by Martha Carr
“Yes, it is.” Her companion patted Teo’s side, nodded, and gazed at the long valley of clipped dragons. “They’re noisy today.”
“I thought the same thing.” She stepped toward the edge of the grassy hill. A disorganized circle of dragons on the east side of the valley stamped and snorted and their wings twitched outward in quick flashes of translucent colors. The huge beasts brushed against each other, jostled those beside them, and tossed their heads. “Now I’m starting to think something else.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t look quite right, does it?” He scratched his chin and watched the odd behavior that played out below them. The other dragons had spread out and moved away from the most agitated beasts to keep a safe distance. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“Something’s not right,” Teo added softly and stretched his neck toward the opposite end of the valley. “Look.”
It immediately became apparent what the other clipped dragons were trying to avoid. A massive crater of charred earth, cracked stone, and huge gouges across the mountainside scarred the last highest ridge they’d flown over before landing. Scattered across the devastation were at least four dragon bodies, all torn to shreds.
“How did we miss that?” Raven whispered.
“We flew right over it.” William clenched his jaw and scowled at the destruction. “That’s what has the others so riled up.”
“That’s awful.” She swallowed uncomfortably, stepped toward Leander, and put a hand on his scaly shoulder to reassure them both. “They didn’t…do that to each other, did they?”
“Do you see any dragon here big enough to leave massive furrows like that in the ground?”
Raven looked at him. He’s angry but not at any of us.
“So what could’ve done something like this?” she asked.
William sniffed and his jaw clenched with restrained fury. “I have no idea. But it’s not something I—”
A series of earsplitting screeches rose from the beasts in the valley. Two of them had begun to fight, any communication they might have exchanged lost beneath the snarls and the endless growls.
“I’ll ask what happened.” Leander stepped toward the edge of the hill but stopped when he felt Raven’s unspoken desire for him to wait.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” she asked tentatively.
The red dragon lowered his head and twisted his long neck to look at her intently. “Do you want to know what happened?”
“Of course I do. But those are wild dragons, Leander. Even if they can’t fly.”
“I have to second that, Leander.” William nodded at the red dragon, his brows drawn together in anger and concern. “None have been trained at all. I don’t expect any of them to listen to an outsider.”
Leander snorted and fixed his gaze on the dragon trainer. “When it comes to everyone but Raven, flyboy, I’m as untrained as they are. Which makes me the best choice to see what they know.”
The young man pressed his lips together and looked at her.
“If he can find out what did this, maybe we can stop it from happening again.” The young mage nodded. “Leander’s right.”
Her familiar took that as complete permission and took flight over the edge of the grassy hillside toward the shrieking, snapping, growling beasts below.
William ran his hand through his hair and watched the red dragon land in a clear space yards away from any of the clipped dragons. Some turned to look at him with interest, but most of the others continued to fight and squabble with each other. “I hope he knows what he’s doing.”
“He does.” Raven folded her arms as Leander spread his wings to their full span and stepped toward the closest dragon he thought most likely to tell him anything at all. “Even if he didn’t, he’d figure it out.”
Teo snorted, pawed the ground, and watched as intently as the riders.
She chewed the inside of her bottom lip. I have to bring it up. “William?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you ever seen or heard of some other dragon-like thing that’s not exactly a dragon?”
He paused before he turned slowly to look at her. “A dragon-like thing?”
“Bigger than three dragons put together. Weird-looking, covered in spikes. That flies.”
The dragon trainer gave Teo a confused glance, but the dragon paid no attention to their conversation. “I’m really curious where you got an idea like that, Raven.”
“In an image Leander sent me.” The young mage puffed her cheeks out in a slow sigh. “Last night. Most of what he saw was only a shadow above the clouds, but whatever it was had a tail. And it was…” She squinted as she tried to come up with the right word. “A little concerning. And yes, it was definitely big enough to leave those kinds of scratches in the ground and do that to other dragons.”
William took a deep breath. “There might be a loophole with a familiar sending their mage images from their mind.”
“What?”
“Dragons have dreams like everyone else, Raven. When they’re asleep and when they’re awake.”
“It wasn’t any kind of dream.” She frowned at her friend. He doesn’t want to believe me. “It wasn’t a daydream either or some kind of dragon’s imagination at work. Leander told me that was exactly what he saw. Besides, a familiar has to concentrate hard to send an image to their mage.”
His scowl softened a little and he shook his head. “If that’s the case, I have no idea what kind of creature that tail belonged to. Whether or not it’s the same thing that scorched the valley and attacked the dragons here, I’ve never seen it before.”
“What about stories? Have you ever heard of giant dragons?”
“No. The only dragons that I know exist are those the trainers help raise, train, and eventually pair with their riders. There were more wild dragons once, a long time ago, but if they’re still around, they’re somewhere way across the sea. Not here on Threndor and definitely not big enough to do this kind of damage.”
Raven studied his profile and the way his jaw clenched and unclenched again. Wild dragons from across the sea. It sounds like a fairytale but so did being a war mage with a dragon familiar.
