Chapter 7

            It had been about a week since Cody and Omen investigated the cave the first time, soon after which they decided to wait until Omen had built a lot more torches before going in again. They were all completely sure that the cave went on for an extremely long distance, and at that point the old torches had probably gone out anyway. Inferno had stopped using his wings completely, waiting to practice in the cave where there was so much more space than they had ever imagined.

            During this week-long period, Cody had seen neither Omen nor Inferno, nor had they seen him, but the dragon did make it clear to them that he was growing. After much work, Inferno had become capable of speaking to the blacksmith, and was able to tell Cody exactly what he was saying, even though he couldn’t make a mind-link to Omen himself.

             Cody was very excited when he woke up that day, however. It was the day that they had all decided they were to meet again, and explore the caves further. According to what Inferno had told Cody, Omen had made 50 torches, which would require a lot of help getting them to the cave. Inferno insisted that he was large enough to carry two bags with each one carrying 15 torches, but he also desperately wanted to keep his size a surprise until they got to the cavern entrance.

            As a result, Cody was going to have to bring both of his horses, Skeletar and Chase, into town to carry some of the torches. The worst part of it all was that either he or Omen was going to have to ask Aval and Autumn for their three horses to carry about ten torches each because Omen only had one horse, and Cody and Omen were going to have to take turns walking while the other was on the only horse without a large load of metal. Inferno had explained the whole story about that day when he was hurt by Autumn, then got her in return, and after that Omen was willing to ask instead of Cody, and then they would have less suspicion on their shoulders.

            Cody eagerly hopped out of his bed when he remembered all of this, and quickly left the house without as much as a “good morning” to his parents. He hurriedly put on his coat and shoes before bursting through the door and running away towards the stables. He got Skeletar saddled and put on a halter so he could pull the horse behind him, and did the same with Chase, only giving him a bridle instead of a haltar.

            “Are you almost here?” Inferno asked impatiently, making Cody laugh.

            “I’m only just leaving my house for the town; it will be at least a couple hours more. Tell Omen that I’m on my way and I’ll be there soon.”

            There was a pause as Inferno told Omen what he had said, and then replied to Cody, “He says that he is already on the road and making his way slowly with each of the horse carrying a few more torches each. He says that he’ll probably be five hundred feet from the town by the time you get there to help.”

            “Really?” Cody asked as he mounted Chase and began riding. “It was that easy to get the horses from Avalsmokes and Autumn?”

             There was another pause, and then, “Apparently Aval and Autumn didn’t answer the door, it was their mother, and she was more than happy to help out the blacksmith that had to make a delivery to one of the homes on the outskirts of the town.”

            Cody shrugged and continued his riding until, after a half-hour of riding almost as fast as possible, he reached Omen and the horses. The man was walking along, pulling a rope that was attached to Myrtle and Mindy, and another that was attached to Inheritance and Misty. Cody quickly hopped off of his horse and began to help put the hammer, nails, flint, steel, and torch kindling in Chase’s saddle bags.

            “Long time no see,” Omen joked, even though it was true.

            “Well, we had better hurry up and get going, before Inferno dies of anticipation!”

            With that, Omen grabbed another bag that he had draped over Inheritance, filled it with ten torches from the other bags, and attached it to Skeletar’s saddle. Then he took his turn to ride, and hopped up onto Chase’s back. Cody grabbed the two ropes that Omen had been carrying, and they started walking towards the forest without another word to each other.

            “Are you two coming or not!?” Came Inferno’s voice impatiently, again.

            “We are going as fast as we can, we will talk to you in 45 minutes when we arrive!” Cody said allowed so Omen could hear it as well.

            They began to run, since they were also very eager to see Inferno and the cave, and arrived at the edge of the forest after what felt like a significantly short amount of time. That was when Omen jumped off of Chase and Cody climbed on for his turn. He scanned the forest for the path that led to the cave. Cody rushed along as fast as he could manage as long as he stayed near Omen, and they arrived shortly after, though Inferno was nowhere in sight.

            “Where are you?” Cody asked allowed so that omen could hear again.

            “Tie the horses up so they can’t run away, for they will surely be frightened by me.”

            Cody didn’t want to argue with that, since horses would likely spook even if Inferno wasn’t any larger than he was last time, so he slid off of Chase and tied him to a tree, and he and Omen did the same with the others. Once they were sure that the horses were tied up tight, they told Inferno and waited impatiently to arrive.

