The Rogue Rider (An Inheritance Fanfiction)

Chapter 15: Travelling With Riders

Ragin gently rubbed an encouraging hand along the side of Akaysha's neck. He could feel her exhaustion through their bond. Her laboured breaths appeared as mist in front of them, thanks to the cold frigid air. Her wing beats were slow as she took herself to gliding as much as possible, flying at rather slow pace compared to her surrounding companions.

They had been in the air for over a week now, and every morning Ragin found himself waking up with sorer and stiffer legs then the day before, unused to spending so much time on dragon back. But Akaysha was fairing far worse. She had never flown for so long and so far before, and while keeping pace for the first couple of days had been a rather simple task, by the seventh she could barely force herself into the sky. Ragin tried to help by lending her his own energy and soothing her aching wings with healing spells, but he could only do so much.

The other dragons were having no such trouble, being used to these long flights with their riders. The only dragon that was having just a small amount of fatigue during the journey was Freya's orange dragon, whose name was Haraytor. But he was the same age as Akaysha, and had obviously done long trips before. The longest Akaysha had ever flown was a couple of hours during the day. Now she was being forced to wake early in the morning and fly with nearly no brakes until the sun began to set.

They were passing along the border of Du Weldenvarden, the great forest along the edge of Alageasia and housed most of the country's elves. It was a beautiful place, or at least that was what Ragin had heard. He hadn't personally been to the forests, considering it was a far more difficult place to steal and rob from when nearly everyone could use magic and most were stronger and faster than you were.

He turned his attention from the forest and back to his dragon. There was a small headwind that day, making it all the more difficult for her to push herself onwards. Ragin was worried. He could tell that she didn't want to make herself seem weak in front of the other dragons by stopping before their afternoon break. Her magic would have made things a little easier, but she had refused to call upon that power again, still a little traumatised from what had happened during their capture. She didn't know which spells were safe or not.

Occasionally Ragin had caught her casting small spells during their breaks, spells that seemingly did nothing or very little, like growing small plants or warping the air in front of her in slight ways. From what he had seen in her mind she just wanted to try and work her way back up to her confidence in her ability before, starting off small and growing from there.

'Akaysha, you need to rest,' Ragin spoke into his dragon's exhausted mind as she dipped slightly in the air.

'No... I can keep going a little longer,' she replied, levelling herself out and pulling her wings forward in a flap.

'You will only hurt yourself if you keep going. Besides, at the rate you're pushing yourself it's like you want to get to the dragon riders,' he chuckled softly.

The dragoness snorted, a trickle of smoke running from her nose, but he felt her agreeing with him, albeit reluctantly. Patting her one last time he turned toward one of the other dragon and rider pairs. It was Eon, and his female blue dragoness Reyal. He waved to get their attention. One of the oaths he had sworn prevented him from reaching out with his mind to any of their conscious, so he was unable to contact them mentally. He understood why they did this, as it prevented him from attempting to gain any information from them that they wanted to remain hidden, but it was frustrating, especially in situations like this.

Eon noticed him and Ragin felt the man's mind brush against his own. The thief opened some of his barriers, allowing the other rider access to talk mentally, but to nothing else.