by Ramy Vance
Alex held up the harrigold she’d picked so the sunlight glowed through the flower’s thin petals. “The only time I had ever seen before was in a place that wasn’t real, or at least, not like the real place. I’ve never seen my parents with my own eyes. I’ve never seen anyone from my old life with my own eyes. It’s…it’s different.”
Jim nodded as he listened. “What about me? You’ve seen me as an avatar and now real life. What’s that like?”
Alex tucked the flower behind her ear and laughed. “You? Yeah, I saw you in VR, but seeing you in real life for the first time was, ah, interesting.”
“Oh, yeah? What was interesting about it?”
You’re freaking hot, Alex thought. Probably not the best thing to say right now. “You looked pretty much like your avatar,” Alex finally said. “I heard that wasn’t something most people did. I’m not sure how much my avatar looks like me. You know, I couldn’t really use a mirror.”
Jim moved, so he was right in front of Alex, looking her in the eye. Alex wanted to turn away, but something kept her eyes glued to Jim’s. “Hm,” he said. “You don’t look different. Guess you don’t need to see yourself to know what you look like.”
Jim didn’t move and kept staring into Alex’s eyes. Alex couldn’t tell how long they looked at each other, but she didn’t want to look away. She felt like she could spend the rest of the day with him like that.
Thankfully, Chine broke Alex’s concentration. He’s thinking about asking you on a date.
Alex maintained her look of stoicism, but her heart was racing. A date? She’d never been on a date. She’d never even thought about going on a date. Why would she want to do such a thing?
Chine interrupted Alex’s train wreck of thoughts. He’s very nervous.
Before Alex realized it, she had already opened her mouth and was saying, “Of course, I’ll go on a date with you.”
Jim’s eyes widened as he stood up, awkwardly trying to shove his hands in his pockets, only to realize he didn’t have any pockets. “What? I wasn’t asking, I…wait, how did you know I was going to ask you?”
“Call it a hunch. After this mission. Lunch or coffee? I don’t know what people do on dates.”
“I think since I asked you, I’m supposed to come up with ideas.”
“Technically, I think I just asked you, but sure, take the pressure off me.”
Just then, a siren went off near the mines. Alex jumped to her feet, looking in that direction. “Guess that means it’s time for us to go.”
Chapter Six
By the time Alex and Jim got back, the rest of the dragonriders were ready to go. Four of the mech riders had arrived and loaded up the minerals. It was explained to Alex that the mech riders rode in prototype mechs based on dragon physiology. The mech tech hadn’t worked out as originally planned, and these were really only good for transportation.
Roy was the only rider who had managed to “meld” with his mech, whatever that meant. Alex got the gist of what was being said, though. Since they didn’t have proper reaction times, the mech riders were sitting ducks in the air, and Jim was one of them.
As well as the mech riders, six more dragonriders had arrived. They were veterans and didn’t seem to have any time to waste talking to the newbies. Alex tried not to take it personally. The veterans probably thought Team Boundless would need babysitting.
One of the veteran riders, a wood elf named Alborn, stood atop his dragon, a beautiful purple lightning dragon with white horns curled like a ram’s. “All right, Team Boundless, I’m glad you’ve finally decided to join us.”
Alex ignored the irritation in Alborn’s voice as she mounted Chine. “Seems like we were the ones who were waiting around for you to show up,” she called back. “You missed the fire and everything. Or did you not bother to ask Rocten?”
Alborn’s eyes narrowed as he frowned at Alex. “I see respect for seniority doesn’t mean much to humans.”
“No, not really. And last time I checked, dragonriders are equal across all boards, right? It’s not like you outrank us, so you should probably stop talking to us like you do. Boundless? You guys ready to go?”
Team Boundless stared at Alex, dumbfounded. None of them had been expecting her to talk back to the veteran riders. Earlier, Brath and Jollies had been fawning over them.
Alex wasn’t impressed by the veterans. It wasn’t that she thought she was better than them; quite the opposite. As far as Alex was concerned, the only respect you should give to people was what they gave to you. Life was that simple.
