Hunting Down a Dragon
Leaving the palace, I still was feeling the remnant of my previous anger. It had come on so fast, even if I did feel it was justified. I mean, who the heck did that no-name-noble think he was, bad mouthing Leon like that? Right in front of me, no less.
"Feeling a little better?" Leon asked, stroking the side of my neck.
I huffed out my displeasure. "Sure."
Leon chuckled, but didn't comment. As per usual, he seemed simply content to be spending time with me.
"So, is this Kalon dragon really all that impressive?" I asked after taking us back into the sky. I angled myself toward the training grounds, and leveled off at an appropriate height.
"He is one of the oldest dragons. At least when it comes to dragons who are part of the pact and not wild like yourself.
" Leon said, now quite comfortable being up in the air.
"From what I understand, he was actually once wild himself.
He was one of the first generation of bonded dragons, and has been fostering dragon relations with the other races. "
"Really?" I asked, surprised. "Wouldn't that make him really old?"
"Yes, very old." grinned Leon. "I can't say I know everything about him, but I am sure he is woven in and out of the history books."
I was now quite curious. He may be bonded now, but this Kalon would be the first wild dragon I have met.
Maybe he really would be able to help me.
Not only with finding my siblings, but also in understanding what it really meant to be a dragon.
Having spent a good amount of time with the other dragons living in the barracks, I was quite sure that I wasn't getting a real picture of what that meant.
The dragons who were born and raised as a bonded pair felt far too human compared to how I imagined an actual dragon should act.
It also conflicted with the few, disjointed, memories I had from my mother.
One thing was clear as we made our decent towards the training grounds: Kalon wasn't here.
I did see Grysbok and Parthus, but there wasn't a giant, older dragon anywhere.
Actually, now that I thought about it, i didn't really know what Kalon looked like at all.
Maybe someone told me once... but I hadn't bothered to remember.
"Your back awfully fast." Stated the dark haired Lillian.
She was seated on the back of Parthus, bushing out his scales in a lackadaisical manner.
Leon definitely paid far better attention when he attended to my scales.
Perhaps Parthus needed to give the young woman a talking to.
Then again, Parthus himself was pretty lazy, spending much of the day sleeping.
"We thought that we should come and talk with Captain Trent and Kalon." said Leon, not bothering to hop off my back. "Do you know where they went?"
"The captain said that he was headed to the shore to see Kalon." Said Benson. He, too, was tending to his dragon. Rather then brushing out the brown scaled Grysbok, he was tending to his claws.
"What shore?" I asked, a little irritated. "This is Helios... there are countless shores." It was a city built on islands for Asteria's sake.
"She has a point." Mused Lillian. Despite her lack of motivation in tending to her dragon, she did seem to be in a fairly good mood. She usually didn't talk all that much, and when she did it was in a surly cadence; often accompanied by eye rolls and tongue clicks.
"Er, well... he didn't specify. I c-can't imagine it was far though. Other wise Kalon would have come to Trent, r-right?" stuttered Benson, looking rather apologetic.
"I wouldn't count on that." Laughed Grysbok. "Kalon is just morose enough to make his dragoon walk a few kilometers to find him."
I sighed, lifting my wings- a signal for Leon to be sure of his grip. "Very well, we will go look for him. Surely it can't be that hard to find a dragon..."
Once we were back in the air and out of ear-shot of the others, i asked Leon the pressing question. "So... What, exactly, does Kalon look like?"
Though I didn't hear it, I knew full well that Leon was suppressing laughter on my back. "He is mainly black, with golden horns and belly scales. He is larger than the other trainee's dragons, but smaller than Brakus."
"Isn't he older than Brakus?" I asked. If he was from the start of the Dragon Pact, then that must be the case.
"He is. But Kalon's lineage is naturally smaller than Brakus'. Much like how you seem small and slim compared to most dragons."
"Who are you calling small?" I grumbled, scanning the shore lines below us for a black dragon.
Thankfully, we didn't need to hunt for long.
I was correct in my assumption that dragon's do, indeed, stand out.
Seeing the sun bouncing off dark scales, I angled downward, towards a relatively small shore on a small island with only a statue and some benches on it.
That and the two bridges that connected it to two more islands.
As we came in for a landing (nailed it again, I was becoming a professional if I did say so myself), I saw that the man Leon had been sparing with was standing next to the large dragon.
Kalon and his dragoon watched us land, neither moving from the shore line.
The dragon was a little less than twice my size, and- like Leon had described- he was black and golden in color.
Kalon was already rather stand-out from the other dragons I had seen so far, but it was his eyes that were most captivating.
They were an electric blue, and almost seemed to glow in their sockets as he watched Leon and I approach.
"Well, this is new..." the dragon rumbled, his voice like boulders tumbling in a river.