Chapter 1
For the rest of his life, Sindarion looked back fondly on the warm memories of Kaloth’s farm. He grew up helping the blacksmith, his step-father Barontas. It was hard work but it had its benefits. The blacksmith and his family lived above the forge so it was always warm in winter. This was very appreciated, as it could get very cold in winter. Then again it was always cold in Chaldan, the northernmost country on the continent. Sindarion and his family lived in the north of Chaldan as well, which explained the cold.
There was a lot of room in the blacksmiths quarters as it was just Sindarion, Barontas and Sindarion’s step sister, Karilion. Sindarion loved Karilion, his younger sister very much. In fact he loved both Barontas and Karilion as if they were actually related. Sindarion had been adopted by Barontas and his wife, 14 years ago. When Karilion was born it was very much to the joy of Barontas and his wife. However, mere weeks later, Barontas’ wife became very sick.
She died within 2 weeks of Karilion being born, who was named after her. Both Sindarion and Barontas mourned for the customary 3 months. This was strange because at the time Sindarion was only 3.
At the forge, Sindarion helped by fetching the ingots and pumping the bellows. He did not help with the actual forging because Barontas had told him to wait until he was strong enough. This was why in his free time Sindarion usually tried to lift as many ingots as he possibly could. When Barontas found out about this, he made a tray with handles to help Sindarion lift them, as they were starting to topple out of his hands.
It was during one such exercise that Sindarion noticed another child watching him. Sindarion put down the weights and went out to speak to the child. Sindarion had only ever been out of the forge when with his step-father, buying metal from the store in the village just down the road. As he walked closer he realised it was a boy.
“Hello,” Sindarion said. “Who are you?” At first the boy didn’t answer. He just stared strangely at Sindarion. Then abruptly, after seeming to judge him, the boy stuck out his hand to shake.
“Hi,” the boy answered, shaking his hand. “I’m Kaldranion. Who are you? I have never seen you at dinner or any of the fairs.” Kaldranion seemed to be rather confused about this fact.
“I’m Sindarion. My step-father brings us our meals and I help him at the stall on fair days.”
“Who is your step-father?” Kaldranion asked, still confused, but now for a different reason. “And I look at all the stalls and I haven’t seen you before. And why did you say ‘us’ instead of ‘me’?”
“My step-father is Barontas, the blacksmith.” Sindarion said. “And I said ‘us’ because he brings food to both me and my 5-year-old step-sister.” Sindarion was a bit taken back by Kaldranion’s quick firing questions. However, he took a liking to the kid and said goodbye before walking back to the forge.
Barontas was waiting for him, back at the forge. He said "Hello" before asking if he could come inside.
“What were you doing out there?” Barontas asked Sindarion.
“I was just speaking to Kaldranion, father.” Sindarion replied, wondering why he was being asked this. “Why?”
“When we adopted you…” Barontas started. Suddenly there was a loud knocking at the door. “Who is it?” Barontas called out.
“Somebody is asking for you Barontas,” a voice replied from behind the door. Sindarion realised that it was, in fact, Kaloth. The door, however, had muffled the voice making it hard to recognise. Barontas muttered something that Sindarion didn’t quite catch before walking out the door.
Moments later, Barontas came back into the forge with a great, beaming smile on his face.
“I have some great news son.” Barontas exclaimed, still smiling. “A new Guild has been created in Chidan. A Guild for Dragon Riding. And they want us to help build their saddles, armour and weapons. And they will be travelling around in all the towns of Chaldan to pick the riders every year.”
And so Sindarion learnt how to make the armour for the dragon riders. He was actually getting to smith. It was his first ever dream come true. Barontas had told that the saddle work was too complicated for the time being and the weapons too dangerous so, he made armour.
The armour was made of a strange metal. It was very light and still quite strong. It wasn’t your usual iron or steel like was normally used. This was because although iron and steel were stronger, they were apparently too heavy to be used while in the air.