There was a reason Alex was a dragonrider, and now wasn’t the time to pretend she had gotten in by mistake. Manny, Myrddin, and her parents believed in her, and more importantly, she believed in herself. If Alborn wanted to talk trash, he could suck it.
Team Boundless was going to get the mission done. She didn’t need to be on good terms with every dragonrider for that to happen.
Alex double-checked her coordinates, linked up with Chine, and took off for the skies. She hit her comm and patched into the mech riders. “You might want to head up with us,” she suggested. “We need to make sure we have you guys surrounded in case something happens.”
The rest of Team Boundless took to the air, along with the mech riders. Alex moved to the front of the formation and said, “Guys, I think taking a five-point position will work best. One of us in the front, one on each side, and two in the back. That sound good?”
Brath moved toward the back, explaining, “Furi’s a little rowdy. Might be better to be in a spot where he can stretch his wings if something happens.”
Jim moved to the back too and said, “I think we can be of use back here.”
Gill and Jollies went to the sides of the formation without saying a word. Alex took the front, and they headed toward the coordinates as the other dragonriders took off and tried to catch up with them.
Alex noticed the other riders were trying to reach them, and she slowed her pace so they could ride beside Boundless or join the formation. Alex turned to Alborn. “I think we got off to a bad start. Name’s Alex. Glad to be working with you.”
Alborn looked extremely taken aback by Alex’s straightforwardness. Finally, he grinned and nodded. “Wasn’t expecting such a strong-willed teenager,” Alborn admitted. “Glad to see you know how to handle yourself, though.”
“Ass or not, we have each other’s backs. We have your back. The mission and the team will always come first and foremost.”
Alborn rubbed the back of his neck as he chuckled. “Your level of professionalism is starting to make me look bad.” He sighed. “But you’re right. When we reviewed the coordinates earlier, it looked like we could shorten the travel time by cutting through the valleys to the east.”
Alex brought up her map and looked at the valleys. “Hm…yeah, it looks like they cut straight through to where we’re trying to go. Sounds good to me. You want to take point?”
Alborn nodded and motioned for his team to take the foremost position in the formation, so Team Boundless was following them.
Chine’s voice came through Alex’s head. That was mature of you.
Alex shrugged as she stared at the clouds. Eh, I don’t think it was that mature.
I highly doubt Brath would have done that.
Okay, if Brath is the standard, anything I do for the rest of my life will be mature.
Alex turned her attention to the skies as Team Boundless, the mech riders, and the rest of the dragonriders headed toward the valleys.
Chapter Seven
The dragonriders descended into a canyon. Its stone walls were white as alabaster, and the air was cooler than higher up in the sky. The valley was deeper than it looked on the map.
They flew farther into it. Alex imagined this was what the Grand Canyon would have looked like if she had ever seen it. The canyon was deeper than anything Alex had ever seen in Middang3ard.
It wasn’t hard to be impressed. Alex had read about how such things were f
ormed, thousands and thousands of years of water slowly eroding the stone and earth until something massive and awe-inspiring remained.
A rush of cold wind blew past her face, chilling her nose and making it run, so she had to wipe it. She couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face, though.
Alex looked around at the faces of the other riders to see if she was the only one who was obviously having a good time. The members of Team Boundless were either smiling or grinning widely, even Brath. Alex was glad she was surrounded by people who loved to ride as much as she did.
Up ahead in the formation, Alborn pointed to the crags in the canyon’s wall before hitting his comm and saying, “This is one of the oldest canyons in the realm. They say it’s the realm’s equivalent of your Grand Canyon.”
She knew it! But then she thought about it and realized she wasn’t sure what it was she knew. “What do you mean, ‘the realm’s equivalent?’” Alex asked.
“That’s the way the realms work. You can think of them as sandwiched on top of each other. Granted, each realm has its own quirks, but some of the geographical placement is similar. Most of the realms have a variation of your Grand Canyon in or around the same place. This one is nowhere near as large as the one on the human realm, though.”
