Dragons & Mermaids II

Chapter I

I was in a fierce and brutal battle. Enemy soldiers were coming from every direction at me. It was a thousand to one, but being a Dragon Rider had its benefits. Gripping my emerald green sword, Terris, I cut down foe after foe.

“Stop now!” a gruff voice said behind me.

            I turned and was the last enemy holding a knife to Queen Ashley's neck.

“Surrender or she dies!” he said.

            Ashley was taking in small deep breaths, scared for her life. Her smooth face was held to the sky, giving the knife a clean place to slice her throat open. I pulled a dagger from its sheath on my sword belt and threw it at him. It spun toward him and hit him right between the eyes, nearly taking off Ashley's left ear. She let out a startled cry as her captor fell.

“Three minutes ten seconds with not so much as a scratch. Is that a new course record?” Tyler asked. He was in a special observing room with the others. The battle field faded with the corpses and left the rectangular simulator room with me and Ashley inside. “I think it is.” I said as I sheathed Terris into its green sheath.

“Oh man, Ashley, he almost got you.” Adam said as we came in the room.

“Any closer I would have lost an ear, Matthias.” Ashley said to me.

“Well, I gotta be fast in order to survive. Adam, you're next.” I said.

“Okay, boss.” he said.

He and Kayla went into the simulator and we started it up again. Adam drew the iron sword that hung from his belt. Kayla was in there as an ally to Adam. The exercise we were doing was to aim and throw a knife at the captor who was holding the maiden captive and threatening to kill her. The daggers were padded so if we missed it wouldn't hurt the captive. Adam was an impressive fighter, but when he got to fifty he got sloppy. His kill count was now past fifty and climbing to sixty. What he didn't see was the foe that sneaked behind him. The foe stabbed Adam in the back, between the chain mail and the armor plate, and the simulator ended. It went dark except a red light on Adam.

“Your dead. Your Dead!” the robotic computer voice said before a chorus of terrible maniacal laughing.

“We need a new voice for the game over.” Fred said.

“You said it.” Liana agreed with him. Adam sheathed his sword and walked out with Kayla.

“Well, ya got past fifty.” Lamar said.

“But I'm not as good as Matthias.” Adam protested.

'Well I think that's it for today. Take a break and read up on your studies and histories.” I said. We came out of the simulator and into the storage room. We put our sword belts in our personal bins and our armor on the newly crafted wooden racks made to hold our armor. We headed back to our quarters, but Ashley stopped me.

“Let’s go swimming. Just you and me.” she said.

“Yeah, okay. Why not?” I said. Even though I was considered the King, I wasn't. The King would be the man that Ashley chose to rule beside her. That was me. But my duties as the lead Rider came first. We left the castle and went to the water hole. She sat by the shore, took off her dress, and shifted her legs into a tail with her mind. The secret that she was the mermaid princess, Oceana, was all over the kingdom. Ever since I killed her uncle, who had tried to sacrifice us to gain the throne and steal my Rider powers. I took off my shirt as Ashley slid into the clear water. I grabbed the rope swing the gang had installed last year. I let go and fell into the water. I shook my red hair out of my eyes and Ashley was underwater moving her green scaled tail in the motion of a dolphin. I swam to her and we embraced. We had begun sleeping in the same bed since her parents were killed by her uncle’s apprentice, Javion. I remembered her coronation. She made me her right hand commander and acting King. It would end if she ever found anyone who made her happier than I did. We leaned close to kiss, but the ground started to move below us. The ground came up and lifted us out of the water. My green dragon, Vanilor, came up out if the water, with us on top of his head. He looked down, sliding us back into the water.