Inferno Legacy: Valor of the Dragon (Book One)

Chapter 42

Chapter 42

            Cody’s fast beating heart suddenly stopped. Falcon had just said that his father was named Flamidar. No matter how much he thought about it, the rider simple couldn’t rule out his father, even though he kept trying desperately. He felt his body beginning to shake, but he forced himself to control it.

            “Thank you Falcon,” he told the woman in front of him calmly as he stood. “I’m afraid that’s all I needed to know. I will have to see you again soon.”

            “You better, and tell your mother and father I said hi!” Falcon said cheerily, not sensing Cody’s terror.

            Immediately Cody rushed from the living room and raced out the door, hardly slowing to say a final good-bye to Falcon as he left. He could faintly hear the others doing their best to follow closely behind him, but his pace was brisk as he made for the forest, not caring who saw. The others allowed him to walk in silence until the made it into the trees, and even Inferno seemed too shocked to speak. He had been listening to the entire exchange, until Cody began freaking out.

            After a few more feet of walking, Cody just stopped. He sat down with a thump and rested his back against a tree as he tried to control his breathing. How could his father be serving the enemy? It must have been some kind of mistake. But of course, he knew it wasn’t. His father, no, Flamidar, had been acting strangely for a few months before he had found Inferno’s egg. He must have been searching for the rider, for him, the entire time. The man, who had raised him and “loved” him, was now trying to hunt him down. Who knew what he would do if he succeeded?

            It took Cody a few minutes before he began to hear his companions and the dragon trying to talk to him. Mora had a hand on his shoulder as Pippi kept saying his name comfortingly, and Larson watched from a little ways away. Easiest to sense, however, was Inferno’s growls of comforting thought, urging him to snap out of his trance. The rider shook his head before burying it between his knees. He began to recall moments in his childhood when his father didn’t seem to care, when he was deep in thought or focusing on other things. He began to talk about each experience aloud, recounted his whole life with his father. He stopped for a minute when he reached the time that he had found Inferno’s egg. Cody slowly finished his tale.

            “One morning I walked into our kitchen and saw him sitting at the table with his map, just gazing at it like he had been doing for a few months before, all hours of the day. I asked him what he was doing, and he joked that he was looking for Argos.” Cody threw himself at the nearest person and hugged them as he finished, “He wasn’t joking!”

            Apparently Mora and Pippi had backed up to hear his story and only Larson remained close enough to him. Since the warrior didn’t seem to like hugs, Cody forced himself to draw away from the hug and wiped a fresh tear from under his eye. That was when the two women resumed their positions at his side to comfort him again with soothing voices.

            “Get some sleep,” Inferno called to him softly. “It is getting dark, and you desperately need to rest.”

            Cody ignored his companions as he slowly laid himself out onto the rough ground and forced himself to lie still. After a while, the others did they same and fell asleep. It took several horrendously long hours, or maybe just minutes, for him to finally fall asleep.

~

            Cody awoke sometime later while it was still night. He felt unusual, but there was no tears, no shaking, and no reaction at all to the discovery of his father. Everything was absolutely fine and life was continuing for everyone else. The only thing that had changed was that Cody had found the man he had been searching for.