The Keeper of the Dragons Chp 30

The Keeper of the Dragons
Chapter 30
It’s On Like Donkey Kong!





I’ll be honest, I was so hesitant to eat the flower when I got back to the room. I mean it’s a pedal, why wouldn’t I be hesitant? Also, it would be really weird for Meggie to see me eat a flower right before I go to bed but whatever.

I held the small glass sphere in my hand and when I tapped the glass the top disappeared, allowing me to pluck a single pedal from the flower. Frowning, I slowly placed the pedal on my tongue. I was expecting to taste something weird, like the taste of grass or a flower or something, but strangely the Scientiam Orchid tasted a lot like peanut butter. Once I swallowed the pedal, I instantly began to feel lightheaded and drowsy. Yawning, I curled myself up under the covers and fell into a deep sleep.

Now before I fell asleep, I imagined that this dream I was supposed to have would be all mystical and mysterious. Something that had the essence of “life changing” stuff, but in reality my dream was as random and fast paced as all the dreams that I have.

I was walking with some random person around inside a building. Then the person left and I walked outside and all of a sudden I was at the football field at Oswego East. The whole place was covered in snow and there were holes everywhere in the ground that I had to watch my step. After that, I was being attacked by paintballs that appeared out of nowhere.

And then I woke up.

What kind of messed up dream was that? Well, okay it’s not that messed up considering that I’ve had some pretty weird dreams…but still! How was that supposed to help me figure out a new power? Did I do it right? Oh come on, how could I mess up eating a flower? The idea still bugged me throughout the day. Considering that it was Saturday, I just got to hang out around the school. I was about to go to the cave when I ended up running into Hannah right around the fountain in the Heart of Calvatrace. “Oh hey Hannah, what’s up?”

“Oh, just some doodling,” she said as she sat down on the fountain ledge.

I sat down on the ledge and looked over her shoulder. “Oooh! Cool! What cha drawin’?”

“A bunch of chibis, it’s probably not that good,” Hannah said doubtfully, but I thought they were pretty good. Chibis are just cute Japanese drawings of people and animals. I’ve drawn a few myself but they’ve always been animals like dragons and wolves. Now that I think about it, they kinda resemble the Moonlight animals here at Calvatrace.

“Oh don’t worry, I can’t draw people so there ya go,” I laughed and told her reassuringly. “Oh yeah, so I was wonderin’. How are you and your Moonlight animal?”

“Who? Sklyar? Oh he’s fun, he likes it when I attempt to draw him. He’s like a fatherly figure, in a way,” she explained, smiling down at her feet as if she was embarrassed.

“Skylar? Wait, do you mean that you’ve bonded with him already?!” I asked in disbelief.

Hannah nodded her head. “Yeah, I thought it was going to be, you know, slightly difficult but things worked fine. Surprisingly.”

My mouth hung open and I stared at her with wide eyes, still in shock. “Dude, that’s gotta be, like, a record or something. I mean you just got your Moonlight dragon what? Three days ago man! That’s freakin’ awesome! So that means that you can test to be a Validus now.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that,” she said as she looked down at her chibi drawings, almost like she was avoiding eye contact as she said that.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time as I stood up and clapped my hands. “Okay! I was on my way to the cave anyway so we can go over there together and get you all tested up.”

I stood up, ready to move towards the nearest transporter, but someone called out to me. Well, not in the way that I should have been called out. It was really close. Coming from the hallway leading to the East side with the training rooms and the infirmary, Shadow waved his hand towards the two of us as he walked.

“Hey Kee–” he began, but I frantically waved my hands and told him to stop it as Hannah was right next to me. “Uh…yeah…hey…”  

The heck man?! Why would you even try to use that name here?! We’re not in the Validus cave, ya know! I growled in my head, but on the outside I causally smiled at him. “Hey, what’s up?”

Sorry! No one’s in the damn hall and I thought you were alone. The fountain’s blocking my view of her, he responded back in a rushed, slightly angry, slightly regretful voice. Of course, on the outside he was as calm and emotionless as usual, “Yeah anyway, I need you to take care of something now. I’ll need you to come with me.”

“What? Now? I mean, I was gonna take Hannah to go get tested,” I explained, looking back down to my friend sitting on the fountain’s ledge.

“It’s alright Cilia, I can just get tested later today if that works for you guys,” Hannah offered as she closed her drawing book and stood up.

