The Queen charged with blind rage at the creature, and the thick black claws dug into the dirt, barely budging as the Queen hit it with the bulk of its mass. Káel slowly lifted his head to get a look at his saviour, watching as the Vidaean caught the Queen's horn in its menacing antlers and dragged its head into a tree with a hollowed thwack. 

          The Queen didn't give in, tearing its horn from the interlacing bones and attempting to rise above its opponent by standing on its hind legs and throwing out its front hooves to hit the Vidaean square in the face. That was the only attack it managed to get off however, as the Vidaean ducked down and scooped the Queen's front half up, effortlessly ramming it against the closest tree and slamming the flailing warhorse sized unicorn to the ground. It let out a hissing grunt as the Queen snorted and barked out feral growls, pinning its neck and pressing the thick black talons into its throat.

           Káel watched as the once terrifying beast that tried to mow him down stopped flailing, the dark hostility in its eyes softening with a small whimper as it begged for its life. The Vidaean waited a couple painful seconds, giving the Queen a sharp snort as it got off its opponent and stood over Káel again, daring the monster to try at a second go as it rolled to its feet.

          To Káel's surprise it dipped its head in surrender, slowly turning away with a contemptuous snort and skulking back up the hill. Káel rose to his feet, looking at the familiar pink scar running across the Vidaean's nose with a heaving sigh of relief.

          He dipped his head respectfully, and for once on this planet, gave his saviour a genuine smile. "Thanks for saving me, I owe you one."

          He couldn't tell if the Vidaean was glaring at him with its narrowed eyes, or wincing from the smack it received to the nose. Regardless, it looked less than pleased with his presence off the trails, so Káel decided to avoid irritating it further. He turned to walk up the hill and trace his steps back to the trail, but froze when a spike of pain shot up his leg. He scrunched up his face and groaned, gently taking another step.

          The Vidaean clocked him on the head with the tip of its horn, and when it gained his attention it snorted and lowered its front half to the ground, offering a ride.

          "Thanks," Káel sighed, gently climbing onto its back.

    —————    

          While riding the Vidaean, he made sure the creature he rescued was still alive. It was still limp as a mop in his arms, reminding him that he'd ripped the paralysing flower right above its head.

          One of its long fluffy white ears had a deep gash, and there were multiple dirty scrapes and bruises covering its entire body, but nothing life threatening that Káel could see. There was also a chipped metal cuff around its right paw, and judging by the fractured stump of metal sticking out of one side, it was definitely attached to a chain at some point.

          In all, the creature was weird. It had a long tail with a tuft of extra long fur at the end. Four furry, cat-like paws with dirty white nails, two long white floppy ears, and a pair of drooping wings. He also noticed two stubby horns poking out of its head through the thick patches of mud and leaves, which looked pretty cute when paired with its pudgy little nose.

          The Vidaean knew exactly where it was going, and found the trail in no time. Káel was expecting it to boot him off there, but it kindly continued down the path retracing the trail to the forests entrance.

          It wasn't long before the girl came running down the path, and stopped in front of Káel with a gaping expression. Mrs. Vienta came charging around the corner moments later, and nearly collapsed with relief when she saw him.

          "Oh thank Tesirus you're alive!" Mrs. Vienta sighed, clutching her heart while she caught her breath.

          A cluster of students followed suite, spying on the scene from a safe distance to avoid Mrs. Vienta's scolding. Most of them were gawking and discreetly pointing at the Vidaean, while exchanging inaudible whispers. There wasn't a single snicker that Káel caught, eveyone just looked freshly terrified and concerned after hearing the Queen's howls crawling through the forest.

          The Vidaean dropped down for Káel to climb off, waiting for Mrs. Vienta to stop hugging and thanking it before silently departing into the trees.

          She gave Káel a hug of relief, then looked him up and down without the creature in his arms registering as she grabbed his gashed forearm. "Look at you! You're lucky you just escaped with a couple cuts and scrapes! Don't you ever do that again!" She sprayed his arm with some sort of stinging liquid, tying a white bandage around it.

