Chp 2 - Stuck on Top

"Child, this is when I leave you, it is time for you to go off and live your own life. You must find your own destiny," The dragon was the colour of the dark night sky, he would almost blend in if it wasn't for his emerald green eyes that glowed in the pitch black darkness.

He dropped the small young dragon atop the castle, his eyes were closed and he looked peaceful as he slept without a care in the world. Not knowing what had been happening, something that would change his life forever.

The black dragon had countless scars littered all over his body, they weren't the prettiest. But he was proud of them they were his wounds from the countless battles that he fought.

He stretched his wings that were leathery like a bats. The dragon flew away into the endless expanse of the night sky disappearing into the clouds. A full moon hung over the small red dragon that slept atop the castle walls. There was no treasure, just some furniture that looked very old.

At the rising of the sun the young dragon opened his eyes, still half-asleep he looked around confused at his surroundings. Then the dread and fear set in, where was he? What was he doing here?

The unfamiliar sights around him filled with such an intense fear he hadn't felt in a long time. Cautiously he looked over the edge of the walls. His heart stopped he jumped away, how high was this place?

The dragon curled into himself trembling, no matter how much he tried to hide it he still had his fear of heights no matter what he did. What was he supposed to do now?

The dragon had never learned to fly, he was too scared to, the more he flew the higher he got. The dragons were prideful creatures that never cried, and were never scared. But for some reason he was different, and a tear rolled out of his eye.

For the first time he had felt what it truly was to be a dragon who had to survive on his own, the loneliness that all dragons probably felt at times, he felt it. He finally understood what it meant.

Slowly the red dragon grew older but he stayed there, his fire grew hotter, but the fire in his eyes grew dimmer. Except for his power of fire he also had another power, the power of illusion.

To bring humans to him he made the illusion that the castle was filled with gold and a vast selection of other sparkling jewellery's. Though the humans came with bad intentions towards him it was better than being completely isolated by himself.

Sometimes he made illusions for himself, friends he made himself so he wouldn't be alone. But the problem was he knew they weren't real, it was his power after all. His powers grew stronger grew strong but what was the point.

The dragon grew used to the fear that would fill his heart whenever he looked down. But even if he got down what would he do? Continue to live his life but on the ground?

The dragon eventually also got tired of the humans that came to take his treasure, it was even a bit challenging, just a breath of fire and they would be burnt into a pile of ashes, and with the next gust of wind they would be blown away to who knows where.

Then one day a boy came, he was different. He hadn't come for the gold but purely just to give him a teddy bear he had made himself. To keep him company? This pathetic human, thinking that just a single badly made teddy bear could cure this loneliness that he had cultivated over all these years?

The human had tried to throw it up to him then failed, then after he swore on his life that he would get him down.

The dragon's heart twisted with a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time. Was this feeling hope? For the first time he felt he actually had a chance of getting down from this place he had spent the majority of his life at.

There was no curse trapping him here the only that kept him here was his fear of heights wasn't it? Also the fact that he had never learned to fly. The boy helping him would only be a waste of time.

But what was this feeling of still wanting him to stay? Was this boy the prince charming that would save him from his life of solitude? But wasn't he too old for these kind of fantasies, being hopeful would only make the disappointment when it didn't happen worse.

Then the dragon asked the boy

"What is your name?"

"It is Adrayn, what is your name?" He asked in return

"So the name is Adrayn, you may call me as you like I do not have an actual name," The dragon had once had a name but he abandoned it the moment he had been abandoned, the dragon didn't want to think about his past too much. It made him want to escape the confines of the castle walls more.

His name was one of the things that reminded him of his past. Looking at the boy, whose name was Adrayn, he could see a sense of familiarity in his green eyes. The colour looked a bit like…

Never mind. Forget it.

"Then I'll call you…Akiro," The name was peculiar? Where had such a name come from? He felt like he felt a sense of liking towards the name, he had a feeling whatever the boy chose to call him he would've liked anyways.

