DragonDrune

Chapter 3

Dinner was a riot, but Thalya couldn't stop thinking about Focus. She could still feel his hands on her shoulders, hear his voice after their handshake saying "See you around." His eyes had finally moved from hers as he walked over to a cubicle and disappeared inside.

Thaya glanced around the cafeteria to try and find somewhere to sit. The only spot that seemed unoccupied was a chair at a table with two other girls and three boys.

She crossed to the table and said awkwardly, "Can I sit here..?"

The group nodded so she sat down, feeling rather like she was sitting on a live bomb.

"Hey," The boy sitting next to her said, reaching to the middle of the table to fill his plate with mashed potatoes, "You new here? I haven't seen you before now."

Thalya glanced at the boy, his light brown hair was the curliest hair she had ever seen, his face was round and babyish and he had smile lines around his blue eyes. He reminded her in a lot of ways of her good friend back on Earth, Cayl.

"Yeah I just got here today," Thalya answered.

He nodded as he finished chewing. "Cool, I'm Kaiden, by the way, DragonDrune trainee, I'm in your dorm. Over here we have Aster, Caine, Jem, and Iyan." He gestured to the others sitting at the table.

"I'm Thalya," Thalya said.

"Where are you from?" Aster asked. She was a girl like a cat. Thin, lithe, straight black hair, and looking like she could easily rip your head off

"North Carolina," Thalya answered.

"I've never been there," Kaiden said, "I'm from Minnesota, is it warmer in North Carolina?"

"I would guess," Thalya said, taking a bite, "Isn't Minnesota weather really unpredictable or something?"

He shrugged, "Sure is warmer than this place, there's also a lot less ways to die painfully. There are probably a thousand ways to die just in this facility."

"Like what...?" Thalya asked nervously. She wanted to be a DragonDrune to fight the dragons, not to die before she got the chance. Of course, death would come for her eventually, she couldn't outlast the dragons forever, but she hoped to make an impact before she went.

"Well, say the mechanism keeping the pressure stable broke, we would be crushed. Say the heat went out, we would have about five minutes to live. Say Chayne decides we had a toilet paper fight in the dorm one too many times, say-" His voice faded as something else caught Thalya's attention.

She saw blinding white hair, a stare that never wavered, a stare directed right at her.

Focus held her gaze for what seemed like an eternity. Kaiden snapped her out of the daze.

"Hey, what is it?" He asked, tapping her shoulder. He followed her gaze back to Focus who had sat down alone at an empty table.

"You aren't looking at that Focus Freak, are you?" Kaiden asked.

Thalya gave a start and whirled to face him. "He's not a freak!" She exclaimed. "He's not a freak," she repeated, lowering her voice as the others at the table stared at her.

"He's not?" Kaiden asked, surprised. "His hair is completely white, have you ever seen anyone like that? And the way he stares at everyone. It's creepy. Some people say he's been a trainee for almost a year now and hasn't advanced like everyone else. I don't know if that's true but there's definitely something really freaky about the guy."

Thalya was silent. She couldn't disagree with him, she had no proof against anything he had said, but it felt wrong to agree with him.

She turned away. "Calling him a freak isn't right." She said lamely, quite aware of the stares she was getting from the others.

Kaiden sighed. "Well, It's only your first day here, you'll learn soon enough."

They finished their food in silence. Before Kaiden and his friends got up, he said: "If you want a tour of the place later, we'll be in the training room. We promised Chayne we would do an extra drill for him as penalty for putting his socks in the mashed potatoes. Again."

"Thanks," was all the response Thalya could muster as they left, and she felt Focus's eyes on her as she left the cafeteria.

Thalya spent the rest of the evening on the dorm phone with Cayl back home on Earth. Personal phones were not allowed in the facility, but there were several phones for free use scattered about, she heard.

Cayl mostly wanted to know what Neptune was like, and was a little bummed that she had only been able to see it for a short time.

"I promise I'll tell you all about it when I get to go outside again," Thalya had promised him.

Cayl was also stumped by Focus. He didn't like that he stared so much and was even more uncomfortable by the fact that Focus didn't have a real name.

Thalya said goodnight to Cayl after talking for a long while and then hung up. She made her way to her cubicle and on the way, saw Kaiden enter his. He gave her a friendly wave, which she returned on impulse.

Maybe I do have a chance at making friends here, She thought, and went to bed with thoughts of Neptune, Focus, Kaiden, Cayl, and the next day's training.

Another chapter done! This one went much faster than I anticipated. Thank you so much if you read, and please vote if you like it!