Their first class, Dragon Care, was down in the school's stable, which was huge. It was almost as tall as the school. Their teacher, Mr Valianti, who insisted they call him Val, had explained that the stable was split in between years. The first years would be using the smaller section of the barn, but they would move stables each year. Val looked quite young for a teacher, a girl had asked him about his age, and he replied saying he was nineteen and it was his first year of teaching.

He too had gone to the School of Scales and had graduate last year before being offered a job in teaching. "Now, we're about to enter and although I know it's exciting, but I want you to keep your hands and feet to yourself and try to keep the noise at bay. The last thing you want is an upset dragon."

Keep the noise at bay? Kyle would've laughed at this if he could've. Once they entered the stable the air was filled with low growls, screeches and raspy roars. The air was also filled with the scent of hay, heat and dragon manure. In short, it smelt like a barn.

Although it was big there was barely any room to move. Some older students, whose dragons looked near fully grown were walking in an out, cleaning their stables, talking with their dragons and paid no attention to the wide eyed first years.

"Clare! Hands and feet to yourself, remember." Val glared at Clare whom had reached out to pat a red dragon that a female third year had just put in its stable. The rider had seen Clare reach out and gave a silent glare from a distance. The dragon shared the same glared. Chloissa stood by her stepsister and rolled her eyes before the two of them exchanged hushed words.

"Riders must be protective of their dragons." Axel whispered next to me, I looked around and nodded. Since Clare tried to pat the dragon the rider stood protectively at the majestic stead's sides. Two small dragons, like the ones Kyle had seen on the fountain that morning, were squabbling next to their riders.

Kyle couldn't help but stare at a dragon, who was using its horns to hang from a ceiling beam. Its rider was cleaning out the dirty hay while it slept. "Right in here first years." The students filed into an area of the stables that was blocked off from the rest. There were about thirty kids in Kyle's class, none of them were from Hyrin like he was. There were rumours that there was a second-year student who was from Hyrin but Kyle had no idea who.

Kyle looked around the small stable in awe. It reminded him of a chicken coop. Nesting boxes made out of wood and filled with hay, decorated the walls. Inside them, were eggs. Each one had a dragon egg inside it. "Alright, alright." Val tried to quiet the class. "Some of you might've spotted egg inside one of these nesting boxes. Whatever box your egg is in, will be your nesting box until hatching, no swapping boxes!"

Axel put his black-fingered hand up. "Yes..."

"Axel."

"Yes, Axel! What's your question?" Val smiled.

"When is the hatching?" He asked.

"That's a good question. You will learn in your other classes that dragon eggs that have been bonded with a rider are different than those that haven't. A rider's egg must be at least a week old before it can be hatched. Luckily, your eggs are already about a week and half old. You can hatch your eggs anytime, but the school requires you to wait until the end of the week to do so."

There were a few silent groans and Val grinned. "I know, I know. But it is extremely important that you have some knowledge about dragon care before hatching your egg. Raising young hatchlings takes a lot of work and dedication."

Kyle tried glancing around for his egg, but he couldn't see it. The familiar deep blue and florescent spikes. "Although dragon eggs are known for their tough shells, dropping one or poorly mistreating one can result terribly for your dragon's health. Which is why it is against school rules to take your eggs out of the stable unless you have permission from your stable master, which is me."

Again, some students gave upset mumbles. "Some dragon eggs hatch in different conditions to others. In a moment I want you to find your egg, if you can't find it please come to me and we will check the other first-year stables."

Val talked a little longer, instructing us to not pick up our eggs until he said so. Then here was a boy who explained he couldn't remember what his egg looked like. But once that was sorted, they all went egg hunting. A boy and a girl, one with green skin fought, saying their eggs, that were the same breed, looked a lot like each other.

"What does yours look like?" Axel asked from my side.

"It got a smooth surface, with petal-like spikes around it. It's dark blue and the spike tips are bright green. What about yours?"

"Purple with white and black spots. The egg itself is quite tall and thin."

"Oh, both interesting breeds of dragons." They jumped when they noticed Val standing behind them.

"What breed are they?" Axel asked, his devil tail flicking in excitement.

"Wish I could say, but it would ruin the surprise and your homework."

"Homework?"

