Rakon didn’t speak on the walk home, he had too much going on in his head. It was very clear that he had officially gotten in way over his head. He felt terrible about his decision to leave Loch, but he couldn’t think of what else to do. He was sure Loch would be able to get along just fine without him, and it wasn’t as if he owed Loch or his friends anything, right? The thought of joining a group of humans that specializes in killing dragons made him want to leave right then and there. What if he joined and they recognized him for what he was? That would definitely be bad. Yes, leaving was definitely the right thing to do for him.

When they got to the inn, Loch didn’t say anything while they got ready for bed. Rakon waited, not wanting to be the one to start talking. Sure enough, after some time had gone by, Loch began to speak.

“You’ve been rather quiet tonight.” Loch stated simply. Rakon waited for him to continue, but Loch didn’t say anything else.

“That’s it? You’re not going to talk about what you signed me up for?” Rakon exploded. “You told me we were coming to the city to see some of your friends, next thing I know, you’ve signed me up to be some sort of spy! You don’t think that sounds a little bit weird? You told them I was your apprentice, I didn’t sign up for any of this.” He was glaring at Loch now, all the confusion and frustration coming out at once.

“Are you done now? Good,” Loch said, sitting on his bed and looking calmly across the room at the fuming Rakon.

“Firstly, you are my apprentice. You can call it whatever you want, but I have been training you diligently. I wasn’t sure what for, but if you believe in fate like I do, you would recognize this for what it is. Secondly, I don’t understand why you don’t think you are capable of this task. While you can’t use a sword like they can, you can certainly fight well enough to defend yourself with a staff. And your ability to control earth is probably better than the other recruits if I’m going to be honest. From what I remember, if any of them showed any kind of promise they went straight to the mages guild.” Loch laid down on his bed and closed his eyes.

“And thirdly,” he continued, “do you know what would happen if this aegisleaf fell into the wrong hands? End of the world as we know it, end of story. If the dragons got ahold of this…” He shook his head slowly. “We would all be dragon food or slaves. This might be our best chance to quite literally save the world.”

Rakon was stunned for a moment. Is this what people thought of dragons? Of course they were powerful, but they wouldn’t dominate the world, would they?

“Would it really be that bad if the dragons had aegisleaf? I mean, they had it before didn’t they? And we’re still here.” Rakon said carefully.

Loch rolled over and propped himself up on one elbow. “I’ve done my research, Rakon, trust me. When dragons had aegisleaf before, humans were nearly destroyed for good. The only thing that kept them alive at all were the dragon gems.”

“Dragon gems?” asked Rakon, puzzled. He had heard many stories and legends from Emberheart, but dragon gems were never mentioned.

“They were ancient artifacts, said to look like large and flawless gems. Each gem supposedly encompassed a soul of a dragon, allowing the wielder to tap into the power of a dragon. There were only four of these gems, red for fire, blue for water, brown for earth, and white for air. The gem greatly increased the elemental power of the user allowing them to accomplish extraordinary things. Legends tell of tsunamis being quelled, and hurricanes being stifled all because of the power of these gems.”

“Are you sure these aren’t just myths? How could something so powerful be hidden today? Because I’m sure we would know if somebody was using one.”

“They weren’t hidden, they were lost. You see, the power was so great that even if an elemental mage used the gem of a different element, the gem granted the ability to use that element to the mage. I did a lot of digging some years ago because I was driven to find these gems. I found out however, that because these gems were so powerful, the king of our nation decided that they needed to be destroyed. Who knows what he did to them. He could have tossed one in a volcano or just dropped one in the sea somewhere.”

Loch sat up fully, locking eyes with Rakon. “The point is, we don’t have this defense anymore and if dragons get their aegisleaf back, it doesn’t matter how strong these walls are, we will all die.”

Rakon thought about everything he knew about dragons and humans. He loved being a dragon, he wouldn’t give it up for anything in the world. He also greatly enjoyed being a human. He had learned so much in the time he had spent with Loch. As painful as it was to admit it however, most dragons were bullies. They took what they could from those that were smaller and weaker than they were, which was why Rakon lived with Emberheart. This was a rare situation however, Rakon fully understood that if Emberheart had not saved him all those years ago while he was in his egg, he would have died. Even if he had survived for a few years, other dragons would have probably killed him for being such a disgrace to their species.

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So the question was, did he want to support the dragons, perhaps find a way to sneak aegisleaf to them and become the legend he had always wanted to be? Or did he do what Loch asked of him, and help these selfish, arrogant, flawed humans, who also happened to be very kind hearted and giving at times. His mind flashed back to when he was basically naked, stealing pants and boots off of Loch’s porch. A dragon would have killed him outright, but Loch however… Loch invited him in and fed him.

