Resistance C52: Academy

Resistance
Chapter 52: Academy

At least the last two hours of the drive were uneventful, and I rolled up to the gates of the Academy early. How did I know that I was in the right place? Simple. It was a sprawling complex next to the city, with the words, ‘Riders’ Academy’ painted to the left of the gate in big block letters.

The little I actually saw of it actually consisted of nothing more than a bunch of wide and low building, probably housing, arranged in a radial pattern around what was most probably the main building. The building in question was best described as a rather tall cylinder, with what looked like large balconies on which dragons and presumably their riders would come and go from.  Everything looked to be constructed from the same pale tan stone, even the walls, which were actually quite high.

I ended up waiting at the gate, with the engine in neutral.

After what felt like an eternity of staring at the black metal gates, I realised that it would be prudent to actually try knocking. Once I made sure that my handbrake was engaged, I went up to the gate and realised that I was an idiot. You don’t knock on a gate.

I stood there for a while, long enough to watch some humans and presumably their dragon companions walk past. Some of them shot me strange looks, but no one bothered to offer any advice. Fed up, I went and shut the vehicle’s engine off before sitting at the back and chewing on what was left of the snacks that I had brought along. It was getting dark anyway. Perhaps they would open the gates at sunset.

As I mused and chewed on my food, I didn’t quite notice that a dragon, in his quadruped form, had plonked himself next to me. I only actually realised that I had company when his snout blotted out the sky.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, or scales whatever. “What?! Where’d you pop out from?”

The dragon grinned, his bronze scales glinting in the sun, his green eyes twinkling with laughter. “Took you long enough, o queer one.”

I huffed. “Point taken, and just for the record, I’m not queer.”

His grin widened. “You’re a dragon that uses wheels and does not fly, smells of humans and wears clothing. You even lack the common sense to shout to the gatekeeper to have the gate opened for you.”

I made a face. “Well, in my own defence, no one told me that there was even a gatekeeper. Besides, what’s wrong with wheels?”

He prodded one of my wings with a brown claw. “You have wings. You’d do well to use them, young one. Now, do you want me to open the gate, or not, hmm?”

“Considering that I’ve been sitting here like an idiot for hours, yes please.” I replied, slightly miffed about having the dragon poke fun at me. In the meantime, I clambered back into the drivers seat and started the engine.

The dragon invited himself in and sat in the passenger seat. “I expected you to be taller. Proceed.”

I gazed up at the huge gate pointedly. “It’s still not open.”

“Once we approach, it shall open.” The dragon replied, “Or do you wish to sit here all day?”

An autogate, albeit with magic. Not bad, actually. I put the brake down and put the vehicle into gear. “If you say so, but if I smash into the door, you’re repairing this thing.” I remarked, smirking at the still grinning dragon. He was beginning to remind me more and more of a fairy tale character.

“I have walked and flown through these gates countless times, friend, but never have I gone through while moving nigh a muscle…” He added as I revved the engine and we moved towards the gate.

True to his word, the gate actually did open on its own accord. I simply shot him a smile. “That’s technology for you. Do you need a ride anywhere?”

The dragon chuckled and pointed to a field right next to the wall, with a good view of the gate. How could I have not noticed that earlier?!

“Might as well, since you’ll have to wait there anyway. Thank you, and good luck with your training. Someone will be along to pick you up.” He added, and I complied, parking the vehicle on the street as the dragon himself disembarked, resumed his quadruped form and laid down on the grass. “They should dispatch the person on schedule; which is at sundown. You still have a bit of time to finish your food.”

I nodded and reclined in my chair, while chewing on the last morsel of food. The dragon produced an appropriately sized book out of nowhere and began reading. He had obviously been told to expect me, that much I gathered.

Considering that I was a dragon sitting in a rover chewing on a sausage and playing with the steering wheel with my feet, it was safe to say that I received a number of stares, though no one actually approached me. The Gatekeeper noted my slight confusion and explained that no one was supposed to talk to the new people till they had been processed and such. I ended up lying in the back seat, watching the sky go dark for a lack of a better thing to do. I actually somewhat missed Fenek’s constant nagging a little, since there was no one to talk to, considering the fact that the Gatekeeper fell asleep, with his snout on the book no less. This was probably his retirement job or something.

Out of boredom, I started to fiddle with the cushioning on the back seat, knowing that below it was a storage compartment. I ended up unceremoniously dumped onto the floor of the rover as the entire thing came loose and slid off. I looked inside the compartment to find an AK complete with a sling, together with four loaded magazines which were already in pouches. Closer inspection revealed a note from Victor, which read ‘just in case’. I chuckled while extricating myself from the footwell and latched the cushioning back on.

By the time anyone actually turned up, the sun had just vanished beyond the horizon. Another dragon, this one orange with red highlights and a white underside and horns. His eyes matched the red of his scales. By then, I was lying in the back of the rover with my feet dangling out one end and fiddling with my pistol. I glanced over and saw him, so I holstered my weapon and got up.

“Are you by any chance here not to ignore my existence completely?” I remarked as I clambered back into the driver’s seat.

The dragon nodded, so I started the engine and motioned for him to take a seat. He simply walked over and gestured down one of the main avenues. “It is dark, Tano’rath. Perhaps it would be wiser to walk.”

Drak’rrth had been busy. They even knew my dragon name.

I made a face and flicked on the headlamps. “Not a problem. I brought my own lights. Where to?”

