"She's absolutely beautiful Callan!" Brutus doted over her as he hovered around her, his tiny fairy wings flapping.

"I agree, Brutus. She is stunning."

At this pronouncement, the dragon seemed to sit up a little taller and take pride in the compliments. She settled back down into the crook of my arm and nuzzled her head against the inside of my elbow and closed her eyes. Like an adorable kitten. Though now I thought about it, this makes things more difficult. Eggs didn't move on their own. Eggs stayed where you put them. Eggs didn't want to constantly be near you. Eggs, while inviting some questions, didn't necessarily invite the same kind of questions as a dragon did. Dragons couldn't be that common here. Brutus didn't even know what the Dragonrider class was, so it was super rare. Maybe she could hide in a bag or something? Like one of those fancy dogs. The thought of walking up to a woman with a high-end purse and her dog's head poking out then my dragon popping out of mine, causing both woman and dog to scream and run away made me chuckle.

"I guess we should just go ahead with the getting out of here plan instead of exploring the rest of the dungeon."

"It's only a little bit left anyway, and we would likely be searching for quite a while, seeing as we took all the open paths already. I would guess the only areas left would be through hidden passages, and those sometimes have minor bosses in them."

"Yeah, I'm going to count my win here and say we move on. This boss was almost too much."

The dragon looked up at me and then laid back down. I pulled up the notification again and selected the leave option.

From the back of the room, the throne that the werebear had sat on in his human form started to move to the left. behind it was a set of stairs that led straight up. Walking to the stairs I looked up the staircase and could make out the bottom of a stone door at the top. We went up the stairs and I pushed the door open to the bright world outside. Looking at the other side of the door, it was just a stone face that perfectly matched the side of the small mountain range that the dungeon appeared to be housed under. Once the door closed, it looked just like the rockface. No seams even showed.

"I guess we won't be going back that way. Good thing we have some supplies to help us with our trek back to the..." I trailed off, "To where exactly? Brutus, I have no idea where to go from here."

"I can't help a whole lot with that either really. I mostly know the world's mechanics. I know about the world, I can tell you the names of the continents, and the major countries, and I could point them out on a global map, but I'm not so sure about where we are right now and where we need to go. I can say that trails usually lead somewhere." Brutus said, indicating a path that was just to the south of us.

The path led in one direction back to the mountain, which presumably led to the entrance of the dungeon, and the other down a winding trail that seemed to end in some kind of forest way off in the distance.

"Well, that way seems to lead back to the mountains, which having just come out of a door in the side of them, would make me think that is towards the entrance of the dungeon. I don't want to do that again. So I guess we follow the other direction."

Brutus shrugged in what seemed to say sure, sounds reasonable, and so we headed in that direction. I put Aeolith on my shoulder to sleep for now where she curled up in the sunlight. Her scales seemed to sparkle and shimmer in the sunlight. It was really quite beautiful, the way the sun danced off her iridescent scales and changed colors as she shifted to get comfortable. I walked with Brutus flying nearby who seemed to be able to fly forever, I assumed that was a trait of being a fairy, and I walked with the bags at my side, the longsword on my hip, and my hand resting on the pommel. The day seemed to be just past early morning with the sun having risen not too long ago as it was not too high in the sky and there was still some dew on the grass.

I saw a shadow pass over us in the sky. It seemed like something really far away. Maybe a large bird, or something. Guess I can't really know what it is given I don't know what kind of creatures roam the skies of this world. I continued walking for the time being trying to make my way to the forest, but it was miles off still. Just as I was thinking that the creature had just flown by, I heard a whistling noise behind me and turned around to see a giant dragon flying down the road toward us. I let out a croaked noise and tried to turn and run, but it was moving way too fast. It flew right over me and I threw myself to the ground to avoid being hit. The dragon flapped its huge, powerful wings stopping itself just after it passed us, throwing dust and dirt everywhere, and landed, turning on the ground to face us. It appeared to be a brownish color, not something I had thought of as a traditional dragon color, but I suppose this was a different world. Its scales were dull, but not shiny like Aeolith's, and they looked scraped and scratched up. It had huge long scars as well across its body, showing it had been in some battles for sure. Its eyes were a brilliant yellow, and they stared right at us with a reptile verticle pupil.

