Chapter 25

            Silence. During their travels, Cody and Inferno had gotten all too used to it, but it didn’t change the fact that it was even worse now. They seemed to be travelling further north and further into the cold and barren world where birds were becoming virtually nonexistent. All that Cody ever heard for quite a long time was the harsh wind that whipped past him, only seeming to pause just long enough to nip every exposed patch of skin on his body before continuing on its destructive path.

            Since everyone in their party was only familiar with one other being, Mordon and Mora kept silently to themselves and therefore left Cody and Inferno to sit in their own familiarity bubble. Mora seemed as though she would have been talking her head off under normal circumstances, making her seem even more like Autumn, but as it was she seemed too awestruck but what she had discovered. She seemed to be wanting to just shuffle through her own thoughts for a while, which Cody could respect since he had felt the same countless times before. Mordon was a complete enigma, however.

            The guard seemed to be rushing along beside the dragon and his sister while giving everything no notice. He hobbled along the path, often with his arms crossed in front of his chest whenever he shot the shadowy dragon a glance, which was unusually often. It seemed to Cody that his only thoughts were of the dragon, and walking. He didn’t appear to care about where they were going, or anything around them, just that he was going somewhere. Occasionally Inferno would return a hostile glare, but his rider merely hoped that Mordon would see through the fearsome outer mask and find the tender, loving, gentle being beneath. The dragon also seemed to be slightly insulted that his rider was focusing so much on his soft side.

            “I may be soft and gentle, but I do also have a beastly side. Don’t think of me too softly,” Inferno told Cody, shooting him a serious blue stare to prove how serious he was.

            The rider, suddenly very confused, replied, “I thought you wanted to be seen as a bit more softly.”

            “I can’t describe my feelings very well I guess. I want to be seen as a dragon with a soft and caring side for those that are my allies, but I also want people to know that my enemies will be destroyed without a second thought. I may be gentle, but remember that I’m also a dragon, which means I wasn’t given natural weapons and armor without reason,” Inferno huffed.

            “Why are you so hard to read all of a sudden?” Cody asked.

            Inferno thought for a moment before answering, “It isn’t a very sudden thing, in fact it has always been this way, but until now you have just been too excited about being a rider to notice. It’s actually improving at a miraculous rate.”

            “Then what is going on?” the rider asked with concern. “I thought dragons and riders were supposed to be able to read each other easily.”

            Inferno snorted, “Sort of. It all has to do with the strength of our bond. The main problem is that I can’t read you very well, and since I’m still a pretty young dragon I rely on you a lot to provide me with correct behavior. My life relies completely on our bond.”

            “So?” Cody asked, not seeing his point.

            “So, my behavior depends on how well I can read you,” Inferno explained. “Basically, I’m not as strong as I could possibly be physically or mentally. As our bond gets stronger, I will be able to understand myself better, and the same goes for you. Neither of us is quite ready to completely give ourselves up to the other. Over time we will grow closer to each other until we will be one and our bond will strengthen, and when that happens we will be stronger individually but our power will always depend upon each other and our bond. I think that’s as clear as I can make it for now, do you understand?”

            “Not really,” Cody said, his thoughts swirling.

            “I don’t know much about it either, just that until our bond gets much stronger, we won’t be very strong either together or apart. But you can’t force the bond to get stronger, we’re just going to have to overcome these obstacles when we get them.”

            Feeling completely unsatisfied with the dragon’s answer, Cody crossed his arms moodily and began looking around. Pretty much all that he gathered from what Inferno had said was that their connection was new and they were both trying to get used to the idea of trusting the other, and until they were both used to the idea, they couldn’t be a proper dragon and rider. He assumed this meant that the magic and power he sought as well as his dragon’s fire breath couldn’t be gained until he felt used to Inferno and the same the other way around, but it was absurd! He was already very familiar with Inferno.

He felt that the dragon was nearer and dearer to him than anything he had ever seen. Then again, after he thought about it for a moment, a tiny part of him that had long ago gotten used to the idea that he was a dragon rider, that little part of him still shamefully considered Inferno his property, not just a dear dragon companion. Part of him was having trouble accepting that he and Inferno were equals and he depended as much on the dragon as he did Cody. It scared him that he felt that Inferno was just some blunt tool for him to use as he willed, and he desperately hoped that he could overcome the feeling.