“Oh, okay. If that’s fine with you,” I said uncertainly. I guess I was really anxious to tell her when the topic came up. I really wanted her to test, but I suppose whatever Shadow needed help with came first. “I’ll meet up with you later okay?”

She nodded her head as I began to walk towards the front of the school with Shadow. I smirked and laughed as we walked. “Smooth man, real smooth.”

“Hey at least I caught myself,” he protested, “Anyway, I heard that there was some trouble going on with the dragon tablet in the forest.”

I knit my brow and looked up at him. “What?”

He nodded and looked down the halls to make sure no one was listening in. “Yeah, I’m not sure what it is exactly but Shade said that there was something wrong and I think, you know, you…‘Kee’ should check it out.”

“Kee?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him for the unusual name.

“Hey, it’s better than saying the full name right?” he protested as he began to walk towards the cafeteria, “Anyway, go and get a jacket before you head out to the field. It’s kind of cold outside.”

I nodded and began to walk in the opposite direction towards the nearest stairs. I wonder what was wrong at the dragon tablet? Was it the FireClaws again? Although, I wasn’t sure if it was actually them considering they have “control” over the indoor tablet. That and why would they go out of their way to walk into the forest during the winter time to take “control” of that one too? Made no sense so that idea was out.

Heading outside and towards the forest, I could see that there’ve been a lot of people out here lately. Footprints were everywhere in the open field, going in every which direction. It was weird too considering that I don’t see much people outside, must have been some kinda snowball fight or something.

As I walked, I picked up my head and saw a person up in front of me with red hair and their hands behind their back. “Wait…Hannah?”

She picked up her head at the sound of my voice and smiled. “Oh hey, didn’t think you’d be out here.”

“Uh yeah, I’m helpin’ Shadow n’ stuff,” I explained. Then again, I didn’t think she’d be out here too. I just left her about five minutes ago. Why’d she suddenly decide to go outside?

“Oh, okay,” Hannah said, and then I realized why she was out here. Pulling her hands out from behind her back, she reeled back her left hand and threw as hard as she could. Then my arm got hit and plopping down on the ground was a tightly packed snowball.

At first, I was surprised that she even did that, but then I gave a determined grin at her challenge. “Oh, it is on! It’s on like Donkey Kong!” I dropped to one knee to quickly scoop up a handful of snow and pulled my arm back to aim my shot at her, but as soon as I looked up the newly made snowball fell right out of my hand.

Mysteriously appearing out of nowhere, I stared down sixty Validus with wicked grins and armed with snowballs. Hannah, Mist, and Warrior stood at the front of the massive group, each giving me a devious smile as they clutched onto their own snowballs.

“A-Ah crap…” I stammered, my whole body shaking with fear.

“FIRE!” Hannah commanded to the army of Validus.

I screamed and ducked for cover as they pummeled me with snowballs. I backed up and tried to run back towards the school, but a group of ten Muneris came up behind me and also threw their snowballs. I cried out and backed away from them too, now having nowhere to run. I wanted to attack back with my fire but the snow was so freakin’ cold as it hit my face and even seeped into my winter coat, freezing me to the core.  

Without thinking, I hunched over and grabbed my snow-filled glasses off my face and tucked them away in my pocket. Then I snapped back up, standing tall and strong as I held out my hands to my side as if I was making a human T.

In that instant, all of the snowballs that were flying towards me froze in midair. It was as if I stopped time right in its tracks. Even the Validus that started the snowball fight acted like they froze in time as they stood there shocked, staring at the spectacle in awe with their mouths gaping open.

I looked forward to the three leaders of this assault and gave them my own devious grin, glaring down my new targets with my sapphire blue eyes. Flicking my wrists down, all the airborne snowballs flew back towards the Validus at lightning speed. Dozens of panicked, yet laughing screams left the crowd as they got pelted with their own snowballs.

After the snowballs that I had ran out, I raised my hands upward towards the sky and the snow off the ground began to lift off the ground, forming into tightly packed snowballs. Swiftly slapping my arms downward and the second wave of snowballs flew towards the Validus. Even if this felt like a fun snowball fight, they still knew when the battle was lost. Instead of trying to fight back, majority of the Validus began to flee either back to the cave or towards the school. The only ones who didn’t leave the sight yet were Mist and Hannah.

As the field cleared up, I couldn’t help but laugh in sheer excitement. Gosh, I can’t believe I just did that! Man, that weird flower thing really did work. I learned a new power! I learned how to use the power of water! Yeah, of course I was controlling snow but it’s still connected to water.

