Inferno Legacy: Valor of the Dragon (Book One)

Chapter 10

 Chapter 10

          Cody, Inferno, Omen, Avalsmokes, and Autumn were still travelling through the seemingly endless forest as the sun reached the highest point in the sky, right around noon. Inferno had tired long before while flying, and decided to just walk along beside them until he felt strong enough to fly again. He flapped his wings a bit to test their strength, then decided that he wasn’t quite ready yet to try again.

            While Omen exchanged stories and fairytales with Aval and Autumn, Cody asked Inferno, “I hate that I didn’t think of this earlier, and I guess it’s too late to do right now, but when you land again after your next flight, could I maybe ride you instead of Chase? Now that I’ve ridden you for the first time, it seems sort of demeaning to ride a horse instead.”

            “Of course, there is nothing I would enjoy more! But why can’t you just ride me all the time, whether I’m flying or not?”

            “The timing still doesn’t feel right,” Blackscales said. “I will after we pass through Starling, does that sound good to you?”

            Inferno nodded. Suddenly Autumn turned around and stared at Blackscales for a long time through disappointed eyes. She just wouldn’t stop glaring at him, making him really uncomfortable until he started squirming in his saddle.

            “Now are you going to explain everything to us or not?” She asked after more uncomfortable staring and squirming.

            “Oh!” Blackscales said, suddenly very relieved, though worried at the same time. “It all started a long time ago, when Argos and his rider sent me and Inferno dreams right after he hatched; instructions, basically.”

            “Argos has a rider!?” Omen screeched with sudden wonder.

            “Argos communicated with you!?” Autumn said in her own astonishment and stupefaction.

            Aval’s bewilderment came out soon after, “What did he tell you!?”

            “Yes, though we don’t know his name yet. Yes, this startles me just as much as you. He told me to steal a map from my father because he was going to use it for some sort of evil purpose, a book from Faltanar, and he said that I must never see Faltanar face-to-face again.”

            “Is that the night when you told us to throw a party for Faltanar but you never showed?” Autumn asked.

            Cody nodded. “He told me to read the book with Inferno, because it would tell us the basics of what we needed to know about dragons and their riders. We have no clue why Faltanar would have such a book, but we didn’t question, just hoped the answers would all be in the book.”

            “And were they?” Aval questioned.

            Blackscales thought a minute before replying, “A few, but we’ve only had the time to read a fraction of it. Then just last night, when me and Inferno were sleeping, Argos and his rider came to us in our dreams and said that we had to go search for them. They said that we weren’t ready, but there wasn’t enough time to wait anymore. They also said that we would need help keeping safe from enemy attacks, so we’d need the help from trusted warriors from the village. Lastly, they said that I would need to change my name to Blackscales so that our enemies wouldn’t recognize us, but our allies would.”

            “Exactly who are our allies?” Omen asked.

            Blackscales responded with a sad looking face, “We don’t know. We don’t even know who the enemies are. Argos’s rider just told me that I would know who was friend or foe when I met them.”