The Kingdoms of Magic Part 02

The water was cold, but a nice cold, refreshing even. I start swimming towards the girl. The knife is heavy in my mouth and I try not to cut myself or swallow water. I swam to the surface and took a deep breath through my nose. Ether the dragon didn’t notice me or it didn’t want to bother with me but then it lashed out with its tail. I dived and just missed it but then it swept at me with its front leg. I dived out of the claws way but got hit by the wrist. It knocked the wind out of me but I managed to grabbed hold of it and climb up its front leg. It was thrashing when I got onto its back but there were thick spines running all down its back, they are good to hang onto. There’s a soft spot at the top of the neck, just under the head I would have tried to grasp the memory but the dragon was still thrashing wildly.
“SWIM” I shouted to the girl, god I hope she heard me over the water. It was a slow and painful climb, my muscles where burning and the thrashing dragon didn’t make it any easier. It would arch its spine one way, then the other, the dragon kept going like it had all the energy in the world. I leapt the last bit of the way and grabbed the knife, the dragon must have guessed what I was doing and let out a hell screeching call, I wavered a bit but not enough. I raised my arm ready to stab the dragon under the head,
“NO STOP” screamed the girl; I looked at the girl she was standing on the dock now, dripping wet. In that instant that I looked away the dragon threw back its head, I lost my grip and crashed into the water.  I managed to maintain grip on the knife and swam to the surface. The dragon pulled itself up onto the dock and curled protectively around the girl as she stroked its head.
“Hell” I muttered and swam to the dock. I climbed the ladder and looked at the girl; she wasn’t really a girl she looked about sixteen and there for was a teenager, she was a medium height and had long blond hair with brown eyes and she was attractive even for a dripping wet girl. My own brown hair was flopping in my face; I ran my fingers through my hair trying to push it out of my eyes. I took a step forward and the dragon growled, so I stepped back and it stopped. I was really tempted to keep stepping backwards and forwards just to annoy it, but my common sense advised agents it. I could now see that the dragon was only half water dragon and half land dragon. There are three main types of dragons; they are Sky dragons, Land dragons and Water dragons. Sky dragons have large wings and only two hind legs they are the second largest of the dragons; Water dragons have only two front legs and no wings, they are the largest dragon and they have long eel like tails; Land dragons have four muscular legs and have really small wings, they are the smallest of the dragons but the hunt in small packs. There are also cross breads of all of the main dragons. Cross breading is uncommon but not rare. The Water dragon that I fought was actually a cross bread between a Water dragon and a Land dragon. It had four legs but an eel like tail, the dragon in front of me must have been about five horses long. Land dragons on average where as long as three horses but average Water dragons could be as long as ten and Sky dragons on average can be as long as seven. I tried walking around the dragon but maintaining my distance, it growled and changed its position so that its head was facing towards me. When I got off the dock I backed away and when it stopped growling I turned my head to look for the guy that the knife belonged to. It wasn’t hard the towns folk where gathering around the dock.
“Here’s your knife” I said to the guy and held the knife out handle first.
“Uh I think you’ll make better use of it that I will” he said and backed away, everyone was looking frightened not just of the dragon but of me. Well you did almost kill it, and dragons are hard to kill! I sighed and walked towards my stuff.
“So what’s with the practical joke?” I asked the teenager
“It wasn’t a practical joke” she replied
“Right let me guess you’re a Guardian” I said. Guardians are partners with magical animals, Unicorns, Phoenixes, Dragons, Griffins and many more. They protect other magical creatures and non-magical creatures, they are also like ambassador for the magical creatures and can talk the language of the magical creature that they are partnered with but they have to learn it. Guardians are often from wealthy families.
“Yes I am. And let me guess you’re a farm boy”
“No, I’m a hunter” the response was automatic that I was surprised that I managed to find out something like that, but it did explain what I was doing in the forest and why I felt naked without a weapon.
“Oh really so you hunt dragons for a living? You do know that’s illegal”
“No, I don’t hunt dragons … at least I don’t think I do”
“What do you mean you don’t think, don’t you know what you hunt?”
“Never mind that, why the practical joke, why have a fake Water dragon attack?” I said as I started putting my clothes on
“We need more Guardians”
“Ha so you’ve run out of nobles? Oh I’d like to see that day!” I scoffed
“No, there are plenty of nobles but not enough are being chosen, some aren’t worthy or fit to be Guardians”
“Oh Finally, you Finally figured out that you nobles aren’t such little angles. Everybody give the woman a round of applause!” I said clapping my hands, “You people finally found the truth; well you took your time!” I don’t know why I was getting so worked up over it, it’s like I had no control over my own mouth, but I knew one thing I felt a great rage towards the nobles, not so much the King, just a lot of the nobles. The teenager was turning red and the dragon was growling again.
“I don’t know that you’re so worked up about but the fake attack would help us find new Guardians”
“Oh ok so now am I officially a Guardian?”
