October extinguished itself in frost, only to give way to a steel-cold November. The temperature in the castle dropped so low that it was a common sight to see students wearing their protective dragon-hide gloves to ward off the cold. The lake out in the grounds completely froze over and the giant ShapeShifter that lived in it was one day to be observed transforming into a giant squid in a fruitless attempt to break the ice on the lake. Students no longer went out in the grounds but remained in their common-rooms, where it was at least warm.
But all this meant only one thing for Procus. AyrBall season had begun. Evgenis would be playing Ravikumar on the upcoming Saturday, the first match of the year. Very few people had seen him play as Beech had decided that he was to be their 'secret weapon'. The rest of the team was made up of Adi's twin brothers, Charlie and Bill, as Dunkers, three older girls who played Ballers, namely Angela, Bell and Rhea, and, of course, Beech as Defender. Beech insisted on daily practice sessions, so Procus daily trooped out to the AyrBall pitch in sleet, rain and snow, occasionally accompanied by Adi, Vignesh and Patricia. Despite the steadily worsening weather, Procus felt hopeful of their chances; the team worked seamlessly as one, and Procus had never yet failed to retrieve the KeyBall.
However, the Ravikumar team wasn't going to go down without a fight. Whenever they met one of the Evgenis members, they began to boo, hiss and insult.
Rishabh Kumar one day hissed at Procus, "Got your bed booked up in the hospital wing, Sucker?" to which Procus replied, "Oh yeah? Who's going to get me there, your team's Dunkers? I hear their aim's so bad that I should be more concerned about the people in the stands," which earned him a laugh and wiped the smirk of Rishabh's face.
Meanwhile, their other tactics were despicable and getting more so. More often than not, Procus would see some Ravikumar advancing on him, wand raised, but Beech, who had predicted this, had asked the Evgenises to help protect their team, a challenge which the Evgenises rose to magnificently. Procus now found himself surrounded by a huge, chattering mob whenever he left the common room. Subsequently, any Ravikumar who dared approach him or any other team member was trampled by the crowd. Procus wished that they wouldn't though, as it constantly got him late for classes. Also, on the rare occasion that a Ravikumar found him alone and attempted to hex him, the Ravikumar would probably find themselves on the floor like insects and Procus untouched.
Kiew was not helping at all. He booked the AyrBall pitch so often that the Evgenis team could hardly play. Finally, a distressed Beech announced on Tuesday that he was increasing practices to twice a day to increase their chances of actually practicing instead of watching the Ravikumars. Kiew was also turning a deaf ear to the many complaints of Ravikumars hexing Evgenis AyrBall team members. When Rhea turned up in the hospital wing with boils growing all over her face, Kiew refused to listen to the seven eye-witnesses who swore that they had seen Ravikumar Captain Jed Blaise hit her from behind with a jinx as she worked in the library, insisting that she must have attempted a Boil Enchantment on herself.
It was really quite lucky that Procus had Patricia as a friend now. What with constant AyrBall practices and all the hexing that was going on, Procus could hardly keep up with his homework. Luckily, Patricia was there to help him, Adi and Vignesh. She would never let them copy, ("How will you learn?") but by asking her to look through it, they got the right answers anyway. She had also lent Procus AyrBall Through the Ages, which turned out to be a very interesting read. He learned that there were 700 ways to commit an AyrBall foul, and all of them had performed in a match both in 2000 and 1798.
As Saturday drew nearer, Procus' nerves mounted.
It was the day before the match and Procus, Adi, Vignesh and Patricia were sitting under a large beech tree that was covered with snow, right beside the lake. They all had their books with them and were pretending to be absorbed in them, but in reality, they were discussing the Ravikumars' despicable tactics. Suddenly, Vignesh sat up straighter and hissed, "Kiew!"
All four immediately pretended to be absorbed in their books.
"What is that you have there, Evgenis?" Kiew asked as he limped nearer.
"AyrBall Through the Ages, Professor," Procus replied, showing him the book as he did.
"Library books are not to be taken out of castle premises. Give it here. Ten points from Evgenis," Kiew said, looking thoroughly put off by something or the other. Confiscating the book, Kiew limped towards the castle.
"What do you reckon is wrong with his leg?" Vignesh asked no one in particular, watching Kiew limp off.
"Don't know, but I sure hope it's hurting him badly," Procus replied bitterly.
Patricia wasn't quite listening. She was staring avidly at tiny pebbles that seemed to follow everywhere that Kiew limped. Adi noticed this and started staring at it, transfixed, as well.
