The Stormfather's book : The Return of magic.

[The Stormfather He/Him]

Here's a book I wrote for english class on Nanowrimo, and I'll probably post the chapters one at a time. It's linked to all of my other writing, as in, same world and characters, but i don't think I've posted any other writing on the shard and for this one you don't need any context.

Prologue : Darkness.

Spoiler

   A lone house stood on a hill, soldiers who didn't know the war was over. The barren lands had been the site of a year-long war, scorched lands and poisoned lakes from the destruction of the war. The one house that still stood was atop a small hillock, swamps and ruins scattered around. 

            "Someone's out there." Felar whispered. His wife, Grathi, and he had been fighting for years.                "It's one of them."The darkness of night hid the enemy from the gaze of the watchers. They had been assigned to watch for enemies, whilst the rest of the army made a frantic retreat. They had lost. It was over. 

            "It's one of them! Get the weapons! He's coming!"A lone figure shot through the sky, dark clouds billowing at his feet. Felar grabbed an envelope, taping a map of the country onto it.

            "We're going to die! We're going to die!"Grathi shouted. The door swung open. Grathi's spear went out, but was parried easily by the hand of the Dark Ganthkai. She was flung back by an unseen force, cracking against the wall and splattering blood across the room.

            "You monster!"Felar growled, his six foot frame somehow dwarfed by this shorter Ganthkai. 

             His heart pounded as he fled, leaving Grathi. He ran out to the small stable on the side of the house. One horse was already dead, an icicle through it's neck. He handed the envelope to his trusty steed, Ner'walk. She blustered, and he heard the door opening on the side of the house. He was coming. 

             "Take this to Ovi and Jiavra! Go!"The horse would understand. SHe was no regular mount, holding the spirit of his long-past friend. Oviantris and Jiavra, his and Grathi's kids. They were each sixteen and seventeen respectively, living alone out in a distant village.

            "Go!"He slapped her rump and the horse went into motion, running across the plain and sprinting towards the village of his children on the horizon.

            The Dark One ran up to Felar, swinging a black broadsword. Felar parried, and fought well for a few moments. In his army, he was one of the best, but compared to this Ganthkai, he was nothing. He managed a few parries, until a feint caught him on the shoulder. Felar dove back into the house, breathing heavily.

            "Felar..."Grathi mumbled. She was alive! "The cabinet... Skybrew."

            "I thought you used it all!"Felar responded. Skybrew was a potion that flooded your system with magic energy, giving some a few moments of strength, or, rarely, the ability to cast spells. He fumbled with the handle to the cabinet, the Ganthkai passing through the doorway. A single beautiful glass vial sat on a stand. They used to have dozens of them. Then came the war.

            The watery substance flowed down his throat, firing his senses and hardening his muscles. His sword swung again, slamming against the sword of the Dark One.

            They fought and spun, breaking most of the house in the process. Felar slammed the sword of the Dark One aside, plunging in for the kill. 

            The Skybrew wore off. The shock of it stunned him for a moment, and the magic of the Ganthkai slammed him backwards, his back cracking against the wall.

            "That's, Ugh. All you got?"Blood was in his mouth. He was dying. His sword was slipping from his hands, barely able to keep his eyes open.

            "I've got a lot more."The Dark One called forth an icicle, twirling it like a sword. Felar dove aside, slamming down onto the floor with a sickening crunch. He Clawed at the floor, trying to drag himself away from the murderer.

            Felar tried to speak, but it hurt too much. There was blood everywhere. An icicle went through his shoulder. He cried out in pain.

            At that moment, he saw. 

            Dark Ganthkai were here to destroy magic. always were. Why are they attacking us then... for the Skybrew? Why? Because we fought them?His mind whirled and he fell onto one conclusion.

           We used to have magic. We ditched it as soon as the war began... people told us it wasn't possible. You can't get rid of magic. you have to pass it on to someone. They came after us because of our children. He gasped, knowing the answer. The Dark One would be coming for Oviantris and Jiavra.  He clawed at the door, trying to turn the knob and escape. 

            "Please."He managed one word, pain blossoming in his chest. He had only a few seconds left. Make it count.

            "You are one of the magic-users. Your children are as well."The Dark One spat. "You are hereby sentenced to death by beheading."The black sword came to his hands.  Something slammed the Dark One from behind. Grathi was not dead. She was limping heavily, blood staining her shirt, holding up a broken beer tankard, that she had slammed the Dark One's head with. The two injured soldiers met in the middle of the room. The Dark One rose from the ground, sword appearing again. Ice formed in his hands, swirling and growing into another icicle. Felar stumbled, tripping his own blood. His head cracked against the floor and his vision went white for a moment. He saw Grathi charging the Dark One with Felar's fallen sword, getting run through by his black sword. She fell, eyes dead and open. must get away! The village! They'll send soldiers! I only need to survive! He hoped dearly that the distant village, having scouts, would have seen the Dark One approach the lone cabin, and would have sent soldiers. It was a faint hope, although he knew in his heart that he would be dead within the minute. 

            "I am sorry you had to die this way. I wished you could have lived to see the new world."The Dark One said.

            "You. Already. won. the. war."Felar coughed, blood splattering on the floor. "What. Else. Do. You. Want? The. Magic. Is. Gone. All. Except. Yours."

             "Not all magic is gone. This realm will not be safe until the magicians who split it apart those many years ago come to justice."Fifteen years back, the three realms had been one. Usage of wild and dangerous magic had split them into two, with a chaotic and dangerous void in between. Travel between realms was near impossible. The Dark Ganthkai, this man being one of them, had vowed to eliminate magic from the realms, and had gone to war with some of the humanoid species who used magic instinctually to survive.

              Felar coughed again, lurching the door open. It was cold outside. Too cold. It was getting colder. No... That wasn't the outside air. Cold was spreading from his shoulder wound. His hand fell, deadened. He dropped down, so close to salvation, with soldiers arriving on horses to drive off the Dark One. A dozen soldiers, elite trained by the swordmasters of Stonetown had come. They utilized odd shields and new designs to fight, trained to do battle with the Dark Ganthkai. The war should have been over. But there was one more, terrible casualty. His name, the name passed down from generation to generation, was Felar Flare.

            "I will be back, foul vermin of Stonetown. This is not over!"The Dark One cried as he launched himself to the sky to fly away.

            "I will find your children!"

Chapter 1 : Flight.

Spoiler

  Oviantris Flare woke one autumn morning, shaking off his sleep and stepping out of bed. cold had begun to come, and he and Jiavra, his sister, had begun gathering firewood for the impending winter. They lived in a small village south of the Sky Rider peaks and north of the battlefield. The battlefield. The one that people had been talking about for the past ten years. Apparently Ovi's side had lost. Not much news traveled up to these remote villages, although he got letters from his parents, Felar and Grathi, every few weeks.

            It was long overdue for some word from them. He stepped out of his bed, the brown blankets tumbling to the ground. They lived in a small house, one floor. It had two bedrooms, a living room, and then a 'bathroom' that Ovi and Jiavra liked to call 'the pit.' 

            The real wealth of their family had gone to the shelter just outside, a lean-to similar to a stables except for one glaring fact. Inside were dragons. This was fairly uncommon for this region, although there were rumors of people living alongside dragons in their everyday lives down south on some distant island.

            "Jiavra!"Ovi called. He preferred the shortened name, Oviantris being a bit of a mouthful.

              "What?"His sister responded groggily, it was early, but Ovi had good reason to wake her up.

             "The traders are here!"Ovi announced. Jiavra was up out of bed and ready in seconds.

             "Really?"She said excitedly.

            "I spotted them up on the hill on the east through my window."Ovi confirmed.

             The siblings raced from the house, being sure to check on Silvertongue and Elethir, the two sleeping dragons. Elethir was one of the Boltak-ek, a dragon of storms, and Silvertongue was one of the vesper-ek, the dragons of the moon. Elethir was able to control lighting to some degree, whilst Silvertongue was able to reflect moonlight to go invisible, and had incredible night senses.

            The two dragons were hidden inside the stables so as to not catch attention. the public story is that they used to have horses but they had died. Attention was always bad, in these parts of the world.

             They ran off to the market, searching for the people of Nordem. Each year, they sent a large group down to trade, crossing oceans and mountains as a way of proving themselves to the rest of the world. They brought rare plants and medicines from the north, and most importantly to the two siblings, dragonriding gear. Slowly but steadily the yhad amassed gear and saddles, almost able to ride the dragons without fear of falling. They only needed a few straps to go on the sides of the saddles. then they could fly.

