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Language:
English
Series:
Part 2 of Can We Pretend That Dragons In The Night Sky Are Like Shooting Stars?
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Published:
2013-06-01
Completed:
2013-07-20
Words:
4,639
Chapters:
2/2
Kudos:
4
Bookmarks:
1
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701

Chimera's are Red and Hydra's are Blue

Summary:

Nai has big dreams.
Sevadonn is hauled along for the ride.
Kyntak goes off to (hopefully) meet his dragon.

The dragons are not so sure what to make of it all.

Chapter 1: Let the Game Begin!

Chapter Text

He’s nervous. He’s got every right to be nervous. All he saw was a semicircle four layers deep and ten riders per layer. They all stood a few feet apart shifting in position so everyone got a clear shot at the barn.

The sun’s hot on that day. It burned down relentlessly without the cloud cover. Kyntak was rather surprised by that. There was usually some sort of cover. What little moisture remained on the trampled grass evaporated in a haze.

The young man to his left asked, “Do you think it’s time?”

“No, not yet,” the kid beyond him replied. They had been standing there, ready for the past five minutes.  Kyntak glanced to his left. He could feel a pair of beady eyes on his back. That must be Crexe. That slippery, slime ball had flunked out of care for Dragons after the dummy appeared to have suffered from experimentation and other physical damage. He wondered who the man bribed to get into the selection. Kyntak could hear Nai mutter something to Sevadonn.

“You’re kidding.” Sevadonn’s lip curled in distaste.

“No, I want her.” Nai, easily recognizable for the pink streaks in her hair and being one of three female riders present, smirked. “I’m the best.”

“Who?” he asked. His sister glared at him, long suffering.

“Queen of Spades.”

Kyntak laughed. “You’re kidding. I know Ma and Pa named you ‘dreamer’ but that is…”

Nai cut him off, brandishing a booklet. She glared like her heart was set on ripping his face off. “The stats say she has potential as an agent. I think we would work well together.”

“You would terrorize us all,” Sevadonn predicted. Kyntak nodded. His twin sister was insane. A queen level dragon? That was just plain crazy. Those were often picked off by the upper levels already.

So, a little bit on dragons. Dragons grew in clutches of thirteen. There were three top level dragons. These were the King, Queen, and Jack. They were kept as breeding stock for the clutch a few years in the future. After the clutch was hatched they went up for matching just like any other of their hatchlings. Then, there were agent dragons in rank one through ten, by the order they hatched.

Today, specifically, Deck Draconia had four clutches ready for matching. Many academy riders would meet their dragons for the first time. A handful would have to wait for the next batch. The dragons chose the riders, not the other way around as the conversation with Nai would lead people to believe. Riders could feel a light connection with them, but dragons chose who they liked. They bonded with who they liked. Try saying “no” to full ton of muscle and fire.

A horn blew.

Kyntak wasn’t sure what to do with his hands because all the dragons came spilling out of the barn and into people’s arms.

He stood flabbergasted as riders sprinted forward trying to get into a position where their hoped for dragon would see them. Nai appeared to be chasing after the Queen of Spades along with several other riders. Sevadonn did the opposite, standing tall and moving just enough to avoid getting hit by vaulting dragons.

Kyntak glanced around at the many colored beasts on display. Red, green, bronze, gold, silver, blue, and white made up the general color palette of dragons. Different patterns and shaped appeared. A few Chinese dragons looped without wings and a few Norwegian Basilisks trod heavily along the ground, blind-folded to prevent accidents. One charged past him into the kid behind him. A Cantonese Shui Long slithered by, curling around its intended.

Kyntak realized not a single one glanced at him. That was insulting.

“Over here! Herd him over here!” He knew that tinny voice anywhere.

Kyntak turned in horror. A dark violet, almost black dragon with sharp blue eyes puffed a cloud at a few boys. He recognized them as Crexe and his cronies, Ludden and Lerke. They closed in on the dragon, pinning ir against a wall. It hissed.

Kyntak clenched his jaw. Dragons were bound to not harm any human until they had a master. This creature was being bullied, coerced, into having a master he neither loved nor trusted.

It looked at him, pure, deep cobalt eyes and burning fire.

