The Dragon Trainer

Nara

Jay and Adrian reached the school and entered their classroom in a hurry. “Mr Paulson. You are late. May I know the reason?” said Mcmurphy. Mcmurphy was an old man with a short beard and wavy hair. He had a wrinkled face and big eyes. He taught history. Mr. Mcmurphee was a faculty in the school since times unknown. He was the oldest staff of the school. He always wore a winter coat over all his shirts and did not remove it even when he reached the classroom.  “I apologize, Mr. Mcmurphy. It won’t happen again.” “That’s it? What’s wrong Adrian? No excuses today? No stories of punctured wheels and muddy clothes?” asked Mr. Mcmurphee. Adrian was the first one to come up with varied tales to save himself from detention when he got late. Mcmurphee was used to the everyday routine. He was surprised to see this drastic change in his student. “Well excuse or no excuse, you are surely late. Your punishment is to write an essay on the classical languages of the world.” “Can I use the library?” “Yes, you can and the same goes for you Jay.”

Adrian and Jay started climbing the stairs. Adrian was not going to write any essay in the library. His purpose was different. They reached the library doors which were huge and had an ancient design. They were getting rusty and older by the day. Jay and Adrian pushed the doors together and entered the library. The library was dark as usual. “This place is so dark. How can people read here?” complained Jay. Adrian went on in and tried opening the window. It was a huge glass opening with a black grill. The window glass was too heavy and it seemed like it hadn’t been opened for quite a while. Adrian somehow pushed it open. There was some light for them to at least see the way ahead. The library was a huge space and it had hardly ever been cleaned. There was dust on every book and spider webs were spread on every corner. Jay was really scared and disgusted by the dust. His shoes were covered with heaps of it. He couldn’t wait to get out of there. Adrian walked ahead but he did not call out Sahara’s name. He wanted to catch her red handed and find out what she was up to. Adrian walked on till he finally reached the wooden plank. Jay looked up at the ceiling. The ceiling was covered with a design of some sort which looked like stones of different colors on a sea green surface of glass. At the center was a broken structure. It seemed like there had been a head of an animal or something similar there. Jay wondered what the broken structure could have been. He slowly followed Adrian till he reached the plank. The plank was put aside already. “It means that someone found out about the secret passage Adrian.” “Yes, and that someone is down below over there. Let’s go in.” Adrian and Jay were about to climb down the stairs when suddenly they heard books falling from the middle shelves. “Someone’s here.” Said Jay startled. “Shh... Lets go check,” whispered Adrian. They tip toed till they reached where the sound had come from. Two books were fallen off one of the shelves, on the library floor. “There’s no one here,” said Jay picking up the books from the floor. He started dusting the books when another one fell from the shelf beside them. Jay started panicking. “Who’s there?” he asked in a shaky voice. “Hey, it might just be a rat. This place is old,” said Adrian trying to calm his friend. Adrian turned his back and again started walking towards the secret passage. Jay too started walking behind him but turned behind to check when he saw something which he had never seen before. He saw a tail on the floor, behind the book shelf. “Adrian,” he said in a shivering whisper. “What?” asked Adrian still walking forward. “I can see a tail behind the bookshelf.” “I told you it’s a rat.” “N-n-o…. it’s not a rat.” “What are you talking about?” Adrian finally turned behind. “Look,” said Jay pointing towards the tail. Adrian glanced at the tail carefully and understood that it definitely wasn’t a rat. It was a tail covered with scales and a pointed ending like that of an arrow.  “What is that?” whispered Adrian, his eyes as wide as they could get. He walked slowly and steadily in the direction of the tail, which was now moving. “You two again,” said someone in a stern voice. Jay and Adrian turned in the direction of the voice. “Sahara, there’s something behind that shelf,” said Jay pointing towards the tail and whispering now with a tinge of panic in his voice. “No! There’s nothing here. You two should be attending classes. You two should leave,” said Sahara pointing towards the door but her eyes were searching for something frantically. “Sahara listen to me. I don’t know what you are up to but we just saw these books falling from the shelves here and…” narrated Adrian. “What are you talking about?” asked Sahara. “I told you guys to leave.” “No but listen…” All of a sudden, they could hear the flapping of wings. The three of them looked up. It was a sight that Adrian could have never imagined. He could see on the background of the sea green ceiling and the sparkling stones, a creature stretching his wings out and soaring above. It was covered with small scales and had a pointed long tail. Adrian and Jay were awe-struck because as far as their eyes could recognize, they were witnessing a dragon flying. It was not enormous. It was actually much smaller in size. It came down and sat on the shoulder of someone it knew. Sahara.

Jay and Adrian were stunned. They couldn’t believe their eyes. The dragon had scales which were in shades of blue. Its long tail went around Sahara’s shoulder. It stared at Jay  and Adrian with its black eyes. “Is that a dragon?” asked Jay squinting his eyes. “Is this what you have been hiding from us this entire while?” asked Adrian looking at the dragon. “Yes. Since you both could not keep your noses out of my business,” said Sahara viciously, “and already know about this I might as well tell you the whole truth.” Sahara turned around. Her long brown hair swayed as she did. She grabbed a book on the desk and again turned towards the guys. Suddenly, she closed her eyes and murmured a few words and threw the book at Adrian and Jay. The pages of the book flapped open and a light shone through it. It swirled around Adrian and Jay twice and in a minute Adrian and Jay were getting pulled into the book itself! “Nooooo…..” shouted Adrian. After its work was done the book lay on the floor, lifeless. Sahara picked up the book and looked at the dragon on her shoulder. “Nara, looks like I made a big mistake. We need to inform Befilius about this.” The dragon nodded and made a screeching sound. It flew from Sahara’s shoulder to the secret staircase and Sahara followed with the book in her hand. She slowly walked down the stairs. After reaching the wall Sahara recited the spell. “Flamento,” she said and the whole wall  lit up and burnt down into dust, in seconds.