Chapter Three

“Eomma! Look!” A small kid shouted, as he bounced all over the main plaza of Osis and tried to run along with the fast-flying object that had just flown over him and his mother in vain. His mother instantly freaked out and tried to grab her small 5-year-old son to drag him towards home before something horrible would happen.

It was that time again.

Today was the day the three Riders had their weekly training session from Mister Lee. Mister Lee used to be the father of a Rider once, and therefore he had a lot of knowledge about dragonbirds and how to best handle and train them. His Rider son had died nearly 20 years ago, and his substitute had never been found. Some people even say that Mister Lee’s son was still alive and that it was the reason a new Rider hadn’t arisen, but Mister Lee claims to have seen his son die and therefore it would be impossible for those rumors to be true.

Donghae, who had been the first one to arrive at the plaza and had flown over it with full speed, looked behind him to see no one there. He smiled contentedly and continued his course at full speed.

They were having a little speed competition, and the course was set to fly around Osis, then over the town and the main plaza and back to Brarnur field, where the training ground was located. Donghae had seen the surprised reactions from the people walking on the main plaza and knew he was in front.

“Go Liath! Go girl!” he encouraged his dragonbird, who managed to go even faster than she was already going. He soon returned to the start point where he had left 10 minutes earlier, a large open grass field with a few old askew trees on the side, and got welcomed back with open arms by Mister Lee.

“Good job, Donghae. First as usual,” Mister Lee said appraisingly, smiling proudly.

“Thank you, seonsaengnim. But it’s really Liath who did all the hard work!” Donghae proclaimed, and he patted Liath on her neck to show his affection and gratitude towards her. Patting her on her neck was the one thing she loved the most, next to dragonbird candies. But she was getting a little overweight, so for now she had to do with just a lovingly meant pat.

Just a minute later, Hyukjae landed Yiath next to Donghae and Liath and also got praised by Mister Lee for getting a close second. He also had managed to improve his personal time, which had been quite a while ago since that last happened.

The three of them –or five, if you count Liath and Yiath too– waited for a couple of minutes, expecting Jongwoon and Whyth to soon turn up in their view, but when they still hadn’t appeared five minutes later, worry kicked in. Jongwoon might not be as fast as Donghae, but he usually came in second before Hyukjae, or right after Hyukjae. Never had he been this slow before.

“Seonsaengnim, should we go look for him?” Donghae eventually asked, not liking it one bit that Jongwoon and Whyth hadn’t returned yet. But their teacher stuck up his hand, shook his head, and pointed towards the sky for Donghae to return his gaze at it. Donghae did as he was told, and all of them waited for yet another 5 minutes before they finally saw something flying their way at a rather fast speed. Faster than any other animal could fly.

Jongwoon soon made Whyth land next to Hyukjae and Yiath and said nothing as the teacher walked towards him with a disappointing glance lingering in his eyes.

“Prince,” the teacher started, but Jongwoon interrupted him.

“It’s not my fault, Whyth is being—“

“A dragonbird is only as good and focused as its Rider allows him to, Kim Jongwoon. Whatever you are doing or have done, you are not giving it your best.”

Jongwoon shamefully lowered his head and said nothing in return.

“Donghae,” Mister Lee suddenly exclaimed, after taking notice of Jongwoon’s ashamed look, and Donghae startled looked up towards him.

“Yes, seonsaengnim?”

“What is the difference between Liath and Whyth?”

Donghae nervously bit his lower lip, understanding fully well what his teacher was aiming for but didn’t want to voice it out, and decided to just play dumb. Jongwoon was his friend after all.

“Their color?”

Next to Donghae, Hyukjae giggled softly but stopped instantly as Mister Lee somewhat glared at him.

“As their caretaker, is there anything Jongwoon should know about?” Mister Lee continued, staring at Donghae as if he tried to look right through his soul, and Donghae sighed in defeat before turning his head towards Jongwoon, who stared at him confused.

“You need to give Whyth more attention, Jongwoon-ah,” Donghae said in a nearly inaudible tone, but Jongwoon could hear it perfectly fine.

“Indeed,” Mister Lee replied before Jongwoon could respond. “A dragonbird needs love to function. As we all know, dragonbirds are connected to their Rider and their Rider only. No matter how much attention the dragonbird would get from anyone, the only attention it really wants and needs is from its Rider.”

Jongwoon instantly slid off Whyth, looking rather furious, and stood in front of Whyth.

“Whyth, go back to your stable!” he said harshly to his dragonbird, who instantly complied and flew away towards, obviously, his stable.

“Donghae, Hyukjae, you two can go. Jongwoon, you are staying for a little chit-chat,” the teacher said, as he looked at Whyth’s disappearing figure in the sky. Donghae and Hyukjae didn’t even allow the teacher to repeat himself and instantly left. They had never seen Jongwoon act like this before to their teacher.

Mister Lee was the only person in Osis that Jongwoon really looked up to. He had always respected Mister Lee, and whenever Donghae or Hyukjae had said one negative thing about Mister Lee, like that he was too hard on them, Jongwoon had told them to not say such stuff, and that Mister Lee only wanted what was best for them and their dragonbirds. The way he had just acted had been completely out of character.

Donghae and Hyukjae returned Liath and Yiath to their respective stables, fed them, groomed them, and soon left again. They noticed Whyth sitting on the roof of his stable, looking at nothing in particular, and decided to put him back in his stable and groom and feed him a little, as they didn’t expect Jongwoon to do so himself.

“Poor Whyth,” Hyukjae sighed sadly, as they walked towards Whyth’s stable. Whyth looked at them in confusion and annoyance --as usual-- and seemed almost disappointed that it was just them and not his Rider.

“Come here boy!” Donghae shouted at Whyth, who complied reluctantly and returned to the grounds. He spread his dragon-like wings f