World of Dragon Riders: Book One

Chapter 11 - Truth and the Sky City

Headmaster seemed to have forgotten Soren was even there, as did Alex. They only remembered when he fainted in shock... he was also scared to it through the yelling and tones of their voices.

"Oh no, I forgot he was here..." Headmaster groaned, facepalming himself. Alex just blinked, rather confused, and he turned back to the Headmaster.

"What do you mean my FAMILY was the main lead in the downfall of the avians?" He tried to say, calmly. Headmaster shot him a look, before looking at Soren again.

"Wake him up first." Easy, water on the head made him bolt awake. "Alright fine. As I was saying, foxes were especially common back then. Red foxes only belonged to your family back then too, but have now evolved into other family trees." He began, beckoning both Alex and Soren to follow. Soren felt out of place learning about all this, but then again it was his friend who was taken, who was also a Sullivan.

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Headmaster obviously had many hidden entrances to his office, the one he opened seemed like it hadn't been open in decades. When the three entered said room, there was an array of portraits along one wall, a small display case below it. Each painting was different, but Soren recognized them as previous Headmasters. The display cases were VERY different. They contained all sorts of things in them, books, journals, sometimes a dragon feather or scale, photos, spellbooks, gemstones... etc. It was the last painting they stopped at, it was concealed behind a thick black fabric... Soren realised it was really magic, and the case was covered too. The Headmaster said and did something out of view and (somehow) earshot, and it disintegrated to show a scene rather than a portrait.

One character was in the centre, a red fox animality, with many comrades behind him whether it was animality, dragon, Dragon Rider, or even an elf or a dwarf. In front of them were hundreds of avians, one seemed more authorative than the rest seen in the image.

"The Rebels have existed for many generations, it started back during the War with the Avian Race. Your ancestor united species together to defeat the Avians, the main enemy of the time, much like ours is now the Dark Riders. They launched a full scale attack on the avian capital, a tricky feat since it was hidden the sky. That's where the unity of the different races came in handy, dragons could fly above the clouds to find it, and many others could create air-born flying vehicles, airships, that could cause plenty of damage. They used their different traits and strengths to get to the Avian Capital, and they stormed the castle, where the King of the Avians was finally killed." Headmaster brished a hand over the display case below the image, Soren saw the feather, impossibly longer yet shorter than a dragon's feather. "Without their King, or the Royal Family, the Avians were vulnerable. Many were killed and taken prisoner, but in the end their species went extinct, disappeared should now be the term. The very ancestor of yours who formed the Rebellion, was the one who defeated the Avian King."

"So your saying this one wants revenge on my family?" Alex hissed, obviously quite angry. The Headmaster nodded, sneaking a glance at Soren who was next to him, directly in front of the casket. "Why would they take Ryan? Why have I never known this about my own FAMILY?"

"This is long forgotten because not only were soldiers and the Avians causing the initial harm across Kelekonia killed, but so were innocent Avians too, everyone of them in the end." Headmaster sighed, looking at Soren again, who had pulled out the feather retrieved from the scene of Ryan's kidnapping. "Did you know your ancestors NAME was Ryan?" That he obviously DIDN'T know. "Maybe it's just a coincidence."

"Umm... Headmaster..." Headmaster looks at Soren, who seems rather confused. "Well it's kinda two thing... Why are you telling ME all this? And is it just a coincidence these feathers look like an almost exact match?" Upon closer inspection, that was true. The two feathers were both red, speckled and striped with black-brown, and a left wing flight feather. But they were similarly shaped, and the one from the scene was smaller, meaning a young Avian was the culprit. But Headmaster knew something about Avians... he regained a straight face and quickly tried to explain.

"Avians of the same bird species, and the same family always have the same PATTERN and SHADE as each other. I guess in another way of saying, if the culprit's ancestor WAS INDEED the King of the Avians... their feathers would look exactly the same if theynwere the same species of Avian. This resemblance means they ARE." Headmaster now is definitely panicking. Then Alex elbows him to snap him out of it.

