The first golden rays of dawn shone gently on the silvery-grey stone lining the walls of a large cavern. The light failed reach the end of the cave, which was filled with deep, dark shadows. On one side of the cavern a man laid, still sleeping through the glaring light. A moment later, he let out a moan and turned away from the light, his jet-black hair falling into his face.

            In the back of the cavern he heard a loud breath, closely resembling a growl but much deeper. He slowly sat up and opened his eyes, his liquid blue gaze scouring the cave for the source of the noise. His bare legs and arms were covered in raw, half-healed wounds that made him wince as he moved. A long dark line moved across the floor, making a small scraping noise before disappearing into the gloom.

            In the black, there came another scraping noise, followed by a loud growling. Two blue eyes gazed at him from the shadows. A large paw cloaked in thick black scales emerged from the darkness, four sharp white talons sticking from it. Slowly the eyes came closer and out into the light, revealing a long head about a yard long with two large horns sticking out from its head, curling forward slightly. It slowly left the shadows and the long scaly body towered over the man, the dragon being twice his height at the shoulder.

            “Good morning Inferno,” the man said to the dragon with his thoughts.

            The dragon lowered his head and nuzzled the man affectionately. “Good morning Cody. How are your wounds?”

            The rider looked at his arms and legs and shrugged, replying, “They still hurt a bit, but I’m feeling much better.”

            About two weeks earlier Cody had been kidnapped and dragged for miles in bare feet while a wolf dragged him along by his arms. By the time he had reached his cell he was left with wounds that bled heavily. He could have died if he wasn’t saved soon after by his dragon and several people that he had been traveling with before then.

            “Are you sure you’re alright?” Inferno whimpered.

            “It feels like little more than a scrape. In a few days I’ll be ready to battle a horde of skeletars.”

            The black dragon let out a rumbling growl of laughter. Skeletars were the skeletons of animals that died long ago, but certain magicians could summon them to do their will. Cody had found himself fighting one such magician and nearly getting himself killed because of it. He doubted he could fight even a single skeletar even without his wounds, but he was feeling almost completely better. He had spent the past two weeks exploring his new home, the Hidden Mountain Pass, also called Mrana Akano Furista.

            “Where should we go today?” the dragon asked as he yawned again.

            Cody thought for a minute before answering, “We’ve only explored the caves since we’ve been here, and we’ve seen nothing of our friends the entire time.”

            “Where are Autumn and Micah? I’m sure Omen and Avalsmokes wouldn’t let her live without them.”

            Cody nodded, answering, “I don’t know where they would be, but you’re right. Perhaps we should ask Heyrone and Argos?”

            Aval, Omen, and Autumn were people that Cody had grown up with his entire life, Avalsmokes and Autumn being twins about his age. Micah was Autumn’s dragon, and Argos and Heyrone were an ancient dragon and rider that Cody had only met recently when he came to Mrana Akano Furista. Cody looked up and saw that the dragon seemed to agree with his plan.

            “That shouldn’t be too difficult,” Inferno said as he shook himself. “They live in a cave at the base of this mountain, right?”

            Cody nodded. The black dragon led the way to the mouth of the cave and crouched down so that his rider could climb on. Cody fingered the saddle that he had made himself soon after Inferno’s egg hatched before hauling himself into it. He quickly and easily bent over and strapped his legs in. He wasn’t good at clinging to the dragon’s sides with his legs and feet in such poor condition and he wasn’t willing to risk further injury.

            After he was strapped in he looked at the reigns that were attached to the neck spike in front of him and the saddle’s handle. He quickly decided to hang on to the reigns and Inferno approached the edge, preparing to take off. Without warning, the dragon spread his wings wide and leaped into the air, diving almost straight down as he did.

The sunlight glittered off his scales as they flew towards the ground below. Cody felt the usual thrill of riding and watched the ground speed towards them. Then Inferno tilted upward slightly and the wind caught in his wings, driving them up again a short distance. The dragon’s aim was almost exact as they landed right in the entrance of a massive cave, many times the size of the one they had been sleeping in.

