The Odd Dragon Out: Reckoning of the Cinder-Born

The rest of what followed with the Kartile session was more light-hearted than any of the First Years could have imagined it to be. Instead of the stifling and almost crippling atmosphere that usually hovered over lessons during the day with uptight Professors, the chatter and mostly organized proceedings under Zale's charge made it easy to feel a sense of belonging.

The older members of the Out Course retrieved the rest of the target dummies – four more – from the box Basilia brought, and placed them further away from the other end of the room than the first.

They all then began to demonstrate their impressive attainments in projecting Kardia outside their bodies – with, for instance, the Affixers showing off trick shots with the steel balls that had different kinds of minor Pieyro applied, such as light freezing, which left the dummies glossy with cold; hard impact force that made the dummies bend and slam hard to the floor; unnatural rebound, which forced the steel balls back to the hand of the flinger after a hit.

Alien-types demonstrated similar skills with raw Kardia while gathering up freshmen to give them early tips. Even though the students couldn't see the shots of Kardia zipping through the air, the impact and the effect ingrained in the Kardia manifesting were equally intriguing.

Soon, everyone was chattering excitedly with the most social fiend available, Basilia, who chatted to fellow Affixers, becoming less intimidating the more people talked to her. Reiss vouched for her, to Ginger's surprise.

The plump dragonling lurked, listening in when he could, not too sure if his reputation was as much of a deterrent to him being viewed kindly.

As it turned out, that was the case.

While he was approached and asked many times by seemingly friendly faces if he really was a halfling from the looked-down-upon Wild, Ginger could see the hidden judgment in the eyes of many of his upperclassmen.

It was still strange to him why Cinder-Born looked down on the Wild so much when next to none seemed to have ventured there. Most of them only knew that it was where the humans lived and.... yeah, that was about it.

To make matters worse, because Ginger wore his scarf loose, revealing the cast of his scales, the unspoken judgment he received only mounted.

He almost forgot that he was inferior in more ways than two to the majority of dragonlings at Draggard-Phoenix. Zale, who didn't seem to mind, had almost made him believe his upperclassmen would be more inviting.

Thankfully, others like the gaunt Third Year didn't mind aspects of Ginger's background, but they were few and far between. It almost seemed to Ginger that the Out Course hounds he had been fleeing from all Stride – those doing the arduous recruiting – were also the most open-minded.

The lanky student who had been giving out handouts for the Out Course was quite friendly and outspoken, though a little too much so.

Ginger thought he could have left out the mean poke he made:

'You've got some quality gut fat? Who's your supplier?'

Ginger had a great time all the same though. If anything, this first session – born out of conniving deceit – convinced him that he really wanted to be in Kartile. He couldn't wait to learn how to expel his Kardia properly and learn all kinds of Pieyro. Perhaps he could even get hints as to how to improve on his Custos Zoe here.

"Alright, they won me over. I can't believe I'm saying that," Reiss said when he reunited with Ginger from another one of his expeditions away from his friend.

The dwarfish dragonling was received pretty well, especially by the older female students who viewed his stature and shocking knowledgeability towards pretty much any topic they engaged with him in, extremely... cute.

Ginger could have sworn he saw a beautiful Third Year pick Reiss up like a toddler, and hug him tight. Shockingly, Reiss hadn't shown much resistance.

Ginger wanted to know more about this, but he didn't dare ask.

"Did you know, this Out Course was found in order to encourage Switch-Which?" Reiss said enthusiastically.

"That game you won't shut up about?" Ginger said.

Reiss reeled.

"One of the games I won't shut up about, you mean?" he corrected with a haughty look. "I should have known this Out Course had so much... culture behind it."

"You wanted us to bail an hour ago!" Ginger barked.

"Good grief, Ginger. A man can change his mind!"

At hearing Reiss calling himself a man, a girl close to the two burst out in laughter. The two dragonlings turned instinctively and found – at least Ginger did – that it was the student Fotini had been conversing with when they first came in.

As it turned out, Fotini was still with her, and at seeing her attention diverted to them, he looked oddly irritated, especially when he glanced at Ginger.

