Shadow's Rising {Wing 5} Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The Dragonthro

Jarid went to bed on his second day with Brazor the Dragonire with his head spinning from all the fire magic he had been taught the night before and anticipation about learning more about his power as a Dragonthro.

In the morning Brazor prepared a breakfast of strange bat-like creatures covered in dried magma. Each was the size of a small horse. Jarid had been wondering about something for a while and decided to ask.

“Brazor? Where are you getting all this food? I thought the dragons in the city were starving.”

Brazor nodded as he fried the meat, which smelled delicious. “Yes. There are many dragons who are starving out there, but those are just the commoner dragons. They get whatever is left over from the nobles’ hunting parties. Ever since the ash drove away the animals, monsters have been the only real source of food. Even those are growing hard to find and soon only the most dangerous of them will remain.”

Jarid felt terrible for the common dragons, but he didn’t have much time to think about it as Brazor handed him a plate and started talking about the Dragonthro.

“There have been dragon born long before humans came to this continent, but the process of using dragon blood as a cure to the condition only came about a few hundred years ago. The first Dragonthro was the result of unethical experiments done on a dragon born whose true name was unknown. He was called ‘The Molten Master’ and his magic was impressive to say the least. Back then, most of the continent was a wild place dominated by monsters, yet he was able to slay whole armies of them almost single handedly.”

Jarid forgot he was eating and simply sat in rapt silence as Brazor explained the history of the Dragonthro.

“Over time the dragon born were given proper rights and integrated into magic society as unstable but potentially powerful magic users. There was a treaty between dragons and humans that neither side would attack the other, but that ended almost twenty years ago. So, dragon blood was hard to come by back then. The few Dragonthro that were created became powerful in many ways. The original founder of Dragon Rider academy was Dragonale if I remember correctly.”

Jarid nodded. He remembered Airel mentioning that before. It was amazing to think he had the same power as someone like that.

Brazor shrugged off the right shoulder of his robe to expose his well muscled chest and arm.

“During the infusion process, part of the body is burned and then extinguished by dipping it in dragon blood. For me this was my right arm and a bit of my chest. Since the wound heals quickly due to the dragon blood coagulating, it is hard to see where the infusion took place, unless…”

Brazor closed his eyes for a moment and suddenly the skin on his right arm and chest hardened into something similar to dragon scales. Jarid couldn’t help his jaw nearly dropping to the floor at the sight. Could he do that? How did Brazor do it? So many questions and theories were running through his head but in the end, he decided to simply wait for Brazor to explain.

“This is known as the Dragonthro transformation, and it has nine stages. Each stage awakens more of your dragon blood which allows you to use more of the mana stored within you and in the atmosphere around you. The highest stages even allow for the control of atmospheric mana outside your body. You will also gain more draconic features with each transformation to a certain degree. You can’t gain wings or a tail through this, though some have grown small horns.”

Jarid could hardly believe it. Then again, he did remember Airel saying something like that.

“I think something like that happened to me before. I was angry at some bullies who were hurting a friend of mine, and I suddenly felt this power running through me. One of my friends said it looked like I had dragon scales.”

Brazor rubbed his chin for a moment. “You probably experienced a mana fracture. It occurs more commonly in dragon born and is often what ends up killing them. For Dragonthro the dragon blood helps the body adapt and heal. You basically start leaking massive amounts of mana which forces you into stage 6 of the Dragonthro transformation. This is very dangerous since you are ripping open the body’s mana storage organ. The dragon blood may help you heal but it can leave a scar, and repeated tears may result in you being unable to store mana at all.”

Yikes, Jarid thought. I won’t be losing my cool again any time soon.

Brazor could tell by Jarid’s expression that his warning had been understood so he moved on.

“The first two stages can be achieved through focus and meditation. The first stage can be the most difficult as you must activate your dragon blood with no reference for how it should feel. The second stage can be achieved either by pushing through hardship in the first stage or gaining a deeper understanding of how the blood flows within you. With each subsequent stage you will only be able to advance to the next stage when you understand the limitations of your current stage entirely. This can be done through long spans of meditation in your current stage or thorough getting your but kicked at that stage. Never underestimate how much you can learn by losing young Dragonight. Now, let us begin your meditation training.”

