Chapter 1
Starlight was fairly certain that this would be the best Magic Festival in the history of Zarmalia. That may have just been her biased opinion; it was finally her turn to use one of the Jewels of Magic to get her powers. Her magic wouldn’t actually develop until she was older, but even so, she was SO EXCITED. Even as the Sky Dragon princess, a.k.a. next in line to rule all of Zarmalia , she had never even gotten to TOUCH one of the jewels. Apparently, nine, even though it was almost ten, the age that you were allowed to use a jewel, was “not old enough,” as everyone had kept telling her last year. That, in her opinion, was ridiculous. But now that she was ten, there was nothing her mother, Queen Moonglow, could do to stop her. So there, Mom!
She was pulled from her thoughts by a sharp voice. “Starlight! Are you paying attention?” Starlight rolled her eyes. Ash, her teacher, was just about as dull as they could get. Ash was a Flame Dragon, and when she was not yelling at Starlight, she was giving Starlight long, boring lectures on things two-year-old dragonets would know. RAWR.
“You know,” Starlight said, “you’re supposed to address me as ‘Princess.’” She didn’t actually care about this, but she did care about annoying Ash.
“I can address you however I want, Starlight,” Ash said. Starlight was sure that Ash added her name at the end of the sentence simply to aggravate Starlight further. “And,” Ash continued, “I asked you a question. Explain to me all of the dragon and elf types and their abilities.”
This was one of those things that two-year-old dragonets would know. The one advantage of Ash lecturing her on this was that Starlight could daydream all she wanted.
Starlight sighed and began. “Flame Dragons are red, orange, or yellow, and they can create and control fire. They live in the Fiery Desert southeast of here.”
“And,” she said, shooting a meaningful glance at Ash, “they’re really good at boring me half to sleep.”
“That is quite enough, Starlight,” said Ash. “I do not need your commentary or opinions. Now. Wave Dragons.”
“Fine. Wave Dragons. Blue. Create and control water. Breathe underwater. Live in the Sea of Foam. Is that better?”
“Well, it’s not excellent,” said her teacher, QUITE rudely in Starlight’s opinion, “but it’s what I’ve come to expect from you. Go on.”
Starlight figured she’d better just get this over with. “Wind Dragons are pale blue, purple, or white, control the weather, live in the Foggy Mountains, have feathery wings. Ok, Life Dragons. Green and brown, talk to animals, live in the Forest of Leaves.”
Then she smiled for the first time during this test. There was a lot to say about this last one. “Lastly,” she said, admiring her own scales, “Sky Dragons, like me, are white with blue wings and gold claws, horns, and spikes. There’s only one line of them, the Royal Family. My family. They’re all female and they’re awesome and they’re super smart and they can make more Sky Dragons without a mate and they live here in the Celestial Palace where we are now. Obviously. And did I mention that they’re really quite intelligent?”
“All except you, apparently,” Ash replied.
Starlight scowled at her and then continued. “Also, there are elves that correspond to four of the dragon types. They have the same powers and live in the same places as the dragons. But there are not, and never have been Sky Elves. The End.”
“There is one type that you are forgetting.” That was the other problem with Ash; she never complimented Starlight.
“Really.” Starlight said, rolling her eyes. There was another one, but she didn’t think that they were real. But fine. Ash would force the information out of her anyway. “And the mythical Dark Elves. The stories say they feed off the magic of living things, leave all plants in their path withered and dead, create wildfires, tsunamis, and lightning storms, and some can kill with a touch. But they’re not real, so nothing to worry about.” She said this last part more to reassure herself than anything else.
But she pushed all thoughts of Dark Elves out of her mind. Tomorrow would be the Magic Festival, and nothing could go wrong.