24-11-2020, 08:56 PM
The sun has begun to set in the distant horizon. The sky has attained a particularly bloody colour. A distant cloud looked as if two dragons are fighting each other. Palely i can see a shadow in the distant horizon and it is only increasing in size with time. Today i am on guard duty on the palace walls. There are outposts every hundred metres on these walls. The latest crossbows which are been experimented with has recently arrived in my outpost. These are anti-dragon crossbows. Dragons defenses are very high and a dragon like Butterfury has few softspots letalone a Rendezvous dragon. But they are still present. But finding such softspots on a moving target is very difficult. I had been a dragon craze fellow since my childhood, and had been a bookworm. Throughout my teenage years apart from my practice sessions with my dad, the Royal library had been my goto place. There were all kinds of collections of books on dragons present there. The Royal library of the Nubella kingdom was open to all its citizens. But how deep you can dig in depends on the rank of citizens.
Basically you can divide the types of access into 3-sections. One for common citizenry, other one for all the administration and rich players in the kingdom, and the final one is the exclusive access for the top nobles in the kingdom. The Royal family should be having its own secret private collection apart from that. As a kid i only had an access to the first section. Yet the volume of books even in this section cant be striked off. 'The Tales of the Dragonlore' is a book almost every kid would have listened to. The legendary Calibur dragon in the story had been many kids favorite. It brought about the end to the war between two factions of dragons. The 'Anthropo faction' favors working closely with the human realm while the 'Monstro faction' was against it.
The Calibur dragon is itself considered to be a demigod within the dragons itself. It is considered that it often visits other planets and spends in a meditative state. It is believed that the Calibur dragon is still living. The book itself mentions it be a few thousand years old. Although the book is only a mythological one even the myths should have partial truth in it. Indeed there had been many a commentaries on 'The Tales of Dragonlore' in the library. While many a common kids would limit their knowledge to the mythological book only, i indulged myself on all types of commentaries as a kid. There were many a hypothesis on the exact location of the meditative location of the Calibur dragon. Different books had different interpretations and any layperson reading it would only enter into further confusion.
I had been a odd man out among the many readers present in the library. The age profile of many a readers had been skewed towards the older population. There were all kinds of researchers among them. The common laypeople thirst for knowledge seems to have plateaued once they entered adulthood. Except for few people here and there who were present more for the fun sake, the ones who are in pursuit of knowledge were not many other than the researchers. These people had access to all the sections but they didn't leave this section also as many a untested hypothesis were present in this section only. While the ones which had gone through certain testing were present in other sections as i heard back then.
Being a lone kid in the section in the library day after day i attracted the attention of one old man. He wore a very long cap and had a thick white beard. His face has thick wrinkles too. But there is something charismatic about him though i don''t know what it is. He used to ask me lots of questions and my opinions of several of my hypothesis and he used to counter everyone of my opinion. For instance, about the possible location of the meditative location of the Calibur dragon. While i said that the hypothesis that it should be in a very cold location as dragons are by their very nature hotblooded so to temper its body over centuries only cold place can provide that. He countered me by saying that but sulphur forms the key to bodytempering of the dragon and a vapor state of sulphur would be even more effective as then it can seep through the skin. And a very cold planet has very less likelihood of such sulphur vapors and only volcanic locations would provide such ideal atmosphere for sulphur vapors.
Though it has often irked me that this old man is countering my arguments day in and day out, it has also sharpened my thinking process. It helped improve my analytical abilities. Though i didn't take every idea of his for granted. For all the books here should also be written by old geezers like this fellow. This situation has continued for several months and i had taken a particular liking for this fellow. But suddenly one day that old geezer was in a hurry to leave and he left me with a book which has somestrange inscriptions in some unknown script. Without saying anything he just said 'Look towards the midnight sun'. Only after him leaving did i realize that i hadn't even asked his name throughout the whole time i spent with him. I only addressed him as 'Old geezer'. But i oftenheard the surrounding people address him as 'The grey'. Though it doesn't seem like to be a name but more like a nickname.
