Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness
The Day Before the Exam

“Alright, Draycos,” Zero said, standing in the center of the floating island. He was holding the silver stopwatch Vertex had created last month, watching Draycos do some quick stretches. “Take off those weights and do ten laps around the island. You have ten seconds to get mental prepared.

“Got it,” Draycos responded, nodding.

It was now the day before the assessment exam for the Prisoners’ Games, and Zero was testing Draycos’s progress made over the past month. During each week, they alternated between spending days running or sparring, and Draycos was given a day to rest on the seventh day each week.

The third day, Vertex arrived with a set of black ankle and wristbands that had apparently been woven by an elven seamstress. There was a spell woven in the fabric that was set to increase the weight of the bands the longer they were worn, and by Vertex’s estimate, should each weight about fifty pounds each. Draycos was to meet predetermined benchmarks each day set by his records from running and sparring the first two days of training while wearing these weighted bands.

Draycos slid the bands off his wrists and ankles and dropped them on the ground, where they sent up a small cloud of dust. Zero gave him a signal, and he took off at top speed.

Damrabe was overseeing the training with Zero, as usual, and he hovered in the air a slight distance from the island to observe.

This kid really is something. Damrabe thought as he continued to observe Draycos’s progress. He’s not extraordinary or anything of the sort, though; all he’s done is met the bare minimum of what we require from him for this plan to work. But that is incredible enough; no human could possibly meet the benchmark set for him at the end of each day before sundown. It really makes me wonder what the other half of his heritage is…

As Damrabe floated above, lost in thought, Draycos finished his ten laps and came to a halt in front of Zero, panting hard by not completely out of breath.

“Not bad at all,” Zero commented, checking the stopwatch. “Two miles in seven minutes and twelve seconds is pretty impressive for humans.”

Draycos said nothing as he grinned at Zero, still somewhat panting. Zero threw the silver stopwatch over his shoulder without looking, and Damrabe deftly caught it in one hand, refocusing on the scene below. Zero got into his fighting stance and waited, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Am I too late to see Draycos in action?” a voice from next to Damrabe spoke. Surprised, Damrabe turned his head and saw that Prince Drax was now hovering in the air next to him. He hadn’t even noticed him flying over next to him.

“Sorry, my Prince. I was lost in thought there for a moment,” Damrabe told him. “No, you’re just in time, actually. But do you mind if I ask why you’re here, sir?”

“My father sent me to ‘scout’, as he put it,” Drax snorted in amusement. “Honestly, I don’t understand why he couldn’t have waited until tonight’s council meeting, when you and Zero would have given your report.”

“I guess he can’t wait to replace out Draycos’s development,” Damrabe chuckled softly.

“No, he can’t.” Drax returned his attention to the two figures on the floating island below. “I know about his running time; I could hear Zero as I arrived. But what’s Draycos’s best record in sparring with Zero?”

Damrabe was silent for a second as he glanced down at Draycos and Zero, who were both ready to begin sparring. With a nod from Damrabe, Zero jumped from his position and rushed in at Draycos, attempting to land a preemptive strike. Draycos easily dodged the right hook that was thrown and went in for a high kick to Zero’s jaw, but Zero grabbed his ankle and prevented the attack from connecting. Zero then flung Draycos through the air, but Draycos broke his fall by rolling and quickly jumped back to his feet, only to replace Zero on top of him as he did.

“Draycos is resetting his record every day whenever he fights with Zero,” Damrabe finally answered the prince as the two of them continued to gaze at the match below them. “Every day, his time before Zero lands a hit on him increases slightly, even though the weights he wears also increases every day. Not only has that increased, but Zero has also increased the amount of strength he’s been limiting himself to.”

“Really?” Drax looked at Damrabe upon hearing this, surprised. “What’s the limitation right now?”

Damrabe closed his eyes before answering. “Yesterday, Draycos lasted five minutes and twenty-three seconds, with two hundred extra pounds of weight on his limbs, against Zero, who was at roughly twenty-two percent. Now that Draycos has taken those weights off, Zero is currently fighting at twenty-five percent of his full strength.

“Eh, really?” Drax was interested to hear this, looking back down at the fight. “Even though Zero’s a Vizard, lasting that long against a dragon at one quarter of his full strength is impressive. He’ll definitely end up being useful to us at this rate.”

“That’s true, but he would be even more reliable if he would awaken his magicka sometime,” Damrabe commented, opening his eyes. “But still, this should be enough to pass the exam. Vertex visited yesterday. According to his estimates, Draycos’s attack should be a two now, and his speed a three.”

“So, his magic is zero, defense is one, attack is two, and his speed and endurance are both three?” Drax observed. “That is a total of ten, true. But will it actually be enough to get him to win the whole tournament?”

“That’ll depend on him.” With that, the two dragons watched the rest of the fight in silence. It continued for a few more minutes before Zero got a hit on Draycos’s right shoulder, which almost instantly dislocated. Damrabe stopped the time on the stopwatch as soon as the punch got its mark, and both he and the prince looked at the time displayed on it. It was eight minutes and fifty-eight seconds.

“Not bad at all today, Draycos,” Zero told him, dusting himself off as Draycos stood before him, clutching his shoulder as his right arm hung limply by his side. “That should be enough for today; you’ll do just fine tomorrow.”

