That night Cody dreamed again. He wasn't Dreamwalker, but his dream was certainly unusual. He saw the realm of the dragons and their riders, and everything looked a bit different. There was a deep moat around the entire territory, fed by the mountain rain and lake water to form a vicious current that wrapped around the mountains and neighboring forest. Most of the land had been overgrown by the forest, but Cody caught glimpses of fur as wolves raced about under the cover of the trees. It was very cloudy, but all of a sudden a chaos of dragons flew into view out of the cloud cover and landed on different mountains near each other.

The biggest dragon was white as freshly fallen snow, a stark contrast against the steadily darkening clouds. Sitting in the glimmering golden saddle on his back was a woman, her hair lighter than fresh milk. The dragon's piercing yellow gaze roved over the land as he took it all in, looking for the intruding presence that Cody gave. Finally the eyes locked on the clouds beside Cody and narrowed as the sound of roaring dragons was heard.

Above the din, a man on the back of a ruddy orange dragon screamed at the top of his lungs, "Wheats! Grains! Assorted Vegetables!"

And before Cody could find out what had happened, he awoke abruptly, chuckling as soon as he did. That's when he remembered where he was and shook off the memory of the dream as he looked around the dark room.

"What's wrong now?" Cody heard Avalsmokes ask wearily from above.

"Nothing, just woke up laughing for some reason," Cody answered as he lifted his hand and felt the bottom of a second bed.

Only seconds later, Cody heard a pair of snores interrupting what would have otherwise been a silent space. Remembering that Thoughtful had told them to meet him in the library in the morning and that he said it was possible to guess the time, Cody figured he'd give it a try. He closed his eyes and imagined being outside in the chilly air of winter. What came to his mind was the sun peeking over the horizon, giving off long tendrils of crimson light that forecasted a storm.

Nevertheless it was morning, and Cody intended to arrive as early as possible to the lessons with Thoughtful. Then he thought of the sleeping forms of Aval and Omen near him, and decided not to wake them. Instead, he rose tenderly to his feet and snuck towards the door as best as he could manage with the sleep-addled memory guiding his steps. With luck on his side he soon found the door and carefully opened it, slipped out into the torch-lit tunnel, and closed it again.

Cody glanced at the massive door to his right, and decided to wake Inferno. "Inferno?"

"We are awake," came the dragon's weary reply. "Destiny awoke some time earlier and Thoughtful told her that we would not need to be present for the beginning of his lesson, and we are not allowed to wake our riders."
"Why not?" Cody asked curiously.

Inferno chuckled in his thoughts before answering, "Thoughtful said that he wanted to see who would wake earliest. He suspected it would be you, but he was still curious if it would, in fact, be you or not, and who would wake after you."

"How did Thoughtful talk to Destiny?"

There was a brief pause before the gold dragon answered, "I had sought him first. He is waiting for you now; go to him."

Cody nodded, though they couldn't see him so he said "Alright, tell him I am on my way."

"He knows," Inferno said. "Now go, don't keep him waiting on your first day!"

Cody smiled and raced through the tunnel as fast as his legs would carry him. It took only a minute for him to reach the end, and when he did he threw the door open, jumped through, and closed it again. He jogged to the opposite end of the massive, colorful hall at an easy pace to regain his breath and paused at the door to the library. When his breathing was mostly steady and deep, he opened the door and entered.

Sitting in front of him, alone and at the table from the day before, was Thoughtful with parchment, quill, and ink. He seemed not to notice the newcomer as he wrote on the parchment with intense concentration, but after a moment he gestured to the seat in front of him for Cody to sit down, to which Cody obliged.

After some minutes passed, Cody asked, "What are you writing?"

Thoughtful smiled up at him and seemed to finish whatever he was writing and pulled several other pieces of parchment from under the table before setting them on top of the first. There was a pleased gleam in his eye as he pushed the pile over to Cody and the rider gazed upon the paper with the smallest of script written below drawings of dragons, each and every piece. But they weren't just any dragons.

"Is that-?"

"A complete description of what has happened since the dragons went extinct, as much as could be gathered from my sources."

Then Cody recognized the dragon on the first page to be a very young version of Argos, standing at the entrance to the Cave of Hordes, where all of the dragon eggs were kept. Prominently in the first nest were three eggs, one black, one white, and one glittering as if made of gold, obviously the eggs of the three other dragons. On the following page was a beaten and bloodied black dragon with a white one towering over him. The page after that had the black and gold dragon flying side-by-side over the mountains, and the last had a picture of a massive unknown-colored dragon with the white, staring down the mountains at the glimmering lake.

