Chapter 22

       The fear was engulfing Blackscales, but his curiosity was beginning to come over him as well. He heard the rustling once more, and could hardly keep himself from bursting away from the shelter of Inferno’s wings. But he did notice that the dragon was much less rigid than he was before, and he certainly wasn’t growling, as much as earlier. He wanted to question him, but he could feel through their mind link that there was nothing to fear. In the very least, if these people were foes, they weren’t much of a threat. Then again, the dragon could just be trying to conceal his fear.

            It finally got to a point where the rider couldn’t look away anymore, and he raced out of the cover of the Inferno’s wings and leapt a few feet forward until he was just in front of the dragon’s chest. That was when he saw the person that he assumed was leading the attack.

            She was a woman, who was unusually beautiful and walked with elegant grace as she strode from the cover of the trees. She had unusual-looking silver clothing with black trim, and she was covered with various weapons from knives tucked in her shoes to a bow over her shoulder. The first truly startling part about her was a small silver crown that swirled around her head like waves of silky, liquid metal. The crown also appeared to have a few small emerald gems in them that shone a pale green color in the autumn moonlight.

            What really caught Blackscales by surprise above all other things and relieved him to no end, was the single pointed ear that was hardly visible under her lustrous dark-brown hair with odd teal streaks running through it like a river of thread through the dark beauty of the rest of her hair. She was an elf, and therefore, an ally.

            “What a truly magnificent dragon,” The elf woman called out to them from about a dozen feet away.

            Both Inferno and Blackscales took a moment to bask in the glorious comment, pride glistening in both of their eyes, before the rider shook his head to clear his thoughts. The woman’s companions, likely elves as well, remained in the dark forest so that they were hardly visible, probably because they wanted the leader of their company to be alone with the dragon and rider for the time being.

            Finally, Blackscales got the courage to clear his throat to avoid having a raspy voice in their first encounter, and said with as little hostility as he could manage, “Who are you exactly, and why are you stalking us like this? Oh and why did you shoot at us?”

            The elf chuckled slightly, obviously unoffended by the hostility as she replied with similar grace as before, “I am Fril, the Elf Queen’s second-in-command, and sort of her military leader when it comes to battles or wars. She and Heyrick sent me to find you, and the firing at you was just a little test to see how…resilient you were.”

            Blackscales was very startled about several things she was saying, but one of them startled him most and he quickly asked, “When did they send you, and why?”

            “Heyrick told us of your injured friend, and he sent me and some of the elven warriors out to save her for you,” Fril replied, looking even more graceful and majestic with each passing second.

            “I’m sure I can bring her there myself. I really want to be with her, so pardon me if I sound mistrusting,” Blackscales replied, a little more hostility in his voice.

            Fril’s slight small turned into a frown as she said, “But Heyrick was sure that you would want to save your other companions from our enemies.”

            “You didn’t think of that, now did you?” Inferno said, contributing to the conversation for the first time.

            Blackscales crossed his arms and looked at the dragon as he replied, “No, I didn’t think about it, only because I still don’t even know who we’re fighting against, which means I also don’t know who took the others, and I don’t know where they are.”

            Inferno just snorted and looked back at Fril. The elf seemed to be silent, just waiting for them to finish their exchange before she pushed any verbal communication on them. When they were finished, she seemed to understand that their conversation was over but she still remained silent.

            Finally, after it seemed that no one was going to break the silence, Fril asked, “May I see Autumn?”

            Blackscales was a little suspicious about her, since she seemed like more of a human than any elf he had ever met, but then again, everything about her seemed authentic enough. After a quick word of encouragement from Inferno, the rider finally turned around and entered the wing fort, where he quickly saw Autumn. She was laying on the ground as if she was simply sleeping peacefully after yet another long day of travel, but everyone in the meadow knew it was far worse than that.

