1

The daysun was high up in the sky, shining brightly down on the green landscape, shafts of golden light poking through the canopy of leaves and dappling the ground. A yellow deer was lapping water from a small pond among the groves of trees. She stopped and looked up when a stag, with golden, brown fur and profoundly big antlers, walked up to her, dropped his head and started lapping water. Leaves were growing out from his antlers, making them look more like small trees than antlers. The deer rubbed her neck against the powerful, muscular neck of the stag. He stopped drinking, turned to face her--and the body of both the creatures went rigid as the sound of footfalls reverberating across the woods. Then a boy holered .

The beasts turned in the direction of the sound and saw a huge, bald man walking down the forest path. A red-haired boy, with something twice his size wrapped in grey cloth, was trudging behind him. The beasts, weary, turned away from this odd pair and galloped into the shadow of the thick trees.

"M-Master Eyebrows," the boy said, almost panting, "How long..."

His knees buckled and the ground welcomed him. Belfan looked behind at the sound of Rao falling down to the ground.

"We'll be there in an hour," Belfan said.

Rao's head jerked up, and boy was he mad. He pointed his finger at Belfan and barked. "In an hour? That's what you have been saying for past two hours!"

Belfan scratched his bald head with his one stubby finger. "Is that so. But this time I'm sure that we'll be there within next one hour."

"You sure?" Rao squinted at the old man.

"Yes," Belfan said serenely. "If we failed to reach there within an hour I will shave my eyebrows."

"Fine, then." Rao climbed back to his feet, hoisting the load back on his back.

Two hours later. "When we reach there, I'm going shave your eyebrows," Rao said, trundling behind Belfan, sweating profusely.

"Not happening," Belfan coughed and abruptly stopped walking so that Rao had to swerve left in order to prevent himself from running into the giant.

"What was that? Why did you stop all of sudden," he said, "Wait. Are we there finally?"

Belfan didn't say a word and walked to the side of the track, unzipped his pants and started doing his business.

Rao plummeted to the ground. Why did I decide to make him my teacher, he thought miserably. Somewhere a bush rustled and he looked up. And, out of nowhere, a young dragon guard appeared out of nowhere and bolted toward Belfan, pulling out his sword. Then, the dragon guard apparently saw that Belfan was a huge man and was in the middle of an important business. The dragon guard tried to skid to a stop, but failed. He lost his balance and went sliding across the dirt track, spuming up dust. His body stopped in front of Rao.

"Hey, are you alright?" Rao asked him, coughing as clouds of dust attacked his nostrils.

The dragon guard sat up and started sobbing on Rao's shoulders. "My god, that pissing giant scared me."

Rao tried to get away from the boy but was late. He didn't know what to do so just patted the dragon guard's head. "Uh. It's alright. It's alright."

"Wait," the dragon guard said abruptly and jumped away and started barking. "You two, don't move. I'm arresting you two!"

"Eh." If this guy can get into dragon squad, then... I can join it too, Rao thought.

Belfan zipped his pants up. "Arrest us for what?"

"For trespassing into a restricted zone and for hunting wood-deer."

Belfan stared at him and then at Rao. "Did you trespass into a restricted zone and hunt down wood-deer?"

"The hell!" Rao yelled. "I'm coming here for the first time! It must have been you..."

And before Belfan could reply another voice said, "What's going on here?"

Rao turned in the direction of the voice and saw a man in dragon squad's uniform, wearing cream colour hat. The man stopped dead in his tracks when his eyes fell on Belfan.

"Oh, Master Battleheart," he said, smiling.

"Ah, you know him, sir?" the young dragon guard asked.

"Yes. What's going on here?" the man asked him.

And the young dragon guard told him everything.

The man laughed. "He is not a smuggler. He is master Belfan Battleheart." He looked at Belfan and then at Rao. "Oh, I see, so you brought another kid to train with you?"

"Yes. We are going toward the lake."

Rao just stood there and watched. So Master Eyebrows had been coming here to train his old students, he thought. And I thought I was his first student...

"That's great," the dragon guard, with the hat, said, "Nat. Take them to the lake. "

"But the lake is a restricted zone now," the young guard said.

"It's okay. Take them."

"Fine," Nat said. "This way."

And a few minutes later, Rao found himself face to face with the most magnificent lake he had ever seen. He just stared, open-mouthed, as the lake's serene water glistened in the sunlight. There was a huge tree on the other side of the lake. Belfan put a hand on Rao's shoulder who looked up at the old man.

"Let's start," Belfan said.

2

While Rao started his training, somewhere far away from the city of Tarragon, a hooded figure ambled across an ancient cave. This person was wearing a dark purple cloak and didn't seem to be in any hurry.

He soon came to a dead end but didn't stop walking. He raised his hand, the ring on his index finger gleaming like a moon in the starless sky, and an opening began to appear in the cave wall. The man walked through the opening and was soon in hallway line by fiery torches. A door stood at the end of the room. He walked to it and pushed it open and found himself in a cavernous room that was embellished with huge gargoyle statues. A table stood in the centre of this dingy, dark room. He walked up to it and sat at the head of the table and stared at the other eight hooded figures.

"I beg your pardon," he said, "Let the fifth meeting of The Synergy commence. Layla, reports?"

The hooded figure who was sitting two chairs away from him started to stand up.

"No, need to stand, Layla."

"As you say, leader," she said and sat down. "We have acquired the locations of two of them."

"Only two?" A husky voice said sarcastically.

She turned away from the leader and stared at the hooded figure sitting in front of her. "At least I found two, Rolmis. I've been of some use rather than just sitting around and being dormant."

"Watch your tongue, woman!"

"Here we go again," said a mechanical voice.

Two hooded figures laughed.

"Two is better than nothing, isn't that right, Rolmis?" their leader said.

"Yes, sir," Rolmis said and went silent.

"Keep collecting information," the leader said, "and be patient my friends. I know you want to go out and start collecting them but I think you should hold your horses for next six months. After six months, we'll be splitting into groups of two and start the hunt."

"Finally you are talking about some action," Rolmis said. "I'm bored of keeping low profile."

"Why I have a feeling that rather than doing our mission you want to just got out and blow up towns?" another hooded figure said.

"Well, you can partake in some recreational activities when you are not doing your job." Rolmis sneered.

"What an idiot," Layla said, "There is nothing recreational--"

"Shut up, bitch," Rolmis snapped, "I didn't ask your opinion."

"I guess you want to die by my hands," Layla said. "I'll be glad to fulfill your wish--" She stood up.

Rolmis stood up too.

And they both froze. The table started to shake and everyone turned and stared at the hooded figure sitting at the head of the table.

"Everyone, calm down," their leader said, his left eye glowing red like a ruby in the sea of black.

When things settled down, he laughed and said, "Sorry. I didn't mean to threaten you. Uh, Chill, take this parcel, you'll like it." He placed a box on the table.

"Okay," Chill, the third hooded figure said in a mechanical voice and a long, slender, bronze hand protruded out from his cloak and grabbed the box and slipped back into his cloak.

"Okay, then, this meeting ends here," the leader said, "Six months from now, we'll start the hunt."

Next time on Dragonsage: A Flower Yet to Bloom