Free Defenders of Kron - The Black Dragon by Ritu Ghosh Page A

are under training.” Dan said with a straight face.
    Aaron was annoyed, he was getting dragged into something that he was not willing to do and now he had to train for that too. He followed them quietly. He didn’t ask any more questions. He realized that he knows nothing about what is going on. May be he should just wait till they reach this strange Blue Mountains. Aaron’s horse had vigor like he had never seen before. It was able to keep up with the others with no effort. Maybe, this was the horse’s destiny. Aaron smiled to himself as the thought passed his mind.
    The forest was not very thick but it seemed to be never ending. The men rode like they knew the jungle very well. They have come miles from the village, he started to miss the flowers, the streams and his cozy house more than before.
    Ony suddenly came to a halt and turned tuned towards Dan.
    “What’s the matter?“ Dan asked.
    “Someone is following us” Ony said, his ears were standing up.
    “Who can follow us? We have travelled at such a great speed and for so long” Dan said, but Ony was not listening to him.
    Ony asked Dan and Aaron to wait at the same spot and rode towards the East. The sun was already on top of their heads and Aaron was sweating. Aaron checked his sword in case he needed to use it.
    “You will not need that kid” Dan said.
    “But Ony said someone is following us” Aaron asked still clutching onto his sword.
    “Well, Ony can sense living beings from many miles. That’s one of his best traits. But trust me on this, I have come across many Evil beings and this place doesn’t have any such things. The trees and the birds will be silent if any of them were around. Besides, they would not come out in the broad daylight because they will perish. They find dark and deep places to hide when the sun is out.”
    “Then, who is following us?” Aaron asked.
    “Let’s waits and see” Dan sat on the horse still and expressionless.
    They waited for a long time before they heard the taps of a horse coming towards them.
    “He is coming back” Aaron said nervously.
    Ony was on the horse but he was not alone. He had somebody tied at the back of his horse. Aaron could hear Ony cursing his captive.
    “Found this one spying on us!” Ony grabbed the captive by his collar and threw him on the ground in front of Dan and Aaron.
    The captive’s face was covered with some kind of rough brown cloth. He cried as he fell hard on the ground. By his build, Aaron understood that it is a boy of his own age. The captive sat up silently and didn’t move.
    “Where did you find him?” Dan asked.
    “He was hiding behind the bushes over there and watching our movements. He was following us on foot” Ony pointed towards a few large bushes that surrounded the forest.
    “How do you know that he was a spy? He could be a hunter or just a passerby.” Dan said since the captive didn’t seem to put up a fight or try to run away.
    “Because he was listening to our conversations hiding, and had these in his hands.” Ony presented a couple of very short shiny knives to Dan and dropped them on the ground. “If I hadn’t caught this worm, he would have attacked us.”
    Aaron got down from his horse and picked up one knife. They looked very familiar to him. He then pulled out a similar short knife from his belt. The knife Flynn had given him.
    “These are Flynn’s Knives!” he said aloud.
    “Are you sure?” Dan said taking the knives from Aaron and looking at them carefully.
    “Yes! These are made by him, he always made them like this” Aaron showed a symbol that resembled an ‘F’ on the Knife. “He puts it on anything that he makes for himself”
    Aaron stood dumbfounded for a moment then he looked at the boy who was sitting silently in front of them on the ground.
    Ony suddenly picked up the boy by his neck and said angrily “So this one killed your friend and took his weapons. Ha?! I will teach him a good lesson”. He was about to thrash