VIOLENT TIDES (gxg - editing)

22

Ainsley leaned forward and sent a message through the weight of her fingers on the dragon's neck. It fell lower, wings keeping it on a gentle, sloping path.

There was some sort of complex sprawling across a huge swath of land. As she looked closer, however, she realized it was still in progress, men rushing back and forth and carrying wood and metal over their shoulders. The most prominent of the buildings was what appeared to be a stable, but scaled to several times the size, with each stall huge and made almost completely of iron and steel. There were other buildings being slowly constructed as well- what looked like a barracks, as well as perhaps an armoury of sorts.

"Huh." Ainsley's quiet word was nearly blown away by the force of the wind as they looped in several slow circles around the site.

"Ainsley? What is that?" Gael asked again, leaning closer. Ainsley's skin tickled where her breath touched her neck, and she tried not to get distracted.

"I.... am not sure. But I have a few ideas. I think maybe we should set down somewhere."

Ainsley brought the dragon to a soft landing outside the walls of the city and slid off of its side. Gael slipped down a moment after her, catching herself on the grass underfoot. Here, where the wind didn't roar in their ears, they were able to talk.

"There was an insignia painted on the roof of that building," Gael pointed out. Ainsley nodded.

"I know. I saw it."

A stylized dragon in flight, against a simple, blocky red sun. The symbol of the Ackerley family line.

"My father is doing something there. I'm just not sure what."

"Those stalls were too large to be for any horse I've ever seen."

Ainsley ran a hand through her short hair. It took a few tries before it stayed there instead of flopping back over her eyes. "They're not for horses. I can only assume they're for dragons."

"Dragons?" Gael repeated.

Ainsley nodded, mulling over everything she had seen. "That's the only explanation coming to mind right now."

"But why would he need a stable for dragons? And all the other buildings?"

"I'm not sure," she replied, starting to get frustrated with how little she knew. She reached up, tangled her fingers in her short hair, and paced a few steps away. Then back again. Her mind raced.

"Perhaps he wants to use you to call on and summon dragons?"

"That's an option, but he knows I would never comply," Ainsley replied. The dragon they had ridden settled down like a cat in a patch of sunlight, adjusting the position of its blindingly white wings. "It seemed like he's preparing to..." her voice trailed off slightly for a moment. "Build an army."

"But he knows you would never help." Gael raised her knuckles to her chin in thought, biting down on her lower lip before her next question. "Is there a way to gain dragonblood abilities?"

"No, it's entirely genetic, it..." Once again, Ainsley let her voice drift away, trying to think back to what she had learned on this topic in her classes. "There was rumoured to be a way to do it," she said at last. Gael watched her with burning intensity as Ainsley traced slow steps in front of her. "To be infused with false dragonblood power. It required someone with an affinity for dark magics, and not many believe such a person can exist... dragons are the only truly magical beings. Unless you consider titans to exist as well, in which case that would apply to them as well."

"So there's no way your father could communicate with a dragon?"

"No. Not unless there truly did exist a person who understood dark magic." She stopped pacing and folded her arms around herself, staring at the ground as she thought.