For the next few days, Fyrlia and I kept to a rigorous training schedule. Mornings were dedicated to elemental practice where Cryhn would instruct us to do precise maneuvers with our element. For a while, I could barely even control my dark fire because there was barely any darkness for me to use, but soon enough I was able to pull from as little as Cryhn’s shadow.

Once the fires had either burned out or the sun was a quarter of the way to midday we would start our journey toward Estryai, all three of us pushing ourselves as hard as possible and racing across the sky. Each day Fyrlia and I grew even more sore and haggard than the previous, and each day Cryhn flew quicker and for longer, constantly pushing our bodies and minds to new limits.

Once Cryhn had decided we’d flown for far enough we would set up camp and two more campfires to be used for more elemental practice. During the remainder of daylight, Cryhn would either have us push heavy objects or run, the latter being especially challenging for Fyrlia.

Once darkness fell we would practice with our elements, first controlling the smallest amount of our elements possible and then the largest amount possible. My goal was to control the entire fire while Fyrlia’s was to control all the light from the campfire. Although we hadn’t succeeded yet, we got closer each attempt.

For the first time since our training regime had started, we were given a break. We woke up late, flew at a leisurely pace for no longer than an hour or two, and then landed for the remainder of the day and began to set up camp.

While we were only a few leagues out from Estryai and could easily make it before nightfall, Cryhn had decided it would be smarter to rest and preserve our strength just in case something went wrong. I was in disagreement, after all, it was the City of Peace — violence was illegal —, but Cryhn remained unwavering in his decision and I eventually agreed to go along with it.

By the time the next day had rolled around my body was already itching to be on the move — taking a rest day to do pretty much nothing after so many days of high activity just felt wrong.

Before we could begin the short flight to Estryai, Cryhn relayed the plan to Fyrlia and me.

“When we get there, I will do the talking. Our story will be that you two are orphans who never knew your parents and I’ve been taking care of you ever since you were a hatchling. Rylar, I’ll have found you around Mertri — a cliffside dwelling for dragons along the coast — which also happens to be my home. Fyrlia, I’ll have found and rescued you from human hunters in Frydernth — the mountainous area with the dark spruce forest. If either of you is spoken to, you can answer but do so without sharing any unnecessary details that might complicate our story. Got it?”

We nodded an affirmative, then turned and raced into the sky, closely following Cryhn’s lead.

~~~

Estryai was unlike anything I could have ever pictured, no matter how hard I tried. From the outside, the towering, dull-looking wall of stone was quite forbidding and uninspiring, but once I stepped through the gates I was greeted with an entirely different world.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Scents of things both known and unknown flooded my nose while my eyes were assaulted with bright colors and chaotic streets. Houses, shops, and portable vendors ranged from simple shades of white and grey to blindingly bright shades of blue, green, and yellow, just to name a few. There were even some colors that I hadn’t even known existed, such as one that mixed pink, purple, and red, somehow managing to look like all of those colors and yet none of them at the same time. It was difficult to decipher and even more difficult to look at, so I quickly glanced away before it could give me a headache.

Dwarves, humans, elves, and even a few Elygran walked the streets peacefully, all of them leaving their species enemies alone when they’d usually be at each other's throats in half a second.

The guards were the reason for this. They stood at nearly every corner, ensuring everyone upheld the law and remained peaceful. The guards came from everywhere throughout Etrythia, all vowing the same oath and casting aside any of their reservations toward other species in favor of keeping Estryai a peaceful place. At one point I even saw a hybrid dragon on guard, wheeling in wide circles high above the city like a vulture.

It truly was amazing what could happen when different cultures and species came together to collaborate instead of kill.

One day all of Etrythia will be like this, I vowed silently.

I was snapped out of my temporary reprieve by Fyrlia who was asking Cryhn, “How are we supposed to find someone who will know the information we need? With this large of a city, it’ll take days, maybe even weeks to do that.”

Cryhn smirked at that. “Don’t worry, I have my ways.”

Fyrlia eyed him skeptically and then glanced my way as if wondering about my opinion on the matter, so I said, “He has his ways.”

Cryhn and I shared a conspiratorial grin, and she sighed exasperatedly. “What do you two know that I don’t?”

“You’ll see,” I said cryptically.

In return, she gave me a nasty glare that communicated just how she felt about having to solve the mystery, though her playfully flicking tail told me it was all in good fun and she wasn’t actually upset.

I chucked good-heartedly, following behind Cryhn as we headed deeper into the cobbled streets of Estryai. The streets were all extremely wide, to the point where there was room for a dragon even larger than Cryhn to fit through.

At every few shops, we would pause and watch as Cryhn walked over to speak to the owner and workers. He always spoke to the elves, and they always had a confused expression as Cryhn walked away.

I hope he’s not saying anything too obvious.

After over ten shops with no success, we finally decided to give it a break. Fyrlia and I were starving, and no matter how much Cryhn denied it, he probably was too. The only problem was that none of us had money, so we instead had to resort to persuasiveness, something that was apparently quite difficult to pull off when you were ten times taller than the vendor and would require just as many times more food than an average beggar.

By the end of our conquest, we had collected two toothpick-sized ribs that already looked gnawed on, three extremely questionable soups, and a single large slab of meat that would have looked delicious if not for the rotten scent and blueish hue slowly overtaking the red.

After that, we decided we suddenly weren’t hungry anymore and continued with our search for a dark elf accomplice without touching any of the scraps we had collected.

Cryhn thought he’d seen someone who might have recognized the band while we were scavenging for food, so we went back to that area to see.

We were just about to give up searching when Cryhn finally spotted the elf again and pointed him out. It was a male forest elf sporting short brown hair, cropped in the average human male style. Normally elves of both genders wore their hair long, the only time it was ever cut so short was if the elf had committed a crime bad enough to land him or her in exile. He had a light brown complexion and a handsome enough face compared to many of the humans in the city, and while I couldn’t make out his eye color from so far away, I could see the way they widened when he saw us watching him. They flicked between all three of us and then to Cryhn’s metal clasp still resting on his foreleg. Not even a second later he was gone, racing through the crowd like his life was on the line.

Cryhn growled in annoyance and leaped into the sky, setting the pursuit into action. The hunt was on.