The Dracomancer

CHAPTER SIX: FIRST LESSONS

Alex’s first lesson was strategy with Serena. She started these lessons off by telling him that it was better to have allies than enemies, but most of the time, nations had to start off as enemies to become allies. One nation would conquer the other and take control. If the conquered nation already had other nations under its control, the conqueror would win those nations by default. However, the conqueror also had to take certain measures to ensure that the conquered nations stayed under its control, otherwise the conquered nations could revolt at a time when the conqueror was weak and either take control, or leave the other nation altogether. If the newly conquered nation went without a leader for too long, it could break up into smaller, squabbling nations, each with a separate leader, and each weaker than when they were all one nation. It made sense to Alex, because he had had a few friendships that had ended on a bad note, and the concepts were similar.
After strategy was attack spells with Artemis. She explained that attack spells could only be done in human form. She then taught him a lightning spell this time. He tried it on a practice dummy and the dummy nearly exploded when hit. Artemis ended the lesson early.
Alex’s third lesson was defensive spells. Jaden explained that defensive spells were fueled by stubbornness and could be performed in either form, but seeing as Alex hadn’t had any prior lessons in shape shifting, he was stuck in human form this time. Jaden taught Alex a simple shielding spell, and when he had cast it, Jaden spat a powerful bolt of fire at Alex’s shield, and the shield appeared to have withstood it completely without a mark.
His fourth lesson was in seeing magical energies. Serena taught him to clear his mind and focus on a warded chest. He caught a faint glimmer of energy around the chest. This would be one of the most difficult abilities to master.
Next was shape shifting. Nick started these lessons off with a simple Drake form. It didn’t take long for Alex to master it, but Nick explained that each of the forms was more difficult to master than the last.
His final lesson was healing and resurrection with Felicia. He had been looking forward to this so he could get to know her better, and arrived in Drake form, though she was there in human form. She was even more beautiful than Artemis, being as tall as Alex himself and having long, wavy, dark brown hair, luminous blue eyes, full, rosy lips, and an hourglass body frame.
“I can tell which lesson you just came from,” she said, laughing.
“Yeah,” he chuckled.
“So about what you said last night, were you really shy when you were younger?” She asked.
“To be honest, the calm, confident outward appearance is a mask. I’m still a nervous wreck most of the time,” he replied.
“Oh! Don’t worry. I won’t tell the others, but how do you maintain such a mask when you’re feeling the opposite?”
“Honestly, I’ve been doing it for so long that I’ve forgotten how. It comes to me just as naturally as breathing.”
“That is not normal,” Felicia said in a concerned tone.
“I’m not normal,” Alex confessed.
“Anyhow, much like attack spells, healing spells are impossible to cast in dragon form. Resurrection can be done in dragon form, but only in the most powerful dragon forms. Unfortunately, that means I spend most of my time in human form. You only saw me in dragon form last night because I had to be in that form to get here. From what Artemis told me, you already know which emotions apply to each of the spells, so let’s get right to it.”
Alex reverted to human form. He was already liking her style, but she seemed aloof today. Perhaps being humiliated by Serena and Nick had taught her to guard her emotions. He didn’t blame her; he would have done the same in her shoes. However, he wasn’t sure about his position with this development. He decided to play it safe and wait until she was more warmed up to him to ask her out. On the other hand, if she had spoken with Artemis before this lesson, Artemis might have also told her that she had claim over him, which wasn’t right. Yes, she had kissed him, but she had later stated that it was premature, so he should be free to choose which of them he wanted to be in a relationship with. However, he didn’t know how to approach this without hurting anyone, so he decided not to bother until he was sure that neither of them would mind his asking.
Felicia took him to where a deer was being treated for an injury that appeared to have become infected somehow. He guessed that his assignment would be to cure the infection, but he knew Felicia wouldn’t make him do it without first telling him how, so he waited until she spoke.
“Your job today will be to cure this infection. You can do so in a number of ways, depending on how severe the infection is. Currently, it is only mild, but if you go about curing it the wrong way, it could become severe, or even fatal. We don’t want it to be any more severe than it is, so I’ll tell you how and hope you don’t botch it up. Just think of something you love, or a happy memory, and then imagine the infection being cured.”
It was simple enough. Most of the spells he had learned up to this point worked in similar ways, so curing minor infections didn’t seem very challenging. Alex thought about the time his brother took him to his first concert. He had had a blast while staying stone sober. He then thought about the infection being cured and the injury healing, and it happened. Felicia seemed impressed that he was able to cure the infection and heal the injury at the same time.
“Oh,” she said in a hushed tone as she looked at Alex like she wanted to kiss him. First Artemis, now Felicia. “I wasn’t expecting you to be as proficient with healing as you are with attack and shielding spells, but you have certainly proven yourself.”
So she had spoken with Jaden, too. That was alright. Alex actually preferred instructors who checked in with each other to see how their student was progressing in each of the areas he was learning. He also had the feeling there was a hidden meaning to this assignment, and he had an idea of what it was. Artemis had told her about what had happened. He was in no position to ask Felicia out, but if he kept impressing her, she might say yes, or she might even ask him out.
“Alex, could you meet me here after dark? I have something I’d like to discuss with you,” Felicia asked.
“Sure. I have an idea of what it’s about, but it will be better to discuss it than leave it and keep our own thoughts about it without knowing the truth,” Alex responded.
“Thank you for understanding,” she said sincerely.