Another round of snarls and screeches rose from the valley, followed by a bellowing roar and the quick snap of razor-sharp dragon’s teeth. Teo’s wings twitched out from his sides, and he shuffled agitatedly across the grass as he watched the fight below.
Two of the clipped dragons had turned against Leander and swung their huge heads on long necks to butt the red dragon aside. The others pawed the ground in increasingly aggressive expectation as they added their cries and circled the fighters.
“Leander doesn’t seem to be too popular with the locals,” William muttered.
“He’s fine.” Raven couldn’t look away from the start of the battle below them.
The larger of the clipped dragons—with mottled brown scales and a large scar running down the length of his flank—spread his wings and reared inches off the ground.
Leander did the same and unleashed a challenging roar. As an unclipped dragon, though, he raised himself onto his rear legs. His wings beat huge gusts of wind against the cantankerous dragons and swatted at the huge brown with a forepaw.
His opponent snarled but stepped back and muttered something that Raven, William, and Teo couldn’t hear. Leander launched into flight and left the other startled, agitated, fearful beasts behind him. He flew quickly to the top of the hill and landed gracefully beside Raven before he turned to stand near the edge of the hill overlooking the valley.
She shared a curious glance with William. “Well?”
Leander snorted. “That was interesting.”
“What did they say?” William asked.
The red dragon stretched his wings and swiveled his head to look at both riders. “Much of it was nonsense, honestly. They can’t seem to agree on anything.”
“So we’re right back where we started.” She looked down at the clipped dragons, wh
o hadn’t settled at all after the newcomer left them.
“Not quite.” He pawed the ground and turned. “They agreed on one thing. A monster attacked the clans in the valley.”
“A monster.” The trainer rubbed his eyes before he stared at the scorched earth across the valley and the scattered remains of the brutally defeated dragons.
“Some beast none of these dragons recognized. And they’re all terrified.”
Raven approached her familiar and held her hand out, which he bumped with his snout before he lowered his head for a quick pat. “What could scare a dragon, let alone a whole valley of them?” she asked
He exhaled a heavy breath through his nose. “Probably more than you expect if none of them can fly.”
“A monster?” William frowned so deeply now that his whole face scrunched. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Teo growled softly. “We’re not welcome here.”
“I had started to pick up on that.” Both rider and dragon watched the wild beasts with clipped wings. More of them had turned to stare at the visitors perched on top of the hill. “Raven. Leander. I think it’s time for us to go.”
“Probably.” Raven nodded and leaned toward her dragon. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He rumbled and nudged her hand away. “Their fear makes them useless now. They were more dangerous right after the attack here. But now, they’re wary and confused and without any direction.”
“What an awful place to be.” The young mage sighed a heavy breath and glanced into the valley again. “Thanks for trying to talk to them, at least.”
“It wasn’t completely useless.”
“All right.” William stepped into the stirrup and swung into the saddle. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Yeah.” With a final glance at the scared, angry dragons without flight, Raven walked along Leander’s flank as he lowered himself to his belly for her to climb aboard. Running and jumping feels like too much right now. He gets it too.
She stepped onto the base of his tail and walked quickly up the ridges of his back. He rose to his feet again, and when she sat behind his neck, she nodded at her dragon trainer friend. “Ready.”
Leander and Teo took flight at the same time and their shadows raced across the valley that was supposed to be the sanctuary of clipped dragons.
Now, it’s another dangerous place and they have no way to get out.
Chapter Thirteen
The excitement over a ride together had all but disappeared when the dragons and their riders returned to Moss Ranch. Raven leapt from Leander’s back and brushed her hair out of her face while William dismounted.
“Good work, Teo.” The trainer patted the side of his green dragon’s neck and plastered a weak smile on. “You’re as fast as ever.”
Teo inclined his head toward Raven and Leander. “Thank you for inviting us. I still enjoyed it despite what we found.”
“Me too,” she replied with a tight smile of her own.
“You did well,” Leander added.
Raven, William, and Teo all paused in surprise. He doesn’t usually talk to other dragons, let alone compliment them. The young mage darted her dragon a sidelong glance, but he was focused on lowering his head toward Teo in return.
“As did you.” The green dragon turned toward William. “I would like to return to the field now, William.”
“No problem.” The trainer deftly unbuckled the saddle girth below Teo’s green belly and slid the saddle onto the ground. He slipped the harness over the dragon’s bowed head and dropped that too before he moved quickly toward the gate into the dragon paddock.
Teo began to approach the opening in the fence and paused to mutter, “Don’t worry. I won’t tell the others what happened.”
This time, William’s smile wasn’t forced at all. “I trust you. Thanks.”
Without another word, the green dragon ambled slowly into the field with the other Moss Ranch dragons and disappeared into the throng of beasts who milled around. Two of them backed away when they sensed the green dragon’s distress, but that was the only reaction.
Leander lowered his head until it hovered over Raven’s shoulder. “Teo has a better handle on his thoughts than I expected.”
