Dragon Knights

I woke with a start and sat up bewildered at my surroundings- this wasn’t my bedroom...
It took only a second for the memories of yesterday to flood back to me. Alarmed, I jumped out of bed and looked for the baby dragon.
“Drace? Drace?” I called out- I paused realising I had named the dragon without even knowing it. He bound through the doorway and leapt into my arms- well at least he didn’t mind the name...
“Morning Kiara,” I heard Clarky call from down stairs. I shifted Drace in my arms and called back a greeting before closing the door and changing into a pair of jeans and singlet. I bound down the stairs with Drace behind me. I swiped an apple from the table and moved outside to where I could see Clarky.
“So what do we do now?” I asked biting into my apple.
“Well I have a feeling because we don’t have taps or sinks- this barrel is meant to be filled with water.” Clarky said nudging the said barrel with his toe.
“Okay and where are some buckets?” I asked finishing the apple and chucking the core near a garden of flowers. Clarky pointed to the wooden buckets beside the door and I shrugged and moved off to fill the barrel with the buckets in my hand.
An hour later, the barrel was full and I had an extra bucket beside me as I sat on the steps to wash my face.
“Hey Kiara!” I looked up to see Matthew and Seth walking my way- clipboard, paper and pens in their hands.
“Hey,” I called out standing up, I realised it was time for some tests.
“You good to go?” Seth asked eager- only a scientist would be this interested in research.
“Let me grab some water and I’ll be right with you.” I turned and bound up the stairs retrieving my drink bottle. Running back down I called for Drace- he ran to my side and leapt to my shoulder as I left the house. “Let’s go.” I said to the science twins -they take all the science courses available- aka sci-twi’s.
“Okay to start off with we’re gonna have you race against Tom- he is the fastest in our group and in my year, and being a fellow biologist he wanted to help out. No offence but if you can even come close to him your speed has improved.” I took no offence from them calling me slow- I was never the hare at school races I usually won out of default if I ever raced. I nodded wanting them to continue. “Next we’re gonna test your balance,” I flinched at that- I had shocking balance for a girl and knew I was gonna end up on the ground more than once. “Nothing too complex; just a balancing beam for now.”
“Tell me the rest after we get past those two.” I said upon reaching the area the twins had made into a testing field. There were random heavy objects littered across the area, a balancing beam was created at the north end and there were two bright orange witches hats near us and another two about 100 metres away -it seemed we got most of the equipment for the excursion with us too.
“Hey Kiara, ready to race?” Thomas asked approaching us.
“I am what about you guys?” I asked the twins.
“We’re just waiting for Hayley and Mandy to come back with the timers and we’ll be right.”
“Okay we’ll begin with a simple run to the end race.” Seth said after the girls brought the timers and their own clipboards- and I was beginning to feel a bit like a guinea pig... “Matt and I will be there- I’ll be timing Kiara, he’ll be timing Tom.” I nodded and took Drace off my shoulders. I patted him soothingly.
“Wait here okay?” I said somehow knowing he understood what I said. I felt a questioning emotion at the back of my head and knew this time it was Drace. “I’ll be right back promise.” I said to him placing him down beside Mandy and Hayley and took my place next to Tom at the beginning of the track. I noticed that he was poised like professional athlete whereas I was just standing with one foot back.
“Ready... Set... GO!” Mandy called out. As soon as the words left her mouth, I ran towards Seth as fast as I could- he was all I focused on. As I past him I stopped and realised that I had been even with Tom the entire distance.
“Well that definitely answers the speed question...” Seth commented, marking something down on his clipboard.
“What about endurance races?” Matthew asked as we began walking back to the girls.
“Yes, we could make them do laps... see if her endurance has increased.” I groaned this was going to be a long day.
“Right I need you guys to run to the end touch the ground and run back here twice.” Matthew said as if he didn’t hear my objection. I nodded and got ready to run again. When we began, I noticed we were neck and neck, when we finished however, after running the 400 metres I was ahead by at least 25 metres and not even puffed.
“You need a break Kiara?” Seth asked handing me a water bottle. I took a drink and shook my head throwing the bottle back. Tom looked at me incredulously as he stood hunched over breathing heavy. “Hmm, I’m curious. Hey Kiara, is it okay if you run up and down the track until you tire?” I nodded in response. “Okay so you’ve already run 500 meters; let’s see how far you can go before you give in.” I moved into position and took off knowing that they were only going by distance no using timers or such. 625 meters later I stopped and lay down on the ground finally out of breath and thirsty as hell.
