Khi’nai did not sleep as well as she had anticipated. The silly brown kobold kept mulling in her head all night. Why was he so interested in Ancient Groves anyway? Why did he deface an antique manuscript with such reckless abandon?
Her lessons seem to drag on for an eternity. She usually enjoyed hearing about ancient civilizations and arcane magic, but today all she could think of is how soft and welcoming her bed would be afterwards. She twiddled her quill absentmindedly between her claws as she stared off into space.
“Khi’nai?”, she snapped out of her daze, shaking her head: “ugh, what?” she blinked tiredly at her classmate would was standing next to her: “Class is over, you’ve been sitting there staring at the wall for over 20 minutes now.”
“O-oh, right”, she grabbed her parchments and hurriedly stuffed them into her bag.
“Are you okay? You’re usually more excited about potions and stuff”, her classmate chuckled, blowing her long mane from her face.
“yeah, I just didn’t sleep very well last night, you know, the weather”, she said as she swung her bag over her head.
“Oh yeah, the weather was terrible, just woosh, bang, flash all night. Luckily, I’m a heavy sleeper.”, she chuckled softly: “so, what’s the plan for the weekend? You did remember it’s the free weekend, right? We finally get to leave the musty old school for a bit of fun.”
“I didn’t forget Flora, I was just looking forward to getting some decent sleep”, they started towards to the door.
“Ahh yes, boring old Khi’nai is going to sleep away the first free weekend in 3 months.”
Khi’nai sighed deeply: “ugh, of course not, I’m sure some nice hot chocolate will wake me up”.[BK1]
Flora clapped her paws together with a soft squeal: “Yay, yes, let’s go right now then? I’ll meet you by the fountain out front, okay?”. The pale green dragoness skipped down the hallway squealing happily. Khi’nai never quite understood how Flora managed to be so positive all the time. It was almost infuriating how she’d take nothing seriously.
The white dragoness stepped out into the courtyard. She had quickly dropped off her school bag and traded her pale green school cloak for a more fashionable scarf and leg warmers. She made sure to grab her coin pouch and school ID too. It was required of students to bare their identification when leaving the school grounds and some stores offered discounts to students as way to thank the Academy for its continued support.
The pale green dragoness stood by the fountain, her long red mane was nicely braided and filled with small ornate flowers, as was usual for her. She wore a stylish brown travel cloak and expensive leg warmers with white sheepskin. It was clear whose family didn’t limit their daughter’s expenses.
“Khi’nai! Over here, let’s go already!”, she waved furiously as Khi’nai approached.
“Sorry about the wait, I just had to get something nice on, you know, free weekend.”, she sighed tiredly.
“Yay, free weekend!”, Flora giggled as the pair began to set off toward the nearby town of Annesfjord.
The warm evening glow pierced the cold air as they walked down the cobblestone path towards the town. Annesfjord was once a quaint little hamlet, but the Academy’s presence had brought an influx of new faces from all over Andia who settled there to attend its classes.
Large sections still featured older, more rustic architecture and it was still small enough that most inhabitants knew each other well. The pair walked past a few signs offering deals to students. It seems everyone knew it was free weekend and had prepared their wares accordingly.
The town square was filled with a variety of different vendors who had set up their stores to take advantage of the influx of students from the school coming to enjoy their weekend. The mix of smells ranged from sweet and comforting to pungent and sour.
Flora pointed excitedly: “look, our favourite chocolate stand is up, let’s go before they get too busy”, she dragged Khi’nai towards the stand pushing through the other students who were visited the other various stands and displays in the town square.
An old gryphoness was running the stand as usual, she wore a large apron to protect her ornate feathers from unruly spills: “Ahh familiar faces! The usual for you girls?”.
Flora squealed: “yes please! One pumpkin spice cacao and one regular both with the works!”, she dropped a few gold coins on the table before turning to Khi’nai: “Do you see a free table? I’ve been looking forward to pumpkin spice all season!”[BK2]
Khi’nai looked around and pointed towards a free table. Flora clapped and gestured to the gryphoness, she nodded in kind. The girls headed towards the table and sat down, a young gryphon walked up with their drinks on a small tray he wore on his back beneath his wings: “Your drinks ladies, enjoy!”
Flora eagerly took her drink and handed Khi’nai hers: “So”, she took a sip and sighed: “think we’d meet some nice boys this weekend”, she raised her brows at Khi’nai who sighed deeply in return: “Is that all you ever think about?”. Flora chuckled: “no, I sometimes think about schoolwork too”. Khi’nai snorted: “yeah, but only sometimes, right?”. Flora chuckled: “you got me all figured out, as usual.”, she sighed before taking another sip: “So, who was the little kobold man you were hanging out with last night?”
“Huh? How’d you know about that?”, Khi’nai blinked before taking a sip of her drink.
“The Shi’na told me, said he was an awfully strange fellow with a stutter.”, she smiled deviously: “Pretty ironic that you’re telling me to stay away from the boys don’t you think?”
Khi’nai snorted: “Ugh, get your brain out of the gutter. I don’t even know him. He just sort of showed up while I was looking for something.”
“Oh? What was he looking for?”, she stared at Khi’nai with a curious expression.
“Ancient Groves, for some reason”
Flora sighed deeply: “Why? They’re just boring Aether spots with big trees.”
“Yeah, I guess”, Khi’nai shrugged looking past Flora into the crowd. She froze.
Flora blinked: “You okay there Khi’nai?”, she turned around to look at what Khi’nai was looking at: “Is that him?”
Khi’nai stood up: “I’ll back in a bit okay”. Flora shrugged: “okay. Tell him I said hi, okay?”, she winked with a sly grin.
