The Odd Dragon Out: Reckoning of the Cinder-Born

The call of the new day began with a warm shower for Ginger. Truthfully, while he had managed to get some sleep for the night, he had found that he wasn't nearly as relaxed as he thought he was after getting his uniform. He had half a mind to sleep in it.

But also, the night seemed longer than that which he was used to from the Wild, and his thoughts referred him back to what Ancor had said about his age.

Since learning about Tallies, Ginger imagined that the days here were probably longer. Maybe the months too. He was yet to get over the idea that he was supposedly fourteen years old here in Ravi when he had only lived for nine in the Wild.

How did he stack up to the children here then? Were they older mentally? He didn't look that different from them – without factoring in differences in slightly bloated size, at least.

In any case, the rising of a sizable dull red sun into the violet-blue sky added a reminder that this was a different world, but that didn't stop Ginger from feeling a little expectant and anxious about today.

Even his bunkmate who ignored his existence for the rest of the early morning couldn't shatter his cautious but flaring enthusiasm.

By the time the others were all ready to go, Ginger was getting tired of waiting for Fotini to show.

But soon, it was time.

With his dark brown faded scarf around his neck, and his sling bag bumping against his hip, Ginger joined the hundreds of First Years to the fifth floor. On arriving, Ginger saw many other students pass by the Waiting Furnace he was in, marching their way to and from doorways that led to scattered classrooms.

It turned out that the Waiting Furnaces were positioned around a foyer, and Ginger, along with the others stopped to check the scenery within the limited space. Fotini's role was done, so he went about his own business... but not before emphasizing with exaggerated gestures for them to make good impressions on their Professors.

The First Years had no choice but to take the advice.

A couple of paces from the Waiting Furnace, a somewhat large model of the Ancient Elder Dragons clumped together could be seen within an exquisite spraying fountain. Five well-bordered plaques were embedded on a short pedestal that protruded just before their steel figures which shone with polish.

Ginger was strangely attracted to the plaques.

'What are these?' he thought as he approached and looked at what was written on them.

The characters written seemed to depict the names of the five dragons, because of how they aligned with the figures, but...

'These are actually names? Why are they so long?'

Indeed it was puzzling for Ginger. These couldn't be names, they should be sentences instead. He tried to read out the lengthy sets of characters, starting with the ones belonging to the heavy-jawed dragon.

Perhaps that would make sense of them.

The moment he enunciated a portion of the writing, however, Ginger felt a terrible headache that set in so abruptly that he almost let out a scream!

Almost immediately, a hand pulled Ginger backforcefully.

He turned in surprise and found his diminutive bunk mate looking at him with a demeaning look, as though he – Ginger – had spat in his face.

"What are you doing? This isn't the time to be messing around. The least you could do on your first day is get to class on time," the dwarfish dragonling said.

"R-right..." Ginger said, finding that the headache he had just now was starting to go away. He turned to the plaques again and asked subconsciously. "What's with these names?"

"Huh? What about them?" the short boy said while turning away.

"Why are they so long? And why did I get a headache from trying to read them?"

Ginger's bunkmate suddenly stopped and turned back to him with a face as white as a sheet.

"You... you tried to read them?" he asked with a trembling in his eyes. "Good grief! You must be some kind of exotic idiot! Who reads an ancient dragon's Exalted Name? You could have died!"

Ginger froze.

"Died?" he asked, his face turning pale too.

The short boy, however, was too bewildered by his stupidity to answer. He massaged his temples, shook his head, and took three heavy breaths.

"Let's just get to class," he stressed as he marched towards the other students who had had their fair share of perusing various things in the sizable foyer.

"Class?" Ginger asked, confused on top of his clinging fears.

"Yes, class! We're in the same class!" the short boy replied without stopping.

Ginger followed him with an "Oh".

He remembered immediately that he had given his sheet to the boy last night, and it had featured his class name on top of his courses. The dwarfish dragon must have recognized then that they were in the same class.

