Aster

I sat on the couch with Kat, stretching, and spent a moment getting my thoughts straight. The last thing I wanted to do was lie to Kat, but at the same time, I felt nervous about telling her everything. How would she react to the stuff I had already lied to her about?

The long, piercing look she gave me did nothing to ease my thoughts, and I cursed mentally as my tail twitched.

“Look, Aster, we've been friends for only a few months, and you aren't the best at keeping secrets, so it's pretty obvious you have them. I mean, everyone does.” Kat's stare cut me off from objecting to her words, and she continued, “I'd like to ask, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but are you a noble? You said you weren't when we first met, but I can expect a lie at that point. You only stay on campus every few nights, and every time you go home, you head to the upper city. Not to mention the gold, the items, the fact you have a bond no one has seen, and everything else that points to it.”

I sunk a little at each statement. I hadn't tried to hide my spending or the items I used. Kat had even been present when I placed an order to get armor made for me. I reached my hand up and rubbed my ear, and the silence in the room stretched for a long moment as I tried to decide what to say or how to explain it. I wanted to tell her all of it. She had been honest with me and had saved my life when the wraith had first attacked. After the silence had become unbearable, I just had to speak.

“Kat, I, well, I'm not a noble, exactly. Well, I'm not one at all because I wasn't born in the kingdom or Elf forest. Maybe if I asked, I could become one, but it seems like a lot of work. My mother is really important to the kingdom, apparently because she guards the southern borders. I don't really know everything, and I don't really care enough about why to ask. I didn't even know I was going to be in a city with humans until last winter.” I stopped to breathe, realized I was rambling, and felt my cheeks flush red as I stopped.

Kat frowned, but her eyes glimmered with interest. “You said you were from the Claw Woods. Is your mother a dragon rider? No, wait, that doesn't make sense because you would have grown up in the city, and you definitely didn't with the lack of knowledge you have. I'm drawing a blank here, Aster; who’s your mother?”

I shook my head and smiled at the idea of Kluni riding a dragon when she could probably bat them out of the air when in her wolf form. I tilted my head side to side as I again debated telling her. She was my friend, so she should at least know one of my big secrets, right? I spoke a bit hesitantly. “She's Kluni. I grew up in the Claw Woods, not around it.”

For the first time, I saw an expression of confusion cross Kat’s face as she spoke to herself, “Kulni? Why does that name sound familiar? I don't think I learned about her in any of my lessons. Who is Kluni?”

“She's a, what was it called? I think it was Grand Beast. When I left the forest, I got a system message about it.” Tilting my head, I tried to remember what it had said.

Kat opened her mouth, then closed it as something clicked, and she looked at my ears and then my tail, which hadn't stopped twitching. She then proceeded to give me the most incredulous stare I had ever received, “You're mother, the one who gave birth to you, is a grand beast?” She said a bit louder than was comfortable.

Shaking my head, I clarified, “No, she didn't give birth to me; she's a wolf, and I'm a human. She raised me from when I was very little, and I was living with her until this winter's thaw when I was told to come here.”

Kat started to say something, then paused and began to giggle, which turned into a chuckle, then a total laugh, and she laid back into the cushion and wiped her eyes. “Out of all the possibilities of this talk I thought of, I didn't expect that, but damn does it make sense,” She said.

My shoulders sagged in relief at her attitude. “I expected you to be upset that I lied about where I was from. Keeping secrets is hard.”

The look Kat sent my way was mixed with regret and sadness but also some relief. “Aster, I have a niece and no offense, but you remind me a lot of her, but when she was a bit younger, you still seemed to have a bit too much trust in people. I don't blame you, or am I upset at you for hiding that, in fact, I probably wouldn't have told anyone even after what had happened.” She reached across the cushion between us and hugged me before leaning back. “I'm sorry that I brought that up first, but I feel like there's so much to talk about right now, and we still have to discuss Fernand.” She said

“Fernand? Is he okay? Did he get hit by a spike and cursed too?” I said and nearly got to my feet before Kat shook her head and held up her hands

“No, he's fine, just a lot more shaken up than us. With his father being higher up in the Kingdom, I don't think he's seen as much fighting as we have. Even with the adventuring course and dungeon run, there is no real chance of dying. I actually think he was made to take that course. After seeing you in the dragon's claws that night, he went home with a guard escort, not to the academy but his home, and he hasn't been back to the academy since. I don't think he'll be back this year.”

I knew Fernand had been a lot more interested in the learning side of the academy; he was a friend, and he was a lot smarter than me. I hoped Kat was wrong about him coming back, but the fight with the Wraith had been terrifying. “Do you think we should visit him and see how he's doing? Would he want us to?”

