In Part 3 (Ch. 18-25), our narrator became more comfortable with what she is, now that she knows it. She’s still not ready to fight to survive, but she’s ready to learn how, even if that means telling other people.
I’m not sure exactly who spoke with my principal, or what they said, but apparently it’s “imperative that my new schedule starts immediately.” Which means I need to do make-up work for everything after lunch on Wednesdays, including today.
I’ve never actually practiced fighting and honestly haven’t even spent much time in either stadium. There’s a big gathering at the end of every semester when the combat students do their exams in the outdoor stadium, but I’m not that interested and I’d have to miss school anyway to go, so I haven’t seen it in years. Today’s exercise, spending the afternoon with a bunch of people several years older than me for the purpose of learning how to fight, sounds frankly intimidating. Although it’s still less scary than the idea of being completely unprepared when people several centuries older than me come to town with the purpose of killing me.
“Wish me luck?” I request of my friends before heading out. Jess and Shannon nod, but Alex frowns. We haven’t told her yet why I’m doing this. I address her: “You’ll probably find out why before I can tell you tomorrow.”
“You can’t tell me now?”
I already thought this through. When she finds out, she’s almost certain to scream it at the top of her lungs. Regardless of who tells her. So, no, not yet. I shake my head.
“It’d better be good,” Alex states, squinting at me.
“I wish you could watch today.”
Per directions from my principal, I head to the gym locker room and change into my gym uniform before walking out to the stadium. I keep my coat, though. It’s easier to stay warm if more air is trapped near my body.
The walk to the stadium is cold and kinda long, since the stadiums are on the other side of the road. I spot some high schoolers outdoors as I walk, but I think I’m a little early compared to the people I’ll be training with; my destination building is empty save for the instructor: an older man with hair a little darker blue than mine. I can only tell he’s the teacher because he’s wearing a DF uniform.
The man doesn’t even wait for me to get close before belting, “Emilie, is it? Don’t be shy; it’s just me.” I guess he knew I’d be nervous. I continue to walk until he’s about six feet away. I don’t use it all that often, but as it turns out I can actually make precise distance measurements with my heat sense. Makes sense, considering how spells work for Dragons.
“Dante said you’d be attending today. She also told me why.” He lightly shakes his head. “Not many things get to the head of the battle mages, but she seemed honestly scared. Not of you; she made that clear.”
I sigh in relief.
“Now, you’ll be training with a bunch of other students. I can make allowances for your age and inexperience, but I do expect to see improvement. As for the other students: you need to expect them to tease you for your age and skills. Please don’t take it out on them. I can punish misbehavior in a better way than you sending them to the hospital. And the same goes for you: don’t let me catch you bullying others, either.”
I take a deep breath. “Okay.” I’ve never had to deal with that sort of thing before, even after Alex’s start-of-school announcement, but I bet Al and Jess had something to do with that, now that I think about it.
A boy’s voice erupts from the edge of the field behind me. “Yo, Coach! What’s with the pipsqueak?”
The “coach” shouts back, “She’ll be training with you from now on!”
“I don’t need to be insulted to train harder!”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it! You’ll do what I say or you’ll go back to class!”
The boy doesn’t respond, so I guess that was effective. I’d rather be in class, but the threat wasn’t meant for me.
“Right, names,” the instructor continues. “I’m Chris Manning, level one battle mage.” I don’t know what that rank means but I’ll guess it’s good. “I’d prefer if you called me ‘Mr. Manning’ or just ‘Manning,’ but I’ll take ‘Coach’ if you can’t remember my name.”
“Okay, Mr. Manning,” I respond.
“As for everyone else, I’m sure you’ll learn their names in time. I usually work with last names, so listen up for ‘Gaschler.’”
“Got it.”
Mr. Manning had me sit facing him as everyone else came in. I’m not sure why, but then again I guess there aren’t exactly records anymore of what Dragons can do for sure. But I bet he wants to test a guess. “Alright, now you can stand up and face them.” Or maybe he just wanted to cut down on the questions. “Class, this is Gaschler. She will be training with you from now on, based on a personal recommendation from my boss. Now, before we get started today, I will attempt to address all of your questions. Gaschler.”
“Yes?” I turn to face him.
“No, keep facing the class.” I turn back around. “How old are you?”
“Eleven.” My birthday is next month, but I don’t add that.
“What grade are you in?”
“Sixth.”
“Have you ever done a sparring match?”
“No.” I’ve watched Jess a couple times, but that’s about it.
“Do you want to be here?”
“Not particularly.” If I could prepare any other way…
“I thank you for your honesty. Now, can you show the class why you’re here?”
