Chapter Seven - Camp Meeting

As the festival had finished before Nereem had agreed to leave for the capital with Noah and Isan it was a lot quieter around the village. Isan had told them to follow him to meet their escorts to the capital, while he carried their unconscious friend.

In the eight years that Isan had been gone, he had managed to get promoted to a Dragon Squad captain and felt he was to being promoted to a commander. Isan had already told his squad to expect some company on the trip back.

They didn't mind but it was strange for a Dragon Trooper to have friends in such small villages, even having friends in a reasonable sized town was difficult for them. The Dragon squads often had their own bases to stay at during missions or if they were patrolling to avoid the commotion caused by the reaction to their dragon partners.

Dragons were magical and mysterious creatures and the Empire was famous for being one of the only nations to have such close-knitted relationships to the dragons. Other kingdoms and countries would never know that it was all thanks to the Dragon Emperor who had changed their relationship.

It was only a rumour but the Empire was supposedly built on the blood of a Kingdom where people and beast people were taken as slaves. Where dragons were hunted and slaughtered. The only people who were revered were those who could wield magic. That all changed when the Dragon Emperor emerged with his Dragon Troopers, Together they managed to dethrone the magicians and turn the Empire into a peaceful land.

Only the Dragon Troopers were privy to a full-blown education including the history of their great Empire.

The group of three had left town after saying short goodbyes to everyone. The three people left town and followed the river for a while, neither Nereem or Noah could tell where they were going or the way back to the village, but if they looked up they would be able to see a plume of smoke from a big campfire.

As they came around the final bend they found a camp of four men all in their mid 20's to early 30's, sitting around a tree that had been chopped in two currently burning away. Behind the men in a semi-circle were 5 magnificent dragons all of different sizes and builds. The average dragon that was sitting down was 3 metres [9'4] in the circle but the biggest was a massive 6 [19'6] metres sitting down.

Both Noah and Nereem's mouths hung open like open windows in summer. You would always be able to see dragons when the Dragon Squads visited the village but they must only send the smallest.

Isan quickly checked the reaction on the two. Wanting to avoid a freakout, he had a feeling that neither of his guests would do so, but he had to check.

As they got closer the four men all stood, arms at their sides before shouting out, "Attention!" Raising the hand to shoulder height before slamming it against the left side of their chest over their hearts.

"At ease men. These are my guests, we will be escorting them to the capital. The trip shouldn't even take all of tomorrow as long as we leave at sunrise. I want the tents disassembled 30 minutes before we set out and everyone to have had breakfast by then, understood?"

"Sir, Yes Sir!" Saluting at Isan again.

Both Noah and Nereem couldn't help but feel small and powerless in front of these warriors of the Empire. They looked at Isan under a new light because he was able to command their respect so easily, none of the men stepped out of line and they were all in sync. Even they knew that was signs of a good leader, it was similar to how Oran was in the village with everyone's respect.

The four men looked the new arrivals with a bit of curiosity but kept their distance, they were still nobles and Dragon Troopers, they wouldn't approach guests of their superior unless they were given permission to.

Isan shouted out a name, "Reed. Introduce yourself and everyone to Noah and Nereem, please. Alan, I have someone I need you to check on. To my tent please."

Two of the group of four split away, one coming towards Noah and Nereem the other heading out to the left to the side of the first dragon where the tents had been pitched earlier in the day. The man heading to the tent with Isan was 1.7 [5'6] metres tall with a well-trimmed black goatee, his hair was quite long reaching shoulder length he was well built and had an elegant manner to his walk.

While the other was a little shorter at maybe 1.65 [5'4] metres, his ginger hair was curling into itself is it grew long Noah thought it would only grow up instead of down. The ginger man was quite skinny compared to the other man, he was a bit less intimidating. He walked as if he was everything swinging his arms as he moved towards them.

Once he reached them he stopped and bowed his head slightly down. "Sir, My Lady. I am Oliver Reed, of the 21st Dragon Squad. The gentleman who went to follow Lord Isan's other order is Gall Alan. The two behind me are Neil Benedict and Yami Mi-Ro"

As he said their names both men waved before sitting down and chatting between themselves, only occasionally glancing back over towards them.

Oliver offered his hand to Noah, giving him a strong handshake. Smiling he made small chat to the two as they moved closer to the fire. It was close to sunset and already it was already getting colder and colder.

Knowing they were expecting extras later when setting up camp the squad had prepared an extra log for sitting on. Noah and Nereem sat next to each other away from the other two while Oliver sat in between the two, often trying to get the four to engage each other in conversation.

Noah apologised to the three Dragon Squad members, "I am sorry, I sure you get it all the time but how did you become Dragon Troopers. There was never anyone in my village who was one we could only see them when they visited the village."

