All the students made a spotlight ring around Káel and his new companion when he came into class with it. His silver-uniformed peers weren't as uncomfortable as the purple-uniformed students, who were taken by surprise when he walked in with the bandaged-up ball of cuffed fluff and claws circling his feet.

          Talli was the only student other than Káel that didn't fear the dragon. She had taken Mr. Mudelin's advice in assuming dragons were good until proven otherwise to heart, and was giving him a scratch behind the ears. Thankfully, the dragon accepted her attention instead of trying to eat her hand, since it was more distracted with taking pleasure in the widespread fear it had hit the class with.

          Through the rustle of cautious glares and whispering students, a purple-striped student itching for answers raised his voice above the crowd. "That your Guardian?"

          Káel stared at the boy lazily leaning against the wall and quickly shook his head.

          "He picked it up in the forest while he was being chased by a unicorn," one of the silver students boasted.

          The boy skimmed the crowd of silent students to try and pinpoint the voice, giving up just as fast as he'd lifted his gaze and throwing his next question out for anyone to grab. "What? A real unicorn?"

          "Not just any unicorn," a voice piped up, pulling Káel's attention to the groomed boy standing near the center of the circle surrounding him. His name was Xavier, and he was one of the nosiest classmates Káel had tried to shut up regarding his incident with the Queen. "I heard he outran a Queen."

          Most of the purples did a woah of awe at Káel's feat, while his silver-uniformed classmates grinned with satisfaction at their display of power.

          This was bad. 

          Káel could already feel the whole class's expectation of him steadily rising. He'd been noticed, and in a manner so over justified .

          He was used to escaping large forest creatures, since his uncle would always take him camping, and for some reason, there'd always be an unnecessarily grouchy forest creature twice his size that felt the need to run him up a tree. Most of the time it would be a moose, which was simple enough since they couldn't climb trees, but when a bear would come along to play predator tag, zigzag running and bushwhacking was his only chance. The Queen had actually been one of the easiest to dodge around, he would've been able to escape it through the thick trees if they hadn't been intent on killing him as well. It wasn't a feat at all.

          A sharp whisper met his ears. "Its got a cuff."

          Káel glanced at a thick cluster of students to place the voice, his heart dropping as everyone that caught the statement whispered their agreement, "savage" and "nomad" lacing the air like a malicious curse laid upon his previously attention-less existence.

          "Class has now started, you can gawk at the dragon on your own time," Mr. Mudelin boomed, his cold voice sharper than an executioner's axe to the disapproving conversations of Káel's peers. He slammed the doors, the usual glare greeting Káel and a handful of other students. "I do hope you all brought your guardians today."

          Mr. Mudelin got them all to pair up again, and Káel had to grab Talli, since all the other students were still paranoid that the fun sized dragon sitting at his feet was going to find some way to eat them.

          After the warm up of tongue twisters and funny noises, Mr. Mudelin continued with his test of their current abilities, and made them do some simple attacks. This time he gave the class extremely quick examples before sending them to do it on their own, and more than a couple times he gave Káel a side glance to make sure he was paying attention.

          The first attack looked like a cloudy bubble that exploded into a small puff of mist when it hit the wall. Mr. Mudelin waited a couple seconds for the mist to vanish, then turned from his demonstration towards the class. "Good, now try it on your partners."

          Naturally, the students were surprised by Mr. Mudelin's order to attack their partners, even if it was a bubble, and hesitantly stared at one another. Within the crowd of cautious students, a hand slowly rose.

          "What?" Mr. Mudelin growled.

          All of the students cocked their heads to the boy who was brave enough to question Mr. Mudelin's orders, and Káel recognized the student slouching against the wall. He was more distracted with pinching one of his dreadlocks as he obliviously held his hand up, until Mr. Mudelin cleared his throat and he raised his gaze with a mild expression. "What if we hit their face?"

          The teacher's frown immediately softened, as if he was hiding a contentious grin behind it. "Ah, don't worry. They'll have a chance to hit you back. Now get to work."

          Talli refused to go first, forcing Káel to try and make one of the weird bubbles. To his utter shock the bubble formed, and Talli rewarded him with a little applause before putting her hands in front of her face, clearly showing her complete lack of faith in his aim.

          Káel raised the ball into the air, getting ready to chuck it while the nagging image of it simply vanishing before even leaving his grasp played on repeat in his head. With his luck, Mr. Mudelin would be watching the entire spectacle from the shadows like a mark sucking vampire too. 

          The dragon grunted, nagging him to get on with it, and he chucked the bubble at her shoulder. It bounced off the fabric of her combat suit, and dropped to the ground like a half filled whoopee cushion, where it sat with four pairs of dumbfounded eyes staring at it.

          Phantom pretended to nudge it with his foot, and scratched his head. "What did you do to the poor thing?"

          "M-Maybe you, you didn't throw it h-hard enough." Talli grabbed the bubble off the ground and squeezed it like a stress ball, giving it a strange look. "I don't think it's s-supposed to be this squishy."

