Dragonkind - Kenneth L. Powell

A Fantasy Book Series With Dragons

Dragonkind by Kenneth L. Powell

Series Excerpt

Ocelot reminded Kail of her loss regularly, every time a little more hatred for the boy filled his words. The last lecture Kail received from Ocelot was six days prior and the catalyst for his departure. It was not the first time he fled the abuse that his father poured over him. Deep within himself he felt that that was the last time he would run and come back.

Ocelot came to his tower so infrequently that, had he been any other father, Kail would have been ecstatic to see him. That day Ocelot was already enraged over something to do with the Kingdom, but of course his grievance with Kail came to one thing, always the same. Kail watched as his father threw the wooden door open and it crashed against the table on the other side. He heard the dragon raging halfway down the tower, though he couldn’t make out what it was over. His behavior often announced his presence and Kail was usually prepared for him.

He yelled for an hour, never physically touching Kail, but mentally ruining the boy, degrading the ideals that most parents of any day and age would try to instill in their children. Kail sat on his bed, one of the few pieces of furniture that remained undamaged in his room. The tower room was large and bare and aside from the bed only had a desk and chair that counted as his dining table.

The floor had a woven rug that one of the slaves had made for him when he was younger. It was once a beautiful woolen, but upon discovering the rug during one of his ravings, Ocelot tried to destroy the rug, but only succeeded in unraveling the edges slightly. The slave disappeared with Ocelot, a look of fear resting on her sunken face. Such was the price the slave paid for kindness toward the King’s child. From that point on Kail never received another gift, from dragon or human.

Aside from the rug, bed and desk was a fireplace and stack of wood. The King wouldn’t be able to take pleasure in his mental abuse if Kail froze to death, so he was allotted enough wood to stay warm. Echoes filled the room anytime Kail spoke even the slightest word.

Kail’s education was the least important part of Ocelot’s plans for the boy. Any time a new book was found Ocelot would throw it through one of Kail’s two windows and it would be lost to Kail forever more. Because of this his mentors stopped allowing the boy to take any of the books back to his room.

Kail could have jumped from the windows long ago, flying to avoid falling to his death. His ability to transform and maintain the transformation was faulty at best and he risked injuring himself, or worse. Kail was depressed, but not suicidal.

He tried to hold back the tears, failing miserably as tracks ran down each cheek, dotting the floor with fresh wet spots. Ocelot smiled, happy with the reaction, his ego full. Kail was honestly surprised that the King hadn’t wet a finger in his tears and sucked the salty wetness from his fingertip. It was after the King left the room, with a new pep in his step and a smile on his face, almost dancing out of the door and down the stairs, that Kail packed a bag and prepared to flee the castle.

Though the stone was of the darkest black Kail had ever seen, his father, in a time of joy, called the castle Ellende. Ellende had earned its name in the early days by being the most beautiful of design. In the dragon’s native tongue Ellende translated to sun rising over a lush valley.

Ellende was not hard to escape but offered only one path on foot. Kail was not yet strong enough to transform and fly from the castle. He was restricted to his room most of his life, only given freedom once per day to head to the roof for an hour where he would be given lessons in reading and writing.

The books were to remain with the person teaching Kail. Ocelot only wanted the boy to go through the motions of learning and never truly grasp the subjects he was taught. Ocelot felt that the best way to maintain his place as King and the lineage of his people was to keep Kail’s intelligence limited.

Ocelot was aware that Kail had learned as much as any other young dragon though. Though Ocelot would throw any book he found in Kail’s room to its inevitable doom, his restrictions had lessened over each winter. At this point Ocelot only wanted Kail in isolation, alone with his thoughts. His hope was that he would feel guilt over his mother's death and the pain that it caused Ocelot. The dragon never realized the guilt the boy felt over the loss of his mother since he was only three winters old.

As Kail considered his options for escape he thought of the roof. He could easily have flown from there, had his transformation been less brilliant in the dark. The bright light that would emanate from within him would notify all the guards of his location and they would be on him before he managed a mile.

Ellende remained well-lit even after the sun fell beyond the mountains and the moon took its place in the nights sky. Red dragons had the arduous task of maintaining light within the castle. Darkness created a claustrophobic closeness to walls that weren’t there thanks in large part to the black stone that the dragon’s brought from Stelladahn.

