The Dragonmaster

~ And I'll have you practicing on your skill, at least to prevent you from burning everything each time you lose control ~

Harry remained silent, reflecting on what he had just learned.

End of the Flashback.

He smiled at this memory. He had thought training his element would be easy, but he had had huge difficulties achieving it--it had been even more difficult than gaining control of wandless magic. First, he had spent hours meditating, and only meditating. Then he had learned to focus. Only then, had he been allowed to conjure a small ball of fire, something he had trouble doing. He would more likely burn everything in a two meter radius than conjure a small ball. Once he had managed to learn how to control the intensity of the power he was conjuring, he had to work on changing the shape of what he was conjuring. He had to conjure balls, rings, arrows, spirals, flowers, animals... of fire.

Now, he had quite good control over it. At least from what Arxeren had said.

Finally he passed to the physical training. He whistled twice and Shadow approached. He quickly mounted the horse and started to practice some of the moves he had been learning the day before. He slowly added acrobatics to this practice. Then, he worked on Shadow's agility. Finally, he stopped and with a flick of his hand conjured a circuit of fire. He speeded towards the first obstacle: a slalom, then he had to duck flying fireballs, and then Shadow had to jump over a few obstacles. Harry had had a hard time getting the stallion used to the fire.

After that, he arrived to the part he liked the least: he unsheathed his knives and threw them as he passed near the targets, hoping they would reach their aim for once. He had never been really good at archery. After that he took his bow, which was strapped to his back, and shot some arrows at moving targets on his left and right, before reaching the end.

~ Well, quite good time, but you missed three targets with your knives and two others hit them far from the center. Your arrows hit all the targets but your aim wasn't really good. So you know what this means....~

~ Exactly. ~

Sighing, Harry directed Shadow towards the start of the circuit to do it again. All in all he had to do it four times before Arxeren was satisfied. Then, he dismissed the circuit, climbed off Shadow, cleaned him and conjured some food for him before unsheathing his swords and starting his training. Arxeren had made him learn a sequence of movements, a bit like a dance. He had to do it several times, each time accelerating a bit, before slowing down little by little.

Once it was done, he would work on new movements. When he was finally finished, he was panting a bit and leaned on Shadow to rest before continuing his training. As he was doing so, he felt a spell hitting him. He had cast a shield on himself and was keeping it raised at all times, except in classes as it would be noticed by the teacher--something he wanted to prevent. He whirled on his heel and looked at the hill, his eyes widening as he took in those standing there: he saw six riders he recognized easily as Teneb, Inir, Malisa, Arnelle, Opheria and Kobalt.

~ Language! ~

~ No need to become rude, they can't see who you are from the hill. ~

Harry didn't answer. He jumped on Shadow and with a flick of his hand apparated near the headquarters, in the back of Shadow's paddock to be precise.

He quickly dismounted and took care of the stallion before hurrying to his dorm.

He'd have to be more careful next time....

o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o

Teneb and his friends had decided to go for a walk that morning with their horse. So they woke up earlier, took their horses and left the buildings. They had decided to go to the hill, having heard that the view was extraordinary there. They were talking and joking when they reached the top of the hill. For a few moments they were silent, admiring the view when suddenly Inir spotted something.

"Hey! Look!" he said, pointing to something.

Teneb looked closely and saw a rider galloping in the plain before them. They all looked speechless at the rider who started to do acrobatics. Teneb had considered himself as a good rider, at least until he saw this stranger. He was dressed in black clothes with a bow strapped on his back and a sword hanging at his sides and was mounting a black stallion with a gray mane and tail and two white stockings. He couldn't see his face clearly, only noticed he had black hair.

The stranger slowed and stopped.

"He's good." said Inir.

"More than good." replied Opheria, focused on the unknown rider. "Isn't it Shadow he is riding?"

"Shadow?" repeated Marisa "I thought nobody could mount him...."

"Me too, but this horse looks exactly like him so either it's Shadow, or it's his twin...." Said Opheria.

Their musing on the horse identity was interrupted as, suddenly, to their shock, the young man raised one his hand and flicked it. Instantly a circuit made of fire appeared. At this moment, if the six friends hadn't been sitting on their horses they would have fallen on the ground.

"He has control over fire!" exclaimed Kobalt.

"Apparently," said Marisa, amazement audible in her voice.

Teneb couldn't help but feel amazed by this man. Fire was one of the most dangerous elements, as it had a tendency of overwhelming its bearer. It was strongly linked to feelings. He himself was an air element. In general all the riders had more or less control over one element. And this man was conjuring a whole circuit o fire without effort.

They watched the rider doing the circuit a few times before climbing off his horse.

"Do you know who it is?" asked Arnelle.

"No, but there isn't a lot of riders with control of fire and dark hair... There are..." before Inir could list all the riders entering this category, the black-haired man started to move with his sword, becoming faster and faster. He seemed to dance while fighting an invisible enemy. His sword was merely a blur. Apparently he was enjoying himself. He slowed down step by step.

"This man is one of the best swordsman I've ever seen..." stated Inir.

"Yeah, I think he may be able to beat Efilin," added Kobalt.

Teneb was silent. Elves were famous for their skills with bows and swords and loved to demonstrate. Surely he would have noticed someone this skilled, but he couldn't recognize this man.

"Perhaps," he said slowly.

"I really wonder who he is...." said Opheria.

"Me too.... Teneb? Do you know a spell which could identify him?" asked Inir.

Teneb was recognized as the best student in the headquarters, according to all the teachers.

The young elf nodded and raised his hand, pointing it to the rider who was now leaning on his horse, and cast an identification spell. As the spell was about to hit the stranger, it seemed to bounced on something.

Teneb swore. A shield! Why hadn't he thought of this possibility!

The stranger immediately looked up towards them. He jumped on his stallion, raised his hand and disappeared into thin air.

The six youths stared at the space where he had stood seconds before.

"What happened?" asked Kobalt, a bit dazed....

"To be truthful, I don't know..." answered Arnelle.

"Me either... who do you think he is?" The curiosity was evident in Inir's tone.

"I don't know, but I intend on finding out.... Maybe he could teach us a few things...."

"Right." Nodded Opheria.

"The problem is that I've no clue about who he might be."

"We have a few clues," said Opheria. "He has black hair, control over fire, is an expert at sword-fight and can ride Shadow. I'm practically sure it was Shadow."

"It narrows the list, there aren't a lot of people who fulfill all of these characteristics," stated Teneb. "I doubt there are any. From what I've heard, nobody can ride Shadow...."

The others shrugged.

"Well, we should go back if we don't want to be late...." said Kobalt.

"You're right, let's go," said Marisa.

They headed towards the headquarters in silence, each of them trying to guess who this mysterious rider was....

o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o