The Rogue Rider (An Inheritance Fanfiction)

Chapter 25: Wyrda

Few words were exchanged between Ragin and Akaysha that night. The rider kept his mind mostly closed of from his dragon as a thousand thoughts swirled through his conscience, all difficult and impractical. He was unused to these feelings. This guilt, this frustration. Logan didn't understand anything, didn't know the pain he had gone through, what he had suffered to get to where he was today. The anger, the hate, the immorality that had shaped the beginning of his life was something he couldn't just let someone else see, no matter how close he was to that someone. Especially when he was so close.

He glanced from his bed to Akaysha. Her dark form seemed to be resting peacefully in her nest, sleeping soundly, though he could tell she was still awake at a closer inspection. Her body was more tense than usual and her wings seemed to be curled far more tightly against her body. Just like him, she was restless, and also just like him, her mind was closed to almost everything except a sliver of the bond that they shared. Despite being in the same room, he had never felt so far from her.

In Akaysha's mind, her turmoil was different. She knew that what Logan had said was right. It was the first time she had considered such a prospect. The bond she shared with her rider was the best thing in her life, but there were times where she felt so far from the man she shared her mind with. Times when he seemed like he would rather be without her. The thought hurt far more than it should. She had personally seen and felt the high esteem in which he held her, compared to others any way. But those times where he his thoughts slipped and he dreamed of life before the riders, those were the days he longed for again. Part of her wondered if he would have been better off if she had just not hatched for him at all. It was something they should talk about. Something they needed to talk about, but whenever she went to do so she found she couldn't, afraid of the answer that lay behind her question.

So instead the two lay silently. Ragin didn't bother to head to the food hall for dinner. They fell into a restless sleep, not fully in the dream world, but not fully awake either. Morning came, and the two were up earlier this time. Akaysha flew her rider down to the ground, where they arrived before the other trainees, much to the surprise of the teachers that were already there.

Logan nodded his head in greeting to the young rider, to which Ragin responded in kind, expertly hiding the tiredness he felt from a bad night of sleep. Akaysha wasn't so responsive as she flashed her teeth in a large yawn before greeting her masters.

'Ragin, I plan on taking Akaysha for the entire day today,' Sashi said, 'You and Logan will be meeting in the hall instead of where we had originally decided to meet.'

Ragin nodded his head in understanding. He gave Akaysha a pat on the leg for goodbye and the two dragons were once again flying high in the sky, leaving him with the others down below. He turned with a short sigh back to the teachers as he stood, waiting for the other four new riders to get there. Another ten minutes later and all of them were back down at the training fields, sparring once again. As before, Ragin found himself easily on top, defeating them with the ease of a practiced master. He used the fighting to get the turmoil of thoughts out of his head and onto the field, showing no mercy to the people he was up against.

This time they didn't spar as long, and instead went into some general magic practice. While the other riders had just started with this aspect of being a dragon rider, Ragin found each activity incredibly easy, and it wasn't long before he was bored. Sparring was fun. There was something so enticing about the clash of blades. But this, this was incredibly demeaning to his skill. They knew that he was better than most riders at magic, but he had to go through this as well. Logan had left a while ago on some other activity he was forced to do, and the other two teachers that seemed to normally hold these sessions didn't seem like they were going to change anything anytime soon. Hanzi seemed disinterested as well. As an elf, he already had known a bit about magic before becoming a rider.