Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness

For the first time in over a month, Draycos left the interior of the prison he had been kept in. However, he wasn’t being as quiet as when he first came.

“Let go of me!” he shouted as Zero unfurled his wings and flew out of the cave where Poseidon’s office was located. “Put me down right now, you perv!”

Smack. Using his tail, Zero had smacked Draycos straight across his face. Even though it wasn’t the first time Draycos had been slapped like that recently, he was still stunned by this unexpected reaction from the small dragon.

“Shut up,” Zero growled, annoyance clear in his voice as he flew out the opening in the grotto and out into the open sky. “I’ve had enough of your rudeness; I may be much more easy-going than most of the others you’ve met, but I’m still the head of a royal family. There’s only so much hitting and name calling that I can handle before taking action.”

Draycos heard none of Zero’s usual lax mood in his voice and kept his mouth shut; he realized he had gotten on the dragon’s nerves. They flew in silence for a while before Zero sighed.

“Sorry,” he said. “I guess I let my emotions get the better of me for a moment there. But I suppose it’s somewhat my fault for messing with you so much.”

“No, you’re fine,” Draycos told him. “Everyone needs a chance every once in a while to vent and blow off some pent-up steam. I’m the one who should be sorry here. I hurt you yesterday and keep calling you names. Anyone would get irritated about that.”

“Then let’s both agree that we’re at fault here.” Zero began to lose altitude at this point. Another floating rock island came into view below them, much smaller than the others Draycos had seen before. The top of it was completely flat, and a lone dragon was standing in the center, arms folded across its chest and eyes closed. As they got closer, Draycos saw that the dragon was Vertex.

Vertex opened his blue eyes as Zero landed on the ground before him, dropping Draycos to the ground as he did. Draycos landed right on his butt.

“Ow ow ow ow ow, why’d you hafta drop me like that?” Draycos moaned as he stood up and rubbed his butt.

“Sorry, Draycos. Guess I’m still a little irritated.”

“Are you two done with that routine yet?” Vertex questioned, a serious glint in his eyes. “We can’t waste any time; we have to ensure Draycos is able to pass the assessment test or this will all be for nothing. The council can’t pull any strings to help him get in the tournament, otherwise Draycos won’t be able to prove he has the strength to be of any use to them.”

“Righto, Vertex.” Zero looked down at Draycos. “As we’ve already said, we’re focusing on getting you to pass the assessment test. Do you remember what you need to pass it?”

“Uh, a total score of ten or more, right?”

“Correct. Vertex, what’s your current assessment on Draycos’s abilities?”

Vertex stared hard at Draycos upon Zero’s question, lost in thought. He spoke up after a few seconds. “Based on what info I’ve gathered so far, I’d have to say his endurance is three, his attack, defense, and speed are all one, and a zero for magic.”

Vertex sighed. “So, he would only get a total of six right now? We got some serious training to do over the next month.”

“Indeed.” Vertex held up his right hand, and a bright flash of light was produced from it. After the light faded, a large silver metal stopwatch appeared in his previously empty palm. He handed the stopwatch to Zero, who turned his head to look at Draycos.

“Okay, kid. Start running.”

“Huh?” Draycos was perplexed by this order. “Why?”

Zero snorted. “Isn’t it obvious? We’ve already started the training. Go run ten laps around the perimeter of this rock.”

“What?!”

“Don’t just stand there with your mouth open. You think you’ll catch any flies doing that? Get going!” With that comment, Zero put his hand on Draycos’s back and gave it a hard shove. Stumbling forward, Draycos eventually did as he was told and took off sprinting.

“I assume there’s a reason why you want us to have Draycos running, Vertex?” Zero guessed as the two of them watched Draycos’s progress around the perimeter of the island.

Vertex nodded. “If we want to increase Draycos’s score on the assessment exam, the most logical category to train for the time being would be his speed. Not only is it simple to increase, but the plan that the King devised when deciding how to strengthen Draycos could also affect his attack strength, as well.”

“Interesting, so Theravor plans to kill two birds with one stone with this, huh?” Zero commented. Draycos finished his assigned ten laps and jogged over to where the two dragons stood, panting heavily. Zero checked the stopwatch.

“It took you about eleven minutes and thirty-nine seconds to run ten laps this time around,” he informed Draycos. “Ten laps is roughly two of your human miles. Before the day is done, I want you to shave off at least ten seconds. Take a five-minute break and try again.”

“What?!” Draycos was stunned by this order. “Be realistic! That’s just impossible! No one can shave off ten seconds of their running time in a day!”

“You do want to get out of prison, right?”

Draycos remained silent at this question, looking down at the ground as he placed his hands on his knees, still panting.

“...Yeah, I do,” he finally managed to spit out. “I don’t like wasting time doing nothing when there’s something that I can do.”