“That was AWESOME!” Mist cried out as she waved her hands in the air towards me in amazement. “Oh it took me forever and a half how to learn how to do that. How did you figure it out so quickly?!”

“It’s called skill my friend. That and a cheating flower that Shadow gave me yesterday but whatever,” I joked as I approached the two with a big excited grin on my face.

“What…the heck…was that?” Hannah asked as she stood there in shock, so shocked that she didn’t even bother wiping all the snow off of her head.

I gasped, so caught up in the moment that I forgot that she didn’t know the whole secret yet. I quickly looked at Mist then at Hannah, trying hard to think of some way to cover this up for the time being. “Uh, uh…hold up on that thought, okay Hannah? I can’t exactly tell you and the only way I can is if we get you tested to be a Validus.”

“Oh yeah,” she mumbled, still a bit in shock. “I lied. I’m already in the Validus.”
My eyes widened and my jaw dropped, probably looking more stunned than she did a few moments ago. “Wait…what?! You’re what?!”

“Yeah…um, how do I explain this?” she mumbled as she looked down at the crushed snow at our feet.

“She bonded with her Moonlight dragon and Warrior took her to go get tested earlier this morning. I know ‘cause I was there,” Mist interrupted abruptly with a wide grin on her face.

I was a bit thrown off at what she said, but Hannah clearly wasn’t as she pointed to my sister and looked to me. “What she said.”

“Okay, fine. I guess. Now anyway, what the heck was that about?!” I exclaimed at the two of them, “What was with the whole snowball ambush?! Seriously?!”

Mist gave another happy yet devious grin at the thought of it. “It’s a Beta initiation, we all went through it one way or another. I got into this awesome food fight in the cave and Warrior got a bombardment of water balloons, which is kind of ironic considering that his Muneris necklace is a water balloon.”

Hannah giggled. “They all sound like you just throw things at people.”

“Yep! That’s pretty much it!” Mist said gleefully.

Sighing and looking down at snow-soaked jacket, I waved my hands and said, “Okay okay, well ya got me, but I gotta admit it was pretty fun hitting back at ya. You guys didn’t expect that now did ya?”

The two shook their heads no while Hannah began waving her hands at me. “No we didn’t. So explain how on earth you controlled all of that snow! You’re a Fire Muneris.”

“Oh yeah, right. Gotta explain that,” I mumbled. I think this was the first time I actually had to tell someone this before. I was just hoping that when she got into the Validus someone would just tell her and we can just go from there. I didn’t know I had to explain it. “Well, it’s kinda a long story but, uh, I’m The Keeper.”

Hannah stared at me for a few seconds and I wasn’t exactly sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “You’re serious? This isn’t some sick joke right?”

“No no no! I’m not joking or anything. I really am The Keeper,” I explained in a panic, not trying to mess with her head or anything. “It’s why I helped you get a dragon and why I wanted you to go into the Validus. So you could learn the secret ‘cause I can’t tell any non-Validus.”

That’s when a big smile grew on her face as she began to shift from foot to foot with excitement. “Oh my god, oh my god! This is great! That makes so much sense with the dragons, the power you showed off just now and– gah! This is crazy! You make a way better Keeper than Neelaja. Does she even have a dragon for a Moonlight animal?”

Good question. I even glanced over at Mist to see if she knew the answer to that one but she just silently shrugged at me. “Um, I don’t know actually. Probably not though, but still. Anyway, let’s get outta this snow and into the cave. I dunno ‘bout you guys but I’m freezing!”

As we walked, I explained as much of the story as I could tell. I started off with my Mastering Ceremony and just went on from there. I even went and explained why Neelaja was a fake n’ all.

Walking back into the cave, the main room was filled with scattered Validus all trying to warm up from the snowball initiation thing. Wet coats were hanging on some of the crystals as if they were coat racks and Muneris lounged on the couches and gathered around parts of the cave wall where a fire crystal sat.

Leaning against the big teal crystal in the room, Warrior found his own way to dry himself off. His palms were illuminated with that fake sunlight and he was shining the light all over his arms and legs, drying out the water. “Hey guys, need help getting that water out?”

“I don’t need any help,” Mist stated as she waved her hands. The water on her clothes seeped out and floated in the air before evaporating into nothing. “‘cause I can do that!”

