[https://img.wattpad.com/story_parts/1256501283/images/173f6b203aea8896475784867006.png]
Sophie couldn't hold back any longer. All day she'd had to control her curiosity, but she just couldn't anymore. There was a dragon right in front of her. A real-life dragon! Probably the most famous magical creature in all of the human world, and now there was one so close she could almost touch it. How was she supposed to resist that?
She had at least been sensible enough to approach it carefully, but suddenly the dragon grumbled louder than before.
Its nostrils flared. It had sensed her smell. The dragon opened one of its eyes and looked at her.
The entire class stood frozen. They had no idea what to do. Only Mek moved, rushing over to stand next to Sophie.
"Who are you?" grunted the dragon, training its one open eye on Sophie [https://img.wattpad.com/96ef356c42b62b5c434ea834334b1653891dc902/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f654d7939476537665331613339413d3d2d313235363530313238332e313730633235636636333137376633353638323634303931353631342e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
"Who are you?" grunted the dragon, training its one open eye on Sophie. Just the head of the dragon was as large as Sophie was. Sophie opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything, Mek cut her off.
"O great and mighty dragon, we are class 3-7-9, students at Unum's School of Wonders," Mek said, infusing each word with the deepest respect and bowing her head submissively.
The dragon inspected the students standing in front of it. It didn't look impressed.
"And why do you disturb me here?"
Mek looked like she was weighing her words carefully, looking for just the right answer. But before she had time to find it, Sophie spoke up.
"Are you the dragon who's making a volcano erupt? And if you are, could you please stop it?" Sophie asked cheerfully.
The entire class stared at her in horror. Had she really said that? The dragon stood up on its legs. Now both of its eyes were wide open. Flames burst from its mouth as it raised its voice.
"I am Noskra, the great magma dragon of the South. And if you ever dare to talk to me like that again, I'll turn your bones to dust!"
The entire class hurried over to the dragon, bowing deeply to show their remorse. Sophie quickly realized that she had messed up. Even Fiff had changed her color to a fearful blue. Sophie bowed her head like the others in apology and then, mimicking Mek's more respectful tone, spoke:
"I'm very sorry, mighty dragon. I never meant to disrespect a powerful dragon like you. But may I ask what a dragon from the South is doing underneath our school?"
The dragon Noskra seemed to accept Sophie's apology, but it still didn't look happy.
"That isn't any business of some silly students. Now leave me, before I change my mind and eat you."
"But we can't!" Fiff exclaimed. "If you're really the one who's causing that volcano to erupt, we have to ask you to stop it."
Noskra snorted unhappily. Its eyes darted to the stream of lava that had formed next to it, then back to the group.
"Tell me, children, how many know that I'm the one affecting that volcano?"
"Just us," Sophie answered honestly, once again causing the rest of the class to stare at her in horror.
Noskra smiled hungrily, and again Sophie realized that she might have made a misstep. Clearly the dragon wasn't happy to have been discovered, and it could easily wipe them all out if it wanted to. Its jaws looked powerful enough to bite a car in two.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
"Um... Except our adventuring teacher, of course," Trom added hastily.
"Oh yeah, maybe you've heard of her," Fiff said proudly. "Her name is Nimum and she's been chosen as the Seventh Daughter of Mother Earth!"
Noskra's smile immediately disappeared. It seemed like it HAD heard of Nimum. Sophie turned to Fiff and asked: "Is being the seventh daughter of Mother Earth something special?"
"Oh yeah! The seven people who are named as Daughters of Mother Earth are some of the strongest magic users in the magical world. They're the protectors of nature and the four elements. They can make forests grow out in minutes, stop natural disasters, move mountains and light the sky on fire if they want to."
Noskra seemed to have entirely given up being irritated and instead stepped aside so that the class could walk over to the stream of lava.
"I suppose I can leave the stream alone," it said. "Though I suspect there's enough lava already flowing to set off a volcano or two. If you whelps think you can stop that, go right ahead."