            The rider put his right arm under her knees, and his left under her shoulders before carefully picking her up and carrying her out into the cold, open air bridal style, with her head resting against his chest. Inferno then folded his left wing completely so that it simply sat against his side and there was no longer a space to hide from the view of the elves.

            Fril looked at Autumn tenderly before taking her from Blackscales’s arms and holding her upright, to make it look like she was standing. As if on cue, a male elf with wild dark black hair and golden streaks leapt from the forest and raced up to them. He quickly grabbed Autumn and picked her up before facing Blackscales and Inferno. They recognized him instantly.

            “Icksazro! What are you doing here!?” Blackscales shouted with glee; incredibly overjoyed to see a familiar face.

            The elf just gave him a wild smile and replied, “It was agreed among all of the elves that you would need to see someone familiar to trust that Fril and her company truly are allies.”

            “Fair reasoning,” Blackscales said with his own broad grin, and he was relieved to finally know for sure that the elves before him were friends. “So are we going to the Hidden Mountain Pass to get her help, and then going to find my other friends?”

            That was when the elves’ smiles faded slightly and both looked somewhat sympathetic. Fril walked up to Blackscales and put one of her soft, caring hands on his shoulder. Her green eyes glimmered with regret but she seemed more determined than anything.

            “You won’t be coming with us, Cody. You have to go find Avalsmokes and Omen while me and Icksazro take Omen with us to Mrana Akano Furista,” she said, the sadness and regret evident in her tone.

            Blackscales, suddenly feeling very confused, began to ask many questions, “I thought my name was Blackscales now, so why are you calling me Cody? I don’t even know who our enemies are, let alone where they are, so how am I supposed to find my friends? And…how do we even know my friends are still alive?”

            Fril looked at him with a sort of motherly warmth in her eyes as she answered all of them, “I’m sure Heyrick told you that you can basically be whoever you want to be, and I’m sure it no longer matters if you’re discovered, since you want to find our enemies anyway. I believe that it would be best if you go by Cody now, for many reasons. As soon as we bring Autumn to Heyrick and Argos, we will come back and try to find you and together we will try to find the enemy stronghold. But, knowing…him, I’ll bet your friends are still alive, but we had better find them quickly, or they won’t be for long.”

            “Why exactly should I go by Cody, and should I just wait here for you to return?” The rider asked, feeling very alone again.

            Icksazro reluctantly answered instead of Fril, “Just go by your original name and it will be easier for us to find you, easier for you to find our enemy, and I can pretty easily assume that even though you’ve grown accustomed to Blackscales, you’d probably be more comfortable with Cody again. This probably isn’t a good time to mention this, but dragon riders usually refer to each other as the color of their dragon’s scales, like you might eventually call Heyrick Bluescales, but usually only dragon riders who have equal power use those nicknames.

            “To get back on topic, you should probably have everyone refer to you as Cody, since it is just unusual for anyone except a dragon rider to call you Blackscales. I don’t even know why Heyrick brought that up in the first place. To answer your last question, it would be easier for us to find you if you stayed here, but every second you spend not trying to find your friends, is another second that they will be killed.”

            “There’s no way you can catch up to a dragon that’s flying at full speed,” Blackscales argued as he began to panic slightly.

            “We have our ways,” Fril said in reply, trying to reassure him. “We will do our best to find you, but the choice is really up to you. You can wait here until we come back in about five or six days, or you can go off and try to find the enemy stronghold yourself. We’ll try to keep up if you choose the latter, but just remember that every second is another second that your friends very well could be getting tortured for all we know.

            “You can sit here or right outside the enemy’s empire and wait for us while your friends suffer in the clutches of our foes, or you can charge in with just Inferno and try to rescue them yourself, and we will try to come to your aid. There is no knowing what could happen, so you have to make a decision, and quickly. We’ll head off immediately towards Mrana Akano Furista, and we’ll begin searching for you and the enemy empire with whatever forces we have. Meanwhile, you have a choice to make.”

