The base was completely different than Rina had expected it to be. In front of her was wide oval courtyard, as large as the chamber of cracks she had crossed earlier on her journey. It was open to the sky through a long wide crack that had been drilled into the ceiling of the cavern. The sky could be seen through it, and it was large enough to provide sufficient light to flood the courtyard and allowed the different elements entrance, just as it would have been if the courtyard had been outdoors. Different grasses and low shrubs were even growing in the center of the courtyard. Lining the walls of the courtyard were dark pockets. At one end of the oval courtyard was a wide passageway.
As Rina and Phil absorbed their surroundings, a girl shyly walked up to them. She was dressed in a light colored dress with her hair in long braids. She was slender, tall, and delicate-looking. Apart from having a lighter skin tone, she showed no negative side-effect from living in the base.
"Hi." She said quietly. "I'm Genoa. I was assigned to give you a tour of the base."
"Hi", Rina said. "I'm Rina and this is Phil."
"Hello." Said Phil.
An awkward silence followed as the girl just stared at the ground.
"Um" Genoa said nervously. "Why don't I show you the . . .uh . . . mess hall."
"Well, actually. I was wondering if we could drop off the traveling packs and get the herrks situated somewhere." Rina suggested.
"Of course!" Genoa said, alarmed. "Your rooms are right here. We can go now."
"Well, um. The herrks are tired and they probably can't enter the rooms."
"Oh yeah. We can go to the stables first if you want."
"That'd be great."
"Sure. Follow me." Genoa slaughtered nervously off. Rina and Phil exchanged glances and headed off. They caught up with Genoa half way across the courtyard.
"So, um." Rina said, "Where's the stables?"
"They're just past the tunnel." Genoa replied, less nervous. They headed into the wide passageway Rina had seen earlier. It was relatively short, and, a short while later, they stopped besides wooden double doors.
"This is the side entrance to the stables." Genoa explained. "Monty, the stable master, gets supplies shipped in this way." She threw open the doors and walked in.
"Are you sure it's ok, Genoa." Rina asked.
"Of course. Monty doesn't care what entrance you take. And call me Gena." Gena replied.
"Ok, Gena." Rina said.
Gena smiled. "Here we are."
The stable was huge. Right in front of the door was a rectangular patch of dirt. Shelves built at the far end were stocked with ridding tack, brushes, blankets, and medical supplies. Some barrels were wedged in the corner. Lining the walls were piles after pile of hay, straw, and feed with pitchforks sticking out of them at various places.
After a moment, Gena said, "Let's lead herrks to their stables. She led Rina, Phil, and the herrks to a passage to their right. Down the passage were rows and rows of different sized stalls. Gena stopped at two empty, average sized stalls beside each other. "Monty reserved these for your herrks." She watched as Rina and Phil led their herrks into the stalls and settled them. "They'll have the best care, here. Monty and his stable boys are great with herrks."
"Well," Phil said, after they locked the herrks in, "What do we do now?"
"How about. . . What's that!" Gena screamed. A green bird-like creature, afraid of abandonment, shot off of the herrks where it had been hiding and flapped clumsily to Phil.
"Kirby?" Phil held up his ruffled dragonet. "He's a dragonet."
"Oh, just a dragonet." Gena said, calming down.
"Yeah. He was sleeping on the herrk and now I'll carry him until I get him situated somewhere." Phil replied.
"We could, uh. . ." Gena said, starting to become nervous again.
"Why don't we get rid of the bags?" Rina suggested.
"Yes! Yes. We can do that." Gena jumped at the idea.
Leaving the stable, she led them back down the passage to the courtyard they saw earlier. She stopped at the entrance.
"This is our housing compartment, where most of the residents reside. Our craft makers also reside and hold shops here. This is sort of our mini village. The dark depressions in the walls are chambers. The elevated ones are mostly houses. The ones down low are shops. The houses can be reached by stairways. It's kind of like a huge apartment complex."
Gena turned and walked through a dark doorway to her left, everyone else trailing her. She talked as she walked up stone stair steps:
"These stairs were cut out to access the houses. They're really narrow. We have main ones that are wider but these are closer to your rooms. Ah. Here we are."
