Mark of the Erios

Chapter 6: Castle Grounds

Krysian Yelt Point of View

The calming wind moving through my hair does nothing to calm the nerves and anger coursing through my veins at such a high velocity that I feel as if I am going to explode.

Passing through the hours, the castle comes into view when we cross over the large hill into the known royal grounds. The beauty of the castle overtakes my eyes and nothing else seems to matter as the white stone reflects the sunrise so perfectly. Each tower blocks just enough of the sun so that they appear black in color creating such a contrast in the look of the castle that nothing else could compare.

Too bad I lived in a one-bedroom shack that burned to the ground after I threw rice on my floor and stabbed a noble in the eye.

The dragons land right in front of the dragon stalls where Jonvi stands with his arms crossed. The old man simply laughs as we slide down the dragons and approach him with the ingredients in hand. The sun mimics the height from yesterday, we are cutting it close.

"Thank you, you both made it right on time, half hour to spare." Without saying anything else he turns around and walks into the stalls leaving us standing with the dragons. We lead them into the stalls throwing feed into their buckets. Both of the dragon's tear into their meal, the crunching laughable through the stalls.

Jonvi leads us to the back room of the stalls, a place hidden from views when you first enter.

"Welcome home you two, how was your travel?" Jonvi spoke quietly as if he is trying to protect the conversation from the monsters right outside the door. I let the Prince speak.

"It was eventful to say the least, but we retrieved everything and managed to get jumped all in 24 hours. I'd say we handled it decently. You should have seen Krys, great at distracting someone."

I tune him out, my fears of Jonvi figuring out I know his secret taking over my thoughts. Will he kill me? Rip my hand off? Demand for my tongue?

"-wonderful partner and she definitely encouraged me to deal with the snake. Couldn't imagine anyone else with me." Damien finished right as I focused back in on the conversation. Jonvi smiles at me, his gaze knowing when he looks over my distracted look.

"Well... uh thank you." I manage to get out and Jonvi raises his eyebrow towards me.

"Well riders I am proud to say that you made it back before the initial meeting wore off. Let's get this potion made so we can see if your able to communicate." The calming voice the dragon master presents runs over my skin allowing me to take a few deep breaths... finally.

"How does this work Jonvi? And if were able?" My voice is a little stronger now causing Damien to flash me a smirk.

Don't enjoy looking at his face Krys. Don't.

Quickly turning away from him I refocus on the old man as he puts all the ingredients besides the saddles into the pot. The gold teeth, snake eyes, and baby's tears all fall into the pot. With a small incantation to start up the process, each of the ingredients meld together in the pot making a single solid white bar- like one would think when they see bar of soap.

Jonvi pulls the bar out of the pot and cuts it into four pieces, I assume one for each of the parties at hand. He writes the dragons initials on two blocks with a special quill he pulled from his desk. Taking the two he wrote on he cuts that square into two more squares leaving six blocks sitting on the table between us.

"Alright my students, let's go to the dragons." Before we could respond Jonvi runs from the room and towards our dragons. He seems overly excited to do this and it confuses me on some level, hasn't he done this before?