Two days later, Cody and Inferno took to the sky on their first free day that Argos had granted them. And after his training with Fril, Cody felt he needed it. He was sure he did badly, but like Argos, the elf was mostly silent as she observed his every move. She offered little advice to improve his skill, which most people would think was good, but Cody couldn’t help but feel foolish as he made one stupid move after another after another against a simple straw dummy. He could tell that his swordsmanship and overall skill with any weapon had not improved much at all since becoming a rider, so he knew there was much improvement to be made.
Nevertheless, he didn’t dare even lift his sword that day when he and Inferno left. The rider thought that he had had plenty of practice with Fril. Inferno liked to disagree, but remained silent as the two flew low over the trees, the occasional twig scratching at Inferno’s scaly underbelly. The bright noon-day light glinted brilliantly off Inferno’s dark scales as they flew in the general direction of the lake. Within a half-hour Inferno burst over the last of the trees and brought his wings down in one last flap before gently sliding onto the soft earth below.
Inferno’s head was just tall enough to see over the nearest house and he peered into the town, searching eagerly for Cody’s friends. A moment later, a little girl peeked around the corner of the large hut. She walked steadily towards Inferno with interest, showing absolutely no signs of fear. She looked to be about eight years old with hair as gold as the sunset and playful hazel eyes. She smiled sweetly at Cody, showing him her pristine white teeth, perfectly straight. She was adorable from head to toe, even in her old, torn-up clothes, probably handed down through a poor family before landing on her tanned shoulders.
“Hi Cody,” the girl said as a little blush rose to her cheeks and her worn shoes played with the dirt.
Not seeing any adults around, Cody asked her, “Should I take you to your mommy and daddy and tell them you saw a real live dragon?”
The girl’s eyes lit up as she struggled not to laugh for some reason. “No, but I can show you my house!”
Cody looked at Inferno in confusion, but the dragon was only watching the girl with intense interest, while she apparently didn’t notice. Shrugging, Cody nodded and accepted her little hand in his own as she tugged him along the houses, Inferno following behind rather noisily as his tail dragged in the rough dirt, his blue gaze never leaving the little girl. Finally she stopped right outside the second largest hut in the little village, the largest right beside it with a tiny white dragon sitting in the window, watching her more intensely than Inferno. Then the girl opened the door.
“Cody!”
The rider felt his back crash into the dirt before the door was even fully open, a very excited Avalsmokes right on top of him. The man hugged his downed friend ferociously, as if they hadn’t seen each other in years. Heck, when Cody first saw the man after a long imprisonment they didn’t hug each other half so tightly. Finally the rider, Blackscales, recovered from the attack and sat up, patting his friend’s back slowly before pushing him away and standing up.
“Aval, er, Goldscales! Why all the excitement?” Cody asked, suddenly remembering that both of his closest friends were now riders.
“It’s just so good to see you! I haven’t talked to you since my dragon hatched!” Avalsmokes about shouted in his excitement. He wrapped an arm around the little girl proudly and added, “I see you’ve met Destiny! Amazing, isn’t she?”
Aval turned to the girl with his eyes glowing with pride, while Cody felt his eyebrows furrow in confusion. He asked concernedly, “Why are you living alone with a little girl?”
The girl, Destiny, gave him a small smile, making him jump in surprise. Her neat, perfect little teeth were suddenly replaced by fearsome fangs. All the rider and his dragon could do was watch with wide-open mouths as the little girl changed. A sort of mist surrounded her, but through it Cody could see her bones snapping into a different shape, talons forming on her fingertips, and her skin hardening into armor. A finned tail sprouted behind her and her body lengthened slightly before sleek spikes, horns, and large wings sprouted from her body.
The mist soon vanished to reveal a gleaming golden dragoness, her head reaching just above Aval’s waist when she stretched it up proudly. The elegant dragon rustled her wings as a draconic grin appeared on her face. She gently butted her rider’s knee affectionately to make sure that the guests were completely sure of her identity. Then her eyes narrowed playfully at Inferno.
“I’m no defenseless little girl, you know,” The little dragon said to them with the slightest trace of a playful hiss.
“So she has a name now,” Cody stated, looking at her graceful features in awe before gently closing his still-open mouth. “Destiny,” at once he knew the name fit her perfectly, though he would never be able to tell exactly how.
Avalsmokes beamed and said, “Indeed she does. Come on, we can go for a walk with Autumn and Micah, I’m sure you haven’t had a chance to really talk with Autumn for ages.”
Cody immediately brightened at the idea, and imagined himself and his two closest friends in the world walking around the forest, closely followed by their loyal dragons with their own deep friendship. His eyes lit up in excitement and all he could do was nod dumbly, allowing his friend to drag him out of the house with the two dragons in tow.
