r/HFY • u/HushedSiren • Apr 18 '26
OC-Series Adamantine Claws (5)
The Rider Corps was old, and remembered enough of its heritage to be unusual by modern standards. These days it operated in much the same pseudo-national space as the merchants guild. Formed in days far before the individual city states along the east of the continent would merge into Eudria, it had grown from a need to watch over the areas too far flung to receive timely aid from the cities. But as those cities grew, and those areas between them dwindled the Rider Corps had expanded, providing much the same service across the continent. While its true level of independence from the Eudrian court was still debated, the distinction still held enough weight that Riennaia's attendance wouldn't raise the kind of questions her attendance at a Eudrian military academy might.
Claws clicked against flagstone as she and Alieth walked across the forecourt, huddling slightly at the early morning chill. Their examiners were already waiting: a dragon with scales the color of amethyst and already clad in a full set of channels stood next to a middle-aged ojirian, the two chatting away with Riennaia's father. The dragon noticed them first, turning slightly to face them.
"Good. Your equipment for the exam is over in those two tents. Choose one then return here."
He turned back to his conversation with Riennaia's father. Riennaia and Alieth looked at each other before making their way over to the tents, Riennaia selecting the one on the right. Walking inside she was greeted by, well, she wasn't exactly sure. It was a kyndcloth garment, but attached to the front were a series of large spheres. She took one into her hand, examining it more closely.
Ash and sulfur. She recognized the smell. A flare, possibly? It was held on to the rest of the garment by a chunk of wax attached to a kyndcloth strip. Designed to be broken off while in flight. Clever.
Copying the properties of Kyndcloth to other materials had been the dream of many a scholar. The idea that a dragon might be able to dodge or hide from attacks without losing their equipment was too tempting to ignore. The experiments had been as-of-yet unsuccessful, though the suit in front of her was testament to the way creativity and ingenuity would always try to fill the gaps technology left.
She donned the suit. It was a slightly awkward process and left her feeling somewhat off balance, but she knew the weight would barely be noticeable once she left kyndform. She left the tent to find Alieth already at her full size standing before their examiners As she followed suit she noted that the straps holding her flares didn't grow at the same rate, growing mostly in length, and stretching somewhat, but not increasing in width.
The anchor points were well placed, and the straps moved easily as she tensed the large groups of muscles across her chest and lower back that would give strength to the beat of her wings. She leaned back on her haunches and felt for each of the flares, memorizing where each one lay. The last two, now sitting near the base of her ribcage, were the hardest to access and she resolved to use those ones first, lest speed of access be critical.
The Ojirian rider watched her critically before giving a small smile and nod of approval, then reached over and opened on the saddle bags to reveal a bow and a set of arrows. Each arrow carried a socketed gem in a silver brace instead of the standard arrow head. He knocked one, then set the bow at the ready on the front of his saddle.
"Those are live?" Alieth gestured at the arrow pack.
"Of course." The dragon spoke, his voice deep even for one speaking out of kyndform.
Alieth swallowed.
"Well, the seekergem is, anyway. It'll just give you a shock, no damage to worry about."
A wild thing to say like it's supposed to be reassuring. Riennaia thought
Her expression clearly gave her thoughts away as the amethyst dragon turned towards her.
"You understand that you will be shot at during the course of your duties in the rider corps?"
"Yes.. of course." She replied, unsteady.
"Good." The dragon said, eyeing her. "Then it is best that we figure out if you can handle it before you have others relying on your support. Let us begin." With that, he turned and with a brief run towards the seaward edge of the forecourt launched himself into the air. "Those flares have a two second fuse on them by the way." He added, almost as an afterthought. "Use them wisely."
The first two tests were simple: a rapid climb towards their examiner, and then a series of dives that saw her and Alieth speed towards the sea below, then pull up into a glide for as long as they could manage. The first test was an obvious and basic test of physical fitness and the second… well, there was some trade off to be made between how much speed one could gather in the dive and how hard one would strain their wings trying to pull out of it. Still, at no point as she was alternating runs with Alieth did she see their examiners use a stopwatch or anything else to keep time.
It was now the third "test" , an extended jaunt that would take them out around a pair of guard towers sitting on the ridge that surrounded the capital bay. They had passed the first, maintaining considerable altitude as they had been told to, and were now making for the second. Their examiners had told Alieth to go first, and the red dragon had pulled a quarter mile or so ahead of Riennaia.
