"Ready to go?" I asked Hestia.
{_Yeah, hope the muscle heads hadn't invaded our home while we were gone._} She sneered. She really hates the military.
I sighed in agreement with her. Going home to a convoy of troops would be annoying atleast. Still, I was willing to bet that even if they discovered the shack, they would pass it off as nothing of use, since I always make sure to keep valuable items hidden. No my biggest worry was the mysterious voices we heard three days back. After making a break for it, we hadn't heard them again, nor had seen or heard from Hestia's mother either. I was worried that we would be intercepted by the voices and end up in a battle for our lives. We still didn't know if what we heard were dragon riders or something else. Hess had similar thoughts, but seemed to be less concerned about a fight. Her worry was focused on what her mother had said. She was apprehensive of this "long road" apparently ahead of us. How it could put us in great danger and if we could survive it. We plan on talking more about it when we get back, but that still depends upon what we will face on our way home.
Hestia and I were about to take off for the shack, when we heard sounds form some distance away. We both had our sense of hearing stretched out and strengthened to the maximum. So even though the sounds were miles away, we could still hear them and identify what they were. What made these sounds notable was that we had heard them before. This time it was eight heartbeats, four like Hestia's and four like mine. There were also the voices, and the roaring and hissing. Like a beast in distress, trapped and struggling to be free. The voices were consistent of yelling and hysteria. I was shocked and frightened to my core. Hestia was tense with suspicion. Still we both ran to the location of these sounds, hoping it wasn't a trap of some sort.
We were running for an hour before finding the source. There in the middle of a shopping center's parking lot was a group of dragons and they're riders. Hestia and I hid behind a building, watching the chaos unfold. A man with blonde hair was running around a roaring dragon. He was clearly trying to help it, but couldn't seem to understand the trap layed out. The dragon was a navy blue color with grey undertones, its eyes were a deep green just like its rider. It was about the same size as Hess, and had a row of spikes going down it's back. The man was tall, well built, and had light skin with forest green eyes. Yet, they weren't the only ones there.
There was a black dragon with red eyes lounging on the ground, almost bored with the struggle of the blue dragon. It was larger than the blue one and had a frill crown lining the top of its head. Its rider was similar to the man with blonde hair and green eyes, but had brown hair and slightly tanned skin instead. A red dragon with pink eyes and frills on the side of its face was sunbathing, while its rider was brushing her red hair. She was around my height, but instead of light skin, she had a copper like complexion and hazel eyes. Lastly was a green dragon, who was smaller then the others and seemed to look more like the Chinese style dragon. It had green eyes and its wings seemed longer than its body. The rider slim with dark skin, black hair and blue eyes. Unlike the rest, who atleast looked my age, he seemed to be young, like in his teenage years.
"What do you think we should do?" I asked Hestia. We were still hiding behind a building.
{_Approach, carefully._} She claimed.
I was shocked to here that. Usually we would avoid others because she was to weary to approach them. Still, we should atleast lend a helping had to them, even if only to stop the unpleasant screams of the dark blue dragon. I took a deep breath and with a quick prayer to any guiding force, I stepped out of from behind the building with Hestia behind me. It wasn't easy to just walk up to a new group of riders and expect them not to go commando on us. Part of me and Hestia just wanted to turn tail and fly back to the shack, but I just didn't have the heart to leave the poor thing like this. Even if I was pissing myself.
The green dragon noticed us first since it was closer. It gave a fearful hiss before running back to the others. The red one heard the sound and woke up from its nap. It immediately got to it's feet and growled deep and low. The humans followed its gaze, and prepare to attack. Tension was high, and growing because of the Navy blue dragon's roar. I lifted my hands in a "hold up" kind of gesture, hoping to show I meant them no harm. With Hestia behind me, I was able to get with in ten feet of them.
"Who the hell are you?"
"What are you doing here?"
"Please help me?"
"What do you want?"
They all spoke at once, with varied degrees of tone. I sighed, knowing this would take a while, but decided to help the navy dragon first. With Hestia's help, I side stepped them and managed to rip out the stake that held the tripwire into the ground. It seemed the dragon had triggered it and gotten its legs entangled, thus tying it to the ground. So by ripping out the stake, the lines went limp and allowed the dragon to untangle itself. Thankfully, once I had released the dragon, none of the others had attacked Hestia or me. Then again, I had used my enhanced speed and strength to help, so they really didn't have much time to stop me. They really just stood there as Hestia and I checked on the navy dragon. When we were sure it was all right, the blonde hair man had snapped out of his daze and walked to me.
"How did you do that?" He asked.
"Do what?" I countered.
"How did you get past us? I've never seen some one move that fast." He said.
I looked at him, "Are you a dragon rider or not?" I asked.
His brown haired counterpart snickered, like he thought I was joking. The blonde however seemed embarrassed, like he went through this all the time.
"Yeah we all are, but none of us can move like that." He explained, "Anyway, what's your name?"
"Anna and this.." I gestured behind me, "is Hestia."
