The Kingdom To Kill For

Chapter 2 - The Red Dragon

“Are you sure it’s okay not to tell them?” Persis whispered to Sekhmet when they decided to go back to their class that afternoon and not before dinner. They were not done cleaning the old library, but they managed to dust every book on the shelves.

“I’m sure some professors know about that thing, so, we better forget about it,” Sekhmet said without taking a glance at Persis, and she was taking some notes using her tablet and a stylus pen.

Persis sighed, feeling disappointed about what they discovered, but, at the same time, maybe Sekhmet was right. They are just going to forget it. “Wish they got matcha latte around here,” so she could have a relaxing time to drift off from their stupid punishment.

Their professor to this day lectures is all about eggs. To their surprise, he did bring out a huge extraordinary egg on the enormous basket, and he lay it on the table.

“What egg is that?” commented on the other students.

His old face, wrinkled with a smile, “This,” he began, “is a dragon egg,”

Everyone murmured and mumbled to each other, making a worried gasp, others were excited to see one.

“Is that even a real egg, professor?” asked the guy with curved horns on his forehead.

“Of course, this is a real egg,” the professor insisted, “I might give some of you an extra bonus to your grade if anyone can guess what kind of dragon is this,”

And everyone is even more amazed and delighted to see the egg shimmered and contrasting into light yellow to dark hues.

“I’ve never seen any egg like that before,”murmured the girl with big round eyes, almost reaching her forehead and huge ears.

“I’m not one of you ever seen it, unless you are from this island before,”the professor hummed.

“Any more clues?”said the other guy who's sitting on the right side of Sekhmet. This guy has more scales on his left face. 

“Is that dragon’s scale?” asked the girl who turned around when he spoke, and noticed the tiny scales crawling up to his face.

Then, everyone turned their heads to him.

“What’s happening to you?” a scared voice from another girl said.

“What?” asked the guy, who didn't notice until someone told him about his face. He touched his cheeks, instead of feeling his skin, he felt the rough but cold scutes. “What is this?” his voice shakes as his heartbeat starts to beat faster.

“Now, calm down, young man,” soothed the professor, “just come over here, and let me take a look at it,” he ordered, reaching his hand to his student as it tried to calm down and went over to him.

“What is this, professor?”he asked with his voice still shaking.

“It’s a dragon’s scales,”

“But how? How did I--- what does it mean?-- I don’t have any descendants from the dragons,” he stammered, and he screamed.

He took off his uniformed jacket, feeling so hot in his body as he folded his sleeves. His eyes were wide, there is fear in it, the brown too glossy and dark.

Strange and rough dark scales start appearing, sprouting all over his body and his fingernails grow into huge curved claws. Everyone was just staring at him open mouthed. Their brains formulated no thoughts other than to register that they were all shocked by the scene. He has new body parts start popping out, like a long scaled tail, a slimy, snake-saliva like substance oozes out along with his new forked tongue from his long snapping joints.

He turned into a small dragon but two times bigger of a horse. Its long armored tail swung across the first row of desks crushing them with a heavy force and broke it into large broken sticks. The other students quickly avoided the heavy blow, they ran upward to the upper desks, their heart rate rose. They never been in this kind of trouble before.

Before they could be hurt by the dragon they kicked with quick and heavy strokes of their elemental powers only to be incinerated by the dragon’s fire breath, causing half the room to be burnt.

The professor moved quickly, keeping the egg away from the dragon and sounded the alarm; the siren broke through, wailing in distress.

Every student managed to get out from the exit door, leaving the dragon inside the room, wrecking havoc before the automatic sealing of the room had begun, in less than a minute the dragon would be trapped.

After the emergency rescue from the dragon, everything has calmed down. They’d already captured the student who turned into a dragon, sent him to the special hospital to tend him and investigated how he transformed. 

Persis meets Jethro outside the room, but before she could say to him, Sekhmet was gone.

“Where she’d go?” she wandered around the site, but she is nowhere to be found.

“Hey,” Jethro greeted her, “are you okay?”

“Not so good, but fine,” she said, looking down as she braces herself.

Jethro put his arm around her as to sooth her from the incident, “Yeah, that’s a bit terrible of what had happened to your class and I heard you were punished,”

“So great right?” she looked up, smirking.

“Nah, nothing so great than to see you fine, cousin. And how’s the punishment? Did you finish it already?”

“What do you mean? There’s no need to remind me about that, we almost died inside the room,”

“Yeah, and it was unexpected, but I hope your classmate will be fine, he just turn into a dragon, hope nothing happen worst than that,”

“I hope so, it kinda scared the s**t out of us when he changed.” and she did see that their professor was interviewed by the higher professors and was taken to the headmaster to give details about the incident. But, what worries her is about what they, Sekhmet, discovered. 

“Morpheus, the merman, was everybody’s fear of giving out tedious and difficult punishment to every student, nobles or not. But to you, it’s kinda simple and not too harsh.” Jethro keeps on telling her about the punishment and the punisher. And hearing the name, makes her blush somehow and irritated at the same time.

