Chapter 3: Mountain Climbing
Naydrus was left disappointed when the byntaufa jumped away from her and locked himself in onto the ‘floating’ platform dangling from its higher counterparts via chains. The strange hooked scales extended out of his body as he rotated to get his stomach on the underside of the mass of stone and start crawling to the top.
“I’ll leave them to you, Halolal. You look like you have things covered,” the dragon blurted in a hurry.
Halolal grumbled and raised a brow at Naydrus. “How were you not affected by his roar?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Byntaufa screams tend to knock out anything in its close vicinity.” He stared at Naydrus then looked up at the byntaufa flying away to a platform much further away in the underground city for training. “The more experienced you get, the easier it is to handle it, but it can still harm you fatally if you aren’t careful.”
Naydrus was visibly perplexed by his question. “I don’t understand what you’re asking me.”
The krakol kodal shifted in place, letting his thoughts take over. “How experienced are you with death? You’re not even a year old, so you must have been pampered by--”
Naydrus growled and spat in disgust. “I hate the hominids. I left my birthplace without my siblings because they didn’t want to come.” She puffed her chest out in pride when the other four drakes slowly came to and looked at her in awe. “I even saw a shell eater.”
Halolal twitched. “Keep that to yourself. Nobody likes to hear about those...things,” he spat. “Much less that you survived an encounter with one...” he mumbled quietly.
Halolal’s anger was broken by the telltale grumbling of hungry stomachs, and the four drakes were sticking their tongues out from the severe hunger pangs they were suffering through.
“Can we get something to eat?” Apovec asked.
“I’m really hungry,” Enent complained.
The dragon bared her teeth mischievously. “We’ll get food.” He raised a wing and pointed the tip to a course where multiple young drakes were training. “When we’ve trained for a few hours.”
The drakes groaned.
“Hours?! But we’ll die of hunger by then!” Bakrop whined.
Halolal grumbled in amusement. “Quit you’re whinging,” he chastised. “When you’re in nature you don’t get to eat immediately unless you somehow managed to found a way to conserve your foods.” He gurgled and leaned toward the drakes. “You have to hunt on an empty stomach, which means you’ll be going through the foot course four times before we get to eat. Get your body used to running on empty and train your muscles and ligaments at the same time.” The four students grumbled in annoyance while Naydrus walked up to Halolal and sat in front of him, waiting patiently. “Look at Naydrus; She isn’t saying anything...strangely enough.”
The drakes turned to look at their comrade carrying an apathetic, almost disinterested expression. Much like them, her stomach was growling with hunger, but she didn’t seem to pay much attention to it. In fact, Naydrus just seemed to have lost a lot of her usual energy.
“Naydrus?” Apovec called to her.
The blue drake gave him a brief side-glance. “Hm?”
“Aren’t you hungry? Knowing you, I thought you would be the most...annoying,” the krakol said reticently.
“I am hungry.” Naydrus scratched behind one of her horns, chasing off a loose scale. “But I’m used to it.”
Halolal bared his teeth softly, amused. “Oh? You never mentioned where you were before you came upon the haven. Just that you escaped your birthplace.”
“Lived in some ruins for a bit. Learned to hunt when I woke up. Had plenty of water to drink from. That’s it,” Naydrus stated halfheartedly.
Her teacher stepped to the side and presented a training course with a forefoot. “Then you’ll be able to handle this muddy training course as a survivor, yes?”
The drakes moved in to see what Halolal was talking about, and while Naydrus wasn’t impressed, the others were horrified. They would have to traverse a large, muddy pit surrounded by thick foliage and rocks of varying size, most being just barely smaller than the dragons flying around further away. There was an acrid stench that came with the mud. Bugs buzzed between the greenery, attempting to attack the dragons but finding themselves unable to penetrate their scales.
The blue drake looked into the distance and gurgled. “Sure!”
Naydrus immediately leapt forward despite Halolal’s protests and splashed into the mud, sweeping her legs from side to side rather than attempt to raise them up and fight against the suctioning of the repulsive mass of brown sludge.
The dragon shook his head. “I didn’t even tell you what you’re supposed to do...”
But his words fell on deaf ears. Naydrus was already climbing over the stones sticking out of the artificial swamp and using the trees to pull herself out when she got stuck. The young drake had trouble dealing with the obstacles before her, seeing as the only swamp she had experience with only had mud and thin plants. Thanks to the shell eater and the spikey at the time, most of the trees had been destroyed, leaving their remains to be devoured by the mud and whatever lurked within them. This time the young drake wouldn’t have it so easy.
As she continued to progress, her body began to falter, losing the energy she always seemed to carry around with her incessantly. She clung to a rotted log hanging over some boulders, gasping for air and feeling her heart pounding in her chest.
Halolal gurgled in amusement. “Whats wrong, Naydrus? You were always so boastful before.” He leaned forward. “Need help getting out of there?”
“No! I can...manage on my own! This isn’t hard!” the drake protested.
