The Odd Dragon Out: Reckoning of the Cinder-Born

Before he knew it, Ginger was walking towards the golden fire. He didn't dare show hesitation or fear, partly because his fatigue had eaten away at most of his ability to care for anything other than getting this over with, and mainly because he didn't want to give the Doukas siblings something else to laugh about.

Despite the prickling dabs of heat he felt on his skin as he drew near the flame, Ginger found that he wasn't harmed it.

Even when he dove deep into the giant tower of blazing gold, he only felt as though he was in a particularly spicy sauna.

'Alright. So far....so good, I guess...' Ginger thought. He held his flask tight.

It helped that he didn't have to see the hundreds of eyes looking at the fire right now, or else even his fatigue would have temporarily fled.

Remembering what Professor Lyall said, Ginger instantly relaxed his body.

He could already feel himself get... cooked, in a sense.

His body grew increasingly hot, but somehow, this heat charted its way from all around his body and headed to his stok.

A moment later, Ginger felt the Kardia in his sagging stok start to tumble about like boiling water. It was heated furiously, and an instant later, it leaked out.

At first, Ginger thought it was about to suddenly quadruple in volume, as it did during his First Burning, but no.

Instead, the plump dragonling found himself groaning in agony for a completely different reason.

Hot!

It was too hot!

Unlike the mild sensation around his body, his Kardia felt like fiercely heated vapor coursing from the side of his stok towards the back of his right lung.

This was the exact moment Professor Lyall had warned the First Years about. They had to maintain their composure otherwise they would disrupt the process. The heated Kardia was attempting to find the designated outlet point – the second heart.

Ginger successfully kept his body's instinctual reactions in check. He truly felt that if he shifted excessively, the hot Kardia would damage his organs.

In this state, it didn't seem like the Kardia was compatible with any organ other than the second heart, and even then, unless it steadily funneled itself into the glorified blood pump, there was a high risk of damaging it.

The seconds felt like minutes to Ginger.

By the time he felt the hot Kardia stream into his second heart, which surprisingly didn't feel like having an inflamed heart attack – as he had imagined – Ginger thought he had spent at least three minutes in the fire.

'Did I stay for too long?' he thought, a little panicked.

He took a look at his flask. Within the glaring gold, he couldn't really tell if there was anything depicted or not.

'The Kardia reached my heart. I should probably get out... right?' the plump dragonling deliberated, but he was already walking out of the Seether.

The severely diverse color returned to the world as soon as he stepped out.

Ginger found all the attention on him as expected, but by the looks of it, he had exited at just about the right time – contrary to his anxious assumptions.

A moment later, however, Ginger felt the atmosphere change.

Everyone's eyes... sharpened.

Something was wrong.

They all looked at his flask with a similar kind of expression as the one Ginger had seen from Professor Mara when he saw the cast of his scales.

'What?' Ginger asked, his own eyes bulging, and he looked down at the flask in his hands.

Within it, was something truly awe-inspiring.

Professor Lyall's eyes shook, as did those of the other Professors, some of whom squinted and muttered incomprehensibly.

"Is that...?" none other than Professor Edelman spoke, stunned.

Indeed it was.

Settled near the bottom of the flask was a clump of light blue sparks that sputtered, their popping noises made more impactful by the sudden silence.

...And then there was the small pool of deep orange fire below this clump, masquerading as lava!

"..."

"Good grief, Ginger..." Reiss said in awe, a smile creeping on his face.

Like him, the rest of the First Years were absolutely shocked, some having their mouths agape. How could they not be? After all, despite their stance on Ginger's leaked background, reality still stared them in the face.

The halfling from the Wild had two different Kardia types?!

Professor Lyall hurried to Ginger's position just as the silence was shattered.

The plump dragonling was looking at his flask, lost for words. He was trying to remember if there was something he missed from Reiss' or Professor Lyall's explanation.

No, there wasn't.

He was seeing and comprehending this as well as any other student.

He had Collapsing Alien and Pooling types of Kardia!

Ginger's eyes shook.

He didn't know whether to be happy or worried about this.

For one, the looks he was receiving told him that this was either something extra special, or something completely unheard of. He wagered that it was the latter given how no one showed strictly positive reactions.

