Chapter Text
Scott didn’t really wake up; more came into awareness. He didn’t really care to sleep much, once in a blue moon, as they say. Instead, he often just spaced out for a few hours. He glanced around, discovering a barrel had been placed in his room without him noticing; he suspected some sort of magic.
Opening it revealed a book, food, and a magic guidebook. He read through the book, finding it to be a welcome. The warnings against death freaked him out a little; the idea that it would affect not just him but also his dragon.
He set the stuff in his bag, grabbed some tools he had gotten the day before, and then headed out. The halls were quiet, most of the school still asleep. It was fairly early in the day, the sun only just beginning to rise.
He set out with the goal of exploring the academy more, perhaps learning how to hatch his egg.
__________
Scott entered a courtyard much like that at the entrance to his dorms, but the banners were red. A girl stood out amongst the flora; she had white hair and a white dress with a red bow for a pop of color. She seemed to be jumping around when he stumbled upon her.
“Hello!” She greeted him excitedly.
“Hello, is this one of the dorms?” He asked, looking around.
“Yeah! This is Fe-Feeles? Feles. It’s a new word to me! It’s the cat dorm, because we have a cat, their name is bubbles!” She announced excitedly. She couldn’t seem to sit still. Scott didn’t mind though, her energy was practically infectious.
“Is that their name?” He asked, remembering that they didn’t seem to remember their name previously.
“Oh no, that’s just what were calling them until they remember their name! Or patricia!” She giggled, “Oh, I’m Graecie!”
“I was gonna ask what I could call you,” he laughed a little, “my name’s Scott.”
He bowed a little bit with his introduction, making Graecie laugh again. She ran in a circle around him, bouncing as she did.
“You have very pretty hair,” she complimented.
“Thank you, grew it myself.”
“I grew mine myself too! Yesterday was scary wasn’t it,” she calmed down for only a moment, seemingly remembering the previous days events.
He almost forgot that the trials were only one day prior, so much had happened that it seemed longer. Scott was just grateful to be out of that heat, but he did still mourn Aurora despite knowing her for so little time.
“But I knew my shepardess would guide me.” She rang a set of bells as she spoke. Scott guessed that it was perhaps part of a religion.
“Yes, I am glad to be out of the heat. I was worried I would get set on fire,” he spoke honestly, sharing his fears of the heat.
“Oh shepardess, were you wearing all those layers yesterday too? It must have been so warm, I can help you find something less warm, I don’t want you to overheat!” Graecie frowned a little at his thick woolen clock and many layers. Scott looked down, he didn’t really think about how they would contribute to the warmth, it was just what he normally wore.
“I think I’ll be alright in these, but thank you for the offer.” He smiled politely, listen her continue to ramble as she talked about her home and religion.
She continued to run in circles as she talked, ringing her bells everyone once and a while. She held her book out to show him what she had written. He smiled gently, enjoying just how excited she looked to be talking to him.
Suddenly she turned and looked over his shoulder, her face lighting up in what he could only describe as pure joy.
“Sausage!” She practically screamed, running over to greet a man as he approached. Scott vaguely recognized him from the day before, remembering his mechanical arm more than anything else.
“This is my friend Sausage!” Graecie happily announced.
“Hi, it's me, Sausage.”
“Sausage, this is my friend Scott!” Graecie looked back and forth between them.
Sausage’s arm made a strange sound, which he quickly explained away. Scott had never seen someone with a limb replacement like his. In the north, when it came to arms, they often taught people to live without an arm, and they replaced legs with wood rather than anything mechanical. He demonstrated more of the strange sounds to Scott’s interest.
They both shared their excitement over the prospect of placing a bell inside Sasauge’s arm to match Graecie’s bells. Scott laughed a little at the idea of the musical group of people.
“Is having a musical or noise accompaniment a part of being a dragon rider?” He questioned, feeling a little left out at the moment.
“No, it’s just an added bonus,” Sausage explained.
“Ok, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss something.”
“We can give you some stuff, would you like a bell of your own?” Sausage asked, Graecie nodded enthusiastically next to him.
“I’m fine without a bell, for now.” He didn’t feel the strong urge to obtain a bell, and he would feel bad if they gave him one for free and he didn’t use it. Plus, the bells were Graecie’s thing, if he really wanted some musical instrument he could find his own.
