he was flying. Fei could feel the wind in her hair and hear the flapping of wings to her right and left. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear the beating of the wings of others though she couldn't quite explain how she could hear them. When she opened her eyes, a vast mountain range could be seen bordering an old, lush forest. Glancing down just a little she could see the golden head of a dragon - the dragon she was riding through the clouds.

Is this real? Who is this dragon?

The dragon suddenly veered sharply to the left and Fei heard something whoosh through the air just short of her ear. The dragon let out a cry of distress as a volley of arrows shot through the sky, headed their way. Before it could reach them though, the dragon reared up and let out a blast of flames, turning the arrows to ash.

«It's an ambush! We need to fall back immediately before their aerial team enters this zone! We need backup-» The voice that Fei heard was suddenly cut off as her dragon let out an ear-piercing shriek before it began plunging to the earth. Fei wanted to let go but there was nowhere for her to go.

Only meters from the ground, the dragon managed to snatch Fei from its back with its claw and roll itself so its back was facing the ground for the impact, enveloping her in its golden leathery wings. From inside her cocoon, she could see that many holes had been punched through the soft part of the dragon's wings. Apparently, some of the arrows had been metal and had surprisingly not melted in the dragon's burst of flames.

«Wait, no! You'll die! Your spine won't be able to endure the impact!» Fei shrieked in her mind to the dragon. «The trees won't even be able to save you!»

The dragon didn't answer but merely grasped Fei tighter in its grip. Of course, its chance of survival wouldn't be raised very much if the dragon rolled onto its front, but still, it would've been better. Fei could tell that in doing this, the dragon was ensuring her safety - being protected from most of the danger of the fall.

Strangely, everything went black as they crashed to the ground. Fei could still feel the dragon's warm grip that had helped her survive though it had loosened. Her mind was whirring but she was desperately trying to shake off the darkness.

«Wake up! Please wake up! C'mon, you've gotta wake up!» a voice cried, «We're going to be late for class!»

Wait, what?

"Fei, wake up - we're going to be late for class! I forgot to set an alarm last night!" Rosalina's shouted while shaking Fei. "The guys have already left! Even slow-poke Luhan!"

Fei shot out of bed and got ready at lightning speed. She loathed being late to class (despite her deep hatred for waking up in the mornings) and couldn't stand the thought of even one late on her record. "Sorry, Rosalina, I'll be ready in a second!"

"Yeah, okay. Don't worry about breakfast - I've got you covered."

Fei gratefully accepted the buttered toast from Roslina as they rushed out of the dorm. Fei had come to realize in the week that she'd been at the Academy that Rosalina was undoubtedly the perfect person for Yixing. Sure, she was much younger than him, but Fei's own parents had an of six years so it wasn't reasonable to say that s prevented relationships from thriving. Despite Rosalina's young age and energetic nature, she also had the capacity to be calm and serious.

The pair entered the classroom mere seconds before the bell rang. "Whew, that was close." Rosalina hung her backpack on the hook on the side of her desk before pulling out her floral print notebook and a cute green pencil.

"Good morning, class. For today, we will be focusing on the Battle of Beijing; the final battle of the Great War. Next week we will be starting our research papers on the different heroes of the Great War and after that we will begin the first few decades following the Great War. Now, who can tell me where Beijing was?"

Rosalina's hand shot up immediately. "It was located in what we now call the northern part of the Eastern region."

"Correct. Now, this is extremely important to remember this battle, not only because it was the last, but it was also the bloodiest. In this battle approximately one third of the dragon population died. The leader of the troop was Zhù Yìfēi. The battle was planned to have the dragons take the high ground but they were unable to reach it before they were ambushed by a party of archers with metal arrows. The dragons had to regroup and fight off the ambush until they were aided by the backup forces from the west."

"How many dragons lived through the battle?" one person asked.

"The history books don't record exactly how many survived. There were approximately fifty in the troop before the battle but many of the dragons who didn't die, fled with their Rider and went into hiding. Historians estimate that there are no more than thirty dragons left in the world, majority of them not inhabiting the Academy."

"What about the red dragon that lives in the forest?" Fei asked.

"From what I've heard, his Rider didn't wish to go into hiding so when his Rider died, he remained here to wait for him to be reincarnated."

"Does a dragon immediately know when it's Rider has been reincarnated?"

"No, not until the dragon has laid eyes on the person. This prevents dragons from going insane, waiting for their Rider to come to the Academy. If you're wondering whether you'll know if you're your ancestor, reincarnated then the answer is no. Unless you've looked your ancestor's dragon in the eyes, you won't know."

The teacher continued on the lesson from there, speaking mostly about the statistics and strategies used in the Battle of Beijing. Fei found it rather boring - she'd never been one to pay attention to boring history lessons. The rest of the lessons in Human Studies that followed were also quite boring, causing Fei to nearly fall asleep. When the Dragon Training rolled around, Fei also dreaded that as well since the red dragon hadn't made an appearance since her first day of class.

Fei and the rest of the class was startled to see a kid standing next to their instructor. He wore long jeans, and a sweater with the hood pulled up over his hair, Fei couldn't quite make out who it was since his back was turned. The Dragon instructor noticed the class and smiled at them, waving them over to their usual patch of grass near the forest. "Come, class! We have a very special guest today. He will be giving us instruction on dragon riding."

The class began whispering excitedly. They were actually going to learn about dragon riding? Fei wondered if this was the Rider of the red dragon.

The man in the hoodie turned around to face the class but his face wasn't visible. There was a black face mask covering the lower half of his face and then there was a blue and white decorative mask covering the upper half of his face, leaving only his eyes exposed. Fei expected him to have cold, calculating eyes but they turned out to be the exact opposite.

"Alright, much like his dragon, our guest will not be speaking aloud in order to keep his identity a secret. I will be relaying what he says to you."

"He can speak telepathically?"

"Yes, he's been working on it for a few months now. It takes a lot of effort to communicate with people other than his dragon. He's going to call him now."

Their instructor almost hadn't needed to include his last sentence because the class could already feel the vibrations of the red dragon walking toward them, though they couldn't see him due to the tall trees that were twice as high as the school buildings. The Rider turned his back to the class so he could patiently wait for the dragon to appear.

"Wow, I wonder what it feels like being able to comunicate without saying anything," Rosalina whispered. "I bet it's so cool having someone always there that you could count on."

"Yeah, that would be pretty awesome," Fei murmured as she observed how casually the Rider walked up