A dragon was sitting in the middle of the cabin. And it was slowly crawling towards Dave. The dragon's talons and claws were a deep blue, its wingtips were a shocking yellow while its actual wings were brown with starbursts of blue, red and yellow and its tail was a flaming red while a seemingly inextinguishable fire burned on its tail end. It flapped its wings in a feeble attempt at flight.
"Oh, hello, you four," Dave said casually, as though dragons crawled across his cabin floor on a daily basis.
"Dave why is there a dragon here?" Adi asked, half believing that he was dreaming a very weird dream.
"Oh, the egg hatched," Dave explained, "I was going to call you down to look anyway. So, meet Paul!"
Paul burped, and electricity fizzled in the air in front of his mouth.
"And you plan to keep it a secret how, exactly?" Procus inquired.
"Paul is not an 'it'!" Dave protested indignantly, "he's a 'he'"
"Right," Vignesh said, unimpressed.
"So how are you going to keep him hidden?" Patricia persisted.
"I… don't know,"
Paul had reached Dave. He was trying to flap his way up to Dave's face. With a loving look in his eyes, Dave picked Paul up, muttering something to it. Suddenly, Paul opened his mouth and shot a jet of water at Dave.
"Would you look at that, he knows his Papa is!" Dave exclaimed cheerfully.
"Dave," Patricia said, her voice quivering, "how fast do PowerWings usually grow?"
Dave was about to answer when the color drained from his face. He practically flew to the window. Adi had seen it as well.
"Kyae's seen the dragon," He told them.
***
"Patricia, the exams are ages away," Adi said, watching her draw up revision timetables and sorting her (and their) notes.
"Ten weeks," She snapped back, "That's not ages, that's just a second to Vita Alchimia,"
"Yeah, well, we're not five hundred," Procus yawned, "What are you studying for anyway?"
"What am I studying for?" Patricia asked, incredulous. "These are very important exams; they determine whether or not we get into second year! I should have started studying months ago, I don't know what's gotten into me –"
"Yeah, yeah," Vignesh cut her short.
Unfortunately, the teachers apparently had the same mindset as Patricia. They assigned so much homework that the Easter holidays were not half as enjoyable as the Christmas ones.
One day, the four managed to escape their tottering mountain to head down to Dave's cabin, mainly to check on the dragon.
When they entered, the first thing they saw was that it had quadrupled its size over the week.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Dave murmured, misty-eyed.
"He's lost his marbles," Adi whispered to others.
"Dave, give it a week, and Paul will be as long, if not longer, than your cabin," Procus said loudly.
Paul turned towards him and breathed fire. Procus yelped and activated the amethyst, closely followed by the opal. Dave, who was cutting what looked like a deer into smaller pieces, noticed nothing.
"Dave, you have to get rid of him," Patricia told him, "Kyae could tell Foong at any moment!"
"But I can't just dump him, he's a baby! He wouldn't survive a day on his own!"
The 'baby' was currently munching his way through Dave's roughest pair of boots.
Suddenly, an idea hit Procus like lightning. He turned to Adi and said, "Sam,"
"Now you're losing it as well. I'm Adi, remember, not Sam," Adi replied, looking Procus up and down as though he were mad.
"No, your brother Sam, in Alaska, working with magical beasts," Procus explained.
"Oh," Adi said, "Maybe. I'll send him a letter,"
***
Sam's reply arrived the next day. It said this:
Hi Adi. Hope you and the others are all doing fine. I've got a couple of friends over in Singapore now, and they could bring the dragon here. It'll be tricky though. They can't be seen with an illegal dragon. Can you bring the dragon to highest tower on midnight the next full moon? My friends can pick him up from there.
Love,
Sam
"The next full moon's in five days," Procus said.
"How do we get Paul up to the highest tower?" Vignesh wondered out loud.
"Simple. We use the Helix and HidDens," Patricia said briskly, "Speaking of which, whose turn is it to dragonsit today?"
The four had agreed that after their lessons, one of them would head down to Dave to help him and keep an eye on Paul. They would take it in turns. The other three would do the homework of the one that was gone.
"Me," Procus said glumly.
After a long slog of lessons, Procus headed down to Dave's cabin, which was now a mess of chicken feathers and meat scraps. Apprehensively, he attempted to cut a hunk of meat about twice the size of his head with a butcher's knife that was roughly the length of his arm. After a few fruitless attempts to lift the knife, Procus drew his wand and began cutting the meat that way instead. This consisted of continual yelling of things like: "Gryffindo!", "Slizar!", "Gods above, is this thing still not cut?" and "Diffindo Maxima!"
Finally, Procus managed to cut the meat.
"Thanks again for coming down here today, Procus," Dave thanked him as Procus passed him the meat.