            Then with a tremendous roar (compared to what they thought it would sound like) the dragon leapt from the trees and the shadows behind them and pounced right over them, with his wings spread wide for show, but effectively blocking all sight from them. He landed ten feet in front of them with a big thump as his paws smashed the ground. He was huge compared to the last time they saw him.

            Cody smiled, pleasing the dragon further as he studied him. Inferno’s neck alone was about five feet long, as was his tail and his body was at least 16 feet long and four feet thick. He was about eight feet high at the shoulder, and his spine spikes were each a foot long. The space that was between his last neck spike and first back spike was almost three feet long, easily large enough for Cody to start riding him, and Inferno was clearly strong enough for that.

            Omen seemed to be reading his mind (though he wasn’t) and said, “You can ride him later when we explore the cave a bit, but I’m sure riding a dragon is very different from riding a horse, even if walking. We don’t have the time for learning now though; we have to get into the cave and finish up before nightfall or we just might get stuck in there forever.”

            He said it lightly, but he was still incredibly excited about it. Inferno looked at Cody and flapped his wings a bit in anticipation, creating quite a bit of cooling. They all went into the cave, following Inferno because his heightened eyesight, which was even better now apparently. They stopped as soon as they entered and Omen laughed.

            “We forgot the torches!” He raced back and grabbed a bag, still laughing when he got back. “We’ll get the others later when we’re done with these.”

            Cody agreed and got to work at refilling the old torches with the kindling. It wasn’t long before they got to the huge scratch marks on the wall, which still dwarfed Inferno in comparison. Then soon after that they reached the nest filled with bits of dragon eggshells, and then passed the last torch as Omen filled and lit it with the single hand-held torch that they had lit before. Then they began setting up the new torches.

            “I’ll go get the others, I will be back in a few minute,” Inferno said as he turned to leave.

            Cody quickly jumped forward and said, “I’ll go with you, the horses will probably be terrified if you try to take the bags from them. Plus, you’d probably tear the bags apart trying to carry them.”

            “Well I’m getting tired and bored of this anyway. I think we should go find a field somewhere and you two can practice riding or flying, and this cave could just be a den for Inferno when we’re done exploring it,” Omen suggested.

            All of them were a little saddened about giving up on their exploration, even if it was temporary, but Omen made a good point and it would probably be better that Cody start riding him early, and better yet that Inferno would start flying that early, so they left the cave again. Inferno immediately raced away in a random-looking direction, saying he knew about a meadow not far away that he had been using instead of the one where they saw Autumn and Aval.

            Cody untied all of the horses, attached the remaining torches to their saddles and saddlebags, and he and Omen set off in the direction that Inferno had gone. Cody began to wonder what it would be like to fly with Inferno, in real life that is. He began running along with Omen riding Chase beside him.

            It wasn’t long before they reached the meadow Inferno had told them about, and Cody was impressed. There were rolling hills for quite probably more than a league across, mountain-like piles of stone, and trees occasionally dotting the landscape. Inferno walked up to them from behind a giant, solitary rock, about three times as high and five times as tall as him.

            “Mount up,” Inferno half-joked as he walked up to Cody and turned for him to climb on.

            Cody smiled, tied the horses to a tree and walked closer to Inferno. He brushed his scales carefully with his hand, and reached up to just barely get a grip on the neck spike in front of him. He heaved himself up onto the dragon’s shoulders, and instantly gasped with amazement. They weren’t flying, but the feel of riding a dragon was just so amazingly different from that of a horse. Cody merely thought of a command, and Inferno did it, and before long, they were walking along at a steady pace.

            “This is amazing!” Cody said, just before he slipped off and probably would have fractured a bone if he hadn’t managed to grab the spike and swing down a bit more gently.

            “You alright?” Omen asked as he rushed over.

            Cody stood up and brushed off his pants before replying, “I’m fine, but I probably need some sort of handle, and a saddle would be nice.”

            Inferno snorted with what Cody later found out was a dragon’s way of laughing in a mocking way, but Omen said, “You just don’t run out of luck, I know a bit about working with leather, and could help you make a saddle. We could also attach a sort of handle to the edge of the saddle to help you hang on, and some leg straps to keep you up once you start flying.”

            Cody was getting more amazed by the second, but never stopped thinking about the cave. He decided that it was far more important to get this stuff out of the way, in case Argos and his rider were just waiting for it to be mastered or at least practiced. He patted Inferno’s side.

            “Speaking of flying,” Cody said as he grew a bit more positive, “you should probably start learning your flying and gliding.”

            Inferno snorted again, and asked, “What should I do? Go on top of the rock and glide down?”

            “Exactly,” Cody said, pushing him forward gently.

