The Odd Dragon Out: Reckoning of the Cinder-Born

Caron's lack of a more energetic and serious tone while making her request would have looked grossly unconvincing to Ginger, if the look in her baby blue eyes didn't adequately carry the relevant weight instead.

Ginger could tell that she was serious, but several things threw him off.

For one, Caron introduced herself as though she was an invisible element in class, and as if her being one of the most gifted First Years of this year hadn't just been established.

As a result, Ginger wasn't sure how he was supposed to answer when both of these were at play?

Even now, Caron was drawing the attention of the others to them.

Ginger could only stand there stiff, and stammer.

"Uh..." he murmured.

Reiss on the other hand, had voice enough to answer for him.

"What do you mean by 'join'?" he asked with a frown.

Caron looked down at him.

"It's simple, isn't it? Are you the sort to overthink things?" she said, her face giving the impression that she thought the reason couldn't be clearer.

"Enlighten me," Reiss said, now placing his hands on his waist, which was rather hilarious, and quite frankly, gobbled up a lot of the seriousness he wished to instill.

Thankfully, Caron didn't find the humor in it, likely because she was too lazy to search for it. She looked up at Ginger and gestured towards him.

"Because he and I are both special."

"..."

"..."

Both Ginger and Reiss were stunned by the answer. Several eavesdroppers were left with question mark equivalents above their heads as well.

Just like that?

"That's it?" Ginger said, a little disappointed.

"Yes. What sort of answer were you expecting?" Caron asked, genuinely curious.

"I don't know..." Ginger said with a shrug. He didn't know where to turn his eyes now.

Caron ruffled her springy hair. Or maybe she was scratching an itch – it was almost impossible to tell.

"Well, if that sort of answer doesn't work for you, then how about this? I have Totality-type Kardia. Super midget here has Affix type. You have Pooling and Alien type. Super midget can teach me how to properly affix my Kardia, and you can teach me how to pool and use it outside the body. In exchange, I'll help you both fine-tune your Kardia in three Strides time."

Caron yawned after making the proposal, and her eyes seemed glued shut for a hot second. When she opened them, she found atrocious looks on Ginger and Reiss' face.

"You're mad," Reiss said with a shake of his head and a bulge of the eyes. "What do you think Kardia is? Controlling it is harder than it seems!"

Caron shrugged.

Ginger agreed with Reiss. He understood what Caron was proposing, but he couldn't imagine how exactly she thought she'd be helping them fine-tune their Kardia control in only three Strides after they gave her the basic idea of how all three types worked.

This proposal almost seemed contradictory, in fact.

Professor Lyall had stressed that complete control of one's Kardia could only be achieved to a standard degree around the end of the first term.

"I'm a quick learner, and I'm good at winging it if necessary. Trust me," Caron said simply with a dry smile, her eyes drooping.

Reiss scowled.

"Winging what?!" Reiss cried.

"Look..." Ginger said over him with a difficult expression. "I don't think it'll be a problem if you join us for practice or something, but I don't think you should be so relaxed about this. I think it's going to take a lot of work, even for you."

Caron yawned.

"That's a yes, I suppose?" she said.

"Good grief, Ginger!" Reiss exclaimed, the crease on his large forehead telling of how he thought this was absurd. "She's a slacker, I tell you. She's no good. She thinks a good Kardia type is all it takes to be proficient in everything."

Caron didn't seem to care for the accusations. She set to turn and follow the throngs of First Years back to the Frost Mount's Tooth when suddenly, a blast of wind smashed into her, Ginger, and Reiss.

The trio yelped and covered their faces as the wind pelted them.

Familiar chuckles sounded after the sudden attack ended, and the three looked to find Alcaeus and Fillys smirking, getting one last look at their disheveled appearances before following the crowd.

Ginger fumed. He felt a bit disgusted to share the same Kardia type as Alcaeus – even if it was only one – but he couldn't change that. If he had enough Kardia, he might have blasted a breeze back at them.

Reiss scoffed.

"They just can't handle the embarrassment. They thought either them or Vassilis would get Totality-type Kardia, and they expected you to not even get a Kardia type too. It hurts to lose."

The only thing Reiss was grateful for in Caron getting Totality-type Kardia, was the fact it was her and not those annoying siblings. That was a critical blow to Fillys in particular, who was always berating Caron for her behavior in class.

Speaking of the redhead, she didn't seem as frustrated. She fixed her hair and said, "We're getting left behind."