            Ovi looked over the traders, an exhuasted and battered group who began to set up stalls of weapons, herbs, meats, and clothing. Ovi squinted in the morning light.

            "there's a horse out there with no rider!"he exclaimed.

            "Wait... Here it comes... That's Ner'walk! That's Da's horse!"Jiavra said.

              "Where is he?"Ovi asked as the horse approached. There was something it the horse's mouth. An envelope.

            "What's it say?"Jiavra asked.

            Inside was a scrawled map of the continent, the a single village in the Sky Rider peaks circled.

            Find Poril. What?

            There was blood on the envelope. Ovi passed it to Jiavra for her to read. 

            "So... They're truly gone..."The siblings had long been worried that their parents would fall during the war but now? After the war? 

            The two siblings spent the day somber, finding the dragonriding gear and going back to their house.

           "who's Poril?"Ovi finally asked.

            "I guess someone our parents knew..."Jiavra said.

            The two finally made their way over to the stables, mounting Elethir and Silvertongue.

             The saddles attached, gear on, they told the dragons to take off. An exhilarating rush followed, apssing through cold air and wet clouds. They saw farmland fan out under them, a patchwork of yellow and green, with the village at it's center. They began flying circles, happy at finally being able to take off.

              Eventually, Ovi's gaze began to turn to the Sky Rider peaks.

           "We could fly there."He said once the two dragons came together.

            "Where?"Jiavra asked.

            "The sky rider peaks. Apparently our parents wanted us to find this Poril, so we may as well go."Ovi said as if leaving their home and village was no big deal.

            "Could we really leave?"Jiavra asked.

             "I would miss them...But without Ma and Da sending us parts of their salary for food, we aren't going to be able to live here much longer. We have a bit of money, but not much."Ovi explained.

            "I guess we need to go. We will come back though... right? once we find Poril?"Jiavra's voice quivered.

            "Of course we're coming back."Ovi said, although he had no intention of ever returning to this dull village again. He wanted out, and didn't know how anyone would want to stay. They dove down, swooping down to land at their house.

           "Tomorrow."Jiavra said. They had flown for hours, and the sun was on the descent now.

            "Tomorrow."Ovi confirmed. They spent the night reminiscing over the 'old days' with a few other teenagers of the village, although Ovi didn't say much. His mind was trying to plan out the way to find Poril and how long they had with the money they had.

            That night, he brought his worries to Jiavra.

            "We only have enough food for two days... It will take about four or five hours to get there, depending on how fast the dragons fly. We would need to leave early in the morning and not  get distracted when we arrive. We need to find whoever the hell Poril is."Ovi explained.

            "What money do we have?"Jiavra asked. 

            "I found a few silver and bronze, but no gold."The villages around the mountains used common coins. Gold, Silver and Bronze. Ten bronze to a Silver and five silver to a gold.

            "The dragons will need food as well."Jiavra said.

            "I...Hadn't thought about that. We'll have to buy something for them when we land in that village I guess."Ovi looked at the ground. "This isn't going to work... is it?"He said after a pause.

           "We'll make it. We have to."Jiavra said before turning and heading into her room.

             Ovi sat down in the barren living room, empty hearth beside him. He stood after a long wait, walking out into the dark of night to find Elethir. he arrived at the stables, the two dragons sleeping on opposite sides of the small housing. Each the size of a horse if you didn't count tail or wings, they would be fierce fighter should they have to fight off bandits, and were fine hunters. More than once Silvertongue had disappeared at night and come back with a fresh kill, although Elethir often left his kills electrified.

            "Hey, buddy." From what they currently knew, Elethir and Silvertongue could understand humans well enough, although could not speak back. His golden-yellow scales glinted the moonlight. Silvertongue's silver reflecting the moon and slowly fading from vision, the power of the Moon Dragons.

             "You sure you'll be able to fly me for four hours tomorrow?"Ovi asked. The dragon gave a soft growl, bobbing his reptilian head in the dragon equivalent of a nod. "Good, good. You really do understand me, huh?"Ovi asked.

             The Storm dragon nodded again. He folded his wings up above his, shielding his eyes from the moonlight that had moved to reflect into his eyes. 

             "Grrrrrr...."The soft growl came from Silvertongue.

             "What is it?"Ovi asked, hand going to his boot, which held a knife. Most people in these villages learned to carry weapons. Bandits, wolves, and even the rare feral dragon had been known to murder and ravage around the peaks. Why people risked living here, Ovi didn't know, but he was grateful to the villagers for 'giving' him the knife. He had 'borrowed' it from the smith several years back.

             Silvertongue appeared beside Ovi, scales slowly fading into vision. She scratched her claws on the ground, giving a strange image. three slashes beside each other, another three, another three until she stopped, putting one final slash that underlined all of the scratches.

             "Three... what is it?"Ovi asked. Silvertongue shook her head, scratching strange circular shapes atop each scratch. Almost like...

             "A forest?"Ovi asked. Silvertongue nodded.

              Ovi looked towards the small grove of trees that sat in the center of the village.

             "In there?"Another nod. Ovi crept out of the stables, knowing that Silvertongue was hidden in the moonlight behind him. If you looked closely you could see a faint warping to the air and a faint outline of her, but only if you knew what to look for. Ovi reached the trees, a few dozen barren pines to give a nice feeling to the villagers. He spotted a silhouette of someone walking through the trees.

            "Who is it?"Ovi whispered quietly.

             "Garnrnrrnrrn....."Silvertongue replied.

             Ovi approached the silhouette carefully, ducking behind a large juniper bush. The silhouette stopped, looking towards him. Had he made a noise?

              "Garn?"Ovi asked. 

              "Garrnrnrn..."Silvertongue was struggling to make the right noises. Speaking with a reptilian head and vocal chords being all but impossible. She could make some growls that were vaguely human noises, but apart from that, nothing. Elethir was even worse, his voice being filled with the cracking of lightning.

             The silhouette kept walking, moving towards one of the more full streets. Many places should have held houses, but were empty.

             Ovi glanced behind him. Silvertongue was there, a faint warping telling him of the dragons whereabouts. 

             "What should we do?"Ovi asked.

             Silvertongue appeared faintly, still hidden by the moonlight, but forcing herself to dampen the effects to become visible to Ovi. She pointed with a clawed wing back to the house.

             "We should go back? Go to sleep?"Ovi asked. Silvertongue nodded, then shook her head.

             "Go back but not go to sleep?"Ovi asked again.

             A nod from Silvertongue sent them back to the stables, where Elethir sat. Silvertongue did another of her growls, and the shock was clear on Elethir's reptilian face.

             "You can speak to each other?"Ovi asked in shock.

             The two nodded in sync.

             Ovi went back into the house, watching the windows. Silvertongue had flown up to the roof, after a long struggle to say to Ovi that she would keep watch. Whoever that was had spooked her, and a spooked dragon meant a terrified human.

            Morning came, and Ovi, after getting little sleep after the outing, woke Jiavra again.

            "Wake up!"Ovi shouted.

             "You wake up!"Jiavra shouted back.

             "That doesn't make sense!"

             "You doesn't make sense!"

              The siblings donned the dragonriding gear, saddling the dragons as Ovi explained the night's events.

            "Silvertongue was trying to say... Garn?"Silvertongue half nodded.Partially? 

             "Guard? maybe?"Jiavra said. Silvertongue shook her head.  "Well, let's keep guessing. Eventually we'll get it."

            Silvertongue nodded encouragingly to Elethir.

            "Ganrnrn"A crackle of lighting. "Krraaaaa.......ay...."He growled.

            "So...."Ovi chuckled.

            "We have no idea." Jiavra said.

             They went silent as the ascent began, wings beating and lfiting from the ground.

             "Farewell."Jiavra whispered into the winds as they left.

Four Hours Later.

             it was a quick descent that brought the two silent riders back from their memories. They had landed in a beautiful green field beside the village.

            "How in the world did they build that?"Ovi asked. The village held a massive stone tower, rising to to the height of a smaller tower on a mountain's peak, a bridge between them. The Iron bastion, it was called.

             "I've heard of this."Jiavra began. "The iron dwarves can manipulate metal, right?"Ovi nodded. "So they place thin lines of metal through a huge flat stretch of stone bricks, and can shape it however they want."She finished.

             "However they want is right! That tower is huge!"Ovi exclaimed. He glanced again towards the tower, marvelling in the crenels and the two huge iron doors, engravings carved into both.