The girl approached Reiss, crouched – as she was a little tall – and said something about how he sounded different from how he looked. Reiss entertained her.

Ginger took the chance to approach Fotini.

He might as well. Unlike every faceless upperclassman who was inclined to avoid him and look down on him, Fotini acting like he hadn't been the same Monitor who sympathized with him lacking a uniform for the Assembly that day a Stride ago, pinched him hard.

"Do you have a problem with me now?" he asked outright.

"What?" Fotini looked stunned.

"Does me being a halfling bother you that much? I thought a Monitor like you wouldn't mind."

Fotini's freckled, round face churned at the words. His emerald eyes turned sharp, and the kind, approachable air Ginger remembered him exuding those first days vanished.

He took a step forward, and Ginger had to pair the tall student's image with part of the ceiling overhead. Fotini was also quite tall.

"So what if it does?" he said in a low voice that only Ginger could hear.

The plump dragonling's heart beat fast. He hadn't expected Fotini to be as blunt as he had been when inquiring.

"You're not what I thought you were. That's all there is to it. Did you think I'd feel guilty, unlike everyone else?"

Ginger straightened his back and looked straight into the glinting emerald.

"Yes, I thought you would feel guilty. And I think you do," he said evenly. "You know I'm just like any other dragon that came in this year."

As he watched Fotini look increasingly annoyed with him, Ginger felt all the reasons he could have given as to why he thought confronting Fotini was a good idea, dissipate. His own declaration felt shaky, but he felt that it needed to be said.

Fotini donned a look people usually wore when they were about to split venom, but it quickly disappeared as he looked at the students close by.

Giving Ginger a stern look, he then called over him:

"Hey, Zale! How about we end it here? Better these First Years get to their dorms. Don't want them cutting it close with the curfew now, do we?"

Zale peeked from above his taller peers as everyone quieted down.

"You're right! We don't want to give the Warden another reason to keep her employment. Let's call it a day," he said with a bit of smoke leaving his nostrils.

Fotini dropped his gaze on Ginger, frowned, and then walked from him. He dragged the girl who had still been conversing with Reiss, and they disappeared into the churning crowd.

"What was that all about?" Reiss, who approached Ginger with a strange smile, asked.

"Nothing much really," Ginger replied with his gaze lingering on where he presumed Fotini was in his sight.

*

"Are you sure you can't and you didn't bother to try?"

The next day started with some nagging from Reiss, which Ginger discovered for the first time to be very annoying. Had he not noticed before because the two were still exploring the intricacies of their complementary friendship? Probably.

"You paid attention in Mana Essence Mechanisms and Manipulation, didn't you? Professor Hennigar said it, there's no way we can use Mana Essence for now without him making it easier for us," Ginger said as they stepped onto the Fifth floor behind a group of other First Years.

"You could have at least tried. Maybe infusing Mana Essence into Qin Steel balls could help you use that golden lightning in tandem with a Pieyro from your Kardia! How am I the only one excited about this, Ginger?" Reiss waved his hands while leaping up and down. Ginger sighed.

While the rest of First Blue had mocked him for making them think he was special for using an element on the first lesson of Mana Essence Mechanisms and Manipulation, Reiss was fiercely intrigued by Ginger's abilities, which he truly believed were prodigious. If Zale hadn't come to fetch them from the dorms yesterday...

"I'll keep it in mind when we go for Kartile again," Ginger said, and Reiss finally stopped nagging him.

...Until the two met up with Caron, whose opener for the day fuelled the discussion again.

"I dreamt that I was a prestigious young lady from one of the five Flame Seeker families and you were my loyal Knight," she said dreamily to Ginger. "I remember you had this sort of finishing move. A bolt of golden lightning would come out of your fingers and—"

"Shunting Shamans!" Ginger blocked his ears.

Reiss sniggered.

Again, Caron appeared tired today, but she found the strength to wear down Ginger's sanity with Reiss' help by asking question after question before classes began.

Only when Professor Hennigar walked into class did Caron and Reiss stop, but Ginger wasn't too relieved.

In fact, he both felt that the next few days were going to slog their way to the Breather while also rushing past quickly.

He turned out to be right.