They reassured him that if he ever wanted a bell they would give him one, he just had to ask. He nodded along, but he doubted he’d ever take them up on the offer. It was nice of them to offer though.
The two of them continued to run circles around each other and Scott, excitedly discussing their adventures. He felt worn out just looking at them, constantly talking, and running, and jumping. They were like rabbits in the snow, or he supposed sheep would be a better comparison.
Scott likes sheep, they’re warm and fluffy, and their wool makes for great insolation. A few times he’d even been asked to watch over them by the towns he passed through. They, too, seemed unbothered by the cold, able to stand in the snow with Scott for hours at a time. But Scott doubts Graecie possesses the same resistance to cold.
His thoughts were cut short when he realized they were now talking about having broken into the castle.
“I’d be careful, I’ve heard some students have been jailed,” he warned. He was thrown completely off balance when they revealed they had broken someone out of jail. Perhaps his previous assessment of them had been wrong, they seemed much more willing to break rules than he would have thought.
Graecie and Sausage continued to ramble, and Scott listened. It was nice to have people talk to him for reasons other than to ask him to help. Not that he would be mad if they asked him for help, he wanted to help people. But, sometimes it was nice to relax.
Suddenly another person came bounding into the room. Upon closer inspection, and after they removed their helmet, Scott realized it was the person without a name. They seemed to be going by Bubble, or maybe Patricia? Graecie called them Bubbles though.
Sausage passed around cookies as they talked, but Graecie didn’t seem to need them considering they contained coffee. She ate one regardless.
Suddenly though the group of them started, throwing each other around?
“Have you been learning magic too?” Sausage asked, directing his attention to Scott.
“I-I-I, no?” He knew magic existed, guessed they would be learning it, but he had assumed that it would take longer than a day or two to begin learning.
They moved on quickly from magic to hatching their dragons. Graecie talked about finding books in the secret library and a statue in the royal wing. Scott had no idea what she was talking about, and said as much.
“I haven’t even found the normal library yet.” Graecie gasped, and she started dragging him along with them to the library, showing off the giant space. Then he was guided to the false bottom under one of the statues, discovering that one could just drop right through it onto the staircase below.
It led down into a secret library just as big as the one above them. It was very disorientating. He struggled to imagine a map of the school in his head. From the center of the ceiling was a large chandelier.
Graecie presented him with a book that seemed to be part of a conspiracy to hide or destroy many of the books in the library above.
He watched as Sausage and Bubbles played a card game, making jokes as they did so. Bubbles and him played a round after, the game was pretty easy to get the hang of after a few turns. Sausage and Graecie were giggling about something a little ways off.
Scott figured he could just hang out with them for the day, they seemed pretty knowledgeable.
__________
They returned to the academy after hours of exploring the capital with Graecie and Sausage, with an extra companion. A pig named Percy, who was originally a human and has been transformed into a pig … somehow. With everything that has happened so far, Scott didn’t question the idea of a person turned pig.
They’d also run into a couple of Scott’s dormmates, they seemed hesitant about the idea of a pig turned human but accepted it after a little convincing. Their current goal was to bring the pig somewhere safe for them to stay for now.
That’s when Bubbles presented them with a book supposedly telling them how to hatch their eggs. He was planning to gather the supplies to do so, but Scott found it a little suspicious. The book had supposedly been just under their noses the whole time, and it felt almost too easy. Not to mention, according to the other book, these dragon books should be hidden away, not in a dorm common room.
Scott decided to say his goodbyes and part from his new friends. He had things to think over, and needed a little bit to himself. He made his way back to his dorm, choosing not to question why his neighbor on the same side of the hall that his dorm was in seemed to have some guards in his room. He supposed he was just learning to accept that weird things happen.
He thought back on the book he’d seen, the handwriting seemed familiar. Something told him it was a fake, maybe a prank by one of the students. The question was how far are they willing to take it.
Scott sighed, running a hand through his hair. He expected a bit more dragon rider and classes, yet so far he was just running around blindly. The academy seemed to expect them to just figure it out, with no guidance. There hadn’t even been time for him to fully process nearly dying multiple times, and then feeling as his newly formed bond with his dragon was just severed. It felt like it tore a part of his soul out.