Oliver smiled, laughing it off. "No need to apologise, unless you lived in a bigger town or in the capital I am sure you wouldn't know how you become a Dragon Trooper."

The other two were confused at why Sir Isan's guest didn't know such basic information but they hid it under their smiles.

"A Dragon trooper is a noble whose family has always kept a good relationship with the dragons. Originally when the Empire was formed there was only the Emperor himself and a few close friends that were partners with dragons. Once they had full control the Emperor would introduce noble families to a dragon, if the dragon likes the family they would choose to live the rest of their life with that family. When they birthed their eggs the noble family would often have a child raised together with the dragon." Noah was staring fascinated by Oliver's explanation, "During the time that both children were growing they would grow closer together before forming a pack when they are 14/15, at 16 they would join the Dragon Troopers and spend up to the next 10 years learning how to deepen their bond to each other along with other skills they will need. Once you are judged to be good enough you will be assigned to a squad to protect an area."

Noah grew serious, he always knew he would not be able to be a Dragon Trooper, but it especially stung after he learned all this. There was always a little part of him that wished he could be a Dragon Trooper, flying in the sky protecting everyone. Being a hunter wasn't his true dream but he settled on it and knew he could do amazingly at it.

He couldn't help but ask more, "How old are you when you finish all your training?"

Oliver let out a laugh again, he seemed happy to answer the questions Noah had. "You have up to 10 years to become the best partners you can in the training camp. You would be able to grow your relationship after the ten years of course, but the emperor wants us to make sure we have absolute trust in each other at the end of it. You can however pass earlier."

He paused for dramatic effect enjoying messing with the young boy, "It's rare but some pass the training camp in the first 6 months... But the average is around 3 or 4 years."

Noah kept on asking more and more:

- How old were you when you passed?

"I was 21, I took a little longer than most but that is because the trainers thought I was a slacker" Shrugging his shoulders, not minding how the trainers saw him.

- How did you pass the training?

"You go through a test every 6 months to see if you are ready, we travel to a secret place and our abilities from communication, to brains and brawn. I normally failed brains but I got everything else" Oliver winked at him.

- Have you ever met the Emperor?

"No, I was once in the same room and saw him but even for Dragon troopers the best time to see him would be your graduation but it is truly rare to get to speak to him. Although his dragon will always meet yours at least once, they don't normally tell you about it but I got a little out of mine"

- Dragons speak?!

"Yes and no, we can communicate through our heads and they can choose to talk to others if they want."

It was at that point that nearly fell off his seat turning to face the five dragons, all three Dragon Troopers laughed heartily, Nereem went a little pale after learning that.

The biggest dragon was a bright topaz blue, leaning its head forward so it was looking eye to eye with Noah. It blew warm wet air from its nostrils that were the size of both of Noah's fists put together.

'Small boy, you a very curious one aren't you? I nearly have a headache from hearing all your questions. You haven't even thanked me for saving you in the forest.'

Noah's face turned white. The dragon turned its head a little more and faced Nereem.

'I apologise for not greeting my lady sooner. Hallan was very tired and needed his rest. I barely feel like I have napped.'

He lowered his head close to Nereem and rubbed his scaly cheek against her arm. She didn't know what to do. Not only had a dragon talked to her but it was also rubbing itself against her. The scales didn't hurt they felt just as soft as skin which confused her but she couldn't think anything properly or say anything.

After moving his face away from the shocked woman, Hallan said to her. 'Your husband saved me, I never got to say my apologies that he passed. Please take my gift as an apology. He was a rather funny man, he could make my nostril's burn with laughter.'

Hallan's whole body moved up and down as he thought of the memories from years ago, laughing at them. Time is different for each dragon. Some will live centuries while some will only live as long as their partner, the memory of eight years ago were still very fresh in his mind.

He could remember his first encounter with Oran and how the hunter helped his partner as well as him over three months they were both injured. He even brought back large meals which was surprising from a dragonless man. Normally he hunted his own meals to help Isan out, but that man had always brought back at least two whole deer and a few rabbits for him and Isan.

When they were stuck in camp and he grew tired of chatting to Isan, Hallan wasn't against talking to Oran and speaking to the peculiar hunter, they often made jokes and they had several incidents where Oran was burnt or had to be put out because he would make Hallan snort flames.

As the great dragon thought of this the other dragons had woken up and were staring at him as if he was a rare unicorn, while their riders all stared in disbelief that Sir Isan's dragon would talk to another human that wasn't him.

While this was going on Isan had finally come back with Alan, he wasn't sure what was going on but he chose to ignore it.

"Alright people, dinner time. Get it cooked and eaten and then it's an early bed. We have a long flight tomorrow."

....