For a red dragon, the task was menial for the first five or six hours. Anything more became a strain on their magical reservoir and the lights would begin to flicker and fade. They consumed nourishment at increased intervals and slept occasionally to build their power when their reservoir ran low. The guards on the top two levels often fell asleep about the time Kail decided to make his way to the gate.

He managed to slip past them with ease. One slept and the other paced the hall while eating a large leg of some unknown creature. The latter nearly caught him, he thought, when Kail had accidentally scuffed one of his boots on the slightly uneven floor. The guard stopped, thinking something had happened behind him, but shook it off and continued ripping meat away from the bone.

Kail cursed the brown dragon that pieced together the uneven stone floor. Upon reaching the bottom level he approached the gate. It was the only access to the long bridge connecting the castle to land and the guard stood at attention. She was focused only on what was happening in front of her, not the boy that approached from behind.

Kail hid behind the lone statue that welcomed guests to the castle. The woman’s hair flowed down the back of head, her arms spread wide as though welcoming anyone into her home. Those arms saw no difference between human or dragon. The one statue in the castle with such indifference was of his mother. She protected him one last time as he considered the best option for his escape. He froze for a moment as he rested behind her, looking up at her as a child looks upon a parent. I love you mom, but that dragon will always hate me. He thought as he rested, welling up slightly.

The last few times he tried escaping he was arrogant enough to try escaping from the roof. The brilliant flash of light from his transformation, which thankfully worked, summoned guards to the place he jumped. This time he knew better as he snuck up to the guard, a heavy wooden leg from the desk in his room gripped firmly in his hand.

He pulled the leg back, pausing only once to consider the morality of his action. As the leg swung toward her neck, Kail begged forgiveness from the depths of his soul. The body fell forward and Kail ran quickly across the bridge.

Halfway across Kail started breathing heavily, huffing and puffing with every step. He had only passed one of the pillars holding the bridge high in the air. He still had two more before he would be across the bridge. It had been five minutes or more since he started, but he was still only halfway across the bridge. He stopped and leaned down, huffing heavily, arms resting on his knees.

A few minutes passed and he pushed himself up and began his trek across the long stone bridge. No one seemed to notice him running across as no shouts had risen from within. The second set of pillars was now behind him with the third set rushing toward him. He pushed through the final pillars, the gate to the bridge, and fell behind one. His breath was ragged, as he tried to breathe as deep as he could. Still no sound of alarm came from above, or from the castle. Waves below was the only sound that filled the air with their consistent pull and crash against the rock wall below.

The rock cliff stood vigilantly in front of him, slightly below the top-most portion of the castle. They were accessible by flight and flat enough for any dragon to land safely on top of. The path from the bridge went one of two ways.

To the left was the slave village he passed over earlier. Off to the right was the forest Galdaro had landed in earlier. From what he had seen from the window that faced the cliff no one ever really came from that direction unless they were a brown dragon who had just landed.

The forest seemed to be the safest path and he once again ran toward it. The bridge had winds that gusted heavily across it as he ran, but the cliffside path toward the forest was free from the constant push and pull. He didn’t stop this time as he burst through the archway entrance to the forest.

Kail’s pace slowed as he entered the forest. None could see him from the castle, and it was less likely that anyone would be navigating through the forest, beside him. The large landing area that brown dragons utilized was behind him. He was now surrounded by trees, and only trees.

Eventually he transformed, his brilliant white-purple light lighting up the trees that surrounded him. He flew for a few miles before his strength began fading and he was forced to land. He transformed once safely on the ground, and sat on his knees, pain pulling from somewhere deep within. Sweat poured from his body as he bent his upper half and rested on his forearms.

This was the way he fled from the castle. The brilliant white–purple flash that accompanied the boy’s transformation lit the sky every time he transformed. The entirety of his flight from Ellende was bound by transforming, flying a little while and then transforming again. Each day he would transform at least three times before succumbing to his exhaustion.

It wasn’t long before the Hunters closed in. Three days passed before he realized they were closing in on his location. It was just a feeling, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint where the feeling came from. The day they captured him he flew further and faster than he ever had.

He wondered if he should have shoved the dragon’s body over the bridge when he knocked her unconscious. He also wondered if it was his constant transformations that had given him away. He knew he never would have the strength to murder an unsuspecting dragon.

