The Final Exam-Complete!

[Hopefire]

Please write more this is amazing.

[Amki]

it's been so long since you've last posted :O

[Souless98]

I love this story soooo much

[Rosyham]

This story is so cool. Please write more soon!

[jmilana]

Please post more soon! I love this story!

[Bellabean50]

Wow, your really good.

[Raneth]

Sorry for the ridiculously long wait between chapters!
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Chapter 15

“Oh, you will not go just now,” the elder said. Faint light gleamed in the distance, illuminating the icy white sea. “When you have eaten and rested and gotten your strength back, you will go there, where I cannot follow. But my phoenix will lead you. The dragon roams far, but our wards have narrowed its range to the sea and few lands beyond. The wards found you, as well. Kelsay found you, as did Kalien.”

The wards. They had been protecting the village of Kensig, not harming it. Aran sighed, his breath curling in the air in front of him. The warmth spell was fading.

“I’m coming too,” Johann said.

Aran raised both eyebrows. “No, its—”

“It’s cold, is what it is. You’re going to be walking on a frozen sea—on ice. Mage or not, you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m your guide. I’m coming too.” Johann spoke with finality.

“The dragon is dangerous,” the elder said, but it was a flat statement. No help would come from her quarter in convincing Johann to remain behind. “You both must be careful.”

“Yes,” Aran said. He had known that since before leaving the Keep. “And I can run if I have to, with both my creatures and with magic. Johann, I’m not going to let you get killed.”

“And I’m not going to let you freeze to death,” Johann said with a grin. “So if we’re decided?”

“We haven’t decided anything,” Aran said, putting up his hands. “This is my exam. I’m doing it alone.”

“Right. You’ll bond to the dragon by yourself. I’ll just come with for the traveling part.”

Aran’s breath plumed. “Johann, no.” Leath flicked an ear.

“How exactly will you stop me?” Johann tilted his head in a mockery of curiosity. “You’re my friend, Aran. I’m not letting you go alone.”

Aran opened his mouth, then shut it with a swallow. And you’re my friend, and I don’t want you to die. But he couldn’t manage the words. Johann wasn’t stupid. He must know the risks, same as Aran did.

The weight of the task settled on his shoulders. He would complete his exam—by bonding with the first, and oldest, of all ice dragons. A dragon who was grieving and would probably be angry with him for trying. And he would give it a drop of his blood. A drop, to convince a dragon to cease being angry and afraid. To remind it of what mages had turned it into.

He wondered if Thane had planned it this way. For what reason, Aran had no idea.

“So if we’re decided?” Johann asked.

“Fine,” Aran said. Leath wagged his tail. “We’re decided.”

“When you think are prepared, speak with Kelsay,” the elder said. “For now, go back. Eat. Rest. You will need it.”

***

Kalien met them back in the caves, and perhaps it was the memory of the first mage, but his fanged smile didn’t seem as creepy this time. “You will help us, keep-mage?”

“I’ll try,” Aran said. It was all he could do. His stomach gave an empty rumble, which wasn’t even audible to him, but Kalien nodded.

“You’re hungry. Come. Share the fire.” Johann smiled, and Aran followed. Leath trotted by his side, tail wagging slowly. Aran put his arm over Aurora’s back as he walked.

It was hard to get the memory, and the feeling, of what he had seen out of his head. He wondered if Thane knew. Or Belmos. It was too perfect, too coincidental, that Thane had sent him, apparently a descendant of a powerful blood mage, to bond with a dragon right when the blood mages needed him. What kind of final exam was this?

“Aran?” Johann asked. He met the other man’s eyes. “You okay?”

“I…I think so.” The stone caves hemmed him in, and he was glad when they entered the cavern where cheery torches burned and people—strange people, but people nonetheless—gathered with their creatures.

If he could ignore their appearances, it would feel like a day at the mess hall in the Keep, with Kelly and Julius. They were just like mages, really. They had just bonded with their creatures in a very strange way.