          "Sorry... Uh, what do I do with this by the way?" he said, raising the fluffy white creature up with his free arm.

          Mrs. Vienta looked at the creature and blinked once or twice, her speechless confusion contorting to fear ridden shock at the thing in Káel's arms. "A dragon?! You got chased down by a rampaging Queen to rescue a dragon?!" Her gold eyes focused on the small creature, tracing to the cuff as she bit her lip. "That one's savage, it's definitely dangerous."

          "THIS is a dragon?" He looked at the furry mass with disbelief. "It's pretty tiny." He glanced at it. "And covered in fur."

          She nodded. "It's from the frozen region, can't you tell it's travel sized right now?" She stared at Káel's blank expression. "Do you know anything about dragons?"

          He made an iffy sign with his free hand, and looked at the dragon's cute little snoozing face. "Well, what do I do with it?"

          Mrs. Vienta gave it a good stare, slowly nodding at her own thoughts before they reached her lips. "Leave it right there. The forest will probably take it, but that's life."

          "You want me to leave it to die?" Káel stared at his teacher in heartbroken confusion as she nodded. 

          It was definitely bigger, but he still couldn't fight the thought of carrying Jeremiah from sinking into his mind like a deadly disease as the dragon rested in his arms. It was like leaving an alley cat to die after rescuing it from being run over. 

          What was the point?

          Káel realised he was silently staring at Mrs. Vienta's stern face, he hadn't even budged to listen to her, spare hugging the small creature tighter. There had to be a way for him to at least help it get better.

          An excuse... 

          "I outran a Unicorn," Káel blurted, catching a couple woahs of awe from his snooping classmates. 

          Perfect.

          "So?" Mrs. Vienta retorted, grabbing her hips with a motherly sigh. "I'm glad you outran it, now please put the dragon down Mr. Williams."

          "Then that means I nearly died for nothing!" Kael snapped, wincing at the tone that leaked through his words and caused Mrs. Vienta to flinch. Thankfully she didn't get mad like Mr. Mudelin, her arms relaxing as she gave the dragon another, nearly heartbroken, stare.

          "What exactly are you implying?"

          Kael bit at his cheek. He didn't know anything about real life dragons, let alone taking care of them, but he'd certainly be better than the unicorn infested forest at helping it get better. "I saved it, so I at least want to help it get better until it can fly away."

          His teacher squinted, her nose scrunched in hard pressed ponderment as she studied the small dragon again, flicking her gaze to the whispering cluster of students then back down at Kael as her voice fell to a hushed whisper. "Are you a Garaean?"

          Kael watched her in dumbfounded confusion, for once wishing Truvius was standing next to him to make up some sort of alibi. Judging by her serious gaze and low whisper that couldn't have been a good thing, at least not here. Then again, he didn't know what exactly a Garaean was, and Mrs. Vienta could have been trying to catch him in a lie.

          "It's okay," she whispered, gently placing her hands on Kael's shoulders as he went completely stiff. "I understand if you're from there, but I just want you to know the dragons from the Garaean Empire are nothing like the ones here." The concern was plain as day on her face when Kael still couldn't cook up a response. "Are you sure you want to take care of that?"

          He looked down at the fluffy dragon, taking in its harmless features. "It's not like it's the size of a house, I can't imagine it seriously maiming someone."

          "Don't jinx it," Mrs. Vienta retorted, sliding her hands off Kael's shoulders. "So you're sure then?"

          Kael gave her a quick nod. 

          Her voice rose to a teacherly boom so she could catch every student in the vicinity with her statement. "Very well, you rescued it, so I'll leave it up to you." She raised her finger before Káel could deliver a thank you. "But if you plan on helping it get better, please do not endanger the other students with it, or outside it goes." 

          She gave the dragon an apprehensive glance, biting her cheek as the regret jumped in and out of her gaze in a confused dance. Eventually the torn emotions settled as she gently closed her eyes with a nod, glancing over her shoulder at the cluster of students that shuffled away upon being spotted.