             "Don't those engravings say something?They look like the old dwarven runes from the stories."Jiavra wondered.

             "I think I might be able to read it if we get a bit closer..."They left the dragons hiding behind a copse of pine trees, then set off.

             As they approached the gates, Ovi began to read to runes.

             "Iron... power..."He murmured as he read.

            Let it be heard that the warriors of Steslet are with the Council of Arcaria. May the stones and steels turn your way.The runes said. Ovi repeated the words to Jiavra.

            "Makes sense."Jiavra responded. "The iron dwarves made a huge show of joining against the enemy in the war, which won our side a lot and... delayed our surrender."She explained. The 'loss' of the war hadn't changed much for the everyday person, but had made a showing of killing any magic-users they could find. In the years before the war, when Ovi and Jiavra had been born, magic had been common, every small village having a few mages and enchanters.

            "So..."Jiavra started. "Poril."She said, bringing Ovi back from his thoughts.

            "Where do we start looking?"Ovi asked.

            "We could ask people at the market, I guess..."Jiavra said unenthusiastically. Most cities in this part of the continent had large markets, home to all of the travelling traders. The traders from the north were not the only people who chose a nomadic lifestyle. Many people in the big cities chose to leave and join the famous merchant guild, the traveling city. 

            The siblings walked along a street lined with small and squat houses, heading towards the market. People milled around them, taking in the sight of the Iron Bastion, some covering their faces and heading for the pubs, and some making their way, like Ovi, to the market. they could see the houses breaking away into small market stalls, waving merchants and interested customers.

            The noise hit them like a solid wall. Shouting, haggling, and talking made it's way to their ears.
"Where should we go first?"Jiavra half-shouted into Ovi's ear.

            "Let's try that one!"Ovi pointed to a stall selling strips of venison and buffalo meat from the herds up in the barren wastes to the north. Many a hunter accompanied the traders from the north, hunting for the party's food for a few of the days and selling the meats left over.

           "Kids, this is no place fer' you here,"The meat seller, a gap-toothed man with a heavy Southern Arcarian accent said.

           "We're looking for someone by the name of Poril. heard of them?"Ovi asked.

            "No Porils here, that's fer' certain. I ain't been in this durned city fer' too long, but I ain't never heard the name Poril before."The meat vendor confirmed.

           "thank you for your help."Ovi said as he turned to walk away. "Well he was useless."

            "Well that's fer' darn sure."Jiavra said in the accent of the meat vendor.

             They went to talk to someone selling jewelry next. Nothing. After several failed attempts to find Poril, they began to lose hope. Then, suddenly, the crowds went quiet. He looked over to a small wooden stage for performances.

            "I have come to help you, people of the Iron Bastion!"A tall, muscular man stood on the stage.

             "The Sky Riders will brave the peaks to find the Skyrocks!"The performer went on. " we will bring in the rocks of flight and let this city make the boats, of the SKY!!!"The man went on in a strange fervor. 

               "Look to us! Any new Riders willing to join up could enter the sky riders! Anyone... with a Dragon!!!!"The man shouted, then slowed down, puffing.

              "We should join with them!"Jiavra whispered to Ovi.

              "But what about Poril?"Ovi asked under his breath.

              "Forget Poril. This will be an actual job! Actual money!"Jiavra said.

              "hush. Hush!"Ovi said to Jiavra.

              "-And I, Poril Merindar, will swear to it that no Sky Riders should ever not have enough food or a warm place to stay."Poril said.

            "We would like to join!"Jiavra shouted.

            "Ah, here we are, our first two volunteers! Where are your dragons?"Poril asked.

            "They're not our dragons, they are our friends."Jiavra said smugly. Ovi smacked her with his knee.

            "Elethir!"Ovi shouted. A crackle of lightning responded, and the gold-yellow dragon swept across the sky, followed by Silvertongue.

           "Rawrararawawraw!"Elethir crackled with lighting.

            Poril chuckled.

            "Here we are, two young dragons, two young volunteers, and anyone else? no? Fine. I'll be back!"Poril shouted to the crowd, turning away with a flourish. Ovi and Jiavra followed when he waved to them, meeting up with him behind the stage.

           "Poril, right?"Ovi asked. He nodded.

           "Do you know Felar and Grathi Flare?"Jiavra asked without hesitation.

           "Yes. I do. I...did."Poril nodded sadly. "They considered joining the Sky Riders, although their dragons eventually left to hide up north when they went to fight in the war. we were quite good friends. How do you know them?"Poril asked.

           "We're their kids. Oviantris, although you can call him Ovi, "Jiavra pointed at Ovi. "And Jiavra."

           Poril bobbed his head oddly. he clearly could hardly sit still for even a moment. 

          "My da's horse, Ner'walk, came to our village with a letter. It had a map with the Iron bastion circled and scrawled on it were the words, find Poril."Ovi explained.

           "Well, let's get you started!"Poril said excitedly, walking off with a spring in his step.

 

[The Stormfather He/Him]

Chapter 2 : A new beginning

Spoiler

            "The Sky Riders began twenty years ago, after one of our founder found the first skyrock. In case you didn't know, skyrocks are rocks, that can allow things t fly. They are one of the few manipulations of magic that are still allowed, them being natural and not dangerous."Poril explained. " We have a fairly safe job, although harvesting the Skyrocks can get a little bit intense."He said mysteriously. "Bandits are the main trouble with our jobs. We train our students to fight, although, looking at you, I think you've fought before."Ovi and Jiavra had been taught by their parents to fight well. They were passable warriors, ovi favoring the spear, and Jiavra the shortsword. They didn't have any weapons other than a knife each, but the daggers were well made and they were adept with them.

            "You have weapons we can use?"Ovi asked.

            "After a few harvests. You have to earn yourself better equipment with us."Poril explained. " There aren't many of us, so we need to do more harvests than ever. Two or three each per week. There's only two dozen of us left, most of us kids hired from visiting nearby villages."He went on.

            "Where do the skyrocks appear?"Ovi asked.

             "Good question."Poril lifted a map of the peaks, a jagged line across a plain on the map. A few valleys were circled in red, one at the east end of the Iron Bastion's own peak.

            "We don't know how they form, but in each of these sacred valleys, skyrocks, big or small, slowly coalesce. There's probably some scholars that have figured out why they form only in these valleys, and what makes them fly but only when we want them, and why- Oh I'm rambling. Okay. They're only in these valleys. We mostly harvest from the close ones, but every once in a while we sent a group to a far off valley since we are the only ones who harvest them. We're the only ones who know how to remove them from the mountain."He smiled mischievously.

             "Take your knife. You know of the old sworn oaths?"Poril asked. Ovi nodded, along with JIavra. They held their knives out, kife between two fingers.

           "Repeat."Poril commanded. "I swear."

             "I swear."

             "To never tell."

             "To never tell."

             "How we harvest."

              "How we harvest."

              "The rocks of the sky."

             "The rocks of the sky."

            "People used to believe the breaking of one of these oaths meant instant death. I wouldn't break it, if I were you."Poril chuckled.

            "How do you do it, anyway?"Ovi asked. They weren't in public, sitting in a large canvas tent that Poril had called 'the tent of sending.' There was a few wooden chairs, along with dragonriding gear and large bottles of a clear liquid that Ovi suspected wasn't water.

            "Skybrew."Poril pointed to the bottles. "Familiar with it?"

            "Never used it, although we've heard of it."Jiavra responded. 

            "Well, it comes from a few special rivers around Arcaria. They add some stuff to the skybrew, but I never figured out what it was they were putting in that stuff. It's magic, so it's banned now, anyway!  One of these rivers, really just a meltwater stream, gives water we call the Dragon's breath. You dump it on the Skyrocks, and they detach from the mountain without shooting up into the sky. You use some complicated watcha-callit with the water from these rivers to steer Skyboats."Poril explained.

            "It's difficult to get any of the water though. Weird... things... guard the rivers. Dragon's breath flows through a dead dragon skeleton, that is big, and it made some guards out of ice, and... a dragon. small, not one of the titans from legend, thankfully."Poril went on.

            "So what do we do now?"Ovi asked, curious.

             "Well, I'm supposed to give you Dragonriding gear, but you seem to have that already, so I'll send you off. Sleeping quarters are over there."He pointed to two long houses, each seemingly filled with bunk beds.

            "Boys, over here. Girls over there."He pointed.

            "See you in the morning."Ovi said to Jiavra as they parted. It had been many years since they had been far apart, usually only a door between them. Without Felar and Grathi, they had only had each other.

