Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Lord Brales?” a voice said from behind him, the scared man barely concealed his groan of annoyance before he turned around to look at the man behind him. Standing behind him was a young man who was in his mid-twenties with short red hair and green eyes; he was a handsome man having a lot of ladies fawning over him but Lord Caridoc Bloryan ignored all his admires, saying that he had no interest in women that couldn’t defend themselves.

Lord Bloryan wore the typical leathers of a Dragon Archer, with his dragonbone bow slung across his back and his dragonfang dagger that was strapped to his side. All dragonbone bows were made from the a wing bone of a dragon and it was extraordinarily strong, an arrow shot from these bows will travel much farther than an arrow shot from a regular bow.

Lord Brales crossed his arms over his chest and said, “What is it?”

“Straight to the point, eh Lord Brales?” the younger man said with a grin. “But I won’t keep you, I was just coming by if see if you really did meet a mysterious young woman in one of the towns.”

The scared man showed no reaction, one of his fellow travelers must have told Lord Bloryan about that young woman and he should have said something to them about it since he had wanted only one person to know about her and that was the king.

“Yes, what of it?”

“You don’t find it odd that she knew how dragons smelled to know that it was what had spooked her horses?”

Lord Brales shrugged his massive, muscular shoulders and said, “It didn’t really occur to me then but yes.”

Lord Bloryan gave him an annoyed look, either very brave or stupid in the scared man’s opinion, and huffed, “You should know that commoners are not supposed to have dragons!”

“Try telling that to the dragons,” Lord Brales said with a smirk. “Because they could care less about bloodlines, all they care about is the strength and courage of the person.”

“So what are you going to do about her?”

Lord Brales shrugged again and said, “For now, nothing and I would suggest that you do the same, we are here to protect the common people, not harass them because some girl knew how dragons smelled.” And with that, he turned around and stalked off towards the throne room knowing that Lord Bloryan wouldn’t try to stop him. Lord Brales was a tall and muscular man who scared people, he scares them more even more thanks to the burn.

Lord Brales stepped into the throne room of King Cainon Rhogwyn, like the castle the throne was carved and made from rock was the largest room in the entire castle and you had to walk a good distance in order to speak to the king.

The scared man drew closer to the throne and kneeled once he reached the bottom step of the raised dais.

“What is it, Lord Calan Brales?” King Cainon said, he made a motion with his hand and Lord Brales stoop up.

King Cainon Rhogwyn was a handsome older man with his dark brown hair that fell in waves around the sharp and refined features of his face, he had several days’ worth covering his cheeks and chin. The Dragon King wore armor over his muscular body; his armor was gold with a white cloak swung over his shoulders and nestled on his head was a golden crown that was in the shape of a dragon. Movement drew Lord Brales’s eyes behind King Cainon and he saw Draxkriliax, the King’s dragon, lying behind his throne in a large opening that was carved there. Like his own dragon, Draxkriliax was pure black and battle scared though Draxkriliax was much larger than Rajgrax and many of the wise men believe that it was because Draxkriliax was bonded to the king and that was the reason behind his massive size.

“We came across a young woman who knew the smell of dragons and when she saw Rajgrax flying overhead, she didn’t show any fear or surprise,” Lord Brales said.

King Cainon looks down at him and said, “You think she is the missing Princess?”

Lord Brales shrugged his shoulders and said, “She could be, she matched the age your daughter would be by now but there are many other girls who are the same age as your missing daughter.”

Cainon chuckled at that and nodded his head in agreement, “True and the only way to know is to see if she has the necklace that her mother had given her.”

No one knew what that necklace looked like and only the King knew what that necklace looked like and all the guards were told to bring any young woman that had a dragon necklace straight to the King.

“Should I go get her?” Calan asked crossing his arms over his chest.

Cainon shook his head and said, “No, at least not yet. I have just received word that the Lich King had become active once again.”

Calan swore it was never good news to hear that the Lich King was active but neither was it good news to hear when he wasn’t, to Calan the good news would be to finally kill that evil.

“What should we do?” he asked.

“Take a small force and head to Dragonkeep; I want you to help strengthen the defenses there because it would be the beginning of our fall if it should fall,” Cainon said.

“Yes, Your Highness,” he bowed and walked out of the throne room, walking past the three members of the King’s Guard but he didn’t look at them. There was no way they would become with him, even if they wanted to they couldn’t it was their job to protect the King and therefore they must stay with him.

You could tell who was a member of the King’s Guard by the silver armor and the pale blue cloak that they wore and each man carried a dragonfang lance. They were actually called Dragon Guard and hated being called King’s Guard but that was why he called them that, Calan didn’t like those men and they didn’t like him either.

Calan walked into the dragon stables, which was on the far right side of the castle cut into the highest face of the mountain. He saddled up Rajgrax after picking the men who would come with him, so he and three others prepare their dragons to the trip South. 