Alex smiled as she looked around and tried to take the canyon in. She knew her parents would get a kick out of hearing that she had seen the Grand Canyon or something like it, despite not being on Earth. Alex felt a twinge of guilt, wishing she could share this with her parents.
At the same time, Alex was very glad this was hers alone—these people, this adventure, all of it. This was an experience she was never going to forget.
Jim’s voice came through on Alex’s comm. “Hey, you ever go to our Grand Canyon?”
Alex hit her comm to turn it on. “No, I never wanted to. My parents tried to take me once, but if the trip was to take in its wonders, I didn’t see the point,” Alex said, remembering how much her decision had upset her parents.
“Well, are you glad you’re finally getting to see it now?”
Alex turned back and pointed toward the sky. “I heard the one we got back home is even bigger than this. Now I do want to see it.”
Static crackled across Alex’s comm and cut off her conversation with Jim. The static got louder and she turned it off, hoping that resetting it would get rid of the noise. When she turned it back on, she heard Albnor’s voice. “We might have a problem,” he said. “Look down.”
Alex leaned over so she could see past Chine’s shoulder. It was hard to make out, but it looked like there were riders down at the bottom of the canyon. She squinted so she could see more clearly; there were definitely riders below. “So, what, there are people down there?” she asked.
“The canyon is strictly a no travel zone for civilians. There shouldn’t be anyone down there, let alone that many. I’m counting at least thirty bodies. That’s not good.”
Brath’s voice came through over the comm. “Who cares? They’re down there, and we’re up here. All we have to do is keep that up. We’re way too high up to be fired at.”
Chine interrupted Brath in Alex’s head. Alborn is right; this isn’t good. And it is about to get much worse.
At the bottom of the canyon, the riders, clothed in black and atop black steeds, rode on, the wind of their passage echoing up the canyon’s walls. The feet of the steeds were not hooves. They were the talons of birds of prey.
At a sign from the rider at the head of the posse, the rest of the riders pulled off their clothes, revealing their identities. The riders were trolls.
Once the riders had tossed away their cloaks, the magic shielding their steeds disappeared, and they were revealed to be bizarre birdlike creatures. The foul creatures looked humanoid, although their bodies were elongated and contorted.
They were sinewy and covered in sparse gray feathers. Their necks stretched uncomfortably long, ending in vulture heads, the skin thin and rotten-looking. They each had four mangy wings. A golden cap was fitted on their beaks, open to show rows of sharp teeth.
Alborn pulled up on his dragon, preparing to send it back into the sky. “We got vrosks and trolls,” he shouted.
Alex had never seen a vrosk, but she had seen trolls in Middang3ard VR. If these things were like those she was used to, they could be up to ten feet tall. She didn’t want to think about how big the vrosks must be.
The rest of the dragonriders took their cues from Alborn and headed back up toward the sky, but it was too late. There were at least fifteen vrosks and trolls above them. It was an ambush, and they were hemmed in.
Alborn cursed under his breath and furrowed his brow, running through his options. Alex saw him thinking, very aware that if he didn’t figure something out soon, the Dark One’s forces were going to close on them like a pair of scissors. It wouldn’t be hard for them to steal the minerals after that.
The vrosks above started to descend slowly, taking their time, likely relishing the fear they knew they were instilling in the dragonriders.
Alex hit her comm and called to Alborn, “Hey! I think I know what we should do!”
Alborn wiped away the sweat forming on his brow. “I didn’t ask you what we should do! Hold on, I’m thinking!”
Alex knew there wasn’t any time. The longer Alborn thought about what needed to be done, the worse position the dragonriders would be in. Chine, you ready for this? Alex asked as she looked at her dragon anchor.
The scales across Chine’s back rose and fell. Yes, Dustling. I am.
Alex hit her comm, bringing up all channels. “Team Boundless. We are engaging the enemy beneath us,” she commanded. “Mech riders, I want you down there too. Brath and Jaws, you split from the back and take the sides. Gill, I want you on top, shielding them.”
