Page 51 of Monster's Mystery

The stands stretched out on either side of us, all facing the Irish Sea. The arena had been roped off magically, the little bobbing buoys on the far side barely visible from the shore of the island. High above us, on either end of the arena, golden rectangular nets hovered, gently floating in a random pattern.

The only people within the space were the referees, wearing neon orange, and hovering on magic carpets. I hadn’t met the dragon riding or extreme sports education professors, so I wasn’t sure which one was which, but from what I could see at this distance, one was balding and the other resembled Professor Reynolds.

They were checking the warding and spellwork on the buoys and the nets.

A booming blast echoed through the fall afternoon air, heralding the introduction of the dragon riders.

I leaned forward eagerly, excited to get my first glimpse of these rideable dragons. They streaked into the arena from either end of the stands, our team in navy blue, and Academie Bellamie’s in scarlet red.

The immensity of the dragons still took my breath away. They were about the size of very large horses, if those horses had long tails and giant wings. The flapping of those wings thundered through the air, sending gusts of wind that set the flags whipping on their posts.

Each team did a lap of the arena, cycling between low and high. The audience roared in approval when our team swept past us, standing up and doing the wave again.

Finally, the dragons moved into the center of the arena, hovering in place while facing each other.

“It’s about to start!” squealed Una excitedly from in front of me. “My heart is pounding so hard I can barely think!”

One of the refs, the balding one, moved up between the teams, a black ball in his hands.

A whistle blew, the ball was launched up in the air, and the dragons swiftly flew into action.

The riders moved seamlessly with the great beasts, laying flat against the sinewy necks and gripping tightly to the harnesses.

Someone in blue grabbed the ball before it started falling, tossing it higher to someone else on our team. They lobbed it forward at such a high speed that I lost track of it for a moment, but obviously another rider in blue had caught it, because they wheeled their green dragon to the left in such a tight spin that it looked like a pirouette in midair.

They were closing in on the net, they took their shot...

And the goalkeeper in red swooped up just in time to catch the ball.

I expected there to be a pause for a minute while the teams sorted themselves out, but the ball was back in play almost instantly. The goalie tossed the ball in the air and executed a fancy leap from their dragon, flipping head over heels and kicking the ball whileupside down!

I lost track of the ball again, because I had to watch the goalie to make sure they had landed properly on their dragon once more.

“I thought they had tethers keeping them attached to their dragons!” I gasped, pulling on Aiden’s sleeve.

“Nah, where’s the fun in that?” he said. “Oh no, they’re going to score—”

The audience collectively held their breath as a player in red approached the net.

Our goalie dropped between them and the net, but the ball went soaring over their head.

“No!” shouted several students.

But the net moved upward at the very last second and the ball bounced off the rim, dropping down into the hands of a blue rider.

“Oh my gosh, this is really quite exciting, isn’t it?” I exclaimed amidst the shouts of approval as the rider streaked low across the water, the ball tucked under their arm.

They were moving so fast that a wake was left in the water.

Another blue player dropped in front of the one with the ball, diving below the surface a second later, and then erupting in a spray of water and taking off, the wings of the red dragon beating hard.

“Wait...” I said, puzzled. The blue rider that had the ball didn’t any longer, but was still pretending they did.

“They did a Dvorsky-Palenka Switch!” Una exclaimed, leaning back and slapping at my calf.

“A what?” I asked.

Bruce leaned over Aiden, his hands outstretched. He shook his left hand. “Okay, this one is the white dragon that was rushing the pitch—”

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