I wrote this chapter and the next as something of a "stream of consciousness," except it got ridiculously long and had to get cut somewhere. Now's as good a time as any, I suppose!

I read and respond to all comments (except the ones that ask me not to). The feedback is important to me; I'd love and appreciate whatever you have to say, and I don't need you to spare my feelings in criticism. I'm a big boy. :D

See end notes for Ancient Language pronunciation and definition guide.

"Hang on, I'm in a tunnel." A common lie to stall for time during an awkward conversation, but in this case it was true. The family truck had just driven beneath a tunnel, and Shane knew he should wait until they exited to ask the people at the other end of the phone, "OK, can you hear us better now?"

A man and a woman onscreen both cheered. "Yes! Yeah, that's better." The man was somewhere in the 40's in age and a gruff looking sort. Even despite the strict appearance standards imposed by the military, he was cursed with a persistent case of five-o'-clock shadow that made a resting stern expression seem even more so. Funny enough, his dark hair was actually slightly longer than the woman's light blonde hair, though for both of them it was extremely short in the general sense. Unlike her husband, her eyes were kind and gentle.

Shane continued, "So, Miss Nadia is driving us to the airport now. Umm… I'm a bit nervous, but I guess, what's the worst that can happen, right?"

The woman on the screen probed, " Since when are you nervous about planes?"

"Nah, planes are easy," the boy rebuffed, "It's, uh, being in a new place and all that." In his head he privately added, And lying to my parents about it. "I mean, I've traveled, but I've never lived abroad for three months before, y'know?"

Ali was in the backseat right along with him, and this was the point where he jostled his away into the camera's frame. "Don't worry about a thing, Miss Cathy," the taller boy interjected, "I won't let him get eaten by dingos."

"I thought that was only babies?" Shane interrupted.

"Exactly." That remark earned Ali a playful shove, which was returned in kind and kicked off a contest for physical dominance of the frame.

While they duked it out, the woman on the phone screen - Cathy - laughed and, seemingly, took Ali's side over her own son's. " Kid, you're studying abroad in Australia," she dismissed, "Ya ain't exactly deploying to Syria."

If only you knew. Cathy's son forced a little ironic chuckle out at that. That was classic Mom, always ready with a healthy dose of perspective. Still, if only they knew about the travel preparations for Shane's real destination.

In Shane's opinion, it was an experience very different from Basic Military Training but about equally strenuous. It was a good thing that Shane had already taken to reading, because he was sure doing plenty of it now. By this point he'd lost count of the number of books Nadia had force fed him over the month prior to this car ride. At least some of it was familiar material; it made sense that a rider needed to know a little about weather and wind patterns, in which Shane felt he had a leg up. It didn't get much more exciting than that, though. Besides more history and general guidelines on what he could expect from his training, the only subject the boy found remotely interesting was saddle crafting and maintenance. Lucky for him, initiate Riders had been that book's target audience. He distinctly remembered there having been many comparisons and contrasts between horse saddles and dragons'. It was a pain to try and learn a completely new skill way outside his background, but Shane reluctantly understood why.

They didn't sell dragon saddles at Tractor Supply.

Still, there was one other 'basic' skill to learn that Shane took to like a fish to water. "First lesson: this is called..." Nadia had just rifled beneath a hatch in the ground of the barn, having been obscured by hay; extracted an item from it, and foisted the object into Shane's hands without asking or warning him. "...a gun." Yes, Shane was familiar with the concept of 'guns,' but he was still amazed at what the woman had just handed him. "Learn it." This was no pea shooter, that was for sure. The initiate was holding a proper rifle in his hands, and it was immediately obvious this was no mere hunting tool.

"Miss Nadia?"

"Yes?"

"Since we're cool with me being in the barn now, um- I get the dragons, but why is there a secret trapdoor over a secret gun stash including an AR-15 in the barn?"

"There wasn't enough room in the basement," Nadia dodged, "And that's not an AR-15. You're holding a Colt M4A1 carbine."

"No freakin' way-!" Shane remembered fumbling and nearly dropping the thing when he heard that, earning a furious glare for the mistake. "Doesn't this break, like, every gun law there is?"

"Not as many as you'd think," Nadia had countered with a sly grin.

"I mean, I guess I was just thinking we'd start with... I dunno. Swords or something."

Nadia scoffed at that. "It's the twenty-first century, Shane. If you were ever in a fight, would you rather have a toadsticker with a maximum range of five feet or an automatic rifle with an effective range of five hundred meters?"

