Chapter 6- A Dragon Rider Among Dragon Riders

  Jett was walking to his next class in a hurry. Amanda had tried to corner him, but he had slipped away before she could.

  “You have received twelve new messages,” Angie said, her voice emitting at a low volume from his shoulder.

  “Are they all from Amanda?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is she still threatening to tell the others?”

  “The last three, she has been pleading for you to give her a dragon egg. I think you should do it.”

  Jett rolled his eyes, “You know I don’t have any eggs.”

  “No, but you do have a dragon…”

  “Layla is family, we are not giving her away. Plus, she wants the bond.”

  “She may want the bond, but I’m sure we can convince her to take Layla off our hands.”

  “No.”

  “Ugh, you're such a [nice man]!”

  Beside him was a guy with short brown hair in a buzzcut. He was a solid half a foot taller than Jett. It was possible to tell most of the dragon riders from the hopefuls by height alone. Jett had already grown a few inches, but the bond was so new he hadn’t had time to develop as much as the other students.

  The guy grinned, “I see your AI is going through a phase.”

  Jett nodded, “Yeah… sorry about that. I’m Jett.”

  “Kyle err... I mean, Honored Rider Kyle.” He hunched over conspiratorially, “Some of the professors are sticklers for the titles.”

  “Didn’t know that, thanks for the tip.”

  “Sure! Another quick tip, you should really set your AI to silent service. It saves a bunch of resources, and you don’t have to bother with those pesky voice or hand commands.”

  Jett knew about silent service mode. It muted Angie, forcing her to use pattern recognition to anticipate his needs instead of communicating with him. He found it borderline barbaric, and as much as Angie annoyed him, he knew that the benefits of letting her speak her code far outweighed muting her.

  Jett tried not to let the smile fall as she nodded. The two of them filed in with the other students and grabbed a spot next to Kyle.

  Trying to think of something to say, Jett asked, “So what kind of dragon did you bond?”

  Kyle’s smile went wide, “I bonded a brown star. He’s in the dragon pin right now, but I just bonded him this summer. I couldn’t believe it when it happened, but…”

  Kyle’s smile fell, and he awkwardly scratched the back of his head. “I’m sure you’ll get a dragon in no time.”

  Jett was about to correct him when a girl came bouncing over, grinning as her ponytail bobbed, “Hey, Kyle. What are you doing after class?”

  “Oh, hey Lucy. Um, I’m not sure. First day of classes and all, so I’m taking it one step at a time.”

  “Well, you should definitely come out with us. We are exploring the college and checking out one of the restaurants. If you give me your number, I can text you later.”

  “I’m not sure. Later I-”

  Jett couldn’t watch any longer. He nudged Kyle before turning to Lucy, “He was just mentioning to me that he forgot his phone in his dorm room, but if you write down your number, he can text you his.”

  Lucy’s smile lost its luster for a moment as her eyes flicked over to Jett. Then she turned back to Kyle, “Sure, let me write down my number.”

  She pulled out a piece of paper, wrote her number in pink ink, and folded it before sliding it over to Kyle. “I can’t wait to see you tonight.”

  “Yeah, we’ll be there.”

  “Oh, um. We kind of already made a reservation, but maybe we can invite the hopeful next time.”

  Once again, Jett opened his mouth, but Lucy was gone. He turned back to Kyle to find the guy blushing as he read the sparkling pink number.

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  “Oh, I forgot to introduce you to Lucy. She’s a dragon rider, but she bonded with a gold sky dragon named Aura. We met when I helped her move in. She was struggling with a few boxes, and I offered to help.”

  “It looked like she had a thing for you.”

  “What? Her? A thing for me? No, she was just being social. You heard, there will be a bunch of people there.”

  “Alright, Kyle. Don’t forget to text her.”

  “I won’t, and I’ll make sure we include you next time. Some of the dragon riders have a chip on their shoulder, but I’m sure Lucy isn’t that way.”

  “Oh yeah, I meant to mention-”

  “Quiet! Class is starting! My name is Professor Onions. Yes, that is my real name. Now! I hope everyone has been reading up because we are going to have a pop quiz.”

  A round of moans echoed through the room.

  “Yes, yes, get it out now. The test will not be graded, but will give you an idea of where you are in class.”

  Then Professor Onions raised an eyebrow, “Do well enough and I may even allow you to skip the final.”

  Jett could see that the professor’s words had the desired effect as every student sat up or leaned forward to listen. A small slot opened on his desk, and a data pad appeared. He grabbed the pad, and the first question appeared on the screen.

  Jett had passed the hopeful’s entrance exam, but that test had focused on science and mathematics. His understanding of history and law was severely lacking, but that didn’t mean he would give up. This time, he got through all the questions, but once he hit the final submit button, he saw he only got sixty-seven percent right. A little better than guessing odds, but not by much.

