Chapter Ten - The Capital - Inner Ring

As they passed over the outer ring and flew over the second ring, Noah could see the wall that was separating the two. Once again similar to the gigantic stone wall that separated the farmland before the outer circle the wall between the outer circle and the inner circle was 70 metres [229 ft] tall. The wall here was even wider at 40 metres between each side of the wall.

The difference was clear as the first wall only had Knights a patrolling it, the third wall had dragons walking on it, some seemed to be pulling things while others were walking with groups of knights. There were platforms coming from out the wall and looking into the 3rd ring which was dominated with shops, and noble housing. The platforms were circles big enough for three dragons to easily sit on as demonstrated every few hundred metres.

As they passed over this wall Isan shot his hand into the air, his palm wide open to the sky. "Ginsani" With these words Noah could feel the air tingle, he turned to look at Isan and saw that his hand was in the air, when he looked above them there was a large S with a single straight line going through each curve. This just floated above them for a few seconds.

Before Noah even asked an explanation came out of Isan, "This is to show which squad comes back into the capital to make sure we are keeping accurate records of who is able to do missions." Isan didn't mind explaining this to Noah as it was a common practice and the citizens may not understand it but it helped keep the country running smoothly.

After they passed the wall Noah took a look down again and saw a big change in the city. The streets were a lot wider compared to the narrow streets that they had flown over. The buildings architecture had completely changed, instead of houses being forced on to each other and being impracticable they were given each building reasonable space.

There were loads of different types of buildings, come had towers coming out from them, some would have roofs that curved in an arch. Each building seemed to be made out of a different material. Some were brick, some were stone, some even had materials Noah didn't recognise.

Steadily flying over these buildings there were bigger parks as well in this zone, Noah could see all the people below him but only as tiny ants from this height. This ring zone was a little bit smaller than the outer zones.

It took them a few minutes to fly over the Bernard ring, Noah could see a few other dragons flying over the zone, some had launched off the landing pads that were on the wall and flying under them.

Once they go to the other side of the zone Noah noticed instead of a giant wall there were multiple spires going along the edge of the Bernard zone and going into the Sil zone. He wasn't sure if he was seeing rightly but there was a flash of white ever few minutes.

They flew over some spires and into Sil zone, just as they passed through the zone Noah could feel what felt like water hit him, he wasn't wet but it felt like something had hit him and covered him. Turning his head he was going to ask what had just happened but Isan was already shaking his head. He couldn't answer the question that Noah wanted to know the answer to, even if he knew what the question already was.

Sil zone was just lush green grass and forest, there were a few lakes and beside them small wooden huts along with countless animals from cows and pigs to horses. The animals didn't seem to be moving far only within a set distance of the huts.

The more Noah stared down to the oasis of the city, he managed to notice small baby dragons flying around a few bigger ones. There were all colours, red, orange, purple and many many more.

Isan told Noah that this is where Dragons roam when they have no rider, by choice or otherwise. The animals being raised were released and the dragons could hunt them down when they were hungry. It was basically a dragons heaven.

As well as the dragons there were a few hundred humans that lived in this ring, mainly people who have retired from the Dragon Troops by injury or age. Some other humans were just very successful farmers who were handpicked to raise the cattle for hunting.

This Sil ring felt like it stretched nearly 3 or 4 times the length of the rings they had flown across, even the Phili ring was smaller which seemed impractical given the labyrinth of houses. This was pure freedom for all involved. There were even some small hills that were naturally there.

The flight that Noah had experienced felt like a dream to him. Every sight, feeling and smell was imprinted forever on Noah's mind. He would remember this day until he was old and grey. He couldn't keep himself from smiling over this thought.

Isan could sense Noah's thoughts and smile along with him, it was a good day for this young boy. As far as Isan knew no one else had been able to get such an opportunity but that didn't matter to him. What mattered was he was able to train Noah into a great knight to protect the land.

As they flew across the ring Isan informed Noah of how the Dragon Keep they were flying to worked, "All us Dragon Troopers are originally nobles, when we are young and take in a dragon it will bond with us over time. You already know this. What we didn't actually tell you was that the dragon chooses the bond when they are in an egg, they already know who they want to be partners with and will wait if need be to hatch until they find that person. Some will hatch and find the person some will stay as an egg until they meet in person however that is exceedingly rare. It could be counted on your right hand alone how many times this had happened."

Taking a deep breath, "Once we have bonded and gone to the main camp to bond further we will eventually graduate and move into the Dragon Keep. We will then live here until the day comes we retire."

Isan slowed down, staring and the gravity-defying tower as they approached it. "That is why it is so big, we live there. Hundreds of us when we aren't on patrol. I am a little worried I can't train you there if that is the case I have a friend who has retired that you can go train within this circle."

Noah's eyebrows screwed together over that, he was under the impression he would be personally taught by Sir Isan but he knew if Sir Isan had bad intentions he would have felt it from the start in his gut. It was something he had as a child, most likely getting it off his father from hunting.

He nodded and kept quiet, he still appreciated everything Isan was doing for him and his mother. Even when they had camped his mother had taken the painting of his father and listened to it as she fell asleep. There was nothing Isan could do wrong in his eyes, he was that thankful of him.

He sat quietly as they finished the end of their journey and they approached the Dragon Keep.