"Is 'both' an option?"

Firearms training turned out to be far and away Shane's favorite part of his pre-education. Not only that, it came extremely naturally to him. If Nadia was right, it wasn't just because of his family background either. "You better thank Friyün for that," the woman remarked during one session, after the boy had penetrated eight soda cans in quick succession with a pistol, "A real Shur'tugal can lead a moving target from 80 yards with only that pistol." This was the first Shane had noticed of the dragon's effect on his body. In truth he couldn't consciously detect any change in his sight or his physical prowess, but if Nadia had been truthful, the boy's baseline aim for a novice was well above what it should have been for a normal person.

The initiate remembered that first Riders used to be gifted custom crafted and enchanted swords when they became full-fledged. His imagination ran wild as he wondered how that custom may have evolved.

It was a good thing Shane excelled at physical challenges, because there was one subject that continued to frustrate him to no end: magic. It didn't help him that his practice always had to be in secret. The problem certainly wasn't a lack of effort; even though the magic stubbornly refused to sap at the boy's energy to accomplish a task, the boy still felt mentally and emotionally drained after every late-night attempt. While cradling a small rock in his hand, he had tried demanding, "Stenr reisa!" of the rock. He had tried politely asking it, gently coaxing, sternly commanding it, hissing at it, begging it, and shouting at it. Yet for all Shane's efforts, the only time he could put a stone in the air was by throwing it away with a growl.

Feigning a new perspective, Shane acquiesced, "I guess you're right. I really appreciate you letting me go on this trip."

" Are you kidding? We're glad you're going," Cathy enthusiastically replied, " It'll be good for you boys to get out of your comfort zones."

"Ha!" Chimed in Nadia from the driver's seat, out of frame but still audible. Shane turned the camera toward her as she jovially exclaimed, "That's what I said to them. 'Boys, you are too comfortable trying to find time to pass all your classes while my husband and I work you to the bone on the farm. The only way to toughen you up and teach you responsibility is to send you on an exotic vacation without any supervision on your families' dimes.'" Everyone in the truck had a good laugh at that. "You should probably wrap it up back there. Our stop is coming up."

Ali signed off, "Bye, Miss Cathy! Bye Mr. Dennis!"

"Gotta go," Shane added with a new hint of solemnity, "Kick some ass. I love you both." The Embry parents returned the sentiment, and it was smiles all around as the video call ended. They didn't all simultaneously fade until immediately afterward. "I do not feel good about what I just did," the initiate blurted out as soon as he was free to.

Nadia was quick to remind him, "That was your choice. You were right not to tell everybody you know, but they are your parents."

"Not much of a choice," Shane countered. He began to mockingly explain. "'Mom, Dad, I'm a dragon rider, and so is your friend Miss Nadia. Everyone else thinks I'm on a school-sponsored study abroad program in Brisbane, but actually I'm sneaking out of the country and going to a secret island for more training, formal initiation, and preparing to live the rest of my life - which is quite possibly a very, very long time - with a huge and dangerous secret. Friyün's actually above us right now. I know we're on the overpass right now, but come on down and say hi, buddy!'" After letting that hang in the air for a moment he concluded, "It wouldn't go well."

"I'm on Shane's side," Ali backed up, "You should really tell 'em eventually, but now's not a good time."

"Thanks, man." As the vehicle travelled on and the surrounding area became less developed, Shane asked, "Hey, I really appreciate you coming. I can't believe you'd just pack up and follow me halfway across the world just 'cause I'm a bit nervous."

"Nah, man! Yo, we're brothers, right?"

"I mean, technically no?"

Ali waved off this minor inconvenience with only a dismissive scoff. "Hey, bro, it was always the plan to close up shop when the egg hatched. Gotta admit, I was kinda scared what would happen if it hatched when you were living with us. 'Course, we didn't expect-"

"-Neither did I."

"And I've never been to New Vroengard before! Can you imagine how cool it'll be to live somewhere dragons and Riders just exist everywhere, like normal?" Shane had to admit, he had let his imagination run a little wild with that imagery: he'd conjured scenes of entire thunders of dragons treating the sky not like a buffer between themselves and eyes on the ground but as a free and open playground for all things draconic. Their riders could freely converse on solid ground, no doubt exchanging battle tactics, helpful spells, and war stories instead of lying to their parents about their whereabouts and significant lifestyle changes. A near-Utopia.

"Hey, Ali, tell me something: was it nice, going to public school and knowing it never mattered what your grades were?"

"Try telling Mom that."

