Claws, Scales, and Normal Life (what's left of it)

Stellar Stables

Ch 4

Artha frowned from where he stood at the side of the compound. He had forgotten that today was the beginning of his father's training summit. A dozen riders, each top of their game stood gathered around his father while Connor Penn droned on about some kind of racing trick. There would be no asking the man anything today, or any other racing summit day. He would be much too busy.

He turned to walk away, but found himself suddenly very familiar with the dusty ground via his face. Even as he rolled back up to his feet, Artha could hear a wheezing, rasping cackle. It was Beaucephalis, the dragon his father kept trying to get Artha to work with. Tough luck for Connor, Beau had even less love for Artha as Artha did for dragons in general.

It was the dragon's tail that Artha tripped over. Artha glared at the massive blue and red dragon. Future champ Artha's foot. That dragon was trouble. Just as Artha was drawing his foot back to return the favor, he heard the his father calling to him.

"Ahh, Artha. What great timing. Bring Beau over, would you? I'm going to use him in a demonstration."

"Uhh, yeah, sure, Dad," Artha called over, while looking up at Beau with dread growing in his chest.

According to Beaucephalis's pedigree, he was a hybrid of a red draconium magma class and a turquoise draconium sonic class. This should mean that he is fierce, aggressive, yet loyal once you earned his loyalty. Personally, Artha though he must have some black draconium psi dragon mixed in there, darn what his pedigree says. He was too crafty not to be. And the way he knew what was going on in a human's brain was just uncanny.

Artha might be able to guide Beau over, but only if Beau wanted to go. Most days, Beau just wanted to act like a like a ten ton hellion and drive Artha nuts. There was one memorable moment when Artha was twelve that Beau had simply sat on Artha, not allowing him to get up for over an hour. The hybrid had it out for Artha, he knew it.

Thankfully, today was not one of those days, as Beau proved quite amenable to Artha's guidance, though he seemed amused by Artha's timidity when it came to the guiding part. Probably only behaving because Connor was nearby. Sadistic scale butt.

Just as Artha arrived, another rider walked up, slipping unnoticed into to crowd of riders already standing around. Artha wouldn't have noticed him, except Beau perked an eye at him curiously. The dragon had amazing senses. More proof that the evil snake was part psi.

As Artha arrived with Beau, he took in the faces of the elite racers in the crowd. A lot of them weren't much older than he was. He wondered how young they had been when they started riding. The newly arrived one, Artha noted, had a surprising shock of white hair.

"Beep-BeepBeep-"

Beau and Artha both startled as a sudden alarm went off nearby. In surprise, Artha's Dad hurriedly pulled out what looked like some kind of electronic timer. An image of star constellations popped across the screen, but Artha couldn't see what it said. Beau, over his startlement, craned his head over Artha's shoulder to try and get a closer look.

Connor stared at the device in shock. He hadn't realized that today was today. The day of the Golden Star. And Artha had no idea. And Artha was in the open. And he had to deal with the elite racers still. Snag dag-it! Connor could mag bolt himself for his stupidity. How could he completely forget to check when Artha's awakening is?

Well, there was no helping it now.

"Ahh, excuse me for a moment, there's something I need to do, real quick. Work on that tacking exercise for a few minutes. When I come back, you need to tell me what gear Beau can mag and to what levels and why this is important. Artha, come with me for a minute."