The Odd Dragon Out: Reckoning of the Cinder-Born

The next morning began its quick-paced trend with Reiss exclaiming as he looked at the window.

"It's here!" he cried and leaped off the bed so abruptly that Ginger thought he was falling and dived to catch him.

After the two boys untangled on the floor, Reiss rushed to the creature outside the window with a few cross looks to his dorm mates who roared in laughter while getting dressed.

Opening the window, Reiss beamed at the sight of a familiar Olarmander roughly half his size with faded caramel scales. It had a long snout, an extensive lower jaw, and large, fiery eyes that looked at the dwarfish dragonling with pleasant recognition.

"Hello, Junns!" Reiss said as he scooped up the small creature and brought it inside to Ginger. "Look! It's my dad's Olarmander, Junns! I bet he has a message from him."

Ginger looked with interest at the creature, which, while crawling around Reiss' shoulders and showering him with affection, ceased all endearing maneuvers to adopt a fierce look when the plump dragonling tried to pet it.

"I don't recommend that. He's not exactly friendly to anyone outside the family. Most Olarmanders aren't, especially if they haven't been trained," Reiss explained.

"That's one way to start today, I guess," Ginger sighed.

He killed all attraction he had for the creature. This was him trying to learn to be friendlier with friendly monsters. In the Wild, there was no such thing after all.

This wasn't his first time seeing Olarmanders flying in and out of the dorm since the first day of school, however. Many of their dorm mates received messages from their parents; tangible items and such had to be checked though. Apparently, that was one of Ira's many duties.

Speaking of messages...

Junns, the little Olarmander opened his mouth and a bright orange flame spewed out before fizzling into light smoke that slowly swirled around Reiss.

Older dragons could convey messages as such – by stowing a flame within a tamed Olarmander. The smoke was the true essence of the message, revealed only to the intended target.

It was only the target who could hear the voice of the sender.

The short dragon wore a silly, big smile for several moments, then when the smoke vanished, he turned to Ginger.

"My dad wants us to meet this Breather. Well, tomorrow," he said. "Said he had a surprise for me."

"Really?" Ginger said, a tiny bit of sorrow coiling around his heart before he dispelled it. "Are you sure you'll be alive after today?"

Reiss frowned.

It took Ginger a serious apology for the dwarfish dragon to even look at him again after the joke.

"You could come along. If you want," Reiss said moments later.

Ginger paused at the offer and considered.

"I'll think about it," he said.

The two had just taken their baths and had been in the middle of putting on their clothes before Junns came. It was still a bizarre sight to see tens of little boys coming out of the bathroom with their towels or scarves wrapped around their necks.

Ginger, the only one to not care anymore about his cast being free for all to see, often received harrumphs and the occasional "He must think it's something to be proud of" from his dorm mates because of it.

It didn't bother him all that much. He and Reiss were either highly decorated laughing stock or invisible ghosts that didn't exist whenever their fellow mates decided it.

After fiddling with Junns a little more, and passing him a note to return to his father, Reiss showed him out the window and watched him fly away. He promptly finished wearing his uniform, leaving out his tie.

Ginger and the rest of the First Years in this dorm room did the same.

"Is this really what we're going to wear today? Does only removing the tie even help that much?" Ginger asked though he did appreciate not having to willingly put on a glorified noose.

"Probably not. They must have called us to the Garbing and Accoutrement building for a reason, right?"

Shortly after, the boys exited the dorm and went down to the first floor, chattering off in the significantly less active hall. The First Year girls from all the First Year classes were mixed in among them as well.

Several upperclassmen were exiting the building and heading out the school entrance.

Apparently, they didn't need supervision, unlike the First Years. Ginger wouldn't really know the details anyway since he hadn't gone for an outing yet.

He and Reiss followed the group out of the Frost Mount's Tooth and soon enough, they all reached a bland-looking building whose only appeal was its ancient, silvery, even walls.

The Garbing and Accoutrement building was responsible for the production of school uniforms and other apparel reserved for students, among other things. It was because of its production and quality which were so effective and all-encompassing that casual clothing was 'outlawed' outside dormitories.

Madam Agathe enforced the proper dress code with a passion. Rumors had it that she was particularly intense about this during sports season.

A father-daughter pair ran the Garbing and Accoutrement building with the help of dozens of assistant personnel. They were affable souls who did their very best to make students feel comfortable in their presence. They smiled warmly and cracked jokes that only early teens would laugh at, though, even if they weren't funny, the daughter of the pair entranced the young men so much they would laugh at her sneeze.

