The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain) Read online

  It is Shane and Rilora; she would like to come in now, Draek informed Hayden before he could ask who was there. The door opened and Rilora burst through and started wrestling with Draek. Shane laughed and went to sit by Hayden on the floor. Hayden could not help but notice a copper sword hanging from his hip as he maneuvered it to sit.

  “I see they brought you some of your stuff; they left all mine in my room too. They must have done it while we were out today.” Shane was able to look around and have a conversation without staring at his sword, but Hayden noticed that he never took a hand off of it.

  “They did, my bag and shield were here when I walked in. It’s strange having all my stuff here now though, it actually feels like this is home now.” Hayden observed the walls and what scarce furniture there was in the room; which was still nicer than his old room in Erskine.

  “This is our home; at least until we finish our training, then all of Arvain will be our home.” Shane threw his arms up to emphasize what he was saying. “I wonder what our training will be like; no one has mentioned anything about it yet.”

  “They have to be secretive about it I guess, to try to make us nervous.” Hayden really had no idea what to expect, Fendrel hadn’t told him about any of what would happen after the egg hatched.

  Hayden, Cass and Shaylin would like to know if they can come down and see us; I would like to see them. Draek didn’t stop wrestling with Rilora when he spoke to Hayden. He looked at the mess of shiny scales and laughed; if it wouldn’t have been for their different colors then he would have been unable to see where one started or the other ended.

  “Of course they can come,” Hayden replied.

  “Who can come where?” Shane asked with a puzzled look on his face.

  “Oh, sorry, I forgot that you cannot hear Draek. He said that Cass and Shaylin want to come see us.” Shane nodded his head and before either of them had time to say anything further; there was a soft nock on the door. Hayden did not have to ask Draek if it was Cass and Shaylin because before the noise from the last nock had faded, Draek had already quit wrestling and was heading to the door.

  “Come in.” Hayden wanted to open the door for them but Draek was standing right in front of it so Hayden could not reach it. The door opened and Shaylin came through first, walking elegantly and effortlessly like a cat. Hayden noticed that Cass had done an amazing job cleaning her; even though he had just gotten done cleaning Draek, Draek’s scales seemed dull and lifeless compared to Shaylin’s. Hayden watched as Draek and Shaylin slowly closed the distance between them, moving slowly but sure footed and never taking their eyes off each other.

  Hayden could feel Draek’s nervousness through their connection; it was a strong enough emotion that his own stomach began doing flips. Hayden became frozen with nervousness as he watched Rilora, who had been left behind when Draek had made his way to meet Shaylin, run and jump clear over Draek, just as Draek and Shaylin’s noses were only inches apart, and landed on top of Shaylin and tackled her to the ground.

  Hayden and Draek were thinking the same thing, nothing. They both just stood there with their mouths hanging open, wondering what had just happened. Rilora rolled off of Shaylin and stuck her chest out and opened her wings slightly, ready to play with Shaylin. Shaylin stood up slowly, as if a king or queen had just been tackled, and looked at Rilora. Draek and Hayden both held their breath and waited for her response to the ruff, unasked for, playing.

  Shaylin took in a deep breath and bugled out her delight, then jumped at Rilora and the two began wrestling and play fighting just as Rilora and Draek had done moments before. Draek was still dumbfounded, but Hayden was able to break free from his trance and laughed a little at what had all transpired.

  “Well, Draek, are you going to let them have all the fun without you?” Cass’s voice came through from the other side of the threshold. It seemed to snap Draek out of his trance and he belted his challenge and jumped onto the tumbling metallic blob that accepted him with earnest, the three rolled into the larger part of the room where Draek would sleep when he was larger.

  Hayden closed the door after Cass had walked in; as the door shut he watched Sebastian walk back into his own room; he never turned around but Hayden knew it was him.

  “So what have you guys been up to… this your room, Hayden?” Cass only walked a few feet in and stopped to look around, she did not walk around but just turned her head and leaned one way or another to get the best view.

  “It sure is, do you like it?” He had never had such a large place to call his own, he was proud of it.

  “HAHA! Do I like it? This is nothing compared to my room.” She leaned up against the wall next to the door and put her hand over her mouth as she laughed at the two men that looked from her back to each other, trying to figure out what was going on.

  “What are you talking about, aren’t all the rooms the same?” Shane asked.

  “Actually no; I thought they all would be until I saw the room they put me in since there are five of us. The rooms for full riders are much larger; I actually have a separate room just for my bed. They are decorated and I have a small room with a table and book shelves where I can have books and food delivered. The opening to where my dragon will be able to fly in is the same room, but I also have my own washing stall so I don’t have to share when I wash Shaylin.” Cass tried not to laugh anymore while she spoke but it became harder and harder as more words came out.

  Hayden could not believe what he was hearing, and by the look on Shane’s face he felt the same. He had thought that his room was amazing, almost a castle unto itself, and now he just found out that he was living in a cleaning closet compared to the riders. At least the other three were in the same boat as him though; and it would only be a year till he was a full rider and he could have the good rooms.

