The Sixth Dragon Rider

Part 15

Aura's heart froze in her chest and her breath caught in her lungs. The leering face of her Combat teacher leaned down toward her. In shock Aura attempted to wriggle from his grasp, but it was unrelenting. Desperately Aura tried to piece together a believable answer in her mind. She hadn't really been doing anything wrong, right? Just research, maybe he wouldn't appreciate the topic she was researching, but that didn't make it wrong did it. Panic took over Aura as he leaned close enough for her to smell the stench of his breath and see the stains on his teeth as they curled into an evil smile.

"Well..." he demanded.

"I-," Aura started to speak, trying to delay him as she thought up a lie, but then a new emotion came raging through her mind erasing the panic. Red hot anger toward the man trapping her against the wall surged through her entire being as she clenched her fists and a fire lit in her eyes. How dare this man, to whom she had done nothing, dare insinuate that she had been doing something wrong, and without a speck of proof even. Determined to escape his grasp Aura started to twist away but then realized her escape could be counted as violence, which was surely some sort of offence in this school and stopped, then she began to speak through gritted teeth.

"Just researching for class, I don't suppose it is wrong for me to do my homework is it? Or would you like me to tell my teacher my homework is not done because you wouldn't let me study the material?" She asked, the first part fierce, but the second part said in a syrupy voice.

With a growl Jerald's hand released her neck and Aura fell to the floor, careful to not let her knees buckle as she hit the floor. There was no reason to let this man, who already saw her as weak, actually get proof she was. Brushing her clothes off coldly, Aura gathered her bag, which had dropped the the floor when Jerald had grabbed her.

"You may have won this round, but I'm watching you missy. We have class tomorrow and if you so much as toe the line I'll have you in the headmaster's office so fast it'll leave your head spinning," Jerald spit out, "Oh, and on the topic of class, do attempt to not totally suck tomorrow, even from a female rider such as yourself I expect better."

"Thank you for encouraging me to get better sir, I appreciate you trying to help me secure my place as the best, which we both know I am, because you're right. Female riders are stronger, so of course you'd expect that I would outshine the rest of the class, and I ought to let my performance reflect that. I won't fail you, I promise," she said in total (faked) sincerity and walked off, leaving her teacher in the midst of processing her grand statements, which she had made not to boast, but to remind the man that though he may talk about her and treat her as if she was worthless, she was a force to be reckoned with.

"I didn't mean, you're not, that is to say what you're implying is," Jerald tried top discredit her statements, but she was already too far down the hall and didn't offer a response if she had heard, leaving the man confused, and very, very angry.

Mentally high-fiving Nirvana as they walked down the hall Aura let out a little laugh as a smile spread across her face. A rumble echoed in Mirvana's throat, showing she was just as amused by the encounter as her rider had been.

"Not even my best work, but that showed him," Aura said.

"He certainly wasn't expecting that," Nirvana agreed.

Taking a sharp left Aura turned down a hall the pair hadn't populated since their first day. A new bounce in her step Aura started to hum a little tune as she walked, promptly confusing the dragon on her shoulder.

"Where are we headed, no where we would need to go is down this hall," Nirvana said.

"The dining hall of course," Aura replied.

"Since when do we go there, ever since our first day disaster you've had food left at the door," Nirvana said, shocked.

"Well, yeah, but I realized we've just been playing their game, and I'm not going to do that anymore," Aura explained.

"What is all this talk of games and rounds and all that? I feel like I'm missing something important here," Nirvana said.

"Well back when Jerald said I'd 'won that round' I realized that this thing with all the riders in this school is like a giant game where they see how much it will take to break me, make me quit. But I'm not doing that anymore, they mess with me and I run away. What does that show them?" Aura asked.

"Umm, nothing?" Nirvana tried.

"No, it shows them that I am weak. That I'll just run away when it gets tough, succumb to their taunts and pranks. I can't let that happen, I'm a fighter, and now I'm going to change the rules of this stupid game," Aura said.

"How so?" Nirvana inquired.

"Well so far it's just been them being mean to me and making me feel bad, and I've let what they've done hurt me, mentally I mean. I've let myself feel defeat, but no longer. I've realized the only reason they do this is because they see me as a threat so I'm going to use every punch they throw, literally and metaphorically as fuel to my fire, so that I can become that threat they think I am," and with that Aura pushed open the tremendous doors to the dining hall and walked in, head held high. The picture of pride, it was an intimidating sight, and as the hundreds of riders turned from their meals to watch her as she confidently strode through the hall, they began to see just who they had been messing with.

A/N: Hello beautiful readers! Here I am with the next update. I know not a ton of action happened in this chapter, but it was a big and necessary one for Aura as a character. Also I had some people proof read this chapter and a couple didn't seem to get the metaphor with the game. Sp for any of you who have metaphors go over your head, the game is just a metaphor to describe how the boys treatment of her was like a game, not literally one, in which they tried to get her to leave the school with all their cruel actions. And by "changing the rules" Aura's making it so that rather than be upset by what they do, which is what they boys want, she uses it as motivation, which means that instead of what they do defeating her, it strengthens her. Maybe this explanation will help some of you, maybe it won't either way I thought I'd put it there just in case any of you needed it. I hope you guys all enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it! Love you all so much, and a million thanks to my commenters and voters who get this story out there, we were #120 in Fantasy guys! ONE HUNDRED TWENTY! I can't believe it! So again thank you, I love, love, love y'all and I'll see you in the next chapter!

Bye for now, Kat