Chapter Two

Scrape… rasp… scrape. The caretaker of Arch Valley eyrie sharpened his blade with careful precision. Ferreting out the slightest nicks to ensure an uninterrupted keen edge on his heavy sword. The wet stone provided the monotone for his morning exercise. Around him, the raptors of the eyrie still rested, some were flapping their wings as they awoke. Others merely dozed on, quite content to stay nestled inside the giant mat of feathers while their talons remained dug into great beams of wood.

The caretaker, Kennar, was a man from the Black Mountains. Desolate and burning with suffocating rivers of liquid fire. He was denied entrance into the preliminary training for the riders. His bulking muscles made him far too heavy to meet the requirements. Out of his fascination for the great raptors he had forced his way into the caretaker’s position. Five years had passed since then. He was still in great physical shape, out spared most of the instructors or any cadets that wanted to match him. He also could answer any question about the riders’ code. As he put his sword away, however, the final stroke as to why he would never be accepted was sleeping heavily in the corner.

Drael, his companion and long time partner, a great ebony dragon with a long serpentine body and short temper. Kennar had refused to part with him when they arrived at the academy with little more to offer then their skills learned in the wilds. He smiled as Drael tossed his head in response to a dream he was having. The ebony unfurled his wings partly and then tucked them back in. Kennar ignored the gesture before moving to the dragon’s side feeling along his thick hide of dull black scales. His wings were a wonder to watch as the membrane between the bones flexed and rippled from hidden muscles. The membranes became tight as a bowstring or billowed like a sail to allow Drael to adopt many aerial tactics in the air. Along his back ran a triple row of flexing quills that were highly venomous particularly along his long neck where they were complemented by fixed spikes. Kennar made a careful effort to not touch them at all. The ebony’s eyes were slanted but still broad looking and underneath they were nearly completely black. He did his best hunting at night. During the day he was nearly as blind as humans. The head itself was shaped like a sharp wedge where the heavy controlled breathing came.

Kennar gently nudged Drael with a foot before walking off to the stairs leading up to the eyrie’s perches. He started to bang on the wood with a heavy club. “Great ones, you must wake!” he called. “The deer will be gone if you don’t hunt. We have no meat this morning! Fly, you must fly!” Several cries answered him. The wind began to surge inside the giant tower. “The deer are in the west vail this morning! Go prove your skills and bring back a catch!”

Several took off in turn. The great eagles launching first from their beams up top. The groans and sighs of the wood were followed by the whole eyrie swaying from several giant raptors including sharp wing falcons and glider hawks as they all rushed to be first to grab breakfast. As the last of them left one eagle returned taking his place at the very top of the eyrie. A great red deer held in his talons with a bloody beak. Kenner recognized Bright Eyes immediately.

“Welcome home Bright Eyes!” He greeted before taking a scraper to begin removing the droppings that had caked on several perches. He watched as Bright Eyes began to eat vigorously. The beautiful golden eagle had been riderless for a year since Jemmin’s death. Kennar and Drael had been charged with finding what had become of them since they hadn’t returned. After searching some days after they should have arrived, Drael spotted Bright Eyes in the night still mourning the remaining head of Jemmin. It lay their partly decomposed with worms making their tunnels while he keened over it with heavy lament. Kennar had to convince Bright Eyes to return to the eyrie for attention to his wounds. They had found several dead firefly dragons on another end of the clearing. Kennar would have simply called it a bad stroke of luck as fireflies were very territorial about anything threatening their nests. But he had also spied the distinct marks of a nightstalker’s talons. Heavy iron shod boot prints stood near where Jemmin’s body was before being decapitated and swallowed.

It was a horrifying thought and scene that Kennar had found. Drael had set Bright Eyes off just by being there. They had come to an understanding of sorts when the great ebony took to wiping out the fireflies’ nest. Their screams had somehow comforted the great eagle that night as Drael tore them to pieces and set fire again to the town. His thick scales rendering their own poison useless. He had brought back their heads lining them up before Bright Eyes. Still it wasn’t enough to pacify his grief.

When he relented after three days, Kennar had sworn to bury Jemmin’s remains inside her own town. The great eagle returned with a mournful heart. It surprised Kennar to learn that Bright Eyes had challenged for the top perch in the eyrie when he returned. The battle had been brief yet fierce. And there he stayed, effectively scaring off any rider that attempted to make a pledge to him.

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All this and more, still troubled Kennar as he made for a fifth perch to clean before the others returned. Finding the nightstalker’s tracks troubled him greatly. But the iron shod boots made him marvel. He had a thought of what it had meant but he had feared to even dare to open his mouth to warn the riders’ council. He did, however, and just as he feared they tossed him out as being a ridiculous liar. Here inside the great stone and wood eyrie he stayed tending to the everyday needs of the great raptors. He found it rather fascinating despite being thought less of.

