Inferno Legacy: Loyalty of the Dragon (Book Two)

Chapter 22

That night Cody dreamed again. He wasn't Dreamwalker, but his dream was certainly unusual. He saw the realm of the dragons and their riders, and everything looked a bit different. There was a deep moat around the entire territory, fed by the mountain rain and lake water to form a vicious current that wrapped around the mountains and neighboring forest. Most of the land had been overgrown by the forest, but Cody caught glimpses of fur as wolves raced about under the cover of the trees. It was very cloudy, but all of a sudden a chaos of dragons flew into view out of the cloud cover and landed on different mountains near each other.

The biggest dragon was white as freshly fallen snow, a stark contrast against the steadily darkening clouds. Sitting in the glimmering golden saddle on his back was a woman, her hair lighter than fresh milk. The dragon's piercing yellow gaze roved over the land as he took it all in, looking for the intruding presence that Cody gave. Finally the eyes locked on the clouds beside Cody and narrowed as the sound of roaring dragons was heard.

Above the din, a man on the back of a ruddy orange dragon screamed at the top of his lungs, "Wheats! Grains! Assorted Vegetables!"

And before Cody could find out what had happened, he awoke abruptly, chuckling as soon as he did. That's when he remembered where he was and shook off the memory of the dream as he looked around the dark room.

"What's wrong now?" Cody heard Avalsmokes ask wearily from above.

"Nothing, just woke up laughing for some reason," Cody answered as he lifted his hand and felt the bottom of a second bed.

Only seconds later, Cody heard a pair of snores interrupting what would have otherwise been a silent space. Remembering that Thoughtful had told them to meet him in the library in the morning and that he said it was possible to guess the time, Cody figured he'd give it a try. He closed his eyes and imagined being outside in the chilly air of winter. What came to his mind was the sun peeking over the horizon, giving off long tendrils of crimson light that forecasted a storm.

Nevertheless it was morning, and Cody intended to arrive as early as possible to the lessons with Thoughtful. Then he thought of the sleeping forms of Aval and Omen near him, and decided not to wake them. Instead, he rose tenderly to his feet and snuck towards the door as best as he could manage with the sleep-addled memory guiding his steps. With luck on his side he soon found the door and carefully opened it, slipped out into the torch-lit tunnel, and closed it again.

Cody glanced at the massive door to his right, and decided to wake Inferno. "Inferno?"

"We are awake," came the dragon's weary reply. "Destiny awoke some time earlier and Thoughtful told her that we would not need to be present for the beginning of his lesson, and we are not allowed to wake our riders."
"Why not?" Cody asked curiously.

Inferno chuckled in his thoughts before answering, "Thoughtful said that he wanted to see who would wake earliest. He suspected it would be you, but he was still curious if it would, in fact, be you or not, and who would wake after you."

"How did Thoughtful talk to Destiny?"

There was a brief pause before the gold dragon answered, "I had sought him first. He is waiting for you now; go to him."

Cody nodded, though they couldn't see him so he said "Alright, tell him I am on my way."

"He knows," Inferno said. "Now go, don't keep him waiting on your first day!"

Cody smiled and raced through the tunnel as fast as his legs would carry him. It took only a minute for him to reach the end, and when he did he threw the door open, jumped through, and closed it again. He jogged to the opposite end of the massive, colorful hall at an easy pace to regain his breath and paused at the door to the library. When his breathing was mostly steady and deep, he opened the door and entered.