The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain) (31 page)

             
The others stood silently as he spoke, taking in every word. When he finished his short apology they did not answer or show any kind of emotion on their faces. Their dragons had moved beside them just as Draek had done for Hayden. It was Shane who finally spoke.

             
“I guess I would have done the same thing if I would have found out.” He looked at Cass and shrugged his shoulders.

             
“Ya, I would have to. Hayden, let’s just forget about this. We all now know that the dragons can fly. Soon we will start training to fly anyways, so it really doesn’t matter.” They all smiled awkwardly at each other until Draek and the other two dragons jumped into the air and flew off back towards the river; the three of them flying in a V pattern with Draek in the lead.

             
Where are you guys going?
Hayden asked, knowing the others were probably asking the same thing right then.

             
We go to hunt. We are hungry and decided that the three of you can handle yourselves once you stop yelling for no reason,
Draek told Hayden like it was a common fact, and he should not have had to ask. Hayden watched as they leveled out and glided over the river, no longer having to pump their large wings. Hayden smiled as he watched Draek, his silver scales shinning in the sun light, lower his front paw in the water and cause a small splash. It looked so peaceful and yet it terrified Hayden like nothing had before.

             
“So, are we ok?” Hayden turned and asked his two friends. He knew that they had been distant the last few days, but he wanted to fix that. Although Draek was great company, it got lonely without another person to talk to.

             
They both nodded to him and smiles slowly crept onto their faces. Hayden still felt that he had something else to tell them before they could begin to mend the bridges between them.

             
“Guys, I am sorry what happened the other night, I let my anger get before what’s right. I am sorry for what I said and how I treated you guys.” Hayden was having a hard time looking them in the eyes as he spoke. He kept looking at his feet because he was scared that when he looked up he would find judgment lingering in their eyes.

             
He had more to say, but when he finally lifted his eyes to their faces the smiles that had slowly crept there where now wide and demanding. In their eyes he saw forgiveness instead of judgment and he knew that their friendship would outlast this quarrel.

                                                                      ____________________

After a few minutes of each one saying their unnecessary apologies, because they had already been forgiven by the other, they made their way back into the city to the fountain that they always met at.

Waiting for them was Sebastian and Giles; both of their dragons where behind them, cramped and uncomfortable in the clearing that was not intended for dragon use. Both of the large dragons were fidgety and they kept snaking their
heads around, darting it from one place to another.

Hayden knew that that was a look of hunger, but for some reason Sebastian and Giles were not allowing their dragons to go hunt like the others had done. They were both deep in thought together when the three arrived. Hayden and Shane both kept their distance, which they did every time they saw them, and choose not to speak to them
, which the Giles and Sebastian replied in kind.

It was Cass that broke the silence that the others were more than happy to continue.

“Hello again, you two, any idea how much longer we will have to be waiting?” She directed her question to both of them. Giles turned to face her but he remained silence, and showed no emotion at all. It was as if he was looking at a plane rock.

“Hello
, Cassidy. No, we don’t know how long we will have to wait. We figured this would be as good of a spot as any to wait so here we are, right, Giles?” Sebastian waited on Giles to answer him, and when he did not Sebastian elbowed him lightly in the ribs.

             
“Oh uh, yes we did,” Giles said quickly. Satisfied, Sebastian turned back around, with a smile that he had probably had practiced with many other girls before, and went to continue his conversation with Cass.

             
If he would not have turned around so quickly after Giles had spoke than he might have seen the look that Giles gave him, a look that said we will talk about you elbowing me later. Hayden saw it for just a second because just as fast as the look was there, it was gone.

             
Sebastian continued to talk to Cass while Hayden and Shane went and sat against the fountain, the same place they had sat in between their first to lessons. Shane leaned over to whisper to Hayden.

             
“I don’t like them very much, they don’t treat their dragons right and I always feel like they are up to something. But Cass is always trying to play nice with them, she feels the same way about them, but she is sure that she can win them over with friendliness.” Hayden just shook his head at hearing that news.

             
His feelings were on the same path as Shane’s were, but his were much further down that path, especially for Sebastian. He was still confused about how he felt about Cass, but he knew without any doubt that he did not like seeing her with Sebastian.

             
They sat quietly by listening to the two of them talk about random nothingness. Sebastian was only talking about him and his dragon, how great the dragon was because of his own training, and Cass sounded interested and continued to be friendly.

             
Lirand finally came through the gates, and as he made his way towards the group Tynan came out of one of the blacksmith’s building that lined the road to the fountain where they all sat.

             
Neither of the men acknowledged each other as they walked together, they just kept an even pace, and both looked at the group at all times. Hayden began to think that they had had to
practice this because they both stopped at the exact same time and remained silent until all five riders were silent and watching them.

             
“Sebastian, Giles, why are your two dragons clogging up the streets and not off hunting?” Tynan asked. “Can’t you see that they are hungry?”

