The Sixth Dragon Rider

Part 25

"Now that everyone has decided to show up," Jerald began brusquely, with a pointed look in Aura's direction, "let's get started.  I want 3 laps around the courtyard as a warm up.  Once you have finished you are to go collect your dragon and then come back here. At that point I would like you to pair off with whoever else is back and begin sparring until everyone else has arrived.  Got it?"

"Yes sir," the class mumbled weakly as they turned away and grudgingly began running.  Unlike the first day, no one was competing to be first in the warm up laps, or even attempting to move at any speed above that of an old pack mule.  Even Aura herself no particular desire to be in the lead, they were only doing warm up laps after all, and allowed herself to fall back into an easy and comfortable pace, somewhere around the middle of the pack.  No one complained about running, either, at least not loud enough for Jerald to hear.  They had all learned to do as he said without question or complaint, and even the whiniest of the boys knew better than to let their distaste be heard.  Aura slowly let her mind wander away from the running, and the light chatter of the boys around her. She thought back to the village where she'd grown up, and the rolling hills and forests where she'd played as a child and learned to hunt.  She saw her family's small hut, and smelled her mother's signature pheasant stew in the smoke wafting out of the doorway.  She could hear her brothers playing and laughing somewhere in the distance.  She felt a tear trickle down her face at the scenes and choked back a slight sob.  She had left her family without goodbye, with only a note to explain her absence.  It was true they probably wouldn't have believed anything about Nirvana or Aura needing to go to Stonehaven, it was absurd after all, but that couldn't stop the regret gnawing at her stomach.  The thudding of her feet against the ground had long since faded from her ears as she slipped into her reveries, and she had forgotten she was even running when a voice broke through her daze and shattered the mirage in front of her.

"Aura! AURA!," Jerald yelled as he came jogging over to where she had stopped when the illusion broke, panting, "I said 3 laps girl, not 6.  If I wanted you to run yourself into the ground then I would tell you to.  Next time listen, got it?"

Aura was only able to manage a weak nod in response as she tried to bring air back into her lungs.  It seemed to satisfy Jerald though who gave a satisfied nod and turned to walk away from her, muttering about stupid children unable to follow directions under his breath the whole time.  Aura took in a few more gasps of air before straightening up  from the hunched position her lack of breath had left her in and following him back to the center of the courtyard.  She quickly joined the semicircle of other students that had formed in front of Jerald and were clearly waiting for her.  Jerald's eyes followed her all the way to her place in the line before he began speaking.

"Now that you all are sufficiently warmed up we can get on with today's lesson.  As you have no doubt concluded by now unless you are a total imbecile, in which case you can leave my class right now, we will be working with our dragons today," Jerald said, "Recently, as all of you ought to know, we have been learning the advantages to fighting from the air and how to do so.  Before we continue, can anyone tell me what those advantages are?"

Several hands shit up into the air around Aura, although hers did not join them.  After her two mess-ups in the class already she has very little desire to draw anymore of Jerald's attention onto her.  Jerald surveyed the class slowly before his eyes landed on a boy two people down from Aura.

"You, Ivan, please give me some advantages," he said.

"Alright," the boy replied, "well, umm, one reason is that people can't get to you as easily when you're in the sky and also they can't see you as well."

"Correct," Jerald said, "at least one person listens to me in this class.  And, hmmm, Tellern, why don't you give us the other advantages?"

"The other advantages are that it doesn't require us to engage in combat and that it makes us seem more intimidating since the dragons are unfamiliar to other countries so they get scared when they see them," Tellern said, clearly eager to please his teacher.