Cody peered inside but could see nothing in the darkness of the cave. Then a fire sparked to life and he saw Heyrone the dwarf standing over a large fire, making Cody wonder if he was expecting them. Beside the fire was a massive dragon head, the blue scales and white horns were dancing in the firelight. Argos had a horn sprouting on his nose and two more on his head much like Inferno’s but a bit more curved. His eyes were the color of the sunset, showing orange warmth. The width of his head was easily as large as Inferno’s entire wingspan.

“Were you expecting us?” Cody asked as he and his dragon settled beside the fire.

Heyrone chuckled before answering, “I could read your thoughts and knew you would come. If only you were ready for training, I could teach you some tricks like sneaking into a man’s thoughts, how to tell if someone is in your head, or how to deceive someone who is reading your thoughts.”

“I only hurt physically; surely those things wouldn’t hurt because of my injuries?” Cody asked.

Argos let out a rumbling laugh and his rider answered, “It might, but you have a point. Avalsmokes, Autumn, Omen, Ashheart, Larson, Pippi, and Mora are all living in that small town beside Lake Firesword. Perhaps you could try to read one of your friends’ thoughts. I recommend you don’t try Omen or Autumn though, they will probably notice and get offended.”

Cody nodded, “Thank you,” he said as he turned to leave.

“Cody?” Heyrone said. “You should also know that I expect a little more respect from you. In training, I can’t help you if you consider us equals.”

Cody felt heat rush to his cheeks and he quickly turned and bowed low to the older rider, tripping on a loose stone as he did. Feeling more embarrassed than ever, Cody scrambled to his feet and climbed into his dragon saddle.

Heyrone stopped him one last time, saying, “Oh and I almost forgot, happy birthday.”

“Thank you,” Cody answered with surprise. He had completely forgotten after so long about birthdays entirely. He realized with dread that Omen, Aval, and Autumn would try to make such a big deal of it.

Inferno chuckled as he began flying, “So how old are you now?”

“Just…stop,” Cody begged, wincing.

He didn’t want that day to turn into some big and important memory simply because he was getting older. It seemed like everyone needed time getting used to their new home and the last thing they needed was a big celebration over how many years he had been alive. What was the point? Inferno had only been born a few months earlier and he was easily just as smart and skilled as Cody was.

“It is important,” Inferno argued. “Maybe celebrating will be a good way to accept the fact that we are a part of this place.”

“Fine, but I’m not going to bring it up if they don’t notice at once, okay?” Cody asked.

The dragon grunted his reluctant agreement as the soared over the forest that stretched throughout that part of the valley. Ahead loomed a massive lake that Cody now knew was called Lake Firesword. Nothing about it resembled fire or a sword to him, but it deserved a great name. From their height that they flew, Cody couldn’t even see the other side. Anyone who didn’t know any better would probably guess that it was an immense ocean that ran through the mountains like some strange river.

In a few minutes Cody could easily see the village near the lake. There was one building about twice as long and twice as wide as Inferno with somewhere between 12 and 15 small houses, best described as huts, forming a rough almost angular circle around it. Inferno gently glided down to the ground a few yards away from one of the huts. That was when Cody noticed a small window on the hut with two little children in it, watching them.

A second later the kids disappeared, running out the door fearlessly and stopping only a yard from Inferno’s feet. One of them was a girl, looking to be 11 or 12, with long, curly chocolate-brown hair and little brown freckles on her rosy cheeks. Her hand was holding the hand of a boy, probably eight years old with hair that went down to his shoulders in even bigger curls than his sister’s. Cody noticed that the boy had a little green dragon toy in his other arm, looking ragged and dirty with age.

“You’re pretty little Mr. Dragon,” the boy commented.

The girl pulled roughly on her hand, only glancing at her brother for a second before looking back at Inferno. Cody laughed as he slid from his dragon’s back and landed next to the boy, startling him slightly.

“I bet you’re used to seeing that big blue dragon a lot of the time,” Cody said, enjoying meeting another human, even if he was young.

The girl replied for him, “Mama says Argos has lived in the mountain forever and he will always be here to protect us. Will you be here too?”

Cody didn’t have to think long before answering, “Yes. Inferno and I will always be here to protect you from anything that tries to hurt you. What are your names?”