"There, there," Dave began coaxing Paul in a soft voice, "eat up,"
Procus watched as Dave upended a whole bottle of milk into Paul's mouth, closely followed by the meat. For good measure (and to not leave anything at all) Paul swallowed the milk bottle as well. Somehow, Dave managed not to get bitten. All Procus could think was, I can't wait for full moon.
***
Procus arrived back in the common-room to find his homework all done for him. With a sigh, he piled it into his bag.
The next two days passed with no incident, unless you count Kyae's satisfied smirk and continual dropping of hints of dragons. However, on the fourth day, when Adi came back, his hand was green and swollen.
"The damn thing bit me!" he told them, gripping his hand.
"Let me see that," Patricia said. Waving her wand over it, she muttered a few incantations. Adi's hand remained stubbornly green. "Well that settles it. There's poison in that bite. Go to the infirmary,"
"Fine," Adi said, stumbling off to the sick bay.
"I honestly cannot wait for the full moon," Vignesh said.
Chapter X:
Welcome to The Forest, Where Werewolves, Unicorns and Lord Bhavinav in a Host Make Their Home
Finally, the full moon came. Before heading down to Dave's hut, the three went to visit Adi in the sick bay.
He seemed, if anything, worse than usual. His hand had now swollen to thrice its regular size and was blue.
"I swear that it's gotten worse," Adi told them, "I've told Madam Tee that it was a dog's bite, but I'm not sure that she believes me. Kyae came up here under the pretense of wanting to borrow a book, but actually she came up to laugh and make lame dragon puns to piss me off,"
"Well, with any luck, we'll be shot of the dragon tonight," Procus said.
"Oh no!" Adi groaned, "The letter from Sam! It's in the book that Kyae took!"
Their plan seemed only more and more likely to fail.
***
Not a minute too soon, the time to get rid of Paul came. Dave was practically in tears.
"I've put a teddy bear in there, so he won't be lonely. Goodbye Paul. Daddy will never forget you!" he cried.
Paul was packed up in a box from a sound was issuing that suggested that teddy was getting an all-expenses paid dragon surgery. The box was almost as long as Procus was tall.
Patricia and Vignesh muttered HidDens and Procus activated the Helix. Soon, they were ready to go.
Luckily, the castle was completely deserted that night. Nobody heard the footsteps of the three, or the occasional ripping sound of teddy's surgery. They were halfway to the tallest tower when Paul decided to mess up the plan.
Paul, getting tired of the dark in the box, sent out a small flame. Unfortunately, the box was made of wood, thanks to Dave.
The entire box suddenly burst into flames. Patricia nearly shrieked but stopped herself just in time. Procus quickly activated the amethyst, which did nothing at all. Vignesh, thinking quickly, encased the box (and Paul) in an opaque bubble while Procus put out the fire that had started in his robes. He made a mental note to remind Dave that dragons breathe fire, and wood isn't the most inflammable thing in the world.
Afraid that the flame had attracted unwanted attention, they ran up the steps to the tower, bubble floating behind them.
Sam's friends were a cheery lot. They had come on AyrSkates and had a kind of harness to carry Paul.
After getting rid of Paul, the three nearly collapsed with relief as they watched Sam's friends fly into the night. If only that was the end of their troubles.
Tired now, the three walked down the stairs. Out of the blue, or well, the black, the creaking, ghastly figure of Stultus Zafran appeared.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" he rasped, grinning maniacally.
They had forgotten to reactivate their invisibility spells.
***
"Five students out of bed in one night! And four from my own house!" Professor Jane reprimanded. They were in her study, along with Kyae and Alen. She turned to the three, eyes like gimlets.
"I think I can figure out what happened here," She said, voice quaking with fury, "You fed Miss Sin here some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, and you think it's fine that Mister Santosh here heard it as well!"
Procus tried to catch Alen's eye to tell him this wasn't true. But Alen wouldn't look his way.
"I will have to deduct a hundred points from each of you. And a detention each" Professor Jane said again, still furious with them.
"A hundred?" Alen gasped.
"A hundred each,"
Procus reeled. That would be four hundred points from Evgenis, putting them straight into last place, behind Ravikumar. Wait, so this meant that Professor Jane's priorities were seriously messed up. When they had stopped a troll and saved a life, they had gained ten points. When they were caught out of bed, four hundred points were taken off.
"Now, before I make it two hundred each, get out of my sight!"
***
The next morning, the Evgenis students walking past the great hourglasses for house points thought that there must have been a mistake. How did they lose four hundred points in a single night? Then the story got out: how Procus Evgenis, the hero of their AyrBall match, and a bunch of other stupid first-formers had been caught out of bed and lost all their points, putting them straight into last place. From being the house hero, Procus was now the most hated student in the entire house. Only Adi, Vignesh, Patricia and Alen stuck by him.