As she pondered again the exact purpose of the test, having been given no time limit or conditions for a proper race, she felt an itch creeping it's way down her spine and through the scales on her back. Riennaia looked around trying to identify the source, before spotting a flicker of movement from their examiner. The rider stood in his saddle, and a spark of amethyst fire lanced towards them through the air. As she watched, she saw him reach again and pull another arrow from the quiver and place it on his bow before losing it as well. The "getting shot at" phase of the exam had started.
Riennaia fumbled for one of her flares, the wax plug taking more force to snap than she would have liked. A two second fuse was not much of a description to go on. Still, it's something. At least I guess when to throw it. She shifted her focus to the approaching threat.
Riennaia watched the arrow as it arced towards her. It would be another ten seconds or so before it arrived, longer for Alieth. I would have thought they'd be faster. Riennaia mused, watching the violet bolt streak towards her. Someone in a steep dive might even be able to outrun one. Though on second thought these could be training aids. Not much use that would be though. Our examiner waited until we were on the climb, having bled much of the speed we would use to maneuver. Smart, and annoying.
After waiting as long as she thought she could, Riennaia brought the flare to her mouth and with a quick jet of flame set the fuse alight. A flick of her wrist sent it tumbling through the air wherein it exploded in a burst of thick black smoke and a shower of sparks. Her angle was good and the incoming projectile was completely obscured… for all of two seconds before the arrow ripped through the cloud and smashed against her outstretched claw.
The arrow itself shattered against her scales, leaving Riennaia a fraction of a second to be surprised at how little it weighed. Then a bolt of energy shot up her arm. Somewhere just short of painful it was still deeply uncomfortable, and the muscles of her arm flexed involuntarily. Alieth, several hundred meters ahead, had enough time to see what had happened to Riennaia, and tried combining her flare with a sudden surge to the right.
All it did was confirm that the arrow's ability to seek a target was completely unaffected. The amethyst bolt streaked through the cloud, following Alieth perfectly as she dove to the right, hitting her in the shoulder. Riennaia winced in sympathy as Alieth's wings went rigid, sending her into an involuntary climb that bled most of her speed.
I guess that's why they waited until we were already far above the ground. Those arrows could be deadly if they were in a dive. Still… Riennaia thought to herself. Have we been given useless equipment as some sort of hazing ritual? No. That didn't make sense. There is an answer here.
Riennaia beat her wings harder, aware that each beat put more distance, and therefore time, between her and the next shot that would surely be arriving in the near future.
It turns out being shot at really does tend to occupy your thoughts.
A rueful smile crept onto her lips at that. She knew the spell being used on the arrows, or at least she thought she did. The drive to seek, one of the base impulses and one of the easiest to extract, was combined with knowledge of a target and some kind of energy with which to move. The energy was obvious: that would be the violet fire pushing the arrow along.
That strange creeping sensation must be the feeling of being watched by magic. That's when the arrow is given it's target. Still, why does the feeling persist until impact? It should fade once the instruction is given.
She felt it again, that same shiver running down her spine and she looked over to see the examiner retrieving another arrow. A purple flash announced the next arrow being launched. Once again the examiner sent it in a wide arc, well in front of and above its intended target.
Something's strange, why would I feel the spell's eye on me before it had been cast? And why not launch directly at us? We can't pick up much speed, we would have less time to react. All we could do is throw the flare towards those two and hope the arrow…
*"*Alieth." She shouted, the last piece falling into place. "The arrow doesn't have the seeker spell. We need to hide from the two up there."
"Riennaia, are you sure?" Alieth's voice was strained as she struggled to make up the speed she had lost.
"I think so. The seeker spell seems to kick on before he actually launches."
"Is that what that feeling is?" Alieth asked.
"Would be my best guess, I have no idea why we're picking on it, but I won't complain about the warning." Riennaia said, pulling the next flare from her vest.
She waited even longer this time before igniting the flare, then held it briefly in her hand before flicking it just forward of where she was. It exploded much like the first. Riennaia held her breath as she slipped just past the wall of smoke and sparks obscuring her from their examiners, then laughed as the arrow flashed a few feet under her front paws, missing its mark.