"It mattered," Nadia dryly confirmed, "Grab your bags, boys. We're here." Both young men instantly reached for the backpacks by their feet, but Shane immediately noticed something off about where Nadia had parked the truck. It wasn't that they were near the water; Shane already knew that the 'airport' story was a lie, and that this was instead a journey to be undertaken by boat. Nadia had explained that while a charter plane may have gotten the humans to the New Vroengard, it would have far outstripped the dragons, who wouldn't have the speed or energy to cross that much water in one go. And so, Nadia had driven her boys from Colorado all the way to the Californian coast to meet with a ship. As much as Shane had wildly speculated how big a ship needed to be to carry two dragons, he was surprised to find not a single dinghy, sloop, or battleship in sight.

This wasn't even a dock. It barely qualified as a dirt road only because no grass was growing on it. This was a small patch of land just before the bluffside, which itself was overlooking the ocean.

"Umm... are we walking to the wharf?" Shane inquired.

"Ha. Do you see a wharf?" No, Shane did not. Truth be told he didn't see much of anything around here, really. Just scattered brush and quite a bit of water as far as his supposedly sharpened eyes could see. Nadia instructed Shane, "Call Friyün."

Shane did, and while the group waited he continued to probe, "I don't understand," although now he thought he was starting to put the pieces together.

"We cannot exactly load two dragons onto a ship at the harbor, can we? Obviously they would be seen, not to mention all the pesky paperwork. No, the ship is patiently waiting for us thirty nautical miles west." It was a good thing there was neither a tree nor a human structure to be found at this point. That left plenty of room for Friyün to safely dive and land. He didn't have to cut it as close as he did, but the daring dragon set himself down closely and abruptly enough that the same gust of wind the dragon used to stop his momentum nearly sent the boy himself flying. The second dragon accompanying him let herself land farther away, and for everyone's sake it was better that she did; as fast as Friyün was growing, now dwarfing a mature African elephant, the bright orange dragon accompanying him truly made the boy feel like an ant. Seeing them side-by-side almost made the deep green dragon look small.

Like an excited child, Ali shouted out, "Sitra!" and ran straight to her. She seemed to enjoy it when Ali threw his body and arms over her muzzle in an embrace, as she had lowered it to his level just before and did not pull away, but Shane always found it eerie that she would not so readily speak with him as his own dragon would. She could like him, loathe him or be completely indifferent, and Shane would have no idea which. Still, the boy acknowledged her with polite eye contact, and she him. "This is gonna be awesome. I haven't got to ride you since I was a kid!"

Shane turned toward Friyün and grinned. "Are you feeling OK? You've been doing a lot of flying the past couple days."

There's been a strong tailwind most of the journey. The only challenge has been not passing too far. That was a relief to the Rider, both as a matter of empathy for his friend and, as he'd just learned, a matter of practical need. I've been looking forward to this

"Have you?" Shane could already feel those butterflies in his stomach becoming excited again. He remarked offhandedly, "I guess this is real now, huh?" Friyün made himself helpful by, after some humans had unsecured the tarp over the back bed of the truck, picking it up all at once in his mouth and tossing it aside. There lay a pair of dragon saddles. "Whoa."

Now that he was seeing them beside each other, it was immediately clear to the initiate just how different the two saddles were. Once Sitra had been situated, the boy couldn't help noticing her saddle contained many luxuries his did not. Her rider was ready with a back and head rest that could support Nadia in flight if she chose to sit up straight; Shane had no such thing, forcing him to effectively lay down on his belly or risk whiplash from the wind. Sutra's saddle was preset with all the dimensions necessary to fit her comfortably; fitting the straps and belts for Friyün was more of a process. "Does that feel OK, big guy?"

You're being too gentle. I can feel the shoulders slipping, and they're not even.

"OK, you tell me when. I feel like I'm gonna cut off circulation or something."

Sitra was equipped with saddlebags as well as spare hooks and ties, a necessity if she was going to carry the group's luggage; Friyün's tack was more minimalistic, barely more than a leather pad between the rider and the dragon's scales, at least at first glance. Additionally, Nadia had her own harness to wear, stock with a short retractable cable that hooked onto the saddle and kept the rider attached even if somehow both her arms and legs lost all grip as yet another anti-fall failsafe.

Shane was particularly envious of that feature.