Leath whined, shoving his nose into Aran’s hand and licking it, and Aran sighed, willing his heart to stop pounding. He knew what he had to do now. The anxiety should be gone. He had his task set out for him.

Like Johann had said that first day in the forest, there was no use whining about a difficult task, or what it might mean for his future. He just had to do it.

“Eat,” Kalien said, the man’s accented voice breaking through his thoughts. “Share the fire.” He guided Aran with a firm hand, Johann following along almost protectively. Leath lay his ears back as Shale padded beside him. At least Aurora was staying calm.

A thick shank of bloody meat lay at the stone bench where Kalien guided Aran to sit. “Eat,” he said. “You’ll need your strength. You too.”

“Uh…” Johann began.

“Share it,” Kalien said. “Or is that not enough food for soft men from the south?” His fangs showed when he smirked.

Aran expected Johann to bristle, but instead the dark haired man laughed. “Soft men from the south?” He smirked. “Where did you come from, Kalien, if not from one the villages? Or were you born here?”

Shale’s ears went back for a split second, at the same moment Kalien blinked, his jaw tensing. “That’s what I thought,” Johann said. He picked up the meat, looking around for utensils and then opting for a sharp stone when there weren’t any. “If you were born here, you don’t know our lives so you can’t compare. And if you weren’t, then at one point you were just as soft as we were, white wolf or not.” He met Aran’s eyes and grinned. “And Aran here is going to bond with a dragon, so you’ll have to respect him soon.” With that, he sawed the shank of meat in half and handed one to Aran.

Kalien glared, his red eyes narrowed. Then he broke into a fanged grin. “I’m glad you’re going with the keep-mage,” he said to Johann. “Keep him alive.” With that, he left them alone by the hearthfire. Aran watched him walk away, noticing that more than a few of the blood mages looked to where Aran and Johann were sitting. Despite whtat Kalien had said about sharing the fire, none approached.

He sighed, wincing at the meat in his hand. For people who had brought him here for a purpose, they weren’t very friendly. Maybe it wasn’t like the Keep.

“He reminds me of Dockson and his buddies,” Johann said. “You just have to show them you’re strong and won’t take their insults. Then they respect you.” He nudged Aran. “C’mon. You have way more important things to worry about then a couple of disrespectful blood mages.”

Aran took a mincing bite, his eyes widening at the salty taste. “I know,” he said after swallowing. “I just…”

Aurora walked over, her soft nose resting on his shoulder. He patted her, thinking.

The weight of history was crushing. The first ice dragon. People who shared power through blood, power that came from magic and had been passed down, and around, animals and creatures for millennia. It explained so many things. But it also raised so many more questions.

“You know,” Johann said. “After seeing that…memory…I have to wonder why we all don’t have magic. Even me.” He frowned, flexing his hand. “I mean, I wanted magic. Kelly had it. If creatures became magical through eating mages, then how do mages get it?” He looked to Aran. “Do you guys know?”

Aran shook his head. “We don’t know. We study it, though. In the past, mages were rarer, and valued power. Things changed, and there are more of us now, but…” He shrugged. “We don’t know why. But when there were fewer of us, there were more wars. It was a bad time.”

“Why do you think we hide from you?” a harsh voice broke in. Aran swallowed a mouthful of food.

Kameth glared down at him, his reindeer behind him. “If you want history, mage, ask us. We preserve the methods and memories of making new creatures, the natural way. It was not until dark magi and their brotherhoods, and the time of the wars, that things started to go wrong. You mages don’t even feel the magic in the world the way you should. You just use it for your own ends.”

“Kameth!” A pale haired woman rounded the stone curve that encased their fire.

Aran sucked in a breath. Kelsay.

“Leave them be,” she said. “The mage has agreed to help us. Or would you rather the first ice dragon remain angry and afraid, and prey on us instead?”

Kameth snorted at the same moment his reindeer did before leaving them.

