by Ramy Vance
Jollies flew to Alex’s face and smiled brightly. “Up and at ‘em!” she shouted. “You’ll miss breakfast again if we don’t move. Jeez, you really can sleep, you know that? I’ve never met anyone who can sleep as much as you.”
Alex squinted and rubbed her eyes until Jollies came into focus. The pixie was bright, even brighter in the morning light. “What can I say? I’m very good at sleeping.”
Jollies brightened even more as she zipped around Alex’s head. “I know you’re pretty committed to moping around in the morning, and I don’t want to burst your bubble but…” She pointed at her eyes and then Alex’s.
Alex didn’t know what Jollies was miming at first, but then it clicked. She was looking at Jollies without her blindfold on, and without Manny anywhere near her. She was using her own eyes. “Holy cow!” Alex exclaimed.
That must have been what the slight headache was when she woke up. She hadn’t even noticed she wasn’t wearing her blindfold.
Jollies clapped her hands in excitement as she zipped around. “All right, if that’s the case, I’ve got something you have to see with your own two eyes,” Jollies exclaimed as she flew down and grabbed Alex’s finger, yanking her out of bed.
Alex practically fell to the floor. She couldn’t believe how strong Jollies was sometimes.
The pixie shoved Alex out of the room. “Come on! They’re serving drow food. Yummy, yummy, yummy!”
In the hall, Alex turned and glared at Jollies. “What’s drow food?” Alex asked.
Jollies smiled wide, and her color shifted to a deep purple. “Mostly snails and moss,” Jollies answered. “Just kidding. Not about the snails and moss. About them serving it. They’re not serving drow food. Just thought if I said that you’d move faster because of your interest in…you know. Now come on.”
Jollies flew over to a poster of a large, white man with a golden beard on the wall just outside their door. He was extremely muscular and had beautiful eyes and a smile. Alex thought he was kinda cute.
Alex took a closer look at the poster. “Oh, yeah. He’s cute, I guess,” she said as she shrugged.
Jollies’ color changed to dull blue. “I thought you’d be more excited.”
“Uh, who is it?”
“What? You don’t know? I was trying to make this place more human-friendly. Don’t human girls like Chris Hemsworth?”
Alex laughed so hard her ribs hurt. “Jollies, I was blind for my entire life,” she said. “I have no idea what Chris Hemsworth looks like.”
Brath and Gill stepped out of their room. Alex hadn’t realized it was directly across from her and Jollies’. Gill stopped to look at the poster and nodded. “Thor, huh?” Gill said softly. “I think Loki’s cooler. The whole trickster god thing is pretty sweet.”
Those were the first meaningful words Gill had spoken to Alex. She hadn’t heard his voice before. It was extremely soft, and far too deep for someone his age. Her knees started to buckle.
Brath pushed his way forward to see the poster. “Psh. Some tough-looking human?” Brath croaked. “I should have assumed that a human would have such stupid taste. Why not a real hero like Gromnor the Gruesome or Aberdeen the Aberrant?”
Alex crossed her arms and leaned against the poster. “Screw you. I think he’s hot,” she spat. “He can kick ass and looks good doing it.”
Brath scoffed loudly and fluffed his beard before he walked away. He looked over his shoulder at Gill. “Hey, are you coming?”
Gill nodded and turned his attention to Alex. “Catch you around,” he said as he walked off.
Alex watched him join Brath as Jollies took a seat on her shoulder. “I bet I know who you want a poster of,” she teased.
Alex’s eyes shot daggers at the pixie. “We are not at that level of joking yet!” she exclaimed.
“We’re roommates and breakfast buddies! We are on that level. And why do you want to get rid of the poster? I was just trying to help you feel at home. I didn’t want to do anything to make anyone tease you more.”
“No, leave it up. It’s like a middle finger to Brath. He’s probably just jealous that he’s not that tall and buff.”
Jollies’ color shifted to white. “Middle finger?”
Alex gave Jollies the finger. “It’s a human thing. It’s a sign of disrespect.”
