The Dragon Rider's Chronicles

"That's not what it looked like." Ardra raised an eyebrow. "That went beyond training; that turned into an actual fight where someone got hurt. Granted the ice and fire were a part of that..." With that statement, she glared at Kestus, who tried to look as nonchalant as possible.


----


Iris raised an eyebrow at the form of Matthais. "....what happened this time, I wonder." She sighed as she focused the moon's rays of power through her hands over Matthais' forehead.


----


Neera suddenly realized that she was being followed by a riderless dragon. "Where'd he go?"


Perhaps we should double back and make sure we didn't cause some sort of damage to him? Eldran suggested. Neera agreed and they began to fly back through the portion that they had come from earlier.
 
Kenzo merely shrugged. "I guess we just have different opinions as to the line between training and fighting. Regardless, Sparrow is honing his magical talent more rapidly than I anticipated. Honestly, that could have ended baldly for me if we continued." He didn't seem at all bothered by that statement; it was like he was simply stating a fact.
 
Auntyrmarun gave a mental cue to Sanz, and when Eldran passed by he jumped. The landing wasn't necessarily soft. He managed to actually catch himself on the dragon, with one hand gripping the saddle, but it was readily apparent that trying to land on a dragon you were in mental communication with and was expecting you was a whole different beast from jumping on top of an unsuspecting one.


"Surprise."


He turned his head up to look at Neera, whom he was currently behind.
 
"....men....." Ardra sighed. "Do you think of anything else besides fighting?" She looked away, her eyes gazing up at the moon. The moon light added gleams of silver to her purple and made her ebony skin almost glow.


----


Neera shrieked in surprise. She turned back to look at him, unsure of what to do.


May I make a suggestion? Eldran asked.


Go ahead.


Barrel roll through this straight stretch?


....go ahead.


Eldran chuckled mentally as he began to spin down the long straight stretch, hoping to shake Sanz off of his back.
 
"Grrrrr--"


Sanz grit his teeth as he spun around repeatedly. Both of his legs lost what little grip they had, so he was clinging onto the saddle with one hand as they spun around.


Auntymarun! Help!


Eldran had a surprise waiting for her as a violet-scaled dragon broke through the water directly in front of her.


As the two dragons entangled, Sanz had a window to actually pull himself into the saddle proper


"So, I apparently make good target practice?"
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Kenzo couldn't resist staring at his companion as they glided through the night air, level with each other. To Kenzo, she seemed just barely out of reach...in more than a literal sense. "I think of many things," he said, more gently than one might respect.
 
Neera put her hands on her hip as she turned to look at him. "You just looked sooo comfortable that I had to make your day a little bit more...shocking!" She giggled and put a hand over her mouth. Eldran let out a low rumbling chuckle as he suddenly vaulted skyward, trying to escape the purple dragon.


----


"Like what?" Ardra tilted her head down a little bit so that she could see him in her peripheral.


----


"I have no idea." Iris tsked. "You were probably in some idiotic fight with Kenzo again. One of these days, you're just going to kill each other and save me the trouble of having to take care of you people."
 
Sanz shook his head


"And what possessed you to--"


He was suddenly jolted from his seat . . . along with Neera


Auntymarun! What the hell?!


I'm currently roiling with subspecies of my kind. I don't have as much control as I like


Sanz sighed and looked up, though currently up was down as he plummeted downward through the canyon. He glanced over at Neera, stoically falling with his arms crossed


"Do you mind getting wet?"
 
".....wet?" Neera was panicking. "HOW ABOUT THE FACT THAT WE'RE FALLING DOWN A CANYON?!?! WHY ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT GETTING WET?!?!"
 
Sanz let out another sigh


"Well, clearly you're in no capacity for rational thought."


He pulled his massive sword out of its sheath, estimating he had maybe another minute or two before they hit the water below


Auntymarun, going to need a pick-up soon


"Assuming you have any self-preservation instinct, this should work."


