T’allyandria knew she couldn’t tell the other members of the council that she had probed the kid’s mind, so she had to choose her words carefully. “My fellow council members, I know that all of you must have your own suspicions, your own reservations. This thing showed up at our entrance and knew where we lived, which is alarming enough on its own without even beginning to consider that it may have been sent to gather information.”
Some of the long necks of the dragons began to bob, nods of agreement bouncing back from the crowd. “But I want you to consider this; I think this human is telling the truth, and I am excellent at knowing when somebody is lying to me. Tryst’ail, I want you to remember the time you told me you had to skip class because you weren’t feeling well. We both know what you had to do that day instead. And Burberry, don’t you remember when you told me your homework was eaten by a stray furlizard?”
The shadow dragon’s mouth turned up in a sharp smirk at the sight of Burberry’s shoulders rising uncomfortably up to their neck.
“Kraven, I’ve even seen through a few of your fibs over the years.” She leveled her glimmering amethyst eyes with his ancient ones, and was happy to see that they crinkled around the edges in amusement rather than anger.
“So, I’ll tell you my take on this thing, this human. It is pathetic, sad and without a place to return to. It’s been clinging to the closest things to a home it’s found, which is our school for orphaned and abandoned dragons, which it feels a kinship with. It’s cold, it’s lost its clothes, and its feet are covered in scabs. It’s sniveling and alone, just like we were on the very day we were found and enrolled. I demand that you consider allowing it to stay here, no matter how many doubts you have. Because if it turns out to be untrustworthy, it’s in the dragon’s den already, surrounded by thousands of us with teeth and claws ten times its size. It would have to be truly unhinged to even try to deceive us.”
T’allyandria punctuated her sentence by brandishing her onyx-colored claws, which shone threateningly in the dim candlelight of the chamber.
Scaled hands began to slowly smack together in a combination of clapping and laughter, and tails thumped against the floor.
Caltyr made his way to the front to add just one thing. “I was worried she wouldn’t fit in, but when I brought her a sampling of foods from our cafeteria, she chose and ate the spiciest part. The dragon-spicy section. Her stomach, at the very least, is already part dragon.”
The council’s laughter grew by three sizes as they guffawed at the news.
“She’s got a strong stomach, I’ll give her that,” Kraven stated with a fanged grin.
“Being a dragon is more than just a strong stomach and a lack of parents!” hissed Sara, with a smack of her hand to the counter. It splintered under the force of her anger. “And this thing could never be a dragon. It’s a twiggy, dirty, flesh-eating baby human, and it even being here is a threat.” Sara crossed her arms decisively over a puffed draconic chest.
Immediately, the laughter and applause around her quieted to nothing.
The sand-colored dragon outstretched a hand toward the sky. “Sara, Kraven, it was not your time to speak. Remember that you are members of this esteemed council, and you will each have your time to speak. Now Caltyr, T’allyandria and Vermonysis, what have you done to ensure that this human is trustworthy and has our best interests at heart?”
Sara leaned reluctantly backward, puffing through her nostrils.
“I questioned it,” T’allyandria stated, not mentioning her exact methods. “I asked it of its origins and whether it was a spy of some kind, but the dirt in its hair and the stains on its shirt are too old for it to have been sent to our school any time recently. It doesn’t seem to know of any deeper plans behind its arrival, just that it was exiled for not wishing to consume dragon flesh.”
The council leader nodded slowly, her eyes leveling downward to regard the little human. The human was still grasping the end of its shirt in its tiny hands, but its knees were quaking now too, both of them pushed against one another to keep itself from toppling over.
“Alright. I believe we’ve heard enough from the three of you. Council, since you appear to be dying to participate in this matter, I open the floor to questions and discussion on the matter of allowing this human to stay.”
Following the end of the earthen dragon’s sentence, the room exploded into conversation, except there were so many dragons speaking at once that it sounded a lot more like a very loud, jumbled alphabet soup.
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Caltyr waited for things to die down, but as the seconds ticked on, the volume remained at an ear-splitting yell. All the council members were trying to be heard all at once, resulting in none of them being heard at all.
Vermonysis walked over to Emily in the midst of the commotion. As the dragons roared, the little girl was backing away from their words, some of them scarier than others. He put a hand on her back to steady her, and even his palm was the size of her whole spine.
