Chapter 26

            Cody looked around at the spot Mordon had chosen. The guard had obviously paid no mind to where Inferno would sleep, since the dragon could hardly even weave between the trees as he explored the spot with his rider on his back. The rider, still unbuckled as he sat leisurely in the saddle, glared at the small campfire from a fair distance in distaste. He and his dragon had wandered around for a bit until they located a small gap between trees where they could both lay comfortably, though the wing fort idea wouldn’t work quite as well as usual.

            The rider watched as Mora settled into a pile of something that he couldn’t see very clearly, but assumed was some sort of bedding, while the dragon just stared at his own tail as it continually thumped on the grass, as if it was super interesting to him. They were waiting for night to descend on them completely before they set out in their flight, and it wouldn’t be much longer. The sun had completely vanished, and all that remained to show that it had once been there were the faint, golden rays of sunset.

            “Now?” Inferno growled impatiently.

            “No,” Cody said in a disapproving tone, even though he was equally anxious to join him in the sky.

            As the light purple sky turned into a very dark navy blue sky, Inferno twisted his head to look at his rider. Cody looked to his left to see that Mordon and Mora were watching them with interest, but the man kept a harsh expression of near hatred on his face while his sister simply watched in awe and excitement. The rider buckled his leg straps, suddenly afraid of what might happen without them.

            “Now,” Cody whispered to his dragon aloud when he was finished.

            Without any hesitation, and with hardly any time spent in standing and getting his balance, Inferno leapt into the air and spread his wings. He managed to get just above the trees enough so that his scaly belly nearly skimmed the tops of them as he flew. He flew to the left rather abruptly, but before Cody could ask what was going on he had already figured it out and simply watched with glee.

            The dragon was quickly approaching the very small campsite, and making sure that his rider was holding on carefully and his legs were strapped to the saddle, Inferno twirled in a spiral-like motion, the forceful wind from his wings immediately putting out the campfire. He crashed into the very top of a nearby tree, and as it smacked his chest it broke off entirely, but he seemed to think it was worth it.

            “That’s for calling me a slimy beast and not taking the time to find an open spot for us all to sleep!” Inferno roared with pleasure, even though the person he had been talking to couldn’t hear him.

            While Cody felt slightly bad for Mora, who would suffer slightly from the fire going out as well, but it would be easy enough to start a new fire. He turned around to see Mordon shoot the dragon a glare full of hostility, before a tree blocked the view. However, Inferno’s lips were still twisted in that awkward-looking dragon smile.

            “Now unbuckle your legs and ride like a true rider!” Inferno suddenly demanded, though nicely. “If by the off chance that you actually fall, you know I will catch you.”

            Cody rolled his eyes, but did as he was told, careful to keep his balance as the dragon continued to twist and turn slightly. He quickly guessed that some subconscious part of him assumed that Inferno would pull that trick, which was probably why he had felt the sudden urge to buckle his legs. But, since the stunt was over, the urge was completely gone and replaced by excitement at the risk.

            As he undid the last strap, he suddenly felt less restricted in a new way. He wasn’t simply moving his legs around more freely, but he could feel himself become less attached to the saddle. Instead, he felt as though he were truly flying with his dragon, like the first time they had flown, and it was almost exactly twilight as well. Cody no longer felt like he was just being pulled along by his dragon, instead he had to move his body with Inferno, and put a lot more effort into riding. It was more difficult, but he enjoyed the challenge of staying on.

            “Glad you like it,” Inferno said cheerily, the earlier troubles completely forgotten. “Should we start our search though? We should probably try to find those bandits.”

            “Alright,” Cody reluctantly agreed as Inferno veered to the right.

            Inferno sped up quite a bit and pulled away from the trees slightly before asking, “Should we look for them first in the direction we were travelling with the others? That does seem like the likely path they would follow.”

            “Alright, go where you wish.”

            Inferno did exactly that, and swerved to the right once more to follow the road. Thinking they had some time before they would come across something interesting, Cody focused all of his energy and attention on getting used to the new riding. Soon enough he found himself skillfully following Inferno’s movements, even though he would sometimes misjudge the direction they were turning and almost fell several times, but he did manage to stay on. He felt good enough for the time being and soon turned his attention elsewhere, and not a moment too soon.

            “What’s that?” Inferno asked curiously, angling his nose to his lower right side, almost straight down actually.