The stairs led to a room brightly lit with oil lamps. From the room branched several crooked hallways. Above the hallways were name plates displaying the names of the hallway as if it was a street. She turned down a hallway marked "Limestone".
"This is our guest ward. When this giant hollow inside the mountain was adopted as the base, the founders chose this as the housing compartment because there were multiple chambers around the cliffs, sort of like air pockets. They excavated the chambers, linking several chambers into a house and connected several houses by 'streets'. The crafters shaped many of the chambers into suitable living spaces, often creating closets, windows, and even bathrooms, though the plumbing took awhile because of the rock. Well, here are your rooms." Gena pointed to a pair of twin rooms side by side. Rina entered hers. It was a rock chamber shaped into a bedroom. A cot and a small desk were on one side and a small dresser was on the other. A quilt hung on the wall was the only decoration. Rina dropped her packs beside the door and walked to the window. She pushed open the wooden window. Sunlight flooded the room. Rina fingered the windowsill. It was two feet deep and perfectly square.
Gena shifted uncomfortably at her door. Rina gestured for her to come in. "This window artificially created. Almost none of the chambers had natural windows. The ones that did had to be reshaped so shutters would fit properly." Gena fumbled with her pocket. She laid two keys on the windowsill. "Here are the keys to your rooms. The plain bronze is yours. The one with the pointy edges is Phil's. You don't have to worry about the window. No one can scale that rock."
"Thanks," Rina said, placing the keys in her pocket.
A silence followed. "There's an oil lamp if you need one." Gena said nervously, pointing to an oil lamp on the desk. "There's some extra oil in the closet." She added, trying to stop the silence.
Suddenly, Phil appeared at the door and knocked.
"Where's Kirby?" Rina asked him.
"Snoring in my room. He sleeps more than I do!" Phil replied.
"So. . .Maybe I should let you rest off your journey. Or are you hungry? There's uh. . I mean, I can uh. . ." Gena said, flustered.
"Maybe we can explore the other compartments. There are more, right?" Phil inquired.
"Yes, there are. We can go now, or . . ."
"Now's fine." Rina assured her.
"Ok then. Let's go this way." Gena jumped up and headed out the door. Phil and Rina followed.
At the bottom of the narrow stone stairs, they spotted Gena talking to a small boy of about 6.
"Hi" She said when they reached her. "This is my little brother Max."
"Hi" Rina and Phil chorused.
"Hiya" The boy said boldly. "Wanna see my new pet?" He held up a yellow ball the size of his palm. "Lookie! Lookie!" He said, bouncing energetically.
"Max," Gena scolded. "Don't bounce like that. You'll give the poor thing a headache."
Max pouted, but stopped bouncing. "Mizer Kadarth gave 'im to me an' momma said I could keep 'im." Max grabbed the sleeping dragonet roughly by his neck and shoved him in front of Rina's face. "Look!"
"Uh. . .He's very cute, Max." Rina said, pushing the dragonet away from her face.
"Cute?" Max pouted, "He's not cute. He's big an' strong an' he'll bite your head off!"
"Of course he is." Phil assured him.
"Yeah! An' if you don't stay away from 'im, he'll bite your head off too!" Max shouted.
"Uh. . ." Phil stammered, unsure of how to respond to Max's latest remark.
"Why don't you go to mother and get her to feed him, Max." Gena cut in.
"Don't wanna." Max said crossing his arms defiantly.
"Ah, but you don't want him to starve, now do you? He looks hungry to me."
"But—"
"He'll starve if you don't go now. Go, Max, go!"
Max skittered off. Phil whispered in Rina's ear, "Poor dragonet. That kid's going to kill it within a week!" Rina giggled, and then muffled her laugher as Gena turned to them.
"I'm sorry about my brother. He's a bit pestiferous." Gena apologized.
"No problem." Said Phil and Rina.
"Who's Kadarth?" Rina asked.
