The Sixth Dragon Rider

Part 21

"This book is called The Dragon Warriors," Aura said, pulling the aged text out from under the other books.  It's gold embossing shined brilliantly in the torchlight, making the cover of the book appear to softly glow.  She gently traced her finger over the title etched into the cover before flipping the book open to the first page with a muffled thump.  Kasha and Salarah watched her silently, not quite understanding the significance, so Aura continued, "The interesting thing is, this book isn't about the dragon riders or even an early version of them, it's about an entirely different group that existed at the same time as the dragon riders.  And not only did they exist at the same time but they didn't really get along."

"So... what you're saying is that there was another group of dragon rider like people who were just erased from history?" Salarah asked slowly.

"Yep," Aura replied.

"I guess it kind of makes sense doesn't it," Kasha said, "I mean, when people first started bonding with dragons it wouldn't be surprising if multiple groups were formed right?  But the Dragon Riders basically rule everything now since no one can oppose them, so they wouldn't want the idea getting in people's heads that they could just form another group of dragon riders and fight the Stonehaven group.  It would cause chaos at the least and full out war at the worst."

"I never thought of that," Aura admitted, sounding slightly embarrassed, "I just figured the dragon riders erased the dragon warriors out of spite, you know, over that war you told me about."

"Well, to be honest, that too probably," Salarah said, "afterall they're not the nicest of people, at least not most of them."

"Yeah, that's certainly true," Aura agreed.

The two girls then lapsed into silence, and no one spoke for a minute.  Kasha seemed to have gotten lost in her own world for a moment and was staring blankly into space.  Aura and Salarah just stared at each other awkwardly across the able, neither quite sure what to say.  Even Nirvana was silent for once, and everyone seemed to be thinking.

"You know, it still feels like we're missing something here," Aura admitted, "but that'sweird because it also feels like we have all the informat-"

"That's it!" Kasha interrupted excitedly, "It's not the information that's missing, it's putting it together."

"What?" Aura and Salarah, and Aura was pretty sure Nirvana, said at the same time looks of  confusion etched across all their faces.

"Well, we have the information we need, that's not the problem.  The problem is that we're not putting our information together. We're seeing each color of paint and we need to look at the picture.  We're watching a single fish when we need to look at the whole school of them," Kasha said excitedly, the twisting gears in her mind visible in her shining eyes.

"And...I'm still lost," Aura said, looking to Salarah to see if she understood.

"Okay, um, how about this then," Kasha said, after thinking for a minute,"we know that there was a war between Cassandra and the Dragon Riders right?  And we also know that there was another group of dragon riders called the Dragon Warriors who the Dragon Riders erased from history, correct?"

"Yeah..." Aura and Salarah said in unison.

"Well, then can't we assume that the group fighting the Dragon Riders with Cassandra during the war were probably these Dragon Warrior people?  Which would explain why they've been erased from history," Kasha said, pausing as looks of understanding dawned on her friends' faces.  "Do you get it now?  This is what I mean by putting what we know together.  If we take the facts we've learned and apply them to the same historical timeline, instead of treating them each like different stories that are unrelated to each other then we can create a comprehensive timeline of dragon rider history."

Aura nodded in agreement, her eyes dancing with excitement at this new idea. Salarah, though still looked a little confused, and it was only a moment before she spoke her confusion.

"How does all this help us understand conjuring better though?" Salarah asked, "I thought that's what we were looking for information on." 

"Right," Aura said, "we can't forget about that, but this history thing sounds important too.  I think it could help us understand what I'm supposed to do as Cassandra's descendant or whatever.  We just have to find a way to work on both."

"That sounds good, but I think the thing we have to do right now is get going, look at the torches," Kasha said, pointing to the torches, whose bright light had begun to fade and flicker as they burned lower.

"Okay, for now then why don't Salarah and I each take a book that looks like it may have good information about conjuring and Kasha can work on that timeline," Aura suggested.

A nod each from the other girls was the only response she received as they all began to clear up the table and close and stack the many books they had lying on the table.  Aura quickly scanned the titles of all the books she had in front of her and grabbed one called Witches of the Cassandrian Period that seemed like it may have some good information on conjuring to take with her.  She waited until it looked like Kasha and Salarah were ready to go too and then grabbed one of the torches off the wall and went over to the foot of the staircase.

"Wait shouldn't we douse these other torches before we go?" Kasha asked, looking around the room.

"When I pull the lever to open the staircase water will be released onto each torch dowse them," Aura explained, grasping an old, rusty lever with her hand and giving it a strong tug.

The ceiling above the staircase slid silently open and Aura pressed a finger to her lips and then pointed to the ceiling to remind the other girls to be quiet going up since they didn't know if anyone was in the library above them.  The two girls nodded to show their understanding and then all three started up the worn, dusty staircase, Aura's flickering torch providing the only light to keep them from slipping on the smooth stone.  Once they reached the top of the staircase  Aura crept over to the brick that she'd used earlier to open the staircase and gave it a nudge with her foot, triggering the staircase to close again.  As soon as the staircase, and therefore the evidence of the worst of their rule breaking had disappeared, Aura beckoned Kasha and Salarah over to her.

"I'll leave first, alright?  That way if anyone is in there I can distract them and you can get away.  My punishment will probably be much less severe if I get caught. You can have the torch to find your way out," Aura said, her voice barely audible as she handed them the torch.  Then before either girl could respond she slipped out of the restricted section and into the main library.  Her bond with Nirvana gave her heightened senses and she was able to move soundlessly through the towering shelves.  The dragon stood alert on her shoulder, scanning for any sign of someone else being in the library.  When they reached the door without encountering anyone Aura let out a small sigh of relief, glad that whoever had been in the library before they went down to the secret room was gone.  She pushed open the gargantuan library door and stepped outside, the light streaming in the windows blinded her temporarily and she had to blink a few times before she could properly see.  She was about to start towards her next class when a figure moved out of the shadows next to the door and stepped towards her.

"I had a feeling it was you in there, Aura" the person said.

A/N: Here's the next chapter everyone, I hope you love it!  As always this is entirely unedited so tell me what you think or if you notice any grammatical errors, ect...  I hope you all are having a great day and I love you so much!

Bye for now, Kat