Dragon Riders

Nerad

The captain glowered at the retreating shadow of Maradomin's dragon. Kaniy appeared beside him in an instant, "Sir? The sergeant didn't kill the prince."

Nerad rounded on him, "What?!"

"I couldn't get any closer, there's an anti-magic barrier before the gates. But I saw the prince and a girl carrying Ciru's body back into the palace."

Nerad's eyes flashed, "So. Maradomin has turned rogue. Tell me Kaniy, how far can you get in one jump?"

"If you want me to report to Hanik now, that's not possible. I'll send back five or so men, telling them to steer clear of Maradomin."

"Good. The other five can go after Maradomin themselves. We'll join them shortly, in the meantime, we need to finish Ciru and the Prince. We'll concern ourselves with Ianeil later, if those two are weakened, they won't take much to kill." He touched his forehead, concentrating on Orcamo's mind, I need you to give a command to the others - five hunting Maradomin, the other five taking a message to Athanasia. Hanik needs to know of the sergeant's treachery.

Why? What can he do?

Maradomin's shadow magic might be powerful, but it cannot compare to the king's power. Hanik would destroy him.

And am I just to sit here?

Nerad smirked, For now. But if Maradomin proves any more trouble, Kaniy and I will come after him ourselves.

The two officers looked to the skies for a moment, seeing the roaring forms of dragons lifting from their positions around the city, five flying for the horizon, the others shooting after the black dragon that Maradomin rode.

Ciru

He could feel his body weakening, Maradomin's shadow curse taking its toll on him. He knew it wouldn't kill him, but damn it was annoying. Next time he'd simply crush the man to the ground, he'd push up the gravity everywhere around him if he had to.

He felt himself being laid on one of the infirmary beds, and looked around. The others were all already there, although Ian looked like Ciru imagined he was, and Ari didn't look too good either. Ciru drew himself upright a little, "Ray. You need to find Viedna - his power can render Maradomin completely useless if he shows up again. He's nothing without his precious shadows."

MARADOMIN:

We are being followed. said Garen
"What by who?" Maradomin asked
The Dark knights

Maradomin shooked his head. "We have been caught. Hanik will kill me if he finds out."

"Turn around." Maradomin commanded
Why? Asked Garen
"I will go back to the city and you will kill those riders. Then go back and get Laviant to gathere the clans." Maradomin said "Is this understood?"
Yes.

Maradomin took something from his cape. A ball of meat. He threw it to Garen and jumped off.

He Slowed his fall with a shadow barrier. He started running to the city. As the five riders looked at him Garen came at them, and as Garen came out of the shadow cloud it was already too late for the five riders.

Maradomin teleported back to the city.

When he got to the city he started running as he ran he met one of his spies.

The spy looked at him in shock "Master, why are you here?"
"No time for balbering around. Where is the prince." The spy pointed at the palace. "Good. Tell the others to gather the clans. Also send messages to the other spies in the other cities. we must meet here!" Maradomin started running, not waiting for any answer.

When Maradomin got to the palace, there were two guard at the door. "I must see the prince. I come in peace." maradomin had been holding the woman all this time. Now the woman woke up and she started to move around.
"Stay put. I will let you go." Maradomin hissed and untied the woman.

The guards looked at him for a while "We must take your weapon."
Maradomin looked at them sternly "You will not take my weapon, but you can tie me if you wish."

Soon Maradomin was in the kings hall. The prince was looking at him with disgust "What do you want?" the prince asked.

"I wish to cure your friend... but for a price." He said
"What if we deny?" asked the prince
"Your friend will most proppably die." Maradomin said coldly

The prince looked at him "What do you want."
"Peace." He simply said

After he had cured Ciru.
He sat down to speak with The prince.

"I must first tell you about the clans, so stay quiet." Maradomin comanded
The prince glared at him, but Maradomin did not care.

"When the old kingdom broke apart and the royal family was slaughtered, your branch, the most noble branch was not the only one to survive." He held a brief brake here to see if the people around him had understood.

