Dracoville

Traineeship

'I take it you're Marian and Apple?' The man, who Arian guessed was Raixian said, breaking the silence.
'I think you mean Arian and Opal, sir.' Opal said, which drew both Raixian and Arian's interest to the use of 'sir'.
'Ah, yes that would make more sense. And sir? Really? Please, call me Raixian, or even Ray for short.'
Raixian said, 'alongside your names, I was told you were coming to see me, although I do believe you weren't told why?'
'That would be correct, yes.' Arian answered, growing curious of why he was sent here in the first place.

'Well then, Arian, why don't I go put this stuff away' he said, indicating the bag, 'and you go and make yourselves comfy in my shop and then I'll tell you all about why you were sent here.'
He said this as he turned towards the shop, and pushed open the door which made a small bell ring, not leaving Arian time to answer.

'Well? Are we going to go in?' Opal asked Arian, who was standing there, looking a bit like an idiot. 'Oh, right.' Was all Arian said, casting a glance at Opal, who hopped off the back of the bike, before Arian leaned it against the front of the shop. As Opal and Arian walked into the shop, they were surprised to see it was well decorated, thinking it would have been a bit rundown due to the look of Raixian. Spotting some comfy looking seats at the side of the room, they both went and sat down in them, and were surprised by how comfy they were.

As they were sitting there, they heard some clanging coming from a door at the back of what Arian supposed was a waiting room. As they were waiting, Arian starts to look around the lavishly decorated room and saw various ornate weapons and shields of all different shapes and sizes all along the walls, and as he was looking around at them, his eye was drawn to a spear-like weapon which stuck due to not being as ornate as the others. The weapon was as long as a spear, but the tip was in an odd shape that Arian had never seen before. Before Arian could even begin to comprehend how one would wield the 'spear', Raixian burst through the door, and pulled up a nearby chair in front of Arian and Opal.

'Well then, now that that's all in order, onto why you're here.' Raixian said, a faint grin on his face. 'As you may have noticed, this is a weapons shop, and so, in a weapons shop, we make weapons, as you may have guessed.' A few seconds of silence passed, in which Arian raised a single eyebrow, before Raixian continued 'and so, every now and then, the dragon centre sends it's latest recruits around to one of the various weapon shops to train the finer points of being a rider there.' Raixian paused to make sure Arian was listening. 'And guess what?' He rhetorically asked, 'lucky old you got sent to me' he said, poking Arian's chest when he said it.

'Umm, just one question, Raixian.' Arian asked, looking confused.
'Yes? What is it?
'Why does the training centre send us to a weapons shop?'
'Well how else do you expect to get a saddle for Apple there?'
'Opal' Opal corrected him as soon as he heard it.
'Whatever' was all Raixian responded with.
Arian wasn't paying attention after the mention of a saddle, as it hadn't occurred to him that he would even be getting a saddle for Opal. The entire time he had Opal with him, and even during the time in which he disappeared, he hadn't realised that the rider in dragon rider would come true.

'Just hold on a second, please.' Arian butted in, not caring about what Opal and Raixian were talking about, 'why am I getting a saddle for Opal when he's barely up to my knee?' Was the question he asked, looking perplexed at the puzzle of Opal's size.
'That's...actually a good question.' Raixian said with surprise. 'Well, I'm sure you'll find out soon enough, and besides, the whole point of you being sent here isn't to just get a saddle and leave, no.' He continued. 'You see, just try and think of it more as an...apprenticeship? I guess?' Raixian finished, sounding as if he had confused himself.
'So wait, we were sent here to help you out, pretty much?' Opal asked.
'Well, yeah, pretty much.' Raixian replied, raising his finger at the start of the sentence as if he were going to explain it, before dropping it as he realised Opal pretty much hit it on the head. 'Well isn't that just pleasant?' Opal sarcastically said with a touch of sass. 'Anyway, I was told to tell you that you are now to report to me rather than Kat everyday, or at least until everyone else gets here.' He said, trailing off a bit towards the end. 'Wait, the others? What do you mean by the others?' Arian inquired. 'Huh? What are you talking about? I didn't say anything.' Was all Raixian said, before getting up, and putting the chair back while getting suspicious looks from Arian and Opal, which he pretended to ignored. That was weird. Was all Arian thought while Raixian started walking towards the back door. 'Anyway, we don't start until two days from now, so you can apparently have two days off.' Raixian said, turning back to them. 'You know, now that I think about it, I remember there being a sort of festival in the main plaza tomorrow, maybe you and Apple should go to that?' He said, flashing a smile and waving goodbye and heading through the door before either of them could react. 'It's bloody Opal.' Was all that Opal muttered to an almost empty room, while clenching his teeth.

Upon arriving at home from that eventful visit, Arian and Opal quickly fell into the lounge and stared at the still slightly burnt wall.
'So, the festival tomorrow, eh? I wonder what it's about?' Opal said, walking in circles on the lounge before lying down, placing his head on his tail.
'I'm not sure, actually, hold on a second, it might be on my calendar.' Was all Arian said as the lounge groaned when he hopped off, before walking over to where a small calendar was located. Lifting his head in curiosity, for he had never noticed the calendar before, he watched as Arian started to tear off a couple of the pages, and throw them in the nearby bin.
'What are you doing?'
'Turns out that I haven't looked at this calendar for about five months now, and frankly? I forgot it existed.' Arian said, before running a finger over the current page, then stopping on a small square, which had the date and underneath it, small writing, saying:

October 24th, festival of sight.

'Huh, that's a weird thing to celebrate.'

Noticing something below it, he quickly moved his finger towards it, before realising he couldn't read it, as it was written in a strange language. As Arian looked closer at the strange words, it seemed the lines that made up the Unknown symbols started moving on the paper, coming together to form a small, hollow circle drawn in ink.