Dragon Bound

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Chapter Twenty-One

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Lune had taken up Damon’s old track, pacing up and down the stall. The feathers along his spine were on end again. He couldn’t quite explain the deep-set worry that had grown inside him over the course of the day. The link he shared with Jason and Damon had gone quiet which usually happened once the yoru and rider were far enough away.

It wasn’t the same as having no link at all. It was an unnatural quiet inside his mind, empty where the other two should be. It was uncomfortable, like an itch he couldn’t scratch or a memory he couldn’t quiet recollect. As the hours of the morning dwindled on, he knew for certain that he hated this sensation.

He lay down on his bamboo mats. Not even Gabe had been able to come and visit him though the morning meal of a goat had come to the stable with a single sugar cube on top. It was a nice to touch to let Lune know the old rider was still keeping an eye out for him. The stronghold still seemed to be in a state of instability. Everyone from servants to knights were still on edge. Lune could hear the restless of the other dragons in the stables and wished, not for the first time that morning, that he had some company.

He rested his head on his fore claws, thinking maybe of trying to sleep until they got back. Before his eyes were even closed, he heard the sound of boots of cobblestone. He lifted his head. Having been in the stronghold for months, he thought he had a pretty good idea of what each visitor usually sounded like. George was light footed but wandered side to side as though always distracted. Gabe had a heavier footfall then the one that approached.

Uneasy, Lune sat up, his tail quills beginning to rattle together in his nervousness. He growled, claws biting into his mats as the massive door shifted on its hinges and moved to reveal a tall man in the doorway.

A man with a bone crown on his head.

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Jason had a fleeting glance of with metallic before there was a sharp whistle and several arrows came raining down towards them. Damon divided, tucking his wings, and skirting out of range of the projectiles.

Kyril and Nibui and flew upwards, the thin dragon able to wing his way between the raining arrows. Vulkan let out a bellowing roar, staggering mid-flight to expel a massive ball of flames. Named well, Vulkan was the best fire breather in the Sun King’s stable with a range three times as long and twice as wide as any of the other dragons. The four incoming dragons were forced to scatter. Damon zeroed in on a small beast which had its spiny little body aimed at Nibui who hadn’t yet seen it.

Jason leant forward in the saddle as Damon flew towards the smaller enemy dragon. Jason relaxed his hold of Damon’s collar, allowing Damon to call on his dragon fire. Damon let out an ear shattering roar. At close range, the small spiny actually dropped several metres, its rider floundering and slipping sideway in the saddle. Jason unsheathed his sword as Damon flipped sideway.

Jason braced, locking his knees in hard against the horns of the saddle as his sword arm connected with the rider. He felt the splatter of blood and the rough vibration of the blade hitting meat. The enemy rider, now decapitated, slipped completely from the saddle, and fell to the earth far below.

The spiny dragon, now free of its burden, flapped about uselessly for several moments, obviously confused by the sudden lack of weight on its back. Damon caught it full in the face with swipe of a massive foreclaw. It to plummeted out of the sky after its dead rider, blood blossoming like a morbid rain cloud as it fell.

Damon was puffing hard, his great lungs like a huge bellows working to give him more lift as he struggled to get back into the larger fight. Vulkan was taking two on at once. He was bleeding from the shoulder and one wing was lagging in its beats. Jason squinted, seeing that it was entangled in a net.

‘Kyril, see if you can free Vulkan’s wing, I’ll draw them off!’ Jason shouted. Kyril’s opponent was riding a mid-sized charcoal river dragon. The river dragon seemed to be new to being ridden. The gear was rough, and the female dragon was snarling and screeching, tossing her head as her rider attempted to nock a fresh arrow. Kyril looked alarmed by Jason’s plan, but Nibui was the smallest dragon. He nodded curtly once and kicked hard, abandoning the female, and sending Nibui into the fray. Damon let off a volley of fireballs, providing the smaller dragon cover to come up underneath them.

Unfortunately, Damon wasn’t able to do much more because something massive crashed into them from the side, sending them cartwheeling. Jason was thankfully he was buckled into his saddle because otherwise the force of the impact might have unseated him. He loosened his hold on the reigns to give Damon as much slack as he needed to turn his head.

Nibui was shrieking and darting in out, trying to get closer to Vulkan but wasn’t having much luck. The fourth dragon was staying further back, its rider peppering them with arrows. The arrows may not be strong enough to piece Vulkan’s hide, but they would and could take Nibui out of the fight if he were hit. Kyril was cursing, leaning this way and that to avoid them.

Damon twisted and breathed fire down on the dragon that had hit him but this one seemed smart enough to already by backing off, avoiding the danger. Jason gasped for breath, still slightly winded from the whip lash of the collision.

He watched, stunned, as the man on the female river dragon kicked her forward not to attack but to crash right into Vulkan. The female let out a shriek of pain, rage and confusion as she collided with Vulkan mid-air, the two grappling. The man leapt from the saddle in an instant, landing of Vulkan’s riding harness from below and starting to climb.

