Petra Price and the Last Dragon: Chapter 16
The last chapter of the month, enjoy. :)
This story is also posted here on FictionPress.com.
Description: Petra Price was a perfectly ordinary girl until she got sent away to Rosebury Academy, a school that would teach her all about magic. It's a brand new life, with new friends and a new power to be harnessed. An enemy is soon revealed. What will Petra do?
As it turned out, Darlene didn't have much to say about the hidden wand. The only thing she knew about it was that it had been passed down in her family for generations, and likely would have been hers one day if not for Cecelia. Cecelia never came to possess it either, as heirloom wands couldn't be passed on to someone so young.
“I don't know if she'd be able to claim it, even now. Though she still possesses the physical form of a young girl, her mind was actively learning from the collective history of magic held within these walls. Her mind is very old, in a way. I tried to learn with her, assuming it was probable I would have to fight her for my life when we were freed. She soon became powerful enough to force me back and keep me in a state where I was aware of nothing,” Darlene sighed, “Perhaps if I had fought harder, I'd be more helpful in the situation we now face.”
“You've been a great help!” Petra encouraged her, “We know so much more than we did before you came to us. I only wish I had known you were there, it must have felt so lonely to not have anyone to talk to.”
Darlene smiled, “I try not to think about it. I'm just glad to be here now. All of you have been so kind to me, and it so nice to learn about magic and know that I'm being judged by my own merit and not for the mistake I made long ago.”
“You and Cecelia are completely different people, everyone recognizes that.”
Petra was about to head off to the library to see if she could check out the book Darlene's father wrote about the dragons. She thought about asking her friend about it, then thought better of it. She had bothered the girl enough for one night, and drudged up a few painful memories by the looks of things. She offered Darlene a wave, then rushed to the girl for an impetuous hug. She was going to make it her responsibility to be sure that the other girl never felt that particular loneliness ever again.
There just so happened to be a copy of Hiram Craft's book in the school library. Petra didn't bother trying to be sneaky about procuring it, even though the library wasn't empty. Chip Sparks was there with Hilton, as well as a couple other students and a man that Petra had never seen before.
Book under her arm, Petra sat down across from Chip. Noticing her, he grinned and started packing his things away for the night. Hilton greeted her cheerily. Having already packed up for the night, he rose to leave.
He shrugged apologetically at Petra's glance, “That new librarian gives me the creeps, I don't like to be in here any longer than I have to.”
“I was just about to go back to the dorms, as well,” Chip told her after Hilton had taken his leave. “What's that you've got there?”
Petra held up the book for his inspection, “Just something I'm working on. Darlene's father wrote a book about dragons, and dragons seem to have something to do with why we're the only magical people to have existed for who knows how long. What's with the new librarian?”
With a slight inclination of her head, Petra indicated the unfamiliar man. He seemed to be entirely consumed with the book splayed open on the desk he was hunched over.
“I don't know his name. I noticed him for the first time a couple days ago. I guess maybe Miss Blake thinks the library needs supervising, now that we've all started coming in here more regularly.”
Petra checked out her book using the library's automated system. The man didn't pay Chip or herself any attention as they passed him, more interested in pushing his glasses up on his nose and turning a page. Judging by his pace, he was a pretty speedy reader.
“He doesn't really do much unless someone's making a bother of themselves.” Chip told Petra once the library door was closed behind them, “Silas and Troy were in there earlier. He sure tore a strip off of them when they got bored and started goofing around. Books are very serious business, as far as he's concerned.”
Petra and Chip went their separate ways when they got to the dorms, or rather he stopped on his floor while she kept climbing up to her own. With curiosity pushing thoughts of sleep to the far corners of her mind, Petra stretched out on top of her bed with Hiram Craft's book open in front of her.
It was a thick volume. She didn't think she'd be able to read the entire thing in one go, not even if she somehow managed to stay up the entire night.
It soon became harder for her to keep her eyes open. Darlene's father somehow managed to take the subject of the dragon, a likely majestic and magnificent creature, and turn it into something dry.
