Legals: This story is entirely fictional. Some of the characters may be inspired by real people, but most are made up. The events of this story exist only in my mind and in those of the readers.
Sorry about the mind slip. And thank you in advance for perusing my story.
Sincerely Yours
Hira Kaiwai
Dragon Keepers -- Chapter 1
Pelath woke to the sound of birds twittering in the trees outside his window. The summer nights here were always hot and even being a native here didn't make it any easier. Pelath was covered in a sheen of sweat from head to toe, and as he hadn't slept much last night, he figured he wasn't going to get much more. Getting groggily to his feet and throwing on a bathrobe, Pelath made his way down to the communal bathrooms. As Pelath had hoped, all was quiet throughout the rest of the Keep.
He still couldn't get used to the whole communal living thing, having being brought up in the lap of luxury, where privacy was a given. He had been home schooled and was only able to make friends with those people whom his family had said he could. Needless to say, his social skills were severely lacking, and so most of the time he kept to himself. What little privacy he did have was in the tiny cell of a room he had been given.
He was still pondering the indignities that he had been subjected to over the past two days as he approached the showers and was woken from his reverie by the sound of the water running in the shower room...
Olridian couldn't sleep. The night was too hot and try as he might, sleep eluded him. He couldn't really blame all of his sleeplessness on the heat though. Part of the trouble stemmed from his inability to shut his mind down long enough to fall asleep. The past three days seemed to replay back and forth in his head, without any particular sense of sequence or meaning, and so feeling frustrated and just a little overwrought he got up and headed for the showers.
Olridian was glad that there was no one else about. He didn't much feel like talking to anybody, but he supposed that could happen to you if you were suffering from sleep deprivation.
Olridian threw off his towel and entered the showers. He hit the mixer and dialled it to warm and then just stood under the spray, sorting his thoughts into a coherent timeline of the past three days, letting the water flow over his body as he stood there ruminating...
Olridian was woken by a soft wordless chant that reverberated throughout his body, making his every cell feel alive, echoing through the vaults of his mind and touching him to his very core. He looked at the clock, 2.46am. Being so early in the morning it took a while for him to understand what was happening, when it finally did sink in though he just about fell out of his bed.
A summoning? There hadn't been a summoning in nearly a century. And why me? Out of all the millions of other people on this continent, why me? He didn't have much time to pursue that line of thought however because just then he felt the overwhelming presence of a group mind which melded with his and deleted any further thoughts that he might have had. It stripped his psyche bare to be examined and scrutinized by the collective mind. And then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over.
Olridian felt physically and mentally exhausted afterwards and promptly fell back into a deep and restful sleep. Sometime later, about mid-morning, he was woken by his mother. She advised him that a delegation from the Aletium Dragon Keep were to be arriving later that evening and he was to pack himself enough gear to last him a week. As selection began in two days time and orientation was to begin tomorrow.
He whipped round his room and packed everything he thought he might need for the next week, got a change of clothes ready and shot into the shower. The past few hours seemed more like a strange dream than reality. But as he got into the shower, and the first jets of water washed over him, the reality of it all hit him like a tonne of bricks.
A summoning! And he was one of the chosen! Summonings only happened once every hundred years or so and only a handful of people were ever chosen. It was the highest honor to be summoned and no one knew why some people were chosen and others weren't but the summonings were well documented, as they play a major part of the historical literature of the entire continent. Even the most remote tribe's men knew of the summonings. To be summoned meant you had the chance to be a Dragon Keeper, one of the most powerful people on the planet.
Olridian trembled as the enormity of what he was about to undertake finally sunk in. He turned off the water, dried and wrapped up his long blonde hair, wrapped a towel around himself and made his way back to his bedroom. He got changed into the clothes that he had set out and sat down on the edge of his bed, to think. But strangely nothing came to him...
Pelath stopped in his tracks as he saw who it was in the showers. Colour rose to his cheeks "Is it just me or has it gotten hotter in here all of a sudden?" he thought to himself. Standing there in the showers, with his back to him was Olridian, and was he a sight to behold.
Pelath guessed him to be about six foot three inches. His body was finely chiselled reminiscent of the marble statues that lined the colonnades up to the Temple of Denasi. His long blonde hair and glacier blue eyes were what had first captivated Pelath but, seeing him naked confirmed what Pelath had originally hoped, and dreaded.