          "We're going inside now."

          Mrs. Vienta's crunching steps faded away, allowing Káel to soak in the silence of torn regret and give the dragon a long, hard stare. 

          It was too cute to be evil, and since he rescued it, it was his responsibility. 

          Besides, he thought, what reason would it have to hate me?

          The girl joined his side and rubbed the dragon's forehead. "You're lucky the Queen whiffed in some of the paralysing poison, or you would have been skewered in no time."

          Káel gulped at the blunt statement.

          She yawned, and pulled a couple leafs out of her messy brown hair, brushing some dirt off Káel's shoulder in a sad attempt to clean him off. "You should keep him, dragons are pretty smart, and this one might have a translator." She grabbed the chain hugging its arm and rubbed its grimy surface. "But don't take off that cuff unless you know he's not gonna eat you. The dragon hunters put it on him for a reason." She rubbed her eyes drowsily and paused to think. "Oh yeah, my names Alestra... I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I?"

          Alestra yawned again and made her departure, while Talli came running from the crowd of students, pulling Vera by the arm along with her. Vera took one look at Káel, and the scratches and twigs covering him, a single eyebrow twitching upwards in dead judgement. "Wow..."

          "I-It's soo cute!" Talli squeaked, lightly pulling the dragon out of Káel's arms and hugging it.

          "Yeah, until it burns your face off." Vera cut in, pulling the dragon away from Talli's suffocating hugs and cradling it in her arms as she smiled at Káel. "You're in for a ride when this thing wakes up. It's probably a Nomad."

          The girls walked away cuddling the unconscious dragon, while Káel slowly walked behind them, masking every spike of pain shooting up his leg with a permanent squint. When they got back inside, the teacher had to confiscate the dragon from a hoard of curious teenagers, so she could gain the classes attention and go over the procedures when encountering a pack of unicorns. 

          There was no surprise as to why she decided to bring that up.

    —————    

          Káel sacrificed one of his pillows when he got to his room, so he could place the unconscious dragon in the furthest corner Truvius could find, and leave a small bowl of water beside it.

          After shooing his bird out the window, Truvius washed the dragon's wounded ear and brushed the dirt out of its fur, rubbing a green spread over most of its bleeding scrapes and wrapping them up with fresh linen. After a quick drying enchantment, the soggy dragon resembled a puffy white cloud, almost blending in with the brilliant white pillow it was on. 

          Truvius gave his work a satisfied sigh, sitting beside Káel on the edge of his bed as they stared at the dragon. "He's got a broken wing, but I'm bad at healing so there's not much I can do."

          The two boys sat in silence, contemplating the amount of trouble they had committed themselves to. Káel was tempted to take a picture of the cute ball of fluff, but resisted the urge under the heavy atmosphere his roommate was leaking, opting instead for a question that was nagging him. "What's a dragon hunter?"

          Truvius shrugged. "They hunt dragons down, usually for trophies and money. This one was probably beaten down until its magic was exhausted and it was forced into 'travel size' so they could cuff it with some Dalem Stone." He caught on to Káel's confusion for once. "Dalem stones eat magic, and in some cases, Lumience. The dragon hunters that caught this one probably wanted to sell it to rich nobles as a displayable pet, since a clear coat like that is rare enough to fetch a high price." Truvius got to his feet, grabbing the dragon's paw and squishing it to reveal five sharp talons. "This one's lucky they didn't pull his claws out." 

          With that he calmly went to his closet, pulling his uniform to get changed like everything was fine and dandy, despite his clear tenseness towards the new guest.

          Káel remained seated, the guilt worming through his chest as he felt even worse for the dragon now. It had every right to hate him if its only impression of humans were dragon hunters.

    —————    

          Káel had five minutes to shake the forest debris out of his hair and change into his uniform, before Truvius forcefully dragged him out the door and speed walked him to their next class; which was torture on his foot.

