Inferno Legacy: Valor of the Dragon (Book One)

Chapter 6

            Cody awoke somewhat late the next morning after another dreamless night, and got up to look out the window at the trees in the direction of the cave. Out of the corner of the window the sun was resting above the trees, showing him that there was an hour or two before Omen arrived, although he expected that the eager man would arrive much earlier.

            As he left his room, he became painfully aware of how early Omen would be there, since he came riding a palomino horse right up to the door only ten minutes later.  Cody was glad that his parents had left for the town a while before he woke up, so the blacksmith wouldn’t tell them anything.

            Omen jumped off of his horse clutching a large bag that Cody assumed contained the torches.

            “May I come inside?”

            Cody laughed and nodded, tying up the horse to a nearby tree (being too lazy to walk it out to the stables) and led the way inside. Omen set the bag on the table with a tremendous clank and flopped down into a chair.

            He looked up at Cody and asked, “Well, just when will we be meeting this person that we’ll be exploring the cave with?”

            Cody smiled and replied, “We’ll be meeting him at the cave. He’s probably the most eager to look at everything.”

            “I hardly think so,” Omen laughed. “I’m pretty excited. But first, do you want to check out the torches just to make sure they’ll work?”

            Cody nodded just before Omen dumped the bag’s content onto the table with various chinking and clinking noises. Apparently, he had had very good luck the night before and had made exactly ten torches, all of them ready to be lit. There was also some flint, some steel, a small hammer, and dozens of nails to attack the torches to the walls. There were also three smaller hand-held torches.

            “We only need two hand-held torches, I’ll explain why later. But, how long do you think each of them will last?”

            Omen kicked his feet up and put his hands behind his head before saying, “I used a really old technique for making torches, but successful. They should last about a week before they need to be refilled with ground charcoal and some special twigs that I keep in my forge.”

            “Sounds great!” Cody exclaimed with growing excitement. “We should get going though; the sooner we leave, the sooner we’ll get to exploring the cave, and the sooner you’ll meet my companion.”

            Cody scooped up the torches and piled them into the bag before attempting to swing it over his shoulder, unsuccessfully, despite his amazing new strength. Without a word, Omen grabbed the bag from him, and popped out the door with the same enthusiasm. As he raced off to the edge of the woods, Cody untied his horse, quickly brought it to the stables, and bounded after him with greater speed, especially since the blacksmith was lugging the huge bag.

            The rider pointed out the trail that Inferno had followed and carefully swept away his tracks before leading on. Cody then conversed with the dragon for the first time that day.

            “We’re on our way; will you be there before us?”

            Inferno stopped a moment to catch his breath before replying, “Definitely, but I’ll remain hidden in the trees so he won’t see me right away. We have to prepare him a bit more than me just suddenly being noticed.”