Latest / Dad’s Bedtime Stories / The Earth Dragon General - Dragon Knights #22 - Dragon Bedtime Stories

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The Earth Dragon General - Dragon Knights #22 - Dragon Bedtime Stories · Dad’s Bedtime Stories

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hello, friends from across the nation and around the world.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: My Martin and you are listening to Dad's bedtime stories. Tonight,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: we'll be continuing with the Dragon Knights series and finally
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: learning about the Earth Dragon General. Our idea for this
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: one comes from Luna, who actually just commented on Spotify,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and the general idea is that the Earth Dragon General
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: is actually Bennett's dad, and his name is Basalt, I believe,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: and he had to infiltrate the Rebels at one point
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and ended up falling in love and having Bennett. I
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: think it makes an excellent idea, even though I really
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: had to go back in the story to figure out
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: what I even said about Bennett in the first place,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: because he did actually have a mother and fun the story.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: So guess what I guess His father was a step father,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: A nice a nice step father of course.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Anyways, these Dragon Knight series are taking me a lot
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: longer to get out, partially because they take a really
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: long time to write these days. I guess there's so
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: much lower and so many things that have happened before
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: that I really can't just improvise them like I sometimes
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: do with stories. I have to write them in advance
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and often I have to reread what I've written before.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: So yeah, hopefully this summer we will finish up with
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the series. After this will sort of do the story
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: of the Earth Dragon Kingdom being taken over than the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Air Dragons, and then hopefully the Dragon King or Dragon
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Thief as I like to call him himself. And for
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: those of you looking for Cards of Power, don't worry,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I'm also working on those. We're still in the Deity
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: level tournament, just figuring out what creatures I want, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: there should be another Cards of Power next week. Don't forget.
• 2:08
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• 2:11
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• 2:15
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• 2:20
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• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a big difference too. And if you want ad free episodes,
• 2:26
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• 2:28
  Speaker 1: as one dollar a month or twelve dollars for an
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: entire year on Patreon. But if you're not on Patreon,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: we'll leave a little space for a word from a sponsor.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Now it's time to get as comfy as you can
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: in that bed, close your eyes and imagine yourself doing
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: what the kid in the story does. I call this
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: one the Salt and the Earth Dragon.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: General.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Basalt grew up surrounded by dragons. Not stories of dragons,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: or just pictures of dragons and old books, but real dragons,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Earth dragons. They lived in the mountains, in the valleys
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and the deep stone halls beneath the earth, and in
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the wide open training grounds where true dragon knights practiced
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: their craft. When Basalt was a little boy, the Earth
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Dragon Kingdom was still free. Of course, back then, the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: world was different. Dragons and humans worked together, not because
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: one controlled the other, but because they'd chosen each other.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: A dragon would find its rider, and a rider would
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: find their dragon, and the bond between them would become
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: something more powerful than either one could be alone. Basalt's
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: parents were dragon knights, real dragon knights. His father was
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: bonded to a massive earth dragon named Obsidian, a dragon
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: with scales like black mountain glass and eyes like polished silver.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: His mother was bonded to a smaller and quicker earth
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: dragon named Slate, who could move through tunnels and caves
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: as if the entire thing had been built just for her.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Basalt grew up watching them train. He watched his father
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: stomp one boot into the ground and send a line
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: of stone pillars shooting up across a field. He watched
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: his mother lift her hand and turn loose sand into
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: solid rock. He watched earth dragons carved tunnels, raise walls,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: shaped bridges, and build entire halls for the bones of
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the mountain. To Basalt, it was the most incredible thing
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: in the world, and every night, when he lay in bed,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: he imagined the day it would happen for him, The
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: day he would feel the pull, the day an egg
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: would call his name, the day a dragon would hatch
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: look up at him and say.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: You are my rider.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Everyone assumed it would happen. His parents assumed it. Other
