Chapter Eight

Casimir thought he was going to be sick. He hadn't even noticed that the flight was over in a matter of seconds.

"He'll get there in time, surely," a female voice said. He was too shaken to know whose, but he could guess that it was Avery.

"Well, maybe," that was definitely Christian's condescending voice, "but he will have to learn quickly. Ancient dragons are generally faster than elemental dragons as though it makes up for their lack of diversity."

"Oh stop it and help the poor guy off the dragon. He looks like he's about to faint."

Christian and Leopold both reached out and lifted an improving Casimir off Kuroz's back. The dragon seemed exceptionally pleased with himself.

"You could have held back just a little," Avery scolded as the two boys let go of Casimir. He was finally recovered enough to stand on his own two feet. "Casimir? How are you feeling? I guess it's a pretty big shock for you, having no exposure to flight before."

If he had had more strength, he would have been drawing his sword and attacking that dragon in a heart beat.

'If you recall, our little bond allows me to access your thoughts, Casimir,' Kuroz almost sounded amused, despite clearly having heard his rider's desire for blood, 'so please try and refrain from thinking such thoughts.'

I really wish I could kill that dragon, Casimir thought, knowing fully well that the dragon would have heard him. His head had finally stopped spinning and he could actually take in his surroundings. They really had landed right outside the building they were previously in. He had thought the dragon had lied and they were actually a long distance away.

However, what really surprised him was the gigantic, brilliant gold dragon laying down off to the side. It seemed to be have been waiting there for some time.

"Ah, you're looking at that big guy over there?" Avery asked, gesturing for the dragon to move closer. "This is my dragon, Zhukah, one of the few gold dragons currently being ridden. I believe the only other ones are my father and the King of Altair. He was originally going to be my older brother's dragon but they didn't exactly get along."

Casimir nodded along as though he was genuinely interested, but he really didn't need to know why she ended up with the gold dragon. However, she continued talking about the dragon.

"Only recently it was decided that gold dragons would be officially classified as an ancient species rather than elemental due to their rarity and their inability to use elemental properties. It is also—"

"That's enough, Avery," Christian scolded the princess, reading Leopold and Casimir's body language easily: neither of them really cared. Leopold didn't care because he already knew all of that information. Casimir didn't care because he simply didn't care.

"Ah, sorry. Anyway, Poppa, you should go and help the others fight off the rebels attacking. I need to take these two to the main camp."

Christian nodded and said something softly to Avery, who gave a confident nod in return. He then walked over to where Nadi was waiting for him and climbed onto what appeared to be a saddle before giving a command and the two of them vanished almost in an instant. It was astonishing how fast dragons were, even after Casimir had seen his siblings riding for years. However, even being in Tiona, he was still yet to meet a dragon that was faster than Sylphys.

"Okay boys, are you ready to meet the rest of the team?" Avery asked, getting on her dragon. Casimir noticed she seemed to be watching the sky very anxiously.

"How many others are there?" Leopold questioned as he also mounted his dragon. Unlike Christian and Avery, neither of the two new riders had saddles and had to make do with the small nape in their back between their neck and wings to keep them in their place.

"Including the three of us, there is nine, I believe," they were both watching Casimir now, waiting for him to get back on the dragon. "Look, Casimir, unless you feel like staying here while this place is attacked, I recommend you get on."

Casimir looked up at the sky like Avery had been before. "Are we really just going to leave this place while its under attack? As the princess, don't you have some kind of responsibility? You're also the general of the RDRA aren't you?"

"Yes and yes," Avery said, stroking her dragon's neck, "however, my parents have entrusted me with finding the source of the rebel's strength. My brother will be able to fend them off. He always does. Now hurry up and let's go while we can."

That just doesn't seem right, he thought to himself as he approached Kuroz, who was waiting patiently for him. Just as ungracefully as before, he wriggled his way onto the dragon's back and say up, already shivering with nerves.

'I'm sure everything will make sense in time,' Kuroz said to him, turning his large head around to face Casimir. 'Have faith in the princess. She's just as anxious leaving this fight as you are.'

Casimir looked over to Avery, who was once again staring at the sky. At first he had thought her nervousness was due to wanting to avoid conflict, but now that Kuroz had mentioned it, she was definitely anxious to join them. The way her determined gaze was fixed to the clouds was enough to sway him to have faith. If she was this serious about leaving the fight, despite her own wish to remain behind and help, he felt compelled to put his trust in her judgement.

"Alright, how far is this secret base?"

"Don't say it like that, you make it sounds like it's some kind of child's game," Avery sneered at him, "Just let your dragons follow me and you won't have a problem. That is, if you can keep up!"

Before Casimir could even reply, the huge gold dragon took off. Rather than flying up as she had before, she stayed low to the ground and barely missed the trees nearby. Leopold barely hesitated before he got his dragon to take off after the princess.

'This flight will be a little bit faster and longer than our previous one,' Kuroz said as he began wandering towards the trees. Casimir has to hold on firmly with his legs to make sure he didn't slip straight off the side. 'There is not much I can share with you to help you remain steady, but you are a fine horseman so you should be okay once we are airborne.'

"Fine, fine, lets just get this over with, okay?" Even as he tries to convince the dragon, he knew he was trying to convince himself as well.

'Shall I count down for you?'