“Really?”

“Yap, and let me show your slumber for the meantime,”

“What do you mean my slumber for the meantime?” At this moment, she doesn’t feel the idea was good of having a good slumber to sleep.

“The investigators will start one of your rooms in your class in search for any evidence of making the student turned into a dragon. It might give them a lead or idea that someone has made it.”

“O-okay, how long will it take?”

“A few days, I guess,”

Upon reaching her new room, three other students were already inside.

“Hi, Jethro,” the three girls knew her cousin and greeted him with a very big smile. 

Indeed, he is that popular.

“Hi, girls,” he waved at them, showing his best smiles and his white virtually perfect set of teeth, “let me introduce you to my cousin, Persis, she’ll be staying here with you for few days, guys,”

“Oh, your cousin, of course, it’s our pleasure to be her friend,” as quickly they nod, swooned by his charming face and dazzling personality. Persis almost puke seeing their reactions and to her oh-so-feeling-handsome cousin.

“Sure, thanks,” then he turned to Persis, “so, i’ll be going back to my chamber, too, and don’t forget at seven, dinner time,”

“Fine,”

Jethro walked away, and before she could get inside the room, someone grabbed her out. Not the three girls ever noticed her being gone, and continued to do what they are doing.

“Shhhh,” It was Sekhmet.

“Where have you been, anyway? I was trying to introduce you to my cousin,” Persis complained.

“Never mind about your cousin, let’s go back to the library,”

“After dinner,” she said, stopping Sekhmet from going back.

“After dinner?”

“I’m so hungry, right now, okay?”

“Yeah, that will be fine,” and she bid her goodbye.

Inside the huge and high ceiling dining room, it was a grand space, to say the least. Many huge and long red shiny oaks tables took up most of the vast space. Grouped in five columns; one in each group of their factions.

Persis was amazed how many students are here. She could imagine they were more than two thousand students. Is that even for real? And they were so crowded even the room could occupy them all. And she could hear the majority talking about the incident this afternoon.

The senior officers had announced that it has nothing to fear about it, since they are taking care of it.

Persis looked for Sekhmet, but she was already one of the tables far from her.

Jethro came and led her to her seat, along with the others.

Laid on the long oak tables is laden with delicacies. Delicious foods and drinks lie in wait. Persis craves the sensation of fullness and the richness all-dinner round. At the sight of the delicacies her mouth waters.

“Hey, don’t get lost,” he said, picking up her emblem hanging on her neck, “this is the emblem to know you are one of us, The White Dragon Emblem,” he explained, “the table next to us, is the Green Dragon Emblem, next, the Red Dragon, Blue Dragon, and the last one is Yellow Dragon Emblem,”

“Is the White Dragon, every member is from the wind kingdom?”

“Actually no, it doesn’t mean if you are from wind, you will be in the White Dragon,” Jethro stated, “right in of me, is from the Earth Realm, even Fire’ians and Snowdonian,”

And Morpheus, who just sits right the opposite of her. All beauty in the world is already in him. For her. Persis suddenly felt numbed by staring at his beautiful face.

Oh, my, is this for real? Morpheus, the merman, is too beautiful. I think I’m out of breath by looking at his face.

Then, Morpheus stared back at her. An icy one.

“I hope you're done with your task, Miss Persis,” his voice seems husky but cold and admirable.

Miss Persis, he said.

“Yeah,” she said in a dreamy tone.

Jethro shove his arm to her side, and said, “start eating now, Persis,”

“Right! Of course, I should eat now,” picking some meat from her plate and starting chewing without even care if Morpheus is watching her eat. Damn, she’s too hungry to notice and cares about it.

At  Sekhmet’s table, she was surrounded by the bully this morning and her members. She didn’t mind them and just continued eating her food. When one of them even tries to throw little food to her place.

Some of the students who sat beside her were starting to transfer to another table. They don't want to get into trouble with her.

Sekhmet stopped and looked at them.

“I never dreamed of meeting a peasant today, and she’s right in front of me, it’s sickening,”

Sekhmet raise her head, leaning her chin on the palm of her hand, and said, “you know, before you could say anyone is peasant, you should do your research first,”

“And I already did, the fire’ians are peasants,”

To what she said, Sekhmet shows her fist to her, without knowing what she’s going to do, in a quick move of opening her fist, a sudden yet quiet explosion came to the girl. The smoke disappeared and all of them laughed at the girl who was now all smeared with black smoke on her face.

“What have you done to me!?” she screamed. Because of the large noise in the room, no one could hear her, except the one near them. Before the girl could make any unnecessary move, she was stopped by the regal atmosphere.

Ryujin came over, which made everyone shut up in their seats. His presence was enormous that could make anyone bow down and not look him in the eyes, except Sekhmet. She doesn’t care and never knows who he is.

He just took a glance at Sekhmet, and made his way to the other side of the table. The girl who was always a bully suddenly whimpered and made her way out of the dinner. No one tries to stop her.

“That’s Ryujin, the stern looks of his make him the most handsome in this school palace,” the girl beside Sekhmet said.