"Normally YOUR the one who's calm and focused." Alex sighes, turning to leave. "So your sending his siblings to save him, while you go too with his own Team of Beginners and everyone but John from my own? That seems rather... weird or even suspicious in my opinion. Is there something ELSE your not telling me? Or should I just go prepare the Riders also staying behind?" He didn't wait for his answer, and he was already out the door and headed for where he had left Windstrike. So it was only the Headmaster and Soren remaining in that room. And Headmaster turned his attention TO Soren.

"Soren, I understand it must be confusing for you learning about this when not even you are a part of the Sullivan Family Tree. But you ARE Ryan's Leader, it's obvious Ryan respects you quite a lot as well. And as his leader, and not just that, as his FRIEND, you have the right to know too. You can tell Ryan and his siblings the truth, but you mustn't tell anyone else until you've told THEM. And even once you have you mustn't tell anyone BUT your Team..." it's obvious he wants to say more, but Soren can't even guess what.

"Is something wrong Headmaster?" He asks.

"I've been hearing from Yin and Sky about... concerns about your recent dreams Soren." Headmaster said, out of the blue. "Do you remember your dreams?"

"Uh... yes. Yes I do, why? What's so concerning about them?" Soren says quite panicky.

"Can you tell me about them? It may be nothing but Nightmares but the way Yin and Sky are obviously concerned it seems more than that. And it's my responsibility to take care of all Rebellion Members, understand?" Soren nods. "Good."

"Well, they seem like nightmares to me... but it's also like I keep seeing them everytime my mind wanders or I close my eyes for a few seconds. It started happening after a few days Ryan revealed himself to be a fox." Headmaster nods for him to continue. "Okay, so ONE of them seem to actually INVOLVE Ryan. Actually, several of them do. One seems to just have Ryan himself there, protecting an older red fox.... he looks OLDER. I don't get that part." The expression on the Headmaster's face looks interested, yet fearful. That spooked Soren enough for him to stutter on words before fully reconfigurating his sentence."A-anyways, there's another. It basically shows my whole CLASS, Alex's whole Rider and Dragon Team as well... fighting alone against Dark Riders. Where... well it's some place that looks like a desert wasteland." It flashes in his mind for a brief second, then there was the Dark Spirit. "Then something else entirely appeared. It wasn't human nor dragon, yet it looked like both. It attacked me and Sky, separating us from the others."

"Dark Spirit..." Soren swore that's what he just heard the Headmaster whisper at the mention of that 'thing' from his nightmares.

He continues. "It's the third of the most frequently repeating ones that confuses me the most. It seems even further in the future than the others... yet not at the same time. Me, Sky, Ryan, Fireworks, Bridgette and Yin are in it... but there are three more Riders and their dragons in it that I've never seen before!" Soren's voice goes a little high pitch, so he clears his throat. "Two of them are foxes, oh wait... one's riding Windstrike actually. He looks MANY years older than he does now (did I mention every time he mentions someone existing in the present, they sneeze?). The fox riding him looks vaguely like Victoria Sullivan, Ryan's older sister... yet she's Ryan's age. It maybe his younger sister Fiona, I've met her. Then the other fox is a boy, white hair and fur... and he's riding a Sea Dragon the colour of the deepest oceans. Their leader, is a human Rider. A blonde haired boy, he seems too familiar to me... I just don't know where from. His name is Adrien if I remember, I've only heard it once. His dragon looks like a mix of appearances between Sky and Duststorm, and in some of my dreams she's with one or both of them. Her name was Aeranus I think." Soren was gazing at nothing, away from the Headmaster, when he was busy remembering all this. When he finally brings his attention back to the Headmaster, he's leaning on the display case for support. "Are you okay?!" He suddenly out hus hands on Soren's shoulders, emotions in his eyes.

"Soren I think those are not dreams. Your story involving those three in specific match Sky's. It may have nothing to do with the fact your not from Kelekonia, but it does mean one thing..." Soren blinks in confusion, he senses Sky on the other end of their bond stiffening... as if she too had been listening the entire time. "Soren, I believe that you are a Seer."

