Chapter 27
“Come on sleepy, wake up!”
Cody stretched to prepare for a long day of travel, only to remember that he was supposed to take his shift and watch over the camp, and then they would decide whether they would travel or not, and just how far they would go. He sat up, his eyes still shut firmly as he didn’t want to have to wake up yet, not after his deep sleep. But finally he yawned, cracked his back, and opened his eyes to gaze at the world.
Nothing was different at first glance.
Mordon had kept the fire going throughout the early half of the night, the sky was just as dark as before, and everything seemed just as awkward and uncomfortable as before. He looked over to his right to see that Mora was standing and walking around for a bit to loosen up her muscles, with her brother already fast asleep, having taken over her old bed.
Inferno was out of sight, and Cody could only guess that he was curled up in his own little clearing not far off, welcoming the sleep that had evaded him for so long. The fire cracked and popped rhythmically, almost lulling the rider back to sleep, but he forced himself to remain upright and even pull himself to his feet. He was a little bit wobbly at first since he was unaccustomed to the movement, but he quickly overcame it and leaned against the tree he had slept under with a bit more energy.
“You got it covered?” Inferno asked him groggily, interrupting the rider’s thoughts for the second time that night.
Cody nodded, but since he knew his dragon couldn’t see him, he thought for him to hear, “Yeah, I think I’ve got this. I just need to go for a brief walk to get my muscles moving.”
Inferno let out a deep breath that only Cody could hear from that distance, but he could easily imagine the faint smoke that would be swirling above the dragon’s head afterwards. He couldn’t help but wish that his dragon had managed to learn how to breathe fire. It had to be almost time according to the book. But before he could question the dragon about it for the second time, he was asleep.
Cody sighed, both envious but empathetic for him because he got to sleep, but he did have to stay awake for much of the night anyways. He began to wonder why Mordon had chosen to have two guards instead of one, since everyone clearly needed more rest. He even began to loathe the man for not having enough trust in the sole remaining rider and dragon, as far as he knew.
“I’m going to go for a walk to stretch out a bit,” Cody told Mora, mostly to gauge her reaction.
She didn’t seem disappointed, nor did she make an attempt to request to go with him or even just follow. Perhaps Inferno was wrong about her. But he honestly didn’t care either way, since she seemed like a very nice woman, but still not quite…amazing to him. He shrugged his shoulders and began to walk away, expecting her to at least speak to him and acknowledge that he had spoken.
Cody walked around for a while, using the majority of his walk to scour the surrounding area for anything unusual. But, aside from a few rustling leaves and the sound of the wind passing through the empty trees, the world seemed completely devoid of any movement whatsoever. He returned to camp, already feeling thoroughly bored with his task.
Unfortunately, and much to his surprise, Mora was flat on the ground with her face squished against the frozen earth without much care. She could have been asleep even before he left and he didn’t realize, and the thought made him chuckle. It appeared as though everyone did need some severe rest.
He pulled his arms behind his back to stretch them out a little more, before he circled the fire once or twice. After a few minutes he got bored enough to grab a random stick and just start poking the fire for no reason. He would stick it in the bed of the fire, right in between the glowing coals and the slightly elevated logs until it burst into flames. Then he would carefully pull it out, and wave it around in the air until it went out by itself, spit on it, or dig it into the dirt to put the flames out.
“Inferno,” he chuckled to himself as he watched the flames go out right in front of his face for what must have been the hundredth time. With a sigh he snapped the stick in half and tossed it into the fire, watching it slowly burn to ash before him, but this time he made no attempt to put it out, only placing another log in the flames to slowly perish with the rest of its kind.
Cody pulled himself back a few feet until he had his back against the tree he had slept under only about an hour earlier. But to him, it seemed as though it had been a decade since he last slept. His imagination began playing tricks on him as he began to think that his face and skin was shriveling up and falling loosely around his frail frame after the many years he had suffered without rest.
I have to stay awake! He scolded himself as he straightened up slightly, and his skin returned to its natural appearance. He attempted to rub the sleep from his eyes, but it didn’t seem to work at all as the steady rhythm of the fire continued. It was almost as if the flames were dancing before him as some shapeless being sang him to sleep. I’ll just shut my eyes for a minute, and I’ll just wake right up again in a minute or two when I’ve gotten some rest.