Temporarily giving up, Petra placed the book aside with intentions to return to it with fresh eyes the next day. She was determined to learn every word, sure that the book held another piece of the puzzle. It was one of the only things left in the school that related to the Crafts in any way, and the record of Hiram Craft had mentioned it specifically when it had heard her say Cecelia's name.
Petra tried aiming a few spells at the book as she got ready for bed. None of them seemed to reveal anything, though the book shimmered strangely now and then as if it was deflecting her attempts to discover its secrets. Perhaps, if the book held more meaning than it let on, Hiram Craft had made it so that only Cecelia could discover what it was really about.
Maybe someone that was very much like Cecelia would be able to fool the book's magical properties. There would be time the next day to talk to Miss Blake and Darlene about it. Somehow, Petra was going to be sure that Cecelia didn't get the jump on them.
Petra was excused from morning classes the next day. Not only did Miss Blake want to be filled in on what Petra had been up to, she also wanted to enlist Petra's help in teaching Darlene some of the spells she had learned during her research on truth and honesty. Petra knew only a few things that might help, but it was more than anyone else knew. They wouldn't be studying such spells in class that semester.
Miss Blake thought Petra's presence would be helpful in diffusing some of the tension of a one on one tutoring session. Darlene seemed to have a bit of a problem trusting the authority represented by the principal and the teachers, just as she had distrusted her parents even before her father had replaced her. While Petra was glad Darlene was observant enough to spot a bad seed when she saw one, she saw no need for the other girl to be as overly cautious as she herself had been.
She pulled Darlene aside before they reached Miss Blake's office, “I feel it's worth telling you, though I don't suppose you have any more reason to trust me than you do anybody else. Things here, the people... It's all on the up and up. I couldn't let my guard down at first, and I'm glad I didn't but it certainly got me into more than my fair share of trouble. I guess what I mean to say is that you don't have to worry so much. You're safe here.”
Darlene smiled, “I do trust you, Petra, and it's because of that very nature. I saw it in you from the time you visited Cecelia's manor. You didn't buy in to the act she presented to you, you saw through it even though you didn't know why. My family had been fooling nearly everyone into thinking they were respectable people for as long as I can remember. When she came along, it was more of the same. Seeing you, seeing that there was someone out there with sense enough to properly question the unknown... It gave me the courage to seek the help I needed. If you say I can trust the school to be just what it seems, then I believe you.”
Miss Blake let Petra do most of the talking, only stepping in to correct Petra's form here and there. Petra got the feeling that the principal of Rosebury Academy wanted to gauge just how far she'd come. As far as Petra was concerned, she wasn't anymore able than the other students. She knew a handful of things the others didn't, perhaps a little more than even her friends who had studied with her, but that was all. She still had to work just as hard during class and her homework was still quite the chore. She wondered if she would even remember any of the extra spells she knew when the next school year came around. She assumed there would no longer be reason to use them once things with Cecelia had cooled down.
Darlene had a little more trouble with the whole ordeal than Petra would have liked, but she had still made a fair amount of progress by the time Miss Blake sent them off for lunch. She had at least confirmed that there was a secret to the book, something that neither Petra nor Miss Blake could achieve using the same spells.
The two of them arrived early for lunch and sat together, as they never had before.
“Just keep at it!” Petra said between bites of her lasagna, “You're progressing quicker than I did at the start. I'm sure we'll know what this book is about in no time at all.”
The book was sitting on the table in front of them. Petra nudged it in Darlene's direction. The other girl looked at her directly.
Petra shrugged, “You should take it, it's of no use to me or anyone else until you can figure out what it's hiding.”
Darlene smiled and took a long moment to tuck the book into her backpack. Petra thought she might have been trying not to cry, as she thought she'd spotted a certain glitter in the other girl's eyes.
“Thank you for trusting me,” Darlene said.
