Chapter 16
Blackscales awoke at about five the next morning feeling wonderfully refreshed and ready to go. While he was amazed at how little sleep he needed, he figured that he was going to need less and less over time, thanks to being a dragon rider. His eyesight was growing sharper as well, since he could clearly make out Omen’s sleeping figure in the gloom.
The rider pulled himself out of bed and paced the room almost silently, thinking about what he should do until the others woke up. He finally decided to just go down the stairs to the tavern and see if he could overhear anything exciting. With as much stealth as he could manage, Blackscales opened the door and slipped out of the room. There was a draft coming from a hole in the wall, though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly where. He was suddenly reminded to visit some sort of clothing shop before they left the town.
As he stomped down the stairs, he wrapped z
his coat tight around himself and pulled it halfway over his face. He was somewhat sad but not surprised for some reason when he saw the same woman at the counter, scrubbing at a glass in a futile attempt to get it clean, but what dirtied it so much in the first place was beyond Blackscales. He tried to hide his surprise when he saw Autumn seated at the bar with a glass of plain water.
“What are you doing awake so early?” Blackscales asked, sitting in a bar stool next to her.
Autumn seemed to be in deep thought when she heard him, but ignored it before she smiled and replied, “I woke up at about midnight, and had a hard time getting to sleep after that, you know Aval’s snoring will keep you awake if you’re within a league of him. I imagine I’ll pass out on the road later.”
Blackscales laughed at her words, and then suddenly noticed that she was staring at her glass in deep concentration again, and it was beginning to confuse him. He tried to ignore it, twisting around and staring at the different parts of the tavern to see what he could. All he saw was an immense amount of evidence that there had been a bar fight the previous night with likely a few gold in repair costs.
“What’s on your mind?” he finally asked after twisting back around to face his friend.
Autumn looked at him with an almost regretful stare before she replied, “My mother. Ever since our father left when we were only four years old, me and Aval have been cared for solely by our mother. She worked hard over the years, spoiling us and being overprotective of us. It seems sort of cruel for me and my brother to just abandon her like that after what she did for us, and there isn’t even a guarantee that we’ll survive our adventure, let alone come home again.”
Blackscales felt his own misery at leaving his parents, but it was probably much less than hers, since his parents relied more on independence and him raising himself. He felt a bit heartless at his lack of emotion upon leaving his home town, but he quickly overcame it with a new belief he received; that he was meant to go on the trip ever since he was born. He did understand how Autumn might have felt, since he had seemingly felt more love from her than his own mother anyway.
He suddenly noticed that he had stopped looking at Autumn after she first spoke to consider his own feelings. When he looked back, he saw that a single, pale silver tear streaked down the side of her face until reaching her jaw and stopping right next to the long scar that Inferno had given her. The rider was seated to the right of her, and since the scratch was on the left side of her face, he could only see it a tiny bit with her facing towards him slightly.
Blackscales grabbed Autumn’s chin with his left hand, firmly but tenderly turning her head to face him. It had been a long time since they had even mentioned the incident where she hurt his dragon, but he hurt her in turn. He was never able to get a look at it in good light, and seizing his opportunity, he gazed at her face as he tried to determine exactly how much it had affected her. He thought the same as before; it did nothing to harm her complexion in any way.
The rider tried to return to their earlier conversation by saying in a rather misleading way, “You must be meant to go on this trip with me, and you’re destined to follow me. I’m sure your mother would understand, and I’ll see to it that if she doesn’t, you will be able to explain it all to her someday; someday soon. As long as you’re with me I won’t let you be harmed in any way.”
Realizing he was still holding her chin, he awkwardly pulled his hand away before staring at the counter in front of him in slight embarrassment. He was relieved when she seemed to ignore his discomfort and give him a comforting smile.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’m glad I can count on you.”
There was short silence before she pulled her hair back with one hand as she looked down at the floor shamefully and said, “I’m really sorry for prying into your secrets. Your…friend probably isn’t as mean as I first thought; I just automatically assumed that everyone of his race was dangerous. I had completely forgotten that you are completely faithful and wouldn’t lie to me or keep secrets from me without good reason.”