“Well endurance is definitely in there.” Matthew said when he was still 25 meters from me. I heard the pounding of feet and looked up to see Drace running over, my water bottle clenched in his mouth. As he approached, I sat up and gently took the bottle from him, taking a long drink from it. I sat patting Drace on the head as he thrummed -there was no way that sound was a purr!- in my lap. I looked up at the group of enthusiastic biology students.
“Can we get some food before we continue please?” I asked catching the scent of meat cooking on the wind.
“Sure, we’ll grab Clarky and see if he can run for as long as you can.” I jumped up and ran towards the houses for food.
I re-joined the group an hour later to see Clarky running laps on the track. I peered over Mandy’s shoulder to see six tallies on the board next to his name.
“Ready for the Balancing beam Kiara?” Seth called out walking over to me- a large, way to passionate, smile plastered on his face, Hayley followed eager as well.
“As I’ll ever be,” I answered, internally groaning- land of embarrassment here I come.
As it turned out though my balance had indeed improved- I could practically run along the balance beam quite fine and not even sway. The pair was astounded- again balance and me were un-mixy things before this and now it was as if we were best friends… this dragon was changing me dramatically. Before the scientists could gather ideas for tests on me, the bells of the town hall rang four times and I rushed to the town hall happy to escape- saved by the bell!
I walked inside and sat down waiting for the rest of our little town to join us.
“Nice to see you all paid attention to yesterday,” Josh began the meeting. “I called this meeting to regulate our lessons, chores and such. I think it’s reasonable to assume we primarily need to know how to ride a horse and read the rune writing. Horses are the only form of transport here and we need to find out more about this place. So I would like everyone to dedicate at least 1 hour a day to both of these.” I heard the group groan. I sighed- didn’t they realise how important this was? “The exceptions being the people who either know how to ride, read or the teachers of that area- which I need volunteers for.” I saw the six Ancient history, year 12 ones anyway, students raise their hand for the reading lessons and Sean, Vanessa, William, Helen and Jaclyn raise their hands for the riding tuition. “Thank you. As for chores, mainly the animals are what need attention- I do not care how you treat your house as long as your house mates don’t care either. I want everyone helping the Primary industries students look after the animals. I don’t care how and I don’t care when. Right that’s all for today.” He dismissed us with a wave and moved back into room at the back of the hall- that I assumed he made his office.
And even as I walked out the door, I couldn’t help but ponder how I would do things differently even if it were only slightly.
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
A week later and although everyone was civil, amazingly, lessons were attended- our animal chores had turned into mayhem. It was a simple case of someone would tell someone else to do something; they would go do it only to be told by another person that they should not have done it and the whole thing would end up in tears, tantrums and arguments. I also noticed that while the kids had a tendency of getting themselves hurt, we had no direct way of healing the kids- even with the multiple fully stocked first aid kits around. So the first thing I did after I was initiated into the leader position was call for a meeting.
“Okay listen up;” I began to quiet the room down. “The past week, while the idea behind it was great, it was chaotic, no offence Josh. So to prevent further anarchy, I’m making slight changes. To begin with, the animal situation is totally disorganised with the he said, she said approach- from now on Jaclyn is boss, what she says goes, she tells you when to be there and how to help.” Over the past week, I had noticed she knew more about what she was doing with the animals then the rest of them and was comfortable with the leader position. “Second; William is head rider, he co-ordinates the lessons NOT YOU, I do not want to hear how he does not understand you or he is being unfair- his job is to teach you and people, sometimes you need a good push to go anywhere.” I said firmly to the people I knew were the ones who didn’t want to participate. “Third, we need an infirmary and people who know what they’re doing to run it. If you have a first aid certificate or interested in helping those who do please be available to the infirmary, and stay behind and talk to me. And lastly, we need to do something about the kids; they are bored and sooner or later, they are going to seriously hurt themselves, any ideas on that situation?”
“We could build a park for them or something.” Peter suggested after a moment.
“Excellent, anyone who is able to help out on that issue see Peter- he’ll be in charge of that project.” Peter nodded his head shocked at my announcement. “Okay I believe that is all for today, any questions?” After a moment of silence, I dismissed the group and watched as Jeff, Tori, Andrea, Laura, Dominic, Joel and Marnee walked over to me. “I’ll assume you all are after the infirmary?” they nodded. “Okay I trust you to know what you’re doing- we have two spare rooms in the hall that you lot can take over- if that isn’t enough room there are a couple of empty houses you can set up as a hospital.” In whole, there was a library, the hall, my office, the classrooms -we have two-, a storage closet and I was eager for the last two rooms to be used effectively. “Whatever you need let me know and I’ll see what I can do.” They all nodded and turned away discussing what they had to do and how to do it as they went.