"Yep, which reminds me. First years!" He called out and all heads turned to him.

"Your homework for tonight is to research your egg and try to determine your dragons breed before we hatch it. The due date is before dinner on Friday. You will find there's a box outside the stable marked homework. Simply put in a five-hundred-word paragraph talking about what dragon breed you think your eggs is and a little something about them."

"What?" Axel huffed, crossing his arms. Val continued speaking.

"Your test will be first thing Friday morning and results will be put up on the School's noticeboard just outside the office. If you do not pass this test you will have to repeat it on the weekend. You must get at least eighty percent or more to be allowed to hatch your dragon this weekend."

Excited and nervous voices filled the stable. "Alright, find your egg quickly. You have ten minutes till your next class."

"Come on!" Kyle grabbed Axel by his sleeve and pulled him towards one side of the room. The invisible connection between him and his egg was stronger on this side of the room. "Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"The connection." He didn't wait for his response as he spotted his egg, resting gloriously in a nest box. "There."

Axel followed him and was happy to see his egg was right next to Kyle's. "We're nest box neighbours."

"Yeah," Kyle grinned happy to finally be able to feel the curves of his egg. It was surprisingly warm and although it didn't move, the egg pulsed with life. "Do you think there's a way to tell whether the hatchling is male or female while they're in the egg?"

"No," someone else replied and he looked to his right to find Chloissa with her own egg. It was green and moss grew on the rough shell. "I looked it up in the library, there's no way to tell. Only a few breeds have distinctive markings that give it away. You're lucky by the way." Kyle blinked. "Your dragon egg is classified rare, like mine."

"What about mine?" Axel asked.

"Oh, no yours is quite a common breed."

"Does that mean you know what breed's they are?" Kyle said as Axel gave a disappointed sigh, still feeling the shell of his egg which was considerably smaller compared to Kyle's.

"Yeah. But if you want me to tell you then forget it, I'm not helping you with your homework."

"Fine by me. I can't wait to try and figure it." He replied. "Do you know what breed yours is?"

"I have two theories. But it all comes down to whether the moss is a swamp or navy green. It's gonna take forever to compare notes to the egg if we can't take it from the stable."

"Why not take a picture?"

"I'm not a great drawer."

"I meant like with a camera."

"What's a camera?"

"Alright students! You're dismissed, don't forget to hand in your homework before Friday dinner." Val grinned to his class. "Don't forget to be quiet on the way out as to not disturb the other dragons."

"I can't believe she doesn't know what a camera is." Kyle said to Axel when they travelled back up the path towards the school.

"Kyle, no one knows what a camera is."

"What? But Earth- sorry, Hyrin, use cameras all the time. Wouldn't that mean other dimentions would be using it too. And iPhones, computers, iPad. You guys have that too, don't you?"

Axel shrugged. "I have no idea what any of those are. I guess for some reason the Wind Riders didn't want to use your 'I' thingies."

"Do you the Wind Riders usually make the decisions?"

"Yep. They're like our king and queen, of some sort. We don't really refer to them as royalty."

Kyle couldn't believe it. Why would the Wind Rider's throw away the opportunity of using technology? Contacting others would become way easier, looking things up on google was quicker than searching through a library. Did they even have Wi-Fi here?

"What's a camera?" Axel asked, his two small horns poked out from his white hair.

"It's a device that you can use to take a picture."

"Like a drawing?"

"No, um... I'll show you when we get back to the dorms."

"What are you boys talking about?" He jumped. He hadn't even noticed that they were now back at the school's back entrance. "Ms Wingoolie!" Axel grinned. "Kyle was just talking about lots of Hyrin inventions. Have you ever heard of a camera?"

Ms Wingoolie's face went pale. "Kyle, do you have any... Hyrin technology?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry dearie but, I need you to hand it into the office."

"What? Why?"

"I can't answer that, but we don't use technology outside your dimension. It's against the law."

"Against the law!" Kyle shouted in surprise and the old woman shot him a dark look. "Sorry." He bowed his head slightly. "I-I didn't know..."

"It's okay. You're not the first Hyrin to have made the mistake. Tell you what, you give it to me before dinner and we'll pretend this never happened. Sounds good?"

Kyle nodded before Axel dragged him down the hall. They had to squeeze between students to get to the stairs. Once they reached the second floor they waited outside their classroom with the other students.

