The End of Eternity

Kenshi

Kenshi left the dormitory of his school the same way as the other days before, but this time his feet felt heavy. It was the same place Rhaska had led him to a few weeks ago. He had been transferred here as a student of the specialized school for dragon riders. Normally it was a great honor to ride a dragon, a wind serpent was a common mount for a lizardman like him, but he was not an ordinary lizardman. His tribe established a diplomatic relations with The Skyrock Castle and he acted as a bridge between his tribe and Skyrock, at least that was the official story. In fact, as a son of their chief he was a hostage, an insurance in case his tribe tried to attack The Skyrock Castle. His tribe's power was just mediocre, but operating this way was a common practise here. He knew no one here and many in his school had only disdain for him. They saw him as a spoiled brat who wanted to ride a dragon. In his opinion the whole dragon riding thing was just a hype, most of them were just lesser dragons anyway.

The riders of Skyrock had variety of mounts to choose from and every type had its own school for riders with its own designated platform on which a whole campus had been built. He knew about schools for dragon riders, gryphon riders, wind serpent riders, air elemental riders, great bat riders and mountain eagle riders. There were more, but he did not care about them.

Trying not to think, he reached the entrance of the dragon riders school. It was a quick walk from his dormitory, because everything was on a single, small platform. He felt like suffocating and tried to take a deep breath, but it did not help.

"A great hero is here, behold!" A voice resonated from a small group of trainees nearby, followed by a loud giggling.

Being alone, Kenshi decided to do nothing as always and walked inside, but this time, the group began to follow him.

"Where do you thing you are going? This is not a hole for lizards." He ignored them again and picked up his pace, but it was too late. A muscular hand caught him by his shoulder and forced him to turn around. Kenshi was in shock, they had never dared to touch him before.

"He is talking to you lizard." One of them stepped closer. "You should answer his question."

"Do not forget to be polite while answering." A few of them bursted into laugh again, but the atmosphere got heavy. Kenshi did not know what to do, after a while Kenshi opened his mouth to say something, only to be silenced by the leader of the group.

"What do you think you are doing reptile? You are supposed to be polite!"

"But. .. " Kenshi felt like in a dream, what did they want? He had done nothing wrong and yet. . .

"Kneel!" The leader ordered him with an evil smile. The other members of the group encircled him. That moment an instructor walked out from around the corner of the corridor.

"We are not done yet." The leader whispered, leaning closer to Kenshi. The group continued in the direction of the school's stables as if nothing had happened. Kenshi followed them slowly to attend the course. No matter what he would do, there was no escaping them here.

* * * *

"What are you thinking about? I hope there are no trouble during your lectures." A muscular man clothed in a red, light armor asked his colleague.

"No, not at all. I had some trouble inside of our stables. The old stable keeper quit, I had to send a request for someone else, who will be able to handle our dragons. It was too much for the old man."

"Aha, it is an exhausting job to keep all the dragons there in line. A man of authority is needed." They nodded in unisono and left the room, hurrying to make it in time for their courses.