Cody felt himself regain consciousness slowly. After what felt like hours he recognized the bitter wind and rugged stone floor of his destination. He had succeeded somehow, and all traces of the battlegrounds were gone, completely banished from his mind. He felt happy, relaxed. But then he remembered Inferno and how he had failed to go with him, wherever he was.

Though the floor was a little rugged, he could tell that someone, or something, had rested him on a bed of soft material, maybe grass, straw, or feathers. He could faintly feel fresh bandages on his forearms and legs and the pain in them was almost completely gone from the nasty wounds.

“Where are the others?” Cody mumbled to himself.

“They are safely on their way back to us,” a familiar voice announced happily, making Cody bolt upright and open his eyes to gaze in shock.

Cody’s surprise suddenly turned into a glare of hatred as he said, “Heyrone, what are you doing here?”

The dwarf rider winced at his comment, visibly disturbed by the harshness of his tone. “It’s about time you knew. Merikh told you?”

Cody looked at him in surprise again before nodding. Had he expected Cody to learn of his secret, that he was really a power-hungry king of legend who nearly destroyed the races of elves and dwarves in his greed for riches? Needless to say, the younger man was fascinated, to say the least.

Heyrone sighed, “You can call me Heyrone from now on then. You see, my father was the king of the dwarves when I was born. I was still very young when he died and, being his only son, I inherited the throne despite my age. I found out that I had nearly endless supplies of wealth and power in the matter of seconds, and you have no clue what that can do to a kid’s head.”

“But how did you get here?” Cody spat venomously, making the rider wince again.

“I was just getting to that,” Heyrone said. “I soon realized that the elves had more than I ever could have dreamed of. So, several years later and after many gruesome battles, I tried to seize the elven kingdoms. But alas, as I joined the battle to get my own taste of victory, an elf stabbed me in the chest. I was almost certain I would die.

“Everyone thought I died and left the battle, but I woke several days later with a blue dragon resting against me. That was when I realized that he had the power to heal any physical wounds I received, and that he had been with me ever since my blood had flowed onto his egg. I named him Argos, or “vigilant guard”, as the name meant. I swear to you, by whatever you consider holy, that I have renounced my cruel ways.”

Cody found it difficult to believe, but that was when he noticed the giant blue head beside him. A short, thick snout with a spike curling from the tip was only a foot from Cody. The human was just a bit bigger than the massive pupil, and his head had two immense horns that curled forward. His cheek bones were tipped with perhaps a dozen spikes easily as large as Cody, and a second pair of horns sprouted from his neck and curled forward to rest on either side of his lower jaw.

The deep, ancient voice from before filled Cody’s head, “My rider does not lie. We fought hard to bring you here, when normally a rider has to come through with his dragon.”

Cody felt he could trust the dragon, but he felt a wave of pain wash over his heart when he remembered Inferno, the golden dagger plunged deep into his chest as blood poured out and pooled beneath. The panic and defeat in his dragon’s eyes was clear, though the once-stormy eyes were glazed over with fright. Then he had dropped to the ground in a heap of bloody scales, never to stand again. Never to soar through the sky.

“Inferno couldn’t come,” Cody said, staring at the ground as he wrapped his arms around his knees.

Surprised, Heyrone asked, “Why is that?” Looking at the human he seemed to be overwhelmed with grief.

But Cody saw a twinkle in Argos’s mystical eyes. The blue dragon drew his head of the cave and clawed aside a few massive steps, shaking the cave as he did. A shadow covered the cave for a moment. Cody closed his eyes.

“I would never leave you.”

Cody gasped. Looking up, he saw a black dragon enter the cave with his head, much smaller than Argos’s, held high in the air and his long, scaly tail dragging out behind him. The rider blinked rabidly, making sure his eyes weren’t tricking him. Thick white horns emerged from the base of his skull, straiter than the other dragon’s. A long row of pristine white spikes followed his back, all the way down until disappearing near the end of his tail. Most familiar of all were the stormy blue eyes filled with warmth and love, instead of grief, suffering, and failure.

“Inferno!” Cody gasped aloud, throwing himself at his dragon. “I thought I’d lost you!” Cody wept, feeling tears of joy instantly rush to his eyes and flow down his dirty face.

Heyrone stepped forward with a broad grin on his face, explaining, “The only thing Merikh loves more than physical pain is mental suffering. He has spent years mastering illusions to make his victims see anything he wants them to.”

“So what really happened?” Cody asked, pulling away from the dragon slightly and looking at his flawless chest where he had seen a long dagger shortly before.

Inferno gave a big toothy grin before replying, “At first I was terrified. Merikh locked you in that room with two big doors I couldn’t see or hear through, and when I called for you it felt as though you were just…gone. When a bunch of skeletars came, I knew I had to protect you. I joined the main fight with the others, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

“As soon as we heard about the fight, we sent all of the elves and dwarves in the pass to join,” Argos added with a happy growl.