Sanz swung the sword around once, throwing himself at one of the side walls. On the way, one arm caught Neera. She felt lighter than the amount of weight he used to practice. His massive blade stuck into the wall, dragging through the rock and sending chunks everywhere. After several seconds, the two of them stopped. Sanz was actually having a bit of trouble holding everything, one hand holding onto the hilt of his massive blade stuck in the wall, the other around Neera.


"All right, we're not falling anymore."
 
Kenzo was wearing an uncharacteristically warm grin. His eyes were soft as he met Ardra's. "For starters, you. You have occupied my thoughts for as long as I have known you...and I have known you for longer than you might believe." He flashed back to many years ago, shortly after he was released from his year in prison. That was the first time he'd ever seen her: in Ventenadan royal garb with her sisters and her father. They were passing through a somewhat small town, situated in a vast forest, that Kenzo happened to be in. No one seemed to notice the Soromine survivor that day...not even when he found, disarmed, knocked out, and hog-tied a would-be assassin of Verus Sentoni hiding at the forest's edge. Looking back and knowing what he knows now about his clan's destruction, he somewhat wished that he'd let the assassin do his job.
 
"....good." Neera clutched to him much like a koala does to its mother by wrapping her arms and legs around him and burying her face into Sanz's neck. "...just....don't....let go...of me....please...." Neera's entire body was shaking in fear.


----


Ardra looked at him questioningly. "What do you mean by that?"
 
"Let go? I don't think I could even if I wanted to."


Sanz looked up the massive cliff face.


Auntymarun, any time now.


I am on my way, little one


As if on cue, Auntyrmarun appeared over the cliffside, slowly flying down


You appear to have attracted a cling-on


"More than you know. Get beneath me."


Auntymarun let out the dragon equivalent of a chuckle before dropping down beneath Sanz about five or six feet.


"Right then. On three . . ."


Sanz shifted his grip on the hilt


"Three."


The blade was yanked out of the side, and both of them fell down onto Auntymarun, landing squarely on the saddle


"Okay Auntymarun, let's go to solid ground. I think this girl has had enough of the air for now."
 
Kenzo chuckled slightly. "Nothing in particular. I caught sight of you when you were on a royal processional with your sisters and father. You were passing through Mara'sol at the time; I just happened to be in the area. We've never actually met until we joined the dragon riders."
 
"....please get me to solid ground....please...." Neera's voice was literally a whimper. "I'm...scared..." She was still shaking and was still gripping onto Sanz with all four limbs. Eldran flew next to Auntyrmarun, worriedly looking up at his rider.


----


"....oh...okay...." Ardra smiled mischievously. "Great to know that I was totally being stalked by my lover before he was even my lover...."
 
Kenzo reddened a tad as he was slightly taken aback. "Wha...? I wasn't stalking you! Like I said, I just happened to be in the area. I'd never even seen any of you until that day." His eyes darted down and away from Ardra. "Though...even then, you were...rather stunning..." he muttered.
 
Sanz raised an eyebrow at her tone of voice. This girl, up until this point, had been brash, tomboyish, airheaded, energetic, and occasionally irritable. He had never seen her like this . . . it was like she was a different person entirely.


Aunymarun, just stop at the nearest area, doesn't matter how close to civilization it is


As you wish, little one


That area, as it turned out, was a small island of rock and sand some ways off the coast. It was between the canyons and the coastline, and was large enough for about five people to wander around comfortably. Sanz let out a breath and pulled himself off of Auntymarun, with Neera still clinging to him like her life depended on it.


"There's solid ground beneath our feet now. It isn't going to disappear."
 
"....o-okay...." Neera still didn't let go. "That's...nice...." If anything, she was gripping him even tighter, squeezing the life out of him.


----


"....so you watched me from afar when I was little....like..." Ardra's eyes lightened up with amusement. "Like some sort of childhood crush?"
 
Sanz sighed again, sticking his blade in the ground beside him.


"Look girl . . ."


He put one hand on each of Neera's thighs, starting to pull them away from his body.


"One fairly long fall on your part does not cause the rest of Terra Firma to spontaneously disappear."