“I’m sorry,” she said. She moved to sit next to Aran by the fire, Johann raising an eyebrow. Her hair was white, and somehow…insubstantial, as though it were made with filaments of ice. “It is nice to finally meet the two of you formally.”

“You put up the ward in Kensig,” Aran said, at the same time Johann exclaimed “You tried to warn us, didn’t you, about the storm?”

“Briand has told me to answer any questions you may have,” she said to Aran before her gaze flicked to Johann. “Yes.” She turned back to Aran. “I’ve been looking for one like you, for a long time. I will succeed the elder. I have knowledge of the histories, and the magics, that wind around Arkene. I am glad to help you calm the dragon.”

Aran blinked. He didn’t know what to ask first. “Why did you ward Kensig?”

“Thalnr and I have warded the air around Kensig to repel the dragon,” she said. “And any who carry blood like his.”

Aran’s face paled.

“That is how I knew, and why I sent Kalien for you,” she said. “Your blood is related to that which was used to create the first dragon. The dragon, too, knows. You saw it, didn’t you?”

“And ran after it,” Johann said with a nervous grin.

Aran gave a careful nod. Yes, he had seen it.

But considering it had blown him out of the air and into the snow, he suddenly was very much less sure that the dragon wanted anything to do with him.

***

“Come,” Kelsay said after they had finished their meal. “Your pegasus should eat as well. Come this way.”

The woman led them through the tunnels, the strange magical heat chasing away cold that Aran had finally grown used to. Johann walked by his side, taking careful note of the tunnels they walked through.

“Here,” Kelsay said, and Aran gasped. Even greater warmth bubbled into him as they turned a sharp corner.

It was like a greenhouse, but underground. Kameth’s reindeer, and two other nulorns, pulled tough, fibrous grass that grew from the numerous spidery cracks in the earth.

Aurora trotted forward, her ears perked, and sniffed at the grass. She grabbed at it immediately, and contentment flowed into Aran.

“If you’d like, you can stay here. There is a sleeping room to the side, there.” Kelsay pointed. “Please, let me know if you need anything, and let me know when you are ready. Just come to the hearth.” She turned.

“Wait!” Johann said. He ran hand through his hair, and Aran realized that was the first time he had ever seen the other man look embarrassed. “Um, I have questions for you. If its okay?” His gaze flicked to Aran as he spoke.

“Certainly,” Kelsay said. Aran wondered if Johann would ask where her dragon was.

“I was joking with Kalien before, but…how did you end up here? All of you, I mean.” He spread his hands. “How did you decide to share the magic, and drink a creature’s blood? Is it something you’re born with, like mages, or…” he shrugged.

Kelsay smiled. “I was born here. But not all of us are. Kalien was found. His parents had frozen to death, and he had been left alone.” Johann frowned. “Lira found him, and her wolf was with pups. She took him in, and he chose Shale.”

“So…it only works when you’re young,” Johann said. Kelsay tilted her head.

“It may differ if the creature is powerful. But all of us, that I know of, bonded with our chosen creature when we were very young.” Johann nodded.

Aran’s stomach flipped. Did Johann want to join them?

“Please,” Kelsay nodded, nodding to Aran. “As the dragon suffers, we all do. Its anger and fear affects magic everywhere, though mages like you may not feel it the same. Rest while you can. Take the time to prepare whatever you think you may need. Be ready.”

Aran nodded. She was right—he didn’t feel whatever disturbance she described, or the magic the way Kameth claimed it could be felt. But he believed her. They may be blood mages, but they had their own, beneficial goals, the same as any mage from the keep.

He just wished he knew what his real goals were. Once he bonded with the dragon, once he became a mage…he didn’t know what his future held. He still didn’t understand.

But he would do it. “I’ll be ready,” Aran said.

“We both will,” Johann added.

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TBC

[Namyre]

This has been an amazing story so far. Take all the time you want to write more!

[ellebellie]

This is fantastic! I can't wait to see what happens next!

[xmands]

Love this, keep up the fantastic work! Can't wait for the next update