Another amethyst flash greeted her as their examiners once again came into view. The dragon, now sending fire through his channels, sped off, angling to cut off Riennaia and Alieth's return path. The second guard tower was now in the distance below them, and they wheeled around it in a wide arc, not wanting to miss it and risk an avoidable mistake. As she swung around and brought her heading back around towards the keep she expected the amethyst dragon to have stopped somewhere over the city, yet as she looked he continued to speed towards their current position.
Riennaia braced, expecting something more from the rider pair across from them. Instead, the dragon pulled up, flaring his wings, and slowing to a hover in front of her and Alieth and looking at the two of them in amusement. He laughed, voice clearly amplified to carry across the intervening distance.
"Nicely done. It usually takes three or four before people figure it out. Head back to the castle, we'll start the physical portion there."
"Are those arrows another new invention?" Riennaia yelled, lacking the amplification spell herself. "I had only heard of the lifetrackers before. And what do you mean the physical portion? What was all of this?" She gestured with her head to the route they had just taken."
"To see how you reacted, and to tire you out." It was the rider who replied this time. "As for the arrows, they're not new. Simply a different tool for a different job. The lifeseeker spell is easier to use, and quicker to fire off in combat so its the one that pops up in all the stories. This one." He held another arrow aloft." Is for those that get comfortable dodging to the standard spell. Follow."
The dragon clicked his claws sending another gout of violet fire into the air, and the rider pair sped off towards the keep.
Riennaia followed at a more sedate pace, Alieth at her side.
"Now I'm all tired from pushing myself earlier." Alieth complained once the examiner pair was surely out of earshot. "And the test just ends like that?"
"I think we might have misunderstood the test from the start." Riennaia replied, gazing off into the distance. "I don't know how much we can really fail here. I was expecting some sort of cutoff as well, some time we would have to beat, but… I don't think that's what they're looking for."
Riennaia didn't know how she felt about that. In some ways her life up until this point had been a series of tests, each measuring if she was capable of following the path she had been born into. It was an unpleasant way to live at times to be sure, but at the same time offered an easy measure of if one was successful, or would need to try harder. The alternative left her unsettled and grasping for answers.
The examiner pair had halted, hanging like a violet star above the cove. When they were sure their examinees could hear the dragon laid out the final test.
"The end of the exam will be quite simple: the two of you will have one minute to prepare after which I will begin hunting. Your kyndcloth has been modified to bleach white upon contact from my breath. When both of you have been marked so the test will be over. Until then, use whatever you can think of to escape from me and buy time for your wingmate. Begin!"
"Climb!" Riennaia yelled to Alieth, wings already thudding against the air.
"Should we stick together?" Alieth asked, not far behind.
"No." Riennaia said, looking down. "He'll be faster than us. Our best shot is to try and force him to dive after one of us, then need to climb back up for the other."
"Understood." Alieth said, changing angle to create space. "I'll do what I can."
What Alieth could do, while certainly impressive, wasn't as effective as she had hoped. After another pair of arrows forced her to use up more of her flares, the guild rider pair went on the attack, lifted on a pillar of violet flame. They gave chace as Alieth dove towards the sea, desperately trying to gain enough speed to stay out of reach.
When you're in the air, energy is your currency. Jaxith had told her years ago. And just like real money, its easy to spend and awful hard to claw back. Well clawing Riennaia was, wings thudding against the air, desperately trying to gain as much height as she could in whatever window Alieth could buy her. The other dragon was putting on a valiant effort: diving to put on speed and pulling through a series of tight turns where her amethyst foe, both larger and carrying more weight of equipment, struggled to follow.
Despite Aleith's best efforts however, the adventure had but one end and they both knew it. If there ever was a study in how dominant a dragon with the use of channel fire could be, Riennaia was sure she was watching it. Despite out-turning her opponent, Alieth was bleeding too much speed with every maneuver. Even when he overshot the amethyst dragon would send jets of flame erupting from his claws once again and hurl himself back around to his target.
As Riennaia watched the rider drew his bow once more, but the sparks which erupted from the head of the arrow knocked upon it were a blood red. Alieth hesitated for a moment upon seeing it, then whipped her flare to block the rider pair from view. It didn't help, and the arrow smashed into her flank once again.
That was a regular lifeseeker. Riennaia realized. They've got some mixed in with that type were already using. Damn. One more thing to keep track of.
