Inferno Legacy: Loyalty of the Dragon (Book Two)

Chapter 9

            Inferno walked forward eagerly, his long black legs gliding over the ground as he led the way along the gravel road. Cody sat comfortably in the beautiful new saddle on his back. Micah trotted along even more elegantly to the left, only slightly behind. Destiny raced along as fast as her little legs would allow while her rider just barely managed to keep the pace, and Omen and Ashheart padded on easily behind. Mournful sat bareback on Inferno behind Cody.

All of the dragon riders had their helmets on at Cody’s and Inferno’s request, just to see how the town would react to seeing three riders charge into their midst and then suddenly realize that they were the people that had been gone from the town after all this time. In the distance, Cody saw a young man notice them coming and immediately turn around to charge back into town. He couldn’t recognize the man from that distance, but Cody and Inferno practically fed off of his surprise, like they always did.

Within a few minutes of dragon-jogging, the town slowly came into view. Cody looked at the wonderful sight from his perch and took a deep breath of the village air, basking in glory of coming home as a dragon rider. They came closer, and it appeared as though the man they had seen on the trail either never told them, or no one listened to him. But when the two largest dragons reached the edge of the town, all commotion stopped.

Cody knew that people would have screamed if they weren’t so awestruck by the sheer beauty of the dragons. But adding the fact that there were humans on their backs and a tiny dragon walked along beside them, and it was lucky enough that people understood they weren’t a threat. Yet no one dared get closer for fear of what might happen. When it looked like most every adult had gathered below, Cody and Autumn slipped from the backs of their dragons and stepped forward, removing their helmets.

The crowd seemed to draw in a single breath as one being as every single one of them gasped in shock. On the way back out, the air came out in an intense flurry of questions and the crowd surged forward enthusiastically. Avalsmokes stepped forward with his helmet off, and instantly a relatively old woman from the depths of the crowd plowed forward and tackled her children in a hug. Then the crowd separated Cody from everyone except Inferno and Mournful, who had evidently slipped down beside him.

Amidst all of the noise and motion, Cody saw a boy about 14 years old rush up to Inferno, grab on to one of the saddle straps and asked Cody, “Can I water your dragon?”

That question seemed so ridiculous to Cody that he just stared dumbly at the boy, his eyes wide. Inferno picked up the back of the boy’s clothes in his jaws and lifted him above the crowd, which suddenly stopped moving to look up. Not noticing the attention, Inferno put the boy down and said something that only he was allowed to know. Boy stared at dragon intensely for a second before the little human took off, with freight or excitement, Cody would never know. Unfortunately, the people around were convinced they knew.

“What did that beast do to him!?” someone from the audience demanded.

“Prolly hypnotized ‘em!” another one answered.

Cody drew his sword and struck his helmet with the blade, making a noise so loud that even he gritted his teeth against the pain. “Calm down! Inferno only explained that he wasn’t a threat!”

“I tried, but Micah pretended to be me and said ‘how about I throw you in a lake and see how you like it’,” Inferno explained glumly.

Cody’s eyes widened in surprise and he looked at Inferno, “What do you mean?”

“I’ mean he made me look like the beast they’re labeling me as. In their eyes, I’m no friend.”

Cody didn’t believe it. He looked over at the white dragon, and he could have sworn he saw a flash of smugness in those pale yellow eyes. The crowd was in uproar again and Cody didn’t know how to silence them. Then Mournful put a hand on his shoulder and held the other high.