"He's the mystical beast master. I don't know what he was thinking, giving Max a dragonet. Good thing that dragonnet's a mellow yellow, if he landed an aggressive one; he'll be scratched and crying by the time the day's over." Gena answered.
"I'm sure he can't be that bad." Rina said.
"Oh yes he can. He's quite rough with his pets and the other kids, but he cries quite easily. He has gotten everything he wanted for too long. He throws tantrums."
"Poor kid," Said Phil. "Or should I say poor Gena."
Gena giggled and then said, "Let's not stand here all day. Come on. You've only seen a third of the base. The other compartments are much more interesting."
"This is the middle and largest section of the base. It's where the men train for battle, where the mystical beasts are held, and stores most of the supplies need to run the base. The section is divided into two parts. The beasts live on the right, the men, on the left." Gena narrated.
The compartment was far larger than the housing unit. The courtyard was brightly lit by a large round hole at the top of the ceiling. On left, there were many armed men fighting each other with blunt weapons. To the far northwest (and that is to the left, right?) a group of youths in their teens were sparring with wooden swords while a bulky man yelled at them. The youths seem to cower in fear.
In the courtyard to the right was an assortment of mystical beast. Stable hands were exercising herrks. Ten young youths were grouped together. They held the halter to ten striped herrks. A middle aged woman and a graying striped herrk stood lecturing before them. About two dozen dragons roamed the field. Beside them was always a man or woman. They were of all different colors. However, there was not a black or red one in sight. Close by the dragons were a cluster of spiny, cat like creatures that Rina had never seem until now. They too were accompanied by humans. The cat-like creatures would prowl back and forth and, once in a while, one would rear and the long spines on its back stood up like a pincushion.
Two large iron doors and a huge hole lined the wall of the beast section while three smaller wooden gates were on the men's side of the courtyard.
Gena continued, "The beast and men do not mind sharing the courtyard. Of course the noise is a bit louder so concentrating is harder, but you learn to get use to it and besides, it teaches you to focus on your task. The mess hall is connected to the men's section. Er. . . do you want to go get food or see the compartment?" Gena asked.
Phil and Rina looked at each other. "Why don't we see the men's section, go to the mess hall, and then check out the beasts?" Rina offered.
"Sure," Said Gena. She led the way to the left. She stopped by a large wooden door. "This is where the soldiers live." She explained. "They train out here and the ones with wives live over in the housing compartment and the ones who are single live in the rooms behind this door behind me. The door to the storage room for their weapons is also behind this door." Gena walked on. She stopped a respectable distance away from the group of youths Rina had noticed earlier.
"These are the next generation of soldiers. The base is kind of small so the youths
travel in groups. They rotate from horsemanship, unarmed combat, weaponry, and academics. This group is in weaponry. They fight with nearly every kind of weapon invented. Right now they're using practice swords. I don't want to get too close because their training master is really harsh and I don't want to break their concentration. Ouch!" She winced as a young boy tripped and fell. The training master was immediately towering over the fallen youth and he cowered. "Poor boy. The training master hates clumsiness."
Gena watched the group practice for another minute and then led Rina and Phil around the group to a large wooden door. "This is the mess hall." She said, fling open the doors. Inside was a room with row after row of wooden tables and benches. Along the side were a couple of women in while stained aprons cooking. In front of them, dividing the kitchen with the tables was a long counter. Since it was the middle of the afternoon, the mess hall was empty save a few people quietly eating.
"Are you hungry?" Gena asked.
Rina and Phil nodded.
"Then let's get food." Gena said. She led them one end of the counter. She handed them trays from a large stack. From a pile next to the trays, she took plates. "It's the middle of the afternoon but the cooks usually have leftovers from lunch. It's not hot, though."
"That's alright," Phil assured her.
Gena placed her tray on the counter. Phil and Rina followed her example. She slid her tray over to where a couple of cloth-covered baskets were lay. She lifted the cloth covering of the first large wicker basket. It was mostly empty, but a few broken rolls of bread lay at the bottom. She scooped up two, placed it on her plate, and moved it to the next covered baskets. Reaching under the cloth, she pulled out a wedge of cheese. Setting it next to the bread, she picked up her tray and carried it over to where a woman dressed in a white apron stood cooking.