Carefully the class walked past Noskra, who laid back down with a smug smile on its face. After all, how was a group of school children supposed to stop a lava stream?
The students all looked at the thick stream of lava that was flowing past them.
"What do we do?" Fiff asked.
Sophie considered their options.
"Mek, can you turn the lava to stone by looking at it?" she asked.
"No, don't!" Elva said before Mek could answer.
Sophie was a bit surprised by how quickly Elva had been to jump in. She hadn't expected Elva to be all that interested in solving the problems they ran into.
"Why not? It seems like a good way to stop the lava," Sophie said.
"Well, it isn't. All you'll do is to turn a thin layer on top of the lava to stone, and then we won't be able to do ANYTHING to it," Elva said with irritation.
"Are you sure, bec..."
"Yes, I'm sure! Now leave it to people who actually know what they're talking about."
"B-but then what d-do we do?" Vix asked.
Sophie looked around at the others who all looked deep in thought. She had to think of something that could stop the lava from flowing.
"Why don't we look in the bag?" Elva suggested.
The students all turned towards Mek who was holding the bag. She started rifling through it.
"I don't think there's anything that'll help us. All I can find are bandages, herbs, a few books and... this weird crystal ball."
As Mek pulled the crystal ball out of the bag, both Elva and Beto's faces lit up.
"It's an energy vessel!" Beto exclaimed excitedly before immediately bursting into an explanation. "Energy vessels are used for magical rituals when the magic user isn't powerful enough to perform the ritual on their own. So instead, the magic user gathers up extra energy with the vessel and uses that for the ritual."
The rest of the students all looked puzzled.
"... But how does that help us?" Fiff asked.
"We can use the vessel to drain all the energy from the lava stream and extinguish it," Elva explained impatiently.
"Oh! Now it makes sense," Fiff said.
"B-but how do we d-do it?" Vix asked.
Beto shrugged. "I don't know. In order to activate it, we'd need to know the magic words. It'd be one of the traditional incantations which have existed for hundreds of years... But there are a LOT of different ones, and I don't know them all by heart."
"What if we just throw it into the lava?" Varis suggested.
"Varis, are you even listening? We need to know the magical words!" Beto snapped back.
Elva smiled smugly. She took the crystal ball out of Mek's hands and raised it over the stream of lava.
"Novus axellera demitrum!"
Suddenly, beams of light shot out of the lava and were immediately sucked up by the crystal ball [https://img.wattpad.com/067f179f67c0ea9db60e6c48ecce60c27a7688a8/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6d4f697152444531506a53776c673d3d2d313235363530313238332e313730633235643732663630323661363432393430393432313936352e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
Suddenly, beams of light shot out of the lava and were immediately sucked up by the crystal ball. The ball, which had been see-through a moment ago, now glowed with a powerful red light. The stream of lava lay on the ground, blackened and dried up.
Elva smiled proudly and handed the crystal ball back to Mek.
"At least one of us respects the old incantations."
The rest of the class let out a sigh of relief, but also shot some unhappy side glances at Elva. How long would they have to listen to Elva boast about that victory now?
Now the class could get on their way and go help the lightning bird. Noskra seemed displeased as it watched the kids walk triumphantly on.
"I don't know where you're going or what you seek," it said in a lecturing tone, "but I should warn you: Not too long ago, a terrifying beast made its way through the underground. And even I wouldn't want to get too close to that creature."
The kids all looked at each other. That wasn't the kind of thing they wanted to hear, but they couldn't turn back now. Nimum was expecting to meet them by the lightning bird, so with a lot of nervous glances in every direction, they went ahead, leaving behind Noskra who watched them with a haughty smile.
Nimum was expecting to meet them by the lightning bird, so with a lot of nervous glances in every direction, they went ahead, leaving behind Noskra who watched them with a haughty smile [https://img.wattpad.com/7e375369eb29678bd4dc98fa850c0ad66611a31a/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f51594f34546159445636476464673d3d2d313235363530313238332e3137336636623231643463353636623334393832313937333639342e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]