A Dragon's Bond (18 page)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THE CAVE

They could hear the waves beating against the rocks as the walked through the tunnel heading deeper into the sea. They had walked about a hundred yards when they slowly began to climb up. The sounds of the waves slowly died down to no more than a slight echo through the tunnel. They went through a series of twists and turns until they finally came to a large cave that opened up under the mountains surrounding the valley.

Davin stepped out into the cave holding out his hand like a torch, while the flames danced on his fingertips. Tristen and Chloe stumbled in behind him. Halo and Tesla were becoming very uneasy. They began to hiss and growl. Davin turned his attention in the direction the dragons had focused on. Some rocks fell to the ground in that direction.

"Is that my daughter I smell." An eerie voice hissed from the shadows.

They all froze in place as the voice echoed through the cave around them. A dragon head appeared from the shadows. Shortly after the first a second appeared and a third. A total of six heads had come out of the shadows. Finally stepping into the light, a dragon easily three times the size of a large green dragon stood before them. It's heads were each a different color, one for each of the dragon types. There was a red, a blue, a green, a brown, a black and a gold. The necks of the beast met together and faded into an opal white body, the same color as Halo's.

"Come forward daughter." The voice hissed again. "Let me see my darling." Halo, without hesitation approached the large six headed dragon. "I see you have made a bond. He is very special indeed. Step forward bonder."

Davin inched forward until he was finally standing next to Halo. "I am the one she shares a bond with." Davin looked up into the dragon's six pair of glowing blue eyes. They were bright blue just like Davin and Halo's. The words from the book rang in Davin's head. "The blue eyes of the Ancient One."

Davin stepped out further edging towards the great beast. "Tell me great dragon. Why is my dragon different from the others?"

The dragon laughed and the sound rumbled the cave. "She is my only daughter left that has been born directly from me. All of the other dragons are distant to me. They were born of dragons long removed from my line. All of her other sisters have hatched and have all died with time. The dragons you see about the world were born from them. That is why your dragon is special."

"Are you the oldest dragon?" Chloe had joined Davin's side. "I mean were you the first?"

"Yes dear. I am old indeed." The dragon puffed bits of smoke as she laughed again. "You must forgive me. It has been so long since I have enjoyed the company of a bonder. Now, you tell me bonders. Why is it that you have come all this way to find me here?"

"Something terrible has happened.Someone drank the blood of my dragon. Guards that once protected us have been turned into mindless raging beasts. We have come to believe that a bonder has been turned by a flesh demon and is now probably changing again from the blood he drank. They have taken over our home. Keep Academy has fallen."

The ancient dragon began to thrash about as smoke and fire came from it's mouths. "How dare they. How dare they take from my blood. Keep Academy you say. I know where to find them now."

"How do we stop him." Davin yelled. "How do we kill it?"

The dragon began laughing again. "You can't kill it. Only I can kill it. My blood has given it new life, an abomination. Only my blood can end it."

"What do you mean?" Davin asked.

The great dragon moved closer to Davin. "I have dealt with one of these once before. I could not bring myself to kill it at first. I stood by and watched others try, but the blood shed became too much. It had been burned, stabbed and even shot. It wasn't until I tore the head from it's body that it quit returning to life. He had been bonded to my first daughter and she was the reason I had hesitated to kill the beast. By killing the abomination, I also killed my beautiful daughter."

The Ancient One turned and took off towards the opposite edge of the cave. She was gaining speed and took flight heading up towards to top. With one final hiss. "I will rid the world of the abomination my blood has created."

The massive beast broke through the rock at the top of the cave. They all ran and took cover as the rocks from above came crashing down to the floor.

"We have to get out, before the ceiling comes down." Davin yelled as he started to run back through the tunnel.

They all ran as fast as they could. They began to hear the crash of the waves up against the walls once again. As they started down again, they heard the sound of rushing water coming towards them. They kept moving even though the water began running down past their feet, as they began to climb out again. The waves were now rushing down in to the mouth of the tunnel. With one final burst of speed Halo grabbed Davin and Tristen and flew out of the mouth of the tunnel. Tesla grabbed Chloe and Kala and followed right behind. Just as they burst out of the opening the waves crashed down on top of it one final time before completely covering the rocks again.

They landed back down on the beach as Derrick and Calypso greeted them. "Did you see it. Did you see it. That was a six headed dragon and it was enormous."

"Oh yeah! We saw it all right. It spoke to us." Davin was still kind of shocked at the fact that she had spoken to them.

"Where did it say it was going?" Derrick asked, still bouncing around.

"I think she went to the Keep." Davin replied.

Suddenly they saw something coming over the mountains and down towards the beach. It was small and flying at a pretty good speed. The dragons began to growl and hiss as it got closer. It was almost over head when they heard the cackling laugh of the imp. It dropped a bag down to the ground. "See you around kid." He yelled from above in his raspy voice. "That is the last task I perform for that, Lugos."

"Lugos?" Davin said. As he ran to pick up the bag that had been dropped by the imp. Derrick and Chloe rushed over when they saw Davin drop to his knees.

"What is it Davin?" Chloe shouted as she ran to him.

When Chloe got to Davin, his eyes had already filled with tears. Chloe looked down at his hand. He was holding the ring that was once on his father's hand. "The bag is covered in blood and his finger is inside." Davin hung his head until he finally began to yell. "What did I do! What did I do, to deserve this!" Davin began to pace quickly. "We need to get back to the Keep."

The sun had begin to set an the sound of the waves crashing against the shore were broken by a series of loud howls coming from the forest a little ways off.

"Oh man. This is bad. We've got to get out of here. The lycons are coming." Tristen began to scan the beach. "I can probably out run them, but you three won't stand a chance."