And for another reason...

'This must definitely be because of...' he thought.

He was sure of it now.

His anomalous condition was definitely the cause of this!

"Are you alright, Ginger?" Professor Lyall handled the dragonling's shoulder and asked.

For once, Ginger saw the concern on his Prime Instructor's face. It didn't show from the change in her facial expressions, but from the look in her eyes.

Only now did Ginger learn how this thick woman expressed her emotion.

"Y-yes, Professor. I'm... fine," he said.

The woman scanned him with her eyes as they lit to a hazel shade. By the looks of it, she didn't find anything wrong.

"I have never seen anything like this, my dear. Your body seems normal and there aren't any unexpected changes. By all accounts, this seems more like a benefit than anything else," Professor Lyall said, her eyes gaining an encouraging twinkle about them.

Ginger felt a warm feeling from these words. A light smile appeared on his face, but he didn't know what to say.

What could he say?

Unfortunately, the Prime Instructor's words to Ginger turned out to have not been private. Everyone who had an ear had heard what she had said, and the reaction from the other First Years was thunderous.

"He really has two types of Kardia? How? That doesn't make any sense!"

"A benefit, she said! How does that land on a halfling?!"

"Is he actually some kind of genius born from a powerful dragon?"

"Curses! Now I wish I was halfling!"

"That's cheating!"

"Isn't that just a worse version of Totality-type Kardia?"

"Did you see it? He has a blue flame! How is that possible?!"

The attitude towards Ginger instantly became more polarised. Some looked at the boy favourably because of Professor Lyall's comment while others burned with even more enmity.

All of a sudden, there was mixed uproar, but it was quickly shut down by Professor Mara who flashed the fierce gleam of his green eyes to the hundreds of First Years, forcing them all to quiet down.

His face didn't betray what he thought of the whole ordeal, and no one had the gall to ask.

Professor Lyall saw the now timid eyes of the First Years and turned back to Ginger.

"I understand there is too much attention. If you like, you can stand here with me until the Second Burning is over," she offered.

Ginger's brows shot up.

That was very generous. He too dreaded what he was to be called this time because of his result.

"Thank you, Professor, but I'm fine with going back," he said with a smile.

The thick woman gave him an appraising stare.

"Alright then." She patted his back.

Ginger walked towards the crowd of First Years who hesitantly parted for him, but it wasn't all out of hostility. Some just wanted to look at him for a second longer.

The plump dragonling declined to spend the next hour or so as a mascot because... he didn't want to spend the next hour or so as a mascot. Also, he felt that abandoning Reiss in the crowd was the worst thing he could do, even if the dwarfish dragonling probably wouldn't mind, considering the circumstances.

On top of that, Ginger recognized that from now on, he was going to stand out more than he already did with his triple-decker of anomalous traits. He might as well get used to it, and try to own it.

Honestly though, the gazes he got were not easy to ignore. Ginger spent most of the way to Reiss looking down and avoiding eye contact.

This was especially so when he mistakenly locked gazes with Fillys and Alcaeus who were scowling and expressing their doubled dislike of him with raised noises.

Of course, there were the scowls that marked their skins too.

A part of Ginger was truly elated to see it.

'So much for your bet...' he thought, a shallow smile creeping on his face for a split second.

When he arrived where Reiss was, the dwarfish dragon animatedly expressed his surprise but didn't utter any words. One look at the others, and he knew that they were itching to prey on their conversation.

Instead, Reiss wore a big smile that creeped out Ginger more than it soothed him.

His friend was likely thinking about studying him, maybe even dissecting him with that look in his eyes.

"Congratulations!" Reiss yelled.

"Thanks. I guess," Ginger said with a laugh.

He still wasn't sure if this was all good, but for now, he did feel a sense of victory.

Who knew this one word Reiss limited himself to could turn his whole mood around?

Before he knew it, Ginger and his friend were compensating for their inability to speculate among themselves by making foolish gestures while staring closely at Ginger's flask which still depicted the two flames.

This, along with the once again boosted morale for the remaining First Years who had yet to go up, seemed to drive the attention away from the two dragonlings.

Quite some time after, the Second Burning concluded, but the excitement spawned in its wake certainly did not.