Dragon Rider (#Wattys2016)

Plotting An Escape

Recap:

With that we fell into silence before I realised some of my questions never got answered. "How does magic work?" I questioned once more.

End Recap

Thea's POV

Spiritus chuckled before sighing, "I was kind of hoping you'd forgotten about that question. We don't know the specifics of magic but like I said earlier we believe it's linked to having a dragon. Well having that bond with a dragon whether it still exists or not is what causes magic... We think so anyway, we've looked at a few books in the library and apparently there is no real known cause for magic. With dragon riders the magic is caused by the bond but the library has information saying that there used to be people, who had never connected to a dragon, and could use magic."

"Okay, I think I understand all that. But that doesn't tell me how you use it." I responded.

"Right, well there's this language... We've spoken about this briefly before. We call it the ancient language as we have no clue how old it is." Dai said.

I clicked my fingers as I remembered, "I remember! I also remember reading something about it..." I scrunched my eyebrows in thought and we sat in silence for a minute. "I've got it. The book explained that the ancient language was the language of the Elders. Elders being the eldest of the dragons... They also spoke about having multiple names: a given name, true name and taken name. Your taken name you made and it was in the ancient language. Your taken name's found by 'reaching deep within yourself' whatever that means. Your given name is the name you were given at birth, and your true name allows people to control you to a certain extent. If you have a taken name it blocks it slightly but without a taken name you can be slightly controlled by someone using your given name."

"Yeah, that's about all we know on such things. Multiple books mention DRA, Dragon Rider Academy, we have no idea what happened to it though." Dai explained.

"Now we need to discuss how we're planning to escape, Stella I thought maybe you could help Dai, some others and I figure the best way to do it." Spiritus said.

"Umm... Okay, I'll see what I can do. What's been done so far?" I questioned feeling unsure if I could help in any way or form.

"We've sent scouts to check out the monster nest at all hours for the past two days to figure out a way of getting the dragons out. And also to see how many entrances there are into the monster nest and to check when it would be safest to escape."

I nodded thoughtfully, "What have you found so far?"

"Surprisingly the worst of the monsters are awake and prowl the caves when we are awake while the, um, easier to kill monsters are awake when we all sleep. There are two entrances into the caves, one large and the other one which you found. Small enough for only humans to fit through not dragons, the other problem is that the entrance is only big enough for humans to get through. As you had to get through that small gap and climb up," Dai said.

I frowned and scratched my head in thought. "Just leave the dragons behind," Spiritus said like it was no big deal.

I looked at Spiritus in horror, "How could you think of such an idea? Let alone consider it! The dragons have helped us and they're missing their riders like we're missing our dragons!" I shouted at her, Spiritus stood up and glared at me.

"Maybe I don't care about the dragons Stella! Maybe I just want to live!!"

I gritted my teeth in anger before standing up and yelled at her once more. "Are you that stupid?! We can't go back to our lives anymore!! The dragon riders and magicians will be on our tails! We know too much, they're ruthless at us without dragons and if we have a chance to get our dragons back. Do you seriously think they'll consider letting us live?!"