If not for that fellow i wouldn't have focussed too much on studies to a partial neglect of my physique. As a result i failed the physical tests in General selection posts. I have topped the theoretical and marksmanship parts but my swordsmanship, spearsmanship and dragon taming had been not upto the mark.
The dragontaming is the part where the inequities in the class shows up particularly in the selection process every year. As even though other areas too nead money resources for training but a very talented kid of a layman can outstrip the better kids among the nobility. But the dragontaming divides the line between the two classes. It can be said that it is key area through which nobles had kept a firm grip on the selection process so as to deny them to many. As dragontaming practice fundamentally needs a dragon to start with for practice. And it involves huge money. Not everyone can afford a dragon, letalone rent one. The kids of the nobility thus had an advantage as the layman kids had to try their luck through learning the process from books. And you can only go that far with theory without sufficient practical experience.
But the soldier selection didn't have that dragontaming selection criteria but it was replaced with a 'Beasttaming' for the elite soldier level and no such criteria for a normal soldier. It also is somewhat costly affair to get trained but not to the unimaginable amounts as in dragons. The commontest involves 'Elephantine'. It is only limited to stopping a rampaging elephantine. But strangely for no known reason my very presence seems to induce irritation among the beasts ever since childhood. Even though i didn't have confidence in the Beasttaming i tried my luck. To my horror the already rampaging beast broke through the stables and created havoc in the entire training arena. Through some sheer luck 'Nuela--the National Treasure' was present in that arena on that fateful day. He was able to bring it under control, but he too was slightly injured in that incident. And there i was in paleface. I learned that even Nuela enquired about that weirdo who was the centre of the entire mayhem.
If not for my sheer talents in marksmanship and theoretical tests my dreams of a soldier would have been a goner. The expertise levels in swordsmanship and spearmanship had been only for upto elementary standards for a normal soldier level. As it basically takes in a specialist in one filed which in my case is marksmanship. I had topped the theoretical aspects and marksmanship for general level itself let alone normal soldier. But due to my horrible performance in Beasttaming i was limited to normal soldier level only.
[Notes for further reference--- 'The Monstro faction' considers itself to be at the top of the foodchain and considers humans too as part of its prey. There were several battles between the mankind and this faction throughout the history. But the last battle was fought almost a millenium ago. ]
Basically you can divide the types of access into 3-sections. One for common citizenry, other one for all the administration and rich players in the kingdom, and the final one is the exclusive access for the top nobles in the kingdom. The Royal family should be having its own secret private collection apart from that. As a kid i only had an access to the first section. Yet the volume of books even in this section cant be striked off. 'The Tales of the Dragonlore' is a book almost every kid would have listened to. The legendary Calibur dragon in the story had been many kids favorite. It brought about the end to the war between two factions of dragons. The 'Anthropo faction' favors working closely with the human realm while the 'Monstro faction' was against it.
The Calibur dragon is itself considered to be a demigod within the dragons itself. It is considered that it often visits other planets and spends in a meditative state. It is believed that the Calibur dragon is still living. The book itself mentions it be a few thousand years old. Although the book is only a mythological one even the myths should have partial truth in it. Indeed there had been many a commentaries on 'The Tales of Dragonlore' in the library. While many a common kids would limit their knowledge to the mythological book only, i indulged myself on all types of commentaries as a kid. There were many a hypothesis on the exact location of the meditative location of the Calibur dragon. Different books had different interpretations and any layperson reading it would only enter into further confusion.
I had been a odd man out among the many readers present in the library. The age profile of many a readers had been skewed towards the older population. There were all kinds of researchers among them. The common laypeople thirst for knowledge seems to have plateaued once they entered adulthood. Except for few people here and there who were present more for the fun sake, the ones who are in pursuit of knowledge were not many other than the researchers. These people had access to all the sections but they didn't leave this section also as many a untested hypothesis were present in this section only. While the ones which had gone through certain testing were present in other sections as i heard back then.