"I'm afraid I didn't have enough paper to write down your adventure, nor would I like to write it, yet. There will be much more to tell after you've finished your training, that's for sure," Thoughtful said, taking the pieces of parchment back and stowing them inside a book for safekeeping.

Cody was amazed by the amount of detail that was put into them, though he couldn't read the strange writing on the pages. "What did you even have for sources?"

Thoughtful shrugged and answered, "Mournful was a big help, but Inferno and Destiny pitched in where they could too. There is much that isn't known about Argos and Heyrone, but for now this should work."

"How is Mournful?" Cody asked, realizing he hadn't seen her in over half a week.

Thoughtful replied, "She is not as accepted as some of us hoped, but she is making the most of it and is keeping busy with many different tasks. We haven't heard much of her in the past few days either."

Cody decided that as soon as was possible he would find a way to see her, but for the time being, "What do you need me to do?"

Thoughtful looked at him suddenly, as if he wasn't expecting the question. "The plan is that we do whatever we want until the others join us. Then I will give you some instruction into our social hierarchy and essential everyday mannerisms that you may not have noticed. After that, we will have a test of what skills you posses so far. But me and the other mentors have decided that training with the traditional method won't be quite as convenient for riders. If you are as advanced in your training as we hope already, we can advance you to the second rank and you can begin basic training in the other areas."

Cody couldn't hold back the smile that pried at his lips as he thought of the possibility of all the things he would learn, which reminded him of something. "Thoughtful, why can't any of the dragons breathe fire? I've never even seen Argos do it, but I read a book with Inferno that said that a dragon should be able to breathe fire after being only a month old."

Thoughtful returned his smile before answering, "All dragons have the ability to breathe fire with a special gland at the back of their throat that releases a sort of gas that turns the air in front of them into fire. That is why you will see some dragons shoot smoke, but only by using magic can they actually ignite the smoke and provide the step that sets the air itself ablaze. It is the easiest of all magics, easier even than your born skill."

"How unusual," Cody said after a moment as he thought about it.

What came to his mind was an image of an ordinary campfire, but instead of using wood for fire, the strange new flames used the air for fuel instead. But what would stop the fire from expanding to all the air around like a log fire would do to start a forest fire? Cody had no idea.

Just then, Omen stumbled into the room with chest heaving, short of breath as he bowed over and tried to regulate his breathing. Cody failed to hide the smile on his face, but the ex-blacksmith took no notice, hobbling into the room as he gasped for air.

"Surprising that you should be here before the dragon rider," Thoughtful said with a tone of humor in his voice.

Omen gasped several times as he tried to speak, but after a minute or so he finally chose to speak with his mind, "There is more to me than you may imagine."

"I dare say so," Thoughtful said. Turning to Cody he added, "I told Destiny to wake Aval, and she and Inferno and Ashheart should come to join us shortly. I will explain the plan to them when they arrive."

Cody nodded and Omen staggered over to the chair on his right, his breathing becoming slightly deeper gasps as he regulated his breathing. A few minutes later his breathing was almost completely even once more, and Avalsmokes burst into the room. He appeared to have a more even breath, perhaps keeping a steady pace on his way.

Thoughtful pointed Avalsmokes into the chair on Cody's left and explained everything that he had said to Cody those minutes before, which earned him several fascinated questions and comments similar to Cody's own from the dragons, humans, or even wolf.

"Is that all you have to ask of me?" Thoughtful asked after a moment. When everyone nodded he moved on by saying, "Alright, then I suppose we had better get to the lesson I have been eager to teach since last night. It is not particular fascinating, but it brings you one step closer to our culture. Cody, will you stand and join me?"

"What do I do?" Cody asked as he stood and faced Thoughtful, who also stood straight and tall.

"Imagine I am the king of one of your human cities. In your culture, how would you greet me if you were anything less than royalty yourself?"

Cody lips twitched in confusion before he put a hand over his breast and bowed low to Thoughtful, putting his other hand out in a very exaggerated but fluid movement. In return, the Dreamkeeper put a hand to his own breast, but instead of bowing he brought his hand out, and as he did he slowly made a fist until the fist was fully formed about a foot from his chest.

"That is how I would normally answer any sort of respectful greeting from anyone," Thoughtful said. "However, if I were to greet someone above me, I would do this." Thoughtful had his fist against his breast again and brought it out like before, but flattened it into an open palm, the motion almost looking as though he had thrown something at Cody from an angle. "And if I was greeting someone lesser or equal to myself, I would do this." He kept his hand open while he did the same motion, the entire time.