            They had risen quite a bit, just below the few wispy clouds the floated across the sky during their travel. But Cody didn’t focus on the scenery; instead his gaze followed his dragon’s only to see nothing but the dark trees below. Feeling that in a few more moments he might risk falling off, he began to readjust his seating, before he saw it. It was a faint shape at first, but as it began to get clearer, Cody recognized it from drawings in books that his father had read to him when he was just a boy. He quickly remembered exactly what it was and what it did.

            “It’s a Cleptor!” Cody suddenly gasped.

            Inferno shot him a confused look as he replied, “What’s that? It just seems like a normal bird to me.”

             Cody gulped as he explained, “They are often referred to as the death raptors. They are specially-trained birds like falcons, hawks, or even eagles sort of like falconry or other types of bird-related sports like that.”

            “Only instead of hunting small prey, it hunts anyone who gets too close,” Inferno finished as he plucked the information from his rider’s mind. “So they are like guards in a sense?”

            “Yes. Only they are also specifically bred to defend, and are way larger than the average falcon, hawk or eagle, possibly twice the size. And they are always black. I’ve also read that they aren’t used alone ever. We can expect at least 30 in this square mile alone if the bandits have that many and I’m sure they do,” Cody explained.

            Inferno seemed to put two things together as he replied, “Even though I’m a dragon, I can’t fight 30 of those things off at once. But we at least know now that the bandits have a permanent hideout, and we know the general position of it.”

            “We do?”

            “Why else would they have such ready guards so early in the night?” Inferno said with a snarl. “We should try to pick them off, so we have at least a tiny chance at saving this Pippi person tomorrow.”

            Cody gulped and said, “I agree, but be on your guard, because there seems to be another one not too far away, and probably dozens more.”

            “If anything I can fly faster than them, of that I’m positive, even if they happen to be twice as fast as normal birds,” Inferno said, his eyes not leaving the first bird for a second.

            “I’ll keep an eye out while you attack, and I will let you know when to start using those wings of yours,” Cody said, smiling for some reason at the thrill.

            Without warning, Inferno dove almost straight down, aiming straight for the bird that had a wingspan at least thrice the size of his head. But before Cody could realize just how difficult this task would be, Inferno was upon the bird that appeared to be only a hawk Cleptor, meaning it wasn’t the largest out there. As if on cue, another Cleptor, slightly smaller than the first, came up from nowhere.

            Inferno crushed the first in his mighty teeth, before Cody gave him the warning that sent him whirling around to face the second, which mate the same, gruesome fate. Cody took a split second to realize that his dragon was swallowing the Cleptor’s whole. But before he could scold the dragon, two more Cleptors appeared, one clearly an eagle as it seemed to be about nine feet long from beak to tail-tip.

            The dragon turned to grasp the eagle in his jaws, but missed by a hair’s breadth and the Cleptor hurtled away some distance. Realizing that his dragon needed help, Cody unsheathed his fearsome sword at swung at the other Cleptor, a falcon, when he came within reach. He watched in satisfaction as the bird plummeted to the ground, scarlet blood spurting from a deep gash in its breast.

            He turned around again to see Inferno snapping at the eagle and another hawk, while three more Cleptors appeared not far behind. Cody leaned forward and slashed at the hawk, grazing its back and making it stop flapping its wings for a moment, before climbing back up to meet the dragon once more. But Inferno was ready, and swung a powerful paw at the feathered freak of nature, killing it instantly with a crushing blow to the head.

            A small roar of pain made Cody look down again, and he saw another eagle Cleptor scratch Inferno’s exposed belly as it passed. It wouldn’t do much more than a small cut would do to a human’s finger, but it was the first time the dragon had felt even slight pain for a while. The first time since Autumn tore the two scales from his foreleg with an arrow.

            “We have to get out of here, now!” Cody could faintly hear his dragon pleading over his own thoughts. He looked over to see five more Cleptors racing towards them.

            “Then go!” Cody shouted mentally as he stabbed another bird in the back, this time killing it.

            Without hesitation the dragon turned and flew away, angling downwards as he flapped his wings urgently to get a quick burst of speed. However, the birds seemed to have the same idea and followed closely in pursuit, only going ever-so-slightly slower than the speeding dragon. Inferno dipped to the right and grazed the trees in an attempt to lose the birds, but they continued to give chase.

            “Those are some fast birds,” Inferno commented as he narrowly missed hitting an unusually tall tree with his left wing.

            Cody nodded and added, “If you want I can take out a few with my bow, or at least I could try. Otherwise they’ll follow us straight into camp, or you’ll die of exhaustion trying to lose them.”