“I’m Rebecca and this is Kenya. Do you wanna meet our friends?” the girl asked.

Cody looked up in surprise to see at least a dozen more people of all ages watching him. “Sure.”

Rebecca let go of her brother’s hand and dragged Cody over to the crowd. She announced a number of names: Daren, Alexa, David, Dylan, and Devon. He realized with some surprise that the girl’s “friends” were as young as two years old or even older than he was, but she seemed to care for them equally. Then again, he was a little less surprised when he saw how small the town was. As she went into detail about each and every one of her friends, he decided to take Heyrone’s advice. He stretched out his mind and sought her thoughts.

Autumn said to bring him to her if he ever came, the girl thought and Cody easily heard. “Autumn said you should come see her,” Rebecca announced when she was finished, making Cody smile when he realized that he must have really read her thoughts.

“Where is she?” Cody asked as he let himself be pulled away from the crowd.

Rebecca answered excitedly, “She’s in the Hall of Heroes.” as if that meant anything at all to him.

Nevertheless, he followed her without question as she skipped through the town, the neutral expression once on her face beginning to turn into a large grin. He soon realized that she was leading him to the larger building in the heart of the village. He also noticed that Inferno was still standing exactly where he was to begin with, urging his rider to keep on going without him.

So Cody entered the building behind the girl, feeling her hand slip away from his as she skipped through the small door. It was white both inside and out without much detail, but inside there were numerous paintings of dragons. Large groups of them together, or several of them individually, or even a small group of young riders.

For some reason Cody found that he enjoyed the picture a bit too much. Being a rider seemed like such a serious thing, but the five riders in the picture looked like lifelong friends that would just seize the opportunity to play a prank on another or make mischief together at every opportunity. The only other rider his age was Autumn, but he hadn’t even seen her in two weeks. He wanted a friendship that the riders in the picture had, where their dragons brought them closely together.

Shrugging off his longing he followed the girl to the end of a very short hallway before turning through a doorway to enter a larger room. He felt a smile begin to tug at his lips when he recognized all of his friends that had accompanied him on his journey through Semiones. Some of them had saved him, and some of them he saved, and he felt genuine friendship with all of them. Even if they weren't all riders.

 “Cody!” Autumn shouted in surprise louder than the others.

            Micah, her white dragon, shone brightly in the light that flooded in through the many windows from where he sat, comfortably on her shoulder with his long tail curved halfway around her neck. He sat silently, just watching Cody with his uninterested yellow eyes. His wings twitched at his sides, but then he lost interest and turned his head away towards the others. Cody noticed that they had all been sitting around a large table before he had come in.

            Suddenly, something pushed on Cody’s back, hard. He fell to the ground under a massive body and was instantly pinned by the weight of it. A moment later he heard a sniffing right next to his ear and felt soft fur brush against his cheek. Summoning as much strength as he could, he rolled to the side and the gray wolf tumbled off of him.

            “Nice to see you too Ashheart,” he said to the wolf as he stood. He looked at the others and gave a small smile before saying, “It’s nice to see all of you, too. What are you doing here? How have you been doing after so long?”

            “It hasn’t been that long,” Larson said simply, twirling a knife on the wooden table with his finger.

            Autumn shot him a glare, briefly revealing a long pink scar that started at her eyebrow and ran all the way down to her jaw, an injury that Cody had caused himself. The man instantly stopped the knife and slid it into a sheath that was hidden underneath his coat. Aval came forward and hugged Cody briefly before backing away again.

            “We’re trying to decide what we should do now,” Omen answered, only taking his gaze away from the table to shoot a welcoming glance at Cody.

            The rider found himself looking at the white dragon again, and asked, “Why is he still so little? When I saw him before, he was the same size.”

            Autumn smiled, “Heyrone says it’s his special skill, to shrink and grow at will.”

            “Special skill?” Cody asked confusedly.

            “He’ll tell you later,” Autumn said. “But it’s so nice to see you!” She flew at Cody and gave him a big hug, claws digging into his shoulder as the dragon fell forward slightly and caught himself on Cody.