"How could you forget the spells?" Adi chided them the next day. Madam Tee had managed to find the antidote to whatever was in that bite eventually. Adi had just gotten out.
"It was kind of a vital part of the don't-get-caught-while-getting-shot-of-an-illegal-and-annoying-dragon plan!"
"Tell us something we don't know," Vignesh snapped.
Procus was still just staring at the hourglasses.
"So, when are our detentions?" he asked, dejected.
"Tonight," Patricia said glumly.
Their letters about detention came later in the day, just before lessons. They were short and snappy.
Your detention is tonight at the Forest. Be there if you do not want to lose another hundred points.
Procus certainly did not want to lose any more points.
***
"There haven't been a proper detention in years!" Zafran cackled as he watched the five at the edge of the forest, accompanied by the occasional bone-chilling roar and/or howl from the forest. This was one of the times that Procus truly appreciated the Helix. It could protect and turn him invisible if necessary; and summon powerful fireballs if really necessary. He had also prepared multiple Powerflashes if needed.
"And that too, in the Forest! I can't wait to pick up what'll be left of you in the morning!" Zafran cackled again. Procus was tempted to Powerflash him just to shut him up. Judging by their expressions, the same idea had occurred to both Adi and Vignesh. Kyae was scowling as usual, Patricia was hopping from foot to foot and Alen was staring at his feet.
"Oh, shut up, you fool. I'm taking them from here," Dave appeared from behind a tree.
Zafran scowled. Procus' spirits rose. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad, if they were with Dave.
"I'll be back in the morning…" Zafran hissed, hobbling back to castle. As Procus watched him and the infinitely more comforting sight of his lantern, he felt a weird presence watching him from the lake. He stared intently at it. However, he achieved nothing except failing to hear what Dave had said.
"So then, we'll be going in now. Remember, red sparks if you're in danger, green sparks if you've found something," Dave said, lighting a lantern, "We'll split up, so that we have a better chance of finding something. Procus, Vignesh, you come with me and Patricia, Kyae and Alen will go with Bush,"
Bush was Dave's dog. He was a magical breed, one that Procus did not recognize. He had teeth like sabers and had black fur. His eyes were bright green and cut through the dark like headlamps.
Much quicker than Procus would have preferred, they were in the Forest.
"What are we looking for again?" Procus asked Vignesh quietly.
"Anything out of the ordinary. Apparently, the Forest creatures have been acting out recently. Dave wants to find out what's going on,"
"Isn't everything here 'out of the ordinary'?" Procus muttered to himself. Suddenly, Dave stopped. Instinctively, Procus drew his wand, as did Vignesh. He was priming a Powerflash when Dave moved on.
"What happened?" Vignesh asked, white-faced with fear.
"Yew wood tree's bark shaved," Dave replied grimly, "Something's definitely in here that shouldn't be, and it's making either a staff or a wand. And that too, one of yew wood,"
Procus shivered. Suddenly, somewhere west of the them, red sparks lit up the sky.
"The others are in trouble!" Vignesh gasped, but Dave was already gone. Procus felt sick. He didn't really care if something got Kyae, but Patricia, as annoying as she could be, and Alen… well, it was Procus' fault that they were here in the first place. Procus felt like rushing towards the sparks himself, but he knew that that would be suicide. Vignesh had already drawn his wand and was muttering protection incantations. Procus primed another Flash.
There was the sound of someone, or many people, trampling through the Forest towards them. Procus raised the Powerflash parchments and Vignesh pointed his wand in the direction of the sound. They nearly collapsed with relief when they saw Dave and the others, Alen ashen-faced, Kyae grumpy, Patricia angry and Dave disgusted.
"Kyae snuck up behind Alen and scared him, because of which he sent up red sparks," Patricia informed them, still angry, "I swear that I could've killed her, but Dave came at that moment.
"Too right," Dave growled, "we'll have to switch. Procus, you go with Bush and this moron,"
Procus groaned. Looks like he was with Kyae, the moron.
So, he set out for the center of the forest with Bush and Kyae. He had already told Kyae point-blank that if she tried to jeopardize this, he would Powerflash her. He could tell that she didn't believe him.
It was horribly scary in the forest, especially as they went deeper in. Procus could feel a weird presence wherever he went. Nervously, he clutched, in a death-grip, two Powerflashes, one in each hand, ready to flick them at anything that attacked him. Or to fling them at Kyae. Depending on which was more annoying. Suddenly, he heard the swish of a cloak and then a slithering sound, as though a huge snake was slithering across the ground.
Procus nearly flicked the Flash there and then. Luckily, he stopped himself just in time. Kyae drew her wand and muttered something. Bush's hackles rose. Careful not to give away their location, they advanced.