            Fril pulled her hand away from him as Icksazro raced back into the safety of the trees with Autumn in his clutches. The elven warlord-like woman reluctantly drew away into the shelter of the trees herself.

            “Make a safe decision,” Fril seemed to shout as she disappeared into the undergrowth, leaving the dragon and rider in perfect silence.

            “That was sort of intense,” Inferno said, displeasure gleaming in his eyes.

            Cody patted the dragon’s shoulder as he thought about what the elves had said before he replied, “It still is. What do you think we should do?”

            “Don’t ask me,” Inferno snorted, shooting smoke out of his nose. “I don’t know a whole lot about those friends of yours except Omen. To be honest, I think we should get some good sleep for the rest of the night, and then fly at top speed to try and find the enemies. Then I think we should wait a few hours for the others to show up, and whether they do or not, we will attack.”

            “If you think it’s a good idea, I guess it’s as good as any, but how are we supposed to find them?” Cody asked, suddenly realizing how much he missed his old name.

            Inferno turned to him and said, “We will hunt down Dongoithu, or anyone else we can find that might be able to tell us something.”

            “Whatever, I suppose we can think of something in the morning, eh?” Cody asked.

            Inferno snorted and simply lay back down in reply, unfurling his left wing again so his rider could have some protection from the harsh fall air. Cody snuggled close to his dragon’s side, feeling almost relieved that they were alone for once.

            “It’s just me and you now Inferno, but hopefully it won’t stay that way for long,” Cody said.

            Inferno pulled his head into the fort and let out a puff of smoke before replying, “I won’t let harm come to those you love. We will save them before it’s too late and everything will be as it once was.”

            “No it won’t, things will never be the same whether we succeed or not, but things will be how they are supposed to be,” Cody said, just before he fell asleep.

~

            Cody awoke sometime in the early morning; perhaps an hour or two after dawn, but Inferno was still resting peacefully, blowing light smoke into the fort through his large nostrils. Fortunately, he seemed to be stirring slightly as if he would wake up relatively quickly. The rider didn’t want to force him awake though, but just wanted him to get rested up for the long flight. He sat up to get more comfortable, but that only seemed to pull the dragon out of his slumber.

            “Obviously you have no clue how sensitive my skin is,” Inferno said, not even bothering to open an eye.

            Cody smiled as he replied, “I guess not. How did you feel me move from those thick scales anyway?”

            “I’m not entirely sure,” Inferno said as he thought for a moment. “I’d assume that even though they protect my actual skin from getting hurt, I have such sensitive skin that anything touching my scales will allow me to feel it, but it will still take a lot to hurt me.”

            Cody rested against his side again, content with the answer. They remained in their positions for a while, trying to get used to being conscious again. Inferno slowly opened his left eye, and then his right soon after and there was a sort of faint, blue glow radiating from them that slightly illuminated the fort. The dragon opened his tremendous jaws and let out a rather large yawn that exposed his pristine white teeth and an unusual, scaled tongue.

            “So have you thought of a plan yet?” Inferno asked as he closed his mouth again.

            “I haven’t thought of one,” was all that the rider managed to come up with.

            Inferno looked at him with a disbelieving and dissatisfied gaze before saying, “Then I guess the choice is up to me, right?”

            Cody reluctantly nodded, curious to see what the dragon’s plan was. But to be honest, he was mostly agog to find out if he even had a plan, and whether it was worth doing, but the dragon remained silent.

            “Well what is your idea?” Cody asked, beginning to get annoyed with the silence.

            Inferno snorted as he very reluctantly replied, “I was hoping to keep it a secret, because I highly doubt that you would find it appealing. Plus, you’ll be having a pretty awful role in it.”

            “Well, go on, what is it?” Cody asked with increasing agitation.

            Inferno looked at him sympathetically before replying, “We should go back to Morgran to ask people if they’ve seen Dongoithu, since he could point us in the right direction.”