            “Are you kidding? I could go for another 20 miles before even slowing down!”

            To prove his point, the dragon climbed into the sky at a miraculous speed, and since most of the birds chasing them were primarily fast at flying downwards or in a straight line, they fell back a good ten yards. Plus, the dragon and rider didn’t seem to be going the fastest they possibly could. A few of the Cleptors seem to have gotten lost and gave up the chase, while one more came out from the trees to join the chase.

            “Eight Cleptors are following us now I think,” Cody told his dragon.

            Inferno snorted and said, “If we can manage to lose two or three more, there just may be few enough for us to handle with Mordon on our side.”

            “He won’t be happy with us bringing enemies straight into our camp in the middle of the night,” Cody warned.

            “Let him be surprised and actually work a little bit.”

            Cody laughed, but returned his focus to riding quickly after. Inferno gave him a slight warning before he twisted his body around and pulled it straight again for a few moments until they were gliding, really badly, upside-down straight towards the birds. At the last second he curved again, turning right-side-up behind the Cleptors, which were surprised by the aerial maneuver that they must’ve never seen before.

            Then, the dragon used their surprise to his advantage and bit an eagle exactly where its wing met its body, and clawed at a hawk that was slightly below them, killing them both. Before he could get confirmation from his rider, he sped through the flock of vicious birds and Cody seized his own chance to stab at the birds, fatally wounding a hawk.

            “Left!”

            Cody turned to see a new Cleptor, a falcon, diving for his shoulder. It managed to scratch him before the rider could respond by ripping at its stomach with his blade. Inferno ignored another hawk as it hacked at the base of his tail with little success and he dove downwards to escape the bulk of the birds. He took a moment to turn his large head around to glance at Cody’s wounded shoulder.

            “Are you alright?” the dragon asked, not seeming to have any wounds from the recent fight himself.

            Cody sheathed his sword and put his hand on the tender cut, only to pull it away a few moments later to see some of his fingers coated in scarlet blood. It wasn’t very severe, perhaps only two inches long and hardly deep at all, but it was surprising and even slightly humiliating that his first battle wound was from a bird. Then again, they were pretty tough birds and he could have easily gotten away with far more than a tiny shoulder cut.

            “Some battle wound!” Inferno said, obviously trying to cheer up his rider and mock him at the same time. “Don’t even consider it a battle wound, since it wasn’t exactly a battle we were in anyhow. It’s just an unfortunate scrape, that’s all.”

            Cody grinned and put his blood-stained hand back on the handle of the saddle, but since he wasn’t used to wounds like it of any kind, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth a little bit at the pain.

            “Now let’s get to the campsite before more Cleptors appear,” Cody told Inferno.

            The dragon bared his teeth with a ferocious grin as he thought about the humorous revenge he would get on Mordon for all of the other insulting incidents that had happened. He dove a little ways down to a position where he could see for quite a distance, when Cody almost instantly caught sight of the tiny glowing light in the distance but not too far away. It was a fire that Mordon and Mora must have managed to rebuild after Inferno’s last trick had put it out.

            Inferno shot one last look at his rider as they grew closer to the minuscule clearing that they had taken off from before he said, “Get ready to jump off of my back as soon as we touchdown, and have your sword ready. Also, be prepared to race towards the fire and get Mordon if you see an opening.”

            Before Cody could protest, Inferno dove almost straight down into the small landing spot. Without waiting for further injuries, the rider leapt from the still-moving dragon’s back and unsheathed his sword once more. The Cleptors were hot on their tails however, and were almost instantly upon them. Seeing his opportunity as they almost all went for Inferno in some way, Cody dashed for the trees in the direction of the faint firelight. But, one falcon Cleptor had its eyes on the rider and flew after him.

            Cody found himself slashing at everything that moved since all her heard was the constant screeching of a falcon, seemingly coming from all directions at once. The bird occasionally managed to miss his blade with immense luck, and with each second it got closer and closer to his skull. With one final swing he injured the bird, slowing it down somewhat and giving him more time to run.

            At last he broke from the trees and tumbled into the midst of his human companions, neither of which looking in the least bit surprised. Instead, Mordon seemed to instantly know what was going on and drew his own blade, killing the falcon that was chasing Cody in an instant. Before the rider could catch his breath and thank the guard, he was already disappearing into the forest in Cody’s place.