Kat opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, the chime of a bell sounded, letting the entire academy know that the first course of the day was about to start. Kat ducked into her room to grab her books, and we both left. The topic changed from us to our courses. Kat passed me a few different pages of copies of notes she had made, and I stored them with thanks. The first part of the day went by rather smoothly. The first courses were easy to go through, with new information and runes to learn and catch up on. I was forced to focus on each course more than I usually did, but with Kat's notes, I was able to make sense of what was being said easily enough. When it came time to go to my third course, Bonded, I was able to explain somewhat why I'd been out, and to my relief, I hadn't missed too much because Union had been mostly focused on getting possible bonds set up for those who didn't have any. The same was true of the next course, Natural Magic, where we switched to moving around and doing various poses and stretches while meditating. It was surprisingly hard to keep the skill active while moving, and I partly wished I had grabbed the other option for meditation, but the movements were slowly getting more manageable, so I wasn't too upset.

I was making my way to my last course of the day, looking for Kat, when I felt a sharp ache in my stomach, and the feeling of a deep hunger filled my body. The feeling was so out of the blue that it felt like being crashed into by a wolf at full speed. Letting out a gasp even though I hadn't actually been hit, I fell onto the grass outside the entrance to the arena. My head swam for a moment as the feeling of needing to eat seemed to grow before all at once it vanished. The feeling was replaced by a vivid vision of a sheep being torn in half by my talons and teeth as I swallowed piece after piece. Then, there was a quick feeling of realization and guilt as the emotions dulled and the vision faded.

“Oh, Aster, I'm sorry. I woke up and wasn't thinking. I was just sooo hungry I had to eat.”

Relief, joy, amusement, happiness, and a lot of other emotions passed through the bond as Umbra spoke. Her voice was deeper, and the rumble had slightly smoothed out, but it was really her. I couldn't help myself as a big grin split my face, and I half laughed, half tried not to cry in relief. The students who had seen me fall gave me weird looks as they moved on, but I couldn't care less at the moment. Umbra had just woken up!

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“Oh, I'm so happy you're awake. You don't know how much I missed you. You were out for almost an entire week.” The bond felt as vibrant and full as it had before she had gone to sleep, if not even more, and it was enough to bring some tears to my eyes, and I wiped them away. My worry about her advancement in grade hadn't been founded after all.

“Aster? Are you okay? What happened?” Kat's voice drew my attention, and I looked up to see her bending over me, looking worried.

“I'm fine. My bonds, Umbra, just woke up. It was a lot to take in at once,” I said after taking in a breath to steady myself.

Kat's expression eased, and she nodded. “Yeah, Re-I mean, my brother was knocked on his ass during an event and scared the hell out of my mother.” She held out a hand, and I took it, letting her pull me to my feet.

“Did everything go well? Did you get a class you wanted?” I asked through the bond

“Oh yes, it's called Ice Bringer. It's only rare, but from what Silt said about dragon classes, rare is good,” Umbra said, and I could faintly make out that she had switched from a sheep and was now eating a cow.

“I want to hear about it when I get home tonight, and a lot happened that we need to talk about since you've been asleep,” I explained to Umbra as I made my way up the arena steps. Kat led the way to our usual spot, seeming to understand that I wasn't paying much attention to the area around me. The course passed without me paying attention to it at all, mainly because of Umbra. I was just enjoying the bond as she messed with her new skills but also because Herny had stopped training for the entire week, spending the time instead explaining how to survive in the wild. I did feel a bit bad about ignoring an entire course's worth of information, but all the information he was giving out were things I knew.

When the course did eventually end, I gave Kat an apologetic expression. I had meant to stay and explain a bit more and answer some questions, but Umbra was awake, and I really wanted to see her. Kat only rolled her eyes and waved me off.

“I'll see you tomorrow,” I promised her before I took off, moving through the students who were also trying to get out. I made liberal use of Stalkers Movement to dodge out of the way of people and get ahead of all of the crowds and out into the city.

“I'm on my way back. I'll be there in just a moment,” I promised Umbra as I ducked into a side ally and then started to pick up speed.

Umbra

When I'd woken up from the class selection place, hunger hit me like a tail slap from Silt. My memory was still hazy up until I had finished my first sheep. From there, I'd been quick to put my hunger in check and apologize to Aster. After eating a cow and another sheep, I felt full enough to wonder why there were even animals on the tower grounds. There was still another set of cows tethered to the wall of the courtyard, but they were so panicked that the ropes were starting to come loose. Enjoying their terror-filled moos, I made my way back up to the balcony and stretched out. The cloudy day was perfect to wake up to. With Aster still attending her last course of the day, I first brought up the class I had picked, excitement coursing through my blood. I only think of the name of the class to get the description.

