The Dragon Knight Order, page 2
“You won’t feel different for quite some time; in fact most Knights don’t notice the changes until they see their normal friends start to age or when their skin turns pink because they contracted a dragonian rash. In any case it is not an instant ordeal it will take time for the changes to set in.”
Then I said something really stupid. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just let me be a battlemage like the rest of my friends?” I said looking down.
“You have no idea of what you speak of.” He was clearly upset by what I had just said. “As head dragon here at the Academy, I will not accept the first Dragon Knight in twenty five years to be disrespectful enough to suggest he is not ‘cut out’ to join our Order because he wanted to be a battlemage. That is the most pathetic thing I have heard in years. After performing the third contract, a Dragon Knight in training can defeat the average fully trained battlemage. A fully trained Knight with four contracts can defeat a team of battlemages and still have enough energy to take on a legion of regular soldiers. A Dragon Rider which has mastered all contracts can single handedly bring a dragon to its knees. Who ever heard of a Dragon Knight abandoning their training to become a battlemage?”
“I am sorry for saying that. I just don’t understand why you picked me.”
“I am sorry for letting my anger flare like that. Remember, I am a bit out of practice of being a teacher. It will take me some time to regain my former patience, please bear with me.”
“I will… if you can tell me why I was selected to be a Dragon Knight,” I said trying to force him to answer.
“If by selected you mean born, I am sure I can explain the process by which a human is brought into this world.” said the dragon.
“That is not what I mean. I mean, why was I picked to be a Dragon Knight.”
“I already explained that you are born to be a Dragon Knight. It’s not something you are selected to be. We dragons haven’t been able to determine why only a few humans are eligible to become Knights but so far we have come to understand it is usually a matter of genes. Children whose parents are talented in magic have a higher likelihood of becoming Dragon Knights. Dragon Knights that have children are almost guaranteed to become Knights, and not just any Knights, the most powerful Knights ever to exist. As a matter of fact the last Dragon Paladin was the son of two Knights.”
“So it’s because of my parents then?”
“Not always, how do you think the first magicians and Knights came to be? They all came from normal families, but as time went on, these cases became exceedingly rare. In the last two hundred years only seven Knights came from normal families.”
“That still doesn’t explain why I am the only one.”
“You might not be the only one… you might just be the only one to have been discovered. You must understand Alexander, after such a long time the Order started to lose hope that new Knights would be found and withdrew all of the selector dragons from the five academies. I stayed here on a whim and found you only by coincidence. But now that you have shown up I believe the Order will reconsider its decision and actively start to search for new Knights again.”
“You can call me Alex if you want and I sure do hope they find new Knights. I wouldn’t want to be the only Knight in the academy.”
“I am sure you aren’t alone Alex. Now you must get some rest. You have had a long day and an even longer one will ensue tomorrow.”
“But I have more questions.”
“Those can wait until tomorrow.”
The Start
I woke up feeling warm and comfortable. I almost expected the caretakers of the orphanage to walk into the room and tell me it was time to wake up and get ready for morning class. Once I realized no one was coming, I slowly got out of my bed remembering what had transpired yesterday and accepting the fact that this was my life now. Living in the Sky Dome, training with dragons and being acclaimed as a Dragon Knight. Not what I had in mind when I had dreamed of entering the Central Academy.
A presence filled the room, much like at the Ceremony Hall when the dragon had woken up.
“It would seem you have awoken young one,” said the voice of the obsidian dragon.
“How did you know I was awake and how come I can hear you yet I don’t see you? You’re pretty hard to miss,” I said, a little surprised.
“When you are a darkness attribute dragon, you can do a lot of things related to shadows. Projecting my voice or even my form in a shadow is relatively easy. You might achieve it someday if you train correctly. Now enough talk. You should eat, your classes start today.”
I stood up from my bed and looked at my new uniform. It was completely black with the insignia of the Dragon Knights, a dragon spreading its wings with two swords slashed across forming an X on its left side and sleeves.
“Since you are the first Dragon Rider in twenty five years the Chairman and Dragon Council thought it would be prudent to give you battle classes before history and the formation of the Dragon Knights or the Order as we call it. He also suggested I lift the restriction on which dragon types you can make your first deal with. A very dangerous decision given you might not have what it takes to control some of the more powerful attributes such as light, darkness, and time. However, since there is only one of those attributes close by, you can only pick the one that is in front of you.”
I noticed he didn’t bring up yesterday’s issue of me not wanting to be a Knight. Maybe it’s for the best… not to dwell on it, since it appears that there is no way out of this. “So my first contract is with you? I don’t even know what to call you and much less how to make a contract.”
