Goldspell: Rare Earth Book One

Goldspell: Rare Earth Book One- Chapter 8

Chapter 8- Exploring Rhahkmant'e, Enemies Clearer?

"...en...Opren...Opren!" the voices of Rufius and Emerald could be heard in unison.  

Opren felt his head spinning and he could tell he had returned to human form, no longer the dragonoid he had managed to change into. He opened his eyes and saw the blurred sight of Rufius standing over him as he lay on the ground, Emerald kneeling next to him, and two blurred figures he assumed were Athena and Vallot coming closer. The blurriness cleared, and he could hear clearly, but his ears were ringing, as if he had just heard an explosion, and his head felt as if he had just been punched directly by Rutundo. He sat up with some effort. 

"Careful, Laleiy," Emerald said calmly, placing her hand on his back as he rose. "What you just experienced is the result of your enhanced hearing and sensitivity to other dragon-like creatures when you are in that form. Unfortunately, a wyvern flew overhead during your transformation and it was not a kind one. It became upset that there was another creature like itself present, or so it thought I'm guessing, and shrieked at you. It isn't usually intense enough of a sensitivity to cause unconsciousness, but you will need to practice the control of your enhanced senses, particularly those dealing with dragons, wyverns and wyrms. Rutundo volunteered to capture the wyvern. He should have that by lunch time. After you relax a bit for now, you and Rufius can begin training again." 

"Liileiy, you should be a teacher here someday, or one near your home, because you sound just as informative as Athena at times. I'm glad you all knew what was going on because I don't think I want that to happen again," Opren said, still a bit shaken, thus his tone was produced less firmly than his normal voice. He managed a grin and Emerald grinned back at his partial joke. She touched his head and his headache cleared, ears no longer ringing. Opren thanked her, grinning again as he did. She nodded and stood, Rufius assisting her in helping him up, each pulling him up by one of his hands. He shook the remaining dizziness from his head and Vallot explained the details of his duosevun over the next ten minutes. Rufius and Opren discussed their related and contrasting individual thoughts and emotions during their link, shooting ideas between each other to improve their abilities with the link and duosevun on their next attempt. 

Another half hour or so passed as Opren recovered, the tail end of which allowed Rutundo time to return with the captured wyvern.  

"This bugger is a mean one, but not very strong or fast!" Rutundo said, tossing the small wyvern to the side a few yards so it couldn't snap at the others. "I didn't have trouble getting it down once it was provoked. He flailed too much for a simple netting, though, so I had ta knock him from the air completely to rope him, then bound his wings as he is now for transport. Lucky for us, he's just a low class wyvern and not a dragon of higher intelligence. We don't wanna anger one of those." 

"Thank you for retrieving him, Rutundo. I suppose we should keep him around for Opren's training with sensory enhancement. What better to train with than the real thing, right?" Vallot said, turning to Opren with a grin as Rutundo nodded in agreement. 

"The real thing hurts a bit, but I suppose I can try," Opren replied. 

"I don't think he was asking for your approval of the way he's going to train you, Opren. I think he was using the rhetorical question, if anything more directed toward Rutundo, for a spoken confirmation of what he wants to do," Rufius said. "If it won't easily kill you, Vallot kind of takes the liberty of difficult training styles; hence my idealistic fighting abilities." 

"If you get better at sensory control, then you won't have to worry about the pain, will you?" Vallot said, subtly smirking. 

"True. I'm glad you have so much faith in me to get better so quickly. I wonder if my duosevun can be stronger than yours once I learn to control it," Opren replied, also slightly smirking. His near unhappiness at the thought of attempting this form of training became full competitive nature, disregarding any lack of want. He knew Vallot was trying to bring this spirit out of him to cause him to push harder and learn faster as he did when rivaling Rufius. He took the liberty- and guts- to return the challenge.