"What are you worried about? Chloe and I can fly now and Derrick can hide amongst the shadows."

The plan seemed sound. Derrick and Calypso ran off towards the trees the opposite way of the howls and Tristen ran the other direction. Chloe and Davin had taken flight with their dragons when they saw them. The lycons had created a border on the edge of the forest surrounding the beach. Davin quickly flew in the direction Derrick ran and yelled a warning to him. He quickly turned and landed behind Tristen. Chloe and Tesla landed down shortly after Davin and Halo.

"What are you doing? Do you want to die with me here on this beach?" Tristen scowled at Davin as he stood firmly beside him.

Davin looked back at him and smiled. "You helped us and we will not leave you to die. Besides we had to come back for Derrick. We surely couldn't leave him here alone with you."

"Suit yourself." Tristen said smoothly.

At that moment a single lycon stepped out from the trees and onto the beach. "My son has returned to mock us once again." He said as he let out a growl.

"Father." Tristen said as he gave him a slight nod.

The lycon stood approximately ten feet from them now. He was as least twice as tall a large man. He would have even towered over one of the minotaurs. His body was covered in black fur that dripped with sweat. He smelt fowl, like a filthy dog that had just come in from the rain. Only, it was much worse. It's arms hung well past his waist and were ended with over sized hands and massive claws. It's face resembled a wolf's but was much more human like. It's visible skin was black and rippled over the muscles encasing it's massive body.

"I told I would kill you if you ever showed your face around here again. Didn't I?" The lycon let out another snarl.

Tristen walked out toward the lycon and began removing his shirt. He dropped his shirt to the ground and began to loosen his belt to remove his pants next. As he did, his back arched and a loud snapping could be heard. His body began to convulse as he continued to walk forward. His body began to bulge out and his bones kept cracking and popping as his body changed. He grew taller and hair grew from his neck and shoulders as he turned into a lycon.

"What then father? Shall we finish this?" Tristen stood now a monstrous beast, equal to his father.

In a rush the two slammed together and began to fight fiercely. The other lycons stood by, not moving and only watching the two lycons tearing at each other.

The fight went on for several minutes. Blood was flying and splattering across the sand. It ended as quickly as it had begun though. Tristen had gotten behind his father and had his head, firmly wrapped in his arms. In one solid motion he bit at his neck and twisted his head clean off. Tristen stood holding the head of his father. Tristen slowly began to shift back to his human form, his fathers lifeless body also turning back. He stood holding his father's head up, for all of the other lycons to see. "My father is dead! Now leave me alone!" He threw the head to the ground and walked back to where he had dropped his clothes. He turned around after putting his pants back on to a shocking sight. All of the lycons had dropped to a knee and were bowing towards Tristen.

"We will follow you now." One of the lycons said lift his head up slightly. "It is our tradition. You are his only son. Leadership of our tribe falls to you. You know this as well as I."

Tristen began to laugh. He doubled over holding his sides because he was laughing so hard. "Fine. First. Let me show you how to control our curse as I do."

Davin walked up to Tristen. "Congratulations, I guess." He slapped him on the shoulder. "Love to celebrate with you and all, but I have to get back to the Keep."

Tristen placed a hand on Davin's shoulder. "We will meet you there. I know you are in a rush and all, but you really should wait for us to arrive. Don't just go rushing in there. We should be able to make it in three days, if we run quickly." He looked over to Derrick. "Hey you think that dragon will let you ride him. He could probably keep up."

"I guess I will have to give it a try. Won't I?"

"Good. It's settled. Chloe and I will fly to the keep. We will wait for you at the hillside just before the lake. We will probably beat you there by at least a day." Davin grabbed Chloe's hand. "Time to go home."

Halo and Tesla picked Chloe and Davin up and took off into the sky. They were headed back towards the keep. Calypso was most obliging and Derrick climbed onto his back and they raced off behind the lycons back into the forest, heading back towards the pass. In three days they would meet at the hill just before the Keep. Then, they would mount their attack.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

RETURN TO THE KEEP

Davin and Chloe flew through the air beneath their dragons. Davin's face lit up with the thrill of the flight as he watched the earth below pass by. They traveled quicker than they had thought. What had taken them days to cross by foot and train, only took one. The time in the air gave Davin and Chloe both a chance to get to know their dragons in a different way. As they flew it was like they were able to direct the dragons. They were not quite sure how but the dragon's responses to them was almost instantaneous. They passed by Derrick's house and saw the wreckage it now was.

When they finally arrived, they made camp in the woods just before the hill that stood before the Keep. They were to expect Derrick and the lycons sometime in the next two days.They decided it would be best not to have a fire, as they didn't want any unwanted attention. They looked through the trees and saw the flicker of a small fire off in the distance, the very reason they didn't have one of their own.

"Look over there." Chloe tapped Davin's arm. "Who do you think it is?"

"I don't know. We should see if we can find out. You stay here with Halo and Tesla. I will sneak over and see if I can find out who they are."

Davin hurried through the trees in the direction of the fire off in the distance. As he got closer he could see the eyes of the bonders. The familiar glow of the green eyes of the other bonders was a relief. Davin approached the camp slowly and quietly. As he walked into the small camp, he caught the look of a somewhat strangely friendly face. It was Blake. The minotaur that had bullied him throughout his childhood.

"It's Davin." He called out. Blake ran up to Davin and stopped just in front of him. He slugged Davin in the shoulder. "You know what kind of a mess you and your dragon have caused. Lugos has done all of this just to get your dragon."

"So it's true. Lugos is the one that has been behind this all along. We have some friends on the way to help us. Who is left here?" Davin looked around the camp, to see who he might find.