Page 352

"Her wings."

"Wrong."

"Tail?"

"Wrong."

"Eyes?"

"Partly."

Rhyven speaks from behind us. "Weight." The student looks confused. Rhyven points toward the dragon's forelegs. "She's leaning forward." I see it. Barely. Her chest is positioned slightly over her front limbs.

"Curious." Nyra says.

"Correct." Rhyven looks toward the student. "You retreated from curiosity."

The boy shrugs. "Better than retreating too late."

Rhyven raises an eyebrow. "Is it?" The student immediately looks less confident.

My turn comes fourth. I step forward. Slowly. The dragon lifts her head. I continue. Tail still. Wings loose. Jaw relaxed. Eyes following me. Another step. She shifts. Barely. Her weight moves backward. I stop. "Why?" Rhyven asks.

"She changed her mind."

"Specific."

"Weight shifted backward."

"Meaning?"

"She wants distance."

"Threatened?"

"No."

"Why not?"

I look again. Tail. Wings. Jaw. "No defensive expansion. Tail is still relaxed."

"Response?"

"Hold, then retreat slowly."

A pause. "Good." One word. That's it. My entire stupid body becomes pleased. Ridiculous.

I step backward. Rhyven's gaze follows me for half a second. Then he's already correcting someone else.

Station Two teaches us how not to become interesting. Apparently retreating from a dragon is an art. Too quickly can trigger pursuit. Turning your back can trigger curiosity. Moving toward another dragon can create conflict. Freezing can sometimes be worse than walking. Everything depends on the animal in front of you. There are no universal answers. Only information. Observe. Interpret. Respond. Again. Again. Again.

Station Three is chaos. Deliberately. Three dragons move through the field while students have to reach a casualty marker, retrieve a weighted training body and carry it to extraction without entering unsafe space. No magic. Of course. Because apparently magic has become a luxury our instructors enjoy taking away.

A blue male lands directly in our path. The ground shakes. Wind hits hard enough to push Cassian sideways. He catches my shoulder. "I hate them."

The dragon's head turns. Cassian immediately straightens. "I respect them profoundly." I laugh.

"Move!" Kaelis shouts. We move. The dragon's wings remain partially extended. His attention is fixed on another dragon across the field. Not us. I take left. Nyra follows. Cassian starts right. I grab the back of his shirt. "What?"