The next week passed quickly after that first night of celebration. After the headache Inferno had in the morning, he refused to touch a single drop of alcohol, so Cody at least had decent company for the next six nights. In that time he also discovered who Prowess was for himself, to his great annoyance.
The Dreamkeeper was truly massive, for a start. He was just as tall as Mournful made him, and her description of him otherwise was perfect. He was not as heavily-built as Cody had imagined, but lean and handsome, though from the look of it he was still far stronger than any human Cody knew. He had two great yellow-gold eyes, and his long ruby-red hair cascaded past his shoulders in long waves of scarlet. It hurt Cody to see him with Mournful, and how content she was with him, but Inferno managed to keep him entertained during the celebrating.
But before long the week-long period of celebration was over, and so Cody and his friends resumed their training. Every day he followed his instructors to wherever they led him, whether it be battle training or Dreamkeeper history, dragon skills or magic. He began to grow stronger with each lesson both physically and mentally, and soon he and his friends began to impress their mentors. And in this way, two weeks passed all but unnoticed.
Cody stood stock-still with his sword held firmly in his right hand. Destiny stood before him with a Dreamkeeper blade in her own hand. It was sudden when she pointed out that she had a human form, and Fearless immediately took it upon himself to perfect her human side. In the matter of mere days her draconic wit and cunning allowed her to match Cody's ability, but he wasn't without his own intellect.
Destiny swung her sword at him heavily from the side, leaving her other side exposed. Cody struck quickly, but she was there in a second and their blades collided with a sharp ringing sound that reverberated through Cody's skull for some time. The only weakness Cody had seen was that she often used her strength primarily and so left parts of her body exposed, but her quick reaction time made up for it. Then Cody attacked her in a flurry of blows, always making sure that he left no part of himself exposed. She was quick, but soon enough Cody's persistence and superior sure footing allowed him to just scrape her side, drawing the tiniest trickle of blood and forcing her down onto her back.
As she laid there, green eyes blinking in surprise, she smiled. She nodded to her defeat and Cody helped her up just before she said, "I'm glad you were able to beat me. You are definitely stronger than before."
Cody returned her smile and answered politely, "I suppose it's true, but you were always stronger, in any case."
The sound of clapping brought Cody's attention to the crowd, consisting of his friends and all of their mentors with smiling faces, grins much larger than that of either Cody's or Destiny's. Thoughtful strode forward from the crowd and bowed to them, an odd gesture that took Cody aback. He motioned for Cody's friends to move to Cody's side and they did without question, inferno settling beside his rider with a sigh of contentment.
Thoughtful took a deep breath before addressing the group of students, "You have all shown spectacular improvement over the past few weeks, and we have decided to promote you to the next rank. You may now go most anywhere you like, and most days you won't have any lessons from us. This last rank of training will help you to learn by observing our culture and customs for yourselves. But, you must answer to the king and queen directly, and do as they command. And once you reach the end of your training altogether, you must be ready to swear fealty to them or leave."
Cody nodded with a broad smile on his face. The uncertainty of whether he belonged was brought back to his attention, but he quickly decided that the end of their training was still a long ways off. As it was, everyone was excited about their new freedoms and eager to see more of the Dreamkeepers.
Then Fearless stepped forward and nodded in their direction before saying, "Actually, the king has commanded all the new warriors of your rank, including three cubs, and a few other, elder Dreamkeepers to join him and myself on a patrol along the northwestern and western flanks of our territory. You may have an hour to prepare, and then you must meet me here in the main training hall for other preparations."
Cody and the others nodded their heads vigorously. Instantly every one of them was excited beyond measure. It had been all too long since the humans and wolf had left the cave realm, and it had seemed longer still for the dragons, even though they had left only a few weeks before. Most of all, Cody was excited for the new experience. Perhaps he would befriend one of the Dreamkeeper cubs?
Each rider-and-"mount" pair went their own ways to prepare. Cody retrieved his helmet and special armor that the Dreamkeepers had given him; black steel like his helmet trimmed with silver which matched his helmet perfectly. He spent a moment admiring its excellent craftsmanship, since it took more time for the other races to make his helmet than it took a novice Dreamkeeper blacksmith. A moment later he had it all packed away in a sackcloth bag along with anything else of his he deemed necessary, which wasn't much.
Ten minutes later he joined Inferno in the main hall, the bag slung over his shoulder. The rest of his friends were there, as well as a young Dreamkeeper that looked to be about 14 or 15 years old, though Cody knew better. Fearless stood there talking to each of them and made a quick note of who was there just as two more Dreamkeeper cubs the same age as the first joined them.
"Cody, where is your armor?" Fearless called out once he had reached them.
Cody nodded to his shoulder. "In my pack sir."
"That's fine for now I suppose, but you'll need to have it on when we leave." When Cody nodded he said to the others, "I'm happy to see it hasn't taken long for any of you to ready yourselves. If you will follow me to the cave and sky stables, we can finish our preparations and meet up with the others."
In his studies with Thoughtful, Cody had learned many more strange terms, including the sky and cave stables. As they walked along through various passages Cody noted that they were headed for the cave stable first, which was where they kept and bred mountain cats. After that, he figured, they would head to the top of the mountain into the open air of the sky stables where the gryphons were kept.