            The riders pulled away from each other, Cody rubbing his shoulder as they did. “It’s nice to see you too. So what exactly are you doing again?”

            Pippi came towards him and pulled him over to the table where Omen sat. It was obvious that she was an elf, with pointed ears and blond hair that had rivers of dark purple flowing through it in long streaks. Her blue eyes were focused on the table that Cody soon realized had a map carved into it, two of them, in fact.

            Pippi’s best friend, the human named Mora, strode forward and pointed to the one on the right, explaining, “These are two maps, of course. This one is a map of Semiones, and this,” she pointed at the other, “is a map of Mrana Akano Furista. We’ve been meeting every other day at around this time to try to figure out where we should go now. I can’t decide what I should do. Semiones is my home, but now that I’ve been here I don’t know if I could go back to a simple human life.”

            “Wherever she goes, I go,” Pippi said, still looking at the map.

            Autumn added quickly, “Micah and I are staying in the Pass. Argos and Heyrone have promised to train us if we do.”

            “I have to stay with my sis’,” Aval said, looping an arm around Autumn and nearly pushing the white dragon right off her shoulder.

            “I would go to Semiones, but I don’t have a home there, “Lars said, subconsciously spinning his knife again. “Besides, Heyrone said I can live here long as I like and not have to work, as long as I’m willing to defend it.”

            Cody realized that Omen was glaring at the maps as if he had seen something no one else had. He didn’t even seem to realize what was going on with his green eyes focused intently on the table. After a few moments he looked up and noticed everyone staring at him. He straightened a little and looked at Cody.

            He cast a glance at the others, saying, “Do you mind if I talk to Cody alone for a minute in here?”

            It looked like the others were going to argue, but Cody saw something in the blacksmith’s eyes and told the others, “Go ahead, we’ll only be a minute.”

            He was surprised when everyone paused for only a moment, and then left. Autumn was the last one out, casting him a quick glance of concern before walking out the door and shutting it firmly behind. Cody sighed with relief and looked back at Omen, only to see that his eyes were lit with wonder and fascination.

            “Come, sit by me,” Omen said as he pushed a stool out from under the table on his side.

            Cody couldn’t figure out what was hidden in his tone, but he slipped around the table and set himself gently on the stool. His friend’s eyes were focused on the maps again, but they never moved. They were fixed on one point that the rider couldn’t figure out. They were silent for a while before the blacksmith looked up at him again.

            “Don’t you see it?” when Cody shook his head the older man continued, “Look at the map of Mrana Akano Furista, vast mountains that occupy a massive world. From the viewpoint on top of one of those mountains you can see the opposite end of Firesword Lake, right?”

            “Right,” Cody said slowly, unsure of where the conversation was headed.

            Omen’s grin widened and he said, “Well, look at the map again. What do you see about the lake?”

            Cody rolled his eyes and did as he was told. Almost instantly he was alarmed by what he saw on the map. The lake was only the length of his hand before it disappeared off the edge of the map, when that map alone was three feet long and four feet wide. He recognized some of the key points on the map and knew it wasn’t right.

            “That’s only a tiny fraction of the lake!” Cody announced. “But I can even make out this tiny town next to it, almost as big. What does that mean though?”

            Omen grinned hungrily at the map as he replied, “The area past that is unexplored. Heyrone himself told me that every single race likes to explore and map out their surroundings until every inch of them are covered. I’ve spent all of my free time looking around and have found nothing more about this world than our little tiny area. I even went to the elf and dwarf towns at the very edges of this map and found the same thing. There is no record of Mrana Akano Furista outside this map.”

            Cody felt dread creep into his heart in an icy sheet. “So even the riders in Heyrone’s time never explored that area?”

            “We can be the first!” Omen announced proudly, standing straight up with a grin.

            “There must be a reason they haven’t explored it,” Cody said. “Maybe they were too scared of what might lay beyond the borders? What if they have explored it, but the rest of the map was destroyed? They wouldn’t destroy it without good reason.”

            “What do you mean?” Omen asked, his excitement beginning to fade

            Cody gulped and explained, “I think there’s something Heyrone doesn’t know, or something he isn’t telling us. I think there’s something out there we should be afraid of.”