Max the Dragon Warrior Read online

  Max the Dragon Warrior

  CHAPTER 1

  The Beginning

  Gale was ruled by Queen Alissa, a woman said to be the greatest mage in a 1000 years. Queen Alissa was definitely the most brutal Queen the world had ever seen and did much to punish the lowborn, especially males. Gale was a female dominated society, because for one reason or another only females had the ability to become mages. This ability though was not universal to females across the world, for some reason only the Galeans had this ability. It was because of this ability men were definitely treated as the lesser of the sexes. Men were seen as the workforce, they were used for hard labor and as the attack force. Of this attack force, none were seen as anything special except for the dragoon and griffin riders.

  Griffins were winged beast about the size of a small horse. They had the head, wings and front feet and talons of a great hunting bird, the rest of their bodies looked much like that of a wolf. Only smaller men could maneuver the ill-tempered beasts as they could not fly if their rider was past a particular weight. The dragoon riders though were a different breed, these men normally got the appointment by coming from a wealthy household. Dragoons were dragon hybrids, it was said that the Queen had a female dragon hidden deep beneath the castle in an enchanted sleep. The dragon was somehow bred with the Great Drake, a near extinct reptile that despite standing at a height similar to man was very slow, fragile, and easy to kill. The offspring of these drakes though were called Dragoons, and they had impressive size. The large Dragoons compared more than favorably to the dragon skeletons that had been found, Dragoons seemed to be longer and thicker than their ancient cousins. Dragoons had a thinner head though attached to their necks and all were female and infertile. As great as Dragoons were though, they did not have the legendary abilities of some of the dragons of old, these beast could fly, the alpha males even had the ability to breathe fire if legends were true. The dragons had riders too, though the process was very different than that of dragoons.

  According to legend there used to be dragons all over the world. These beasts shared a part of their power with humans they selected as being worthy; there was no way to force this bond. The bonded human took on some of the power and abilities of the dragon and could communicate over great distance. Dragons were said to be intelligent, even more so than humans, unlike the dragoons. The dragoons held some intelligence but not much more than a horse. Dragoons were broken from birth to accept a rider and cared for their human much like that of a dog or cat. Dragoons were long lived and had a lifespan twice that of a human, it was not unusual for dragoons to be handed down amongst families to younger warriors. Between the mages, griffins and dragoons, the Queendom of Gale was a sizable force which had declared war on all of her neighbors and demanded tribute monthly making it one of the five great nations.

  Rich noble males did not have to worry about war, they were always married off to noble families seeking to increase their standing in one way or another. Males from wealthy families who wanted to make a better name for themselves were taught to be dragoon riders, these men gained great prestige and elevated their level considerably. Dragoon riders were seen as desirable and the wife of one was paid a pretty handsome stipend as long as her husband was ready for war and other various duties. If the rider was unmarried then the head female of his house would collect the pay making dragoon riders especially wanted by women of little fortune or those seeking to increase their fortunes. Griffin riders were different, although they paid well, the life of a griffin rider was measured in days, not years. One mistake in the sky could send a rider plunging into the ground. Add to the fact griffins could be hard to control and often chased birds and other things made falling a distinct possibility. Griffins unlike Dragoons only lived ten years which made their riders not as desirable.

  Men who did not have the means or ability to be dragoon or griffin riders could only find so many ways to support themselves. It was technically illegal for men to own businesses but that did not stop many from doing just that, just secretly. If they were found out, their stock along with all money and items from the business would normally be given to the female who exposed them. Men could always farm, hunt or other physical jobs. They were still stronger and faster than females and the job suited them well. The majority of men though found work in the service of a Lady, a female noble. These women often had big plots to farms or caves to mine and paid very little, but fed and clothed those who worked for her. Getting one of those jobs though was tough, the workers themselves often chased away those not family. Max had it about as hard as anyone in Gale, he was a male with no family, female or otherwise.