            Inferno leapt onto the large rock and spread his humongous wings wide, completely blocking the sunlight. His wingspan was about 40 feet, but dragons apparently had unusually thick bones and large amounts of muscle, which would weigh anyone down a lot. He flapped his wings a few times to feel what it was like again, and suddenly pounced off of the rock.

            Instead of a shaky flight like the first time, he floated down and soared majestically and perfectly, landing flawlessly on the grass just in front of Cody, who was completely stunned. Inferno gazed at his right wing with the same surprise.

            “I had no clue I would be so good after such a long wait,” Inferno said as he flapped them once more.

            Cody, still too amazed to speak said telepathically, “Well, get back up there and try turning!”

            Omen was dead silent behind them, half hiding behind one of the horses in fear and amazement at the same time. Inferno jumped up onto the rock again, and bounced into the air without hesitation. He floated forward, and then tilted slightly to the right and flapped his wings, turning to the right and gliding back to the rock, where he landed softly and clung onto it again. Without asking Cody what to do next, he seemed to know what to do and jumped from the boulder with a thunderous flap of his wings.

            Inferno slowly rose into the sky, straight up for about 20 feet, then shifted positions slightly and flew forward, increasing his speed greatly as he dove toward the ground and swooped up again just before he would have crashed. He soon put on an amazing aerial display, twisting, turning, mastering the air. He landed, and took off again, showing that he was practically a master already.

            By the time Inferno was done showing off his newfound skills, the sun was sinking below the trees, and the sky turned and orange-golden color. The dragon landed on the ground softly and quietly, baring his teeth in what must have been a grin. His tail swept the ground as he walked closer to them, flattening the grass.

            Omen looked at the dragon and Cody before saying, “I guess the only thing left is for you to learn to ride and then fly together. Cody, if you stop by my forge tomorrow I could help you a bit working with leather. I got an order this morning just before I left though, so it will be mostly up to you.”

            “Why tomorrow?” Cody asked. “After Inferno hatched, I’ve found that I’ve needed less sleep, and I don’t feel tired right now at all!”

            Inferno managed to stay out of the conversation, which is what he had apparently hoped for, but Omen jumped in and said, “I can’t work with you anymore today. Tell you what, you go to bed, and come by my forge as early as you want, and I’ll leave instructions for how to work with leather. I will join you later, when I wake up, and help you make the finishing touches.”

            Cody reluctantly agreed, and was about to begin the long journey back to his house, when Omen said, “Oh, and one more thing: if someone comes by to place an order, would you redirect them towards my house? If they are wondering what you are doing in my forge, simply tell them that you were thinking about becoming my apprentice, if you like the job. And don’t forget to hide whatever progress you’ve made on the saddle.”

            Cody rolled his eyes and untied the horses before climbing onto Chase and saying, “We’ll leave the torches at the cave entrance, to save us and the horses work. I will see you tomorrow morning!”

            And with that, he raced away, with his two horses only so that he wouldn’t have to be with Omen anymore. He was a very nice and friendly man, but for some reason his company became tiring after a few hours together in a row, making Cody eager to leave him behind. He stopped only briefly at the cave entrance to drop the bag that Skeletar was carrying into the hole, then hared through the woods again.

            He was ridiculously relieved when he reached the stables on his family’s farm, but he began to think that the day went by rather quickly. He took the saddle and bridle off of Chase, then the halter and saddle off of Skeletar, before turning them into their respective stalls and giving them a meal. He walked back to his house, his feet growing heavier with each step, he realized.

            He burst through the door, took off his jacket and kicked off his boots, much to the surprise of his parents that were seated at the kitchen table. Luckily, they knew he was an adult, and therefore they also knew that his business was no business of theirs, though his dad eyed him skeptically.

            Cody soon seemed to be just floating down the hall towards his room, and he opened the door with his eyes half closed. He leaned against the door to shut it again, and then collapsed on his bed with a sigh. Only moments later, he was fast asleep.

            Cody awoke extremely early the next morning, noticing that he felt amazingly refreshed and wide awake, but the sky was still as dark as midnight. Judging from the position of the moon, he decided that it was three in the morning, and he had likely fallen asleep at about eight the previous evening.

            Only five hours of sleep compared to the usual seven or eight! He thought to himself, surprised yet relieved that Inferno didn’t respond, though he figured from the feel of their mind-link that he was awake. Cody could feel when he was awake by how strong their minds were linked. If he was asleep, the thought transmissions were weak or almost nonexistent, but he always got some sort of message from the dragon, verbal or visual, accidentally or on purpose. He had discovered a similar reaction when they were a great distance apart.

