A section of a draft chapter

Harald and Spine led the way to the bonding arena with Ralf, Sophia, Jenny, Beyn and Lifaen following quietly. The week was over and now the young elf and dragon were to leave behind the only family and home they had ever known to join the Dragon Lords to serve their king and country. Harald had worked out very early on that he did not want to do any of those things. As for Spine he was less worried about the people he was leaving behind but was still concerned about the immediate future, for instance; the previous evening when he and Harald were leaving the tavern he had begun to wonder where they were actually going. At the entrance to the arena Harald said goodbye. He did not know how long for, months, years perhaps even forever? He cried, they all cried, no one was embarrassed at the expression of such emotions but nevertheless they all tried to hide their feelings as best they could. Eventually they parted ways, Harald kept looking back all the way until he could no longer see his family past the sandstone wall of the arena.

'Are you ready?' Spine asked with obvious concern. The future Dragon Lord wiped his eyes and took a deep breath before replying.

'No,'

'Then let’s go,'

'Fair enough,' and so they did.

Before them lay Rathwulf, with Fex leaning against his right foreleg talking with another Dragon Lord who was similarly supporting himself on a huge black limb that belonged to a dragon only slightly smaller than Rathwulf. Alaya and her dragon were standing in one corner unsure what to do. Harald nodded to her as he plodded in and was about to walk over when Fex noticed his presence.

'Are you going to make a habit of arriving last?'

'Sorry,' said Spine and Harald in union.

'Hm, anyway now that you're here we can begin. Come on gather round, we don't bite...usually. So have you got a name?' Fex addressed this to Spine who answered immediately, 'A good name, let us hope you live up to it. I don't believe we are properly acquainted, my name is Fex and my partner is Rathwulf. This is Larmand and Dolsem,' here Fex indicated the other Dragon Lord, then turned and addressed the miserable youths again 'you may notice that there is no one else here and yet there are four of you. The reason for this is that the council of Dragon Lords has decided that given the happenings at the bonding ceremony you two,' here he pointed at Harald and Spine 'are to be apprenticed to an experienced and responsible pair. So they found the kindest people in the whole order who would nurture you carefully over the next five years so as not to damage either of you mentally or physically. Unfortunately they were busy so they dumped you on us instead.'

Harald groaned inwardly imagining a future of sarcastic comments and patronizing attitudes.

'Which clearly means,' Rathwulf spoke now 'Alaya and Camara, you are to go with those two.' Larmand nodded politely, but otherwise remained silent and still.

'Any questions?' Fex spoke again.

'Where are we going?' Spine asked, a hint of excitement flashing through Harald’s mind.

'We'll get to that later. Now have you all got your belongings with you?' They all had 'Good, then is there anything else you need to do before we go?' They all said no 'Fantastic, then to Alaya and Camara I say goodbye and good luck. And to you, Larmand, I say that next time I see you, if you still haven't got that money I’ll punch you into the middle of next week.'

'In that case old wolf,' Dolsem replied on behalf of her partner, the rounded snout showing the huge beast to be female 'we shall make a point of avoiding you.' That was it? Harald was unsure whether he was expected to do something. He had only arrived a minute or two ago and they were already leaving? Where was the send off? The ceremony? At the very least where was the last minute paperwork? But no, Fex was leading him and Spine off to the opposite side of the arena where two horses were tethered. Horses? They were going by horse? What was the world coming to if Dragon Lords were using these dull creatures to get around? Rathwulf must have sensed the confusion for he turned his massive emerald head to look Harald in the eye in that unnerving way of his and said,

'I think it would be quite amusing to watch you try to ride Spine at his age don't you think?' Harald hadn't thought about that. 'As for the lack of ceremony, why would we need it? It is simply a waste of time and money and usually ends up being rather a bore.' That was equally true and after only a brief moment of consideration Harald conceded the point. Fex was waiting by the horses which were already saddled and ready to go,

'Rathwulf will be flying straight to our house, Spine will accompany us on the road.’

‘Now can you tell us where you live?’ the hatchling asked.

‘About a mile east of Duxen,’ Rathwulf answered as he leapt majestically in to the air.

'Duxen? But that's miles away,' Harald had to shout to make himself heard over the noise of the dragon’s takeoff.

'Don't worry, we'll be there in about ten days.' Fex said cheerily. Harald once again groaned inwardly.