He continued to tell himself things like this, even though if he were a little more conscious he would have realized that he wasn’t going to rest, he was going to pass out. But he didn’t see it, and before he could even put up a fight, his head fell forward. His black hair completely obscured his face from anyone that would care to look at him, but he didn’t notice. He was already deep in subconscious thought, following his dreams with absolutely no obstacles in the way. He didn’t realize what would happen if he fell asleep, he simply no longer cared for anything more than sleep.
~
Cody surprisingly dreamt after he fell asleep. It was nearly the exact same dream he had had around the time that he had found Inferno egg. He was running through the forest not far from his house, which seemed entirely foreign to him after he had been gone for what felt like forever, as Inferno soared high above him.
The first time he had had the dream, the dragon had seemed vicious, evil, and terrifying to him as well as entirely unknown, which was why the first time he had been trying to hide from him. But this time, the rider could easily recognize the ice-blue eyes and the broad figure of the dragon, though he seemed a bit older than he actually was at the time of the second dream.
Cody also hadn’t noticed himself the first time he had had the dream, and as he ran he noticed that his hair was pitch-black and equally dark as his dragon’s scales, even darker than it was when he was awake. He could only imagine how blue his eyes had become, probably seeming incredibly unusual to anyone who saw him since the blue in the dragon’s eyes wouldn’t seem to fit a human, but Cody was told that it would be so.
The rider continued to run through the forest and tried to keep up with the dragon’s amazing speed, but even with enhanced skills he was nothing compared to the awesome power of any dragon. Inferno frequently had to circle around to be level with him again, even though he could have easily flown at a speed level with his rider’s. They never slowed one bit, but continued to run for whatever reason and Cody couldn’t tell what it was.
Then he remembered too late exactly what had happened in his first dream, and before he could slow down even a tiny bit, he was launched over the edge of a monstrous cliff and began to plummet downwards. He didn’t even know there was a cliff so near to his house, but then again dreams can make anything possible. But he didn’t care; he didn’t even open his eyes as he simply enjoyed the feeling of falling, even though it was his very first time for such a long distance. He just felt as though he were flying through the air with his dragon, a feeling he had already gotten used to over time.
“I’ve got you!” an unusually tough and thundering voice said.
Cody looked to his side to see that it was Inferno, and apparently his voice had gotten stronger after he aged a bit more, so they both had indeed aged in his dream. But he ignored the thoughts for the time being and simply watched the dragon approach with a wide-open mouth and outstretched talons. The image was all too familiar from the first time he had had the dream, only this time instead of fear he was filled with thankfulness that his dragon was there to catch him. The first time he had the dream, he thought the dragon was going to kill him, but now he knew that it was Inferno to his rescue.
Just when Cody thought his dream was going to end like before, just seeing Inferno approaching fast with his glistening claws, the dragon caught him and slowly stopped his descent so that he wouldn’t be injured. Apparently the dream would continue until it had decided to end, so Cody went along with it.
The rider continued to fly in the dragon’s claws, which seemed much larger than he remembered. The rest of Inferno was much larger as well, likely because he had aged, and Cody didn’t realize the size difference until they were close together. The dragon brought his paw closer to his neck, giving his rider just enough of a foothold to pull himself into the familiar black saddle.
That was when Cody noticed something. He looked to the place he had fallen from, only to see a giant bird skeleton emerge from the trees and follow closely behind, and several other skeletons of four-legged animals skidded to a halt on the cliff’s edge. Skeletars, from lions to mindless Wargs and Wargals to horses and bears, all roaring in defeat while Cody and his dragon managed to get away, only the bird being able to follow suit. The rider found himself gripping the saddle tightly, and simply watching in amazement and wonder as Inferno rolled onto his back and shot a long blast of fire at the winged skeleton, sending it falling to the earth.
Inferno flipped around right-side up and continued flying, going to the near bottom of the cliff’s side, where a small cave mouth protruded from the rocky surface. Inside the cave were several dragons ranging from white to gold as they battled yet more Skeletars and some men that Cody didn’t recognize.
