The Dragon's Son

•Chapter 3•

I was about ten minutes into teaching Jack a few common Draak words of greeting when the door hissed opened again, stealing my attention as it always did.  Dagger was there, grinning slightly once my cousin spotted the other recruit.  He began over making me smile, before I saw the movement behind him.

Two other men, similarly dressed to Dagger, were following him. One had a slightly broader build with dark hair and eyes. He stood about my height. He had an infectious grin on his face as he loudly boasted of something or another. The other man was maybe two inches shorter with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.  He wasn't nearly as broad either. He was speaking back to the broader man with a quieter tone.  But seemed just as content.

They followed him all the way over to the seats where me and Jack happened to still reside it.  Jack seemed in awe at the three, but I was more annoyed at the new arrivals to my peaceful spot. It seemed they created more of an attraction from prying eyes than my horns did.

"A-are you the e-elite three? I've heard so many amazing stories. You guys are legendary!" Jack suddenly said, as Dagger plopped down beside me.

"Elite Three?" I furrowed my brows as I questioned what Jack meant, my gaze shifting between the three soldiers and my young friend. 

"They're the group that Austin Flare himself personally trained and fought with for most of his time before he became a general in The Blood Dragon armies," Jack explained, practically bouncing in his seat from the excitement he seemed to be feeling at that moment. I was still confused, but there was that name again. Austin Flare... my curiosity was peaked. 

"We are them," the broader man replied, "But it's not that big of a deal. We aren't anything to freak out about. I'm Onslaught, it's a pleasure to meet you two." The man grinned and such out his hand for us to shake. Jack was quick to shake Onslaught's hand while I was more hesitant than anything. I was still knew to all of this and the amount of people now staring our group down was discomforting. 

"I'm Longshot. Dagger told us his cousin was back here so we decided to stop by and meet him. We were raised by dragons too so we know that it can be pretty hard transitioning and thought it would be good for him to have people who can relate," the dirty blonde said, making my eyes widen a fraction at the mention of them being raised by dragons as well. 

"Really? That must have been so cool. Was it very hard to get used to humans then?" Jack asked, making me look over at him. I was intrigued by the idea as well, but the simple fact that these older men were claiming they were dragon kin yet I can't ever recall seeing any one of them at a Dragon Festival in Dragon City. At least I had proof with Dagger through my dad. 

"It can be, but I, myself, was about six with my mother took me in. Onslaught was seven went he was. We were orphans of the first war, but instead of connecting with humans like some did, we just seemed to gravitate towards the dragons. Our adjustment coming back wasn't too difficult to say the least, but I don't know if it will be as easy for you, Jacob. Do you know much English?" Longshot explained before turning the conversation back on me. I had been focusing hard on the conversation to keep up with his speech, but some of it had been a bit too fast to pick up. I had caught the question thankfully though. 

"I know some," I told him, before motioning to Jack, "He's going to teach me English and I'm going to teach him Draak Tongue." 

Onslaught laughed at that. "Oh, boy! Good luck with that, kid. Draak Tongue is a lot harder in it's pronunciations than you think it is. Inner species languages are a lot harder to learn that inner races languages are." 

The transport jerked suddenly and I grabbed the edge of my seat, my eyes cutting to the holographic windows to see we were descending over a large ravine. The transport was literally dropping down into the ravine, making my head spin with anxiousness. I could see that the compound, consisting over three or four large cement buildings, was on the opposite side of ravine from where we came. I didn't understand why we were descending into it. 

The descent slowed gradually as we neared the midway point of the high stone walls. I just barely caught a glimpse of a smoothly carved entrance tunnel to... something, before our hovering transport moved forwards and into the tunnel. The action momentarily sent the whole cabin into pitch black, before lights came on overhead, illuminating everyone in a harsh white glow. 

I started growling deep in my chest as a claustrophobic feeling came over me. The unnatural feel of everything around me suddenly created a vortex in my mind of scenarios where my death was the final out come, that this was all some type of ploy and that the man claiming to be my cousin was some type of hired hit man against my father or something, but the sensible part of my brain knew that wasn't so. It understood I was stressed and needed some type of outlet that didn't involve rampaging and causing us to really crash and burn. 

I felt a hand land on my shoulder and I jerked away from it as I twisted my eyes from the black window to Dagger who had a worried expression on his face. "Whoa there, coz. Calm down, this is just the entrance to our real compound," Dagger said, trying to reassure me that I was fine, but I didn't relax, I simply tightened my grip on the seat and growled louder. 

Five minutes past like this with me trying to get a grip on the sudden foreboding feeling, but a suddenly we seemed to break through a thick curtain of vines. The stone walls opened up into a large valley, the area was butting up against the back of the Dragon territory. But that wasn't what had me climbing to feet as I moved to stand by the holographic window. 

Before me was spread the entirety of the Blood Dragon's main training base.