Chapter Nine - The Capital - Outer Ring

Isan was the first of the group to wake up. He was inside his tent and checking up on the beast person. He grimaced, putting his hand to their head and muttering a few words. The tent lit up in a white glow.

After a few minutes of doing this Isan stood up, leaving his tent and tasting the cool cold air. The dragons were still slumbering but all of the Dragon Squad and both of his guest were up by the time he left the tent.

Yami was sitting on one of the logs with a long pipe out of his mouth. Smoking it away in the morning with his eyes half-closed. Neil and Oliver were both starting to take down their tent, Alan was walking out of camp, presumably to do the morning do.

Noah was trying to take down his tent and ended up getting help from Neil and Oliver after they took down theirs.

Pulling bowls out of nowhere Yami poured some oats into everyone's bowls, then after used his leather pouch to pour in some milk. Mixing them all before handing them out to each individual to everyone.

Everyone sat down on the logs from the night before. Thanking Yami after taking their bowls off of him. He seemed to be the chef of the squad. As far as breakfasts went this was a pretty good one to Noah, normally he would have something similar anyways.

After having a good start to the day each squad member woke up their dragon differently. Isan gently rubbed Hallan's snout and only had to say. "wake up" for his partner to respond. Hallan blew out two nostrils of smoke and stood up tall.

Oliver had run over to the river and gotten a large bucket of water before running up to one of the shorter dragons and throwing the bucket over its head. There was a pause from the group everyone stared at Oliver, the dragon may have been small but Noah could feel the pressure it put out just by slowly blinking its eyes, staring Oliver down.

With a loud SNAP, Oliver flew backwards with a yelp. His body hit the ground indenting it, dirt floating into the air as small particles. Neil burst into laughter, his face turning red. Oliver let out a huge sigh before putting his fists to the ground and pushing up, "Don't need to be a jerk about it."

Yami and Alan both followed Isan's example of waking their dragons. Gently scratching their snouts and asking them to wake up. Both respective dragons were quickly woken, Yami's dragon blew smoke from its nose before yawning wide enough to eat a small child in one gulp. Isan could smell its breath from where he was standing.

The sun lightly reflecting against the scales of the dragon. It was an amazing view for both Nereem and Noah. They had never experienced such a view the closest they had ever seen was when they looked over the roaring river at midday. The sun reflecting off the water gleaming and shining.

Once the dragons had all awoken they gathered away from the camp on fresh ground. Noah was confused at their behaviour but didn't say anything as none of the Dragon Troopers had even raised an eyebrow at it.

Noah jogged over to Oliver who was still brushing all the gathered dirt off of himself. "Oliver, why are the dragons moving over there?" Raising his arm and pointing at the place they were all gathered.

"Ah, we have to cancel out the camp runes we set down to blend into the area. The dragons are more proficient at doing that. There is normally a backlash when someone cancels another's magic but the dragons were also the ones that wrote the runes into the ground. Only Sir Isan and maybe Sir Alan would have a chance to survive the backlash, both would sustain heavy injuries but I would guarantee that Sir Alan would not be able to use magic again." Smiling and reaching out to Noah, patting his back.

"Magic is a long and difficult subject, it isn't for me. To complicated yet when you become a Dragon Trooper it has to be learned at a certain standard before passing boot camp." Letting a sigh out and screwing his face, as if he was remembering the difficulties he went through at boot camp.

"I see, there is a lot to magic? Do you think Sir Isan will teach me?" His eyes glowing in hope.

"I am honestly not sure Noah, you are simply a guest to us. Sir Isan does not discuss his personal affairs with anyone here other than maybe Sir Alan, if he has promised to teach you anything in the past then I am sure he will train you to the best of his ability in his spare time." Roughing the boy's hair and walking towards the dragons, ending their conversation there.

Noah watched him go, standing and pondering what he had just learned. 'If magic can is so dangerous then why do we use it? How do we use magic? Can only the Dragon Troopers use it? Is that why Oliver and Neil are both so powerful? They managed to make the stones disappear like it was nothing last night.. I wonder if I will get to speak to Sir Isan about this all?'

While Noah was thinking this all over, Isan had joined the dragons and Oliver along with the rest of the team even Nereem was with them talking to Neil. The only one that hadn't followed suit was Noah who seemed to be daydreaming. Isan called Noah over. "Come, Noah, it is time."