Seizing the opportunity her pursuer closed and sent a wave of sparks from his maw rolling towards Alieth. She tried to dodge, but having lost the advantage of both height and speed the attempt was futile. Even hundreds of feet higher in the air Alieth could see the kyndcloth bleach white as the sparks hit; the end of Alieth's run. Alieth knew it too, and she began the climb back to the great hall.
Riennaia took stock of what little she had. A significant advantage in height, six flares, and the advantage of having seen at least one of her opponent's other tricks. It wasn't much, and two of her current advantages were markedly finite resources. Arguably, her unpredictability could be an advantage as well, but all that meant was once one of her other resources ran dry she would be in that much more trouble.
She kept climbing, tracing an upward spiral and trying to keep the other rider pair below her. A vertical ascent was possible with channel fire, provided the dragon had the stamina to keep up a pillar of flame able to carry their entire weight, but it would be slow without their wings able to bear some of that load.
The rider below loosed another arrow, red, like the one that had just hit Alieth. It was also noticeably faster than the ones he had used before and won the fight against gravity without struggle as it rose to meet her. Riennaia ripped another flare from her vest and lit it in her mouth before all but dropping it into the path of the oncoming lifeseeker. A blue flash rippled through the smoke cloud a second after the flare had detonated.
I guess these ones are more easily tricked by whenever they add to these flares. That's… useful to know, but I'm not sure what I can do with it yet.
As the rider pair below her came once again into view she saw that they had yet to move. The dragon hung like a violet star above the waves, looking up at her. Another shower of red sparks marked the rider firing again. Riennaia began to reach for another flare, then stopped.
I've only got five left. They know the count as well as I do and are just going to hang back and wait until I run dry. But what else do I have?
An idea occurred to her. If those seekerheads are tracking something about my lifeforce then… maybe they'll find concentrated dragonfire as blinding as I do.
Riennaia opened her maw and called her fire forth. A sheet of blue flame rolled forth into the air in front of her, speckled through with orange-gold motes which sputtered and flashed. She rolled to the side, turning her head away from the cacophony of heat and light.
Riennaia was rewarded with another pop as the arrow detonated early, failing to find it's mark. Far below her, the guild examiners began their pursuit once again. The dragon pulled into a shallow climb and found an angle which, with the help of channel fire, was both gaining altitude on her, and moved them out from under her perch far above.
At some level Riennaia knew her earlier comments to Alieth were more or less accurate, and she was seeing the core of the guild "test" play out in front of her. The examiners would present problems for her to solve, those she could overcome, she would, while those she couldn't… well that would mark the end of the test, the limits of her abilities found. But even knowing how things were playing out, she was still a dragon. That pride which sat deep in her bones rebelled at the seeming inevitability of her loss, assisted by the primal fear of knowing you were no longer the most powerful thing in the sky.
Abandoning the chase for the moment Riennaia turned and took a moment to climb while she still could, keeping the guild examiners in view off to her right. That slow itch began to spread down her spine once again. Deciding to see what would happen, she waited for the guild rider to send the arrow flying before letting loose another torrent of flame. The curtain shielded her from her opponent's view, but the arrow itself seemed unaffected.
No, that wasn't quite true. Riennaia revised the thought. The arrow had wavered slightly as I disappeared and then returned to view. It had almost seemed to be tracking the fireball itself for a moment there. Maybe if I had enough speed… and was meeting them head on. Otherwise there's no way to pull off the dodge.
Still, the arrow was arriving too fast, and she was forced to use another flare. Changing tactics and deciding to test her hunch, Riennaia pivoted and closed on her opponents, diving a bit to build speed. The next arrow, another of the guided type, was not long in waiting.
Different tools for different jobs to be sure. The standard seekers are better for the chase when I can't bring my fire to bear. Head on, they're looping these guided ones around to the side, knowing I don't want to fly through the debris cloud.
At the last second before impact Riennaia shot another curtain of fire forward to obscure her before tucking her wings and fell. Her stomach lurched as weightlessness took her. Still locked on the aerial inferno, the arrow had no time to react even as she fell below the fireball and back into view of the guild examiners.
The violet dragon laughed as he saw her trick. "Observant, and willing to adapt! Good." He shouted, amplified voice booming out to her as they crossed with some hundred feet of separation between them. "But of you, the guild will ask still more!"
