Chapter 9: A New Companion! Chris the Dragon!

Four years later…

I’ve turned thirteen a few weeks ago. I’m starting to improve in my trainings compared to my previous years. Four long years had passed, and I’m still running laps in the trap-filled forest.

But I get the trick now. I had realised that some traps can’t be seen until it’s too late. I have to trust my other senses to detect them. And it became more easier and easier once I gotten used to the traps.

There were logs that will fly at me when I’m close. And they make a huge ‘whoosh’ sound when they’re close. To counter them, I used my hearings to detect where the sound was coming from, and when I had confirmed the location that they are swinging at, I leaped back or rushed forward before they can land a hit on me.

And there were wooden statues, they were designed like a Chibi version of a soldier, and they will launch small rocks at me. Okay, now this was bit of an overkill, as I remembered I had gotten a bruise from one that was flying at a trillion kilometres an hour. But there’s a catch to deactivate them, I will have to shoot something to the centre to shut them down.

And that will be perfect for my training with magic. I will use the first position to launch snowballs at the centre of the statues. I concentrated, aimed, and fired the snowballs, multiples at a time. Some of them did manage to hit the centre, and the statues that were hit had stopped shooting at me, and that bought me some time to continue.

I continued to run, I recalled that this was halfway through the course. And the traps will get more irritating every time I was about to reach the end. Out of a sudden, the ground beneath me collapsed, and I realised what it is; a pit trap. The depth was about three meters, or slightly deeper, they were impossible to discover until you stumble upon one, and I’m not sure whether I can climb out from there…

Time seemed to slow down as I fell slowly down the pit. And then, I had an idea. There’s a position that can help me out of this. I aimed my staff toward the ground, which was the air at this point, and I chanted; “Element of Ice, Second position, Freezing Point!”. After I’ve finished chanting, I landed in. There’s something different, the ground was cold. I looked down, and saw that I’m standing on top of a layer of ice. 

“Yes!” I cheered, satisfied with myself, I had totally nailed it with the second position. I looked up, the surface wasn’t that high, and I managed to climb out in no time. I kept on, prepared to face the other traps that lie ahead.

And… There were more pit traps. It was getting annoying, falling into every single one that I’ve encountered. I would have to repeat the second position to avoid falling into the bottom of the pit, and this actually exhausts me. Magicians have their limits, including you and me. We can’t cast lots of spells. I remembered Claude’s words, and I knew that I have to find a way to avoid falling into more pit traps.

I stopped for a while, and started thinking. How to detect something that is almost invisible? My senses can find the ones that were coming for me, not the ones that were waiting for me… Wait, I’ve noticed something, some parts of the soil looked jagged, while the other parts looked smooth… I turned back, and realised that the soil for the pit traps were jagged too…

I got it!

I started to walk across slowly, walking only on the smooth parts and avoiding the jagged parts as much as possible. Yeah, it’s way better and relaxing this way, and I don’t need to use any magic. After a few ‘intense’ minutes, I’ve managed to walk out safely from the pit trap field. I think that it might be safe to run now, but I don’t think I have the stamina for that. So I would have…

“RWAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!”

A bellowing cry in the forest erased all of my thoughts. It was a roar in pain, and it was coming from the trees ahead of me… I can’t move, what could be making that roar? And should I check it out? That creature must be in serious pain right now, and I’m not those type of people who would leave someone or something to die. Without a second thought, I followed the cry, and into the forest.

The animals are making me freak out even more.

A herd of sambar deer just rushed past me to avoid the location of the roar, and I barely managed to avoid them. The creature must be a fearsome beast, as the deer herd were panicking in a hurry. What if it was a carnivore, and it was letting out a hunt roar? Should I continue? Or should I turn back? But the creature really sounded that it was in pain… and it could need help… And I said it before, I would never leave an injured being behind.

I kept on, but I decided to tiptoe in case my predictions were wrong and to avoid letting the creature notice me. “RWAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!” The creature roared again, okay, how about… I decided to crawl towards the sound, that was really freaking me out. I feel that crawling is a safer way to approach this being. “HEEEELLLLPPPP!!!!!” Wait, what? Did it just… spoke? The creature spoke?

I was lost in my thoughts, and I didn’t realise that the creature was right ahead of me… And I was awestruck by how beautiful it is…

The scales glowed with the colours of a rainbow when sunlight shone onto it, acting like a prism. The tail was covered with spikes, suited for defence. The creature was at least fourteen meters in length. The head was similar to that of a monitor lizard, and the wings resembles the ones you see on bats, and it was at this moment, that I knew, what this was.