"Hi, Solana. Do you have anything left over from breakfast besides oatmeal?" Gena asked.
"Hello, Gena. I'm pretty sure I put away some ham." Solana reached over and took down a large covered patter from a shelf above her. She uncovered it to reveal several ham slices. "Ah ha!" She held them out to Gena and her friends. "Help yourself."
Gena speared a slab of ham onto her plate. She waited until Rina and Phil did the same. "Thanks, Solana." She said.
"No problem, Gena." Solana replied. Solana covered the platter, placed it in it original spot and returned to her cooking.
"Alright, where should we sit?" Gena asked.
"How about—is that who I think it is?" Phil exclaimed.
"Who?" Rina asked. Her eyes followed Phil's finger and settled on a small, hunched, black-haired boy sitting by himself. "Is that Terrance?"
"I think so." Phil replied.
"Do you want to sit with him?" Rina suggested. Gena and Phil shrugged.
"Why not."
Terrance had been quietly eating his meal when a voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked up. Rina, Phil, and another girl he had seen walking around the base once or twice. "Terrance," Rina repeated, "do you mind if we sit here?"
"Huh? Uh. . . Sure." Terrance stammered.
Rina and the other girl slid into the bench across from him and Phil sat beside him.
"Terrance, this is Gena. Gena, this is Terrance." Rina announced. Gena smiled, but Terrance gave her a brief nod before returning to his food. For a few minutes, there was no sound save the clicking of utensils scraping against the plate and chomping of food. Then Rina broke the silence.
"So Terrance. What happened ever since we left?"
"Well." Terrance mused, "Father and I remained at the house of a couple of days. We told the neighbors we were visiting a village where my uncle owned a mill and that Tristan had gone ahead. They seemed to believe our story and a few days later, father and I packed up the two herrks, food, and clothing and left opposite of the way you left." Here Terrance paused to cut a slice of cheese, pop it into his mouth, and swallow. He continued,
"We were traveling in circles, once in a while stopping at a village. Father would always meet up with some important looking men and they would stay up all night talking. I was never allowed in. Father said I was too young. I'm always too young. I'm sure he would have let Tristan into the meetings." Terrance paused, as if reflecting then continued.
"After a couple of stops, father and I stopped here. He left me here, saying that he was going to go off and meet some other men and would be here in time."
"In time for what?" Phil asked.
"I dunno. He never tells me anything." Terrance answered bitterly. "He just dropped me off here and left."
"How long have you been here?" Rina asked.
"Since yesterday."
"I see." Silence followed the conversation. Rina, Phil, and Gena finished their meal. As they got up, Rina noticed the desperate look on Terrance's face.
"Why don't you come along with us, Terrance. I'm sure it beats sitting here alone." Rina offered.
"Are you sure? Is it alright?" He said hopefully.
"No, it's ok. We'll be glad to have you." Phil and Gena answered.
"Alright then," Terrance said, his face lighting up. He stood up and picked up his tray. He followed as Gena led Rina and Phil to one end of the counter. She handed her tray to a lady standing by a large basin. Terrance, Rina, and Phil did the same.
"Do you want to see the mystical creatures now?" She asked.
"Why not." Rina answered, shrugging. The others nodded.
Gena led the way out of the mess hall and onto the beast side of the courtyard. She led them to a group of herrks nearest to them. These herrks were all stripped, young herrks. Each had a teenage boy or girl dressed in a green and yellow tunic standing beside them, holding a leather halter laced with steel with strange markings in it. The herrks and their trainers had gathered around a short woman with slightly graying hair who was hold a rope halter to an old herrk who was more gray than strawberry roan. The halter she was holding, however, had no steel or mysterious markings. She was speaking and gesturing with her hands. After a few minutes, she stopped talking and turned to her herrk. She spoke to it and it glowed a bright reddish white. The lady pointed to a pile of rocks in front of her and suddenly, the rocks glowed a bright, tainted white and rose. They climbed several meters above the ground and hovered there. After a minute or so, the lady spoke once again to the gray herrk. The herrk flickered its ear as if it was listening and then focused its attention on the levitating rocks. The rocks glowed brighter and brighter until is shinned as bright as a lamp. The lady commanded the attention of her students and began lecturing; once in a while pointing at the hovering rocks the herrk had so effortlessly levitated. She ended her lecture and the herrk lowered the now dull gray rocks back to earth. Afterwards, the students scattered with their herrks to practice while the lady and the gray herrk supervised.