Whilst he was happy to finally be learning to do the blacksmith’s trade, he was a bit confused as to how the riders would be picked. And so, he asked Barontas.
“Well, I have been told that they will pick their riders in a similar fashion to the warrior guild.” Barontas replied. “However, they will be picking people who will be slightly smaller so the dragons can be more manoeuvrable. They will also be trying to pick the smarter ones. We will be going with them to get the measurements so we can get to work straight away. But first we need to stop off at the new guild building.”
“When are we going?” Sindarion asked, a bit confused by what was happening. “And is Karilion coming too?”
“We are going when we have packed all of our stuff.” Barontas replied to the first question. “And yes, Karilion is coming with us. Now start packing. I will go and tell Karilion and then I’ll help her before coming back to you.”
Sindarion set off to his room. Once inside he lay on the bed for a few moments before getting back up and going to work. He emptied all of his drawers. He did not have much. Just a few tunics and leggings. He also had his prized set of leather armour, which he was taking just in case, along with his short sword.
Ever since the day Barontas had made them for him, along with a training dummy, Sindarion had been practising, almost every day. He was also fairly competent with a bow, which he was also taking along with his arrows. He had only ever used them on targets before though.
He thought back to his conversation with Kaldranion. He didn’t realise why he thought it strange for a while. But then he realised. Most kids his age were out and about and playing. But he had barely ever left the house.
He was bringing his weapons, because he had heard of how there were a few brigands roaming around the lands, and brand new guilds were often targeted while recruiting. This was because they would have few people to start off with and they would have to protect the new recruits.
Sindarion was also wondering whether, or not, he could be chosen. This was because all his life, Sindarion had been fascinated by dragons. Sindarion was very excited to be going to actually live with them.
“Sindarion, hurry up!” He heard his father’s shout through the floor. He put his final item into the case and brought it downstairs. His father had already packed most of the tools, and Sindarion went to help him. He spotted his sister sitting in the corner, nibbling on a small piece of bread.
Another thing he was looking forward to was his awakening. He was only two years away from it. He hoped that he would awaken to fire, like Barontas, but he knew that, since he had been adopted, it would be completely random. The element that most people awakened to, was hereditary, being either the mother’s, or the father’s. He knew he could awaken to either: fire, water, air, earth or lightning. However, he had also heard that some of the noble houses had special versions of their element, and some were a combination. For example, there was one family which had magma. Apparently he would find out more on how the awakening works after he had actually awoken.
The time of your awakening was also when you had started to grow up. This was marked by the changing of your name. The “ion” at the end of the name would be taken off. This meant that Sindarion would be called Sindar and when Karilion awakened, she would be called Karil.
It was then that Sindarion awoke from his daydream and realised that they were ready to go. He stepped out of the forge and lifted his case into the back of the wagon. He then jumped up behind it and settled down. It did not take long for him to fall asleep.
Sindarion awoke, next to his sister in the back of the wagon. He looked around and realised they were now passing through a forest.
“Where are we dad?” Sindarion asked Barontas, who was sitting at the front of the wagons holding the reins of the horse. Sindarion moved forward to sit next to him. “I don’t think we’ve been here before.”
“You’re right son,” Barontas replied. “You’ve never been here before. We are in Makanari Forest. We will be stopping in a few hours.”
Sindarion looked around curiously. He realised that the trees looked different from back home. Here they were faintly red and they were absolutely huge. They were maybe 3 meters in diameter and Sindarion could not even see the top, but he assumed they were about 50 meters tall.
He also noticed that there were not many plants on the forest floor, merely a layer of dead leaves. This confused him, because the small forest near the farm always had animals running around. You could always hear rustling, and chirping birds. Occasionally you could also sometimes hear the howling of wolves on the hunt.
Here, there was nothing. All was silent except from the thuds of the horse’s hooves along the dirt track. Going along the track, they found a clearing by the side. They stopped the cart and got down. Sindarion found one of the tents in the pile of stuff they had brought.
