Of course, Cody had another dream that night that he slept after the black dragon hatched from the egg that now lay scattered throughout the room. He dreamed that he was with the black dragon, many times its original size, riding it this time, in that space he saw between the spikes of the neck and the body. The dragon soared beneath the clouds, weaving between the mountains, and Cody saw a shimmer of blue above them, not quite like the sky, but then it vanished.

            The dragon glided down to an open clearing where a short man stood. Then he shimmered and disappeared, but he said something as he did so, but his words were lost in the wind, like himself.

            Then Cody woke up, and it was the exact time that he had fallen asleep, though he couldn’t figure out how he had slept for 24 hours straight. He sat up, and stretched and looked around his room, not seeing the baby dragon. He almost yelled as he saw that his window was shattered, and bits of the glass were scattered about outside. He picked up a rather large piece to study it, and then tossed it aside, but it somehow soared towards the wall, and shattered into a million little pieces.

            Feeling confused, he picked up a piece of cloth, and lightly tugged on opposite sides, just simply peeling it apart as if it were a paper towel; his strength had improved significantly. But at that moment, he was more concerned with getting that dragon under control, because it was loose in the forest somewhere.

            Cody put a hand on the windowsill and swung himself through the window with almost no effort whatsoever. He raced away in a random direction into the forest, noticing that his speed and agility had also increased amazingly. Suddenly, he saw the dragon on a tree branch perfectly level with his eyes, just staring at him again, although this time it was as if the beast was expecting him.

            “Why did you leave?” Cody asked it, not actually expecting it to respond.

            “I was hungry and you were still asleep, and couldn’t get me anything to eat.”

            Cody suddenly stared at the dragon as he backed away slowly; the dragon had somehow spoken to him telepathically, no words came out of its mouth, but he heard it in his head.

            Cody looked at it and asked, “You can talk?”

            The dragon waved its tail impatiently before replying, “Of course, I am a dragon, and you are the human I hatched for.”

            Seeing his confusion, the dragon added, “When your blood touched my egg, I absorbed it into myself, and subconsciously compared your personality to my own, as all dragons do, to find their companion. I knew you were destined to be mine, so I hatched for you, and now we must grow and live together.”

            “How do you know all of this?”

            “When a dragon egg is laid, the mother explains a few things to her children that give them the necessary instructions to survive. I have told you absolutely everything I know, now, we must learn together.”

            Cody contemplated his words before saying, “So…you are a dragon, and I am…your rider?”

            “As far as I know. And I almost forgot, we will always be able to communicate with each other this way, and some other dragons and riders, only the wisest ones, are able to do the same with us, even send us dreams when we need help learning things.”

            “The only dragon alive, aside from yourself that is, is Argos, lord of the winds, and he never speaks to anyone. Although, I have received dreams, just last night I had a dream that I was on your back and we were flying around mountains somewhere really far away, and this somewhat small man told me something, but I couldn’t remember what it was. I’ve had a lot of dreams like that, ever since only about a day before I found your egg. And you were in all of these dreams, only you were much older.”

            “There is no doubt that this is…’Argos’ and his rider sending you dreams of guidance, helping you find your way as a rider,”The baby dragon said as it turned his head to watch a bird fly away.

            “Argos doesn’t have a rider, like I said, he never talks to anyone, it has always been told that way in stories,” Cody argued.

            “Are stories always that dependable?”

            “Of course not but-“

            “Then you can believe that that man was Argos’s rider and they are trying to contact you, and tell you something,” the hatchling interrupted him.

            “What do you suggest we do?”

            Cody felt the dragon reading his thoughts, and reply, “Obviously I wouldn’t be easy to explain among your family or friends. I’ll stay here in the woods, and you come visit me every chance you get. When you dream, come to me. When you just want to see me, come. Perhaps these dreams will give us the wisdom we need to function as a rider and dragon. Until then, you don’t concern yourself with me, because we can both survive on our own, and surviving together will just complicate things until we learn more. Perhaps you should talk to that storyteller, he must know more.”

            “I can’t just forget this all and carry on normally. You are the only dragon anyone has ever talked to, and that someone is me,” Cody tried to speak through his mind to the dragon, and it worked.

            “Just go. There is no sense in you being here when we can learn nothing by doing so. Argos and his rider will tell us what we need to do, count on it. Until then, do what you can to learn more.”

            Cody reluctantly agreed, and left the dragon in the forest. By the time he returned to his house, he was a little tired again, and it was way past the normal time he would go to sleep, so he went to his bed. This time he scraped some of the bits of shell off and fell asleep more comfortably.

            Cody did indeed dream about the smallish man again, and this time he was intent on listening. They were in the field again, only the dragon wasn’t there anymore, which discouraged him a little bit, but he still listened to the man.

            “Cody,” the man said. “You have a destiny that I myself can’t comprehend. Your father has a map that you must take for yourself, because you need it, and what he seeks means trouble for all of Semiones, our world. You must use the map to find me and Argos in the mountains, though your dragon is too small and weak to make the journey now.

