The Broken Scale (The Dragon Riders of Arvain)

by Clausen, Nicholas

  Hayden noticed that again he was the only rider participating in the event. He was competing against a room full of his elders; most of them had probably attempted the trials and failed to get their own dragon. Now they had nothing but resentment for him and they would be glad to show him up.

  A horn bleated four short notes and the few people that had their hoods down pulled them up over their heads, joining the faceless crowd. They all left through the flap and made their way to the arena, with Hayden lagging behind still trying to figure out the knives while walking.

  Two people, a male and female, held the flaps open so that the contestants could walk out easily. They were about to close the flaps when Hayden stumbled out; he had one strap wrapped around his leg and the other one dragging on the ground behind him.

  “What are they teaching riders nowadays? Come here.” The lady let her flap sway down as she walked to Hayden.

  She took the straps and undid some of them, then made Hayden stand up and she showed him how to fasten them. She took one last look over the straps, pulled on all four blades and when she was satisfied that they were secure she told him to run to the arena.

  Hayden listened to her and ran to try to catch up to the others; they were already in the arena. The sun was just starting to rise, throwing light colors through the sky and lighting the way for him.

  The others left their hoods up as Hayden entered the arena. Some turned to face him as he ran to the stand with the others.

  “I guess the young buck finally figured out how to pull up his pants. I guess we should all just forfeit the contest.” The same one that had made fun of him to start with did it again. Some of the others laughed at his second joke.

  A judge was standing with the group when Hayden ran up; he let the others laugh for a second and then told them all to be quite so he could finish talking.

  “As I was saying, we are allowing you all to have some practice time before the first event starts. You can each pick a target and take as many or as few shots as you want. When an hour has passed you will head back to the tent and wait there till the events start. Are there any questions?” No one had any, or if they did they did not voice them now. “Well then, good luck to all of you.”

  The judge walked away from the group and Hayden noticed that the arena floor was surrounded with body size targets at various distances. Hayden put his bow in his left hand and undid the clasp that held his cape, allowing it to fall freely to the floor.

  “The young buck wants to go first, well good luck boy, you’re going to need it.” The others laughed even harder at him now; it seemed all of them had joined in. Hayden picked a target that was the furthest away from them. He had tested his limits over the past year and now it was time to put all the hard work to the test.

  Hayden notched an arrow and drew back smoothly until his hand came to rest near his face. He lined up his shot with the target and, judging the distance, the lifted his bow and released the arrow.

  Hayden heard the twang sound when he let his right fingers go and watched the arrow soar smoothly through the air. The others were still laughing when the arrow sank home in the center of the target, right were Hayden had aimed.

  “I guess that one was luck,” Hayden said as he sent a second arrow following the path of the first, and it quickly came to rest right next to the first one. “That one too; well I am warmed up, anyone else want to take a practice shot.”

  Chapter 21

  Hayden stood waving at the crowd as they cheered for him. He had just finished the first event of the day and had won. It had been a simple archery event; they had to shoot at a stationary target and see who could get the most points with five arrows. Points were given out depending on how close to the center the arrow was.

  Hayden had sent thousands of arrows down range during his year in training. No one laughed at him or called him names as he sent arrow after arrow to find its home in the center of his target.

  The next event was moving targets, but this one was also timed. All the archers lined up and watched as they brought out the strange contraption that held the targets. It was made out of wood and had multiple targets resting on it, and the contraption waved them from side to side.

  Hayden had seen one similar to it at Tynan’s range but it had less parts. They each had their bows in their hands and quivers full of arrows on their backs. They wanted to see who could hit five targets the fastest. They could use more than five arrows during this event so if Hayden missed one he could make it up.

  Each contestant had a judge standing behind them, watching the contestants shoot at the targets. The moment their contestant hit all five they would hold their hand up and someone else would mark it down. That way they knew who finished first.

  They all had different colored arrows, or some even preferred different style arrow heads than others. That way once they were done they could tally up points.

  Hayden listened to the judge explain the rules for the fifth time; he was ready to get this event going. When he finished, Elizabeth gave her normal speech about how proud she was for those that were competing and other stuff that Hayden did not listen to. He was focused, and nothing was going to change that.

  “Are all combatants ready? Start the battle simulator and wait for my signal to begin shooting.” Hayden heard the wood start to creak as servants pulled on ropes and poles. The targets started moving back and forth like he thought they were going to, but he noticed that there were almost a dozen slaves holding ropes that weren’t doing anything yet.

  “Fire!” The judge yelled and Hayden drew his arrow from his quiver and notched it, but he did not draw back. He listened to the sound of all the bows flexing and the strings being pulled back and he waited to hear the strings released.

  TTTWWAANNGG. Twenty arrows at once got released and sent down range to find their targets. Once the archers let go of their strings the dozen servants that had been standing by the target worked franticly at pulling their ropes and moving their poles.