"That's one of our magic scientists, Lora." Gena explained. "She specializes in engineering mystical beasts, and trains the striped herrks in her free time. She's one of our more brilliant scientists. She teamed up with the scientist in charge of breeding to create a whole new species."
"Really?" Rina gasped.
Gena nodded proudly. "Hard to believe, isn't it?"
"Did she create it out of thin air or just genetically enhanced an existing species?" Phil inquired.
"I think she combined the genes of traits of several different species and added them to the DNA of another animal."
"Wow. I didn't know it was possible."
"Neither did most of us, until Lora had bred several generations of them to prove they were real, existing animals. Actually, there in the barn right now. Want to see them?"
"Of course." Rina, Phil, and Terrance replied eagerly.
"Follow me then."
Gena led the party through one of the huge iron doors in the wall of the beast side of the courtyard. This doorway opened to a long chamber connecting passageways large enough for a herd of herrks to gallop through. Many people crowded the chamber, most wearing civilian clothes. Gena led the party down a short passage which opened up to yet another chamber. This one was round and lit with oil lamps and torches. A desk with papers littered on it rested to the side of the door. Many metal cages the size of cat carriers were stacked against the walls. They surprisingly had simple locks, one that just required you to lift a bar. The cages were empty except for a glimmer of paleness floating behind the bars. Two ceramic dishes were also placed inside of each cage.
"Here is where Lora keeps the creatures she created, the hokkaidos." Gena said.
"Do you think we could take a closer look?" Phil asked.
"Go ahead. This isn't Lora's private office. It's more like the stable for the creatures. The hokkaidos are fairly new and these are the only one existing."
Rina, Phil, and Terrance edged closer to the cages. The creatures inside resembled jellyfishes, except for the fact that they were floating in the air, had a lengthened and flattened body, only had five thick tentacles dangling from their bodies, and had two black, round eyes and a small mouth. They semitransparent; some were pinkish, others had a brown tinge, but most were a translucent white.
"Wow," Rina said, "How do you get such a creature?"
"I believe Lora tinkered with the DNA of the jellyfish, removed the poison, forced it to breath oxygen, and gave it the ability to float on air. She gave it eyes and a mouth, and added octopus genes so the tentacles can hold items and are stronger. She even added the genes of teleportation of the dragonets to the hokkaidos. They're only able to teleport short distances, though."
"What does the breeding scientist have to do with this?"
"He helped Lora with the selective breeding and discovering the right foods and environment for raising the hokkaidos." Gena explained.
"What exactly is the use of these hokkaidos. I'm sure the authorities fund this project for more than science." Phil asked.
"Naturally, there's a gain. The hokkaidos are mobile, easy to care for, and almost invisible. They can carry messages back and forth between officers with their tentacles' suction cups and their ability to teleport. Nice way to get information back and forth during a secret spy mission or something. Of course the hokkaidos still have flaws. Despite Lora's best efforts, they're still not completely invisible. They randomly emit high pitched screeching and will refuse to stop for minutes. That's enough to show the enemy your location. They're also extremely stupid, but they are creatures of habit. They can deliver a message to someone provide that they've been properly introduced. However, they are easily fooled by an imposter. They need classes, too. You must teach them who is who and review because they have terrible long term memory."
"Can't you just use the dragonets for delivering messages? They're smarter, teleport farther, and don't randomly emit sounds."
"I guess, but dragonets require bonding, are more obvious, and require more care, thus requiring more money to raise." Gena answered.
"I see." Rina said. Silence followed as the party continued to gaze at the hokkaidos."
