Chapter 59: The Mysterious Paper
Dammit! Reynold pressed his chest flat against the stone floor.
Another fire screamed past over his head.
It did not touch him but he felt the heat roll across the back of his neck and he quickly brought down his chin.
*Do not move. Do not breathe too loud.*
He tried to calm himself but another blast of fire was directed towards him. This one was bit closer. It was close enough that it almost touch the collar of his jacket.
"Damn it!" Reynold hissed through his teeth.
He turned his head sideways, with his cheek now grinding against the floor, and he tried to think.
He needed to think of any draconic language! Every rider at the academy learned at least the basics. *Vreth,* meaning peace. *Sulkan,* meaning still. *Orvael,* meaning I mean no harm.
But Reynold was not able to come up with any words.
Fu*k!
Even the few words that he has half-memorised before vanished from his head like a smoke.
"Vreth... no....Sulkan... or was it...Sulveth?" He groaned as he pushed his head down. "Dammit, Reynold. I seriously need to take these language classes more seriously."
Another jets of fire blasted past him three times. One left. One right. One straight above his spine.
"Noooo..!" He slammed his palm on the stone. "I mean no harm! I mean..... vreth... orval...no, that is not even a word..."
But suddenly the fire stopped.
Seeing the fire stopped, Reynold went completely still.
He waited for full five minutes without raising his heads.
And there was no fire.
Then, he slowly raised his head but just a little or more like an inch.. His eyes scanned the curved arena floor.
The mage-light were still burning steadily on the walls.
Still seeing no fire, Reynold raised his head another inch.
Just then a deep sound moved through the chamber. It was more like low and rolling. Like boulders shifting underground.
A groan. Just a very low groan..
Reynold did not need anyone to tell him.
There was a fu*king dragon here. A real one, live and breathing, somewhere in the arena. He had guess right since that that first fireball screamed at his face.
His first instinct was to run with his leg ready to move... But he stopped as the thought cam across his mind.
Running was the worst thing a person could do in front of a dragon, especially not this one here spitting fire like he was pissed.
Reynold still lay a little...
Soon, the groaning started to fade quietly.
Then, slowly and slowly te creature started coming forward and into the light.
Seeing it, that at first Reynold thought it was a dream...
He clean his eyes with the back of his palm and it was real. Reynold’s mouth was wide opened.
"By the Flame..." He stood up quickly and then stumbled backward. "...Drakneth?"
Reynold would recognise this dragon anywhere. At any age. In any dark.
Drakneth was a Chant-Scale breed dragon. His scales carried the faint, swirling patterns that looked like old script. His colour was a deep, muted red-brown.. His eyes were too large, the way all Chant-Scale eyes were, and they were turning now.
Reynold stood there with his hands half-raised and his mouth still open as he muttered to himself.
"What is my father’s dragon doing here?"
He knew the rules.. When a rider died, their bonded dragon was returned to the academy dragon stables. And then the dragon mourn and grieve their rider..
Sometimes, they stayed inside the stables, sometimes for four months, sometimes three years, sometimes longer as they mourn their rider.. Some of them after recovering, eventually bonded to a new rider. Some of them never did.
That was why Reynold has not seen Drakneth on the day of bonding day or the day Professor Maras took them to the stable.
That was why he had not seen his mother’s dragon also. He thought they were simply grieving and needed more time.
But Drakneth was not in the stables.
Drakneth was here. In the restricted lower pit of the Ironhold and in chains.
What the hell was going on? And where the fu*k is his mother dragon?
Reynold looked at the chains now that the fire had stopped and he could actually see. They were thick, Iron, that was wrapped with something that looked like it had been treated with runed, maybe.
The chains ran from a pair of massive anchor points in the stone floor up to Drakneth’s front legs, just below the joint where the wing root started.
Why?
Reynold took a slow step with both hands still raised and his palms open.
"I am not going to hurt you," he murmured. "You know me. You have to know me."
Drakneth’s eyes rotated. And the swirling script on his scales moved faster.
Maybe tbe dragon smell Reynold’s father’s bloodline because it the low groaning and just stared at Reynold.
Just then, the door behind Reynold was pushed open.
"What in the name of the Six Mounts do you think you are doing in here..."
Before the man could finish talking, Drakneth erupted again.
The roar was back and then F
Fire screamed from the his mouth, and was aimed directly at the doorway where the man had just came out from.
The man is tall, maybe he is in his fifties.
The man only used half a second to before he threw himself sideways to the floor.
The fire howled past his shoulder and scorched the doorframe black.
"Drakneth!" Reynold stepped forward. "..Thael... no..Vrethaal .." Reynold stopped talking. His words was completely wrong. He was making up anything.
The man on the floor, pressed him face to the floor then turned his head just enough to look at Reynold with one eye. "What," he said, through his teeth, "are you saying?"
"I am trying to tell him to calm down."
"In what language?"
"Draconic. ."
"Draconic?"
Another jet of fire ripped across the chamber. Both Reynold and the man hit the floor.
"Vrethaal..." Reynold tried to say something..
"Shut your mouth!" the man snapped at Reynold, gritting his jaw. "Before you get both of us killed with your imported Draconic language.."
