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Unlike the dragons of the wider world, those born into the throng of Chalazae are dominating and calculating. Their role in the mountainous region of the Drakengard is unknown. They have existed as a cohesive whole since before the island settled by humans, and will likely dwell there long after humankind falls. All known about them, however, resides in the tomes of the Ecclesiarch. All known in the Ecclesiarch now resides in Ozoric Newalla’s skull, rattling around like a draconic incantation of historical recall and secrets.
“I don’t know what it is.”
Aelfric slumped his shoulders. The boy had made a noise akin to realisation, but once more, left the group by the fire pit disappointed.
“For one to claim kinship with the Queen of Dragons to know so little about her is strange,” Tobias mused.
Let us not fall into squabbling, children.
Everyone turned to Sei Orlouge, winged patriarch of the Orlouge clan and council to the current leader of the Ixian Knights. Indomitable though Ozoric’s will was, Sei commanded the courtyard. He folded his arms across his chest and continued to stare into the flickering and dying flames.
“The dragons we found in the tomb are utterly different to those who live in the mountains of home.” Aelfric’s reiteration of the previous and long-winded explanation was succinct and much clearer than Ozoric’s. He scratched his beard.
“Can we not just use the same process as you do to bond with a dragon?” Tobias asked the question in earnest, but recognised his mistake the moment Ozoric glared at him.
“The Drakengard dragons literally destroy the rider they chose during the Bonding.” He looked to Ella. “I doubt the good lady wishes to be destroyed and interred eternal in a dragon’s soul.”
Ella nodded in hesitant agreement. She did not like the idea at all. Few did.
“I guess we can always do it the old fashioned way,” Aelfric offered. He looked skyward through the broken canopy of trees and rusting iron frame. The courtyard was covered by a vast mesh dome, its bars thick as tree trunks and forged in an ore composite so dense only an ancient dragon could break it.
Ella, Sei, and Tobias looked east. Over by the wall of the courtyard, basking in late afternoon sun, a dragon. It was young, younger perhaps than all who stood about the fire pit and yet still its size was fear inspiring. Though the youngling did not intimidate the contingent from the Drakengard, Ella remained nervous in its presence.
“Do I want to know what that entails?” she asked meekly. Strong as her tone was, and her leadership, this was new territory. Only Sei’s charisma and insistent whittling had overcome her reluctance to attempt to train anything more than her sword arm or cross-stitch.
Ozoric knelt closer to the fire and held out his palms. The autumnal chill on his back, covered only with a brown tunic faded away. He watched his skin dance golden and crimson in the glow and tried to find the words. He pulled a face akin to contemplation, and then cleared his throat.
“The only way to show a dragon who is for all purpose feral you mean business,” he paused as he stood. “Well,” he shrugged. “It is to conquer it. Show it you mean to hurt it unless you find common ground.” The metaphor on the tip of his tongue was not quite as paginating as he intended, but it slipped out anyway. He mentally added it to the chronicle of foot in mouth moments he had encountered since his inception into the ranks of the Ixian Knights. “Yank a dog’s leash and he will come to your side no matter the madness in its maw.”
Out of the question! Sei shouted into everyone’s mind at once. The group baulked under the weight of fatherly concern. I expected better of you, Ozoric.
“Expect all you want, Sei. You asked us here to help Ella train, and subsequently learn to ride a creature that is, as far as we can tell, no brighter than a dog.” He meant to imply that the metaphor was apt, but the red head bore down on him with a stare rivalling the Knight-Commander of the Drakengard. Ozoric looked away, challenge failed.
Is there no other way to allow Ella to ride a dragon and to empower her to…?
“Father…,” the Mystic muttered.
…to get what she wants?
“What I want, Father, is to prove myself.” Her voice grew in pitch and severity. Emotion welled up behind her own challenge and filled the area with tension.
“That is what we all must do,” Tobias added in agreement. He had certainly had to prove himself over the previous months, and he had many moons and promises to keep observing until he was fortunate enough to be in E;;a Orlouge’s position. “With us three hear, Sei…no harm will befall her.” It was a wry pledge, but Ozoric and Aelfric stepped to the youth’s sides as a show of hands.
As though it knew its time had come, the dragon shot a gout of flame skyward. Unlike the lava ichor of the Drakengard kin, the flame was simple heat given light. All the same, it lapped at the chains heavy and thick, which bound the creature to the wall and anchored it with just enough movement to rout budding young Ixian Knights about the courtyard. Five hundred feet long and twice as wide, the ruined hovel in the run down section of Ixian Castle had become an impromptu Aerie after Sei and Ozoric had fought the matriarch.
Somehow, I doubt that very much…Sei conceded. He unfolded his arms and gestured for the group to walk to the staging area.
The flat ground in a square about their charge was pebbles, rubble long since ground into dust and dessert. The grass on the fringes of the courtyard clung to fetid life, the moisture drawn from their once jade green blades. Birds bobbed back and forth in the trees, the magic enchantment on the cage protecting the glade from the tortuous flames of their ‘guests’. A half circle formed about the creature, Ella central and nearest its head, and Ozoric and Tobias to either side.
