5 #3
In spite of herself, Asta was impressed by the air of experience he exuded.
Most of the other boys her age were blathering idiots.
The closest they could come to conversation was quoting stupid movies to each other and making boob jokes.
But this boy actually seemed to know what he was talking about, even if his snooty tone annoyed her a little.
‘You know how to ride?’ she asked.
‘I’m a Seraphin,’ the boy said, as if that answered her question.
Asta furrowed her brow. She vaguely remembered this term from one of the dragon books she had checked out of the library, but she couldn’t remember what it meant.
‘What’s a Seraphin again?’
The boy gaped.
‘Is that what you call a person who rides dragons?’
‘I mean, kind of.’ The boy lifted his chin. ‘My family is the Seraphins. We raise dragons, and we race them.’
Asta was mortified that she had been speaking to a Seraphin without knowing it, but it was good news nonetheless. ‘Well then, if you’re a Seraphin, you can teach me. What’s your first name?’
‘Felix,’ the boy said. ‘You want me to teach you to ride dragons?’
‘I thought you knew how.’
He didn’t say anything. He was studying her. ‘You’re very persistent,’ he concluded at last.
Asta shrugged. ‘If I’m going to race at the Silverscale Grand Prix one day,’ Asta was proud to see that the name of the race registered in Felix’s face, ‘I need to know how to ride one, don’t I?’
‘Girls don’t race at Silverscale.’
Asta’s temper rose and her cheeks burned. Maybe he was more like the other boys than she had first thought.
‘Yes, they do! What about Tess Curie?’ That was one library book Asta had not forgotten.
In fact, she had read it cover to cover three times.
Against all odds, Tess Curie had won the Grand Prix – the only woman to do so in the Standard Western Class.
The book called her a trailblazer. Everyone laughed at the way she held herself in the saddle during sprints, but now, that was the standard posture for all riders.
And there were tons of other stories like that. Tess Curie was a legend.
Felix was unmoved. ‘That was a million years ago.’
‘Well, I’m going to the Grand Prix, and I’m going to win. And if you teach me, then you can brag to everyone.’
Felix smiled. It was a nice smile. The smile lines in his cheeks made little curlicues at the corners of his mouth. ‘I don’t know about Silverscale, but I guess I’ll teach you. You don’t stand a chance, otherwise.’
Asta bit her tongue. Snapping back at him didn’t seem wise. He was a Seraphin, after all. And he was her best chance of getting on a dragon.
‘What’s first?’
‘You want me to teach you right now?’ Felix looked surprised.
‘I’ve got about twenty minutes. Longer if I can get a ride to school with you. Assuming you go to school. I know you just moved in. How old are you? Maybe you’ll be in my grade.’
‘I won’t be going to the public school.’
Asta looked again at the boy’s clothes and realized that what she had assumed was stodginess was just the uniform for the private school on the other side of Medley. Her face must have betrayed her disappointment, because Felix rushed to reassure her.
‘But we go right by the regular school. My mom could probably drop you—’
‘Sweet! Then teach me something! Start talking.’
Felix crossed his arms, his face crinkled in thought as he tried to figure out where to start. He looked down at his hands. ‘Okay, first lesson, don’t touch the electric fence.’
Asta laughed. He was a funny kid, and not the bad kind. A bit of a know-it-all, but she decided that she liked him anyway.
‘Yeah, I learned that one before you got here. What else?’
Felix grinned. ‘Second, you have to learn how to feed a dragon so it doesn’t bite your hand off.’
‘Would they really do that?’ Asta’s heartbeat quickened, realizing how stupid it had been to stick her hand right into the dragon pen.
‘They might.’
Asta knew what her parents would say if they were here.
They would want her to head straight home.
If she did, she would probably never see this snooty boy again except through her telescope.
Maybe Papa was right, and over time, she would get over her dragon fever and go back to her regular life of chores and school and climbing trees.
Less danger of having her hand bitten off that way, that was for sure.
What she was doing was dangerous. She was just a dumb kid who didn’t know anything about anything.
Asta dropped her head. Maybe she should go home.
Felix turned away and walked toward the gate into the pasture.
He didn’t seem nervous at all. She was not about to let this shrimpy kid with a fancy name and shiny shoes show her up.
If he wasn’t afraid, then neither was Asta.
Besides, on the other side of that fence were dragons.
Real dragons. And if she went with him, Asta was going to get to ride one.
She might even get to fly. Her heart ached at the thought.
There was no chance she was going home now.
‘Wait up,’ she said, and followed his footsteps through the dewy grass.