Blackscales smiled, noticing that she was doing her best to hide everything in case someone would overhear and give away their location and identities to the enemy, even though neither of them knew who their enemy was yet. He was thankful for her willingness to accept that he had much to hide and wouldn’t reveal it until the time was right. He was also glad that she was so honest and even willing to go with him on his adventure.
After another few moments of silence, Autumn pulled her own coat around herself tighter and said, “It isn’t getting warmer anytime soon, you want to go find some place to buy better clothes?”
Blackscales nodded, “Yeah, it’s even colder upstairs in the hallway.”
That was when they left. Blackscales took one last look at the space behind the bar to see that the bartender had left, probably for a short time during his and Autumn’s awkward conversation. He then stood up and followed his friend over to the door. They bundled themselves up as tightly as they could before opening the door and heading out into the cold night. It seemed to the rider that it was colder than it should have been, and he assumed that it was just because they were going further to the northeast as they traveled. With a sudden, slight fear, Blackscales realized that they would probably have to go much further north, in the dead of winter. He shivered at the thought; he loved the cold, but that seemed just too cold.
He shook away the cold thoughts and started to lie to himself, thinking that they were going south where it was much warmer. He instantly felt his body relax at the thought of warmth, and took the lead on their search for a clothing shop with renewed vigor. They passed by the shop with the curios and Blackscales forced himself not to stop and look for Geragror’s unique physique in the window.
Luck was on his side when he caught sight of a small building with bundles of cloth that at least looked like clothing hanging up neatly or folded delicately on tables. He led Autumn that way, and they peered at the clothing from a window before abruptly noticing that no one was there.
“What should we do?” Blackscales asked as he rubbed his shoulders and breathed onto his hands in an attempt to warm himself up.
Autumn stared at the clothing for a short while before saying, “We are a fair distance from the inn, and either we find some sort of shelter nearby or return with warm clothes wrapped around us comfortably.”
“I doubt there’s another clothing shop anywhere nearby, let alone an inn or tavern that we could stay at,” Blackscales said with a muffled voice after he pulled his coat over his nose and mouth. “And, we can’t exactly buy clothes from a closed shop.”
Autumn looked at him briefly before shattering the window next to them with a single, solid fist and saying, “Oops. I guess it’s opened now.”
Before Blackscales could manage to stop her, she hauled herself through the window and dropped onto the floor on the other side. The rider put his head through the window to look around briefly. He was doing all he could to resist jumping in with her and getting something so he could get rid of the cold, even if for some reason it would only be temporary.
“Stealing? Really Autumn?” He asked in a hushed and incredulous voice.
“Not stealing,” Autumn corrected as she ran around the shop. “You’ll leave some money on one of the tables so that the owner can have the pay they need and we get the clothes we need when we need them.”
Blackscales glared at her, but seeing no other way around it and growing colder by the minute, he pulled himself through the window. His luck suddenly ran out as he caught his left leg on the outside of the window and fell head-first onto the stone floor. Unhooking his foot from the shard of glass that had apparently caught it, he stood up and brushed himself off. He looked around carefully before stepping forward.
“It still doesn’t seem right,” he complained.
Autumn rolled her eyes before walking over to a table with thick fur coats. She picked up a pure white one with sort of hunger in her eyes, which began to scare Blackscales after a while. He explored another part of the store where he saw thick hunter coats much like his own, but in much better shape and they were probably quite a bit warmer. He picked up a dark brown one and quickly began to feel his chest and arms heat up from the amazing insulation. With quick movements he pulled the coat off; he was beginning to sweat in mere minutes!
There was a piece of parchment sewn into the neck, which made the rider realize that it also had a hood, something he had never seen being sold in his home town. He quickly noticed that the parchment had the price written on it; 95 silver. Without hesitation, he pulled a gold coin from his pocket and put it down in the space where the coat had been.