            “You will,” Inferno assured him. “Many other riders have felt the way you do now, probably even Heyrick. We just haven’t been through enough hardships to trust each other enough, that’s all. Remember that I am also affected by our fresh bond, even worse. Until our bond is stronger, I truly am just a beast, with hardly any conscience like a bear that just does anything without care. I am far more scared than you.”

            “But a lot of people expect you to be a vicious beast, no offense. People expect me to be a powerful and controlling rider, and right now I’m only a controlling rider.”

            “Lose your fears, and just focus on our tasks. Perhaps they will help to strengthen our bond, since they are the first truly difficult things we will ever be through,” Inferno said in an attempt to cheer up his rider. It worked, but only to a certain extent.

            Cody patted Inferno’s side and said, “I just can’t help it. Now I realize how truly possessive I am of you, and it scares me!”

            “You’ll be fine.”

            Cody reluctantly agreed as he continued to pat the dragon’s scales with one thickly-covered hand. Pushing his possessiveness aside, he realized how much he truly admired Inferno’s scales. While the dark hue probably would make many humans fearful because darkness often signified evil, to the rider it was his new favorite color. His old favorite color was blue, and his love of it was only strengthened by the fact that Inferno had perfect blue eyes, but after seeing how magnificent the darkness truly was on his dragon, it seemed amazing beyond belief.

He couldn’t ask for his dragon to be absolutely any other color, because black just seemed so…so much like both of them in every way. Cody couldn’t tell why, but black appealed to him just so much more after he found Inferno’s egg. It was like it was always in existence, but after seeing Inferno with it as his color, it just felt to him like something special about it had been exposed to him, making him love it so much. Even his black hair, which was very light compared to the dragon’s dark hide, was beginning to seem absolutely stunning. And then he suddenly began to wonder something.

            “Why do we have the same colors? My hair is black like your scales, and my eyes are just as blue as yours,” Cody asked the dragon.

            With an unbelievably broad grin Inferno gave his response, “I don’t know exactly. But your hair and eyes used to be a little different. Your hair used to seem like it had a little bit of brown in it and your eyes were much more green. I think your body is somehow changing to match my own so we are more similar physically, just like our thoughts are growing more accustomed to each other. Something to do with our bond, I’m sure, but my mother never addressed this topic before.”

            “Weird,” Cody said as he began to enthusiastically mess with his hair that did seem a few shades darker even though the change was slight. He began to wish that he had a mirror so he could check his eyes.

            “They are the biggest change,” Inferno assured him after reading his thoughts and craning his neck to exchange a blue, beaming gaze with his rider.

            “If only I could see,” Cody said without much further care in the matter, making them lapse into silence once more.

            The rider and dragon continued to move along the road and exchange grateful or loathing glances with their companions, no one uttering a sound. Like most times before, the rider didn’t care too much about the silence, but the fact that it was interfering with time he cared a greater deal than usual. Minute by minute, he felt that Avalsmokes and Omen were growing closer and closer to death, all because Mordon didn’t trust what he must have thought was the last remaining rider in existence, since Heyrick was completely unknown to humans.

            Cody felt that their time was short and there were only so many days before all of his dearest friends were dead. They very well could be dead the next day, or already for that matter, and who knew how long it would take Cody and Inferno to even find them. To make matters worse, chasing criminals at what seemed to be a snail’s pace, wouldn’t work. He assumed they were only walking so that they wouldn’t fall behind farther than they already were, though it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

            Shooting one look at Mordon, Cody relaxed somewhat. The guard seemed to be slightly, very slightly, more interested in his surroundings and less wary of the dragon. There was no way that he’d be able to fly yet, but at least he was comfortable enough to look at something other than Inferno. However, Cody could only hold out so long, and soon enough he’d reach a point that either Mordon would have to hop on, or him and Inferno would abandon his and Mora’s quest and start on their own. Then again, it would have been a lot of wasted time following them on foot that would only lead to both people liking the dragon and rider a little less.

            Then Cody got an idea that made him feel stupid when he realized it. Mordon and Mora said that they needed Cody’s help to get their friend, Pippi, from bandits. Nowhere did they mention that they were required to bring the two along. While they most likely knew the general position of the bandits, which was a pretty important part of the chase, Cody had come to discover that from a dragon’s-eye view the world was visible for miles.

