*Satellite phone jingle*
The silent night's whispering echoes broke with a symphony of beeps, each a call of… Wait. Haven't we done this before?
A hand stretches from the blanket—Yada Yada. Alright, fine, not exactly the same. Ahem.
Its elongated fingers stretched through the air, tapping delicately on the screen before retreating back under the velvety refuge.
With a soft rustle, the blanket shifts and coils as its occupant rolls away from the bed's edge, embracing the warmth and comfort within its folds. Slowly, they began to slip back into slumber.
*Satellite phone jingle*
Once more, another symphony of beeps broke the silent night. A loud groan echoed as the blanket flew through the air, as if shot out of a net launcher.
With a swift, decisive motion, Riven clutched the phone with a firm grip and pressed it to his ear.
"Do you have to call so early in the morning, Mom?" he grumbled, getting up to pick up his tossed blanket.
"I wouldn't have to if you weren't avoiding me."
"I wasn't avoiding you, Mom," he said, putting the phone on speaker and setting it down to remake his bed.
"Really, then what did I have Aria and Nyra tell you?"
"Wait, that's not fair, Mom. Aria and Nyra have been giving me the silent treatment since last week."
"Well, whose fault is that? Maybe you shouldn't have interfered with their school life on the first day."
"Ok, fine, but I've also been busy, you know, Exodus Enterprises doesn't run itself."
"It'll be fine for a few hours, plus Jessica runs most things there, anyway."
With a deep sigh, he lifted the phone once more. "What do you need me for, Mom?"
"Come teach class today."
"What time?" Riven asked, shifting through the clothes in his closet.
"From 2:20 to 3:10."
"Okay, I'll be there," he said, hanging up.
"There goes my day off," he mumbled, walking out of the room towards his office.
***
*Ring*
As students streamed into the deserted halls, the once-quiet space buzzed to life, overflowing with vibrant laughter and animated discussions.
"So today we head to the lecture hall."
"It's a guest teacher today, right?"
"Yeah, though I don't know who."
One conversation went between three students who happened to just walk past: Aria, Nyra, and Mina
"Hey, Aria, did you hear that? We should go." Mina said, closing her locker.
Students had eight classes throughout the day, of which two allowed the students a great deal of flexibility; their electives, which they could go to or spend time in the library, or Advanced study, which was completely optional and was treated as a free period.
Advanced study was usually just that, but occasionally, guest lecturers would come to the school and teach during this period. Therefore, to make it possible for interested students to attend, it was converted into a free period.
Normally, the guest was announced a day in advance, giving students a chance to decide whether to attend or not. But today that didn't happen.
"If that's what you want, then sure," Aria responded with a shrug, looking up from her locker.
Mina turned her attention to the quieter twin. "What about you, Nyra?"
"I'm fine with that as well," she said after a moment of thinking.
"Alright, let's go," Mina said, as the two finished up and closed their lockers.
The lecture hall hummed with voices, the scrape of chairs and shuffle of bags echoing off the high walls. The air was thick with waves of laughter and whispers.
"Is that the teacher there?" Mina questioned, pointing at the man buried in his bag at the desk in the corner.
"You've got to be kidding me," Aria mumbled as the teacher walked over to the podium.
A hush fell over the hall when he approached the podium; his voice filled the space—confident yet comforting. "Hello everyone, I am Riven Damocles and I'll be holding today's lecture."
"Please refer to me as Mr. Damocles. Now, before we begin, questions?"
Excitement surged as hands flew up into the air, eager and full of anticipation. Looking through the sea of faces, Riven raised his hands and pointed at a student. "You."
The student rose from their seat, "Mr. Damocles, sir. It's speculated that the two girls going to this school aren't your true daughters, with most pointing out the difference in appearance. What is your point of view on this?"
Riven sighed. "Look, I will not be addressing my family dynamics here in front of you all. This is a place of learning and teenage drama. If you wish to know, actually talk to Aria and Nyra and see for yourself if they feel comfortable answering your question."
"Now, any questions that aren't about my relationship with my daughters?"
"You," he said, pointing at a random female student.
"I just wanted to ask what you would be teaching?"
"Perfect question to lead us right into today's lecture," he mumbled just loud enough for them to hear.
"Ahem," Riven cleared his throat, readying himself to speak. The room fell silent, anticipation hanging in the air as he prepared to share his thoughts. "I've traveled around the globe, been to places never touched by human hands in centuries, and learned a lot about common myths and legends.
So today's lecture will be about what I've learned. This is information I haven't shared with anyone outside of my mother and sister."
Soft whispers danced through the hall, each voice tinged with a mix of excitement and curiosity, as anticipation hung thick in the air. The knowledge of the Damocles was an opportunity that could push them far beyond their peers who weren't present.
But the excitement soon died out. What use was understanding myths and legends if you weren't interested in archaeology or history? Yet they couldn't just leave; if they left now, it would not only be rude, but what if he thought something else, they surely would not be allowed back.