  Some targets jumped back three feet while others shrunk down. More still rose up in the air, and soon they weren’t just standing still but they were switching spots with one another and moving up, down, back and forth and all around.

  A few of the arrows found targets, none of which hit the center, but most of them flew right through where the target had been standing. Hayden had thought that something like this was going to happen and had waited to make sure of it.

  The crowd loved it, laughing at how the contraption had made almost all the archers look foolish as they clearly missed all the targets. The archers were slower to draw their next arrows and tried to aim at the constantly moving targets.

  Hayden stayed still and tried to find a pattern, but he discovered that they moved depending on which rope they pulled. So there was no pattern, the servants just pulled and tugged and made the targets movements unpredictable.

  Hayden pulled back on his string and took aim; others had fired and were starting to get closer to hitting the targets they were aiming at. Hayden took a deep breath and focused on one target; he only looked at one in the sea of moving targets.

  He released and watched the arrow fly at the target; it hit just to the left of the center. He was happy to hit it, and be that close to the center, but he had to get closer. He had to hit dead center.

  He fired the next one at the same target, he had already been focusing on it and he did not want to move to a new one. This shot was further off, the target being jerked abruptly to the side right after he had fired.

  He reached over his shoulder and pulled out the next arrow and notched it in one smooth moment; never taking his eyes off the target. This time he drew his bow smoothly and released almost as soon as he reached full draw.

  THUD. The arrow struck in the center. He repeated the same movement just as fast.

  THUD. Forth arrow found its home in with the other three. The targets movements became faster and more drastic. The servants were pulling and pushin
g as hard and fast as they could.

  Hayden did not slow down; he repeated the movement one last time and lowered his bow as he watched the arrow fly through the air. The target had been leaning to the left hand side and as soon as he shot the target jerked to the other side, just where he had fired his arrow.

  THUD. The last arrow hit center and Hayden turned and watched his judge throw his hand up to signal he had finished. He turned back to look at the other targets to see how many arrows were sticking out of them.

  Four different arrows were the only ones that had found their mark. They had built a wall of straw behind the targets to catch the rouge arrows. The wall, contrary to the targets, was littered with numerous arrows. Hayden smiled to himself; he was going to have another event won.

  He waved to the cheering crowd and shouted his triumph. Draek had finally woken up in between events and was soaring to his hunting grounds when Hayden had won his second event. Hayden felt his roar through their mental link and laughed as it shook his body.

  Now you will have to go a little further because all the game will have ran away, Hayden told him.

  Draek sent him a mental image of a bear that had broken cover to run away from the roaring dragon. Not today I won’t.

  Hayden shouted some more and waved vigorously to the people yelling back at him. He saw Fendrel, Shane and Cass all sitting together cheering him on. He waved at them and they returned the gesture.

  Hayden moved off the field and made ready for the next event; he had chosen to go through with competing in all the archery and throwing knife events. There was one more archery and two throwing knife events left and Hayden was determined to win them all.

  _______________________

  Hayden stormed through the last archery event; difficult trick shots. This had turned out to be a crowd favorite as they watched each one of the archers take their place and shoot at apples that were half concealed by glass plates. Hayden had no problem with this challenge and quickly won it.

  They were clearing the arena of all the archery equipment and getting ready for the knife throwing when Shane and Cass made their way on to the field to congratulate Hayden on winning the three events.

  “That was amazing!! It was like you were barley even trying out there.” Shane ran up and smacked him on the back. He had meant it to be gentle, but it still left a stinging spot on Hayden’s back.

  “None of the archers even came close to your shooting,” Cass threw in. Hayden liked being complimented by Cass, the only thing that could have made the moment better was if Shane had to go somewhere and Cass and Hayden could talk alone for a minute.

  “Thanks you guys. I am glad you all came out today; I know the archery games aren’t nearly as exciting as some of the other events.”

  “You know we would not have missed it, Hayden,” Cass replied. She looked up past Hayden as a judge made his way to the young man.

  “Rider, the knife throwing contests are about to begin, it is time to take your place.” He turned on his heels and made his way back to where some of the archers from the previous events still stood.

  “They must be the ones I am competing against,” Hayden said. He wasn’t worried, but he had hoped that less people would participate. He was good at knife throwing, but not as good as he was at archery.

  “Well we better get back up to our seats; we don’t want Fendrel to have to come searching for us.” Cass gave Hayden a quick hug and ran off. Shane put his hand on Hayden’s shoulder and gave a light squeeze.

  “Good luck, Hayden.” He too turned and followed after Cass. “Oh, Fendrel invited us back to his place again tonight. He said this time he will have food for us!” He had to yell as he got further away.

  I am glad they have becomes friends with Fendrel. He needs all the friends he can get right now, Hayden told Draek. He wanted to talk to him for a second because once the event started he would be trying to concentrate again and that meant shutting out Draek.