          She raised her arm way above her head, and whipped the bubble at the ground with unbelievable velocity. It flattened against the ground like jello pancake, a faint glimmer of yellow pulsing off the thundering crack before it regained its spherical form and whizzed into the air to slam against the ceiling with an equally loud bang.

          The dragon took an interest in the bouncing bubble after it slowed to a harmless bounce, swiping it out of the air to nibble at it like a chew toy. When the stretchy enchantment slipped from its fangs and rolled a couple feet, the dragon went mad, batting the ball through dodging feet and a shower of terrified gasps and yelps. He finally cornered it at the wall next to Káel, trying to fit its entirety inside of its mouth and puncturing the stretchy film to release a spray of white mist that shot down its throat. The dragon gagged rather audibly, sneezing out little white clouds with a surprised warble counting every disturbance.

          Káel looked around to make sure nobody had witnessed the scene, unsurprisingly met with the entire class' partial attention while they sat torn between following Mr. Mudelin's orders, and staring at the utter disaster dubbed Káel's life. As he flicked his gaze through the crowd he accidentally caught Mr. Mudelin's gaze, his stomach twisting from the nerves when the teacher cocked his eyebrows.

          He whipped his head down to hide from the predator's searing gaze, staring at Talli in wide eyed panic, which immediately drew a nervous blush from her. "Your turn."

          She answered with a sharp nod, muttering into her cupped hands to quickly form her own bubble. She painfully raised the harmless enchantment, getting ready to throw with a mysterious glint of worry hiding behind the usual panic in her eyes. "Ready?"

          Káel nodded.

          She squinted, a mask of dread clouding her nervous frown as the ball in her hand gained a yellow glow. Káel had barely noticed the disturbance before she squeezed her eyes shut, pitching the object with a fluent swing so it was visible for a split second. If a massive gush of near death turbulence hadn't blown right past his head, he wouldn't have guessed Talli had thrown it. 

          A gunshot crack rang out as it hit the wall behind him, but Káel had to suffer a quick glance to make sure that was the case, and one of their unsuspecting classmates hadn't taken the shot.

          Phantom glanced to where a couple of the students were viewing the slightly dented wall, a small yet faded cluster of mist was still lingering in the fractured stone. His shoulders shook with a rising snicker. "Holy crap, you're gonna die."

          "I'm so sorry! I-I missed," Talli squeaked, gluing her eyes to the floor with a distraught frown.

          "Thank god," Káel sighed, his heart still leaping from the vigorous sensation that had tossed his messy hair to one side, and would've likely taken his head if he'd been half a foot to the right. 

          He gave the wall a breathless laugh as Mr. Mudelin stood there patching up the cracks with his gibberish spell mutters, running his fingers through his hair to pull the stabbing bangs out of his eyes and erase the cold sweat condensing at his hairline. 

          "I'm a bit of a wimp," he quickly blurted, hiding his fidgeting stutter with another laugh. "So could you maybe throw it a little lighter?"

          Talli turned into a tomato with legs from the embarrassment, her eyes retreating to the floor once more as she pinched at her hands. "I-I'll try..."

          The class went on, the types of attacks changing every few minutes, yet still sticking to the fairly harmless theme. Talli managed to give Káel a couple good whacks, and almost decapitated him with a stick, but he was forced to remain her partner. She'd apologized past the point of sincerity, and was intent on telling Káel it wasn't her intention to give him a near death experiences every five minutes, but her reassurance, paired with Mr. Mudelin's lack overall lack of care, completely failed to comfort Káel.

          Phantom mainly amused himself through irritating the dragon, but whenever Káel messed up a word he was saying, he would correct him without fail, and of course let loose an ageless cackle at Káel's mortified facial expressions when a stick got a little too close to his vitals. The end of class eventually came after an eternity of glancing at the clock, and he hadn't done a single spell perfectly, or passably. 

          He could feel his chances of expulsion growing with each scribble Mr. Mudelin made on his tacky wooden clip board, and now, if Vera's assumptions were correct,  he'd be stuck with a sassy little dragon to fend for himself in the alien wilderness.

          Káel glanced at his feet to pinpoint the dragon, but it had completely abandoned ship, with a wave of timid gasps as it casually strolled through the class, dodging a couple kicks in its adventure to find some entertainment. It eventually reached its goal when it tackled an unsuspecting dog, bolting off in a lighthearted game of tag as a multitude of the surrounding guardians joined in, causing a charade of creatures to run frantically around the room while tackling one another.

          Mr. Mudelin wasn't impressed by this spectacle, but took the entertainment as an opportunity to pick out the ones who couldn't control their Guardians, which summed up to be quite the amount. By the time he was supposed to dismiss them, he had to wait a few extra minutes for everyone to get their Guardians back, and longer still for Káel to give up on calling the dragon back to his side.