“I think it's only fair after what you told me earlier,” Petra responded. There was a long moment after that where neither of them talked. Whatever else they might have said to each other was lost, as it was then that the rest of the students joined them.
Petra felt just a shred of guilt. She meant what she had said, she really did trust Darlene. It was Miss Blake who was being weary. While Petra thought the book was useless in anyone's hands but Darlene's own, Miss Blake considered handing the book over to her newest pupil to be a test. If she simply did with it what they expected her to, as Petra thought she would, there would be no problem. If it ended up missing or destroyed, Darlene would be revealed as a spy in their midst. Knowing the way Darlene felt about Cecelia, having gone so far to distance herself from that other girl as to change her name and therefore a large part of her identity, Petra could not believe she would betray them in any capacity.
Her belief was settled on Darlene. Darlene would give them that last bit of insight into Cecelia that would be the last help they needed against any forthcoming attack, and perhaps when everything was said and done they would also know more about the world they had suddenly found themselves to be a part of. Darlene would probably have a lot to tell them about that subject anyway, book or no.
Petra had never felt so strongly about someone she barely knew. Perhaps it was part of how she had changed since coming to the academy, or perhaps it was the magic that had changed her. She felt her intuition had become much stronger than it used to be.
After the book was in Darlene's hands, days turned into weeks. It almost got to the point where Petra would have forgotten all about it, were she capable. It was almost a full month before Darlene broached the subject with her by setting the book down in front of her at breakfast with a heavy thud. Petra picked it up, almost knocking over her cereal.
“It's not going anywhere, you can finish chewing first!” Darlene laughed, “Open it up, you'll find something very interesting.”
Petra swallowed thickly before reaching for the front cover. A small part of her almost hated to open the book and end the suspense. She had been so anxious for it at first, she had wanted to know so badly. Then as Darlene had taken longer than expected, Petra became calmer about it. She accepted that it was coming, that the day where Darlene would give the book back to her was inevitably coming. She had become much less impatient upon fully realizing that her task of waiting was simpler than Darlene's job of actually doing the work. She didn't want to add to the other girl's stress levels by acting frantic about the situation.
Even the first page of the book was different. A couple pages after it came the title, which had been changed to Dragons, Our Elusive Enemy. It was apparently still the work of Darlene's father. Petra flipped through it, trying to take in and absorb the fact that it was a completely different book from front to back.
Entire pages of the new version of the book were taken up by large, colorful drawings of the dragons. They didn't look just exactly as the tiny sketches in the old book had, nor did they look just like Petra would expect them to when seeing them up close. The drawings seemed to depict dragons as malevolent, evil creatures. They were shown attacking people who were armed with no more than wands.
While Petra had vaguely known that a dragon attack had something to do with what had happened to all the magical people, she had had a secret hope. She had hoped that not all the dragons would be completely terrible creatures. There was a fantastic image of them that was somehow remembered in the global consciousness of the world. Artists and authors alike drew from that incredible image. The image of dragons that Petra had in her mind was such that she had hoped at least one of the true dragons would have stood on the side of good.
Petra gave Darlene a thankful smile before she started reading. The book painted a very gruesome picture. It wasn't until breakfast was nearing its end that Petra was nearly finished the first chapter of the new book. It was then that she paused to consider the book's source. The content was a far cry from the dry literature it had been before, but it had still been composed by someone who was known to her to be a very evil man. She wondered if Hiram Craft had done the illustrations in the book himself, as they reminded her quite a bit of the feeling she'd had when she looked into his eyes in the records room.
It was actually pretty horrid luck that their sole historian was also the father of their only enemy. A person's perception had a way of changing events, and Petra couldn't imagine Hiram Craft not slanting the story towards untruth in some way.
With a more level head, Petra proceeded to read for the rest of the morning. She hid the dragon book under notebooks and textbooks. If any of the teachers noticed that she wasn't her usual attentive and studious self, they didn't say anything. It seemed like a much shorter read than the original title. By the time the bell rang for lunch, Petra was nearly at the end of it. As soon as she finished the last page, she would take it to Miss Blake.