He started setting up his tent while his father went out and collected some firewood. At this point Karilion woke up in the back of the cart and looked around blearily. Then, she noticed that neither Sindarion or Barontas were in the cart. In fact, the cart wasn’t moving. She jumped, startled when Sindarion clapped his hands onto her shoulders.
“Hey!” she cried out. “Sindarion, stop being mean.”
“What, me?” he replied innocently, before he started laughing. Karilion pouted and looked away before stating, “Well, in that case I won’t help you”
At this remark Sindarion stopped teasing his sister before he went back to putting up his tent. Behind him, Karilion struggled to lift another of the tents, before she eventually gave up and got some cooking utensils out.
By the time Barontas returned with a huge armful of firewood, Sindarion had set up his tent, and, along with Karilion, was sitting on a log. The log had been very heavy for Sindarion, so he was quite tired. It was also getting late and it was quite cold so he was looking forward to a nice hot fire.
After a short meal consisting of a light stew and some bread that would end up stale before they actually reached their destination, they all fell asleep in their separate tents.
Two weeks later, they were finally approaching their long-awaited destination. The dirt track had joined onto a stone paved one, on which merchant caravans and travellers were journeying, all to the same place.
There in the distance, Sindarion could see the tall black wall and white towers surrounding the city. It was also at this point that Sindarion realised that he did not even know the name of tis place, despite it being the capital.
“Dad, what is the name of the city?” Sindarion asked Barontas, slightly embarrassed and hoping nobody else heard his question.
“It is called Sindarea,” Barontas replied. “I think you were named after it. Although it is strange that it is also called the city of the lost prince, and the name had been changed to that fairly recently. I am sure it is all a strange coincidence.”
After we passed through the gate and under the wall, Barontas moved the cart straight along the road. It was not long before the road which branched off the guild district appeared. However it soon went past us as we carried on.
“Father, weren’t we meant to turn just then?” I asked confused. “That was the road to the guild district.”
“Yes, that was the road to the guild district,” Barontas replied. “but the dragon riding guild is not in the guild district. There is a path going from the back of the city into the mountains, so the guild can be as close as possible to where the dragons usually nest.” That explained why we carried on down the main road, and we soon reached the other side of the city.
The dirt track was simply that, a track. It was bumpy the entire time. It also meant that they were all even more pleased to finally see the guild building and know that the journey was almost over.
The guild building looked very much like a fortress built into the side of a mountain. Sindarion hadn't actually realised this at the time but that was what it had been before the guild was created and found it hidden in the mountainside. Sindarion was just too shocked because he had just seen a young dragon who was peeking his head over the wall to look at what was making the noise.
The cart and the horse's hooves were in fact making a lot of noise now because of the rocks on the path, which the horse kept stepping on and the cart's wheels kept bumping over.
The dragon's head was fairly long and seemed like a mix between a lizard and a wolf. There were 3 horns on each side of the head all curving back at different angles. Within its gold and purple eyes, there seemed to be an almost childish playfulness hidden, revealing the immaturity of the dragon.
The eyes were surrounded by surrounded by tiny scales, of three different colours that seemed to occur all over the dragon. There was a beautiful snowy white, with azure hints and golden stripes. The colours made me think of it as rays of sunlight across a field of ice and snow.
Then the cart went through the gate and Sindarion lost sight of it, which disappointed him, until he realised he would almost definitely see the amazing dragon again.
The cart trundled along until they reached the blacksmiths area. They all got out of the cart and looked around, curious of the surroundings. There was a boy, standing nearby, who walked over to greet them.
"Hello, welcome to the guild. You can unpack all of your tools here, and I can show you to where you will be living. When you are ready, I will show you to the cafeteria."
"Thank you..." Barontas started.
"Jarokion," the boy said. "My name is Jarokion."
