Dragon Riders:A New Generation(Book 1)

Chapter 9:Sanctuary:Kaya

They had made it to the rider base in about ten hours, after she and Kumaglak said goodbye to their parents.
   Kaya wanted to stay with her parents, but what Anaba said was true. She and Kumaglak were part of something bigger than themselves. So she had sucked it up, and forced her herself to walk over to Hakan and climb on his back once more, and ride to the Rider Base.
   They weren't on the island yet, but with her sharp eye sight she could see it, and they were almost there.
   Her enhanced eye sight allowed her to she the large island clearly, it was surrounded by dense fog and thick, sharp rocks that jutted out of the water.
    The island was covered in huge trees, she had never seen a tree in her life before. They were so beautiful and strange at the same time. She was amazed at them and there massive size. She had always heard that they were about man or two thick in the stories, sometimes the stories described them as being large and towering. These trees on the island were at least five to ten men thick, and their branches stretched to the sky. They had so many thick of branches and leaves that she couldn't even see through the canopy.
   There was a large lake in the south end of the island, with rivers that branched off in the north, south, east, and west.
   The island was in the shape of a large dragon. It had a large caldera that went from the base of the dragon neck to the river going up the wing, to the north. The caldera was about twenty miles long and ten miles in width, and was about thirty thousand feet tall. The tips of the caldera was covered in snow and ice. Kaya saw four rock columns that were much taller than the other points on the caldera.
   As they flew past, Kaya saw that the rock columns were actually sentry towers, without the spires. The towers were designed to look like rock columns, and blend in with caldera.   
   When they got over the caldera, there was a huge grey stone castle, surrounded by a grey stone wall.
   Hakan started to descend towards the castle, and landed inside the castle's wall.
   The massive dragon crouched down for them, and they all climbed off.
   The moment Kaya's feet touched the grassy ground her mind recoiled at the feeling.
   When Kumaglak got off he had the same look on his face as she did.
   "This so weird," Kumaglak whispered to her.
   "I know, I've never seen or felt grass before. It's...So soft and pretty," she said.
   Kaya saw Whiteout and Darkstalker playing in the grass with each other, enjoying themselves.
   "I'm guessing you two have never seen or felt grass before," said a mysterious voice. This mysterious voice immediately made Kaya think of the man that attacked her and Kumaglak just yesterday.
   She and Kumaglak both turned around to face the mysterious person.
   Behind them was a tall man about in his late forties. He had black hair, bright amber-orange eyes, and light skin.
   Then Kaya felt the ground shake a little, and looked up, and behind the man was a ginormous dragon. It was just a little bit bigger than Hakan. It looked like the same breed as Hakan, just different colored.
   The dragon had dark blue sapphire scales, almost black. When the sunlight caught the scales she could see the hints of sapphire blue sparkling in the sunlight. The dragon also had the same strips and feathers that Hakan had. But instead of red like Hakan's, they were sapphire blue. It's claws and horns were black, with white blunt teeth. The massive dragon also had sapphire blue wing membranes.
The huge dragon seemed to be studying them.
   They stared back, amazed and frightened at the same time.
   "Anaba," the man said to Anaba with respect.
   "Armand," Anaba replied with the same amount of respect. "This is Kumaglak, Darkstalker, Kaya, and Whiteout."Anaba said, gesturing for them to move closer to her and Armand.
   Armand nodded as each of their names were said, and shook hands with both of them.
   "It is nice to finally meet you all. You already know my name, this is Sapphire," he said motioning to the giant dark sapphire dragon.
   "She's very pretty," Kumaglak said Armand and Sapphire. "Thank you, your dragons are also very beautiful." Armand said to them.
   Kaya and Kumaglak nodded back in thanks.
   "Has Kala made it back yet with Nimue and her dragon?" Anaba asked Armand, not taking notice that we were still there.
   "No" he said.
   Anaba nodded, and then turned her attention back to them. "Well, let's go get you two settled in. I'll take Kaya, and Armand will take Kumaglak."
   Kaya and Kumaglak grabbed their bags, and followed Anaba and Armand through the large wooden castle doors.
   Kaya guessed that the doors were at least two hundred feet tall, and maybe twice that wide.
