The Dragoso Series 2: Strength in Darkness
Chapter 2

Impatient snorts passed through the nostrils of a yellow-green dragon perched in a tree. Upon its back sat a man with long red hair tied in a ponytail, binoculars to his eyes and trained on the race track on the Academy grounds. The dragon shifted and snorted again. The rider looked down and dug the metal spurs into the dragon’s belly.

“Calm down, idiot, we’re not fighting, we’re only watching,” the rider commanded. He brought the binoculars to his eyes again and watched the fledglings and adult dragon fly around the track. “Who’s the Water-Ice male?”

Down below, another man with long black hair flowing down just past his shoulders sat on a blue and white dragon with a tablet in his hands.

“That’d be one of the four new dragons that the boss doesn’t know about,” he replied. “Cyrus, we’re gonna get in trouble if we don’t report back soon.”

“Shut it, Aaron. I’m sick of the job as much as you are, but we have to do something. Boss is getting suspicious that there are double crossers among us.” The watcher, Cyrus, lowered the binoculars again and his hand went up to his left upper arm. Black ink formed a tribal design of a dragon head. What stood out was the dragon’s eyes, bright red. “Listen, I know you won’t do anything to get out of this shit, but I will. Be glad you got assigned to me or you would’ve been stuck for good.” Aaron stared at the tablet for a moment before looking up at Cyrus.

“Y-you...you were the leak? You let those scouts know everyone was heading back to HQ? H-how did you...?” Cyrus smirked.

“There’s a lot you can do when you offer to stay behind and make sure nothing was forgotten. Especially with an Insect Dragon.” Cyrus patted the dragon’s neck. “Wish I never decided to join the Hunters, this shit is wrong on so many levels.”

“What can we do? Why are we really out here anyway?” Cyrus jerked the metal chain around the dragon’s neck and it dropped from the tree.

“Do you want to be in HQ with that demon working with the Boss?” Cyrus questioned and Aaron shook his head.

“N-no, I really don’t. What was he thinking? W-working with a...a monster...”

“Not just a monster...he’s working with a Wyvern, a special one.”

“Special?” Aaron started going through his tablet.

“Anybody tell you about the Council?” Aaron looked up.

“Council of the Underworld? Aren’t those just boogeyman stories that dragons tell their kids?”

“I wish, man. Boss was around when they were around. They cause a lot of problems, between World War II and the Boss’ attack on Metallic Dragons, it was chaos. Nobody knew if it was the war or the Council that caused some problems.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“That Wyvern is the Council’s dog.” Aaron stared before exhaling.

“O-ok...what are we going to do to get out of this?”

“You got anything personal back at HQ?”

“I only have some clothes and this.” Aaron held up the tablet before flipping the cover over and securing the clasp.

“Does it have GPS?” Aaron shook his head and Cyrus nodded. “Alright, let’s get caught by the dragons.”

~oOo~

Trevor fell back as Tyrande and Ayassa pounced on him, jumping on his belly.

“Gotcha!” Tyrande laughed and squeaked when Ayassa pounced on him. Trevor laughed and rolled to his belly, watching the fledglings play wrestle. It reminded him of kittens playing, heightening their fighting abilities.

The sound of two pairs of wings thumping in the air caught Trevor’s attention and he looked up, spotting two unfamiliar dragons. What made him tense up was the humans on the dragons’ backs.

Humans on dragons? Trevor questioned and he got an immediate response from Kathey.

Hunters!

“Tyrande! Ayassa!” The fledglings looked up at him before spotting the Hunters and ran for Trevor. Trevor stood and the two fledglings slid under him, crouching low. The dragons landed, their eyes pitch black, no pupils. Trevor growled as the Hunters dismounted and stepped forward.

“Where’s Anna?” the red haired hunter demanded. His physique reminded Trevor of himself, clearly worked out, and tall. The other hunter was short and thin. Trevor stared, not answering the hunter.