“My name is Shadow. I am what you would call a royal dragon. My lineage can be traced back to the original darkness dragons. Nice to meet you,” he said with a chuckle. “And as for how to make a contract, that will be left for later. All you need to remember is there are three different kinds of contracts: elemental deals which are the basic elements, attributes which are fire, ice, storm and forest, and most importantly the legendary level deals which are usually referred to as light, darkness and time attribute deals. For now we must get you started on your path to become proficient in the art of magic, which is the very essence of a Knight. That is why you are starting your battlemage and healer training much sooner than is normal for a Knight.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, what does a dragon consider normal?” I asked rather amused.
“Ah a sense of humor… good, good. That’s always important when faced with difficult tasks. Well Alex, first of all, to become a Dragon Knight you would normally have to learn the history of how they came to be. Secondly, you would have to learn the effects of deals and what it does to the human body and the sort of power you obtain from a dragon. Next, you learn the historical and theoretical aspects of what it is to be Dragon Knight and start learning the combat disciplines you will be using on a daily basis as a Knight, which range from magic to swordsmanship to archery. You might not think of it as important, but a regular swordsman would shatter the bones in his arm if he ever blocked a direct swing from you. That’s why you need special training and special teachers. The fact that you are a Dragon Knight will affect you to the core of your being. Your body will change and gain a lot more power than it ever has had. All Dragon Knights before you have gone through this. Therefore it is expected of you as well, even if the order you learn it is different than older generations have learned it.”
“Why would I need to learn things I won’t use? Dragons can do practically anything with magic and as a Dragon Knight I can do so with the power I borrow from you,” I said irritated at having to be given special treatment.
“Be that as it may, dragons are a far older, stronger and intelligent species than humans. Just because you can use some of our magic doesn’t put you on par with us. At best, a Dragon Rider could match dragons in strength and only a Dragon Paladin could defeat a dragon on their own. As your history has taught you, there have only been seven examples of a human single handedly killing a dragon. Out of those seven, three died from wounds or casting spells that was too powerful for their bodies to handle. The remaining four barely made it out alive. As for what you can't do, it’s quite simple. As you start learning about magic, you will learn that some spells require more energy than you possess.”
“So if I cast something that consumes more energy than what I have, I could die?” I asked suddenly aware of how dangerous it might be to tamper with magic.
“Exactly, that is why you should be very careful when testing out new spells. For the time being, just do what your teachers tell you. When you’re ready for more energy consuming spells, I will teach them to you personally," said Shadow with an odd expression on his massive face, if it is possible for dragons to have expressions.
“Speaking of which, who are these teachers that will train me?” I asked wondering if any of the three that I met yesterday would be among them.
“That I leave for you to figure out.”
Master Shadow or Master as I was instructed to call him, told me where to go and told me to make sure I pay attention in class as he will quiz me on whatever I was taught today.
"Ah Alex… I am told you will be taking classes with me," said Professor Lirean with a smile on her face. She then went on to say that it was an honor to have the first Dragon Knight in twenty five years assigned to her and that she was going to take care of me. While she talked, I noticed she was a short woman with short hair. She was not exactly what I would call an attractive woman, but she seemed nice, for a teacher that is. As I snapped back to attention, she had started to talk about what I would be doing in battlemage class, which seemed odd because I never expected this short woman to be the battlemage instructor.
“Well, this is the classroom.” It was a large room with a lot of windows that let in plenty of sunlight, and at the center was an arena. “Remember, you are a Dragon Knight, so set an example. You might be happy to know that my class consists of students from group A and group C, the latter being your friends from the orphanage.”
As we walked into the classroom, my presence forced students to stop and look at the new Dragon Knight who was about to partake in classes with them. As I walked next to the teacher, I couldn’t help but hear whispers coming from the others, “Is he really a Dragon Knight?"
“Doesn’t look like much to me."
“I could beat him down so easily if only I had a chance."
Not exactly what you would call a warm welcome.
“Students, you already know who Mr. Kerm is I presume?” I flinched at the Mr. part of the introduction. I knew most Knights were addressed by Mr., Sir, rank or title but I wasn’t used to it yet. “Yes, well,” she continued when they all nodded, “He will be joining us in our classes. You are to treat him as if he were a regular student of our branch. You will be training with him for quite some time so I recommend you become well acquainted with him. He is currently at the same level as all of you as he has not made his first deal yet.”
“Not the same level as all of us professor… Please, to group me with the rest of them is preposterous, as member of the 12 Great Noble families I am easily above anyone here,” said a mean looking boy. He had black hair and brown eyes and was almost the same height as me. He wore a uniform just like the rest, but his emblem was a little different. Instead of the school emblem, which was a dragon’s head, he had one with two swords crossed and a crown on top and it was outlined by a red flame. It looked like mine but without the dragon spreading its wings.