Reynold pushed himself flat and said nothing.
The man slowly raised his head. He pulled a breath through his nose, tried to calm himself, and then said loudly.
"*Vael suth drokan. Vael suth drokan.." [Be calm and yield. Be calm and yield.]
Drakneth did not eve calm down. Instead, he swung his big head. And his tail cracked against the stone floor hard enough that it split a crack down the side of one of the anchor stones.
The man repeated it. "Vael suth drokan." [Be calm and yield.]
The dragon still did not listen. His roar was getting louder.
Reynold shifted his eye to the man and then to the dragon..
Damm.this!
He stood on his knees and copied what the man said... "Vael suth drokan." [Be calm and yield.]
Drakneth stopped mid-roar and then turned his head toward Reynold. The big eyes rotated once, very slowly.. Then Drakneth exhaled — a long, low breath and lowered his head to the level of Reynold’s chest.
Reynold let out a breath that he did not even know he was holding.
"Vael suth drokan," [Be calm and yield.] he said, softer this time. "Easy."
From the doorway came the sound of the man standing up.
He looked at Reynold in a complete shock.
Reynold looked over his shoulder.
The man’s face was filled with shock. He looked between Reynold and the dragon. Then at the dragon. Then at Reynold.
He then licked his lips before he opened his mouth.
But Reynold quickly said before the man could ask.
"It is my father’s dragon," he said. "He is probably reacting to the bloodline. Maybe he can smell my father in me."
The man let out a quiet "oh." But he kept looking between the two of them.
After a long moment, he blinked and seemed to remember himself. His expression shifted back to neutral.
"How did you get in here?" he said. "This is a restricted area. There is a sign on the door."
Reynold scratched the back of his head. "I was looking for the library."
The man stared at him.
"The library," he repeated.
"Yes."
"The sign on that door," the man said slowly, "says Restricted Area. Faculty Clearance Only. In very large letters."
"Maybe i got lost."
The man looked at Reynold from the top of his head to his boots. "Come up with a better lie next time." Then he gestured toward the doorway. "Out."
The man was in charge of the restricted area. He was shocked when he saw someone there. Because the academy told him Reynold would be brought to the Ironhold but just to stay in the bunk room, so when he saw someone inside, he was stunned.
Reynold sighed. He turned and looked at the dragon. He lifted one hand, a small and slightly ridiculous wave to the dragon.
But then, Drakneth started groaning again.
Reynold stopped walking as he turned to looked at the dragon. Instantly his eyes caught something.
The saddle leather. It was still on Drakneth’s back. It was his father’s leather. The academy must not have removed it when they brought the dragon here. Or maybe Drakneth did not let them remove it.
The leather moved and it was like the dragon was breathing in and then out. And from the edge of the saddlebag flap, a corner of paper pushed out enough for Reynold to see.
Reynold blinked shook his head and then turned back toward the door.
Drakneth started roaring more louder.
Reynold turn around. And the man in the doorway grabbed the frame with both hands.
Reynold turned to the man. "Please... five minutes. Please. Let me say goodbye to him properly..."
The man looked at the dragon that was still roaring.. He pressed his mouth into a thin line and then said, "Five minutes."
"Thank you." Reynold turned and walked back to the dragon.
Drakneth stopped roaring before Reynold as Reynold took three steps towards him.
He stopped and raised his hand slowly. He pressed his palm flat against the side of Drakneth’s head. The dragon’s eye rotated once, then stilled.
Reynold looked at the paper then turned his head slightly. The man already walked back to the doorway. His back was to Reynold and the dragon.
Reynold quickly strecthed his hand and reached up and pulled the folded paper free from the edge of the saddlebag quickly.
He looked at it. He recognised the writing to be his father handwriting but he could not under what was written on the page. It was written in old language.
"Time up," the man called from the doorway.
Reynold folded the paper in half and slipped it into his jacket pocket quickly. He then turned.
"Done," he said. He raised his hand toward the man.
He then walked to the door.
Behind him, Drakneth was not roaring again.
Reynold paused in the doorway and looked back at the dragon. The dragon was just looking at him.
Then Reynold stepped through the door.
He followed the man behind bit after a moment Reynold asked, "Why is he here and not in the normal stables?"
The man was calm for a while. Then he said, "He was put back to the stables after his rider death." Then man paused and then added "I am sorry for your loss."
Reynold looked at him. "Thank you" He said.
The man nodded then Continues. "But we had to move him because the dragon was going insane. He put two of our sergeants in the healers’ ward. One of the sergeants needed a bone-knitting on his collarbone while the other sergeant lost a section of their hair as a result of the dragon spitting fire..
Reynold said nothing and after a while he then asked "And my mother’s dragon?"
"She is in the dragon stable. She was not making any trouble for us. She is still grieving now." The man paused and then added. "What surprised me was the dragon listening to you. He has not listen to us. Maybe he was reacting to your father’s bloodline."
"Yes," Reynold said. "Probably that."
Reynold and the man said nothing again.
Reynold mind went to paper. Was the dragon going insane because he did not want any body else to get their hands on the paper?
No!
Reynold shook his head hard, pushing the thought away quickly..