He turned to one of the walls, winding his arm back and then punching. Something cracked as he did so, but he didn’t care. The punches kept going, until the pain in his fists drowned out the pain from the day before.
That’s when he finally stopped, breathing heavily and hands aching. Maybe he should have gone to the resource world, trees don’t hurt as much to punch. But out there he ran the risk of being seen. Within his room he had some amount of privacy.
The wall had a small dent in it, cracks spiderwebbing out from it. He should cover it up, but he didn’t have the materials to properly repair it right now. Hopefully no one will question it, if he’s lucky no one will see it in the first place.
People don’t seem to like it when Scott punches things. They worry for his hands, but he’d rather punch wood than punch someone else.
A glance towards the door revealed that a small note had been slipped under. It was a little cruppled, the hand writing messy.
‘Meet in dining hall’ it said. Scott had a feeling it was something to do with the book. He hoped whoever had created it was going to come forward and admit it. He worried what harm attempting a fake hatching ritual could do to their eggs.
He grabbed the paper and shoved it in his pocket, ignoring how his hands screamed. They hurt more without the cold winter air to numb them. It didn’t matter though, he wouldn’t let something as little as some pain stop him.
With a carefully schooled expression he made his way out of the dorm and towards the large hall he assumed they were referring to.
When he arrived he found Jojo and Pyro standing on the stairs. Jojo looked a little guilty, but Pyro didn’t seem to feel the same. He had a smug grin, arms crossed defensively.
Slowly the students who were around gathered in front of the stairs, watching the two as they prepared for some sort of announcement. Jojo and Pyro held a hushed back and forth as the crowd greeted each other, passing around some more of the coffee cookies. Scott personally didn’t think most of these students needed to be more hyper, but each to their own.
“So most of you have heard of this book found, called Dragon Hatching…”
She continued on to explain that the book was a fake, in her words it was a grand jest. Jojo seemed pretty proud that she had fooled the amassed students, but believed it was starting to go too far.
One of the people in the crowd, AJ he thinks is their name, didn’t seem to believe her.
“Prove it, do it again,” she said, arms crossed.
“Oh if you don’t want to believe me, follow it, follow the book I dare you. You will reach nothing but a dead end.” Jojo’s voice took on a harsh tone, her arms jestering wildly.
To Scott the entire jest seemed cruel, to give them hope only to reveal that it was all a prank.
Despite her harsh words, the students didn’t seem to believe her.
“I do apologize, it was meant to be a harmless prank but I see it’s gone too far.” She seemed sincere, her head hung in shame.
The group slowly dispersed, until it was only him, Pyro, and Jojo still around. Pyro seemed pleased with himself as he watched people leave.
“Well, that went far better than I imagined.” Pyro spoke, his voice airing on the smug side.
“You’re lucky people have priorities it seems.” Scott once again found himself looking the man up and down, trying to figure out why he could not seem to get him out of his mind. Perhaps he had once been a traveler Scott had seen up north, or maybe he looked similar to someone Scott’s helped before.
“Well, honesty and truth is important,” Pyro replied, words aimed at Scott.
“I suppose it is good I tell the truth then. I don’t know if you can claim the same after that book.”
“It was more of a prank, not a lie. Like a hahaha prank, prank,” Jojo butted in, her voice growing nervous towards the end.
She did seem truly worried about how upset Bubbles had gotten when they revealed it was all a prank. She apologized again, running up the stairs and then back down as she did so. Jojo, much like some of the others, didn’t seem to know how to sit still.
“What’s important is it seems we were forgiven.” Pyro seemed confident in his view that the others would just move on. Maybe he was right. But Scott knew this would be in the back of their minds for a long time.
Once Pyro started to have a conversation with the clown who’d suddenly appeared, Scott decided to go back to his dorm. It was getting late, and it seemed many people were starting to turn in for the night.
Though he didn’t feel the need for sleep, some time in his dorm might do him well. The dorm common room was empty, the only sounds were his footsteps as he bounded up the stairs.
Pyro and Jojo were lucky. People could have reacted a lot differently. Heck, if Scott hadn’t already gotten his anger out on his wall (which he now needed to fix), he probably would have reacted worse. The gull of that man.