Brazor stood in a relaxed stance and gestured for Jarid to copy him. Over the next few hours Brazor instructed Jarid in the practice of meditation. By the end, Jarid had gotten no closer to the first stage of the Dragonthro transformation, but he did enjoy the feeling of calm focus he had while meditating.

For the rest of that day Jarid practiced his mana cloak and a few of the techniques from the night before. In the evening Brazor continued to instruct him in magic theory while pointing out new ways to use his fire magic.

For the next two weeks every day had the same routine. Wake up and run around the outside of the temple to practice his mana cloak then meditate until breakfast. After breakfast he would do drills with Brazor practicing everything he had learned the previous day and anything he was still struggling with. Then he would do training on his own until dinner and learn magic theory until he went to bed.

During that time only a few dragons had used the temple. Even the dragon who first let Jarid in was rarely seen. He seemed kind enough, but Jarid couldn’t seem to bring himself to speak to him, and Brazor was never around to introduce them on the few occasions they met.

Today was special. Brazor had decided that Jarid understood enough magic theory to teach him the basics of simple enchanting. He had also finished his work on Jarid’s music device. He took out the music device along with what looked like a satchel made from leather Jarid had never seen before. Both had strange runes inscribed on them in silvery metal.

“These are gifts for you that I will use to illustrate how enchanting works. You will notice that I have drawn the binary code using magnalium. It is a great conductor of magic energy and becomes inert so long as it has mana flowing through it. As you can imagine, magnalium is hard to come by in a place associated with fire so, unfortunately, I don’t have any you can practice with.”

Jarid actually couldn’t imagine why, but he nodded anyway so they could get to the interesting part.

“What you probably don’t know is that magic energy is manipulated by the pathways in the brain and so long as you force magic to follow a similar pathway it will create the same effect on an object. Enchanting in two dimensions uses binary code while enchanting in three dimensions uses trinary code. Trinary code will likely become a lost art since the only places it was used were man-made dungeons and the magic city. Even I don’t fully understand how it works. Binary on the other hand…”

He sent some magic through the music device, and it was covered in a small mana cloak while it played one of Jarid’s favorite songs. Jarid could hardly contain his excitement.

Brazor proceeded to show Jarid how the enchantments he had used on the items worked and how to repair them should they ever be damaged.

“Unfortunately, I can’t teach you the details in the time we have. Just remember the patterns and give special attention to how long there is between each change in direction, and you should be fine. The satchel is a storage item that has an expanded space inside. This one can almost fit a full-grown dragon but you can only put in items that fit easily through the opening and it does little about the weight so the entire thing has been reinforced.”

Jarid had never been so excited in his life before and spent the next hour trying to fit things into the satchel and playing songs using his new magic music box. Brazor watched with amusement until a certain song came on. “The Pheonix” by Fall Out Boy. Then his expression changed first to shock and then forlorn. Jarid turned to him with a questioning expression.

Brazor waved his hand that he was alright. “Don’t worry about it. That was the soul song of my professor while he was teaching me. He passed away when we… When the magic city was destroyed.”

“Soul song?”

“Yes. It is a song that resonates with the soul of the person. It can change but for the most part it calls to a deep part of who you are. When you listen to a soul song it can unlock depths of magic you wouldn’t normally be able to reach. Music in general can help you manipulate the flow of magic within yourself, but a soul song has a far greater effect. Here, let me show you. Play “Bring That Fire” by War*Hall.”

Jarid looked up the song while Brazor removed his robe to allow for free movement.

“Ah! Found it,” Jarid exclaimed. He turned the small speaker, so it was pointing towards Brazor, and pressed play. As the music started up Brazor cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. He then lifted his hands until they were level with his shoulders on both sides, palms facing upward. As the first words were spoken pillars of flame sprang up from each of them.

Bring that Fire! (woah…) Woah…

Bring that Fire!

As the first verse played Brazor began to sway. “You’d better believe I’ll be standing here, there ain’t no one who can outshine my sun. I wasn’t born as an accident. No. I’ve been running it since I was young.”

Jarid wasn’t sure if the words he was saying lined up but the pillars of flames he was holding rose and fell in time with the beat of the song.

