“You giving me extra Mana Essence lessons!” Caron cried.

  Ginger recoiled.

  “Er…” He lost the words to say again.

  Caron had always had a strangely abysmal relationship with Mana Essence. Unlike her special qualities with Kardia, she was oddly below average when it came to manipulating Mana Essence. When it became a mandate to learn how to draw the cool, flowing energy for Professor Mara’s class, she had suffered dearly.

  She only managed to get Mana Essence to acknowledge her after getting help from Ginger and Reiss.

  Thus, it had come as no great surprise to Ginger and Reiss that she lagged behind in today’s lesson as well.

  “According to you, we are going to be having extra lessons with each other all the time, Caron,” Reiss said, coming to Ginger’s rescue. “You’ve said again and again how you want Mana Essence to be part of that arrangement you made us commit to.”

  Caron narrowed her eyes at the dwarfish dragonling.

  “Honestly, I would have thought you’d be good at manipulating Mana Essence. You know, since you were around uh…” Ginger said and it looked like his neck was twitching. He made it seem as though Moira – the orphanage Caron grew up in – was somewhere he could point to with his head.

  Caron sighed.

  “Well, the matron I told you about… She forbade me from doing any Mana Essence courses, especially with the other kids,” she said. Her mood worsened.

  Ginger was about to ask why when Reiss – ever quick on the uptake – explained.

  “Mana Essence isn’t something most dragons take seriously. Draggard-Phoenix Institute is probably one of the few schools that actually allows the Course. I’m guessing this matron didn’t allow Caron to study the manipulation of Mana Essence as a precaution.” He turned to Ginger with a grave look. “I told you, didn’t I? Dragons don’t take kindly to finding their young in unseemly places. Even if this matron had good connections, she would probably have been in trouble if she had delivered Caron here while she was good at manipulating Mana Essence. I’m sure she even had an awful time simply delivering Caron here.”

  Caron’s reluctant nod confirmed it.

  Ginger’s face screwed.

  “Dragons are… hardcore,” he said. He whipped his head to Caron. “But then… That just means you’re naturally bad at manipulating Mana Essence?”

  “That hurts coming from you,” Caron said with a wave of her hand, and when Ginger tried to lessen the blow, she punched him. “Anyway, you’re still not off the hook. In the end, you really are trying to outdo us.”

  Groaning and massaging his arm, Ginger sighed. “Still? Why does it bother you guys so much?”

  “Because you’re looking down on us.” Reiss had rebelled. Ginger turned to him, dumbfounded.

  “Looking down on you?” he said incredulously. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Yep. You still think we can’t handle everything we’ve chosen to do because of you,” the dwarfish dragonling said and suddenly, he dragged Ginger around one of the buildings near the Frost Mount’s Tooth. Caron followed hurriedly.

  “What is it now?” Ginger said, frowning.

  Reiss grinned maliciously. The shadow cast by the building they were beside made him look a little menacing.

  “Watch this,” he said and he took a deep breath. His cheeks inflated.

  Ginger paled, as did Caron.

  A slender white flame spilled from Reiss’ mouth, snaking its way through the air. It toasted the breeze that had been passing by, minding its own business. Reiss didn’t allow the flame to overstay its welcome. There was no need. His audience was flabbergasted enough.

  “You…!” Ginger stuttered.

  “Midget, you could already…?” Caron ran a hand through her curly red hair.

  Reiss grinned and he stomped on Caron’s foot.

  “Don’t look all staggered too. This is all to prove our point,” he said, but the redhead maintained a look of shock.

  “Since when?” Ginger asked. He looked at Reiss as though recognizing him as a genius for the first time.

  “I told you before, didn’t I? Saturation was one of the things I wanted to master first because using my hammer is tricky business with my… stature. Saturation Limit acted as all the motivation I needed,” he said matter-of-factly. “Do you think I do nothing but read books when I sleep way past midnight every day?”

  Ginger almost failed to respond.

  “R-right. That’s right,” he said sheepishly, still trying to recover. “And I guess your Cast…”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Yep!” said Reiss immediately. But Caron was confused.

  “Your Cast?” she said, looking at him, a question mark over her head.

  The dwarfish dragonling pulled down his scarf, revealing the pale silver scales around his neck. Caron hadn’t known about his Cast. Unlike Ginger, who wore his scarf rather loosely, allowing everyone to see his gingery Cast, Reiss was still determined to hide his own.

  A dragon’s Cast measured their potential and quality. There were a total of five casts that held the greatest prestige among all of Cinder-Born kind: Ebony, Vermillion, Azure, Violet, and least of all, Argent. All these Casts had variants – like pastel blue to Azure, or scarlet to Vermillion – that also meant a dragon was recognized in the respective category.

  Reiss’ silver cast fit snuggly in the Argent category. His potential was least among the great five, but it was still far better than every other kind of Cast outside the five like Ginger’s gingery Cast, for instance.

  Caron’s eyes widened.

  “Woah. Midget. You really have this good of a Cast?” she said, stricken with awe.

  Reiss ignored her. Instead, he addressed Ginger.

  “See? We can handle ourselves – handle things you think we can’t – and you just have to get used to that,” he said.

  Ginger considered his friend in silence.

  In as much as he would have loved to deny it or give some dismissive remark that he understood what Reiss was saying, he couldn’t. Reiss was right. Perhaps Ginger himself hadn’t realized it until it was pointed out to him. No. Rather, he had forgotten that he did indeed look down on his friends. Well, at least on Reiss.