            “Maybe you should get going too,” Mora told Cody casually as she just stared at the fire with interest.

            Cody patted his shoulder to test how tender it was before replying, “Maybe I should.”

            Without waiting for the slight laughter that he assumed would follow, he copied Mordon’s lead and tore through the trees with renewed vigor, leaving the fire and Mora behind. When he made it back to Inferno, there were only four birds remaining, one of which was already being run through by the guard.

            He watched with pride as his dragon caught hold of the last remaining eagle Cleptor and crushing it in his jaws, simply tossing it aside to join the other fallen birds so he could eat it later. Within seconds, all Cody and Mordon could do was watch as the last two birds circled the dragon’s head foolishly, though conveniently out of the reach of the humans.

            Inferno simply watched them with amusement glimmering in his blue eyes before he lunged forward and caught a falcon Cleptor by the wing. The last remaining Cleptor, a hawk, didn’t hesitate to flee the scene, screeching in either terror, defeat, or warning. Cody couldn’t care less which one it was.

            “Perhaps you aren’t useless after all,” Mordon told the dragon and rider, mostly dragon, before sheathing his sword and letting his now free hand fall to his side. “Congratulations on being able to hold them off as well as you did.”

            “You knew there’d be Cleptors, didn’t you?” Cody said, his dislike for the guard returning.

            Mordon quickly answered, “No I didn’t. I knew there was a possibility, but it was a pretty slim chance that there would be any, let alone this many. I assume there are only one or two more aside from the one that just shamefully flew off?”

            “No, actually,” Cody began, mirroring his dragon’s hostility, “There were a decent number that fled or lost us on the way here, and we still weren’t close enough to catch sight of the bandit lair or campsite.”

            Mordon’s expression grew grave as he thought about what Cody had said. He began to slowly pace the ground nervously as he seemed to consider their options. He quickly looked up at the rider and dragon with his eyes glinting in slight excitement, but mostly hopelessness.

            “There must be a hundred birds still out there then, if I know the bandits like I think they do. Each one must have stolen loads of Cleptors, or we very well could be facing an entire battle-ready force of looters. No doubt they’ve stolen countless weapons and bits of armor to prepare for such a situation,” Mordon explained.

            “Then what do we do?” Cody asked, suddenly very nervous.

            “We certainly can’t leave Pippi to die by their hands, now can we?”

            Cody looked over to see Mora leaning on a tree, watching them. The idea of pressure on his shoulder made the rider wince and remember his minor injury, but he quickly recovered and prepared to repeat his question.

            Mordon, seeming to guess that he was going to ask the exact same thing said, “We can’t take offensive action in the middle of the night, nor can we flee in the darkness. But, I have no doubts that some of the bandits will come to search for us after noticing so many missing birds. All we can do is wait here overnight and pray that they don’t come in too big of numbers for us to handle. But we will put up a watch.”

            “A what?” Cody asked, somewhat understanding what he meant but feeling confused al the same.

            Mordon looked Cody and Inferno over carefully before replying, “I will stay up for a few hours and make sure everything is good. Then I’ll wake up the rider and he’ll watch for a few hours until he gets Draggy to keep watch, and finally Mora will take up dawn watch for about an hour.”

            “Draggy?” Inferno snorted, disliking the nickname he received.

            Cody ignored him and replied, “I suppose it sounds good to me, but I think that “Draggy” should take the first watch and I’ll take the second. Then Mordon, and Mora.”

            “At least we all agree that Cody should be second and I should be last,” Mora added to the conversation, probably feeling humored and happy to have the shortest watch either way.

            “No, I think I should be the first,” Mordon said as he shot a quick hateful glance at the dragon, his eyes saying everything.

            Inferno growled too softly for him to hear as he told his rider, “I think he wants to watch me sleep, just to make sure that I’m not going to cut his throat in his sleep. I assume he doesn’t want me to have a watch at all, but doesn’t want to anger you.”

            “Why doesn’t he want to anger me? We all know that he can beat me in a fair fight.”

            “Either he thinks you’ll react by doing something to him as he sleeps, or some subconscious part of him recognizes you as his superior, since you are a rider,” Inferno answered, though he seemed a little unsure himself.

            Cody instantly thought of a compromise, “Inferno and Mordon will take the first watch for about half the night then Mora and I will take the second.”

            He looked around at everyone’s reactions. Inferno nodded in agreement, seeing how it was the easiest way to avoid too much suspicion, while Mora seemed a little displeased with having a longer shift, but apparently didn’t want to turn Cody’s option down, since her respect for him was only increasing. Mordon seemed even more displeased than his sister, but didn’t seem to be turning down the idea either.

