The Galway School of Dragons book 1: The Death Dragon

Chapter 4

"Today, I have decided to put you all on a dragon." She says after the crowd has hushed. The girl next to me turns to look at me. "Your Professor Albany's girl, right?" She asks, I've never seen her before. "Yeah, my name is Albany." I see her cover her snicker.

"Anybody want to go first?" When nobody answers, her eyes swim the crowd. They land on me. "Albany?" I have no choice, so I step forward. "Now, class, listen up." She pauses, then continues. "I am going to get Albany to climb on Crystal-- yes, like that-- now, put your hands on the reigns-- like that--now, cluck with your tongue-- like that, and your off!" Her next words where a shrill yell as Crystal floats up, and up.

Finally, she stops. Miles from the ground, my legs wrapped around a single, muscled neck. For a few moments, Crystal and I float there then... woosh. The hundred year old dragon rushes forward, all I see is blue sky and clouds in front of me. My hair floats up around my shoulders, and my clothes stick tight to my body.

Without warning, the giant beast swerves and starts heading down toward the forest underneath us. Her wings go motionless and for a moment, my breath stops. She glides for a few moments the curls her wings up beside her, we shoot to the ground like a bullet.

I let out a high pitches scream as the trees come rushing towards me. We hit. With a terrible crunching sound Crystals body hits the trees, they crunch into pieces and fall over, leaving her laying on a bed of broken trees. Me, however, get thrown off feet after Crystal goes down. I fall down, down down, down.

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I slowly spread my arms out around me, soft but pokey pine needles dig into my bare skin. Black spots swim before my vision and I open my eyes. I slowly, but carefully, stand up. My whole vision goes black for a moment and my head throbs. I lean against a tree and look around.

It's a thick forest of pines, tall and needless until about ten feet from the ground. I subconsciously start picking needles from my hair. "Hello!?" I call out. Nothing. My head thumps with pain and my wrist throbs, along with my upper thigh. I sigh and slump against a tree.

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Its dark, almost to dark to see. The trees cover the moon and cast an eerie showdown over the forest. Crystal is dead, died in the middle of my ride. Nobody has come, nobody has found me. And suddenly, I start to wonder in they care.

a soft growl erupts over the silent woods, I spin my head to the gamble of thorns to my right. Glow king red eyes stare back. "H-hello?" I ask, my voice just above a whisper. A low growl answers, my hand start to shake as I stand up and slowly creep away. The growl grows louder and more fierce.

I turn just in time to see a huge, gray animals with the dog of a head and body of a lion jump out at me. It growls and bites onto my shirt, it rips me to the ground and I scream in fright. I kneel down and cover my neck with my arms and let the beast rip and tear at my body.

"Shwaaaaa." I recognize that noice! Edna's little body comes swooping through the trees, she dives at the massive beast and throws small little sparks at him. The beast growls and spins in her, Edna does hesitate, she dives right in for the eyes and pulls them from the animals head.

It shrieks in pain and starts clawing desperately at its eyes. "Albany!" I hear Ima call, seconds later her cold hands and gripping my cut and bruised arm, pulling me upwards. "Oh my god! I thought you had died!" She exclaims hugging me closely. I force a small laugh. "I'm okay, Ima." I say, setting my arms on her shoulders and smiling.

Her smile turns to a frown. "Are you sure? That's a evil creature, crafted by the devil himself." She says. I give her a strange look. "How do you know this?" I ask, truly interested. "Oh, um... uh, my mom?" It's more of a question. But, I shrug it off. "Hey, where is everybody?" I ask.

"Well, they all thought you sided with Crystal, so they stopped looking. But I knew you didn't, so I came looking."
"But, how did you get here?"
"I borrowed the schools dragon, of course." She replies with a smile. Ima grabs hold of my arm and start dragging me towards the dead Crystal.

"See, there is the school dragon," she said, pointing to a fiery purple beast. It cocks its head at us and Ima tells me to wrap my legs around it. She sits in front of me and in moments we are sailing high through the sky. In ten minutes, I stand on the steps to the school. "Oh my!" Professor Middlewiddle comes rushing out on the large wood doors and holds me tight to her chest.

"Albany... we all thought you died!" She exclaims, planting a large, wet kiss on my forehead. "What ever happened?" A worried look glazes over her eyes when she see's all the cuts and scrapes. "Did you get these from the fall?" She asks, clearly concerned. "No, no. I got them fro--" Ima cuts me off. "Yes, Professor, I think she has a concussion, making stuff up." I watch in awe as Ima tells a straight out lie. I can't believe it!

"Okay, Ima, go for diner and I'm going to take Albany to the hospital wing." Ima disappear down the hallway and professor Middlewiddle walks up a large staircase griping my wrist hard.

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"What happened?" Dad asks as he burst through the door, staring down at me laying in the blank white bed, my skin red.