1.

Captain Gurk Wildsnow was excited and exhausted. He was excited because he hadn't led a team of youngsters since his promotion to the post of captain, which happened six years back. He was exhausted as he hadn't slept all night because of the excitement, and to make the matter worst, the shimmering shafts of morning light kept reminding of the warm, soft bed. He needed coffee. Needed it badly.

He let out a yawn. "Guess I should have slept," he told himself as stepped into a hallway, closing the door behind him. Pockets of grey had nested under his bloodshot eyes and his spiky black hair was in dishevelment. As he started walking away from the door, he noticed a short figure strutting toward him.

"Morning, Master Sagestone," Gurk said, bowing and fixing the red bandana that he always wore around his neck.

"Ah... Captain Gurk," said the dwarf. "Morning. Morning." Saf Sagestone was a dwarf with pink skin and rust-red hair and beard. He was sixty-one and had been holding the post of dragonlord for more than a decade. "Morning," Saf Sagestone repeated, looking at the door behind Gurk. "So you had a meeting with Zar, huh?"

"Yes, Master Zar assigned me a new team," Gurk said, "Are you going to meet the dragonsage, too?"

"Yeah. Want to update him on the Synergy." Saf ran his hand through his thick red beard.

"The Synergy? You mean that crime syndicate where people go around wearing purple robes?"

"The very same," Saf said. "They are coming out of their cave."

2.

"Rao Bronzhold, you are not going anywhere!"

Crap, Rao thought as he reached for the doorknob, but before his fingers could touch the metal knob, a hand grabbed his right ear and started dragging him away from the front door.

"Ah, mother," Rao wailed in pain.

"Stop crying. You are not going anywhere until you finish your breakfast," Anna said and hurled Rao across the kitchen door. His butt hit the wooden-seat with so much force that the chair tilted backwards and whirled around, and Rao again found himself facing the ugly white plate full of green vegetables.

"I'm getting late," Rao said, exasperated.

"No, you are not. You just don't' want to eat. Master Eyebrows used his so much money to buy us this food. I can't stand seeing this much food getting wasted. So, eat your breakfast."

"Breakfast? I call this prison food," Rao muttered and suddenly felt his mother standing right behind him.

"What was that?" He heard her cracking her knuckles, and a drop of sweat crept down his right temple.

3.

"Bye and good luck," Anna called after him from the front gate, waving and smiling.

Rao looked back and waved, his both ears glowing red like hot metals.

It took Rao fifteen minutes to reach the headquarters, and by the time he reached there, the day had lost its fresh golden glow. He crossed the front gate and looked around and saw several faces that had taken the exam with him, and like him, they were also heading toward the dragon squad secondary building that was right behind the headquarters.

Rao went inside and started looking for a specific room.

"Room number 412," Rao muttered as he walked past one door after another. That was the room where he was supposed to meet his first team-members and mentor. "This is 414... 413... 412. Yes. That's it."

I wonder what kind of people I'll be working with, Rao thought as he stood rooted in front of the door. He fixed his reddish-brown hair, took a deep breath and opened the door and stepped in. "Huh. THE HELL."

"Rao," Hanabi boomed. "What are you doing here?"

"I was told to report in this room," Rao said, "Wait. You were told to report in this room, too?"

"Yeah," Hanabi said, "so was my cousin." She pointed at the boy sitting in one of the benches. Rao recognized him instantly. The boy looked back at Rao, and their eyes met. It happened just for a split second, but Rao was sure he saw hatred flash in Nendre Altron's eyes. Hanabi's cousin quickly looked away and stared out the window.

What's wrong with him, Rao wondered.

"So we three are on one team," Hanabi was saying. "What a coincidence..."

"Yeah," Rao said, grinning, "You should consider yourself lucky. The future dragonsage will be the part your squad. Hey, Hanabi, what's up with that poker face?"

"It's nothing," she said, stifling her giggles. "Eh. Tell me, Rao, can you smell coffee?"

"Coffee?" Rao asked. Yeah. The warm smell of coffee was floating in the air and getting stronger.

And the door swung open and a man with spiky black hair and a red bandana around his neck walked in, with a cup of coffee poised in his right hand. "Hello, everyone. I'm Captain Gurk Wildsnow, and I'll be leading this team."

"I'm Hanabi Altron and I like taking care of my plants, and I joined the dragon squad because I wanted to make use of my abilities."

They were sitting in the front of the empty class and introducing themselves. Captain Gurk wanted to know their complete name and what they like doing and why did they join the dragon squad.

Gurk slurped up some coffee. "Okay. That's a really nice motivation. Next will be you." He beckoned Rao who got up from his desk, grinning.

"I'm Rao Bronzhold, and I like imagining myself as the dragonsage, and my dream is to become a dragonsage and I joined the dragon squad so that I can become a dragonsage."

"My god, you are all about dragonsage," Gurk said, "What about you? And Rao, you can sit down."

"Okay," Rao said and sat down. Captain Gurk stared at Nendre.

"My name is Nendre Altron," Nendre said without getting up. "I like painting and I joined dragon squad to become strong."

"Okay, that was short and sweet," Gurk said, slurped some more coffee. "The dragonsage just gave me our first quest. I'll explain you our mission after we get on the airship--"

"We'll be travelling on an airship?" Rao blurted in. He looked like a man who had just won a jackpot.