“We’re going to need more than coats,” Autumn said with the white coat that she had found pulled around her figure. “I’m also assuming that we might need gloves and boots.”
Blackscales gave her an incredulous look before replying, “Lucky for you, I have more money than you could ever imagine in my pocket right now. We really should leave as soon as possible though, so be quick.”
“Okay, and while you’re waiting, you go ahead and look for something.”
“No thank you!” Blackscales said as he began to tap his foot on the cold floor impatiently.
It wasn’t long, however, before the cold air seeped through the open window and began to make his legs cold. Soon after, he stuffed his hands in the warm pockets of his new coat, but nothing could stop the cold from enveloping his five year old boots. He grew angry at not being able to use his hands, and silently admitted his defeat before looking at other bits of clothing.
Autumn gave him a satisfied look before trying on a pair of light grey fur-lined gloves; one of the newest things in clothing. Blackscales didn’t take as much time as her deciding what he wanted, and quickly had new waterproof boots with a black hue almost as magnificent as Inferno’s scales, dark brown hunter gloves, and the most comfortable pair of pants he could have imagined with a dark grey coloring. They were on the thick side, but it didn’t matter to him, because he was warm for the first time since they left the wolves. He also had five less gold coins in his pocket.
“You almost ready to go?” He asked Autumn impatiently.
Autumn pulled on a pair of pants and shoes and dropped every last scent she had on the table next to her in reply. With as much stealth as you could ask of a human, she jumped out of the window and landed on the cobblestones on the other side. Blackscales rubbed his face, remembering the first time he went through the window, but he quickly got over it and jumped right through with ease.
“What should we do now?” Autumn asked; boredom evident on her face.
Having a new idea, Blackscales replied, “I think I’m going to be with Inferno for a little while. Maybe when you and the others are ready to go, just come our way and we’ll take off.”
Autumn looked a little disappointed, but nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll wait for the guys to wake up and we’ll take off as soon as they get something warm to wear…hopefully the shop will be open by then and I can just send them over.”
Blackscales laughed and handed her about ten gold so she could be prepared for her future shopping needs. With a quick exchange of good-byes, she walked towards the inn, and Blackscales continued to follow the road. He regretted leaving in the rather abrupt way that he did, but he was super excited to see Inferno again, especially since he intended to read.
“You awake?” He called out to the dragon as he walked along at a brisk pace.
“I get even less sleep than you most nights, I’m sure that I’m awake when you are.”
Blackscales laughed to himself and asked, “Do you want to read then? I believe the ‘Valor of the Dragon’ book is in your saddlebags.”
“Yup, got it right here and I’m anxious to see something new,” Inferno said.
“Actually,” Blackscales began as he slowed his pace to try and gauge the dragon’s reaction, “I was thinking that we could try to read something that we already know a little about, just to make sure we cover everything in that area. What do you think?”
Inferno quickly agreed, “Perhaps we can look into something that we already have to some extent, like maybe something about the different races or a dragon rider’s job that Icksazro explained as menial and terrible, but rewarding and necessary.”
“I say we look into how we can increase our power so we can do that job. We’ll learn about what it is later,” Blackscales argued.
Inferno silently agreed. Blackscales didn’t want to argue with him, but he had his heart set on becoming a great rider of legend as quickly and easily as possible. He knew it was sort of a selfish approach to it, but it seemed like the only logical way to him, and having power before learning what his duties were was probably the better option in any case. Besides, he didn’t think that the book would clearly state everything about the riders, and their jobs seemed to be very secretive as far as he’d seen at that point.
He stopped their conversation when he reached the gate at almost exactly dawn. It was locked tight and it was the same two guards from the previous night. Blackscales glared up at them, and they just looked back at him as if he were completely insignificant. That’s what they think, he joked to himself and began daydreaming about Inferno tearing them to shreds. He was pulled out of his thoughts when one of the guards began paying a bit more attention to him.
“What do you want?” one of the guards called down to him.
“To get out of this worthless sewer that you people call home,” came the rider’s quick, bitter reply.
