Inferno Legacy: Loyalty of the Dragon (Book Two)

Chapter 10

“Ashes raining from the sky!” Inferno cried, shaking the snowflake from his nose as he leapt away. “We have to find its source!”

Cody looked at his dragon for several long moments before a laugh burst from his lips. He crumpled to the ground in an explosion of laughter and tears crept into his eyes. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop laughing. Finally, when his sides felt like they were on fire and he struggled to get enough air, he looked up to meet the dragon’s serious and terrified gaze.

“There is no fire, in fact I don’t know how you would guess they were ashes, of all things.” Cody stuck his tongue out to catch a snowflake on it, where it quickly melted away. “They’re snowflakes.”

“Snowflakes?”

“Yes, snowflakes. I can’t believe you don’t know what snowflakes are,” Cody said as a chuckle escaped him, but realizing that it hurt too much he forced the rest back.

Inferno snorted, his pride hurt, before he retorted, “Ever since I was born, all we really ever talked about was warfare and fire, at least as far as I’ve heard. After studying fires and seeing their ashes fall like this, what was I supposed to think? And you never mentioned snow before, I’m certain of it.”

“What’s going on?” Mournful startled Cody out of his conversation with Inferno, her voice laced with concern. Omen and Ashheart evidently left already.

Cody smiled before answering, “Inferno has never heard of or seen snowflakes, even after living in the mountains. He thought they were ashes!”

“Be nice to Inferno! In his defense, all of the mountains in the rider territory in Mrana Akano Furista have no snow. The only time he would have seen it was when the two of you ventured out and found me, and then you weren’t focused at all on the mountaintops.” As the gryphon spoke, Inferno lowered his head and she ran a practiced hand around his brow and traced the way down to his chin, which was when he let out a quiet grumble of pleasure.

Cody rolled his eyes, unwilling to admit she had a point. “At least it’s the first snow! Inferno won’t camouflage well, but I’m sure he’ll love the snow once it comes more.”

“Most dragons love cold,” Mournful agreed, displaying only a fraction of her vast dragon knowledge.

Cody abandoned the last subject and asked, “How do you know so much about dragons?”

Mournful shrugged, “I used to be best friends with a dragon when there were,” she paused to count on her fingers, “Nine dragons and riders in all. I think when Argos and Heyrone came together there were only two others; they were the last of a dying race. I knew all nine of the dragons well enough, so I believe that as far as the diversity of dragons goes, I know far more than Bluescales could hope to learn.”

“Wow,” Cody breathed, and even Inferno looked interested. “How diverse did they come?”

Mournful chuckled, “More so than you could imagine. Every color you could possibly imagine, in every shape you can imagine: Wyrms, Wyverns, and Drakes. No two dragons were even remotely the same in more way than one.”

“Wyrms, Wyverns, and Drakes?” Cody asked, confused.

“Those are the different names for dragons,” Mournful explained, her eyes alight with pride in her knowledge. “Inferno, Argos, Micah, and Destiny are all Drakes: meaning they have at least four legs and a pair of wings, and they can breathe fire. Wyverns are a bit different. They have two legs and a pair of wings, some of which can use their wings as forepaws and crawl around on claws on their wings. Instead of breathing fire, they shoot quills and spikes, and they usually have nasty barbed tails.