"What are you two –" Procus began, bemused, but stopped when Adi pointed first at the pebbles, then at the symbol of the dragon's wing that was inscribed on the school crest, which was on the school wall.
"You don't reckon that Kiew actually tried to get past that dragon, do you?" Vignesh asked, his voice hushed.
Procus, Adi and Patricia nodded silently.
"It all fits!" Adi shouted suddenly.
"For God's sake, Adi, keep your voice down!" Procus told him worriedly, glancing over his shoulder for any sign of teachers.
"Don't you remember, on Halloween night, Procus, we saw Kiew on the third floor? He must have been trying to get past that dragon!" Adi exclaimed, paying no heed at all to Procus' warning.
Procus opened his mouth to contradict him, but then closed it again. It did make sense, actually. He opened his mouth again, this time to agree, when...
"Now, now. Surely you mustn't be talking so loud out here," Kiew cut in, appearing out of nowhere and smiling in a horrible, manic way that made Procus' hair stand on end, "I suggest that you take this conversation up to your common-room"
The four nodded fearfully, then hastily gathered up their belongings and fled to their common room. Before bed that night, though, Procus, Adi and Vignesh were convinced that Kiew was indeed trying to get past the. Patricia was stubborn that Kiew was innocent, and that the other three were making a mistake.
"Honestly, Patricia, do you think that all teachers are saints or something?" Vignesh said before bed that day, heading up to the dormitory as he did.
***
The next day, Procus awoke with the feeling that many snakes were wriggling around in his stomach. For a few moments, he stared up at the ceiling, feeling his nerves mount higher and higher. Finally, he got out of bed and began to get ready. Grabbing his AyrSkates, he headed down to the common room to find the rest of the team waiting there, all as pale-faced and nervous as he was. His feeling of snakes in the stomach intensified a hundredfold.
***
The Evgenis team entered the Main Hall to jeers from the Ravikumars and cheers from the Evgenises. Procus sat between Adi and Patricia, Vignesh in front of him.
"You okay, bro?" Vignesh asked.
Procus nodded, not opening his mouth. He felt like he might vomit if he did.
"Come on, get some breakfast, you'll be fine!" Adi told him in a would-be cheery voice. Procus tried to smile, but all that he achieved was a reciprocal smile that made look like a buck-toothed ogre with a toothache.
"Come on, just some toast," Patricia said, handing him a piece of toast; which he accepted.
Before he knew what was happening, he was walking down to the pitch with the rest of the team and was in the changing room. Next thing he knew, Beech was giving them a pep-talk.
"Now then everyone," Beech started, his expression as sober as a funeral attendee.
"This is it," Bill cut in.
"The big one," Charlie continued.
"The one that we have to win," Bill picked up.
"We were on the team last year, we know Beech's speech off by heart," Charlie told Procus with a wink.
At this, the sound of a whistle being blown came in the distance.
"Ok, team, let's go," Beech said, white and shaking.
The Evgenises trooped out on to the pitch, AyrSkates laced on, to face the Ravikumar team.
The Ravikumar captain, Adam Gaunt, seemed to be built along the lines of Sun Hao Jun. Big, with beefy arms like huge, hairy hams, Adam blocked half the team and his AyrSkates were literally shaking to withstand Adam's immense weight.
A second whistle blast rang through the frigid air and Procus tensed, preparing for flight. On the third whistle, he kicked off from the ground as hard as he could, shooting straight up into the air and began whizzing around the pitch, searching for the KeyBall. As he flew, slight rain falling on his face, he felt truly free. This was truly the best part of flying, the camaraderie, the freedom, the…
"BEHIND YOU!" Beech screamed, pointing behind Procus.
Spinning around, Procus saw a Stalker pelting straight towards him. He swerved in mid-air again, narrowly avoiding the Stalker. As he flew upwards, he saw both Charlie and Bill chasing the Stalker and hitting it with all their might towards a Ravikumar Baller, who was going for the PlaBal.
He now took the opportunity to listen to some of the match commentaries, continuing his search for the KeyBall.
"… and it's Blaise, Jed Blaise of Ravikumar smacking the Plabal up the pitch to the Evgenis goalpost!" came the voice of John Lim, the twins' best friend, magically magnified to sound through the whole pitch.
"Looks like a Stalker narrowly missed him, now it's being chased by Charlie Putra, or is it Bill Putra? Oh, who cares, one of them, and it looks like he's managed to pull off a Stalker Capture and is now zooming to the Ravikumar goalpost to Dunk it!" he continued.
