The Odd Dragon Out: Reckoning of the Cinder-Born

The air turned to ice.

The anticipation that had been rolling through the dorm room for some kind of action; a brawl or a pure beatdown, was instantly doused.

This revelation just now carried with it a great deal more than semi-innocent, boyish bullying, after all.

Ginger felt as though his soul had left his body. He hadn't had enough time to predict the approach of the blow before it actually hit him.

His secret was finally revealed, and with so many witnesses around.

Reiss turned to look up at him with a completely flabbergasted expression, and so did the other boys in the dorm room who were as in the dark as the rest.

The Wild? Really?

Many tales had been told to them – to most of them, at least – by their guardians in different forms about this place which had such a curious name imposed onto it.

Despite differences and nuances involved with the delivery of any of these tales, though, there was one thing they all had in common.

It was the fact that the Wild was an unlawful, broken place run by a vile race called, humans.

Somewhere to be shunned, rather than a place to invest interest or pity.

"Hey, you're joking, right? A dragon from the Wild? Aren't you taking it too far?" one of the students in the dorm said with a frown.

When he spoke up, others too felt like the band of dragonlings standing against Ginger had taken things too far, and they began berating them for such an insult to a fellow dragon.

At times like these, the most important values of a dragon, mostly their sense of pride, showed, and it would have made any Professor proud.

But...

Vassilis was unfazed by the other First Years' stance – some even moving up to defend Ginger by standing between the plump dragonling, the stunned dwarfish dragonling, and him. He watched them all with a somewhat disgruntled face, but their words didn't reach him. In fact, he pitied them.

Reiss wanted to say something, but he didn't. He couldn't. He just froze.

Out of everyone else – every other dragonling that didn't have the benefit of knowing Ginger as much as he had grown to in the past three days – he noticed that Ginger's expression wasn't one of being appalled by the accusation.

"Right," Vassilis said with a stern face to Ginger's defenders. "You think I came here just to say something bad for the sake of it? Come on. I came here for an explanation." He looked at the frozen Ginger who had turned pale and was balling up his fists. "Look at him. He didn't even deny it."

It was only then that everyone turned to Ginger and resumed the deathly silence from before.

That's right.

Ginger didn't deny it.

In fact, after a closer look, he looked to be trembling and shocked, and in the way someone who had been caught in something dark would look.

The first of Ginger's dorm mates to call out in defense wore a frown.

"Hey, this isn't actually true, is it?" he asked.

Ginger was brought back to his senses by the question. Everything that had been going on... he had seen it all, but the way his emotions bubbled at this moment, had overwhelmed him.

He saw the stalwart defense he had dreaded from the moment it had appeared start to crumble.

What was he to do?

Alcaeus' eyes bore into him, hints of savage joy within them, as well as curiosity.

Ginger squeezed his fists tight and bit his upper lip.

"It's true. I'm from the Wild," he said with a hard, pained face.

"..."

It had begun to become apparent from the way Ginger didn't react immediately, but to hear him 'proudly' admit it...

A few of the First Years backed away from Ginger.

The plump boy felt a pulse of agony within his heart. Once again.

He had gained, only to lose.

Even Reiss, while he didn't back away, didn't look like he had even a candlelight of strength to stand up for him right now.

Then came the whispers...

"Seriously? The school just took in someone like this?"

"How is he even a dragon if he was born in the Wild?"

"I always thought there was something strange about him."

"Yeah? It's how fat he is! Who knows what the humans were teaching him in the Wild!"

It all erupted.

Ginger's face turned stiff, and it shook. Everyone was against him now.

They were looking down on him.

Just because he came from a different place.

They were insulting him, some just for the pure fact that they hadn't had a good reason to spout all their dislike until now.

Ginger winced.

He expected something else. Something worse to become a topic of discussion now that he was exposed. After all...

Vassilis looked at Ginger with disdain. It wasn't the kind that spun the skin on his face, but one that showed from his prominent hazel eyes clearly.

"Right. You're even proud of it. You're not even ashamed, even after some of your dorm mates tried to defend you," he said, looking deeply offended. He walked closer to Ginger, watching the plump dragon buckle a little from the difference in height and aura.

"You're a halfling too, right?"

...

If the earlier revelation had only made the others look at Ginger as an inferior dragon conceived outside the norms of society that were supposed to better him, this one turned the other First Years into feral monsters.

Ginger gritted his teeth.

'I knew it...' he thought.

Before he could take in several breaths, the boys from the other dorm room had flocked into this one and were being filled in on this latest development.

"That's insane! He's half human too?"

"I always thought his eyes looked weird. No wonder!"

"He got a pathetic score from the Othoni-Kardia a Stride ago too!"

"Why was he even allowed to get into a school like ours?"

There was outrage.

It spun around, and at Ginger, and for a moment, it really got to him.

The many faces.

The many voices.

They were all against him.

They didn't even know him, but they already decided what he was, and saw him as some kind of idiot.

A dash of weakness attempted to flow from Ginger as he buckled, trembling with sorrow and shame.

'Tears only serve to water the weakness...'

He heard the voice again, and he sucked in a deep breath.

He looked at Alcaeus who gave a hilarious scoff at his face, and then at Vassilis who, unlike the others, only seemed to be searching for what Ginger was going to do or say.

'You know what?'

"So what?!" Ginger called with a trembling voice.

Everyone looked at him, but he kept staring at Vassilis.

An invigorating force suddenly bathed him from having the attention, however terrible this version of it was.

"You want me to be ashamed because... I come from somewhere different? Well... I'm not. I'm proud of the humans I know! I'm happy to have been born in the Wild! I know the best human Shaman there is! I love the kind of parents I have! Everything!" he screamed, his eyes watering.

That's right. Ginger wasn't going to dismiss parts of himself because they were shunned here.

Never.

He would never pretend as if he didn't love Ancor like an extremely eccentric brother.

He would never pretend that he didn't love his father or everyone else he considered close.

NEVER!

There was a moment of silence, and then someone laughed among the First Years.

"Pfft! Shaman? What's that? Like a human Sorcerer? There's such a thing?"

Ginger glared at whoever said it, but they just shrugged.

He faced Vassilis again and struggled to find more words to say to his unfettered visage, but he had none. He was stumped due to the lack of reaction.

That didn't stop him from making his stand though.

Seeing Vassilis' exposed scales, Ginger gripped his dark brown scarf and took a breath.

The words of Principal Draggard-Phoenix rang in his head. Ginger didn't know her very well, but he did know that she shunned hiding one's scales. She shunned being afraid of other's opinions.

'Yeah, well. Met too...'

Ginger stripped his scarf from his neck and brought to light his gingery orange scales, which caused a wave of vocal shock to spread.

Ginger had realized since days ago that he didn't care as much about the cast of his scales. He didn't believe that it would limit his growth. There was no way. He wasn't up for touching the zenith of power among dragons anyway.

Vassilis frowned at this display.

"You think showing such a pathetic cast means anything?" he said, and more than several from the crowd sniggered.

Ginger scowled.

Without uttering another word, he grabbed his sling bag and proceeded to march through the crowds that either parted ways with sneers or didn't move until he pushed them aside.

During the process, Ginger heard several names thrown at him which made him remember that he had been right on that day, back when he heaved Reiss to his bed.

'I really did end up getting nicknames. Only...'

Only, he was alone.