Dragon Tamer

We flew around the valley all day yesterday. I rode on Madden, one of the more experienced dragons with trainees. He flew below Elesor, ready to catch Camden if he lost his grip on the turns. He never did. Actually, he was a natural in the sky. He obeyed Elesor’s needs, leaning more or less, pressing closer to her back so there was less wind resistance. It was the most fun I’d had with someone other than my brothers. Most people in my village only flew to get around, they didn’t treat it as a fun pastime.

Near the end of our flight, I took him to Mount Ankar. After our talk the other night, he seemed a little homesick, so I took him to the highest point on the mountain to view the plains of Wala. We couldn’t see Histero from here, but he seemed content enough to sit and gaze at familiar territory. He pointed at the village closest to the valley and told me of the shenanigans he and his best friend Ronan got up to. Surprisingly, the stuck up prince wasn’t actually stuck up, and knew how to have fun. So far away from the castle, he’d take his crown off--very much like how he didn’t bring one to Plum--and let loose. Start fights with people who were asking for it in bars, horseback riding along the endless plains, hunting, swimming in the river. He was actually quite the adventurer with far more interesting stories than I had to share. I envied him for his freedom. Prince or no, people let him do what he wanted with only minor consequences. He’d travelled to other kingdoms with his brothers, seen many amazing, beautiful things, met all kinds of people, fought off beasts I’d thought gone extinct (turns out dragons were a bigger deterrent than I thought), and attended extravagant events where people wore the most uncomfortable things to look the most stuffy and rich. And here I was with a dragon to take me anywhere but with nowhere to go.

Today, I took Camden along a trail through the meadows, North for Mount Cartin. Elesor loyally joined us, hopping joyfully up the small incline, waiting for us at the top. The path wasn’t as used as other trails leading from town; this location was a family secret. The only other person who knew of its existence was Prince Quinnton, who had trained under Giles two years ago. The grass swayed in the gentle breeze, thinning out the higher up the hill we hiked up, giving way to the gravel now crunching beneath our boots.

Camden raked a hand through his hair, jacket tied around his waist. Sweat trickled down the side of his face. He licked his lips. “Where are we going? I thought you said we were going to fly?”

The eager twinkle in his eyes to get back up to the skies warmed me to the core. I would be more than happy to oblige him, but first, there were some things I needed to prepare him for. Flying in the valley was dangerous and he’d undoubtedly have to fight on his dragon as Dragon Prince.

“We will later,” I promised him, “but I want to show you something you’ll need to know and it’ll be much safer here."

He screwed his face up in confusion but continued to follow without further complaint.

The incline finally levelled off, leading to the base of Mount Cartin; there were a bunch of boulders lying about from an avalanche several winters ago. Amazingly, one of the boulders had been so bashed around that it split cleanly down the middle, leaving a flat slab. It balanced perfectly on top of a rounded boulder piled up over a few smaller rocks that kept it level. After Harry had discovered it, we started using it for combat training. The way it titled when you walked along it, mimicked the way a dragon moved mid-flight. It was perfect for new flyers to learn how to balance and fight at the same time safely.

Camden’s eyebrows scrunched together as he wiped the sweat off his brow. His shirt clung to his back, stained with his efforts. A strand of hair stuck to the side of his face; I had to fight the urge to brush it aside. Hmm, he did look good working up a sweat instead of looking like the preened up prince he’d been when I met him.

“What’s this?”

I readjusted my ponytail, tying back a few loose strands that had come free from the hike. “A freak of nature--but also a training tool. When we fought the harpies on Marco’s back, you had trouble holding your balance. Nothing against your skills as a fighter, you’re merely used to fighting on the ground, something that doesn’t move. You said you wanted to teach me how to fight; you can on this and learn how to keep your balance at the same time."

“Is it safe?” He eyed the small boulder underneath the slab of rock. It was the question on all our minds when we first started using it, but even with all six of us sparring on it, it didn’t slide off. But was I going to let him get away with doubting me and tell him that?

I shrugged, feigning carelessness. “Probably? I found this a couple months back after an avalanche.” Ignoring his look of horror, I climbed up the boulder beside it then jumped onto the slab.

“Kal!” Camden barked, stepping toward the daunting balancing act, looking unsure on how he wanted to proceed. “Get off that! You’re going to get yourself hurt!”