          Most of his classmates swarmed him at the door, asking what he did with the little fluffy dragon, and what it was like being chased by a bloodthirsty unicorn. The latter of which, he didn't feel like reminiscing upon.

          Of course being interrogated helped Káel learn some of his classmates names, but getting to know everyone hadn't even been on his mind since waking up to an alien school. He just wanted to sit down so pain would stop shooting up his leg.

          Truvius managed to shut them up by inviting them to look at it from their door, but added that it wouldn't be his fault if the dragon decided to eat them. Given Truviu's naturally loud voice, his invitation managed to reach the teacher, who was across the room and eagerly soaking up the gossip around her. She started the class by asking if their physical combat class was fun, followed by handing Káel a slip of paper with directions to the nursing quarters, then enthusiastically revealing a cart stacked with books to the class.

          Káel assumed the class was some form of language arts, judging by the thin fairytale he'd been gifted. For once he was faced with a good perk to being on the planet, he wouldn't have to worry about analyzing bland life stories and Shakespeare anymore, given that fantasy was Lumi's reality. But the one perk hardly outweighed every other torturing detail haunting his new life.

          When class ended, Káel and Truvius were tailed by over a dozen of their classmates, and Sev had to follow them to make sure none of the girls went into their room. Truvius quietly opened the door, looking back at Káel timidly.

          As they walked in, they both looked at the empty pillow in the corner of their room and froze.

          "Uh oh," Truvius muttered.

          The students leaned in through the doorway to get a better look, while Káel and Truvius slowly searched the space for a fluffy white dragon. Truvius cleared his side of the room and ran to check the study room, while Káel approached his bed to look under it, realising he didn't have to when he saw a tuft of white hair peeking out.

          He stared at the motionless white tuft for a couple seconds. "I think I found it."

          As soon as he turned his head to catch Truvius' attention and point at it, the tiny dragon lashed out from under the bed, latching onto Káel's boot with its front paws, and gnawing at the tip of his shoe with its pointy teeth. Luckily enough, it couldn't get through the thick leather. 

          Unfortunately, it could get through the fabric of his pants, as it grabbed his pant leg for a better grip and dug its prickly talons into his skin.

          He tried to shake it off his injured foot, but the dragon had its talons securely hooked in, and he wasn't about to touch the thing. He walked backwards, dragging the dopey dragon across the ground like a limp mop, when Truvius came running with a blanket. It continued with its objective in trying to eat the front of Káel's shoe, until it saw Truvius's plan and shot a tiny burst of fire at him.

          The students at the door erupted into a gale of grinding laughter, the entire cluster trying to yell bits of advice at Káel over one another, but kicking it off or picking it up didn't appeal to him.

          When the commotion reached its peak, and the dragon was getting dangerously close to ripping a gash across Kael's leg, Sev pushed past the students and walked up to the dragon, effortlessly snatching it by the scruff, and tearing off Káel's shoe in the process. He glared at the boot munching dragon with displeasure, his unamused glare causing Truvius to shrink away and Kael to cringe. "I hope this is your guardian, or you have some serious explainin' to do."

          Kael raised his hand to pull Sev's attention. "Er, no sir. I'm taking care of it until it gets better."

          Sev dropped the dragon back on its pillow, and clapped the loose fur off his hands. "If I see a single thing on fire, that's not supposed to be on fire, he's out of here. Got it?"

          "Well..."

          "Got it!" Truvius blurted, before Káel could protest.

          "Good." He shooed the students away from the door, glancing over his shoulder and motioning for the two to watch the dragon, before slamming it.

          The dragon gave Truvius and Káel a threatening look, dragging the shoe by its laces over to the pillow in the corner where it rolled over with the sole as a head rest, and fell asleep.

          After a good five minutes to steady his leaping heart, Truvius threw Káel's blanket back on his bed, ignoring the small tint of brown near the center from the dragon's outburst. He looked at the dragon with a sharp sigh, patting Kael's shoulder as he shook his head consolingly. "I don't think you're getting your shoe back." 

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5/7/2018