Chapter Fifty Three - The Heir

Both Isan and Joseph took their seats alongside their fellow Dragon Troop commanders, the ones in the room had all been chosen specifically by a general.

There was a lot of chat about the possible candidates for the chance to meet the dragon but in the end, everyone knew it didn't matter who was the best candidate but who the dragon chose.

As soon as the double doors at the end of the room opened and four generals entered the room very quickly went quiet.

The four generals split into two groups and faced each other, taking a step back to allow the Emperor to personally walk between them and to the table. For every commander at the table, they had never personally met the Emperor, they had only ever seen him at their graduation from boot camp.

He stood at the start of the table and looked around the commanders, his eyes lingered a little longer on Isan than any of the others. The Emperor was wearing a black cloak that covered his body but with every step he had taken to the table, you could hear the rustling of armour.

"Thank you all, forgoing and meeting the candidates. I would like you all to personally write a report here and now to give to one of the generals. I will eventually read them myself, however, no matter what you report I need you all to go and pick up these children and take them to the Generals landing bay, take your bonds to make it easier for yourself." With that he turned and walked out the room, leaving the generals behind him to deal with the collection of reports.

As he left the room the four generals fell into a straight line covering his exit. The first to say anything was General Sil who's red hair was braided over her shoulder as she started her speech, "Before we start, let's clear something up. There has been internal fighting. We have hurt and in the worse places even killed some of our own Troopers. This is unforgivable. We will all pay the price for this but until the Empire is in a safe place the Emperor has ordered us to imprison anyone who even whispers sounds of rebelling or in house fighting. Not just you but your bond will be placed into the Sil zone with two other dragons watching over it. Everyone here understand?"

The three other generals stared down at the commanders who were their star players, unsaid words passing through just looking at each; with the settled silence General Sil continued, "That's right. Now with even though there will only be one candidate that bonds with the young dragon every citizen needs to be trained in basic warfare, so we will create a class of these candidates and start making classes of children to adults to learn basic swordsmanship. Do not take this lightly, we are going to war."

***

Noah stood up after waiting only a few minutes since both Sir Isan and Sir Jospeh had left, his legs ached but they were not nearly as sore as his chest was; he wasn't sure what had happened but when he let his hand rest on the top left of his chest his brain felt like it was being stabbed by a thousand needles. Flashes of black and white light would pass through him and he heard the clinks of two swords hitting each other.

He let his hand drop from the top left of his chest to the ring around his neck, the gold ring had become something similar to a comfort to Noah. It made him feel a connection to his bond who was God knows where.

Slowly closing his eyes while his hand was clasped around the metal, he could hear as well feel his heartbeat against his hand. It started getting louder and stronger, with each beat Noah could hear the sound of a dragons roar getting louder and louder.

Noah remembered this feeling from flying to the Dragon Keep with Fiona but the only difference was this time Noah didn't feel like he had to look in any direction.

Once the dragon roar had become loud enough to make it sound like there was a real dragon in the same room, Noah opened his eyes and dropped the ring. But, as soon as the ring left his hand the dragon roar got even louder, vibrating against his ear drum.

Three words came from the roar, "I am here!"

*****

At the top of the tower in a room that curved up into a semi circle roof, the walls nothing but glass with magic runes engraved into the glass with precision.

Alaric sat on a golden throne at the edge of the glass over looking the keep and into the horizon; he could see the city with lights lit against the walls and building; tiny people walking along the wall and dragons standing or walking beside them nearly double their height; passed that he could only see the smoke from the left over fires.

His heart ached as he remembered the days were the sun sparkled onto golden wheat fields and apple orchards. The people smiling as they walked through it and the children played, watching it all from Kesä's back. Remembering the way they would fly for hours on end through the sky and checking in on the people around the kingdom.

While Alaric sat there, with his hands clutching the arm rests of the throne; Aurelius slowly took steps over to him and let his tail curl around the back of the throne before laying down next to Alaric, letting out a small purr and trying to gently nudge the throne.

When Noah left the two in the other dimension it had become a hobby for Alaric to tell Aulerius stories of his mother and watch she was like. Alaric had found that he would lose himself to his memories and speak his mind completely to the young dragon, not just to help his development to learn English but to also let someone else experience his memories.

He put his hand against the young dragons snout and rubbed it, "Soon it'll just be the two of you, you'll get to make your own memories with Noah. I promise."