“No you are nowhere near it, if you want to be one than you need to travel with us to Kinofen City”
“Thanks but I’ll pass I’m trying to get home” I had all my clothes on ad was walking away, She jogged up next to me
“Aw is the poor little hunter lost?” she said in a teasing voice. I had her pined on the ground in an instant
“I’m sick of you, I’m tired, hungry and I have not a clue who I am. I woke up in the forest and hour ago and I have no memory of anything after that. You are wasting my time and patience!” I growled then stood up and started walking way.
“You’re kidding right?” said the teenager with a laugh in her voice, I didn’t look back. “Wait your serious?” she said now with disbelief, I kept walking “What happened?” she asked, I gave a small glance over my shoulder and a ‘are you serious’ look. “Oh right wrong question, sorry” she sounded sorry “I’m Salina, um I might know someone that can help!”
“Ha I’m not going with you, it might be another test” I said over my shoulder.
“No it’s not I swear” said Salina, I ignored her
“Hey Derek!” said a man in early twenties that just walked into the main street of the town. He was looking at me, I glanced over my shoulder to see who else he could be looking at, but there was no one there to look at.
“Uh” I said
“Oh Derek I’m glad I found you! Did you find your brother? Where’s your dad and uncle?”
“Uh” I said as I stood there
“Derek?” said the man, he was standing right in front of me so he was defiantly talking to me. “Derek are you ok?”
“Uh I guess” my mind was so blank that there was nothing I could think of saying.
“Sir, do you know this man?” asked Salina
“Yes ma’am I do-” his eyes widened as he saw the dragon “Uh Derek what have you gotten yourself into?”
“In all honesty I have not a clue” I responded
“Sir who is this man” asked Salina the man waited for me to respond but when I didn’t he answered
“This is Derek Argon he lives in Bevilstone village, it’s the neighbouring town to this one”
“Ok so you know where his home is, that’s good, you talked about finding his brother, what happened?”
“We’re not sure but we believe a Land dragon dragged him off into the forest”
“What? What did he do wrong?”
“Nothing, we no nothing that he did wrong, but judging from the trail that we found he was taken alive”
Salina turned her head towards me, “You said you were a hunter did you hunt in their territory?”
“Uh” I said, when it was clear that I wasn’t going to answer the man did
“No we don’t hunt in their territory unless they let us and if we do accidentally do we leave what we caught in their territory and a few other animals from out hunting area as an apology”
“Well he must of done something wrong, although why they took him alive is another question. I’m not sure what they would do with him if he was alive thought. What do you think Yunkun?” The dragon came forward and the man moved back a step, the dragon started to make rasping sounds then it sounded like it was talking in a different language, which made scene since t probably was.
“They are not known to do this, but there have been talked of them doing this before a long time ago, why they did it before and why they are doing it know I don’t know” said the Yunkun
“Yunkun said that she has heard of them doing it before but she doesn’t know why” Salina repeated
“Ok, well that doesn’t help at all” I said, Yunkun glared at me, there was an obvious hate hate relationship between us. “Uh and who are you?” I asked the man
“Me?” said the man
“Uh yeah … um how do I explain this, uh I don’t remember anything before an hour ago, as in I have complete memory loss”
“You’re kidding right?” asked the man
“Apparently he’s not” said Salina, the man stared in disbelief
“Um I’m Oliver Jones and I’m a friend of yours, I came on the trip and we were attacked by Land dragons, I was separated from you and your family-” Oliver trailed off “What happened to your arm? He said suddenly sounding worried. He grabbed my arm and pulled up the sleeve,
“What? You never had these before and they look like dragon scratches!”
“I-I don’t know when I woke up there was blood all over my sleeve but there was no open wound” I said, everyone looked at me then at Yunkun, Yunkun stepped forward and sniffed me.
“He has washed fresh blood off his shirt recently, the blood was a few hours old” said Yunkun
“You washed blood off your shirt right, was it your blood or something else’s?” Salina asked
“It wasn’t magical blood that’s for sure, who’s or what’s blood I’m not sure but it did look like the blood was where the scars where, which is really strange” I replied
“This is strange indeed, I have only heard a vague mention of something that could fit this situation but it is highly unlikely and I’m not even certain that it is what I think it is” said Yunkun
“What is it Yunkun?” asked Salina
“I will not say till there is more information on the situation”
Salina sighed “She won’t tell us what she thinks it is till there is more information”
“That’s fair enough, I don’t want false information” I said, Yunkun looked surprised, if that was even possible.
“Well we can at least go to your town and find out what the problem is, and see what the Land dragons are up to” said Salina
“Sure, follow me. It’s not that far to walk” said Oliver
“Hop on Yunkun, we’ll get there faster that way” said Salina
“You sure?” I asked
“Yes she won’t mind” said Salina
“Well ok then” I said as everyone climbed on Yunkun.