Still laying on the ground I could do nothing but look up at it. This was it. This was how I died...again apparently. I just got here too. Just found Brutus again, just found Aeolith. Thinking of Aeolith stirred something inside me. I quickly stood up, put Aeolith in one arm, and drew my sword with the other. I may not be able to do anything, but I'd go down trying.

"Stay back!" I shouted at the huge dragon. "I may not look like much, but I will do what I have to to protect us!"

The dragon looked at me, then looked down at the young dragon. A glint showed in his eye when he saw Aeolith. I protectively placed that arm closer to me and placed the sword in front of her attempting to show my intent to defend her when I noticed his interest.

"No! You can't have her. I'm her protector now! You will have to face me before you get to her! She is my soul!"

I'm not sure why I shouted that last part. It just felt right. The dragon looked at me at this last pronouncement.

"Your soul you say?" a deep and gravelly voice said inside my mind.

Noticing it was similar to my bond with Aeolith, I tried sending thoughts back.

"Yes. We are soul bound. I bear the mark on my soul as does she. We are one, and while she is small I will defend her."

As I said this, Aeolith stood up in my arm and growled at the huge dragon as well, showing her teeth and puffing up to try to look dangerous.

"Admirable. Maybe there is hope yet. You must come with me. No one must find her before the time is right."

"Where? And why should I believe you?"

"You are Dragonrider are you not? You have gone through the soul bonding with your familiar and have given her a name yourself? These are all sacred rights for the Dragonriders, though I cannot tell you more until we are away and safe. Come with me and I will teach you more about the ways of the Dragonrider."

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"How do we know we can trust you?"

The dragon sighed deeply. It was a deep rumbling sound that came from deep within its chest and rose to its throat and out its nostrils.

"We really do not have time for this. There are always eyes watching, and you will not be safe here. But, I suppose your request is not unreasonable, given the circumstances. Meeting a large strange creature on the road and being asked to blindly trust it...My name is Al'Doran, I am one of the ancient dragons who bore riders to the defense of the people. That was before the fall of the Dragonriders."

The dragon stood up straighter and showed his chest. For a moment a symbol flashed of the circles with the sigils in it and the head of a woman.

"Where is your rider now?"

The dragon looked down, sorrow evident on its face as well as in its posture. I could see the pain of loss clearly, having experienced the same before with the loss of family members.

"Perished in the last battle of the war. But there will be time for that later, now we must go to a secret place. I have not revealed my presence for too long, and those that remember are all but gone. We must be away so that I can show you what you need to know and so that others will not find out a Dragonrider has returned until you know more or they will kill you."

I hesitated.

"The Dragonriders were hunted and wiped out. You cannot allow that to happen to the hatchling! She is too precious!"

The urgency of his words hit me. I didn't want anything to happen to her. He did have the sign like Aeolith had.

"Fine, where are we going and how do we get there?"

"You are a Dragonrider, are you not? As for where you will see when we arrive. I dare not speak of it until we are safe."

He lowered his head and I stood there, stunned.

"Where do I even get on?"

"Have you not taken the Draconic Spirit skill yet? Feel for it. You have our spirit within you as well. This will be your first lesson as a Dragonrider. Feel for what you should do. Let your instincts and skills guide you."

Calming myself I focused on the thought of riding the dragon. With this thought, my mind cleared. It was easier to think. I looked the dragon over and noticed there was a spot at the base of the neck where spines were not present. I climbed up onto the dragon and made my way to the base of the neck and settled into the spot as best I could while making sure Aeolith didn't fall. This was no small task as the place where I presumed to ride was at least ten feet off the ground, as Al'Doran was gigantic. Brutus landed on my shoulder and the dragon stood back up. It opened its wings and flapped them once, twice, three times with mighty beats and it was airborne again. It continued to climb until the ground fell away to be small and the distance we had to walk looked like a tiny line on a map.

I couldn't help but feel a combination of fear and elation at the sensation of flying like this. Looking down, the world seemed to pass quickly below us. It was a little like looking out the window of an airplane, except someone had opened the window and the wind was blasting my face. I could feel the wind drying my eyes out and I had to keep my mouth shut or it would pull my lips apart with the power of the wind making me feel like one of those videos where the guys would put a leaf blower up to their mouth. How could we be up so high? Was the atmospheric pressure system here different than on earth? This felt like a similar height to airplanes, and they had to have pressurized cabins. Thankfully communication was telepathic with the dragon.