"I'm Connor." The blonde said, "This is my dragon Monti." He pointed to the navy blue dragon.
"William is the one with the black dragon, whose name is Draco. Hannah is with the red dragon, Helanti. Then there is Kyle. His is the green dragon, Dernadle." Connor introduced them all.
I nodded, "Why are you here?"
{_We saw a large dragon flying from the beach. It was clearly older so we hoped to speak to it inorde to learn more about being bonded._} Monti said.
{_You saw her!_} Hestia exclaimed.
They nodded.
"Do you know her?" William asked
{_She's my mother._} Hestia muttered.
"What! Are you serious, did you speak to her? Did she explain more about the bond, what about other dragons?" Kyle asked with a hint of excitement.
I shook my head, but didn't say anything about what she had said. I wasn't sure if we could trust them so didn't talk about her warning. Clearly they were inexperienced and not aware of the prophetic words Hestia's mother had mentioned to her a long time ago. Not even their dragons seemed to be aware of it, so it was best to stay silent. Hestia agreed with my decision and kept her mouth and mind shut too.
The group had a look of devastation on their faces. They clearly wanted to know more about being bonded. It made me wonder how long they've known they're dragons. Probably not as long as I've known Hess.
{_Definitely not._} She responded.
The girl, Hannah was the first to recover. She leveled a glare at me before speaking.
"Whatever." She grumbled, "Anyway what are you two doing in our territory." She sneered.
'None of your business!' I thought with a growl. Hestia snickered in my head at that. Thankfully we had a private link we could fall back on.
"Looking for a new place to settle." I said.
She scoffed, "Did you put this trap here then."
{_Oh, bitch did not just say that._} Hestia growled in my head. I was pissed too.
"Hell no, don't you dare go there unless you want to cause a problem!" I shouted.
Immediately she and her dragon got into a fighting stance, but I could tell we would overpower them in a heartbeat. William and his dragon tensed up and Kyle was trying to look big and scary, but had a slight scent of fear.
"Bitch if you think you can come here and threaten me, then you got another thing coming." She grabbed a hand made sword from her saddle, "Your outnumbered and overpowered. Even your lizard can't save you so I suggest you get lost before we beat your ass into the ground." She yelled.
Connor was trying to hold her back, William and Kyle grabbed a weapon too, and three of the four dragons were bearing their fangs at us. Despite all of that Hestia and I didn't back down. We helped one of their own escape from what was clearly a military set trap and this girl has the AUDACITY to accuse US of putting it there. Even Hestia is ready to teach this brat some manners. With that thought we decide to show her what a dragon rider REALLY is.
Hestia and I synchronize our power and let flow out. Her mouth fills with flames and her eyes glow with untapped rage. I summon flames and form a floating ring of fire around myself. We both allow a golden glow to encompass our bodies as our power is unleashed. With us wielding fire and light, this idiot girl realizes we aren't someone to fuck with. She and the others had their jaws on the ground, even Connor and Monti were afraid and impressed.
"Still wanna fight. I'm not threatening you just for the sake of it. No, I threatening you because your stupid enough to think we are your enemies. This was set up by the military and instead of helping your friend, you and your dragon decide to be thoughtless and conceited. Even the others didn't help them, but atleast they didn't make such a dumb comment, because let's be real. If I'd set that trap, no way would I help him or ATLEAST tell you the truth." I ranted.
After I was done, Hess and I reigned in our power and were ready to leave. We weren't about to stick around with assholes who would treat us like we were at fault.
As I turned to go, Connor decided to speak up. Where the fuck was his voice when a fight was about to break out. NOW he found his nerve, and clearly too much of it because what he said next was insane.
"Come with us." He blurted out.
{_Say what now?_} Hestia sputtered. Even his friends were looking at like he lost his mind. Only Monti seemed onboard.
"Come with us. You said you were looking for somewhere to stay, and we have plenty of room at our base. Besides, we could use your help in becoming stronger. What you two just did is something we have never seen before, and we have more people back home who know more about the bond than we do, and they can't do that." Connor explained.
"We would do that because.."
"Because your a good person. You didn't have to help Monti, but you did because that's what you wanted to do. I bet you and your dragon have been bonded for a long time and we need someone who has that kind of experience. I'm sorry about Hannah, shes in the wrong, but please understand we've had to do this by ourselves. We didn't have the help of an older dragon." He was pleading with us now, but clearly he thinks we had it easy.
"Neither did we!" I snapped. "Hestia and I have been alone for three years! Her mother didn't teach us, we had to train ourselves. With every passing day we had to learn everything. And you know what? Even before then we were all eachother had. Her mother may have protected her as an egg, but it was me who raised her. It was me who fed and nurtured her. Me who taught her how to hunt. ME who LOVED her through thick and thin. In return, Hestia loves me with all her heart. She protects and guides me through it all. SHE is my WORLD. That's why we're so strong, because we would do ANYTHING for eachother."
With that, Hestia and I turned to leave. We weren't about to be used for our strength and power, not other riders, not by the military, not fucking even by fate. This is our life, we would live it however the hell we wanted too.