Chapter 9: Late

"Kai!" Jay shouted as he ran down the path and into the valley, looking for the Fire Dragonblood. It was almost sunset soon and Jay had spent the last couple of hours making a saddle to help him help Kai fly. Now he was here to present Kai with the saddle, but the dragonblood was nowhere in sight. "Kai! Where are you?!"

"Keep your voice down runt." An irritated voice said. Jay grinned and turned around and saw Kai was perched on that boulder that Jay had seen him on earlier. "Looks like you didn't die after all."

"Nope, didn't die yet." He smiled and Kai sighed, almost sounding disappointed, before jumping down from the giant rock and landing next to the human.

"Alright... so are you going to help me fly?"

"Yes sir." He nodded. Kai rolled his eyes, and Jay could just tell this was going to be the start of a 'beautiful' friendship. Kai suddenly transformed into his dragon form and waited for Jay to do whatever it was he needed to do. Moving every carefully, Jay equipped the saddle to the large red dragon. It was a little tight but otherwise fitted perfectly. He inspected the prosthetic tail fin as he tied a long rope to it so he could change its position while sitting on the saddle.

From what he could tell, it was holding up nicely, but there was only one way to know for sure.

He needed to get Kai to fly. He took a deep, possible last breath before he jumped onto the creature's back. He froze as Kai shifted under him before settling down and he immediately knew what the human wanted. He held onto the front of the saddle tighter as Kai opened his wings and suddenly they were charging towards the water. Jay screamed at the top of his lung, squeezing his eyes shut as Kai headed straight for the water. Instead of being drenched as he expected, however, he felt Kai flap his wings and they were flying.

Jay opened one eye and he saw they were flying just inches above the water, leaving a spray of water behind them.

He gasped, looking down at the lake and seeing their reflections on the mirror flat surface. To be honest, it was the most exciting experience he'd ever had. He could almost feel Kai laughing at his expression, but he didn't care. He leaned closer to the water, but the shift of weight caused him to tug the rope controlling the prosthetic tail fin. Kai felt himself suddenly tip to the side and let out a panicked roar as he fell into the lake, dragging Jay down with him.

They both hit the water, and Jay kicked himself back to the surface.

Keeping his head above the water, he saw Kai come up next to him in his human form. He looked over at Jay and they both swam over to shore. Part of Jay's fringe flopped down right between his eyes and he turned to face Kai, but the brunette wasn't having much better luck. All his hair was drooping down, and they were both soaked through and through. Their eyes locked, and suddenly they were both laughing their heads off.

"You've never ridden a horse or anything like that before, have you?"

"I rode a donkey when I was six or seven, but not without a saddle!" He exclaimed as they kept laughing until Jay's eyes were watery and his stomach hurt that much it wasn't funny. They both finally stopped laughing and were gasping for air.

"We still have a long way to go." Kai sighed and Jay nodded his head in agreement.

"Never been more right." He agreed and Kai sighed again, looking out over the lake.

"What are you practicing against tomorrow?"

"Um...I think we're fighting a Lightning Dragonbloos again, but that shouldn't be too hard." He shrugged, trying not to show how scared he really was. They both looked to the sky, and Jay noticed time had flown by in the blink of an eye again. "I should be going if I want to be home before dark." He groaned. Kai looked over at him and nodded in agreement.

"So you should, I guess I'll be seeing you here same time tomorrow."

"Yeah." He nodded as he stood up and walked over to the path between the cliff walls of the valley. "See ya later, Kai!" He called out as the dragonblood got up and grunted.

"See ya Jaybird."...

Jay panted as ran into the arena, thankfully not tripping up once on the way there. The others were just finishing off the lesson and he saw Ed forcing the angry dragonblood back into a cage while Edna tended to any injuries the students had received. Hearing his rushing footsteps, Ronin turned around and saw the ginger-haired teen enter.

"Well, look who decided to wake up." He laughed and Ed turned around, glaring at Jay.

"You're late sonny-boy." He scolded and Jay cringed under the harsh look.

"Sorry, I overslept!" He lied and everyone groaned as Ed just sighed.

"You're lucky Cole managed to defeat the Lightning Dragonblood by himself." Edna praised the raven-haired teen and Jay's eyes widen, looking over at Cole.

"You actually killed it?"

"I would've if Ed and Edna hadn't stopped me." He snorted and Ed put his hands on his hips.

"Well if you'd killed it I would've had to go out and risk my life trying to capture another one; class dismissed!" He called and everyone started to walk off, but Zane stayed behind with Jay.

"So... did I miss anything in particular?" He asked and Zane gave him the 'what am I going to do with you' look.

"Not really, just search and destroy."

"Ohh..." He muttered as they walked out of the building, everyone else long gone. The village was like a ghost town, with pretty much everyone gone looking for the dragonbloods' lair.

"What were you doing up so late?" Zane suddenly asked and Jay froze, not expecting the question, and not really having a good excuse.

