Inferno Legacy: Loyalty of the Dragon (Book Two)

Chapter 4

            Inferno flew low over the treetops, their bare tips reaching for him like claws from the heart of the forest. Cody was holding on to the handle of the pitch black saddle while he mostly lay down in it, leaning forward a lot for the first time ever, as far as he could remember. It was even more amazing than sitting up. He hadn’t realized it before, but sitting up he was always the tiniest bit concerned with falling off, even if his legs were held tight by the straps attached to the saddle. Lying down, he felt like an actual rider, speeding above the trees and leaning in to even the slightest turn.

            He wore a full suit of flexible but sturdy armor that he had bought before while he traveled through the towns. Black helmet, boots, cuirass, leggings, and gloves covered him from head to toe, making him look like nothing more than a bump on Inferno’s back, part of his body. On the rider’s back there was a sturdy battle axe, a bow, and a sheath of arrows, while on his belt he had a sword, its blade as black as the night that quickly retreated around the two.

Cody liked to believe he was good at using all three, but he had rarely used them during his travels and could only hope that he really was skilled with them all. As Inferno approached the mountain cave where Argos and Heyrone lived, the rider began to hope that he would receive some sort of training or test in those areas. He grew nervous when the monstrous entrance came into his sight, and he began to hope that the training would be some sort of weapons training. Perhaps he could manage to impress his mentor on the first day?

He felt his gloved hands clutch the saddle’s handle tighter as Inferno slid to the side and flew into the mouth of the cave just as the first rays of sunlight stabbed into the sky behind the mountains. Cody sat up straight, his mouth wide open as he gaped at the sight of the cave. Torches lined the walls, retreating down a long, wide, and very tall cave into the depths of the mountain. Most surprising of all, there was no one there.

“Where could they be?” Cody asked Inferno, imagining Argos the massive blue dragon hidden in the heart of the cave.

The dragon shrugged his wings before folding them to his side and took a deep breath through his nostrils. “I smell Elder Argos well. His scent is stale, but leads down this tunnel. I’d say they went down in the middle of the night at some point. Perhaps they go there to sleep and they want us to go down after them?”

“I’d assume so,” Cody said, looking around at the cave.

The cave was so large that Argos would have been able to walk through it, lie down, sit down, and do almost anything in. The ceiling rose high above the smaller dragon and his rider, making them appear puny. After a few more moments of wonder, the dragon set off down the tunnel at a fast dragon-sized trot, Cody bumping around uncomfortably in the saddle. With a simple thought, he convinced Inferno to speed up.

The rider slid back down to the position he was in when they were flying and felt energy rush through him as Inferno leaped skillfully over boulders and dove around the largest ones. After a little while the sun faded behind them until they had to rely more on the light of the torches to see, even with their enhanced vision. Then Inferno slid to a stop, spraying rocks forward into the depths of one of the three tunnels that now surrounded them.

“Why did you stop? Can’t you smell which way they went?” Cody asked the dragon allowed as he looked around at the three caves.

“That’s just it,” Inferno began stomping the floor as he nervously paced, “I can’t smell them anymore at all. There’s a faint trace I suppose, but it’s old and comes from all of the tunnels.”

Cody thought for a moment before thinking to the dragon, “I guess we should try them all. Start down the left.”

In an instant Inferno agreed and wasted no time before barreling down the tunnel. The torches flickered as the strong wind following the two blew at them and made their flames dance, but Cody paid no attention to it. He sat crouched in the saddle as Inferno thundered along quickly, careful to avoid the occasional dip in the ground caused by Argos’s massive paws. Then, as they burst into a cavern that Cody hadn’t noticed, he felt something slam into him.