Jason shouted but Fredrick couldn’t hear him over the roars and shrieks of the tussling dragons. The rouge rider had effectively left the charcoal female for dead. Unable to detangle herself, several metres shorter and considerably less skilled, she scrabbled frenziedly at Vulkan’s chest plate until the massive fire dragon sunk his jaws into her throat. Even from this far away, Jason heard the crack of her neck. Two dragons down and two left.

Jason tried to yell again but was thrown forward as Damon flew upward to avoid a blast of fire. He couldn’t understand what the hell these rouges were trying to achieve. Jason could feel Damon strongly. The Yoru obeyed his thoughts more than any kind of gesture or spoken command. These new riders didn’t seem to have any connection with their animals at all.

As Damon banked hard to the left to avoid another blast of fire, Jason caught sight of the man climbing Vulkan’s harness. He was pulling out a blade from the back of his belt. For one horrifying moment. Jason thought the man was attempting to slide the blade between the dragon’s scaly plates but no, he was aiming for the collar.

Was that the plan?

They hoped to cut the collars and free the Sun King’s dragons in hope they would turn on their riders and join the rouges? It seemed a ridiculous plan. Jason couldn’t help remembering the conversation with the prisoner. He too, had been convinced that freeing the dragons would cause them to turn on their riders.

In all honesty the plan might have had a bit more grit if they had gone for Nibui instead of Vulkan. Fredrick had raised Vulkan since the male was a hatching and had once taken an arrow to the shoulder to protect his dragon. The relationship between them did not have the sexual aspects of Jason and Damon but Vulkan was fiercely loyal and would sooner eat his own leg then turn on the man who raised, cared, and protected him.

Kyril and Nibui on the other hand…

‘Move, you stupid animal!’ Kyril screamed, kicking Nibui hard when another arrow came pelting for him. Right. Jason turned Damon around to face the dragon and his rider. At the sight of the black yoru, the man stopped firing his arrows and picked up his reigns. Jason had expected the man to join the fight. Instead, he raised a whistle to his lips and blew hard.

The dragon that had been chasing Damon went straight by him, flying underneath Vulkan to join the other rouge. There was a loud snap as Vulkan’s collar was cut free. The man on his harness gave a cry a victory that was very short lived. Even as the collar fell to the earth below, Vulkan caught the man in his claws. He finally seemed to understand that this dragon was not going to sing his praises. The man raised his machete. Vulkan had bitten the man’s head off before he could bring it down again.

Jason tried to urge Damon after the two rouges but one of the dragon’s opened its jaws wide. Instead of fire, the animal breathed out a thick putrid cloud of oily black smoke. It filled the air, burning their eyes and choking them. Fredrick, Kyril and Jason did their best to urge their animal to fly up above the suffocating clouds. Eyes streaming, lungs burning, Jason tried to look around. Coughing raggedly, he squinted into the still obscured clouds, but it was no good.

The last two rouges were gone.

‘They’re not gone! They can’t be gone!’ Kyril sounded near hysterical as he wrenched on his dragon’s mouthpiece, forcing the beast the circle tightly in the air.

‘What the fuck was that all above!?’ Fredrick shouted. Vulkan was in poor condition. He was struggling to stay aloft, his left wing still tangled in the net.

‘We need to land,’ Jason coughed.

‘No! We have to bring them in. We have to go after them!’ Kyril shouted.

‘And which way do you expect us to go?’ Fredrick barked.

‘We can’t let them get away!’

‘They already have, you daft fool!’ Fredrick thundered.

‘We land. Now.’ Kyril was red in the face, but Fedrick out ranked him in the squad. Jason was already heading to the ground. As they landed it was then that Kyril noticed Vulkan’s lack of collar.

‘Fredrick!’ Kyril was standing up in his stirrups, hand on his sword. Vulkan was puffing. His head drooped as his rider unstrapped himself from his harness. The male dragon was clearly exhausted from the fight, his left wing being dragged to the ground by the thick net hanging from his wing joint.

‘What now?’ Fredrick barked as he pulled out a knife from his belt, making his way over to the netting. Jason was unbuckling his own harness. Damon bent his crested head for Jason to slide from the saddle. He petted Damon’s neck.

‘Your beast has lost his collar!’ Kyril hollered, leaping from Nibui’s back.

‘He didn’t lose it, you twat. It was cut from him,’ Fredrick snapped, clearly exasperated. Jason took out his own knife and headed over to help. Damon was watching very closely. With no collar, Vulkan’s behaviour towards Jason was restricted only by the respect he had for Fredrick.

‘No dragon can be kept uncollared-’

’And what in blazes do you expect me to do about that right now!? Either come over here and help me get this bloody thing off him on stay on your beast and keep a look out,’ Fredrick bellowed, red in the face and clearly fed up. Kyril mouthed wordlessly for on outraged moment before charging back to his own animal.

