Inferno drifted over the trees before angling upwards, beginning to pump his wings hard as he could to lift them upwards. Cody lay in the saddle without the leg straps, using only the handle of the saddle to hold him up. He could feel Avalsmokes’s large hands, clinging to his waist for dear life. But upon glancing back, he saw that his friend was only thrilled by the ride, completely amazed to no end.

            The forest below sped away at an unimaginable speed as they climbed. Soon the leaves on the ground were only flecks of dust, and soon after that they looked like a thick, solid blanket coating the grass. The sun was beginning to skim the very tops of the tallest mountains, though it would still be at least two hours before nightfall. Nevertheless, the beams of golden-orange sunlight licked at Inferno’s scales and shone beautifully on his dark hide.

            Then the dragon swerved around in a full circle and, despite his immense speed, dropped lightly onto the ledge of a massive cave. With his wings still spread, only a small portion of the floor was filled with his large shadow as they came to a perfect stop. The sunlight lit up the first dozen yards for them to see clearly, but the end was filled with dark shadows of unknown. In the sunlight, the three could easily see little bundles of dried leaves and massive feathers, some as long as a few feet. In the little bundles were stones, anywhere from one to five in each one, all a different color or drastically different shade of the same color.

            “Wow,” Aval said in amazement as he looked around at the nests. “I wish Autumn had agreed to take me to the Cave of Hordes long ago, this is amazing!”

            The Cave of Hordes was a pretty misleading name for where they were. It was more of a monstrous cavern, larger than most of the other caves Cody had seen in his life. The “horde” was the name used for all of the precious dragon eggs that rested in their nests inside the cave. Each one held a baby dragon, just waiting for its destined rider to come along and release them from their shells to begin a lifelong journey together.

            “Come on and look at them,” Cody encouraged, sliding down from Inferno’s back while he still stood.

            Aval seemed to want to prove himself brave and attempted the same feat, swinging his legs around and sliding down after his friend. After he slid about a foot, however, he seemed to regret it and spun around, reaching for the saddle again. But it was too late, and Cody watched as his hand latched on to one of the shadowy black scales on the dragon’s body. It sliced through Avalsmokes’s hand immediately, leaving the man to slide down again anyway.

            Cody ran over to his side, “Aval! Are you alright?”

            His friend shook his head and slowly stood before answering, “I’m fine. I’m not leaving now, after I just got to this beautiful place!”

            The rider sighed as Avalsmokes ran over to a nest, looking as excited as a child surrounded by sweets of all kinds. Oddly enough, the nest he chose wasn’t the closest. The nest he went over to had three eggs nestled inside, looking very similar to each other. One of them was orange, another a rusty brown, and the last was the color of pure gold, its shell gleaming magnificently in the sunlight. Cody watched in horror as his friend picked up the gold one in both hands to stare at it more closely.

            Cody jumped forward and slapped his hands, making him drop the egg haphazardly on the cold stone floor. It rolled a few inches and stopped, displaying a smear of scarlet blood that marred its perfect beauty.

            “Are you insane!? Who knows what could happen with that egg. We know nothing about it, and you could have broken it or hurt the baby inside,” Cody scolded his friend.

            “Dragons eggs can only be damaged by powerful magic, beyond the capabilities of even our worst enemy, I’m sure,” Inferno commented, but Cody ignored him.

            Avalsmokes looked very guilty and answered sadly, “I didn’t mean to do anything to it, and it’s just…amazing.”

            “It’s gold, to anyone in our village it would look amazing!”

            Aval looked sorrowfully down at his feet and said, “I’m sorry, I’ll wipe off my blood quick.”

            “There’s no need,” Cody explained with a sigh, “Dragon eggs absorb blood so that they can test a person and see if they are its rider.”

            Sure enough, the blood slowly vanished as if it seeped into the earth and Aval’s eyes widened as he asked, “So, it’s learning all about me right now!? That’s so cool!”

            “Come on; let’s go before we get into trouble. I’m sure it will be fine there: I don’t want anyone touching it again,” Cody said with a shiver as he began walking back towards Inferno.

            “Cody!” Avalsmokes suddenly shouted as he tackled his friend in alarm.

            Cody pushed Aval off of him and growled, “What is it? You don’t have to go and tackle me like that!”

            “But the egg, it moved!” Aval shrieked in fear, Cody’s worries obviously getting to him. “Oh Cody, I must have hurt it somehow, you were right.”

            But Cody just watched the golden egg with interest. A sly smile tugged at his lips and he pushed Aval back towards it, feeling his heart about to explode out of his chest with amazement and glee. Avalsmokes hadn’t hurt the baby dragon at all. In fact, he had caused just the opposite to happen. His suspicions were confirmed when the egg began to do an oddly familiar rocking motion, very faint but definitely moving. Inferno seemed to realize what was happening as well, so he settled next to his rider and watched the egg with proud interest.