            Cody very quietly left his room, passed his parents’ room, got his boots and jacket on, and left the house. He was about to go get a horse to ride to town faster, but he thought better of it, since he was trying to be as secret as possible. He turned towards the road and began walking at a brisk pace.

            “Want a lift?” Inferno asked.

            Seconds later, Cody faintly saw the pitch-black dragon circling above like an eagle circling its prey. He stopped circling, and dove down to Cody, not waiting for an answer. There was a sound like leather rubbing together as he folded his wings close to his body. They began walking along together.

            “If you were listening to my earlier thoughts, like I’m sure you were, you’d know that I’m trying to keep my visit a secret…a dragon wouldn’t help me with that.”

            Inferno hung his head low, or at least lower than it was, in disappointment.

            “Besides,” Cody continued, “I can’t ride you without a saddle, remember? That’s the whole reason I’m going anyway.”

            “I could carry you in my talons,” Inferno suggested as he held his right foreleg out, his claws coated in scarlet blood.

            Cody put his palm to his forehead and asked, “Why are you bloody?”

            “You never question why a wolf hunts deer, why question a dragon in the same situation?”

            Cody removed his hand and smiled at the dragon before replying, “Because I don’t trust my life to a wolf. I’m not going to let you carry me to town, but you can certainly come with; I might need to make measurements for the saddle.”

            Inferno stopped walking and looked at him with his icy blue eyes before explaining, “For the straps that you will use to keep the saddle on me, I do not think the measurements matter, since I’m probably going to grow a lot more over the years. All you have to do with them is make them much longer than they need to be, which should be easy enough. Then you’d just have to make the seat fit you properly. Last but not least, the leg straps to keep you from falling off, which also have to fit you, not me.”

            Cody rolled his eyes again and continued walking and said, “I would still like to make the final adjustments with Omen based on how well it fits you.”

            “Fair enough, I will stay by you and make sure no one comes without your knowledge. But I will have to leave only moments later to avoid being seen.”

            Cody nodded and picked up his pace to a full-out run. It was only about another ten minutes before they reached the town where absolutely everyone was asleep, they were sure. Inferno flew away towards the opposite edge of the forest with a mighty beat of his wings, and disappeared in the shadows by Omen’s forge.

            The human, however, walked straight through the town as casually as if he had absolutely nothing to hide, though his heart was racing and he desperately wanted to reach the forge quickly and secretly. After a few minutes of sheer terror, he did just that. He opened the somewhat large door to the forge and his teeth gleamed as he showed them in a wide smile.

            “Come in here and look at this!” He called to Inferno.

            The dragon simply stuck his head in, wanting to be able to get away quickly if someone happened to come by. On a small workbench at the opposite end of the room from the furnace, was a big pile of pieces of leather, recently dyed pitch-black with a scale-like pattern all over it in dark blue ink. Also on the workbench was a book that said plainly on the cover: ‘How to Work with Leather’.  

            Cody opened the book and turned to a page that seemed to explain how to make a saddle for horses. Inferno took his head out of the forge and continued watching for unwanted visitors that might come by. It seemed simple enough, but as he began to work with the leather, Cody found that it was more difficult than he had first thought. He began to wish that he had ridden a horse there, so it would have been faster, plus he could have studied the saddle more closely, especially since the book didn’t have so much as a drawing of a saddle.

            “Why don’t you go ask Aval and Autumn for a saddle?”  Inferno suggested.

            Cody got angry with him for even suggesting it and replied, “Why would I ask for help from them? Besides, Omen’s stable, horse, and saddle are much closer.”

            “You don’t understand what I’m suggesting, do you?” Inferno said. “Autumn has had much time to think about what she has done, and likely believes that it is her fault everything happened the way it did. She probably understands your secrecy now, and wishes to be friends with you again. And poor Avalsmokes, caught in the middle and not knowing what to do, is being unfairly punished himself.”

            “If they are sorry, they will come apologize to me.”

            Cody left the forge in a bitter mood, going to get a saddle from Omen’s stables. He greeted Omen’s horse Inheritance, then left with the saddle and went back into the forge to continue working. He didn’t speak with inferno again for a long time. As the sun began to rise at about six O’clock, Inferno became very irritated, but remained silent.

            “What is it?” Cody asked, not taking his eyes off of the half-finished saddle, which appeared to be amazingly built so far.

            Inferno refused to answer him, but Cody soon knew why, when Aval and Autumn walked in.