Nibui was watching Vulkan with an oddly closed expression, his eyes fixed on the dragon’s naked throat. Either way, neither Jason nor Damon liked the expression. Neither did Kyril. He grabbed the animal’s reigns aggressively and jerked Nibui’s head around.

‘Eyes forward, you lazy lizard,’ Jason heard Kyril snarl. Jason shook his head. Fredrick’s own expression was grim, but he didn’t say anything.

‘I think they expected Vulkan to join them,’ Jason said quietly.

Fredrick snorted. ‘Aye. To bad for them, Vulkan ain’t no underfed parkette,’ the rider grunted. Vulkan huffed. ‘I’m trying. Keep your wing still, ya great lump,’ he added in a bark in response to Vulkan’s grumbling though it was with gentle hands that he carefully unwound the twisted rope from his dragon’s sore wing. Finally, Vulkan was free. He stretched his wings gingerly. Whilst the process had taken awhile, it at least gave the dragons a chance to catch their breath and rest.

‘Ya know, it’s almost as though the king knew this was going to happen,’ Fredrick said in a soft voice. Jason’s head jerked up.

‘You think so too then?’ Jason asked. The two riders looked at each for a moment.

‘What exactly did the king say to you before we left?’ Fredrick muttered, leaning closer under the pretence of checking Vulkan’s wing for damage. Both Damon and Vulkan were holding very still, clearly listening in.

‘He told me not to say though I can say that he suspected something was wrong,’ Jason murmured. Fredrick huffed.

‘If you ask me, the king sent us out here on a wild goose chase,’ the older rider grunted, running a hand of Vulkan’s back. Jason frowned, his gaze drifting towards Kyril.

‘Something is definitely going on that we aren’t seeing.’

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The feathers along Lune’s spine stood on end as the Sun King entered his stall, arms crossed in front of him. Lune growled, backing into the wall. What was the man doing here? He had never come to the stables before aside from the incident with the poisoned dragon. He wanted to strike, to defend himself but his muscles seemed locked in place. This was more than human magic. If Lune’s father had been the leader of his harem, then this man was the leader of his.

The human’s aura was prickling and uncomfortable. It filled the large space, pressing into every crevice and crack. Lune bared sharp teeth even as he crouched against the brick, quills sweeping in front of him.

‘It’s been over one hundred years since a Kagame has lived in my stronghold, did you know that dragon?’ Lune shifted but didn’t relax. What was this? Why he man here?

The stable was quiet except for the warm breaths of summer air and distant chirping of crickets. The occupants seemed to be holding their breath, waiting for the king to speak. Lune moved nervously.

‘I still remember the beast. He was like nothing I had ever seen. Beautiful, naturally, like all Kagame are. I remember thinking he would do well as a breeder. He too, refused to take a rider at first. My own son at the time did everything he could to win the animal over.’ Lune blinked. All of this information was new to him from the pronouncement that he wasn’t the first Kagame to hearing that the king had a son. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach as the man continued.

‘The beast started to lose his feathers. He didn’t take to any other dragon in the stable. His species was so rare that it seemed cruel to allow him to die in a stall, too weak to even feed himself. My son put a saddle atop his back and left the beast’s collar in his stall. Neither of them ever returned,’ the king finished quietly. He looked up at Lune, his golden eyes catching the weak moonlight from outside.

‘I thought it an interesting coincidence that my rider captured you. It seemed almost impossible. Kagame are notorious for living only in deep snow, high in the cloud line and away from humans. You are too young to be that same beast, too small. You are not, however, too young to be his offspring. I wondered if it was possible.’ Lune’s jaw dropped slightly, tail twitching. The suggestion was ridiculous. Lune’s father was old, yes, but he had never shown signs of being ridden or handled by humans.

‘Of course, I had, myself, tried to go after my son, many decades ago. The mountains had become impassable, the walls of ice too thick and peaks too high even for my magic to take me. I had convinced myself that he had perished.’ The king paced slowly back and forth in front of the white dragon.

‘I sent a few of my knights to the mountain not too long ago to see if they were still as impassable. I was told they were and yet… I had a feeling. That feeling became a suspicion. A suspicion that was confirmed the day you were brought to my stronghold.’ The king held out his hand. Lune flinched but didn’t move away as the man rested his fingers against Lune’s muzzle.

‘I didn’t want to believe that my own men could lie to me but here was the proof right in front of my eyes. You Lune, a shining beacon for my enemies to follow.’ Lune stared at the king, certain that he was slightly mad.

He had no idea what this human of fire and blood was talking about. Lune had come to these lands because the snowstorm had swept him this way. Swept him away from his home, though home was now very long way away. The king met his lilac eyes steadily.

’You aren’t from the valleys of the Kaempe Stor Mountain Range, are you Lune. You are from the other side of them. You’re from the Kingdom of the Storm.’

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END

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