July Prompt #8

Prompt:

Dragons (In honor of Leo Valdez’s birthday… I know… it’s a day late)

My Writing:

Aerie let out a sigh and laid her head in her hands. She was supposed to be studying, pouring over the yellowed, slightly musty, archived books, but instead she was resting on them, breathing in the layers of dust that resided in her small corner.

The library was the oldest building on campus, as it was the original school, before the major expansions in the 1600s. Despite the expansions, the most recent completed previously that year, the library also was, by far, the largest building on campus. Made of a warm, grey colored stone, it resembled a castle, towering over the main courtyard, creating the perfect shadow protecting those covered from the blazing heat of the evening sun. Floors upon floors dedicated to every subject a mage would ever need, resided inside the stone. There was a complete tower that only held books on potions from before the 1400s, all pre-renaissance, and they just filled an entire room, books filed from the ceiling to the floor on multiple rows of shelves, on the different breeds, attitudes, and laws of Dragons. That particular room was Aerie’s favorite, as anyone would expect it to be with her being a Dragon Communication and Support Major after all.

However, she wasn’t reading up on current Dragon Keeping laws, and was tucked away in the South Tower, where she was attempting to memorize a large amount of Transfiguration spells.

Aerie hated Transfiguration spells.

With another sigh, she straightened herself up and looked down on the tome, she had previously been lying on, titled The True Meaning Behind the Roots of Transfiguration Incantations. Boring.

“Section three, chapter 28, paragraph five” She murmured before grabbing her red, college-ruled notebook and grey, mechanical pencil. Biting her lip, she began jotting down the bullet points of the chapter, only slightly annoyed by the scratching sounds the lead made as she pressed it into the paper.

After about five minutes of copying words from the book, she let out another sigh, although this one was louder, before pushing up from the table she had been working at. She let her eyes graze over the empty, minus the books, library tower, the heavy, oak-wood table with multiple strewn about books on top, and her grey backpack, which was slung over the back of a heavy, oak-wood chair. “I give up,” she said, to no one but herself, her shoulders slumped.

Without even grabbing her backpack, or notebook, she plodded away, her footsteps masked by the thick, dark green carpet, to a giant window. The thick glass was severed directly down the center by lines of pure gold. An emerald encrusted latch gleamed enticingly at her, begging her to open the window, so she did. Fresh spring air flooded her lungs and her eyes widened, her lips raising themselves into a smile.

Pushing herself onto the window ledge, she closed her eyes and let the wind caress her skin, penetrating the thin material of her tank top. Air even pushed its way past the thickness of her jeans and cooled down her legs. Even her booted feet felt refreshed.

Arms outstretched and a single word on her lips, which died in the wind, she fell. No. She jumped.

The tower was a tall one, so her fall was long, but she didn’t fear hitting the ground. How could she? This is what she was born to feel! The wind rushing through her blonde hair, tangling it into all sorts of a mess, the sun bearing down on her, creating warmth that seemed to warm her very soul, and the powerful creature aligning itself with her.

A small smirk rested on her lips as she reached her hands out, grasping the dragon’s shoulders where two scales protruded as if they were made for her to hold, to balance herself with. It was only when Aerie had pulled her body flush against the dark grey scales that the dragon began to level out, wings outstretched to catch the wind and send the pair gliding across the campus.

You’re lucky I heard you, Sterlin snorted, his voice resounding as if it were a thought in Aerie’s mind.

You always hear me, she thought back before throwing her hands out into the air, a laugh dancing on her tongue.