Soon enough they came to a great gate built of solid iron. Fearless pounded on the gate with a heavy fist, and seconds later there were two men hefting the massive iron gate to allow them inside. Inferno, Destiny, and Ashheart remained outside, but the others entered eagerly. There were rows of pens lining the far wall and the wall to the right, and the sound of growling and the rare but occasional roar could be heard as two cats fought each other.
Off to the left some one hundred feet stood King Willful next to a great pile of fruits and vegetables for their trip. And beside him, to Cody's horror, also stood Mournful and Prowess. Determined not to let it ruin his mood, he resolved to act only friendly and avoid visual and verbal contact if possible. Luckily they left him alone as he and his group approached the king.
Noticing them, Willful gestured to nearby pens and said, "Please, choose a mount you would have during ground patrol in one of these three pens. Choose an animal that reacts well to you and can tolerate the others in your group."
As Willful unlatched the first pen, Cody could see about a dozen mountain cats and, to his surprise, cats that he had never before heard of being in the mountains. There were cougars with plain golden-orange coats that seemed the most docile and least energetic, and even panthers, leopards, and a cheetah lounging lazily in a corner. From his studies, Cody knew that the cats were trained to be gentle while penned, but could cover rocky terrain over long distances with absolute ease and fantastic speeds. The three Dreamkeeper cubs and the king himself took mounts from that pen.
The second pen held similar animals, though quite a bit larger and stronger. Omen, Prowess, and Avalsmokes chose cats from there. The last pen held cats that were tall and long, but very lean. Instantly Cody saw his favorite: a white tiger with the slightest trace of orange on her long, sleek back and around her cheeks. Mournful also chose a tiger, though hers was a dark russet-orange color. The king led them down a short tunnel into a room filled with saddles, where Cody was simply given a very strange diamond-shaped saddle and forced to saddle his tiger. Luckily, she was very gentle and allowed him to experiment with the saddle before he was confident with the result.
By the look of it he was the first among his friends to finish saddling his mount, so he took the remaining time to put on his armor. He slid on his leather breastplate, covered with a thin layer of lightweight metal and rimmed with leather scale patterns. The rest of his armor was similarly constructed. He fit into his pauldrons and his greaves and leggings before sliding the gauntlets over his arms until not a single inch of his body was left uncovered beside his head, which he left uncovered for the time being.
When he was finished with his armor, the king personally led them further up the mountain, up to the very top where Cody had first entered the mountain. There they got on their feline mounts as best they could and nimbly leaped over rock and boulder to the top of the mountain. It quickly leveled out and Cody saw hundreds of gryphons roaming around freely, obviously far more tamed and in-tuned to their masters.
"And here is the last part of our preparations: our mounts for the air. And before you complain, Cody and Aval, it is better to have four of you spread out to cover more ground. If you rode on your dragons it would be an awful waste," Willful told them.
"What are we even looking for?" Cody asked out of curiosity.
Fearless was the one to respond, "There are several more primitive races scattered about the lands of Mrana Akano Furista, some descended from the humans, elves, and dwarves that got lost when they came over, others as ancient and archaic as the dragons and ourselves. I ought not frighten you, but there is our near equal, the Reajon. They are like demons in the night the way they strike out and vanish before you can ever see them again. They are an ever-present danger, and when it comes to a fight few are their equals. They can change the very color of their skin to hide in the forests."
"That is quite enough of your stories Fearless," Willful ordered. "Now, if you will, choose your second mount."
Cody looked out at the gryphons and chose his favorite quickly; one of the largest of the group with blue coloring. Stripes the color of polished gold streaked across the wings to give it a mighty and almost royal appearance, though its crimson eyes held the same soft gentleness of the tiger he had chosen.
Once everyone had a winged mount Willful announced, "In case you have not been informed, gryphons do not have saddles. But rest assured, they would sooner let themselves crash into the ground than allow the slightest harm to come to the rider, so falling is no issue. Mount your gryphons now and get used to their feel before we set off. The animals you have chosen are now your permanent partners for patrolling and otherwise under certain circumstances."
Cody was surprised but remained silent, and after looking at the tiger and gryphon in a new light decided that he had made the best choice, as far as he could have guessed. Deciding that there was only one way to be sure, however, he did as the king asked and mounted the gryphon. Once on, he reached towards the neck and used its shoulder blades to haul himself along its body so he could rest his legs comfortably in front of the wings. He sat up straight and, remembering his lessons, urged the gryphon forward with his mind. While gryphons were too primitive to answer, they could easily understand and respond to commands.
The animal began to strut around the edge of the cliff with ease, not missing a step, and Cody quickly got used to the feel that was not entirely unlike a horse. He became familiar with the feel of muscles stretching and contracting beneath him, and the loping stride of the great beast. Fearless's loud call got his attention.
"With me I will have Mournful, Prowess, Tearful, Inferno, and Cody, and Ashheart will of course be on the ground at all times. The rest go with King Willful in the air and then tomorrow the groups will shift patrols. Tonight, we meet at Dreamrest Mountain. Withhold contact with the other group if possible, but keep alert of emergencies and be ready to call for help."
Cody sighed. Of course, as soon as he had gotten used to the gryphon's feel he would have to get off and instead ride his tiger. But he remounted without verbal complaint and awkwardly brought his tiger to Fearless's side.
Fearless looked over the group and instructed, "We will try to keep to a line across the mountains to cover the most ground, though it will be difficult and will likely break apart more than a few times. When it happens, just try to return to the appropriate spots and maintain as much as possible. Always keep at least one other patroller in sight and hearing range. Now, move out!"