  Listen to me think, Draek, it was only a few minutes ago I was thinking about how lucky I am to have such a nice place to live. That it was better than any other place I had ever stayed at and now I am complaining because others have better than I do. Hayden thought it was funny at first, but it quickly made him sick to know that.

  Don’t worry about it. It is natural for you to want the best for you and to be a little upset knowing that they are holding something back from you. Just don’t let it become the reason for you doing something. Hayden was still amazed at how smart his little dragon was, for just a few days old it was already giving good advice to him.

  The three friends stayed up late into the night talking about each other’s past, they all seemed excited and interested in Hayden’s because it was so different from their own. Cass was the first to leave, but Shane followed soon after her, they had to wake the dragons because they had passed out all tangled up together.

  After they left, Hayden went and put out some of the torches that hung on the walls that had lit up the room. He liked to have a little light so he left one glowing. He hadn’t been laying down long when he heard Draek move slow and sluggishly to the bed and flop down on the cool metal floor, with his head laying against Hayden’s side. Hayden fell asleep right away with a smile on his face, just as he had for the last few nights.

  ______________________

  “GET UP BOY!” Shouted someone above Hayden; which happened to wake Hayden up and get his heart pounding like he had been awake and working all day.

  Hayden jumped out of bed and saw a very angry man standing near him. The man was tall and had broad shoulders and a large barrel chest. His forearms were bare but they were covered in such thick hair that Hayden thought he was wearing a brown shirt. He had short brown hair and a beard that was longer than his hair. His face was a little red from him yelling and even in his dim lit room he could see the spit that had found its way into his beard and became lodged there.

  “I AIN’T GONNA TELL YA AGAIN!!” He shouted for the second time. Does this guy not know how to talk normal? Hayden asked Draek. He started to jump out of bed and got hit in the face with a wad of clothes. He looke
d back and realized that the man had turned and was heading back out the door. Hayden did not waste any time and got up and started getting dressed. He looked around and realized Draek was gone.

  Draek where are you? He did not know if he could shout with his mind but if he could then he knew he had just done it.

  I am training already; they came and got me first. Do whatever it is they ask you to do. This is much harder than we had thought it was going to be. Draek’s thoughts came back choppy as if he was out of breath.

  Ok. Hayden could not really think of what to say, he had never been far away from Draek since he hatched, but Draek could feel his emotions even without Hayden thinking them and Hayden was comforted by Draek’s own feelings which matched his. He got dressed swiftly, in the clothes that had been thrown at him; they were the same color grey but thinner and less decorative. There was no cape, and once they were on Hayden was sure that these were working clothes.

  He ran outside into the corridor, and was just in time to see the others run out of their doors. Giles and Sebastian were ready like Hayden, but Shane was still putting on his boots. Hayden did not see Cass anywhere but thought better than to worry about it.

  “Alright, well it is my pleasure to tell you boys that for the next year I will be training you. You will call me Sir; nothing more nothing less. You will not learn my name or call me by my name until you have earned that right. You will do as I say at all times, exactly as I say it. You do that and you might get to call yourselves dragon riders. You don’t do it, well we can still use you as messenger boys since your dragons are faster than birds.

  “Don’t forget, just because you have dragons don’t make you gods; you have to earn that title.” He stared long and hard at each of them, looking for weakness and strengths. “How about we start today off with a light jog, something to warm you up, how does that sound?”

  It was Shane who blurted out an answer. “That sounds great, Sir.” The man just smiled a toothy grin and turned to face Shane, who knew the moment he saw the grinning face that he had made a grave mistake.

  “Good, very good, let’s go for a jog then.”

  Five hours later they were lying on the ground panting, trying desperately to catch their breath. Hayden’s whole body, inside and out, felt like it was on fire and Hayden could see that the others were feeling the same. They had done so much more than just run, although running had been a big part of it. They had run through obstacle courses, almost all of which Hayden did not even attempt do to his injuries. He had a hard enough time just keeping up with group while they ran.

  Their clothes were ripped, torn and covered in sweat and dirt. It was impossible for Hayden to say who had done better because they had all four done so badly. By the time they had made it to the last few obstacles, which involved climbing over a wall that was almost ten feet high and then running across a fallen log that was suspended over a mud hole, they couldn’t even try it.

  “Come on, just get over that one wall, what are you going to do in a battle and there is a wall in front of you; sit down and huff and puff like a bunch of old ladies?” their trainer had yelled at them, and he actually had done nothing but yell at them the whole morning. He was always yelling and telling them that they had to earn everything. If one of them needed water or to go relieve themselves, he would tell them no, that they had to earn the right to do it.

  Apparently they had worked hard enough to earn a few minutes of rest and water. Haden sat up against a tree and he had finally caught his breath enough to get a few sips of water before he started panting again. Hayden hadn’t spoken to Draek very much but he could feel that Draek was feeling the same way; worn out. Hayden had thought that he was in good shape compared to all the overweight men that had lived in Erskine, but he found out that he was just skinny, not in good shape.