  Max was said to have old blood by the mages who had seen him out on the street. Max had reddish pink eyes which was said to be unique although the reason why had been lost to history. His eyes never helped him with anything though, ever since his mother died Max had been out on the street, a horrible place to live for a scared six year old boy. The streets had many gangs, girls did not have this problem as they were housed in orphanages or adopted outright. Boys were normally left to fend for themselves or handed over as cheap labor when the need arose. Max was just a street rat and not a very good one. Max had no gang like the other boys on the street and was often beaten when one of the gangs found him on their turf. He could forget panhandling altogether, if any gang found him it would be over. Because of this Max often stole, he wasn’t as slick as those who could pickpocket, so he used other methods. Max was good at climbing, he could scale walls with ease and often went through open windows in search of food. He had been caught once or twice and beaten then thrown out making him very unwanted as many affluent families knew who the dirty little funny eyed street rat was. The worse beatings though Max received in the ten years he had been out on the street though came from the students in the beast rider academy.

  The dragoon and griffin riders were taught at the beast rider academy over a period of two years for the dragoons and one year for the griffin riders. These males often came from rich families anyway and liked to use their new found power that being a rider gave them. They often went into town and beat up street rats for fun, these men were taught how to handle themselves early and were in great shape. Since street rats normally ran in packs the riders would look for easier targets, single targets like Max. They had caught Max a couple of times and beat him good, long after he passed out. Max had expected the same treatment today, he was sleeping in the alley and tossed into a bag. From his captors accent he could tell these were highborn men, why they would capture him though was a mystery. Max had fought and struggled but in the end he was conked in the head and now woke up inside some kind of box. There were holes drilled in it so he could tell it was daytime instead of the night which he was taken in.

  “Alright open this thing up” Max heard a voice say as the top of his box came off. “You in there, get out”.

  Max rose from the box scared, when he looked around though he had paralyzing fear. Around him were several dragoons and two griffins all complete with riders. Max recognized the boys who rode them, he did not know their names but they were the worst sort. They were the ringleaders who often went out to beat up street rats.

  “Alright you” Max heard a voice say, the same one from outside the box. This was a man around 40 who had black hair which was graying around the temples and a slight belly. “If you listen you can find yourself back in your filthy alley in a few days. If you don’t, you will find yourself dead. No one is around to help you, not the law, not other street rats, you have no one. Do I make myself clear?”

  “What do you want with me?” Max asked shakily.

  “What you see before you is the future of our army, men who unlike yourself wil
l fight for our country and bring happiness to her majesty while those like you get by on stealing and begging” the man said as he gestured to the smirking boys. They need a little more help in their studies than school can give them. You are going to be prey, you are going to run in the forest and hide and I am going to send one of them after you. You try your best to be good prey and maybe you won’t be chewed up too bad. If you are bad prey you will find yourself killed. You can look around at all the other boxes, the empty ones were those too stupid to follow directions”.

  “Well some of them followed directions” said a large blond rider which made the others laugh.

  “Nevertheless we have ten more of you, the others just haven’t woke up yet” the man with the grey hair said. “Right now we need a little test run, I want you to get up and run to those trees out there”.

  Before Max could move or say anything the man produced a whip and started beating him hard across his back with it until he took off running. Before Max got very far he felt pain on both shoulders, a griffin had caught him and dug its talons deeply into his skin and picked him up a couple of feet before sending him crashing to the earth.

  “You have to be faster than that street rat” the boy on the beast’s back said laughing as he flew off. Max’s shirt started soaking with blood at the attack which caused him to fume. While the dragoon riders were tough to beat off of their animals, the puny little griffin riders where a different story. Were they well trained? Of course they were but they were also short and skinny, Max had fought one once and although he took many blows, he had come out on top when he landed a good blow to the boy’s jaw and left him sprawled out in the street. If he ever caught up with this boy the same would happen. Max could hear the dragoons roaring as he saw two more crates being opened up. Inside were Carrot, the red haired leader of the Apple gang, named because they were good at stealing food and Gary, a big dumb bully who fancied himself as some kind of overboss and took a cut from everyone who panhandled in the square. Both were not allies and would probably beat Max so the others could find him. Max looked to towards the big mountain and wondered exactly where he was as he began running towards them.