“Yes professor not all of us are the same,” said a second one. He had blond hair and green eyes. It was clear he was a friend of the one who had just spoken. He had the same emblem, except a blue flame outlined his.
“Enough of that Lester. Even if you are a Noble, you and Eric are no better than anyone of the other students here. Say one more word and I promise I will bind you to that set of yours for the rest of the day.” She turned to me and motioned for me to take a seat while she kept talking to the class. “Now for today’s class, I will teach you the most basic water spell in all existence; Aqua oritur. This will make the water from the cups in front of you rise. As you all know or should know, human magic is different from Elven or Irkanian magic. Our magic is manifested through thought-controlled spells, while runes and magical objects control Elven and Irkanian are controlled with words or chants. We only name spells to give the users a concrete idea to focus on. The tricky part is focusing as much as possible on the idea to make the water rise. If you can do that then I will teach you something a bit more advanced. However, I doubt any of you will be able to achieve it today, so please, do not feel discouraged if you can’t do it on your first try. Now repeat, Aqua oritur,” said Professor Lirean.
We all said it a few times and the professor corrected the ones that were saying it wrong. She then gave us the okay to try by ourselves.
For over one hour all we did was say this over and over and over again expecting the water to rise but to no avail.
Just when I was about to give up and join the part of the class that had already given up, a female voice from the back of the room yelled, “I did it! I did it! I did it!”
“So you have! Wonderful and what might I call you young lady?” asked Professor Lirean.
Before I could hear the girl's name I decided to try it one more time.
“Aqua oritur,” I said. And with that, I watched as the water slowly rose, gathered into a small ball and come to a stop in front of me. I was marveling at my water ball when suddenly something pulled at my stomach and I could feel a force beyond my control starting to pull the water away from me. I tried to concentrate harder and I felt the force lightened its pull. A hand landed softly on my shoulder jarring me back into reality, making me lose my concentration and the water dropped back into the cup. It was Professor Lirean.
"It would seem you really were born to be a Dragon Knight," she whispered. Then in a much louder voice she said, "Only four of you managed to control the water. Eric, Lester, Alex and Adria who not only lifted her water, but drained all of Eric's water in front of him too.”
I turned around to look for Adria but she was looking down. It was as if she was trying to avoid my stare, which hurt me a great deal.
Professor Lirean went on to describe multiple uses for using water magic and I couldn’t pay attention because my mind kept drifting to Adria and why she was avoiding me.
After class ended, the professor told the four of us to stay for our extra lesson as a reward for completing the class assignment.
“Well to be honest, I didn't expect anyone in the class to complete the task. It usually takes a long time for beginners to grasp the concept of magic and using the words when they don’t possess any power whatsoever. But the four of you managed to do it. I guess it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise considering two of you belong to the twelve Noble families, one is a natural and the other a Knight.”
“What do you mean by a natural professor?” I asked.
“Are you stupid? A natural is a person who is born with one or more specific traits in magic. Everyone knows that,” snapped Eric.
"That’s putting it vaguely Eric," said Lester. “A natural has a great talent for one or more magical traits. As you should know, there are two types of magic users, elemental magic users and physical users. Elemental users rely on elements, such as water and fire. Physical users are more about tricking the mind and enhancing the body or objects. Some mix both styles but when it comes down to it, it is basically attack and defense magic.”
"That’s right Lester," said Professor Lirean. ”But what I’m sure you don't know is that among the naturals there are those who are far more powerful than the average Nobles in terms of power. I believe Adria is one of those. Her spell of 'Aqua oritur' was powerful enough to draw water from all four cups.”
“But Professor, she didn’t take water from either Lester is or my cup,” I said.
“That’s simple Alex, even without forming your first deal; a Dragon Knight will be magically stronger than any natural or noble house. The House of Vatn is water based and since Lester is from that house, he is resistant to all forms of water-based magic and excels at them. Eric, being from the House of Pyro, is a fire-based battlemage and is sensitive to water based magic. That’s why his water was easily pulled into Adria’s since she was the more powerful of the two. And I am sure you could tell her magic was influencing your by making you have to concentrate harder.”
“What's the extra lesson you wanted to give us professor?” asked Adria speaking for the first time and interrupting the explanation, a habit she had developed as a child.
“I am going to teach you how to control water by just thinking of its name. This is something you won’t be able to master in a single class and will take a considerable amount of practice, eventually you will be able to do so with all forms of magic you learn,” said Professor Lirean slightly annoyed by Adria’s attempt to cut the explanation short.