“I told you; you are an excellent leader.” Clarky said behind me I turned and raised an eyebrow. Drace ran up onto my shoulder, while Clarky’s held Cizdra, his dragon, contently.
“I am not I’m merely adjusting Josh’s ideas.” I argued walking into the office- I still didn’t think of it as mine.
“Yeah, but it’s your adjustments that make them work- without them I bet we would be in world war 3 by Thursday.” Clarky gloated- I swear he was more excited about this then I was.
Speaking of excited… I could see our biologists through the window now testing the new lot of people who connected with dragons. So far, Heather, Dylan, Andrea, Megan, Tori and the sci-twi’s had joined the ranks of those connected. Heather had a mauve purple dragon named Phira, Matthew had an onyx coloured dragon named Drayden, Seth had a stone grey named Granithe, Dylan named his orange/red dragon Vulcan -nerd much?-, Andrea’s brown dragon was named Willow, Tori’s flame red was named Pyro and Megan’s sea-blue dragon was named Oceana. Matthew and Seth were ecstatic- they got to experience first-hand what they were recording; no scientist could be happier. I sighed and then resigned myself to looking through Josh’s notes that he had left on the town.
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
I stifled a yawn- whether it was the notes Josh left or the documents on this country; pieces of paper were shoved under my face since that morning and even the English writing was starting to blur and look foreign in my eyes.
“Kiara!” I heard a yell and pounding footsteps approach my office and I stood up and walked briskly to the door. It opened to reveal a puffed Ethan -Jaclyn’s 12-year-old brother. “Come quick you have to see what we found!” He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door an enthusiastic smile on his face. I allowed myself to be dragged by the child, happy for the distraction from the amount of unappealing paper.
I followed Ethan out of our village, wondering why they were allowed to wander this far, and up one of the mountain steeps and around a rock wall to see about 10 large pools of hot spring water- the rock wall had not only shielded them from view but from the majority of the elements as well. I stared stunned as I realised not only had the kids not played in the water while there wasn’t a senior around but they had found a reasonable solution to our bathing problem. As it is well known, medieval people were not fond of personal hygiene and as such there was not a single bathtub in the entire village; it was becoming problematic trying to figure out a way to bathe without face cloths.
“Hey kids wanna go get Clarky, Josh, Laura and Jeff for me?” I asked knowing that at least one of them would. I wasn’t too shocked when I discovered all five of the kids had run off to find the people I had asked for. I chose those people specifically because; Josh had a better chance of being leader and would want/need to know, Jeff because he would be part of my plan of what to do with this place, Laura because I wanted a female opinion other than mine and most the others already had jobs to do, and Clarky because it was Clarky. I was wandering around each of the pools plotting together an idea in my head as the people I asked for arrived.
“This is brilliant!” Jeff exclaimed as he took in what the kids had found.
“I know and I have an idea to make it usable.” I said making my way back to them.
“Well let’s have it.” Josh said taking a seat on the ground, taking off his boots and socks, before rolling up his jeans and dipping his feet into the near-hot water. “God that’s nice.” It wasn’t long before the rest of us followed suit.
“Well each of these pools are a decent size and distance apart right?” I started, each nodded. “Well you know in Japan how they used to use their hot springs as public bath houses? Why don’t we adopt something similar here, at least until we get another alternative. Most of them could be used as baths and one or two can be a hot tub for everyone.” Each of them were shocked that I had thought of this- all they saw was hot water. “So do you think it would be possible to make non-see-through screens to put around the pools for bathing?” I asked Jeff continuing the conversation.
“The problem would most probably be materials; we have enough people willing to help out so they can have a bath so labour is nothing. We could use wood as the posts, more wood as walls I suppose and cloth maybe for door, with a way to keep them closed of course.” Jeff said thinking aloud.
“Well, I’ll put you in charge of that, I suggest you try to get at least two done ASAP before we have a riot of people looking for a bath.” I said leaning back.