            “I will send for you when the time comes, but for now you must go to Faltanar’s house and take a book from his home called ‘Valor of the Dragon’. It will tell you all you need to know about dragons, for the time being at least. But I warn you, do not let him catch you, and whatever you do, don’t even meet him face-to-face, I can’t tell you why, but you cannot meet him now that you are a rider.

            “I will speak to you again when you and your dragon are ready.”

            Cody nodded, not entirely understanding what he had said, but he knew what he must do, even if it meant stealing. That was when his dream faded away, and he woke up the next morning bright and early.

            He stood up, and immediately started what would turn out to be his long day of bandit behavior. He walked over to his parent’s room and opened the door as slowly and silently as he could. He snuck in as quietly as he could, and found out that his stealth also increased. He walked over to his father’s side of the bed, and found the map stuffed in a drawer. Cody grabbed it and walked away slowly, not daring to make the most minuscule noise, or even breathe deeply until he was out of their room and the door was shut behind him.

            “What are you doing?”

            Cody jumped, until he realized that it was the dragon speaking to him, probably from in the forest nearby.

            “I dreamt of the rider, and he told me to steal my father’s map, and a book about dragons in Faltanar’s house, the rider said it would help us,” he replied.

            The dragon paused for a moment before saying, “If he told you to do it, do it. Just be careful, I don’t want you hurt or injured.”

            “No problem.”

            Cody rushed outside with his shoes and coat, before going over to the stables and getting Chase out of his stall. He saddled the horse and climbed on, before rushing off towards the town and stealing that book from Faltanar.

            About halfway down the road, Cody ran into Aval and Autumn on Myrtle and Mindy again.

            “What are you two doing here?” Cody said a little nervously, remembering that he showed them the egg shortly before it hatched.

            “We were wondering if we could see that stone of yours, if you found it,” Autumn said.

            Cody pretended to be extremely disappointed as he said, without lying, “It’s gone forever, I assume. The stone isn’t anywhere in my house, and it couldn’t be anywhere else unless you stole it, which I’m fairly certain you didn’t.”

            Aval looked down sadly before saying, “That’s too bad, I really wanted to see it again. Moving on, what are you headed our way for?”

            “Out of the frying pan, and into the fire,” the dragon joked, pulling the saying from his own mind.

            “Would you shut up!?” He accidentally replied aloud.

            “What are you talking about Cody?” Autumn asked, a very concerned expression on her face.

            Finally the dragon proved useful and said, “You should tell her that you wanted to keep it a secret, and were only joking, and then explain to her that you wanted to have a party with everyone in the village. Then, when and if Faltanar goes to the party, you can sneak into his house and take the book.”

            “Brilliant!”

            Cody repeated it to his friends, careful to leave out the fact that he would steal a book from Faltanar during the party.

            “A strange idea I’ll admit,” Autumn said skeptically. “But it sounds like fun. We can set it up at our house, if our mum is okay with it.”

            “How about it’s a part in honor of Faltanar? It can be a sort of tribute to him, for being such an entertaining member of us!” Cod suggested.

            “Nice addition.”

            “Good idea!” Aval said. “We’ll go start setting up, when you get back, you can invite Faltanar.”

            “NO!” Cody yelled as they began to turn their horses around.

            “Why not?” Autumn asked, concerned again.

            “Tell her the partial truth, you are sort of afraid of Faltanar and would prefer to invite all of the other guests, or maybe help decorate,” The dragon suggested.

            Cody relayed the information, and Aval replied, “Alright, I get what you mean. I’ll invite the people, you and Autumn decorate the house, meet back there at noon.”

            And with that, they all raced away to their jobs. Aval took a small detour that brought him directly to Faltanar’s house, while Cody and Autumn rode their horses as fast as they could along the main road. It wasn’t long before Cody saw a branch in the path, a little out of the way.

            Some part of him really wanted to try to get Chase, his black horse, to jump over it so he could almost feel what it was like to fly with the dragon again. He turned to the right, quite to the surprise of Autumn, and he sailed towards it at an increasingly high speed. Finally, him and his horse soared over the branch, and landed roughly on the other side.

            “What was that about?” Autumn asked.

            Cody looked at her disappointedly as he stopped Chase and replied, “Just wanted to try jumping.”

            Autumn clearly sensed his sadness, but ignored it as she brought her horse up to a gallop and passed by. Cody caught up with her shortly and they carried out their trip in silence. When they finally arrived to Aval and Autumn’s house, they faced another problem.

            “How do you decorate for a party about a storyteller?” Autumn asked.

            Cody shrugged and replied, “Maybe we should just make something for the guests to eat, decorate if we can think of a way to do so.”

            “Sounds good to me,” Autumn said as she led both her horse and Chase away to the stable, and Cody went into the house to ask their mother if they could have the party, and then he began preparing food. But his mind was focused on his plan for how he could leave without anyone noticing, and get the book.