Alex pointed to Jollies and Amber. “Jollies, you’re with me. We’re going to thin out the party beneath us. Dash in and out. Get at least half of them, and then we regroup up here. Then all of us will push up and scatter the forces above us. Then we bring the fight to the canyon.”
Jim shouted, “Are you kidding me? You want to engage? They outmatch us—”
“Wasn’t a suggestion, Jaws. Go!”
Alex didn’t wait to see if anyone followed her. She tore straight for the vrosks and trolls beneath her, scanning through her inventory to see if she had any weapons stored. Should have checked that before I left. She laughed to herself.
Chapter Eight
Alex descended so fast it felt like the wind was slicing her face. She held out her dragon anchor, and a scythe appeared in her hand. The scythe was nearly the size of her body, and she was surprised she could lift it with ease. Never used one of these before. Should be fun.
Jollies flew at Alex’s side, barely visible in her peripheral vision. If the pixie was here, that meant the rest of Boundless probably had come as well. Alex hadn’t even thought about asking what anyone else thought they should do; she’d had just acted. Hopefully, it had been the right decision.
The vrosks beneath Alex and Jollies still hadn’t given any indication they had noticed Jollies and Alex heading toward them. I was right, she thought. They were expecting us to go straight up and take on the vrosks overhead.
Alex turned her thoughts toward Chine. Hey, how do we use your augments? Do I need to tell you anything or activate the—
Chine stretched his wings out, slowing a little as they prepared to attack. Same as flying—we’re connected as if we were one body.
Alex smiled as her dragon anchor glowed. Perfect.
Chine hit the ground amidst the vrosks and trolls at full speed, tearing it up with his claws. He breathed a plume of ether fire into the air and his gravitational augments activated, increasing the gravitational pull on everything on the ground.
Now that gravity had been increased, the vrosks had ground to a stop, as had the trolls, all of them weighed down by a force of nearly a twenty gees.
Alex leaped off Chine, slamming her dragon
anchor to her chest as she spun her scythe around her back before bringing it back to her dominant hand and slicing off the heads of three trolls in one sweeping move.
Behind her, Amber and Jollies flew forward, the pixie activating one of Amber’s augments that caused the lightning sparking off the dragon’s body to echo a shadow of her movements as she increased in speed, leaving behind afterimages of herself that vibrated with electricity.
Jollies flew between as many of the trolls as she could, ramming Amber into them, leaving an image of the dragon and shocking their bodies with electricity.
Alex spun around and sliced at a troll who was holding a rifle, cutting it down before it could fire.
Up at the top of the canyon, the vrosks were beginning their descent upon the remaining dragonriders and the mech riders. The vrosks swooped down as the trolls hurled energy-charged spears.
Gill raised his dragon anchor, and Timber deployed a forcefield that spread over the riders. The energy spears collided with the forcefield, exploding and sending sparks flying everywhere.
The vrosks pulled up, trying to avoid the sparks, but many of them were caught in them. Then Brath detached from his position and flew toward the vrosks as Furi shot fireballs. The veteran riders just looked around as if they were caught in their first battle.
On the ground, Jollies was getting ready to rejoin the rest of the riders. Alex had leaped back onto Chine, and they were headed up as well.
One of the vrosks reared its head, and its beak glowed an icy blue before it fired a volley of icicles at Jollies. They hit Amber and the pixie head-on, nearly knocking her from her dragon. They veered to the right and crashed into the canyon wall.
Alex turned Chine’s head to face the vrosks again, and he shot ether fire at the vrosks. They scattered, giving the pair enough time to get back on track, and the two riders flew as hard as they could to meet the others.
Once Alex and Jollies were back with the other riders, she was able to assess the situation. The vrosks and trolls at the bottom of the canyon were still reeling from the attack. Now would be the best time to put an end to them, but doing that would require leaving the minerals with minimal defense again.
