The room was plain and square, with smooth grey walls and a flat roof. A bed was at the left hand corner, along with a chest of draws and a desk with a glowing red lantern atop it. On the other side was a circular nest made of soft pillows and linen. An arched opening at the back led out onto a balcony overlooking the valley beyond. A white canvas was rolled to the top of the arch that could be pulled down to block the entrance.

"This is where you will be staying," Eric said, gesturing to the room.

Ragin evaluated it with a glance. It was, like the rest New Doru Araeba, built to house a dragon, though not the same size as Saphira or Firnen who wouldn't even fit through the opening. It was more for younger dragons, for maybe the first two or three years of their life. After that they would get too large to be able to fit comfortably inside the room.

He shrugged to himself, thinking that it was likely a temporary area for younger riders like himself. Akaysha had walked in behind them, scanning the room in interest. Her eyes fell upon the nest and lit up curiously. She had never seen a nest made out of such materials. Her old one back at Ragin's place was made from straw and sticks. Rather eager to test it out she trotted over to it and promptly sitting down, curling up with a long sigh. This was by far more comfortable than anything she had ever slept on before.

Ragin barked a laugh, "Don't be too eager Akaysha."

She purred softly as she lay her head down, 'Of this nest, I definitely approve.'

Eric grinned, "I'll leave you two to settle in. You have the rest of the day to do as you wish, as long as it doesn't broach upon the oath you made. Tomorrow morning you will meet your fellow trainees. I wish you well."

With that he left the two alone to get acquainted with their new home. The door to the room was a large wooden sliding door that slid seamlessly back and forth, where it could be locked shut if the occupant wished. Again, it was large enough to fit Akaysha currently, but in two or three years it would be a little small for the dragoness.

Ragin sat down on the edge of the bed, slightly surprised to find that it was rather soft. His travel warn body wanted him to lay down and rest, but he resisted the urge. If he fell asleep now it would ruin his internal clock and make the morrow that much harder, though he doubted any training he did would be a far-cry from what he went through as a child.

'What do you think?' he asked Akaysha.

'It seems nice enough,' she replied, raising her head and looking at him.

'Yes, pretty nice for a prison,' he smirked sarcastically.

'Oh Ragin, don't be like that. You never know what it'll be like until you try,' rumbled the dragoness.

'And you don't start mothering me,' he accused with a grunt.

She snorted, 'To be fair, you got off pretty lightly for stealing a dragon egg. I think you should try and make the best of this situation.'

He didn't answer, looking away from her and out to the sky beyond. What she spoke was true, and even if he did have a way to escape he couldn't exactly enact that now. It required patience and time. So, for now he would have to wait it out and play the part of a trainee dragon rider. Besides, he would never admit it, part of him was looking forward to what was to come. To see life as a proper dragon rider. He would just have to make sure he avoided Theaden and that dreaded black dragon.

'You're right,' he sighed, 'And in the spirit of settling in, I should get that saddle off you, and the bag as well.'

'About time! You really should be thinking more about your dragon,' she lightly teased.

He chuckled and stood up. He unclipped his sword belt and left it on the now wrinkled surface of his bed, before walking over to Akaysha. He jumped onto her back and unbuckled the single bag he had brought, pretty much all of his possessions he had chosen to bring. In the bag were a couple of changes of clothes, two extra daggers, a wet stone, a book of unknown content and extra fletching and black arrow heads in case he decided to make some more arrows. His unstrung bow was also tied to Akaysha's side, along with a quiver of arrows. All of this he removed and placed at the foot of his bed. He would sort it out later.

He then unclipped her saddle for the first time in about a week, and chuckled slightly at her relieved breath. While the saddle didn't really bother her too much, after wearing it for so long it was nice to have it removed. There was a rung on the wall beside Akaysha's nest, where he hung the saddle.

Akaysha let out a startled hiss as she looked down her body at where the saddle had been. Most of the scales were dull and dirty, or at least more so than the surrounding ones. It was rather noticeable against her body. He nearly laughed as she slapped her tail against the ground in frustration.

'I knew that we should have taken the saddle off sooner,' she exclaimed.

'Yeah right. You were the one that insisted we keep it on. For 'convenience' you said,' was Ragin's snarky reply.