This story is also posted here on FictionPress.com.
Description: Petra Price was a perfectly ordinary girl until she got sent away to Rosebury Academy, a school that would teach her all about magic. It's a brand new life, with new friends and a new power to be harnessed. An enemy is soon revealed. What will Petra do?
As it turned out, Darlene didn't have much to say about the hidden wand. The only thing she knew about it was that it had been passed down in her family for generations, and likely would have been hers one day if not for Cecelia. Cecelia never came to possess it either, as heirloom wands couldn't be passed on to someone so young.
“I don't know if she'd be able to claim it, even now. Though she still possesses the physical form of a young girl, her mind was actively learning from the collective history of magic held within these walls. Her mind is very old, in a way. I tried to learn with her, assuming it was probable I would have to fight her for my life when we were freed. She soon became powerful enough to force me back and keep me in a state where I was aware of nothing,” Darlene sighed, “Perhaps if I had fought harder, I'd be more helpful in the situation we now face.”
“You've been a great help!” Petra encouraged her, “We know so much more than we did before you came to us. I only wish I had known you were there, it must have felt so lonely to not have anyone to talk to.”
Darlene smiled, “I try not to think about it. I'm just glad to be here now. All of you have been so kind to me, and it so nice to learn about magic and know that I'm being judged by my own merit and not for the mistake I made long ago.”
“You and Cecelia are completely different people, everyone recognizes that.”
Petra was about to head off to the library to see if she could check out the book Darlene's father wrote about the dragons. She thought about asking her friend about it, then thought better of it. She had bothered the girl enough for one night, and drudged up a few painful memories by the looks of things. She offered Darlene a wave, then rushed to the girl for an impetuous hug. She was going to make it her responsibility to be sure that the other girl never felt that particular loneliness ever again.
There just so happened to be a copy of Hiram Craft's book in the school library. Petra didn't bother trying to be sneaky about procuring it, even though the library wasn't empty. Chip Sparks was there with Hilton, as well as a couple other students and a man that Petra had never seen before.
Book under her arm, Petra sat down across from Chip. Noticing her, he grinned and started packing his things away for the night. Hilton greeted her cheerily. Having already packed up for the night, he rose to leave.
He shrugged apologetically at Petra's glance, “That new librarian gives me the creeps, I don't like to be in here any longer than I have to.”
“I was just about to go back to the dorms, as well,” Chip told her after Hilton had taken his leave. “What's that you've got there?”
Petra held up the book for his inspection, “Just something I'm working on. Darlene's father wrote a book about dragons, and dragons seem to have something to do with why we're the only magical people to have existed for who knows how long. What's with the new librarian?”
With a slight inclination of her head, Petra indicated the unfamiliar man. He seemed to be entirely consumed with the book splayed open on the desk he was hunched over.
“I don't know his name. I noticed him for the first time a couple days ago. I guess maybe Miss Blake thinks the library needs supervising, now that we've all started coming in here more regularly.”
Petra checked out her book using the library's automated system. The man didn't pay Chip or herself any attention as they passed him, more interested in pushing his glasses up on his nose and turning a page. Judging by his pace, he was a pretty speedy reader.
“He doesn't really do much unless someone's making a bother of themselves.” Chip told Petra once the library door was closed behind them, “Silas and Troy were in there earlier. He sure tore a strip off of them when they got bored and started goofing around. Books are very serious business, as far as he's concerned.”
Petra and Chip went their separate ways when they got to the dorms, or rather he stopped on his floor while she kept climbing up to her own. With curiosity pushing thoughts of sleep to the far corners of her mind, Petra stretched out on top of her bed with Hiram Craft's book open in front of her.
It was a thick volume. She didn't think she'd be able to read the entire thing in one go, not even if she somehow managed to stay up the entire night.
It soon became harder for her to keep her eyes open. Darlene's father somehow managed to take the subject of the dragon, a likely majestic and magnificent creature, and turn it into something dry.