“You’re right,” Rakon said suddenly. “You’re right and I’m in. I’ll join the dragon corps. Oh and another thing,” a thought suddenly came to his mind. “What would happen if someone were to possess all four gems? Would they be able to control all the elements?” The thought gave him chills.

“If an ordinary man tried to use all four gems at once, the power would tear him apart.” Loch paused thoughtfully for a second, and then continued. “I did see something that suggested a man that once existed with the ability to harness all four gems. Supposedly that was how the Dragon War ended. His strength coupled with the burning of the aegisleaf, but the writing was very strange.”

“What was strange about it?”

“Well, it suggested that he was part dragon. Ridiculous I know, but that’s what it seemed to say. Enough talking for now, you need your rest and so do I. The next few days are going to be a lot to take in.”

Loch was right, the next few days were not easy. Loch had him train with the sword as much as he physically could, because as Loch put it “it’s a fool’s weapon, but that only means it should come naturally to you.”

Rakon knew well by now that the staff was a superior weapon, but in order to fit in with the dragon corps he needed to learn how to fight with a sword. Which he thought was a good thing in any case, it never hurt to be able to better defend yourself. The unfortunate part is that with Loch as his trainer, he ended up with many more bruises.

For some reason Rakon had been under the impression that Loch did not know how to use a sword, since he had only seen him with a staff. This was not the case. Loch put so many welts into Rakon that Rakon was sure his skin had taken on a permanent shade of purple. In addition to his new combat training, Jynx had taught him how to pick locks. At first Jynx had intimidated him, especially with her scars and rough demeanor, but she actually turned out to be quite nice. She had a much softer side when she was picking locks, it was as if she was talking to a child, trying to coax it to do what she wanted.

“There there now,” she said softly, as she had her lock picks out, feeling for the tumblers. “Just a little more, don’t be shy… gotcha” she said triumphantly as the padlock opened in front of them. She did it slowly for Rakon so that he could learn, but when they first started she had it open in about two seconds. It still took Rakon about a solid minute, and that was on the simplest lock. On the more complicated ones Jynx usually stopped him before he broke her picks. Luckily they didn’t think he was going to need to open any locks, but it was best to be prepared.

Jeremiah also spent an afternoon with Rakon. Jeremiah gave him the rundown of everything he needed to know about the dragon corps. Luckily it wasn’t much, but he did need to know how these people thought so he could better blend in. He was most nervous about that part if he was going to be honest with himself. The only human he had ever really talked to was Loch, and it took him at least a month to get used to his mannerisms and way of talking. He was positive he was going to stand out like a bent wing.

After four days of nonstop training and cramming as much information as he could inside his head, it was time. The day had come to enter the dragon corps. Apparently Jeremiah knew one of the trainers in the dragon corps and, with the help of a little coin, the man now believed that Rakon was deathly ill during conscription day, but had made a full recovery and was now ready to begin training.

“Do you think you’re ready? Loch asked Rakon in the privacy of their room. It was the night before he was admitted into the dragon corps. Rakon felt like heaving the contents of his stomach all over the floor, he could tell it was going to be a restless night.

“Honestly? No, I don’t. But that doesn’t really matter, does it?” Asked Rakon.

“No, it doesn’t, '' Loch admitted. “You already know that you might be our only chance at finding out what we need to know about the aegisleaf. If you have any questions, this might be your last time to ask any. We are going to try to make contact with you once, maybe twice a moon, but we can’t be sure.”

“I do have one question,” Rakon said suddenly. “When I was about to steal your boots, and your pants. Why didn’t you stop me? And why did you help me? Back then I thought you were a helpless old man, now I know you are a very capable old man.” Rakon dove onto his bed as two shoes came flying at him.

“Capable old man, you little…” Loch chuckled ruefully. “I wasn’t expecting that question, that was a few moons ago and you’ve grown a lot since then.” He closed his eyes and thought for a moment.

“You want to know why I helped you? It’s because I saw myself in you. When I was your age, I would have done anything to have been given a helping hand. I don’t know your past, but I would bet it’s a little prettier than mine. I wanted to help you where I had none. Perhaps keep you from making the mistakes I made, I don’t know. Regardless, that decision has led us here, and-”

“I know I know, I have to focus on the task at hand or we’re all going to die. Don’t worry, I remember.” Rakon yelped as a third shoe came flying at him from across the room.

“I hope you watch your mouth in the dragon corps,” Loch said, “or you’ll really learn your lesson the hard way. Now enough talking for once, and get some sleep. You’ll need it now more than ever.”

Rakon grumbled at him, but held his tongue. Sleep was slow to take him, his mind was awake and whirling with possible scenarios that he would have to face while in the dragon corps. He kept reminding himself that it would only be a few moons, he just had to make it to the banquet and he would be free to leave. He tried to empty his mind, he had to get up early the next day and he knew he needed sleep. Eventually he gave in to the gentle pull of slumber and drifted off to sleep.