"To start this off, we could talk about any mythological being, be it Wukong, Buddha, Zeus, or even someone less known like Ophioneus. But I feel like you would much enjoy it if we went a little off the rails. So today's class, we'll be talking about the kings of the air, land, and sea, Dragons."
Walking back over to the desk, he pulled up a game on the computer he made just this morning, "Let's play a little game. Shout out what you know about dragons, and it'll appear here on this board if it's general knowledge. Alright, let's begin."
As soon as his voice fell, students immediately started shouting the first things that came to mind, each time the board changing to show a symbol representing what they called out.
"They're big, scaly lizards with wings." The first thing to emerge was a captivating symbol embossed with scaly wings.
"They breathe fire," following it a symbol of jaws wide open, emitting a brilliant blaze of fire.
"They hoard treasure and are usually bad guys." This time, two symbols appeared on the screen: one of a towering heap of glimmering gold, a pair of red eyes glowed ominously over it, and the other a brave hero stepping forward fiercely to defend a princess from a ferocious dragon.
Those were just among the few called straight away, though with so many facts about dragons–true or not–it would take a while to get a solid amount on the board, and a while it took.
With a sharp clap of his hands, Riven drew everyone's gaze. "Alright, that's enough. Now, looking at all the answers on this board, what if I were to tell you half of this is wrong?"
Tapping the enter key, a bunch of Circle-Backslash Symbols appeared over what was wrong and common misconceptions about the Dragon race.
"Now, now, hear me out. Dragons, just like you and me, were intelligent life-forms. To write them off as good or bad based on appearance isn't good, even more so to refer to them as lizards."
A hand rose from the crowd, asking a question everyone was starting to have. "Sir, sorry to interrupt, but you talk as if you've had experience dealing with one."
"It's fine, this is a good question. Yes, I have indeed met a dragon." The classroom erupted into chaotic excitement, voices overlapping in a frenzy of shouts and conversations.
"Alright, alright, quiet down, let me finish. The dragon in question was the last of his kind on this planet and was left with nothing but a bunch of dead eggs, with the inability to hatch. This dragon passed away recently, and its body has been turned to ash and returned to the earth."
Though he was saying all of this, it was actually a lie. The dragon mentioned was none other than himself, and of course, the eggs don't exist.
Even if he could have kids easily, the only dragons that could match his size are those from the Origin family, the Aeon of Origin's own kids, to be exact, and he wanted nothing to do with that. Plus, sleeping with your friend's daughter was weird, even if she was older than you.
But back to the lesson at hand, it was better for them to believe this lie than look for something that wasn't there, but one more obstacle wouldn't hurt.
"The eggs are in a secure location that only I know of. Alright, now back to the lesson, there are many types of dragons. From true to pure, heavenly, and flood dragons, and even half breeds. There are so many, in fact, it would take a month to talk about them all."
Putting a silhouette of a dragon with a serpentine body on the screen, he walked back to the podium. "Let's talk about the type of dragon I'm most familiar with, the Heavenly Expansion dragon."
A whirlwind of confusion surged through the hall, swirling around like a fierce tempest, leaving everyone in its chaotic wake. Caught in the whirlwind of their own bewilderment, Riven couldn't help but smile, as though he were staring right at the embodiment of their confusion.
"Many of you might be confused. You've probably never heard of such a dragon. And that's good, such beings bring unstoppable change. But not knowing is also bad; Chinese mythology speaks of them very clearly."
Well, not really, since only a heavenly dragon is mentioned, which isn't really the same, but there should be some mention of his race. Maybe in passing or referred to under the wrong name.
And if there wasn't, well, no one would mind a change, or a hidden scroll revealing their existence.
Okay, this is the end of the chapter with Riven teaching the class. He was talking about Heavenly Expansion Dragons. First, what do you think? Second, do you think the ending is fine? I was going to have something saying he taught for the rest of class time, but I wasn't happy with what I wrote and got rid of it.
"I won't tell you what they look like; it would be meaningless. Not because there aren't anymore dragons on the planet, but because supposedly they could take human form."
"Sir, how is that possible?" A bold female student rose from her seat, her voice steady as she posed her question to the room.
"I don't know, if I knew that, don't you think I would've invited one here to talk with us?" Riven let out an exasperated huff as he shook his head.
"Uh, I didn't think about that," the female student replied, sitting back down in her seat.
"The only thing I could say is if you meet someone who, no matter the situation, always makes you feel like anything is possible, then—"
"Kinda like you then." A voice cut in from the back of the hall. A tangible hush fell over the crowd as every gaze in the hall turned towards the speaker.
"Well, thank you for the compliment, but sadly, just like you all, I'm a born and raised human. But can I ask where that notion came from?" He asked, tilting his head slightly as he stared at the student. But what no one noticed was the purple tint surrounding his iris.
The student shrugged. "You just kinda give off that vibe."
"I guess I might've been blessed by one then," Riven said, smiling. "Now back to the lesson."