The Dragon Rider's Gift

Both Patrick and Furia are getting stronger each day, but still, there's a lot for both of them to learn.

The Dragon Rider's Gift

The training became intensified… multiple times, I shall say. The combat training now included blunt weapons, but not in my hands. I got beaten up in a whole new level.

We continued like that for 2 weeks. Every single one of my bones hurt like hell. I had bruises almost on my whole body. Daily beatings did a lot of damage on me, not only physically. One of the hardest challenges was preventing myself from hating Clyde and the others, I knew there was nothing personal in all this, but many times I found myself searching for the point of all this. If it wasn't for Furia, encouraging me to hang on after each fight; I don't know if I would have gone any further.

In the end of the second week Clyde and the others woke me up at the day's first light. I stretched up along with Furia, but Clyde said…

-Not today, Furia… This is special for Patrick.

I kept myself silent and looked at her. Once our eyes met, I did a nod to her.

Good luck… Furia said laying back down on the ground.

They walked me to an isolated zone. On the way I had an urge to ask where we were going to, but I kept it for myself; neither they said anything after they ordered me not to call Furia by any reason.

Once we arrived to their selected place, one of them pulled a pistol, it didn't worry me at first, but when I realized it had a silencer and that it was being aimed at me, I felt goose bumps on my back. This time I did spoke…

-What's that for?

-If we see the dragon, I'll shoot.

-Clyde, what's going on?

-You are delaying us. -Clyde answered.

-What are you talking about? -I replied.

Then I felt a strike on my right leg. The pain was sharp, it made me totter. I looked at my side and saw Oliver holding a wooden baton.

-What the f**k are you doi!…

Oliver hit me with a reverse strike at my face. It turned me around and made me fall to the ground. I crawled away and heard steps by my side. I saw him swinging the baton to hit me again, but I hit him first on the knee, strong enough to break it backwards; Oliver fell to the ground groaning with pain. Clyde and the rest got nearer. I got to my feet and, at the very second, felt a kick on my stomach; which sent me back to the ground. Two of them pulled me up by my arms, also preventing me from defending myself. Clyde got in front of me and punched me multiple times in the face and torso. Eventually, I wasn't standing anymore; I would have fallen to the ground like a rag if the guys weren't holding me up.

-Do you think yourself irreplaceable!? Huh? (Clyde said with a last punch at my belly.)

What the f**k is going on Patrick? Even my inners feel like hell!

Don't come, Furia! They'll shoot me if you get on sight!

Who'll shoot you!?

Clyde and the others… I'm going to get out of this… just don't come!

Those f*****g traitors! I'll wait for your signal; I'll rip 'em all to pieces!

-Having a little chat with Furia?

I spat blood at his face. Clyde said her name as a joke, I could tell by his tone while saying it.

-Don't you f*****g say her name!

-What are you going to do!?

Clyde went for another row of punches to my face and torso. Then continued…

-I'll tell you what you are going to do… You'll have to defeat us to survive this… otherwise, you are f*****g dead. Looks like you are done with one… Four left.

The two guys threw me at Clyde. He bent, carried me by my waist and threw me backwards like a football player would.

-Stand up and prove us you got what it takes to be a Dragon Rider!

I pushed myself up… just to see a knee in front of my face. I fell to my side and spat more blood at the ground.

-You are pathetic… I don't know how it was someone like you who actually made it so far with his egg… A pure no one, a blank space in existence… it was when you found it that you became something… do you think finding it made you worthy of it? F*****g prove it then!

While Clyde was talking I rolled away from him and slowly composed myself upright. Once ready, in a low tone I said…

-I'm going to kill you… all of you.

-See if I care! The only one here with something to lose is you. Do you value it enough?

I knew he was talking about Furia. And he was right, even if it was just one thing, I had something to lose and that was Furia.