Heyrone looked at Cody carefully as he seemed to notice something. “People can only get into the pass if they use magic, or if they are unconscious. And obviously something happened to Merikh if Inferno and the others are already back so early.”

Inferno nodded, “Suddenly the skeletars just collapsed and sort of…sank into the rocks. We went back to look for you Cody, but when we got to the room you were gone and the entire room was burnt badly.”

Cody looked at his dragon and the other rider in shock before asking, “So what happened? Did I use magic?  Is Merikh…dead?”

Argos shook his head, “When you thought Inferno was dead, you must have been so furious. When Autumn came she found-”

“Autumn is here!? She’s alive!?” Cody yelped in surprise, happiness pouring over him as if a dam had burst.

“Slow down,” Heyrone said slowly. “She is alive and healthy, and you can visit her when we are done here. As I was saying, she visited you while you were unconscious and found a black dust in your pocket. The trick to using magic is dragon scales. The strength of your spell must have been so strong that it destroyed them instantly. The magic you used was so beyond your skills, it forced you into what we call ‘The Pass’. We use The Pass to come here, but you entered before you were ready and without Inferno. It’s a miracle you survived. Lucky for you, Argos realized that you were trying to come through and talked you through the process.”

Cody nodded and asked, “But where is here?”

“Mrana Akano Furista, of course!” Heyrone announced proudly. “But before you celebrate, Merikh isn’t dead.”

Cody stared at him in horror as he remembered the fiery spell he had conjured. “He can’t be alive after that!”

Heyrone looked at him sympathetically before saying, “You severely underestimate the power of Merikh. Dongoithu and Faltanar escaped without harm and are somewhere in Semiones. Surely you don’t think someone with many times their skill could do the same?”

“It was such a big fire,” Cody defended himself as he gazed off into space, remembering the spell.

Heyrone rested his chin on his fingertips before explaining, “A powerful man like Merikh could not have died from an accidental spell like that. He will have escaped for sure without his minions and remain in secrecy. But he is definitely severely weakened. I think we have about a year before he returns to his former power. But this time, we’ll be ready for him.”

“What do you mean?” Cody asked as the dwarf stood and began walking away towards the entrance of the cave.

“Training!” The rider announced. Turning briefly around he said, “I will train you to be a Dragon Warrior and teach you the history of this land and the Dragon Warriors. You will be ready for Merikh when he comes.”

“Well when do I start ‘training’?” Cody asked curiously, more than a little nervous.

Heyrone paused at the edge of the cave and said, “You must rest and recover from your journey to our world for a few weeks, maybe a month. You can rest in this cave for now, but when I deem you ready, you must be more than ready. You had better know the nearby mountains and villages better than you know Inferno by the time we begin. You can start by finding Autumn. She went to visit the Cave of Hordes!”

Before Cody could ask what he meant, Heyrone jumped over the edge. Cody rushed over and saw him falling through the air, far down the massive cliff. But in seconds the giant blue dragon was below his rider, the dwarf landing smoothly in an intricately made white saddle that Cody noticed for the first time. It was way better than Inferno’s saddle.

“No way,” Inferno told him, reading his thoughts. “You shouldn’t even be thinking of trying something like that. You are still weak and have had absolutely no training whatsoever. I haven’t either and I’m the one that would actually have to make sure you landed on me at the right time in the right place. No way!”

Cody sighed, “Can we at least take a nice gentle ride and search for Autumn and this ‘Cave of Hordes’ thing?”

“Well…” Inferno looked into Cody’s pleading eyes and gave a resigned sigh, “Fine, but we’re taking it easy. Slow and steady.”

Cody agreed happily. He would have liked to fly speedily again after going so long thinking Inferno was dead. But he knew it was better to go slow and steady. He could feel his own weakness underneath his skin, begging him not to go. He ignored the feeling and clambered onto Inferno’s back, though he did take it slow. When he had bent over and strapped his legs in, the dragon took no time at all before jumping over the edge.

The rider felt some sort of thrill as they fell, but it was slow and the dragon quickly opened his wings to stop their descent. Inferno turned gently to the right and carefully beat his wings to make them level with the cave entrance again. Then the dragon leveled out and nearly stopped in midair.

“Where should we look?” Inferno asked.

Coy narrowed his eyes and blocked the sunlight with his hands as he looked around. They were very high up and surrounded by mountain peaks on all sides. Below he could see Argos and Heyrone landing beside a gigantic lake. Inferno was only the size of the blue dragon’s head, but the lake was easily 50 times the size of Argos. It was the largest lake he had seen in his life, appearing to be an ocean almost.

Further along the mountain range, in a rather large valley, was a cluster of magnificent buildings, though they were too difficult to see clearly from their distance. In the opposite direction Cody could see the beginning of a massive plain, short grass the only sign of vegetation. Yet in the savannah he could see the edge of another town, somewhat similar to the first but about a quarter of the size. A third town was placed just next to the lake, but there were only about a dozen small huts to give away its existence. And all around, as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but endless mountains and thick forests.