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: dragon knights assumed it. Even Basalt assumed it. After all,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: both his parents were dragon knights. He grew up among dragons.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: He knew more about earth dragon traditions than most grown ups.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: He could name the different kinds of stone by touch.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: He knew where to dig for clay, where to find
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: iron in the rocks, and how to hear the difference
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: between a hollow and a solid one. Surely an egg
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: would choose him, but none did. The first time he
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: was brought to the egg chamber he was still quite young.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: He walked past rows of earth dragon eggs, each one
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: gray brown, silver, black, or speckled like granite. He placed
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: his hand near them, hoping to feel something, a warmth,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: a poll, a glow, anything, but the eggs remained silent.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: That's all right, his mother told him gently. Sometimes the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: bond takes time. His father placed a strong hand on
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: his shoulder. You don't choose the egg, son, the egg
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: chooses you, and when the right one is ready, you'll know.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Basalt nodded, because that was what he was supposed to do,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: but inside something twisted. Years past, other children were chosen,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: some younger than him. Basalt watched a girl from the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: lower caverns bond with a little earth dragon that immediately
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: began eating pebbles from her hand. He watched a boy
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: who barely knew anything about dragons place one hand on
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: an egg and laugh as it cracked open with golden light.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: He watched nights celebrate, parents cheer, dragons roar, and new
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: riders summon their armor for the first time, and still
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: no egg chose Basalt. At first, he told himself that
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: it didn't matter. Then he told others it didn't matter.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Then he told it so often that he he almost
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: believed it. Almost but not quite, because when he watched
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: those other children flying on dragons, shaping the earth, summoning
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: armor from the bond in their chest, something inside him burned.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: And it was not a good kind of fire. It
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: was resentment. It was the feeling of being left outside
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: a door that everyone else seemed to walk through easily.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: It was the feeling of being told that Destiny had
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: a plan, only to discover that perhaps Destiny had forgotten him.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: His parents noticed, of course, his parents usually do. His
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: mother tried to remind him that a person didn't need
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: a dragon to matter. His father told him that strength
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: came in many forms. Basalt wanted to believe them, but
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: that was easy for them to say. They had dragons,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: They had power, They had armor that appeared when they
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: needed it. They had stone and metal and sand answering
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: their call. They had the respect of every person in
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the Earth Dragon Kingdom. Basalt had nothing but a name
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: and a promise that maybe someday things would be different.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Then the Dragon King came, although back then many still
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: called him the dragon thief. Of course, at first, Basalt
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: didn't understand what was happening. He remembered alarms ringing through
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: the mountains. He remembered earth dragons roaring in the distance.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: He remembered his mother grabbing his arm and pulling him
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: through a tunnel while his father showed orders to the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: other knights. The earth Dragon Kingdom was built to win
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: stand attacks. Its walls were not walls in the usual way,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: they were mountains. Its gates were not made of wood
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: that could be burned or metal that could be melted.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: They were slabs of solid stone, thicker than houses. The
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: earth Dragon knights knew every tunnel, every cave, every hidden passage.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: They should have been impossible to defeat. But the Dragon
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Thief did not fight like an ordinary enemy. He had
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: dragons of his own, controlled dragons, dragons with glowing eyes,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: and riders who didn't share their power but commanded it
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: like a stolen tool. Basalt watched from a narrow crack
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and a stone shelter as fire dragons blasted flames into
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the mountain entrances. Water dragons froze doors shut, trapping knights inside.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Nature dragons sensed roots through the cracks and stone, splitting
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: walls from the inside, and worst of all, elemental dragons came.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Not many, only a few, But a few elemental dragons
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: were enough. Basalts saw one land on the central training yard,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: its veins flashing with every color, every elemental power. Its
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: rider lifted a hand, and the Earth itself betrayed the
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: earth dragon knights, opening beneath their feet and throwing them inside.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Basalt's father and Obsidian fought like heroes from the old stories.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Obsidian lifted a section of the mountain and hurled it
