บท 12: Close One
Arthur looked around for the source of the voice and noticed a woman walking to the centre of the launching pad. Her hair was a curly mop of red and the soft wrinkles about her face spoke volumes about her caring nature.
"Gather around, dearies! It's about to start," she called once again, retrieving a thin long piece of wood from within her sleeve.
'A wand,' Arthur mused.
The prince stowed away his phone and walked up to the centre of the Landing pad as had been instructed. He watched as a group of students in random clothes did the same.
By the time, the First years all gathered at the centre, everyone else on the landing pad was either a parent or a student already dressed in robes.
The prince noticed a few of the First Years knew each other and quickly formed groups. He looked around for Lucy but still couldn't find her.
'I wish I could read my book,' he wished, 'I really need to find out how to place it in a binder… if that's even how that little thing works.'
The prince thought it would be handy to simply hold up a RuneBinder and read from it like it were a normal book the same way Lucy was doing. What was more was that it concealed the information in its pages from everyone else.
It would come in handy indeed. For now, however, he would have to wait longer to get that information.
He could have asked someone else but his pride had already taken a good hit from exposing his ignorance to Lucy.
'Could that be why she left in such a hurry? Was she trying to get away from someone who asks too many questions?'
It didn't bother him that she would desert him like that. After all, it was normal for someone to display ignorance. It didn't mean they were unable to learn.
Someone who couldn't understand that, though… was someone Arthur was better off forgetting about.
The prince sighed, banishing the slowly darkening thoughts that swarmed within his mind.
When the prince turned to speak to someone, he found that everyone had already been split up into groups…
'Huh, what just happened?'
The woman that had gathered the first years was now pointing her wand on the ground, a soft amber glow appearing on the ground and curling about the ground of students, slowly taking the shape of several intricate runes that were neatly wrapped in concentric spinning circles.
Arthur could almost imagine what the spell would look like once it was done but for now, he could only wait.
As he was wondering what to do, everyone started to turn their attention to something in the air.
When the prince looked up in the direction catching everyone's interest, however, he froze in his tracks. A trio of red dragons was tearing through the sky at a very high speed, approaching the central spire as fast as they could.
The red-haired woman simply sighed and kept her focus, "Give those hoodlums some space, dearies!"
Arthur wasn't listening.
Instead, he stared in awe as the red dragons blew past the tower, turning in an arc so sharp that the dragons banked so steeply that they appeared to be running on the side of a circular wall.
'Is it just me or are they getting closer and closer to this Landing Pad?' Arthur wondered, watching the dragons completely turn around and head for the landing pad he was currently standing on.
By the time the prince realised he was standing in the wrong place, everyone had already moved away and given the dragons ample room to land.
Everyone but him.
Arthur started moving backwards with the hope to avoid being crushed by the colossal reptilian creatures.
He locked eyes with one of the dragons and noticed a mysterious look cross the creature's reptilian golden eyes. It wasn't fear… No, it was far from it.
The Red Dragon… was irritated.
The dragon planted its claws on the surface of the Landing Arc and turned, trying to slow down in time. Astonishingly, the dragon was slowing down much faster than Arthur thought possible for a creature of its size.
Strong steel cables of muscles rippled under its shimmering crimson scales as it strained to brake.
Arthur knew when to stop moving back when he took in the rate at which the dragon was stopped. What he didn't take into account was the person seated atop the beast.
A scarlet-haired girl came sailing off the dragon's back and crashing into the prince.
In the moment that their bodies collided, time seemed to slow down for the prince and a plethora of things happened all at once.
His awareness of the edge of the landing pad suddenly spiked and in that moment, a torrent of force surged through his flame core.
'What… Why now? I've managed to keep it from surging even after being hit at the sternum, directly where it's located. Why would… Argh!' the prince brushed the thoughts aside and focused on the problem before him.
To his surprise, the flames trapped within his flame core didn't burst forth and his instinctive suppression of the flames proved pointless.
Arthur wrapped his hands around the red-haired girl and took a step back with his right dominant foot finely shifting his weight right to match the trajectory of her fall.
To brace her fall, he spun her around so she didn't simply crash into him like a wall. His hands strained to hold her weight but his life sort of depended on it.
If they fell off the Landing pad, that would be the end of Arthur's time at Barthlorn.
'The First Semester That Never Began,' it would be called.
Without realising it, he twirled the girl in a smooth arc that resembled a dance move pulled out of an opera.
"You can let go of me now. Thanks for catching me," a melodic voice filtered into his mind.
Arthur blinked and removed his arms from the girl, bowing his head slightly, "I'm sorry."
"No. Thank you," her voice tinkled.
"No seatbelt?" Arthur wondered.
"Have you ever heard of a seatbelt on a dragon?" the girl tilted her head and eyed him with amusement.
"Hmm, no… It probably wouldn't help," Arthur replied, remembering his time in the RuneTrain.
Without the gravity emulator, the seatbelt had been next to useless.
"Yeah… you're right. Have you ever ridden on a dragon before?" the girl asked, suddenly curious.
"No, I've never…"
"Lyra, get over here," a man yelled from the top of the beast that had just landed. Dragons were powerful creatures… perhaps the most powerful creatures in their world.
However, when one stood next to you and didn't pay you any attention or at least, try to eat you, logic started to feel warped.
Despite all that, the creatures were a sight to behold. With dark crimson scales that almost looked polished, powerful limbs with steel cables of muscle rippling beneath their scales.
Their golden eyes and great big wings carried them through the sky. Arthur couldn't help the words that escaped his lips next, "Beautiful."
The redhead turned around to see him staring at the dragon and regarded him for a moment before running off.
"Thanks for that. Close one!" an older boy Arthur hadn't noticed spoke bowing slightly to the prince before rushing off as well without giving Arthur a chance to reply.
Arthur missed the curious looks the other students and the dragons were giving him, his attention more on the teacher that approached him.
"Hey, are you okay?" the teacher asked, pulling him away from the edge of the Landing pad.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Arthur responded.
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Very well then. Join the others at the centre. I'll give those dragons a stern talking to," she consoled, patting Arthur on the back before giving him a gentle nudge towards the centre.
The prince noticed the dragons seemed to be in a hurry as they quickly left the removed their luggage from the dragon's backs.
Red Dragons were shifters that could assume both dragon and human forms. However, it was still unknown to Arthur whether they would transform back into their human forms with their clothes on.
Now that he thought about it, this theory sounded childish at first glance. But remembering the sort of world he lived in, where magic made almost anything possible, Arthur chose to leave this question for later.
Lyra and her crew offloaded the luggage from the three dragons' backs before bidding the giant beasts a hearty farewell and vanishing into the spire themselves.
'Huh! Dragons riding dragons.'
None of all this mattered to him yet though. He was bound to run into a dragon during his stay at the school… but for as long as he hadn't yet done that, he would keep a low profile.
More importantly, Arthur tightened his grip on his leather bag, a deep-rooted worry finally settling within him.
'The Age of Phoenixes' was still there.
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