            Ovi stepped through the door, seeing about a half-dozen other boys his age, and one man about twenty-five or thirty. He seemed to be supervising the boys, who were all playing a game of cards.

            "Hey! New kid!"One of them called. "You know how to play dragon's gambit?"

            Ovi nodded. It was a fairly simple game, gathering and amassing cards before 'battling' a dragon, who was one other player. If they beat you, they got a point, and if you beat them, you get a point. You keep going until everyone had been the dragon.

            "Come on then! Let's play!"The boy had short blond hair, and a happy voice. "I'm Elin."He did a little bow. "That's Gruish,"

            He pointed to a boy with dark skin, sitting away from the rest of them, and Ovi thought he saw a flask. 

            "These are Iolin and Nilio, don't bother trying to tell them apart."Two twins sat side by side, short black hair and blue eyes making them perfect mirrors of each other.

            "Anf is our supervisor,"He pointed to the older man, who was now wearing a large fur coat.

            "And here's Anf Jr!"He pointed to the last boy, a shorter boy with red hair, and small ears and nose. His eyes darted from side to side, a sign of his paranoia.

            "I'll be dragon next."Gruish, was it? said. He dealt four cards to each of the boys, then flipped out two cards. Any players with a match would switch their cards, and then the two cards would be given to Gruish. Repeat it twice, and then you do the 'battle.'

            "Name's Oviantris, but you can call me Ovi. Everyone does."Ovi introduced himself, glancing at his cards. He snatched a match, now having two Fortresses. If he could just get the archer...

            The game went on for a long time, each of them playing as the dragon twice, and eventually Ovi crawled into the bunk he had been assigned, below Gruish. The bunks had two soft blankets, and Ovi faded into sleep within a few minutes.

            "He's fine. Grathi, can you check little Ovi's knee?"Felar asked. He was a baby again. It was his memory, his dreams sending him a few last images of his fallen parents.

            "He's fine. You're too worried. It's a tiny scratch. "

            "We should keep going with it. We have to do this every year, remember?"Felar asked.

            "I know, I know."Grathi sighed.

            A chant began between the two of them, strange words feeling odd on their tongues. It was the language of the ancient people from before, and held much power.

            "Dya than dar lo, ar khan dill tha!"They finished. 

            "It should be gone."Felar said.

            "Good. We don't need the attention of the ganth-"

            "Ovi! Wake up!" Elin, the blonde, said. It was early, a half hour after sunrise. Ovi rose with a groan, aches in his legs from the long ride upon Elethir. He stepped out into the sunlight, covering his eyes.

            He spotted Jiavra and walked over to her, waving.

            "How was your night?"Jiavra asked conversationally.

            "Fine. We played Dragon's gambit."Ovi responded.

            "Nice. We.... talked."Jiavra blushed.

            "About what?"Ovi said with a bubbly voice.

            "...Dragons. We talked about our dragons."Jiavra said. "The others were quite taken with Silvertongue, although one of the others was a moon dragon!"She laughed.

            "Cool..."Ovi said suspiciously.

            "Ovi! over here!"Elin shouted. He and Gruish were lifting wooden sparring weapons. "Battle training today!"he shouted happily.

            Ovi wandered to a large rack of wooden fake weapons, lifting a 'spear.'

            "Let's see what you got, new kid."Gruish grunted. He was holding two axes, each with a blade the size of an outstretched hand.

            "Sure."Ovi said, jabbing his spear towards Gruish. An axe slammed down on the thrust, but Ovi swept the spear and kept Gruish far enough away that he couldn't strike.

            Ovi thought for a long moment, parrying and twisting his strikes to block the double axes.

             A gambit was what he needed. One chance. he dropped his spear. Gruish reeled in shock as Ovi jump-kicked his chest, knocking him backwards. They wrestled on the ground for a few moments, Ovi taking the upper hand and pinning one of Gruish's arms.

            Gruish threw out a hand, grabbing one of the axes he had dropped and swung. Ovi leapt backwards, sliding on the grass. He kicked his spear into his hand and charged in. Now that Gruish only had one axe, they were more evenly matched, and Ovi managed to grab the upper hand, sending Gruish stepping back on his heels, tumbling backwards. A wooden spearpoint tapped Gruish's neck.

            "You win. Damn! That was impressive!"Gruish exclaimed.

            "You beat Gruish?"Elin said in shock, awe in his voice.

            "Barely. Dropping the spear was a weird gambit, and only beat you since you didn't expect it."Ovi said, looking down shyly.

            "Everyone!"Poril exclaimed. "Gather around. Today we'll be doing something I like to call siege."The Sky Rider group humed with whispers and conversation.

             "Teams of four will take place on that platform! There will be groups of the great city guards of the iron Bastion attacking said platform." The platform was basically a gazebo, four staircase leading up to it on each side, with a railing around the edge.

            "You will try to keep the guards from getting up to the platform! Should one of the guards stay atop the platform for ten seconds, your time will be up! The team with the best time wins, and we will move on to more competitions!You can make your own teams!"The group grew loud again, forming groups.

            "Jiavra!"Ovi cried out. "Over here!" Jiavra walked over to him.

            "Who else should we take?"Jiavra asked. Most other people were already in a group, but Ovi spotted Anf Jr wandering between the groups.

           " Anf!" Both Anf's turned. "Junior!" Anf Jr came running over, holding a scimitar, a long and curved sword with one edge. It was made of wood, of course.

            "can I join this group?"Anf Jr asked.

            "Sure."Ovi said. "Now, who else..."

            "Orpli!"Jiavra called out. A lanky girl with short blonde hair walked over, holding a strange weapon. It was like a spear, although there was two axe heads on either side. It was, again, made of wood. It was a halberd. it was a weapon used commonly to dispatch of horses or, if need be, dragons. Hopefully she used it for horses.

            "Can I come with you three?"The girl, Orpli, asked.

             "Sure."Ovi responded. "Oviantris, or Ovi."

              "Orpli."Orpli replied. "Anf, you with us?"

             "Seems like it."Anf Jr had a goofy grin on his face and blushed when he spoke to Orpli.

             "Seems like the first groups already going!"Ovi exclaimed, seeing Elin, the twins, and Gruish each gurding one of the four staircases, whirling weapons to drive back large groups of guards. He saw Gruish knock a guard on their back, sending them from the battle, and sweep the others away.

             "They're doing well."Orpli said.

              "Yup!"Anf Jr said goofily. He grinned again, and Orpli smiled slightly back. He blushed again, and Ovi had to ask himself what was going on between the two.

            Ovi saw Gruish get hit, stepping off the platform, and the other three began to panic and try to block four stairwells with three people. They went down ten seconds later.

           "We're up, apparently."Jiavra said. Ovi nodded.

            "I'll take the far back."Anf Jr said. "Less will come there, and I'm... not the best with my scimitar."

             Orpli nodded. Anf Jr blushed again.

            "Get on the platform! They're coming!"Ovi exclaimed, taking position at one of the staircases.

            The guards arrived. Each was armed with a sword and shield, swords in sheath for extra safety. Ovi concentrated on keeping them far back, sweeping his spear like an axe out in front of him. It clunked against a shield, and the fight was on. He spun his spear with both hands, batting swords away, and thrusting the spear out to take one of the guards in the chest. He stepped off the platform. Ovi slammed his spear down again, bashing it into a shield, and spinning again to face four more guards. They stormed the stairs, and Ovi had to stepback to stab his spear towards the other guards. He glanced momentarily over his shoulder, and saw Anf Jr get hit. He rushed to guards, but soon they lost.

 

          "Well, we did pretty good."Ovi said, a few minutes after the last group had gone. They had come second of the four, and Ovi was content with that result.

           "We did. Sorry I lost us our win." Anf Jr scowled at the ground.

            "It's fine."Orpli said, and Anf Jr rose from his dampened spirits immediately.

            "So, what were those other competitions Poril talked about?"Ovi asked. he saw Poril wave, and they walked slowly towards him.

            "We're going to try one other thing. Target practice, on dragons! At bunnies!"Poril laughed.

            Ovi mounted Elethir, taking a bow from the rack of weapons and a bunch of arrows that he placed in his quiver, which his also took from the weapon rack. Elethir batted his wings and they were aloft. Poril unleashed a large cage full of white-brown bunnies, who leapt and jumped around, and arrows began to fly. Elethir swept down, and Ovi knocked an arrow on his bow. The arrow struck the ground beside one of the little targets, and Ovi realized that the arrows were a different weight to what he was used to.

