Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 55: Supply Run

"What you not know?" Farot asked.

Tawny and Kuertis seemed curious as well, though Clarisa was just preoccupied with her dragon.

"I was just wondering how these collars worked," I said.

"There are enchantments on them to tame the dragons. One makes them mindless, and one makes them obey."

[He only broke the mindless spell,] Leera grumbled, still kneeling.

[You can get up if you want.]

She leapt to her feet and glared down at me. [I'll stay if I have to, but don't chain me.]

[Fine.] I dropped the chain. My decision brought interested looks from the others. Sighing, I said, "She won't get into trouble while we're gone, I promise."

"Then we will go." Farot led the way out into the street. Tawny, Kuertis, and I followed, though Clarisa did not.

When I look back, she seemed to be in the middle of mental tug-of-war with Moonhawk, something that I'd experienced enough times to know what it looked like. They were barely a foot apart, Clarisa clenching her jaw and Moonhawk on the verge of baring her fangs. It looked like I wasn't the only one who'd wanted my dragon free from the collar's mindless effects. Though, why Clarisa of all people would want to free her dragon, I had no idea.

[Moonhawk has Clarisa wrapped around her tail spikes,] Leera said.

[Really? But Clarisa's gone through the mental cleansing, hasn't she?] I glanced at Clarisa's hands, which were currently clutching a chain. The rider mark on the back of her hand was dark, nearly black like Tawny's

Leera snorted. [It's paint.]

The others stopped leaving, and so did I.

"Will you come, Clarisa?" Farot asked with a bit of a sneer. He'd clearly not forgotten Clarisa's insult at breakfast.

"Wait a minute," Clarisa said.

I turned my attention back to Leera. [Since when are you and Moonhawk so close?]

[We aren't. She brags about the control she has over her rider to upset BlueIsle, and BlueIsle talks to me.]

Of course only a dragon as mean as Clarisa would choose Clarisa to be her rider. Speaking of Clarisa's dragon, Moonhawk finally seemed to have come to an agreement with her rider. She laid down docilely, mimicking the other dragons. Clarisa turned around and jogged over to us.

"What was that all about?" I asked as we started walking again.

If looks could kill, I would've died right then. "Nothing that concerns you."

I probably would've come up with something to snap back at her, but before I could, Farot led us around the corner.

The street ahead of us was lined with merchant stalls and packed with people. I'd never seen so many people in my life, much less in one place. Almost all of them wore cloaks, though some were thicker and lined with fur while others were thinner and colorful, obviously only for decoration. I felt like even more of a stranger than I had before because my dark-colored jacket stood out against the many light furs and colored silks.

The noise was astounding, the sounds of buying and selling coming from every direction. I wasn't the only one who seemed overwhelmed by it all. Tawny and Clarisa had stopped in their tracks too. Farot and Kuertis, however, continued into the crowd, apparently not having noticed that we'd stopped.

"We should follow them before we lose them," Tawny said, but she didn't move towards the crowd. An expression of fear and disgust played on her face, no doubt caused by the prospect of entering a crowd full of dalteks and paltors.

"I won't get lost, even if you two are too afraid to go after them." Clarisa plunged ahead into the crowd.

I stayed with Tawny. "We really should follow them."

She didn't move but just kept staring at the crowd. "How could there be an entire country of people that doesn't understand how evil dalteks and paltors are?"

"I don't know." I tried not to snap at her, but it wasn't exactly easy. "Maybe they're all brainwashed. Let's go." I started into the crowd, grabbing Tawny's arm and dragging her with me.

We weaved around buyers and merchants alike, trying to find the others. Unfortunately, they'd gone too far ahead of us to spot through the crowd. Tawny cringed away from everyone we passed, and I grew increasingly nervous that we might be really lost.

"Ella!" I heard Kuertis shout my name and turned towards the sound. Through a gap in the crowd, I spotted him waving at me from in front of a market stall selling cold weather gear.

I pulled Tawny with me through the crowd to where Kuertis, Clarisa, and Farot were standing. Farot gestured to several people near him. They were all extremely muscular and carrying enough weapons to fill the Academy's armory. Even the one woman in the group looked like she could break any of us in half easier than I would break a twig.

"They will come with us," Farot said"

If those were the six other riders he'd brought, we wouldn't have a chance in a full-out fight, even with all four of us and our dragons. We would just have to hope that it didn't come down to us attacking them directly. We would have to rely on subtly.

"You all need warm clothes. I will pay," Farot said.

I picked out the warmest cloaks, gloves, scarf, boots, and tail cover I could find. Tawny, Clarisa, and Kuertis did the same, while the Ferentisians mostly limited their choices to cloaks and gloves. Farot paid for it all, handing over several red crystals that seem to be worth a lot.

We next went to buy huge canteens and winter sleeping bags, along with a large amount of dried foods. We had to rent a cart and horse just to carry everything. Once we'd finished buying supplies, we went to where the other riders had tied up their mounts so we could drop their stuff off. There weren't any dragons at the hitching post, only six thunderbeasts.

I was relieved but still worried. Thunderbeasts looked like huge, six-legged horses with red rams horns and armor on their chest and forehead. While they weren't as big as dragons, I'd heard that they could somehow fly and shoot lightning out of their hooves. Add to that the fact that they were fiercely loyal to their riders, and six thunderbeasts didn't seem all that much better than six katalnis.

None of Farot's thunderbeast riders paid much attention to us Lykelans, except for the woman. She kept glancing at us, at me in particular. I thought that as long as she kept looking at me, I might as well watch her.

She was a talme with dark brown fur and a heart-shaped face. She couldn't have been more than thirty, but the feathery scars marring her face and neck told me she'd been through a lot in her relatively short life.

When she finished putting her things on her thunderbeast, she came over to us. She cocked her head at me. "Ella, I presume?" Weirdly enough, there was a bit of Lykelan mixed in with her Ferentisian accent.

"Yep." I shrugged. "Are you from Lykela?"

"I hold no allegiance to the country that killed my sister because of who she chose to marry."

"Oh. I'm sorry." I'd hoped for a moment that she might help us out of some loyalty to Lykela, but there wasn't much chance of that happening now.

"After seventeen years, I don't mourn anymore. By the way, I'm Bylanna. The prince told me about you, Ella."

"He did?" I shot Tawny a curious look.

She shrugged.

Bylanna nodded. "He told me that you and the elent were 'big fans' of him back in Lykela. You came here because of him, without any knowledge of his quest?"

"Yeah." Something about the way she said it made me think she has some doubts about our story. But how could she, if we had Farot convinced?

"As long as that is true, you and I will have no trouble working together."

"It's true."

She went back to her thunderbeast.