The looters would probably choose a clearing for a campsite where Cody could easily spot them out in the open. Even in night, inferno’s enhanced night-vision would locate them nearly anywhere in the woods, not to mention the fire they would likely start could possibly be seen from a decent distance. The rider could feel his dragon shuffling through his thoughts right at that moment, seeming to notice the sudden change in his rider’s mood.

            “Not a bad idea at all,” Inferno said with increasing glee. “You are still pretty great without a strong bond, so no need for fear, right?”

            Cody glared at the back of the dragon’s scaly head, even though he would only assume he was doing so by his slight shift in thoughts. His earlier fears slowly began to creep back into his conscience.

            “Let’s not bring that up now, I just forgot about that until you mentioned it!”

            Inferno let out a snort of laughter, but he at least seemed to turn a little more considerate as he dropped the issue. Cody was surprised when the dragon stopped his walking that he had grown so used to, without so much as a single thought of protest. He turned to his dragon for an answer, but Inferno beat him to it.

            “I told you that I thought it was a good idea. I would have suggested it myself if I had thought about it.”

            Before Cody could consider how he was going to bring the topic up, Mora asked in surprise, “Why did he stop?”

            Cody ignored his slight discomfort at her not calling Inferno, as he quickly began to wonder how he would bring the issue up. He wanted to sound concerned enough so that they could understand his care and urgency on the subject, but stern enough to show that what he said was how things would happen to the letter.

Shooting one glance at the mistrusting Mordon, who shot a hostile glare at Inferno, Cody dropped all of the concerned parts that he had tried to place into his sentence and decided to come out with it, and tell them exactly what he felt with no regard for their reactions. He thought very briefly about the outline of what he would say, before he prepared himself to say it. He also braced himself for whatever would come next, no matter what it would be.

With a sigh Cody slid from Inferno’s back, feeling weird at how easy it was without having to unbuckle his legs, before he began to display his thoughts, “Inferno and I thought that it is a waste of all of our time to be walking so slowly, when for all we know the bandits could be racing away on horses so much faster than us.”

“What do you suggest?” Mordon interrupted with an angry hiss, his eyes narrowing as he seemed to already understand what was being proposed.

“Either you get your suspicious, lazy, provoking rump Into Inferno’s saddle which we so graciously offered to you after all you’ve done, or we are leaving your sorry carcasses behind to go save the elf ourselves!” Cody roared, letting his anger flow from his mouth. He didn’t like referring to Pippi as ‘the elf’, but he wanted to get his point across that Inferno shouldn’t be called ‘him’, ‘it’, or ‘the dragon’ as if talking about nothing more than a lowly rodent.

Mordon’s glare intensified, if that were even possible, but Cody held his own and refused to back down to someone as seemingly ungrateful as him. The rider’s gaze never wavered from the guard as he tried to get an answer out of him. They stood for a moment, before Mordon turned his gaze over towards his sister as if to discuss it with her. Cody followed his gaze, only to find that she had gone.

With his heightened hearing, Cody could just make out the sound of some sort fabric rubbing heavily against leather, and he turned to find Mora very cautiously pulling herself into the saddle. While Mordon continued to gaze at the spot where she had been moments before without realizing yet where she had gone, Cody watched as she paused to shoot Inferno a glance, probably to make absolutely sure that it was alright.

The dragon seemed to shoot her a tender gaze before turning his head back towards Mordon. Cody realized that Inferno had actually rested his body completely against the ground for her to clamber onto his back without trouble, before the rider even noticed. What he did notice, however, was the feeling that he was being watched. He turned his own ice-blue eyes to Mordon, who seemed to be casting a black look onto his sister that began to display his outrage rather quickly at her bold movements.

Mora seemed to notice his gaze on her as well, for she turned her head to look at him. Upon seeing his fury, her face morphed into one filled with defiance and a sardonic smile crossed her lips as she gazed at her brother. Cody quickly realized that Mora had always been mostly under her brother’s control, where his decision was final, no buts about it. And yet, she seemed to be taking quite a bit of enjoyment from her sudden rebellion, no matter how small the gesture may have been.

Whatever happened in their pasts seemed to be leading perfectly up to the point in time, with the reddening face of the guard. Along with the rage seemed to be some slight protectiveness as well, for which Cody respected, but the reaction wasn’t t all what he thought it would be.