I had fire for blood; I ignored the pain of the other hits, enough to get ready to fight… I slowly walked forward. Clyde made a signal and the guy holding the gun took the baton and tossed it to him. It didn't make me slow down nor hesitate. I tried to punch him in the face, but he dodged me. I continued my row of attacks without success, until he blocked and counter attacked me. His row of attacks was devastating as it involved the baton. Back on the ground with new hits to endure, it was harder for me to get up. I unsuccessfully tried many times while Clyde spoke…

-You are useless! You can't hit me; not even one single time! Let's get done with this.

Did I hate them? Yes… with all my might. Did I found the point of all this? No. I wasn't even looking for it anymore. I just knew one thing; I wasn't going to let Furia die. I didn't know life without her. I have lived without her, but I forgot that time, I ripped it off from my mind. I was going to kill Clyde, his friends, and whoever got in my way and dared to threaten Furia. I would protect her by any means, and this time was no exception… I had to save myself to save Furia. I filled with rage my whole being, I pressed my teeth to overcome pain. I knew that this was my last opportunity of surviving. If I didn't defeated Clyde this time… then I would ever do.

Clyde took the gun from the other guy and approached me. I was aware of what was going on; I waited kneed, looking down with my hands on the ground. Clyde located himself right in front of me and put the canon on the back of my head. And not even a second later… I reacted. With my left hand I pushed his right arm (which he was holding the gun with) up while with my right one I punched his stomach. I pushed myself up; once on my feet he punched my face with his left arm, but I ignored the hit and recovered fast. I twisted his right arm outwards, making him drop the gun and punched him in the face with my right hand. He kicked me away, making some space between us, but I didn't fall. I charged at him while pulling my right arm backwards to punch him the hardest I could. He grabbed the baton and faced me. With a ferocious roar I threw my punch as it got covered in a dark cloud of smoke, I didn't reacted to that, for I had one and only one goal in my mind: Survival. Anything else meant crap for me. Clyde tried to cover my punch with the baton, but failed. My hand went through it like it was nothing, with an explosion of woodchips and the upper part of the baton flying away. To my misfortune, he also dodged the hit; his face was just millimeters away from being hit by my fist. And to my confusion, the three guys standing, plus Clyde himself, surrendered. He got away from me and stood by their side and said...

-This was planned! This was all carefully planned! The pistol has no bullets! We were never going to kill you!...

I felt weaker and weaker every second as my strengths were drained from me. I eventually couldn't stand up by myself.

What was that!? Patrick! Are you ok? Forget it, I'm coming!

Don't… kill… anybody…

I ended up lying on the ground and everything turned slowly to black.

I woke up and it was still dark. Just that when I stretched my arms up and touched the sky, I realized I was under one of Furia's wings again. I pushed myself up to a sit position as Furia closed her wing, allowing me to see it was midday.

Slowly; Clyde told me everything. Yet there was a part he wanted to tell you himself. Furia said.

Where is he?

In the house, but…

Follow me, I'll drag him out. He has a lot to explain… I said while standing up.

Do you want to hear what I know?

Yeah.  We began to walk and continued the chat.

When I found you and the others, all I did was picking you up and left. Then took you here and waited. Clyde came by one time, but I didn't allow him to get closer. Still, he told me what happened…

What did he told you for what happened?

Furia then narrated every detail of the event, it proved Clyde was sincere with her... and she continued... Then he said all was planned to bring something out from you, like an instinct… I don't know what… maybe that's what he wants to tell you himself.

Let's get to the bottom of this.

Tottering and meeting the ground more than one time, due to the difficulty of walking with every limb plus my torso hurting me like there was no tomorrow. Luckily the house wasn't very far from where we were. When I approached the porch, I called for Clyde. He slowly opened the door and came outside.

-Patrick. I have a lot to tell you about these last weeks.

-It seems to me like so.

-Do you feel well? What you did in the morning is no matter to take easy. Want to wash yourself before talking?

-What the f**k happened out there!? I was decided to kill you all!

I yelled and signaled the direction where the morning events took place.

-We all were ready for what could happen.

-And what was all that exactly!?

-Your dragon reached the age of six months old. At that point, the Rider is ready for Vital Energy Usage.

-What?