"There were six other branches that also survived. Three of them had one of the weapons of gods. I have one of them right now." He pointed at his sword.

"The others are long gone. he continued.
"Now, these clans grew for many years, at the spot where the dark knight now roam, most of them were slaughtered by the dark knights or they joined the dark knights. My clan, the clan of the shadow, was full of great assasins and spies.

"Also most of us had the power to bend shadows. We were great at agility, stealth and speed, and not even power was an obstacle. But we fell to the dark knights, some of us joined them and survived, like me."

"My brother was killed because of his stubborness." Maradomin looked intecively at the prince.

"Beacause of your branch, the other branches suffered, because of the dark knights we were slaughterred."

The prince was about to say something but Maradomin continued
"The reason why I cannot use this sword at its full potential is because of what we did to survive the first slaughter. We took out some of our own blood and replaced it with the blood of people not in our family."
"There are of course other clans than the shadow clan also. They are going to be here within two days."

**Whoa, I'm confused. Can someone clarify what's been happening, please?**

**I'm probably going to keep Ian unconscious through the whole ordeal... Yeah, I'll do that.**

Thorn looked from Ciru to Ian to Ray and to the others. No one was in good shape at the moment, and Ciru and Ian probably had the worst.

He nodded, turning and stalking out without speaking a word. Ari noticed and followed after him.

"Thorn? Thorn, where are you going?" she asked, stopping him in the hallway.

"Stay with Ian. If I don't come back, tell him I love him."

"What are you saying?! You can't leave! We need you!"

"No, what we need is a solution to the whole problem. Everything is running back toward Hanik; if we take him out, we take out the war."

"There's no way you can do this, Thorn! Wait for us! Wait for Ian and Ciru and I to get better, and we will go with you!"

"That's enough, girl!" He glared over his shoulder at her, voice clipped. He sighed. "I know what I'm doing. I'm going. Now, please, take care of my son."

With that, he vaulted over the railing of the walkway, landing squarely on Gorton's shoulders. Rider and dragon rocketed through the sky, toward Athenasia.

Something has to be done. This fighting has to stop. he told the mighty beast.

I agree, even though we may not live through this. You realize that don't you?

A pause. Yes...I do.

*It's okay, Ayumi. Just read it over, and if you still don't understand, let me know. Lord Anzius, no offense, but your posts are too confusing. Before you submit your posts, make sure you go over them to see if you have any punctuation, spelling, or grammatical errors. Give lots of detail. Your posts are good; they just need a little bit of work. So if you could edit your last post, please, I would really appreciate it. *

Ari's face became red with fury as she stalked back into the room. She cursed, pacing back and forth.
Her anger suddenly ceased when Ian started to cough; she rushed to his side, holding him up. When he stopped, Ari laid him back down slowly, covering him up with the blanket a little more. She stroked his face, moving his hair out of the way. He looked so sick, but at the same time so strong, so peaceful.

Ari turned to Cris and Ciru. She nodded towards Ciru, who was lying on the bed. "Are you going to be okay?" she murmured to him.

Ciru nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Let's go back to the river massacre site and see if there are signs of other Al'aran," said Garrel, his tone thick with sarcasm.

"It was a good idea at the time. The beasts came out of nowhere, for all we know there could be legions of them flying around the desert. And my voice does not sound like that," replied Viedna.

You two sound like bickering children. Chided Alexander

It must be all the time they've been spending around the younger riders said Roslyn in reply.

The two dragons crested a cloudbank, and the city of Kettia came into view.

"This *cannot* be good news," said Viedna, evidently in reference to the thick black fog that appeared to be beginning to dissipate from its location over the city.

"Bloodmagic and...something else," noted Garrel, who sounded as though he were trying to identify a particular bad flavour in an old wine.

"You're a spirit-creature of some sort, correct?" Asked Viedna, before realising how thoroughly personal the question might be considered to be.

"What would make you say that?"

"You're scared of the girl, the rider who helped me cripple the male Al'aran. She's clearly a sprite or some other elfkin, and it would make sense for you to fear her if you were earth-spiritkin. You also show a natural affinity with magic and nature, but display no over magical ability, as per spiritkin."

