The Odd Dragon Out: Reckoning of the Cinder-Born

Several hundreds of First Years, all led by several Professors made their way from the Frost Mount's Tooth to the actual mountain that was behind it a considerable distance away.

The burly freak of nature, with the visible chill at its tip, suddenly gained a new presence of intimidation once all the First Years were told they were going to have to scale it for their Second Burning.

Ginger looked at the giant mass.

There was a massive hollow that could be seen on its face. He had seen this back when he first came to the school.

Nothing could be spotted inside it, but he heard a few passing students from other classes say that any semblance of what was hidden inside the hollow could only be seen by mobilizing Kardia to the eyes.

Of course, Ginger and the other First Years couldn't do that yet.

That said, it seemed everyone other than him knew about the thing located in that hollow.

The Rebounding Seether.

'"Argh..." Ginger grumbled as he took lazy steps. He was so tired and irritated.

His mood only grew worse when one of the First Years from another class rushed up in front of him, stared him deep in the eye, and then ran off to a group of his peers who were waiting for him while yelling, "They really are round! I saw it!"

Ginger balled his hands into fists and took heavy breaths.

He was so angry, but there was nothing he could do about this.

Several Professors were leading them, yet none paid attention to anything that had to do with Ginger.

'Great...' Ginger thought. 'I have to endure this the whole way...'

The image of this crushed him. Worse yet, his mind immediately expelled every dark thought he had.

One such thought was Fillys' words. As hard as it was to admit, they rattled him.

The bet she and her brother, Alcaeus, had going on...

What if one of them was right?

What if his Kardia was so weak that it didn't fall under any type? He was half-human after all, and it seemed dragons thought humans made the worst hybrids with their kind.

Perhaps this was the better outcome. What if he was burned alive? Fillys had said the Second Burning was different from the first. Did it use a larger flame?

Ginger bit his upper lip.

He turned more nervous than sad. Despite his courageous stance yesterday in the dorms against Vassilis, he was praying that at least, he had an aptitude for something. Even if his scales depicted that he had low potential, at least...

At least if he could have enough potential to become a full-fledged dragon that was somewhat decent.

Right! It was all about finesse. That was what he cared about.

Ancor wasn't the strongest Shaman, but he sure was outstanding in certain regards. That was why Ginger always called him the best Shaman.

'It's going to be alright. It's going to be alright,' Ginger told himself while taking several heavy breaths.

Again, the fact that he was very much alone was stressed by how the other First Years were walking in groups or pairs sharing their fears and anticipation.

Ginger could only drown in his.

He spotted the lazy-eyed Caron, also walking alone, but Ginger was sure the redhead preferred the company of her ownthoughts, and she rarely interacted with the others in First Blue.

A boy named Kairos from his class, was also walking on his own, but he was like Caron too, only, people avoided him and he just didn't care. At least not now.

Several other First Years were also walking alone while gazing up at the mountain. Ginger felt a grating fury towards them all. It was unreasonable, but he felt it justified in his head.

Why were they all indulging themselves in solitude so carelessly?

Only he was supposed to be alone right now because he couldn't have any friends?

Caron had a pretty face. Kairos was pretty smart... as far as Ginger recalled. What did they have to sulk about?

By the time the several Professors that led the nervous horde reached the foot of the mountain where the large, neat collection of buildings in the institute ended, Ginger was already feeling exhausted with his thoughts.

He raised his head and saw the figure of the Violet Dragon on the wall. His eyes shone with interest for the first time today.

Because he had never been this far within the school grounds before, Ginger hadn't managed to get a clear view of the last two dragon statues that couldn't be seen clearly from the entrance.

The Violet Dragon was... strange. It was massive, of course, but its body didn't feature any wings. It had a large, thick tail, and limbs that looked more like a lion's. It had a very broad neck that spotted large horns which arched up from its flesh to point at the sky.

Ginger gulped.

To the right side of the wall – before it sank into the mountain – was the Argent Dragon. Ginger thought it had a more standard dragon body, if not much, much lesser bulky. The silvery look of it was very beautiful, especially on its head, which was slim and smooth like that of a snake, with two branch-like horns at its top.

'Will I ever be able to do that...' Ginger's mood immediately sank.

"Alright. Watch your footing. While you won't be in danger with any of us here, we will not tolerate anyone falling more than once," Professor Lyall's voice shattered Ginger's thoughts.

Fall?

The students who were already close to breaking from anxiety felt as though they could just faint.

Indeed, the mountain was steep, but a narrow way cut through its center, and curiously, it only became apparent when the First Years got closer.

Ginger imagined it was because the same principles he had overheard about the hollow in the mountain, applied here too. Something that could only be pierced by augmenting vision with Kardia disallowed visual acuity from a distance, but at close range, it probably didn't have any effect.

Soon, the crowds began scaling the mountain.

Since the way was narrow, fitted with crooked steps that required some degree of caution to climb without tying legs in a knot, only a student or two could pass at a time.

Ginger waited.

He wasn't in that much of a hurry.

He yawned and loosened the scarf around his neck.

Everything was becoming uncomfortable. Even the sunlight became irritating, especially when coupled with his fatigue.

'How long will this take?' he thought angrily and scratched his thigh. The sight of Professor Mara ushering students into the pathway also irritated him. It was obvious why.