The journey began in an awkward silence. Fex was content to sit and listen to the birds and the wind and the sounds of the natural world, Spine was busy chasing crows and Rathwulf was long gone. Harald made one or two attempts at conversation, but they were swiftly rebuffed by the old Dragon Lord with short, decisive replies. The prospect of spending the next five years as his apprentice was not looking to be a very good one. At last, after what must have been hours, Fex finally spoke.

'You know, you're only the third pair of apprentices I’ve ever had.' Harald remained silent, unsure how he was supposed to reply. 'One hundred and seventy two years serving the order and yet they have only given me three pairs to train. What does that tell you?'

'Well, err,' Harald fumbled for an answer 'I suppose that you're either too good to waste on that sort of thing or...'

'Or what?' Fex asked, one eyebrow raised. He knew the other answer but was reluctant to say it for fear of insulting his master, and he also could not work out what the old elf was trying to get at. In the end he settled for a polite way of stating the negative.

'They're not quite sure that you would manage as well as usual with some inexperienced idiot hanging around?' He posed the answer tentatively, waiting anxiously for the response. Fex regarded him carefully, clearly assessing something before muttering just loud enough to hear,

'You're far too polite, we'll have to knock that out of you somehow.' Not a response Harald had been expecting.

'What’s the problem with that?'

'Courtesy takes up time and disguises what it is you want to say, just get to the point and to hell with feelings.' They rode on in silence for another few minutes before Harald asked a question that had been nagging him for some time.

'What does this training actually involve?'

'Anything and everything. There’s the obvious things like combat and flying, though in truth that all becomes dull after a while, and then all of the stalking, sabotage, assassinating and generally anything that involves sneaking around.'

'Sneaking around? You mean spies? Doesn’t the king have special people for that?'

'Yes he does, us.' Fex answered with a grin. The Dragon Lords were spies. That seemed wrong on so many different levels. Of course the main problem with the idea was that a dragon Rathwulf's size wouldn't be great at the whole stealth thing. When Harald voiced this thought Fex explained,

'The dragons make excellent scouts, they can also take us in and out of enemy territory, remove patrols quickly, disrupt supply lines, chase down messengers, cause distractions, the list is endless. Then when it comes to an open battle a dragon and lord can do a huge amount of damage to an army.' Harald thought all this over, the idea of dragons being used for espionage was a weird one, but everything Fex had said made sense. This new revelation brought on a new wave of excitement about joining the ranks of the Dragon Lords.

‘You are sort of right though.’ Fex continued.

‘What?’

‘About the king having special people to do the same things we do. The Royal Scout Regiment. Officially they’re a military unit but in reality they’re very similar to us, usually working alone or in small groups.’ As Fex spoke about the scouts, Harald could hear the barest hint of respect creeping in to his master’s speech.

That short conversation did loosen Fex up a bit and the journey was made easier by the occasional piece of information or questions about Harald’s own life. On the second night of the journey his master decided to give him a challenge. Fex drew him aside after the other men in The Orange Sparrow, the tavern in which they were staying, had all drunk themselves to sleep.

‘What is it?’ Harald whispered, tired and confused as to why he had been dragged away from the stairs and bed.

‘How much money did it cost to get us lodgings for the night?’

‘Err…twenty marks?’ He was now even more confused.

‘Correct. Now, did you see where it went?’

‘In the box behind the counter.’ Fex’s mouth curved in to a crafty smile, unsurprised at his new apprentice’s detailed knowledge.

‘Well then, a little bird told me that in a past life you were a bit of a thief.’

‘Well, yes I suppose, if you want to put it like that…’ Harald was beginning to have an inkling of where this was going, twenty marks was a steep price by any standards.

‘I feel this stay has been unsatisfactory and I’d rather like my money back…’

‘Probably best not cause too much of a commotion though, by say… asking.’ He had cottoned on now, and Fex was struggling to contain a grin.

Shouldn’t we wait for the barman to go to sleep?’ Harald continued.

‘Now where’s the fun in that?’

Harald placed one foot carefully in front of the other and started to make his way slowly towards the counter. He moved stealthily through the sleeping drunks and making as little sound as possible that could alert the owners who were still talking in the room behind the bar. The door was slightly ajar allowing the constant patter of conversation to seep through, along with the thin glow of light from a fire. He crept round the counter and immediately spotted the small chest sitting innocently on the floor with a padlock keeping it securely shut. Harald turned back to where Fex was standing in the corner watching intensely and mouthed the word ‘locked’. Fex nodded as if he had expected nothing less and motioned that he should hide, by pointing beneath the counter and mouthing the word. Harald did so and a moment later heard his master call out in a drunken slur for more grenale. There was a surprised mutter from the room and a moment later the barman appeared. He walked straight past Harald and approached Fex who called out once again, Harald could not help but peek around the counter to see what the old elf was going to do.