Pelath took off his robe; lay it gently down on the chairs in the locker room and walked into the showers. He took a shower behind Olridian, hit the shower mixer and dialled it to cold. His body was doing strange things to him and he hoped the cold water would help some. It did sort of but the fall of the water also helped him to remember the first time he met Olridian...
It was morning and one of those summer showers that happened every now and then was merrily doing its business before being burnt off by the afternoon sun. The driver had just pulled up to the Keep gates when Pelath saw him, the man he would come to know as Olridian, exit the port shuttle. Pelath asked his driver to pull up just behind them and let him out. The driver diligently unloaded his bags and opened the door for him. He was about to open an umbrella for his young master when Pelath stopped him, advised him he would take his own luggage, thanked him for his services and sent him on his way.
Pelath watched the tail lights of the luxury shuttle vehicle disappear out on to the road and off into the distance. Pelath turned around and just stood there, letting the rain fall on his face and in his hair. "What a strange experience", he thought to himself. He tilted his head back and parted his lips slightly, letting the droplets of sweet rain water fall into his open mouth.
After a time he shook the water out of his jet black curls and looked over his shoulder. Olridian was doing the exact same thing.
Pelath continued to watch him, the symmetrical proportions of his face, his smoothly shaved, square jaw line, fine nose, high cheek bones and long damp straight blonde hair, which he had tied up in a pony tail. It took a while for Pelath to notice that Olridian had opened his eyes and that he was staring straight at him.
Pelath's breath caught in his throat, Olridian's eyes were an intensely breath taking, glacial shade of blue that seemed to convey sincerity, confidence and, surprisingly, warmth. Pelath became aware that he was staring at Olridian, and his face flushed, his grin which was earlier in delight had turned to one of sheepishness.
"Well no helping it now", he thought to himself. He picked up his trundler suitcase by the handle and made his way over to where Olridian was standing. He let go of the handle of his suitcase and held his hands out palms forward in the gesture of welcome.
"Greetings, I am called Pelath Udanavore, of House Udanavore, City of Aletium. It is my pleasure to greet you", he said in the typical formal greeting style. Olridian reach forward and grasped Pelath's hands palm to palm, fingers clasping in the formal mode of acceptance. Electricity shot between them at the contact and Pelath had to be careful to keep his feet as his knees turned to jelly.
"Greetings Pelath Udanavore, of House Udanavore. I am called Olridian D'enatha, Family D'enatha, from the town of Eked Elimon, north of the City of Anendioran, in the Chimoyan territories. It is my pleasure to accept your welcome", Olridian replied with genuine warmth. Their conversation was cut short though as their respective delegates came down to collect them and take them up to the Keep proper...
Olridian was broken out of his reverie by the sound of water coming from behind him. He turned around to see Pelath standing there beneath the shower rose directly behind him. A wry smirk crossed Olridian's face. He couldn't see any steam coming from his direction so he presumed Pelath was taking a cold shower.
Olridian's gaze lowered to take in the measure of Pelath's body. Nicely athletic muscles covered his six foot one frame. He was a little shorter than himself but his body fit together perfectly. Pelath's skin was a nice light bronze colour, either because he was native to the climate or because of a nice healthy tan, Olridian wasn't quite sure but it didn't matter, Pelath was perfect in everyway.
Olridian's cheeks flushed, and he promptly turned around. He looked down to find that he was fully hard and his smooth nine incher jutted out proudly before him. "Shit!" he thought to himself. Olridian dialled the mixer to cold for about two minutes and then left the showers. He grab his towel and roughly dried his hair, he did a cursory body dry, wrapped the towel around his lean torso and promptly made his way back to his room.
Pelath heard the shower behind him shut off. He looked behind himself and just caught a movement at the door, indicating Olridian's departure. He let out a sigh of relief and dialled up the mixer to warm. The nerve endings in his skin had started to go numb, so the warming jets of water were a welcome sensation.
Pelath decided to do one last soapy rinse under the now comfortably warm water; he then turned the mixer off and went into the locker room to dry off. He wrapped his towel around his abdomen, threw his bath robe over his back and made his way back to his room. There he threw on a pair of shorts and leaned out his window just in time to catch the first rays of sun light rising over the sea to the west.
End Chapter 1