He suspected that-

A hand suddenly poked Ginger from the back.

It irritated him too.

At first, Ginger ignored it, thinking that it was someone who wanted to poke fun at him. However, the sensation came a second time, and he finally turned with an aggressive, "What?!" only to find that there was no one to look at.

Well, that was until he looked down.

The short figure of Reiss blinked a couple of times.

"What?" Ginger relaxed a little! but reiterated with some annoyance.

"Uh... I... about yesterday..." Reiss said, visibly uncomfortable.

Ginger turned his back to him.

"I know. Even you are disgusted by me, aren't you? The boy from the Wild," Ginger said with a heavy tone.

The plump dragonling felt some attention drawn by his words, but he didn't care.

It was already out, right?

Even the older students knew.

"It would make everything worse for you to be friends with a halfling, wouldn't it?" he went on to say, getting more furious as he saw, in his head, Reiss nod hesitantly, agreeing that indeed, it would be a hassle to be his friend.

Of course. What could Ginger have expected?

It was all fair, right?

Suddenly, Ginger felt himself get dragged to the side by the arm. He almost fell multiple times, as the short dragonling who pulled on him did such a terribly effective job, and soon, the two were a fair distance from other clustered First Years waiting their turn up the mountain.

"Good grief, man!" Reiss said with a frown. "You don't have to carelessly shout it out like that."

Ginger frowned back.

"Why? Why does it matter?" he said.

"Because... because you're not proving anything this way. You're saying all that with pain wtitten all over your face. Trust me. Saying you don't care what others think, and that you are unfazed by what they say with a face like that.... No one will buy it."

As Reiss said this, his expression softened. Ginger's did too.

"Look. I'm sorry. I didn't... I didn't know what to do yesterday. I just didn't expect it, you know? Not that I blame you for not telling anyone. I'm sorry. I wanted to support you, but..." Reiss said with a sigh, his face turning dark.

"I can handle cheering myself up after getting called names and being laughed at, but... I'm not too good at doing that for other people. I wasn't, at least."

Reiss looked Ginger straight in the eye and said his piece firmly.

The plump dragonling was astonished, and embarrassed.

He hadn't thought about it like that.

Reiss seemed to have lived fourteen years of having few to no friends, so maybe he truly did only ever learn to harden himself.

Ginger's shell began to melt.

"I hate making excuses, but you also made it hard for me to come to you sooner. You've been determined to be alone," Reiss said with another sigh. "Still, I made a mistake, and I'll learn from it. Next time, you can count on me. I promise."

The resolute look on Reiss' face almost broke Ginger's drowsiness. The dwarfish dragonling kept staring up at him the whole time.

Ginger secretly bit his upper lip.

"It really doesn't bother you?" he asked with a strained face.

"Good grief, man! The sleep must be getting to your head. Does it look like your face bothers me? I wouldn't be begging for your forgiveness if it did now, would I?"

Ginger unwillingly smiled. A part of him wanted to keep moping around and sulking, but he pushed it aside, and his smile grew wider until a short laugh squeezed out of it.

"You sound like your mom," he said.

Reiss was stunned at first, but then he laughed too.

"I am my mom. Proudly!"

Before the two boys knew it, one of the Professors beckoned to them, and they joined the way up the mountain. Ginger locked eyes with Professor Mara for a moment, but as always, the stoic dragon maintained a perfectly still face, allowing him to extract nothing at all.

For now, the boy didn't mind it though.

Even though not that much was said between himself and Reiss just now, he felt as though he and the dwarfish dragonling had spoken for an hour. A lot of his negative emotions were lost just with that short conversation.

Ginger didn't know it, but it had taken a lot out of Reiss to say all he did. He had suppressed a lot of pride, and hesitation. Still, Ginger appreciated it. The two began talking, starting right where they left off yesterday.

They both felt free during the entire way to the hollow through the mountain, which was a long, cramped way but not nearly as tiring for a dragon.

Ginger heard a few students attempt to get his attention, but with Reiss by his side, he found the strength to ignore them all naturally. The same was true for Reiss.

Even if the bulk of their conversation was Reiss teaching Ginger simple concepts about Ravi, the two were extremely engaged in their discussion.

In fact, the dragonlings were surprised when they suddenly reached their destination.

A fierce golden glow from the vast, circular gap in the mountain – approximately twenty meters in height – caused them to squint.

The hollow wasn't at all what Ginger and Reiss expected it to be. Most of the First Years didn't expect it to be like this either.

They may have known the name Rebounding Seether, but they had vastly underestimated what it was.

A great ghostly flame of an enticing golden hue spun wildly within the hollow. It was set at a deep enough distance to allow the First Years to all stand before it with ample space left to spare.

All around this grand fire, which, as Ginger noticed, boasted some semblance of threatening heat – unlike the one from his First Burning – were large argent scales with a glass-like shine to them. The hollow was covered entirely by them, and each one was thrice as large as a man.

They extended even to where the First Years stood, and despite how these scales looked, their texture was rough.

The glow of the flame seemed to be made more intense by the argent scales. They reflected both the heat and light, emphasizing the full grandeur of Sopphira's legacy.

Professor Lyall hurried to steal the attention of the First Years as soon as they were all in place. She started by introducing what it was that burned behind her as she stood before them all.

"Welcome students, to the Rebounding Seether."