Cody looked at the nearest three mountains carefully before pointing to one. “We’ll search that one for caves, starting at the bottom we’ll work our way up.”

Inferno nodded and tilted forward, bringing them down slowly and safely. Cody couldn’t tell how long it had taken to get to the bottom, but it felt like hours before they neared the bottom and Inferno leveled out again.

“There are eight caves,” The dragon explained. “We will search them one by one for Autumn before moving on.”

Cody silently agreed and they began landing on ledges and peering inside the dark caves. Inferno seemed to think that taking off was a bit too harmful for his rider, so instead he would climb their way up to the next cave and did the same, looking for any signs of life. They were beginning to think the mountain was empty, when they reached the very top and Inferno climbed onto the ledge outside. There was no sign of Autumn, but the cave was long and dark. At the edge of the darkness there was a nest of feathers and old, dried up leaves.

“Go look,” Inferno urged him.

Cody did just that, slipping from his dragon’s back and approaching the nest. With a startled gasp, he realized it really was a nest. A dragon nest! Huddled inside were three eggs, just about the same size Inferno’s had been. One egg was beautiful dark purple, another a mesmerizing teal like the lake almost, and the last was such a light blue it was almost white. He felt tempted to pick one up, just to study it.

“Cody!?”

Cody looked up just in time to see a familiar face. It was Autumn exactly how he remembered her. Almost, anyway. A long line trailed from her eyebrow to the bottom of her jaw, and he instantly recognized it as the scratch he had given her so long ago. her light brown hair was a shade lighter, and her orange-brown eyes had also lightened, the brown completely gone from their depths.

Cody immediately raced towards her, throwing his arms around her and hugging her tight to his chest. “I thought you were going to die,” He said, holding back a tear that threatened to fall.

He felt her hug back just as tight, saying, “And I thought you were going to die. They easily cured me, but Heyrone almost never talked to us about you. What have you been doing all this time!?”

Cody smiled and pulled away from the hug, “Omen, Avalsmokes, and Ashheart were kidnapped and I had to save them. So you know all about Heyrone?”

“Yes, he told me almost as soon as I woke up,” Autumn explained. “Is my brother alright?”

“He’s fine. So what have you been doing all this time, if you’ve been cured so easily?” Cody asked; the biggest of grins on his face.

Autumn’s lips twitched in a smug grin, stretching the scar on her face a bit with her. “I’ve met someone you should see.”

Cody watched as someone stepped out of the darkness, crawling along behind Autumn. He watched as it cautiously climbed up her unusual clothes and settled on her shoulder, its tail curled tenderly around her neck. It was about three inches taller than her head when it sat straight up, erect on her shoulder.

It had a snout like Inferno’s, but a small spike jutted from its nose like on Argos. Two horns, about three inches long a piece, jutted straight from behind its skull. Unusually long, white spikes protruded from its back, neck, and tail, almost invisible among the rows of flawless white scales that glistened beautifully in the slight sunlight. It spread its wings out proudly while it focused its penetrating golden-yellow gaze on Inferno, baring its pristine snow-white teeth in a draconic grin.

“This is Micah, my dragon,” Autumn said with a proud gleam in her eyes as she lifted a hand and ran it once down his side.

That was when Cody noticed it. His hair had darkened and his eyes turned blue after he had lived with Inferno for so long, and the same was happening to Autumn. Her hair was turning white, shade by shade. Her eyes were going to turn to gold to match her dragon’s own gaze. The small white dragon was perched proudly on his rider’s shoulder, looking innocently at Inferno, who bared his teeth in a growl but remained almost completely silent and still.

“He is amazing,” Cody said. He thought silently to Inferno, “I’m only trying to be nice, so stop growling.”

Inferno obeyed and looked at Autumn with interest. Cody looked at his old friend as well, but was confused by the creature seated comfortably on her shoulder. Autumn had her own dragon companion. His friend that he had known his entire life was actually a rider, one of the three in existence. He was another.

“I don’t believe it,” Cody said, staring at the dragon, more in awe about the idea of it than the dragon itself.

“Honored to meet another dragon and rider,” came a dignified voice, slightly higher than Inferno’s.

Cody dipped his head to the dragon before answering, “Sorry for staring, I just never suspected that she might be a rider.”

Micah ignored his comment, turning his gaze on Inferno again. Cody looked around at the cave and found several more nests of dragon eggs spaced out well. There were golden and sunset-orange eggs, dark blue eggs the color of twilight, blood-red ones, cloudy gray, and some that were the deep green hue of midsummer. Hopefully one day, every one of the eggs would hatch into a magnificent dragon with a dedicated and loving rider.

Looking around at his companions he said, “I think by the time Merikh returns, things will be quite different.”

“They already are,” Autumn said, looking past Inferno into the sky filled with the orange light of the setting sun. “But I can’t wait to see what happens.”