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Dragon TG TF Chapter 2.

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"On your feet boy," he says casually. I warily stand up, careful not to make any sudden moves. I'm soaking wet from the river and shivering from the cold and from fright.

"True what he said?"

"Yes sir," I say with my head down.

"How much d'ya steal?"

I immediately, though still slowly, pull out the wad of bills from my pocket. Straightening out the paper I count a petty thirty dollars, and hand it over to him.

He glances down at the money in his hand, juts his jaw, then his eyes dart back to me. I just stand there shivering, awaiting whatever judgment he might pass. I must look pathetic.

"Eaten lately?" he asks. He turns around, holstering his weapon, and flips open a pocket on the side of his dragon's saddle. He pulls out a flask, which he drinks from, then a square package wrapped in brown wax paper. He opens it up to reveal a sandwich, which he tears down the middle and hands half to me.

I silently take the food. Sliced meat, real cheese, tomatoes, rye bread… it's enough to nearly make me cry. The guardian rips his half into two more pieces and tosses one to his dragon, which snaps it out of the air. He then eats the rest of it in two bites. I take more time with mine, but he waits for me to finish.

"So, what should I do with you?" he asks.

Why's he asking me? Why's he asking at all? And why give me a sandwich? All I can think to do in response is shrug. I'm still scared.

"Can't send you to prison, you're too young. Can't fine you money, cause you don't have any. Can't make your parents responsible for the charges either, probably dead right?"

I nod my head numbly.

"Still, you can't go unpunished. You may have been starving, but there are poor kitchens you could have gone to rather than picking pockets. The law is the law for a reason. You'll have to come with me so we can figure out what to do with you."

"What?" I ask, incredulous.

"Here, hop up into Chaff's saddle. It's only a short ride away."

"Yes sir," I say. Is he for real? He's offering to let me ride with him on his dragon?

With some help I climb up into the high saddle and he leaps up behind me with practiced ease, his long leather coat trailing behind him and falling heavily across his dragons back. Not one second after he settles in does his dragon leap into the air like a shot from a cannon, and it's all I can do to keep from falling off, back into the river. The Guardian holds me steady with a strong grip on my shoulder, and keeps me on the saddle.

He's right, it only takes two minutes to fly across the city to the local Guardian's temple: a simplistic structure, but the tallest building in the city by far. It's a tower twenty stories tall, and most of the upper floors are open to the air for dragon landings. The temple is where Guardians, Rangers, and Warriors live, where wild dragons are kept and tamed, and where the courts are housed. That's where we're heading, and we land one of the lower open aired levels with a rush of deceleration as the dragon brakes hard with its wings. I jump down to the stone floor and stumble from a sudden bout of dizziness, but the Guardian grabs me under my arm and holds me up.

Inside the temple there are no decorations other than candles, torches, and the occasional fireplace for light. We go down floor after floor of stone steps, the stairwell large enough to accommodate the largest of dragons. We pass several closed off floors used for living quarters, and others for 24/7 dining, facilities, and even a gym. I lose track of how many floors we pass, but before I know it we arrive, and push open a pair of enormous carved mahogany doors and enter a large room full of chairs with a long bench at the front. Sitting in the middle of the panel is an elderly woman, her grey hair up in a tight bun and her ice blue eyes sharper than daggers. She doesn't look up from something that she is writing until we're right in front of her.

Her gaze flicks up to meet mine, then over to the guardian. She closes whatever she was writing in with a sigh, setting her mouth into a thin line.

"What have you got this time Vashriel?"

"A stray, fished him out of a river. He broke the law, but thought perhaps you might look at him?"

The old buzzard leans over the bench to get a better look at me, staring down her nose and pursing her lips. For some reason her gaze is just as intimidating as the guardian's was, who I now know is called Vashriel. I look her in the eyes as best I can despite this.

A grin quirks the corners of her mouth, and she leans back in her chair.

"You sure know how to pick them Vash…" she says, folding her fingers together and bowing her head in contemplation.

"He caught my eye when he jumped of the roof of a rather tall building," he replies.

She looks at me again, her eyes calculating and inscrutable. Then she lets out her breath.

"Fine, but you're responsible for him, and that includes his punishment. Judging by his appearance I'm assuming you caught him stealing? Yes?"

Vash nods his head sharply.

"Of course…" she says, then turns her head and addresses me in a very formal tone.

"In accordance to the law, with the absence of proper family a juvenile may be given hard labor in lieu of jail time or whipping. Vashriel, grand knight of justice that he is, has vouched for your character by bringing you before me, and with this in mind you are sentenced to indentured servitude to this guild until such time as you turn eighteen. You are now the property of Sir Vashriel to do with as he sees fit. Hearing concluded."

Then, without warning, she swings a gavel high into the air and brings it down with tremendous force onto a block of wood sitting in front of her.  Right before the gravel hits, a chain materializes with an open link in it, but the gavel comes down hard on the open link and seals it shut with a single blow. The rest of the chain then materializes like a shockwave spreading out from the gavel's impact, heading straight for me, then attaches to a tight band of metal that appears around my neck. The woman picks up the end of the heavy chain and hands it to Vash, who accepts it and immediately the links dissolve in his hand. The collar disappears too, but I know it isn't really gone. I am now magically bound to this guardian, and am marked with a black tattoo around my neck displaying my new social status. Not quite a slave, but no longer a citizen either. I'm left speechless.

"Let's go," he says, turning on his heel and walking to the doors. I am immediately compelled by an invisible force to follow.

"Where are we going?" I ask. We're walking back up the flight of stairs, and my legs are starting to hurt.

"To where you'll be living, for now, and to give you your first job. We have a dragon here that needs to get accustomed to humans, and we have a human now who needs to grow accustomed to dragons. She's a small grey, not a terribly pretty color but very fast and agile. You're the only one in this entire building who isn't bonded to a dragon, so you get the glamorous job of training with her. If you like each other, and you do a good job, you just might even be allowed to become permanent partners and begin training to be one of the three riders."

He says all of this so casually that it doesn't even sink in for another flight of stairs.

"What?! My punishment for stealing is to become a guardian!?!"

"Or a warrior, or a ranger, but no.  No, I would be doing this for you whether or not you stole that man's money, you earned this chance in my books. Your punishment is hard labor and servitude. Should make you much easier to train than my usual recruits, eh?"

We stop walking, and I am again struck dumb. Vash turns to a heavy looking metal door to our right and opens it. Inside it's pitch black.

"Don't know her name yet, but you'll probably get it out of her soon enough."

With that he gives me a shove and I flail into the dark room, stumbling over my own feet, and the door shuts tight behind me enveloping me in total darkness.

"Have fun," shouts Vash through the thick metal door. "I'll be back in an hour when it's over!"

"When what's over!?" I shout back. The only response I get is a low growl that echoes around me, coming from every direction.
Part two up immediately, part three soon to be completed. ^w^

Ch1: [link]
Ch2: here
Ch3: [link]
Ch4: [link]
Ch5: [link]
Ch6: planned
© 2011 - 2024 GerFalcon
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glitchmaster88's avatar
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