Drakonika (Book 1) (33 page)

“
Because if you cut part of a plant, it can grow back. But when you want to eat meat, you can't just take a bit — you have to take it all. In some cases, when you don't have a choice, you can slaughter an animal to eat, but only as many as you need to survive and you have to do it quickly and painlessly. And of course, you have to thank Mother Nature for it. That's the cycle of nature,” Magnus said, smiling at Maren and Fjalldís who gaped at him in amazement. He looked just like a guild professor! Belinda stared at him in shock, but fortunately, everyone thought it was because she was stunned by his knowledge.

While Aedan almost cried tears of joy, Darius didn't look too happy. How could he even act that he was a better druid that Magnus? It seemed that he knew absolutely everything and except Darius' comrades, everyone was staring at him in wordless amazement. Fjalldís was no exception.

“Perfect,” Aedan said contently. “I hope that you all will remember this, and we can now continue on to the shape-shifting lesson. When you wander in the woods, sometimes you will meet a situation when it would be better to turn into an animal. You might see a bear or another dangerous animal that could attack a human being, and we do not want to kill nor be get killed. Shape-shifting is a natural ability of every druid. Another good reason to become a one,” he said casually. “It is intuitive and all druids can turn into the animal that matches their personality the best.” Aedan remained silent for a while. It seemed he was considering if he should shape-shift himself, but then he decided it was better not to as he knew what he would turn into. And right now he didn't want the novices to get frightened and scatter around the forest. Who would chase after them?

“
Well? Any volunteers? Who wants to try it?” Aedan said finally. But it didn't look like anyone was rushing forward. While others tried to hide behind each other, an arm dressed in a black sleeve rose from the crowd. The curious novices immediately took a step back to create a circle around the volunteer.

“
Darius?” Viktor breathed incredulously.

“
What do you want to do? You're not a druid,” Serena added.

This could have been the only chance for Darius to convince everyone that he was a druid, but it might also have been a chance to make a complete fool of himself. Considering how many times he had done that already, he decided to give it a shot. Despite the objections of his friends and all the curious faces that were staring at him, he gave his druid staff to Rodrick and stepped forward. He didn't want to stand by Belinda so he chose the place on Aedan's right
— next to Magnus, although he hated him from the bottom of his heart.

“
What a surprise!” Aedan exclaimed joyfully. “At last you're coming to your senses. Now we'll learn if you really are a druid.”

Magnus could easily see that Darius had lost all his confidence now. His mind was like a swirling water surface. How could he even turn into an animal? He wasn't a real druid! But Magnus had to show Aedan that he
could
tame the Black Squad and lead them to the decision of becoming druids, even if that meant he would have to cheat. How else would their teacher give him the answer to his important question?

“
Are you all right?” Aedan said in a concerned tone, when he saw his novice hesitate. Just as Darius mouthed at Aedan to announce that he couldn't do it, suddenly everyone around had turned into giants. As he looked around in confusion and saw the size of the trees, he understood what happened — he got smaller. Much smaller.

There was an outbreak of shocked muttering. Maren, Fjalldís and many others gasped, but the Black Squad didn't do it out of impression, just the opposite. It had unveiled one shocking fact to them
— Darius was a druid!

The novices were now looking at a white hawk that was shooting puzzled looks all around him. Why white, though? Darius would certainly wish to be all black! But the only dark feathers were on the tips of his wings and on the tail. The rest was as white as freshly fallen snow.

“I've got to try this,” Rodrick said resolutely and with a hypnotised look he pushed both his and Darius' staffs against Henry's chest. He immediately dashed forward and reached Aedan in such speed that he had almost squished his little hawk friend, who flinched back at the last second.

“
I'm ready,” Rodrick announced confidently, breathing wildly in excitement. And as soon as he said that, he turned into a shag of red hair. A fox! This transformation suited him perfectly.

Aedan looked utterly dazed. He couldn't help giving an applause of praise, “Bravo! That's exemplary!” However, Belinda didn't seem to know what to make of it
— what they saw was just impossible!

“
Hold this,” Henry mumbled, as he forced all three staffs into Giselbert's arms. Before their teacher could even recover from the last success, another novice hurried to his side. Aedan looked astonished. How come he hadn't noticed there were so many druids in his group already?

Henry narrowed his dark eyes and closed them for a moment. When he opened them again, he was looking at something fluffy. It was his own tail! He had turned into a wolf.

“That must be some kind of a plan, we mustn't screw it up!” Giselbert said swiftly and giving all four druid staffs to Serena, he bolted in front. Moments later, the novices saw a white cat with paws and face as black as night. His dazzling blue eyes had soon noticed the white bird and started chasing him all around Aedan and his two helpers. Everyone seemed to have a good time watching this.

“
Definitely a plan,” Serena said vaguely, when she saw them all turning into animals effortlessly. “If there's something going on, I want to be a part of it,” she decided and swung all the staffs onto Viktor. Magnus had already known what she would turn into, but the others certainly didn't expect it would be a fire-red snake. Well, if they did expect something, it was the colour!

“
A snake!” Fjalldís whispered into Maren's ear. “We have to be careful around her.”

Maren nodded slightly, “I am not surprised by that.”

Magnus, Aedan and Belinda were surrounded by a little pack of animals, but one member of the Black Squad was still hesitating in the crowd of novices. It appeared he was not exactly eager to do it, but in the end he decided to follow his comrades. After all, they had all turned and he was the only one missing; he certainly didn't want to give anyone a reason to gossip about the Black Squad breaking apart.

“
Whatever,” Viktor said with undisguised repulsion and was just about to slam the staffs on the ground, when he realised that wouldn't be much of a druid behaviour. He threw the wooden staffs on Lars, who would have stumbled under their weight if Elmar didn't help him. Viktor rushed to Aedan at the speed of wind and as soon as he came there, he turned into ... a black vulture.