Ice Bringer - Rare - Choosing to follow in the claws of one of the most powerful of your ancestors, you aim to bring ice to all of your battles. This class will slightly alter your wings and horns, giving them a more translucent and icy appearance. Continuation of this class will have a greater impact.

It was more than I could have hoped for, and while the other class options had been really fun to look at, nothing had been quite as fitting as this. With another thought, I brought up my status sheet.

[Name: Umbra]

[Grade: 1]

[Level: 37]

[Titles: Bonded]

[Mana: 350/350]

[Stamina: 535/535]

[Race Class: Frost Dragon- Level 37]

[Class Skills: Draconic Breath, Freezing Talons, Bond Speech, Draconic Speech, Glacial Essence, Frost Control - Rank One]

[Second Class: Ice Bringer - Level 7]

[Class Skills: Wings Of Mist, Frozen Scales, Harbinger Of Winter]

[Passive Class Skills: Flying - Rank Two, Aerial Acrobatics - Rank One, Preening - Rank Three, Study - Rank Five.]

[Attributes]

[Available attribute points - 7]

[Constitution - 130]

[Strength - 90]

[Endurance - 83]

[Dexterity - 89]

[Charisma - 46]

[Intelligence - 55]

[Wisdom - 81]

Seeing the big increase in attributes had my wings itching to take to the sky and fight something or fly for miles, but at the same time, my body felt as stiff as a stone, probably because I hadn't moved for a while. The sheet also brought up a difference between dragons and humans. I hadn't been given the option to evolve my race class. It was something Silt had warned me about. It would stay the same until grade three, where I'd get a set of options unique to us dragons.

Looking at my new skills, I decided to inspect them and maybe try them out until Aster finished up. I had been told by both Silt and Aster that skills didn't have descriptions in the advancement space, but it was still slightly annoying how that worked. Picking a piece of wool out of my teeth with a tallon, I brought up the first of my new skills.

Wings Of Mist - Your wings are a vital point in battle that needs protecting. With the use of mana, when this skill is activated, your wings take on a mist-like quality for three seconds, making any physical damage or obstacles pass through them.

Snaking my head, I looked back at my wings and focused on the skill. I watched as, from the outside inwards, my wings took on a shimmering quality, becoming slightly more transparent than they usually were. To my surprise, my wing sunk slightly into the stone under me. When the effect ended a moment later, my wing was forced upwards so fast that the movement stung my joints. Note to self: don't leave wings inside objects. A few more casts of the skill had me thinking of a few ideas for it, but I'd have to speak with Silt to see what she thought. Once I was used to the effect, I moved on to the next skill.

Frozen Scales - Natural and one of

the best armor ever crafted by biology, dragon scales are hard to improve upon. At the cost of a constant drawl of mana, this skill creates a hardened frost over and between your scales, limiting mobility greatly but, in return, creates a shell-like coating that is hard to crack.

Willing the skill to activate, I felt a sizable drain on my mana start and, at the same time, watched as frost spread out from my scales, creating another layer that ended at the start of my wings and claw tips. The effect took a few seconds and made moving any part of my body a slow and hard task. My joints felt like they were trying to lift a dragon twice my size. Ending the skill and watching as the frost dissipated in only moments, I wondered if I could even fly while it was active. The skill definitely could be useful, but only in certain situations. The weight it added was definitely something to think about. Looking up from my body, I focused on the last skill from my new class with interest.

Harbinger Of Winter - Dragons that control ice also control the way it takes shape. With the use of mana, this skill allows the formation of any ice by drawing in the ambient cold around you within ten meters.

I felt the tip of my tail twitch with a bit of irritation. Glacial Essence, the skill I'd gotten from the skill crystal, did almost the exact same thing, only with frost and less control. I'd hoped for something a bit more exciting.

With a pull-on mana, I activated the skill, willing a ball of ice to form. In front of my snout, I watched as the ice formed slowly over the course of ten seconds, a perfect sphere of ice as big as my eye. Once it had wholly formed, it dropped to the ground and shattered. I looked down at the ice pile between my talons and hissed in displeasure. The ice wasn't even any stronger than normal ice. I stared at the ice for a long moment, trying to think of a way it could be useful. Before I could start trying to form something else, a pull on the bond let me know Aster was heading back.

My irritation at the skill ebbed away, and I felt my stomach grumble. I wondered if I could eat one of the cows before she got back.