Syle of Kell(concept)

Ch 2 Red Vs. Gold

          From afar the city of Kell looked very tiny. Nestled between two mountains and surrounded by a blanket of white forests, Kell could really only be seen from afar...that is unless one was banging desperately at its wooden gates, begging to come in. From that perspective Kell looked as magnificent as it did inviting.
From the outside it was built to last centuries. Great walls of mountain stone kept wild beasts at bay, and the armored dragon and gryphon guard that patrolled the area were more than enough to deter intruders.
        Inside it was a bustling hub , famous for the magical arts. With a population of wizards, dragons, and gryphons, trained in anything from alchemy to law, it was no wonder the city was so coveted.

      Syle was lucky enough to have been born within the city walls...a fact that would soon pain him greatly.

       The lake was still and the whitewoods around it breathed with the summer breeze. The outskirts of Kell, covered in white woods, fields of wavering grass, and the ocassional cottage-speckled hill, was relaxed on this day. Even the birds chirped low and lazy, few even caring to rise from their nests. A young boy, no older than fifteen, sat criss crossed at the edge of the lake. He wasn't relaxed at all. In fact he was hard at work listening for a voice in his staff, ear pressed hard to the misty blue handle. One had to be either very anxious or very crazy to do that.

        I heard you. Yesterday you finally called out to me. Come on, I know you're there...I want to hear you again.

         Syle thought this as though his staff could hear him. As if the gemstone embedded in its head would glow and its voice flow once again into his mind. Perhaps it worked both ways, he thought optimistically, grinding the side of his head against the misty blue wood. Or, he thought after several moments of silence, he was just being stupid. Syle sighed and set down his staff. He'd all but wasted the second half of his saturday trying to get a magic stick to talk.
He was abruptly interrupted by the sound of wingbeats. He recognized those wingbeats, and he knew who it was before he'd even turned to greet them. Kimcha was flying low, and blasted Syle with leaves and debris as he landed.

      "Why were you massaging your face with your staff, wierdo? What if it blasts your face off?" Kimcha laughed and brushed a bit of dirt from the top of Syle's head. Syle patted the remaining dust from his robe.

    " Then at least it would have done something. I haven't been able to cast spells all day. I just want it to speak again, like yesterday." Syle picked up the staff. The gemstone, an indigo  orb with flecks of something that shimmered, stared back at him. Kimcha peered deep into the orb with him, his tail twitching in curiosity. The gemstone had an impossible depth to it, and the flecks shone like captured stars in the sea of red and purples. Syle jammed the end of it into the ground and pulled himself up.

     " And next time just land on me." Kimcha chuckled at this, and nudged Syle.

    "Funny how it spoke to you after you blasted me onto that roof. You do owe me a favor for that, by the by."

    "Funny how you got stuck when you can fly." Syle retorted, grinning when his friend turned his head away to hide the smoke rising from his nostrils .
Kimcha and Syle turned to make the walk to Syle's modest little home. It was a pretty walk along a dirt path, through white leaved twisting trees and a parted sea of grass. Few people were ever on the path, and it had born witness to many things private.
That day it listened in on little secrets.

        "How am I going to keep this from the archmage? I'm supposed to tell him when it speaks to me." Syle gripped his staff nervously as he said this.
       "So? Just say it spoke to you at breakfast. Or on your walk to his workshop. It's not like you're a bad liar or anything." Kimcha nudged Syle with his shoulder and chuckled, clearing his throat when Syle didn't respond.
       "Hey, hello?A little lie never hurt anyone. You can't be the only wizard to skip ahead a few lessons-" kimcha's voice trailed off when Syle gave
him a guilty look.
     " Come on, Syle."
      "Look, I didn't expect it to speak to me yesterday!" Syle groaned and gripped his staff as if it was his child.
     "The archmage has to know exactly what causes a staff to speak. It's part of learning how to bond with it, and if he finds out I'd been using a blasting spell-" At that Kimcha snorted a puff of smoke.
     "You said it was a levitating spell!"
     "Wh- well- doesn't matter now." Syle waved this off while Kimcha gave him a glaring look. Syle continued.
    " He'll revoke my staff...I'll be downgraded to using a wand, Kimcha, a weak, two-coin, household wand!" Syle gave the staff in his hand reaffirming shake as if a tight grip would keep it from being confiscated.
Kimcha rolled his eyes and patted Syle on the back with his wing.