A hooded figure was leaning over a fallen tree, scraping its bark. The tree leaked a red substance that looked awfully like blood. The hooded figure was covered with the substance. Even from a whole, moonlit clearing away (which was a good twenty or so metres), the waves of powerful Dark Magic emanating from the figure made Procus want to curl up in a ball for about fifty years or so. A spontaneous surge of anger suddenly overtook him. He couldn't explain it, but for some reason, he hated that hooded figure. He wanted to rush towards it, yelling the most powerful curses he could conjure, even though the obvious thing to do was stay as far away from the thing as possible. Kyae raised her wand and sent up red sparks. The glow from the sparks caught the thing's attention. Silently, it raised a staff and fired a powerful Darkflash at Procus just as he fired both his Powerflashes. By right, a double Powerflash would be able to destroy pretty much anything. However, Darkflashes are in a league of their own. So, instead of the destruction expected, the spells hit each other at the very midpoint of the clearing.
A huge shockwave of pure magical energy blasted through the clearing, obliterating pretty much everything that stood in its way. Procus was knocked right off his feet and was thrown right onto Bush, who was blasted into Kyae. The Helix kicked in and a protective purple aura formed around the three. All Procus could see was pure, unbroken white. Then suddenly, it was gone. Well not exactly. He was on the back of some kind of horse-man, which he assumed was a centaur. They were rushing quickly away from the white light. Kyae was in front of him and Bush behind.
"Stop!" Procus screamed at the centaur, "I can stop this!"
"Stopping would not be advisable, Procus Evgenis," The centaur panted.
Seeing that the centaur was most definitely not about to stop anytime soon, Procus reached for the Helix and his spell pouch. His shaking fingers could barely undo the pouch's knot. At last, he drew out a piece of parchment, which was a Reverse Lleps. Procus knew that he had to fuse it with the opal. Unfortunately, it was a reverse spell, so it was extremely difficult to read. Wind whipping around him, he activated the opal and began read the spell.
"Krad dna Thgil fo noisilloc eht esrever od I, lapo eht fo rewop eht hitw," He chanted. The dim light from the opal flared and became nothing short of blinding. Procus squeezed his eyes shut.
When he opened them again, Kyae and Bush had already gotten off the centaur, who was now walking slower. Procus felt the opal. It was uncomfortably hot, as though it was about to overheat. It was starting to heat up the rest of the Helix.
"Off," Procus muttered to it. But it did not come off. Surprised, Procus tried another command. "Cool down,"
Slowly, the opal began cooling down, just as Procus had commanded.
"That was smart thinking, Procus Evgenis," The centaur said.
"Oh, erm, thanks. Say, who are you?" Procus said.
"Forgive me. I am Berlin," Berlin introduced himself. "As I said, that was great courage you showed at the clearing. Especially given of who you were facing,"
"What?" Procus asked, confused. Berlin stared at him, unblinking.
"Do you truly not know who you faced?" he asked.
"No, I don't; and I don't know what the staff-thingy was,"
Berlin sighed.
"You are correct. The item in the hands of your attacker was a staff, one of yew. All woods used in staffs have their own unique powers. A staff of yew will keep you suspended on the edge of death, even if you are, by right, supposed to die. But it is a pitiful existence. You would be less substantial than even a ghost, and you will constantly be in turmoil unless you can find a host,"
"But," Procus began, "who would do that? Wouldn't death be better?"
Berlin sighed again.
"Think, Procus Evgenis. Who has been waiting, biding his time, for the last twelve years almost? Think, why did you feel that surge of anger? Why did your spells destroy each other instead of destroying you and your opponent?"
"You don't mean," Procus choked, "you don't mean that it was Lord Bhavinav back there?"
Berlin said nothing.
At that moment, Dave, Patricia and Vignesh burst through the trees to their right.
"Procus! Are you okay? We heard an explosion and we headed towards it as fast as we could but were afraid that we weren't in time," Dave started, immediately cut across by Patricia.
"There was some really, really bright light, but we couldn't see what it was exactly. Then, suddenly, it stopped,"
"We had no idea what had happened. We were so afraid that you were dead!" Vignesh finished, completely ignoring Kyae as though she were meatloaf.
"I will leave you here, Procus Evgenis. May the stars guide you…" Berlin trailed off mysteriously, disappearing into the shadows.
***
After that experience, Procus swore to himself that he would never mess with anything not involving him ever again. If he hadn't used that reverse… well, he shuddered to think about what could've happened. And Lord Bhavinav with a staff of yew… that couldn't be good. He could cause a crazy amount of destruction with that, but he would need a host. But he had seemed substantial when he Darkflashed Procus, so who was his host?
With these thoughts swirling around his head like a dog chasing its tail, Procus fell into a deep, fitful sleep, occasionally punctuated by dreams of Lord Bhavinav drenched in his victims' blood.