  There was a mountain range that could be seen from town but it looked at least a day or so away. This could be that range but it forced Max to do some quick math. The sun had just went down when he fell asleep, he normally did all of his work when the moon had been up for a bit and normally woke up around that time. Since he had been caught dead sleep, he must had been taken when the night was still young. The sun was high overhead so he could have traveled to that mountain range which was always visible. Although his shoulder wounds hurt, Max kept going until he could get out of eyesight. Max knew what he was looking for, a tree big enough for him climb and hide out in. He wasn’t going to be able to outrun a dragoon and especially not a flying griffin. Max ran for all he was worth but soon heard sounds in the forest behind him. Max quickly found the largest tree and began climbing up as fast as he could. The climb was hard, the attack the griffin gave him impaired his ability to move properly. As he looked down he could see Carrot looking up at him snarling. Max waved at the boy, he doubted Carrot could climb up the tree since there was no low hanging branches.

  “Keep going and don’t give me away” Max cried out.

  “You funny eyed bastard help me up there” Carrot replied.

  “You can get stuffed I’m not helping you up anywhere” Max replied.

  “I’ll tell them where you are” Carrot replied.

  “Then at least ill get to see you get ripped apart before they get to me” Max said as he climbed higher up the tree. Max saw Carrot attempt to climb up but stopped when another street rat, this one named Matt from Carrot’s gang caught up to him.

  “We got to go Carrot, I am the last one they released” Matt said as he glanced up at Max then back down to Carrot. “I bet this is what happened to the others, we better move and find a way to fight back or run. The panhandlers went in a different direction, towards the water I think, we need to just keep moving towards thicker forest. The mountain offers no cover at all, the griffins would see us since it is wide open between the forest and the mountain”.

  “I’ll see you again funny eyed bastard” Carrot said as Max waved at him. “And when I do you’ll get more than a beating”.

  Max watched them depart and found a good hiding spot among the top of the tree. He wasn’t at the very highest branch so the griffin couldn’t just fly and get to him without entangling and knocking off his rider and there was too many braches below for anyone who didn’t know he was there to spot him. Max would hide out there for as long as possible, hopefully he could at least be caught last.

  CHAPTER 2

  TRAPPED

  Max woke up at the sound of yelling and grunting animal noises. He slowly opened his eyes and could see it was dark again, there was no moon and he couldn’t make anything out other than a torch that was lit on the ground below him.

  “We are still missing four of them” Max heard a voice say. “I bet they went over by the water”.

  “We have searched the river and all the hiding places around here” said another voice. “I can see tracks all around here that don’t make sense, do you think one of them climbed a tree?”

  “Why don’t you climb up and see for yourself Bruce?” the first voice replied. “Those damn griffin riders were supposed to be our eyes in the sky”.

  “Hey don’t blame it on us, we caught more than you dragoons did” Max heard a squeaky voice say and knew it was the griffin rider that injured him.

  “Well I am not going to spend all night out here” the first voice protested. “Mark this area and we will start back the search when it is light out”.

  “Do you think they doubled back and are on the road heading back to Aryan?” Max heard the squeaky voice reply. “If they tell we can be in trouble”.

  “Who is going to miss some random street rats?” the first voice replied. “The knickers only care about highborn males, they don’t even have a female to petition on their behalf”.

  “It doesn’t matter Tom” said the voice Max figured was Bruce. “Prior classes never let any escape; we will be the laughingstock if we are the first ones. We should send most of the griffin riders to watch the roads. There is only one way out of here anyway, it wouldn’t hurt to check”.

  “I swear you whine more than a bunch of little boys” Tom said as Max could hear the sound of them retreating followed by the torch moving.