“What?” I cupped my ears, pretending I couldn’t hear him, even though I was only ten feet above him. I crept to the edge, the slab moving with me, tilting forward at a precarious angle.

Panic filled his eyes as they looked around for anything he could find to climb and pull me off safely. There was nothing. “Kali! Stop it! Get down!”

I walked right up to the edge, leaning back to keep my balance, and grinned evilly at him. The slab was on a forty-five degree angle--and it still hadn’t slipped off its counterweight.

The panic disappeared instantly, snapping into a sharp glare. He crossed his arms, eyes fierce and unrelenting. “This isn’t the first time you’ve used this, is it?”

I burst out laughing. The peeved look on his face was worth whatever he dared to threaten me to make recompense. Eventually, I managed to compose myself long enough to give him the answer he was still demanding of me. “Nope. You’re the second person outside my family to know about our training tool. If you can fight on this, you can fight on a dragon."

Elesor came up behind him and laid down in a way that also happened to block the exit. There was no escaping my madness.

After giving me a look of warning, he climbed up the boulder I’d used and stepped onto the slab; I stood on the opposite end to keep it from moving while he adjusted his footing on it. Once he was sure of his stance, he tossed his jacket onto the ground; Elesor kindly caught it with her tail and draped it over her foot while she watched us contently.

As he moved closer to the center, I inched towards the center as well to stop the rock from tipping too drastically for him. Whenever it wobbled, his eyes darted from side to side expecting it to fling one of us off, and his hands flew out to grab mine reflexively. I’d originally thought it was for balance, but when I shifted my weight to the side, jerking the rock, he yanked me to him, securing an arm around my back as if to brace me when we went flying off the rock--which never happened. After the first few times I’d laughed at him and teased him for thinking he could protect me from the aftermath of a ten foot fall, he felt less inclined to come to my aid and focused more on keeping his own balance.

Once he got a feel for the way the slab moved, he corrected a few things in my stance he noticed during the short time we fought together. It was difficult to listen to him, it certainly took a lot of pride to admit my mistakes; the only thing keeping my mouth shut, really, was the fact that this would help me become a stronger fighter. It also helped that I had a few pointers for him. The directions he gave me were based on the ground not moving, so I countered and showed him what would happen if I placed my feet where he told me to if I was on a dragon. Once he fell on his butt, he relented.

For days, we hiked up the trail to Tipping Point (Harry had named it, thinking himself clever) and practiced on the slab. Each day he grew more stable on the rock and my movements cleaned up. I might actually be able to beat Casper for once if we keep going the way we were.

Our back and forth dance was fun, almost more fun than flying with him. It was nice to give input and to be listened to. When I sparred with my brothers, they usually told me what I was doing wrong and then attacked me. Most of everything I knew, I had to figure out on my own, unless I wanted to be pummelled all the time. It was how we had all learned to fight, no fancy techniques like the ones Camden taught me.

When we weren’t training at Tipping Point, we were flying and looking for dragons from my colony. We found a few, and they were friendlier towards him than the younger dragons had been, but none of them Bonded with him.

This morning Camden’s frustration showed as we trained at Tipping Point. When we sparred, we were supposed to pull our punches, but he absolutely did not when his fist made direct contact with my nose. I hit the ground hard, dazed. The world was suddenly very quiet and white. Moments passed before I noticed Camden was on his knees beside me, moving hair out of my face so he could see if I was okay.

“Kal?”

Blinking, I sat back on my butt and padded at my nose--then grimaced at the taste of blood trickling into my mouth. Man, he could throw a punch. “I’m fine,” I grumbled, feeling the ache run along the bone into my skull.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted, pulling my hands away from my face and holding them tightly together between his. “I lost my concentration for one second. . .”

“Cam, it’s fine,” I told him, trying to ignore the pain when I smiled at him. “I’ve been hit harder. . . .” Not really, unless we were counting by dragons, “But before we continue, wanna talk about what’s on your mind?” Before he’d gotten that one good shot in, I’d taken advantage of the many openings he’d left for me. Normally sparring with him was a little more difficult, but today I was kicking his ass; the split lip was just the tip of the iceberg of what I’d done to him for being so distracted.

