Willow hoped she would pass in her other classes. Willow entered her next subject, studies, which varied from week to week. Today they were being tested on many things, which included a written test.

She answered her questions.

“Everyone passed! Nice job! For the rest of the time you can go into the stables and play with your dragons.”

Sky and Willow played in the yard until Willow wanted to teach Sky some tricks she had recalled seeing somewhere.

Sky refused to do what Willow said. Willow would tell Sky to stand on her hind legs and Sky would do a backflip. How did Sky even do that? Willow’s subconsciousness thought. She gave Sky a confused look, not too long ago she had been doing exactly what she had been told, but now she would do the polar opposite of what Willow asked.

“Class! Time to go!” The teacher called, making sure the farther people heard. Willow decided to do something she had never even considered doing. Skipping class. She put Sky in her stall, and crouched in the darkest corner of the stall.

Her clothes were medium brown, so they weren’t too bright for the shadow, but not the best clothing for a stealth mission.

The teacher seemed to notice someone was missing because she entered the stable and looked left and right, but seeing nothing, she left.

Willow let out a sigh of relief that she knew she was holding. She leaped over the stall door and ran out of there before anyone else came in. She ran lightly out of the stable. She exited the building.

She entered the streets of Ajula. Skymaster near. A sign read. She let out a breath of annoyance as she remembered that she had left ehr map at home! She had recently memorized the way to school, so she had no need to bring it to school!

She turned towards the school and ran through the instructions in her head, and figured out the best way to return to her dorm/prison.

She went that way. She got strange looks by people she passed, as most girls her age were supposed to be in school right now, but no one stopped her. She reached home and inserted the key.

She ran into her room and took the map out of her redwood bedside table, and left the place.

She searched the map for the place she was looking for.

The Grand Sky Castle. No.

The Explosive inn. That brought up questions, but no.

The Intelligible library. Yes!

She followed the path, glancing down at the map when she came to a crossroads, which happened often. When she was two turns away, at a double sided cross road, she noticed a pair of amber eyes staring at her from a dark alley between two massive buildings.

The eyes quickly blinked out of sight and Willow almost believed she had imagined it, but she decided it was worth checking out.

She enter the alley, and she remembered the time when she had been so gullible and it led her to this place. The alley didn’t smell of rotting fish, though, more like some sort of meat she couldn’t specify.

She saw a flicker of movement and she followed it. She followed it ot the back of the alley, and she realized it was not some mythic creature or baby dragon like she had thought.

No, it was a cat. A half black with faint white stripes and half very pretty tortoiseshell. They were a little scrawny, like they hadn’t been fed regularly, and looked very scared of her.

Willow approached it cautiously and reached out her hand. The cat shied away. She walked closer, bending down, and avoiding eye contact.

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Willow put her hand near the cat’s nose. The cat backed against the wall, but gave in, giving it a tiny sniff. The cat, who Willow had decided was a boy, tentatively rubbed his cheek against Willow’s careful hand.

Willow gently patted the cat’s back, and felt a deep rumble go through the cat’s body. Willow sat instead of crouched, criss crossing her legs. The cat sat in her lap, and Willow felt the rumble in her legs now, too.

She knew this was good, because she had a friend back home who had two male cats, and they made the rumbling when they appeared to be happy.

She pet him for a while until the cat finally decided he had had enough pets for the day. He stood up, stretched his back and leaped off her lap.

Willow stood up and also stretched. She remembered her earlier objective and erased the smile she had on her face and set it into a grim line of determination.

She took the map out of her pocket and followed it the last little bit to the library.

She arrived at the library and took a moment to appreciate the spectacular view! Outside, there were some bushes that lined the front part of the building and the building itself was made of marble with red banners flowing down the sides.

The doors were around 6 feet taller than her and she wondered why they were so big. They didn’t need to be so big, did they?

Willow entered and the person at the front to welcome started to say something before she quickly changed it into a sigh and she pointed to a sign that read “No dragons or outside animals unless they are needed.”

Willow was confused and thought maybe the woman was talking to someone else. She kept walking, albeit nervously.

“Excuse me, young girl,” The woman said apologetically, “No outside animals allowed inside the library, and your cat is included.”

“Cat?” Willow asked. She looked behind her. The cat from before had followed her. “Oh. Well, what should I do with her?”

“I don’t know. Take her back to your house, maybe?”

Willow thought that was a good idea so she went home, making sure the cat had followed her, and put the cat on her bed.

Willow left the room. She made sure that he didn’t follow her. He didn’t. She went back to the library and the sun was already near the middle of the sky. Man! That cat took a lot of time out of her day.

She entered the library and showed the woman she had no animals with her. She nodded and the woman asked what she wanted to read.

“I would like a book on memory dragon behavior.” Willow told her.

“Interesting. Only around 500 people know they exist.” The woman replied looking her up and down.

“Oh. Well I’m one of those people and I have a memory dragon.” Willow replied, shrugging.

The woman’s eyes widened, but she didn’t ask anymore questions. She brought Willow to a darker, smaller corner of the library that most people wouldn’t have noticed existed.

“Well here are the things you are looking for. Good luck!”

“Thank you!” Willow replied. She ran her hand along the books, pulling out the ones that seemed likely.

There were two that she pulled out. She opened the first one and read the table of contents.

1. Memory Dragon Diet

2. Memory Dragon Social skills

3. Memory dragon Behavior.

There! On page 30. She flipped there.

Memory Dragon Behavior

Memory dragons are usually very obedient and nice, but sometimes have a lack of motivation and just stop doing what they are told. Most of the time, this is due to to them being lonely (See pg. 34)

Even if they are usually obedient, these dragons have free will, and at times will fly away. They WILL return within a few days.

That’s all I need to know. Willow thought. She put the two books away and left the library. She went to her home/prison, and sat on her bed next to the cat. This cat should have a name… it seems disrespectful to call him “the cat.”

“You are now called…. Cedar.” The cat purred, a sign of contentment.

The next day, Willow was a little nervous to go to school after her skipping the day before, but the first two classes went normally, mostly preparation for the next year. The third one she had to take the test while everyone else worked on preparation for the next year.

The fourth was the same as the third. Willow fiddled with her fingers, for the last class of the day was coming up. P.E..

She would be tested on 3 things, her memory of games, her fitness, and her ability to perform the games.

She was somewhat good at the memory on how to play the games, but her balance was what she was scared about. She was told to balance on a balance beam for as long as she could.

She stepped up to the beam, heart pounding. She stepped up and the timer started. She survived for ten minutes before starting to wobble too much.

Then came her performance of the many games she was told to play. She played the games. She got many scornful looks from the teacher, as she often messed up.

At the end, her teacher said she had passed by one point, but the expectations would be higher next year, and if she did that bad next year, then she would be kicked out.

At the end of the day, Willow went home, grabbed Cedar, and went to play with Sky. Willow sighed, but tried to tell Sky what to do. Sky, surprisingly, Sky did it. She seemed to only do it when Cedar was around. That was one problem solved. About ten more to go.