He walked down the hall to his dorm, still trying to ignore the guards stuck in his neighbor’s room. None of his business, the less he knows the less likely he is to get in trouble for it.
__________
Scott spent a little while trying to plan out his room. He eventually decided on adding a second and maybe even third floor to the space. It was plenty tall enough to accommodate it.
With his mind made up he opened his door, planning to head to the resource world and gather supplies.
Instead he found pyro, standing just outside his own dorm, staring across the hall at Scott’s door. They didn’t even move when Scott came out, simply returning his greeting.
“Why are you just stood, staring at my door?” Scott questioned.
“This is my room.” He gestured at the open door, his dorm visible past him. Yet they still didn’t make any move towards going inside.
“Yeah, but you weren’t going in?”
“Just on my way out.”
“Well, be my guest, don’t let me stop you.” Scott gestured down the hall, waiting for them to leave first.
“Funny, well you’re here, you wouldn’t happen to know about any sort of pyrotechnic incident going on in here yesterday would you?” His tone was accusatory, like whatever Scott says didn’t matter. The man had already made up their mind.
“No. Why, what happened?” Scott attempted to put concern into his voice, but it fell flat. He wasn’t responsible for whatever Pyro was accusing him of, and frankly he was starting to get tired of their attitude.
“Because when I came in here yesterday, the entire floor was lit a blaze.” Scott raised an eyebrow, finding it a bit ironic that the person named Pyro was having problems with fire.
“Well I didn’t see anything.”
“Likely.” Pyro scoffed.
“Likely? I’m not the one doing pranks here, or japes, or jests.” Scott crossed his arms, looking down on them. He would not be accused of such actions without any proof.
“And I’m not the one pretending not to remember my childhood friend just because I’m upset they left home.” Pyro stepped closer, eyes narrowing as he got closer.
“I am not pretending anything. I’ve never met you, and even if we did once know each other, I’m glad I’ve forgotten.” Scott followed suit, stepping down further into the hallway, “if you are such a man that you would abandon your home, then you aren’t worth being remembered.”
“Not worth remembering? I left to explore the world, and bring back stories. I’m surprised you were even brave enough to leave Tegrith.”
Pain stabbed into Scott’s head, a sudden image of sitting beside a young boy at a fire. It was gone just as soon as it came.
“This has made me more, it’s enriched my life. I’ve met so many people, seen so many things. You probably can’t even comprehend this many people in one place.” Pyro pushed on, voice arrogant.
“I don’t know what your childhood friend was like, but I’m sure he’s glad to never have to deal with you again.”
That got Pyro to shut up. They stopped and stared at Scott, a look of betrayal on his face. The moved a step forward, hand getting close to his face before falling.
“You… don’t remember? Scott, you are wearing the seal of Tegrith on your clothes. It’s right there!” He jabbed a finger into the metal clasp holding Scott’s cape close. Despite the lack of strength behind their push, Scott stumbled backwards. The breath left his body, the air felt thinner.
Scott looked down, barely able to see the seal that was being called out. He didn’t know where it came from. He didn’t know where he got these clothes, or where he’s from.
He doesn’t know anything.
Suddenly he was pulled back, back to the top of the steps outside his door. He couldn’t move, it held him there no matter how much he pushed against it.
“What’s happening?” Scott’s head ached, and his body felt like it was ripping itself apart from the inside out.
“What’s going on?” Pyro got closer, trying to reach for Scott but was held back by an invisible force. Small blue particles swirled around Scott, looking like snowflakes.
“I- I don’t know. I-” Scott was cut off. His vision went dark, and then it was back. He fell forward, limbs no longer forced still and head no longer stabbing. It felt like something settled inside him, alerting him to its presence but nothing more.
“What’s going on?” Pyro questioned, stepping back.
“I don’t know. I feel tingly,” he stared down at his hands before looking back up at them, “what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything! What do you mean ‘what did I do?’ I didn’t do anything. I was just standing here.” They put their hands up in the air, immediately defensive.
Scott flexed his hands, trying to regain feeling in them. It didn’t seem to be working, the weird feeling just continued to build up in him. At this point he didn’t even care about gathering supplies for his room, he wanted to just be done with this conversation.