"How...deductive of you. I am descended from an earth-spirit, and can....summon that aspect of myself at will. So why this questioning, going to denounce me to the others?"

"Hardly. With the boy having just published his heritage to the three major factions in the upcoming war, an attack by a barely-known enemy, and now this second attack....I have no time to relive the Race-wars. It is merely something worth knowing."

The two dragons landed inside the fog-shrouded palace grounds. Through force of will, Viedna extended his magic-dampening aura so that it was projected a few hundred feet in every direction. The strain was tremendous but when Viedna let the field collapse to it's natural size, the air was clear of fog around them.

"Shadow-magic," Viedna spat. "I hate shadow-magic."

The two swordsmen ran into the palace, blades drawn, searching for their comrades.

Azrayel/Crysilla-

Marodomin regarded Ray with a wry smile. "You don't trust me." He observed.

"I don't trust anyone." Ray snapped. "My mother was obsessed with the weapons, to the extant where she neglected everything else, and obsession ultimately killed her. My best friend betrayed me for power. And my own father sanctioned my repeated torture and banishment, which in the Desert is a death sentence."

Cris winced at the bitterness in Ray's voice, Ari looked over a her sympathetically. "He's telling the truth." She asked, and Cris nodded miserably.

*All I can think of, I'm a bit confused too.*

*Sorry about that*

MARADOMIN:

"let me stay for at least two days." Maradomin said smiling
"I assure you. You will meet the clans."

The prince was still sceptical about him but he told the guards to give Maradomin a room.
When Maradomin got to the room he was surprised to see that the woman had followed him there.

"Why are you here?" Maradomin asked
"The guards thought I was with you. It is because of these robes." She gazed at her dark knights robes with disgust.
"I hate it." she stated

"You don't seem angry at me anymore." Maradomin said
The woman looked at him "Why would I be. You are going to help us, or that is the picture I got. And you let me go." she replied

Maradomin smiled.

"I never caught your name." he said "May I ask what would it be?"
The woman looked at him smiling widely "Chyntia. I'm from the west part of the saviours lands."

"I see."
"Do you like books?" Maradomin asked. As he asked he also took his book from his cloak.

In the night you could just and only just hear two voices laughing "I shall smite thee, foul demon of the underworld. ha ha, That is a classic."

Thorn and Gorton flew well into the day, reaching the outskirts of Athanasia quickly. They slowed their pace and dropped their altitude; any sudden movement and any shadow would give them away.

How is Ian doing? Thorn asked his dragon. He waited patiently as the message was passed through the dragons.

He is not much better. Shyen says he won't even respond to her.

Thorn sighed. That was not good...was it even possible that Ian was giving up? Was he really failing, dying? He shook his head. No. I can't accept that. I know my son; he has the heart of a warrior. He will not give up so easily.

The castle came into sight, yet it wasn't the castle he remembered. The giant dome that had housed Hanik and his dragon after the coup de ta was destroyed. The only things left standing were lower sections in the walls and pillars. Everything else had been reduced to splintered wood; gravelized marble; and large, useless chunks of granite. The rubble was being moved into a courtyard on the same level.

The duo landed in the shelter of the trees, but they could still see the wreckage.

Gorton snorted. Did Ian do this?

Thorn nodded. Damn. Hanik really pissed him off that night... I never thought it would be THIS bad!

Thorn dismounted and stood next to his giant steed. He pat the black dragon's upper leg; it was as high as Thorn could reach on the beast. We must wait until night fall. Then I will go in alone. Be ready to come in on my signal.

And what and when will that be?

Thorn already had a plan. He smirked playfully, a trait he had passed down to his son. You'll see.

*ok, I'm confused; did Maradomin take Ray aside, out of the infirmary, or talk to him in the infirmary??*

Ciru

He waited for Maradomin to leave, then turned to the others, "I don't like this. What's to stop him killing the other clan leaders once he has them here and stealing their power, or whatever it is he'd want from them?"