"Oh shut up, let's just go—"

With a simply crouch down to gather strength in his legs and a beat of his wings, Kuroz was in the air and soaring past the tips of the trees. Casimir used all of his will power to not cry out in shock as his sentence was cut off, biting back a series of curses. His eyes were firmly shut and his face shoved into the neck of his dragon. It was only in moments like these that gave away the fact that he was still only a young man and still got frightened by new and unknown experiences.

Kuroz didn't say a word. For someone who has never gone any higher than his horse has taken him – with the only exception being his flight earlier in the day – he was doing surprisingly well. Not everyone was a natural rider like the Colburn siblings appeared to be. Particularly, no one was as natural to riding as the Tiona family was. After all, it was in their blood. The ancient dragon flew as gently as he could, gliding more than he was actively flying, barely able to keep the other two dragons in his field of vision. He had to keep some considerable speed to make sure they weren't left behind.

"Kuroz?" Casimir finally spoke up, his eyes still shut tight. The dragon could feel that his frightened shivering had lessened, but was still there. "How high off the ground are we?"

The dragon glanced at the treetops just barely beneath his feet. He knew better than to admit how monstrously tall the trees were. 'We are just above tree height.'

Casimir scoffed at his cryptic answer. "That could mean anything from a sheep height to a mountain height. Speak to me in terms of something I can actually relate the size to."

'Then... I would say we are some six horses above ground. Big horses.' Very big horses.

"Six horses... Okay, that's not too bad. I think I can handle that," Casimir's voice wavered a little as he spoke, cautiously opening one of his eyes to peak down. At the sight of the giant fall that could await him, his breath caught in his throat and his eye was sealed shut again. "Maybe I'll just wait a little while."

Further ahead, Leopold was flying side by side with the princess and Zhukah. He couldn't help but admire the magnificent beast. From the way it held its head while it glided to the movement of its wings, everything about it seemed to refined compared to many dragons he had seen. Not to mention that it's rider was even more poise. Of course, she is a Tiona after all, he thought to himself. Every descendent of Queen Arabelle seemed to be born with the innate ability to ride and bond with dragons.

He didn't know much about the present royal family. The current monarch was Queen Arabelle's son and his wife, King Markus and Queen Scarlet. He couldn't remember the name of their eldest son, who was the current heir. Other than being the general of the RDRA, he wondered what the princess planned to do with her life. Queen Arabelle's other children still worked hard to accomplish their mother's dreams: some lead missions to discover the mysteries of the dragons while others studied the knowledge stored away in the archives and translated them to be given to the public.

"If you want to ask something, just speak up," Avery said, looking over to where Leopold was before glancing behind them. "Casimir and his dragon are falling behind."

"It's not so much that I want to ask anything," Leopold explained, looking forward, "but I just wonder what it must be like for you as the second child."

Avery thought about it herself, "Well, it means I don't have as much responsibility as Zac does, but at the same time I have more? It's a little difficult to explain to someone from a lower status of birth. Casimir probably understands well, which is why he came to Tiona."

"So just because I am born from a poor family, I can't understand how a noble one works?"

"No, I didn't say that."

"Yes, you did, just not in those words," Leopold snapped, silencing any further argument from the princess. After some moments of silence, he finally asked, "Who is Zac?" It seemed like a strange name for a royal. He had thought that the crown prince had a longer name.

"Prince Zacharius, my older brother," Avery's tone was a lot colder now that Leopold had snapped at her. He felt a little bad about it considering she hadn't done much to offend him. What she had said was perfectly true. He didn't understand what she meant about having more responsibility. As the child who wasn't inheriting a throne, wouldn't that mean she could live her life having fun and doing whatever she wanted? That's what he would do if he had a role like that.

"Ah, I see," Leopold said softly and doubted the princess had even heard him over the wind passing their ears. They were well away from any form of civilisation now, heading directly towards a large mountain in the distance. Other than the sound of the wind, there was nothing else to listen to. It reminded him a lot of his home village, which brought on a sudden sick feeling. "What happened to Addy?"

"Who?"

"Adaline, my sister. She was watching the tournament."

"She's probably somewhere safe in the city by now," Avery explained, her eyes searching for something in the distance. "No doubt Poppa will search for her once the battle is done."

"She has a dragon of her own," Leopold explained, "and she can sometimes be a little headstrong. You don't think she would have gotten involved in the fighting, do you?"

Avery felt a little bad for dragging him away from his sister. She was probably very confused right now, wondering where her brother had gotten to. "If it makes you feel any comfort, we can sent a message back to the castle to keep her in safe hands until we return, okay?"

"That would be good," he looked genuinely relieved. Avery felt slight envy of the close relationship he appeared to have with his sister. Due to both her brother's duties and her own, the two of them barely had a chance to speak to each other comfortably let alone grow close.

"Look, down there!" Avery's voice suddenly lifted with excitement as she pointed down to an area she wanted Leopold to look at. He was just about to ask where she was pointing when a gust of wind blew past, causing him to cling back into the neck of his dragon.

"This is great!" Casimir shouted from Kuroz's back, now well in front of the other two riders.

Not only was he now well in front and speeding ahead, but he was only holding on with his legs. His arms were spread out on either side as though he was trying to hug the air.

"He's sure changed his mind about flying quickly," Avery said with a slight, unlady-like snort.

Leopold nodded in agreement as they began their descent. "I feel like he's the type that won't be shown up so easily by someone else."