The Darkest Dragons

CHP. 3 "Sky Training"

Abelard's P.O.V

I walked away from Raine towards the guards. The male guard looked to be a little older than the female guard, but the boy seemed to be my age. I looked at the male guard as he stepped forward, I calculated how much stronger he would be than me, he was twice my size and had a hard face while his soft blue eyes contradicted his hard features. He had white hair that was a stark difference compared to his rather tan skin. I could probably win a battle against him in agility maybe. He said "Hello, my name is Grey, I will be teaching you swordsmanship and your assassin skills. I promise you'll need those skills, I will also teach you a little about tracking." I nodded towards him and quickly muttered a thanks. The female stepped forward and I knew right away she was much more faster than me, she also looked like she could kick butt, she would be very difficult to best in a battle. I gulped and she smiled slightly, she had very long white hair, she was slightly paler than the man but she was still tan. Her eyes also seemed to glow, she said in a smooth voice "hello, I am Chase. I will teach you how to shoot arrows and how to throw knives and spears. I won't be as nice as Grey, so be prepared." she smiled again and finally I turned to the boy, he was a little taller than me and his hair was spiked but fluffy almost but still white like the others. His eyes were a very dark blue, he had defined muscles and I found I admired him, he could probably best me in a match for strength but we looked evenly matched, and maybe we were. He said "hello I'm Caleb, I will be helping you practice these skills. I am the top assassin here almost competing for the top rank out of everyone, that's being slightly modest." I laughed and he continued. "I will help you with each of these skills and I will also be doing mock fights to test you. I hope we will be friends, we seem evenly matched." I dipped my head to him and said "I thought the same thing, of course we will be friends, I was half as strong as my Father, he has a mountain Dragon so his strength is about 10 times stronger than anyone... That's being slightly modest." I winked and smiled and we both laughed. I heard a murmur to my right "he will be a handful, he might even beat you Chase." I laughed and turned to Grey, "You really think I'll beat Chase?" Chase glared at Grey before laughing. She said "If you work hard then you could possibly beat me." I smiled and grey stepped forward and said "Well, let's get started shall we?" I nodded and they pulled out a bow and arrows. The bow itself was beautiful. It was made with beautiful wood, smooth and polished. It had hints of gold embroidery. The arrows were the same way. I took the bow lightly weighing it out. It was very well balanced. I smiled and looked at the target which was only 15 feet away. I aimed holding my arm steady, I aimed at the middle then felt the wind, the wind was blowing softly to the right to I moved my arrow slightly to the left of the center this only took me a second before I smiled and shot. Dead bullseye, I smiled and turned to Grey and chase, they both smiled and Celeb moved the target back 5 feet. I took another second to aim and shot earning another bullseye. Caleb moved it back another 5 feet. I knocked an arrow and shot making a bullseye, before anyone could blink I knocked another arrow and shot, the second arrow split the other in half and plunged throughout the center. I smiled and finally lowered the bow. Looked towards Caleb and he was gaping at the arrows I had shot. I glanced at chase, Chase looked proud, she said "Well, I know we won't have much to work on with archery. Lets move into spears shall we?" I nodded, I never really trained with spears a lot but I knew how to use them well. So when I was given 4 spears and a slightly larger target I smiled and relaxed my shoulders. I grabbed the first spear and I looked towards the target, we were starting at 10 feet again. I took a deep calming breath and pulled back my arm. I knew I wasn't very good at spear throwing, it showed when the spear dropped a little below the center. I took the another spear while Caleb put more distance between me and the target. I aimed and threw the spear again and it landed right up against the other spear. I glanced at Chase to see if there was any input needed. She stayed silent and I grabbed another spear, I aimed very carefully and threw the spear. It landed slightly above the two Spears, where they were touching, to my annoyance. . I looked back at Grey and chase and they both said "Maybe we'll work on spear throwing a little bit." I laughed and Celeb handed me 10 throwing knives as he went to watch the targets. This target was a man. Next to it was a woman. I smile and threw five knives in quick succession towards the man and 5 towards the woman. I took a deep breathe before checking my results. I had thrown two knived into his head, almost off the board though and another near his chin. The other two knives had punctured his left lung slightly and the other had fallen lower into his side. Not too bad. I looked at the woman next; I smiled a bit as I saw that three had made it to the chest, one near her heart while the others covered both lungs. The other one was in her head and the last one was in her shoulder. I glanced towards Rains wondering if she was doing okay too. We had both trained to do this since we were 8. She was amazing at projectiles while I wasn't as good and I was great in swordplay while she wasn't very good. I also had trouble tracking. We had no trouble with the assassin part though. Being able to turn virtually invisible had its perks. 😈
Hand to hand combat wasn't my strong suit, I was more of a distance person. I looked back towards Caleb, he was putting the targets away which meant we were moving on to hand to hand combat...