             
“Yes, I know that Sullivan is hungry, but I am teaching him restraint and obedience,” Sebastian said. Giles’s dragon was already starting to move to a better place, where he could take off to hunt. Sebastian heard the movement and turned to make sure it was not his own dragon. Sebastian and Giles both glared at each other until Lirand broke the tension between them.

             
“Sebastian, dragons are not dogs to be beat and controlled by their riders. You are a dragon’s rider, not a dragon’s master. Don’t make your dragon suffer again just because you want it to obey you. Now Sullivan, go and hunt with the others, get your fill.” Sebastian showed no remorse or guilt for what he had been told, but all he showed was fiery anger for Lirand for telling his dragon what to do.

             
In his head, unknown to the others, he was already planning a way to punish both Lirand for commanding his dragon and Sullivan himself who left the moment Lirand spoke to him.

             
“Now the reason that both Tynan and myself are here is because your training is going to be changed dramatically over the next few months in preparation to the Festival of Games. Some of the changes were going to happen at this point anyways, just because you have all reached the three month point,” Lirand told them.

             
“One thing that will change is that starting next week we are going back to every day training, but your normal off day will be a light day. That day will be the only one you don’t do physical training and it will also be the only day you meet with Estraken,” Tynan spoke this time.

             
Hayden did not like where this was heading, he was going to have no more days to himself and now he was also loosing most of the classes with Estraken, which he actually begun to enjoy.

             
“To replace Estraken’s classes every day we have split the time between two things, every two days a week you will study under different Craft Masters. Sometimes you will be working with a blacksmith, a leather worker, farmers, and many others. This will give some basic skills in different fields that you may need while being a rider, and once you finish your five year cycle if you so choose you can continue learning some of these trades and become masters yourselves.”  Hayden did not mind the sound of that.

             
Being an orphan he had done many odd and end jobs for the different crafts back home, but he was always taking out the trash or cleaning, not actually doing the craft.

             
“Now the days in between your craft days we will start training you on how to ride horses, to get you used to being in a saddle and how to hang on. Eventually we will move you up to riding an experienced dragon until finally you will ride your own.” As Tynan continued to speak about what all their riding lessons would entail, Hayden zoned out and relived parts of his horrific flight with Draek, allowing his terrified imagination to change a few details.

             
He was imagining such things as the woods that they had been flying over had been on fire and the flames where trying to lick them like a dog that had found a stake on the road and was trying to make sure that it was real. Draek, who might not have been flying too smoothly, but had not been doing a bad job of flying, was now flying upside down most of the time as he spun around trying to throw Hayden off.

             
Hayden shook off the horrific nightmare he saw in his head and realized that Tynan and Lirand where both still addressing the group. Hayden had not heard a word that either of them had said after Tynan mentioned riding lessons. He tried to focus and get back into the conversation.

             
“Both Tynan’s and my own training will continue on as it has been, but we will now be introducing new things that will help during the Festival as well as later on as a rider. This will continue on until further notice, but I can go ahead and already tell you that the closer we get the Festival of Games the more your physical training will take up more of your time.” Hayden had not been really sore after training in a while, but he sure that that was all about to change.

                                                                     
 
________________

              Hayden was right to think that. Over the next three weeks they were all subjected to a rigorous set of physical activities that left them all laying on the ground gasping for air even though they were all in good shape from the three months of previous training.

             
It was like they were just staring their first days of being a dragon rider all over again. Hayden’s body had topped out before they started the new training. He was no longer having a challenge and the changes in his body had slowed down to a point that he was just maintaining his physical fitness.

             
That’s how it was before they introduced them to the new work out; it was much harder and faster paced. It lasted the same amount of time, but with no breaks, and they were all soon sore again and Hayden realized that although he was in great shape he could still get stronger.

             
He thought that losing all but one day with Estraken that he would not have much to look forward to after the exercises in the morning, but he started to enjoy the time spent with the different crafts. He liked making things with his hands and being able to watch as he made useable things out of junk, or grew things out of the ground.

             
They started their weeks off with Estraken’s lessons, which were now starting to get into the different races and regions that make up Arvain. Then they
had a riding lesson the next day, and after that they spent their first craft day with the blacksmith. It then went back to riding lessons, then to a farming craft, back to riding, and the last day before they started back with Estraken they worked with the first year ground troops and learnt how to mobilize during battle; Tynan called it battle tactics.

             
This is how their schedule was going to be for one month, then they would switch crafts and train for another month, then the switch would happen again every month until they were one month away from the Festival of Games. At that point they would quit all crafts and lessons and focus all their time on training and getting ready for the Festival.

             
They decided to split them up into groups during their training; Shane and Hayden got to be together, which was a huge relief to both of them, and Sebastian and Giles got work together. Cass was once again swept off to have personal training from different masters because she had the gold dragon.

             
In his blacksmith training Hayden learnt how to heat and use metal, and how to shape it once it was hot. He had made a dagger over the course of the three weeks and his last few lessons where on how to maintain a weapon, repair it and keep it sharp. He had enjoyed it a lot and was sad to be at the end of his blacksmith training.