Make Love Not War: Dragon Fire

When the first lightning strike hit the shuttle the Phoenix Housemates were thrown across the room with shrieks and screams filling the room. With the second lightning strike the skylight was destroyed sending a shower of broken glass down on the housemates followed by torrents of rain which soaked all of the students’ new uniforms. Emergency lights came on and the screen on the wall switched to the face of Professor Oolong who tried to reassure the students but within seconds the screen was hit by a third lightning strike.
“Hold on to something” A Ceylon who had just run into the room said to the students just as he was thrown into the air and out of the skylight. The shuttle shook and rolled as it moved from side to side, dodging the lightning strikes.
Mark was holding on for his life. He’d never been in such a storm and he was scared. Looking across the room he noticed that Kristina was all alone in a corner on the other side of the room curled up in a ball crying. He tried to get over to her but as he moved the ship jolted and he felt himself thrown back against the wall knocking the wind out of him. But he could still see Kristina in that corner and he just could not leave her alone. He gathered all his strength and ran. The ship jolted again, the lights went out and he felt himself thrown against something hard. He groaned thinking he was back where he started but then heard sobs from next to him. It was Kristina; he had made it to the other side. He reached for Kristina and pulled her towards him, embracing her and hugging her, telling her it would be okay, even though he didn’t know if it would be.
As suddenly as it had started the storm had stopped and sunlight filled the room once more through the battered skylight. The students picked themselves up off of the now extremely soggy carpet. The students new uniforms completely ruined, which Tom at least enjoyed because he could see through all of girls’ shirts. Mark led Kristina to a chair and sat her down. She was shaking, shivering with fear and wasn’t responding to anyone. Mark sat with her as Professor Oolong accompanied by two Ceylons came to check on the students.
“Is everyone okay” she said a mixture of concern and anger in her voice.
“I think so” the students except for Kristina said.
“I don’t think Kristina is okay” Mark told the professor who walked over and looked Kristina over.
“Come with me, we’ll go and see Doctor Xu” Professor Oolong said to Kristina taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. But Kristina’s other hand was firmly holding Mark’s hand and wouldn’t let go.
“I think she wants me to come with her” Mark said unsure.
“Very well” Professor Oolong sighed before leading them out of the room and into the perimeter corridor
The perimeter corridor had windows on the outer side letting Mark look for the storm that they had just passed through, except that there wasn’t one. The sky all around the shuttle was perfectly clear and the ground below was dry and cracked and didn’t look like it had seen water for a long time.
Professor Oolong, Kristina and Mark reached the doctor’s office where a Doctor with dark brown hair was treating a boy for a nasty bump on the head. Professor Oolong walked past her to some chairs where a blonde boy, who Mark recognised as Humphrey Frodich, was sitting looking very green. Kristina and Mark were told to sit and wait to be seen by the Doctor and did as they were told. Kristina looked up at him with large puffy eyes that were red from all her crying and Mark smiled reassuringly.
“Thanks for coming with me” she finally said quietly. “Professor Oolong scares me”.
Mark laughed and whispered “me too” as the green boy rushed off to the bathroom to be sick.
“I don’t like water” she said quietly almost ashamed to admit it.
“But you’re from Ifing City; it rains there all the time”
“I know. When I was a toddler I ran away from home, and I got trapped on an island in one of the underground canals and when it rained I got swept away and almost drowned.” She took a deep breath. “And ever since then I’ve hated water. That’s why I applied for Assam, not that I ever expected to get in of course but I wanted to get away from all the rain” she sobbed.
“Oh that’s awful, but don’t worry that won’t happen, you’re safe now” Mark reassured her and hugged her tightly.
“Am I interrupting something?” A friendly female voice said behind them.
“No, nothing” Mark and Kristina turned around shocked to see the doctor standing behind them smiling.
“I’m Doctor Xu” she said. “I’m the school doctor, I hope I won’t be seeing too much of either of you” she continued.
“Hello” replied Mark and Kristina who was now smiling.
“What happened to the blonde boy who was here before? In all the excitement of the storm I wasn’t able to give him his airsickness medication”
“He’s in the bathroom” Kristina grinned.
“Oh dear, That’s probably the best place for him though” Doctor Xu shook her head. “How are you feeling now my dear?”
“I feel much better Thank you” Kristina said. “I was just in shock but Mark helped”
“That’s good” the Doctor beamed. “You’re free to return to your room now, take care of each other at school and don’t let me find you in my infirmary”
“Okay thanks” Mark said moving to take hold of Kristina’s hand.