"Er, yeah." Gurk kept the coffee on the desk. "We are going to visit a town far west from here."

"West?" Hanabi said, a little perplexed, "the western part of our kingdom is nothing but a barren land. A desert."

"Yeah," Gurk said, "I know. The town we are going to visit is a desert-town."

4.

"Hey, Rao, stop staring out the window and listen to me," Gurk said.

But Rao still had his nose pressed against the glass porthole. He couldn't help it. He tried to focus on the discussion but his eyes and mind kept drifting toward the scenery outside: the clear blue sky and the barren land that was sliding way below them like a giant snail.

"Rao," Hanabi said, "Master Gurk is talking to you."

"The hell..." Rao rolled his eyes in his mind and looked away from the window. "Okay, I'm listening."

The interior of the airship looked like a really long room of some restaurant. An aisle covered in red carpet ran through the centre of the hall, separating the rows of tables and sofas that now were mostly empty.

"Hmm," Gurk said, "So we are visiting a town named Storol located in the desert of Kulana. It actually started as a mining colony fifty years ago and is now one of the most important providers of iron. That place is very important to our kingdom, and this year the people of that town ended up facing a big water shortage problem as one of their lakes completely dried up."

"That's awful," Hanabi said.

"I know, and your father and the dragonsage also thought the same. So, they decided to step up and fund the town so that it can build its own closed canal system."

"Whoa," Rao said, "Our king and the dragonsage are really awesome."

"They indeed are," Gurk said.

"So what's the issue?" Nendre spoke up. He had stayed silent through their journey. But now, he seemed a little interested.

Gurk closed his eyes. "The people of Storol are not using the money to build a canal, instead they are putting it into the construction of a temple."

"Temple? What's that?" Rao asked.

"What!" Hanabi hollered, looking at Rao. "You don't know what a temple is? Didn't you go to school?"

"Hey... I couldn't finish my schooling," Rao said, "So, what's a temple?"

Hanabi slapped her forehead. "It's a house of God where people go and pray."

"Pray to whom?" Rao asked.

"God, you idiot."

"So," Nandre told Gurk. "What are we going to do there?"

"We'll talk with the mayor," Gurk said, "Ask him to stop the construction and restart building the canal."

"What?" Rao said, "We are just going to talk? I thought there would be some action?"

"No... " Hanabi said, "I had a feeling this mission would be something like this. They won't send kids on dangerous missions. I don't think we'll be getting any serious missions for months."

"When you said kids, you also included me?" Rao asked.

"Obviously I did," Hanabi said, shaking her head sarcastically.

"I'm not a kid. I'm not afraid of dangerous missions." Rao slammed his fist on the table.

"Well, you can go and die. Don't drag me with you," Hanabi said, balling her own fist. And soon, they were glaring in each other eyes.

"Talking about safety," Nendre said, "Why are you leading newcomers. Aren't lieutenant supposed to mentor us?"

This question caught Rao and Hanabi's attention and they gazed at their team leader.

"Niso was right, you are really something else," Gurk said, smiling to himself, "I bet you already know why am I with you?"

"It's because my uncle wanted someone strong who could easily protect us as our mentor," Nendre said, folding his arms.

"What?" Hanabi said, biting her own lips. "Father made you our mentor so that you can protect us?"

Gurk nodded. "I'm sorry, but that's true."

"But I don't need protection... why am I with you?" Rao asked Gurk, confused.

"Oh," Gurk said, smiling, "You need protection more than anyone. Afterall you were the only one who failed to use his mana in the exams."

"That doesn't mean I'm WEAK," Rao roared. "And Hanabi, stop giving me that poker face."

The airship dropped them at a train station in the middle of nowhere. They sat down on a bench on the platform and waited for the steam train. The announcer said the next train would arrive at the station in an hour. Obviously, he got it wrong.

What followed after that was a tiresome journey cramped in a sun-baked train compartment.

"Finally," Rao said, stepping down on the platform, his shirt sticking his back. "I thought I'll die of boredom and heat."

Gurk just stood beside him and stretched.

"I'm tired," Hanabi said, looking at violet sky while Nendre walked up to a board that proclaimed: Welcome to Storol.

A loud whistle rang in Rao's ears as the train started to move. They stared in silence as its carts continued to slide to their right. And soon the train was gone, no longer blocking their view of the town, but there was no town to look at. All there was was an endless stretch of... desert.

"What is going on here?" All the wind had ran out of Hanabi's lips.

Rao's eyes had also gone wide. "Where is the town?"

5.

While our befuddled heroes stared at the barren land, two people dressed in white tunic gazed down at the deserted platform from the top of the cliff.

One them of seemed to be of Rao's age, and both of them had the same hairstyle: Both sides of the head were shaved, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair in the center.

"What do you think, big brother?" the younger one said. "Did they really sent dragon squad here?"

"They are from the dragon squad, alright," the older one said, and suddenly his eyes went wide.

"What is it, big brother?"

"That man. I've heard about him. Those kids are no threat to us, but that man with the bandana... he is really strong."

"Should we worry?"

"No." The older guy smirked, his goldilock gleaming in the late-afternoon light. "He is strong but he doesn't stand a chance in front of Saint Wudon. He doesn't stand a chance in front of our god."  

Next time on Dragonsage: The Lost Religion