“Get off that overgrown lizard-beast’s wormy neck before I peel you from its slimy scales myself,” Mordon said in a seemingly calm voice, but anyone who saw him would clearly understand that he was anything but calm.

The guard’s jaw worked, but Cody barely had enough time to see the movement before his vision was blocked quickly. Tim seemed to slow down as he reached for the scaly, black appendage that swung forth. All he saw was a blur, leaving him to wonder if it was a whip-like tail, that would leave Mordon looking similar to Autumn, or a leg, wing, or Inferno’s neck for all he knew. In that brief moment that he watched the shadow pass, he found himself thinking about Autumn, and he felt a deep emotional pain as his brain suddenly grasped the fact that she could, and probably was, dead.

He was pulled from his thoughts as things seemed to speed up again. Cody could only watch as Mordon sailed a good ten feet before crashing on his shoulder into the rough ground. The rider looked over to see Inferno pull his left foreleg back to its original position under his strong form, not seeming in the least bit regretful like he had been with Autumn. No, his gaze was filled with a burning hatred as he snorted in disgust. Cody could tell that he had held back his full attack, but the feeling that came through their mind link to the rider, showed him that it was still a mighty blow.

            Inferno hung his head ever-so-slightly in shame as he caught sight of Cody’s displeasure at the events, but he still looked somewhat triumphant. As the rider thought about it, maybe Mordon had it coming to him somehow. Perhaps it was meant to knock some sense into him, after he had clearly been more openly possessive about his sister than Cody was about Inferno.

            Mordon seemed to struggle to his feet, clutching the shoulder he had landed on, the left, with his right hand. He stared daggers at Inferno before releasing his shoulder and turning to face the woods. Just when Cody thought that he was going to give in and either come along with them or let them leave, he heard a sort of metallic sound. He turned back towards Mordon.

            “Cody!”

            Cody found himself stumbling backwards as he instinctively leaned out of the way, the silver sword passing over the front of his coat harmlessly, but the exact place that his chest had been before. If he hadn’t bent over, his chest would have been sliced as if he were nothing more than butter to a hot knife, killing him within seconds. As it was, he merely felt himself crashing to the ground onto his back. But if he had known anything about combat at the time, he would have realized that that did him no good anyways.

            As if on cue, he briefly caught sight of the same silver blade coming straight towards his skull, before he quickly rolled to the side in the nick of time. He turned his attention to where his head had just been in time to see the sword smash into the dirt, embedding itself a few inches into the road. He looked up to see Mordon pull it out of the dirt and charge towards him blade-first.

            “Your sword!” Cody faintly heard Inferno roar in fear.

            Immediately the rider drew his own blade, the black steel gleaming in the fading sunlight, but he didn’t notice. What he did notice was that his sword was slightly larger than Mordon’s. It was heavier so that Cody could put a lot of force behind it, and longer so that it could stretch out slightly more and make it hard to get out of the way in time. He watched Mordon through narrowed eyes, ignoring everything else as he tried to figure out what the next move should be.

            Without any warning as far as Cody could see, the guard leaped forward and attempted to stab at his opponent. The rider barely managed to pull his sword up and stop the attack, and the silver sword passed harmlessly by his right hip. But before he could react, Mordon was upon him again, slashing his sword furiously. He aimed for Cody’s right hand where he clutched his own sword, but the dragon rider pulled his hand up quickly and the guard’s back slid right by him briefly. Cody missed his chance to take offensive action as the guard twirled to face him once more.

            Then Cody noticed that he was always in between Inferno and Mordon, which the guard probably did on purpose so that the dragon couldn’t come to his rider’s aid. The two were completely on their own in this battle, and Cody didn’t have any previous experience in sword fighting of any kind. He had never even seen a singular sword in action before then, which was pretty much his biggest vulnerability and he knew it.

            Mordon lashed out with his sword once more, but Cody seemingly easily parried, sending sparks flying in all directions. The rider finally noticed his opponent’s weakness. Mordon had been walking the entire day while Cody had been resting on his dragon’s back without any energy leaving his own body. Already the guard seemed to be sweating and his attacks quickly became weaker and weaker until the shallow breathing could easily be heard.

            Noticing the same thing at the same time, Inferno urged, “Make your move!”