Cody felt a smile tug at his lips when he saw Autumn, already standing outside her house with a large white dragon by her side. Micah was still smaller than inferno, but seemed only a few feet shorter than the black dragon and wasn’t afraid to show it. He strode right up to Cody’s dragon, his yellow eyes looking over the new arrival with slight disdain before he turned back to his own rider, his movements not unlike that of a show horse. Cody noticed for the first time that he had a small fin on his tail, probably all but invisible when he was in his smaller form.
Then he suddenly realized that both Micah and Destiny had a sort of special skill; Micah being able to grow and shrink at will and Destiny somehow being able to make herself human in only a few short seconds. He soon remembered Heyrone once telling him that Argos had the power to heal any physical injury even…but why didn’t Inferno have a special skill? He resolved to ask Argos and Heyrone the following morning before his lessons.
“So you four want to go for a walk?” Autumn asked nonchalantly, as if she didn’t even realize that she was talking to her twin brother and best friend.
“Uh, yes,” Cody said, shaking his head to clear away his concerns. Autumn was probably just tired; surely she missed Cody as much as he had missed her?
Micah and Autumn took the lead, much to the disapproval of Inferno. It surprised Cody when he realized that his dragon was almost growling, just barely choking back some hidden instinct that his rider didn’t even know about. But deep down, he knew that his dragon’s pride was hurt, but worst of all was the vague feeling of betrayal.
Sensing his rider probing his thoughts, Inferno swiftly answered, “I don’t like Autumn anymore. I didn’t know her for very long, but I can tell that something’s quite different about her. I’ve seen some of your memories of her in the days before you found my egg, and she was always so respectful and caring. Now…she seems distant and lost in her own world, too far out of reach to care for other’s feelings.”
Cody didn’t want to admit it, but just the way she acted was indeed different. The old Autumn would have hung back with her brother and friend, the only thing she’d be leading was some merry old tune that only she knew all of the words to. She might have been dancing while she talked with the two boys with the biggest smile on her face. But as the six walked along the edge of the glittering lake, she carried herself regally, as if she were a superior breed of dragon rider. She never even shot the lake a glance, let alone suggested they go do something crazy by it like she normally would.
“If only Destiny could fly, we could have the best of time diving into those waves,” Avalsmokes said lightly, appearing oblivious to his sister’s change.
The rest of that walk they were all silent, only the occasional thought passing between the dragons and their riders. Their friendship was beginning to change dramatically, and Cody wasn’t entirely sure that he liked it.
~
Inferno leaped into the sky, just as eager as his rider to flee the scene. The late afternoon chased away the morning’s chill and lit up the mountains in a bright glow. When the dragon finally stopped climbing and leveled out over the vast woods, Cody let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. There was a flurry of wind as the wings beat slowly, leading the two towards their mountain home somewhat reluctantly. Inferno seemed to be waiting for orders, but Cody couldn’t come up with anything else to do. And still, he found himself dreading the moment they would set down on the ledge by their home.
Finally Cody brightened at an idea, “Inferno, perhaps now is the time to explore the area beyond the maps.”
Cody was suddenly jerked around in the saddle after the startled dragon struggled to recover from his surprise. “Cody….”
“It couldn’t really hurt, could it? If there was anything dangerous out there, it would have attacked long ago, right?”
Inferno debated the idea for a moment before answering, “We would have to tell Omen. You promised to give him your answer and leaving without him would be unfair.”
“What do you have to tell him?”
Inferno couldn’t found himself getting startled again by a foreign voice. Cody watched in horror as his dragon failed to recover in time and a mountain’s side came closer by the second. Inferno just barely managed to alter his flight enough to limit the shock of the impact, but as they crashed clumsily into the side, heavy rocks were knocked loose and the two were forced back down to the ground, flattening several trees.
“Watch it!” a familiar voice shouted from about a dozen yards away. “You could have crushed us!”
Inferno growled harshly, “Then maybe you shouldn’t invade the intimate thoughts between rider and dragon!”
Without waiting for a response, Inferno dove into the trees before he could fully stand and launched at the origin of the voice. Cody found himself getting pulled along and watched as his dragon dove at the silvery shape. He also felt violated by the intruder’s disrespect of their privacy. In a matter of moments, Inferno had someone pinned beneath each of his forepaws. The first was a familiar ash-gray wolf, the other the very man that the rider and dragon had been talking about; Omen. Both seemed to struggle to breathe under the dragon’s firm claws.
“Let them up,” Cody ordered allowed, even though he desperately didn’t want to say it.