            The egg continued to shake for a minute or two longer, Aval seemingly unable to move even an inch the entire time. Then, a cracking sound flowed through the silent cave, echoing slightly off the walls as a tiny snow-white talon poked out of the egg. It withdrew for a moment, and then another crack split the air and a tiny golden head emerged, followed by the beginning of a long neck.

            The dragon hatchling was even more brilliantly golden than the eggshell, if that were even possible. It had short but thick horns that curved backwards slightly, exactly opposite to Inferno’s own horns. The ridges above its eyes had small spikes protruding from them, and a tiny trail of similar spikes flowed at a sharp angle from the base of its muzzle down its long neck. Inferno’s spikes stuck almost straight out, but the hatchling’s practically laid on top of its skin with their angle.

            Soon the rest of its body slid from the shell, breaking it many more times along the way. It was a stunning gold from nose to tail-tip. Its body and build was very similar to Inferno’s but the hatchling had a wing-like fin just behind her wings, nearly half the size of the leathery wings. It also had a fin at the end of its tail, almost as large as the other fins. Its eyes were hazel, a beautiful mixture of the stormy blue that Inferno possessed in his own eyes, but with the faintest traces of lush green, the hue of a beautiful summer day.

            Everyone was speechless as they watched the dragon hatchling. Its curios eyes focused on Inferno for a moment before it turned to Avalsmokes and stared at him for several heartbeats. Then slowly, ever-so-slowly, it padded up to him and leaned towards him. When their faces were only an inch apart, the dragon let out a soft sound like a growly purr and rubbed against its new rider’s check affectionately.

            Avalsmokes’s eyes widened in amazement and he slowly said, half to himself, “She’s…magnificent.”

            The new rider reached out and tenderly ran his muscled hand over the hatchling’s long body, going slow enough to be able to feel each individual scale and even trace part of her golden-yellow wings. She stared back at him with the same interest, and Cody realized with a start that they were having their first conversation together, as dragon and rider.

            “You didn’t talk to me as soon as you hatched,” Cody complained to his own dragon.

            Inferno chuckled in his thoughts, “We were both a bit confused. You were terrified of me, and I was scared you wouldn’t accept me. I decided to test you and ran out into the forest. If you followed, and you did, I would know that you would accept me.”

            “So you lied when you said you were hungry?”

            “To be fair I was actually hungry,” Inferno teased, slapping his rider playfully with his massive tail. The noise seemed to draw Avalsmokes and the dragon hatchling’s attention away from each other and they looked at them with more interest.

            “I can’t believe it,” Avalsmokes told Cody breathlessly.

            Inferno’s rider stepped forward and settled beside his friend right in front of the hatchling dragon and said, “How do you think I felt? I had thought that dragons were almost extinct, and I had no clue that Inferno’s egg was anything but a rock.”

            “A marvelous rock it was,” Avalsmokes said as he nudged Cody’s shoulder with his elbow. “But what should we do now? I was going to go back to town, but this little girl changes everything!”

            The little dragon walked up to Cody and took a big sniff of his shirt before it wrinkled her nose in disgust. She waddled quickly away to the opposite side of her rider and peered over Aval’s pant leg at the strange man, its eyes greenish-blue sapphires as it watched him curiously. Avalsmokes reached down his hand and trailed his finger along her spines, looking as if he had done it a million times before.

            “What should I name her?” the new rider asked suddenly, looking confused.

            Cody shrugged, “A little while after Inferno hatched I had a dream that helped me decide his name. I think you will get some sort of sign that will tell you her name. But I know one thing for sure: the name she is destined for will suit her perfectly. As for what you should do now, I have no clue.”

            Inferno nudged his rider’s shoulder with his scaly nose, “We should speak with Argos and Heyrone. They undoubtedly know what should be done, and they aren’t too far away.”

            “Good idea,” Cody told his dragon. Looking at the other dragon and rider he said aloud, “I’m pretty sure she won’t be able to fly for a little while. Would you two like to ride with us to Heyrone and Argos’s cave? We can ask them what you should do.”

            “You go, we can wait,” Avalsmokes said, staring intently into his dragon’s eyes with wonder. The horns on the little dragon’s eye ridges twitched for a moment as it seemed to be communicating with its rider. Then, “Fine, I suppose it’s the best idea.”

            Aval slowly stood, leaving the golden dragon alone before he walked over to Inferno. The little creature slowly followed, never taking her eyes off Inferno’s as she walked awkwardly over to his side. The black dragon watched her stop for a moment right beside his scales as her rider climbed up. Cody could hear the faintest echo of her thoughts in his mind.

