Calix ate his porridge in peace, picked up his school bag and was about to leave the house when his dad came down the stairs “Oh Calix, leaving already?”
“Um yea”
“Well, have a good day then”
As Calix turned to leave again his dad chimed “Oh yes Calix I almost forgot, your mom and I decided you should come with me next week on my business trip to Callar City, I will be meeting an army colonel there and I want you to meet him as well”
Calix didn’t want to meet the colonel, but gears started clicking in his head and he responded with “Oh ok sounds good”
Calix left the house grinning. He biked to Vista Academy and met up with Owen.
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“Owen I need some help”
“Oh hey Calix, what’s up?”
“I need flandle berries”
“You need flan- wait why exactly?”
“Uh” Calix whispered “I need them to calm down a dragon”
Owen started laughing “That’s one of the silliest things I’ve heard, nice one”
Calix kept a straight face “No I’m serious”
“You’re serious- no no no WHY DO YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN A DRAGON”
“Hey shhh keep it down, so I’m going on a trip with my dad to Callar city and I plan on sneaking of from there and end up at Zeon Cano. Then-”
“You plan on-”
“Shhh listen first, then I’m going to use a mix of flandle berries and poiso herbs to calm the dragon down and them in going to ride it, land and go home unhurt, yes that’s the plan and I need your help”
Shocked and Puzzled Owen said “Ok I have many questions but I will stick to the simplest one. Why? Just why?”
“Well” Calix began “You want the long version or the short one”
“Long please class isn’t for another 20 minutes”
“So basically as you know my parents forced me into this school, it’s always been my dad’s dream to be in the army but they didn’t have this school to train kids back then so he never got his chance. But he saw his chance in me and projected his dreams on to me. I was always more excited in dragons and less in army and war and all that stuff. Now I’m even more excited in magic and sorcery because the mages in the mage kingdom just discovered that you can control elements. As-”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Ok hold up” Owen said impatiently. “What’s the end goal here, that you somehow are the first human to have approached a dragon without it killing you and somehow ride him and somehow don’t fall of and die, yea think about that what if you die? Don’t you care about your parents?”
“Well yes I care about my parents and hopefully I won’t die. The end goal is that my parents realize I don’t want to be in the army. I’ve tried to convince them so many times but they don’t listen. Why ride a dragon though? So the mages can see ‘Oh my gosh, that kid rode a dragon’ and they end up recruiting me and I’m able to study magic. Besides my grades are horrible I’ve gotten straight C’s and have had to forge my grades so my parents don’t make me work even harder towards becoming a soldier on enrolling in the government or whatever.”
“This sounds like a sh*t plan. Ok why the flandle berries and the poiso herbs?”
“Flandle berries because other fire creatures, like the fire ants feed on those berries so I’m hoping that the dragon likes those as well, and the poiso herbs because in each of the two sightings of the ice dragon he has gone for poiso herb plants, presumably because he likes them so I’m hoping that the fire dragon likes them as well”
“This plan has a lot of hoping.” Well I’ll help you not because it’s a good plan in any means, but because you will probably die if I don’t.”
Calix grinned
“Well” Owen thought out loud “The berries can probably be found in the school basement-”
“Wait” Calix said puzzled “Why in the basement”
“That’s where the black market is duh”
“THERES A BLACK MARKET IN SCHOOL?”
“You didn’t know-”
“NO”
“Well then, let’s head to the basement”
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In the basement they headed towards a steel door which was locked. Owen knocked 3 times on the door each time waiting 3 seconds before the next knock. Someone from inside opened the door. They headed inside and were met by Brandon.
“Hey Owen” Brandon said “Oh Calix hey, don’t think I’ve seen you here before?”
“Yea well” replied Owen “He’s here for some Flandle berries and some poiso herbs”
“Hmm, don’t know if I have the herbs I do have the berries though”
“Ah perfect” said Calix “How much for them?”
Brandon checked a price tag on a pouch and said “150 groos for 10 berries”
‘What that’s so expensive I only have 5 groos on me” Calix thought
Calix asked “Any chance of lowering the price?”
“I can do 130 minimum, only because you’re a new customer”
Calix had no way of getting 130 groos. He might have been able to somehow trick his parents into giving the money but he didn’t want to go down that path. No chance of stealing it either as two people guarded the door. While Calix was deciding what to do Brandon kept looking around and chimed “Oh it’s your lucky day Calix I found the herbs, a bunch will cost you 80 groos.”
An idea came into Calix’s head, it was a dumb idea but an idea none the less an idea. He offered to Brandon “Brandon if I beat you in a sword fighting match will you give me the herbs and the berries for free?”
Owen blurted “what-”
Brandon laughed “You of all people think you can beat me in a fight?" He laughed some more "It’s on, see you in the courtyard after school”
They left the room and Owen went “CALIX ARE YOU NUTS, how are you going to beat him, you haven’t won a single match in the last 2 years”
Calix replied “Well, this time I’ll be trying to win, which in hindsight still means I will lose but it’s worth a shot” and as they went up the stairs, Calix started to regret his decision.