Hoping to have gotten a second wind, Naydrus jumped off the log and onto an assembly of tangled vines floating above the mud like green and brown clouds. She bit and clawed at it, managing to get her head through and see that, beneath them was a large assortment of thick plant stems and strange, reddish stalks that stuck out of the mud. Nayrus had no idea what they were at all, but her teachings told her that they were dangerous. There were too many ‘lessons’ overwhelming her mind as she stared at them, each saying something different.
They’re delicious!
They’re toxic!
Imbue them on your claws and tail hook to destroy your enemies!
They’re great for creating red and orange paint pigments!
Cultivate them and make them far more toxic!
Each one pounded into Naydrus’ mind like her ancestors were actively speaking to her and trying to get her to do what they wanted. It was a miracle that she didn’t go crazy right away with everything happening.
Fortunately, she was violently ripped out of her growing migraine by Halolal plucking her out like a berry and holding her in the air as he flapped his massive wings. “And that’s why you wait until I tell you what to do,” the dragon stated firmly. He poked Naydrus’ nose with a claw. “The point wasn’t getting through the obstacle course. It was being able to use the terrain to your advantage.” He flew back to the others who snickered at the young drake becoming flustered at their reactions. “Being a big, strong dragon is all well and good, but we are solitary creatures.” He presented the whole training arena with a wing. “Even though we all live and work together, outside we tend to be alone when not living with the hominids.”
“More like serving them,” Naydrus muttered.
Apovec shoved and shushed her. Normally, the blue drake would have tackled him for such an affront, but she huffed instead. She was too tired for fighting. The other drakes being shocked at her reaction, or lack thereof, didn’t escape her.
“A dragon can take out many foes on its own.” Halolal started pointing at his body. “Scales that can resist most weapons. Claws that are strong and sharp. Powerful teeth and jaws that can crush and slice. Even our fire breath and tails are lethal in their own rights.”
“But teacher, I don’t have sharp claws,” Khopa interjected. “And I know that there are some dragons that don’t breathe fire.
“The ones that serve the ahk don’t breathe fire,” Naydrus added. “They’re just cryptic and don’t talk right.”
Halolal slowly blinked at her comment, staring at her, wide-eyed. “You’re...not wrong, Naydrus, but as Khopa mentioned, dragons don’t all have these traits.” He gestured to the very few byntaufa that were training at flight. “They cannot breathe fire, and their appearance is tricky, making you think they breathe some form of poison cloud.” Halolal shook his head. “But that’s not the case. They scream really loudly. The dragon guardians say there’s multiple organs in their throats or something.” He waved the concept away. “I don’t know and I don’t care. I just know they scream loud and it kills things.”
Enent grumbled and crossed her forefeet on the ground. “That’s putting it mildly.”
“So, how do we pass this test, then?” Apovec asked.
Halolal bounced, smacking his forehead. “Oh! Of course. I was distracted, but every dragon species has its own mutations that confer to them advantages other dragons do not have, so you’re here to exploit every avenue that your bodies can use and perfect them.”
The krakol grabbed some mud and threw it at Apovec, hitting his chest. “Show me how you would get through this swamp stealthily.”
The drake hesitated, looking left and right. “Um...” He made to stick a foot in the mud then stopped, apparently unwilling to dirty himself. “I don’t know...”
Halolal shrugged. “Then just jump in. I’m not going to say anything until you make the effort of trying rather than fearing me getting angry.”
The young drake looked to his comrades and reluctantly jumped into the mud, becoming squeamish when in contact with the revolting substance.
“I thought this was just mud!” Apovec whined.
Halolal gurgled. “It is. It’s just swamp mud.”
The drake waded through the mud, unable to move very well and often spat out some mud that got into his mouth.
“Okay. That’s enough, Apovec. You can come out,” Halolal said.
The drake whined as he used his claws to grip onto the rounded edges of the course and pull himself out, his scales caked in grimed, rotten plant matter, and other unidentifiable substances.
“This is gross...” the drake whined.
“Mhmm. Consider what the dragons that are always under the ahk have to put up with every day.”
“That’s...that’s not fair,” Enent protested. “They were enjoying that.”
Halolal kept his strange imitation of a ‘smile’ up, showing off his upper gums and teeth. “That’s just part of their personality. Anyone else want to try?”
Khopa jumped into the swamp without hesitation and dove beneath the mud. He kept his movements slow and concise, but his large frame still made it hard for him to hide despite being caked in sludge. After a few minutes, he reached the area filled with large rocks and fallen logs and climbed out.
“What do I do here?” he asked.
“If you’re stuck, then come back over to us,” the instructor said. “We’re going to be doing this every day until you can get to the other side without hesitation and a minimal amount of exposure.” He pat Khopa on the back as he came around. “When you’re done with all of these courses, your wings should have grown in, normally. When that occurs you’ll have your first field mission to stretch your wings in wide open air with all the air currents that come with it.” He looked over the drakes for any signs of complaints and nodded when they said nothing. The dragon’s gaze lingered on Naydrus for a moment, realizing she was uncharacteristically quiet and pouting. Humility was a powerful, if dangerous, thing. “Now let’s go over to the fire breathing range.”