Temporarily giving up, Petra placed the book aside with intentions to return to it with fresh eyes the next day. She was determined to learn every word, sure that the book held another piece of the puzzle. It was one of the only things left in the school that related to the Crafts in any way, and the record of Hiram Craft had mentioned it specifically when it had heard her say Cecelia's name.
Petra tried aiming a few spells at the book as she got ready for bed. None of them seemed to reveal anything, though the book shimmered strangely now and then as if it was deflecting her attempts to discover its secrets. Perhaps, if the book held more meaning than it let on, Hiram Craft had made it so that only Cecelia could discover what it was really about.
Maybe someone that was very much like Cecelia would be able to fool the book's magical properties. There would be time the next day to talk to Miss Blake and Darlene about it. Somehow, Petra was going to be sure that Cecelia didn't get the jump on them.
Petra was excused from morning classes the next day. Not only did Miss Blake want to be filled in on what Petra had been up to, she also wanted to enlist Petra's help in teaching Darlene some of the spells she had learned during her research on truth and honesty. Petra knew only a few things that might help, but it was more than anyone else knew. They wouldn't be studying such spells in class that semester.
Miss Blake thought Petra's presence would be helpful in diffusing some of the tension of a one on one tutoring session. Darlene seemed to have a bit of a problem trusting the authority represented by the principal and the teachers, just as she had distrusted her parents even before her father had replaced her. While Petra was glad Darlene was observant enough to spot a bad seed when she saw one, she saw no need for the other girl to be as overly cautious as she herself had been.
She pulled Darlene aside before they reached Miss Blake's office, “I feel it's worth telling you, though I don't suppose you have any more reason to trust me than you do anybody else. Things here, the people... It's all on the up and up. I couldn't let my guard down at first, and I'm glad I didn't but it certainly got me into more than my fair share of trouble. I guess what I mean to say is that you don't have to worry so much. You're safe here.”
Darlene smiled, “I do trust you, Petra, and it's because of that very nature. I saw it in you from the time you visited Cecelia's manor. You didn't buy in to the act she presented to you, you saw through it even though you didn't know why. My family had been fooling nearly everyone into thinking they were respectable people for as long as I can remember. When she came along, it was more of the same. Seeing you, seeing that there was someone out there with sense enough to properly question the unknown... It gave me the courage to seek the help I needed. If you say I can trust the school to be just what it seems, then I believe you.”
Miss Blake let Petra do most of the talking, only stepping in to correct Petra's form here and there. Petra got the feeling that the principal of Rosebury Academy wanted to gauge just how far she'd come. As far as Petra was concerned, she wasn't anymore able than the other students. She knew a handful of things the others didn't, perhaps a little more than even her friends who had studied with her, but that was all. She still had to work just as hard during class and her homework was still quite the chore. She wondered if she would even remember any of the extra spells she knew when the next school year came around. She assumed there would no longer be reason to use them once things with Cecelia had cooled down.
Darlene had a little more trouble with the whole ordeal than Petra would have liked, but she had still made a fair amount of progress by the time Miss Blake sent them off for lunch. She had at least confirmed that there was a secret to the book, something that neither Petra nor Miss Blake could achieve using the same spells.
The two of them arrived early for lunch and sat together, as they never had before.
“Just keep at it!” Petra said between bites of her lasagna, “You're progressing quicker than I did at the start. I'm sure we'll know what this book is about in no time at all.”
The book was sitting on the table in front of them. Petra nudged it in Darlene's direction. The other girl looked at her directly.
Petra shrugged, “You should take it, it's of no use to me or anyone else until you can figure out what it's hiding.”
Darlene smiled and took a long moment to tuck the book into her backpack. Petra thought she might have been trying not to cry, as she thought she'd spotted a certain glitter in the other girl's eyes.
“Thank you for trusting me,” Darlene said.
“I think it's only fair after what you told me earlier,” Petra responded. There was a long moment after that where neither of them talked. Whatever else they might have said to each other was lost, as it was then that the rest of the students joined them.