He sighed heavily and sat down in front of me, dropping my hands. His eyes drifted over to Elesor who was alert but remained where she was lying near the trail. He bit his lip, squeezing his hands into fists. The longer he held her gaze, the more frustration and disappointment stirred within. Eventually, he had to look away from her and stare at the rock we sat on.

My fingers itched to reach out to him, to comfort him, feel his hair beneath my skin. I remained still, waiting patiently for him to say something--or nothing. I’d learned that was best with my brothers. Pushing men into talking only made them build up more walls, and I found myself wanting no walls between Camden and I. Once he stopped being an asshole, he was actually a decent person. He was passionate about protecting his people--more than I expected from the youngest spoiled child of a wealthy family. Finding his partner was more than bragging rights and magical powers, it was defending the helpless and doing right by the people of Wala, who had put their trust in his family. He treated me like a regular person, not a damsel who needed saving or a beastly woman. He was gentlemanly, and offered me a helping hand whenever I dismounted a dragon--though I had to take some convincing that he was doing it to be nice, not because he thought I couldn’t get off a dragon without help--and opened doors for me. Who knew it was the small things nobody ever bothered to do for me that would be what I noticed and appreciated the most?

Camden pinched the bridge of his nose then peered over to me--and winced. Without a word, he slipped out of his shirt--talk about to-die-for view--and handed it to me, gesturing to my nose. Thankful, I cleaned my face up with it then held it against my nose to prevent further dripage.

“I-I just had this image in my mind on how this was going to go,” he confessed, lifting his gaze to the sky; fluffy white clouds drifted quickly, visible for one second then behind a mountain in the next. Those were the perfect currents for flying. “Tallinn was going to be my guide, he was going to show me the beautiful women my brothers talked so highly about. There would be parties, dancing and drinking. Then he would take me up to a mountain where I’d find the strongest dragon; he was supposed to be the biggest, pure black like Balthazar, the most badass of the lot. But none of that is happening. I have you.” He was venting, he didn’t mean for it to be a complaint that I was his guide; he’d already made it clear that he saw me as a worthy guide. But I guess I’d forgotten that my brothers had shown the other princes a good time while they were here. They’d trained during the day and had fun at night.

Feeling bad that I’d taken away likely the most enjoyable part of the Rite of Passage, I stood up and dusted my pants off. “Come on.”

Confused, he jumped to his feet. “Where are we going?”

“Home. I’m sure my brothers would love to take you out and show you all the beautiful women you’ve been waiting for.” Because he certainly wasn’t going to meet any with me around. The women of my village avoided me if they could help it--Gods forbid they caught whatever sickness I had to make me so boorish. “You’ve been working hard all week. You deserve some fun.”

His confusion turned into a pout. “Kali, I didn’t mean that I don’t like the way things have turned out. I’m enjoying my time with you. Let’s see your brothers show me the incredible views you’ve shown me.”

I looked down at the pebble at my feet then kicked it. “It’s all I’m good for, Cam. I know where all the good views are because I don’t have anything else to do. My only friend is a dragon. My brothers know where all the fun spots are in Plum. They’ll introduce you to a lot of women and people more interesting than me. You’ll enjoy your day off a lot more, trust me.”

Without waiting for him, I hopped off the slab and went to Elesor’s side. She opened up the exit--not that she needed to block it anymore, Camden willingly joined me on the training rock--and followed me down the incline. Camden caught up to us quickly.

“If you insist on giving me the day off, why not join us?” he offered with a soft smile that made my inners melt. It didn’t help that I hadn’t given his shirt back--my nose hadn’t stopped bleeding--and that the sun was casting gorgeous statuesque shadows over his washboard abs. “I don’t need bountiful women to have a good time. It’d be enough to just be with your brothers and yourself."

I blinked at him in surprise. He wanted to spend his time away from me. . . with me? Wasn’t he sick of seeing my face everyday by now? My brothers were the only other ones who asked me to go anywhere with them outside of work. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to feel bad for excluding me; I’ll just play with Elesor, we haven’t had a good play in a while.”

The dragon perked up at that and brushed her muzzle against me. She was so eager, she pushed me too hard; I was knocked into Camden. In an attempt to steady me, he caught my hips, but his heel hit a jutting stone, and me running into him knocked him off balance. We went tumbling down the hill.