  Hayden tried to relax and not move at all while they had the time to rest. Draek….I am not sure how much more of this I can take, every inch of me is hurting.

  I know, me too, but we have to keep it up. This is only our first day; we have a whole year to go. Hayden’s heart sank as he thought about the next year of this, but Draek was right, and they did not want to be messengers, they wanted to fight and be free. Hayden wanted to continue speaking with Draek but he could feel him being pulled away and going back to his own training. He looked up at the sun and realized it was still early morning.

  They had been woken up before the sun had came out, which was only a few hours after Hayden had finally gone to sleep, and they had run out of Celestial city and into the forest right outside the gate. By the time that they had made it to the woods the sun was just starting to light the sky up but it hadn’t broken over the horizon yet.

  There was a low thick fog that hung all around them and the morning dew that lay like a blanket on the forest floor soaked their boots instantly. They had to follow their trainer closely or they would have gotten lost in the forest.

  He seemed to run down trails that Hayden had a hard time seeing when he tried to look ahead at where they were going. They came to the clearing that had the first few obstacle courses, their trainer had even said that they weren’t going to do the full run through that he only wanted to see what we could do.

  The first few exercises were to pick up various size leather bags that weighed different amounts and place them on pegs that were nailed into trees. They could all pick up the smaller ones, and Hayden was happy that a few of the larger ones that Giles and Sebastian couldn’t pick up he was able to lift. Shane was the one who excelled the most at this task, he was able to lift some of the biggest ones, and there were only a two bags that were too heavy for him to get on the pegs.

  Once they had done that they each had to take one of the bags, at their trainer’s choice, and run to the next clearing where their next obstacle would be. They each grabbed their bags and ran; the clearing wasn’t far but when they did get there they were already sweating heavily and starting to breath hard. At the clearing they placed their bags down and they lined up in front of their trainer.

  “Here, your second challenge is me. All you have to do is what I say, exactly as I say it.” Hayden and the others went through almost two hours of stretches and various pushups and sit ups and many other kinds of workouts that made muscles that Hayden had not know he had hurt. After they had finished there the obstacles became further apart, which meant that they had to run more. Soon their pace had gone from a steady run to barley faster than a walk.

  The morning had been nothing but running and working out, this was the first real break they had gotten. Shane looked like he had fallen asleep under his own tree. Their trainer was covered in sweat like they were but he was not breathing hard, nor was he even sitting down in the shade; instead he was standing near a small shallow stream that they had filled their water skins from.

  “Alright boys, I think we have done enough of the basic stuff for today. Now we will head back to the city so you can start your second training.” Hayden had never done anything as hard as getting up from under the tree. He noticed that the others were having just as hard a time as he was. Once they started their jog, slightly faster than a normal walk, some of the pain in his muscles went away but others flared up again. It took them less time to get back to the giant metal walls since they could run straight there and did not have to stop at the obstacle courses.

  They trudged through the gate, and finally came to rest in front of a small fountain in the middle of a wide street. The street was surrounded by mostly black smiths, but it was also up against one of the smaller barracks.

  They had all but collapsed onto the metal curb around the fountain; their trainer told them to wait there till someone came to get them. They sat leant up against the fountain, listening to water fall and splash onto the metal cobbled streets. Hayden leant his head back against the cold metal bowl that made up the base of the fountain and closed his eyes.

  He barley heard the footsteps that clanked against the street as someone
drew nearer. Hayden figured it was someone just passing through and decided to ignore them, he tried to communicate with Draek but he was too weak and tired to do it, he could feel Draek and he decided that was enough.

  Hayden felt something strike the bottom of his boot and he would have jumped right up to figure out what it was but all he could manage was to open his eyes. He met the gaze of a young, tall man, wearing the same grey pants as everyone else but instead of the grey shirt he was wearing a shining metal breast plate.

  “You all must be the new riders. I am Tynan, your battle instructor.” Tynan had a thick accent, and when he had finished speaking he made a deep bow to the group. “Now if you will follow me we can begin your combat training.” Tynan turned smoothly on his heels and took long, powerful strides into the barracks.

  Chapter 11

  Hayden and the others got up and followed Tynan through the doors leading into the barracks. Hayden noticed that Tynan was taller than him and had a very dark tan; he also had long black hair that he had pulled in a tight ponytail. Hayden saw that he carried a long wide sword on his back and he had a shorter, thin sword on his hip that his hand hadn’t moved from since he walked up. They did not have to walk far but Tynan kept moving his head from side to side as if he were waiting for an attack to come at any moment.

  He stood by the open door until all four of them had passed through; Cass still hadn’t joined them, and Tynan closed the door behind them. Hayden heard a series of clicks and clanks as Tynan worked a series of locks that he had on the door, checking each one twice. Hayden took the time that he was working all the locks to look around and take in the room; for it was one large room with a stair well leading up a floor and down a floor.

  The room was open and had hundreds of weapons, some Hayden had never even dreamed of, covering the walls. There was one bookshelf stuffed with books just like in Estraken’s library. There were a few cushions to sit on and another door on the far wall that was closed.