   Hakan and Sapphire followed them through the doors, and up the stone staircase, that were dragon sized, the whole castle seemed to be dragon sized.
   The castle amazed Kaya, when she first saw it she thought it was going to be cold and gloomy. But the inside was warm and inviting with beautiful tapestries that had beautiful woven pictures on them. Some had dragons, or people with swords or other weapons, or they had both dragon and human. She didn't know how they hadn't caught on fire yet, maybe the dragons weren't allowed to breath fire in the corridors.
   As they walked up the stone staircase she saw a beautiful tapestry that was by far larger than the rest of the tapestries she had seen so far.
   It was a picture of a large mountain with a bright, blood red hibiscus colored dragon with bright amber eyes staring at her. The dragon was in a regal pose on the cliff looking down at the passing humans and dragons.
   She then noticed the human boy standing by the dragon's side with his hands on the pommel of his sword, the sword's tip resting on the stone. The boy looked about sixteen years old. He had a serious face on and had tan skin like Anaba and had short black hair that fell into his eyes.
   She didn't know who that was, from the scrolls she read didn't mention any Dragon Riders, just about her dragon, Whiteout.
   Anaba looked back at her, and said, "I see you've taken liking to that tapestry. That is Sunset and Akecheta. The founders of the Phyrrian, now Erdas riders."
   "Oh..." She breathed in amazement. "Wow..." She didn't have anymore words for the tapestry, it was just so life like, and looked like Sunset and Akecheta could jump straight out of the tapestry. But of course all the tapestries were all life like, but this one was just more detailed and more amazing and beautiful than any of the others she'd seen.
   "We best be on our way," Anaba said to Kaya, disrupting her thoughts and bringing her back to the present.
   "Oh...Sorry...I just got distracted by the tapestry"
   "It's perfectly fine. It tends to grab everyones attention."
   Anaba then continued going up the steps with Kaya following.
   She had realized that Kumaglak and Armand had gone on without them, and were now waiting at a large, wooden double door, on the seventh floor, she thought.
   These doors were about fifty feet tall, so Sapphire and Hakan couldn't follow them in.
   When Anaba opened the double doors, Kaya was amazed at the space and beauty of the room.
   The room was grey stone like the rest of the castle, but there were tapestries in this room, as well as some beautiful woven carpets, that covered parts of the stone floor. There was a unlit stone fireplace, several armchairs, a couch, and white curtains on the large windows, that showed great views of the grounds. There were a few book shelves and scroll racks, that had books, and scrolls on them. There were also some wooden tables with wooden chairs in a few of the corners.
   Then there were two separate wooden double doors, about thirty feet tall, that led somewhere.
   Anaba started across the room, and opened one of the doors, and beckoned for Kaya to come to her.
   While she did that Armand had gone to the other door, and did the same thing to Kumaglak.
   Kaya followed Anaba up the circular stone staircase, with Whiteout behind them.
   They reached the top of the staircase, and faced five similar double, wooden doors in a circular room. Anaba walked to one of the doors, and opened it, clearly wanting Kaya and Whiteout to follow.
   They did follow her and enter another beautiful room.
   The room had a fourposter bed, a few rugs on the stone floor, a dresser, bookcase, and scroll rack on either side of the bed. There were windows with curtains, that also had a great view of the grounds. There was a tapestry of a white, spiky dragon by what looked like a glowing, leaf less tree, with glowing spheres on the branches instead of leaves. The background of the tapestry was midnight in the arctic with snowflakes falling to the ground.
   She found the tapestry striking beautiful.
   There was also a small fireplace in the room for when it got cold. Kaya continued to look around the room taking in every detail, there was a brown, soft bed for Whiteout, close to her bed.
   Whiteout had plopped down on it when she saw it, and fell asleep, clearly tried from the long night.
   She felt tired herself even though it was midday.
   "What color shirts would you like?" Anaba asked her.
   "Purple, if that's ok." Anaba just nodded, and disappeared down the staircase.
   She then realized that she still had her parka on, and other winter clothes. She took off her parka, folded it and laid it on the floor by the bed, not wanting to have the bed smell like blood. She put her bag of belongings on the bed, and she went over to Whiteout, and curled up by her side, and fell asleep.