The Rogue Rider (An Inheritance Fanfiction)

Chapter 9: First Flight

The clashing of steel echoed in the morning air, followed by a laugh and a curse. It was reasonably early in the morning, the sun having just risen, sending its brilliant light through the sky. There were few clouds, and despite the early hour it was shaping up to be quite a warm day. A slight mist wafted through the trees as the dew from the previous night slowly began to evaporate.

"Come on Uthun! Is that all you got," a taunting voice rang out through the clearing, "I thought you would land at least one hit on me."

Ragin darted backwards as a large two-handed broadsword swung down towards him, missing his body by inches. His own sword, a single handed hilt with a narrow, light and fast blade held loosely in his hand, darted forward in a practiced and well executed lunge. It stopped merely a finger width from its target, frozen in mid-air, before being pulled back quickly as the human duck away from another heavy stroke of the broadsword.

Uthun grunted again, bearing his teeth as he missed yet again. The red outline barely visible around him flickered and disappeared all-together. The two had been sparring for the past hour now, and were sweating fiercely, but they were far from exhausted. Both were seasoned warriors, and they enjoyed their morning sessions together, even if Ragin nearly always got the better of his urgal companion.

There was a blue outline surrounding Ragin's body. It meant that there was a ward surrounding him that blocked steel. It was a simple spell, the idea behind it was that every time he was hit it would change colour, before disappearing all together. It started at blue, before moving to orange, then red, before disappearing, which was where Uthun was stuck at now. One more strike and Ragin was declared the victor.

He held out his sword in front of him, judging the urgal with taunting eyes. It was a rare moment when Uthun managed to land a hit on the more nimble swordsman. In all the four months they had been with each other he had only managed to strike Ragin a handful of times, and had only beaten him twice. Despite that fact, Ragin knew Uthun was a very good with a sword, better than most of his race. But Ragin was better.

Uthun let out a frustrated cry and charged at him, swing his sword in a horizontal arch toward the human. Ragin grinned ducking under the strike before leaning forward and sinking the point of his dulled blade into the urgal's rib cage, earning him a nasty bruise. Uthun grunted, staggering backwards, glaring at the human in frustration and anger.

"You just can't let me win, can you?" he grunted.

"Where's the fun in that?" Ragin laughed, lowering his sword, "You can't get better if I don't go hard on you."

"That may be so, but my pride wouldn't take so much of a beating each morning if you did, once in a while," Uthun muttered, sheathing the blade, "If you let me use my axe it would be a different story."

"And I told you, Uthun, that I wanted to spar, not having a slogging contest as you spin that bladed stick around," replied Ragin, "I can't exactly keep my skills up if I have nothing to parry and deflect."

"Still, you should let me use it once and a while. Swordsmen aren't the only opponents you will face."

Before Ragin could reply a dark shadow passed over the clearing. Both looked up and the human couldn't help but smile. Akaysha's scales glittered like gems in the morning sun, casting flickers of light down upon the two down below. At four months old the dragoness was bigger than any horse. The awkwardness of a hatchling had disappeared entirely, replaced with the primal grace and finesse of a dragon.

She circled them once, before gliding down and landing elegantly on the ground below. She dropped small deer she had clasped between her talons onto the ground below and without reservation began tearing into its flesh, hungrily devouring as much as she could with each bite. Her growth had slowed now, but she still ate a lot, once every two or three days.