I had a feeling this was going to happen today in some way, so my feather is tucked inside my coat. I brought it to school in my backpack; good thing it’s basically indestructible. No amount of bending it even makes a mark, though that’s not to say it’s any harder to bend than any other feather of a similar size.
I remove my coat, putting it on the ground beside Mr. Manning along with my string necklace and take my feather to a spot about thirty feet behind him. I’ve only transformed five times and usually while standing on a rock, but this specifically is what I’ve been preparing myself to do all day. Shifting is far from second nature to me, but it no longer takes a lot of effort. Grasp the feather, close my eyes, picture my larger self and shift. And try not to pound the ground with locked forelegs because that can hurt.
In the forest, my expanded range means that I can sense more forest as well as what might be a town that doesn’t appear on any map. Maybe I’ll look into that later. In town—I think I can sense all of Blacksburg. Well, maybe not all of it. I can tell that the walls exit my range over to the west. But a lot of it. Thankfully all of this isn’t overwhelming because it’s the same amount of information as with the forest, just with different numbers.
Opening my eyes, I see a small crowd far more shocked than I think Shannon ever was. And I’m kind of looming over Mr. Manning. I take a step back so he doesn’t have to crane his neck so much.
As I finish my step back, a Wizard boy speaks up. “You mean that little girl can turn into a Dragon!?”
«No, I am a Dragon. Even when I’m small.» I’m sending my thoughts to the whole crowd in front of me.
“You can talk?” the boy responds.
«Yes, but it’s hard to hide that I’m human when I do, so most Dragons don’t.»
“I thought you just said you’re a Dragon.”
«You’re a Wizard. Are you a human?»
The rest of the class laughs, and the boy blushes. I didn’t mean to embarrass him, but that was a bad question.
One particularly athletic girl with golden hair speaks next. “Coach Manning, how long has the Defense Force known about this?”
Mr. Manning finally snaps out of it and turns to the speaker to answer. “Since yesterday, as far as I know. But all we knew was that Gaschler claimed to be a Dragon. Never in my life did I think I’d see one. Not this close, anyway.”
Another teen speaks up. “Speaking of which, why aren’t you attacking us? Aren’t Dragons supposed to be more, y’know, hostile?”
«Not all of them are!» There’s Akiko at the very least. And me.
“Then why haven’t we heard of them?”
«Most of them are dead, which is why I need to learn how to fight.»
Mr. Manning nods at me. “And that matches Dante’s recommendation. Now that we’ve come full circle… do you plan to train in that form?”
I have thought about this. «I think I need to know how to fight in both forms.»
“I’ll have to think about how to train you in this larger form, so for now, could you end the spell?”
I’ll correct him later. I shift back to being small and immediately cast Fred’s Thermal Regulator against the cold. Then I stand and walk back to my coat.
“What’s with the feather?” the same Wizard as before asks.
I don’t know how best to explain. “It’s important to me?”
“Important how?”
“Warmups! Now!” I think Mr. Manning wants to actually do his job today.
So, it seems the less-than-tactful Wizard is named Murphy, and the golden-haired girl is Dynamic and named Robertson. Last names, I mean. Nobody really used first names today.
Because I’ve never put a ton of emphasis on exercising, I spent much of the training time just watching the others. Mr. Manning tried to push me harder when I told him how long my flights usually last, but maybe my larger form just starts out more in shape or something. So instead he gave me homework of running from my house to the DF building every day. That’s a couple of miles, but I don’t think he’d reduce it if I told him.
High school lets out before middle school, so I’ll still have class once I get back, but I’m in no hurry. “Gaschler!” I hear from Robertson, who’s only a short way behind me.
“Yes?” I respond, slowing a little.
She jogs lightly to catch up. “Just… some advice. Have you thought about putting your hair up?”
I shrug. “I do sometimes.” Whenever I feel like it. I don’t have a set style; my hair is slightly wavy, so I think it looks fine in most styles.
“Maybe try it when you’re working out. It’ll help keep you cool.”
I didn’t really notice thanks to Fred’s Thermal Regulator, but I did feel the sweat and it’s not close to humid right now. “Okay. That makes sense. Thanks!”
Robertson nods. “No problem. It’s not just Manning who can teach, you know. While there are fitness classes like today sometimes, the course is also about being a team. I’m sure most people can help if you just ask.”
“Oh, okay! Although…” I trail off. “I don’t know much about fighting, either.”
“I gathered as much when you said you’d never sparred before,” Robertson replies as she shakes her head. “I’m sure you’re good at something.”
“Biology and Dragons, mostly.” I read a lot, but mostly on those two. Especially once I could read the Mymoir.
“See! And I’m sure you could teach us a lot on those. You’ll find your place; I guarantee it.”
I can’t help but smile as I wave her goodbye.
Enjoyable as always!