            “That’s it?” Cody asked as he sighed deeply with relief. “First of all, we can just go right past the guards, since we don’t have to keep you a secret anymore, according to Fril. Secondly, we have no clue what Dongoithu looks like, so how will we ask people if we’ve seen him, when I’m sure he doesn’t just freely give out his name to everyone.”

            Inferno growled in annoyance before arguing, “Unfortunately, they don’t seem like the kind of people that would take kindly to force being used against them, and without fire there’s no way we can take on an entire city alone. They don’t understand that we are going to help them, so I should be your absolute last resort. On a better note, all you have to do is ask people if they’ve seen a dwarf that doesn’t like to be out in the open and isn’t too social. That seems like something an evildoer would do, but most dwarves are the happiest and jolliest people you’ll ever meet.”

            Cody grumbled to himself, knowing that he had lost. He wasn’t looking forward to going back, but he hoped that he would look fearsome enough to the guards that they wouldn’t try to rob him again or fire at him. Although, Inferno’s plan was a good one, and at least better than simply flying around until they found some sort of evil-looking hideout, not to mention it would probably be hidden.

            “Should we head off then?” Inferno growled in delight upon realizing that he had won.

            Cody rolled his eyes and muttered, “I guess I have no choice. You’re lucky lives are at stake, or else I’d be taking the safest and slowest way possible.”

            “In that case, I’m glad that your friends are being held prisoner. At least now you’ll take a little risk for once.”

            “What do you mean?” Cody asked and chuckled warmly as he stood and stretched.

            Inferno grinned, baring his bright white teeth as he gave his response, “I mean, you don’t understand that life is full of risks, and you shouldn’t go out of your way to avoid them. If you did that, we would never fight our enemies at all. I’m actually half-expecting you to go back on this as soon as we find Dongoithu and realize what we’re up against. But hey, at least you have caution enough to not charge blindly into the enemy lines, that’s somewhat admirable.”

            Cody felt a little hurt and walked out of the wing fort. Inferno quickly folded his wing, seemingly relieved to have it back against his side. He then pushed his head forward slightly to nudge his rider with the tip of his nose.

            “I’m mostly joking; you are very wise to want to take the safest route,” Inferno said. “It’s just that being a Dragon Warrior is a dangerous responsibility, and oftentimes you won’t have enough time to think things through, in which case you might be left flailing about in the dark when you make the most minor mistake. I don’t mean to hurt you, I just want you to be safe, and charging blindly into Morgran with me by your side is a foolish thing to do. My point is: if you have a short amount of time to do something, think it through as much as you can and use your time wisely.”

            Cody, looking away from his dragon, felt much better at the new way he introduced his words. It still made him feel like a foolish child, but, he quickly realized that he sort of was a foolish child, in some way or another. He was very new to the dragon rider world. He actually thought that they would never return again, let alone that he would become one.

            Then he began to wonder, and asked his dragon, “Why did you choose me?”

            “What do you mean?” Inferno asked with a concerned tone.

            “Why did you choose me as your rider, and not someone else?” Cody asked, turning around to look into his dragon’s magnificent, stormy eyes.

            Inferno turned his head towards the black leather saddle on his back, indicating that he should get in it so they could leave. While Cody was busy worrying about why he should have to, Inferno grew annoyed.

            “It isn’t exactly a touchy subject; I just think that we should save this stuff for our trip back to Morgran. I think we should arrive at about dusk tomorrow, so we might need something to pass the time,” Inferno explained.

            “Fine,” the rider said as he hopped into the saddle and strapped himself in. “But why should it be so quick? It took us way longer than that to get from there to here and you were going as fast as you could.”

            Without much hesitation, Inferno spread his great, leathery wings and leapt into the sky before replying, “The first day or two we had to go at a horse’s walking speed, and after that I was very weak with hunger, if you recall our conversation last night. Now, we should be incredibly faster.”

