While Faora and her son were happy to have a new member in the family despite Thornicus's silent disapproval, the former dragon slayer noticed something strange happening with the girl his wife now called “Katherine.”
It was the same thing he had noticed with Dorcas about a week ago. The only difference was that while he was hearing hundreds of dragons calling out for help to him from within Dorcas, this time, from within Katherine, he could hear the thoughts and motives of a conscious essence living within her. So to the surprise of his wife and child, Thornicus went behind Katherine, hitting the back of her neck so hard that she instantly lost consciousness. “Katherine!”, Gabriel yelled out. “What are you doing?”, Faora asked as she walked towards Thornicus, thinking he just did it because he didn't like Katherine. “I'll let you know once I fully figure this out”, Thornicus said as he set his left hand onThornicus led the conscious essence to Nala's cave, looking around as the both of them got inside. They could hear a rumbling sound coming from deep inside, and the tears poured out all the more from Katherine's eyes and Demos saw his little sister, Nala for the first time in decades. Nala at first thought it was a threat, but seeing how comfortable Thornicus was when standing right next to the person gave her a bit of assurance. Still, she couldn't shake off the feeling of unease that lingered within her. She looked at the person standing right next to Thornicus before looking back at her rider. The two other dragons naturally felt uneased, as their mother was, but Thornicus assured them as their dragon lord that all was well. “What is going on here, Thornicus?” asked Nala. “Your brother said he wants to see you, so I thought; why not let him at least try?” replied Thornicus. Then he turned to leave.<
Now over forty years had passed since Thornicus had adopted the little dragon slayer as his daughter, and within those forty years, the village of Frostfall grew into a small town, with improved technologies and infrastructures. During that time, it was discovered that Gabriel was also a dragon rider, just like his father. His dragon was Gamala, the male offspring of Nala, Thornicus's dragon. Kamala was yet to have a dragon rider, but it never bothered her in the least. Later on, Maria had a younger brother her mother named Wayne. Frostfall grew and prospered, and during that time, just as he had found Katherine, he ended up finding multiple dragons either just stranded in the wilderness, or he found as little whelps being sold in the black markets by poachers. He would bring them into Frostfall territory and train them, making them trusted allies of the village. And soon, the dragons on their own were able to form
Richard and the others arrived at Frostfall, and the first sight they came across which terrified them were two dragons, one red and the other light blue. They didn't growl or roar at them, but they could tell that the creatures went comfortable with them around. Still seeing the town ahead of them, they just couldn't stand idly out of fear, and as one, they put all their fears behind them and walked forward. Besides, for all they knew the creatures might just turn out to be figments of their imagination, illusions brought about by the last few days of endless walking without food and water. They walked past the two dragons and headed for the barricade, and at the gates three watchmen stood, having seen the way the trio had handled seeing the dragons from afar. “Hold it right there”, one of the men said. “Who are you? Where is your permit?” “Permit?”, asked Felix. “All tourists and visitors must come with a permit, especially when c
The three visitors fell asleep not long after eating, making it obvious just how exhausted they were. It was at the table they slept during the long but fun conversation they had with James and his wife, Daphne. Daphne covered them with blankets and put a candle close to them before they too went to sleep. It had been a long night, but it felt short. These guests were more than fun to have around, and they took a special liking to the witty, Richard, whom they mistook for a reserved and laid-back person when they each first saw him. The night went by peacefully, and not long after, it was daytime. Everyone was ready to resume their daily duties, and the trio of travelers also got up as well, getting ready to leave. When the trio had packed up and gone outside, James and Daphne came out, with the husband holding a large sack. “While you were asleep my wife and I prepared some provisions for you”, James said to them, handing ove
After returning to the present reality, Cyrus looked at James. “How long is my training going to last?” asked Cyrus. “As long as it takes” James answered. “It won't take more than a month, right?” asked Cyrus, and all the other riders burst into laughter. “Are you serious?” asked Wayne as he wiped off a laughing tear. “We aren't just teaching you how to sit on a dragon while it flies in the direction you tell it telepathically. You want us to teach you the complicated stuff, like improving balance and synchronization during battle, improving the speed of telepathy, and so on. Also, your dragon hasn't been ridden by a human before, so it's her first time following directions from a human. She hardly gets along with other dragons except Nebula on a few occasions, so don't think playing well with a human would be any better.” “So how long would all that take?” asked Cyrus. “You would be lucky if it takes
Something was about to happen. It was time for Cyrus to do what he had intended to do for the past two years. He had been through different trials and troubles, and now was the time to show what he had made from it. He had announced to everyone close to him that he would be leaving the next day. However, not everyone would be leaving with him. Their new families would be staying behind at Frostfall, while the men would be leaving. Cyrus didn't want to take their daughter, Aurora, with them. And neither did he think it would be a good idea to leave the child in the village without her mother. So he and Natalie agree that she would stay behind with Aurora until he sends people to come to take them back to Griffindale after the war was over. It was the same thing with Felix and his new family. Unlike Cyrus, he and his bride, Chloe, held back on having sex, as she wanted to go with him to war. She was an excellent archer, challengi
Cyrus left the Midlands with Felix and his wife, heading back to the cave to mount their dragon. They found it there about to sleep late at night and decide to spend the night at the cave with her. Kamala kept them all warm, even though the climate was generally warmer than it was at Frostfall, where it snowed all the time. The next day, they would all be headed for the Kingdom Pass, a natural landform that formed a natural boundary between Griffindale and the other territories. The Kingdom Pass was a semi-round valley that formed a large deep perimeter outside the Kingdom's territory, acting as a natural border to the kingdom, even though nobody went through the routes that maneuvered the deep valley. Nobody ever took those routes as the road went too deep, forming a large dry canyon that wasn't ideal for travel and was crawling with bandits at night. People would usually go through the route where the canyon could not reach, as was the
Wayne flew off on the back of his dragon while Richard led the veteran soldiers by chariot toward the region of Griffindale. He would be the one to get to the villages (including his home, Sargath)to inform them that a war was about to unfold. He led his veteran soldiers on horseback towards the lowlands of the city, at an area parallel to the Kingdom's Pass. When they got there, they went through to the villages, and eventually, got to Sargath. Not much had changed in the village, apart from the faces of all the villagers who were pleased to see the young Richard once again, but with a beard and small traces of a mustache. His father was the most delighted, and tears poured from his mother's eyes when they saw their son returning home. They wondered who the soldiers were and where they came from, and then the young archer explained everything to them. “The young Prince who helped you all defeat the Dakra has returned and has a