On the way back to class, and with the prospect of the gears in the learning curve changing, Ginger was spurned to think a lot about his future.

Two developments had happened back to back, creating two circumstances that changed how he should approach everything in his life moving forward.

The fact that he had such little Kardia bothered him greatly, despite it being so unique.

Professor Lyall stressed how practical, and intricate everything was about to be now. If that meant every lesson of the day applied Kardia, would Ginger have enough of it for every course covered?

Did the curriculum support those without enough Kardia for rigorous exercises?

Ginger really didn't want to become laughing stok for having such poor reserves. It would probably be seen through quickly anyway, since there were a few people in class who already knew his abysmal capacity – the thin boy from the First Burning in Professor Alexandros' office, for instance.

Ginger had just barely managed to stave off the controversy surrounding his identity with how special his Kardia was – even if it was a discount version of Totality-type Kardia.

He wanted to keep it that way.

On their way through the network of paths after the Pine, with Caron leading by a few steps, Ginger had a difficult time convincing Reiss that having Caron on their 'team' wasn't such a bad thing. Even if she overestimated herself and was a little quirky, at the very least, she could serve as a versatile partner.

Reiss didn't like her attitude. For Ginger, who was slowly growing to learn that Reiss valued the work he put in to make sure he stifled demeaning discussions about the way he looked with the brilliance of how much he knew, it made sense why someone like Caron would trigger him.

Evidence as to the genuineness of Reiss's feelings was that Caron's name-calling didn't pinch at him one bit, but her carefree yawns made the dwarfish dragonling consider homicide with a twitching eyebrow.

"You don't have to be friends with her. I'm sure Caron doesn't care for it either. It's strictly... business," Ginger said to Reiss.

He would know how collaborations with no strings attached worked. In the Wild, meeting another group of humans outside known human settlements would only end without bloodshed if both parties made it clear beforehand that they were open to using each other.

'Transparency is key, Ginger. I once told this old hag I'd probably kill her in her sleep to buy myself a few minutes when a Blood Wolf was hunting us down,' Ginger recalled Ancor once saying.

That story probably wasn't a good example, though. And there were tonnes of these in Ginger's head.

"Fine. It wouldn't be the worst in the world, I guess," Reiss said to Ginger's arguments. He gave a curious look to his friend, though. "Do you believe that she doesn't mind anything about where you come and what you are?"

Ginger was surprised by the question. Reiss seemed to be considering a lot of things, as usual.

"Well, as long as she tolerates me enough. I'm learning not to mind what people think," he replied.

Reiss gave a harrumph. A friendly one.

"Hmm. Already settled well, little imp?" a voice suddenly breached the comforting bubble Ginger and Reiss shared.

Ginger recognized that voice.

He looked to his right, where it sprang from.

"Ir...Mr. Ira!" he said.

And indeed it was.

The shady, immature-looking dragon was right there, looking down at Ginger with a semi-friendly pair of ocean-blue eyes.

Ginger's immediate reaction had been mostly positive, but when he saw the same, strange fit he had seen on the first day still sitting on the dragon – long coat, shorts, and sandals, with the straw hat over his head, as though he was some kind of fantasy, Pirate King aspiring youngster – his expression turned dark.

Ira looked at Reiss, then at Caron who had stopped to look back at them with a quickly fading degree of interest.

"I see you've not only made waves in the school, but friends too. Good on you," he said with a small smile.

Ginger wanted to say something, but Ira quickly cut him off.

"I'll be stealing your friend for a bit," he said to Reiss and Caron who immediately turned to continue walking.

"Yes, sir," Reiss replied simply and gave Ginger a knowing look before following the same path as Caron.

Ginger watched him leave and then turned to Ira.

"What is it... sir?" he said, a little nervous.

Ira sighed and pulled him along as he walked towards the school entrance.

"I thought you'd be having a hard time with the news of your... origin, out and about. That, and your unique Kardia," he explained.

"You were there?" Ginger asked, surprised.

"No. Why would I walk up that rise just for you, little imp?" Ira frowned. "I have good eyes. I can see all that happens in the school – behind walls and stiff mechanisms – if I want."

"Oh."

Ira raised a brow.

"I was going to give you a talk, a sprinkle of my wisdom if needed. Thankfully, I don't have to waste my words on that," he said.

"Instead, we need to talk about the rest of what Ancor wrote to me in that letter you gave me. That little secret of yours."

Ginger's hearts almost skipped a beat.