Procus now continued his search for the KeyBall; once or twice, he thought he saw it, but it was just a glint of gold from one of the player's watches.
As time went on, Evgenis and Ravikumar both scored many times and Procus managed to catch the KeyBall four times, eventually bringing the score up to 500-490 to Ravikumar. Evgenis scored again, and again, then was awarded three penalties in a row, bringing the score up to 550-490 to Ravikumar.
When Evgenis scored, Procus had done three loop-de-loops to release his joy. Now he was back to looking for the last KeyBall that would end the game.
Meanwhile, Kyae, Yi Xiang and Jian Hao had forced their way through the crowd to where Adi, Vignesh, and Patricia were sitting.
"Hey, Santosh!" Kyae called, her voice cold and drawling as usual, "I heard that you managed to Change your quill into a snail! Is it true?"
Alen turned as red as a tomato. Adi's and Vignesh's hands clenched. Affan came up and started taunting them as well.
"I'm worth twelve of you, Affan," Alen said, quaking with fear.
"What in? Not gold, surely. Or brains," Affan retaliated, "Why, if brains were gold, you'd be poorer than Putra, Santosh, and that's really saying something,"
Suddenly, Procus' Skates lurched upwards, then to the side, then forward, as though determined to buck him off. Dave forced his way through the crowd to where Adi, Vignesh and Patricia were sitting. The Ravikumars seemed to have faded into the air.
"Don't know what he thinks he's doing, but he shouldn't be doing that," Dave said, looking up at Procus through a pair of binoculars he had brought.
Suddenly, Patricia grabbed the binoculars and looked down at the stands.
"I knew it. Kiew," She muttered and began to run down the rows of spectators, knocking both Professor Pascal and Affan headfirst into the row in front as she did.
When she reached Kiew, she crouched down near the brim of his robes, and whispered a few, well-chosen words.
For a second, nothing happened. Then, Kiew's robe suddenly whipped itself around his leg and began tightening. Patricia, satisfied, crept to some nearby seats, where Adi, Vignesh, Alen, and Affan were. The latter was still relentlessly jeering at the first three. Patricia, a satisfied smirk on her face, sat down.
It took Kiew about five seconds to realize what had happened. He shouted out and pointed his wand at his robes, forcing them to release him. Meanwhile, Procus' Skates had gone back to normal and he was back to searching for the KeyBall.
"So, Putra, how long do you think Evgenis's going to keep control of his AyrSkates this time?" Affan taunted.
Adi's hands clenched further, his teeth gnashing but still looking determinedly at the match. Suddenly, Procus went into a spectacular dive.
"Oh look, Putra, looks like Evgenis's spotted some gold on the ground. And, who knows, maybe he'll share it with you as well, Koka," Affan jeered.
Adi's self-restraint finally snapped, as did Vignesh's; both leaped over the seats at Affan; and, after a moment's hesitation, Alen clambered over to help. Meanwhile, Patricia stayed completely oblivious to the brawl behind her, still watching Kiew struggle with his robe with an expression of manic glee on her face.
Suddenly, Procus pulled out of the dive and rose upwards. The crowd gasped as they squinted for the gold glint of the KeyBall in Procus' hand, but it wasn't there. Both of Procus' hands were empty and he had a disappointed look on his face. A collective moan was heard from the Evgenis supporters when he shook his head at them loudly. Beech however, was screaming and jumping in his AyrSkates (which I do not at all recommend , it is not at all safe), pointing at Procus' feet. Finally, after Beech let in two goals because he was too distracted by Procus' feet, Procus look at his skates and there it was. The KeyBall, impaled on the blade of his Skates much like one would impale a sheesh kebob. In one clean motion, he whisked it off the blades and waved it above him, yelling, "I've got the KeyBall!" and the game ended in complete confusion.
***
"He didn't catch the KeyBall, he half-murdered it!" Ravikumar team captain Adam Gaunt howled to Madam Lim after the match, but she didn't want to hear it. Procus had not broken any rules, and therefore, Evgenis won the match 600-490
A crowd of red-and-gold-clad supporters swarmed towards Procus, all cheering. Over the crowd, he heard Adi's voice, "We won, we won! And I gave Affan a black eye, Vignesh bruised Kyae's leg and Alen tried to take on both Yi Xiang and Jian Hao single-handedly!"
