Inferno Legacy: Loyalty of the Dragon (Book Two)

Chapter 8

            “It is similar to using magic,” Mournful explained, expecting them to know what it was like to use magic. “Just take deep, calming breaths, and imagine the house.”

            Cody lay on his back between Omen and Aval, Autumn on the other side of her brother while the dragons and Ashheart lay around them in a weirdly-shaped circle. Mournful was half-asleep at their feet as she explained how they would get to the Realm of Mortals as she called it, which was really Semiones. As far as she explained, they were each supposed to imagine the entire group appearing in one place in Semiones that the humans had all been to before. Their destination: Cody’s old house, since no one lived there any longer and it wasn’t overly far from the main town.

            They all tried desperately to do it, all of them imagining the old house and focusing every thought on it, with little success for at least ten minutes. Then Cody remembered a time when he had fallen asleep and felt his mind wandering around. Perhaps he was supposed to fall asleep for it to work? But he was too excited to fall asleep. He kept imagining his town, whenever Avalsmokes and Autumn would visit and how the town would react to him and his friends. Then he felt something at the back of his mind, a sort of hidden strength almost.

            “I suppose if this is your first time going on your own, we might not be able t make it at all. It could take hours,” Mournful said with a sigh.

            But then Cody felt the power course through his veins and along every part of his body, traveling like oxygen through his blood. Then he thought about the cave that he, Inferno, and Omen had explored part of when Inferno was younger. The cave had deep claw marks in the sides, carving it out further. Were those dragon claw-marks? Suddenly, everything went dark, and he could hear Mournful gasp in surprise.

            “What happened?” Autumn asked seriously, standing to touch the wall.

            Cody looked around and gasped himself. They weren’t in the cave in Mrana Akano Furista anymore, but they certainly weren’t at his house. He stood slowly and walked a few feet. His foot suddenly caught on Micah’s tail and he pitched forward when the dragon growled ferociously in anger. The rider’s helmet smashed against something metallic, making an impossibly loud noise. His left hand rose to his left ear and he forced his other ear against his shoulder in an attempt to stop the infernal sound, but he used his good arm to feel the thing he had hit. It was a torch!

            “Omen, this is the cave that we explored with Inferno all that time ago,” Cody explained, fingering the metal with interest.

            There was an appreciative whistle from somewhere in the tunnel before Omen answered, “Sure is! I never thought I’d be here again…but how are we here?”

            A voice sounded next to Cody, “Were you all thinking of this place instead?” It was Mournful.

            “Avalsmokes and Autumn never even knew about it,” Inferno commented with similar interest as his rider.

            “I never had the slightest thought of it either, it must have been Cody,” Omen explained with awe in his voice.

            The gryphon sounded almost angry, “Don’t be silly, one man can’t have the power teleport a whole group of people, and certainly not if you were all thinking of a different place. But this cave seems familiar….”

            “The power!” announced Cody suddenly, his eyes growing wide and glowing ever-so-slightly in the darkness. It was enough to see the curious glances from his friends, but Inferno jumped to the same conclusion.