"Where did the name come from? I feel like you could make a better name than that couldn't you?"

"It just came off the tip of my tongue, I didn't really think about it," Adrayn shrugged

"What are you going to do now?" Would he leave on a great adventure to find a way to get me down?

"Maybe I'll rest here and keep you company, can't go off without a plan. Maybe with some rest I'll come up with an idea," The boy started to set up camp, he feed his horse some food, and collected some sticks.

He set up a tent and set out his sleeping bag. To help Akiro set the wood on fire not even having to try to spark the flame. Despite the tent not being that big the horse joined him in the tent and they went to sleep, the moon had already risen and it was night time.

In the cover of night came a whole legion of knights, they had come to slay the dragon. Instead of going in the morning they had decided to come at night so that they could kill the dragon in its sleep.

One of the knights looked in particular the most nervous, if they hadn't been ordered by the greedy king to get the gold they wouldn't be here.

"If the dragon can't see us, how are we supposed to see him as well?" It was hard to see anything with nothing to light up the way except for the moon, most of the sky was covered with clouds.

The rain started to lightly sprinkle down on them. Inside the knights hard he worried if there was going to be a thunderstorm, ever since he was young he had been afraid of thunder.

On the nights of storms he would hide alone in the closet all night tormented by the loud crashes of thunder. He told no one in fear of being called a coward.

Gabriel wasn't exactly the brave and strong knight his mother wanted him to be. In truth he couldn't even stand to kill a rabbit let alone a dragon, the thought of taking a life of something made him sick.

"You can faintly see the dragon's shape over there right? As long as the dragon stays asleep there's nothing to worry about" Ivy who was the commander of the group pointed with her sword instead of her hands, you would never see her without he trusted sword it was kept by her side at all times.

Atop the horses, they rode closer to the castle. The uneasiness in Gabriel's heart only grew more rampant, it beat faster, his heart almost jumping out of his chest. Gabriel tightly clutched the reins of his horse.

Ava, his horse, let out a little sound which could be interpreted at her trying to comfort him. Gabriel made a slight awkward smile. But he couldn't control the shaking of his legs.

They didn't see the lone tent, as the fire near it had already gone out. Gabriel had an urge just to run away from this, wouldn't they just be burnt to ashes just as everyone else had? But no one said anything despite knowing this.

The king had ordered them to slay the dragon, so they had to slay the dragon, there only job was to listen to the king's orders no matter how bad of an idea it was. It was only how it was.

The greedy king only did things that would benefit himself, and lusted for gold no matter how much he already had. A never-ending desire to have more, the emptiness inside would never be filled.

What they didn't know was the dragon had still been awake, it had been watching over Adrayn. It usually didn't have to worry about being killed by anyone but he had to worry about the knight that slept near the castle without a single care.

The clanking of armour echoed as the knights rode closer to the castle. They soon arrived at the walls of the castle. The dragon silently stared down at them, would Adrayn still like him if he killed some knights while he was nearby?

What if these knights were his friends? Akiro had actually grown a bit attached to the boy in the short time they had spent together. Because he had been someone who had made fake gold just to get some people to try to get the gold because he was so lonely. Maybe they would try to climb the wall and fail, then give up then leave. The rain falling slowly got harder, soaking them even more.

Ivy took out 2 climbing axes, then looked back waiting for everyone else to take out there's as well. The knights took out their own out of their bags.

"For the glory of the kingdom!" Ivy yelled as she held one of the climbing axes in the sky, the others repeated after her also holding their axes in the air. Water streamed down her face, Ivy didn't try to sweep away the wet hair that stuck to her, it seemed she didn't care.

At that moment Adrayn opened his eyes, outside from his tent from far away he heard the cries of

"For the glory of the kingdom!" Under the sound of raindrops hitting the tent. He recognized one of those voices it was one of the commanders that lead the knights of the king. It was Ivy. Why was she here?