***
Over the next few days, Procus found that not even the constantly wet weather could mar his buoyant spirits. He felt ecstatic most of the time and even stopped having bad dreams for a while. In fact, he even forgot about that dragon. The subject was not broached much, owing to the four's desire to forget about their encounter, so he had no reason to remember it. It was not until a while after the match that something happened that reminded him of the dragon.
Procus was headed back to castle after a hard day's training, to face the towering mountain of homework that awaited him in the Evgenis common-room. Beech had insisted on a full-day training as the horribly wet weather had finally cleared up and a few hopeful rays of sunlight were piercing the still-cloudy sky. In fact, the Giant ShapeShifter was seen to finally be able to crack the ice on the lake and morph into a sea serpent to celebrate its success. But that is none of our concern at the moment. What our concern is what Procus saw after training.
Skates held in hand, Procus began trudging his way back to the castle when he saw Kiew. Kiew was standing at the edge of the Forest, cautiously glancing around. Procus instinctively darted behind a nearby tree.
Seeming to be satisfied, Kiew drew his wand, lit it, and entered the Forest. Procus immediately put on his AyrSkates and flew over the Forest, following Kiew's wandlight below. Eventually, he reached a clearing, where Pascal stood, looking like he would rather be any place than here. Kiew made a beeline straight for him and started gesticulating threateningly with his wand. Procus hesitated now. If he was spotted, he'd be out of Angsanian Towers before he could say "Forbidden Forest". Realizing that it was worth it, he descended on the two slightly, ears straining.
"… I'll be waiting for your, ah, let's say, contribution," Kiew said, venom in every syllable.
"But, but, b-bu-t-t …" Pascal stammered back, trailing off when Kiew gave him a look that was clearly threatening.
When Kiew walked off, Procus noticed that there was a pronounced limp in his walk. Pascal, after looking around fearfully, also left, then Procus, his mind full of what he had just seen. What it was about, he was not sure, but he was sure it had something to do with that dragon and the door.
***
Everyone awoke late on Sunday. Procus, however, awoke early. Judging by the darkness outside the window and the sleepy silence in the dorm, it was the early hours of the morning. He had had another nightmare and found himself drenched in sweat. Rolling over to face the canopy of his four-poster bed, Procus tried to remember what the dream had been about. There had been an archway, that he was sure of… then there had been wall with a single torch on the wall beside him… and there had been a padlocked door…
Procus tried to remember what the dream had been about, but it was pointless; he might as well have tried to keep water in cupped hands. After a few more moments of pointless memory-probing, Procus gave it up as a bad job and turned over to sleep again.
***
"Morning," Procus said to the others, all of whom were yawning and doing their best not to fall asleep again. Giving a humongous yawn, Vignesh got out of bed, the last one who awoke. Slowly, he, Adi and Procus descended to the common room, where they were not altogether surprised to see Patricia sitting, a mound of work on the desk in front of her, a mound that was steadily depleting.
"Morning," She said crisply to them as they approached, starting on the final scroll of parchment. The others stared at the amount of completed work in front of her.
After a few minutes, she sprang up and said, "Well, I guess that I can finish this after breakfast, I'm starving,"
The others were still just staring dumbfounded at the amount of completed work and thinking of their incomplete work.
***
The usual whoosh of sound preceded the entrance of the post falcons. There weren't many today, owing mainly to the once again freezing weather outside. It was therefore easy to discern Vignesh's handsome peregrine falcon descending on them with a letter in his beak. Vignesh took the letter, which was rather thin, while his falcon flew back to the Aviary to sleep.
Procus was watching Vignesh to see what the letter was about. After reaching the bottom of the letter, Vignesh looked positively devastated. His mouth opened then closed again like a goldfish's. Without saying a word, he shoved it to Procus, as though it carried a contagious disease. Procus smoothed it and began to read it, Adi and Patricia leaning over his shoulder to do so. It was blotchy and, by the looks of the scrawl, had been written in a great hurry.
Vignesh,
I heard about what happened on Halloween night and am taking you away from the school at once. You will instead be educated in the Jaaduu Gar Academy of Magic in India. You will be leaving in a week.
Even after he read it, Procus kept staring at the letter, as dumfounded as Vignesh was when he first read it.
After a while, Vignesh finally found his voice.
"I'll write a letter to her, bring her back to her senses…" he muttered, dashing to the Aviary.
***
"What? No!" Dave exclaimed. Procus, Adi and Patricia were at Dave's cabin out in the grounds. Vignesh was still up at the Aviary. The three had just finished telling Dave what had happened. He looked appalled. Before any could say more on the subject, however, there was a knock on the door. Procus glanced out the window.
