For him it became a routine. Riding the dragon daily and he became very good at this. Konrand was the first dragon rider and he exercised how to fly, what kind of saddle suits the best and how to give orders to his dragon to blow fire, where to go and... who knows what else ?

He was under the protection of the king of Braitheld. But the king trusted the young knight with closed eyes. Not good to trust someone like that, someone who had a deadly weapon on his hands. And a weapon that was alive. With it's own thoughts probably and actions.

While Konrand was exercising, the king held a council. He gathered all of his commanders, generals and those from the very noble families to discuss what they were going to do.



They all decided to go and find more dragons or eggs. They found information inside of forgotten books, asking every Instructor of the realm to bring any book that mentions dragons. Even if it's just a simple line on a parchment, a simple word or an illustration. They had to know everything about them and they did.

They did find that dragons live away from high intelligence creatures. And of course the king thought this meant men. Men, elves, dwarves... they rule the world after all.
The only way they could be found was on the very west and north section of the realm, before Akasuna.
They had to act. And act fast, before the other kingdoms would find out about the first dragon rider, who was practicing with his dragon by the order of the king of Braitheld.

 

Fifty men with cavalry and infantry begin their journey to north/west of Braitheld. With the best armor, weapons and enough food to keep them alive for a whole month.
The trip would take a week only but they had carriages and there were many of them, they would delay a week more.

They travelled through forests. Forgotten areas that none of them knew they had life. And they hoped the only life they would find would be animals or harmful creatures.
They had a plan for every scenario. Even if they would be attacked by bandits. And they had a plan that they would follow with their life, once and if they would find more dragons or dragon eggs to deliver them back to the king. This was the most important and as the king said to their four commanders that went with them, " You are expendables " . It was very clear what this meant.



They managed to cover more than half of their destination. Until they would arrive to the borders.
They were fifty men after all, it would look very suspicious crossing into another realm without causing troubles. They might think they were under attack.

The plan was to arrive at the border and then split into two teams of twenty-five men.
Half of them would go south and the other half north. Then they would split again on ten while the rest five would wait for them to the meeting point they were going to set. In that way they would cover more of the area and they would have more possibilities to find dragons.

But nothing goes with the plan. Nothing and what they were going to face was something they would never thought would happen: Tribe attack !

 

Not a normal tribe. Orcs...
These orcs used to live under harsh environments such as ice and cold. They knew how to survive and they were strong. More strong than everyone else.
Fifty men against a whole horde of them would seem like it was against all the odds. But these men were well armed and trained to face everything. And since they were going to find dragons, without knowing what would happen, orcs were nothing for them.

They fought in the snow. The snow turned pink or bright red. Bodies fell down, shields broke, men and orcs were yelling. It was a massacre.



The two teams have managed to split. Both of them were attacked, only one fought against a bigger orc horde. They were losing fast. Their commanders fell right away and they started running away. But they didn't know from what direction.
But it didn't matter. They wanted to save their life. They had no idea the other group would make it, there was no way of those two bands to communicate with each other.

One of these who retreated made it to Akasuna. A desert land that it could be difficult to find where is the nearest city.
He was ready to pass out until a scout of riders found him. But he would prefer to die. Because what was going to happen affected all of the four realms.

 

They led him to the king of Akasuna. Tied with chains. He wouldn't go away either way, he was too weak. But he was babbling what their mission was. Because he lost his mind and he wanted to save his own as well.
If he had nothing to offer they would kill him anyway. The four realms were not in war but not in peace and some were ruled by evil kings.

The man was brought in front of the king and the king asked what he had to say.
The guards told him about his mission with the rest of the men. To find dragons and none else should know about. And the man agreed. Because he wanted his life and surviving is the first instinct of a human being.
But he had no idea what chaos was coming. Because the king was interested to find dragons too. There was no way he would bent to Braitheld because if one realm would have such a powerful weapon none would resist...

 

NOTE: The contents of this blog are not part of the World of Legends lore, and is not considered IG (in game). This is an independent piece dedicated to fantasy work...