner of the room, but Master Krygour had a keen eye.
"Forzen! You're late. I've just marked off the roll," Master Krygour scorned.
"I'm sorry, Master Krygour. I was in the nursing room after getting some injuries in combat," Forzen explained, his voice small.
"Does it look like I care, little purple devil? You came in late and interrupted my class. You can stay in thirty minutes after school, got it?"
"Yes, Master Krygour."
"Now sit down and pay attention," Master Krygour growled, before turning and addressing the rest of the class, who were all trying to keep in their giggles as they watched the teacher tear into Forzen. "Now, as you all know, today we will be starting a new topic on war history. We will be looking at some of the biggest and most impactful wars in our known history, with three main ones in particular: the Dark War, the War of Blood and Bone, and the Sinister War."
"The Dark War? But didn't that only end twenty years ago?" a young fire dragoness asked.
"But it began about a thousand years ago, and it has been incredibly influential in the formation of our many current customs and practices, particularly the introduction of combat classes into the schooling system, as well as the current state of the guardianship program; the Dark War was the main thing that caused the newly formed guardianship program to truly evolve into what it has become now.
"Now, we will be looking at the major events of each of the wars, starting with the Dark War, since it's the most relevant to us, particularly with the current war we are living through with the Dark Overlord Spyro, who was one of the most important people in the Dark War. However, no one is more important in this war than Malefor, who was the one who started the war.
"As you know, the Dark Master Malefor was born a thousand years ago. The guardians of his time were intrigued by him, having only heard of the phenomenon of the purple dragon before. They were curious, too curious, and taught him everything they knew, particularly once they found out he could wield all of their elements. They passed down every piece of knowledge they could give him, and they worshipped him.
"The power got to his head and he began to show the true colours of a purple dragon, previously unknown to the guardians of his kind. He grew lustful for power, killing everyone close to him: his friends, his family, and the guardians. It took many bloody battles to finally banish the devil to the Convexity dimension, and by then, he had done enough damage. The violence continued when Malefor realised he still had control over his army from the realm of Convexity, and so the war continued for a thousand years until he was revived, and then slain twenty years ago by the next purple devil to rise."
Forzen felt his heart racing as Master Krygour spoke about Malefor. Yes, it was true that Malefor was truly evil, and Forzen hated the thought of Malefor as well, but the way Master Krygour spoke about him almost sounded like he was insinuating things about him, particularly regarding his comment about 'the true colours of a purple dragon'.
He had never felt so uncomfortable, so unsafe, since moving to Warfang, even being in Cynder's company. Here he was in school, a place that was supposed to be safe and where he could learn so many things that would help him later in life, only for his teacher to start indirectly spitting hate towards him. He didn't know what the culture of this classroom would become with him being there. Would everyone else get in on the hate? Would Master Krygour encourage it? Would he incite violence towards him?
It almost felt more unsafe than Dark Peak. He knew Dark Peak was unsafe; he knew to expect it. Here? It was supposed to be safe. It felt worse feeling unsafe in a place where he was supposed to be safe, rather than feeling unsafe in a place he knew he would already be unsafe in.
Ancestors, I just want to leave. I don't want to be in this class anymore, Forzen thought.
He couldn't just leave, though. He knew he would get in trouble. He was already in trouble for being late. Forzen couldn't handle the thought of being in any more trouble with Master Krygour.
"Now, to start things off, we're going to start this topic learning about the start of the war. Unlike other wars, the Dark War did not have a very complicated start. It began simply: a purple dragon was born, taught all of our knowledge and skills, and then the demonspawn grew lustful for power and wanted to take the world and recreate it in his own image.
"He was in his late twenties when he committed to the cause, killing one of the guardians, as well as his mother. His father… he corrupted him, and turned him into a savage criminal that did unspeakable things, which later led to his execution. Meanwhile, Malefor continued to roam free, leading a war that would not end for another thousand years."
"Wasn't Spyro in his twenties when he decided to turn?" an ice dragon called out.
Master Krygour paused, not expecting the sudden question, but recovered quickly. "Yes. Yes, he was," he replied.
"What about the demon sitting in the corner of the class? Will he turn evil too?"
All eyes turned to Forzen.
Get me out of here, NOW.
"Um… I'm not sure. Probably," Master Krygour said bluntly, shrugging. "He's Spyro's son after all, so you never know. Like father, like son, as the saying always goes."
"You don't know that," Forzen said.
"Besides, there's been a pattern so far with Malefor and Spyro, so who knows, he could be next."
"Yeah, who knows what that purple freak looking after him is teaching him," an earth dragoness spat. "He could be teaching him all sorts of dark magic and rituals outside of school."
"No, he's helping me with my schoolwork and reading and writing. He's helping me learn my elements as well but there's absolutely no dark magic involved."
"You expect us to believe that Malefor isn't teaching you dark magic?" a fire dragoness scoffed. "Someone like that doesn't just change; his story of 'the ancestors purified me' is a whole bunch of garbage."
