Dragon Riders

Chapter 14: Plain yet Unigue

Aspen POV:

Once I adjusted my personality to obey Iris, she ordered,

"Lay down your weapons in front of you!" We all followed her command. She paced down the line, nodding approvingly at our talents. She smiled at me as she examined my daggers. "I feel like you would be good with a sword and a bow and arrows." Then she took a step forward and saw a scroll in front of Cade. She chuckled without looking up at him. "Is this some kind of joke?" She looked up at him and could not mask her confusion.

"Cade?" She asked. "You don't seem like much of a jokester! Regardless, pull out your weapons." He shook his head and smiled. He pointed at the scroll at his feet.

"That is my weapon!" He insisted through her giggles. She stopped laughing and looked him straight in the eye. Then she looked at me.

"Is he being serious?" Iris inquired. I nodded solemnly. She glanced at him then back at me. "And you haven't taught him to fight?" I shook my head,

"I wanted to, but he insisted he wouldn't do it." She turned back to him. He gulped.

"Well, you're going to learn now." We were at the end of line, so she paced back to the middle. "Everyone practice your skills. That is all we are going to be doing these days before we join the Teffs." She pointed at Cade and I. "You two, come with me!" She headed across the meadow to some targets, there rested several bows with matching arrows. "Pick the ones you like best." I looked over them. There was a gold one, a silver one, and a bronze one each studded with rubies, sapphires, and emeralds respectively. Their arrows, all made of gold, silver, or bronze colored steel, had no feathers Then there was an oak one, a maple one, a birch one, and a pine one, all completely plain. Each of the arrows had feathers of hawks. I examined them once more, then reached for the pine one, with the red tailed hawk feathers. Cade picked the silver one with the sapphires.

"The bow and arrows you pick suggest a lot about you, you know?" She declared. "Mine is oak because I am strong willed. The feathers are sharp shinned hawk because they are clever and have a piercing gaze. They are slim, yet strong." She paused. "Cade, you picked silver with sapphires. This suggests you long for beauty and kindness and really like blue, a color of calmness and peace. Aspen, you chose pine with red hawk feathers. Pines are common, yet each is different. So you prefer what is considered plain, but is different in it's own special way. Also, red tailed hawks are pretty yet strong and swift." She pulled out her bow and demonstrated the stance. "You all try!" we both mimicked her. She looked over my position and said "Perfect!" Then she turned to Cade, who surprisingly had it perfect.

She gave us each an arrow and showed us how to nock them. We both did as she instructed. We then aimed and released them. For the first few times, neither of us could hit the target. On his fifth of sixth try, Cade hit the outer ring. Then a couple arrows later, so did I. I can't deny that it irked me a little bit that he hit the target before me. After a few hours, we could both hit the bullseye consistently. She clapped approvingly "Wow you two! That's unbelievable! I've never seen anyone learn that fast! Let's try swords." Over the next half of the day, we learned to use swords. We each fought Iris after we mastered the basics. Cade held his ground and neither could win. They slashed and stabbed, but neither could defeat the other. After a while, she put an end to it. "Okay," she stated. "Aspen, your turn!" We stood across from each other.

Of course, she made the first move, a slash to the right. I countered sending my sword clashing against hers. I made jab at her stomach, but it was deflected by her steel blade. She stabbed at my side, but my reflexes were superb and I blocked it. After several minutes, I disarmed her, flipped over to the dropped weapon, grabbed it, and put the blades on either side of her throat. She just grinned. "I have never seen newcomers do so well, I mean..." She trailed off as she stared over our heads, we turned to see a tornado raging in the meadow over.

"What in the name of Octinia?" Cade gawked. I laughed at his shocked expression.

"It's just Shade!" She reassured him. "He's sparring with somebody, which reminds me..." She paused and turned to everyone practicing. "Everyone get in a line!" The Viys quickly scurried until they were shoulder to shoulder. "Now, I will pair you up with someone at your level. Aspen, you get a pass this round. She then proceeded to pair everyone up. Cade beat his first match in the first minute. After everyone finished, it was down to the top fifty. "Apsen, you're with Kayzee." I turned to see a tan, black haired girl looking at me.

"Ready?" I asked.

"Born ready!" She replied with confidence. After a minute, though, I had disarmed her. "You're really good!" She told me as she went to sit with the others who had been defeated. It was now the top twenty five! A boy named Lazaro was given a pass. She paired everyone up again. This time, I was placed with a tall, red haired boy named Nixon. I disarmed him just as fast as I did Kayzee.

"Great job!" He told me as he joined the others. Now there were just thirteen of us.

"Eli," shouted Iris, "you get a pass!" A short tan boy with blond hair sat down quietly. "Aspen, you're with Zach." Zach was a short, freckly, strawberry blonde. I quickly disarmed him. "Seven left!" Iris called out. "Cade, you get a pass." I got paired with a kid named Ian. It took me a couple minutes, but I beat him. He joined the ever growing crowd of those who had lost. There were four left now! "Cade fight Aryssa, and Aspen you fight Eli." I felt really bad. He was so little, but he was defiantly not weak. His first strike nearly grazed my cheek. He was on offense. I blocked his slices and struck back. After about five minutes, I disarmed him.
"You are amazing for a..." I tried to guess his age. "Nine year old!"

"Ten," he corrected me.

"Sorry," I apologized.

"No problem!" he assured me as he joined the losers. I turned to see Cade standing there sheepishly. He gave me a little wave.

"This should be interesting," Iris anticipated. Cade and I stood across the meadow from one another. Just standing. We didn't raise our swords. We didn't even move. I had watched Cade flourish today. My nerdy little bookworm was shooting arrows and using swords. How could I ever defeat him on a day like this? I gulped.

"Are you two just going to stand there, gawking at each other, or are you going to fight?" Eli called. Laughter burst from the loser section. My cheeks grew hot. I turned back to Cade. He was no longer grabbing his arm giving me that look. No. He was in a fighting stance, sword out, eyes chuckling. I mimicked his pose. Then, I rushed at him, sword out. I sliced to the right, but his blade caught mine with a loud clang!