“Look at it,” he whispered, his eyes huge. The dagger in his hands was fourteen and a half inches long, the blade a kris shape. The cross-guard was in the shape of an open dragon’s mouth with flames spurting down the blade; they continued to the tip of the dagger raised and sharp. The hilt was the shape of a dragon’s neck and scaled deeply, in the pommel was a perfectly shaped chrysocolla stone. The stone itself was a bright blue colour inlaid with green and small flecks of orange; the blade was white at the tip and slowly changed to a beautiful green colour which reminded him of the grasslands that had surrounded his home. He continued to look at it in wonder before turning to Dio;
“Do you have one too?” he asked. Dio nodded and removed it from the sheath, Mycah and Sorrel gasped in shock.
“It’s gorgeous!” they said together as Dio laid it flat in his hands. The blade was almost fifteen inches long and split at the bottom until around five inches up where the blade was one again. The cross-guard was a gently curved shape and looked similar to open dragon wings with the tail wrapped around the hilt with the tip of the tail wrapped around one half of the double tipped blade. The cross-guard had the skeletal shape of wings but none of webbing or muscle work. The detail across the pommel was astounding, the delicate shape of a dragon head was clear and the pommel was shaped like a dragon eye with a big oxblood coral stone; the bright orange stood out against the rest of the dagger. The overall colour was a deep dark purple but the raised edges along the blade were tinted orange; the hilt was also fade through orange which bought colour to the black that he always wore. He carefully placed the dagger in the sheath on his hip and they headed towards the main building where Tom and Jenny were waiting for them.
“Are we nearly there?” moaned Mycah. “I’m bored and hungry and you won’t let me hunt” she grumbled. They were traipsing through the forest after two days of walking and they were still half a day away from the open grassy plains of the Telepath colony. Dio was looking equally bored but he didn’t say anything but rolled his eyes and looked at Mycah with disdain.
“Don’t look at me like that” she growled at him.
“Oh really? Or what?” He said pointedly, looking down at her as she stood in front of him. Being stuck together with no time to adjust had made everybody crabby, especially as they were from different colonies. Although neither of them knew why their colonies hated each other, they hated one another and didn’t bother to hide it. Mycah was much more accepting of Dio and treated him like any other person she knew, but Dio refused to talk to her unless he had to; Chenyo was ignoring his stubbornness for the time being as he knew he was very stressed and was probably feeling very homesick at present. Mycah thrust her arm towards him and sent him flying backwards as if he had been punched in the chest; he collided with a tree and slid down it gasping for breath and clutching his chest. The anger rolled across his face as he pulled himself up and began to mutter under his breath, his lips moving with almost no sound coming out; the orb of magic that shot towards her was rippling with power but with a single flick of her hand Mycah dispersed it and sent it barrelling back towards Dio who didn’t finish his shouted magic before the orb hit him and he spun backwards.
“I did warn you,” Chenyo said as he walked past collecting Mycah. “Come on, leave him alone.” She shrugged and shifting, disappearing into the trees. Chenyo offered a hand to Dio who ignored it and pulled himself off; as he walked away he brushed the dead leaves off of his robe and stalked past Chenyo.
When they finally drew nearer the edge of the forest, Mycah was instructed that there was to be no more shifting and she donned her Dragon Master robe again; with a sigh she tugged the hood up and walked beside Chenyo. Dio also pulled his robe on without making a noise though he looked less than impressed. As before, they found a place to stay at the edge of the colony before Chenyo moved to find the Elders.
“I am here to collect the boy,” he said to the Elder who was stood before him.
“Of course Dragon Master Chenyo,” he said bowing deeply. “He is just through here; I will have him bought to you.” A woman appeared quickly and ran past them to a room off the main hallway; she reappeared quickly with a young boy with cropped blonde hair and grey eyes who was followed by a tall man with a serious look on his face.
“Hello, Dragon Master,” said the man as he bowed. “I am Rohyr, Sorrel’s father. I am very happy that is coming to learn with you.” Chenyo nodded and inclined his head towards Rohyr.
“I am afraid I cannot stay long, we must move on. There is a long journey home and there are more of us than anticipated.” Rohyr frowned slightly,
“More?” He asked curiously,
“Indeed, I have collected two other children in the last few days.” He responded,
“Ah, apprentices,” he nodded knowingly.
“Not this time. I have two other Chosen Ones.” They all looked at him in astonishment.
“Two? From the same colony? Or...” The Elder trailed off leaving the question open.
“One from each.” He said, fully aware of the implications of what he was saying.
“Three?!” yelped the Elder. “You know what this means?” He said.
“Of course,” was Chenyo’s reply.
