Dragon Riders

Chapter 8

            The ride back to the practice field, the field that Stacy and I first existed on was called, passed in comfortable silence. I was trying not to slide off of my Dragon and not to cry from the soreness of my thighs and calves; Lucas was silent because that was just how he was.

            Reaching the practice field I watched as Lucas just swung his leg over and slid off of Blade, his blue eyes looking up to me from the ground. "You coming Royse?" He asked as he leaned back against his dragon.

            Lucas's black hair was mostly dry from the sun, but the strands that were still wet caught the sun and threw it back, making it look as if he was glowing. His dark dragon was a shadow behind him, the  light that was shining down on him being absorbed by his brown scales; the two do them were a matching set, beautiful and deadly.

            Looking away from Lucas before my starring became awkward I glanced towards the ground and back towards him. "I'm going to land on my face if I slide off," I told him, already in the process of pulling my right leg around so that I was sitting sideways on Opher's back.

            Lucas shook his head as he crossed his arms across his chest. "No you wont, now come on, we don't have all day." He told me, his voice impatient.

            Glancing down at the ground I looked at Opher, who had turned his head so that one of his green eyes looked at me. Giving a sigh, I shoved my hands off so that I was sliding down Opher's side, and when my feet met the ground, their lack of use took its toll and I fell forward, my hands barely catching me before my face slammed into the ground.

            Giving a sigh I raised my eyes so that I was looking at the shocked face of Lucas who, when his eyes met mine, started laughing so hard that he could barely breath. Feeling my face heat with embarrassment I scrambled to my feet, my sore legs protesting as I crinkled my nose down at Lucas. Feeling an evil grin cover my face as I got an awesome idea I turned towards Blade, who was starring at Lucas with fondness in his eyes.

            "Hey Blade," Blade's eyes came to me and when he saw my grin his head cocked to the side. "Is Lucas ticklish?" I asked and when Blade gave a quick nod and his dragon face seemed to twist into a grin.

            Grinning back at Blade I gave a quick battle cry, that sounded more like a shriek of terror, I launched myself at the still laughing Lucas and started trying to tickle him. The armor made tickling him difficult so I was forced to attack his sides, which were less armored than the rest of him.

            Lucas's laughter, which had cut off when I had jumped on top of him, quickly resumed as I tickled him, his body wiggling around on the grass as he tried to escape. Lucas's booming laugh drowned out the sounds of my high laughter as our Dragon's watched us joking off, their eyes filled with humor as they snuffled out their own dragon like laughter.

            Smoke escaped Opher's nostrils as he laughed, his voice booming in my head as he encouraged me to keep ticking Lucas, who at this point was trying desperately to escape my tickling, his laughter coming between pants as he tried to breath.

            My own breath was coming in gasps as I laughed, and eventually I stopped y attack and flopped onto my back on the ground, giggles still escaping my periodically.

            Lucas was still panting and chuckling by the tie I had caught my breath enough to turn to him. "I told you I was going to fall, now," I told him as I quickly stood to my feet, whipping off my butt. "Stop wasting time, we don have all day." I said in a gruff voice, a second before I turned and started back to Opher. ]

            I had barely taken one step before a hand on my ankle had me crashing back to the ground. I rolled onto my back in time for Lucas's weight to crash on my body. He was sitting on my stomach with his hands holding mine to the ground. "Your next lesson is self defense. You wont be on your Dragon all the time so you need to know how to defend yourself. There are three ways to get out of this hold you just need one. Can you do it?" He asked, all hints of joking gone.

            Feeling like the air was being crushed out of me I tried to think, something that was hard do to my lack of oxygen, exhaustion, and the fact that I had yet to eat anything today.

            My hands were immobilized, my torso was unmoving, and for once I was grateful for my five older brothers and the fact hat they often involved me in their fights, verbal and physical. Flinging the only part of me that was movable I took my legs and wrapped my legs around Lucas's neck. My knees went next to his ears and it was easy to squeeze them together and rip Lucas off of me.

            Panting in air, I looked at Lucas and scowled. "Now what?" I asked as I sat up to see him looking at me through narrowed eyes.

            "How are you at throwing punches?" He asked causing me to widen my eyes in shock.

            "I can't, my brothers said if I were to try, with the fist I make, I would break my wrist." I told him, a blush covering my face as I remembered how that had offended me enough to actually throw the punch, and while I had bruised Vlad's eye, I had also broken my wrist.

            Lucas looked at me with a cocked eyebrow, probably knowing exactly what happened after Vlad told me that. "Alright, well I guess I'll have to teach you" He said sounding a lot less than trilled.