At least Friyün's seemed to have all the important safety bits. "Put your legs through those stirrups." Unlike a horse, where the boy would simply rest his feet, a dragon's stirrups were more like pant legs that formed around the leg down to the ankle and tightened for security so the feet couldn't easily slip back through. "If you want to hang on tight for a maneuver, put your arms through there." Nadia directed the initiate to a similar looking feature in front of him, a pair of 'tubes' made of an elastic material that could expand to the thickness of his arms and contract tightly around them. At the other end was a pair of handles, complete with sturdy handguards. Unlike the stirrups, Shane could pull his arms in and out of these quite freely, but they did serve as extra security against forces that may have tried to pry him from Friyün's back. He was basically immobile while using them, but that was the idea.

Nadia explained, "Your saddle is optimized for speed and freedom for the dragon, given the materials we had on the farm. If you want one tailored for more comfort, I'm sure you could get a new one in New Vroengard."

Even though the fledgling Rider didn't have his own custom harness, he was outfitted with plenty of gear on his own person. Perhaps the most important among them was a piece of tech that Nadia assigned Shane to wear on his wrist: in addition to being just a digital watch, it was also an altimeter, a compass, thermometer, accelerometer and barometer all in one! "...Whoa." Also important, so he suspected, would be the dedicated GPS system on his other wrist. The young man was kitted with a pair of goggles (for wind protection) and basic earplugs (for the same). A walkie radio was strapped to his belt (chosen for long range and loud volume). Finally, the boy would be going up with a pair of full fingered motocross gloves (Nadia had assured they would serve the right purpose; Shane had just thought they looked cool).

"One last thing!" Nadia called, just before she dropped a backpack from atop her mount into Shane's lap. It wasn't the backpack he had filled with his own belongings. The boy got the idea right away. "Just in case." While Shane had never personally used a parachute before, both of them knew he had the background for knowing how… in theory. "But you won't need it."

"I'm pretty sure that's what most people say right before they need it." Still, it was better to have than not. Shane instantly slung it onto his back. "What the heck did the Riders do before parachutes and altimeters?"

"They held on very, very tightly," the more experienced Rider answered simply. "Your GPS has the ship's coordinates pre-programmed, but as long as you follow us you shouldn't need it. Talk to each other, listen to each other, and make sure you can see us the whole way. Got it?" There wasn't time to answer. When the larger orange dragon spread her massive wings, Friyün promptly stepped back and to one side in order to clear her space. She did not delay; with the agility of a tiger, Sitra bounded forward toward the edge of the bluff without fear. At its edge the bulky citrine dragon threw herself over, where every muscle in her body worked flawlessly together in one powerful burst to create lift. Sitra and her riders shot skyward like a cannonball.

Gulp. Shane's dragon took a step forward. "Friyün-"

-If I wait, we'll lose them. Shane recognized this feeling. It was that spike, that thrill as a jet on the runway sped into its sprint, except this time the boy was the sole passenger... on a ride sorely lacking in seatbelts. Fryün accelerated into his violent sprint, and Shane could now see a steep drop onto a rocky shore. The boy's survival instincts rebelled; they demanded that Shane take every measure to avoid letting the mad dragon throw them both off the bluff. There was no time to act on it, as the stirrups had bound the Rider securely in his saddle. Wherever Friyün was going, Shane would just have to follow at this point. As the dragon's foreclaws gripped the edge of the bluff, Shane could already imagine gravity pulling him into the rocks. There was no choice: the fledgling Rider had to surrender all control to the world and to the dragon.

There was a split-second after Friyün sent them both over that Shane felt himself falling. The first thunderous flap caused a fierce lurch that completely reversed the sensation. The early takeoff was a rough ride between the sharp angle, lack of prior upward momentum, and air resistance. However, after only a few flaps, the ascent gradually became smoother and more linear. Oh, my God. The Earth contracted beneath the pair. Contrary to Shane's deep seated fear of running straight into the sea, it only got farther and farther away with every second. Shane had seen a top-down view of the world through an airplane window before, but this was the first time he got it looking not past a pane of glass but over the shoulder of a dignified and powerful dragon. That's one hell of a view.

Indeed. It was a surprise to Shane that as novel as this experience was for him, he could sense that for Friyün it was almost equally so. I've never seen the sea before. The higher the dragon climbed, the less effort he had to put into the climb. As Friyün's flight path began to crest and level, the experience felt less like constantly fighting gravity and more like having already won the battle, now moving on to enjoying its spoils. As Shane's heart rate finally began to sink, he glanced at his right wrist's altimeter.

"Holy-!" Approximately seven thousand feet above sea level. Under the ceiling where a human can safely breathe, the boy immediately recognized, and above the safe parachute floor. Did Sitra teach you that?