The dragon eagerly flew into the cave that was easily big enough for him, and another dragon of equal size to fly side by side, before crashing into a group of Skeletars. The sound of metal colliding with other metal, bone, and rock flew into his ears with such force that he had to pull his hands over his ears and close his eyes to keep from screeching in pain. But as he opened his eyes, all he saw was Mordon and Mora.
Cody suddenly rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a blade that went whizzing towards his head, finding nothing but the tree he had been against instead. He realized that several men were fighting with Mordon, and Mora fought two of the strange men by herself with a small knife that she somehow had. The rider’s vision began to clear a little bit more, and he noticed that it was almost twilight, and he quickly guessed that the bandits had ambushed him. The noise was similar to that of his dream, though much weaker and slightly different because there was no rock or straight-out bone for the swinging swords to collide with.
The rider had no more time to think about what was going on or observe his surroundings, before the bandit that had nearly beheaded him before came at him again, his sword raised with both arms. Cody skillfully dodged the slow downward attack, but found the same blade coming towards him again after the wielder turned it sideways to follow his movement.
Cody acted without thinking and put his hand out in front of him to stop the sword. He realized too late what he had done and all he could do was close his eyes and wait for the impact, but it never came. Instead, all he heard was a tough, clinking thud sound. He opened his eyes and looked up.
He breathed a deep sigh of relief when he saw the black branch-like thing in front of him that had blocked the attack. Inferno quickly pulled his thickly-armored and unharmed tail out of the way, and Cody was glad that his dragon’s armored hide was enough to protect against the mediocre weapons the bandits had.
Without hesitation, Inferno smacked the bandit with his right forepaw, sending him flying over the dull-glowing bed of coals that used to be a fire before colliding with a tree on the other side. Cody could hardly contain his laughter when he saw a good 20 trees knocked over from Inferno trying to make his way to the clearing where the action was. But he quickly let go of his now humorous feelings and turned to look at the other fighters, and the bandits had miraculously missed seeing Inferno.
“Clearly they only expected us to be nothing more than feeble weaklings attempting to steal from their horde of treasures, and never expected such a fight. They never even noticed me slumbering in the shadows, and are now too engrossed in fighting the talented Mordon and Mora to notice me,” Inferno said as he noticed the same thing as well as picked up on his rider’s thoughts.
“Inferno? Last night, I-”
“Tell me about your dream later; we have to join the fight,” Inferno cut his rider off before leaping towards their struggling comrades.
All Cody could do for a moment was watch in astonishment as Inferno’s sudden battle-hungry attitude brought him into the heat of the fighting, even though the trees prevented him from really doing anything or even moving much. Before Cody could think of what he was doing or consider anything else further, he joined his dragon and companions in the fight, trying not to fatally injure his opponents as he slashed at all unfamiliar faces.
He hoped that they could keep one alive for questioning of sorts, but the rest deserved to die for their crimes in his eyes. Plus, he didn’t want the bandits alerted of a dragon as their enemy, when they could easily send out enough troops to overcome the young Inferno and possibly kill him. The thought of his dragon only fueled Cody’s anger and he slashed at everything within reach except for Inferno, Mora, and Mordon. A few times he even struck a tree, thinking it was a bandit trying to sneak up behind him.
For the fifth time he took his time to pry his sword from the tree, but he still had a fight to help with and it would take quite a bit of his energy and strength to remove it from the bark. That time when he had gotten it lodged into the tree’s skin, he had actually been swinging with full might at a bandit who happened to dodge just in time. He looked at his sword for a few moments longer, trying to decide if it was worth keeping his back to the fight while he tried, possibly in vain, to free the blade.
With a deep sigh of regret, Cody turned around just in time to see a small dagger fly harmlessly past his ear and getting itself stuck in the same tree as his sword. He looked along the path it had taken to see the nearest bandit drawing his short sword, obviously out of knives. Luckily, the fight had moved over a ways and the bandit before him was far enough away for Cody to begin formulating a plan in his head.
It suddenly dawned on him. My axe! He yelled in his thoughts to himself. The problem was that he had subconsciously taken his quiver of arrows, bow, and battle axe off before he slept so that he could sleep better. When the fight commenced and abruptly woke him, he had only had just enough time to pull his sword from its sheath and join the fight, and he had left the other weapons lying on the ground by the tree under which he had slept.