  Max waited in the tree and counted it as luck that he was not seen while he was asleep. What he knew for sure though is that they would start checking trees, possibly with arrows if need be. Max slowly climbed down the tree and ran in the direction he believed the mountain was at. He could cover a lot of ground if he ran all night, he was well rested and used to being up late anyway. Max hit the ground and made his way through the woods at a place so slow he wanted to scream. He couldn’t go any faster because he couldn’t see the trees and other stuff in his way. Max had thought about the foot prints he was leaving behind but figured it couldn’t be helped. By the time Max made his way out of the forest he could tell the sky was lightening, morning was only an hour or two away. Max took off for all he was worth across the flat ground, he would need as much distance as possible just in case he was spotted. While he was running Max started envisioning scenarios in which he could hide amongst the mountain. Maybe he could dig a ditch and bury himself, he instantly got that idea out of his mind as he noticed the ground he was running on was hard packed and kind of smooth to be way out here. Max’s stomach started to growl, letting him know he hadn’t eaten, just another problem to worry about. The sky was real bright by the time Max reached the foothills of the mountain, looking back he could see Griffins were in the air. Max looked around and found a jagged crack inside the mountain and tried to fit inside, he was too big. Max found another crevice, this one was too open to attack. Max began to get nervous now as he could see a
griffin rider heading right towards him. Most likely the rider just wanted to make sure no one left the forest and would look for footprints. Max looked back at the direction he came and could see his footprints in the dust on the hard packed earth and cursed. Max found another crevice and bulled his way inside. The edges were sharp inside and gave him cuts, enough that he was bleeding. Max shuffled as far into the dark area as possible that would allow him to see the way out and make him invisible to the griffin rider. If anyone wanted him they would have to come in and get him. Max’s heart almost stopped as he heard a sharp squawk followed by the sound of claws on stone. Max tried to stay silent but stepped on something that would have made him lose balance if the crevice wasn’t so confining.

  “I hear you in there” said a voice as Max slowly bent down to pick up whatever he tripped on. It was a bone, a big thigh bone Max thought, too scared to be disgusted. Max could see the griffin peer into the crevice, then squawk when it made eye contact. “Bleeder sees you, now come out before I have to come get you”.

  “I can’t come out, I’m stuck” Max said as he looked at the entrance. There was no way the griffin would be able to get in here, only something on two legs could. The rider could get inside but he would have to be willing to come inside. If he didn’t already have a weapon drawn Max could defeat him. The only thing left was to drawn him in and Max knew just how.

  “It’s your own fault leading us on this chase, you will tell me where you were hiding at so I can find your friends” the griffin rider said as Max got closer. The griffin peered in at Max and kept squawking and tried to claw him. When Max got just outside the animal’s reach he jabbed the bone forward and poked the animal in the eye with it, then brought it up and down over the animal’s head. Max knew it didn’t do any serious damage but it had to hurt. His suspicions were confirmed as the animal squawked loudly then threw its rider. The rider curse loudly as Max withdrew into the crevice as the griffin was now frantic trying to claw at him. Max bonked it on the head again and again before its rider pulled it away. To Max’s dismay he could see the rider held a small spear, it could do big damage in a spot like this. Max started back pedaling frantically, his opponent by being smaller had greater maneuverability and a deadlier weapon. Max saw the boy enter the crevice and was thankful the morning sun was not in position to allow the boy to see deep into the crevice. Max went as far as he could, as quickly as he could as it didn’t seem his opponent was all that wild about going into dark caves. Max fell on his behind a couple of times tripping over objects that felt like ribcages or something similar as he soon found the cave getting wider. Max stopped and tried to listen to see if he was being pursued. He didn’t want to go any further, it would be almost impossible to find his way back in the dark. To Max’s dismay after an hour or so he saw the flicker of a torch and decided to flee rather than fight. Max turned around and tried to feel his way out of the wide cavern he found himself in to no avail. Just as he could see the torch enter the room the ground beneath Max gave way and Max fell, bumping his head hard on the way down.