I DID IT!
“Are the others back yet?” she said frowning as she looked across to Chenyo.
“Not yet, you have only been gone three hours or so. It’s probably the fastest I’ve seen a team go,” he laughed. “Not that I should be surprised, you and Raffy are hardly average pupils.” He said his hands held behind his back.
Mycah, Sorrel, Dio and Chenyo set off for the Dragon Centre and as they walked Chenyo began to tell them the story of the Three Colonies and the millennia long war that they were stuck in.
“It all began with dragons,” he began as he walked. “In each colony a dragon was born and each selected a person it was paired with. Now, the three Dragon riders or Dragon Masters as they became known set up a place where they could live and still be connected to their families but also be connected to the other colonies and that place was to become the Dragon Centre. The Centre straddles the area where all three colonies meet meaning that the colony members didn’t have to walk across land belonging to another colony to reach it. It all started out amiably, that means friendly,” he said as he saw the flicker of confusion cross their faces. “That is until one of the dragons gave birth to an egg, the Shifter who was paired with the dragon believed that the egg should be offered to a Shifter first but the Mage and the Tele disagreed. The seeds of discord had been sown.” His voice became slower and more melancholic. “The three Dragon Masters began to fight and argue among themselves and the pact that they had said was soon forgotten, before long they were using their own magic against one another to cause harm.” The three chosen ones gasped in shock and looked at each other before looking back to Chenyo totally drawn into the story. “An epic battle ensured in which the three colonies got involved backing up each of their Masters. Soon all three colonies were at odds with each other and the war had truly begun. Unbeknownst to the ordinary magical beings the dragons had each laid another egg. Altogether four eggs had been laid, unfortunately one was badly damaged when a Mage snuck into the Dragon Centre and attempted to steal it. The egg was destroyed as any life form within it was long gone, the Masters finally died along with their dragons leaving only apprentices behind whom in turn became Masters and hired their own apprentices. We are the three hundred and twelfth set of Masters to reign at the Dragon Centre and we will not be the last by any means.” Chenyo paused to take in his surroundings, “we must remember what happened to the First Masters and ensure it does not happen to us. And most importantly we must remember that what the colonies began to fight for is not worth losing magic over; the war does not make you who you are, your magic does. The war does not involve you and if it did before, it most certainly does not now. You three are brethren and you must take care of one another and train with one another; should you find yourselves in danger you will only have each other to protect you so you must learn each other’s Magics and learn each other’s ways in order to become three instead of one. Do you understand?” He looked across to them and they all nodded in turn; he smiled to them. “Come, we are here. Yes Mycah, you can shift.” She grinned widely and shot off in her gibbon form as she swung through the trees before bursting into the open and coming face to face with the Dragon Centre for the first time. As Sorrel and Dio came through the trees Chenyo spoke softly.
“Welcome home, children.”
Sam met Jones and Pat just inside the ring and waited as they dismounted from their hover bikes;
“Morning,” he said cheerfully. “Do you want to see where the attack took place?” he asked as they removed their goggles and hung them on the handle bars of the bikes.
“Yes, please.” Jones said running a hand across his short cut hair. The three of them strode across the ring and Sam lead the way to where he had been logging. From behind, Pat could clearly see the outline of the bandage through his white top; though he did note it didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest. As they rounded a corner, Sam stopped beside a tree and tugged the arrow, shaft and all, from the tree. It was longer than his forearm and the feathers at the end were completely black; the twisted arrow head was exactly the same as the one that he had pulled from his arm. He handed it to Pat, who ran his hands across it,
“This is from the group to our West,” he stated passing it across to Jones who was working out where the arrow had come from. Jones took it turning it over idly in his hands and walked forwards tracing the arrow’s trajectory backwards. As he walked, Sam and Pat followed behind him tugging the arrow shafts from the trees and collecting a large stash of them; finally they broke the trees and into a clearing finding a patch of flattened down grass and a few arrows stuck into the ground waiting to be fired.
“They obviously knew where you were going to be working and waited for you.” Jones said crouching down to examine the floor in front of him. He could see the barefooted prints that the Mages had left as they didn’t wear shoes. “Mmhmm,” he said to himself, his fingers running lightly across the marks they had left. He paused and stood up slowly looking forwards.
“Jones?” Pat started until Jones held up hand up indicating him to stop.
“Do you feel that?” he said his voice quiet.
“Feel wha-” Sam said but before he could finish the sentence he jumped in shock as the arrows he was holding shot out of his arms, straight over Jones’s head and almost impaling him as they flew past. From the shadows emerged three hooded figures, their cloaks black with silver embroidery around the hemline and sleeves; from their sleeves protruded their tanned skin. Pat pushed Sam behind him and tugged a gun from his holster and one from the back of his trousers; holding one behind him he motioned for Sam to take it. Jones had his pointed levelly at the Mages; they stood looking at them, or so they thought. Jones raised his gun in the air and released a shot.
“Do not move.” His voice rang loudly through the clearing. They stood as they were unmoving. With apparently no movement all three guns were lifted straight out of their hands and hovered in the air ten foot above them. All three of them looked up gaping; suddenly dropping their eyes they looked back to the Mages who were walking slowly towards them.
“Stop!” commanded Jones, his voice angry; the Mages ignored him and continued walking until they were standing just beyond arms reach away from Jones, Pat and Sam.
“We could easily dispatch you.” One of them said though they were unsure which; “we have decided to only take back our arrows which we did not have time to collect previously. This time we will not kill you, as easy as it would be.” With their arrows floating behind them the raised themselves off of the floor and floating away into the trees; once out of sight the three guns dropped with surprising accuracy onto all three of their heads. Wincing in pain Sam rubbed the lump that was already forming on the crown of his head.
“I have no idea what just happened,” he said bending to pick up the gun that had landed behind him after bouncing on his head. He handed it to Pat by the barrel who tucked it back into the back of his combat trousers.
“We need to get back,” Jones said. “We need to send a patrol out to ensure the surrounding area is safe. Pat, we need to get back to the Hold and get Sam working with the Second Flux,” as he spoke they started to walk back towards the ring.
“That reminds me,” Sam said. “Would one of my work buddies, Craig, be able to work with me with the Second Flux?” He looked to Pat when he spoke for the most part.
“I don’t see why that would be a problem,” Pat said. “Can he start now or were you thinking more of tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow, he just wants to talk with his wife about it.” Sam said with a smile, “thank you though I’ll let him know when we get back, I’m sure his wife will be happy, she’s always worried about him getting hurt when he’s logging.”
“I’m not surprised!” Pat said, “Logging is actually quite dangerous,” he laughed.
“Well I can attest to that!” Sam said pointing to his shoulder with a laugh.
Mycah was sitting with her back to Raffy’s side who was humming quietly; his side vibrating gently against her spine which she could feel all the way through her body. She was day dreaming, her eyes focused somewhere in the distance but not taking in the beautiful view in front of her; Raffy shifted slightly which jerked Mycah back to reality and she blinked multiple times, looking up at him she grunted and he turned his head to look down at her.
“Yes?” he said his voice deep in her mind.
“I was having the most wonderful waking dream and you woke me up, so to speak!” she grumbled. He bent his head down and touched the tip of his snout to her forehead, his breath pushing the hair of her face.
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