The dragon reluctantly got in and I showed him how to fasten the seat belt. “You are to report to the administrative centre, in the main building, the one in the centre. You should see the entrance once we reach the building. We should proceed down this road. Is this thing supposed to teleport us there?”

I snorted, holding back a laugh. “I wish, but what it can do is to get us there fast.”

“It looks heavy and makes so much noise. I doubt it. Nothing can go faster than us dragons.” Came the dismissive reply.

I put the vehicle into gear and gunned the engine, careening round the bend and onto the designated road. “Then allow me to give you a lesson in speed. Just straight down, eh?”

The dragon gave me an unimpressed look. “This is hardly very fast, and yes, the entrance should be at the end. Is there anything that can be done about the noise?”

“No.” I replied, changing the gears and gunning the engine even more. “But speed I can give you.”

That drive was fun, and I probably gave the dragon the ride of his life as I swerved all over the place to avoid random humans and dragons that would land out of nowhere. I was quite sure that I ended up on two wheels a few times too, but hey, you don’t usually get to play with the steering when you’re going at over a hundred.

By the time I stopped the vehicle in front of the entrance, the dragon had visibly paled under his scales. I took the chance to laugh my head off at him as I shut the engine off. “Well, I’m sure this lesson has taught you many things.”

The dragon stumbled off the vehicle, but gave me a mad grin. “Perhaps it has. What magic does this use? Wind?”

Twirling the key on my finger, I smirked, “Magic? No magic. All just precision engineering. Now, am I supposed to bring anything in?”

The dragon was too busy staring at the rover. “Impossible!”

“Trust me. I’m an engineer myself.” I replied flatly, “Can you answer my other question?”

“Bring all your weapons, and anything else of note.” He replied, prodding at the bonnet.

“Alright. You know, I can show you how it works if you want.” I replied as I fished out the rifle and added the magazines and their pouches to my belt.

“Show me? No. It is outlawed to practice such blasphemy. I do not wish to invite trouble upon myself, but I thank you for your offer. Are you ready?” He replied, shaking his head.

I slung the rifle over an arm and adjusted my pistol a little. “Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”

As the dragon led me in, he prodded my rifle with a claw. “Is that what I think it is? I’ve heard rumours about weapons like these. They are…scary.”

This guy was obviously a civilian, probably clerical staff or something. I adjusted the weapon a little. “If you’re referring to it being a gun, which is old world technology, then yes.”

Of course, standing in front of the building proper allowed me to appreciate how huge it was. It would have been interesting to look at the blueprints of the thing, but knowing the dragons, they probably had no idea what a blueprint was.

I was led through a rather nondescript door into a rather spacious room. The room itself was full of tables and chairs, all arranged neatly into rows. I was brought to one and asked to sit down and wait, while the dragon himself went to get the paperwork for me to fill.

No matter how backwards they were, they still had paperwork. Impressive.

However, their idea of paperwork was just a bunch of blank sheets of paper. On one, I wrote my name, the town I came from, gender, etc. On another sheet, I had to write in Fenek’s details. On the last two sheets, the dragon had sketched rough diagrams of my equipment. I initialled on them to acknowledge that those were mine. They were supposedly to identify my equipment if anything got lost and such.

The only hitch was that I had forgotten to give my dragon name again, which was remedied rather quickly.

The dragon went off with the paperwork, asking me to wait again. He came back a moment later with a very badly abused sword, and an extremely smelly helmet. I took the former and declined the latter, much to his amusement. “You should have gotten your own helmet before coming over. Are you sure you won’t take this one? I know it smells bad, but it will provide protection.”

I stuck out my tongue in disgust at the smell. “I’ll pass. The smell will probably kill me first.”

He put the helmet away. “As you wish. I am to bring you to your housing. Do you wish to use your machine to go there?”

“Of course.” I replied, as we exited the building, “Anything else for me today?”

He clambered into the seat, fumbling with the seatbelt. “I will arrive at dawn tomorrow with more instructions. You will most probably join one of the classes with the other newcomers.”

I reached over and helped him out, once I had tossed the rifle to the back. “Alright. I’ll…probably still be asleep. Was on duty yesterday.”

As I cruised down the road, the dragon shot me a curious look. “Duty?”

“Glorified guard duty basically.” I replied, “We have to keep our own towns safe too, you know.”

Surprise. “I thought you led the insurgency?”

“It’s a group effort. Being a commander doesn’t make you immune to duty anyway.” I added, as he pointed me down a small road, and eventually came to a stop at one of the low buildings.

“You shall be staying here whenever you come for training,” He said, pointing to the building itself, “There is a bed for you and your companion, along with amenities such as a kitchen. You provide interesting company. I must say, I expected quite the opposite.”

“I get that a lot. Thanks, and see you in the morning.” I replied, smirking as I shut the engine off. “Oh, you forgot the keys…”

“The door will open on its own for you and your companion alone, unless you decide to allow guests. I shall see you in the morning.” With that, the dragon took a leap and was airborne. He was probably heading off for the day too.

Grabbing my rifle and car keys, I walked to the house. True to his word, the door slid open upon my approach. There was indeed a walled off partition for the bedroom, and presumably a toilet. I dumped my rifle on the table, tossed my belt with the pouches onto a chair, and went to bed. As an afterthought, I took my pistol and plonked it onto the bedside table.

Drained from the events of the day, along with the fatigue carried forward from the duty the previous day, I drifted off to sleep in relatively short order.