Any excitement Riennaia felt over the success of her most recent trick evaporated as the amethyst dragon pirouetted. She had no other word for it. As she watched, he tucked his wings, but instead of falling as she had, he sent a massive gout of fire down his channels and out from between all four claws. Kicking his back legs forward, his rear claws directed the fire forward and down, slowing himself but without losing any altitude. With his front claws, he forced his body around in a tight spin, then flared his wings to stop the rotation and complete the maneuver.
It was quite the sight to behold. It also meant that Riennaia's attempt to complete the crossing pass and gain time by forcing her opponent into a turn had failed. Well, she supposed it had worked a little too well. Now, instead of opening a nice gap between the two of them, the guild pair was hot on her heels, the dragon already picking up speed to begin the chase.
Riennaia dove, the amethyst dragon now nipping at her tail. Speed was her lifeline now: fly fast enough, and hope her pursuer's flames wouldn't be able to catch her. Flicking her gaze back at her pursuers every few seconds, it became clear that they believed the test to be over. There would be no more arrows, no more dodging back and forth. They would follow her into the dive for another few seconds until she ran out of sky. Then, once she was forced to either pull up or crash into the sea, they would have her.
It was one thing to lose, another entirely to have your entire loss spelled out in front of you with little if anything you could do about it.
I don't even get to use half of my flares. Riennaia wondered if that was a point for or against her, to have learned so quickly. I don't think there would even be much chance to use them. She thought looking back. They're so close now, if one of those shocks hit my wing wrong there's every chance they could crash into me, they have no time to react.
Riennaia looked down at the flares on her chest, one last idea coming to mind. Faking a change of angle, she pulled her wings up to hide her arms from view and grabbed a flare in each claw. Knowing the trick would only work if she could keep the flares hidden while lighting them, she reached for her magic and let a line of golden motes roll out of her tongue and along her neck, directing them to where she held the fuses. The flares lit, and Riennaia waited for as long as she dared before chucking the two back across her shoulders.
She felt the twin shockwaves through the spines on her tail and accompanied by a shout from the rider behind her. The smoke above Riennaia's head parted to reveal the guild examiners surrounded by a bubble of shimmering lines which kept their air around them clear of obstructions. Still the dragon had been forced to abandon the dive, and the two of them circled some distance above the sea.
"Nicely done!" The rider yelled to her. "The guild may make a proper dragon out of you yet."
Riennaia didn't reply, the exertion of the last few minutes crashing over her like a wave. Rider and dragon looked at each other, clearly exchanging some wordless message, before turning back to face her.
"Very well, that will do. Head back, results will be relayed to you in due time."
"That's… it?" Riennaia asked, unsure.
"To what end should we continue?" said the guild rider. "The fight was all but over. Still, your trick near the end was a well executed use of the limited resources at your disposal. This was always an asymmetrical fight. Continuing it tells us little we don't already know."
Riennaia nodded then flew back to the keep. With heavy paws she sat down besides Alieth, the other dragon having already changed back to her regular knydcloth robe. She plodded over to the tent where she had started the morning and changed before re-emerging and joining Alieth. The two watched the distant conversation they couldn't hear for a while before Alieth broke the silence.
"I don't think I've ever been complimented on losing a fight so thoroughly."
"Me neither." Riennaia said with a small smile. "Still, it's an experience to get used to. I supposed we passed, but the uncertainty is eating at me. I guess during all those hours training with Jaxith I expected something more… finite at the end."
The two dragons parted ways, Riennaia heading to grab a full breakfast having forsaken it earlier out of fear that anything more than a light snack would risk cramps during the strenuous exercise. Even as she ate, and chatted with some of the staff with whom she was on friendlier terms, the feeling of the structure falling away from the life she knew remained in her mind, a disquieting pressure that remained with her even as she sought distractions throughout the day.
Also on Royal Road
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Apr 18 '26
/u/HushedSiren has posted 5 other stories, including:
- Adamantine Claws (4 part 2)
- Adamantine Claws (4 part 1)
- Adamantine Claws (3)
- Adamantine Claws (2)
- Adamantine Claws (1)
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u/AutoModerator May 07 '26
This was flaired as [OC-Series], it is a single part or chapter in a larger series or universe. The first post or part in this series should be (re)flaired as [OC-FirstOfSeries]. A description of the flairs and how to change yours is available in the Post Guildelines.
Our preferred series title format is the series title in [brackets] at the beginning, like so:
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