The Dragon King

Food

We gave the new dragons the grand tour - we showed them the hatchery, the passageways linking from mountain to mountain, the thousands of caves, the lakes and the great hall. We had stumbled on it when we were exploring the passageways. It was full of elaborately carved rock on the surrounding cave walls and we had created some tables out of the forest in the valley. Cherry had the idea to note down where every dragon was staying, from the mountain to each individual cave. Phantom was at the top of the mountain, with us. The further down the mountain you went, the lower the rank the dragon. We used Phantom's help to organise the caves and it was with much relief that the dragons flew to their individual caves. Mates were obviously allowed to be together with their hatchlings, although they stayed in the lower tunnels where the baby dragons couldn't try to leap off the ledge.

"Amy!". Cherry slid off Cedar, nodding a greeting to Electra and Phantom.

"What's wrong?" I asked, seeing how worried she was.

"I was looking at the amount of food we have. And, whilst it would sustain just us for months, it will be gone by the end of the week."

I mentally mindlinked the other rider's dragons and asked them to meet me in the great hall.

We all sat down, leaning on our dragons as we talked:

"So, let me get this straight. We have enough food to last us until the end of the week, to feed lots of dragons who believe that we are going to overthrow the Dragon King, Quaem?"

I nodded.

Adam glanced up to look at me. "So. We need a short term, a long term and a very long term plan,".

Cherry chipped in: " the short term plan has to be food. We can't just let them hunt the limited deer population in the valley, it's not sustainable. We need to go to a market or something.

Barney spoke up. "But what would we say - we want to buy all your food for a secret dragon rebellion for some run away riders, and shhhh, you can't tell anyone because the academy are trying to hunt us down and find us!".

Even now, it sounded stupid.

"What if we pretended to be Dragon Riders?"

I looked at Adam, my interest aroused.

"We are Dragon Riders,". Stephen pointed out.

"Not like that!" I said excitedly. "Adam means we pretend to be from the Academy, like we are on a patrol and need a lot of resources to carry with them. Say you are representing lots of Anchemis or something,".

"That could work,". Barney commented. "We also need rugs, blankets, kegs for water, clothes and other items. But who would go?"

"Cherry, Striker and I couldn't go. We'd be too obvious,". I said.

Stephen nodded. "And neither could I. My red hair would be like a beacon. So that leaves Barney and Adam,".

We all nodded.

"Long term wise, we should probably start training the dragons. If we are going to do a rebellion of course,". Barney commented.

"Is that a question," Cherry asked. "Nearly all of the servants of the Dragon King have fled to us for help. Even if we don't want too, he will probably want to kill us anyway. And have you seen the scars on some of them?"

"Agreed,". I said. "Dragons of all the elements have come, although most of the fire are happy with the King, so they didn't come. However, some still did, because they disagreed with Quaem's ruling and unfairness, or because they have a mate, child or friend in the exservants. All the dragons who had fire hatchlings came with them, so we need to organise the hatchery, so the parents can train without worrying about their children. In that respect, we need to train them. Barney and Artic can train the ice dragons, Adam and Furnace can train the fire dragons, Cherry and Cedar can train the earth dragons, Stephen and Atlas can train the wind dragons, whilst Striker can train the lightning dragons. Phantom, can you help me with tactics and the palace?"

Phantom nodded. "I can do one better. Heffres mapped out the palace on some papyrus, I can get it for you,".

I nodded. "We also need to arrange them onto groups to train with flying manoeuvres. They should, if possible, have one of each element on each group, or Anchemi as we may as well call it, but I know that it may not be possible. But that can be done after they control their elements. As for those who don't want to, or are too young to fight but older than a hatchling, it would be nice for each cave to have a nest for each dragon, and the oil on the sides of the passageways will always need refilling.