Dragon's fire

The final test

5 years later...

The sword came at me, and I dodged it. I look at the hourglass, which told me I had to keep going for another two minutes. The sword came at me again. This time I catch it with my own sword. The blow was so massive that it made my arm tingle. But I had to keep going, one and a half minute. General Bjorn looked at me in anger. I was the first of the recruits today that managed to stay on his feet for longer than one minute, and he didn't like that. It's the last part of the five years of training which makes you an official dragon warrior. A single fight against the general in which you had to stay on your feet for five minutes. You didn't even have to win, just stay on your feet. And there is a reason why people nicknamed him Rager. He strikes one massive blow after the other with his enormous strength. So after four minutes of fighting, my sword arm started to become numb. But I had to keep up. If I fall down, I have to redo the entire last year of the training. So I kept dodging. Finally, the bell rang. I passed the test. But general Bjorn Raagor wasn't done with me yet. I may have passed, but he kept attacking. But now I had officially passed, I dared to take risk. The general took a short break to catch some breath, so I tried to shake some life back into my numb arm. By the time he continued I was ready for it. Instead of dodging his blow, I counterattacked. This seemed to surprise him and caught him off guard. So I took a second, a third and fourth swing. I kept coming at him with a strengt I didn't know I possessed. I drove him back and kept swinging. But he recovered quickly and caught  my blows easier every time. My arm started to become tired again. And now it was me who was driven back. I made a big mistake. Angrier than before, the general came at me with rage in his eyes. I must have humiliated him by catching him off guard and he did not take that to well. I keep walking backwards, catching his blows, but then, I trip over a rock. I try to regain my balance but it is too late. I fall on my back and the general raises his sword above his head, ready to strike the final blow. In his head he isn't on the training field anymore, but in a real battle. Just in time, Thom pulls him away from me. 'That enough!' he shouts angry. The general shakes his head, confused, and returns to the reality. Thom helps me up. He grabs my arm and looks at me. I see a long cut in my lower arm. Must have happened during the fight, I didn't even notice it. Must have been the adrenaline. But now the fight is over, it starts to sting. 'What were you going to do, huh? Kill him?!' Thom shouts at the general. The general still seems a bit confused, not really realizing what was going on. Thom sighs and growls something inaudible, it did not sound friendly. Then he looks at the cut again. 'Sven, come here!' he shout. The boy called Sven runs towards us. 'Take Edgar to master Igor.' he says to him. 'I can go by myself' I complain. 'And I say Sven takes you there!' That's it. No more discussion. I walk away with Sven. Behind us Thom continues shouting at the general.

The cut wasn't very deep luckily. Master Igor stitched it and put some bandages over it. Then he sent me to my chambers. Sven offered to walk me there but I send him back to the training field. He still had to fight the general and I didn't want to keep him up. You don't want to be late when you have to fight the general. Hopefully, for Sven, he had cooled down a bit. I wished him good luck and he left. I looked at him while he ran off. He looked ridiculously young, but he must be at least seventeen to be allowed to take the final test. He didn't say a word while we were at Igor's, but his eyes were restlessly looking around underneath his brown hair. He was nervous. Not so strange, since he had to fight the general in  short while. He looked like he didn't stand a change with his thin and small body. The general would just snap him in half. My thoughts we wandering around while I was walking toward my chambers in the palace. But then I realized I didn't want to go there. My father was there probably there waiting for me to hear how it went, and I wasn't ready to talk to anyone about it yet. So I turned around and headed for the dragon stables. At this moment, the only one I wanted to be with was Onyx. I entered to stables and walked all the way to the end. The stabled went from small to big, with the smallest stables in the beginning, containing dragons that weren't even a year old. Then, the stables became bigger and bigger, containing bigger and older dragons. All the stabled were sealed off with a thick steel door, from which you could not look into the stables. Which was one of the reasons I liked it here. Privacy. Dragons are full grown when the are seven years old, and they can become as high as a big horse. But Onyx was already very big for his age. Bigger than most of the adult dragons, and still growing. That's why his stable was almost at the end of the hall. One stable before the dragon of the general, which was the biggest dragon of this generation. So far. Onyx would probably outgrow him. Another reason for the general to dislike me. He was quite proud of having the largest dragon. I arrive at Onyx' stable and enter. Inside, he greets me with a lot of enthusiasm. He runs towards me and I have to jump to my left to not be crushed between him and the wall. He might be big, but he is still a young dragon, and also behaves like one. I fall down in the straw next to him, put my hand on his head and sigh. Only now I realize what I've done. I challenged the general, and by doing that, humiliated him, while respected your general is one of the most important rules on the battlefield. How many times did Thom not tell us: "Without respect there is chaos on the battlefield." I screwed up. I might have lasted five minutes, but the general would probably do anything to keep me from passing and becoming a dragon warrior. I'll have to redo the entire year. And I bet the general will make sure it will be a living hell. I sigh again and rest my head on Onyx' back. It comforts me a little. I don't now how long I've been laying there. Maybe a few hours. There are no windows so I have no way of telling the time. I start hearing footsteps in the stables. I hope it's just someone coming for his dragon but deep down I now it's someone coming for me. And I'm right. The footsteps stop in front of Onyx' stable. I expect a servant or guard entering the stable to take me to Thom or the general, or even my father, to be shouted at for being so disrespectful. But to my surprise, Robert enters the stable. 'Mind if I join you?' he asks. 'Would it matter if I said no?' I reply a bit blunt. I don't care that he is the crown prince, he's still my brother. He smiles. 'Not really.' And he sits down next to me. For a while, we both say nothing. Then Robert breaks the silence. 'Thom told father what happened, that the general got so angry when you passed, that he lashed out.' I look up in disbelief. Thom didn't tell that I challenged the general, how he almost killed me and that is was my own stupid fault? He lied to the king? Robert must have seen the look on my face. 'That's not what really happened, it is?' He says. I nod my head and tell him what happened. We're both quit after that. 'What do you think will happen now?' I ask after a while. Robert shrugs. 'Nothing,' he says, 'you will become a dragon warrior tomorrow, what do you think would happen?' I shrug too. 'I though the general would make me fail or something like that, and then I'd had to redo the year.' Robert laughs, but there is no humor in the sound. 'The general doesn't decide whether you pass or not, Thom does. And he knows you're ready to become a dragon warrior. And besides that, you passes the test. You stood your ground for five minutes and there's nothing the general can do about it. And even if he tries to do something about him, I'll smack him in the head and tell him to piss off, I'll promise you that.' I'll smile after hearing that last sentence. I know he'd do that for me if he had to. 'Thanks,' I say. Robert smiles at me and gets up. 'Come, diner's ready,' and his hand reaches out to me. I grab it gratefully. I'm exhausted after today.