"So unfair." Kyle huffed quietly.

"Cheer up, you're going to like this lesson."

"Why? Which one is it?"

"History!" Axel was surprised when Kyle groaned. But then the door opened, and they all squeezed through it. An incredibly tall man stood in front of the board, facing away from the class, writing his name in chalk. "Quickly, take a seat."

The excited chatter that'd been displayed in Dragon Care continued and Kyle gritted his teeth when Axel dragged him to a seat at the very front.

"For those of you who chose the front desks," the teacher continued. "Beware." Kyle could tell from his teacher's tone that it was a joke, but either way his good mood was dwindling. He didn't know why he was upset.

They'd ask to take away his phone, so what? Maybe it wasn't quite anger he was feeling, maybe it was suspicion. No, he was overreacting.

Shaking his head ever so slightly, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and focused on the lesson.

"I am Professor Thorborne. I will be both your History and Geography teacher until you graduate. So, get comfortable."

The class chuckled and Kyle looked to his left. Chloissa had taken a seat at the front of the class next to him. "You will see on your desk there is a small piece of paper. I want you to write your full name on it, middle names included if you have any."

Tyler did as he was told and brought out his brand-new fountain pen. On the small piece of paper he wrote, 'Kyle Philip Dunber'. Glancing over at Axel her saw he'd written, 'Axel Boran' in writing much neater than his own.

"Once you're done, I want you to put the piece of paper at the front of your desk." The Professor grinned. Kyle did as he was told before finally looking properly at his teacher. Professor Thorborne was bigger than the average adult. He had moss green skin and he had to small white fangs that poked out from under his bottom lip.

"Good, now it'll be easier to remember your names." He flashed his pure white canines in a charming grin. Kyle had to remind himself it was rude to stare. "Now, I know a lot of you are probably not looking forward to History and honestly, neither was I when I was your age and training to be a Wing Rider myself. Which also reminds me, students I would like you to meet my dragon, Terf."

A small white dragon no bigger than Kyle's forearm sat on the professor's desk. It was covered in orange leaves and had two branch-like horns. Its completely blue eyes glanced at each student. "Evening everyone!" It said in a high pitch voice.

The whole class couldn't help but smile with awe. Terf's tail wagged wildly with excitement and he looked like he was having trouble staying still.

"Excuse me, Professor?" A student raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"What type of dragon is he?" Thorborne walked towards his dragon who climbed up onto his shoulder. As he did, the leaves covering his body made loud rustling sounds when he moved. "Good, question. He's an Autumn Whisperer but be warned, he can get quite obnoxiously loud when excited."

Terf gave a small offended yip. "Back to the lesson. Some of you may have noticed the large fountain with the statue at the front of the school."

Some of the students nodded, others were silent.

"I've been told by Vice Principal Wingoolie to remind you, that it is not meant for sitting on. But of course, I know a lot of you will ignore her warning, I know I do."

Kyle began to feel a little better as he watched his teacher, who to him looked like a neatly dressed troll of some sort. "The statue is of Merak Ryder. He is the current leader of the Wing Riders and this school's founder. We'll be learning a lot about him this semester." He paused to scribble the name, 'Merak Ryder' on the board, his glasses resting on the end of his nose.

"Tell me, does anyone know anything about Merak?"

Chloissa's hand shot up and Professor Thorborne pointed at her. "Merak is the last descendant of the Ryder dynasty. His great, great, great grandfather was one of the first Wing Rider's before he died at the age ninety-eight."

Axel nudged his friend's arm and mouthed the words, "ninety-eight" in disbelief. Kyle just gave a small silent laugh. Chloissa continued to list off facts, using her fingers to count along as she did.

"His great, great, great grandfather also began the consul of the Wing Rider's who still protect all the known dimensions till today and he additionally was the last person to ever see a Legendary classed dragon."

"A what?" Axel cocked his head, his tail curling onto his lap.

"You'll have to ask Val about that," Thorborne spoke. "We won't be covering the Legendary dragon history this year."

"Aw-" The sound came out of Kyle before he could stop it. The class giggled making the golden-haired boy blush.

"Alright, quiet now." Thorborne said gently and the class silenced. "Back to the lesson again."