The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain) (23 page)

             
All of a sudden he stopped running and stood completely still with his head extended in the air. Hayden could tell Draek had heard something and Draek slowly lowered his head to the forest floor and began sniffing like a hunting dog. There was a small stream that Draek jumped over, and when he landed on the bank on the other side he looked down and saw a clear print in the wet dirt. The print was that of a large deer.

             
Draek looked around and found a few more prints that went along the river bank and he sprinted off in the same direction. Draek followed the prints to a small clearing in the forest; the trees broke and let rays of sun fall down into the thick green grass. There was a small mound near the center of the clearing and on the mound stood a large buck.

             
The buck was the same size as a horse, bigger than any deer Hayden had ever seen in his life and its antlers were thick with a wide spread. Draek quickly glanced at the surrounding trees, and he could see where the buck had been scraping its antlers against the bark.

             
Draek, don’t go after it, it’s bigger than you, and look at the antlers. Just back up and find another one.
Hayden tried to get Draek’s attention off of the massive buck, but instead Draek crouched down low and started slowly moving forward.

             
Draek must have stepped stick and all of a sudden the buck turned and was facing Draek. Hayden expected the buck to run from a dragon, but it seemed to not even think that was an option. Instead it stomped its hooves on the hill and started grunting and doing something that sounded like blowing its noise.

             
Draek stopped moving forward and stood to his full height. He then gave a low growl and dug his claws into the ground. The buck stomped its hooves harder and started thrashing its head from side to side. When that did not convince Draek to leave it lowered its head and pointed it antlers at Draek. Without warning the buck shot at Draek like an arrow and gave a long grunt as it swiftly closed the distance.

             
Draek pushed off at the same time, as if he had anticipated its movements, and tried to match the bucks speed. Draek was still weakened from the exercises earlier that day so his first burst of speed slowed down dramatically. The two were about to collide when Draek suddenly reared up and opened his wings wide. The move was enough to startle the buck and cause him to dig his hooves into the ground, causing the soft grass to become dislodged from the earth.

             
As the buck slowed down its headlong charge it raised its head back to avoid the collision with the now bigger dragon. When the buck had turned its head to the side Draek struck at its exposed neck and clamped his jaw right below the bucks head. The second the buck realized that Draek had bitten him on the neck and was not letting go it began thrashing about and trying everything to get Draek off and get away.

             
Draek and the buck began rolling around in the clearing and Draek wrapped his tail around the buck and grabbed it with all four claws. Once Draek had the buck restrained he made a quick jerking movement and Hayden heard a loud crack and knew that the fight was over.

             
Even though the buck had stopped kicking, Draek did not let go of it. He waited for a few seconds, and even gave it one more shake to make sure it was dead. Then he released his kill and spread his wings out over the buck’s body and roared with all his might at the sky. Hayden saw countless birds take flight from the surrounding forest until he became aware that someone was shaking his body.

             
“Young man, you must stop, you must stop right now!” An older lady had grabbed him and was shaking him. Hayden realized that he had been holding on to the table so hard that his knuckles had turned white and his hands were cramping. His throat felt raw and on fire and he heard someone yelling at the top of their lungs. The lady kept shaking him and Hayden finally figured out that he was the one screaming; he had yelled just like Draek had roared.

             
“Where do you think you are, acting like that?” The lady, knowing she had gotten Hayden’s attention, stormed off towards the kitchen grumbling under her breath about young men acting like animals.

             
Hayden turned to look at the others, but they all had their eyes closed and appeared to be deep in thought. Hayden smiled to himself knowing that Draek had gotten the first kill out of the group. His mind wondered back to the size of the buck and just how big its antlers had been.

             
Hayden focused on Draek again and found that just the few minutes of eating the deer had already calmed him down enough so that he could talk again.

             
Draek, how do you feel now?
Draek did not respond and Hayden could feel his confusion as to where the voice had come from, then he remembered that he had a rider and continued to eat as he communicated with Hayden.

             
I am much better now that I have eaten. I felt you watching me while I hunted and I am glad that you were here for it.

             
Hayden felt joy and pride well up inside his chest as he listened to his dragon.
I am very impressed that you took down such a large buck; I have never seen such a large deer before.

             
I hope all our hunts go this well.
Draek replied as he took another bite from the animal.

             
Well once you are as big as a mountain and you can fly and breathe fire I don’t see how a hunt will go bad.
Hayden laughed and he felt the same rumble in his head that let him know the Draek was laughing too.

             
Giles and Sebastian both started blinking a lot, and they both had a confused look on their face for a few seconds till the remembered that they were in their own bodies again. Hayden was sure that they did not care to hear how his and Draek’s hunting had gone, so he was content to say nothing.

             
“What’s wrong with you, are you really that dumb?” Giles asked; anger was burning through his eyes. Sebastian looked just as mad, but he was turning red like he was having a hard time breathing.

             
“What are you talking about?” Hayden replied;
I really wish they would leave me alone.
He projected his thoughts out to Draek. Draek showed him an image of him hunting down their dragons in the woods and repeating what he had done to the buck to them.