          When everyone spare Truvius, Vera, and Talli had left the room, Káel was still trying to chase down the dragon and catch it. The dragon, assuming he'd simply joined the game, was dodging his swipes like an agile cat, and ducking through small obstacles to lose him. Mr. Mudelin eventually joined the fray, throwing up a forcefield for the dragon to run face first into, while his guardian jumped the dragon from behind and pinned it to the ground with its velvety wings. He then grabbed the dragon by the scruff of the neck and held it up to his face like a sack, the cold frown warmed with a hint of entertainment. 

          "Game's over," he said plainly, giving the dragon a little head rub before dropping it back on the ground.

          Káel awkwardly thanked him, turning to run after his friends who were already closing the classroom door behind them, when Mr. Mudelin spoke again. 

          "Hold on, may I ask you something?"

          Káel pounded his foot into the ground to quickly stop his jog, twisting to face the teacher while he glanced at his departing acquaintances, his expression falling as the doors clicked. "Sure?"

          "It is a bit odd that you rescued a dragon, especially one of that caliber, and didn't see a single thing wrong with doing it." Mr. Mudelin casually looked down at the fluffy white dragon grooming it's paws. "This may be an intrusive question, but where are you from?"

          Káel froze, his eyes darting left and right. "Lumi...?"

          "That's specific," Phantom chuckled. "Why don't you tell him you're from Earth?"

          That was a strange remark, Kael thought. He never told Phantom where he was from.

          "Might I ask where in Lumi?"

          The stiff fear clutching his chest squeezed a laugh out of his throat as he thought. 

          Lumi seems pretty big... so this guy wouldn't be able to tell if I made up a place. 

          He flicked his gaze up to the teacher, his lips rising into a painful smile while his head shrank into his shoulders. "Canada!"

          Mr. Mudelin blinked questionably, his face relaxing back to its monotonous state before the confusion showed elsewhere. "Canada? I've never heard of such a place. Is it in Shazukan?"

          Káel looked to Phantom pleadingly for an alibi.

          "Don't look at me, I've been stuck in a rock a couple thousand years, I'm more likely to have you spouting out the names of ancient cities than any land currently existing here."

          Káel sighed, giving another part of the room a long stare to keep the teacher from growing any suspicions. "Um, yeah."

          To his confusion, Mr. Mudelin immediately grinned at his response. "Funny. I've never heard of a place called Shazukan either, I'm sure I just made it up..." He snapped at his desk for Káel to approach it, walking over to the single padded chair so he could relax in it with a victorious smile. "Where are you really from?"

          Phantom snorted, almost losing control over his laughter, while Káel paused to silently think up a solution that wasn't coming to him. All the while, Mr. Mudelin kept his hands in a relaxed triangle, patiently awaiting a proper response.

          "He's from Earth," Tia cut in, causing the dragon to pop it's ears straight up and look frantically for the origin of the voice.

          Mr. Mudelin looked at the ceiling and frowned. "You could have made me aware of this earlier, this is an important piece of information Tia."

          "Sorry, Samanthra told me not to tell anyone."

          "Fine," he scoffed, the bitter frown returning to his face. "She was likely going to tell me later. Although, I do find it interesting that in a facility with hundreds of rooms, and even more people, you just so happened to be snooping on this conversation."

          "Sorry, I can't provide you with an answer for that either."

          "Of course." Mr. Mudelin turned his attention from Tia to Káel who was still standing in the room with his dragon growling at the ceiling. "That's all I needed, go to class now." His mouth twitched in displeasure as he sized Káel up. "Although you may want to solidify your false identity, or everyone is going to know where you're from."

          Káel nodded and hastily walked out of the room, with the dragon trotting to keep up with him.

          "And take care of that dragon," he called, waiting for Káel to nod again before the doors closed behind him. Mr. Mudelin flicked his gaze to the ceiling again. "Tia, are you still there?"

          "For now, but I have to go soon."

          He grabbed his notes, passively skimming the cluster of marks. "Pardon my rudeness, but why does it appear as though you are stalking a student?"

          "I'm not stalking him!" she blurted, the completely flustered tone leveling out as she cleared her non-existent throat. "I'm gathering information."

          "And what sort of information might that be?"

          Her voice ascended to childish arrogance. "Can't tell you, Samanthra's orders."

          Mr. Mudelin grinned at Tia's response. "Oh? But I may be able to help you, and don't you want to impress Samanthra?"

          There was a long pause of contemplation before she spoke again, only with the tone of a grudging child. "I'm trying to find out who his relatives are."

          "His relatives? Is your scan not working?"

          "It's not! All I know is he has an uncle called Staz, which is like giving me an arrowhead to cut down a bloody tree!"

          Mr. Mudelin went silent for a moment. "Staz? Are you sure?"

          "Yeah why?"

          "Nothing." He casually scribbled something onto his notepad with a soft hum. "Sorry I can't help you much."

          "Bummer," Tia sighed. "I have to go anyways."

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5/14/2018