Chapter 4

The first day as a disguised human. The first day as a Stellaerian.

The first day of the beginning of everything.

"Keep your identity well hidden, white dragon," Miracle muttered, adjusting the little red bow tie on her uniform. "As long as I'm not exposed, everything will be all right."

"Miracle! You done?" Lyn shouted from the bottom floor.

"Just a second!"

As soon as she walked down the stairs, the smell of flour and vanilla extract wafted to her nose. She sniffed. It was something she wasn't used to smelling.

Hayden gestured for her to come over. Grabbing two slices of bread from the toaster, he coated each with a generous amount of peanut butter. Watching his hand move to the empty plate at her seat, only then did she understand the pieces were meant for her. Miracle pulled out the chair, exhaling a silent sigh. She wanted to refuse it. she had never had such a mortal-ly meal in her thousand years of life.

Dragons didn't eat sandwiches or drink milk; they rarely ate. But if they did, it was always fresh, raw meat.

"Miracle, you have to get used to this. All dragons sent here must get used to this," Hayden said, adding a note of stress to his voice.

She knew the point he was trying to make. To remain hidden in this world, she had to first act like a human.

"I got it," she uttered, finally taking a bite of her first-ever human breakfast.

"You'll be fine." Lyn squeezed her hand. "Dad has prepared everything for you. All you have to do is go with the flow."

It took a while for Miracle to realize Lyn was referring to the school she had been enrolled in.

"Thanks, Lyn." She smiled.

***

"Miracle Watson? You may enter now," Nancy Reed, the homeroom teacher, said as she glanced over at the entrance.

The door slid open. When Miracle saw the sea of humans in the classroom, she was taken aback for a moment. Her toes curled inside her black shoes, and her fists tightened until her nails pressed into her palms. She couldn't bring herself to step forward.

'They are the ones who killed Xiao Xun, Xue'er.' Her gaze drifted from face to face, lingering on the name tags sewn beneath their badges. 'Are they really worth protecting? Worthy of us risking our lives in exchange for their peace? They don't even believe in us anymore. Why are we trying so hard to keep them safe?'

Just before the evil thought could take hold, she saw Kingsley and Lyn wave at her.

'No, no, no, Xue'er. You're here to protect. You can only protect,' she reminded herself.

With that in mind, she took a deep breath and stepped into the class.

As if a spotlight were on her, everyone stared in awe. The boys, captivated by her beauty, held their eyes wide and unblinking, unwilling to miss a single moment of her presence.

"Hello. I'm Miracle Watson. Nice to meet you," she said.

"All right, Miracle. Let's get you a seat." Nancy slid her specs down the bridge of her flat nose and scanned around, looking for an available spot.

"Miss, over here!" said one of the excited boys. 

"No, mine is better! It's closer to the board." 

"Excuse me, who wants to see the board when you get to see the sea?" 

"What nonsense are you talking about? We aren't in a dating class, moron!" 

"Enough," the teacher cut in.

But it wasn't loud enough to keep the class under control. Grabbing the cane hanging next to the blackboard, she slammed it onto the teacher's desk, sending the decorative flowers from the ceramic vase tumbling to the floor.

"Quiet or get out."

She didn't raise her voice, but the students understood their teacher pretty well.

"How about the one next to Rex, our monitor?" Nancy suggested, holding the students down with her glare.

"Sure, sure," Miracle agreed and hurried off with no dither. Too much attention wasn't something she liked.

Just before the lesson began, Rex Long leaned closer and greeted her in a low voice, "Nice to meet you, Miracle. I hope we can get along."

"Nice to meet you too, Rex. I'm sure we will," she said flatly, brushing away the stray strands of hair stuck on her cheeks.

And the conversation ended there.

While she didn't like humans, it'd be bad to turn down a greeting from a new friend who seemed no harm. But it'd be worse to engage in close relationships with them.

Lessons went on with almost no breaks in between. Nancy Reed, the chemistry and class teacher; Sam Lee, the literature teacher; Maddie Hart, the history teacher; and a few others she couldn't remember. Spending eight hours in school listening to human logic was crap—a total waste of time. She didn't need to know how the scientific theories in this world manipulated human ways of thinking. All the technical terms and relationships—first law, second law, and whatnot—were obviously lies meant to ease, or to be more exact, to cover the reality of supernatural phenomena.

She hated them. Too ridiculous.

As soon as the final school bell chimed, Lyn quickly pulled Miracle away, and with equal speed, Kingsley grabbed her school bag from the chair. Before anyone could say anything, they hastily left the classroom.

Before her deskmate could bid her a proper goodbye.

"You did a great job on your first day, Miracle!" Lyn wrapped her arms around her the moment they stepped out of the school gate. 

"Did I?" She chuckled.

"Good job!" Kingsley patted her head, but he pulled back his hand the next second as if he realized the difference in their divine rankings. "Sorry, I..."

"When I said to ignore the protocols, I meant putting aside the status as well." She winked. "We're all the same here."

Kingsley smiled.

As they strolled down the street, Miracle and Lyn linked arms, playfully teasing their twin brother for trailing behind. From a distance, the trio appeared to be close-knit siblings rather than a dragon flanked by two half-mortals serving as her bodyguards.

Kingsley soon caught up with their pace and idly kicked the stones along the pavement. Perhaps it was the sunlight that made his high cheekbones seem more pronounced than they had the night before.

"As TinXi, we have been told to protect the dragons, to help them look after the mortals even when they're not around," he said.

"When we're not around?" Miracle arched her brow and looked at the brother.

"While the 18th year marks the reoccurrence of the bloody battle, skirmishes still happen from time to time."

"Dragons have yet to defeat the evils, but they managed to prevent them from breaking through the barrier on Syihuex Island." Lyn paused, rolling up her sleeve. "See?" She pointed at the burn scar on her upper arm. "Mynheex gave me this during a night patrol a few years ago."

Frowning, she brushed the wrinkled patch gently and asked, "Do they only come out at night?"

"As far as we know," Kingsley uttered.

"But why didn't they reveal the truth to the mortals? Mortality breaths no longer hurt them."

"True. But they're also part of the myths that humans refuse to believe. Up till now, their cultivation has yet to reach the level that can withstand the sudden outburst of those breaths," Lyn continued explaining.

"Wouldn't the mortals who survived make a fuss about what they saw?"

"They don't," Kingsley replied, muttering a curse at the stone that had nearly tripped him. "No one has ever survived a Mynheex attack."