"Malefor? No, his name's Muras. Malefor's dead; there's no way he could be teaching me or even walking around Warfang," Forzen said, confused.
"Don't play dumb, little devil. Don't pretend you don't know who your caretaker is," another earth dragoness jeered.
"There is no way he can be Malefor!"
"You really don't know, little devil?" Master Krygour asked, his voice both sly and surprised. "Well, let me give you a bit more of a recent history lesson about the Dark Master that we will be studying extensively about throughout this term: Malefor came back twelve years ago, claiming he was brought back from the dead by the ancestors, purified. For weeks, he hid his identity from everyone, lying every day about who he was and playing mind tricks like changing the colour of his scales. Eventually, Spyro brought the truth to light, and now he lives in his true colours, in shame. And now, if what you're telling us is true, he's spun his web of lies once more to make you believe that he is completely separate from Malefor."
How can this be true? Did he really lie to me? About everything? Is he really that horrible monster that Jaarsol told me so much about? Forzen thought with a shiver, his heart thumping against his chest and sweat dripping down his face. What else is he hiding from me? How could he hide this from me? He said I'm his purpose and that his role is to mentor me—what if that's to raise me in darkness? What if he's still evil? Surely someone as horrid as Malefor doesn't just change, right?
What do I do? Who do I go to? Who do I trust?
"Wow, you really didn't know. That actually surprises me, little demon," Master Krygour scoffed.
"Stop calling me that, please," Forzen whimpered.
"Why not? It's what you are, whether you like it or not," a fire dragon spat. "It's like Master Krygour said, there's a pattern. You're next in line. It's bound to happen."
"I don't know why they're letting a freak like you run free," an earth dragon growled.
"It's because Malefor's involved; he probably convinced the guardians to keep him around and let him come here. There's no way the guardians would want to upset Malefor; he could destroy Warfang in one blow if he wanted to," an ice dragoness said.
"Stop it, please! I'm not evil!" Forzen pleaded.
"Do you know that? Do you truly, deep inside your soul, know that?" Master Krygour said lowly. "Speak, moras'tov."
"STOP IT!"
The class became full of screams and young teenagers scattering as Forzen broke into a sprint, thinking he was going to kill them. He just wanted to get out. He sprinted straight out of the classroom, his heart racing a million miles an hour as he ran outside of the building and flew up into the air. He flew across Warfang, before he saw the top of the library and landed on top of the large building.
The building stood tall over Warfang, being the second tallest building in the city besides the Warfang Temple, allowing him a beautiful, wide view of the city. He watched as the streets crawled with dragons of different shapes and sizes and colours: reds, yellows, blues, greens…
No purple. Aside from Muras, he was the only one.
Or was it Malefor? How true were Master Krygour's claims? How true was the rest of the lesson? The problem was that after what had just happened, he didn't know if he could trust Muras enough to ask. He didn't know if he was safe around Muras. For someone who used to be a genocidal maniac skilled in dark magic who led a thousand-year war, Muras suddenly didn't seem trustworthy or safe to be around any more.
I feel so lost… so alone. Even Muras is hiding stuff from me… and something as important as that, too.
Ancestors help me.
Help me, please…
Dragon of Mystery: More school scenes here lol, there'll be more to come throughout the rest of the story. As much as school scenes can be hard to write I actually found some of these ones pretty fun just because I get to explore Forzen's experiences a lot more. And yeah, his time at school was always going to be made very hard by the other students and some of the teachers, I decided to give him some good teachers too because I figured there'd be a small few who would see him as more than just an 'evil' purple dragon and Spyro's descendant, and I think he deserves a bit of good in his life as well. I'll be honest, I also didn't plan to get so attached to Master Almai in the writing process; he was always going to be on Forzen's side but while writing him he just turned out to be really caring and really have Forzen's best interests in mind, and I'll be honest I think I've become a bit attached to him lol (so expect to see more of him around).
...
Alright, another chapter done, and Chapter 13 has already been started! I've also begun Chapter 18 of GEM but man I'm actually finding GEM hard to write at the moment for some reason. I'm having way too much fun with Outcast and right now it really feels like it's just writing itself, so I'll probably be in a very heavy Outcast grind for the next while, which is good because due to how the writing's going at the moment, there may be a few extra chapters added to my original plan of 47 chapters, and they've also turned out much longer than expected, if the last two chapters being over 10K words are anything to go by, so it'll be good to get some decent progress on this so I can hopefully even get to Book 3 quickly.
I'll still be chipping away at GEM where I can but until I'm able to pick up momentum on GEM the same way I have with Outcast, writing on GEM might be a bit slow at the moment. Hopefully everyone's been enjoying all the new Outcast chapters though, and I'm really excited to keep writing this for you all and to show you what's coming next (there's some arcs later on in Outcast that I just can't wait to write).
Thanks everyone for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter! Feel free to leave a review, and have a great rest of your day/night!