The Dawn Scale City Chronicles by The Lady of Dragons
Ok two things before I start: One – I would like to explain and apologize for the fact that in this chapter I will describe Dawn Scale as a sort of Utopian society, the reason for this is that I did not like how Dragon City was set as a sort of segregated society, with all the slums and street gangs, I thought that it was too dark and depressing in some part (don't get me wrong it worked wonderfully for some parts of the story and the plot line, I just didn't want that setting for my story) the other part of the reason is that if I made Dawn Scale like Dragon City it would leave too many things unexplained such as how the different crew manage to work together and what their roles were in the society, so I made it seem kinda perfect but, don't worry it's not going to stay that way for long! I also apologize for the lame/slow introduction chapters (including this one) I needed a starting point and didn't want this to be one of those stories that just started randomly and was just like 'Action! Action! Action! Romance! Action' with no basis so just bear with me, Ok? I promise things will get to the interesting stuff soon after we have some racing action, some other bits that will be important later and after I introduce some of the crews to Artha and the gang. Speaking of which, the other thing I wanted to explain was that if you're looking for a story where Artha is the main character then you are looking in the wrong place, he will remain in the story and Moordryd may even show up, and depending if people want him to stay he may continue to be present in later chapters. I have nothing against Artha in general, I just don't like him enough to make a whole story about him, so just for final clarification: Artha's role in my story will get smaller throughout the chapters, but he will remain in the story I assure you. After all someone has to get hit with blocking staves, *evil grin* besides I have some other, less painful (hopefully for his sake) ideas in mind for everybody's favorite egotistical Dragon Booster.
Chapter 4 – Intro Time!
Part 1 – Training
"Come on Stable Boy!" shouted Kitt as she and Wyldfyr ran alongside him and Beau "You're never gonna win a race at that speed!" she told him
"I'm trying here!" he retorted angrily
"Go Wyldfyr, Go!" urged Kitt. Wyldfyr heard her and sped up, easily outdistancing Beau and crossing the line first
"How did you beat me a third time!?" asked Artha, annoyed at being left in the dust yet again
"It's called practice Artha" chuckled Sharrd
"Oh no, not you too" he moaned
"Yes, me too" she told him "Listen, Kitt has been here all morning practicing and getting to know the track, you and Beau just woke up an hour and a half ago, and it's well past noon" she commented
"Excuse me for sleeping" he replied grumpily
"No one is saying there is anything wrong with sleeping, or even sleeping in. Stop being dramatic" said Parm walking over calculator in hand
"He's right" said Sharrd "Nothing wrong with sleeping in, I do it at every chance I get, I was only telling you why Kitt is moving faster than you two: she has had a chance to wake up and get used to the track. Go sit down for a few minutes and give yourselves a chance to wake up" she told him kindly, motioning for him and Beau to go sit on one of the nearby benches "HEY KITT!" she shouted "NEED A WATER BREAK?" Kitt nodded from the track "FOLLOW ME THEN. YOU CAN BOTH COOL OFF OVER HERE" Sharrd hollered back.
Kitt and Wyldfyr walked off the track and out of sight, leaving Artha alone with Beau, Parm having left to go find Lance. Artha thought back to the events of the past day and a half. It had grown dark by the time Sharrd and Hunnter had finished their inspirational match, which had ended in a tie, so he and the others had been about to head home, Hunnter had walked them to the gate when she had suddenly said "Tell you what, I'm going to let you guys have access to my training grounds until racing season starts up again, Not very many people will be here until that starts again, because everyone is so busy getting ready."
"That is really drac of you!" Kitt had said
"Yeah that would be amazing!" Artha had agreed
"No sweat, just consider it my thanks for bringing me the letter from my brother" she had told them, then she had stood straight and had given them a small salute "Be seeing you. I'll tell the guards to let you pass in and out as you please for now"
"Thank you, uh.. General" Parm had said fumbling for the right word, and had tried and failed to do a salute "Heheh…I'll work on that" he had mumbled
"Bye Hunnter, see you at the meeting" Sharrd had said
"Yes see you then" Hunnter had replied.
