The Dragon Tournament [Permanent Hiatus]

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Casimir had finally worked up the courage to open his eyes. It only took a matter of minutes for the feelings of fear to morph into excitement and his adrenaline kicked in, making him urge Kuroz to go faster and faster. Even he was surprised when they were suddenly flashing past Leopold and Avery and continued going past at phenomenal speed.

"Casimir! Don't go too far ahead, we're almost there!"

It was the princess who had shouted out to him and he got Kuroz to slow down. He was smarter than to do so quickly because without any form of saddle or even a strap to secure him to the dragons back, he would surely go flying over the neck of the beast and fall the great distance to the ground. The sick feeling in his stomach returned and he fought off the urge to shut his eyes again.

He slowly turned around to see that the others were beginning to descend to what appeared to be a small clearing on the mountainside. He didn't have to say anything for Kuroz to follow them down, landing softly on the clearing. The ground was covered in lush green green grass dappled with bright pink and purple flowers, making it a stunning landscape. Unlike Tiona, Altair was much more desert and barren land than grass and forests, so Casimir was still constantly blown away by the rich colours in front of him. Leopold and Avery barely glanced at it before hopping off their dragons.

"The camp isn't too far from here, just a short hike through the bush. The dragons stay elsewhere. Zhukah will show your two the way, so you can just follow me," Avery said to them as she began making her way to the edge of the clearing. Casimir couldn't see any sort of cleared area for them to walk through.

"Is there a path?" Leopold said as though he had read Casimir's mind.

"Are you stupid?" Avery asked with astonishment as she stopped to wait for them, "With such an obvious clearing, if the path to the camp was out in the open as well we would be caught for sure. It's a rough hike."

Casimir could hear Leopold sigh a little as they both slid off their dragons and caught up to where Avery was. He heard the three dragons take off behind them and turned around in time to see the three figures vanish off around the mountain.

They had to push through a leafy wall to get to the rough pathway. Avery had been a bit dramatic when she had said it was a rough walk. It had been used so often that what would have once been hard rocks were now worn down into smooth surfaces, and the leaf litter over time had filled in the spaces and been compressed by the weight of someone walking on them. He thought better than to comment to the princess about the fact that if someone managed to get past the initial shrubbery, the path was very obvious.

He couldn't tell how long it took, but he felt like they had barely started walking when they emerged into yet another clearing, but this one was sheltered by large trees so it couldn't be seen from above. All around the clearing there were soldiers wearing the black uniform with gold embellishments that signified them as members of the RDRA, with dozens of tents scattered throughout. There was also a much larger and solidly built tent in the centre of them all, presumably the headquarters for the operation.

"You boys have a special uniform," Avery said as she guided them through the soldiers, who all bowed in acknowledgement of the princess as she walked past. "It's similar to the usual uniform for members of the RDRA, but has slightly different colours and modifications for our purposes."

Casimir couldn't think of what could be so different from the normal soldiers, but he didn't ask. He would find out in time anyway, and Avery seemed to like explaining everything to them, even if it was rather obvious. He was rather surprised by the genuine respect that the soldiers have to the princess, their general. He had to admit that even though her hand had been rough earlier, he had still had doubts about if she was genuinely a good leader. Clearly she had proven as much to these people, both men and women alike.