"Um... It's an... ongoing project thingy I'm working on." He stuttered nervously. Zane didn't look at all convinced, but he just shrugged nonetheless.

"Just... don't do anything too dangerous okay?" He almost begged and Jay reluctantly nodded. Helping the strongest dragonblood known to man defiantly wasn't dangerous at all.

"I won't." He promised and Zane smiled weakly. Jay looked at the sky and could tell it was already late. "Oh, crap." He cursed and started running. "It was nice talking to you Zane!"

"Jay wait!" Zane called after him, but the freckled teen didn't stop running. Kai was gonna have his head for this...

Jay was so late that he was sure Kai was fast asleep by now. After loitering around the entrance of the cove he decided he'd at least check to see if he was safely asleep. As he carefully climbed down into the cove, he froze when he saw Kai sat there, staring at him with his stunning amber eyes. It was like he had heard him coming a mile away and had sat there waiting for him.

"You're late."

"I know I'm late and I'm sorry." He smiled sheepishly as he put down a bag full of fish for him.

"I'm not hungry, I need to fly."

"Shouldn't you eat first?" He asked. "You need to keep your strength up in case you crash again."

"I only crashed 'cause you're a crap driver." He growled, but his expression softened when he saw Jay flinch. "If you get better, then we'll cook all these fish and enjoy some dinner together." He offered and Jay nodded in agreement. As soon as Kai transformed, Jay carefully adjusted the prosthetic tailfin. Instead of holding the rope, he tied the end to his left ankle so he could hold onto the saddle with both hands. Hopefully, they had better results.

He still didn't have a proper way to hold onto the creature so he knew he'd have to hang onto the saddle tightly.

The second he thought Jay was secure enough on his back, the dragonblood spread its wings and with a single, powerful flap, they were off the ground.

"Wait, Kai! Slow down, please!" Jay cried as they flew straight up. His knuckles were turning white due to how hard he was gripping the edge of the saddle. As the wind blew in his face, he looked around at the nightly forest, taking in the view. Before he could do anything else, however, Jay was suddenly blown off the dragonblood's back and into the open air. Without Jay to help control his tailfin, Kai also fell to the ground with him. They both screamed in fear as they fell.

Kai suddenly transformed back into his human form, leaving Jay with nothing to hold onto as they fell to the ground.

As they fell, something fell out of Kai's pocket, the brunette tried to grab it but he missed. All he could do was hope that Jay caught it for him. By some strange miracle, they managed to land on the shallow muddy part of the bank. Jay quickly sat up and looked over at Kai. The Fire Dragonblood had landed face down in the mud, and for a split second Jay was afraid he had injured himself but then Kai pushed himself up, wiping mud out of his eyes.

He looked over at the freckled teen, and Jay couldn't help but laugh at his expression.

There was mud all over his face except where he'd wiped it off his eyes. Jay kept laughing and Kai just groaned, before burying his face in the mud again.

"We're going to need to make some improvements." He said in frustration, his voice muffled by the mud when suddenly his head shot up and he looked at Jay with wide eyes. "Please tell me you caught the blade."

"Um..." He trailed off, not really sure what to say. They were falling out of the sky so no he did not have time to catch a blade. "I... didn't catch it." He said and Kai looked at him like he had just committed a crime. He quickly sat up and washed the mud off his face, before running out of the mud.

"Alright, did you see where it went?!" He exclaimed, the distress clear in his voice. Jay just sat there in shock. He had never seen Kai so stressed out and over something silly as a blade. He stood up and tried to wipe some of the mud off.

"I think it was over there." He said and pointed to a patch of grass and Kai walked over, getting on his knees and looking for the blade. Jay walked over and tried to help if the blade meant that much to Kai. After ten minutes of searching, Kai sighed relieved, picking the small blade up and Jay got a good look at it. A fairly small, wide, slightly curved blade made of silver was held by a grip wrapped in extravagant, maroon boar hide. With just a razor-sharp point the weapon would make sure its enemies were full of holes with deadly speed and precision.

The blade had a barbed, curved cross-guard, adding weight to the blade for a better weight balance, as well as offering hand protection during battle.

The cross-guard had a jeweled curl on each side, a clear sign this weapon belonged to a champion. A small pommel was decorated with a single rare red gem, fancy decorations for a fancy sword. The blade itself was engraved. Several runes were etched into the blade along with some inscriptions in a language Jay didn't understand. Jay managed to hold back a laugh when he saw Kai's face. He looked so relieved and glad.

"It's just a knife, isn't it?" He asked, not sure why Kai was so upset at the thought of losing it. Kai looked over at him and looked like he had just asked him the world's best-kept secret.

"Yeah, just a knife." He muttered as he stood up and walked off. looking kinda sad. Jay decided it would probably be best to leave now.

"Well...see ya tomorrow."

"See ya."...