The Route

When the roaring of the dragons ended, Yoranu began to speak again. "All very good names. I believe some of them will become very famous one day." She smiled down at the young dragon riders before continuing. "You will all be leaving for the Capital Country today. The journey to Draporora can be a treacherous one. To minimize the risk, you will be split into five groups of three new dragon rider pairs all taking separate routes to Draporora. Each group will be chaperoned by a single veteran dragon rider. We used to send more but the Empire's recent push has left us stretched thin."

Having said that, Yoranu looked a little sad before regaining her composure. "Now then, choose the riders you would like to travel with and exit the pit. After you exit, we have set up temporary stalls outside to get you well equipped for the road ahead. Your chaperone will find you after you are outfitted. Once they do, you will follow the route that your chaperone has been assigned and you will all hopefully meet back in the Capital Country. Good luck, and may we meet again one day."

After she had finished speaking, Yoranu flew up onto the saddle of her wyvern and they took off flying past the tops of the trees. Following her example most of the other veteran dragon riders flew off as well, leaving just a few of the older dragon riders near the pit. When they had flown off, a wall of dirt fell away from the front of the pit revealing a ramp of dirt that led out onto the forest floor. Following a brief hesitation, all of the new dragon riders quickly started to introduce themselves to the others. The only duos that were completely avoided were Ernagcio and his wyvern, for obvious reasons, and Brand and his dinosaur. It seemed like nobody wanted to get close to the strange new dragon and its human rider.

Ignoring a few of the new riders that had instantly appeared at her side when Yoranu had finished talking, Alreya and her wyvern, Atil, walked over to where Brand and Giga were standing. Atil growled cautiously but loosened up once she saw that there was no hesitation from Alreya. "I cannot believe what I am seeing." she said when she approached. "I believed that you would be able to summon a dragon, but that is a species that I have never even heard of before. I thought you said there were no dragons on Earth?"

Brand rubbed the back of his neck with his hand before answering. "There aren't any. Giga here is a dinosaur. And they went extinct millions and millions of years ago! I'm still geeking out that there is an actual real-life dinosaur standing right in front of me."

"Well, whatever it is you are both heading to the Capital Country for training." Alreya smiled shaking her head. "I suppose it goes without saying that we will be traveling together."

"I suppose it does." Brand smiled back. He felt comfortable knowing he'd have his only friend in this new world along for the long trip ahead. "By the way, I heard the white elf say something about Dapooparoo? Where is that?"

"Draporora." Alreya corrected him. "It is the capital city of the Capital Country. It is the place where all new dragon riders from the free countries go to train."

"Yes, but why do all the dragon riders go there to train?" Brand asked puzzled. "Why don't each of the countries have their own dragon riding school? Wouldn't it be more convenient? And also, why are we splitting up? Surely a bigger group would be safer?"

"It would be more convenient." Alreya agreed. "But the Guild of Dragons insists on having only one school. They decided that in order for so many different nations to continue to coexist, the country's dragon riders, which are the backbone of every country's army, must learn about each other and grow together. They believe that if every country had its own school, then many countries would isolate themselves and strengthen their own borders instead of collectively facing the threat of the Empire."

Brand nodded in understanding as Alreya continued. "As for splitting up, a few years ago the Empire starting sending squads of their own dragon riders to attack our new riders when they left for training. Nobody knows how they were getting their information, but they continued to find the group headed to Draporora. The Empire was trying to destroy our strongest weapons before they could even be trained. Ever since we started splitting the new riders up to limit the damage of a single ambush, the attacks have stopped. My grandfather believes it is because the risk of sending riders beyond the front lines became too much for the reward of just a few killed younglings."

"That makes sense." Brand said as he continued nodding. When he turned to look at the other dragon rider recruits, he noticed that they had all formed groups and were leaving the pit and walking up the ramp. The only one that hadn't found a group was Ernagcio. Brand groaned and looked at Alreya and pointed his thumb saying "Does this mean that he's going to be in our group?"

Alreya turned to look at where Brand was pointing and her face went pale. "No! I will not travel hundreds of miles with that thing. I refuse."

"It looks like we don't have a choice." Brand pointed out.

"Ugh." Alreya grunted. "I just hope he does not make this journey unbearable." After saying that, Brand, Alreya, and their reptile companions followed the others up the dirt ramp and onto the forest floor. Looking around, Brand saw various wooden stalls had been set up next to the pit in between the trees of the forest. The stalls were all the same design with a back wall that hung some of the goods surrounded by three short walls and a desk in front that held even more items. The vendors had already been paid by the Guild of Dragons and were busy equipping all the new dragon riders with armor and weapons.

"Over here!" waved the vendor of an open stall. Brand and Alreya approached after telling their scaly companions to wait for them. The vendor was a smaller elf with short green hair and yellow eyes and was selling the green leather armor that all of the recruits were being equipped with. Brand noticed from the corner of his eye that the elf had a small tattoo on his hand. It looked like a circle with an x running through it. It was the first elf Brand had seen with a tattoo.

"Please, pick anything you need from my wares." the vendor said smiling. The duo picked out sets of green armor that fit them and then went to the gray and shabby looking changing tents that had been set out to change. After changing into the nice leather armor, Brand and Alreya went to the different weapons stalls and picked out weapons. Brand acquired another spear and a dagger of good quality, and Alreya grabbed a new bow, arrows, and a short sword that had a leaf design etched into the hilt.

After Brand and Alreya were both fully equipped, Brand noticed that the other groups of recruits were already being lead away by blue armored elves who were probably their chaperones. Turning his head, Brand saw an elf wearing purple armor approaching them with Ernagcio waddling along at his side. To Brand's great surprise, the purple armored elf was Perenu, the elf that had helped with the ritual earlier. He seemed to have shed his green robes. "Hello again Brand and Alreya. Are you both ready to go?" he said cheerfully.

"Yes, we are." Alreya replied before Brand could say anything.

"Good. It seems that you two and Ernagcio here will be in my group. Our route leads us directly south along the Pactoris River until we turn east and pass through the Garden of Spiders. Once we exit the forest we will be in the beastian country of Eshurg. From there we will quickly pass through the human country Floyna and into the Startoch Forest. Once we get to the forest it is a straight shot north to the Capital Country. Any questions?"

"Did... did you say garden of spiders?" Brand said hesitantly.

Perenu laughed and then said "Alright good, I am going to go get my dragon and I will meet you all back here in a little bit. Do not go anywhere. Once I return, we shall be off." Perenu then turned and walked away from the trio.

"Did you see that?" Ernagcio said proudly. "They are sending a purple class dragon rider to personally escort me to the Capital Country. I knew they would of course. Someone of my status needs proper protection after all. You two are so lucky to be able to accompany me on my travels. I would have gone with the other groups of course, but I felt sorry for you. Having summoned such a deformed dragon, I can only imagine the shame."

Alreya clenched her fists as Ernagcio rambled on, and turned back to Brand whom she expected to be getting just as angry as she was. But to her surprise Brand was just staring blankly ahead with a concerned look on his face. She was about to shake him to see if he was ok when he muttered: "Did he just say garden of spiders?"