I walked into the door of the exam room. There was nothing really special about it; it was a small room only big enough to fit a handful of students. The walls were decorated with strange symbols and a pie chart with various different colored sections that were labeled things like: "Parasite", "Ice", "Fauna" and even "Ash". The room was fairly empty otherwise—only two students, Xiao, and a teacher with bright green hair holding a clipboard in the room.

"Welcome, ren flavia." Xiao greeted me.

I looked around. "Are there any more students coming?"

"Nope." The woman said. "It's just you three today."

I nodded and carefully sat down next to one of the girls. She had bright wisteria-colored hair and cornflower blue eyes, her overcoat purple like Adrian's was. The girl on the other side of her had curly darker red hair, and wore a brown coat. The one next to me held out her hand and shot one of those smiles so perfect she could have been the poster child for oral hygiene.

"Hello, there! It's nice to meet you. I'm Lavender!"

I laughed as I shot another quick look at her hair. "No kidding."

She cocked her head and gave me a really confused look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh...Nothing just forget it." I tried leaning back in my chair, but I was met by the face of the other girl. She looked down at me with her face scrunched up in concentration. She finally snapped and pointed at me.

"Hey, Lav! It's her!"

Lavender turned her confused face to her friend. "What do you mean by 'her'?"

"The Prince, Lavvy!" She said, waving her hands spastically in the air to make a point.

Lavender scrunched up her face and got too close into my personal bubble for my comfort. After a few more uncomfortable moments, Lavender's eyes widened. "Oh, my gosh! You're totally right!" Lavender began fanning her face and talking really fast. "The Prince of Sciana! Oh my gosh, I'm sitting right next to her! Should I bow? I think I should bow."

"That's really not-"

Too late. Lavender and her friend were already on the floor bowing to me. I groaned and pulled on my hair in frustration. "Does everyone know about me?"

"Everyone on campus at least." Lavender said. "Principal Xiao made an announcement that all four future members of the Crown were finally attending Eternal Academy."

"Yeah, you're famous!" The redhead chimed in.

"I sure as hell didn't ask for it." I muttered. I looked back at the redhead. "Wasn't this entire country founded to get away from worshipping royalty?"

"I guess so." The redhead looked me up and down. "You know, as the princess, I kinda pictured that you'd be more...princess like. For one, I pictured you a little thinner and a bit more flat-chested. I thought you'd maybe have a little aura of gracefulness to you as well."

I gave the girl a sideways glance, trying not to get offended at the 'thinner' part. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch your name. What did you say your name was again?"

"Ruby, your majesty."

"Don't call me 'your majesty'." I begged. "Please, if you're going to call me anything at all, Scarlett is fine. And stand straight, please? Bowing people look ridiculous."

They quickly stood up straight and looked to each other nervously. "I'm afraid they won't have enough time to call you by your preferred moniker." The woman at the front said. "We're ready to take the Attribute Matching Exams now, and the quicker we get over with it, the quicker you get out of this place. Let me introduce myself. My name is Miss Wise, and I'll be guiding you through your exam today. First of all, I would like to welcome you as students of the esteemed Eternal Academy." She said, showing no joy or expression whatsoever while she talked, as if she was reading something straight off a piece of paper. "It is great to meet you, Ruby Cook, Scarlett Kaida and Lavender Praymaveera."

"It's Primavera!" Lavender muttered under her breath. I got the impression her last name was butchered often.

"The way this test will work is we will lead you down into the gymnasium, which this room overlooks. It has been charged with mass amounts of Ena, or magical energy. You will be blindfolded and led to the center of the gym-"

Ruby interrupted, "Why are we being blindfolded?"

Miss Wise sighed exasperatedly. "We blindfold students as standard precaution. Some students have a particular attribute in mind, and if they are able to tell the difference, they'll focus all their Ena on the wrong object and end up testing with no attribute."