It’s time for me to light it, so they can’t deny it. (Yeah)

Brazor crouched down as the pillars of flame condensed down into rapidly spinning balls of fire in his hands. As he sang that last line the balls of flame grew brighter and brighter.

Bring that Fire!

He shouted the last line as he forcefully combined the two balls of flame and shot them into the air where they exploded with a thunderous boom and wave of heat so strong it almost knocked Jarid to the ground.

Brazor strolled over, looking refreshed, and waved for Jarid to turn off his music. “Thank you Jarid. It has been ages since I last heard that song. Man, that felt good. Why don’t you give it a try? I imagine you probably have at least one song you resonate with.”

Jarid wrung his hands nervously. “Do I have to?”

Brazor frowned in confusion. This was the first time Jarid had ever asked not to do one of his drills.

“Why? Is something the matter?”

Jarid swallowed hesitantly. “Well… I sometimes get a little… too into it, you know? I start feeling arrogant and powerful, then I black out. On my own it isn’t so bad, but the last time it happened I ended up killing people.”

Brazor’s brow furrowed even further. “I’ve heard of some Dragonthro becoming arrogant from the power flowing through them, but I’ve never heard of anyone blacking out from it. How interesting.”

“Interesting? I ended up killing people because of this!” Jarid retorted angrily.

Brazor nodded. “Yes, yes. I suppose we need to get to the bottom of this, so you don’t end up hurting anyone else, won’t we?”

Jarid nodded uncomfortably. “Yes, I suppose so. But how are we going to do that?”

Brazor grinned. “Simple. You just need to let yourself be lost in the music right in front of me.”

“WHAT!” Jarid exclaimed. “I just told you that I ended up killing people the last time I did that.”

“So you did, but I am not like most people. At your current level I doubt I’d need to go any higher than stage two to keep either of us from being injured. Even if you grew strong enough to blow up this whole temple, I would hardly break a sweat. So don’t worry about it.”

Jarid knew Brazor was strong but after experiencing how tough the stone was here it was hard to believe he would ever be able to destroy this structure in one go. He knew Brazor was just trying to reassure him but that didn’t stop him from feeling pathetic.

Jarid took a deep breath and shook out his limbs to remove the nervous tingles he felt. Even with Brazor’s assurance he still worried about hurting him. “Very well. I will do as you have asked but I will not be responsible for whatever happens next.”

Brazor agreed and gestured for him to continue. With a resigned sigh, Jarid searched for “Monster” by Skillet and pressed play.

As the song began Jarid stood still and simply felt the mana flowing through his body in time with the music.

“There’s a secret side of me, I never let you see. I had it caged but I can’t control it. So, stay away from me, the beast is coming. I feel the flames and I just can’t hold it,” he growled softly.

As Jarid began singing a wind whipped up around him like a tornado just beginning to form.

“Why won’t somebody try to free me, come on, let’s get started!” Jarid exclaimed as he threw his arms out with an explosion of wind and fire magic.

I feel it deep within, it’s just beneath the skin.

“I must confess that I feel like a Dragon! I love what I’ve become. Your nightmare’s just begun. I must confess that I feel like a Dragon!”

Jarid felt the familiar arrogance and power building as he held out his left hand with a small fire ball in it. “I, I feel like a dragon!”

Then he held out his right. “I, I feel like a dragon!”

Another fireball appeared in his other hand before he squeezed both hands to crush the flames into nothing.

“My secret side concealed, hidden and molten sealed. I kept it caged but I can’t control it.”

Jarid could feel that he was at the point of no return. His arms flowed seemingly of their own accord as fire, wind and earth magic swirled around him. Even the words coming out of his mouth felt as if someone else was speaking them.

“Why won’t you let me out? You’ll tear me up, bring me down.

“Why won’t somebody try to free me, come on, let’s get started!”

Jarid felt himself fading more and more as he sang the chorus one last time.

“I feel it deep within, it’s just beneath my skin. I must confess that I feel like a dragon. I love what I’ve become. Your nightmare’s just begun. I must confess… I AM a Dragon!”

With those last words Jarid’s mind faded completely and his consciousness sank into darkness.