Dragon Seed: A LitRPG Dragonrider Adventure (The Archemi Online Chronicles Book 1) by James Osiris Baldwin

Author:James Osiris Baldwin [Baldwin, James Osiris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gift Horse Productions
Published: 2018-02-27T22:00:00+00:00

Book 2: The Skyrdon of Saint Grigori

Chapter 23

Two days’ ride out from Lyrensgrove, and the blasted farmland and crumbling battlefields gave way to dark, dense forest. Cutthroat and I always rode up, and the hills grew higher and wilder the further north we went. The road began to climb, and soon the wasted plains of Ilia were laid bare to my right, rolling off into the horizon. By the fifth day, the view had turned into mountains: black giants crouched in regal, frigid cloaks of snow and fir. The plains vanished, plunging us into primeval wood.

The road to Fort Palewing was deeply rutted, but lonely. The few people who made this trip, taking supplies to the Skyrdon, had no use for inns. We slept in rude waystops that were little more than caves dug into ancient ruins. Many of them were dug into enormous half-circles of stone and broken columns that jutted out everywhere on the ground. There was enough room in these shelters for me, Cutthroat, and a small fire. The hookwing was uncommonly calm inside these ruins, displaying none of her usual savagery. Like a cat, she preferred to sleep in a loaf shape – her hook-claws tucked against her chest, feet pulled up underneath her, tail stretched out. While I repaired my armor with a thick bone awl and catgut, she kept watch, growling every time the wind whipped the branches of nearby trees against the standing stones.

Level-wise, I was still running behind where I wanted to be. The EXP penalty turned combat into an incremental grind. I’d fought ghouls, crows, coyote-like creatures, and yes – bunnies. But these woods were not for characters of my level. The wolves howling outside were Level 8, and I’d glimpsed other, larger shadows in the forest with red skull icons flashing warningly in the upper right-hand corner of my HUD overlay. Skills levelled faster than overall level, which was nice – but the insight required to learn new things was out of reach until I could push to Level 5.

We arrived at the fortress gates on the evening of the eighth day. The land outside Fort Palewing had been cleared so that guards could watch anyone - or anything - coming up on them from the forest or the road toward the ancient cliffside that marked the entry to the dragon knights’ stronghold. A hundred feet away at the top of a sharply steepening hill was a high stone wall. Three guards waited at the barred gate. They were grizzled, dark men with frost in their beards and spears and axes in their hands. They watched me curiously as I dismounted and led my tired, muzzled mount toward them.

"Who goes there?" The closest one called.

"An aspirant. Hector Dragozin," I replied, when I was close enough to be heard over the wind. It was howling today, driving gusts of snow off into the air from trees and hillsides. "I've come to try out for the Skyrdon."

"Someone refer you for the trials?" The same guard jerked his chin at me as he spoke.

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