“Then stop wasting your time you have now,” Vertex told him. “You have one month until the test. The more time you spend standing there doing nothing, the less likely it is that you’ll get out of prison.”

Draycos nodded quietly, and after taking a deep breath, took off running again, not bothering to rest the whole five minutes of his break. He kept running sets of ten laps until the sun started setting, setting the sky and clouds on fire with various shades of orange, red, and purple. Vertex had left some time ago, but Zero remained in the exact spot all day, never failing to keep up with the stopwatch.

Completing his last assigned set of laps, Draycos collapsed in a heap on the ground in front of Zero’s feet, completely spent and wheezing. He had no energy left to do anything at that point.

Checking the time on the stopwatch, Zero smiled. “You managed to get it down to eleven and a half minutes before the day was done. Not exactly what I asked for, but it’s good enough for the first day of training.”

Draycos said nothing as he got on his hands and knees, struggling for air.

“I see things seemed to have gone well for the first day of training.” The two of them looked up to see the crimson dragon king hovering in the air above them. Folding his wings in, Theravor plummeted to the ground and landed on his feet, sending up a cloud of dust and cracking the rock below.

“What are you doing here, Theravor?” Zero questioned casually. “I thought Vertex was having you deal with the paperwork you’ve been putting off since the Orb was taken?”

Theravor cracked a smile as Draycos began coughing from the dust cloud he created from his landing. “I managed to sneak out past him.” He glanced down at Draycos, who was still on his hands and knees. “Did he meet today’s goal, Zero?”

Zero nodded. “I had asked him to shave off ten seconds from his first time before the day was done. He didn’t quite get that far; he shaved off nine. He’s only human, after all. But speaking realistically, that’s still some great progress from only one day.”

“Indeed,” Theravor agreed, looking down at Draycos as he attempted to get back on his feet. “Looks like you worked the boy ragged. Will he even be able to do any training tomorrow like that?”

“Oh, he will. In fact, I think he might have enough energy to do one last set of laps.”

“I... don’t think... I do,” Draycos managed to gasp, sweat pouring out of every pour on his body.

“Aww, don’t make me look bad in front of the king, Draycos,” Zero complained, a sly look on his face. He walked behind Draycos and crouched down. “If you do that, I might have to punish you later, if you know what I mean.” With that comment, Zero gently tapped Draycos’s rump with one of his talon knuckles. Alarmed at this action, Draycos immediately took off in a full sprint, putting distance between himself and Zero.

“Frickin’ pervert!!” he yelled as he sprinted for his life around the island. Zero chuckled to himself as he stood up while his king sighed and covered his face with a hand, shaking his head.

“I thought I told you to stop with that nonsense,” he groaned.

“Hey, what can I say?” Zero laughed. “It got him running again. His reactions are always top-notch. Don’t you find it hilarious?”

Theravor looked at Draycos, who was still sprinting at top speed around the island, and softly chuckled. “Alright, I’ll admit that it’s at least a little entertaining.”

“What happened?” Poseidon asked Draycos as the young man walked through the open office door later that evening. Draycos looked like he had been run completely ragged; his feet dragged across the ground as he walked, and his eyes were half closed already. Poseidon’s snout wrinkled as the stench of sweat hit his nostrils.

“Training,” Draycos mumbled as he stumbled over to his cell. He was too tired to feel hungry when he walked past a table placed next to Poseidon’s desk with another two bowls of the meaty mush resting on the top. It was obviously for him.

“Hey, Draycos. Look over here.”

“Huh?” Draycos turned his head to face Poseidon just in time to get nailed in the face with an orb of water. Water cascaded over his entire body as he fell backwards, landing on his butt.

“Feeling better now?” Poseidon asked innocently as Draycos sat there in stunned silence. He had his right hand raised with his index talon extended forward; he had apparently shot the water ball at Draycos.

Draycos’s irritation sparked. “Like hell I do!” he snarled as he got back on his feet, thoroughly soaked. “What was that for?”

Poseidon pinched his nostrils with a hand. “You smelled really bad, so I thought I’d assist you with your hygiene. You feeling hungry now? You’ll need to eat after the training you did today.”

Snapped wide awake from the surprise water attack, Draycos finally noticed that he was indeed starving. He grabbed the two bowls of food and sat down in front of the fireplace with the sea-green flames. His clothes quickly dried out as he inhaled the food.

Draycos sighed in relief as he finished off the last of his food. He stood up and began stretching his sore muscles.

“Thanks for that, Poseidon,” he yawned as he finished stretching, exhaustion setting in again. “I needed that.” With that, Draycos walked into his cell and fell face first on his bed. Within minutes, Poseidon could hear his snoring as Draycos went dead to the world.