The same was true for the gentleman, as his deceptively youthful face inspired both respect and blush from the First Year girls.

The pair welcomed the hundreds of First Years into the building which was unsubtle when selling what it was all about; the excessive amount of finished and unfinished drapes and carpeting stacked in the floor and windows was mind-boggling.

Thankfully, the clashing colors weren't an ordeal the students had to endure for long. They were led into a large, bland room on the first floor that spotted three long racks full of hanged pieces of clothing attended to by five other dragons.

The slim, bright-eyed girl whom the First Year boys kept gawking at explained to the students what they were looking at.

"For your exercise today, you will need better attire than your uniforms. However, while it may not seem like it, your uniforms have very important features that no other set of clothing we make have, and so you will have to keep them on in addition to what we'll give you today."

There were a few grumbles.

If today was all about fighting, was it really that necessary to still have uniforms on? It wasn't a secret that they had useful properties, but still.

"Sounds cheap to me. They have nothing better than the uniform?" Ginger heard Fillys, who was within earshot, say. Her brother sneered, "Right?"

Reiss shook his head and whispered something to Ginger after pulling on his sleeve. Whatever was said must have been very funny, because the two laughed so loud that every head turned to them with a frown.

Shortly, the girl up front began calling out the names of several students who she then promptly handed something from the racks.

It looked like a black and grey jumpsuit, not too loose and not too tight.

The three racks had them lined up according to the student's name and class.

"These were made with the measurements of your uniforms in mind. Don't worry. You will find them pretty comfortable even with your uniforms stacked below them," the slim girl explained.

"Oh no..." Ginger's insides collapsed.

"What?" Reiss collapsed.

"My uniform..."

Reiss immediately understood.

Ginger's uniform was rather... tight. Ira was the one who procured one for him, and he hadn't known or bothered to identify Ginger's dimensions. He hadn't thought big enough.

Ginger only endured because the set was the only one he had.

If the suits they were being given were made according to that then...

'It won't rip, will it?' Ginger bit his upper lip.

Reiss didn't know how to comfort him. He did, however, encourage Ginger to take comfort in the fact that those who had emerged from the two changing rooms they had been directed to, had their suits looking a little baggy over them.

This eased Ginger's apprehension a little bit.

Soon, Reiss was called and went to change into his suit.

Soon, Ginger was called forth too.

He was given his own suit, and to his surprise, it felt light and crunched in his grip.

'Will this even help at all?' he wondered while criticizing the fact that he had to wear his school shoes too to a fight.

Was Fillys perhaps right?

Was the school cheap?

Thankfully, when Ginger put on the black and grey suit, he found it to be just as advertised. The moment it covered his entire body, hiding even the collar of his shirt, he felt as though he was wearing a compact yet roomy, light, and extremely comfortable blanket.

He couldn't feel his uniform anymore. Its tightness and that of his shoes disappeared. For a second, Ginger thought it was gone, until he saw the collar to his shirt just below that of the suit.

"This is... amazing," he said when he reached Reiss.

"It is, isn't it?" Reiss said excitedly.

Soon, everyone had worn their suits and the chatter around Ginger and Reiss mirrored how they felt. Everyone was looking rather exhilarated, commenting on each other's appearance.

"This is called Light Gear," a tall, shifty-eyed man announced in a voice so loud and firm it ended the noise. It was the father of the slim girl. He spoke with a gentle, reassuring smile. "I know it is not a sophisticated name, but the simpler, the better I always say. The name of this building should tell you how much we favor straightforwardness."

"Your Light Gear is not only, well, light. It is also very tough despite how it feels under your pinches. Of course, its value is best appreciated when you need it."

Ginger was urged to believe this just by the man's slick cadence. Everyone else was too.

At that moment, two figures walked into the large room.

What alerted everyone to their entrance, was the loud clip-clop of heels casting vibrant waves.

Everyone turned to see Professor Lyall walking towards them, but she wasn't alone.

The students of First Blue groaned.

While their Prime Instructor's appearance told them that it was time to leave for the exercise today, the fact that she was accompanied by someone else implied that said someone else was tagging along.

Perhaps it was logical for this dragon to come, but even Ginger felt heavy at the sight of this particular Professor and his nose twitched uncomfortably.