He grit his teeth and finally disconnected her legs from his side, moving them down to set them in the sand. However, he found a bit of an issue as he realized that Neera was at least a foot shorter than his 6'5" build. There was a short sigh as he brought himself down to one knee, allowing Neera's feet to connect with the sand.


"Solid. Ground. It's not going anywhere. You aren't going to fall."


He usually was under the impression that Neera acted something like a child, but this was the first time he'd actually truly felt that he was dealing with one.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Kenzo was extremely flushed now. His eyes darted occasionally as he avoided meeting her eyes. "I...well...I'm not sure." He really wasn't: at the time, he had been even more bottled up than he was now. The most he'd reacted to Ardra at that time was sparing her more than a moment's glance before he'd moved on. At the time he'd been eighteen and she had been only fifteen. Add to the fact that he'd been a classless outcast and she was royalty, and you have a young man who'd experienced attraction but who had written it off as impossible and moved on in his roaming of Ventenadana. "I saw you from quite a distance, and I left the town before the night fell. I never saw you again until we became riders."
 
"I just....heights....they scare me.....I've always dreamed that I would die by falling...." Neera let go and slipped to the ground into a sitting position, her arms wrapped around her legs. "...that's all..."


----


"Well, I guess the stars aligned for once for me." Ardra smiled at him, giggling at his blush. "I mean, I got lucky enough to find you again."


----


Far away, the Council was talking about the discovery of this water dragon. They were definitely not all in agreement as to what to do about the sudden appearance of an extinct dragon.


"Sapphire Sentoni, I respect your position here." Verus Dulanos sighed. "But if there are more of these creatures out there, we must find them. Dragons are essential to our culture and we must harbor all of our assets."


"The Aquanine left our continent for a reason. Perhaps we should allow them to return on their own?" Sapphire Sentoni answered, crossing her arms stubbornly.


"I agree with the Queen." Jemima Lirama nodded. "Dragons have minds of their own; they are our partners. We must allow them to choose of their own free will if they wish to come to our shores."


Mistriel Darmani slammed a fist down on the table. "Come on people! They are our tools for every day life! Nothing more! They have intelligence but a wild dragon is easily brought down by any humanoid and a trained dragon. They serve us and we don't kill them. That's the natural order. Now, let's go find the rest of the sea beasties so they can help us with our ocean exploration. We still have yet explore the Saeva, Caelum, and Umbra Island Complexes. Not to mention the rumored continent to the South of us."


"These creatures are our friends, not slaves." Ezrael Minishta downed another stein of dwarven ale, her voice slightly slurred. "Dragons deserve our respect because they have chosen to be our partners in this world. They could just as easily leave us."


"Not that we honestly need the dragons as much anymore." Eldres Ardramus raised an eyebrow. "The wars are over. Our continent is united. Yet, we still train young people to sit on those beasts and kill others. Why must the army still stand when Dracsofar is finally at peace?"


"Because there will always be those who wish to warmonger and destroy this peace." Brennen Warhammer's low rumbling voice silenced the others. He was one of the older humanoids in the room and commanded respect through his sightless eyes. "The army stands to stop those who would attempt to crush this age of peace and innocence, who would throw out country back into civil war. It is a symbol that no one country may rise over another again without being brought down. The army stands."


"...though, the army does bring down the economy a bit." Dru Carrison was staring into a mirror fixing his spiky, silver hair.


"What say you, Vran, Nunco?" Sapphire looked at the two silent parties.


Vran picked up his giant stein and chugged it before answering. "The dragons are useful. We keep the dragons and we benefit off of them. End of story."


"Hn." Nunco nodded with his sound of acknowledgement.


Sapphire sighed audibly and put her head in her hands. The differences between the Council was starting to give her a massive headache.


----


Over the water, coming under the darkness of night, three dragons glided over the water. Each rider was encased in pure black armor and and each dragon's eyes glowed an eerie red. The night was about to get a bit more interesting.
 
Sanz let out a sigh and stood up


"Yet you became a dragon rider."


He pulled his massive blade out of the sand, sheathing it as he walked next to her.


"You have a multitude of things that should stop you if you fall, at least before you hit the ground."