“What do you want?” Trevor growled out. He looked back when he heard wing beats and spotted Anna.

“There she is!” The red haired hunter exclaimed, holding his arms out. Anna glared at them, making the taller hunter shrink back slightly.

“Cyrus James and Aaron Grimes, coming here with no means of attacking,” Anna stated. The tall hunter, Cyrus, pulled the bow that was slung across his shoulder and he dropped it to the ground. Anna looked down at the bow before looking at the dragons. “What’s up with them? I thought their eyes had green grid lines.” The short hunter, Aaron, pulled out a tablet from the pouch on his hip and he flipped the case open before scrolling through.

“D-does this c-creature l-look familiar?”Aaron stuttered and held up what appeared to be a drawing of a black wyvern with white eyes, no pupils, and had a ring of white runes around his neck. Anna tensed up and she looked to Tyrande and Ayassa hiding under Trevor.

“Anna?” Trevor questioned. He looked at the image that Aaron held up then back to Anna who was staring at her kids.

“Cenod,” Anna responded, looking up at Trevor for a moment before her gaze returned to the Hunters. “Why do you have an image of Cenod?”

“Our boss is working with this thing, he’s pushed the hunting stuff before but this...working with a wyvern with this power is just...” Cyrus trailed off and looked at Aaron. Anna looked to the dragons.

“He’s using his parasites on your dragons?” Anna questioned.

“What’s the difference?” Trevor wondered.

“Normal control over our dragons let’s us literally control them. Whatever we say or train them, they do without question. These things that Cenod put into the dragons makes them more aggressive towards other dragons. It’s worse the closer they are to the boss, Cenod is hiding in him,” Cyrus explained.

“Any powers?” Anna asked.

“Just summoning parasites when we get new dragons under our control.”

“When did Cenod appear?”

“Two weeks ago, got into HQ and had a meeting with the boss.” Anna nodded and jerked her head at the dragons.

“Those two are getting locked up until we know how to get rid of the parasites. What of the control?”

“Wears off after a month, we always re-established the control.” Anna nodded.

“We’re letting them in the Academy? Just like that?” Trevor demanded. Anna looked to him with what could be considered with a raised eyebrow.

“They’re not going far and I’m not giving them my full trust yet. They are Hunters with their leader still alive. Whether they give themselves up and save these two dragons or not, it doesn’t mean I fully trust them.”

“I don’t blame you, Anna. Boss has been giving you hell since your first encounter,” Cyrus remarked. Anna snorted.

“Got that right.”

“You’ve mentioned you had battles with him. Why is he so fixated on you?” Trevor asked and Aaron held up the tablet, revealing an image of a man who looked to be in his fifties, long white hair, gray eyes, and across his face was a series of scars that looked like a three clawed beast scratched him.

“A-Anna did t-that,” Aaron stuttered. He zoomed in on the scars and Trevor looked at them before looking at Anna.

“First encounter I had with him, I was the only dragon to leave scars and escape his clutches for as long as I have,” Anna explained. “Let’s get those dragons into holding cells. Trevor, bring these two to the conference room so the team knows what’s going on.”

~oOo~

“Are you crazy, Kathey?!” Sylark shouted. The team sat in the conference room, Cyrus and Aaron standing near the back of the room while Sylark and Kathey argued about letting hunters stay at the Academy.

“This gives us the advantage, Sylark! You’ve seen their minds, you know they aren’t here on orders of the Leader. Wouldn’t you want the advantage?”

“I would kill them for their actions, Anna. They have killed millions of us over the years!”

“Group hate,” Trevor remarked. Sylark and Kathey looked to Trevor who lounged on one of the couches.

“Excuse me?”

“Lashing out at a group as a whole. Have these two even killed a dragon?”

“No,” Kathey replied, folding her arms across her chest. She glared up at Sylark.

Trevor looked between the two and fought a laugh. Kathey had to be only five feet and four inches. Sylark was about as tall as Trevor, six feet and two inches. Trevor found it amusing from a human perspective the height difference between them.