-In shorter words… Magic.

-That explains my smoky fist when I broke the baton.

-You don't know how glad I am to hear that! -Clyde said grabbing me by my shoulders.

-Didn't you see it?

-Only Riders and dragons are able to sense Magic. Finally we are done!

-With what?

-That torture-like training we were putting on you! Today we decided to go even further away. There are only two ways for a Rider to discover how to use Magic: Casually and Instinctively. What we were trying to do all this time, since Furia reached six months old, was forcing out your magic by stressing you like you've never ever been.

-I think I get it.

-Even though it was required; I'm sorry for what I said back then… I disgraced Furia's name… along with other things that I truly regret saying.

I sighed long, and then answered.

-Don't regret them… as you said, they were required. If you wouldn't have done that, I most surely wouldn't have found the… energy thing.

-Thanks, feels good to take that off my chest. I also have one good new.

-And that is…

-We'll celebrate tonight! For you finally reached the next level of your training; we'll all drink till drunkenness!

Clyde said joyfully raising his fists to the ceiling. As for me, I didn't have words. There was a celebration planned in my name; and it wasn't just an ordinary birthday, or a meaningless school related celebration, such as graduation. This celebration was being thrown for me because of a true achievement; because I proved I was worthy of Furia, of being a Dragon Rider, of being a symbol of hope for the Dragon Society… I was worthy of who I was then.

I raised my right hand, offering a crossed handshake. Clyde answered the handshake. As I said…

-I wish I could express what this means to me…

-Don't worry… Though, you should really take a shower… and put some ice on your face.

- (I chuckled and said with sarcasm…) You think so? (Back to a serious tone) How's Oliver? I kicked his knee pretty bad...

-He'll be fine… won't walk for over two months, but he'll be alright…

-I'll go see him anyway… wait for me here; I still want to talk with you.

-Alright.

I went upstairs, to the rooms and saw Oliver lying on the bed. The cast on his leg was tied to the ceiling, having his leg slightly angled upwards. I apologized for breaking his knee in such a way, but he told me it was ok; he would have done the same thing to me if we had switched places back in the morning. I bid him farewell and went back to Clyde downstairs. Along the way I met the others; they congratulated me and didn't say more. They knew I was on my way to see Clyde.

Clyde convinced me to take a shower, clean the blood off my face and then we would talk during lunch. So I did. When I entered the bathroom, I almost jumped from what I saw at the mirror. I had never seen my face so deformed and covered in blood. Every hit went through my mind again as I washed my face in the sink. I barely felt the water. When I took my clothes off, I found lots of bruises and discovered a piercing pain when touching or moving the torso. I found two broken ribs on my right side. The cold water felt at the same time so pleasant and so painful. I laboriously managed to wash myself, grunting of pain from a moment to another. When I was finally done and changed myself far from easier than the other activities, I went down and seated next to Clyde at the table. Everyone served their food, and once Clyde and I were ready to eat we had a talk during the meal.

-Tell me about magic… how did you call it the first time?

-Vital Energy. It comes with dragons… the first time you touched your dragon, tell me about that again…

-I felt like I was electrocuted. It was a sharp pain that went through my whole body.

-That "electroshock" was the energy being transferred to you from your dragon. It is also the explanation for all of your changes.

-But that started when I found the egg…

-It isn't an accurate science, alright? The thing is that you weren't… alive, before finding the egg. It's in that moment that you actually born. Finding the egg, touching the dragon…

-Why wasn't I capable of using it before?

-You have to let it grow and get stronger, only time has effect there. It's also involved with your physical strength. Back then, before the Great Massacre, experiments were done to discover when was the exact dragon's age for the Rider to use magic.

-So now, how do I use it?

-Next time we train... in a couple of days…

-You broke two of my ribs…

-What? Really?

-Really…

-Well, next time we train, in a couple of weeks, you'll re-trigger what you did that time. Don't bother yourself now with it, enjoy the meal and these… unexpected vacations; it's stupidly easy to use magic once you discover it.

-You are right, no more training until further notice.