            After a few shots, he got the height right, and managed to strike one of the hopping beauties. The arrows had a lump of soft grass on the end, and were made to not hurt.  He hit two more during a rush from Elethir, who grabbed one in his claws and quickly released. 

            After ten minutes, the bunnies had dispersed and Poril called for the Dragon-riders to land, and they landed, Elethir crackling lightning to speak to another of the Boltak-ek, ridden by Anf Sr.

            "How many did you hit?"Elin asked after the 'target practice'.

             "Three."Ovi responded absently.

            "I got two. I think Nilio got six, somehow."Elin responded in his usual peppy voice.

           "Nice. It took me a while to adjust to the weight of those arrows. Made of a different wood, I guess, to what I'm used to."Ovi said.

            "Huh."Elin clearly didn't like silence. " What should we do now? Poril called a break for an hour."

           "Dragon's gambit?"Ovi asked.

            "Why not. I'll get some other to play."Elin scrambled off, speaking with Gruis, adn then the twins. Within a few minutes, they had organized a game, and were playing. Ovi drew a set of soldiers in the first round, a group of three cards that was the archer the swordsman and the cavalry. It multiplied their power, and he defeated the dragon easily. 

            They played for the full hour, before going back to Poril and did some regular sparring for the rest of the day.

 

 

[Shardwatcher01 he/him]

Not sure if I was supposed to post cuz no one else did but these are sweet!

[The Stormfather He/Him]

11 hours ago, Shardwatcher01 said:

Not sure if I was supposed to post cuz no one else did but these are sweet!

Thanks!

 

Chapter 3 : Tunnel

Spoiler

           Ovi woke, a chill in the air. Today was the harvest. He had yet to be given any extra information about what they would be doing, so he rose quickly, exiting the building and searching for Poril. He spotted him atop a white-silver dragon who had a set of six horns that made him think it was one of the Ventettol-ek, the dragons of winds and stars, or the sky.

            Ovi spotted Elethir rising from a small nest of singed grass, and clearly saw that he had slept out in the field.

           "You sure you're fine with sleeping out here?"He said as he donned his vest and helmet for flying.

            "grya...Gryeee...hyeee"A crackle of lighting. "sssss..."The serpentine noise finished Elethir's attempt at speaking.

         "So he does that too?"Poril asked. "trying to talk, I mean. I thought that Venaliteth here was unique in that way."He laughed. The dragon let loose a roar that could have woken the dead.

            It did wake Jiavra. She stumbled out of the building, covering her eyes to the light. SIlvertongue slunk up behind her, fake-pouncing on her before flying circles around Poril, mounted on his dragon, Venaliteth. She Donned her gear, and then they were off. The field seemed to move away as they rose into the air, before flying towards the peaks.

            "Where do we go? Do we fly over the mountains to the valley?"Ovi shouted to Poril.

            "There's a tunnel! Don't worry, it has lights. There is a system of tunnels through the peaks for merchants, but we can use them! One leads to the valley!"Poril shouted back.

          "Wouldn't bandits try to block off the tunnels and charge a tariff?"Jiavra asked, eyes groggy.

           "They would, and they have!"Poril laughed. "There is hundreds of soldiers are dedicated to keeping the tunnels clear of the bandits and brigands."he responded, chuckling. "A few years back they fully blocked it , but the army came for them!"

            Jiavra chuckled, reaching for some water to drink. Water dropped down from the sky on some poor farmer a few moments later.

          "Sorry!"Jiavra shouted.

           "get out of here, you dragon riding stupid little-"His words were lost as a gust of wind blew the dragons slightly off course. Poril laughed again, clearly happy to be up in the sky. Ovi grabbed some jerky from his bag, eating it as 'breakfast.'"

           "how long will it take to get there?"Ovi asked when the winds died down.

          "A half-hour."Poril responded, his dragon roaring. "Ovi, you good? You look a bit pale!"

           "I'm fine, just realizing that eating while flying is a bad idea!"He shouted back.

           "That it is!"Poril responded.

           After a long time, Ovi spotted a circular tunnel into the mountain, a road leading up to it. As they entered, he saw that cracking torches lined the walls, and it was very large tunnel. twice as wide as the largest road, and tall enough to have a house stacked on top of another. They flew above the road inside, Poril leading the way. 

             "It'll be a while before we get there! You good to fly for another hour or so?"Proil asked to Ovi and Jiavra.

              "I'm fine!"Jiavra shouted.

             "So am I!"Ovi yelled.

              They flew on, spotting a group of three horses mounted by some nasty-looking men. They appeared dirty, and held weapons, looking at them hungrily.

             " We should stay away from those three."Poril said quietly, his mount getting closer to Ovi and Jiavra so as to not let the people here.

             "I agree."Jiavra said worriedly. 

             Elethir growled, making some odd noises.

           "Grannnnn kek.ek ay."Elethir said.

            "What?"Ovi asked. Elethir shook his head. 

            Poril looked at Elethir in confusion, shaking his head.

           "We really gotta' find a way to understand these dragons."Poril said after a moment in thought. His dragon's wing batted twice in quick succession, nearly crashing into the wall.

             "You okay, Venty?"Poril asked.

             "Trtrtrtrtrtr Ay.....dddededed."The dragon replied.

              "Tired?"Poril asked.

                A nod. 

               "We'll stop then. Maybe at those rocks, there."There wasa patch of three large stalagmites, surrounded by strewn gravel. They landed quickly, Poril pulling out some bread and handing a piece to Jiavra and Ovi. He gave a little fish to the dragons, which Elethir snarfed down and nosed Poril for more.

                 "Hey! No more!"Poril said as the large reptilian head pushed him. Ovi chuckled, sitting down on the rocky ground.

                 "Venty, how much time you need?"Poril asked his dragon.

                   The dragon scratched the ground, marking five tines on the ground.

                  "Five... five minutes?"Poril asked.

              The dragon nodded in agreement, resting his head down on a rock and growling softly to Elethir. Elethir growled back, and it was clear that they were having a conversation.

             "So, what do we do once we get to the valley?"Ovi asked, mostly just to make conversation.

             "We look for the Skyrocks to begin with. We always try to spot a few before setting down to harvest, so we don't use the special water on small rocks, when we could use it on a big one. After looking, we choose the biggest ones to harvest, pull them off, and fly back. Simple as that." Poril replied.

            "Huh. I expected to be a bit more... intense, because of the battle training and the mentions of 'complications.'" Ovi said.

           "Don't let me downplay it for you, it can get intense. Quite often we have to avoid wolves, bandits like we saw earlier, and sometimes there are spontaneous flurries of snow up there." Poril said.

           "How high up will we be?"Jiavra asked.

           "Not too high, but winds blowing the snow off the top of the surrounding mountains makes for some cold..."Poril searched for the right word. "Cold." He said after a pause.

           "Do you ever send people to get the Dragon's breath water or do you buy it?"Ovi asked, his mind on that water and Skybrew, for some reason. His thoughts seemed to get saddened at the thought of Skybrew, thinking of his parents. 

           "Every few weeks. It doesn't take much to harvest a stone, but the water, loses it's potency after a week or two, sometimes three."Poril replied. "We've no way to know if it's good or not, so we always bring lots of the water in the hopes to have some that's good."

            "Huh."Ovi said. "I wonder why it loses potency..."He trailed off.

            "Hell if I know, but it would be grand if it didn't, for we'd hardly ever have to risk sending riders to the river to get it. I mentioned guards, didn't I?"Poril asked.

              "Yes, you did. Something about creatures made of ice, and a dragon itself."Jiavra remembered the conversation well.

             "Yup. The dragon really doesn't like humans, although a few times our dragons have managed to sneak it to get some water. The smell isn't as distinctive, apparently."

             Silvertongue nodded, pointing her tail towards Ovi and then using it to cover her nose. He smells bad, the message seemed to say.

             Jiavra laughed, Poril chuckling. 

             Poril's dragon rose it's head, waving it's tail towards the tunnel.

            "You ready now?" The dragon nodded, and they were off.

           "Wait. what's this?"Ovi asked, lifting a blue stoen from the ground.

             "Wow.."Jiavra said it awe. It was a large crystal, a shape of two cones facing away from each other, points out, open faces meeting.

            "Ow!"Ovi exclaimed. "it's sharp!"

             "huh."Poril said in confusion. "Bring it along, it looks fancy."

             "We're not selling it!"Ovi said protectively.Why do I feel so strongly about this gem... he thought. "I'll make a spear with it. If I can find a good enough piece of wood, I could probably put this on the front of it, and use it as a spear until I get a real one."