“Tobias, if you wouldn’t mind?” The lancer saw an opportunity for this futile exercise to be a training opportunity for the Initiate. He gestured with a regal hand to the dragon, red hair of his own dancing in halcyon flame from above. His scared face, untutored, but brandished anew by the war in Eiskalt, formed a friendly smile. “Would you describe to our young charge what it feels like to fly? It might be prudent to give some instruction, before we quite literally throw her skyward.”
I will not warn you ag- Sei’s mental intrusion cut short when Aelfric unsheathed Stonehewer from the colossal sheath on his back and slammed its behemoth tip into the dirt.
“Let training commence, Lord Orlouge,” he said flatly. From behind an ageing, friendly beard, a voice full of tenacity and authority. “Newalla’s promise is golden.” All the same, the Captain set his body into a defensive stance, blade’s edge levelled at dragon’s neck.
“Okay then,” Tobias began. The birds sang overhead. Ixian Castle bustled beyond the courtyard. The dragon, nostrils flaring eyed its captors with half-concealed malefic and instinctual desire to eat roasted flesh come sunset.
"Flight, in essence, is terrifying," Tobias stated with a bit more bluntness than one might expect. "You will have scarce little control of the beast beneath you. Expect to feel completely helpless." He recalled his time as a soldier for Alerar; flight on an airship was unlike anything he had experienced aboard an airship. Folded to his chest, Tobias' arms tensed and relaxed.
The Orlouge girl eyed him skeptically. "You're making me feel so much better about this."
Tobias gave a shrug. "Better to face the truth than have it hit you while you're in flight." The girl could not argue with the logic, but she still seemed less than appreciative. She bit her lip, signifying a sudden surge of uncertainty. Tobias glanced sidelong at Ozoric and smirked. The son of Chalazae huffed indignantly, a snarl rolling off his lips.
"Still," the former soldier cut in before the other youth could step in and reassure the girl. "Once you get used to it, flight is tantamount to freedom."
Ella blinked. "Freedom?" She was fascinated by the word, but the true meaning of it seemed beyond her grasp, Tobias observed. Freedom was such an easy concept to take for granted; Aelfric, Ozoric, and Tobias all had deep, personal ties to the concept. Each of them seemed elated at the word when she said it, and at the same time, cowed by it. Ozoric was the first to let out his breath.
"Freedom," Ozoric added, "in it's purest form. It's a difficult thing to describe. It's something you have to feel."
Ella gaped at the words. Sei stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, still clearly opposed to the plan, but now aware of the passion these men had toward their craft. I can see you all know what you are doing, the elder mystic conceded, you have my blessing to teach her.
Aelfric merely smiled a knowing smile, but Tobias stepped forward and placed a gentle hand on the underside of the Dragon's jaw. The beast stared at him through a slit, and Stalt could feel the hellfire of hatred burning deep into his soul. His gaze hardened. "Know this," he growled low to the hatchling so that the others would not hear, "if you harm her at all, I will deal it back to you tenfold."
While the creature gave no outward response, Tobias could somehow feel that he had been understood. The beast snorted, an ashen plume rising from its nostrils. The sulfuric scent tasted noxious on his tongue, but Tobias restrained the urge to gag. He offered a hand to Ella, donning his most genuine smile.
The Dragon outstretched it's still mostly modest wingspan. "Come on, then," he urged. Ozoric rolled his eyes, but Tobias ignored him. "Give it a try."
She looked at the two dragon knights before her and raised an eyebrow. Ella Orlouge was the smallest of Sei’s adoptive daughters but people took her youth to mean that she was barely out of diapers. She grabbed the bridge of her nose and sighed as she was taught things any competent nine year old on Althanas would know about Dragons. Once she removed her fingers, she smiled wide to Tobias and Ozoric and nodded as though she listened to their entire tirade (she did not).
She turned around and straightened her back out as she approached her reptilian foe, each step grouped with a deep breath as though her body tried to bolster her confidence. When she reached the silver scaled beast, she could feel the body heat of the creature, which stood a good foot over the nine year old. She took a heavy gulp as the dragon began to open it’s mouth to release a plume of smoke. The three adults began to step forward to stop the ancient creature but paused when they saw the small girl smack the monster square on the nose.
It let out a loud yelp, closed its maw, and shook its head as though it tried to get rid of a fly. The dragon shifted its eyes towards its humanoid adversary, a low growl from the gut of the beast managed to surface. Wisps of gray left the nostrils of the creature before Ella smacked it once again. This time, the beast reared its head back as though it was confused at the events that unfolded.
“No Scruffles,” Ella spoke with the same commanding tone that she heard her father use countless times, “You will not singe mama!”
The dragon roared, the wind from the declaration enough to send the girl straight to her bottom. Sei could not help but laugh and then look at Ozoric.
“Scruffles?”
Thread on hold until Tobias Stalt returns.