            “Will you allow me to go with you?”

            The black dragon closed his eyes for a moment and nodded, opening them again just in time to see the golden dragon clamber up his hind leg, her slick claws scraping uselessly against his hide. Before he knew what he was doing, Cody grabbed her forepaws and hauled her the rest of the way up before resting her in the saddle between him and Aval. Her talons immediately clung to the black leather, leaving little tiny furrows in the seat.

Inferno carefully crept over to the entrance of the cave and swung his head around in the air, gazing carefully at the sunset before slowly unfurling his massive wings. Each one stretched out to twice his length. His muscles rippled with tension as he prepared, more slowly than usual, to leap from the ledge. His neck twisted to the left side so he could get a good view of the nearest mountain. Cody knew that he was looking for clues to tell him if it was exactly the mountain they were looking for.

With a careful leap he burst into the air, his wings catching the wind instantly and bringing them all gently forwards. He dipped his wings the tiniest bit to the left and angled him and his passengers around the right side of the mountain. He was slow, and much more careful than he normally was. He countered the effects of the vicious mountain winds with ease and gently drove them downwards until the massive cave came into view.

“You’re being cautious for her, aren’t you?” Cody asked, a smile tugging at his lips.

Inferno choked back a snort and replied simply, “Of course, I don’t want her to fall. I would have to dive down to save her and your little friend would go flying along the way. At least one of them would probably be smashed.”

Cody didn’t fully believe it, but simply rolled his eyes as they continued downwards in a gently spiral. He would have crossed his arms as well, but he wasn’t willing to let go of the spike in front of him for fear that he might fall. A few minutes later, Inferno stopped spiraling and flew gently into the mouth of the dark and monstrous cavern. It was even larger than the Cave of Hordes, and carried the faint smell of mold and dust, making it appear uninhabited. But Cody and Inferno knew better, and soon they were proven correct by a surprised voice.

“Cody? Inferno? We weren’t expecting you for some time. What are you doing here?”

Heyrone hobbled out, looking as frail as always, even though he had the slightest sparkle in his eyes that spoke of adventures yet to come. Then his orange gaze noticed the golden dragon and her new rider sitting on top of Inferno silently. Cody could tell it was the first time seeing the elderly rider for both of them, and they were obviously fascinated by him.

“She’s magnificent,” Heyrone commented as he looked deep into the dragon’s eyes.

“How did you know she was a girl?” Avalsmokes asked as he slid from his perch to land beside the rider. Though he towered over the dwarf, it was clear that he wasn’t the stronger person.

Heyrone looked at him with humor gleaming in his eyes. He stretched out his arm to the golden dragon and for a moment she returned his gaze. Then, surprising the two humans, she slid smoothly onto his arm and rested on his forearm like a falcon, though she was being careful not to dig her claws into his flesh as she stood.

The older rider smiled and brought her slowly closer to him, running a hand from her brow to her tail-tip as he spoke, “There are several ways to guess the gender of a dragon. By looking into her mind I could sense a sort of grace that even the most noble of male dragons do not possess. But if you wish to honor a dragon’s privacy, there are other ways to find out. Not all dragons have horns on their brow, but when they do, a male’s always sticks straight out or with the slightest of curve. A female’s are slanted backwards almost until they are flat. A female’s eyes and scales glow more prominently, her claws are shorter and curve more, and her tail is thinner but longer.”

When he finished, he brought his arm over to Avalsmokes and the golden dragon slithered onto his shoulder and laid there, her long golden tail draped over his arm and her head straight at the height of his hair. Aval’s fiery eyes gleamed with excitement, showing how impressed he was with Heyrone’s knowledge of dragons.

“I can see that for whatever reason you are here, it does not concern Cody and Inferno,” Heyrone said. With some authority he added, “You can go to your cave, it’s almost night and you need your rest.”

“But-” Cody began.

Heyrone halted him immediately, “I expect you here at dawn tomorrow to begin training. We’ll go easy at first because of your injuries, but within a week you’re going to be begging for more opportunities to sleep.”

Cody sat still on Inferno’s back with his mouth still open as he debated arguing anyways. Thinking better of it, he slammed his jaw shut and did an awkward little bow before urging Inferno towards the end of the cave again. No one said a word as the black dragon leaped into the sky, but the rider could feel all three pairs of eyes, and possibly a fourth, watching him as they went. As soon as the cave mouth disappeared from few he threw his fist into the air and closed his eyes tight as he had a silent cheer of victory.

“We’re finally training tomorrow!” He told Inferno excitedly.

The dragon shot him a toothy grin before answering, “Yes we are, but Heyrone was right; we should get a good night’s sleep tonight. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be harder than you think.”