        " I hate to say you did it to yourself, but here I am. See, you have this problem with rules..." kimcha grinned a little, trying to coax a laugh out of his stress boggled human. He heard something rustling ahead of them. The sound of its body slithering through grass reached his ears far before Syle's. He recognized it instantly.

"Syle, get behind me." Kimcha stepped in front of Syle and blocked him with a wing. A moment later a red dragon emerged from the path's edge. He was bigger than Kimcha, about the size of a small horse, and he approached them with a malicious, toothy grin. Syle's breath shivered at the size of him, and he put a hand on Kimcha's golden back for reassurance.

" If it isn't Coins for Scales and the Human toothpick." Alizarin sneered, flexing the webbed spines that ran in rows down his neck.

        "Alizarin, what are you doing so far from the dragonstead? I thought you hated this part of the village." Kimcha said this without taking his eyes off of the other drake. It was true. Many dragons found the humansteads to be too fragile for their frolicking, and the fairy homes even more so. There were simply too many flammable things in the countryside, including its inhabitance.
Alizarin was now uncomfortably close to Kimcha, peering down the several inches of height he had on him. He extended a wing and scratched the back of his head with its claw.

" I could ask the same of you, but everyone knows you hang out with other incompetent little whelps." Alizarin bared his teeth at Syle, the word 'whelps' turning into a deep-chested growl. Syle flinched, but in a fraction of a second Kimcha had fanned his wing and broken Alizarin's line of sight. Kimcha bared his teeth at the red dragon who was entirely unfazed.

"Back off. You still want that promotion, don't you?" Kimcha seethed through his teeth, but noticed Alizarin's spines fall a little.

"Captain won't hear about this if there's nothing for him to hear." The edges of Kimcha's mouth twitched as Alizarin glared at him, no longer flashing his fangs.

      A little "Hm." escaped Alizarin's throat as he glared forward, locked in on Kimcha's teal eyes. He glanced at the terrified little wizard, and stared back into Kimcha's eyes with a vengeance. With a slow deep breath Alizarin's chest swelled, his head and eyes unmoving from their staring match. There was a pause. The trees wispered in a passing breeze, as did the grass. They stilled, and there was a glint of malicious joy in Alizarin's orange eyes. Then, very slowly, two fat streams of smoke billowed from Alizarin's nostrils, around Kimcha's face and neck. It spilled out around the three. It sunk and spread like a fog, and through the cloud of opaque white Kimcha narrowed his eyes at Alizarin.

     The silence was broken by Syle's desperate attempts to muffle his coughing. A smile snaked its way across Alizarin's face, and unmoving he whispered.

   "They have fragile lungs, in case you forgot." Alizarin then turned to leave and disappeared through the smokey air and into the wood.

   Kimcha stared after him furiously, wishing he'd taken a hefty chunk out of the drake's neck. It was a moment later that he noticed Syle struggling to breathe.
"Sorry, Syle, sorry." Kimcha gave his large wings a few powerful flaps, effectively defogging the area. Syle breathed heavy and cleared his throat, holding tight to his staff.

      "N-no problem. Thanks for having my back and...you know, not letting him bite my legs off or whatever." Syle patted his friend's back and laid his head against him thankfully. With all of the trouble they would get themselves into, there was something to be said about their friendship in times like this. Their bond had grown as they had, and it was flourishing.

" let's get you home. I have a feeling he's not done creeping around." This time Kimcha led the way, keeping a keen eye for anything out of the ordinary. The two finished their journey and arrived at a little cottage at the end of the path. It was almost a silhouette against a pink and yellow sky by the time they got there. They said their goodbyes, made hasty, eager plans for the morrow, and departed. Kimcha flew off, quick as he was, while Syle turned in for the night.

     He had one day to cook up a plan, lie or otherwise, regarding his staff. His apprenticeship resumed after two days off, and he couldn't keep his escapades a secret for if his staff refused to work properly. A pit of guilt and fear festered in his stomach.
What am I going to do about you?
He thought to his staff.
No answer.
He rolled onto his side, away from the staff propped beside his bed, and fell asleep.