Miss Wise collected herself. "Like I was saying before Ms. Cook interrupted me, we will lead you into the middle of the gymnasium, which has twenty-three objects in the middle, one for each attribute. Let your Ena flow through you and release it. One of the objects will react to the attribute that it is attuned to, like how on a violin when you play a note an octave higher that the one next to it, the string begins to vibrate. This process isn't as personal as being marked, so your peers will be allowed to see your results." She flipped through the clipboard that she was holding. "First up, we will have Miss Primavera run through her test."

Lavender jumped up, probably a little more excited since her name was pronounced correctly this time. She allowed Miss Wise to tie a blindfold around her eyes and lead her to a door, and down the stairs to the gym, which we were able to see through a window that overlooked it. I took special note of the circle of twenty-three objects. For one, they were all set upon pedestals. Also, they all looked the same. They were all ornately carved horns. How was this supposed to work if all the objects looked the same?

Once Lavender was in the middle of the objects, Miss Wise left her and stood at the top of the balcony. Lavender took a deep breath, holding her hands high above her head. What was she doing? I thought to myself. Lavender began clapping her hands, bringing them down a little lower each time as she exhaled. She kept lowering herself until she was kneeling on the floor. Folding her hands together, she made a finger gun, causing twenty of the objects to flip over.

"Mind type magic." Miss Wise noted.

Lavender took another deep breath and spun around, quickly shooting out one of her legs, using the momentum from the move to lift herself up into a standing position and grip her leg under the knee in a gymnastics-like pose. Of the three objects that were left, the one farthest to the left rose in the air, a small, swirling galaxy forming in its place.

"Lavender Primavera;" Miss Wise's voice rang clearly throughout the room. "Your attribute is Dimension magic!"

Lavender removed the blindfold, then clapped excitedly as the swirling galaxy became a horn once again. Lavender walked back up the stairs to the balcony, entering the room with a smile so wide that she looked like a clown. Miss Wise moved the objects back into place, then called up Ruby and put a blindfold around her just like Lavender, leading her back down into the gymnasium.

Once Ruby was in the middle, she slammed her fists together at chest level, then lowered them down at full arm's length so she touched the floor when she squatted immediately after. She then jumped and stood back up, putting one hand on her hip and holding out her other clenched hand straight in front of her. Twenty of the objects fell over, but three different from Lavender's were left standing.

"Earth type magic." Came Miss Wise

Ruby made an 'x' in the air with her free hand, then pumped it downwards, placing it on her other hip. She fell back into a squat and crossed her arms over her chest, then extended them out like wings on either side of her body. The middle of the objects that were left rose into the air, quickly growing into an elaborate crystalline structure. It glittered beautifully, despite the incandescent lighting.

"Ruby Cook; You have the attribute of Crystal magic." Reported Miss Wise.

Ruby pumped her fist into the air and made a show of throwing off her blindfold. She began dancing a little bit as she walked up the stairs, singing 'All I Do is Win'. I chuckled as she stopped halfway up.

"And when I step up in the building, everybody's hands go up!" She closed her eyes and held her hands towards the sky, continuing by waving her hands as she yelled, "AND THEY STAY THERE!" While walking up to the balcony. Once she was finally back in the room, she sat back down next to Lavender. The both of them hugged each other and squealed at a frequency so high, I feared my eardrums would burst.

"Last but certainly not least..." Xiao piped up from his seat atop a podium. "Scarlett Kaida, it's your turn."

I walked up to him, waiting for Miss Wise to finish setting the objects back in their place. He motioned for me to come closer, until my face was nearly an inch away from his.

"Let's see if you can live up to everyone's expectations, Ren Flavia."

Well, then. Absolutely no pressure there, Xiao. I nodded anyways and waited for Miss Wise to come back and tie a blindfold around my eyes. I knew what was happening, as I had just seen the same thing occur with Lavender and Ruby, but I had no idea how they did it. It wasn't cheating if I asked how to take the test...right? I tapped on Miss Wise's shoulder.

"What is it, Miss Kaida?"