“You are going rather slow this morning my friend. Why do you tarry amongst the shit of crying feathered weasels?” Drael’s heavy and impatient voice boomed up into the rafters.

“Perhaps I grow tired of smelling you?” Kennar retorted before breaking another clump of droppings free to fall down toward the ground.

Drael’s hearty laugh answered him in return then, “Valindrei comes. She’s not in good spirits today.”

At this news Kennar stopped his efforts and made his way down the great wooden stairs to intercept the lady Valindrei. The Keeper of the roster here at the academy. No one made cadet without her approval and no recommendation for becoming a rider was complete without her quill. The caretaker quickly cleaned up the droppings he’d cleared before replacing his shirt for a clean one. He opened the doors as the lady was about to knock.

“Ever anticipating as always,” Lady Valindrei said with an impressed smile. She stepped inside carefully nodding her head at the strict cleanliness of the ground floor. “Kennar, you have already sent them out? I didn’t hear them fly this morning.”

Kennar bowed deeply. ”You honor me, Lady Valindrei. I merely tend to their needs. They are the masters of the sky. “

“Hrm...” Drael’s growl reverberated through the air.

Kennar quickly made his correction, “Next to dragons that is.”

Lady Valindrei paid them no mind as she inspected the eyrie silently. Something, however, was deeply on her mind. She played intently with her golden hair as she paced around looking at each perch it seemed. Kennar pressed her to say what it was she wanted. Still she said nothing. He began to pull riding items from the walls to keep busy while she went about her anxious silent brooding. Oiling the leather of a saddle until she finally spoke after some minutes.

“Kennar?” she said briskly but still kindly. He answered with a grunt as he worked a strap. “The council sent me to tell you that they wish to offer you an apology.”

Kennar stopped working to turn and face her. Drael raised his head in interest.

Lady Valindrei cleared her throat. “They are grateful for the scouting work both you and your mount have completed,” she inclined her head to Drael as he lay along the far wall, “but we must ask that now you must either choose to do more for the riders or leave.”

Kennar smiled, raising a hand to wave it back and forth as the news sunk in. “Leave?” he asked. The lady of the roster stood there nodding. The young man looked back at Drael who shrugged and lay back down on the straw covered floor. He had no interest in the games of humans. Kennar knew he would love a good warm cave. Turning his head back to lady Valindrei he shook his head. “I have worked diligently as a caretaker for five years. Every year I put in for the selections. Every year you and the council have overlooked me like I’m nothing. Yet I assist in scoutings and help in the training of the cadets. How must I do more?”

Lady Valindrei drew in a breath. Her eyes flickered to Drael before meeting his. Kennar held up his hand to stop her from speaking. “My one condition is that Drael sleeps where I do. We are brothers.”

“Brothers that are feared and untrusted. The dragon is not trusted by the elder riders. The wars of the past have left deep scars. He has to go Kennar,” Lady Valindrei finished by clenching her dress in tight fists. A sign that Kennar noted with soberness.

“They send a woman that is scared like a hare of the hawk. What are their true feelings for me I wonder?”

The comment seemed to bring some fire to the lady’s eyes. She stood straighter, opening her mouth to speak. Drael cleared his throat with a deep rumble. “Choose your words with care human,” he said simply. A single giant eye opened watching her carefully as he lay relaxed on the ground.

Lady Valindrei actually bowed slightly. “Kennar, you know that we have been unfair toward you. Drael has made many efforts to protect your reputation. I have helped you where I could but the hatred towards the great dragons, particularly towards the elder races like Drael and their riders, just runs too deep. They ask this last sacrifice of you. Break your pack with Drael and you may become a rider. Effective immediately.” She held up a single piece of rolled parchment. The sky blue wax seal held it shut. Kennar didn’t need to open it.

He felt crushed at this point; caught between two ropes that threatened to tear him apart. His dreams in one, His family in another. Surprisingly, it was Drael that stood up and let out a massive roar. Kennar covered his ears to keep them from hurting. Lady Valindrei shrieked in surprise, nearly stumbling back into the straw. Drael then whipped his head to snatch the parchment from her hands. A glow of orange gathered in his teeth and the parchment ignited.

The ashes fell from his teeth while he lowered to the ladies gaze. Lady Valindrei shivered slightly at the sight and was barely holding her firm gaze.

Drael breathed waves of heat from his nostrils. “ Do you assume I lack human opinion? Or perhaps your council believes me entirely indifferent? Tell them that Kennar is my fate and I am his. We are only leaving if you can force us. “

Kennar shook his head and put a hand on

Draels side. “Come this isn’t needed” , Drael flashes him a look with a single eye. His spines clack together while raising slightly. Then the great ebony turned back to Lady Valindrei. “You tell your council we will leave when your students can actually give me a challenge!”