“Hold it,” Draycos growled. He grabbed his right bicep with his left hand, and to Zero’s astonishment, popped his right arm back into its socket with a disturbing squelching sound. He flexed his arm a few times before lowering it and getting back into a stance. “I can keep going; come on, let’s get some more practice in.”

“Sorry, but I’ll have to stop you there.” Draycos and Zero looked over as Damrabe fell to the ground, crushing the rock with his landing and sending up a cloud of dust. “Sorry, Draycos, but it’s the king’s orders,” he said, blowing away the dust by flicking his tail. “He wants you to rest for the rest of the day, so you’ll be prepared for tomorrow. The exam starts at daybreak.”

“Aww, come on!” Draycos whined as he blocked Damrabe’s flicked drop of blood with his hand instead of letting it land on his face. He looked up to see where Damrabe had been floating because he thought he saw another dragon hovering next to him there, but there was no one else in sight. The soreness in his shoulder vanished. “I can do more than this.”

“No, you can’t,” Damrabe told him, shaking a finger at him. “It’s because of the king that the event is being held now and that you’ve gotten any special training at all. Do you want to ignore his orders after everything he’s already done for you?”

“Ugh...” Draycos couldn’t argue with that.

“Still, though, that was impressive,” Damrabe added, showing Zero and Draycos the time displayed on the stopwatch. “You’ve really improved yourself dramatically over this past month. You should be able to easily pass the assessment exam tomorrow.”

Draycos held both hands behind his head, grinning like no tomorrow. “Praise from the blood doctor Damrabe? Thanks, I’ll take it!”

“Blood doctor...?” Damrabe growled softly as Zero sniggered.

“Opps, sorry, did you not like that?” Draycos apologized. “My bad. It’s just that you keep healing me by splashing me with blood, so... yeah.”

Damrabe sighed, shaking his head. “Whatever, it’s no big deal. Zero, go ahead and return Draycos to Poseidon’s office. And Draycos? Good luck.” Damrabe unfurled his wings and took off before waiting for a response.

“Thank you, Damrabe!” Draycos yelled after him, waving. “Thanks for everything!”

“Oh, what, no thank-you’s for me?” Zero asked from behind Draycos. Draycos looked over his shoulder at him, then gave a big smile.

“Your thanks go without say, but if you wanna hear it that badly, then thanks a lot, Zero!”

“Still not asleep, Draycos?”

Draycos raised his head slightly from his pillow. It was late in the evening, and most of the other prisoners had already gone to sleep to rest for tomorrow morning’s exam. Draycos was laying in his bed in the observation cell of Poseidon’s office as Poseidon sat at his desk, doing the usual paperwork.

“Yeah, I am,” Draycos responded, putting his head back on the pillow. “I’m just somewhat nervous, is all.”

“Don’t think you can pull a fast one on me, Draycos,” Poseidon suddenly warned him, growling. “You’re just waiting for me to leave the office so you can look through more documents, right?”

Draycos flinched in surprise. He slowly sat up and looked out at Poseidon, who he could see from his position. “You knew? For how long?”

“Since your training started, when else?” Poseidon snorted. “I’m fully aware of the fact that you get out of your cell in the middle of the night and continue to sort the documents in my office. I’d have to be blind not to notice it; it’s blatantly obvious just by looking around in here, not to mention your pendant tracks all your actions.”

Draycos realized it was foolish of him to think the old prison warden hadn’t noticed his late-night activities. For the past month, Draycos waited for Poseidon to leave the office so he could exit his cell and continue to organize the mess of documents scattered around the room. Out of the six walls covered in shelves, Draycos had already finished organizing all that he could reach on five of them. It was apparent that he had been working on it while Poseidon wasn’t around.

“Mind if I ask why you feel the need to do this, Draycos?” Poseidon asked him. Draycos sat quietly on his bed for a moment before he stood up and walked out of his cell, looking Poseidon in the eye.

“I have a couple of reasons, actually,” Draycos responded with a sigh. “The first is to simply help you out in this office here. You’ve been kind to me, and I don’t want to do nothing in return. The second reason, well, I wanted to learn more about this world before I go out and about in it. There are documents in this office that cover a wide variety of subjects regarding this world, such as dragon anatomy, spells, maps, different races that live here, etc. I just wanted to learn as much as possible.”

Poseidon remained silent for a few moments after Draycos finished his short speech. “I don’t believe you would be lying about your intentions at this point, Draycos,” he stated, “but the fact that you wait around for me to leave the office at night is somewhat concerning. Why wouldn’t you want to be discovered doing that? There are many assumptions that people could make based on this behavior. You must realize that only about two dozen dragons, at most, understand that you have nothing to do with the theft of the Orb of the First King. Everyone else views you with suspicion, and any actions you take could be interpreted against you.”

Draycos hung his head in shame like a child being scolded by his parents. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

Poseidon dismissed the apology with a flick of his tail. “Don’t worry about it,” he grunted. “I just wanted you to realize that all choices you make right now can have dire consequences. Now go to sleep; you’ll be getting up at daybreak tomorrow to take the exam.”

Draycos nodded. “Alright, then,” he responded. He turned around and started walking back into his cell, then stopped for a moment. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at Poseidon. “Thanks for looking out for me,” he said. “I really do appreciate it.” With that, Draycos re-entered his cell, and Poseidon smiled upon hearing his snoring a few short minutes later.

I really hope the kid passes tomorrow, for his sake. Even so, it’s going to be extremely difficult to come out on top in the games.