While having someone he knew – somewhat – in his class was good news, the lingering horror of how he had supposedly almost died just by reading the names on the plaques, stuck close to Ginger long enough for him to be silent the whole way to the class.

The short boy navigated the corridors on the floor as if he was the architect behind their construction, and soon, he led them both to a classroom with a tag on the door that read:

'First Blue.'

The two swiftly entered, along with several other girls and boys that gave the curious pair looks of well....curiosity and hilarity. Some outright laughed at the two, which made the bunkmates look at each other, and then part ways, choosing to deal with the attention individually than the sum of it between them.

Be that as it may, Ginger was surprised to find that the short boy really didn't react whenever anyone pointed out his size. He simply went about his business without a change in face.

'Shunting Shamans. I wish I had a will like that,' Ginger thought.

There was roughly a capacity for about a hundred students in the classroom over the comfortable wooden chairs and desks. Ginger immediately took a seat at the very end of the room and sat down quietly.

Ah, the comfort zone.

'For now, I'll try to get as much attention away from me as possible,' Ginger thought while looking around the classroom.

Out of everyone here so far, he recognized one familiar face.

It was the thin boy he had seen during his First Burning, the one who had made the smoke in the Othoni-Kardia turn into a flame.

Well, Ginger wasn't particularly happy to see that they shared a class.

He moved his sight elsewhere.

Those familiar with each other among his classmates chatted away without a care. Girls giggled while complimenting each others' accessories, and some of them pointed to lone boys of interest in hushed voices. Boys on the other hand – those who thought they were hot stuff at least – tried to stand out more by speaking up, and adding confident gestures to their postures.

From the side, Ginger began to feel like the collective impressiveness of young dragons which he had seen the evening before, wasn't as strong.

'I guess things are just different here. Humans struggle to survive every day back in the Wild. I did too. But... I'm not a human...' he thought.

Right. Humans and dragons were different, after all.

Dragons ruled these lands, and their offspring had it easy.

Ginger took a breath and started to pick out things from his sling bag. Books and a pen.

He was here now.

He had made it.

All he had to do, was not stand out any more than he already had, and focus on his goals. Maybe his origin wouldn't factor in as a result too.

At that moment, there was quite a disturbance.

Noisy voices erupted, and Ginger was forced to look up.

Two young dragons had just entered the class, and immediately, the thing that stood out to Ginger about them, was their unconcealed scales.

The shimmer of a violet cast of scales gave a nice tone around both these dragonlings' necks, and to add to their flair, the boy and girl pair had matching apple green hair in different styles, and above different faces.

As the two marched down the spaces between desks with noises of chatter around them, Ginger wondered, as he should:

'Who are they?'

His question was answered by a sarcastic voice that sounded two seats in front of him.

"Fantastic. As if I don't have enough competition already. Spoiled dragonlings from a Carrier House in my class are sure to improve my chances of standing out."

It wasn't a proper answer, but Ginger knew this wasn't too good a sign... especially when these two dragonlings passed him only to wheel back – it seemed the girl between them pulled the other.

Her pretty face with striking ocean blue eyes, the same as the ones on her male counterpart's face, stared at Ginger who shifted uncomfortably.

"Alcaeus, why don't we sit here? Right at the back," the girl said, and the boy she clung to looked down at Ginger, and nodded.

"This is a good spot, isn't it?" he said with a smile, his high cheekbones rising as he then continued in a polite tone, addressing Ginger. "Mind going away? My sister fancies this seat."

Ginger wasn't too surprised. As soon as these two reached him, he had been expecting the worst already. Why not, right? This was common back home with how limited anything called a good place to live was.

In the spirit of not standing out, Ginger had begun to rise after packing his stuff, when...

Hundreds of eyes were staring at him, all their expectant emotions dying, and turning into disappointment, shame, pity...

This was new.

Ginger had never known this type of compulsion. It wasn't common back home.

He had never been around many of his age.

He had never been egged on indirectly by anticipation, and youthful daring.

It came just as quickly as he had decided just now to back away.

"Go somewhere else."