A burst of flame shot up suddenly, and the stack of papers placed haphazardly on the desk was soon turned into nothing but gray ashes.
"That's very impressive fire magic, Miss Aspasia." The magic instructor said dryly as he looked at the mess on his desk. "Now would you please put out your fire before it ruins my desk?"
Kalyna Aspasia blinked, looking up at her teacher. "How am I supposed to do that?"
"With magic, of course."
The girl's bright green eyes narrowed. "Oh, yeah. Of course." She muttered under her breath, sweeping back her shoulder-length, dark red hair as she concentrated on the quickly diminishing fire. Her emerald eyes were focused intently on the flame, merrily sputtering on the wooden desktop. She willed it to stop, to dwindle and die. She felt her magic stirring in her veins.
She watched intently, but nothing happened. Her furry, catlike ears were laid back against her head while her tiger-striped tail twitched back and forth impatiently as she glared at the desk.
The teacher sighed, waving his hand, and a spout of water jumped from his hand and put out the fire, which had begun to eat its way through the wooden desk. He looked over his desk, frowning. That's gonna leave a mark... He thought.
Out loud, "Does anyone know what Miss Aspasia did wrong? Class?" He asked as the cat-girl went back to her seat.
"Aside from the fact that she set the entire desk on fire when she was only supposed to burn one sheet of paper?" Someone spoke up dryly from the back of the room. Kalyna turned around in her seat and stuck her tongue out at whoever it was.
"She didn't concentrate on controlling the fire." A quiet voice spoke up.
The teacher smiled. "Thank you, Aidynn. That's exactly right. She didn't try to control the fire, so it went out of control."
The speaker, a short, brown-haired human boy, blushed shyly and sunk deeper into his seat.
The teacher looked over the class of sorcerers-in-training, picking out a pretty, blond-haired girl with a pair of snowy wings on her back. "Seletina, would you please show us what the spell is supposed to look like?"
The blond-haired girl smiled and got up, walking up to the slightly singed desk where the magic instructor had placed another large stack of papers. Seletina grinned, and flicked her hand out lazily.
A small flame jumped from her hand and licked at the paper, but only burned the top sheet. A few gray ashes floated down to settle on the desk's slightly blackened surface as Seletina stepped smugly back to her seat.
"Perfect." The teacher said, nodding at the winged girl happily.
"Showoff." Kalyna muttered as Seletina sat back down beside her.
"Oh come on, Kalyna. You're a perfectly good sorceress, you just need to pay more attention to your studies." Seletina said comfortingly. "And less to boys." She added. Kalyna looked over at her friend, where she had been casting glances back at a group of male students in the back of the room, and scowled.
They both stood up as the teacher dismissed the class. Kalyna stretched, twitching her tiger-striped tail behind her. "Finally." She sighed as they left the room behind everyone else. "I thought that class was never going to end."
Seletina nodded her agreement, and they left the classroom to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.
"Okay, so what happens if you cast an obliviator spell at the same time as a fire summoning charm?" Kalyna asked as she sat with Seletina underneath the shade of a tree. She was sitting cross-legged, with Seletina beside her, with her book of magical theory open in her lap.
"You'd probably blow something up." Someone said, and they both looked up to see a boy with wavy, dark brown hair looking down at them.
"Oh." Kalyna said disappointedly. "Thanks, Aidynn."
The boy blushed, nodding his head in acknowledgement as he looked away. "N-No problem, Kalyna." He said shyly.
Seletina glanced from one to the other, and smirked knowingly. Kalyna's green eyes fixed on her friend suspiciously. "What?" She pressed.
"Hmm? Oh, nothing..." The winged girl replied nonchalantly.
Kalyna twitched her ears, rolling her eyes. "Weirdo." She muttered goodnaturedly.
Seletina only grinned, turning back to her own books as Aidynn murmered a farewell and beat a hasty retreat.
"Hey, pureblood!" It was not actually an insult, but almost anything Cegar said was an insult, and it was Cegar who had yelled it. Aidynn winced and stopped in his tracks, turning to face the taller and heavier person who had yelled to him.
Cegar was a big, burly student, with the pointed ears and black and tan pattern of a doberman. He was a well-known bully, and Aidynn happened to be one of his favorite victims. Kalyna's ears were flat against her skull as she hissed, she and Cegar got along like, well, cats and dogs.
She stood up, intending to teach the part-doberman a lesson, but Cegar had already taken action. Or, tried to anyone.
