Chapter 2
Word sat impatiently at the conference table in his main control chamber with the usual scowl on his face and drummed his fingers as he waited. Moordryd entered alone and made his way to table but remained standing with his arms behind his back.
"You sent for me, Father?" he said respectfully knowing that showing any attitude wasn't going to help things at this late hour.
"It's about time you got here," Word responded, somewhat irritated as usual.
Moordryd waited for his father, who had yet to make eye contact with him, to continue. Word, obviously displeased with Moordryd, allowed the silence between them to continue for a few more long seconds.
"Moordryd. Is there something you're not telling me?" he finally said with a sigh, still not looking at his son.
"What do you mean, Father?" said Moordryd without emotion so as not to antagonize his father any further.
There were in fact many things that Moordryd had not told his father, such as when he kept the bone mark of the Furox for himself. Word of course expected Moordryd to do such things and he found out about Moordryd's "oversights" on numerous occasions. This, apparently, was one of them.
"Several months ago, I sent you out during the All-City Marathon race to investigate the legend of the Lost Track of Doom and to see if there was any truth to the existence of the ancient Prophets crew. Do you remember?" said Word with a bit of sarcasm towards the end.
"Yes, Father."
"You said you found no evidence of their existence." Word now turned his frowning gaze toward Moordryd for the first time and said with some anger creeping into his voice, "But that wasn't exactly true, was it?"
Moordryd cast his eyes downward to avoid his father's glare and remained silent. Moordryd's silence confirmed Word's suspicions.
His father grinned slightly at having caught Moordryd in one of his lies. "So tell me, Moordryd. What did you find?"
Moordryd hesitated a few seconds in order to compose himself before beginning. "Cain and I were making a survey of the old abandoned tracks where the marathon used to be run before the new track was built. We came upon a particularly isolated section of track shrouded in mist. When we reached the mid point of the span, the section we were standing on suddenly gave way. Coershun was able to jump back with Cain to the part of the track still left standing. Decepshun leapt forward and safely made it to the opposite side, but I fell off. Luckily, I was able to grab hold of a cable and pull myself back up." Moordryd decided that his father was mad enough at him and there was no need to make it worse by telling him he had in fact been rescued by the Penn brat.
"Go on," said Word.
"I re-grouped with Cain and once we found another track, Coershun brought us around to the other side of the break in the track so I could pick up Decepshun."
Word sighed and stood up with his back to his son. "Moordryd, why didn't you tell me this before?"
"I... didn't think there was anything to tell," said Moordryd, being less than honest as usual. He tried to cover it up by adding, "The old track was falling apart. That's all."
"Really? Did you see any dragons?"
Moordryd hesitated and said haltingly, "Nothing we could clearly make out."
Moordryd was lying again and Word clearly sensed it. Moordryd and Cain had in fact both caught momentary glimpses of what might have been orange dragons when the track collapsed. Not wanting to be sent back to investigate a dangerous area like this further after nearly falling to their deaths, they both decided not to report what had actually happened to Word.
Still with his back to his son, Word said, "You disappoint me, Moordryd," in an almost casual fashion as if he had said it a hundred times before, which of course, he had.
Word surmised what must have actually happened: the Prophets had ambushed Moordryd and Cain because they had gotten too close to their stronghold.
Word moved to the control console before him and keyed a switch. The display above came to life. "Look here. One of my wraith dragons that was on surveillance patrol nearby came upon this earlier tonight."
Moordryd watched the video playback from the camera mounted on the wraith dragon control gear. It showed an indistinct shape moving in the shadows on one of the lesser used streets and quickly disappearing into the darkness. Word flipped a few switches and the image zoomed in on the shape. The zoomed image was pixelated at first, but the computer quickly enhanced it. The blocky pixels disappeared and the image came into focus. It showed an orange dragon and a rider.
"If I'm not mistaken, that dragon seems to match the description of the Prophets in the legend, wouldn't you say, Moordryd?" said Word with some sarcasm in his voice.
"Yes, Father," Moordryd replied somewhat sheepishly.
"The Prophets haven't been seen in Dragon City for many centuries. So long in fact that their existence has passed into legend."
Moordyrd failed to see the significance of this and started to get a little impatient, "So what if there are a few more dragons in the city?"
"The Prophets believe dragons are best suited to rule and seek to subjugate humans. If the legend is true, and the Prophets have returned to Dragon City, it can only mean one thing." Word finally turned to face Moordryd and said with some anger, "They must be planning to take control of the city for themselves."
Moordryd showed concern for a moment, then crossed his arms and said somewhat defiantly, "So let Dragon City Security deal with it. Why is it our problem?"
"Dragon City Security can't even stop you from stealing dragons. How do you expect them to fight the Prophets when they can't even handle a petty thief?"
His son was a bit taken aback by that, but realized it was true. Dragon City Security was not at all prepared for something like this.
"Besides," Word continued, "I have more to lose than anyone else in Dragon City. And their timing interferes with my own plans to control the city."
"What should we do?" Moordryd said with more seriousness now as the thought of being controlled by a dragon sunk in.
"If you had confirmed the existence of the Prophets back when I sent you out to look for them, things would be different. Now, we must accelerate our plans. I do not yet have enough wraith dragons to control the city and fight a war with the Prophets at the same time. We must fix that. You and your crew must immediately set out and steal more dragons to become part of my wraith dragon army."
Putting his hands together and arching his fingers, Word continued more optimistically, "This may yet work to my advantage. If my wraith dragons can defeat the Prophets, the people of Dragon City will see the value in controlling dragons and there will be less resistance to my plans in the future."
Speaking urgently now and pointing a clawed finger at his son, "But time is short, Moordryd. The presence of the Prophets means they are preparing to strike. Go now and get started. And don't fail me again."
Word turned his back on his son, indicating that he was dismissed.
Moordryd left the chamber. Cain was waiting in the hall outside. As the door closed behind Moordryd, he said in a serious and determined tone, "Come'on Cain. We've got work to do."