His eyes were wide as he pushed her out of the way. Closing the door behind him quickly, he tried to look as natural as possible.
“Nothing, nothing. Hello, you must be a magic user. Welcome to the Berkhoff farm!”
She laughed, “You do know we can sense the dragon, right?”
A slender man who looked to be only a few years older than himself stood a few feet away from them with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. “Why is there a dragon hiding in your windmill?”
“They like the hum,” he said in a poor attempt at concealing their connection.
A woman with light eyes and light hair, who looked older than the other two, laughed and said, “I didn’t think we were meeting a dragon rider apprentice this far out. This just got far more interesting of a task.”
His shoulders dropped. The poor attempt at hiding Zuma was up before it even started. He sighed and opened the door behind him back up, showing the dragon to the world. The short girl’s eyes lit up with excitement.
Waving his arm toward the dragon in introduction, he said, “This is Zuma.”
“You’ve named them! Oh this is great,” the tall man laughed with what almost seemed like a mocking tone to Kaden as all three of them entered the windmill.
Zuma gave them suspicious looks, but didn’t react negatively toward them. They huffed out a puff of mist in the mages’ direction. The blonde woman was grinning wildly as she examined Zuma. Holding her hands out, waiting for Zuma to let them close, she bowed her head.
Zuma nodded, and the blonde woman ran her hands down their scales. Hesitating over the scars. Her eyes cut back to Kaden. She snapped up his hands, turning them over to see his own healed lightning scars.
“Oh boy,” she twisted his hand to show her companions, “she even healed the two of them.”
They both let out an impressed noise in response. She dropped his hand and went back to tracing Zuma’s scars, running her hands down the dragon’s side. Pulling her hands back, she put them to her side and stepped backward. She bowed in thanks for Zuma allowing her to touch them and turned back to Kaden.
“The matriarch healed you and blessed you. Is that correct?”
He wasn’t sure how much he should tell the people. They didn’t seem to be as abrasive as the magistrate, but he wasn’t well versed in anything magical. It was probably a good idea to avoid mentioning the nest and the platform, but he felt he could at least tell them about the healing. They already picked up that it had happened.
“I… yes. The barrier did some damage to us both,” he said while looking down at his own scars.
The tall man chimed in, “do you know anything about dragons?”
Surprise took Kaden at such a direct question. “Not really, no.”
The man smiled and motioned for the short, dark-haired girl to speak next. “Well, this is going to be fun then!”
Jumping up and down with excitement, the emotion could hardly be contained within the woman. “My name is Eloise. I have been a magic user for 4 years.”
The man laughed at her introduction and added his own, “My name is Jaxtor. I’ve also been a magic user for 4 years.”
“Iratoi,” the blonde woman nodded, “and I’ve been using magic for 12 years.”
Eloise threw her hands up and said, “We’re you’re new teachers!”
Kaden gave them a blank stare. He didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know what they would do about the fact that Zuma chose him. The way the woman named Iratoi had acted toward Zuma gave him some comfort. She wasn’t aggressive at all and respected their boundaries. His brother Anton could learn a few things from her.
“You know we have to tell them about Zuma, right?” Iratoi gave him a look one would give a child who had hidden something from their parent.
“Can we just… not? I don’t want anything bad to happen to them.”
Eloise gave a surprised laugh and said, “honey, Zuma is going to be worshiped.”
His confused look must have prompted Jaxtor to add, “Dragons who bond with human companions are prized almost as much as matriarchs at the temples. It doesn’t happen every day, ya know. I can count maybe two new riders I’ve ever met in person since becoming a mage myself.”
“To be fair,” Eloise playfully nudged Jaxtor, “you’ve only been living in the southern temple after your pilgrimage.”
“Doesn’t mean they’re not still rare!”
She laughed and looked toward Kaden. “He’s right, they’re still pretty rare.”
Kaden wasn’t convinced. He didn’t know why, but he felt like he couldn’t trust them when they said Zuma would be safe. It may be because of how he came to meet them. The whole rune trap was still at the forefront of his mind. They may know more about them. It didn’t hurt to ask.