“You replace this amusing?” Sylark snapped at Trevor who snorted a laugh and smirked, shaking his head.

“You know why I replace it funny,” Trevor replied, giving Sylark a shit eating grin. Sylark made a sound of aggravation and stormed out of the conference room.

“I’ve never seen him lose his cool like that.” Trevor noted

“It’s rare, but it happens,” Malice commented, rolling a piece of hay in his mouth with his tongue. Kathey snorted and shook her head.

“Trevor, Tyrande and Ayassa are looking for you. You better go replace them before you face their wrath,” Kathey announced and smirked. Trevor huffed and swung himself to his feet before walking out, spotting Tyrande and Ayassa standing nearby.

“What are you after, crazy kids?” Trevor asked and the fledglings looked to him.

“We wanna fly in the forest,” Tyrande announced and Trevor raised an eyebrow.

“That’s risky you know,” Trevor argued.

“Not if we stay low to the ground where we can’t be easily seen.” Trevor shook his head and waved the two over to him. He squatted down and rested his elbows on his knees.

“Do you two promise to be very careful? Use all your senses and stay aware of everything around you?”

“We promise, right Ayassa?” Tyrande looked to his sister who nodded. Though, Ayassa paused for a moment before looking to Tyrande and whined. “What?” Ayassa looked to Trevor before sitting back on her haunches and looked to her claws.

“What’s up, Ayassa?” Trevor asked. Ayassa grunted in annoyance and looked between the two before pointing at Tyrande. “What about your brother?” Ayassa warbled and pointed to herself then at Tyrande. “Your brother?” Ayassa shook her head. “Sibling?” She nodded and held up her claws, closing them and opening them again. Six claws, signalling twelve. Ayassa had twelve siblings total.

“You want the others to come with us?” Tyrande guessed and Ayassa nodded.

“Go get em, tiger,” Trevor teased and Ayassa squealed with delight and ran off. “How old is she now?”

“Uh...her birthday is in November.”

“Nine months. You?”

“I’m two.”

“I’m surprised she’s not talking yet.”

“Mom says she’s slower than me or something like that. Have to be patient.” Tyrande looked up at Trevor. “She said I started talking early, before I was a year old.” Trevor hummed and stood.

“I’ll wait outside, go tell your sister.” Tyrande nodded and ran off.

~oOo~

“Sir, we have yet to hear from Cyrus and Aaron,” a Hunter announced to the leader, kneeling before him in his throne. The leader hummed in thought, his ankle crossed over his knee. “Should we send out a scouting party?” The Hunter looked up and the leader nodded. The Hunter bowed his head and stood, retreating from the room.

Why waste your time on two hunters, Garrett? Cenod’s voice echoed in the leader’s mind. Cenod phased out of his body and appeared before him. “What are two hunters going to do when you have a whole army of them.”

“I don’t answer to you, lizard,” Garrett snapped and Cenod launched forward, his foot slamming into Garrett’s throat, pinning him to the back of the chair.

“Listen here, old man. I provided you with a way to push your dragons to exceed their fighting capabilities. You still have your free will. Do not try my leadership because I will possess you. Where do you think my parasites got their abilities?” Cenod snarled.

“Well then, what do you suggest I do? Those two have information about my organization. In the wrong hands, we’ll meet our end quickly,” Garrett said and Cenod released him. Garrett rubbed at his neck and watched Cenod pace.

“You have a point now that you say that. Aaron was your information liaison, was he not?” Garrett nodded. “Alright, they probably went to Voutneth to give themselves up, give them information. Anna and Sylark are powerful telepaths, they’ll know everything in one sitting with those two. Send a team there, take back Cyrus and Aaron as soon as possible.”

“You will show them what happens when I’m double crossed, yes?” Cenod looked to Garrett and revealed his white teeth.

“Gladly.”