Being a lone kid in the section in the library day after day i attracted the attention of one old man. He wore a very long cap and had a thick white beard. His face has thick wrinkles too. But there is something charismatic about him though i don''t know what it is. He used to ask me lots of questions and my opinions of several of my hypothesis and he used to counter everyone of my opinion. For instance, about the possible location of the meditative location of the Calibur dragon. While i said that the hypothesis that it should be in a very cold location as dragons are by their very nature hotblooded so to temper its body over centuries only cold place can provide that. He countered me by saying that but sulphur forms the key to bodytempering of the dragon and a vapor state of sulphur would be even more effective as then it can seep through the skin. And a very cold planet has very less likelihood of such sulphur vapors and only volcanic locations would provide such ideal atmosphere for sulphur vapors.
Though it has often irked me that this old man is countering my arguments day in and day out, it has also sharpened my thinking process. It helped improve my analytical abilities. Though i didn't take every idea of his for granted. For all the books here should also be written by old geezers like this fellow. This situation has continued for several months and i had taken a particular liking for this fellow. But suddenly one day that old geezer was in a hurry to leave and he left me with a book which has somestrange inscriptions in some unknown script. Without saying anything he just said 'Look towards the midnight sun'. Only after him leaving did i realize that i hadn't even asked his name throughout the whole time i spent with him. I only addressed him as 'Old geezer'. But i oftenheard the surrounding people address him as 'The grey'. Though it doesn't seem like to be a name but more like a nickname.
If not for that fellow i wouldn't have focussed too much on studies to a partial neglect of my physique. As a result i failed the physical tests in General selection posts. I have topped the theoretical and marksmanship parts but my swordsmanship, spearsmanship and dragon taming had been not upto the mark.
The dragontaming is the part where the inequities in the class shows up particularly in the selection process every year. As even though other areas too nead money resources for training but a very talented kid of a layman can outstrip the better kids among the nobility. But the dragontaming divides the line between the two classes. It can be said that it is key area through which nobles had kept a firm grip on the selection process so as to deny them to many. As dragontaming practice fundamentally needs a dragon to start with for practice. And it involves huge money. Not everyone can afford a dragon, letalone rent one. The kids of the nobility thus had an advantage as the layman kids had to try their luck through learning the process from books. And you can only go that far with theory without sufficient practical experience.
But the soldier selection didn't have that dragontaming selection criteria but it was replaced with a 'Beasttaming' for the elite soldier level and no such criteria for a normal soldier. It also is somewhat costly affair to get trained but not to the unimaginable amounts as in dragons. The commontest involves 'Elephantine'. It is only limited to stopping a rampaging elephantine. But strangely for no known reason my very presence seems to induce irritation among the beasts ever since childhood. Even though i didn't have confidence in the Beasttaming i tried my luck. To my horror the already rampaging beast broke through the stables and created havoc in the entire training arena. Through some sheer luck 'Nuela--the National Treasure' was present in that arena on that fateful day. He was able to bring it under control, but he too was slightly injured in that incident. And there i was in paleface. I learned that even Nuela enquired about that weirdo who was the centre of the entire mayhem.
If not for my sheer talents in marksmanship and theoretical tests my dreams of a soldier would have been a goner. The expertise levels in swordsmanship and spearmanship had been only for upto elementary standards for a normal soldier level. As it basically takes in a specialist in one filed which in my case is marksmanship. I had topped the theoretical aspects and marksmanship for general level itself let alone normal soldier. But due to my horrible performance in Beasttaming i was limited to normal soldier level only.
[Notes for further reference--- 'The Monstro faction' considers itself to be at the top of the foodchain and considers humans too as part of its prey. There were several battles between the mankind and this faction throughout the history. But the last battle was fought almost a millenium ago. ]
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