The Odd Dragon Out: Reckoning of the Cinder-Born

"What am I doing? Well, trying not to burn to death is what I'm doing, Ginger," Ancor had replied to the plump dragonling that one time while making a series of enticing movements with his hands.

Ginger remembered carving each gesture – each swivel of the phalanx – into his head.

Since that day he got an interest in learning about Shamanry.

"This is a simple trick, really. Barely counts as a Charm," Ancor had said when a misty cool almost visible to the naked eye peppered the two of them lightly, and battled the scorching desert heat, making them moan pleasantly while loosely relaxing their muscles.

"Feels good, doesn't it? Once you're ripe enough to wield Fetid Essence, I'll teach it to you, though I thought you wouldn't need to learn something like this. You know, with you being a dragon and all..."

Ginger had always wanted to learn everything Ancor could do.

If only he managed to learn to manipulate Fetid Essence, rather, coerce it, as Ancor always stressed.

If only he could use a fuel to power the hand movements he had engraved in his brain over the abundant number of times Ancor had conditioned the air around them to combat the heat.

Ah, but he did.

It wasn't Fetid Essence.

It wasn't like a porridge that stuck to the body when you first obtained the unrewarding ability to perceive it.

It was much better.

Mana Essence was much better.

Over the more than a dozen minutes it took for the first exercise in Mana Essence Mechanisms and Manipulation to start and end, Ginger had been trying to recall everything his mentor had said and done concerning using Charms.

Instead of conjuring a bright gold light on his fingertip, he decided it was better to quench his inflated, impulsive desire to see if Mana Essence worked well as a substitute for powering Shamanic Charms.

Surely, it was safe.

At worst, the Mana Essence, as Professor Hennigar had described, would stubbornly refuse to bend to his will.

At best, he would summon a soothing cool.

'Just a little bit...' Ginger thought right as things calmed down in class, with everyone taking their seats. He hadn't been paying it all much attention, especially with the Djuka instructor choosing to spectate from his position at the front of the class.

"That's it. I've got it!" the plump dragonling said, and everyone turned him, including Professor Hennigar.

The hundreds of slit-like pupils focusing on him wasn't something Ginger could ignore.

At once, his head shot up and he almost jerked back at having everyone look at him.

His withdrawn focus did not hamper what he was doing though. What he had already done.

Within the palm of Ginger's hands, something emerged.

Perhaps because of the boy's momentary panic, the lingering Mana Essence which he had been making a rough attempt at coercing, pulling it towards himself silently, was made to panic as well.

After all, the effect that occurred, wasn't at a scale intended by Ginger at all.

...And it was no mere misty frost either.

Caron was the first to discern the beginnings of a golden light that erratically danced, hopped, and wagged violently from Ginger's hands and shot up toward the ceiling.

Her eyes bulged, and she subconsciously drew away from him.

The light, which hummed unnervingly, made a sharp turn before it smote the ceiling and darted down, joining its four identical twins, which, much like it, spawned from Ginger's hands before flashing in different directions.

A second or more too late, students close to Ginger had noticed that this wasn't simple light.

It was dangerous.

It was lightning.

Ginger himself was appalled.

The classroom lit up with a bright, sunny gold, and foreboding noise as panic ensued, as well as the beginnings of high-pitched screams.

...

A chaotic, and bloody future was avoided in the nick of time, however.

The Mana Essence in the air seemed to turn heavy around the classroom, and then all visibility was stolen in the next moment, as a deep darkness abruptly appeared.

All in the course of two steady blinks, sharp lights appeared, then pitch darkness, then things returned to normal.

The lightning was gone.

Equally as impactful as its short-lived lifespan, however, was the deathly silence that took its place right after.

Time seemed to stall.

A lot of pale faces stared at Ginger's own, which was whiter than a sheet.

For once, even Reiss was absolutely shocked to the degree that he didn't immediately find a sense of thrill in what Ginger had just done, or any educational value.

Clap. Clap.

Professor Hennigar clapped to gain everyone's attention and time seemed to start moving again.