  We all need all the friends we can get, but yes I am glad to. The old man being happy means a lot to me. Draek let his appreciation for Fendrel slip into Hayden’s mind. Hayden knew that Draek cared for the man, because if things had gone differently than Fendrel would be Draek’s rider.

  Hayden smiled; when Draek was happy it was easy for him to be happy. He made his way to where the group was waiting. The man who had been making fun of him spoke for the first time since Hayden had won the first archery event.

  “You’re not participating in this event too, are you?” he asked.

  “I am,” Hayden responded. He still did not like the man and saw no reason to explain himself.

  “That’s not fair; he has already won all the archery events. Judge, can’t you make him not compete?” he asked the judge that had just walked up to probably tell them the new rules for the first of many times.

  “There is no rule saying a winner of a previous event has to leave another event.” The judge went on to tell them the rest of the rules, but Hayden quit listening. He had already put his hands on the knife handles and was just waiting to be told what to throw them at.

  Finally the judge finished talking and told them were to go. This first event was going to be different. Instead of them all throwing at the same time they would each take turns with two knifes each and they would only count the better of the two throws.

  The one who threw the worst would be disqualified and they would line up again, but each time they lined up the distance between them and the target grew by a few feet. They lined up and awaited their turns to throw.

  The same man was still complaining until he went to throw, and on his second toss hit the third ring from the center, closer than anyone had hit so far. He quit complaining and started to try to make Hayden mad again.

  Hayden waited his turn, and when he finally stood at the line to throw he had shut the world out and saw only the target. He took his knife out, he knew it was already balanced but he checked it again, and took aim.

  He threw the knife and watched it go end over end until it sank into the center of the target. There was no need for him to throw a second knife so just walked off the line so the next person could throw.

  As he walked off he heard the man who had just been making fun of him say something about there being no point in any of them competing if they were going to let a rider compete.

  The knife throwing events looked a lot like the archery events. Hayden seemed to effortlessly win round after round until he had won all of the events.

  The games were done for the day after the knife throwing, Hayden was excited to spend time with his friends, but it seemed that that was going to have to wait. Hayden was thronged with people telling him how good of a job he did. He tried his best to find his friends, or any familiar face, but he couldn’t make out anyone in the crowd.

  Enjoy yourself, your friends are already back with Fendrel and they will meet you at his house, Draek told him. Hayden was relieved and, despite his best efforts, began to enjoy himself. Hayden was in the center of the crowd when guards finally came and began to break everyone up.

  Everyone left peacefully and there was no incident, which Hayden was relieved about. Once the crowd had thinned out enough he made his way through the people and started his long walk back to Celestial City.

  ___________________________

  Hayden heard the laughter coming out of Fendrel’s house, his friends were all in there and having a good time. Hayden knocked on the door and it was Cass who answered it. She threw her arms around his shoulders and gave him a quick hug before letting him in.

  “He is here, guys; we were worried that some mob had carried you off to their tavern or something.” She gave him a half smile that let him know that she was kidding. She grabbed his hand and pulled him inside before he could answer.

  I could really get used to her being like this, Hayden thought.

  Draek replied back immediately. Not this again. Hayden did not know if he was joking or not, Draek did no
t give half smiles like other people Hayden knew. Hayden reassured him that they would not have a repeat of last night and that he could control his thoughts.

  “Hayden, the great archer and knife thrower, we are honored to have you grace us with your presence this evening.” Fendrel stood up and made a mock bow as Cass and Hayden walked into the room.

  “Why thank you, good sir,” Hayden replied and returned a bow to Fendrel.

  From there their night was filled with laughter, food and drink. They listened to Fendrel tell more stories about the time he spent with the elves. They spoke of dreams after their dragons had grown to full size and Fendrel told them about all the corners of Arvain.

  The sun had set long ago and the streets were dark and silent, the drunken fans had long since passed out in one gutter or another. Hayden and Shane sat up near the fireplace in Fendrel’s common room and just talked. Fendrel had fallen asleep in his chair and was snoring so loud that Hayden had suggested smothering him with his cape.

  Cass had stretched out on the longest seat and had fallen asleep some time ago. Hayden kept looking back at her and smiling; she was beautiful even while she was asleep. Draek had fallen asleep along with the other dragons.

  “So are you going to compete in any more events?” Shane asked.

  “Not until we do the rider ones; I would like to enjoy the rest of the games and watch them with you guys. What about you, are you doing any more?” Hayden got up and poked the dying fire, trying to get it to last a little longer.

  “No, I am good with my one win, plus Rilora and I have some work to do before we compete again.” They had not spoken about the day before and Hayden did not want to. He used the fire going out as an excuse to start to head back.

  Hayden was trying to think of a way to wake Cass up without disturbing her too much. Before he could act Shane reached over and smacked her leg.

  “Time to get up, we are leaving,” he said. Hayden smacked him on the arm and Shane just shrugged his shoulder mouthing ‘What?’.