The Golden Rider Book 1: The Golden Traitor

Chapter 2.1

Part 2

Chapter 1

One Year Later

It was nearing dawn when Adonis and I approached the mouth of the cave.  I walked a little bit ahead and hummed a tune that was once popular among the villages while Adonis ambled behind me while looking towards the rising sun with his sharp green eyes.  In the year that we had been alone in the mountains he had fully grown into his body.  He was a very lean Dragon, probably because he wasn't eating enough.  He said that he was fine, but he couldn't hunt as regularly as a Dragon should.  It wasn't like I could see his bones, but even Thalia seemed larger than he was, and as I recalled Adonis is a bit taller than her.

Other than that, Adonis looked like almost every other Dragon.  He actually looked a lot like Karel's Dragon Frey; however, instead of dark blue scales Adonis' scales were the color of the golden sunrise that he was intently watching.  In fact, he was watching it so closely that he didn't notice me stop and practically ran me over.

"Hey!  Watch it you big lug!" I scolded him and dusted myself off of the ground.  He was lucky that I narrowly avoided the large puddle a bit to my left.  I had just bathed yesterday, and I did not want to get muddy again.  I was rarely able to get out of the cave more than a couple nights, and even tonight there had been at three Riders who passed right over us.  We were lucky that all of the trees had covered us.  A golden Dragon would definitely draw attention.

Sorry.  I didn't see you stop.

"Of course you didn't.  You were too busy staring at the sun."

It's so pretty isn't it?  Looking at all of the colors in the sky and seeing how vast everything is.  It's like, I just want to go flying forever into the horizon and see everything.

"How poetic of you."  I looked up to see the sun peek from behind the mountain.  The light bounced off of Adonis' scales which reflected the light all around us.  "But that would be nice.  Having no worries; just flying."  We stopped at in front of the large rock that blocked the entrance to the cave.  Adonis walked up and pushed back the rock and then walked back towards me.

You have thirty seconds and then I go.

"Good for you.  Don't skimp on the thirty seconds this time.  I know you only counted to twenty-five last time."

And you still won!

"That's not the point.  No cheaters," I said and walked off to the side.  I spotted the large rock that was a darker color than the others around it.  There was a Valerie-sized gap to its left that seemed to blend into the dark rock.  It was almost impossible to spot unless you knew it was there.

You better start running.  I already started counting.

"Crap!" I yelled and ducked into the secondary tunnel.  My had reached to the right, and I quickly felt for my guideline etched into the rock.  Once I found it, I placed my middle finger on it and started running forwards.

It soon got too dark to see anything, so I relied on the line to my right.  I knew exactly which ways to go, but I had to make sure that I didn't pass them because some of the turns were tricky.  I remember the day I had found this path.  It was too small for Adonis, so only I was able to use it which is why I was running through it now.

A while back, we decided to spice up our routine.  Instead of walking back through the damp, dark cave, Adonis suggested a race.  He would take the usual path, and I would go on this one.  Needless to say, he killed me the first time.  Since then he gave me a handicap, but as the months went by that handicap was growing slower and slower as I memorized the correct paths.