  The test took up half the class, and the professor used the second half to go over the syllabus. Once class was over, he started going to his next class, the one he was most excited for. The class that would teach him the gear and tools to be a dragon rider.

  He shuffled in the class and sat as he waited for class to start. Two guys came shuffling in. One of the guys, a burly guy with long curly hair to his shoulders, asked, “Did you get the notes to the law class? I slept in and missed it.”

  His friend, a guy with a buzz cut, laughed, “You didn’t test out of that class?”

  “Nah, I missed the deadline.”

  Jett was feeling charismatic after helping Kyle earlier. He also made friends with Bill, Ashley, and Amanda, even if Amanda was being weird since she found out he was a dragon rider. He had made a bunch of friends, and maybe he could make one more.

  “I can send you a copy of my notes if you want.”

  The curly-haired guy squinted at Jett, “Did I ask you? I’m talking to my friend, mind your own business.”

  Jett was taken aback but shrugged and waited for the class to start. Professor Waldin spent most of the class going over the structure and syllabus for the class. Jett was a bit disappointed they hadn’t covered any of the material, but his disappointment was buoyed when he learned there would be multiple hands-on lessons where they could see the different pieces of equipment. Professor Waldin said he would bring his dragon companion to class to give some examples.

  For lunch, Jett retreated to his room. He was used to being a loner, and his social batteries were spent. He also didn’t want to deal with Amanda right now. He would need to tell his friends, but he needed some time to think it over.

  After lunch was the physical education time. For hopefuls, that meant more of the arduous exercise, but for dragon riders, it was essentially a free period. Jett was allowed to practice with the hopefuls before classes started. He had received an email that told him not to come to the hopeful class.

  It was very nicely worded, emphasizing the instructors on hand “to help him start his first steps in his journey as an Honored Dragon Rider.” There were gyms he could work out in, a library he could use to get a head start on his studies, or there were a few instructors that were assigned to the dragon den.

  The dragon den wasn’t the formal name, but that’s what everyone called the area where the dragons were kept. He also found out it wasn’t one dragon’s den but three.

  Jett walked across campus to the hatchery.

  The hatchery was where all the new dragons, like Layla, stayed. Once she got old enough, she would stay in the bird cage. It was named so because the top was covered with a cover strong enough to catch dragons learning to fly, but thin enough to allow sunlight to stream through. The last was called the aviary, which was located on the second level and opened to the atmosphere so dragons could spread their wings and fly.

  As soon as he entered Layla’s cave, she got up from where she was sunbathing and bounded over to him. Despite only being a short time, she now came up to the middle of his chest. He looked around the room and noticed all the metal blocks were gone, replaced by a slab of meat that looked like it had been nibbled on.

  Layla’s eyes followed his, ‘Mamma more block!’

  “You want more blocks?” Layla nodded before she headbutted him, a subtle reminder that he should be petting her.

  After ten minutes of petting Layla, he walked around until he found a keeper.

  “Hey, I am Rider Knight. My dragon in cave 117 is out of metal cubes. Can you add a few more?”

  The keeper’s eyes went wide. “I apologize, honored ride.”

  The keeper flicked his wrist and navigated through a host of holo-screens.

  “Ah, yes. You are the companion of the black sky dragon. We noticed the mistake and switched her to meat.”

  “Why meat instead of the metal cubes?”

  “Sky dragons evolved to eat meat. It provides them with the nutrients to grow and energy. Most dragons can eat precious metals or gems, but only space dragons are adapted to survive off non-organic material and sunlight.”

  “So what happens if a space dragon eats meat?”

  “They can survive off eating practically anything. They don’t actually need to eat for energy, but metal is better because their dietary system is adapted for it. Organic material is inefficient.”

  “Right… so Layla is a space dragon. So can you bring her some of the metal cubes?”

  “Apologies, rider, but I think you are mistaken. There are no black space dragons. The only black dragons are sky dragons.”

  Jett shook his head, realizing this was getting nowhere. “You said sky dragons can eat metals. Can you provide a stack of metal cubes alongside the meat? She likes chewing on the metal.”

  “I will make a note of it, but too much metal can be dangerous for sky dragons. Even outside their digestive track, their claws and teeth are made for killing creatures, not asteroids.”

  Jett thanked the man after he confirmed a second time that Layla would be getting metal cubes. He never cared about the status of being a dragon rider or what kind of dragon Layla is, but he felt like the misconceptions people had about him were getting out of hand. He looked at his watch and noticed it was getting close to dinner time.

  “I guess it’s time to have a chat with Amanda, Bill, and Ashley.”