“I don’t need anyone to hold my hand you know” Kristina grinned pulling her hand away walking towards the door. “Come on lets go” she said and she almost skipped down the corridor just as the blonde boy came back from the bathroom looking even greener than he had before.
When they got back to the Phoenix room, they were greeted by all the other housemates who each hugged Kristina and asked her if she was okay. Whilst they had been gone the room had resumed a somewhat normal state. The skylight was still gone but the carpets had been dried and the furniture placed back where it had been before and with Kristina being looked after by the rest of the Phoenix group, Mark was able to sit down and open his briefcase for the first time.
Mark carefully took out his Panel and turned it on as Professor Oolong had instructed before. He input his name and his student I.D. number and then drew a smiley face with his finger as his passkey to turn on the panel in future. He was then presented with a screen which displayed a list of applications down the left hand side whilst on the right was a clock and calendar, and a notice that read “Error, University Network Not Found” which he supposed was because they were not yet close enough to Assam to connect. One thing on the Applications list caught his eye. There was a Word processor, a Spreadsheet and a Calculator, but there was also an icon marked “Student Lounge” which featured a couple of cartoon people with speech bubbles coming out of their mouths and an icon marked “Research” which was depicted by an open book and a pile of closed books. But the thing that caught his eye wasn’t these, it was glowing gold at the bottom of the list: “The students guide to Assam”. Intrigued he moved his finger to it and pressed.
The screen changed. The applications, clock and calendar were gone and replaced by a picture of a book. Pressing on it brought it to the foreground and the cover could be seen. “Assam University Yearbook 2785”.
“This year?” Mark questioned quietly.
He pressed it again and it opened onto a page called “Faculty”.
The page had 8 pictures arranged on the page with writing below them. Mark immediately recognised a face in the middle of the top row, the unmistakeable long nose and small mouth of Professor Oolong and felt her scornful eyes were watching him from the page. The blurb below read “Granddaughter of the great General Horatio Oolong. Professor Formosa Oolong is the leader of Oolong house and is known for her short temper and strict view on discipline. She will do absolutely anything in her power to make sure that her family name is not soiled.”
To the left of Professor Oolong’s portrait was the picture of the school principal. Professor Stephen Davies. His blurb stated that “In the sometimes cold efficiency of Assam City there is no warmer heart than that of the University’s principal Stephen Davies. The size of his heart is only matched by that of his intellect and wisdom which is felt throughout the land.”
To the right of Professor Oolong was Professor Michelangelo, who according to his blurb was known for his work with water and was the leader of the Da Vinci house. Completing the top line was Professor Shakespeare who was “Known as the greatest writer in the history of Assam”
The bottom line began with Doctor Xu whom Mark had met just ten minutes ago. Her blurb stated that “her kindness, compassion and good humour serves her well as the chief medical officer of Assam University”.
The final portrait on the bottom row was of a chubby old man with thinning red curly hair and a bushy red beard who looked completely different to the other teachers on the page, and not just because of his hair. His clothes looked scruffy and unironed next to the pristinely turned out professors in the other pictures. His name read “Professor Rooibos” and his blurb stated “Professor Rooibos is famous for his bushy red beard and his cat Darjeeling. He teaches The Past at Assam University and is the leader of the Phoenix house”.
“Oh great” Mark said to himself sarcastically.
Suddenly the error message telling Mark that the university network was not found disappeared. And in its place the Assam University logo appeared shimmering and in the centre the front page of a newsletter appeared with the headline “Welcome New Students”.
Mark turned off the panel and placed it carefully in his briefcase before running through the door to the window of the perimeter corridor just in time to see a speck on the horizon start to get bigger and bigger.
“What are you looking at?” asked Kristina as she and James joined Mark at the window.
“Assam City” said Mark.
Already Mark could see the huge skyscrapers of Assam City, and the closer the shuttle got he could see the city walls coming into view which were almost as tall as the sky scrapers. Closer still and Mark could make out that there were people and structures around the outside of the city walls.
“Why are they not inside?” Mark asked.
“Those are refugees from The Magic War, The survivors of the Magic’s race” James explained. “They only allow a certain number into the city in case they do magic which is banned. They have taken to setting up camps on the outside whilst they wait to get into the city but one of them has to die before another is allowed in. There is trouble occasionally especially when there’s not room for a whole family but the Ceylons guard the only way in and are all around the city walls, so there’s no danger don’t worry”