"It's a bit confusing," Aval said rather quickly.

Thoughtful smiled. "Indeed it would appear so, but there is a story that we tell to help our children master it. When meeting a better, you grab a piece of your heart and offer it to him. He will accept your heart with joy and add it to his own, that your courage and loyalty prepare his heart for protecting his people. But when you see someone lesser or equal, open a path to your heart in friendship, that you may be honest during your meeting and lies will not pass your lips. Try it now among yourselves. Pretend that Cody is a king and you are but lowly peasants."
Cody smiled at them and waited for his friends to approach, when Aval mumbled just loud enough to hear, "Take a piece of your heart and offer it to him."

"And he will accept your heart with joy and add it to his own, then protects his people," Cody stumbled over the last bit as he put a flat hand to his chest and pushed it towards Aval, ending in a fist.

They repeated the action to each other, each pretending to be the noble king, and then took turns using the completely open gesture with opening the pathways to each other's hearts. It was not long before Thoughtful appeared greatly satisfied by their progress.

"Excellent job! Wherever you go and whoever you see, I would like you to practice using these greetings. If you're not sure who is above you, wait for them to make the first move, and if they don't, treat them as nobles to make them feel honored. I doubt anyone would be offended by being treated equal to a dragon rider, but if anyone does think that they're better than you...well, let me just tell you that it's not a good idea to go around making enemies," Thoughtful explained, earning a nod from each of his students.

"Master," Inferno began, "Is there anything tat us dragons can do to greet others?"

"Yes actually. Avoid directly speaking to anyone you don't know well. As far as an actual greeting goes, a puff of smoke or scraping your horns on the ground will be a good way to greet anyone, above or below you. Ashheart, you may bow if you wish to greet someone, but it will not be asked of you," Thoughtful explained, earning a nod from them all. "Now we can learn the social structure of our kingdom."

Thoughtful went over to a desk on the far side of the room and returned with a few pieces of square parchment in hand. Using the quill and ink he already had, he made several very faint lines on each piece and pushed them toward the middle of the table, where everyone could see. On each of three pieces he drew a tiny circle at the bottom and drew a square at the bottom of the last piece before pushing it aside.

"Now imagine each of these little dots represents all of you combined after you finish training," Thoughtful said. "After achieving the fifth rank, which is all you will have to go through, you will be full-fledged members of our society. From there, each of you has three options. Work as a warrior or guard; work as a hunter, gatherer, or any of the slightly more menial tasks; or work as a neutral force, which a very large majority of our people does. As a neutral force you would be assigned different tasks that you must complete each week or month."

On each paper Thoughtful drew another dot on the next line to represent the different positions, then cast two aside for the time, apparently deciding that they weren't helping, and he added two more dots next to the second.

Thoughtful turned the picture so they could see it a bit better. "From there, there are even more specific jobs that you can choose, and with each level it gets more complicated. If you stay in the middle, in this neutral zone, you are generally thought of as above the basic workers that chose the more specific jobs, but only people with specific jobs can lead that area. For example, I chose to join a profession, and then went specifically with teaching. I was always thought of as lesser, but then I became leader and I now have the freedom to teach any neutral person.

"The same goes for war commanders or lead hunters or whatever other kind of leader you can think of. In the midst of battle the war commander can command anyone he or she wants, while the neutral people can never get that kind of command unless directly given by the queen. In an average scene the war commander is above me, I am above the neutrals, the neutrals are above hunters, gatherers, and farmers, but the hunters, farmers, and gatherers are above war commanders."

"I'm still confused, and I don't know what I want to choose, it's still so far away, "Aval pointed out as he bit his lower lip in worry.

Thoughtful sighed, "It's okay, we'll go through it a bit more and I'll move on to the more advanced things."

For the next two hours Thoughtful explained some very complicated parts of society concerning who looked down on whom, while reminding them that no one is really treated as lesser to begin with as far as the greeting went. Then, using the sheet with the square at the beginning, Thoughtful described royalty specifically, and then added it to the confusing mix of overall structure. By the time he was finished, everyone's head hurt, even the dragons' and wolf's and especially Thoughtful's for having to teach it all and repeat himself so often, since his students had not grown up knowing the structure as well as Dreamkeeper children.

"What are we going to do now? It is still two hour to noon!" Cody asked after a brief break.

Thoughtful sighed an answered, "Now we will eat a late breakfast and call your other mentors to assess your skills in combat, working as a team with your companion, and magic."

Cody felt his skin crawl at the word magic. With luck, he and his friends would reach the next rank and even be able to begin their magic training as early as the afternoon that very same day.