I have to go in? Mara laid her head on his. "You'll be fine, I'm here aren't I?" She smiled. It was almost like she has waited for Roven her whole life, and now she had a best friend by her side. "Plus they may know more about you." Riven rubbed his head against her face. Hopefully I'm not as useless as I think I am. mara clicked her tongue. "Does anybody else have a dragon that's insecure or is it just mine?"
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Fair enough, Nox replied.
"This one's not insecure. Quite the opposite really. And Valhalla is a little too secure with himself," Aurelius explained, "But honestly, just like humans, dragon personalities run the gamut."
Aurelius led the group up to the big double doors on the front of the building and held one of them open for everyone else. Inside, there was a big wall with a passageway on either side, and immediately in the foyer, there was a staircase going up to the right and down to the left. Another pair of dragon riders- a man in his 30s and a woman in her 50s, were both standing guard.
"Do you need to see the elders?" the woman asked.
"We do. We have a new Dragoncaller with us, and her dragon," Valkyrie said.
"I believe they are free at the moment. I will check, then escort you on back as soon as I know for sure."
Farron rolled his eyes, “Sometimes I think we’re too formal here.” He muttered.
"Man, I'm getting nervous now." Mara chuckled, wiping her hands on her dress. Riven stood closer to her, feeling that she was nervous. "Are these elders mean?" Because hers were, sure they pampered her but only to get her ready for her death. She never got to do anything she wanted.
"Oh, absolutely. It's all a guise for how lazy they are," Aurelius said, "They have to make it look like they're doing work. But of course, guards make sense, as they're important and old and can't defend themselves very well."
He turned to Mara. "They're tolerable. Very much set in their ways, but they're kind and fair for the most part. They would never hurt anyone unless they were a criminal."
Her hand clenched her chest. Hopefully they didn't know about her people, they weren't very kind to anyone and who's know what they could have done in the past to people. "Okay." She nodded and looked ot the ground preparing to meet them.
“Don’t say anything sarcastic, I learnt that the hard way.” Farron muttered to Mara.
Finally, the guard returned.
"They're waiting in the meeting hall," she said, leading the way on.
When the young riders came in, they were all in their seats in a big U-shaped formation around the center of the room. Aurelius came to stand in the center and beckoned for the others to follow.
Mara stood close to anyone she could. "Do we talk first or do they?" She whispered. Would it be rude to talk first or would it be rude not to introduce herself first. "Hello, I'm Marahasi Hunter, uh, nice to meet you."
"What brings you here, Miss Hunter?" the woman sitting at the center of the formation asked.
She was old, just like all the other elders, and she had kinky, silver hair that went about halfway down her back, which was more hair than most of the other elders could boast. On her face were a pair of silver wire-rimmed glasses, which she pushed up so that she could see Mara better. Nothing about her was intimidating. In fact, she could easily have passed as any of the young riders' grandma.
"Um, I-" Should I tell the truth or lie a bit. "I ran away from home." It would probably be best if she didn't lie, from what she heard they were very powerful people. "I'm from the Ibiweth tribe, if you've ever heard of them."
"Hm…" the woman sighed, "Ibiweth tribe, yes? Congratulations on making it here in one piece. That's more than most Dragoncallers from there can say."
"Uh, Thank you?" She wasn't entirely sure what to say. Riven laid his head on Mara like he usually does when she doesn't pay enough attention to him. "Riven stop, this isn't the time. This is Riven, my dragon."
Frost and Lucky watched from their place.
Another one of the elders spoke up- a short and jovial man with a long beard.
"That's not exactly a dragon, my dear. It's a drake. Might I ask how you found him? They're from much farther east," he said.
Aurelius quivered a little with excitement. So Riven really was a foreign dragon, but how did he come to this strange place?
" I found him in a cave just outside my village. Uh, what exactly is a drake?" Mara was now extremely curious to know exactly what Riven is, if he's not fully dragon then what is he?
"They're not incredibly different from dragons, but they cannot fly. They are incredibly powerful in their own right though; they are very fast and strong. It's not every day a drake chooses to be with a human, though," he said.
"You have books on drakes though, correct?" Aurelius questioned, "I believe Mara said she wants to do more research."
The elder nodded.
"Sorry buddy, looks like you're only fast and strong." Mara patted Riven on the back. "That's not entirely a bad thing though, it means you can definitely out run normal dragons." Riven just looked at the ground, he wasn't happy about the results, but whatever.
"We don't know a lot about drakes compared to other dragons," the elder continued, "so there could be more to it than that. Again, they don't choose to be with humans often, so there's some speculation that they have wisdom much greater than their flying counterparts. It's hard to say with as little human interaction as there has been."
"We could always go on a trip to the east to study them," Aurelius suggested.
A few of the elders laughed at him. Valkyrie shot him a look.
"I would love too!" Mara wasn't sure why the elders were laughing at Aurelius, he didn't say anything funny. "I want to find more like Riven."
"Oh, come on!" Aurelius shouted, "We don't know things, we do research on them! It's the way science works. And you don't want to send me? Fine. Just send the people you do trust, dammit! No need to take it out on them!"
The elders were quiet for a moment.
"What's going on?" Mara was confused and concerned for Aurelius at the moment. Something about not trusting him I'm guessing. This is the first time in a while that Rivennhas talked. He was so quiet when they came in.
"Don't… don't worry about it…" Aurelius muttered, obviously flustered and angry.
The first elder who had spoken smiled at Mara. "Worry not. We'll help you settle in, and in time, we'll help you plan for a trip to discover new information about the drakes. It's probably better that before you do something like that, you train with us and that you and Riven learn each other better. Besides, that will allow some time for researching in our library so you have some base knowledge on what you might encounter."
"True, but I don't think I need much training, me and Riven get along great actually." And mara knows how to fight, it may not be the best because she is self taught. There was just something about the elders that gave her a bed feeling, maybe it was because of the way they just treated Aurelius, but there was something there. And she knew Riven could feel it as well.
"Well, do we have a place for her to stay?" Aurelius asked, trying to change the subject.
"Yes, there are empty homes on the east side of town, specifically for new residents."
"That's near where I live," Valkyrie said, "I can show her around over there."
"Thank you." Mara followed behind Valkyrie and hoped this feeling would go away. She didn't want to be suspicious of anyone, but she couldn't help it. Riven nudged her back, he could feel everything she could, she forgot about that.
Quincy followed out behind Mara and Valkyrie, "Hey Mara. If you ever need someone to help out with researching feel free to come see me. I spend way to much time in the library anyway."
"Quincy, do you want to go ahead to the library while they find her house? We can go ahead and get some books out to give her a bit of a head start," Aurelius suggested.
Quincy nodded with a slight smile, "Of course. Come on Jade, we've got some researching to do!"
You are way to excited for this.
"That would help me a lot. Thank you." She smiled before leaving the building still following Valkyrie. So my kind isn't even around here? Riven wondered how he made it all the way over here, if his kind was somewhere else. "Its fine Riven, we'll find more like you."