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Chapter 2

Atoma

The train came to a smooth stop following a torrent of steam blasting from the locomotive. The young husky was out of his seat before his father was, anxious to explore the city.

" come ooooon daaad!" he insisted.

The older husky slowly got to his feet, gathered his things, checking himself in a mirror near the door, and proceeded to the out of their cabin to the exit at the front of their car.

As the two stepped off the train onto the platform, the young ones eyes lite up with excitement. He quickly realized why it's so often called the Sky Kingdom. Although the platform was fairly simple. There were a few ticket booths, seating for waiting passengers and a small food stand with a short attendant selling lunch specials to hungry travelers. Beyond that however, is what really interested the husky. The buildings beside the train terminal were absolutely enormous. They reached high into the sky like arms feeling for the clouds. Each one was elaborately decorated with gold, marble and any other precious materials you could think of. The tops of each building were adorned with either massive sky scraping spires or statues, set to elaborate poses that were reaching skyward into dizzying heights. Nothing the husky had ever seen came close to this city's majesty. His family was wealthy by all means but what the dragons had built was beyond wealth. He had not noticed that he was still blocking the exit to the train with his jaw agape when he was suddenly brought back to reality by a jolt. His father was tugged his hand forward towards a group of large armored figures quickly approaching them. He quickly began to follow.

The city was so breathtaking, the young husky had failed to notice a procession of 8 of their own guards having formed ranks around their positions including a few Advisers following loosely behind. No doubt they were trying their best to appear more important and involved than they really were. The husky never liked the Bureaucracy of his republic but his father never the less instilled the values and importance of the it and how easy it would be for it to fall into anarchy as in the ancient days.

As the two conclaves met, the husky stared up at the faces of the black Guards. They were all identically dressed, each were tall wearing flat black armor with each plate having complex designs etched into them in gold. They all wore a long black cape and a gold pommeled sword hung by their waists. "They were dragons!" The husky thought. Yes he had seem them before in his home city of Meridias but most never ventured past their domain. To see one in such a striking sense of authority and up close left the huskies jaw open. Again. Receiving another nudge from Alamar, he quickly regained his composer.

The black guards halted in front of the Prime ministers group and stared for a moment, the largest of the dragons, wearing a red seal on his chest stepped forward in front of Aurik.

"Well good morning Azgar. Tiberius sends his best assassin I see" the older husky said with as much smugness and contempt as he could muster.

" That's King Tiberius prime minister Aurik. And perhaps another time, The king has ordered us to escort you to the palace personally" replied Azgar, speaking in a highly conceded voice.

" tell the Tiberius thanks but as you can plainly see, I have my own protection." started Aurik but was quickly interrupted by the lead guard.

"the king!.....request that you have additional protection...in these times of trouble prime minister" the guard stumbling on his words looking as if he said them louder than he intended.

Aurik considered this for a moment before nodding his head, " fine then dragon, lead the way..."

Azgar stared for a moment, swaying slightly on his heals, hand on his pommel, he looked as if he would like nothing more than to trade words with Aurik but alas his long year of service and training told him otherwise. Nodding his head, he turned and waved the other guards behind him who immediately took up outer flanking positional on either side of the group. After an uneasy look from Alamar, the minister spoke. "lets go".

They began to escort them towards a set of high arches at the far end of the terminal. Even though the prime minister felt the extra security was unnecessary, he very well knew the way. It did however make the trip go a bit smoother, owing to the fact that anyone who caught site of the black guard quickly removed themselves from their paths all while staring at the procession. The young husky thought this was all a bit odd, but enjoyed the attention anyway. They were passing through the high arched gates that led to the street.

Although the husky was right in his assumption about the street, he however was misinformed about how the dragons lived. On the far side of the arches, waiting in a cobblestone street was a large black and gold carriage pulled by a team of 4 large white feral horses. He was yet again stunned by the elaborate design. It was an oblong shape, built with many vertical ribs around the main chassis. The door was open and the driver was standing next to it deploying a set of golden steps.

The husky looked up at his father, looking for some sign of surprise, but astonishingly, his father looked rather uninterested. Aurik had been to the city many times before so logically he was well used to such treatment. Besides, he had his thoughts dedicated to the more important events that were to take place later today. The husky tried to recall all the information about the city he could but never in all the story's his father use to tell him, could he ever recall him talking about such a fantastic reception.

There was a smaller black carriage behind the first, assuming this was for the rest of his government group. It was still very nice but paled in comparison to the first. As he, his farther and Alamar loaded up on to the first carriage, he expected more of their group to join them considering this carriage could hold at least 10 occupants. But oddly the rest were redirected onto the smaller carriage. This as he saw, dint seem to bother his father so he dint take any worry of it. He saw the rest of the dragon guard mount up on horses positioned around the carriage. By this time there was a bit of a crowed of curious onlookers forming around them, however they did keep a respectable distance from the black guards. The door was closed, the driver took his position and the lead dragon guard approached on his horse and had words with the driver.

The husky looked around at the inside of the carriage. It was large and spacious, filled with lots of soft black leather and precious metals all shined to have a gleaming reflective surface. Aurik yawned and gave a meaningful look at Alamar.

"After we get to the palace, you are to stay with my son until I return, me and the king have to speak privately."

The the tall wolf nodded, smiling at the young one and responded in a respectful tone

" yes prime minister, I won't let him out of my sight."

The young husky tried to return the friendly gesture but was thrown back into his seat with a jerk as their procession had began to move. He could hear the black guard calling out threats to anyone who may have had the misfortune to be standing in their paths. As in the train, the husky quickly pressed his nose against the window nearest too him and stared out in amazement.