He aimed a punch at Aidynn, but the smaller boy dodged his arm, and what's more, he'd dropped to the ground and, flinging his leg out, tripped Cegar, sending the other boy to the ground, hard. Before the shocked bully could get up, he'd run off and was trying to hide behind Kalyna and Seletina.
Cegar sat up, with a furious, startled look on his face. Finding Aidynn, he advanced angrily, growling, but he found Kalyna in his way. She growled, glittering green eyes narrowed in disgust. "Go away, Cegar." She said, and flicked her hand out. A small burst of flame began licking at Cegar's hair, and he yelped in surprise as he anxiously tried to put it out. With not even a backward glance, he ran off, still trying to put out his hair, sending Kalyna and Seletina into fits of giggles.
Aidynn still had a look of stark terror on his face. Kalyna turned, and noticing him, brightened. "Hey, Aidynn! That was great, I didn't know you could fight." She grinned at him.
"Yeah...Would you do me a favor?" He asked shakily.
Kalyna blinked. "What?"
"Never, ever, let me do that again." He answered weakly.
A week had passed, and currently, Kalyna was outside, attempting to put out a candle by summoning a wind. A fairly basic practise spell, but tricky nonetheless. Wind was especially hard to control.
Her eyes were focused intently on the candle she had set on the ground in front of her. The air around her was still, and the candle barely flickered as she concentrated on summoning the wind.
Minutes passed. Still, the candle continued to burn, hardly flickering as wax made its way slowly down the side. Kalyna's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. With a growl, she stood up and kicked over the candle in frustration.
Well, it did accomplish the purpose. She thought to herself as she waved a hand, and the candle righted itself and relit. Plopping down on the ground again, she again focused on the candle, willing for a wind to stir.
With a sputter, the flame dwindled and went out as a fierce wind whipped the girl's fiery red hair around her face. The candle rolled off as she stood up, trying to keep her hair out of her face, and a dull roaring filled her ears as the wind around her howled.
On second thought, The cat-girl thought as she looked up. Perhaps that wasn't the wind after all.
A bright blue dragon was rumbling deep in its throat as it backwinged to land in front of the startled girl. It shook its head as Kalyna stared at it with wide green eyes, her short fur standing an end.
A young human man climbed down from the dragon's back, looking confused. His messy, dark hair fell into his face, but he made no move to push it away. His deep blue eyes widened slightly when he saw Kalyna, and he stroked the dragon's head reassuringly as he walked towards her.
"Who are you? How did we get here?" He asked, eyes narrowed.
Kalyna tore her eyes away from the dragon and looked at the man. "I don't know, I was casting a spell...It was only supposed to put out the candle!" She said, pointing a shaking finger at the candle, laying on its side near the blue dragon's foot.
The dragon bent down and nosed at it with its snout before looking up at his rider. Oh, calm down, C'rin. You're scaring the poor girl. He admonished.
"Am not." C'rin stated indignantly. "You're the one hulking about and staring at her like a beast."
The dragon snorted, and glanced at the startled girl, studying her. "Wh-what?" Kalyna asked, eyeing the dragon nervously. "What is that?"
C'rin snorted. "A dragon, obviously." He launched into a short explanation of dragons and their riders before turning to his dragon, Rigelth. "Well?" He asked.
Yes, yes, she'll do fine. Let's go. The dragon said, shifting his weight anxiously.
"What'd he say?" Kalyna asked curiously.
"Rigelth says you should be able to bond a dragon, if you want to come with us, that is." The rider answered.
Kalyna regarded the dragon skeptically, then perked up slightly. "Hey, these things breathe fire, don't they?" She asked as Rigelth snorted distastefully.
C'rin shrugged. "Well, yeah, most of 'em do."
Kalyna grinned. "Cool!"
Rigelth rolled his eyes behind her, but she didn't notice. "So you'd like to come, then?" C'rin pressed.
"Sure!" She answered excitedly.
They appeared over a tall, rocky mountain range bordered by the ocean, and kalyna shivered from the dragon's back in the cool air. In front of her, C'rin frowned. Rigelth? This isn't Darkling Dawn!
Well, duh. Rigelth shot back dryly. We're on Pern, just above Wu Weyr.
Ah, okay. C'rin thought. Why?
I heard they needed more candidates. Rigelth said innocently.
C'rin snorted in reply. Do you realize we probably search more candidates for other weyrs and dragonries than we do our own, Rigelth?
Bah. Don't worry, ridermine, she'll be fine.
I'll hold you to that. C'rin responded.
