Wings Of fire: Shadowstalker

Chapter 7: Competition

It was time. Today was the day. The four had been planning, working and waiting all year for this event. If they won their project would go down in history, and it would be displayed in the Museum! Shadow was excited, and he could tell his friends were too. The prince had high hopes.

"Oooh I'm so excited! We are totally gonna win!" Mindwatcher said. "Aaand tomorrow we can celebrate with our date." She giggled.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's not count our eggs before they hatch. There's a lot of great models out there." Starhunter said humbly. Shadow liked that about him. Starhunter never acted bigger than anyone else, and he was just a regular, friendly dragon. He knew that and he embraced it.

"Right. Can't get ahead of ourselves here. I told them not to let us win because of my royal heritage. That would be unfair to everyone else, if we don't win, that's okay. My father said it can go in the palace library." Shadow smiled. The thought that their model would still be used somewhere made him happy. The museum was ideal with only one spot for a map, but the library was good too.

"Oh that would be nice. But I want first place. I want a trophy!" Sharp said in an aggressive tone.

"We all do." Shadow smiled. He took a second to examine all the other projects. There were ten groups in total, and each had made their own. Every map was impressive, but none of them had a scaling tool. Mindwatcher said it was smart to keep it a secret until the day of the competition, which is what they did. Nobody had time to copy or steal the idea. A midnight black male Nightwing came over to them, it was Swiftness.

"Oh great, the misfits." Swiftness huffed. "Honestly, great map ya got there. Too bad mine is gonna win. My father, the headmaster said so."

"Hello Swift.." Shadow sighed. "And it's a shame you had to resort to that. I specifically told them not to judge our project based on heritage."

"Doesn't matter anyway. My group's is better. So too bad." Swift huffed. "Take care." He walked off and snorted. Another student from the group next to them flicked her tail to trip him. The Nightwing hissed as he got up before heading back to his group.

"What an ass. That was funny to watch." Starhunter chuckled. "Wish more dragons did that, show him they're not afraid."

"Yeah. I know he's afraid of you, Shadow. He thinks it's tough to pick on the biggest dragon at school, even though you could flatten him." Mindwatcher said. "I can see it in his head."

"I bet you can. But I wouldn't hurt him, or anyone for that matter." Shadow said calmly. "I don't want to be seen as a big, violent dragon. I just want to be seen as a dragon." He smiled a bit. She smiled back and reached for his snout before a gong rang, and everyone turned to see the headmaster. This dragon's name was Knowledge. He looked like Swift with a slightly lighter underbelly. He wore a gold necklace and a scroll pouch on him always. Knowledge also had a pair of gold framed spectacles that wrapped around his horns conveniently.

"Attention Students! It is time to grade your projects. Let's begin, Starting with group one." Knowledge said. This Nightwing was older, and he'd been the teacher when the Nightwings lived on the volcano. Shadow watched in anticipation as the headmaster walked through the different groups, using a scroll to write down their scores. His tail thumped nervously as he drew closed and closer. Their group number was six, and he was at four.

"It'll be okay. We worked very hard." Sharp smiled. The four waited, and as Knowledge got to their project he sat up and lifted his chin. It was easier to see how old he was up close, as the dragon had a few wrinkles around his eyes.

"Good evening your majesty." Knowledge bowed, being a very respectful and proper Nightwings. Shadow watched closely as he inspected the project, remaining silent. "This looks spectacular, I must say. Truly." He started to write in his scroll. "Hm. What's this little gadget?"

"A scaling gauge. It lets us measure objects on the map, and compare them to their real life counterparts. It's a brilliant little tool Shadow came up with." Starhunter smiled.

"Really?" Knowledge fiddled with it, examining the tool slowly. "My my, how clever. This is ingenious really." He began to measure several different objects on the map with it. "You got them correct as well. How remarkable."

"Thank you sir." Shadow said calmly. He then sat up straight, trying to be more royal-looking. Knowledge wrote down several notes on his scroll before rolling it up. The old Nightwing smiled and nodded to the four as he walked towards the next group, which was Swift's.

"Hello son." Knowledge said with a small sigh. "Let me see what you've made." Shadow and his friends watched the headmaster closely. Swift sat and gave the four a cocky grin as his father went over his group's work. Unfortunately however, to his surprise Swift got a small glare from Knowledge.  "Son, did you even try?"

"What? Of course I did father! We did great, didn't we? We're gonna win right?"

"It doesn't work like that. Just because I am the headmaster does not mean you're automatically going to pass everything. You have to try and put effort into these things. I told you this!" Knowledge scoffed and took a deep breath. He wrote several notes into his scroll and moved on. "Right. Onto the next group." He grumbled. Soon the other groups were graded and the old nightwing got to the stage. The room's gong rang and everyone turned to the headmaster.

"Attention students! After carefully examining all of your wonderful models, I have decided upon a winner!" Knowledge boomed. Shadow turned and felt Mindwatcher reach her talon to his, so he wrapped his claws around it and held her tightly. "The winner of the competition is group number six! Congratulations, you four come on up here abd grab your trophies and certificates!" The students all started clapping and cheering.

They won. They actually won. Shadow was shocked. The prince wanted to win, and he did. He and his friend's hard work payed off. As they walked to the stage to receive their award, he thought about how excited and accomplished he felt. He knew his father would be proud of this. The four friends stood with Knowledge as they held their trophies, smiling brightly. Now that the competition was over, he had to prepare for his big date with Mindwatcher.