"Have you seen the kyushus?" Gena asked.
"Kyushus?"
"Don't you remember, Rina? They're the spiked creatures that you saw outside." Phil said. He turned to Gena, "I thought they only lived in the south."
"It's Lora again. She tinkered a bit with their DNA and volia, a northern cousin of the tropical kyushus." Gena answered. "Would you like to see them?"
"Of course," Rina said, "I've never seen one before."
Gena led the way out of the chamber with the iron cages with Rina at her heels. Terrance, fascinated by the creatures, continued to stare at them. When he didn't budge, Phil seized his shirt collar and dragged him from the room.
Gena led the party down a small short passageway and back into the large, brightly lit chamber they had arrived in when they first entered the double door of the beast side of the courtyard. She turned and walked to the rear of the chamber where a section of the wall seemed be missing. On the other side of the wall was a long hallway, as large and bright as the chamber, but much longer. The missing segment of the wall seemed to be chopped off the join the two chambers.
Gena, with Phil, Terrance, Rina trailing behind her, stepped across the faint line on the ground that was all that remained of a wall and into the other hallway. This hallway contained a decent amount of people, although not as much as the other chamber. Gena walked straight down the hallway, ignoring all the doors and passageways until she reached one near the end. She turned right and started to walk down another hall, but Rina cried out, "Gena! Wait!"
Gena turned around, "What's wrong?"
"What's that up there?" Rina asked, pointing to a bright wall of light down the larger hallway.
"That's the door leading into the crater." Gena replied.
"Crater?"
"Yup." Gena nodded. "It's one of our daily sources of sunlight. The livestock gaze there. The children play there. And best of all, it's completely hidden."
Rina looked impressed. "Can I see it?"
"Of course.' Gena replied. She led the party down the hallway towards the light Rina had seen.
Gena stepped out and aside of the large doorway. Rina, Terrance, and Phil stumbled out behind. The door led to a worn path that branched out on several directions. On either side of the paths were fenced fields, each containing different creatures: herrks in one, livestock in another, dragons lounging in yet another. The pond at one end of the crater served as a drinking trough for beasts and contained water for washing for the women. Children scampered underfoot. The edge of the crater lined a tall, ivy besieged wooden wall, tall enough to keep people from peeking in or attempting to scale it, but was just shy of the treetops so that the wall was not visible from far away.
One of the women washing clothes waved Gena over. She led the group to the woman. She introduced the woman to them as her mother.
"Gena, dear," the women said, "I know you're out with your friend but your father will be home soon and I need to start dinner. Will you finish these clothes?"
Gena looked as if she was about to protest, then sighed. "Yes, mother."
"Thanks, dear." The woman said, patting Gena fondly. The woman turned to Phil, Terrance and Rina. "You two must come over for dinner some time."
"Of course." Phil replied.
The women smiled at them then left.
Gena turned to Rina and Phil. "You can go ahead. I'll finish up here and join you later."
"Are you sure?" Rina asked.
"Definitely." Gena replied. "It'll only take a minute. I'll catch up."
"Well, if you're sure." Rina answered uncertainly.
When Gena turned her back to them, Rina, Terrance, and Phil wandered back to the large door and back inside the hallway. Quickly, they found the hallway Gena had started to walk down and followed the trail to a fork. One fork led down yet another hallway. Another led to a large open chamber with metal and glass cages.
When Rina hesitated at the fork, Terrance spoke up. "I think the chamber is where the kyushus are. I saw them once while wandering."
When the group walked into the chamber, they discovered that Terrance was correct; the kyushus were indeed stored there. Inside was a large reinforced glass cage. The cage allowed a considerable amount of open, bare dirt with light shinning in from above. Small plants and potholes littered the cage and small oval openings lined the walls. The glass was obviously scratched and dirty with pock marks all over the glass.
Most interesting, however, were the creatures who roamed the cage. They seemed to be a bizarre experiment gone wrong. They were cat-sized, and behaved like cats; they stalked each other and often arched up. Their fur, however, was short and laced with long, sturdy quills, much thicker than a porcupine's. The quills on their backside were especially thick and long, giving them the appearance of a peacock gone wrong. Most of the kyushus were gray in color, with black or brown quills.