“He’s holding it together well, isn’t he?” The young mage patted the side of her dragon’s face. “So are you.”
“I don’t like what happened to those dragons any more than you do, Raven. But I’m not frightened by a monster no one can describe.”
She leaned away from his head to look at him in one glowing yellow eye. “Except for us.”
“Perhaps.”
William returned from hanging the tack in the stables and dusted his hands off. “I’m with Teo. That was a weird thing to see.”
Raven nodded. “Those dragons were really having a hard time. It kind of reminds me of—”
“The dragons in Azerad,” Leander finished for her.
I shouldn’t even be surprised by now that he can finish my sentences too.
William’s eyes widened. “There were clipped dragons in Azerad?”
“No. They could all fly, as far as I know.” Raven wrinkled her nose. “Leander was in the stables with a few dozen other dragons. They all seemed as scared as those in the sanctuary today, now that I think about it.”
“And empty.” The red dragon released a breath and his wings twitched out slightly.
William looked from one to the other, a little perplexed. “I think I missed something.”
She glanced quickly at Leander and shrugged. “We think the dragons they stabled there in the city might have been…trained differently. Domesticated, I guess, but to the point where they really didn’t act much like dragons at all.”
“Until that huge brown ate a raider in a few bites.” Her familiar grinned.
“Wow. Actually ate the guy, huh? You don’t have to answer that. It was rhetorical.”
More than happy to change the subject, Raven tilted her head and added, “I’ve watched you train the dragons here, William, and you mentioned a standard for training a few times. How strict are those rules, exactly?”
“Well…there are guidelines.” The dragon trainer shrugged and frowned as he paused for thought. “Every ranch has their own slightly different methods. Some trainers are extremely heavy-handed with the punishment approach, which I’ve never enjoyed watching or hearing about. We stay away from that altogether, but a few of those harsher techniques make Leander’s small pen here look like a vacation on the beach in comparison.”
Raven grimaced. “That’s probably what the trainers in Azerad were doing. Or whoever trains the dragons for the city, I suppose.”
“It was more uncomfortable there than what we saw at the sanctuary,” her familiar added. “The dragons in Azerad had serious problems.”
“Are you sure that wasn’t simply their reaction to having a snarky red beast show up with his mage?” When the dragon snorted, William stepped back and raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry. That was a joke.”
“So were those dragons.” Leander’s eyes narrowed but he didn’t comment again.
“All right. Well, it’s not my place to get involved with other trainers’ methods. That’s up to every ranch, honestly.”
Raven shook her head. “William, if you’d seen those dragons, you might have wanted to get involved.”
“Hmm.” The dragon trainer didn’t look convinced. “I’ll talk to my dad about it. Maybe he’s come across a few of these other trainers or their dragons. He might know more, but please keep in mind that putting dozens of dragons together in the same stable in a busy city tends to dampen everyone’s spirits. That might be what you saw too.”
“Maybe.” I don’t think so. She shrugged. “If you do talk to your dad, let us know what he says.”
“Absolutely.” William hooked his thumbs in his belt and watched the Moss Ranch dragons a little longer. “And so you know, I’m still glad you guys stopped by and asked us to fly
for a while.”
Raven smiled and continued to rub the side of Leander’s face over her shoulder. “I have a feeling we’ll be back soon for another ride. Somewhere other than the sanctuary next time.”
“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. Another chance to clear our heads.”
“We’ll be back. You can count on that.”
“I do.” He stepped toward her and Leander, who didn’t move from where he hovered over his mage’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t worry too much about this alleged monster. Honestly, that could simply have been a furious dragon involved in a sneak attack in the middle of the night and staging all that damage to cover it up. They really are smart enough to do that, especially when they’re wild.”
She nodded. “I know they are. And if that’s what happened, we don’t have anything to worry about.”
“Exactly.”
William, Raven, and Leander stood there a moment longer to watch the Moss Ranch dragons who walked, stamped, and lay with their clans in the paddock.
“We should get going. Let Mr. Moss here finish whatever he was working on when we showed up to surprise him.” She smirked at her friend and drew her hand along Leander’s flank.
“Honestly, it wasn’t much of anything. There’s much less work now that my dad’s not so gung-ho about protecting against raiders.”
“Maybe you can take the rest of the day off.”
William snorted and snatched up the wide-brimmed hat he’d hung on the fencepost before their ride. “Probably not. Only a light afternoon.”
With a boost from Leander, Raven jumped onto her dragon’s back and nodded at her friend. “We’ll be back soon. And be careful, okay? If that thing at the sanctuary wasn’t a pissed-off dragon in the middle of the night, there’s still something out there.”
“I have dozens of lookouts with heightened hearing and an even better sense of smell.” He gave her a thumbs-up. “If anything is flying around that’s not supposed to be, we’ll all know.”
“Good. See ya, William.”
Leander vaulted into flight and the dragon trainer stared after them until they were a spec in the sky heading north toward Fowler Academy.
