Chapter 4

A few days later it was race day. The weather was warm and pleasant as usual in Dragon City; a perfect day for a race. The start time was approaching and the racers were getting in position. Beau carried Artha in the saddle and casually made his way to the starting gates. Beau felt the usual anticipation and excitement he always did before a race, and the smile on his face and slight swagger in his step let it show. As they passed the grandstand, Wyldfyr trotted up to walk alongside.

"Hi, Artha. Ready for the Maze Challenge?" Kitt asked. The enthusiasm in her voice made it clear she was charged up for the race as well.

"Not only are we ready, but we're going win!" Artha said in a happy and confident way.

"Oh, really?" responded Kitt with mocking sarcasm. "Perhaps you've forgotten that Wyldfyr and I are three-time winners of this event?" To which Wyldfyr turned her head slightly to Artha and Beau and gave them a proud smile to emphasize the point.

"Not this time, Kitt. Beau and I have been practicing," assured Artha as they reached the starting gates.

Kitt sighed and shrugged off Artha's usual bravado. She looked over and noticed one of the gates was empty. "Hey, where's Moordyrd? He was supposed to be entered in this race."

"Who cares. He wasn't going to win anyway," said Artha egotistically.

"Strange for him to miss a race, though."

The signal was given that the countdown was about to commence. The dragons adjusted their footing and their riders leaned forward and hugged the saddle to cut wind resistance to a minimum. The track flashed red as the countdown started. The dragons crouched and prepared for the starting rush. Yellow. Beau gritted his teeth and dug in his claws to get a good push-off. Green! As the gates dropped, the entire row of dragons lunged forward, running as fast as they could for the initial segment of the race.

The first half mile of the race was a sprint to the maze portion of the event. The dragons covered this distance effortlessly. As they approached the maze, each dragon and rider pair had their own entrance into it that lead to an identical maze layout within. Beau shot through his assigned entrance and continued down the straight passageway at full speed. The passage had a line of lights embedded in the floor down the center. They were lit and spaced a yard apart. As Beau passed over each light, it winked out and the scoreboard by grandstand recorded a point for their team for each light crossed. The object of the Maze Challenge was to pass over as many lights as possible and then get back to the finish line within the allotted time period. The team with the highest score would be the winner.

Artha and Beau were coming up on the first intersection in the maze. The corridor they were in was wide enough for a dragon, but the corridor branching to the left ahead was only wide enough for a human.

As they approached the intersection Artha said, "Get ready, Beau!" as he concentrated to gauge the distance. Beau focused his energy and began to glow as he continued to run at full speed. As the distance to the approaching intersection shrank to less than a few strides, Artha gave the signal, "Now, Beau!"

Beau magged Artha, picking him up out of the saddle and pushing him in the direction of the other corridor. Artha completed the mag-jump and hit the ground running. As he passed over the lights in the floor of this narrow corridor, they winked out as well, and with the two of them working separately, the rate at which their score increased doubled. Beau took a hard right turn, continuing down another one of the wide corridors. The other riders and their dragons were all doing the same thing and had similarly split up in order to cover as much of the maze as possible.

Artha and Beau each followed a carefully planned and rehearsed path through the maze, making turns at precise locations. Artha took another left and was back in one of the wide corridors running headlong towards Beau coming from the opposite direction. Neither slowed down and they continued full speed towards one another. As they were about to collide, Beau magged Artha, picking him up and sending him in a mag-jump up and over his back to land behind him. Artha hit the ground running again and took the first right turn down another narrow passage in the maze. Beau took the next right, following his own planned path.

Time was running out on the clock. Anyone not crossing the finish line before the time expired would automatically lose. Beau made a final turn and was in the passage leading towards the exit of the maze. As they had planned, Artha emerged from a side passage ahead and ran for the exit as well. The dragon quickly converged on Artha, and as he approached within two strides, he magged Artha, pulling him back into the saddle. Artha clung to the saddle as Beau burst out of the exit of the maze.

The exit put them heading back the way they had come. It was a half mile sprint back to where they had started which was now the finish line. The clock was ticking down and Artha and Beau found themselves in the lead. They were close enough now to hear the cheering crowd. The excitement showed on their faces.

"Woo-hoo, Beau! We're almost there!" yelled Artha enthusiastically.

"Guess again, stable boy!" challenged Kitt from behind them. Kitt flipped open the safety covers on the triggers on both hand grips, hit the switches within and braced herself. The level 5 thruster gear on her dragon sprang to life, running on maximum burn. Wyldfyr leaned forward with the thrust and surged towards the finish line, easily breezing past Artha and Beau. Beau poured on all the additional speed he could muster to close the final distance, but it wasn't enough. Wyldfyr shot across the finish line first with Beau in second place. The additional bonus points for finishing first put Kitt and Wyldfyr well over the top with the highest score, making them the winners to the cheers of the crowd.

Beau caught up to where Wyldfyr had stopped to catch her breath. Heat waves from the exhaust ports on the thruster gear could still be seen shimmering in the air.

"Nice race, you two," said Kitt with the confidence and pride of a winner. "You gave me a run for the money back there."

"Yeah," said a subdued Artha, finding it difficult to hide his disappointment. Half-heartedly, he managed to say, "Good race, Kitt." He didn't like losing of course, but at least he wasn't beaten by Moordryd this time. That would have been worse.

Artha's com-link started beeping just then. He hit the switch on his saddle and the holographic screen sprang up showing an image of Lance.

"Hey, Artha!" Lance said urgently.

"What's up, bro?" answered Artha, picking up on the serious tone in Lance's voice.

"Mortis wants to see us all right away. He says it's important."