‘Gimme anuver one,’ he said in a perfect imitation of one who has lost his wits to drink.

‘I’m sorry sir, but I’m not sure you should be drinking anything else this evening. Perhaps tomorrow eh?’ The barman said in a bored but reasonable tone. Fex then pulled off one of the most artful thefts that Harald had ever seen, at the same time as he said,

‘Buth I need one now…’ his arm reached forward and grasped the tavern keeper pleadingly. Just before he fell on to the table as if finally asleep he somehow managed to flick the little iron key towards Harald who reached out and snatched it out of thin air behind the barman’s back. The hapless innkeeper was shaking his head disapprovingly and completely unaware. When he had gone back in to the room behind the counter, Harald unlocked the chest and took twenty marks from its contents, counting them into his palm. Then he locked the chest again and placed the key next to it, as if someone had simply forgotten to pick it up.

The house was a small one, with only three rooms and an open space where Rathwulf was sleeping, having completed the journey in only two days that had taken ten by horseback. The main room was for cooking and eating and the other two were used as bedrooms although Harald suspected that until recently his room, if it could be called that, had been used for storage, as his master was not the type to have regular visitors. The thing that surprised him most however was that Fex lived on his own, no wife, no children, nothing, and the lack of a family showed for everything was there for purely practical purposes. There was very little in the way of furniture and what there was, was unadorned and simply made. There were no rugs or rushes to cover the floor and the walls were devoid of decoration so that the oaken planks had been worn and scratched over the hundreds of years in which they had been used by Fex’s family. The only thing there that provided a small splash of colour to the dull woody room was a small portrait the height and width of Harald’s forearm. The object of the painting in many ways resembled Fex, the shape of the nose and the brow were stunningly similar, but the eyes and cheekbones were those of another man. He guessed it must be a relative of his master’s and didn’t comment on the image, though decided that when he and Fex were better acquainted he might ask more about it. Harald dumped his bags on the end of his bed and then went back outside to find the old elf and Rathwulf talking fondly to one another. Fex turned when he heard him coming, with Spine following close behind.

‘Have you dumped your things?’ he asked.

‘Yeah,’

‘Good. Your training will start tomorrow, there’s no point in doing anything now it’s already halfway through the day so for now there’s some house work to be done. Harald, follow me, Spine you go with Rathwulf.’ Fex and Rathwulf lived on the edge of a huge forested cliff which overlooked the land to the East that spread for miles, the forests eventually giving way to rolling grasslands teeming with deer. The woodland below and around the small wooden hut in which the Dragon Lord lived looked perfect for boar, wolves and bears, though Harald doubted very much whether any of those fearsome creatures dared show their snouts near Rathwulf.

The great emerald dragon leaped off the edge of the cliff and spread his wings wide, gliding away regally, followed by the somewhat smaller but equally elegant ruby that took the form of Spine.

‘Where are they going?’ asked Harald, staring after the two creatures.

‘Rathwulf is going to show Spine where all the hunting grounds are, and how to catch prey when it’s in the open. Anyway, we need firewood, water and food for ourselves, come, and be sure to remember where they all are, this won’t be the last time they need to be collected.’ Fex picked up two buckets that were lying beside his hut, then led the way down a beaten track through the trees and it was not long before Harald could hear the gurgling of water off in the distance, and soon after that they came upon a clearing. There was a stream running through the open space, the water happily meandering through the earth on its long journey to meet up with the sea.

‘Right then,’ said Fex ‘the water here is clean and fresh, and around there,’ here he pointed around the edge of the natural circle ‘are snares. Do you know how to check and set snares?’

‘No, sorry,’ Harald said, a little embarrassed.

‘I’ll show you, it’s quite simple.’ The rest of that afternoon was surprisingly pleasant. The old Dragon Lord showed his apprentice how to set the traps that he used to catch rabbits and pheasants, how to kill them as quickly and painlessly as possible and later, when they had collected enough wood and water, how to prepare them for eating be it by plucking or skinning. For the first time Harald began to see a slightly different elf in his master, compared to the harsh, blunt and patronizing person whom he had experienced over the past two and a bit weeks. Fex maintained a steady torrent of disapproving sarcasm, but the young elf began to relax in his company and even began to enjoy himself. Maybe life as a trainee Dragon Lord was not going to be so bad. The bliss of ignorance.