Rajgrax lowered his head and fixed Calan with a yellow eye, his black vertical pupil widening and narrowing. “Going South, are we? We don’t have time to babysit some fresh meat.” Like his rider’s voice, his voice was gravely and raspy like a sword going over stone.

Calan chuckled and rubbed in between Rajgrax’s nostrils, saying, “I know but we have our orders, old friend.”

Rajgrax snorted out a stream of smoke before he adopted a sly look and said, “We can always go looking for that female Dragon Rider that was in that village that you had stopped at.”

Calan looked at him and said, “You smelled dragon on her?” He wasn’t surprised to hear that she was a Dragon Rider, she had sat too straight in that saddle and she hadn’t been surprised when she was the dragons flying above them either.

Rajgrax snorted again and walked out of his stall, dragons didn’t walk like lizards they walked like cats by lifting the one front foot and the opposite hind foot at the same time.  Their wings were folded at their sides, their tails were raised and gently moving from side to side to help them maintain their balance as they walked. They even acted like cats too sometimes.

“Of course, her dragon is male and younger than I am but living in the ancient woods had made sure that he could fight like an older dragon.”

Rajgrax was around the same age as Calan, bonded dragons tend to age like their riders while their wild brethren age either fast or slow, it normally depends on where they live in Krydáin.

Calan pated Rajgrax’s thick neck and said, “Let’s hope we see can her and her dragon on our way there, we have to fly over those cursed woods anyways.”

He climbed onto Rajgrax’s back, once his rider was safely on his back Rajgrax leapt off the cliff and dived to gain speed before he snapped his wings open and with three powerful strokes he had picked up height and leveled out. Behind and flying next to him was his men, Calan was firmly griping onto the front of his saddle and he kept his gaze fixed ahead of him. Deep inside he knew that he was hoping to see her again and he didn’t know why he wanted to see her again but he did.

Calan didn’t mind if Rajgrax knew but he didn’t want anyone else to know that the great and fearsome Calan Brales wanted to see a mere slip of a girl who had shown neither fear or awe when she saw him or dragons.

Kennera was awakened by Fraener landing; she sat up and looked around. She noticed that the woods in the West looked alien and weird than the woods that she had grew up in. Kennera  climbed off Fraener’s back and she then took the bundle off and opened it completely once she had set it down on the ground, inside was an bow and quiver full of arrows and a dagger but they looked nothing like her old ones. Fraener lowered his head and nudged the bow with his snout.

“A dragonbone bow and dragonfang dagger…Kerrich really was a Dragon Rider,” the dragon rumbled out.

Kennera picked up the bow and tested it; she found that it was lighter and easier to bend than her old one. She places the bow down and picks up the clothes, she finds that they consisted of leather breeches, vest, jerkin, boots and a red tunic; the leather articles of the clothing were black.

The girl stepped behind Fraener so that she could change into her new clothes, the leather she found was soft and strong, that it would be able to withstand rubbing against the scales of her dragon. She tied her new boots and tested their support; they were just as good as her old pair.

Kennera walks around Fraener and puts on her new weapons and black shooting gloves, and when she was done she looked at Fraener and smiled.

“Ready to go?”

Fraener nods his head and she quickly climbs onto his back, she taps her heels against his sides and Fraener starts to walk. His tail slides on the ground, making a deep grove behind him and his talons making deep impressions in the dirt as he walked.

“Who do we go to when we get there?” the dragon asked.

Kennera frowns and taps on the front of the saddle before replying, “I guess we go see the elven king, Sirion Yávëtil.”

Fraener snorts out a puff of smoke and said, “Three kings who don’t see eye to eye and two are on the verge of declaring war while the other just sits by and watches.”

Kennera agreed with her dragon on that but there was no talking to Kings especially to the Lich King who ruled the East or the Dragon King who ruled the North and South though she might be able to talk to the elven king but even then that would be unlikely for even him to want to listen to her.

“I know, Fraener, but all we can do is try and make sure that we don’t get dragged into an army if war should ever break out,” Kennera said.

“The Lich King had sent his minions after you, little one, so I don’t think we will have a choice but to join.”

“Yeah, that’s true but we can’t join the elves since they hate dragons so that leaves the Dragon Riders.”

Fraener looks at her and said, “Yes, it does bu-”

He was interrupted by a horn blasting and then twenty elven archers surrounded them, aiming their bows at them.

The dragon stops walking and looks at them before he looks back at his rider, “Looks like our host had sent his people to lead us to him.”

The elf closest to them came up and motions for them to follow him, shouting something in elfish to his men. Fraener doesn’t move for a few minutes but then he starts to follow them, his tail was no longer on the ground but above it. This was silently telling the elves that if they showed any signs of attacking, he would use his tail as a weapon.

The dragon and his Rider followed after the lead elf in silence, each one not knowing how the elf king would respond to them being here but they were ready to fight if they needed to.

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