Half a pie was sitting in front of Elyssa. She was too excited and nervous to eat. She'd moved to the seat closest to the window to get a view of the mountains in anticipation for the dragon's landing. Thomas was standing by the carriage. Jake had moved the horses into the stables soon after they'd arrived. He was now standing beside the window. Receiving some sort of signal, Jake tapped the glass and motioned with his finger for Elyssa to come outside. She leapt off the chair and ignored the sound and the smell of the Twisted Wyrm as she burst through the door and turned her eyes towards the mountains.

She could hear the faint rythmic flapping of the dragon, but couldn't see it anywhere. She raised her sight higher and higher until she spotted the dragon. Directly above her. It was smaller than she had previously expected, most likely an illusion caused by the sheer size and distance of the mountain range. The dragon was three times the size of a horse. It descended just in front of the carriage, and Elyssa didn't register what was happening until Thomas readied the harness. "The dragon is pulling me through the air like a horse? But that won't work! I'll fall backwards!" Jake smiled and shook his head. "The dragon's not pulling the carriage like a horse. It's pulling it like a dragon." Thomas gave a signal to the rider, cloaked in sky blue to match his dragon. Elyssa could see his face. He wasn't too much older than her. He had a giddy grin on his face as the dragon rose up to test the harnesses were on correctly. Then he noticed Elyssa.

The grin turned into one of mischief, and the boy waved at her. She waved back, trying not to show her anxiety at flying with a novice. She would put her faith into the dragon's natural ability. "Alright there, recruit?" The boy yelled. "Yeah." Elyssa managed. "You're looking a bit green." "Oh." Elyssa blushed with embarrassment. "Don't worry. I'm a pretty good flyer. I practice in my spare time." "And I've been strapping in the dragons every month for years. You're in good hands, don't you worry." Thomas grinned reassuringly. Elyssa gave them a small smile and upon Thomas' instruction climbed into the carriage. Elyssa looked out the window at the bright blue dragon. It seemed to notice her and turned to stare at her with sapphire blue eyes. To her surprise, Elyssa thought she saw the dragon grin, closing its eyes. Then it turned back to face the mountains.

"Everything's good to go!" The Mancer yelled, mounting his dragon. He adjusted his hood and Thomas backed away, waving to Elyssa. "I hope we meet again soon!" He called as the dragon flapping its wings. Elyssa waved out the window, the hood stopping the wind from blowing her ebony black hair into her face. The dragon rose, and the carriage soon followed, hanging underneath. Eventually Thomas and Jake went inside the tower, and Elyssa returned her wind-cold face back to the carriage. "Finally." The Mancer was sitting across from her. Elyssa jumped in fright. "Why aren't you flying?" "Tourma can handle it. She's my dragon. Oh, and... don't tell anyone I'm here. I'm supposed to be up there." "So, you've got a girl dragon?" Elyssa asked, pretending not to hear the last sentence. "And you'll get a boy dragon, that's how it works. She's the- in the words of my teacher- "a calming presence to match the aggression of men." As if he knows what he's talking about, he hardly even looks at his dragon, let alone talk to her." Elyssa dared not ask about the opposite teaching, lest she hear something that would cause her to shoot the messenger.

"So, let's have some proper introductions. My name is Aaron, and I'm the latest to be uh... inducted into the Dragon Mancer... society. I don't know how to describe it." "My name's Elyssa." "Well, nice to meet you, Elyssa. I'm currently an average Air elemental. Next month I'll be Fire or maybe even Water." Elyssa frowned at him. "So, you'll change elements? Do you change dragons as well?" "Ah, no. Just the one. Tourma will change as I progress. My teacher tried to explain it, but it was pretty vague." "How does all this... elemental stuff work?" Aaron held up his hands defensively. "I'm not the best person to answer that, really." Why does everyone keep saying that? "I'll tell you what I can, however. Air is the lowest element. Then comes Fire, Water, Electricity, Earth, Dark, Light, Body, Soul and Life. As you get higher, it becomes more difficult, and each power can dominate the last. There's only two people in the Mountain that can control Life." "Control it?" Elyssa asked. She was frightened at the notion that a person could have that much power. It was unnatural.

