Crescent Dragon Academy

Chapter 5

The girls chatted about their expectations of various classes, while Elizabeth shoveled food into her mouth and occasionally added commentary. When the feast was almost over, Elizabeth pulled a piece of white cloth from her pocket, and started putting cakes, pastries, cookies, and many more sweet delicacies into the wrap. After she was done, she wrapped it all up in a strange, but neat way she called the Furoshiki method. Almost everyone was finishing up their food, people trickled out of the banquet hall in a slow, but steady stream.

Soon, Amara, Elizabeth, Calypso, Ara, Auburn and Jade dusted off their tunics, and followed the other students out the door. The girls joked and laughed as they walked up the grand staircase. Amara laughed as Ara described how funny Calypso had looked last year when she was doused in water by a grumpy water dragon. "She just straight out glared at the dragon, and squeezed the water out of her tunic, and she...". Her voice was drowned out by the sound of Calypso roaring and trying to strangle her, while Ara just laughed and dodged her attempts with ease, while still trying to finish the story. Without them noticing, they had already reached the fourth floor, where the first years took up residence. Jade and Ara lived in room 406, while Calypso and Auburn too up room 405. The girls went to their respective rooms, but not before promising each other to meet at the top of the grand staircase at 7:25 a.m. sharp tomorrow, in time for breakfast. Amara shut the door of room 407 with a soft bang, and looked at Elizabeth, who was busy putting her wrap of food on her desk. Amara went to her desk, where a parchment scroll was sitting next to Amara's charcoal pencils. Amara opened the bottom drawer of her desk, put her room key in it, locked it with her padlock, and picked up the scroll. She studied the scroll, it was two pieces of thin, cream-colored parchment, stacked, rolled up, then bound by a gold ribbon. Amara undid the knot on the ribbon, put it on her desk, where it vanished, to her surprise. She pulled the two sheets of parchment apart with her long, delicate fingers, and set the map of the school down, she picked up her schedule and read it:

Amara Joyce, Room 407

1st Year

Group Alexandrite

Remark: The schedule will change according to that day.

7:30- Breakfast(Group Alexandrite Dining Room)

8:00-Hatchery(Hatchery, Lady Brooke Ward)

9:00-Bonding(Bonding Room 4, Lady Brooke Ward)

11:45-History(Classroom 786, Professor William Hark)

12:45-Lunch(Group Alexandrite Dining Room)

1:30-Basic Combat(Training Area 5, Lady Johanna Flint)

2:30:Basic Weaponry(Armory, Sir Roger Zawn)

4:00-Dragon Training(Training Area 19, Sir Jaden Sykes)

6:00-Dinner(Banquet Hall)

10:00-Curfew

it read. Amara slipped the map and her schedule into a flat, thin, and light wooden box. She also put her charcoal pencils, tree sap eraser, bamboo ruler, and a few dozen sheets of parchment for writing notes on into a small hidden compartment on the left side of the box. Amara slid a leather strap through two indents on the box, and it became a bag she could easily sling on her shoulder and carry around.

Amara looked at the clock on the wall, it was only 7:30 at night and she still had a lot of time before curfew. She walked into the bathroom and took a hot shower. When she came out of the bathroom wearing a fresh sleeping tunic, she saw Elizabeth sprawled on the ground eating the food she had smuggled from the banquet hall. Elizabeth burped and looked at the wrap of food with an expression of content. "How does she eat so much food and also stay so fit at the same time?"Amara wondered. Amara plopped onto her bed and started reading a book. When the clock chimed the curfew warning bell, which was at 9:30, thirty minutes before curfew. Amara set down her book, brushed her teeth, brushed her hair, then tucked herself under the covers. She went to sleep in an unfamiliar bed that would soon become familiar, excited for all the opportunities and adventures to come.