Over the course of then next three days the bathing houses became priority for all of us- and after the three days instead of the two houses I had originally planned on there were six completed and ready to go. Each of these houses were along the rock walls surrounding the alcove so only needed the other two and a half walls, the screen and the roof to complete them- we had even made a changing room for those who just wanted to use the hot springs as a spa- able to change into swimmers and then back into normal clothes as they wish. And there were plans to make ‘street lamps’ up to the springs so people could have showers after dark- of course finding a way for that to happen without electricity wasn’t very easy.
Of course with this development came dispute- everyone wanted to go first... in the end it was a massive scissors-paper-rock tournament with the six winners going first- everyone else had to write their names on the roster I put up -and no one was allowed to take more than 30 minutes in the baths. I was content to wait until the last group- I had much more paperwork to look through and no one was going to do it for me.
88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
It was the end of the week- time to name the official leader of the group. While I had run my week well, I wasn’t putting huge hopes on me being elected- like in normal politics, the older and more experienced person is usually elected over the younger more innovative candidate.
“All right, everybody listen up.” Laura called out to the group, everybody soon fell into silence as I watched upon the stage seated facing the room and Laura back as she addressed the group. “Here is how this is going to work... There are the two classrooms- it doesn’t matter which room you pick it isn’t part of your vote- in those rooms is a stack of papers with the words Kiara and Josh written with a box beside them. You tick the box on one piece of paper only- we will know because there is only enough written papers for everyone to vote once and either Brendan or Carmen will be in the room with you- you then fold your piece of paper and put it into the large box in front of the window. You then exit the room and wait outside the hall for us to dismiss you, in which you can then do whatever you want until we call you back to confirm the winner. You are not allowed to talk to anyone you hasn’t voted yet or talk about who you’re voting for and why until after the completion of the election. Brendan, Carmen and I are not voting unless there is the event of a tie in which we become the deciding votes- Kiara and Josh are not voting at all. Any questions?” Everyone remained silent for moment before Laura carried on ordering everyone to line up along the wall outside one of the rooms -both on opposite ends of the hall. “Good luck guys.” Laura said to us before departing to set up the ‘counting room’.
“This is going to be a long day.” Josh sighed leaning back into the chair.
“I hear ya.” I replied wishing I had brought a book to read or paper to doodle on or something.
Three very long and painful hours later -seriously there were only 43 people voting!- the votes were in and counted 5 times, 'just to make sure'- we were told that a tie breaker wasn’t needed.
“Well this is the moment we’ve been waiting for, the votes are in- and the winner with 58 per cent of the votes is... drum roll please?” Brendan stated and amazingly everyone co-operated in giving him a drum roll. “Josh!” The new leader actually looked stunned.
“Congrats oh wondrous leader.” I said with a smile as the crowd clapped. That seemed to knock him out of his state of confusion- he rose and gestured for the group to remain silent.
“Thank you, I take your show of confidence in my abilities and I vow not to disappoint.” Oh lord, the boy has watched too many election shows. “As first order of business I would like to announce my official second in command- Kiara.” Okay this time my eyes bugged out of my head. The crowd clapped again obviously impressed with this turn of events. “For the rest of the day you can skip your lessons and chores if you wish and have fun.” The group cheered before departing under the obvious dismissal. “Brendan, Laura, Carmen thanks again for putting yourselves through that.”
“No probs Josh- see ya round.” Carmen replied with a wave as she headed for the door.
“You’ve remained quiet over there Kiara.” I focused on him again realising we were alone in the room.
“Umm yeah, a shock I guess I didn’t expect you to pick me over anyone else.” I admitted. “And I knew you’d win so its unnerving to suddenly be in a position of power again.”
“That’s funny I was sure you were going to be victor. You handled everything better than I did.”
“No I adjusted everything you did- and face it there wasn’t a snowballs chance in hell I was gunna be leader, I’m the youngest of the group Josh and while I might think outside the square a little more than you do, I’m still seen as too young for any position of power. Besides, you have the air of confidence and the people skills I don’t.” I said assuring him of his place.
Later that night I was relaxing in one of the bath houses, now the initial wave of occupants had died down you could spend however long you like in the hot pools of water- and that was exactly what intended on doing. I felt the smooth scales of Drace rub against my leg as he swam up to nudge my cheek playfully with his nose. I giggled as he played with the water, he was confused at first about the warmth of it- he had only felt cool water before this- but now he saw it as his plaything. Over the week, Drace had shot up to be the size of a medium sized dog- he couldn’t leap onto my shoulder anymore but he still slept at my feet and still managed to steal to blankets. About ten minutes later, Drace and I were headed back to the house after a long day.