'Oh, shut up you. Now I need to go and have a bath. The river doesn't look too bad from here,' she said, looking through the arch to the valley beyond.

'Well, I'm not gonna' stop you,' he shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the bag he had placed down.

'Oh no you don't. You're coming with me,' she replied, getting to her feet and taking a step toward him.

He quickly scurried away from her to the other side of the room, 'Hey! What if I don't want you.'

'Hmm, you scarcely have a say in the matter,' she rumbled humorously.

He eyed the dragon cautiously and could almost spot the malicious smirk on her face. She took another intimidating step toward him, her head cocked and her tail slightly raised from the ground as if she were about to pounce. He could tell that was what she planned to do should he even attempt to refuse.

"Aargh," he eventually said out loud, "At least let me lock the door before we do."

She snorted, 'Lock the door? I'm pretty sure no one would want to steal from you here.'

"I beg to disagree," he replied, walking over to the wooden panel and sliding it across before securing it with a word of the ancient language, "I wouldn't be surprised if there are a number of people who would love to rummage through my stuff for those dangerous Black Hand 'secrets'."

'Hmm, true,' she bobbed her head, stalking up behind him.

"Yes, and I don't..." he let out a startled cry of surprise as Akaysha grabbed him from behind with her claws, "Hey! Akaysha! What are you... Aaah!"

The dragoness, using her hind legs, turned and with a flap of her wings launched herself toward the open arch. No answering her flailing rider as he beat against the scaly paw that held him, she made her way onto the balcony and leapt into the air with a laugh, quickly circling down toward the river. Ragin instantly stopped struggling as they were launched into the air, a dizzying feeling running through his stomach as he looked to the ground below. It was a long drop down.

'Akaysha... put me down,' he said as he held on for dear life, 'You will pay for this.'

'You know, telling me to do something and then threatening me is not a very good way to make me do something,' she responded mercilessly.

'Akaysha!' Ragin mentally yelled at her.

'Oh fine. You're no fun.'

He nodded his head. She circled down toward a wider section of the river, the crystal blue water sparkling magically in the sunlight. There weren't many others around, thankfully, though there were a few fishing boats about a kilometre up stream. A few dragons were flying through the sky, though high above where the river was. Ragin could hear the distinct sounds of swords clashing from around where the large block buildings were. It seemed most everyone was busy except him.

As he focused his attention on the river he couldn't help but notice that Akaysha's flight course didn't exactly end at the shoreline. He began to get a little more worried as they passed by it all together, heading toward the centre of the river.

'Akaysha, you said you were going to put me down,' Ragin narrowed his eyes.

'I am going to put you down,' she said with mirth, some of her plans leaking into her riders mind.

His eyes widened and he began to struggle once more, "No! Akaysha! Don't you dare! Don't you dare drop – "

And she dropped him. He let out a cry as he fell a good six or seven metres before hitting the water below. He had been slightly prepared for the drop, and had managed to position himself accordingly. Despite this he still winded himself as he landed, having a little trajectory because of Akaysha's speed. There was a large splash and a cold shock as he went under. Grunting he crawled himself back to the surface and let out a large gasp of air.

He looked up as the dragoness circled above him roaring her laughter. He shook his fist at her, 'You will pay for this! Just you wait!'

The water was icy cold, most of it having come from melting snow on the mountain peaks. Because of this though it was beautiful and clear. If he strained his eyes he could nearly see the bottom. Fish darted this way and that, trying to escape from the kicking legs of the rider. Plants grew all along the bottom in between thousands of smooth rocks that made the riverbed. It wasn't that deep, maybe seven or eight metres, and there was a slight current pulling him toward a bridge that crossed over from the block buildings into New Doru Araeba. The water, despite how cold it was, tasted almost sweet, Ragin having got some in his mouth in the fall. Curious, he took a small sip and let out a chuckle. It was probably the purest water he had ever tasted.

Another roar grabbed his attention and he looked up. Akaysha dove from the sky, landing with a ginormous splash near her rider, sending a wave cascading over his head. He let out an annoyed grunt and pulled himself to the surface once again, glaring at the dragon. Her laughter sent slight tremors through the water as she paddled around, her wings outstretched to help her float and her neck and held similarly to a swan.

'You really are in a playful mood right now,' he told her as he swam over and pulled himself onto her back.