"wooooww" he said slowly looking out seeing more of the impressive buildings that inhabited the inner rings of the city. Tall ones with spires, short ones covered in beautiful flowers. Some building were as square as a piece of parchment others curved upwards into exciting twist and angles. All appearing very purposeful and important, even the ones that look to be homes were still more extravagant than any in his own city.

Being dazzled by the extravagant buildings, he failed to notice the locals walking through the streets. They were all going about there daily business, some carrying food, others bartering at road side marketplaces for meats or wares. They must be in the market district he thought. He had never seen so many Sky'var at one time, each one having varying colors of scales. There were red ones, green ones, white ones, black and yellow ones, some had long curved horns, others had short multiple horns. Some would have a single spine staring on their forehead and repeating down the center of there head all the way till the tip of their tail. Some were garbed in fine silks, others dressed for business. Nearly all of them had fine metals wrapped around there long tails or precious stones hung off their horns. People here truly dressed to impress. He suddenly felt under dressed for the occasion, even though he had his best shirts and pants on. It was his favorite outfits, one he wore to the many formal occasions he was expected to attend with his father. Aurik's opposition always said that bringing his son to so many public events was an attempt to make the prime minister look more family oriented but the truth was, the public light always made him feel uneasy and because his wife died long before he was in office, his son was the only comfort he had.

The young boy noticed Alamar had motioned for his attention.

"Take a look at this" he said with a smile.

Without thinking twice, he shot excitedly across the carriages to the opposite window just in time to see down an intersecting street. What he saw was huge a greenVar'yern, rearing back with several handlers trying their best to restrain the poor beast. He just had time to see one of the handlers get kicked clear across the street by the dragons powerful rear legs before the next building hid them from view.

"whoa!" he said again in astonishment.

"pretty cool huh?" smiled Alamar

" ya....." for a moment, he thought about asking his father if they could get one but he knew he would never have a dragon in his home, his father despised them. He slowly returned to his seat thinking about what he would do if he had is own full grown Var'yern as his pet. Thoughts of seared furniture and irritated capital house maids ruined the image though. He looked up as he resumed his seat just in time to catch a glimpse of a group of dragons his age, running through the streets.

" huh, I've never seen their young before." he said

" take a good look because its likely to be the only place you will ever see them." said Aurik

"why is that?" questioned his son.

His father took a moment to answer.

"Because all dragons send their young to this city after birth for education. They are forbidden to leave the city until they are of age." Aurik explained.

He imagined for a moment what it would have been like to have never left his home city. What a terrible prospect he thought, and then considered how much he would miss the outlying lands of his country. But then again, looking around at the extravagant city, this one might be worth it.

They continued on into the inner circles of the city, climbing slowly towards the city center. Looking up at the taller buildings, he asked his father.

"how do they build these things up so high dad?"

"they don't" he said retrieving his book from a briefcase he carried and attempting to working out where he had left previously.

The boy stared for a moment with a confused look on his face. He waited for a moment but when no suitable answer, came he asked again.

"then how did they build it?"

His father sighed, looking up for a moment, then returned to his reading before answering.

"they dint build them up, they carved them down out of the top of the mountain"

He looked quickly back out the window trying to wrap his mind around the concept as Alamar cut in. Alamar had noticed the prime minister was in no mood to explain with the his thoughts focused on the upcoming meeting. He always got a little grumpy before important events like today.

"that's right. Long ago, this was a remote mountain in the middle of Brabus mountain range before the dragons began carving into it. From the summit down they labored over the coarse of centuries. It went though many stages of development before arriving at it's current depth."

That explained it thought the husky, now that Alamar had mentioned it. He did notice that the sides of the buildings, previously thought to have been decremental flourishes in the construction, were actually natural veins of raw material exposed to the surface after they were carved out of the mountain.

Finally after winding it's way between two of the larger buildings that appeared to be some type of textile market, the palace came into view. The palace appeared to be built in much the same fashion as the other buildings, tall, eccentrically fashioned and unreasonably large. Their were two buildings stretching like arms out from a central hall with a tall steeple cathedral in the center. The front facade was U shaped and was lined with many windows. Just behind the cathedral center piece was a tower that rose high above any of the other buildings in the city. The height from it's base wasn't any taller than any other building but because it was at the highest point of the city, it rose well above the others. There were many high windows, some open, others filled with extravagant stain glass murals that depicted events most likely from the empires long history. At the front was two large wooden doors wreathed in gold, each with a seal facing each other matching that of the seal on Azgar's chest. The emblems that he could see much better now looked like a large s, with horns on either end, and a smaller S in the center.

Surrounding the large palace was a tall marble wall, not unlike the outside wall. It has one central gate that was heavily guarded with 2 Guards on either side. The gate was black iron, cast into cured shapes. The gates were opened as they approached and into the Palace ground they entered.

The front of the palace was large colorful gardens with a circular fountain in the middle big enough to submerse the entire carriage in. They followed a road that lead around the center fountain too the palace entrance, it curved back around to meet up with the main gates.

The carriage finally came to a halt in front of an expansive set of marble steps that lead up to the front doors. The carriage shifted slightly as the driver climbed down, deployed the golden steps and opened the door.

The prime minister was the first out, followed by his son, then Alamar who looked around nervously.

"Alamar, now that we are safely inside the palace walls, we are well safe. Send my guards out side of the palace grounds to the Republic Embassy.... Oh and take the aids as well." Aurik said.

"yes minister" Alamar said, then relaying the commands back to his 8 guards who formed a block around the government aids who looked a bit put off not being allowed into the palace, but complied anyway, And so they headed towards the main gates. Aurik turned and headed up the stairs, followed by his son and Alamar. The front doors opened slowly as they approached and alas, they entered.