The Only Dragon Rider – Chapter 4

Welcome, Fantasy Nerds! This is Chapter 4 of a collaborative fantasy story that we will be taking turns writing. If you haven’t read the first chapter, you can find it here. We hope you enjoy our story!

We had succeeded, at least kind of. We had rescued a total of thirteen dragons, not including Arathyn. 

I don’t believe we can return to the same clearing said Arathyn in my head.

“You’re right.” I responded disappointedly

Arathyn soared the skies searching for a new opening in the dense forest to recuperate. The golden dragon soared near us, ginormous wings glimmering like molten gold in the sunlight. The dragon glanced at me with piercing red eyes and nodded at me in a way of respect. I returned the nod and looked behind me as the wind whipped my hair into my eyes, the other dragons were still following us, which was good, I thought to myself. 

It seemed like hours had flown by, the sun began to set leaving orange, pink, and blue smears behind the tree line.

I can’t seem to find another clearing large enough, and the dragons are flying ragged. I’m sure they haven’t flown like this in their years of captivity said Arathyn our only option is to return to the previous field.

“I’m certain my master has known where we were for some time now, it’s dangerous.” I told Arathyn.

We will rest for tonight and return to the search tomorrow Arathyn told me as he banked left and began to ascend towards our familiar field.

The dragons followed and soon we were all landed. I slid off of Arathyn’s back, thighs sore from the journey there and back again. The golden dragon made intense eye contact with Arathyn, based on their body language they were communicating, but I couldn’t hear the golden dragon.

We will discuss our next move tomorrow, the rest of us are exhausted, we will give them a moment to rest and revisit in the morning I heard Arathyn’s response.

The golden dragon let out a snort but curled up for the night anyway, massive golden tail wrapping around his body. I nestled against my dragon’s familiar scaly body and quickly drifted off to sleep.

I awoke to Arathyn’s voice in my head Be quiet, wake the others.

Without moving I summoned my misty dark blue armor all around my body, and took a look at my surroundings. Multiple colored dragon chests moved up and down, silent with sleep. The only other dragon awake was the golden one. His head was perched up, red eyes fixed on the tree line ahead of us. Slowly and quietly I gently shook each dragon awake, all silently becoming aware of our situation. I got to the small red dragon, gently brushed her neck to wake her. Almost instantly she shot upright, eyes darting back and forth with fear, and began to take flight into the air.

“NO!” I tried to stop her but it was too late, with a loud whoosh of air she was climbing into the sky. Suddenly a stream of light lit up the forest, and a bright erratic ball of fire ripped a hole in one of her wings. She roared in pain as she crashed to the ground.

The light from the fire blast lit the tree line and I saw my former master atop a black dragon with metal protruding from it’s face, snout, and neck. The black dragon looked as if he was in agony. My master was holding a long metal chain that was embedded into the flesh of the dragons neck, and when he yanked on the chain another erratic ball of crackling fire lit up the sky. “This is my masterpiece, I’ve been working on it for quite some time now.” my master roared “and I didn’t want to have to use him this soon but you forced my hand!”

I glanced around and saw the other dragons, like before, were cowering in fear. Except for the golden dragon, him and Arathyn were ready for battle. They were communicating again, and I heard Arathyn’s voice in my head get on, we are going to flank him.

I sprinted to my dragon and jumped onto his back. Arathyn tucked his wings at his sides and leapt into the air twisting between the trees at a speed I had yet to experience. As we flew past my master I shot a dark blue fog mass at his head, he dodged it and met his eyes with mine. He had a sinister grin on his face, lips stretching almost ear to ear, eyes glimmering with madness.

“You little shit… this is all your fault! I always knew you were trouble” my master screamed at me “I should have been harder on you.”

I remained focused and let his words roll off my back, suppressing my anger and channeling it into magic, because our plan had worked. The golden dragon reared up on his hind legs right on top of my master, ginormous wings stretching so far they were like golden curtains blocking out anything behind it. I saw hatred in the golden dragon’s eyes, my master had tormented him for years, and now it was time for his revenge. Suddenly my masters mark the golden dragon had left on him began to boil raw skin and smoke as the mark grew to flames that outstretched into a fiery rope.

“What is this?!” my master yelped “You marked me, I should be able to control YOU!”

The golden dragon jerked it’s head and yanked the crackling flame rope so hard my master sprawled to the ground and exploded into the dirt. Once the black dragon was free of my master clutch it began to contort violently, howling in pain. As my master struggled to stand up and the golden dragon stomped on his back with a long taloned, golden claw. My master coughed up blood and groaned in agony. I lifted my leg over and slid off of Arathyn’s back.

You go make sure your master’s reign ends now, I will try to help the wounded dragon.

I sauntered up to my former master, he was coughing up blood and looking minuscule.

“Your father was a fool” he laughed “I told him I was going to teach you to be a dragon rider” he coughed “and that he would see you again, but he never will.”

I looked up at the golden dragon’s piercing red eyes, and I could tell he understood. He opened his enormous mouth, countless sharp jagged teeth dripping with saliva, and tore off my master’s head. Neck muscles and tendons giving way, blood spurting everywhere, and his spine disconnecting from his neck with a sickening pop. I looked down at my former master one last time, or what was left of him. I truly, finally felt free. I headed to my dragon to help him with the wounded black dragon.

I need you to try and remove the chain from his throat

I looked into my dragon’s beautiful moonlight eyes and nodded. I began to warp my magic into thin foggy streams of blue, lightly enveloping the chain and slowly began to tug it free. The flesh being torn from the chain made a hissing noise and the dragon wailed in agony, steam shooting from it’s nostrils. Finally the chain fell heavily to the ground and the black dragon slouched with ragged breathes. Arathyn administered his moonlight magic into the black dragon’s wounds, and slowly scales regrew and flesh was born anew.

He will be okay now, at least he can be controlled no longer

“Arathyn, I’m certain my master’s men will be here shortly, but he arrived sooner and over estimated himself”

You’re correct little one, we must be prepared for those men so we can save the remainder of our brethren.

He looked down at me with those moonlight eyes, and he looked proud.

I hope you’ve liked our story, so far. Click here to ind out the ending in Chapter 5! You can also read some of our other stories: Red Shadow & The Connection.

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Thanks so much for reading!
-WTF