The corner of Noah's lips arced up and Noah's eyes glistened with the thought of getting to go to the capital. Quickly jogging over and standing right next to Isan.

"Okay team, this is how we are going to do this. As Noah and Nereem are my guests and they put extra weight on our dragons the two biggest shall be carrying them, that is to say, Sir Alan and I will be the ones to deal with that. Neil, take the beast person to the Dragons Keep and find a healer to help her, we can investigate what happened to her after she is healthy again. We fly straight to the capital, no stops. When we get to the capital go straight to the inner ring and let your dragons rest. Take two nights to leave and we will meet back there on the third day at noon in the ranch, all understand?"

A resounding 'Yes Sir' was shouted out by the troops, before doing the salute and lining up at the base of their dragons front legs, using that as a stepping stone to get up to the crevice between their dragons neck and back.

Turning to face Noah, Nereem and Alan, "I shall take Noah, Nereem will be lighter and easier for Kins to carry. Agreed?"

Both Sir Alan and Kins his partner nodded. Kins was deep indigo, beautiful and regal to the eyes. He was nearly as big as Hallan but maybe a dragon head shorter.

Nereem looked at Noah with a bit of comprehension, not wanting him to fly separate to herself but she knew that she was already getting more than anyone else would by following Noah to the capital as he trained to be a knight of the empire.

Alan and Nareem walked to the base of Kins leg, Kins seemed to lay down and Alan followed Nereem up to the saddle, keeping his hand half a metre away from her but ready to catch her in case she slipped down Kins purple scales.

Once Sir Alan and Nereem were safely on the saddle Kins stood and walked to his place in the circle of dragons. All the riders were ready to fly other than Isan and Noah. Noah stood taking in the scene before he felt Isan nudge him to get a move on.

Hallan enjoyed standing up just as Noah got to his shoulder making him slide down. Isan had to tell him off before he would stop getting ready to tell him he wouldn't get extra meat when they returned home.

With a puff of smoke at Noah, he didn't do it again but you could see in his eyes he wanted to mess with the young boy some more.

Isan jumped up, not even using Hallan's leg as if he was already preparing for him to mess with him too. Isan wasn't sure when Hallan had developed such a humour but he was going to get the story out of his partner one way or another.

Sitting behind Noah, he sent a mental message to stand and join their place in the circle. The circle went, Isan; Alan; Yami; Neil and Oliver looping it back to Sir Isan. The smallest but broadest dragon under Oliver was first to raise it's wing and flap down, creating such a rush of air any plants in the area that hadn't been stood on by the dragons were crushed.

After Oliver it was in reverse order of the circle, building up to the biggest dragon there. Noah watched in awe at all the dragons liftoff, each a different colour reflecting in the sun. Their powerful wings creating winds that birds would find difficult to navigate, close to the power of the regular storms the village experienced.

After Sir Alan and his mother had taken off, Isan sitting behind Noah leaned back. Hallan bent all his legs, raising his blue wings which with the sun made them sparkle like a blue lagoon. He stopped at that point and turned his neck just enough to stare at Noah, laughing mentally to Isan.

He pushed his wings down letting the air blow against the ground but held his feet into the ground with his claws dug deep into the ground to keep themselves stable. He flapped his wings two or three times watching Noah out the corner of his eyes as he got blown left and right, only able to hold onto the seat thanks to Isan holding on to the poor boy.

Isan sent a mental message to Hallan, 'Stop playing. Go.' His eyebrows bent in a frown.

Hallan could be heard laughing as he did last night, letting go of the ground and finally letting himself fly up into the air. With just those flaps he was able to reach more than 150 metres into the air which was already more than the other dragons could do other than possibly Kins.

The air forced Noah back, he couldn't help but cry out in fear. He was shocked but loved the exhilaration of the force and the speed they took off. The left side of Isan's mouth curled up in a smirk. Recalling the first time he flew with Hallan and how much he enjoyed the freedom of the skies.

They soared further and further up. Flying higher and higher. Suddenly the clouds were below them and above the three of them was nothing but the sun and endless blue sky.

Isan could only smirk at the expression from Noah, his mouth was open wide in awe and filling with air that dried out his mouth.

