A Tale of Dragons

Chapter 03 - Riding the Dragons

"What happened to 'dragons are free roam creatures and you don't just own one'?" Max argued.

"I don't think it counts," Nigel cut in, offering a sly smile. "If the dragons asked us to ride them."

"They...asked you?" Max said confused.

Nigel only nodded.

"How?"

"Max I think you're forgetting I practically speak dragon."He laughed.

"What?! Are you serious?"

"Did you not hear me calling them or something? You were right there."

"I-I didn't know that was dragon." Max claimed in a small voice.

Nigel smiles widely. "Well," he starts. "You wanna ride or not?"

Max nods, his eyes wide with excitement and curiosity. He bounces on his feet wondering what he was supposed to do.

"Okay," Nigel began. "Come here."

Max obeyed finding himself in between Nigel and the dragon that had been Primed.

Nigel called out a simple phrase in ancient tongue and the scarlet dragon instantly bows its head and body to the ground.

"Hop on." Nigel instructed.

Max gently climbed on the dragon, swinging his left leg over the other side and lightly gripping a spike on its back.

The dragon huffed into the sod ground blowing a bit of dirt into Alyssa who had come round to the front of the dragon.

"Wait." Max interjected jerking his head back to Nigel and George. "Does he have a name?"

George smiled ear to ear and Nigel scoffed looking to George.

"Yeah,"Nigel answered, clearly finding something funny. "George named him. They don't respond to their names though, unless you say it in dragon."

Max smiled and asked the dragon's name, the one that had been Primed.

"Its Wind Whisper," he paused as a chorus of laughter erupted from the group, "only in dragon its Akeethen."

At the mention of its name, Akeethen turned his head slightly. It wasn't much but it was enough to jostle Max around enough to scare him and cause him to tighten his grip on the spike of the dragon.

"Woah." He mumbled fascinated.

"You okay up there?" Alyssa joked. The dragon's head was taller than her own height. She stood even with its silver eye. It glistened in the light revealing flecks of cloudy blue and sea weed green around the coal-black iris.

"I'm fine."He answered quickly. "Lets go."

After a few words of advice from Nigel and George occasionally interrupted by Alyssa, Max was ready to soar.

He tightened his grip on the spike like Nigel said and lowered his body flat against the scaly back of the dragon.

Nigel uttered a few words and the dragon rose slowly, stretching huge wings against the rock cavern. If it hadn't been for his sane sense of mind and the fact he friends were with him, Max could have sworn that he was in a fairytale, a mythical world, not a dim boring one. The wing tips of the crimson dragon touched either side of the rock walls and drooped to the floor, relaxed. Max could see the veins reaching from one end of the wing to the other. The wings themselves were beautiful, amazing to glimpse at. Like the scales, they too were a tinted shade of red, the only thing different was the wings had specs of gold streaming through them. They sparkled and glowed in the sunlight casting a reflection wave on the walls.

Max was speechless; never before in his life had he ever seen something so beautiful, not ever, let alone up close. How lucky he was to have such trusting friends, to live in such an amazing world where the deepest secrets hidden in a dark forest, were the most wonderful of all. Dragons were that of legend, yet here he was sitting upon the back of a magnificent creature, a creature of beauty and grace, a creature of great wisdom and fierceness.

Something so graceful and fragile, but dangerous and daring at the same time.

The dragon began to slowly flap its wings, which was difficult considering the narrow space of the cavern was all it had to maneuver.

As he rose higher, the ceiling appeared to be solid rock, was revealed to be a tendril of leaves and vines with casted shadows on them.

The crimson dragon pushed through them like it had a thousand times before, and stretched its wings to their full vicinity. They were nearly even with the green trees now, and if max reached out a ways, he could probably grab a few leaves. That would be unwise as George had told him that the take off and landing were the most important of times and he shouldn't distract the dragon.

The dragon lifted Max higher raising its head to the sun. With a final stretch, the dragon instantly flapped its large wings faster moving forward until they were soaring freely.

Max was flying.