            While Cody was worried about just how much faster, he re-asked his first question, “So, why did you choose me as your rider? Surely there are people more experienced in fighting and dragon history and history of the riders…and how to use magic. So why me?”

            “In a way, it really wasn’t my choice,” Inferno said. “I agree that you may not be ready to become a Dragon Warrior and you have a lot to learn before that happens, you were the one paired with me ever since my mother laid my egg. If it were up to me, I still would have chosen you in a heartbeat, but it was up to nature, which decided that if anyone could defeat our enemies and eventually become a dragon warrior, it was you.”

            “I still don’t quite understand,” Cody asked in slight confusion.

            The dragon thought for a brief moment before explaining further, “Do you remember the day we first spoke? I told you that I read your blood, and knew that our personalities matched, so I hatched for you. We are dragon and rider, and we hold the most ancient and special bond ever imagined. We are one being, in two bodies. It sounds cheesy and unusual, but there is no other way to describe it. I may seem wise to you, but there is very little else I can learn, while you have so much to learn about us, our past, and our future. Soon enough, you will be my perfect equal, my perfect companion, my perfect rider.”

            “Is there some sort of special group of people for…nature to choose from? I mean, do I have a special trait that made me an option, like some people simply can’t be with a dragon because they don’t have the right personality?” Cody asked.

            “Oh no,” Inferno said as he shook his head, making his body rock and his horns and spikes snake through the air. “The wild dragons are an entirely separate species from the dragons that are destined to have riders. Those that have riders have a very wide range of personalities, just like the humanoid races, and each of them has a counterpart, with an absolute parallel in their personalities. Absolutely anyone you will ever meet that’s part of our alliance, aside from the wolves that is, could possibly end up a dragon rider.”

            “Weird,” Cody said as he thought about it. “Do you think we will ever be able to live life almost like we used to; back in my home town as a sort of idle to the people there.”

            “Get your head out of the clouds,” Inferno joked. “But seriously, we probably will at some point, maybe a few years from now when our enemies are vanquished and we have finished our training. But you should learn quickly that riders don’t seek to be the leaders or to be worshipped, they simply wish to help the people in whatever ways they can. They protect the world from death and destruction, completely for the joy of doing it, and only receive rewards when it is necessary to keep everyone happy and under control.”

            “I never thought of it like that,” Cody said truthfully.

            “Why exactly not?” Inferno asked with genuine curiosity in his tone of thought.

            Cody thought for a good reply, “Among humans, it is completely honor, respect, glory, and amazing power gained from being a dragon rider. I don’t know what it was like when the dragons and riders were thriving, but in stories the role is said to be quite a bit of responsibility, but mostly a tremendous honor to be a rider.”

            “And it isn’t?” Inferno asked jokingly. “But I know all too well those stories, and I believe that they aren’t exaggerated. To humans, the rider is the ruler of a tremendous and powerful beast that is designed to do their bidding, but from a rider’s point of view….”

            “From a rider’s point of view,” Cody continued proudly, “The dragon is a companion, and neither of us is superior to the other.”

            “Exactly! When we are full-fledged Dragon Warriors, our strength will be perfectly equal. I may still be the larger and physically stronger, but you will be the more nimble and clever.”

            “I like the thought of us being equals,” Cody said.

            All the dragon did in reply was turn his head to the side and give his rider a large, toothy grin. From that point on there was little conversation, which made Cody glad that Inferno had thought of saving the questions for the flight. Then again, the silence made it so that they could both enjoy the time alone together, not to mention the terrific scenery and sensation of flying.

            Cody had grown quite used to sitting on a dragon’s back, but that was pretty much it. The feeling of immense pleasure when they dove and climbed through the sky, as well as the seemingly endless, lush, and pleasant green scenery, never faded at all. It was so spectacular, that everything just seemed flawless, and it felt as though all troubles were lost from the world forever.