'Well, it has been a while since we have done anything useless,' she stated, 'I thought we better take the chance.'

He laughed, patting her on the neck, 'Too true, Akaysha, too true.'

* * *

Ragin sat at the bank of the river, his back against a tree, watching as Akaysha gave herself a thorough tongue bath, focusing especially on those points that needed attention. Her scales were almost all glistening beautifully now. The pure water of the rivers cleaned remarkably well. Ragin felt fresher and cleaner then he had in a long time.

The sun was dipping into the horizon now. The two had spent their whole day exploring the depths. Hundreds of different fish and other water-life dwelled in the river. The riverweed down below seemed to grow almost like coral, and with the help of magic, had been amazing to swim through. Ragin could think of no other reason for these phenomenon other than magic. There was no way the water was that clear without it.

They had spent most of the day their, only stopping for a quick lunch. Akaysha had taken the liberty of trapping and catching several dozen fish, and while she wolfed down her portion raw, Ragin had cooked his with a quick spell. He didn't see the logic in building a fire as he usually would have done. He had been rather surprised to find that they were left alone for the most part. Only occasionally would a rider and dragon circle over, as if checking on the two.

He let out a deep sigh, feeling himself relax as the warm rays of the evening sun slowly dried out his sopping clothes. It felt a little strange to not have his sword belt around his waist. The familiar weight of the weapon was often a comfort. He usually had either it or his bow with him, all of which he had left back up at the cave. He wasn't completely defenceless, still having two daggers hidden on him, and of course his magic. But that only went so far.

'You have me as well,' Akaysha said, catching onto his thoughts.

Ragin laughed, 'Yes. And I dare say you are a far more dangerous weapon than a sword.'

'You better believe it,' she snorted humorously.

When the dragon finished her tongue bath she relaxed on the shore, the pebbles surprisingly gentle on her stomach. The beat of wings caught their attention and they turned to see the same turquoise blue dragon that had met them on their arrival. On its back was the blond headed elf that seemed to be apart of the trainee riders, based on the age of his dragon. The elf also looked rather young, more boyish than anything. Ragin got to his feet, eyeing the rider and dragon warily. What did they want?

"Hello there!" the elf grinned as he slipped of his dragon's back and onto the ground.

'Be polite,' Akaysha said in Ragin's head cutting off a rather negative retort.

He inwardly groaned, "Hey. Who might you be?"

Not exactly the most polite way to greet someone, but it was the best he was going to give.

The elf didn't even seem to notice, "My name's Hanzi, and this here is Thoran. We thought it would be good to introduce ourselves considering you're apparently going to be joining us tomorrow."

"Ragin," the thief replied with a grunt, then at a mental prod from Akaysha continued, "And she is Akaysha."

"He named you well," Hanzi laughed vibrantly to the dragoness, "I've heard that you can use magic at will."

"She can," Ragin replied for her.

"That's amazing! And you, I heard you were trained by the Black Hand and managed to defeat both Master Eon and Master Zayphoz in combat!" He didn't seem at all put off by the fact.

"I took them by surprise. Magic is very useful like that," he responded.

"Still, it's good to know that I'll finally have a challenge in sword fighting. I beat the others way too easy," he said with a smirk.

Ragin raised his eyebrow at that. This elf seemed far more outgoing than most others he had met. There was little too no filter on the words coming out of his mouth. And he seemed genuinely pleased at the fact that Ragin had been trained by the Black Hand. Then again, Hanzi was an elf, so things like magic, swordsmanship, and other such activities came naturally to him. He seemed quite young as well, and that was when magic was the strongest for elves.

"Anyway, this was just a quick stop by to say high. I need to get going to my next lesson. Something about the history of dragons. Bah!" he leapt onto Thoran's back.

The dragon made an odd grunting sound at Akaysha, before the two took to the air in a gust of wind. Ragin and Akaysha watched silently as the two flapped their way back to Doru Araeba, the dragoness seeming slightly startled.

'They're strange people,' the dragoness eventually stated.

'That they are,' Ragin agreed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey guys! New chapter! This was a bit more of a fun chapter as the two main characters relax. Hopefully it gives a bit more of an insight into their relationship as well. Vote if you enjoyed and please comment what you thought. The next chapter will be out soon. See Ya!

Pennator^^