"That's the next part. Each element has a Defensive and Offensive... ability, I guess you could say. Air's Defensive ability is Pressure. Basically, once I've mastered it, I can trap things in thick air. The Offensive ability is creating a dense tornado. You'll learn about the other ones in class." Elyssa digested this information for a while, staring at the ground below them that seemed like a green blanket. The land was starting to get lumpy. "What about Tourma? How does she fit into the... elemental stuff?" "Well, the dragons have a lot of mana. They can also use the spells themselves, albeit less controlled. You can use other demons apparently, but they're not as... co-operative." "Other demons?" Elyssa leaned forward. "Dragons are a sort of... upper middle demon. Anything above them gets highly aggressive and dangerous. We have an agreement with them, apparently. Again, you'll learn more about them in class." Elyssa huffed, angry that she'd have to wait for this extremely interesting information. She'd never heard anything of Mancers before because of her mother and the fact school never mentioned anything about them, and would love to learn all she could.

Elyssa turned away from Aaron and once again stuck her head out the window to look at Tourma. Tourma was gliding calmly, her tail straight and rigid to keep them steady. Elyssa pushed her swirling hair out of her face one too many times, and became so frustrated she started growling. "Oh, sorry." Aaron made a sweeping motion with his hand and a small gust of wind steadied Elyssa's hair and kept her hood up. "Wow!" she exclaimed, pulling her head back in. "How did you do that? Was it Mancer magic?" "Indeed it was." Aaron said proudly, puffing out his chest. Then he deflated and lowered his head. "Everyone can do that. Everyone does do that when flying. I only learnt it two weeks ago." "Well, I haven't learnt anything, if that makes you feel any better." "Not really, but thanks for trying. I better get up there, I need to be seen riding my dragon or I'll get in trouble." "All right, have a nice flight." Elyssa said, leaning her elbow on the window and putting her face on her palm. "I'll keep a little wind pocket around that window if you want to look around." Aaron said as he opened the carriage door. He climbed easily onto Tourma, aided by his air magic, as Elyssa thanked him.

Elyssa was considering taking a nap when the shadow of the mountains passed over them. Excited to see the Mancer's Keep, she stuck her head out of the window. True to his word, Aaron had kept up the air pocket the entire time. Apparently noticing her movement, Aaron turned and gave her a thumbs up, grinning. She grinned back and looked at the mountain ahead of them. "Welcome to Derkesthai Mountain!" Elyssa made out a rapidly approaching entry in the side of the mountain. A ledge big enough for two Tourmas was the only feature in the sheer cliffs. Only something on wings could enter. The entry was intricately carved in different symbols that were lined with gold, giving the illusion that they had cut through the basalt to reveal a layer of pure gold.

"The symbols around the door correlate to the elements. Air is on the bottom, fire is next and so on. They get smaller too, most likely a representation of how many people are masters of the type." Aaron explained. "I don't recognise the one at the top though. It's tiny, only about the size of my fingernail. Even the Life ones aren't that small. They're the size of my palm." Elyssa trained her eyes on the entry. She wanted to see what was on top. All the symbols were circular. The middle symbols were the size of her head, and what she assumed to be the air symbols were massive, their diameter the length of her strangely long legs.

As they approached and landed, Elyssa almost fell out of the carriage as Aaron opened the door. "You can look at the symbols up close later. We need to get you settled before dinner." "Why?" Aaron blushed. "Because... I'm hungry." Elyssa snorted and covered her mouth as Aaron unhooked Tourma and led the way inside, leaving the carriage on the ledge. Elyssa slowed to look at the symbols. She was sure she had seen something similar before, but didn't want to be left behind. The cavern almost instantly split into two paths. A larger one on the left, where Tourma calmly walked, and a smaller, more human sized one on the right. "Even though they try not to, dragons make a mess. They have a separate living area." Aaron explained. Elyssa craned her neck to try and catch a glimpse, but all she saw was Tourma's tail disappearing around a corner.

Abruptly, Aaron turned. Elyssa could see light behind him. "Take my hand and close your eyes." Elyssa held out two fingers. "Really?" Aaron complained, but held them anyway. "Prepare yourself... for Derkesthei Valley!" He let go of her fingers and Elyssa opened her eyes. Aaron lowered his outspread arms and moved aside.

Elyssa gasped.