"Those are kyushus." A voice behind the group announced. The three flinched visibly. They turned around. A middle aged lady sat at a paper littered desk. She got up and walked up beside them. "There're extremely bad tempered. A pain to raise, but good in war."
Seeing the confused faces of Rina and Terrance, the lady went on, "They can shoot the quills on their backside, with a range of up to eight feet. Their nasty temper causes them to shoot at anything that comes near. Nasty surprise for your enemies, the quills work the same as arrows. Of course we have some control over the animals; we have trainers who work with them. The animals tolerate human authority just enough to refrain from running away during a mission."
The lady glanced at the astonished faces of Rina, Phil, and Terrance. "What . . .Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Lora, head engineer of magical beasts."
"Nice to meet you, Lora." Phil shook her hand. "I'm Phil, this is Rina, and this is Terrance."
"Hi, Lora." Rina and Terrance chimed.
"So Lora, did you really create these?" Rina asked.
"Well I wouldn't say create," Lora replied with an air of modesty, "I only improved their design to fit our purposes."
"Wow."
"They're so cool!" Terrance said, trying to crane his head over the glass of the cage. Phil lifted him from the glass and held him just below the top of the cage.
"If you think these are cool, then you haven't seen the dragons." Lora said.
"Dragons!" Terrance breathed. "Real dragons!"
"Haven't you seen them?"
"Well, yeah. But I didn't think I was allowed near them."
"You aren't. It's dangerous." Lora said. When Terrance's face fell, Lora offered, "Of course it's perfectly safe if an authority figure leads you there, such as me."
Terrance's face lit up. "Will you really?"
"Sure." Lora said. "Come along." Lora led the group down a wide, crowded hallway and out a set of tall metal doors. Once back in the large courtyard, Lora headed straight for the dragons with the party at her heels. When she reached the dragons, a man from the middle of the group of beast strolled up to meet her.
Lora introduced the man, "Kids, this is Kadarth, chief of our dragon's wing. Kadarth, this is Rina, Phil, and Terrance."
Kadarth was a tall, tan, muscular man well into his fifties. He wore simple, stained clothes with large boots. The only thing that signified his rank was a pin on his shirt. Kadarth had a protective yet friendly look to him. He shook each of their hands with his own rough calloused hand.
"So," Kadarth said, "Here to see the dragons?"
Terrance nodded furiously. Kadarth grinned and beckoned from them to follow him as he led the group to the dragons, pointing out the names of the dragons and their trainers as he passed. Most of the trainers were in their twenties and early thirties, the youngest was 18.
"These dragons all seem fully matured." Phil observed aloud.
"Yes." Kadarth replied. "The dragons are given basic training as adolescents, but most of the military training comes when they are almost fully grown to young adults."
"Are the dragons incapable of doing anything in their early years?"
"No, it's the trainers. You see. The trainers we take in to care for the baby dragons are from 8 to late teens. Young children are unable to partake in such things."
"Why not just choose older children?"
"The life span of dragons can be as long as fifty years. If we chose people in their twenties, we would have aged trainers and trainers must be young and fit. Plus it takes dragons about 10 years to fully mature and it's a waste to buy them equipment just so they can grow out of it anyway so it works out pretty well."
"I see your point."
"Where are the other dragons, the younger ones? You do have some, right?" Terrance asked.
"Of course we have some. In fact, we have a clutch just laid a few days ago. The younger dragons are probably playing somewhere. They're not allowed in the class yet so they mostly fool around."
"May we see them?" Terrance asked.
"Of course." Kadarth replied, "just as soon as I finish my class."
"Actually," Rina cut in. "It's been awhile since I have had any rest and I was wondering if I could freshen up before dinner. Maybe another time?"
"Sure." Kadarth agreed.
Terrance's face drooped visible. "Maybe you should stay," Phil offered. "After all, you've been here all day."
"If you're sure. . ." Terrance ginned as Rina and Phil walked away.