“Oh, all right. Yeah, let’s give Brath the middle finger, then!”
Jollies and Alex both flipped Brath off behind his back before they broke into giggles and went back to their room to get ready for the day.
Chapter Seven
Alex walked through the mess hall wearing her blindfold again, carrying the plate of food Jollies had brought her. She followed the pixie, who was leading her to a table full of her friends. Alex hadn’t gotten a chance to meet any of them the day before, but honestly, there were so many, she doubted she would have remembered their names anyway.
The plate of food Alex held made no sense to her whatsoever. There was something yellow that looked like it could have been meat and then a pile of black mush that sizzled as if it were on fire. To top it all off, there was something that looked suspiciously like cheesecake.
None of it smelled appetizing. The pile of black mush smelled a lot like sulfur.
Alex took a seat next to where Jollies sat, if you could call it sitting. Pixies didn’t really sit down and eat. They placed their plates on the table and gather together in a swarm, dipping down to randomly to grab a morsel.
Alex tried to keep up with their conversation, but as she had noticed the day before, it was nearly impossible. The pixies spoke English, but they all seemed to talk at the same time and far too fast for Alex to catch what was being said.
That didn’t bother Alex. She’d wanted to spend the morning alone with her thoughts anyway. This way, it wouldn’t look like Alex was intentionally trying to spite her roommate. Besides, Jollies didn’t seem to notice. It was the best of both worlds.
Alex replayed the look Gill had given her earlier by her room. It was nothing like how he or the rest of the cadets had looked at her before. There was something soft in his glance, almost as if he were curious.
Curious. She could handle that. She was curious about him as well. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would hang out with Brath. He acted too soft and too artistic. All Alex could pick up from Brath was that he was a raging jerk.
Alex poked at her pile of black mush. Well, I’m here to try new things, she thought before tasting the mush. The flavor was overwhelming. It was like medium-rare steak and mashed potatoes at the same time.
Putting her spoon down, she eyed the mush, then she took a bite of the yellow piece of meat. It was sweet, almost as sweet as candy, and chewy like taffy. Then the sweetness was replaced by an almost salty taste.
Last, Alex took a bite of what looked like cheesecake. Surprisingly, the cheesecake tasted just like cheesecake.
All in all, Alex could say she really liked drow food.
As she dug into the strange new food, Brath and Gill walked past her table. Brath stopped, stared at what Alex was eating, and nudged Gill. “Check it out,” Brath teased. “Guess the human finally got sick of being one and wants to try being a drow.”
Gill looked at Alex, who had her mouth full of the mush. “Or perhaps she just appreciates the refined culinary skills of my people,” Gill said drolly.
Brath put his plate on Alex’s table and sat down. Gill sat next to him.
Alex took a deep breath and contemplated getting up and leaving, but she knew better. Brath was going to continue challenging her until she beat him. Running would just postpone the inevitable. Besides, Alex was tired of running. She was going to stand her ground.
Brath took a savage bite of a leg of mutton. “So, how long do you think it’s going to take you to find your way into the Dark One’s dungeons?” the gnome asked.
Alex didn’t look up from her food as she replied, “Probably twice as long as it’s going to take you, and that’s if he doesn’t e
nd up stepping on you accidentally.”
The pixies stopped talking as the byplay between Brath and Alex caught their attention. Jollies left the swarm and landed on Alex’s hand.
Brath laughed viciously. “You talk a big game for someone who couldn’t even finish the race in a reasonable amount of time,” Brath shot back. “From what I heard, you had the worst time of any cadet in the history of the academy. Slowest dragonrider ever. That’s if you even make the cut.”
Alex casually took a bite of the meat. “Better than the smelliest dragonrider,” she retorted. “Or is that gaseous cloud of body odor a gnome thing? I’ve been wanting to ask, because, to be frank, you’re the only gnome I’ve met who smells like the backside of a troll.”
The pixies erupted into gales of laughter and their bodies shimmered from bright red to pink. Jollies giggled. Alex tried to pretend none of this was affecting her. Her heart was racing, though.
