The Rogue Rider (An Inheritance Fanfiction)

Chapter 7: An Old Friend

It took almost a week to travel across the plains, and Ragin hated every moment of it. He knew where he was going of course, but the endless hours of the same nothingness made it feel as if he was getting nowhere. Wind constantly whipped across the landscape, picking up bits of dust and throwing it into both his and the horse's eyes. The only signs of vegetation were the occasional shrubs that jutted out from the ground no higher than his knees. Hunting was difficult, as most animals spotted him from a mile away and made haste to get away. It forced him to use magic to hunt, as much as he hated that, but to survive it was necessary, especially considering how much Akaysha ate.

The young dragoness seemed to take the trip in a far more joyful manner. Everything interested her, from the wind, to the grass, to the horse who seemed to find her very annoying. With the amount of food she ate it often caused Ragin to spend far longer than he wanted to hunting, and eventually he just made up his mind that whenever he saw a small rodent or critter he would kill it, and allow Akaysha to enjoy the spoils.

Her growth was massive as well. By the second day she was no longer able to comfortably fit inside his pack, and he was forced to build a small nest behind his saddle for her to sit in. By the end of the week she was the size of a sheep dog, and often ran by the horses legs or flew a couple of metres above them. He was rather thankful she had learnt to fly on her own, as he had been worried that she wouldn't be able to keep up with their pace.

The first time she had tried to fly had been quite eventful. They had been sitting by a campfire two days from Gil'ead, the wind blowing quite strongly. Akaysha had decided it would be a good time to test her wings, and opened them with an excited squawk. Almost instantly the wind ripped her into the sky, her cries of terror quickly screeching through the plain. Ragin had been forced to run for nearly a kilometre after the flailing dragon, before using a spell to pull her safely back to the ground, where she clung to him as if she never wanted to let go.

After that event it had been a couple of days before she was brave enough to try again, and this time, with Ragin watching closely, she lifted slowly into the air with a couple of flaps of her wings. She was a little wobbly at first, but quickly got that hang of it, and before long was doing twirls and spirals through the sky. Her joy at flying made Ragin smile. He couldn't wait until she was big enough to ride.

While they were mostly alone during their trip, they met the occasional traveller. Whenever that happened Ragin had Akaysha fly close above his head, where he cast a spell to make her seem invisible to any prying eyes. It had been a little awkward at first, as Akaysha didn't really like not being able to see herself, and she had let out a piecing shriek the first time it had happened. Ragin had managed to calm her down enough to stop her panic, but the traveller had seemed genuinely afraid. After some time searching to appease the man, Ragin had continued, relieved that Akaysha hadn't decided to scream again. She was more than glad when he released the spell.

So they continued. Eventually they reached the other end of the plains and went into a small forest that would get them into the massive mountain range known as the Spine. It reached from nearly the bottom west hand corner of the Empire to the top west hand corner. It was the longest mountain range in Alageasia, though not the biggest or the tallest. The Beor Mountains held those titles. That being said, it was one of the wildest places of the country, and had been for a very long time. No one had managed to conquer it, and it was covered in myths and legends and superstitions. Only the Urgals dared brave its terrain, and even they only sparingly.

All this went through Ragin's head as he ignored the safer route to the south and continued up into the reaches of the mountains. It wasn't the first time he had been through the mountains, nor, he doubted, would it be the last. But he was always wary of them. The mare flicked her ears as they began a steep upward climb, seeming not at all pleased to be in the mountains either.