Perilous Skies; Wayward Royalty, Playing with Fire

Chapter 3 Piiku Ravenfield: Alive and a Girl

"Mmmuuaagghhh, Piikuuuu!!!" Natalia groaned dreadfully, her voice muffled as she buried her head deep into her pillows. The elf child's hands blindly clawed across the bunk in search of extra sheets to further conceal herself from the oppressive light emanating from my desk, "When I said I'd let you read tonight, I didn't mean flash your stupid lamp on and off like some lightoholic moth!"

"Oh, s-sorry!" I replied with an apprehensive jolt that straightened my back like a board of wood and sent my glasses flying to the other side of the desk. Clicking and bouncing against the fine wood before safely settling upon one of the many books I had carelessly scattered about during my fanatical research, "I jus-I just am still getting used to having my own personal lighting for once instead of relying on an overhead or candle to see what I am doing."

I continued on with my usual enthusiasm, "It's fascinating technology really, such brightness and utility from such a"

"Well get used to it, Princess, it's either read or sleep for you!" Natalia snapped, fastening her iron grip on her pillows, "If you can't do that, I'll gladly decide for you!"

"Relax, I won't bother you any more than I have to," I said, as I tentatively reached across the desk to retrieve my fallen specs, paying attention not to accidentally turn any pages. It only took several harrowing seconds of searching to find them. I examined them closely to make sure they were unharmed. Looking back at Natalia, her gaze had noticeably softened and after a brief moment of awkward silence, she curled up to face the wall with a tired groan. Thankfully, no tragedy had befallen my precious sight-givers this time. If you don't call a future Archmage who has snow-white hair and needs glasses a tragedy in and of itself. It doesn't help that when I arrived, I was also the only kid here who had never seen a dragon before. So not only am I the only handicapped apprentice, but I look like a weirdo for gawking and crying when the first flock circled the island when I arrived roughly 3 months back. It's a good thing Natalia took a liking to me, otherwise, I might've been the laughingstock of the whole academy.

Soaring just within the edge of visibility as if some unseen barrier or unspoken rule was keeping them at bay, their distant silhouettes vaguely resembled distorted griffons, birds, and bats on the horizon, albeit varying considerably in size and form. A truly otherworldly experience for a naive, tiny, and isolated "village girl" like myself. To finally get to see the magnificent creatures my people have idolized for over a century and a half.

The academy may have taught us some of the basics, such as mounting and riding, like that was ever going to be remotely challenging. My people have been raising hunting griffons for more than a hundred years, like my sweet boy Gordon. Flying is in my blood, I was born to be carried into the air, so dragons shouldn't be much more difficult. Too bad we didn't get to use real dragons instead of lifeless mechanical models since none were allowed to even approach the island. We were shown basic survival and combat skills, again not an issue for me. Back at home, we are proud warriors, and my father, the Chief mind you, taught me everything he could before my departure. Identifying the distinct and diverse dragon families, my favorite part. I memorized all the big groups; I can name from the top of my head the, Aves (Avangicara), Saurians (Sauriformidae), not to be confused with Varanians, Stormdrakes (Caelumdynamica), and Chiropterids (Umbradraconids) In short, we were given many lessons, but in the end, the teachers claimed we had barely scratched the surface of what is to come, and from now on we'll have to learn from our companions and "bitter experience", as they put it.

Like I was ever just going to waste my potential playing it safe. I didn't want to simply see dragons, I wanted to understand them, to know every species, their culture, history, and every aspect of their lives. That way, when I meet my dragon, I'll be the best apprentice they could've asked for. For some reason, my soul-link couldn't tell me the sex of my partner, which was incredibly confusing seeing as everyone else seemed to know theirs. Anyway, I resumed my studies, and tonight I was finally going to complete my read on a brand new field guide that hit the shelves just last week, The Imperial Archive's Encyclopedia of Dragons & Kin.