"Yes, well thank you, Jarokion, for your assistance." Barontas said, before they started to unpack all of the tools out of the cart and into the forge that was there. Inside the building, they found multiple forges set up. They found an empty one nearby the door, and set up everything as it had been at the farm.
Around an hour later, they had finished setting up shop and they walked back outside. Jarokion seemed to be trying to answering all of Karilion's fast firing questions. Most of them seemed to be about dragons.
"Stop pestering the boy, Karilion," Barontas sighed. Jarokion looked very relieved at this statement. "You can ask him some more questions later." Jarokion slumped in despair at having to listen to, and answer even more of Karilion's bombardment of questions..
Jarokion beckoned to us before walking away and telling us to follow him. He led them to the building next to the forges and opened the door. They all walked in and then stopped, amazed at the size of the room. It was a huge lounge, filled with couches, and there was a huge fireplace in the opposite wall.
Jarokion carried on walking through unflustered until he realised he was the only one moving, at which point he stopped, confused. Suddenly he realised that they probably weren't used to the luxury of the room and that they were simply surprised. He cleared his throat, before beckoning them to him once more.
Slightly embarrassed, they followed him up a staircase in the wall that was facing the blacksmiths work-area and climbed up. It was at this point that Sindarion realised that they would be living above their forge once more. He wondered if the other blacksmiths were already here and if there was anybody his age or Karilion's age that were with the blacksmiths.
He also wondered what the other blacksmiths would be making because he knew that him and Barontas would be making armour for the riders. At the top of the stairs, the common room for the blacksmiths was much simpler than the one downstairs. Sindarion was sure he would find out why later.
Sindarion and Barontas went back out of the building and brought all their remaining luggage into their room. After this, Jarokion brought them to the cafeteria to eat. When they stepped inside, Karilion gasped quietly at the sight of the food, and at the luxury that appeared, once more blaring out.
Jarokion showed us how everything worked before showing us where the blacksmiths ate. Like the common room for the blacksmiths, this area was much, much simpler and more drab compared to the other. There were a few rugged men, and a few more people - who were probably their families. They were all sitting at a plain wooden table with a few benches on each side.
Sindarion sat down at the table and put some of the delicious smelling food that was in the middle of the table. The smell of the food was the only thing that seemed to be the same as in the other room.
Sindarion put the first mouthful of the unknown meat into his mouth and the flavours seemed to almost explode his taste buds from the shear quality of it. Sindarion had no idea that food could be so good.
After the godly meal, Sindarion and his family went back to their room quietly, not talking once to the other groups. They did overhear the comment that they were second to last that had appeared. There was just one more blacksmith to come, possibly with his family.
Sindarion had noticed that the largest group of people was three although, theirs was a bit different in components. His family had a son/apprentice and a daughter with the main blacksmith, whereas the other groups of three were an apprentice and a wife with the main blacksmith. He was a bit disappointed with that fact.
When they got back to their room, Sindarion asked the question that was on his mind ever since he saw the common room.
"Why are the two common rooms so different," Sindarion asked Barontas. "The one downstairs is much fancier and more expensive, just like the two cafeterias."
"It is to impress the nobles and to make sure they try to gain a place in the guild." Barontas replied to Sindarion's question.
Sindarion was slightly surprised at the fact that nobles would be coming here and he might have to make armour for some of them. Sindarion then realised that the nobles would be where much of their money would come from so they would want to impress the nobles and have as many noble children chosen by a dragon as possible.
"Anyway, go to sleep now," Barontas said. "It is quite late."
Sindarion reluctantly went to his room and got into the bed. He was so excited that he found it quite hard to actually fall asleep. Eventually though he did sleep.
Suddenly he woke up to a bright white light. It was everywhere he looked. However a few seconds later, the light dimmed until he could see again. He was still in his room, However, there was a bright ball of light floating above his head. Out of nowhere... there was a cliffhanger at the end of the story... (Because i have already given up)