(HHC, guys I'm lazy! 😱)
Caleb gave me a single sided Army Sword. Just a regular sword anyways. I marveled at its look, it was long and had a very strong grip. I smiled already seeing my defeat and sighed as I got ready to be beaten. I got into my stance and awaited the signal to fight. I was up against Grey first. We both nodded at each other before Chase said "Fight!" Grey immediately went in for the attack while I took defense. I blocked blow for blow easily flicking the blows away. We danced around each other till I finally started to attack, I sent left and right and left and right till I could tell he got used to my attacks. I quickly struck right and then when he thought I was going left I went right again and when he blocked right again I attacked his left. I noticed he was blocking high so I attacked low and got a few hits in. He stumbled and I used my extra strength and pushed him down. I widened my eyes and pointed my sword at his throat. "I won...I actually won!" I jumped around and raised my sword. I looked towards Chase and she started laughing. I said "I've never really been good at sword fighting. It wasn't my strong suit. I am good at noticing things though." I turned to Grey. "When you got too comfortable with my sword strokes I switched it and used your confusion to my advantage. You were also blocking high." he nodded and said "It is usually one of  my mistakes." I laughed and I also said "I am not a good tracker either. But I'm a great assassin. I bet 100% you'll never see me coming. Chase scoffed and said "Whatever I'll see you in a moment!" she sniffed indignantly and I laughed. I shrugged my shoulders and said "Whatever you say... I'm just saying you'll lose this bet every time." She turned to face me fully before turning around and running away about 50 paces where she was surrounded in trees and leaves. I smiled and nodded looking to Grey, we shrug our shoulders. I turned to look at Chase. She was sitting in a crouched position. I knew we were starting now. I looked around me and slowly I felt myself fading into thin air. My body formed every little detail around me. I walked towards Chase quietly. My feet not making a sound. I looked down every few seconds to make sure I wouldn't step on a leaf. I smiled as I got closer. I eventually made it to the trees and got behind the closest one. I silently congratulated myself and then continued on. I looked around and smiled. I stepped on a leaf and she spun around and yelled "Aha I got y-" she looked around her words dying in her throat. She looked around in confusion and I stepped down every time She crunched down on leaves. I finally made it behind her before she stopped walking completely. She just stood looking back and forth. I took this as my cue and I grabbed her shoulders. She screamed and jumped about 5 feet away from me. I reappeared before she whipped around while I was laughing. She looked bewildered. She exclaimed "Where did you come from I was looking around everywhere!" I smiled and I walked back towards grey. He was looking at me like I grew two heads. I frowned and said "Grey was what I did wrong?" he shook his head and then looked at Chase speechless. I blushed a little and grey said "How... How did you do that!?" I smiled slightly and said "I have always been able to do that, it's an ability I get since I'm bonded to an Obsidian Dragon." Chase looked even more bewildered than before. She said "Grey what are you talking about?" grey looked at Chase and said "Ask him, I believe we are done training for today, dinner will be in an hour." he looked at me and chase did too. I sighed and said "Okay I'll show you, I just hope I wasn't cheating." grey nodded and I changed into my surroundings. My body blended in perfectly after a moment. Chase gasped and reached out a hand to touch me. I smiled and became normal again. She said "Wow, that's a handy trick. I can't wait to train with you, you are so talented that it's almost unbelievable that you are 12!" I laughed and finally Caleb spoke up. "If you grabbed someone and concentrated real hard, could they become invisible too?" I shrugged and became part of the landscape again. I grabbed Caleb, putting my arm around him. A moment passed and we were about to let go of each other but I finally pushed my power into Caleb. He finally disappeared from my view although I could see the air shifting. I smiled and let go and watched as he turned to normal. We cheered and Chase gave me the directions to the place I would be sharing with Raine. I glanced over at Raine and she was talking with her group animatedly. I'm glad she had fun too. I walked over to Raine and when I stopped next to her She looked at me and threw her arms around me. We were both sweaty so we didn't mind as we were drawn close to each other. I smiled at her two guards and her training buddy. Raine looked at them to and pointed to the female guard and said "This is Luna." she pointed to the male and said "This is Ryan." I smiled and nodded to each. She then gestured to the girl and said "And this is Iris." I smiled at Iris, she was very pretty, she had snow white hair with very light blue eyes. I said to Raine "Our rooms are over in that building, dinner is in 45 minutes." she nodded and then turned to her guard and new friend. I kept sneaking glances at Iris, she locked eyes with me but we broke it when Raine said briefly that she would see them at dinner and then she linked arms with me and basically dragged me to our rooms. She dragged me into our room and dropped me. she started to blabber about all these things she did. She said "I was pretty good at shooting arrows but it needs a little work, my knife throwing was spot on and I could throw a spear like a pro! I did awful sword