The problem remained; he had no way of getting to his axe and absolutely no chance of getting his sword out of the tree before he was run through another. He pulled his gaze away from the approaching enemy to look to see if his weapons were still there even. Miraculously, they remained in the exact same position surrounded by groups of men (and the single woman and dragon) that fought. The axe almost seemed to be taunting him, reminding him that he had to get through an armed man, whose menacing gaze never softened and whose footsteps never faltered.
Cody backed up a foot or two until his back was pressed up against the tree, with his shining black sword sticking out from it just above his elbow. He could possibly turn and run and with his superior speed he could easily make it away from the approaching looter, but for all he knew there could be other men just waiting for something like that.
At this point the man was only about six feet away and his smallish blade was raised in the air menacingly, the entire thing soaked in the blood of previous battles since it was clearly not washed after what must have been many uses. The sword suddenly plummeted, its point directed straight at the rider’s chest exactly where his heart was placed, suddenly racing at the thought of what was coming.
At the last second, Cody’s fear left him and he found himself stumbling to the side, sending yet another blade into the unlucky tree. Unfortunately, the short sword seemed to be easy enough for the man to pull from its place, and he approached Cody again. The rider made a risky move and changed tactics, leaping towards his opponent like a cornered animal would. The small sword was tossed a few feet away and the two men began to wrestle instead.
Luckily Cody had equal or even superior strength to his opponent thanks to his strange new skills and abilities, but that didn’t change the fact that he was inexperienced with actually ending someone’s life by hand. Not to mention the fact that he didn’t really want to end his life, not after noticing that the man he fought was an actually human being, with hazel eyes and sandy blond hair. His eyes were filled with hate and loathing, and one of them even had a menacing scar passing from the top of his eye to the bottom in a terrifying way, but he was still a human being and deserved to at least live.
“Who do you think you’re fighting Boy!?” the bandit growled as they rolled over the ground, neither getting ahead in their tussle.
“A heartless roach!” Cody replied through gritted teeth as he managed to kick his opponent in the stomach, though it didn’t seem to faze the man as much as he had hoped.
The bandit ignored his words and just continued to struggle to be the better fighter. He briefly got his right arm loose without the rider noticing, and used it to bring his fist strongly against Cody’s jaw, making him gasp in surprise. His shock would be his weakness, and before he could even know what had happened, the man had stopped their rolling and held the rider’s back firmly against the ground, while absolutely no movement he could think of could help him escape.
The blond-haired man gazed at him with hatred, more severe than Cody had ever seen in his life, before he said, “I’m going to enjoy seeing that raging storm in your eyes die!”
The man pulled a tiny hunting knife from his jacket and held it up to Cody’s throat. He probably hadn’t been able to reach it while the two were rolling around in the dirt, but now his hands were completely free. His fiery green and yellow eyes seemed to fill with an excitement and eagerness that would have made Cody sick, if he hadn’t been to afraid to even think properly. Suddenly, the rider smiled.
“Do you know who you’re facing?” Cody asked the bandit, mocking his earlier question.
The man looked at him with a perplexed face before asking, “What are you talking about, you stupid piece of sludge?”
A growl made the man freeze. He turned his head around to see where it had come from, only to have a thick black dragon tail make contact with his forehead, sending him flying right over Cody’s own head and sprawling across the grass, unconscious.
“Thank you!” Cody yelled in relief to his dragon as he stood.
Inferno snorted with pleasure, his icy eyes filled with his own relief, relief that his rider was safe and sound. “I won’t let you out of my sight again!”
“Not necessary,” Cody replied before walking a few feet closer to the dragon who was still in what little room he had in the forest where several trees cracked under the pressure of his body pushing against them.
The rider walked a little further, off to the dragon’s right a ways before he bent down and picked up his shadowy battle axe. He felt nervous holding when he knew that he would be charging into a fight only seconds later for the first time. He had never seen an axe of any kind being used at all, not even for a simple task like chopping wood, since his family never used one and he had no time to watch someone else do so. But, seeing as it was a much heavier weapon, he could imagine the basics of what he would have to do with it to be successful.