***

Their footsteps echoed up the tower as Kail and Bora climbed. Kail hoped six days ago to be rid of this walk. Since he could remember, the slaves and Ocelot’s subordinates insured his survival, but he was isolated from the one person that should have loved him unconditionally. This was the reason for his own mistrust, he realized as they arrived at the door to his room.

Bora opened the door for Kail a contemplative look on his face. “Listen, I understand your struggle. Claskan is considered your father’s friend. All he wants is to help you. Obviously, there’s more to it than that but that’s all I can tell you.”

Kail entered the room. He wanted to say thank you but couldn’t comprehend why. He had been captured three times. Every time Bora was the one to carry and return him. Bora had been gentle in transporting him to Ellende. He had no reason to trust this green dragon, but every time Bora told him the same thing: Trust Claskan, let Claskan train you.

Bora stared at Kail. His mind screamed that he wanted to tell him the truth. Though he also knew that there was no way he could do so without giving Kail information that should only come from Claskan’s lips. He knew he was in no way capable of swaying the boy, that task was laying at the feet of the same person who would also train him.

“What I know is that you’ll need to trust someone eventually.” Bora said as Kail walked into the room. The door closed, not with a slam, but with a soft click of a latch. Bora sat on the stool next to the door and bowed his head, eyes growing heavy and closing slightly.

***

Claskan walked to Ocelot’s throne room. The guards at the door acknowledged the dragon, saluting him and opening the door. In the room two dragons stood around a map. The tall man pointing at the map, a gold cloak draped around him and his black hair contrasting the brightness of the cloak, was Ocelot. His hair was short and fell to the right slightly.

The other man, the man with the shoulder length silver hair was Torrance. Torrance was the leader of the silver dragons and he appeared sleazy just by staring at him. He was shorter, and rounder than Ocelot, just not fat. Torrance stood in his black leather armor discussing something that Claskan could not hear.

“We know you’ve brought him back.” Torrance said attempting to shoo the dragon off.

“That’s great, but I’m not here to speak to you Torrance. I’m here to speak with Ocelot.” Claskan approached the other side of the map.

“You two should get along better.” Ocelot said, scowling at Torrance. “You know Claskan isn’t a fan of your ability to read others minds.” Shifting his gaze to Claskan he cocked an eyebrow. “Though what he has to hide from us is beyond me.”

“If it were reading minds I would understand that, but Claskan being here is proof enough that he’s captured the boy.” Torrance said.

“You know damn well you read my mind, I could feel it like that greasy hair on your head.” Claskan replied. “Besides, I have done nothing. It’s that miserable group the Hunters that have captured Kail.”

Torrance looked at Claskan. “My apologies, but I don't care about your feelings. In accordance with the King’s wishes, however, I shall obey.” Claskan felt the tingling in his skull disappear. Torrance merely smiled with his crooked yellow teeth through his thin merciless lips. “And you are right, you haven’t done anything to retrieve the boy, you should be ashamed.”

Anger flooded Claskan’s mind, his face turned red. “Since you already know he’s back, there’s not much left for me to tell you.” Claskan turned his attention to the King. “I’ve assigned Bora, to guard Kail. His performance in the field was lazy and sloppy. He only really helped once the boy was down.”

Ocelot stopped, a blank stare filling his face. His eyes had sunk deeper into his skull, the price paid for ruling an entire planet Claskan supposed. “What do you expect of a green dragon?” Ocelot asked Claskan indignantly.

“Green dragons are worthless regardless of what they’re doing. The fact that I haven’t ordered them all exterminated is more surprising than their lack of capability.” Ocelot continued to rant.

“They’re far from useless.” Claskan defended.

Ocelot paused for a moment and returned to his map. “Are you sure that Bora is an acceptable choice? Are you sure he won’t accidentally explode the boy?”

Ocelot trusted Claskan’s decisions, but the green dragons always had to worry over Ocelot’s opinions of them. “He can be trusted, and his personal magic is in check. You know him as well as I do.”

A strange tension had built between Ocelot and Claskan over the past season. Claskan’s plans started forming a spring ago, though he remained firm in his dealings with his place at Ocelot’s side. During his off time, he distanced himself from the King and began secluding himself in his chambers when he was forced to stay in Ellende. His trips to his home had become more and more rare, weeks and months separated each trip back.

Books In This Series

Dawn Of Prophecy (Dragonkind Book 1)