The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain) (2 page)

             
“I don’t know what my life will hold, but I know I’m not meant to rule. I would like to have a silver dragon.” Hayden had never put much thought into which color he would like to have,  he just wanted to be a rider, but if his choice mattered, then a silver would be what he picked.

             
“A man who does not want to rule, but would rather serve. That is very rare trait. You might actually make a rider worth having, boy.” The old man stared at nothing in particular, deep in thought as he spoke. “A real rider worth having.”

             
“What are you talking about? The riders are brave and noble men and women who put their lives on the line to keep us safe.” Hayden would not stand for some old man to slander the riders.

             
“Boy, you are in for a rude awakening if you ever get an egg. You don’t know half of what you think you know, and the half that you do know is wrong.” The old man began to raise his voice as he spoke, as if he were speaking to a child. Hayden watched the old man’s face start to turn red, and a little dot of white foam appear at the corner of the old man’s mouth. “Just wait until you get to the city, you will see that what you’ve heard about the riders is little more than just fairy tales, nothing more. You will see when you get there, it’s better for you to see the truth than just hear it.”

             
Hayden, having no response, continued walking in silence for the remainder of the day. It passed by in a blur for both of them and it wasn’t until they broke off the main road to set up camp that the old man finally spoke.

             
“I’m sorry for the way I spoke to you earlier, the words are true but the way in which I spoke was wrong.” The old man said while trying to set up the wood for the fire.

             
“It’s ok… I just realized I still don’t know your name.”
How could I not have realized I didn’t know his name after a whole day of traveling together?
Hayden thought.

             
“Ah, you don’t, do you. Well, boy, you get to have the pleasure of saying you have met Fendrel.” He made a mock bow as he spoke from his hunched position over the now smoldering pile of wood. He then put his attention back to nursing the growing flames as they began to lick their way up the wood.

             
“Well, Fendrel, it is a pleasure to meet you. So what takes you to the city?” Hayden sat on the ground and let the warmth of the fire begin to wash over him. He looked around and watched the elongated shadows that the dancing flames cast about him with slight amusement.

             
“Well I have family in the city that I have not seen for many years and it would be nice to spend a little time with them.” Fendrel, having gotten the fire to a comfortable size, took off his overcoat and rolled it up to use as a pillow. He stared up into the dark sky and gazed at the sparkling stars that smiled down upon them. “What about you, boy, what does your family think about you leaving home and going off to become a dragon rider?”

             
“I have no family. I grew up going from house to house living with the people who could support me until they wanted me to leave. The last few years, I rented a room at the inn in Erskine and worked it off cleaning and taking care of the stables where the travelers left their animals.” Hayden did not like talking too much about his family, or lack thereof, but if he was going to tell someone his history, he wanted to get it all out at once so he would not have to elaborate too much.

             
After Hayden spoke, Fendrel sat up and faced him. He thought long and hard before speaking to the young man. “I know how you feel, my brother and I tried to join the riders when we were both eighteen. He thought he could handle anything, and as it turned out he couldn’t. He was killed not to long after his first year as a rider.”

             
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
His brother was a rider
Hayden thought to himself.

             
“It’s ok, it happened a long time ago.” Fendrel eased down and went back to staring up at the stars.

             
“So your brother was a rider, huh? Did you not want to be one?” Hayden leaned back also. He spoke in a joking manner, trying to lighten the mood.

             
“Ha, boy, I wanted to be a rider ten times more than you want to. It was all me and my brother dreamed about for years, all we ever talked about. When other kids were outside playing games we were running obstacle courses and practicing fighting, getting ready for when we turned eighteen and got our chance to become riders.” Fendrel placed his arms behind his head and just smiled. He turned to look at Hayden and was surprised to see him staring back at him.

             
“Well, what happened? Why did you not pick an egg?”
How could someone want a dragon so bad and not pick one?
Hayden thought.

             
“How do you think someone gets a dragon? Do you think that they just waltz up to the Metal Pyramid and just say ‘hey I want an egg’ and they just hand them out?” Fendrel chuckled to himself.

             
“What’s the Metal Pyramid?” Hayden felt embarrassed by his lack of knowledge about the dragons.
If I can learn a lot from Fendrel, then it might give me an advantage over anyone else who wants an egg.
Hayden smiled at the thought. He wanted an egg, and it seemed Fendrel could help him achieve that goal.

             
“’What’s the Metal Pyramid?’ You really don’t know? Well what do you know about dragons and riders besides the legends? What do you know about them that are facts? Do you know how they pick the riders or how you get which color ?” Fendrel got back up and sat crossed legged in front of Hayden as he spoke.

             
“Well, no.” Hayden averted his eyes from Fendrel.

             
“So you want to become a rider but you don’t know how or at what cost.” Fendrel looked into the flames as the wood started to crackle.

             
“Do you know all of that?”

             
“Every young child in Celestial City is taught about the riders.”

             
So much for having an advantage.
They both sat in silence and watched the flames dance in the wind.
How could there be so much to the riders that no one back home would even talk about it.
Hayden was deep in thought when Fendrel spoke again.