"A Seer? What's a Seer?"

"A Seer is someone with the power to see the future, at specific points in time. All your visions are of the future, near or far into it. You must tell your Team, they need to know this... but no one else, understand?"

"Understood Headmaster. I won't-"something from Sky's end of the Bond sends a sharp bolt of pain through Soren's body. He screams from it. Headmaster reaches to help him, but something also makes him recoil in pain.

Something was happening to their dragons.
That's when the earth shook with an impact. The Rebellion was under attack.

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The first idea on Soren's mind were Dark Riders, but as soon as he got to the window in the Main Hall, it was definitely NOT the Dark Riders. These were winged humans, the Avians were attacking. Dragon Riders immediately responded and took to the skies on their companions. Soren and the Headmaster rushed to join them, but they saw the Avians had hostages. Then they recognized them. Their own dragons were among the captured. The others included Victoria, Riley, their dragons Maya and Echo, Windstrike... and Alexander. Soren realised only the Sullivan family was being captured, otherwise Avians would willingly try and kill those who tried to oppose them. Headmaster stopped to tend to some of the wounded, and Soren kept running to join his Team. Running onto the dusty earth in front of the school, more of it was kicked up when a Dragon landed in front of him.

Fireworks... The mighty Fire Dragon roared at Soren to get on. Easily understanding his friend's dragon companion, he hopped onboard and Fireworks immediately went after the Avian Group holding Sky.

Duck... Fireworks warned Soren, as he bended and curved his body to angle his tail. Soren knew the move he was going to use and moved with the fire dragon as his fired his magical fire from his tail. Now he saw why Fireworks was named so, the fire exploded on contact with the Avians wings and feathers, and they shrieked in pain. It sounded quite bird-like too.

"GIVE BACK MY DRAGON!" Soren yelled above the commotion below. A group of the Guards escorting Sky's captors attacked Soren and Fireworks, receiving a full on fire blast when they got too close. Yelling out a battle-cry, Fireworks charged the Avians, but dodged when their magic infused weapons went for his wings and sides. When Fireworks went over head to dodge the Avians, Soren managed to grab the bow and quiver off the back of one of the Avians. It was fine handiwork put into it's creation, he admired it before he put an arrow into the bow. Aiming it at the wings, as he still didn't wish to kill, Soren cast a spell on the arrows and fired, a net spawning from the arrow-tip and catching around two Avians. They plummeted to the ground of the Main Square, where they uselessly struggled to get free without skewering the other.

Keep going Soren! We need to protect the Sullivans, that's where most of the Avians are and it's obvious they're the targets! Fireworks roared through telepathy, changing course to the swarm of Avians.

But what about Sky?! SKY!

JUST GO SOREN! I'LL BE FINE! She wailed. Despite his protests to turn him around, Fireworks redirected himself to fly towards the large house that Ryan once lived in.

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(Avian species depend on the wings they have, and which bird species has them too. For example, there are raven, peregrine, kestrel and eagle avians)

His Team meanwhile were already there. Bridgette was in a spear fight on dragon-back with a raven, Summer was trying to hang onto Sparktail as a peregrine and a kestrel tried to take them both down, and Lance was jumping off Duststorm and onto the back of a large eagle while his dragon in question was huddled over by the door, protecting the younger members of the House. Felicia, Talia, and Shaun must've been part of the group trying to rescue the captured Dragons, their respective dragons with them. It was incredible at how many of the Avians were determined to get to the final two Sullivans, Fiona the Baby, and the Eldest Brother Alex. Soren saw some of the adults of the house fighting back, fists, weapons or even magic. He saw Francis' father in a sword fight, Zavier was using water magic, and several others were also fighting back. Alex and Fiona were nowhere to be seen, but he could hear the screams of a baby, scratch that, two babies.

Fireworks we need Sky's help! We still need to save her!