            Cody’s plan was very well mapped out, and not a moment too soon, as he heard someone rapping on the door. Autumn went to get it and called out that it was Faltanar himself. Cody didn’t respond but climbed out of a window in Avalsmokes’s room, and jumped down into the grass below. He heard Faltanar’s footsteps inside the house, about the kitchen, and raced passed the windows as fast as his newly quickened legs would allow.

                He dodged various houses and shops on his way to the storyteller’s house, but was very careful not to let anyone see him, or they might know something was up, especially since everyone was invited and Aval was sure to tell them all that it was Cody’s idea. Whenever he saw someone in a window, he ducked down, out of sight. Whenever someone was leaving their house to go to the party, or somewhere else if they weren’t planning to attend, he did the same.

            Soon, he reached Faltanar’s house, and was feeling very much afraid of entering, largely because no one had ever been inside anyways. And then Cody began to wonder why that was, why Faltanar had a book that would prove useful to a young dragon and its rider, and why Faltanar was so secretive, yet knowledgeable, especially about dragons. He brushed off these concerns as he opened the door and made his way inside.

            The first thing he noticed was that there were no lights, and since it was nearing night, it was very dark inside. The other thing he noticed was that there was a strange, rotting odor, as if there were mushrooms sprouting around dead stumps. Although, the odor wasn’t potent enough for Cody to think an animal or something actually died there.

            He looked up on the walls to see them completely covered from floor to ceiling with books and scrolls, as well as old pieces of parchment with quills and ink lying about desks and tables. There were also books stacked together in large piles throughout the even smaller-seeming house.

            “How am I going to find that book in this mess?” He asked himself aloud.

            “Simple,” Cody heard the dragon answer him. “Just read all of the names until you find one that says ‘Valor of the Dragon’. That was the title wasn’t it?”

            “Of course that was the title,” Cody replied angrily. “But it will take me ages to do that, and I won’t have enough time, only a few hours until the party’s officially over. And knowing Faltanar the little I do, tells me he will probably leave a little sooner.”

            The dragon growled in his mind before retorting, “You have no other option. At least until you think of another, which I doubt you can, search the titles, or else you’ll be wasting your time thinking about something that you probably won’t be able to figure out! Now start searching!”

            Cody grumbled to himself as he began searching the bookshelves for the book that the rider had told him about in his dream. He knew that the dragon was right, and it was better than just sitting and thinking of a way to look, especially since there didn’t appear to be any particular order. Some books that began with a ‘c’ were next to ones that started with a ‘p’. Some that had a 10 year-old author whose name started with a ‘q’ was next to one completely different. Even the colors, shapes, and sizes were different.

            Fortunately, as Cody searched through various stacks and shelves, noticing that some were considerably large, while others were only a few books high or long, he began to look at the dates, and discovered that they were organized by the year they were written. From there, he decided that if someone as old as Argos (older, in fact), and had told Cody about a book that the man apparently had read and knew well himself, it must be considerably old.

            Cody was quite surprised, in fact, when he found ‘Valor of the Dragon’ in a pile in a corner significantly separated from the others, and clearly almost the oldest one Faltanar owned. He picked the book up, and admired its dusty blood-red cover that shone in the moonlight. He brushed the dust off of the book and stared and the intricate gold writing.

            “You had better get out of there as soon as you can, who knows how long that creepy storyteller will stay at the party, and no doubt he will come to his house right after. Argos’s rider probably would’ve wanted you to do so anyway.”

            Cody agreed with him and left as abruptly as he had come, stashing the book in his baggy, tan, torn-up shirt as he ran away back towards Aval and Autumn’s house. He swung back around to Aval’s room window and climbed in as easily as if he were a spider.

            “Where have you been?”

            Cody swung around to see both Aval and Autumn glaring at him rather angrily, though in his excitement and adrenaline at his secretiveness, he failed to recognize who spoke.

            “I felt sick and didn’t want to embarrass anybody, so I snuck out and hoped that you all had a wonderful time, I’m sorry,” Cody lied, using the dragon’s very own idea.

            Autumn shrugged and said, “I’m glad you thought of us and the guests over yourself, although you’re the one who missed out. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long while, and everyone’s gone now anyway.”

            Cody pretended to feel a little better by what she had said, although he honestly didn’t care about the party at all, he just wanted to get home and start reading the book so that he could learn more about dragons, and their riders, especially since he was one now.

            “Thanks,” He muttered sadly. “I suppose I should be heading home now, my parents are probably missing me.”

            Aval sat down on his bed and asked, “You sure you don’t want to spend the night here? We could really use your company, and if you are sick with something, the doctor is right nearby.”

            “I’m sure I’m needed at home,” he argued lightly, and left extremely abruptly, without a word of good-bye.

            Cody went to the stable to get his horse and said to the dragon, “Time to go home and learn more about ourselves.”