The other guard let out a quick laugh before saying, “And exactly what do you plan to do if we don’t let you out of the sewer?”
Blackscales was incredibly surprised by how quickly he lost his temper with these men, even though he hadn’t known them for long. He trusted his unusual strength, and banged both of his fists against a bar on the gate. He sighed with defeat when he made a tiny dent in the hard metal, though he was impressed that he could move it at all. Then, he had a better idea.
“Why do you fools think you can pick on anyone you choose? For all you know, I could be a skilled magician that could melt your flesh to ash in a fraction of a second,” Blackscales said, surprisingly truthfully.
One of the guards glared at him, “You’re no magician. Lucky for you; I’m feeling unusually generous today.”
Blackscales felt like running away in embarrassment when he saw the guard come down and pull the lever that was right next to him. But then the guard stopped the lever when the gate was only about eight inches out of the ground.
“If you can get through that, you’re free to leave the sewer,” The guard that was still on top of the wall joked.
With nothing to lose, Blackscales dropped onto his stomach and easily slid right through the gap between the gate and the ground. He must have been smaller than he’d first thought. But, as he stood up, he grabbed a hand full of dirt and chucked it into the guard’s eyes.
“Why you worm!” The guard yowled and shot an arrow towards him mostly to scare him, but Blackscales easily dodged and disappeared into the forest, feeling smug.
“I’m assuming you never intended to come back to this town then?” Inferno asked disapprovingly.
“If I do return it will be so much later that I’ll probably be much stronger. And maybe by then we won’t have to keep our identities a secret and we can just walk up to the gate and demolish it.”
Inferno made a deep-toned chuckle but his displeasure only increased, making Blackscales feel ashamed. However, they both moved on from that subject and the excitement of reading the book again got to them both. The last time they had read together was less than week before then, but it seemed like their trek was taking much longer.
Blackscales picked up his pace when Inferno sent him a mental image of his position. It was actually a surprisingly good place for him to be while his human companions spent the night in the town. His temporary home was a small clearing with grass and weeds about two feet tall and birch trees in a near perfect circle surrounding it.
As the rider walked into the clearing, he also saw the dragon in the very center with large rocks or even boulders surrounding him in a sort of nest. There was fresh dirt coating the rocks which made Blackscales think that the dragon had dug a small patch in the earth for even more comfort.
“Why the nest?” Blackscales asked.
Inferno lifted his head out of the nest and stared at Blackscales before replying, “The ground is uncomfortable near that town and I just tried to make myself comfortable. Plus, I don’t really trust the people of that city…if one of them ventures out and finds my nest and I’m inside, I have a better chance at dodging their attacks.”
“What kind of attacks?” Blackscales asked, seeing that it would be plenty easy to just climb over the rocks or even squeeze through a gap in them.
“Any of them; a swordsman or axe-wielder or something like that wouldn’t have much time to get past the rocks before I escaped, and if an archer or any long-range fighter fires at me and misses even slightly they would hit the rocks instead of me.”
Blackscales silently agreed and leapt up onto the largest rock; about five feet high. He then jumped off and landed on Inferno’s back right above his left wing, hearing a sort of hollow, plastic thud. He carefully walked along the dragon’s spine up to the saddle where he opened up the right saddlebag and saw the large book resting inside. With a slight effort the rider pulled ‘Valor of the Dragon’ out of the saddlebag and slid down Inferno’s scales. He snuggled into his chest before seeing a large black wing, looking grey with light shining right above.
“Why did you do that?” Blackscales asked.
Inferno stuck his head through a small opening to block the outside world out completely before replying, “Is it bothering you? I figured you’d be more comfortable this way; soon enough it will be as warm as if you were in one of those human dens, and it’s still bright enough for you to read.”
“You are absolutely right,” Blackscales said.
He smiled and pulled his new coat off, then his old one, and then took off his boots, gloves, and new pants so he had bare feet, bare hands, and his thinner pants and shirt. He still felt very comfortable against Inferno’s chest; apparently his wings were pretty good at locking the heat inside.