“We should just kill it now and put it out of its misery.”
“Why don’t we take it out to the human camp and eat it in front of them?”
“We should see how its flesh tastes.”
“This spells the start of a new and terrifying era.”
“Why would the humans send it here instead of taking care of it themselves? I smell something fishy going on.”
Caltyr’s eyes flicked between the minuscule, shivering human child and the dragons hundreds and even thousands of times larger than she was. A bubble of righteous fury stirred inside of him, forming out of thin air like when he cast his water into existence.
“Esteemed council, you are all being a bunch of cowards,” Caltyr said with such force behind his words that the platform beneath him crystallized with a fine layer of frost. “And Sara, do you really think this puny human is a threat to all of dragonkind? Really? I thought you had been training your magic for years now. I thought you were unbeatable, the best of the best. Can the best of us really be so afraid of one single human?”
The alphabet soup of words in the room began to quell.
Sara’s eyes glowed with crackling, silent anger. She glared at Caltyr from her seat near the back of the room and craned her reptilian neck forward. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard you right. What did you say?”
“I said you’re being a shoddy leader and a coward. You’re spreading hate and cowardice and not even trying to listen. I would have thought you’d grown past that part of yourself when you accepted a leadership position.” Caltyr’s ridged tail swayed behind him. He couldn’t keep it still.
“I have all the facts I need. I’m not afraid of some puny little flesh eater, I’m afraid of all the implications it being here in the first place brings up. You said it knew where we were, and that the other humans did too, but if so why haven’t they attacked yet? Do they know we’re orphans somehow, and if they do, do they think we’re vulnerable? And what’s this about ‘monsters’ having killed its parents? Just what does this flesh eater consider to be a monster? There are too many mysteries and variables for me to even start to consider letting a human stay here.”
“But that’s the thing, Sara,” Caltyr hissed, raking his eyes over the semi-circle of dragons before him, young and old and anywhere in between, “it’s not just your decision.”
The blue dragon drew back some of the raging waters rushing around inside him, forcing a calm on his tense muscles. “Council, by a show of tails, who is fearless enough to allow this human orphan to stay here whether it’s some extension of a human plan or not– because it’s the right thing to do?”
T’allyandria and Vermonysis rose their tails in unison, and slowly others in the half-ring of seats joined in as well.
Malika raised her snowy white tail, earning a look from Sara.
About half of the dragons present were holding their tail in the sky by the time Sara cut in.
“And how many of you are opposed to the human living within our walls, feeding information to its cohorts on the outside and slowly ensuring the extinction of the few of us that are left?” The electric dragon rebutted, her voice buzzing with hot, electric anger.
The dragons on her side joined in without hesitation, but in the end they represented about half of the room as well.
The leader of the council raised her tail for neither one of the sides, but looked between Caltyr and Sara approvingly when they began to inject some sort of order into the proceedings.
Kraven cleared his throat suddenly, the sound reverberating through even the floor. “Leader of the council, as one of the most ancient and revered dragons present, I’ve got a suggestion for how we make a decision here.”
The council leader’s face crinkled softly at the edges, her eyes meeting the old red dragon’s mossy green ones with a soothing familiarity. “And what would you suggest, commander of the cutting flame, overseer of the abandoned and orphaned, Kraven?”
The utterance of his titles made Kraven’s burnt umber scales puff regally from his chest. “We’re not going to be around forever, us Ancients. So, it’s my opinion that my feelings on this just don’t matter as much as Caltyr’s or Sara’s. I’m not saying this only because I’m raring to watch a fight, but– I propose Sara and Caltyr learn what a real Battle of Wills is, and let the mana inside them decide whose side is right.”
Caltyr couldn’t help but smirk at the principal’s suggestion, because it matched his own.
The earth dragon nodded thoughtfully, putting her chin between her fingertips. “It would provide a unique opportunity for them to learn what a true Battle of Wills is like. Caltyr, Sara, what do you say?”
Sara flashed her teeth. She couldn’t quite smile with her emotions still surging through her, but she did her best to give an intimidating grin. “I wouldn’t mind showing this lowly water dragon how wrong he is again.”
The ridges on the back of Caltyr’s neck fanned out. His draconic core was pumping with excitement at the prospect of him getting to prove himself, so he grinned back, his grin true. “And I wouldn’t mind letting my abilities speak for themselves.”