Brath’s face reddened behind his white beard. “You can talk as much trash as you want. I’m still going to knock you on your ass at the joust!” he shouted as he slammed his fist on the table.
Alex’s face must have betrayed her surprise because Brath burst out laughing and pointed a snide finger at her. “Look at you! You don’t even know there’s a joust today. You probably don’t even know what a joust is.”
“I don’t need to know what it is to beat you at it!” Alex shouted back.
The rest of the mess hall was starting to pay attention to their fight. Gill just ate quietly at Brath’s side as if he couldn’t hear either of them.
Brath climbed onto the table so he was at eye level with Alex. “Doesn’t matter what you think you’re going to do,” he said. “I’m not letting a lazy human who thinks she’s better than everyone waltz in here and become a dragonrider.”
Jollies flew between them. “Hey, come on, Brath,” she said. “Do you really want to be the guy who’s known for picking on the blind girl?”
Alex’s pride flashed red-hot. She stood and gently pushed Jollies out of the way so she could face Brath. “I’m not ‘the blind girl’ or ‘the human,’” Alex shouted. “I’m Alex Bound, and I’m the one who’s going to massacre you at the joust today.”
The door of the mess hall burst open, and all the cadets jumped.
Fier had come in. She was wearing her armor and she did not look pleased. “What the hell are you cadets still doing in here?” she shouted. “Don’t you know better than to ride on a full stomach?”
Fier hung her head as she shook it. “Go get suited up! I want you all on the training field in a half-hour. GET MOVING!”
Chapter Eight
The cadets gathered in the same field as the day before. It had changed dramatically, though. Bleachers had been set up, and crystal walls created an arena.
Between the bleachers was a grandstand where the instructors sat. There were two dragonriders Alex didn’t recognize. She looked for Jollies in the crowd to ask if she knew who they were.
Instructions were blaring over a loudspeaker, explaining how the joust was going to work. Multiple matches were going to run simultaneously. The winner of each match went on to the next round.
Where these jousts differed from basic tournaments was that each player was going to be scored on technique by the two judges. These scores would be compared across all cadets, and that was how the winner would be chosen.
Fier stood on the grandstand with the other instructors and raised her hands to silence the chatty cadets. “The rules are simple,” she explained. “You all know how a joust works. Whoever knocks the other player off their dragon wins. That’s about the only rule we got. And don’t worry, we’ll make sure you don’t die, so don’t hold back.”
Alex pushed her way through the crowd that was slowly starting to split up and form into their cadet year groups. She found Jollies with the rest of the first years. “Hey, Jollies. Who are those other two riders?”
Jollies’ wings flashed a bright yellow as she flew in a circle. “Oh, right, you don’t know them, do you?” the pixie asked. She pulled down her HUD and projected a holographic image of one of the riders.
He was a grizzled, middle-aged human. A scar ran down the side of his face, and his eyes looked as if they had seen horrors. “This is Roy,” Jollies explained. “He’s one of the most decorated Mech-riders ever. He fights in this weird dragon mech thing. You’ll have to see it to believe it. He’s been in more battles than any other rider.”
Jollies flipped to the next rider, a lanky, sturdy-looking woodland elf. His ears had a regal point to them, and he was not smiling. “And that’s Toppinir. He’s another veteran. Some people think he’s the best dragonrider ever. Like, the greatest in history.”
Jollies shut down her HUD as the two of them made their way to the bleachers. “They sometimes pick squires from the winners of the tournaments,” Jollies said, “but that hasn’t happened in a long time. I think Toppinir’s last squire died in battle almost a decade ago.”
The first joust got underway. Two cadets Alex hadn’t seen before took the field. On the opposite side, two of the older cadets flew into the air.
The joust took place too high in the air for Alex to see, so she politely made small talk with a cadet next to her who was raving about how much she wanted to meet Roy. Jollies was surprisingly quiet while she watched the match.
