Inferno Legacy: Loyalty of the Dragon (Book Two)

Chapter 21

It was a long walk back to the main cave, where Cody had reunited with Inferno, but when they reached it he found that it was well worth the wait. The golden sunlit caressed his paler than usual skin with its gentle beams of light, and Inferno and Destiny glistened dazzlingly bright as soon as they emerged from the tunnel at the rear. His happiness remained with them long afterwards, though it was only a few seconds later that they went down another tunnel.

A while later they came to a large door that opened slowly when Blissful knocked in some odd pattern. The room that was revealed to them was larger than any room Cody had yet seen in the Dreamkeeper's realm. The floor and about ten feet up the walls there was intricately painted forest land, rivers, lakes, and prairies towards the end of the 400 foot-long hall so that it looked as though with each step they were flying over the forest and not just stepping over a painting. The rest of the walls and the ceiling, which rose perhaps a hundred feet up, were painted the richest blue of a summer day, with thin, wispy clouds at the top and a bright golden-orange sun actually shining and giving off perfect light in the distant corner.

"This is the hall where many of the Dragon Warriors of old would train, before your land was civilized for the Warriors to live together, without us to depend on. Using a vast store of magic, over a dozen riders and dragons sculpted out this hall, painted it, and trained later riders the art of magic, with room enough to practice flight and aerial techniques as well. We still use this hall to train our own, but as long as you are here it is yours to use as you wish and will be left untouched," Blissful explained.

Willful nodded his head and added, "We must leave now, but at the end of the hall you will find two doors. The one to your right leads to the library where you will find your mentors and the door to the left leads to your rooms. We wish you all luck in your training, and hope that you will grow to enjoy our home."

And just like that, they were gone. They all stared at the massive door, even after it had closed behind the king and queen, before finally turning back to the room. Everything about it was so realistic, and even without knowing magic, they could all feel that the very air was thick with it.

"Can we fly, Rider?" Inferno asked, an audible whimper bursting from his lips as he pleaded.

It took Cody mere seconds to leap into the silver saddle strapped onto Inferno's back, it having been strapped back onto his back after being healed. It took Inferno even less time to leap into the air, wings extended to their full width. And for the first time since Inferno's horrible injuries, they flew. They flew for the first time in a long time, as rider and dragon.

Inferno rushed up into the painted sky faster than he had ever climbed before, the wind rushing over his scales and buffeting Cody as he did. When they neared the ceiling the dragon flipped over and scraped a claw over the smooth surface of a cloud, making it ripple somewhat. He pushed off from the ceiling and spiraled quickly around for a few seconds before opening his wings again at the end of the hall and flipping around to view their companions.

To their surprise, Destiny and Avalsmokes were floating towards them with fantastic speed. It could not come close to the feeling of flying in an actual sky, but no one cared. The four of them were flying again, and from the looks of it Omen and Ashheart were perfectly satisfied looking up at them from the ground. They were all happy to be free, healthy, and on the wing.

As Destiny approached, Inferno twisted over onto his side and dove away from her approaching form, but she skillfully dove down near him in close pursuit. Then the black dragon spiraled through the air for a second time, but faster, making Cody close his eyes as he clung on tight for dear life. When they stopped spinning, a shadow passed over them, and Cody opened his eyes, only to burst out laughing. Above them he saw Aval, hanging from the blood-red saddle on Destiny's back as the gold dragon did an intricate dive around Inferno's form. Together the two dragons did a complicated dance of diving, twisting, swooping, and spinning around each other. After perhaps ten minutes of this the dragons finally landed upon the floor once again, short of breath and with eyes glowing brighter than ever.