  Caron had accused him of this back in the Beginner’s Den, when it was Reiss’ turn to enter the chamber, and with Vassilis as his partner to boot. The feeling of dread Ginger had felt at the possibility of something happening to Reiss with barely an ounce of him believing that the dwarfish dragonling had strengths of his own…

  That feeling…

  Ginger didn’t know if he could truly let it go.

  It came disguised as mercy, compassion, and love. But was it anything other than pity?

  Or was it all of these things combined?

  That didn’t matter. For the moment, Ginger could feel whatever that emotion was pulling away, proven needless by the flame Reiss had just conjured.

  The plump dragonling sighed.

  “You’re right,” he said and then repeated it. “You’re right. I’m not the only one growing because of this place.”

  Reiss gave a chiefly nod. It didn’t take much to satisfy him.

  “As long as you understand.”

  “Well, I don’t!”

  Reiss and Ginger were taken aback by Caron’s sudden outburst.

  “What’s wrong with you?” the former said, his awkward face of confusion pointing at the redhead.

  “You’re leaving me behind, that’s what!” Caron cried. “But you know what? All the better! This just proves me right. The sort of idea I had in the beginning was valid. You’ll teach me every trick and skill you’ve harnessed starting tomorrow.”

  And only after Caron said that, did she start bombarding Ginger with questions about how exactly he skipped over the Incantations for Small of the Back during his spar with Fillys. Reiss too wanted to know despite not having shown signs of such a desire after Ginger had bested the Doukas sibling during Class.

  Ginger was honest with them in a way he wasn’t going to be with everyone.

  As they headed towards the next lesson, he and his friends soon found that no one was going to let Ginger’s performance go without inquiring strenuously about it. Everyone was feverish about the details. Some made it clear that they wanted his tutelage when Professor Hennigar started teaching them the truly powerful spells. They were quite serious. Some even demanded assurance in writing.

  Honestly, it was a strange positive turn to the Stride.

  Even Kairos, who had been avoiding Ginger like a plague, finally mustered the courage to… glance at him from a distance and don a partly friendly expression. He probably saw Ginger as a fellow dragonling again and not a fat budding bully.

  But all this was merely a fraction of the general response to Ginger’s talent.

  The rest was overwhelmingly bleak.

  It appeared that many didn’t care for tact when talking to Ginger. And even though the plump dragonling had been guarded against negative responses, he was genuinely surprised by how mean some of the other dragonlings were. And to no surprise, it was Fillys who headed some of the ugly talks that galvanized some of the First Years to approach him.

  “So, you do have some crazy Shaman teacher back in the Wild? No wonder. Was he the one who… you know? Made you?”

  “I mean, if you’re so good at Sorcery, why would you even come here? Did your parents really want you to come to this school? How about your siblings? Wouldn’t it be better for them to go study with the non-dragons? This is solid advice, Ginger. You’re wasting your talent here.”

  “It all makes sense now. Why were we worried at all? If you didn’t have talent in at least this, how else would you survive here? I’ve heard the Othoni-Kardia measured your Kardia reserves to be so small that during classes, you’re always trying to save them.”

  The second bit had been delivered with something that mimicked concern, but the grin on the student who had said it nearly pushed Ginger to do the Kairos-grip, as some of his fellow classmates had started calling it to his face. He barely held himself back, biting his lower lip and scratching his thigh furiously.

  But the third insensitive comment hadn’t garnered much of a rage from him though. At least not for long.

  The dragonling who said it received a good right hook from Caron and flew back, her nose bleeding.

  That crunching noise that ensued on impact had both silenced the nearby dragonlings as they left Professor Aarons’ class and deterred more of them from approaching Ginger.

  The plump dragonling had been more happy than shocked. There was something about Caron’s eyes when they weren’t drooping, heavy with sleep. They lit up like a fire – a baby blue fire. Ginger had seen how they looked when she punched the hostile classmate.

  He beamed.

  Reiss, on the other hand, had been justifiably concerned.

  “Someone is going to report this, Caron. Professor Lyall won’t be happy.”

  “I know,” Caron had said simply as she massaged her knuckles.

  As the day came to a close, Ginger split off from his friends. He had decided to register for Lesser Eved today. It wasn’t that hard finding a senior who was advertising the Out Course. He registered but decided to start next Stride. He had too much on his plate for this one. The bulk of it concerned his Hunt, of course.

  And speaking of the Hunt, the next day began with Ginger – after thanking the heavens that he had slept and woken up in the same place – feeling uneasy. He felt as though he was forgetting something – something crucial.

  Oddly, Reiss had an amused smile the entire morning. He relished in Ginger’s subdued panic for some reason.

  “What are you smiling about?” Ginger kept asking with a scowl and Reiss kept shaking his head.

  …Until the dull red sun began to sink around noon.

  “I guess you really want to go for a Hunt without a weapon, huh? Respectable. I mean, you can probably pry open any beast – Blighted or Condemned – with your bare hands,” the dwarfish dragonling had said with a grin.

  And Ginger had turned ashen, nearly fainting.

  His dagger!

  Professor Mara had told everyone who was going for a Hunt this coming Stride to come collect weapons today… or pray that Professor Cain had taught them enough about unarmed combat.