"It's Vignesh," he informed them, striding over to the door and opening it to let in a rather downcast-looking Vignesh.
"So," Adi asked, "how did it go? Did you manage to convince her?"
"No," Vignesh replied, dropping into a chair as he did, "but I did manage to convince her to only take me home at the end of the year,"
He sighed.
"Anyway, Dave, we wanted to ask you a few questions,"
Caught slightly flat-footed by this abrupt change of topic, Procus cottoned on, nonetheless.
"Yeah, we wanted to ask you what that dragon's guard–"
But before he could say any more, Dave choked on his mead and cried, "How did you find out about Foreks?"
"Foreks?" Patricia asked curiously.
"Yeah, he's mine! I lent him to Professor Foong to guard the –" he caught himself just in time.
"Yes?" Procus asked eagerly.
"Now then, it's more than my job's worth to tell you that!" Dave replied furiously, "That's a matter between Foong and Vita Alchimia, so –"
"Ah, so there's somebody called Vita Alchimia involved in this as well, then," Patricia cut across swiftly.
Suddenly, Procus remembered what he had seen after practice the other day. He mulled over it for a while, then came up with a plan so that, using his information, he could get out what the dragon was guarding. He at once burst into speech.
"… so you see Dave, you have to tell us what Foreks is guarding because Kiew's trying to steal it!" Procus finished.
"Now then, I don't know what you think you saw, but you saw it wrong," Dave told them, "And, anyway, it's none of your business what Foreks is guarding,"
"But Kiew's trying to steal it," Patricia pointed out, "And I know a curse when I see one, and Kiew was definitely cursing Procus! It must have been him who caused Procus' Skates to try and buck him off!"
Dave opened his mouth to argue against this, but, before he could, there was a loud crackle of electricity from the back of the cabin. Procus instantly sprang up, as did Dave, and strode over to the place where the sound had come from, which happened to be the hearth.
Procus reached there first. Leaning into the hearth, he saw an egg roughly as big as a PlaBal lying there. Its bottom half was a dull, granite-grey, much like Uncle Satrid's most (sorry, least; wait, they're both the same) boring shirt, while the top was a colorful mixture of curling flame-red, sea-blue, and vibrant yellow.
"Is that a dragon egg, Dave?" Adi asked in awe, while Vignesh and Patricia came around to marvel.
"Well, actually it is," Dave replied, stoking the hearth as he did.
"But, wherever did you get one? I thought that they were banned!" Adi cried, then, seeing Procus' mystified look, explained, "Our kind banned dragon-breeding and classified dragon eggs as Class A Non-Tradeable items. It's a bit difficult for Kin to not notice us if we're keeping dragons in our backyards and they're flying everywhere,"
"Well, I won it, as a matter of fact, off a Eurasian guy down in the pub in Angsana Village, The Stinky Cod," Dave said, shuffling his feet slightly embarrassedly, "seemed quite glad to get rid of it, to be honest,"
"What breed is it?" Patricia asked curiously.
"Well, I reckon what I've got here is the egg of a Persian PowerWing," Dave replied, showing them a book, Dragons of The World. He opened the book to a marked page and let them read the page.
Even more dangerous than the Indian Mudscale, is the Persian PowerWing. With a wingspan of nearly 35 meters when fully grown, a Persian PowerWing has the power of fire, electricity and water at the same time, a deadly combination. Its claws have the power of water, its tail ever on fire and its wingtips imbued with electricity. It can also shoot a concentrated blast of fire (Incendio Concentratis), a burst of electricity (Sparactulas) and waves of water (Augmenti Maxus Areanis). Its egg is granite-grey at the bottom and three swirls of red, blue and yellow at the top.
Procus had read enough. He did not need to know any more about the PowerWing's fearsome skills and powers. He looked fearfully at the egg, trying to imagine the immense power of the PowerWing, then attempted to force it into the PlaBal-sized egg in front of him, being licked by the flames in the hearth.
"According to the book, I have to submerge it in ice, then in engulf it in flames and expose it to direct electricity every half an hour. Reckon it should be about time to freeze it," Dave continued, consulting the book.
Using a pair of what looked like pliers, Dave reached into the hearth and removed the steaming egg, plunking it into a nearby bucket of ice, from which a huge cloud of steam immediately issued, along with a sizzling sound as the egg's temperature adjusted to the sub-zero conditions of the bucket.
Something told Procus that this term's troubles had only just begun.