I was staring at a dragon…

“RWAAAHHHH!!!” The dragon roared. I don’t know whether it noticed me or not, but I have to check on what was causing it so much pain. There are many types of dragon species in the world. And there’s this one, the Indian Quarterback. It is known as a type called; an intelligent dragon, it is one of the few dragons that are capable of learning human speech and commands. I remembered these words from Claude’s lessons about dragons. And he said that this is also one of the few dragons that are herbivores.

The dragon has its eyes on me, it started to back up away from me, as if its… afraid of me. I also recalled that Indian Quarterbacks are also extremely shy and will retreat when it sees, well, almost any aggressive being. It shivered, “No, no.” It spoke, and it limped a few inches from where I stood.

Wait, it limped?

I started to notice the injury, there seemed to be something, it is impaling the dragon’s thigh. It will definitely hurt when you have something impaling your leg. I can’t let the dragon have this thing stuck in its thigh. But it always backs up every time I get close to it, it thinks that I’m a threat… I knew I would have to convince it that I’m harmless before I can heal its thigh.

I took a deep breath, and spoke in a calm and friendly manner, “Hey big guy, it’s alright.” I held my hand in the air, to show it that I’m unarmed with weapons. “See? I’m friendly. I’m here to help.” The dragon is staring at me, however, it seemed to see something on me that could be dangerous… I stared at my body, what could be potentially dangerous on me?

Oh, that must be what’s causing the dragon to be nervous.

I took my magic staff, and placed it on the ground. Okay, now I’m fully unarmed, and if it attacks, I will have no defence… but this is for the best. “Okay, no scary staff now.” I started to approach it slowly, and this time, the dragon didn’t back away. Alright, it seemed to have calmed down after I had removed my staff. I looked at its thigh with the object impaling through, as I began to approach the injured leg, the dragon backed up again. “No, no.” It said.

Great, now what should I do to convince it to let me take the thing out?

I stood there, and started thinking about some ideas to make it chillax when I pull the thing out. Well, guess I should go full kid-friendly mode. “Big guy,” I said, and I tried to put on my most heart-warming smile, “I, want to, help.” I did some hand gestures (which I’m horrible at), to make it understand me even more. “Help?” The dragon asked. I nodded, “Yes! Help, I want to help you.” I stepped closer as I spoke, and I made sure I tried to not make some heavy steps that might spook the dragon.

“Let me help, please?” I asked calmly, the dragon titled its head curiously, “As friends?” I stepped closer to the dragon. “F-friends?” The dragon asked, and it didn’t back off when I said that. “Yeah, we, can be friends.” I replied. “And friends, help each other out.” The dragon started to walk towards me, and for a second, I thought it was going to roar at me and bite my head off. But instead, it showed me its injured leg.

There we go, it has fully trusted me. I examined the thigh, thinking about a way to get the thing out. And I only can think about one, which is to pull it out from the wound. And it can get dirty. “Okay big guy, this will hurt.” The dragon looked at me, wide-eyed. “Hurt?” “Yes. I will want you to hang in there.” I inhaled sharply, and touched the object. The dragon stumbled, but it didn’t back off. “Okay, now, on the count of three to one. Ready?” I asked, “Ready?” The dragon replied, but it seemed more like a question than a reply.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One…”

With all my strength, I pulled the object out. The dragon wailed in pain, and the object was out of the thigh. I did it, I helped the dragon. The beast looked at its thigh, and it the wound healed, instantly. “There you go bud.” I checked the object out, wondering how the dragon had got this stabbing through its thigh… but it doesn’t matter, as long that I got it out. “Thank you.” The dragon said, and it bowed. I nodded, “Your welcome buddy.” Out of nowhere, an idea materialised in my head, what if, I gave it a name? Like as if it was a pet?

What name would suit this dragon? Think. The dragon’s voice sounds masculine like, so a male’s name would fit this guy. But what? I should name it after something I like, like a name of a pop singer, like Justin? Like the guy Justin Timberlake? Or… Elton? Like Elton John? But I like this singer the best, Chris Cornell… Yeah, Chris.

“Hey bud, would you like a name?” I asked the dragon. “A name?” The dragon asked. “Yeah, it’s like what other friends call you, do you like the name, Chris?” “Chris.” The dragon replied, and it, well he, seemed to say the name as if he liked it. “Yeah, Chris, Chris the Dragon.” “Chris the Dragon…” The dragon repeated. “Alright, it’s Chris then.” I said, “You’re welcome, Chris.”