‘Help,’ it commanded. Steel infused its voice, but there was a longing that went straight to Kyntak’s chest and diffused there, a subtle chill.

Kyntak jumped on his feet ignoring his mind’s screaming, ‘Yes, anything. Ask of me anything and it is yours.’ He had a bond to make.

He pulled out his mobile.


 

His feet carried him the short ways until he was a handful of steps away.

“Crexe!” The boy turned on him. Kyntak was short (anyone next to Sevadonn was short) but Crexe was shorter. He had a rather round paunch and a pasty face. It looked like cracked plaster wet again. His cronies appeared behind him. Lerke was an oily fellow and gangly. Ludden was similar, but had a more rigid bend to his back. Three to one, Kyntak was rather glad he stopped skipping training.

Reasons why and how he got away with it, is something for a different time.

“Kyntak, go mind your own business,” Crexe sneered. His sidekicks chuckled.

“It is my business when a dragon in danger.” He tried to sound heroic as possible, though it appeared as if there was breathy snort from ground level.

Crexe’s face wrinkled like a prune, a very pasty prune, and glared. “You just want him to yourself.”

He let an easy smirk slide over his features, sincere and a little sharp. “Yeah, there’s some connection there. How can anyone with a brain not want to take care of a beautiful beast like that?” Kyntak made a show of eyeing the dragon’s sleek figure.

It was a lovely figure, all smooth and clean lines. He likened it to a Bugatti or Mercedes-Benz; he might even say Jaguar convertible. Kyntak recognized the male patterns, despite the female shape. His scales were smooth and opaque. It resembled onyx in some ways. However, the edges faded into a crystalline amethyst. The blue eyes following his facial movements contained sapphire at its core and aquamarine all around it. Little flecks of opal and diamond lit the iris in iridescent adularescence.

The dragon gave Kyntak a raised brow, if that was even possible. He went on, “Though, from the looks of it, it doesn’t feel the same way. Looks like you got rejected.”

Anything could happen with this particular one. The dragon’s eyes flitted left and right, sharp little movements. Kyntak noted that with unease. They were ganging up on him now.

“Oh, Crabbe and Goyle, I didn’t realize you were standing there.” He layered on the oil and snark. Lerke and Ludden blinked in bewilderment. Mentally, Kyntak face-palmed. He should have chosen  reference they would at least understand. That, or those two could have bothered to watch the first Potter movie. Either would be really nice right now.

Kyntak sighed and waved his phone. “Crexe, warning to you: get away from that dragon. I have all the footage right here.”

“Blackmail?” The man’s eyes narrowed as he smiled. Kyntak wrinkled his nose in distaste. He stood corrected; there were ways to make Crexe more ugly.

Kyntak tossed his phone in the air and caught it.

“Well that would require that I didn’t send this to the Academy."

He smiled as he mangaed to snatch it out of the air wiht his non-dominant hand.

"Don’t worry; this will get to them eventually. It’s just a matter of how long it will take.”

Crexe smiled benevolently.

“Lerke, Ludden, get him.”

The dragon pounced. The full mass of lean muscle and discipline appeared between the two boys and vanished somewhere between knocking them over and sliding to a halt at Kyntak’s feet. It growled this time, a rich rumble that could have been thunder.

“Whoa, there. Not so fast.”

The dragon didn’t take its eyes off Crexe. Kyntak put his hand up in mock surrender, when the man glared.

“I’ve already sent this to the server. If I don’t call off the upload, it’s going to blow in five minutes." Kyntak added a little saccharine sweet to his smirk jus tot savor the effect.

"I recommend you scram and hide first. I’ll give you a week to get out of the Academy. If not, it’s expulsion.”  Ludden and Lerke got up, still shaken. Lerke wiped the mud off his cheeks and Ludden pulled hay form his hair. Crexe grimaced and stepped forward.

“I’ve got half the class listening in on this conversation,” Kyntak added conversationally. “If you think you can get away with it, it’s not happening.”

He watched waxy confidence drip off Crexe’s face.

“I’ve already cleared it with the ranch instructors. This is your way of getting out before your shame catches up with you, capice?” Kyntak winked.

Crexe took step forward. Then, another step forward and a cracked grin smearing across his face.