Floating where they were, like a leaf landing on a pond. Noah had nothing but a huge smile as he stared out into the endless blue, staring at the floating white fluff below them. He could make out the faint outline of the other dragons.

Isan let them stay floating there, before giving Hallan the instructions to slowly float down with the others. The sun got higher into the sky and the clouds started to surround them back as they fell into line ahead of others. To their left Alan and his mother and to their right were Yami and his green dragon who Noah didn't know the name of.

The rush of the air didn't seem to be as strong when Hallan flapped his wings to push forward. It was such a magnificent view that no one except Nereem was gobsmacked about.

All Dragon Troopers pushed forward flying kilometres in seconds. Nereem and Noah could barely see the village by the time they looked back, there was nothing except a few square boxes and a tall spire that they felt were staring right at them.

Their faces said it all, a small tinge of regret but looking forward to the future and what it would bring to them. Nereems eyes glistening from the memories she felt she was leaving behind, but knowing that she wouldn't be able to follow Noah like this forever and made use of Isan's offer while she could.

Flying through the air left Noah stunned and amazed by the views he could see. The mountains that his father would occasionally hunt on and where he met Isan, to the forest he fought the Orcs in all the way past that to more endless land with small ant-like creatures running across it.

The hills soon passed under them along with the plains and creatures. It wasn't long before they were passing across another small settlement that looked just like Noah's village. a few boxes that could only be houses and one tall spire except that one seemed a little taller.

When they were flying over Noah could make it starting to light up and felt a strange feeling in his gut but it quickly passed and the lights of the spire dimmed. Isan noticed Noah looking apprehensively at the spire as if he was expecting it to light up again.

"Those are protection towers set up by the emperor and his friends when they took over the kingdom originally, the runes used on it are to difficult to decipher even by me or Hallan, only a general would have the knowledge to figure out the magic that the Emperor used on those towers." Smiling at Noah and then staring at the spire, pushing his chest out a little more.

Continuing to fly along in order with Hallan in the lead, it was a few hours before they saw any other signs of human life, they flew over lakes, swamps, plains and forests with the biggest trees Noah had ever seen. They were nearly as tall as the height Hallan originally managed to push off to!

After they passed the ridiculously big forest they were soon able to see the giant tower Isan had talked about in the centre of the capital. Before that was the outer circle start of the capital, the outer ring of it. The fields of yellow, white and blue came into view, the start of buildings coming from the horizon as well.

They seemed a lot stronger than the houses at the village, which was made of a mix of heavy wood and light stone. These seemed to be all stone except the roof which was a type of wood. There were a few ponds at houses which seemed to feed out to the fields and into the plants that were growing.

There wasn't much more than Noah or Nereem could make out from the skies but Isan talked about the circle as they approached and how this wasn't really one of the circles that counted in the capital. There were three circles more that actually counted to the capital. Phili mainly consisted of crops that the capital would give out to small villages that were having issues feeding themselves or it would be used to fatten up the spare livestock that the dragons fed on in the inner circle before they hunted.

They pushed on flying over at least 4 kilometres of fields and the occasional houses, but there was no view of a spire or wall insight. Noah turned his head as best he could to ask Isan about this.

"Ahh, you have good eyes, Noah. This layer has no such spire as there is a lot of faith put into our Dragon Troopers as well as the Knights of the empire that protect the citizens and help settle disputes if they can." Squeezing Noah's arm and pointing to the ground at a slightly larger building on the ground.

"Those are knight houses. Under that house is a tunnel that runs right around the outer circle so they can distribute knights to whatever area needs the most help at the time. They also have their lodging under there for when they are on duty." Noah's mouth opened as he processed what he had just learned. He couldn't fathom how much work would be needed to build such tunnel systems and housing.

After they flew past that outer ring and into the 3rd ring [Bernard], there was a tall stone wall about 70 metres tall and just under 30 metres wide, large enough for the dragons to walk along. Zooming by the wall and into the next layer where there were only houses upon houses. It looked like a maze to Noah from up here.

The buildings seemed to link into each other like a puzzle, there were quite often small spaces between the buildings that must have been the parks that Isan had mentioned the night before.

Noah wanted to explore and look around the dense compacted area, knowing he could get lost for days in the alleys and streets finding his way around would be like navigating the forest or mountains. No matter the challenge in that Noah wanted to have a shot at it.