“Are you sure you can use that thing?” Inferno asked skeptically, care laced into his tone as well.
“No,” Cody replied nonchalantlyas he gripped the handle with both hands. “But since you can’t very easily participate in the battle anyways, you can watch my back for me.”
Inferno glared at him, feeling that he had to protect his rider from harm, but he nodded begrudgingly and sat down, very well hidden from the remaining bandits in the early morning. The rising sun just barely managed to reach the dragon, sending harsh-looking golden rays dancing off his hide. It wouldn’t be long until the bandits would begin to notice his presence, and if Cody’s companions wanted to remain relatively safe, they would have to kill all of the bandits before they made it back to their hideout and told whoever their leader was to send a big enough patrol to kill a young dragon. Or, they could scare them all off now, before they even saw Inferno.
Cody shook his head to clear his thoughts, and instantly jumped back over the fire bed to join the fight once more. He swung his axe out at an unlucky brown-haired bandit that had his back turned to the rider as he fought with a very haggard-looking Mora. The axe easily tore open the man’s flesh, and sent him falling to the ground, dead from the severity of the one wound.
With slight regret, Cody looked from his weapon to the dead man, realizing he had just easily killed a man with one blow to the back. He would not underestimate the axe’s power again, especially in his unusually powerful hands. Shaking his head, he looked up to make sure Mora was alright, only to see her jumping into the heat of the fight once more.
The rider sighed, from relief that she was alright as well as humor because of her eagerness to fight when all she had to protect herself was the little knife he had seen in her hand before. Luckily the tides had turned, and only four bandits remained, three of which fought with Mordon alone.
The wind rushed past Cody’s head as he leapt towards his mistrustful companion, wanting to prove to him that he was trustworthy, even though the guard probably could have assumed so since the rider hadn’t slit his throat in his sleep. Then again, he had fallen asleep during his shift, which would definitely do nothing to help his case. But, if it came down to it, he could point out that Mora had fallen asleep long before him anyways.
Enough thought, he scolded himself in his mind, we have to get these bandits out of here! He rushed to his companions’ aid, swinging his axe at an unusually short looter that had managed to sneak behind Mordon and was preparing to stab him with a rusty old dagger. The dark metal easily sliced through the strange man’s torso, but Cody had made sure to keep the wound minimal so that he could avoid killing, even though he couldn’t understand why. Unfortunately, it seemed he wouldn’t be able to avoid it since the bandit just clutched his wound with his free hand at turned to him instead.
Worst of all, his opponent was incredibly nimble and quick against his own slow movements, thanks to the heavy battle axe. It was a somewhat small difference, but enough to make a huge difference. Cody found that out very quickly when the bandit he was facing charged and easily evaded the axe. Lucky for the rider, his opponent was only trying to pick out any other advantages he could before he actually struck, but that probably wouldn’t end much better.
Cody used what little time he had wisely, and began to pick out the enemy’s weaknesses, which were surprisingly few. But if need be, Inferno might be able to step in on time and help him. For the time being, the dragon made sure to stay out of the fight so that none of the bandits would see him and be able to warn their overlord, and the rider was forcefully keeping him off to the side unless he was in dire need of help.
The thief, or possibly warrior of sorts, dove towards Cody for the eighth time, but the rider suddenly found himself gasping in pain and surprise when he felt the tiny dagger make a shallow cut on his calf. It was little more than a paper cut, but now Cody knew that the playing was over and the man facing him would only increase his attacks, and he would soon be fighting for his life against an opponent much more nimble than himself.
Then it occurred to Cody, that he wasn’t using the axe correctly. Defense seemed far from possible with such a weapon, but maybe that could be a good thing. Both of his other weapons were pretty well suited for attack or defense, and both had similar uses, but were still drastically different. The bow was long range and the sword was short range, as well as the axe that was slightly longer, but still short range. It had its own purpose that set it apart from the other weapons, and he knew exactly what that was.