“Of-of course you do, I apologise, I forgot myself.” He stuttered, “but this means it will happen.” Chenyo nodded wisely leaving Rohyr and Sorrel looking completely lost.
“It will. We will of course be recruiting some new apprentices soon, if you have names please inform us and we will let you know when we will be collecting them. We must leave now, come Sorrel.” He turned on his heel and started down the corridor. Sorrel wrapped his arms around his father’s waist,
“goodbye Papa,” he said quietly and ran after Chenyo who was rapidly disappearing, his long legs eating up the ground.
“Where are you staying?” Sorrel asked immediately after catching up with him.
“At the edge of the Colony.” Was the curt response as Chenyo walked down the steps outside the Elder Council and joined the throngs of people who were buying and selling goods at the market directly outside the building. Sorrel yelped as he tripped down the stairs and would have fallen if Chenyo hadn’t used a wall of magic to push him backwards onto his heels and get him standing properly.
“Thank you!” He said with a grin, “I’m sort of clumsy sometimes,” he laughed and continued walking making sure to be careful where he placed his feet.
“What is the problem?” He asked, his voice hushed. “Why are you risking contact? You know the job.”
“I know, I know.” The other voice replied, “there’s been a complication.”
“Explain.” Said the first voice impatiently.
“We lost visual on DDC and audio is sketchy at best.” Came the slow reply, the voice was quieter this time.
“Well replace them,” they were getting impatient.
“We can’t risk, we think they are aware. We aren’t going to get caught doing this, we want out.” The first person laughed heartily.
“We bought you here, you are not irreplaceable do you bloody job and do it well or face the consequences.”
“You can’t get us if we stay here.” They said defensively, the pitch of their voice rising.
“We can get you anywhere. Do what you were trained to do and get out. Or we’ll drag you out and you can enjoy the flight back to Rheso.” The conversation ended with the numbing sound of the dial tone.
Mycah, Sorrel and Dio made their way slowly towards the main building laughing and joking as they went.
“After this we have got to go swimming at the lake,” Sorrel said.
“I agree, you’re getting stinky,” Mycah said with a laugh; Sorrel punched her square in the arm and yelped when she punched him back.
“Ow! Man you’re getting more power in that thing I swear,” he rubbed his upper arm where her fist had made contact.
“Come on or we will never get to speak to the Rebels. What are their names again?” Dio said from behind them,
“Tom and Jenny.” Mycah said as she readjusted her dagger belt and pulled her hood down. Her hair was still loosely braided from the Dojo, she flicked the plait over her shoulder and entered the main building. She sent out her mind to find them and found them at the centre point of the building. They made their way quickly through the building and entered the courtyard;
“This is my favourite place too,” she said shattering the silence making both Tom and Jenny jump. “I didn’t mean to frighten you,” she spoke more softly this time.
“It’s okay, we were just thinking” Jenny said with a smile. “You are Mycah, I think I got that right?”
“You did, I am Mycah. And this,” she indicated to her left, “is Sorrel and that’s Dio.” They stepped out of the shadows and inclined their heads to the pair of them.
“Hello,” said Jenny, Tom simply returned the head nod.
“We need to talk to you about the Invaders Hold again,” Mycah said moving to sit beside them. “We need to finalise some details before we make our attack.” Jenny nodded, while Tom looked bored though Mycah could tell he was listening intently. “We don’t want to get caught out, I mean we’ve never been there before.” She saw the flicker of doubt cross Tom’s face; in her peripheral vision she saw him open his mouth to speak then rapidly change his mind and turn it to a yawn.
“Sorry about that, I didn’t sleep particularly well last night.” He said locking eyes with Jenny. Mycah smiled to herself, she knew that Chenyo had purposefully kept the information from them. They were fully unaware that she had been captured by the Invaders when she had passed out after moving Sorrel and Dio to the Dragon Centre; the only way they could possibly know is if they were in contact with the main Invader Hold somehow. It only further cemented the belief that they were being set up but in order to complete the Dream Watch she had to extract the information she needed from them.
“Did you see that?” She said to Sorrel and Dio, they both had. “They are clearly in contact, when they are out can we see if we can work out how?”
“Of course, though we could use a truth potion...” Dio said, his eyes wandering pretending to be distracted.
“Oh, yes. Let’s do that instead, take them on a walk and slip it to them.” Sorrel said a faint smile tracing his lips as he flicked his hair from his eyes one more time.
“We know that the technology that you and the Invaders have far surpasses anything we could possibly dream of so we need some detailed instructions on how to enter the comp-,” she paused. “What is that thing called again?”
“Computer,” said Jenny, her hands crossed in her lap.
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