             
Hayden had to use all his self control not to burst with laughter or agree with Draek and send him off hunting their dragons. He was able to remain calm, and told Draek to just continue with whatever it was he was doing. Draek seemed not to care either way so Hayden returned back to the conversation he was having with Giles and Sebastian.

             
“What your dragon did out there you idiot. He could have gotten our dragons hurt.”

             
“I still don’t know what it is you are talking about, what did Draek do that was so bad? All he did was hunt a deer and kill it, how could that have gotten anyone hurt?” Hayden did not understand why they were so mad but whatever their reason it was starting to make him mad by how they were talking about Draek.

             
“All your dragon did was bugle out that he had killed a buck so that everything in the forest got startled and all the deer got terrified. The one we were hunting actually tried to fight us. If it wouldn’t have been for my quick thinking Kurok and I would be dead.” Giles stood up and stormed out of the room. He kept his fists clenched up tight and he looked back a few times as if he had something more to say. Sebastian was still red, but he followed in silence.

             
Hayden decided to wait for Shane, who still hadn’t stirred from his connection with Rilora. Hayden worried that it was going to take a long time when finally Shane opened his eyes. He seemed to know exactly where he was because he did not look confused or disoriented. He just smiled at Hayden and started to get up.

             
“Where are you going?” Hayden asked as Shane threw his leg over the bench he had been sitting on.

             
“We have to go meet up with Estraken don’t we?”

             
“We do, but what happened, how did your hunt go? It took you the longest to come back so I figured I would wait for you.” Shane seemed to think about what Hayden had said and when he realized that both Giles and Sebastian were gone he sat down and a smile broke out across his face.

             
“Well, Rilora was the last one to get off the giant dragon. We watched Draek jump off right before the dragon touched down. The other two silvers went off together not long after Draek was gone. Rilora hit the ground and just started sniffing around. She told me there was no point tiring herself running through the woods without knowing if she was getting close to anything.” Shane caught the eye of one of the kitchen Karons and asked if he could have more to drink since they had already cleared their table right after Hayden’s outburst.

             
“So she finally caught a sent from a deer and she ran after it just like the others had. She was amazing; she would sprint for a while and then she would stop to make sure she was still following the scent. She found the deer by a little waterfall, nothing more than ten feet high, and she slowly stalked it till she was right behind it. She was about to strike when Draek roared and it scared both the deer and Rilora half to death.

             
“I could feel her heart pounding in my head as the deer turned to face her. The deer was about to bolt and I completely froze up. I had no idea what to do, I thought that the deer was about to disappear and Rilora was going to have to start again.  Luckily the few second hesitation by the deer was all that Rilora needed.

             
“She slashed with her claws at the deer’s neck before it was aware that she had moved. It ran about seven feet and then it just
lay
down and the hunt was over. How about you, how did yours go?” Hayden had listened to Shane as he retold what had happened to him. He could not help but feel guilty for Draek’s roar that could have gotten Rilora hurt, but he was happy that nothing bad had happened.

             
Hayden went through and told Shane about how their hunt had gone, and when they had finished talking they started heading down the corridors to Estraken’s library. They walked for a few minutes before they realized that they were lost. They tried to backtrack, but they could not find where they had started from.

             
Hayden was finally able to find someone who could show them to the library, and as they got there Giles and Sebastian were both already there and in mid lesson.

             
“So you boys do want to learn, that’s good because I was starting to think that all you wanted to do was fly messages around. Now I will not repeat myself so you will have to find out about what we have covered so far from these two.” Estraken pointed at Giles and Sebastian, who were both facing them with wicked grins on their faces.

             
“Now as I was saying; you will want to make sure that your dragon is eating until it is completely full. They won’t let them hunt every day, so on the days that they eat here or they fail at hunting, you must make sure that they do not go hungry. A dragon will grow faster and larger if there is plenty of food. They must also eat both the hair and the bones of their meals. It will help with digestion and there are lots of nutrients in the bones.”

             
Hayden and Shane sat down quickly and Hayden tried to take everything in. This was all information that was going to help him and Draek. Shane was sitting on the edge of his seat and listening just as intently as Hayden was. Hayden had to do his best not to communicate with Draek because he kept getting images and thoughts of Draek play fighting with Rilora in a ditch while their dragon instructors walked them through their fight.

             
Hayden could feel that Draek was having fun, but that he was also taking it very seriously. Hayden almost jumped when a surge of triumph came pouring in as Draek pinned Rilora down and won their first fight.

             
Estraken never seemed to notice anything around him, he just continued to teach whether any of them were listening or not. Hayden listened to him talk about what animals were good to eat and which were not. He started to tell them about what to expect to happen to their dragons in the next few months when he stopped mid sentence.

             
“You will first notice that they will start flapping their wings open and closed more, that is the first sign that they are almost ready to fly. Then they will……. You may now return to your rooms, your dragons will meet you there shortly.” He started putting up all the scrolls and books that he had opened during their lesson and ignored their questioning gazes as he did so.

             
The four young riders slowly got up and headed back to their rooms to await their dragons. Hayden and Shane walked a little faster than Giles and Sebastian so they soon where out of their earshot.