            Cody didn’t hesitate to do as he was told, and after Mordon stabbed into the open air where he had once been, the rider pushed him to the ground with a powerful strike from the butt of his sword. The guard landed face-first in the dirt and his weapon was launched about two feet away. He turned onto his back to stand, only to have a black blade meet the flesh of his neck.

            Mordon glared at Cody as he waited for what would come next, but the rider hesitated. He knew he wasn’t going to kill the man before him, he was simply basking in the glory of his success, even if it was bound to end that way from the guard’s exhaustion. He had defeated a man who was a fully trained warrior, at least by Morgran’s standards, and it felt pretty good. He looked over at Inferno to see that his eyes were also gleaming slightly in pride for his rider.

            “Stupid boy.”

            Cody turned back to Mordon just in time to see a thick boot collide with his chest and he fell flat on his back, his sword suddenly missing from his hands. He looked forward to see his opponent standing before him, and he suddenly felt cold steel against the side of his neck and he was suddenly being held down firmly by the same boot that had knocked him over. He had lost, and judging by the excited gleam in Mordon’s eyes he wasn’t going to live much longer.

            That’s when he closed his eyes and prepared for what would happen, only to feel the stinging cold leave his neck. Cody looked up to see that Mordon had begun to sheathe his sword, and the blade disappeared from view in a few moments with the same metallic sound he had heard before. He looked over towards Inferno, knowing how he so often had the answers, but the dragon seemed even more lost, but mostly relieved, about what had happened.

            “What are you-”

            Mordon immediately cut Cody off, “You need my help as much as I need yours. I do believe I misjudged you, and your dragon.”

            Mordon ignored the growl he got from Inferno and the glare he received from Cody as he walked past them, only eyeing his sister in dislike as he passed. He looked at the trees that surrounded them from nearly all sides and continued to walk, pacing this time. With a sigh he turned back around to face the others, his eyes filled with suspicion, but desperation at the same time.

            “Let us make camp,” he announced at last. “In the morning we will continue on dragon back, but not in flight. We still can’t trust you quite enough with that.”

            “What was the fight about?” Cody said, his mind still trying to wrap around the fact that Mordon had been more than ready to kill him, but didn’t.

            Mordon looked at Cody carefully before replying, “It would be very irresponsible for me to kill the last remaining rider, so half-way through the fight I decided that I would simply test your skills and see if you needed some mentoring. Indeed you do.”

            Cody did his best not to scowl as Inferno said, “Explain to him that we are wide awake right now, and can scout the area for the bandits or something to use for a campsite.”

            “He would never believe us! We just got him to trust us slightly!” Cody howled in protest, though he was really anxious to go for a flight.

            “I guess we could just wait for them and just sneak away for a short time, but what good would that do? If we did find something, we’d have to wake them up or go handle the problem ourselves,” Inferno replied.

            The rider looked at his dragon and rolled his eyes as he watched Mora reluctantly slide out of the saddle. She walked over to her brother and they discussed something briefly and too quietly for either Cody or Inferno to hear.

            When they had finished, they turned back to Cody, who quickly seized his opportunity, “Inferno and I could search for a clearing or the bandits for a little while. It might speed our search up a bit if we can find them.”

            Mordon glared at him, but as Mora leaned over and whispered something inaudible into his ear, he sighed in defeat, “Be my guest, but wait until nightfall when you can possibly see their campfire. In day they would easily be able to see the dull black scales of your dragon as it passed over them, and it’s easy enough to search for an open space on foot.”

            Inferno’s eyes burned with fury and he growled low in his throat at the man, smoke billowing from his nostrils. Mordon shot him one skeptical look before walking into a random opening in the forest and ignoring the dragon’s grumbling. Cody gave Inferno an apologetic smile as he climbed into the saddle, not bothering to strap his legs in and wanting the comfort of the soft leather beneath him. The dragon just followed the guard, and his sister who had gone in soon after, and he often flapped his wings mockingly, even though Mordon wouldn’t be able to see it.

            “Hopefully this will all be over soon enough,” Cody said in an attempt to cheer his dragon up as they walked.

            Inferno snorted, “If he insults us one more time, I will personally fly him right into the bandits’ camp and lave him for dead.”

            “No you won’t,” Cody told Inferno as he patted his scales. “If he can help me become a better swordsman, don’t you think it’s worth it?”

            Inferno hung his big head in defeat, still slightly aggravated by the guard’s hurtful sentences.