             
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, boy. All you can do is learn what you need to and move on with it.” Fendrel’s eyes never left the fire as he spoke.

             
“Will you tell me about the riders?” When Hayden finished the question, Fendrel finally raised his piercing eyes and looked at Hayden.

             
“I will tell you about them, but not until tomorrow. We have two more days of walking ahead of us, and it will give us something to do while we walk.” With that said, Fendrel lay back down on his makeshift bed; although this time he did not stare at the stars, instead his eyes were closed tightly.

             
Hayden thanked him politely and laid back down himself. As he was about to close his eyes, a streak of fire shot across the sky. As it lit up the darkness, Hayden could just make out the shining shape of the dragon that caused the disruption. Hayden sat up instantly, and without taking his eyes off where the dragon had been, he shouted at Fendrel.

             
“Did you see that?!”

             
“Tomorrow, boy, tomorrow,” Fendrel said as he rolled over and went to sleep.

             
Hayden leaned back and with a smile and closed his eyes, waiting for the sleep that he knew would be difficult to find.

Chapter 2

            
 
Thud.

             
“Ow!” Hayden rolled over onto his side, clutching his lower ribs. He blinked a few times to get the last bit of sleep out of his eyes. He quickly looked around to try to get his bearings and figure out the cause of his pain as Fendrel began walking away from him, shaking his head as he went.

             
“You say you want to be a rider, boy, but you can’t even get up at a good hour, not to mention you whine like a baby when you get a soft kick to the ribs.” Fendrel made it back to his pack and began double checking everything while he spoke to Hayden.

             
“You kicked me in the ribs?” Hayden questioned loudly.

             
“Softly. I said softly,” Fendrel replied.

             
Hayden got up slowly, trying not to cause any further pain. He stayed there for a few moments catching his breath and inspecting his side gently with his fingers.
Just sore, nothing broken,
he thought

             
“Well are we going to sit here all day or are we going to cover some ground? We have two days to go, let’s not turn that into ten days.” Fendrel was finishing tightening everything down and hauled his pack onto his back. He turned to face Hayden and gave him a wave of his hand to say “let’s go.”

             
Hayden already had all his gear packed up, as he had used his pack as a pillow the night before. He picked it up and trotted along after the old man. He was still angry about the kick he just received, but before he could voice his anger Fendrel spoke.

             
“Before you keep whining about the gentle kick back there, I think it would be best to put it behind us and not waste any further time on it. We have much to discuss between now and the city, and I want to try to fit it all in.” He looked over his shoulder and eyed Hayden, waiting for a response. When one did not come, he turned his head back around and continued walking before he cleared out his throat.

             
“Good, now before we get into how they pick the riders, you need to know why they pick them. When the metallic dragon eggs were first found, the world was starting to spin into chaos. The dwarves and elves were always at war with each other because the dwarves needed wood and the elves did not want to trade with them , so they dwarves took it.” Fendrel began talking as they trekked across the road. They had to take breaks to catch their breath once in a while, but they tried to keep moving as much as possible.

“
Everyone began to fight with each other soon after that, some of the races even fought amongst themselves. Once they each got their dragon eggs, everything calmed down for a while and a false peace fell on the land. While all the dragons were young, everyone focused on them, but once they got big it was only a matter of time before they started fighting again.”

             
“It had been one year after the eggs hatched that the dragons were able to carry people long distances, and that’s when it happened. The first two to meet were the pirates and the elves. One day, while the pirates were doing one of their raids, the elves ambushed them and brought one of their green dragons to surprise and overwhelm them. As the dragon broke through the woods and leapt towards the sky it let out a long roar, issuing a challenge to the pirates below. To the elves’ surprise, the pirates did not run in fear as they had expected them to. Instead, one of the pirates blew a loud horn and two giant blue dragons shot out of the water like arrows, and went racing to meet the green dragon.”

             
“The green and its rider were startled and they tried to slow down the blues’ assault. Just when the green opened its wings all the way up, the two blues hit it. The green was bigger, but not by much, and the two blues were moving faster. The blues knocked the green into the trees and one of its wings broke when they hit the ground. The green roared with pain and anger, but it was cut off short when one of the blues bit into its throat. It wasn’t long and the green was turning into stone. It was the first dragon to ever die. They went to hunt its rider, but they found the elf already dead even though he had not been hurt. The other elves ran, and soon the fighting broke out more than ever. Whole villages were burnt for no reason, and miles of forests were destroyed. Ships were sunk and thousands died. The stone remains of dragons were everywhere. The lucky ones lived a few years but very few stayed alive long.”

             
“Even the human barbarians in the southern ice land began to desire more than what they had, and they thought the bone thieves would be the easiest to defeat. No one came back from that raid, but some say you can still find some bone thieves wearing the fur armor that the barbarians wore. The battles raged on for years, consuming everything in their path. No one helped each other, and there were times when one of each of the five colors of dragons met and they all fought until there was one winner.” Fendrel ushered Hayden to stop so he could get a drink of water. Walking almost nonstop was hard work for an old man, and talking for most of that walk just winded him faster.