The Darkest Dragons

CHP. 4 "Meeting Stryker"

Raine's P.O.V

We flew towards the clove that Rose had told us about. She said that he would be there at midnight exactly. We arrived early, it was around 11:30 when we landed. We landed and quickly disguised ourselves in the thick foliage that surrounded the clove. We were dead silent. We waited for what seemed like ages when finally a huge dark dragon landed. It was like a shadow descended into the clove. Dark red eyes scanned the clearing. Stryker, the same guy from the dungeon, walked around the perimeter of the clove. He got right next to us and stopped. He turned to face us and we held our breathe. My legs were aching from the position we were in, I thought I would finally fall but Stryker moved on and continued his search. Stryker said "That darned woman! I knew she couldn't do it. Why did I think I could get her to poison the guardian?" I was filled with rage, I gripped my sword and letting go of my breathe I stepped into the clearing and without revealing myself I said "Stryker, what you have done is wrong! You will have to stop or you and your Dragon will suffer!" he whipped his head around and stood trying to figure out where my voice was coming from.I walked in a circle not letting him figure out where I was and continued "If you wanted to really avenge your father you would prove everyone wrong and you would help dragons and protect them but instead you enslave them and forcefully breed them to create dragons of destruction!" he looked scared now, he cried out in a voice that held sadness and grew into anger "I cant, I made a vow! I'll never stop, I'm doing good, these dragons now have someone that will look over them and tell them what to do instead of looking around aimlessly following their riders! They have a reason to live now because they will be used to conquer lands and keep peace by keeping people in line!" I almost revealed myself but I controlled myself and said "That isn't the way, you don't lead by fear, you lead by fairness and honor and being worthy of followers. You can't force dragons and people to do things that they are not and do not want to do! That is wrong and if you continue you will pay, you will lose everything that you have gained and you won't succeed in your quest of domination. Your father didn't and neither will you." Stryker got extremely angry when I mentioned Mabuz, he said "You don't know my father! No one knew my father! If that stupid queen had knew my father she would not have killed him! I will destroy her whole family and everyone after that! I will! I will complete what my father couldn't. One Dragon at a time." with that said Stryker jumped onto his Dragon and like lightning, he flew away. I revealed myself and looked towards Abelard, I said "He isn't going to stop, so we are going to stop him. Abelard said "We are just 12! How are we going to destroy someone who almost has an army of shadow dragons; Shadow dragons that are evil and follow his command?" I shook my head and said in a determined voice "I don't know but I do know that we can figure it out. We have help, we have friends who have been training for this and will help us. We have a guardian Dragon, that we had no idea that existed, on our side. We can do it Abelard, we have to or our Dragons will all die. What mother has been working on most of her life is now ours, we have to keep the dragons alive, mom brought them back, now we are going to keep them here!" Abelard nodded and said "Your right, I need to keep a level head. We can do it, mom explained about everything, she told us about the mountain of mazes and the swamp forest, she told us about the tundra. We know there are mud dragons in the swamp, there are ice, snow, and ocean dragons in the tundra, we know there are all kinds of dragons in the mountains and the forests. We have our army, it's in the skies and all around us. We can do it!" I stepped forward and held up my hand. Abelard grabbed it and we put our foreheads together for a brief moment. As we stepped back our dragons came over and butted us with their heads. We got on them and flew back towards the sky platform. When we landed no one stirred so we quietly stalked towards our temporary home and went inside. The moment our heads touched the pillows we were out.

***

I woke up to sunlight. I looked over at Abelard, he was just stirring too, I stretched and sat up, raine got up and dressed herself quickly and after a brief moment I did too. We dressed ourselves in our usual black attire and headed out. We were immediately met by our guards. Luna, Ryan, and Iris greeted me. I looked towards Abelard, he looked at me and said "Raine, this is Caleb, Chase, and Grey"  he pointed to each person as he said their names. I smiled and greeted them. I motioned for Luna, Ryan, and Iris to come forward and said, "This is Luna, Ryasn, and Iris. He greeted them politely before I looked towards Faaris, she rubbed her cheek against my cheek and flew off to wherever she, Arian, and Nut would be meeting. I looked back at Luna and Ryan, the nodded and motioned for me to follow them. I hugged Abelard goodbye and walked towards them. Iris asked me a few questions about the meeting at the clove last night, after a minute I had everyone's attention and I started to explain. I said "Abelard and I got to the clove a few minutes earlier than Stryker. He descended in a cloud of darkness, it was his dragon and it was huge. We disguised ourselves and listened to him. We heard him say something about poisoning the guardian and I got... Well... Angry and stepped out. I didn't reveal myself so stop looking at me like that... I told him that he needs to stop and there are better ways of ruling and that you can still carry on Mabuz's wish but a more civilized way... Well he didn't take that too kindly. He vowed to follow his father's footsteps one dragon at a time." I ended my brief story and waited in silence. Ryan said "We can stop him still! All we need are more dragons and more riders. You and your brother have the dragon blood in them, you will be able to do what no one else but the royals can do! You can speak to other dragons not just your own." I jumped up and said excitedly "You're right! I remember when I was really little I always talked to the messenger dragons! No one else could and I was called the special princess." Iris chuckled and said here let's test it out. She Waved a bit and her dragon, who was the same size as Faaris flew over from a nearby dragon stable barn. She was a beautiful white dragon with pale blue streaks and bright blue eyes. I smiled and stepped toward the dragon. I was stroking her face right as Iris said "She is kind of head shy so don-" the dragon started purring, something all dragons had in common. I stroked her face and smoothed her feathers. I said in my head "What is your name, I love your colors... You are beautiful." there was a pause and a soft voice said "My name is Lilac, thank you princess, it is an honor to be complimented so kindly by you." I nodded and said to Iris, "Lilac is a beautiful name, you have a very polite dragon." Their eyes widened and I said "What?" Iris said "I never told you her name?" I laughed and said "I asked her silly, isn't that what we were testing?" they nodded and to Lilac I said "You may go, we were testing to see if I could talk to all dragons." she dipped her head and with her extremely long tail stroked Iris's cheek before flying away. I smiled and said "What if I talked to EVERY dragon on this platform?" Luna raised her eyebrows and said "I don't think anyone has ever done that not even Queen Haven." I nodded and said "Yes, my mother could only talk to an individual dragon. But maybe I can go farther..." I took a deep breath and searched my surroundings. There was about a thousand links moving around but I pinpointed about a 100 that were closest to me and with difficulty I opened only those 100 and said "Dragon can you hear me clearly?" there were dragons around us that all stopped and looked at me in surprise. I heard a lot of yes's, and yes princess, and a bunch of other answers. I smiled an said "Thank you, I was just testing my limits, please don't let this stop you from doing your routine. All the dragons in the vicinity nodded their heads at me. I smiled and nodded back. I turned to everyone and for a moment I got lost in my thoughts. What if I got together a large group of Dragons and then I could tell them plans and give directions when we went to battle against Stryker? I smiled real big and looked each of them in the eye. My dragon flew over and as I put my hand on her neck I said

        "I know what to do."