Instantly the rider sprang into action, leaping towards his opponent with the mighty axe raised. He brought it down towards his unsuspecting foe, who quickly jumped to the side to avoid the massive strike. But Cody quickly followed up with a series of painfully slow, yet somewhat successful attacks. He didn’t land a blow at all, but now the bandit was stuck playing the defensive roll, which was also pretty difficult with nothing but a dagger.
It had taken Cody a while to realize that the axe was purely an offensive weapon, for the most blood-thirsty and battle-hungry people that enjoyed attacking their opponents mercilessly. While Cody probably would have preferred using his sword in such a situation since he wasn’t accustomed to the feel of the new weapon or the purely offensive fighting, he easily saw that the mighty battle axe had its uses, and he decided that he may be able to use it a bit more in a fight like this, once he got more comfortable with it.
He continued to slowly slash at his opponent, who barely managed to dive out of the way of the weapon just in time. Suddenly Cody went crashing to the ground, his axe launching a few yards away since he was in mid-swing when it happened. He quickly turned himself around to look into the dark blue-grey eyes of the man who had tackled him. The rider shot a brief glance towards his comrades to see if he could request help, but two more bandits had joined in fighting against them, and the man holding him down was also new, making them have a total of seven opponents, if he remembered correctly.
Cody rolled fully onto his back, loosening the bandit’s grip on his shoulders just enough to quickly haul himself up onto one knee. His luck ended there, as the first bandit jumped onto his back and sent him crashing into the ground face-first. He didn’t know why, but when his other enemy reached them, they both carefully rolled him onto his back. This time, however, they were sure to keep his hands pinned down and the only thing he could do with his legs was kick at empty air lightly tap them on the back, especially since flexibility wasn’t his strong suit.
The opponent that he had faced earlier and cut slightly, still clung tightly to his wound as he pressed his rusty dagger’s tip against his throat. Cody could feel to blade piercing his neck slightly, drawing a single, tiny drop of scarlet blood. Both of the men holding him down grinned at him wickedly, not noticing as the shadow passed behind them silently and sat down. The dragon’s blue eyes were filled with fury and hatred, but he refused to step in this time until his rider called, knowing that his rider might want a chance to save himself for once, or even try to confuse the bandits.
Turns out, it was mostly the latter, and Cody’s fearful eyes morphed into confident-filled orbs. He struggled one last time to get free, but it was all in vain, and he knew it. Let them think they have me for now, he thought for only himself to hear even though Inferno might be able to pick up on his words. Wait, he planned, all on his own, until the looters’ slight confusion at his confidence melted away and they prepared for the killing.
“Inferno!” he suddenly gasped as he felt the knife press on his throat a bit harder.
The guards looked at each other with gazes filled with glee, confusion, but most of all, surprise. It didn’t take them long to pick up on the rockslide-like growl that rolled from the coal-black dragon’s throat. It started softly, but grew louder with each passing second before he stood and put his head next to the bandits before he let out a fearsome roar that would have forced them to cover their ears if they hadn’t been trying to run away.
Immediately Cody felt his arms go free and he sat up, coughing slightly as he released a harsh breath that he had been keeping in ever since he had shouted for his dragon. He rubbed his throat and pulled his hand away to see a little bit of blood, but it wasn’t anything too severe. He cautiously turned around to see Inferno bite one of the men before killing the other easily with a vicious scratch from his sharp talons. The one in his mouth lay back and went limp, and Cody squirmed slightly, feeling uncomfortable as he saw the light fade from the man’s once-hostile eyes. He suddenly fell to the ground as Inferno opened his jaws.
“That wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped,” Inferno growled with displeasure his eagerness to kill surprising Cody yet again.
The rider looked over just in time to see more drive her knife into a bandit’s chest, killing him instantly when it pierced his heart. The only remaining bandit fought fiercely with Mordon, but soon enough he joined the other dead men on the ground.
“We didn’t get any prisoners,” Mora sighed disappointedly, making Cody giggle.
The rider instantly turned serious as he heard Mordon say, “Don’t be so sure.”
Cody followed the guards gaze, not quite processing what he had said, until he saw what he had been talking about. He saw two hazel-colored eyes flicker open as confusion filled them when they looked around at their surroundings. The man that Inferno had saved Cody from earlier was indeed still alive after a powerful strike to his forehead with the dragon’s whip-like tail.