Cody watched as Omen was allowed to slip out from under the right paw, his hand immediately flying up to his barely-covered chest as he began to breathe deeply again. The Wargal bolted several feet away to stare into Inferno’s eyes in slight fear. Then he seemed to relax and approached his rider without fear.
“What are you two doing here?” Cody asked after they all calmed down a bit.
Omen sighed and stood, brushing off his thick leather pants before answering, “When you went on your walk I was a bit jealous, I must admit. So when you came back and departed immediately after, I was a bit hurt. So Ash and I decided to follow you two.”
Cody suddenly noticed the beautiful leather saddle strapped to the large wolf’s back, equally as lithe and sleek as its owner. Whoever would ride the saddle would be using it for speed alone, and the speeds that the two could reach was undoubtedly fast enough to keep up with a dragon, at least at the speed that they had been flying before.
“You didn’t know?” Omen asked slyly. Seeing Cody’s confused reaction, he slipped up into the wolf saddle easily and his body seemed to melt into place, the perfect fit on Ashheart’s gray back. “I’m a wolf rider.”
“How do you know?” Cody asked in shock, though it was obvious that the title fit Omen well.
The ex-blacksmith responded surely, “Heyrone explained it to me himself a few days before you visited town. He said that I had an unusually strong bond to Ashheart, and that in time, my Commander would become apparent.”
“Commander?” Inferno asked, his interest a perfect mirror to his rider’s.
Omen nodded, “Wolf riders always serve under a dragon and rider, which Heyrone explained was referred to as a Commander.”
Cody choked back a chuckle when he realized that his friend was showing off the knowledge of who he was. Most humorous of it all was that Omen had forgotten about their plan to explore the areas beyond the known parts of Mrana Akano Furista. The man continued to explain various aspects of being a wolf rider, but Cody wasn’t paying attention.
After a minute or so, Cody finally spoke up, “So are you coming with us?”
Omen seemed startled by the sudden interruption, but quickly asked, “How far are you going?”
“As far as we can go before sunset, probably to the opposite edge of the lake. Think you can keep up with a dragon in flight?” Cody asked in a mock-smug tone.
Omen dipped his head, “I’m sure we can. You two lead the way and we’ll keep tabs on each other in our thoughts. I’m just warning you now, okay?”
“Okay,” Cody agreed, then he asked, “But I didn’t know you could talk in your thoughts to other people. I thought that was only dragons, wolves, and dragon riders.”
“I’ve done it before,” Omen said with a shrug. “Now are we leaving or not?”
In response, Inferno leaped into the air and tore through the sky, catching the wolf and his rider by surprise. But, soon enough, the two began to appear between the gaps in the thick trees limbs a little distance behind them. The dragon flew low over the trees to keep a close eye on their followers. Seeing them struggling to keep up with his max speed, Inferno slowed down slightly. As it turned out, the Wargal’s top speed almost perfectly matched Inferno’s most comfortable speed, which was fast but barely taxed his energy. Lucky for the four of them, Wargals also had immense energy. Ashheart cruised along behind without showing signs of tiring.
Suddenly, the trees vanished beneath them and the wolf burst from their depths, the man on his back hanging on easily as they tore over the bare, rocky ground. Inferno maintained his height over the town as the wolf skillfully dodged each building with ease. Once he even jumped over a fully-grown and thoroughly surprised white dragon and landed perfectly on all fours before speeding along.
Once past the town, Cody felt a little more nervous. They were right at the edge of the maps now. The other three seemed blissfully unaware, and Cody found himself getting lost in their merriment. He felt Ashheart and Omen’s presence at the very edges of his mind, and they both seemed excited. Then Inferno lowered himself until he was only about five feet over the two, casting them in the dark shadow of his massive wings. The ground rushed below them at insane speeds. It was exhilarating.
Inferno tilted his wings up, and immediately the two lifted high above the wolf and his rider again. The two were speeding little ants on the bare tundra of the plains that Cody hardly knew existed before then. The ground retreated below as a mountain approached, and Inferno swooped around it with immense pleasure. Adrenaline coursed through their veins at the realization that they were trespassing on this undiscovered land.
“This is amazing!” Inferno howled to his rider breathlessly.
Before Cody could reply, a blood-curdling shriek blasted their eardrums. Cody just caught a flash of white before he was forced out of Inferno’s saddle. He felt razor-sharp talons dig into his ribs, holding him in place as the ground rushed up to meet him. He watched Inferno and Ashheart whip around, but they weren’t fast enough. Cody looked down at the ground as the yards between him and the ground depleted by the second.
He was going to die.