“So, did the magistrate tell you how I got blessed?”
“He was a little light on the details. Said something about you meeting a wild matriarch while hunting? He didn’t really explain how that happened, but crazier things have happened,” said Jaxtor.
“Of course he didn’t,” sighed Kaden and he started into his altered tale. Unlike the magistrate, they all listened to him intently, letting him explain fully.
Once he came to the end, Iratoi had a concerned look on her face. “Do you remember any of the runes? Could you write them down?”
He hadn’t even thought of that. They hadn’t stuck in his mind enough for him to replicate them. He cursed himself for not paying more attention. The writing was so foreign to him he hadn’t even known what he was looking at.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“I… I’m sorry. I don’t know anything about runes, so nothing really stood out to me.”
“Maybe if he saw some it might jog his memory,” asked Eloise.
Jaxtor let out a hum in thought before saying, “That might take more time than we have here if he doesn’t know any runes. There are so many of them. By the time we go through them all, he probably won’t be able to pick any specifics out. It’ll all blend together.”
Kaden looked back at them apologetically. Iratoi shook her head and said, “That is not good. That sounds like it was made specifically for a dragon. The wounds on you both look like they were made for that exact reason. A normal rune trap wouldn’t do additional damage like that, it would just keep the creature inside the barrier. This was designed to hurt and subdue a dragon.”
Eloise furrowed her eyebrows and said, “do you think it could be—”
“We won’t be discussing that with him right now,” Iratoi cut off and Eloise nodded her apology.
Jaxtor shrugged and said, “well, regardless of how it happened and why it happened, the fact of the matter today is that it did happen and you now have powers. Powers you don’t know anything about! That’s why we’re here.”
“Oh!” Eloise exclaimed, “Can I do the speech?”
They both waved the go ahead to her. Wiggling in excitement, she squared her shoulders and tried to stand taller. It really did little when she was as short as she was.
“The Guardians of the Tempest have learned that a grand azure matriarch has blessed you. You are now expected to honor this blessing by becoming the best Water Realm representative you can be. You will be expected to learn everything you can about our country and our people. Being blessed is an important responsibility. Wielding this magic is an arduous task itself. Per our King's laws, we expect you to be the strongest magic user you can be. If anything were to happen, you are expected to fight for your country in battle, rallying your fellow men to defend your kingdom.”
“You are now one of the most important people in our Nation. We, the Guardians of the Tempest, formally invite you to join us at the southern Water Temple to start your training!”
Iratoi gave a small clap of approval, her smile wide as she did so. Eloise bowed and relaxed. They stared at Kaden, waiting for his response.
When she laid it out as she had, it hit Kaden harder than he thought it would. They weren’t just expecting him to learn and represent the country, but they also expected him to be a solider. The nations were mostly at peace now, but there had been murmurs of tension building between them. Despite how much he didn’t care about politics, he had heard the rumors of discontent between them. He didn’t know enough about anything to know how valid those were. If the nation was going to go to war with another, he was now going to be on the front lines, or maybe even the front skies.
Sighing, he said, “Yeah, okay. When do we start?”
“Today,” Jaxtor said, before slamming him with a shot of mist. It wafted around him and drenched his hair.
They laughed as he spit and sputtered the water out of his mouth. It appeared to Kaden that they were going to give him the crash course in magic. Eloise lifted her hand next, and he knew she was about to hit him with a spray as well.
Pushing his hand out, he willed his energy to protect himself. The mist hit his hand, the water splashing around his fingers only to be pulled back through and into a ball of water in front of him. They all gasped.
“Well, that’s new,” stammered Eloise.
Iratoi nodded and said, “well that’ll be enough of that fun. Looks like that wild matriarch of his gave him more than they gave you two.”
Jaxtor and Eloise scoffed and stepped back from the interaction again. He could feel Zuma getting irritated by the situation. He let the ball of water drop to the ground, splashing against the dirt and creating a puddle before he stepped away from the dragon and toward the exit. They looked at each other confused moments before Zuma filled the Windmill with fog.