There was a ripple of shocked whispering. The vulture seemed to have scared them even more than the snake.

“That's ugly,” said one of the girls in disgust and it seemed that everyone agreed with her. While the children were staring at Viktor, commenting on his bad looks, Aedan was ready to cry from joy. He didn't care what they had turned into — they were druids now and that was what mattered the most. Even Aedan himself would turn into a grumpy bear; certainly nothing cute.

“
I don't know what you expected. Bunnies? Duckies? Forget it, this is not a petting zoo,” Aedan said, a little more stoutly now. “You don't want to turn into something that's at the very bottom of the food chain! Our six new druids have shown exceptional abilities and they deserve respect from all of you,” he said and then with a happy smile he looked at the lovely pack of animals around him. “All right, fellow druids, enough fun. Now turn back into your human form.”

The clatter had suddenly stopped. Obviously, the “Animal Squad” understood what their teacher expected from them, but it didn't seem they knew how to do it. They didn't have the slightest idea how they turned into the animal form and how to turn back into their human form.

“Uh ... well, don't worry about that, it will stabilise in time ... hopefully,” Aedan said a bit less audibly, hoping the last word would pass unnoticed.

Magnus gave a little cough. “Ehm ... I have accomplished my quest,” he said carefully. “I would like to hear the answer to my question now.”

Aedan rounded on Magnus. It was etched in his face that he was still worried about the transformations. He smiled broadly to disguise the fear of the upcoming question and he leaned against his staff gently. “Of course. What did you want to ask me?” he said, expecting a question about druids. But Magnus shocked him again.

“
What happened with the Fellowship of the Devoted?” Magnus asked swiftly as he fixed his big silvery eyes on Aedan's face.

The sound of his words creaked in Aedan's ears as though he heard the opening of an old rusty door. “This question does NOT apply to this guild!” he roared firmly.

Magnus stepped back. “It does ... partly,” he said carefully, almost in a whisper.

Aedan gave a heavy sigh. This was the last thing he wanted to talk about, but it appeared he had no other choice. Magnus had asked him in front of all the novices and if he didn't give him an answer, no one would ever trust his word again.

“Fine, then. You have the right to know what happened here. Follow me to the citadel. I'll tell you a bed-time story,” Aedan said, his expression clearing a little. He was just about to turn away, when suddenly he paused. “Somebody take those birds,” he muttered and cast Viktor and Darius a fleeting glance. They didn't seem to be exactly experienced in flying. In the end, almost all the work was left for Aedan himself — Viktor was huge, heavy and dangerous and nobody wanted to even lay a finger on Serena, so he had to take her coiled around his staff.

There was still one left
— Darius. He hoped for Fjalldís to take him, but in the next moment his view was darkened by a girl with long wavy hair and a broad grin on her face. Belinda! He already expected that he wouldn't enjoy the journey back very much.

As Aedan with his group of novices and their “mini zoo” made their way back to Sinei, the sky darkened with grey clouds. It was certain it would rain shortly, so they marched up the lanes straight to the citadel courtyard and from there they walked the long, dim hallway leading into the underground chamber. The novices
didn't have the best memories from here —  they even named it
the “exam cell”. But fortunately, this evening was different. There were no tests or books waiting — Aedan was about to reveal a great secret to them, a secret that all of them had certainly wondered about since their very first day in Sinei. And that was utterly exciting.

As Aedan lit the torches and made fire in the hearth, the novices took seats around the tables in the way they usually did. The whole chamber was now lit with an orange and yellow glow which cast shadows around, creating a very mysterious environment for Aedan's speech.

“I am going to reveal a great secret to you now,” Aedan said with a shallow breath. The novices were listening closely which was very unusual for them.

“
Once upon a time, there was a town. This town was named Sinei. There was a mountainous citadel towering at the top of the rocky hill, so tall that none of the castles near and far could match its height. They say it
's
always been here. No one remembers who built it, when, or how. Save the citadel, there is only one thing that was here before the town itself — a deep well in one of its streets.”

Hearing these words, Magnus and Maren sat upright on their seats. It must have been the well above the cave where they had found the magickal artefact!

Aedan swept among the tables like a shadow. It appeared he liked stories and he enjoyed telling them even more. The light of the torches was reflected in his dark eyes and the deep silence made his mystical voice echo in the entire chamber.

“
This citadel was once home to a guild named the Fellowship of the Devoted. Some people think it was them who built this citadel, but the truth lies elsewhere. The Devoted were in fact a fellowship of dragon slayers,” Aedan announced.

“
Dragon slayers?” said one of Maren's secret-keeping house mates in a highly doubtful tone. “That's impossible, dragons don't exist. It's nothing but a myth.” Clearly, she only believed in what she had read from books and what was generally considered a fact.

“
Trust me, they do exist,” Aedan contradicted. “And I could prove it to you as well, if I wanted you to end up like a heap of dust. They're closer than you think — it is them who roam the Ragnan streets at night.”

There was a long silence. It wasn't easy for the children to believe such an absurd idea, even though Aeadan  seemed to be completely positive.

Lars recovered first. “Are you... are you sure?” he said with his voice shaking. He shuddered thinking that the large, cold-blooded and deadly lizards truly existed.

“
I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true. I have seen them with my own eyes,” Aedan said, pointing at his eyes to stress the seriousness of his words. “But unfortunately, it seems that no one else has seen them, so I can't expect anyone to believe me. It is said that those who saw them didn't live to tell others about it, but they overlooked me because I was transformed into my animal form. It happened the very same night of the attack at the police station.”