             Poril nodded as Ovi spoke. "Good idea!"

             "let's be off now,"Jiavra said.

              The three mounted again, taking off and flying down the tunnel. They took several turns, and Ovi quickly lost track of where they were, although Poril had a map.

              "Almost there!"He shouted back to them.

               Ovi saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and it rose and became bigger. He could see rocky terrain and green trees on the other side.

              Slowly, they emerged into the light, to the Sacred Valley.

 

 

[The Stormfather He/Him]

Chapter 4 : Harvest.

Spoiler

             The sacred valley was beautiful.

             Less of a valley and more of a giant hollow, jagged cliffs on every side, and giant green oaks were scattered across the hollow. It was split into three tiers that spiraled down, as if it had been a stone quarry to giants. Birdsong floated over the horizon, and Ovi could see the birds, flying and diving in a sharp, cold wind.

             "Wow."Ovi whispered, turning around to take in the full view. Twisting atop Elethir was difficult, but he managed. The trees were twice as tall as any tree Ovi had ever seen, towering over him like a parent, protective. He held out the gem he had found, marveling in the way it caught the light, casting blue shadows and reflections across the ground. 

              "This place is beautiful!"Jiavra exclaimed, looking around. The trees on the far side of the hollow of her had grown into a small grove, forming a splotch of green on the gray. Green light glinted off of a few stones around the hollow.

              Silvertongue's scales shined in the sunlight, a contrast to her invisibility in the moon. Her dragon mouth let loose a roar, scaring the birds. She padded over to a stream, carved into the side of the mountains on every side. It circled around the valley many times before gathering in a pool at the center. 

              Patches of snow and ice struggled for life under the trees, white stuck under a myriad of colours from the flowers and fruit of the massive plants. Ovi stepped up to the pool, seeing small fish swimming and darting away from his shadow.

              "First time you see it is always amazing. It's still perfect to me, even after a few years."Poril said, he on his dragon flying by. 

            Ovi looked down, seeing a large open stone 'field,' with what seemed to be the remnants of a campfire.

            "Poril! Campfire! down!"Ovi cried out. Poril swept downward, investigating.

            "Someone's camped here! Maybe four hours ago?"Poril half-asked half-said.

           "Those bandits! They must have been here!"Jiavra said.

          "Of course! They were hoping that the Sky Riders would come by!"Poril exclaimed.

           "Well this is bad. What if they come back? They saw us, didn't they?"Ovi said anxiously.

           "They might come back. Let's get this harvest over quickly. Find the Skyrocks. Okay?" Poril asked for confirmation.

           Ovi and Jiavra split, each going a different direction.

          "Where are those rocks. See any, Elethir?"He asked his mount. Elethir shook his head, bringing them closer to the ground.

           "Smart. We'll be able to see them better this way."Something caught his eye. A green reflection.

           "There's one!"He pointed, and Elethir landed beside it. It was the size of a fist, a gray stone with large streaks of green going through it. 

             "Poril! Found one!"He shouted. A few moments later, Poril landed beside him, looking at it. Poril placed down a ceramic plate that was painted bright orange beside it.

             "So we can find it later. This one's not too big., so we'll come back for it once we look for some bigger ones."

             "Poril!"Jiavra cried out from her perch on the second tier of the hollow. " Got one!"

             Ovi could hardly hear her, she was so far away, but they both flew over, placing another marker beside a stone that was of a similar size. Within ten or so minutes, they had marked out six stones. Poril lead them to the largest of them, one that he had found near the beginning of the harvest.

             "Watch closely."Poril stuck a crowbar, for prying up, into the rock beside the Skyrock. He he uncapped the bottle of the special water, slowly dousing the stone until it was soaked through. He pried up, and slowly but steadily the stone around the rock weakened, as if turning to mud, and he was able to lift the stone free of the mountain.

             "Always remember to store them inside the bottles. That's why we take one that's so big. If they're not stored in the bottle,  they might... fly away. Not kidding." Poril said seriously. "These are worth a hell of a lot, so don't lose one."

             "Can I do the next one?"Ovi asked.

             "Sure. Let's go over to one of the small ones, they're easier to pry up."Poril explained. They flew over to the one that Ovi had found at the beginning, a fist sized Skyrock. He chipped into the stone around it with the bar, getting some leverage befor preparing the bottle.

            "Slowly now. Don't waste the water."Poril cautioned.

             He dribbled some water around the Skyrock, wetting the stone. when it didn't come up, he put on some more, slowly, until he felt the stone giving way. He heaved on the bar, throwing up the Skyrock.

             "That was a lot harder than I thought it would be." Ovi said.

             Poril laughed, although Ovi had no good idea as to why, and patted Ovi on the back.

             "Jiavra, why don't you do the next. Then I'll grab the others and we'll head back."They flew over to the next stone, Jiavra pouring water slowly and prying up the Skyrock quickly.

            "Nice. Sometimes it takes people a few tries to get it."They slowly gathered the six Skyrocks, each in a separate bottle of Dragon's breath.

             "We should head back."Jiavra said. The sun was well past noon, dipping behind the mountain. The light was slowly fading, although it wasn't too late. The high mountains made a sort of wall to the sun.

            "Poril...."Jiavra said worriedly. "Remember those bandits..."She said tentatively.

            "Don't look back, get on your dragon and fly!"Poril shouted, snatching a bow from his dragon and letting fly an arrow. 

             Ovi obeyed, leaping to Elethir, who launched himself for the tunnel. Ovi saw a frantic image of the three mounted men firing arrows for him. One whistled past his ear, and it barely didn't hit him. 

             Why don't they ask us for our Skyrocks? Maybe these don't care for the consequences. They have nothing left to lose... Those types of men are dangerous.Ovi thought, lifting his knife, although it wouldn't be much help.

             "Ovi!"Jiavra cried out. She turned away from the tunnel, pointing. What?... Oh.

             There were two more bandits hefting crossbows in the mouth of the tunnel. 

             Elethir let loose a bolt of lightning with nearly killed one of the brigands, striking the stone beside him and leaving a large scorched mark. 

             "You got any more of those in you, Elethir?"Ovi asked, guiding him to the side.

             Elethir fired off another bolt, this one cracking against the horse of one bandit and sending it sprawling away, eyes dead.

           "Try to hit the ones blocking the tunnel!"he shouted. Elethir shook his head. Ovi regarded him in confusion. Couldn't target specifically...
            "You can hardly aim, can't you!"He shouted over the roars of the thrio of dragons.

              Elethir nodded, launching a bolt, that, much like real lightning, swerved and turned unpredictably.

             "Fly for Poril! We'll regroup and take cover in that patch of trees!"He shouted to both Elethir and Jiavra.

              "Good idea!"Jiavra shouted back, Silvertongue batting her wings with fury.

              Elethir swept low to the ground, zooming for the moderate safety of a patch of three tree, which Poril had taken cover in, away from the arrows of the bandits.

             crack! Another bolt of lightning sailed across the small battlefield, not hitting the bandits.

             Another arrow flew by Ovi, a quick dive from Elethir saving him.

             "Thanks, bud."Elethri roared, letting loose a final bolt of lightning before racing towards the trees. They crashed through the branches, scratching Ovi's arms before they landed beside Poril and his dragon.

             "What do we do?"Ovi asked in panic. Jiavra crashed through the branches, Silvertongue bleeding from an arrow in her tail.

             "Silvertongue's hit!"She exclaimed.

               "Damn,"Poril cursed firing an arrow with his bow. His dragon blasted a gust of wind that drove the arrow forwards with extra power, although it didn't hit any of the bandits.

              "Look! The bandits have left the tunnel to come here!"Ovi said. It was right. The two with crossbows had begun to march across the valley, crossbows up.

               "We can rush for the tunnel. Venty will make some wind. Disrupt their arrows." Poril said.

               "Ready?"Ovi asked.

             "Ready."

              "Elethir, now!" Elethir let loose a flurry of lightning, streaking towards the bandits and blinding them, striking one in the chest and dropping him. Ovi nearly puke at the sight of his mangled body.

             "Venty! Go!"Wind blew the arrows off course, sending them back towards the bandits and nearly dropping them. The two in the middle of the valley cursed, loading crossbows. 

             "Elethir, fly low. I've got this."