One hand went on top of Neera's head, completely covering it
 
Kenzo returned a gentle and somewhat sheepish grin. "Likewise." He briefly recalled his conversations with Iris, and how he'd expressed displeasure with the preverbal wheels of fate. "Perhaps fate is not such a cruel thing, if it is what led to us meeting."
 
"I became a dragon rider because it is what is expected of me." Neera's eyes were far away gazing into the distance. There was something different about her now, like a facade was being dropped. "It's the family line. Mom was a great dragon rider when she fought against the Freyjon Uprising. She refused to sit back on a throne and give orders; she chose to fight. Now, I have to follow in her foot steps and become a dragon rider like her. I have to be able to fight by the sides of my comrades if bad things happen."


----


Ardra giggled a bit more before stopping for a moment to gaze over the water. "...I thought I saw something out there." The waves were high tonight but she could have sworn that she had just seen something flying. There was also a storm moving in; maybe it was just lightning.


----


"....perhaps we should take a recess?" Sapphire was sick of watching the others argue back and forth. "An hour, perhaps?"


"That would be wise." Jemima nodded and stood, walking matronly out the door.


"Anything to get away from these imbeciles." Verus muttered as he followed suit. The others also began walking out. Draconas chose to enter and placec a tentative hand on Sapphire's shoulder.


"Don't let it get to you, Sapphire." He spoke low and gently. "Some of them seem to live just to see you miserable."


"Perhaps." Sapphire was close to tears of frustration.


"....permission to act and speak freely, milady?" Draconas needed to make sure that it was okay.


"....don't you always do that anyways?" Sapphire half-smiled. Draconas looked to make sure that everyone had exited before putting his arms around, holding her head against his chest and stroking her hair.


"You looked like you needed a hug." He murmured with a smile.


"....I'm too weakened to stop you right now, I guess." She answered, her arms slipping around him.


"You know the whole b**** routine is a little unnecessary, right?"


"Perhaps. But it keeps you on your toes, doesn't it?"


----


Verus and Mistriel stood at the giant window, watching the oncoming storm. "Tonight's the night, cousin." Mistriel glanced at Verus. "Are you ready to make a few changes?"


"I was born ready." Verus' eyes were filled with a deep hunger, a lust for power. "They should be here very soon."


----


Kestus and Dezeld were flying over the water when something huge blocked their path. A dragon. Not just any dragon either; it was a Shiphon dragon of massive proportions. The black-armored rider held a long, bladed lance that looked like it had dried blood on it.


"...can I help you?" Kestus stiffened, as did Dezeld. Something was off here. He hadn't seen these dragon riders on the island at all during their stay here.


"....I hope you've made your peace with the Dragons Above, little fairy." A deep, Dwarven voice echoed from the helm. "Kayron is hungry and Marfedelom would enjoy more dead.


----


Two jolts of energy suddenly seared the air between Ardra and Kenzo, followed by a giant gust of wind that blew back their dragons several feet. A giant grey Novarius dragon now flew in front of them, twisting with the wind. Its riders also seemed to be twisting with the wind while holding two whips that were seemingly electrified. The rider moved in a chaotic fashion, seeming unable to hold still.


"Fresssssssh meat? Fresh meat for you, Fluffy?" The dragon, presumably "Fluffy," answered with a resounding roar. "THEN LET'S HAVE SOME FUN IN THE NAME OF RIVARYGAT!" With raucous female laughter, move waves of energy were thrown at the two.


----


Suddenly a giant crystalline spear hurled past Neera and Sanz, barely missing them. "Ami, you missed!" The male voice exclaimed as a humongous purple dragon appeared in front of them. "Daararyte will be displeased with the lack of precision." The giant purple dragon roared, slamming its massive tail into some rocks below. Its scales shimmered as if they were crystal, which would seem to denote frailty. The crushed boulders beneath it said otherwise. "Oh well, I'll just make up for it!" He pulled out an obsidian bow from his back and took aim at Neera, letting an arrow fly.


----


Iris looked out; something was wrong. "....Matthais, we've got to get out there. Now. Something's wrong; I can feel it."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top