Page 6 of The Commons

Water clouds my eyes, fear sprints through my veins. Somebody remind me why the heck I am here? Levon, why did you have to come to this bloody deathly school?

“You have two options,” the creature says. “One, run. You’ll have three seconds. If you do, you fail this test.”

Crap!

“Second option. Stay. Fight. If you win, you win my heart, Gaski!”

Gaski? Why is it calling me that?

The monstrous red tosh flying around begins to tick louder. One second… I push my feet, but I can’t move. I exhale, tense. Two seconds… The door opens. But I still can’t move. But something else is happening. Something within me stops me. A feeling telling me that I have to fight it. The Commons mascot—something about it makes me think Levon is within it, like conquering it would somehow retrieve her. This sounds so strange and borderline delusional, but something in me is pulling me toward that monster and my feet are gravitating toward anything but the door.

I now realize I can move.

No, I should run, this is stupid.

My feet rise to sprint to the door, but just as I do, the door slams shut. Pesh’s eyes collide with mine from the distance. Crap. This was stupid. I should have escaped when I had the chance.

The dragon stomps on every light switch, making it darker with every step. It picks me up and throws me to the floor, slamming me against the wall, my armor banging to the ground. Yeah, there’s no way I can fight this beast. I have to think. Fast.

But this place is so dark. I need to turn on the lights in order to see, while the animal seems to see in the dark. Before I can get back on my feet, it charges at me. I dive under it, running to strike the light switches on the floor with my feet. The light shines, but the monster does not stop. The dragon reptile charges again, its mouth wide open. Its dagger tongue and spiky teeth cover my vision. Then suddenly, a splash.

“Rraagh!” it roars as a sudden flash of light flusters it.

I can see the door clearly now... and it’s open. Just as I sprint toward it, Pesh raises his hands, stopping the fight.

My eyes widen in confusion.

Suddenly, he walks into the stadium, whispering in my ear, “I thought you knew better.”

“I—”

“I thought you were smart.”

“P—”

“Why didn’t you run?” He stops in front of me.

“I did. I… It didn’t let me.” I catch my breath.

“It didn’t let you?” He draws close, edging up on me, examining me, somewhat puzzled.

“No.” I exhale, keeping my eyes down, fingers falling back to the wall.

“Must have been a glitch,” he says, casually drawing back. Then suddenly, he looks at me again. This time, his figure covers my view completely. His voice lowers. “You can’t tell anyone what happened today with the Common Dragon. Everyone will assume that it picked no one, as it always does.”

What does he mean? All the Patrons saw it.

“Why did it pick me?” I look up, confused.

“Like I said, it was a glitch. Something about the system, something about your brain made it want to fight you, defeat you, crush you.” He eyes me as though trying to read me. “No one can know that you faced the Common Dragon even for a second and escaped without a scrape. The proctor usually translates the dragon’s desires into words. She must have made an error in translation this time. If anyone knows, I’ll have to fire an innocent civilian. You don’t want that, do you?”

I shake my head.

“Good. The one who the dragon reptile chose. Yet the question remains, why?”

“Why what?” I deflect on his doubt. What is he talking about? I thought he said it was an error.

“Why would anyone want to fight such a thing?” he says, stern, as though commanding me to expose myself. “The proctor usually says one will be picked. It says that to test reaction speeds. No one has ever wanted to fight the dragon reptile. Until you.”