I smiled at her neat water trick. Maybe now that I learned about this water power I have I could start training on it. Of course, that means that Mist will have to train with Shadow and me. Sudden realization popped in my head and I gasped, snapping my head around the room. Oh crap! Shadow! The thing with the dragon tablet I almost forgot!  

I turned on my heel, ready to bolt for the door, but I turned around so suddenly that I ran right into Shadow. “Freaking–! Sorry! Gotta go!”

“Whoa whoa hold up,” Shadow stopped me from getting past him, “What’s your rush?”
I could barely talk since I was trying to hurry, so I wildly gestured towards the door stuttering, “Dragon thingy! You said! And I forgot…stupid Beta initiation and– bah! I gotta–”

Shadow grabbed my arm and yanked me back before I could even try to get closer to the door. “Calm down, crazy. I made that up…”

That’s when I finally calmed myself down as I backed up from him. “You WHAT?!”

He nodded his head and waved his hand all around the Validus cave. “Yeah, I need you to get outside so that you could get your ass beat by snowballs. You know, a set up.”

My jaw dropped open as I stared at him, I even looked back towards Mist, Warrior, and Hannah who were now sitting down next to Warrior. All three of them nodded their heads to vouch for his story, but I was still in shock. “That was the plan this whole time? Get me to go outside so you guys could attack me with snowballs?!”

“Pretty much!” Warrior called from his seat on the ground.

“Yep, and believe me, snowballs are a whole lot better than paintballs,” Shadow added, probably reminiscing about his Beta initiation. “Although, it’s not really traditional for the Beta to fight back, but that should have been expected since you ate the Scientiam Orchid. Pretty interesting that water was the power that came out of that. I was voting for air or earth, not fire’s opposite power.”

“Lucky I guess,” I offered with a shrug, and that’s when it all started to connect. I never realized it until now since Shadow mentioned paintballs. That was part of my dream. I was being attacked by paintballs in the dream which must have been the snowballs in reality. And I was with someone in the beginning of the dream and then they left me. That could have been me talking to Hannah in the morning and then she left when Shadow took me away. Then after that I walked outside and snow was on the ground and there were a bunch of holes in the ground. That had to be the field outside full of all the footprints in the ground.

“Holy crap, that’s crazy,” I mumbled to myself, thinking back to every little detail that matched up with today’s events, and I didn’t need to even explain myself considering Shadow already heard my whole explanation. “Everything makes sense now!”
Shadow nodded his head, “Yeah, it works like that. Pretty cool huh?”

“No kidding!” I exclaimed, utterly shocked at this epiphany that I was all giddy inside for figuring it out. “Dude, that was so cool. So can I take another one tonight?”

I was expecting a sure or something along those lines, but Shadow widened his eyes in concern. “What, are you kidding me? No! You have to learn how to use your water powers first before you go and tackle another power. Pace yourself, Kee…”

“Again with that Kee thing, you really like that name, don’t ya?”  I joked as I placed my hands on my hips.

Shadow looked around the room and shrugged. “I guess, I mean I don’t exactly have to use it here since everyone knows but it’s good to use it back in the school.”

I bobbed my head up and down, understanding what he meant, but why stop there? I mean, it was a nice name and it was kinda catchy too. I pounded my fist on his arm and laughed, “Well then why don’t we make it my Muneris name?”

“What?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Yeah, sure! I mean it works and I’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout that Muneris name for forever now, and I can’t think of anything. I like it, so I’m gonna use it,” I declared as I turned back towards the three sitting on the ground. “Hey guys! Guess what? I’ve got a Muneris name now!”

Mist sprang to her feet in excitement, her blue strand flowing in front of her face and nearly brushing against mine. “You do? Sweet! What is it?”

“Kee. So from now on I’m Kee when I’m in my Keeper form. Get it? Kee? Keeper? Don’t blame me, blame Shadow. He started it,” I laughed as I realized how cheesy that line was. Mist laughed at my joke while Shadow just rolled his eyes. “Anyway, now that I’ve got this waterness why don’t we go and train Mist?”

“Really? Can we?!” she asked in excitement, her eyes widening so much that they could have popped right out of her head.

“Yeah, I mean there’s a pool in the back of the cave. You can just show me some cool tricks and we could actually start really training later on. I just wanna play around with it for now.” I explained as I turned towards the hallway to my left, ready to head towards the pool.

My sister couldn’t be any more excited. She was so thrilled at me learning how to control water that she grabbed my hand and nearly dragged me into the hallway and towards the pool. She was convinced that I would love water over fire but there’s no way in heck that was gonna happen.