Above the Keep, Volume 4

Above the Keep - By Lorelai Silvermoon Volume 4

Over the course of a few days, those selected from the Forest emerge from various paths in small groups as they report to the city to join their Elysian counterparts. Knowing of their arrival, Finn greets them on the outskirts of the city before bringing them to their destination. Finn joins Cole after they have been outfitted for the start of their instruction, content to leave the formalities and technicals to him, having gone through the entire process most recently. Finn chimes in here and there to add additional personal thoughts and details and to answer questions that arise where he can.

As dragons and riders are paired and begin to embark on this endeavor, he works with small groups to help get them going, sometimes flying among them, other times watching from a distance.

As training continues, more active training toward combat begins to take shape as the gathered riders acclimate to the basics of the skillset.

Archers' targets find themselves from the keeps courtyard and into the dangling claws of volunteered dragon ... safety measures find most such practice occurring out over the borders and away from the city to avoid falling missiles, as duller simple arrows are used by the bowmen ... errant shots then harmlessly bouncing off dragon scale with at most an annoyed 'harrumph.'

Those that opt to carry a spear along with blade or hammer or what have you ... practice the new concept of a spears charge in the context of aerial combat. About the city's farms, farmers have been approached, as their windmills are paid for use (and damages) ... alongside a few of the taller guard towers. Upon the mills and towers are hung more targets of various sizes ... targets shrinking as skills grow ...

Diving and spinning, the spear-riders practice and develop a form to deliver their points with fury as their mounts roar past the marks ...

As the training develops and continues, and a slow trickle of more dragons and riders are matched and join ... aside from procuring the targets, Cole leaves the archery practice and development to the arcane archers and rangers ... himself more overseeing the spears..

For the most brutal point of combat, and its tactics ... when dragons collide in close quarters, where blades and hammers will find their uses against wing membrane and separations in scales ... Cole fades to observance as Thorfinn's experienced words and points of strategy fill the air.

Occasionally, Sarmon can be seen stoically watching upon the roof ... at times looking quite amused, before he disappears into the halls below.