As they filed past the gates and into the alley beyond, Sharrd had turned to them and announced "I just had an idea: what if for the next several days I show you around and introduce you to the crews and help you get used to navigating the streets here? I could even help you with some training practice if you want" she had offered
"That would be great!" shouted Artha
"Well someone is certainly excited about spending time with Sharrd" Kitt whispered to Lance
"Yeah" Lance giggled
"You Dawn Scale City folks certainly know how to make people feel welcome" Parm had said
"Yeah you guys have been really nice" Lance had said "Too nice if you ask me, you must be robots or something! AHHHH RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! THE ROBOTS ARE INVADING!" he had shouted and then ran, around Fracshun running alongside him
"Youngsters these days" sighed Vulken
"Just try to ignore him" agreed Beau "We all do"
"Uhhhhhh….." Sharrd had said, looking at Lance as he ran around
"Never mind him" Parm had said "Though he does raise a good question: Why are people around here so nice? Back where we come from the only nice people were your family or really close friends. People had to fight to survive, so they don't have a lot of time to worry about being nice to anyone, sometimes even their dragons." he had told her
"The answer to that is almost the exact opposite of yours" Sharrd had said "Here we don't have different levels like Sun City, Mid City, or Down City/Lower City. The crews provide lots of jobs, so if people can't get work somewhere else they can get work from the crews. Since we have such a large city, large crew compounds and lots of businesses there is always something that needs to be done, such as cleaning dragon stables or caring for dragons, fixing broken pipes in warehouses, and all sorts of basic maintenance jobs. Some crews will even provide food for the very unfortunate. Even though we are such a large city in the physical sense of the city and the surrounding crew bases, there aren't too many people who live here, most of them are in the crews and the crews try to stay connected with the rest of the world often by holding tournaments and other competitions." Sharrd had explained
"Sounds like an ideal society" Kitt had remarked
"Alright" Sharrd had said, changing the subject "It's getting late and you need to get home. I'll come by in the morning and bring you back here for a bit. Then I can take you around the city and introduce you to people. Sound good?" she had asked
"Sounds great" they had all said.
Back in the present (AN: Sorry about the long flashback part, even when I was writing it I forgot that I was writing a flashback. I just wanted to try out the style and see how it worked in the story. If you think it was alright or you want to tell me not to do anymore flashbacks because I suck at them, please do so, but with much nicer words) Kitt had returned with Sharrd from getting water.
"Heads Up!" yelled Sharrd, as she lobbed a water bottle at him. He snapped out of his daze just before it hit him in the side.
"What did you do that for?!" he shouted
"Sorry, I thought you were paying attention" she apologized, walking over
"Well I am now" he grumbled
"How about one last lap around the track and then I will take you to see more of the city?" Sharrd suggested
"Sounds good to me" agreed Kitt "What about you Artha?" she asked
"Alright" he said. He and Kitt mounted their dragons and headed for the race track. Once they were at the starting line, Sharrd shouted "Ready, Set, GO!" and they took off.
"So where do you want to visit first Parm?" asked Sharrd, walking over to him.
"Well, I would like to see those gear forges you mentioned the Dragon's Forge have, but I get the feeling that we can't do that yet because we are new and they don't trust us." he said
"Well you are correct: they don't have a reason to trust you, but I think once you meet Gearr and he sees your love of tech, he might just let you see them" she told him
"Really!?" he exclaimed excitedly "That would be amazing!"
"Yes really. But for now let's focus on the possible. I will take you to meet the Dragon's Hammer crew" she said, and went to look for Lance.
She found him behind the gear shed, munching on some candy bars. Big surprise. At that point Artha and Kitt had finished their lap and were waiting with Parm.
"Alright time to meet some crews!" Sharrd said, smiling. She led them through the gates, nodding at the Dragon Fangs stationed there, and into the streets beyond.
"So where to first o all knowing one?" joked Artha, staring at Sharrd
"I'd be careful of your sarcasm with me slowpoke, else I might feel tempted to get you lost in the backstreets. It could be days before you found your way out without a map" Sharrd threatened teasingly. Artha gulped, remembering how he got lost easily, and shut his mouth.
"Wow, I've never met a person who was able to get Stable Mouth here to clam up so quick" Kitt said giggling at Artha's indignant expression.
"You just need the right motivation" Sharrd replied with a wink "And to answer your question Mr. Sarcasm, I am taking you to meet the Dragon's Hammer crew" she added over her shoulder
"They're the Green draconium crew right?" Lance asked
"Good memory" Sharrd said with a nod
"You learn to remember things, sometimes it just might save your butt when you get into the kinda situations we do-" Lance started to say
"Oh? And what kind of situations would those be?" Sharrd asked curiously
Lance started to answer, but was cut off by frantic waving from the other three. Fortunately Sharrd was in front of them, so she didn't see it.
"I'd rather not talk about that, I mean it's not really important" Lance blurted, trying to cover up for his mistake
"I gotcha" She replied nonchalantly "If it's private let it stay that way"
"You wouldn't have said that if you had a bad feeling about them" Vulken told her through their connection
"I wouldn't be showing them around like this if I had a bad feeling about them V" she replied with a small smileand a small laugh
"What's so funny?" asked Parm
"Oh nothing, just thinking of old times, you four remind me a little bit of a group of friends I had when I was a kid" she said, covering up her mental conversation.