She did, Friyün acknowledged, She taught me to mind the speed and angle of my climb so as not to overwhelm your body. She taught me not to thoughtlessly roll or yaw as not to shake you. Friyün was able to turn his head enough to look over his own back right at the rider perched upon it. There was a slight air of smugness as he emphasized, I told you you could trust me. It was fortunate the option of mental communication was open to them; it was hard for Shane to even open his mouth except to exhale with this level of wind in his face, and if it roared in Friyün's ears like it did in the rider's it would have been a herculean effort to make his voice heard.

How does the saddle feel, Friyün?

Light and secure. It will not slip, and it barely restricts me. You did well. How are you feeling?

You know what? Shane took a psychological snapshot of the scene, partly to lock away in his own memory for as long as he could, and also to show Friyün: above, endless blue in the sky, and below endless blue of the sea - between them, the barely distinguishable horizon - all seen over Friyün's back, shoulders, neck, wings, and head. Shane was able to send not only this image but his own thrill and excitement that came with it. That's kind of awesome. He could physically feel the dragon hum with some satisfaction under him.

Shane's walkie pinged with Nadia's voice, " Are you boys doing alright back there?" The young man reached slowly and steadily so as not to drop the device, though he had eased up his fear of dropping himself with only one hand on the saddle.

"A little more than alright, I think," Shane radioed back. Only now did he bother looking ahead for Sitra. By now, she was little more than a vague orange dot near the limits of his vision.

" Glad to hear it."

Friyün, they're really far ahead, Shane warned.

The dragon answered his concern with the same image in his own perspective. However much Shane's eyes had supposedly improved, it seemed they couldn't match a dragon's yet; Friyün was able to clearly define individual body parts and even the riders' faces from the current distance. He arrogantly added, And I could overtake them any time I please. This speed is only for your sake. It was a bold claim, Shane thought, that Friyün could outstrip an older, likely stronger dragon. But remembering Ali's comment that Friyün was an exceptional specimen himself, the young man concluded it may have been true. Give me instruction.

Excuse me? The Rider raised an eyebrow. Umm… you look like you're flying just fine on your own.

Do it anyway, Friyün calmly insisted.

Well, what was Shane supposed to do? Was Friyün asking for some unnecessary, arbitrary request? Whatever game the dragon was playing, Shane couldn't see it yet. …I don't think you have to slow down for me anymore, the boy suggested, You can speed up if you want.

Do you want me to speed up? There it was again, that invidious tone. Friyün was making no disguise of the fact he was trying to elicit something from Shane, but for the life of him the boy could not figure out what. The young man furrowed his brow.

The Rider tried something else. More directly, yet still tentatively, Shane directed his dragon, Get closer to them. It seemed that did it: the frequency and power of the dragon's wing beats increased. Fortunately Shane had mentally prepared himself for the end of the smooth glide they had been riding prior. It was still clear Friyün was not approaching his maximum effort, but the progress was also apparent.

Another.

Where is this going?

Wherever you'd like it to.

It couldn't have been that Friyün just enjoyed being bossed around, could it? Shane thought he was zeroing in on what the dragon wanted from him: assertive positive commands. The 'why' yet eluded him. With Friyün withholding that, it seemed the only way to discover it was to play Friyûn's game. Bank right thirty degrees. Hold it five seconds, then level out. Shane didn't have a tool to measure roll, but he was quite sure Friyün executed the maneuver perfectly. Shane tried adding, Other side, as if that would clue him in. While Friyün did obey the command, Shane learned nothing. OK, I give up. Why do you want me to order you around like a dog?

At that, the dragon firmly pushed back, I am not a dog, along with a transmission of some annoyance. Admit it, though: it felt good, didn't it? After having just offended Friyün, Shane was reluctant to answer that. He held his tongue. You once said you could not control me, and that frightened you, yet you've done just that. Besides, riding should be enjoyable for you, not just work. I enjoy sharing the sky with you, and I wish you would have consented to it before you realized you had no choice.

So that was it, huh? The young rider still wasn't sure he understood the lesson Friyün wanted to teach him, but at least he understood Friyün's position a bit better. It would've been quicker to just say, 'I told you so,' Shane mocked at his own expense, But you're right. I'll fly with you whenever you want after this. This caused Friyün to make that satisfied humming noise again.

Ancient Language:

1. "Stenr reisa!" (STEHN-rr RAY-sah) - "Stone, rise!"