            The rider clung tightly to the reigns as the dove, using every ounce of strength that he had to keep his upper half from whipping backwards into the spike behind him, and he transitioned to the large handle to prevent crashing forward, just before the dragon pulled away from the dive and began climbing into the sky. Still clutching the handle tightly, Cody felt his weight shift around as the dragon began to spiral through the air, making them slowly change their direction to downwards again.

            Inferno folded his wings ever-so-slightly, until they were in a sort of curved position, which evidently made them go much faster towards the forest below them. At the last second, only a few dozen yards from the tops of the trees, the dragon outstretched his wings again, making them abruptly turn back to their original horizontal position. At that point, they had tremendous speed and momentum going, so that the trees looked like a single green blur covering the ground.

            Using their momentum, Inferno pulled away from the trees and up into the sky once more until they were hundreds and hundreds of yards from the trees, and flying through the open blue sky. It was devoid of clouds, making their vision easier, but only slightly. They were still going at an incredible speed, which made the wind whip at Cody’s short black hair and he felt the bitter fall wind nipping at his exposed face and hands, but he ignored it. All he could smell was cold, as if his nostrils were stuffed with ice and preventing him from smelling anything else.

            Cody assumed that the dragon was weaving up and down as well as spiraling through the air simply to amuse him, but he had to admit, it was working. After hearing his thoughts Inferno did something unusual. He brought his head and tail down at the same time, and folded his wings quickly after. The result sent them spinning forward like a coin rolling on its side, luckily the spike ahead of him kept Cody from getting colder than he already was by blocking the wind.

            Suddenly, the dragon pulled out of his spiral by spreading his wings again, and it automatically sent them upwards once more. He probably knew that his rider was thoroughly impressed, so he ceased his aerial show, for the most part at least. As the early morning slowly progressed to noon, to evening, to midnight, and back to morning, they continued to fly in silence, simply enjoying the scenery. After some time, Cody began to feel inferno’s energy slowly draining from his body as he continued flying at his highest speed in the direction of the nearest town, Morgran.

            Cody had no doubt that Inferno would eventually be able to travel far faster, for a much longer period of time, but for now it was more than good enough. In that simple day, they must have gone at least 50 leagues. The rider leaned back in the saddle until  his upper back was against the spike behind him, and he just watched the dark dragon’s scales as they slithered trough the air like black smoke.

            “Finally,” Inferno said suddenly in a sort of hoarse voice, making Cody curious and concerned at the same time.

            “Finally? Are you alright Inferno?” Cody asked, sitting up straight again.

            Inferno closed his eyes wearily as he replied, “I’m sure you can’t see it, but Morgran is up ahead. I’d better put us down in a clearing before they catch sight of us. You can get some sleep, and hopefully head off for the town before sundown today.”

            “Alright.”

            Inferno quickly swooped down to the ground and dove into a break in the trees. Cody didn’t think they could make it through, but sure enough, Inferno folded his wings and crashed into the dirt path, shooting a cloud of dust all around them. He slowly and wearily walked to the left of the path for a while before suddenly crashing to the ground.

            “This is the best I can do right now, just go under my wing,” Inferno said as he stretched out his right wing, barely missing a giant birch tree as it went out to its full length. “Just try not to lean against me for once. I think I really need a good sleep, so I’m probably going to sleep well past dusk. If you need me, just call out to me and I’ll wake up.”

            Just like that, the dragon was fast asleep, making Cody chuckle. Inferno didn’t even wake up when his rider slid off his back and made his way into the protection of his wing. Cody just assumed that he’d go into town, ask where Dongoithu was, buy some better winter clothes, and return, hopefully with enough information for them to continue their journey.

            Cody lay down in the center of the fort, careful not to get too close to inferno so that he could leave in the morning without waking the dragon. While he stayed awake for a long time, unaccustomed to the unusual brightness, he fell asleep eventually, drifting into the deepest parts of his conscience without a care in the world.