Adrayn furrowed his eyebrows, they couldn't be here to kill Akiro right? Hurriedly he got changed and put on his armour and equipped his sword. Adrayn glanced at the Cean and decided to not wake him up, he didn't want disturb his sleep. He crawled out of his tent careful to avoid the big horse that took up most of the space.

Using the stealth skills he had learned in the academy he headed towards where the voices were coming from. One of his hands rested on his sword ready to take it out at any time if they tried to hurt Akiko.

Though he was from the same kingdom, he wasn't really that loyal to it in reality. If he was he would've applied to be one of the kingdom's knights. But instead he wanted to explore the land, and find new things never seen before.

He saw dark figures scaling the tall wall, but before they reached the top wouldn't their arms be too tired? The one who was in the lead who was Ivy, who effortlessly went up the wall, small pieces of stone fell down.

But it didn't seem as easy for the others, lightning suddenly struck down nearby. A knight with raven black hair flinched nearly falling off the wall and losing his grip.

His body slightly trembled, Gabriel clenched his teeth not wanting to fall down like that knight.

But surely Ivy knew that all of them wouldn't be able to keep climbing. With such a long way to climb, they would soon lose the strength in their arms and fall to their inevitable death. There was no rope to tie them together, with their heavy armour they wouldn't be able to hold an extra person anyways and likely fall with them.

Some knights ended up falling down, the rain had made them lose their grip on the climbing axes. The number slowly increased, luckily they hadn't been too high.

"What has your years of training been for if you fall so easily?" Ivy's voice bellowed from above, as much as it seemed impossible she had already gotten halfway up the wall. The knights hurriedly started to climb the wall again.

The red dragon watching from above scoffed, the only who would have a chance of reaching the top was that female knight. But it seemed she was already almost at her limit after climbing half the wall, but it really was an achievement.

Not really no one else had been given a chance to climb it before they were burned into ashes. His eyes spied the human who was approaching them, Adrayn.

Gabriel's body was stiff his hands could barely hold on, he was frozen, he took a few deep breaths quietly trying to gather his courage to go higher. Then another flash of lightning struck down.

He lost his hold slipping down, his climbing axes were left lodged in the stone wall. His eyes were wide with shock, his body seemed frozen not moving. If it continued like this his back would hit the ground and it would snap in half. Gabriel needed to turn around and land safely but he seemed to have no intention to.

Gritting his teeth Adrayn ran forward to catch him before he hit the ground taking his hand off the hilt of his sword.

Adrayn caught the black-haired boy in his arms, because of how high he had fallen it had made quite a lot of force and made him collapse onto his knees. There was one other knight who had also recently fallen down who drew his sword and pointed at Adrayn.

Gabriel shifted in his arms uncomfortably unsure of what he was supposed to do, he could feel Adrayn's warm breath hitting him. He shivered, he was soaked to the bone, cold rain pelted down. A shadow was cast over Adrayn's face and he could barely see the basic features of his face.

The knights didn't have time to worry about the thunderstorm, if they didn't kill the dragon today they wouldn't be able to get back in time and risk having the king be angry at them.

Carefully, Adrayn put Gabriel down and pointed his sword back. Gabriel still didn't have much of an idea of what he was supposed to do in this kind of situation, his body trembled as he stood frozen in place. He just wanted to crawl in a corner and hide until the storm ended but he couldn't do that now.

"Are you here to hurt Akiko?" The knight squinted his eyes.

"Aren't you Adrayn?" He asked, completely ignoring his question.

"Stop changing the subject are you here to hurt Akiko?" Adrayn stepped forward again.

"Is this Akiko person, the dragon?" He stepped forward as well.

"Yes,"

"Of course, why else would we be here, the question is why you are here," Despite knowing who he was he still continued to be aggressive towards Adrayn.

"You don't need to know that," More and more knights fell down and they started to point their sword at Adrayn as well.

"Oi, what you doing down there?" Ivy shouted from the top of her lungs, if you observed closely enough you could see her shaking arms.

The dragon wondered if he should kill all the knights now.