"Um..." I started, "Well, what were Lavender and Ruby doing, and is it necessary to channel this Ena, because I have no idea how to do that. I mean, I just got here a few days ago, and that looks like it must have taken weeks to get down. Basically what I'm asking is...how do you channel this Ena?"

"Just call on your dragon for help." Miss Wise's voice advised me. "Your dragon will guide your instinct, and then show you what to do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Miss Wise pat my back. "Just do what you feel like you should do."

I nodded, feeling her presence leave me. I took a deep breath, and pictured my dragon. Soon, her black, scaly body materialized within my thoughts. She let out a majestic roar and looked at me with inquisitive orange eyes. Somehow, I knew she wanted me to follow whatever she did next.

She spread out her wings to the side, then held them above her head, snapping them back to her side in a quick, fluid motion. She crouched down until she was level with the ground and whipped her tail forward, in between her legs, then leaned back.

I let my body do the same. I held my arms out on either side of my body, crossed them above my head, then quickly brought them down to my side. I dropped to my knees and shot my leg forward, arching my back and setting my hands down for support. The rest came naturally after that. My arms shot up and crossed over one another like they had before, then I used my left leg to propel myself upward, onto my hands, and then hand-springed back onto my feet again. I finished by leaning back and crossing my arms over my chest.

I heard a collective humming surrounding me. I took off my blindfold to see that somehow, all of the objects were now floating around me, activated. I saw a rose, a shard of ice, a fawn, and even a pile of ashes in the circle.

"What?" Was all I could say.

I walked back up to the balcony, anxious to hear the explanation for what had just happened. Once I was back in the room, Lavender and Ruby looked at me like I was some kind of alien from another planet. Miss Wise's eyes grew to the size of saucers, and Xiao's mouth was hanging wide open.

"It's not possible..." Was all that came out of the lizard's mouth.

"It can't be..." Followed Miss Wise.

Ruby slammed her fist on her thigh. "What in the good name of Grandpa Sylvester was that?"

"I have no idea." I answered honestly. "That's what I'm here to figure out."

Miss Wise cleared her throat. "An overcharge of Ena. That's what it was. There have been so many Scale Children taking their AME's in the last month that Scarlett wasn't able to get an accurate test result."

Lavender threw up her hands. "But that doesn't make any-"

She was quickly silenced by a violent hiss from Xiao. "Listen, you will all run along and never speak of what happened here to anyone. If you do, I will sentence you to an in-school suspension and be forced to clean the stables for a year. Do I make myself clear, first-years?"

"Yes, Principal Xiao!" The two answered in unison, obviously scared.

"Now!"

The girls screamed and ran out of the room.

I looked to Xiao and Miss Wise. "Okay, I could tell that explanation was bull, so can you please tell me what the heck actually happened?" I put my hand on my hip for emphasis and watched their faces. They revealed nothing. Not a clue as to what was going on. After a few more moments of uncomfortable silence, Xiao spoke up.

"Scarlett Kaida, you are the first being in over 2,000 years to have the attribute of Dragon Soul."

BAM! There we go! Okay so I am so happy right now because now we've reached 534 reads, 78 votes and 46 comments. The stats just keep going up and up and I am so happy I'm about to squeal. By the way, I want to take this moment to thank my boyfriend, Nathan, for all his help with my stories. Currently, he's helping me write a battle scene for a chapter that will come later in the book and I know it's going to be good, because I've seen him write battle scenes for my other book, Of Angels, Demons and Wolves. Go check it out. It's based off a roleplay with my friends. And as for the OC's, I will be incorporating the ones I have gotten (Thanks) Not only was Lavender an OC, but I will be using Steffinee-Rose and Jonathan later in the book. Thank you by the way~ I extremely appreciate it!

Don't forget to vote! Vote every chapter! I know some of you read my story and don't vote because the reads and the votes aren't equal. Anywho, Seeya! Until next time!

Signing off, Kiera Savage