He laughed as he opened the door, letting the fog billow out of the building. Their voices grumbled as they made their way out. He heard Eloise apologizing to Zuma, and he snickered. They were so focused on messing with him that they forgot she was even there.
“You made the dragon grumpy,” Jaxtor said as he nudged Eloise.
“That’s just how Zuma is. They have a lot of opinions.”
They laughed and made their way back to the house where his family was waiting. Eloise was excitedly telling him about the southern temple as they walked. She explained how there were all sorts of interesting things to do and see, and the library was her favorite. If he wanted to learn about runes, she could show him an entire wing that was all about runes.
“I am not an expert by any means, but it’s the studies I’ve focused on the most at the temple,” she explained. “Once you go on your pilgrimage, they’ll let you study pretty much anything you want when you get back.”
“He’s going to have to do more than you, El,” said Jaxtor.
“Oh yeah, the whole rider thing. I forgot.”
“You literately just got smoked by one. How can you already forget?”
They continued to bicker back and forth. Their behavior reminded him of his siblings. He wondered if they all formed those kinds of bonds with each other. Spending so much time with one another, he only assumed the people they stayed with would end up becoming more like family.
Iratoi spoke to him in a low voice and said, “you will have to do additional training but you won’t have to worry about it until after your pilgrimage. Just be careful on your pilgrimage to never mention your rider status. It’s not the thing the nation wants the others to know about when we get a new one.”
Kaden furrowed his eyebrows and said, “okay but, what is a pilgrimage?”
They all stopped, gave him a shocked look. Shaking away her surprise, Iratoi said, “you have to visit every nation and pray to each of their matriarchs before returning to the water nation. It’s part of our agreement to the Capital and encourages our cooperation with each nation.”
“So I,” he was surprised he had never heard about this part of it. “I have to actually represent the nation to the other nations in their own lands?”
Eloise laughed and said, “yeah with 3 other magic users of the different nations! It’s a whole thing. You’ll make some foreign friends! I still write to my companions. One of them even got blessed by a second matriarch!”
He stopped, shocked at the new information they just gave him. “Wait, you can be blessed by multiple dragon breeds?”
“How did you think a white magic user was made?” asked Jaxtor.
“What’s a White Magic user?”
Jaxtor and Eloise groaned in tandem before she said, “you really don’t know anything do you?”
His family was coming up to them as they reached the barns. Jaxtor was right. He didn’t know anything about dragons or magic. He thought you could only be blessed once. It hadn't occurred to him that different dragon breeds could bestow blessings upon someone. They would be able to use multiple elements. The thought never crossed his mind, but it made sense in a way. The other nations, the other people, they were not that drastically different. So why would that prevent anyone from being blessed by their matriarchs?
A flash of light blinded him and he had to squint his eyes. Pain swelled in his head, causing him to cry out. The vision of him riding atop a dragon with other colored dragons behind him flashed across his mind.
His eyes came back into focus and he realized he was kneeling on the ground, grabbing at his head. Eloise’s hand was on his back, bracing him up. He hadn’t realized what had happened and they, as well as his family who joined them, were all huddled around him with looks of concern.
Kaden could feel his senses coming back to him. He hadn’t had a flash of a vision in sometime. Whatever the matriarch had done to him, he hadn’t been prepared to handle it if it was going to immobilize him each time.
The hard flapping of Zuma’s wings were heard as their roar reverberated across the fields. Kaden’s bond had become stronger in the few days they spent together and they knew he was distressed. Sliding across the dirt as they landed, they pushed their way through the crowd of people and wrapped themselves around his body in a defensive stance.
The magic users distanced themselves from the dragon and tried to offer them soothing words, explaining that they had done nothing to him. Swallowing hard, he pushed out an emotion toward them that everything was okay, that they hadn’t done anything to him.
Iratoi stood up, straightening her back before saying in a firm voice, “you have lied to us haven’t you?”