“Yeah, but you just can’t make a nice conversation to him, anyways,” complained the other one.

“Why, you girls are making yourself so difficult, forget about that guy,” said the guy opposite the girls, “we are here, don’t we look alright to you?”

“Shut up,”wry the girls.

“A prince is worth a princess anyway,”the other one stated.

“Not just a princess, and not from the fire lands,”giggled one of them.

“And why not?”

“Did you forgot the long time story of a lover, well, anyways, they both die, they’re not compatible,”

“That’s sad,”

Sekhmet heard everything they talked about. She feels sick staying here for long. So, she decided not to finish her food and walked out from their gathering.

Despite the crowd, Persis saw Sekhmet pacing towards the door and walked out from the room. Where is she going this time?

Persis excuses herself to catch up with her. She finds out she was nowhere to be found, but she got an idea where she is headed right now.

Persis reached the old library and found Sekhmet sitting beside the cradle. They found a huge red egg.

“What do you think it is?” asked Persis, standing beside Sekhmet.

Sekhmet didn’t give a glance to her, but continued to stare at the egg. She was starting to give a touch on the top hard shell. It was cold yet smooth on the surface.

“It’s a dragon egg,”

Persis could sense the eeriness on the egg.

“What if someone suspected us here?”

“What? Did they assign us here to clean the library, I say, we will never notice this one,” she meant the egg, she stood up and covered back the egg with hay and blankets.

“Whoever hide it here, we are not going to tell anyone,”

“What if it was stolen and hid it here? They will point us of hiding that egg, we should tell someone,”

“Or maybe it will be another egg with the professor,”

“Maybe Professor had another egg and was hiding it here? But why?”

“I don’t know, but we better tell the higher ups or the headmaster about this,”

“Yeah, you’re right,”before they could step out from the room, they heard a loud c***k underneath the hays.

“What’s that?” They stopped and listened carefully.

Another loud c***k came.

“The egg,” Sekhmet tossed away the hay, and before their very eyes, the egg was now open and a small and slender creature came out. Squealing. It climbed out from the cradle with his membranous fins instead of limbs. It has a long neck and slender nose with eyes that gleam like moonstones.

“Is that even a dragon?” Persis’ voice trailed with a shaking voice.

“It is a serpent, a lesser kind of dragon,”Sekhmet didn't have the chance to continue, the creature crawled towards them, as it shockingly grew and stood from small, into the size of pit-pony and grew more and almost 5 ft 10 in a matter of seconds, and was as spindly as the saplings in the orchard and wingless.

“Is there any dragon growing so fast like that, Sekhmet?” Persis trembled as she spoke.

“I don’t know,” as they staggered backwards, holding their breath for a moment, eyes wide.

It’s size of the body is destroying every cement, shelves and on the walls with its massive length as it was pushing off of it moving in a wavy motion towards them. 

“And that, my friend, is no longer a baby,”

The dragon’s head raised and roared throughout the castle of Dragon Grove Academy in much more depth and higher tone almost like a screech. 

It was heard all over the people in the school grounds, and even stopped the dinner of everyone in the dining room.

“What is that?” Jethro asked.

Another roar they heard. Everyone is worried and nervous.

“It’s a dragon!” screamed one of the students. 

“Maybe, it’s the student who turned into a dragon and it’s causing trouble again!”

They started to panic, acting in impulse among the students and began running in an attempt to escape and going back to their chambers.

A large thud crossed the room. Echoed through that almost sounded like a thunder in a single blow.

 It was a senior officer in his leathered armour and face guard along with the other guards and professors standing in front of the crowd. Side by side.

“Silence!”

The whole room was quiet. All ears and eyes on him.

“No one leaves the room, until we say so. We are going to check the premises in search of the dragon,” and he heads out of the room.

Some of the guards and advisers remained with them, calming the group of students.

“I am pretty sure that it was the pet dragon they are taking care of,” she stated, sitting down on the long table with her comrades.

A silvery long haired guy had just glided out from the room that no one had noticed him and escaped.

“Sekhmet, what are we going to do?”Persis was now hugging tightly at Sekhmet.

“We are not going to move,” There is only one thing she can do: Pray that the dragon will not kill them. She wanted to run fast for safety, but maybe the dragon might catch them if they made a sudden move and they had to remain where they were.

“We least use our powers to distract it and we escape,” Persis suggested.

“That’s not a good idea, Persis, dragons are immune to our elemental powers, and it will only--”Sekhmet was cut off. 

The dragon roared to their faces, in a quick move it grabbed Sekhmet by her jacket. Its tail swung hard as a rock and went through the wall as if it was no more than a wooden block of toys. It scales gleamed in the sunlight.

“Sekhmet!” Persis shouted as the dragon glided out from the broken wall into the sky like a kite without string and flew away.

Persis quickly spread her wings to catch up with Sekhmet and the dragon, but she was quickly stopped by someone else. She turned to her shoulder and saw the silvery-blue haired guy standing beside her, looking out the horizon.

“Ryujin?”