My Dragon System

CHAPTER 004

The Crown Games began with a parade, a speech, and a very serious amount of glitter.

Ridgemont's front lawn had been transformed into a stadium overnight. Four great banners hung from steel poles, each one bearing the crest of a House: the Ashford Stag in green, the Sterling Lion in gold, the Blackwood Raven in black, and the Hawthorne Fox in orange. 

Hundreds of students crowded the stands, painted in their House colors, waving flags and shouting rivalries that had been brewing for decades.

Caleb stood in the Ashford line wearing a green jersey two sizes too big. Marcus was beside him in the alternates' row, holding a clipboard he had no reason to hold.

"Official duty," Marcus whispered. "I'm the team strategist." "Since when?"

"Since right now."

On the main stage, Principal Pierce stepped up to the microphone. She was dressed in a navy suit, her silver hair pinned back, her voice as calm as a river.

"Students of Ridgemont. For one hundred and twelve years, this school has held the Crown Games as a celebration of what Systems can achieve when they are guided by discipline and fair play." She paused. "Fair play. I want everyone to hear that. We have cameras. We have referees. We have a very large file on every student who thinks they are clever."

A ripple of laughter spread through the crowd. A few kids in the Sterling section looked suddenly interested in their shoes.

"The first event is the Gauntlet," Principal Pierce continued. "A two-hundred-yard obstacle course, three competitors from each House, fastest combined time wins. May the best House take the Crown."

Applause thundered across the lawn.

Coach Whitaker gathered the Ashford team in a tight huddle. His face was grim.

"Bad news," he said. "Jason Bell's wind generator is out. Somebody put sugar in his water bottle last night, and it messed with his System's focus. He can't compete."

A gasp rippled through the huddle. "Sugar?" Sophie said. "That's sabotage." "Can we prove it?"

"Not yet." Coach Whitaker looked at Caleb. "Turner, you're up. You're running with Sophie and Rachel."

Caleb blinked. "Me?" 

"You're the only runner left." 

"But Coach..."

"This is not a debate, son. Get your shoes on."

Rachel Kim, a quiet junior with a rank C Silk System that let her spin cords of glowing thread, patted his shoulder. "Don't worry. Just try not to die."

"Great advice." "It's all I've got."

The Gauntlet course was bigger than the practice one. Where the practice course had been plastic and foam, this one was steel and stone. 

Spinning blades. Rolling logs. Pits of crackling water. Each House had its own lane, marked in painted colors across the grass.

Caleb lined up next to Sophie. On the far side of the field, Brandon Cole stood in the Sterling lane with Tyler Brooks and a girl named Vanessa Hart. Brandon spotted Caleb and burst out laughing.

"Look who's running! They really are desperate!" Tyler cracked his knuckles. "Try not to cry, Turner."

Caleb ignored them. A small window flickered at the corner of his eye.

[Quest Active: The First Trial. Do not reveal your true strength. Remember: finish respectably, not impressively.]

"That's a very specific instruction," Caleb whispered.

[Hatchlings who show off get noticed. Hatchlings who finish third get ignored.]

"Third. Got it."

The starting horn blared.

The Ashford team surged forward. Sophie went first, her Shield System throwing up small glowing plates to deflect the spinning blades. Rachel followed, her silk threads whipping out to grab rafters and swing across the pits. Caleb ran in the middle, using Ember Sense to read the machinery's heat.

[Obstacle Pattern: Rolling logs, third and fifth lanes are faster. Duck now.]

Caleb ducked. A steel log swept past his head so close that it ruffled his hair.

The Sterling lane exploded in flame. Brandon Cole tore through the course with a trail of fire behind him, his system roaring, his teammates struggling to keep pace. 

Ahead of Caleb, Blackwood's runners moved in perfect silence, slipping through shadows like ghosts. Hawthorne's team used speed boosts to leap whole sections.

Caleb ran steadily, deliberately, matching Sophie's pace. He used Scale Skin quietly, a faint hardening across his shoulders that let him take a hit from a rolling log without breaking stride. He kept his jumps low and ordinary. He refused to be impressive.

Until the pit of water.

It was a twenty-foot gap filled with crackling electric current. Sophie's shield could cover it, barely. 

Rachel's threads could swing across. But as Caleb reached the edge, he heard a scream behind him.

Rachel had slipped. One of her silk threads had snapped, and she was dangling over the water, her face white with panic.

Caleb did not think.

He turned, sprinted back three steps, and lunged. His hand caught her wrist. The electric current crackled beneath them, hungry and bright. He felt his arms burn as he hauled her upward, and then he was swinging her toward solid ground with a strength that did not belong to a rank F.

Rachel landed on her knees on the platform, gasping. "Thanks," she wheezed. "That was..."

"Don't mention it," Caleb said quickly. "Seriously. Don't."

The Ashford team finished third. Sterling won, with Blackwood second, and Hawthorne a distant fourth. The crowd roared. 

Brandon Cole raised his arms in triumph, flame rolling off his shoulders like a cape.

Caleb stood at the finish line breathing hard, his heart pounding.

[Quest Complete: The First Trial.]

[Reward: Ember Core Level 2. Dragon Heart plus 5. Hidden Skill unlocked: Dragon Sense (Rank D [Hatchling Progress: 29 percent.]

"Not bad," Caleb whispered. "Third place. That's respectable."

[Mostly. You saved a classmate. That was impulsive. I approve.]

Across the field, Brandon had stopped celebrating. He was staring at Caleb with narrowed eyes. "Hey, Turner," he called. "Pretty good for a rank F."

Caleb stiffened. "Luck."

"Sure." Brandon grinned slowly. It was not a nice grin. It was the grin of a predator who had just noticed something unusual in the grass. "Funny thing about luck. It never lasts."

He turned and walked away, his friends laughing behind him.

Sophie Grant came up beside Caleb, wiping sweat from her forehead. She was looking at him with an odd expression, half curious and half suspicious.

"That jump," she said quietly. "At the pit. You were not a rank F." "I got lucky."

"People keep saying that." She studied him for another moment, and then she shrugged. "Fine. Keep your secrets. But you saved Rachel. That counts for something."

"Thanks, Sophie."

"Don't thank me. Just try to be less suspicious next time."

Caleb watched her go. Marcus popped out of nowhere, his glasses crooked, his face glowing.

 "Third place!" Marcus said. "That's our best Gauntlet finish in six years!"

"I know."

"Also," Marcus said more softly, "I scanned you right before the race. For a second there I thought I saw a gold flicker in your stats. Like a dragon."

Caleb's blood ran cold. "Dragon?" he said weakly.

"It was probably nothing." Marcus pushed his glasses up. "Sleep deprivation, remember?" 

"Right," Caleb said. "Sleep deprivation."

He looked up at the crowd, the banners, the thousand shining faces. Somewhere in that sea of color, someone was watching him. He could feel it.

The pendant under his shirt pulsed.