He did heal you, Ciru. You should at least show some gratitude for that. Whether or not he was the one who cursed you in the first place, he could've left it there. Otraol's response was quick, and Ciru could hear the wry smile in his voice.

I don't like either of those. Shadows are never friendly without some other motive. He hasn't put some extra curse on me, nothing powerful enough for me to feel it anyway, but I expect he wants my gratitude to have me on side when the time comes. Whenever that might be.

Nerad

The pair of guards stepped in between Nerad and Kaniy and the doors of the palace, one of them raising his voice in warning to the two Dark Knights as they stepped through the barrier, and then Kaniy was directly in front of them, his two kukri knives slashing through their throats. He stepped back from the bodies, turning as Nerad closed the distance between them.

"We could've used them, Kaniy. Information."

"I doubt it. Our targets shouldn't be hard to find. If we know anything about Ian, he'll come looking for us. Ciru, on the other hand, should be wherever they keep their sick and wounded."

Nerad smiled, "Of course. I forgot he'd been wounded." He gestured at the bodies, "Should we do anything with these two?"

Kaniy shook his head, "What's the point? We want them to know we're here - it'll make it easier for us to find them, while we'll still be hard to find."

*ok, I'm confused; did Maradomin take Ray aside, out of the infirmary, or talk to him in the infirmary??*

He took him aside from the infirmary.


MARADOMIN:

He slept on the bed.
Cynthia slept on a mattress on the ground.

Maradomin heard shouting from the corridor, he woke up. Maradomin opened the bedroom door, a guard fell in.

He saw the prince running at him, when the prince got to him, the prince immediately put the scimitar on Maradomins throath.

"What are you doing Azrayel?" Maradomin asked
The prince was enraged "Your friends attacked us... so this was your plan all along was it not?"

"I have nothing to do with this!" Maradomin hissed
"Don't lie to me, you damn shadow." the prince was red of rage.
Maradomin looked at him intensively under his hood "I have nothing to do with this. High prince."
"And if we do not hurry, more people will die."

Hesitantly Ray took the scimitar off of Maradomins throat.

The two started running through the corridor; "I know who did this." Maradomin said
"Who?" asked the prince
"Nerand!" Maradomin replied.

They picked up some more speed.
They got to a small hall.
Maradomin stopped.

"Wait." He commanded, the prince turned at him, but Maradomin ignored his cold look.
"I will activate the sword." Maradomin sat down
"I will need you to guard me." Maradomin started to speak in a abnormal tongue, and as he did the sword in his hands, started doing the impossible: it radiated darkness.

That was about when Ciru ran into the hall, in pain because of his wounds. The prince smiled, happy that his friend was alive.
But Ciru was followed by Nerand.

*Anzius you need to tone down on the action and the progression of plot, and build up description. The other contributors aren't getting a chance to get their bearings, and you're making large, confusing advances in the plot without the input of the rest of us.*

*sry . I'll just be watching for some time how the story, progresses . I'll try and work on my descriptive writing at the same time. sry again. *

**It's okay. Think of it as constructive criticism. **

Ciru

He staggered around the corner, one hand clutching at his side. He dropped to his knees as he came within sight of Maradomin and Azrayel, longsword clattering to the floor. He could hear Nerad approaching behind him, and reached one hand back, making the gravity increase dramatically around him.

Nerad

He could feel Ciru's power taking effect, only within an area about five steps around him. Nerad's body became insubstantial, and the man stepped into the space unhampered. He couldn't become solid and kill Ciru until the man let up, but that wouldn't be long, given the state he was in. The question was whether he could hold up long enough for the prince to do something. The prince, and...Nerad's eyes narrowed on the man next to the prince. Maradomin. That filthy traitor hadn't just betrayed the mission for his own ambitions, whatever they were, he'd turned rogue.

With a growl, Nerad stepped through Ciru's body, walking towards Maradomin. He had no idea where Kaniy was, no doubt the teleporter was trying to find Ian, but the palace wasn't as easy to navigate as they'd expected.