Petra felt just a shred of guilt. She meant what she had said, she really did trust Darlene. It was Miss Blake who was being weary. While Petra thought the book was useless in anyone's hands but Darlene's own, Miss Blake considered handing the book over to her newest pupil to be a test. If she simply did with it what they expected her to, as Petra thought she would, there would be no problem. If it ended up missing or destroyed, Darlene would be revealed as a spy in their midst. Knowing the way Darlene felt about Cecelia, having gone so far to distance herself from that other girl as to change her name and therefore a large part of her identity, Petra could not believe she would betray them in any capacity.
Her belief was settled on Darlene. Darlene would give them that last bit of insight into Cecelia that would be the last help they needed against any forthcoming attack, and perhaps when everything was said and done they would also know more about the world they had suddenly found themselves to be a part of. Darlene would probably have a lot to tell them about that subject anyway, book or no.
Petra had never felt so strongly about someone she barely knew. Perhaps it was part of how she had changed since coming to the academy, or perhaps it was the magic that had changed her. She felt her intuition had become much stronger than it used to be.
After the book was in Darlene's hands, days turned into weeks. It almost got to the point where Petra would have forgotten all about it, were she capable. It was almost a full month before Darlene broached the subject with her by setting the book down in front of her at breakfast with a heavy thud. Petra picked it up, almost knocking over her cereal.
“It's not going anywhere, you can finish chewing first!” Darlene laughed, “Open it up, you'll find something very interesting.”
Petra swallowed thickly before reaching for the front cover. A small part of her almost hated to open the book and end the suspense. She had been so anxious for it at first, she had wanted to know so badly. Then as Darlene had taken longer than expected, Petra became calmer about it. She accepted that it was coming, that the day where Darlene would give the book back to her was inevitably coming. She had become much less impatient upon fully realizing that her task of waiting was simpler than Darlene's job of actually doing the work. She didn't want to add to the other girl's stress levels by acting frantic about the situation.
Even the first page of the book was different. A couple pages after it came the title, which had been changed to Dragons, Our Elusive Enemy. It was apparently still the work of Darlene's father. Petra flipped through it, trying to take in and absorb the fact that it was a completely different book from front to back.
Entire pages of the new version of the book were taken up by large, colorful drawings of the dragons. They didn't look just exactly as the tiny sketches in the old book had, nor did they look just like Petra would expect them to when seeing them up close. The drawings seemed to depict dragons as malevolent, evil creatures. They were shown attacking people who were armed with no more than wands.
While Petra had vaguely known that a dragon attack had something to do with what had happened to all the magical people, she had had a secret hope. She had hoped that not all the dragons would be completely terrible creatures. There was a fantastic image of them that was somehow remembered in the global consciousness of the world. Artists and authors alike drew from that incredible image. The image of dragons that Petra had in her mind was such that she had hoped at least one of the true dragons would have stood on the side of good.
Petra gave Darlene a thankful smile before she started reading. The book painted a very gruesome picture. It wasn't until breakfast was nearing its end that Petra was nearly finished the first chapter of the new book. It was then that she paused to consider the book's source. The content was a far cry from the dry literature it had been before, but it had still been composed by someone who was known to her to be a very evil man. She wondered if Hiram Craft had done the illustrations in the book himself, as they reminded her quite a bit of the feeling she'd had when she looked into his eyes in the records room.
It was actually pretty horrid luck that their sole historian was also the father of their only enemy. A person's perception had a way of changing events, and Petra couldn't imagine Hiram Craft not slanting the story towards untruth in some way.
With a more level head, Petra proceeded to read for the rest of the morning. She hid the dragon book under notebooks and textbooks. If any of the teachers noticed that she wasn't her usual attentive and studious self, they didn't say anything. It seemed like a much shorter read than the original title. By the time the bell rang for lunch, Petra was nearly at the end of it. As soon as she finished the last page, she would take it to Miss Blake.