"How extraordinary," he said, but without a visage that expressed joy or hints of being impressed whatsoever. "Ah, I'm afraid I will have to judge you, boy, as quite inattentive and rash," the Djuka added while giving Ginger a sharp glare.

The plump dragonling's pale cheeks adopted a furious shade of pink and he took back his seat.

He stole a glance at Reiss and Caron.

They had the same look as him, just without the crippling embarrassment.

Of course, the attention on Ginger didn't die down with just Professor Hennigar's comment.

Fillys and Alcaeus for instance, hadn't even heard what he said.

Much like the rest of the class, they were quite... terrified.

To think where they were able to conjure a simple globe of focused Mana Essence, proving that they had managed to obtain the acknowledgment of the Mana Essence around them, Ginger was...

Alcaeus was particularly stricken.

What was that thing that Ginger had said the day his identity and origin were exposed?

'I know the best Shaman there is...!'

The Doukas boy was appalled to learn that that statement actually had some substance!

If comments made that day by his fellow 'true dragons' about what a Shaman could be were true...

All of sudden, a harsh red flame bellowed from before the class, along with a cruel heat that – while ineffective against the students and their uniform – finally made the First Years of First Blue turn from Ginger.

The short, dark-skinned Professor was whirling a great tongue of red fire around him with a visibly annoyed expression.

"I intended to take this one step at a time, but it appears I cannot sustain your attention with the basics anymore," he said testily. "Such advanced applications of Mana Essence... I expected none of you to know these yet, but I suppose rare talents for it exist among the dragons as well."

No one, not even Ginger himself, considered this a compliment. At least not at the moment.

Ginger shrank further into his chair even without the attention on him anymore.

"The reason why dragons aren't the best in power forms like Sorcery is because true Sorcery requires a Mana Axis. A permanent point of convergence between the user and Mana Essence within the body. Because your own bodies already function with Kardia, creating a Mana Axis within them too could prove to be fatal because of the conflict that could erupt between the two."

"As such, what you are supposed to learn up to your Fifth Year is standard to intermediate mechanisms of Mana," Professor Hennigar said, and the coiling flame around him turned stunningly bright with a fierce roar before changing into a pool of water.

The class expressed muffled awe.

Professor Hennigar waved his hands and the pool of water swam behind him and then shot forward towards the students, prompting the majority of them to scream at its sudden lunge.

What leaped at them wasn't a tide, however.

The water had changed form, becoming hundreds of flakes of snow that turned the class into a pleasant, picturesque scape for a few moments. More than a few of the students stuck their tongues out to lick the flakes.

Professor Hennigar was pleased to see that he had mostly succeeded in dragging the attention away from Ginger's display, but he also seemed to remember that he was dealing with children at the end of the day, even if they were dragons.

"Manifesting elements other than fire is something even a non-Sorcerer – an untitled practitioner of Sorcery – can do. What I just demonstrated – the instance where I manifested fire alone – is possible for any of you within a few Strides time..." the Djuka explained, further piquing the students' interest while it was still hot. "Of course, even without Mana Essence you all could produce fire, but access to other elements is very useful."

There was an uproar.

The fact that what Ginger had just done wasn't so special after all, turned the still, slightly-rigid atmosphere in the class all the more lighter.

So that's how it was?

It wasn't even anything exclusive to the dragon born in the Wild?

Then great!

Some of the students in the class turned to sneer at Ginger as though he had just boldly announced that he was a Titan of Sorcery.

Only he still thought and was remorseful about how he had almost maimed a fair amount of his peers, it seemed.

Fillys and Alcaeus were among those who jabbed at him.

It was clear from the relief on their faces that they truly relished in the idea of resuming to express their superiority over Ginger now and then, a tradition that would have been killed off if he was actually able to resist by bullying them with the elements.

Unfortunately for them, Ginger wasn't listening or even looking at them.

Only dark, convoluted thoughts were twisting in his head and at the moment, neither Caron nor Reiss could save him from them.