They appeared in a huge forest, which was burning out by a fire. Tall flames emanated fast and prominently. She could feel its heat from afar and the poor girl unconsciously took a few steps behind.
"Stop it" Andreas commanded pointing at the fire.
What!? Did he lose his mind??
"How? I don't know what to do." Roselyn complained, her voice breaking.
Both her and Andreas' lives were at risk, and the fire would reach them in a few minutes. She deeply down knew that, in case of failure, he would kick her out of school without resentment and her mission of finding out more about her mom would drastically end.
"You know how to do it. Roselyn, stop it." He ordered once again, with a serious tone of voice.
Why was he so strict!? Couldn't he give her some suggestions or help her?
"How ??" She yelled again, losing her patience. Her eyes widened and she could feel her heart in her throat for the fear.
The sizzling fire became huger and huger, the hissing sound got even louder and she could feel its heat penetrating in her skin.
Roselyn backed off frightened to get burnt.
She closed her eyes and clenched her fists. If that worked at home, maybe it would work now too. She squeezed her eyes, she could feel the energy running through her body. Her main focus was to lead that accumulation of emotions towards the fire, as Andreas explained to her.
She took a deep breath, focusing even more and mentally picturing the fire in front of her.
When finally, a wind's wave pushed the fire a few meters away but instead of suffocating it, it got stroked. The flames grew in height and quickly reached them again.
"Stronger," Andreas whispered gazing at the fire.
How could he be so calm when Roselyn was shivering with terror? Wasn't he scared of dying?
She focused, even more, clenching her fists so tightly that she almost scratched her palm. Memories of her real mother occurred in her mind but this time she began to think of all the bad things she went through, because of her abandonment. Her emotions grew with agony causing her stomach to knot and a tight forming in her chest. All negative emotions filled her mind and before she even realized she was driven by anger. She did what Andreas told her earlier and threw all that energy onto the fire.
She thought of all the times that she felt a failure, she thought of the day when her adoptive mother found out about her keeping secrets and turned her back on her. Roselyn used to skip school just to feel something, just to fill the emptiness her mother left in her life. But her adoptive mother didn't understand it and scolded and yelled at her continuously. When Roselyn needed Anne the most, she wasn't there.
The only person she trusted, left her just like her real mother.
Anger was filling her mind and body and she let it sink it enough until it hurt.
When she opened her eyes, the fire had extinguished. But on the contrary, her anger increased. All the voices in her head kept shouting at her.
Andreas could hear those voices in his head too.
"Rose, stop!!" He raised his voice.
The floor began to shake and the ground to crack, provoking grooves on the land.
"Stop" Andreas yelled once again but she couldn't control it.
"I can.'t" She replied trying to scream loud enough to be heard despite the noises.
The wind was pushing the two of them to the ground.
Roselyn's weak knees gave away and she fell.
Andreas who was barely standing, joined his hands together in a quick movement, in a clap but no noise was heart. A circle of light and energy formed around his hands and quickly sucked in all the wind like a vacuum cleaner.
In a few seconds, all the chaos faded away.
"It's time for the final test." He said.
Roselyn's heart drummed in her chest, her breath shortened. She was trying to convince herself that she could succeed in it but despite her positive intentions, she was hardly believing in herself.
Words of comfort or even a smile may help her but Andreas was not the type of person who would care for other people's needs beyond his own.
However, he was impressed by her capacities, she extinguished the fire very easily and he had never seen anyone make a ground crack, or at least not the first time they were using magic.
A loud noise made Rose jump. She looked up at the sky to see where the noise was coming from when she noticed a blue spot in the sky. The spot started disaggregating and got bigger as it spread, allowing Roselyn to have a better sight.
It wasn't a spot, those were creatures.
Huge dragons flew upon Roselyn, the fear intensified in her yet it was nothing compared to how amazed she was at the view. Those creatures were majestic, their bodies so huge yet meticulously perfect. Did she have to fight them? If yes, how could she do that?
In a matter of a few seconds, more and more dragons flew around them. She was scared to scream, maybe they could feel her fear and attack.
She backed away of few steps for the fear yet she couldn't flinch away from her gaze.
Andreas whistled and a huge green dragon flew in front of them. It was bigger than the others. It had thorns on his neck and his wings were perfectly filled with blue streaks. His tail was releasing flames and sparks.
Roselyn took a step back, holding her breath.
"Rose, let me introduce you, Tyron," Andreas said smiling. He caressed the neck of that huge creature that bowed down in front of his master.
The dragon turned around to look at Roselyn and nodded leaning in. Roselyn looked at that creature speechless.
"He likes you." Andreas smiled. "Tyron rarely likes people."
Was that a compliment?
She tried to collect all the courage in her body and forced herself to caress the creature, when she succeeded in touching it, fear slowly disappeared.
"Wow, I can't believe this is real," She said in awe.
Andreas nodded.
"Now you have to pick yours. To do that, you have to let a dragon pick you first. You have to fight it and show it you're worth his obedience and respect. That dragon will be loyal to you for the rest of your life and will always fight for you no matter what. But remember, when someone hurts your dragon, you will feel the same pain and vice versa. Once you pick the dragon, your life and his will be forever connected."
Roselyn didn't know how to fight a dragon, but the description of that unbreakable bond was intriguing her so much that she forgot for a second all the danger.
"Let's start then. Good luck."
In a matter of a second, Andreas disappeared, leaving Roselyn alone.
The dragons seemed to understand what they had to do since they started to fly circularly around Rose. They groaned at her yet didn't attack.
She wondered when they would attack her. What was she supposed to do?
All of a sudden, a loud groan made the ground shake. It seemed to be from the sky.
All the dragons which were flying upon her took different directions to leave flying away in fear.
Maybe she was safe, maybe, somehow, they understood she was a freshman and decided to spare her.
But it was too early to say when a white icey dragon double the size of every other dragon reached her in an eyeblink.
Its body was made of pure living ice, his eyes were deep crystal blue, his wings were shining like diamonds.
He dived in front of her and his breath of cold made Rose back off.
The ground iced at his touch.
The huge dragon slouched forward, smelling her.
Roselyn was so scared that she couldn't move anymore. She was staring at its beauty and even if she was shaking in fear, she felt an urge to walk forward as two magnets attracted together. So she took a step forward.
Then another one.
The immense creature gazed at her back, rattling whether to attack or not.