            “I don’t want to be on the same watch as that monster,” he protested.

            Inferno growled a bit louder, while Mora walked up to her brother and said, “Would you prefer that I be on the same watch as Inferno?”

            Cody didn’t know why she was trying to talk her brother into it. In fact, she probably wanted to spend some alone time with the dragon more than anything at that moment, but he guessed that she was beginning to lean towards the rider’s original idea more and more. Perhaps she was only disappointed about not being able to get much sleep, and the rest was very interesting to her.

            “Or, perhaps she wants to spend some alone time with you,” Inferno growled to his rider playfully.

            Cody suddenly looked up at his dragon, ignoring Mora and Mordon having their own conversation nearby. He pondered what the dragon had said for a moment with curiosity, before glancing over at Mora, and back to his dragon.

            “I’m not necessarily saying that she…has an interest in you, but perhaps you should explore the idea and find out,” Inferno said.

            Cody leisurely replied, “I was never really opposed to my own idea you know, but I never really considered that. I think she’s more interested in me as a dragon rider than anything else anyways, and to me she just seems like an average woman. If anything she’s a little peculiar.”

            “I guess we’ll see what happens tonight,” Inferno said as he slowly dropped to the grass and rested his head in between his scaly paws.

            Cody just noticed that Mordon had spoken to him and Inferno as well as Mora, but because he was talking to the dragon he didn’t hear it. He turned to look at the man, who seemed to be a strange mix of gold and yellow from the moon shining on his bright hair and eyes. With slight confusion, the rider looked into his golden eyes, filled with reluctance and hatred at the same time.

            “What?” the rider asked confusedly.

            “I said I’ll do it, but I still don’t like having to be the sole person awake with that shadowy demon watching me,” Mordon said with a sigh and a scowl on his face.

            “Well I’m glad we got that settled,” Cody said with a slight smile on his face at somewhat defeating the guard at something.

            While Mordon and Inferno exchanged looks of dislike, Cody bowed thankfully to them. They returned the look, even though the man seemed more half-hearted about it.

            “We’ll be returning to the fire now, you stay here and give us a wider radius of protection,” Mordon told Inferno. “Understand?”

            “Understand?” Inferno mocked and gave the guard a look like that of a confused puppy. “Try me.”

            As the dragon just turned his head from the man and closed his eyes, Cody couldn’t help but let out a little snort of laughter. Inferno wasn’t going to sleep, and it was pretty obvious to anyone who knew much about dragons, but he was trying to get a reaction out of Mordon. He was successful, when Mordon kicked a small pile of leaves towards him in disgust, but they only made it about halfway to the dragon. Inferno must have heard, but didn’t respond.

            “I hope your beast can understand that he needs to protect us,” Mordon snarled to Cody.

            Cody chuckled very faintly before replying, “He is more knowledgeable than you think.”

            Feeling a sudden wave of exhaustion, likely stronger than usual because of the recent fight, Cody’s smile faded and he walked towards the campsite with eagerness in his movements. Mora lay down in a pile of leaves covered with a single wolf pelt, making the rider recall the encounter he had had with the Wargals. It also made him remember that along with Avalsmokes and Omen, the little wolf pup, Ashheart, was probably suffering the same horrible fate that they were, whatever it was.

            “Good night,” Cody heard someone say, pulling him out of his sorrowful thoughts before he settled against a tree.

            He looked over to see Mora looking at him thoughtfully from atop her little nature bed. She must have been the one to have wished him a good night, but all he did was nod in return, no longer feeling in the mood for talking. He looked over to Mordon who was leaning against a silvery birch tree, just gazing around him and occasionally shooting a glance back at Inferno’s camp, even though he must not have been able to see him.

            Cody sighed; wishing the two of them could just get along. Then again, if he had seen a pitch-black dragon, darker than night itself, that was nearly twice his height and he wasn’t able to communicate with it, he probably would have been just as wary. Probably even more so, since not too long ago he had thought that dragons were practically extinct, and he was almost positive that riders were completely nonexistent before he met Heyrick.

            With a yawn, the rider rested his head against the tree he was laying against, not even sure what kind it was. All that mattered to him was the fatigue that washed over him, increasing in strength with each passing second. Before his thoughts could wander further, he had fallen into one of the deepest slumbers he had had in a long time.