Khi’nai pushed her way through the crowd towards the brown kobold. Who had slipped into an alleyway and out of sight. She snuck around to the other side, peering around the corner into the dark. She saw the kobold enter what appeared to be an old potion store. Approaching the window slowly, she put her paws up on the sill to peer into the dimly lit room.
“I-I found the l-location of the other g-groves”, he scribbled something on a piece of paper, maybe a map. She couldn’t tell what it was in the dim lighting.
“They built their Academy on top of a grove. It makes sense, educate, and demonstrate.”
“T-teacher, would the g-g-grove not be well g-g-guarded? The Academy is f-f-filled with strong elemental users”. The cloaked dragon rubbed his chin: “That is why I require your assistance in finding an easier way in. You’ve hidden amongst them for weeks already and nobody suspects any foul play”.
The kobold shuddered: “t-t-there was one, I met in the library, b-b-but she d-d-doesn’t know of our plans”. A purple glint flashed as the kobold was pinned to the wall in nearly an instant: “You understand the price that is to be paid for revealing our Order, do you not?”. The kobold swallowed loudly as a sharp purple shard was pressed to his throat: “o-o-of course teacher, I-I-I w-w-would never say anything”. Khi’nai gasped softly, quickly grabbing her mouth before a sound escaped.
The black dragon turned towards the window, Khi’nai ducked quickly to remain out of sight. Her heart was racing. What if they had seen her?
“You were followed?”
“N-n-no t-t-teacher”
“Then go and make sure of it”
Khi’nai took this opportunity to run out of the alleyway and back into the crowd towards her awaiting friend. The kobold cracked open the door, looking both ways for a moment before retreating indoors.
The white dragoness fell back onto her seat panting. Flora raised an eyebrow: “Wow, look at you. All hot and bothered, what happened tigeress?” Khi’nai took a large sip of her drink and let out a sigh: “it’s not like that, something’s up”, she choked out the words between gasps for air.
Flora grinned: “ooo, like a conspiracy? Are they planning to take over the town or something? Is it aliens?” Khi’nai sighed: “n-no, I-I think they’re”. “They’re what?”, Flora blinked. Khi’nai leaned in closer to whisper to her: “Dark Sacrament”. Flora gasped: “Dark Ones? In Annesfjord?” Khi’nai frowned: “shush would you, not so loud. This could be serious; I think they’re after something in the Academy.”
Flora tilted her head looking confused: “Like what? All we have is musty old books and kobold Shi’na that gossip more than they should there’s nothing interesting in the school”.
Khi’nai took another big sip from her drink before giving Flora a pained look: “I don’t know, they said the Academy’s built on an Ancient Grove. Underground I presume.”
Flora frowned: “They’d never let anyone onto the basement, not after what happened last time”. She gestured to the gryphoness for a refill.
“Last time? What happened last time?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it, with your mom being top student and all that, someone went down into the basement and apparently disappeared. Few weeks later they found a corpse and a bunch of blood in one of the hallways.” Flora’s eye widened as she gestured with her hands.
“No way, something like that would never happen without anyone knowing about it.”, Khi’nai snorted.
“Unless the Academy had a reason to cover it up, something like that could be devastating to their reputation you know”.
“Literal murder in the school? You know they couldn’t just cover something like that up. You need to stop listening to the Shi’na and their silly stories, they have too much time on their hands.”
“Maybe, they also see and hear everything that happens in the Academy and report directly to the headmaster if they hear or see anything strange”, the green dragoness tipped the waiter and placed another cup in front of Khi’nai: “If anybody knows about the stuff under the school, it’s the Shi’na”.
“Or I could ask my mother, I’m sure she’ll know something. I’ll have to write her a letter. Do you have a quill?”
Flora rolled her eyes: “Khi’nai, it’s free weekend why would I carry a quill with me?”
“Of course, because you never need to write something down in a hurry, right?”, she snorted as she rummaged through her small coin bag.
Flora shook her head and walked to the chocolate stand returning a few moments later with a small piece of scrap parchment and a quill: “Honestly, what would you do without me?”
“Flora you’re a treasure!”, Khi’nai grabbed the quill and parchment from Flora and hastily scribbled a lengthy paragraph on it. The green dragoness snorted: “I wish I could write that fast, or neat”
“Okay, here”, she gave the parchment to Flora, “hold it up, text facing me”. Flora squealed: “Are you going to that cool transmute spell to fly the letter to her?”. Khi’nai chuckled: “No even better, my mom taught me this when I was just a welp”.
She held her paws on either side of the parchment, her eyes glowed a bright green. “Scalah A’halumia” she said before blowing a small green flame at the parchment. It immediately burst into a puff of smoke before disappearing.
Flora stared wide-eyed: “Wow!”.
“Pretty amazing right? Straight to the receiver. Mom said dragon custodians in faraway lands use it all the time to send mail to their masters instantly”.
Flora scoffed, “My mom taught me how to braid my hair and wear pretty dresses. I was clearly born in the wrong family”, she chuckled softly: “What do you say we go see that play tonight, I heard it’s quite interesting?”
Khi’nai smiled weakly: “Yeah, why not? I guess the distraction would do me good. Who needs sleep anyway right?”. The girls both laughed.
—-
“Dark Ones, at the Academy?”, the dark red dragoness frowned: “Would they really be so brazen?”
The grey dragon shrugged: “Our daughter isn’t one to lie or exaggerate, if she thinks something is happening, we would be amiss to not investigate it. Even if it is only to set our minds at ease”.She nodded: “Very well, keep things afloat here; I’ll head for Annesfjord at daybreak”.
Khi’nai is annoyed by Flora’s “toxic positivity” but she really does like cacao.
[BK2] October-ish time of the year