"You are protected by magic here. The magic of the Dragonrider skill allows you to breathe normally and adjusts the pressure of your body automatically so you don't die from the changes."

"Are you listening to my thoughts?"

"Not purposefully, you are just projecting them rather loudly. It's hard to try to give you privacy with your thoughts when you throw them around like that. But do not fear, I will help teach you to control that as well."

Well, that was unsettling. I tried to focus on holding my thoughts back to myself and shielding them from Al'Doran.

"That is already better. Continue to work on that and you will soon be able to do it unconsciously."

"Where are we going?" I projected to the dragon.

"To a safe place. Somewhere they will not find us."

"Feel like sharing with us where that is?"

There was a long pause before he answered, "The isle of Cathar. It is a sacred place that none but dragons go to. It is said to be cursed, and that all who trod upon it will die a horrible death."

"Is that true?!" I replied indignantly.

There was a deep rumbling from the dragon under me. Almost as though he was chuckling.

"That is a myth spread millennia ago by the Dragonriders. You have nothing to fear."

We soared on for quite a while. Then about an hour later we reached the edge of the land and continued to go on for another while until a large island became visible. As we neared I could tell that it was heavily forested around the outside of the island, but not much was in the center. Beaches with what looked like sugar-white sand could be seen at the edges of the island as well. It looked like a small dormant volcano took up most of the center of the island. Al'Doran flew in a circle around the top of the volcano and then hovered over the middle. He began to descend as though he was going to land inside the volcano. As he descended, some kind of shimmering barrier became visible and as we passed through it, the volcano was no longer there, instead, there was a partially ruined and overgrown city. Al'Doran landed in the middle of the city and lowered himself so we could get off as well.

"And no one can see a giant dragon lowering itself into a volcano on an island? Even from a distance?"

"If anyone were to get within visual distance of the island, I would be alerted. There are warding spells as well as the barrier disguising the island in place. I am always alerted when ships or creatures come even remotely close to this island."

"Are telescopes a thing in this world?"

"Yes, and they can help ship scouts see far, but the spells in place go beyond even their range. And scrying magic cannot pierce the spells put in place as well."

"Scrying magic?"

"Spells used to see far away, or to spy on particular individuals."

Hopping to the ground I took a look around at where we were. I could see the barrier we had passed through. It shimmered slightly in the sky. The city looked to be some kind of stonework that had once been a really big place. Buildings were mostly intact on the first floor, but most of the second stories were destroyed. Rubble lay in the street and signs were burned. The streets were big enough for even Al'Doran to walk down. Not all the buildings could accommodate him, but there were quite a few that looked like he could lie down in them for rest.

"This way."

"What was that barrier we passed through?"

"An illusion barrier. It helps keep prying eyes away. It erupts from time to time as well, giving off a less hospitable look."

"That's amazing. How does it work? Is someone casting it?"

"No, it was cast hundreds of years ago. It's just run by an artifact that was created to pull in ambient mana and continue to run its course indefinitely. But these are questions for another time. First, we need to get to the basics for you and the youngling."

Al'Doran began walking down one of the massive streets towards a building off in the distance. The streets seemed remarkably well maintained, despite having rubble falling onto them here and there. The city of New York could take a lesson from whoever built these streets, I thought absentmindedly to myself, smirking at the thought and realizing that was something that every person thought of when they saw a nice, well-maintained road anywhere. We followed occasionally having to jog to keep up, but we made it to the building where Al'Doran stopped.

"This was the initiate training facility. It was where all dragonlings and their riders came to learn the basics of what it meant to be Dragonriders. Though that was long ago now."

"How long ago exactly?"

"Five hundred sixty-seven years"

My jaw dropped. That was a long time. And he had been alone this entire time?

"Al'Doran, can you tell us what happened before we begin the training? I think it will help to know what is going on."

Al'Doran looked sorrowful again. Almost like he wouldn't tell us. Like the memory of reliving that time was going to be too much for him. He sighed again with a deep rumble.

"Very well. Listen carefully, for I do not want to tell this tale again. It is hard for me, and my soul weeps every time I must think about it. But I do see the wisdom in telling you the tale. Sit and pay attention."