“You said you were heading out, so it would be a good time to do so.” Scott began to point down the hall when suddenly something shot out from his hand. It was a blur in the air, but hit the wall and embedded itself.
Upon closer inspection, Scott realized it was a sharp piece of ice. It very quickly melted, but left a small hole in the wall.
“That was you.” Pyro was also staring at the hole in the wall, “It has to do with the dragons, right?”
“Well you seem to know everything, so you tell me.”
“Don’t mess with me, what was that? Tell me, what’s going on?” Pyro pointed to the hole.
Scott stared down at his hands, before raising one again and concentrating on what he had felt before. Almost instantly another bolt of ice shot out, flying through the hall before hitting the ground just short of the railing and melting.
“How did you do that? What did it feel like?” Pyro’s tone switched immediately. No longer did he seem to care about their fight, rather they seemed fascinated by this new ability.
“I don’t know? Like a release, that I have a building tension and then it just releases?” Scott didn’t know how to explain it any better than that.
“Fascinating.” Pyro was looking at him like a science project, “and what do you think caused it?”
“Well, I got really annoyed with you.” Scott smiled at Pyro’s brief indignant sputter at his response.
“Look, let’s just put our fight to the side for now. There’s more going on here, we have to tell other people.”
Scott sighed, but agreed, making his way down the hall. But when he turned back he found Pyro still standing there.
“Don’t act like a child, I thought we were putting a pause to the disagreements.”
“I-I don’t know what’s happening!” Pyro called out, his muscles straining but not moving.
Scott ran back down the hall to stand in front of him, watching as a cloud of smoke embodied them for a second before sparks exploded out.
“You’re doing the same thing I did,” Scott called out, watching as the sparks flew around in a circle before finally dying out.
Pyro took a step forward, looking around like the world was brand new. He was quiet for a second as he observed.
“I feel … different.” Pyro chuckled, “guess I got pretty upset as well.”
He put his hand up, aiming down the hall. For a second nothing happened, then two seconds. They stood in awkward silence, waiting for anything.
Just as Scott opened his mouth to speak, a flame formed in Pyro’s hand and launched forward. Upon landing it exploded, sending fire out a diameter of a couple feet. On instinct Scott raised his own hand and shot out a bolt of ice.
He hadn’t expected that the ice would immediately put out the flames. They both stood in shock for a few beats.
“I need to test this somewhere with more space, come on.” Pyro ran down the stairs, barely waiting for Scott before he set off another fireball in the spleef area of the common room. It once again exploded into flames, this time the fires went out without Scott’s interference.
With an agreement that this was important information to share they ran off to find other people who might still be awake.
After a minute or two of running around they found Shelby, Drift, and a girl who Scott thinks is called Megii. They stopped their conversation as the two approached.
“Something happened,” Scott called out.
“Breakthrough,” Pyro added.
“I can do this now.” He raised his arm and aimed out over the edge of the balcony, letting loose a bolt of ice. It glitter in the air as it flew forward, finally dissipating in the air after a second or two.
“What-”
“How did you do that?” Drift questioned.
“Yeah, how’d you do that?” Shelby agreed, still staring at where the ice had been. Scott shrugged, standing back to let Pyro show off his new ability. His fire exploded in the air like a small firework.
They figured out quickly that many people in the academy seemed to be awakening magic. Quickly a few others joined, and it quickly became chaotic. Drift shoved Shelby off the edge of the railing. Scott was surprised she walked away with nothing more than a sprained ankle.
The clown person requested them to hit him with their powers, which Scott did reluctantly. At least he learned that it slowed people and put them out when they were on fire.
Scott stopped for a moment as they discussed how it had happened, feeling like he was suddenly out of his body. Visions flashed in front of him, people lying on the ground and a harsh blizzard storm. The feeling of slowly fading away.
“-ott! Scott!” Someone was yelling his name. He turned and found Pyro was much closer than he was before.
“Sorry, just … thinking.” Scott shook his head, attempting to clear his mind, “I think I’m gonna head to bed.”
Scott practically ran off, racing back to his dorm. His head felt like there was a knife going through it and he felt strangely disconnected from his body.
He stumbled into his dorm, slamming the door shut behind him. Slowly he pulled himself to the middle of the room, before letting his consciousness fall away.