Willow had to immediately start school the day after she got back. She had to catch up on a lot of things, which would have been bearable if someone was willing to help her. Everyone just looked at her like she had the plague.

  She would go home and work then fall asleep. It was boring work, but after a month, she had caught up. She was then able to relax more and have some fun. She finally caught some time to have a chat with Grey.

  “Hey! Grey! Wait up!” Willow called, chasing after Grey as he went to his dorm. He walked faster and looked over his shoulder. He relaxed slightly.

  “Yes?” He said, stopping.

  “I just wanted to ask you well, I was wondering…” Now that the time had come, Willow was very nervous. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings or make him mad.

  “Let’s talk somewhere else.” Grey said. Willow nodded and she followed him into his dorm. “I know what you are going to say. No, I didn’t have fish for dinner.” It was a lame joke, but it lightened the mood an inch. “Okay, okay. I joined them because I was walking around when I heard some guys talking about some memory dragon they were going to take. I figured it would be Sky and asked if I could help them. They agreed.” Grey said vaguely.

  “Where were you? Why would they accept you to join them?” Willow was still a little mad at him and more than a little suspicious.

  “Okay, look. I was at a thief's market on the edge between Ajula and Morn.” Grey replied and tossed his head, getting his auburn hair out of his eyes.

  “Why would you be at the thief’s market, and Morn is another kingdom, right?” Willow questioned.

  “To your second question yes and to your first question, I was there in hopes of, well, I don’t know. When times were very hard when I was young, I would head there and someone there would sometimes spare me some food. They were a friend. I guess that’s it.” Grey replied. He hung his head, ashamed to talk about his past.

  “Oh.” Willow said. Her suspicions were diminished. “I didn’t know.” They sat there for a moment, thinking. “Well,” Willow said, standing up abruptly, “I should be going now. My roommates will be wondering where I am.” She walked out of the door and went to her dorm.

  The next day, Willow went to school and someone approached her. It was Ebony.

  “Are you still in the club?” Ebony said, straight to the point.

  “Oh, uh, not really? I’m too busy. Sorry!” Willow said apologetically.

  “Hmph!” Ebony said and stalked off. Willow shrugged and went to her first class.

  She went to Mr. Stan’s class.

  “What will we do today, Mr. Stan?” Willow asked.

  “You practice fancy flying.”

  “Ooh! That sounds exciting.” Willow said. “Should I get Sky?”

  “Who else will you fly on?” He said teasingly. Willow smiled and ran and got Sky.

  “Follow me!” He said when Willow returned with Sky. They exited the classroom and walked for a short time before arriving at a big open, dusty, area. There were circles on sticks, hoops.

  “Hop on Sky.” Mr. Stan said. Willow complied. “Now go up to the hoops and fly through them.”

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  “Which one?” Willow asked.

  “The biggest one.”

  “Alrighty!” Willow said and flew through the biggest hoop.

  “Nice job! Now practice twisting as you hover in the air!” Mr. Stan said.

  “Oh goodness.” Willow said and repeated the instructions to Sky. Sky did it and Willow almost fell out. “AHH!” Willow screamed as she flipped upside down.

  Mr. Stan laughed. “I was about to tell you how to do it without almost falling out of your dragon.” As he explained it, Willow did the things he said. They seemed like good things to do anyways.

  “Now try again.” He told her. Willow tried again and stayed on her dragon successfully.

  “That was fun!” Willow exclaimed.

  “Good job! Now try doing that while going through that hoop!” Mr. Stan encouraged her.

  Willow flew and twisted through the hoop at the same time and felt like it was awesome! “That was so cool!”

  “This time go through the smaller hoop.” Mr. Stan instructed.

  “Okay!” Willow said. She went through the second biggest hoop and missed a little, so Sky bonked into the rim of the hoop. Willow massaged where Sky had gotten hit. She tried again and barely made it through. She went through the third hoop successfully and celebrated. She went through the last two hoops.

  “Very good job, Willow!” Mr. Stan complimented. “Go through all of them in quick succession.”

  “Thank you!” Willow said. She went through the hoops and Sky got hit a few times.

  “Try a bit slower this time, you can build up speed later.” Mr. Stan suggested. Willow nodded and did it. She flew back to the start and did it again.

  “Look at the time! It is time for your next class.” Mr. Stan said. Willow went to her next class.

  “Class! Settle down. Today is my second favorite day of school. Today you will be flying on your dragons around the kingdom! This is something that you might do when you are older.” The teacher said, cutting into conversations.

  “Ooh!” The class said and broke off into excited chatter.

  The teacher clapped. “I have split you all into sections. Abby, Amber, Lia, Jones, and Anya, you have the castle area.” She went on, listing the names. “Masey, Lina, Willow, Aalia, and Jakob, you get the backwoods area. Everybody got it? Good. Come get your map and head off!” The class had broken off into groups as she called out the names, and people were yelling their places.

  “Backwoods!” A student called.

  “Beach!” Another yelled.

  “Town edge!” Yet another student screamed. The classroom was in chaos. Willow went to her group and they went to the maps and each got one. They examined the area they had been assigned.

  “I’ll get the area nearest to the school.” Masey told everyone.

  “That seems like a big area for one person. Mind if I help? I could take the left and you take the right?” Aalia said.

  “Okay, that sounds fine. Willow, would you mind taking the area closest to the edge of the kingdom?” Masey replied, looking at Willow.

  “Okay. Um, where would my area be?” Willow responded.

  “Here to here.” Masey said. “Who wants middle left and who wants middle right?” She asked the group.

  “I’ll get left.” Lina said and raised her hand.

  “Then I’ve got the right.” Jacob said. He nodded his head and everyone went to the stables to retrieve their dragons.

  Willow flew away first, and she urged Sky to hurry.

  “Wait, Willow!” Masey called and Willow slowed Sky.

  “Yes?” Willow said when Masey had caught up to her.

  “I just wanted to say… I mean, I wanted to ask if you’d want to hang out later?” She said awkwardly.

  “Sure.” Willow said then flew Sky far ahead and patrolled her area. She noticed nothing unusual. The thought struck her that she would have to tell the staff about the kidnappers. She mentally noted that. She flew back after a few hours and a few people from her group were back. She waited and waited, but Jacob didn’t return. A long time passed but he never returned.

  Willow told everyone that she was going to look for Jacob but the teacher stopped her.

  “I’ll go look for the child. You children go back to class and wait.” She watched them walk scatteredly to the building before flying away.

  “Waste of time.” The teacher, Mrs. Epe, muttered. “I mean, how hard is it to fly around and look?”

  She flew around the woods and saw the boy resting in a grove of trees. “HEY YOU BOY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!” She screamed down at him.

  He quickly stood up and hopped on his dragon. He flew up towards Mrs. Epe. “Sorry!” He said.

  “I had to personally come out here and find you!”She snapped. “I had to disrupt my whole class so I could find you! You ruined my second favorite day!” With that, she flew off like a storm.

  “Sorry Mrs. Epe!” He said again before following.

  Meanwhile, Willow was so bored! She had cleaned Sky and fed her, and checked on Will, but the teacher still wasn’t back!

  The hourglasses went out to go to the next class so Willow did.

  Willow thought. That would be a hard task, but she knew she could do it.