             Elethir swept low to the ground, swooping up and down, avoiding the crossbow bolts and sending back a bolt of his own. Ovi leapt from Elethir's back. His knife came up, slicing through the string on one crossbow. The other cursed, frantically loading his own. Ovi's knife sailed through the air, plunging into the bandit's thigh, and he shouted out in pain. Ovi grabbed the wrist of the first bandit, twisting it and grabbing the other, trying to pin him.

            Ovi got punched in the face. He reeled backwards, but recovered quickly. He ran for Elethri who was sweeping back down, and feinted for his back.

            He twisted quickly, lifting a stone from the ground which spun through the air and knocked a bandit between the eyes, the one with the knife in his leg. Ovi ran forawrds, kicking out with his foot, slamming into the chest of hte first bandit.

         "My knife."He demanded.

           The bandit growled. He grabbed the crossbow from his hands and pointed it down at the bandit. He was probably only fifteen. A youth. What the hell was going on?

            The boy ripped the knife from his leg, and Ovi let him go, his 'friends' helping him up.

            "That was well handled." Poril said, flying for the mouth of the tunnel.

             "We're not done yet. Two left on horses, chasing us."Jiavra reported, flying in from above, zooming into the mouth of the tunnel. The horses were gaining on them, dragons weighed down by the rocks and bottles of Dragon's breath. 

            Poril let fly an arrow, striking near one of the horses, but missing. 

            "We can't outrun them! Dragons tire quickly!"Ovi shouted. "We need a plan!"

             "I have one!"Jiavra shouted back. "Not dying!"

                Silvertongue began to dive and then swoop up, twisting around to be a more difficult target to hit by arrows.

              The two bandits on horses kicked into faster motion, zooming forwards and getting to be directly under the Dragons.

             Stop soon,Jiavra mouthed to Ovi. Ovi nodded.

            "Elethir. Tell Venty,"Ovi asked his mount. Elethir growled, sending the message over to Venty, the nickname of Poril's dragon.

            "Ready?"Ovi shouted.

             "Now!"The dragons shot out their wings to slow themselves, halting all forwards momentum. The horses kept going the other way, bandits cursing.They began to turn around, bows raised to the sky.

             "Back! Other way!"Poril shouted.

            "They'll catch us! Go over them! They'll have to turn around again!"Ovi shouted.

            "Smart!"Jiavra shouted back, noise bridging the large gap between the trio of Sky Riders.

             The Dragons launched into motion, Venty giving them another gust of wind to block the arrows. Elethir spat down a bolt of lightning, crashing into the ground but missing.

             "come on! One more push!"They were getting closer to the end of the tunnel, Dragons tiring from the long flight. within a few moments, the horses were kicked into motion and charging back for them.

             "Don't let them get away!"One bandit shouted.

               The place they had stopped to rest zoomed by, their speed making it seem as if the rest stop was moving and they were still.

              "This way!"Poril shouted. He turned down a small side tunnel. "The rough terrain will be hard for the horses."He was right. Gravel and rocks were strewn across the bottom of this tunnel, and there was more than one trickle of water or fallen stalactite that would slow the horses.

             The bandits cursed,horses still moving at high speeds. 

             "We can give up! we should help Efin and Derin. They're hurt!"One bandit, a smaller and lanky man, said.

             "Boss says to get that Sky Rider, we're fer' gettin' that durned Sky Rider!"The second bandit clearly had some dwarfish blood in him, seeing as the lesser height, and the red beard. People like that were dangerous. Strong as a dwarf, big as a human.

            "Why don't you not get 'that durned Sky Rider?"Ovi shouted to the bandits, following Poril at another intersection.

              "Nearly out. Once we're free, go up and up only. Then we'll make for the camp."Poril ordered.

                "Silvertongue can't take much more of this! Her tail is bad!"Jiavra reported.

              "Damn."Poril cursed. He spun and fired off another arrow, which stuck into the side of one horse.

                 "Nice shot."Ovi said, grinning. He always did love a thrill, even if it was almost getting murdered.

                The bandits began firing bows again, one barely missing Ovi, but the dragons were prepared. Venty blew a gust of wind that knocked the arrows out of the way, although they still came close.

              Elethir let loose a guttural roar, shaking the tunnel itself. 

             "grananrnr kakakdkaay! drdrddrfdrf ay!"He roared. "Grarnkay, drdrddd, die!"

              "That last part sounded like 'die."Poril said.

              Elethir growled. Silvertongue growled. Venty growled, clearly speaking to them. They turned again, going up a slight incline that slowed the horses further, barely keeping ahead of them and the deadly arrows. 

               Ovi spotted a light at the end of the tunnel.

              "We're almost there!"Ovi shouted. Hope renewed, the dragons let loose one last burst of speed, carrying them up out of the tunnel, and shooting upwards to get out of range of those arrows.

               "Let's get back to camp."Poril said.

            "Yes. Please. I think I believe you about harvests getting intense!"Ovi chuckled, although his heart was still pounding.

 

             They came in and landed at the Sky Rider camp, people coming out to greet them.

             "How many did you get?"Elin asked in his usual peppy voice.

              "Six, I think."Ovi responded tiredly. "Bandits, though. Chased us the entire way here."

               Ovi glanced over to Elethir, who was gorgin himself on some rancid meat thathad been thrown out. Another good use of Dragons, supposedly.

             "The dragons are pooped."Ovi said. "silvertongue got hit."He went on somberly.

             "Is it bad?"Elin asked.

             "Not too bad. On the tail,"Ovi said.

            "Huh. Well, we spent the day cleaning out the old food." Elin said.

            "I saw. Elethir's gobbled down half of it at this point."Ovi looked back, seeing that Silvertongue had joined him, gobbling down bad meats and stinky fish.

           "you should go over to Poril. There's one more thing you do at the end of a harvest."Elin said mysteriously.

            Poril stepped up to the stage with his regular flourishes. 

             "Harvest!"He announced. "Done!"He lifted a large piece of plywood, a drawing of Ovi on one side and a drawing of Jiavra on the other.

             "One harvest!"Poril shouted.

           "One harvest!"The Sky Riders chorused.

           "Six stones!"

            "Six stones!"

           "Five bandits!"

           "Five bandits?"The cry came back confusedly, not usually a part of the chant.

           "three Riders!"Poril said after the confusion died away.

           "Three Riders!"

           "Each of you,"Poril turned to Ovi and Jiavra, who had been pushed up to the stage. "now have the right to a request from the sky Riders. We use harvests as a type of currency. Anything you want that is not too expensive?"

          "Well,"Ovi began. "Remember that gem I found?"

          Poril nodded.

          "well, if I could have a training spear to mount it on..."Ovi said.

           "Of course!"Poril laughed. "Jiavra?"

          "I'd like to save this harvest until I've done a few more."Jiavra said.

          The Sky Riders began to disperse, Ovi walking into the building and sitting down on one of the chairs. The deck of cards sat in the center. Gruish sat on the far side, stoically silent.

         "Bandits?"He asked after a moment.

        "Five. three on horses." Ovi said. They went silent for a moment. "What do you usually do after harvest?"he asked.

           "What do you think?"Gruish said. 'Dragon's gambit. Little else to do. Eat. You're probably starving."

           "I'm not that hu-"Ovi stomach growled. "I'll go get some food."

           he stepped outside, walking over to a third building that he had been told was the food hall.

           He spotted Anf Sr in the kitchen fiddling with some pots and pans.

          "You hungry?"Anf asked.

          "Starving."Ovi replied.

           "You like crab?"Anf asked, lifting a plate with what seemed to be crab legs on it.

           "Never had it."Ovi replied.

           "You'll like it."Anf said. Ovi took the plate as he handed it to him.

          "Damn, this is good!"Ovi exclaimed after a few moments.

          Anf laughed.

 

[The Stormfather He/Him]

Chapter 5 : Gem.

Spoiler

     

            "Ovi! Up!"Elin shouted.

              "Whut?wh,,wh...whut?"He grumbled groggily.

              "it's our day off!"Elin said excitedly. "We're going to see the inside of the Iron Bastion! Get up!"Elin said.

               "I'm up."Ovi grumbled, standing. He stretched upwards, then went to the back room to change into his clothes. 

              It was the first day of his second week with the Sky Riders. he had done one other harvest, an uneventful trip that has found four stones. He had managed to get some materials that he thought he could use to fashion the gem and the training spear into a real spear. Some rope, a hammer and a few nails, a new knife.

            "Why the Bastion?"Ovi asked once he was ready.

             "Because there's little else to do in this city. Gruish had to return a book to the library, and me and the twins figured we'd go with them."Elin explained, donning a dockworker's cap. 