One of the cadets was knocked off his dragon, and he yelped loudly as he plummeted toward the ground. Suddenly, a web-like net popped into existence, and the cadet bounced up and down before disappearing. He reappeared at the far end of the bleachers in an area aptly titled the Loser’s Box.
Alex turned to Jollies and said, “They don’t have to be so mean about it.”
Jollies giggled and nodded in agreement. “I feel like some of the professors really enjoy being jerks to us,” she admitted.
Two more matches took place, and Alex lamented her inability to see what was going on. She thought about using Chine’s eyes if he would let her but thought better of it. Instead, she concentrated on using her own eyes and ignoring Manny’s view. Her vision was still very limited and overwhelming, but she was adjusting slowly. She needed to practice to get used to her gift.
Fier’s voice rang over the loudspeaker. “Next up, Brath and Jollies!” she shouted.
Jollies squeaked loudly when she heard her name and turned to Alex. “Wish me luck,” she squealed before flying off.
On the other side of the bleachers, Brath stood and made his way to the field.
Jollies and Brath raised their dragon anchors into the air, and their dragons rocketed toward them. They chose lances from the weapons rack and took off.
Alex took a deep breath and squinted, and when she focused her right eye, she could see Jollies and Brath crystal-clear.
The two cadets had already started their fight. Jollies was whizzing past Brath as his dragon spewed fire everywhere in complete and utter disregard for safety. Luckily, Jollies was too fast to be hit.
Jollies leapt from her dragon and flew straight for Brath’s head. Her lance hit him in the forehead, knocking him backward. His dragon, Furi, lunged upward as the rider lost his balance.
Amber, Jollies’ dragon, swept under the pixie and scooped her up.
Alex was impressed with Jollies’ tactics. Brath and Furi were too large for her to overpower, so splitting up with Amber and trying to knock both Brath and Furi off balance made the most sense.
Jollies went for Brath from behind this time. She leaped off her dragon again, landed on Furi’s back, ran up to Brath, and swooped his legs out from under him. When Brath hit his dragon’s back, Jollies’ lance magically extended, unseating him.
He fell through the air but managed to hold onto his lance. He raised his dragon anchor and Furi turned in midair and came shooting toward him. He slipped under Brath to save his rider from falling.
Jollies wasn’t ready to back off. After getting back on Amber, she flew toward Brath as fast as she could, electri
city crackling off her dragon’s scales.
Brath turned with his lance in his free hand, and it extended and flattened into the shape of a flyswatter. He smashed the lance against Jollies’ dragon, sending the pixie flying through the air.
Furi let out a condensed fireball that hit Amber in the chest, and the electric dragon fell toward the ground.
Brath raised the fly-swatting lance again and landed his final blow, and Jollies’ little pixie body crumpled. She followed her dragon toward the ground.
The invisible magic web popped up again and caught both rider and dragon, then it sent Jollies to the Loser’s Box and Amber to who knew where.
Alex stood so she could meet Jollies in the box, but Fier’s voice over the loudspeaker stopped her. “Alex Bound and Gill Lowborn. Meet on the field.”
Fear rose in Alex, but she pushed it down. This wasn’t the time for that; she could be afraid later. Right now, she had to prove herself. She jogged down to the field to meet Gill, who was calmly making his way over.
The two stood facing each other. Gill didn’t look concerned when he leaned over and asked, “Aren’t you taking Manny with you?”
Alex shook her head. She’d thought this over. Manny was what had held her back last time. She could see well enough through the blindfold, something only Jollies knew, and she planned to use that to her advantage.
Fier’s voice came from the speaker again. “Begin!”
Both riders grabbed lances and raised their dragon anchors to the sky, but Alex turned and ran away from Gill. She was still holding her anchor high but pointing it ahead of her.
Chine slammed to the ground a few feet in front of her. She leaped onto him, turned, and aimed her lance at Gill. She wasn’t sure how the magic worked, but she envisioned her lance stretching as far as it could.
The lance responded to her psychic command and went flying toward Gill, whose eyes widened in surprise. He jumped out of the way as Timber landed next to him.