"So how close are we?" Kitt asked
"Not very. It's a good way through the city to get there. Just be glad that the crews even have city compounds, otherwise you would have to trek all the way to the main compounds outside of town, and some of them are really far away" Sharrd told them
"So why didn't we start with one of the closer ones?" asked Artha, without sarcasm
"Because if we start with the ones that are further away then we can work our way back in, your place is in the center of town anyway so when we're done you will be closer to home" she explained
"This city is huge!" Kitt said, noticing that she couldn't see the outer wall even over the low buildings.
"Yeah it takes some getting used to" Sharrd said "Actually it's only a little bigger than Dragon City, it's just more spread out than your home town which is built up rather than out"
"You make a good point" Parm agreed
"So who was in charge of this crew again?" asked Artha
Sharrd gave a small laugh and Artha flushed "Myght and her dragon Powrhouse. She is a strong build gal with a mind to match, never get into a debate with her: you will lose, no question"
"Even you?" asked Lance
"Well sometimes, but that's a different story" Sharrd said laughing again "Myght loves to argue about anything and loves chucking snowballs at people during the winter. She and Terros, the Force of the Dragon crew leader, have huge snowball wars every year when it snows enough. I hope you guys stick around long enough to see that! They can go for hours on end without a break! The only other thing that gets Myght that excited is when Erra, Glyph Keepers crew leader, lets her look at the library. Myght loves books" Sharrd told them
"Sounds like fun!" Lance exclaimed
"Yeah!" Kitt agreed "Does anyone else get involved in the snowball wars or is it just those two?"
"No one else gets involved when Myght and Terros go at it, but the rest of us have our own mini wars. It's not really safe to be a bystander when they go at it, unless you're about 30ft away" Sharrd said
"Sounds hardcore" Parm said
"It is. The only reason the two haven't broken each other's necks is because they're both too thick skinned and as some put it they both have 'Titanium Bones'. I think that's true, but enough about snow, it's spring here!" she said "Any more questions? We have another 15 minutes to kill"
"Yeah" said Artha, Sharrd looked back at him "Are we gonna be able to get Parm to that library you keep talking about before he passes out with excitement?"
"I don't know" she replied, suddenly serious "You have to pass the test of the Glyph Keepers to even get to the library entrance. Then you have to be examined by the Century Guardians, the dragons who guard the doors. If they deem you worthy then you may enter. If not then you get kicked out of the building faster than you can say 'drac'. So I'm not sure if any of you can get in. They Century Guardians are very unpredictable. They've denied some people from my crew and the Order Code as well, and those are the two crews that are mostly allowed in there" she explained. They walked on in silence for a while. "We're getting close" Sharrd announced, pointing to something up ahead.
"Where?" asked Parm
"See that dark blue building a few blocks down? That's the main city compound of the Order Code crew" Sharrd said
"But you said we we're going to-" Parm started to say, but Sharrd cut him of
"I know what I said. The Dragon's Hammer compound is just a bit passed the Order Code compound" she told him with an annoyed glance.
"Right, sorry" Parm said sheepishly
"So what are the Order Code again?" Kitt asked "I don't remember what you told us yesterday" she explained
"Not a problem" Sharrd said, then explained "The Order Code crew is the blue draconium crew lead by Mai and her dragon Volttage"
"Hang on a moment" Artha interrupted "You keep saying the leader's dragon when you name the crew leader, why is that?"
"Because the dragon is the leader as well" She told him. At their startled expressions she explained further "The rider and the dragon work as a team, our dragons are our partners not just our mounts" she patted Vulken and he hummed in agreement "The leader and their dragon work as a team to lead the crew. Even though our dragons can't speak they can certainly understand and we can get an impression of what they are trying to tell us. If a leader needs to speak to a specific pair their dragon can tell the dragon of the pair to come and that dragon will bring their rider. Likewise our dragons can sense what is going on with other dragons, so that if say, someone got hurt and their dragon couldn't leave them, he or she could call for help and the other dragons would hear"
"That does make a lot of sense" Kitt said nodding
"Yes, a very sensible arrangement" Parm agreed "Back home we're really the only ones who listen to our dragons. It's not that everyone else is cruel to theirs, though some are, but most just don't listen to what their dragons tell them"
"A sad truth" Sharrd admitted
"Yeah" muttered Artha, looking down at Beau, who was thinking the same thing he was: communication was one of the things that caused the problems he tried to fix as the Dragon Booster. And Artha had a feeling that Sharrd knew more about that then she was letting on.
"Ah we're almost there!" Sharrd said
End of Intro Time! Part 1.
Ok that took much longer than I thought it would to write. Sorry about the delays, I have been busy with other writing projects and stuff.