Blackscales rested his elbow on Inferno’s neck right behind the pristine white horns that jutted out from his skull. Without waiting for Inferno to say whether he was ready or not, he opened the book to the first page and ran his free hand along each line as he read all of the titles aloud.
His finger stopped abruptly on one title which he read aloud to the dragon in excitement, “Elements of Magic.”
“If it is the chapter that you want to read, I won’t stop you. You did have a point earlier when you said that we will learn all of these things anyway, whether we learn them in the right order matters little,” Inferno replied with only slight disappointment in his tone; he must have been excited to learn about magic as well.
Blackscales beamed when he realized that they had finally agreed on the subject, and he read in his thoughts, but allowed Inferno to listen:
Elements of Magic
Even people who have never seen magic being used in person almost always know about the different basic elements. They know about how there are opposites, but they don’t really do opposite things. For example, the opposites Air and Earth; Air is used for things to do with air like breathing or even flying, while Earth is used to protect against other forms of magic or even physical attacks. A sorcerer or magician can also protect themselves and still increase their overall power, like Water can be used to protect someone like Earth does, but it lasts for a shorter amount of time and can hurt attackers. Fire is similar to Water, only it puts an incredibly weak shield around its target and most times just uses offensive attack.
The four basic elements are difficult to learn the basics about, but there are two other elements that very few people have ever heard of. The most powerful and hardest to control elements of all time are the elements of Life and Death. Water has some healing qualities when used correctly, but only life can fully heal absolutely any injury if its user knows how to do so properly. Life can also be used in an evil way which no one could have guessed; it can control all living things depending on the power of a certain magician, and can manipulate minds to think or act in a certain way, perhaps productively.
Lastly is the element of Death, the element which many actually fear. It has one basic use; to bring the dead back to life so-to-speak. A magician who uses Death magic is referred to as a Necromancer, and they are the most powerful of all magicians. Necromancers go beyond controlling the living, they disrupt the dead and defile the afterlives of many peaceful warriors or animals, called skeletars, and control their wills long after they’ve died. Luckily, such dark magic is so hard to control that it is incredibly rare to see any Necromancer in centuries, but it does happen. It is said that only the most skilled dragon riders can overcome the powers of Necromancers, and without their work the world would crumble and fall to the darkness in the world.
Blackscales glared at the text before saying to Inferno, “That was very helpful, but it would be better if I could actually use magic. What do you think?”
“I think that it was entirely helpful; it gave us basic information about what each element does, even if half of them are difficult and confusing. Like Icksazro said, not all answers will come obviously and we have to either wait for more clues or try to solve the problem now. Or we could just ignore it until it is revealed to us completely, which I think is the better option; who knows what could happen if we tried to use magic without knowing anything about how to use it.”
The rider rolled his eyes, but knew he was right and said, “I think we should wait…I think if using magic was so important then Argos’s rider would have told us about it. All he said was to read the book; not do what it says, and I think I should follow his instructions to the letter.”
“Good, at least you have some wisdom,” Inferno encouraged, making his rider grin.
Blackscales suddenly yawned; the comfort of the unusual and warm den was making him feel exhausted, though he couldn’t figure out why. He quickly decided that while the adventure wasn’t exactly taking a toll on his physical energy, he was growing unusually quickly and to a great extent even for a man. Not to mention the mental pressures that were constantly pouring through his mind at every conscious and unconscious moment.
“You should rest,” Inferno said in a peaceful tone. “Perhaps you can clear your mind a bit better, and I can wake you when Aval, Autumn, and Omen come.”
“Thank you,” Blackscales said as he took his arm from Inferno’s neck.
He put ‘Valor of the Dragon down on the ground in front of the dragon’s snout and lied down against the softer stomach scales and a soft patch of dirt. He felt himself being enveloped in immense, comforting heat coming from himself, but mostly the dragon before being trapped in by the massive wings. There was only a dim grey light coming through the black, leathery wings, which only made the rider even more tired.
Without much more thought, Blackscales fell fast asleep.