fighting though, we tried three times and I lost all three times... anyways I totally scared them when we were tracking. I can't wait for tomorrow morning. We have to be out by 5:00 I thought they would go earlier but I guess we need to see what we are doing." she laughed and her laugh ended up being contagious because a moment later we were both laughing together. I smiled and said "Well, I aced archery, knife throwing needs some work, and spear throwing... that was just annoying. My swordsmanship needs a touch work and I aced the assassin thing too. I gave Chase a little scare." we both laughed a little. I turned away as Raine started to undress, I started to undress too and we both pulled on clothes that the Guardian had set out on our beds. I had a black dress shirt that hugged me in the middle and my arms. I had nice pants too. I turned around and Raine had a lilac purple dress that had black beads around her chest and black beads coming up from one side of the dress. She looked too old for a 12 year old. I was about to say something but the guardian's rider came in, Skyler, "Oh Raine, darling you are just so beautiful, Abelard you are looking rather handsome too if I may say!" My face heated up and I smiled. Raine laughed and I linked arms with Raine forgetting about the dress as we followed Skyler out. We followed her to a big building and we took a few lefts and then a few rights and then we went up some stairs and finally we made it to a huge room with a grey long table. There were a lot of Sky people already seated. Skyler looked towards a huge window and saw The guardian land. Our two dragons landed too, we ran over and hugged our dragons. We took an orb out of our pockets and threw than at their feet. Mom and Dad always made sure we had the shrinking orbs that Metin had created. That sorceress really was a genius. The dragons both shrunk and when they were a bit bigger than a Shetland pony they stopped shrinking. We walked back to the table and everyone was staring at us with wide eyes. Someone said "What did you do to your dragons they are so small now!" we laughed and said "Our sorceress makes shrinking orbs for our dragons so they can be inside with us. Royal dragons get overly attached sometimes." we sat down and our dragons sat down under our chairs. After a moment dinner was presented in silver and golden platters. I smiled as the platters were opened. We were having bird for dinner. The bird was served with asparagus and a few other vegetables. We started to eat and every so often i'd give little bits to Arian. Soon everyone was finished and small platters were brought out. Inside was a hot lava cake with hot chocolate and caramel dripping from it. My mouth waters just from the sight of it. I looked towards Skyler she was watching us curiously. I smiled to her and then picked up my plate. Everyone was digging in but when I cut into the cake a weird sort of small touched my nose. It smelled pungent not like a lava cake should smell like. I grabbed Raine's wrist as she went to take a bite. I linked her "Smell it first." she looked at me with a crazy look and then smelled it. She widened her eyes and she put it down. I put a bite on my fork and let Arian small it. He growled and stood up. I stood up too and went over to Caleb's seat. He had not bit it yet but from where he had cut into it I smelled the poison. I stopped him from taking a bite but before I could say anything the man in front of Caleb started to eat the cake. I yelled "EVERYONE PUT THE CAKE DOWN! DON'T EAT IT!" I ran over to the man and his face was purple and he had boils on his throat. He gave a few gasping breathe before he laid still. I looked up at the table and studied everyone. I said to Raine "I'm going to ask everyone if they did it. Listen for the culprit." She nodded and I stood. "Did anyone at this table poison the food?" everyone shook their heads but Raine stood up and pointed to a girl. Raine said "Liar! Why did you poison the food!" the woman stood up and spluttered she said "Why would I ever want to poison people's lava cakes? Of course it wasn't me!" Raine yelled again "Liar, how dare you lie to me! I can tell when someone is lying and I can also detect the truth." You wanted to take over and still be a friend of Skyler's, you knew that if you had someone poison the food then throw the person you paid under the bus then you would be a hero! Well I caught you and I can't say anything on your punishment but I know skyler will have justice." we turned to Skyler who looked very pale, she said "Rose? My lifelong friend? How could you do this?" rose looked down, her features softened and rose said "I was blinded by power. In sorry but I really wanted a high position and I knew I couldn't get there. Everyone in this room is better than me and when I went seeking for help a man came and told me exactly what to do and I did it... I'm so sorry sky, I don't know what overcame me." I looked towards Raine she nodded and said "She tells the truth. Who did you bargain with?" Rose said "a man, he never said his name, he only gave me directions and if it worked he said to meet him at a clove at midnight the night I did it." I walked over to her slowly and said "Tonight at midnight?" She nodded. I looked to Raine and she nodded. I looked to Skyler and She said "Abelard I need you and Raine and your guards to go and search." I nodded and we left the room, our dragons following close behind. We made it to our room and we saw that it was getting dark. I would say we had about 4 hours. Dinner had been fun. While it lasted. We all had talked and joked for about 2 in a half hours while we ate. I hate that some people could be manipulated so easily. I knew what had to be done.

I will kill Stryker!