              "Your sister said she would come. Anf decided to spend the day here, whilst everyone else but Orpli has left. No surprise there."Elin continued.

             "What is going on with those two?"Ovi asked, walking out the door. The bright sunlight glinted off his eyes, and he made sure that he had the gem in his pocket, his 'spear' across his back. Carrying weapons in this city was not illegal, although he suspected that it would be taken away before he entered the Bastion.

            "Anf has had a crush on her since they were ten. Both joined up young, I guess. Orpli realized a few months ago, and... well, I'm not sure. She definitely knows how Anf feels though."Elin said characteristically happily.

            "Well, let's get going, I guess."Ovi said. "Jiavra!" He waved over to his sister.

            "What?" She said, characteristically tired in the mornings.

             "You coming to the Bastion?"Ovi asked.

             "Yeah. I'm going to try and find something about that gem of yours."Jiavra said. "Something about it seems odd. Why is it sharp? Why does I-"She was cut off by Elethir roaring.

             "Hey! Elethir, why'd you do that!"Ovi scolded. Elethir nosed Ovi's pocket, the one with the gem.

             "You want to see it?" Ovi asked. Elethir nodded. He took the gem from his pocket, spinning it so the light refracted through it, casting blue across the grass. 

           Elethir pounced at the lights, like a cat chasing a sunbeam.

          Elin chuckled, waving over the twins. They walked side by side, wearing identical green vests and brown trousers.

        "So who's who?"Jiavra asked bluntly.

          "Iolin." Iolin said. "Nilio."He pointed at his brother.

          "Let's get moving. Gruish is already there!"Elin said , leading the group. They walked for about fifteen minutes, going through the market again, retracing the steps of Ovi and Jiavra two weeks before.

          They approached the majestic doors, huge steel hinges and engravings stunning the Sky Riders even though it was a common sight to them.

          "So what's even in there?"Ovi asked.

           "A lot."Elin said. "Dwarven market, restaurant, barracks at the top, although their mostly abandoned. We're headed for the library, although we can see it all. The food, is amazing!" They stepped up to the doors, and they swung open, pulled by two guards at each side.

            "No weapons inside the building."The guards were in black chain mail, made from a strange dark metal. Atop the chain mail they wore steel breastplates and held pikes, a spear with a sort of blade on the end. 

         "We'll mark a box with your name, and you'll get them back when you leave."He held out a small wooden box. Ovi and Jiavra dropped in their knives, Ovi handing a guard his fake spear.

          Elin pulled two daggers out of his boots, then pulled a 'hairpin' out of his short hair, and Ovi noticed a small spike on it. He took off his belt, which was lined with daggers, and opened a zipper on his pants, pulling out a sheathed sword. He opened a pocket on the bottom of his boot, pulling out another knife.

            "Okay..."The guard said, turning to the twins. In sync, they pulled out a small dagger each, dropping them into the box, which was nearly full from all of Elin daggers.

             "Sure you're not forgetting any?"The guard said. "Pockets?"Ovi checked his pockets, finding the gem.

             "I have this, but it's really just a cool rock I found." Ovi said. The guard seemed a bit shocked to see the gem, although Ovi didn't really understand why. Maybe it was valuable?

             The guards whispered to each other for a few moments then turned back to Ovi.

             "Keep the gem. Wouldn't be a weapon anyway..."The guards took the box, labeling it with the name ELIN after Elin said which name to put on it,  putting it away it the back rooms.

            "Move along."

               The group of four moved through a thick crowd of people, spotting a sign that pointed to library. 

               They stepped into the library, and were immediately taken aback by shock. It was a huge room, although the term didn't give it full justice.

             "This is a damn big library."That's better. The room was at least three stories tall, stretching up with books the entire way. A balcony sat at the midway point to the cieling, serveral people sitting on chairs and reading, perusing the books, or talking quietly.

              There was expansive shelves, from fiction to stupidly detailed lists of each and every recorded troop in an army. Biographies, accounts of the war, anything. This was the pride of the Iron Bastion.

               "They say that they tore down part of the barracks to leave space for this."Elin said after a few moments. "Hey, there's Gruish!"

                 "Hi."Gruish said curtly.

                   "Hi."Ovi said. "You been here long?"

                   "Umm, no."Gruish said, not much of a conversationalist.

                   "Meet back at these doors in, say, an hour?"Jiavra asked.

                     "Good for me."Ovi responded, walking into one of the aths between shelves with wonder.

                       Weather patterns. He read a few book titles as he walked, looking for something interesting.

                         The rise of the Dark Ganthkai. That looked interesting. Apparently an extensive study on the winner of the war, the Dark Ganthkai. Not much had changed when it had been announced that they won, just the fact that all magic must be done under strict Ganthki supervision, and that some magics were banned. People experimenting on their own often 'went missing.'

                    Ovi's life hadn't changed, so he flipped open the book.

                The Dark Ganthkai. Their entire philosophy, broken down into one single point, is to eliminate magic from the world. Since the split of the realms, they do have a point that one of them splitting again would be a catastrophe, but they went about it in the wrong way. They could have fought a political war, and not a physical one.

               Their numbers rarely change, and their leaders are never seen. They utilize the magic of the essence of darkness, which they claim is calm and peaceful, not being able to split the realms. Fighting a Dark Ganthkai is a near impossible feat alone. They can use ice, as a subsection of the essence of darkness, which is linked to cold, leading to ice. They use weapons of ice, and can use some unseen force, manipulating shadows similar to telekinesis.

                 Not much was known about them, and they use no foot soldiers. The war was a strange one, each death of one Ganthkai amounting to the deaths of dozens of troops.

               We captured, shockingly, one of them, asking him a few questions.

             Q: Who are your leaders?

            A: They are unseen. They are the true awakened Ganthkai. You will never find them, and if you do, you will never kill them.(He went into ranting, showing a nearly religious respect for the leaders.)

            Q : How many of you are there?

             A : Several hundred. Spread out. We have more people with us, but they are not fighters. Scholars, writers. We are a small functioning civilization, using safe magic.

              Ovi closed the book, moving to a chair to read. The hour passed quickly, more writing and more details to those similar points He checked the clock on the back wall again.

             "Already?"Ovi asked himself, under his breath.

              He walked back to the shelf that he had taken the book, placing it back. He went back to the doors, spotting the twins already there. he saw Jiavra rushing down the stairs to the balconies, hoding a book.

               "Ovi! Ovi!"She cried out, excited.

              "What his it?"Ovi asked.

               She looked toward the twins warily.

              "I found something about that gem!"She pulled out a picture from the book.

                "I think your gem... is one of the mage stones!"She whispered.

               "The what?"

              "The mage stones. People used them to do magic before the split? Do you not know what I'm talking about?"Jiavra asked harshly. "The ancient people. They used these stones to do great things, even build castles similar to this one! If we could figure out how to use it, we could bring back magic!"

                Ovi shook his head. "Why would we want to bring back magic though?"He asked.

                "The whole of Arcaria lost the war. Now we have a chance to reverse that! Everyone says the Dark Ganthkai have gone away, so we might have a chance!"She said.

               A guard on the far side of the room glanced over at the words.

            "Quiet."The guard said.

             "We should be whispering."Ovi whispered.

               "Duh!"Jiavra whispered back.

                "Look!"She held up the paper, which was in a language Ovi didn't know.

               "I can't read this."Ovi said.

              "No one can!"Jiavra whispered. "It's an ancient scroll. But look! This design here, it's the sky rider peaks. This section is supposedly about how to activate a mage stone, from what they can translate. Then here! This red mark is on the Dragon's Breath stream! The Dragon's Breath activates it!"

                "How do we get some? I doubt Poril will hand it over."

                  "We could say that we're going to the stream to restock our water. Cleanse the stone in the stream, get some water, and we'll be good." Jiavra said. "We could go to.... I dunno, someplace where they knew magic. Talk to some people. Maybe.... "She pulled out a map that she had in her pocket, the one with the Iron Bastion circled.

                   "Kajan! They used to have a big magic academy, but it got shut down by the whoever the heck their names were."

                "The Dark Ganthkai."Ovi said absently.

                 "Whatever. We could go there. Find the old teachers. Try to bring it back." Jiavra said.

               "Okay."Ovi took a deep breath. "We keep it secret. We start with finding that water."

 

 

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

ooh. looks intrestingly good. keep up the good work. 

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i know its all writen alredy but keeep up the good work with writing new stuff. it only get easyer from here

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at least it did for me