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: towards the invaders. Basalt's father rode atop the dragon's back,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: commanding metal from the ground to wrap around the legs
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: of the controlled dragons. His mother and Slate moved like
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: shadows through the stone, appearing from one tunnel and disappearing
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: into another, breaking enemy formations, pulling riders from their saddles,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: protecting children and others where they could. For a while,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Basalt thought they might actually win. Then he saw the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: dragon thief himself. He stood on the back of an
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: elemental dragon, wearing robes darker than a cave, with no torch.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: He looked calm, not angry, not excited, just calm, as
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: if the battle was nothing more than a problem he'd
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: already solved. He lifted both hands, and a strange wave
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of magic pulsed through the battlefield. The dragons screamed. Basalt
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: would never forget that sound. It wasn't pain, exactly, It
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: was confusion, fear loss. One by one, the true bonds
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: between dragons and riders began to flicker. Basalt's father shouted something,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: but Basalt couldn't hear the words through the roar. Obsidian staggered,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: slate crashed into the ground, and then the controlled dragons
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  Speaker 1: moved in. My son, sid the earth Dragon kingdom had fallen.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: The true dragon knights were dragged away in chains made
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  Speaker 1: from their own earth and metal. Basalt saw his parents
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: only once more. Or standing among the captured knights, his
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: mother spotted him hiding behind a broken stone pillar. For
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: a moment their eyes met. She shook her head slightly,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: do not come. That was what the look meant. His
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: father saw him too. He didn't wave, he didn't call out.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: He simply looked at Basult with pride and sadness, as
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: if trying to say everything he couldn't say aloud. Then
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: they were taken away. Basalt was left behind. Maybe the
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: soldier thought he was too young to matter. Maybe they
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: didn't realize who he was. Maybe in the chaos, he
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: simply slipped through the cracks. For three days, he hid
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: in the ruins of the earth dragon kingdom. He ate
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: with the little food he could find. He slept and
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: collapsed tunnels. He waited for his parents to come back.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: They did not. On the fourth day, the Dragon King
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: found him. Basalt was sitting beside one of the old
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: egg chambers. The eggs were gone, now taken hidden. The
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Dragon King stepped into the chamber alone.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: You are the.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Son of dragon knights, he said. Basalt did not answer,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: And yet no dragon chose you. Basalt's hands curled into fists.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: I know that feeling.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: The Dragon King continued to stand near power, to watch
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: others receive it, to be told that you should be patient,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: that you should be grateful, that destiny has simply chosen differently.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Basalt looked up. Then the Dragon King smiled. It was
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: not a kind smile, but it was an understanding one.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: They told you that the egg would choose you one day,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: didn't they. Basalt still said nothing, but it never did.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: The words hit harder than they should have. The Dragon
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: King stepped closer. I can give you would they would not?
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Basalt frowned. What a dragon? Basalt's breath caught. The Dragon
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: King turned and gestured toward the doorway. Outside, in the
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: ruined training yard stood an Earth dragon. Its scales were
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: dark gray, almost black, and its eyes glowed with the
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: same strange yellow light Basalted scene in the controlled dragons
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: during the battle. This dragon has no rider now, the
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Dragon King said, no true rider anyways, but I can
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: link it to you. Not did the old way. The
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: old way was messy, unfair. It chooses one child and
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: rejects another. But my way is better. My way allows
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: power to go where it is deserved. Basalt stared at
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: the dragon. He knew something was wrong with it, of
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: course he did. He'd seen free Earth dragons his entire life.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: They laughed, they grumbled, they argued, They teased their riders
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: and knocked over training targets when they fell dramatic. This
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: dragon stood silent, waiting, almost empty, But it was still
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: a dragon, and Bassault wanted a dragon more than anything
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: else he'd ever wanted. My parents, he began. Your parents
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: fought for a broken system, the Dragon King said, a
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: system that left you behind. Basalt hated him for seeing it.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: He hated him because it was cruel, and he hated
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: him even more because some small, angry part of him
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: thought it might be true. The Dragon King extended a hand,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Come with me, be Salt, serve me, and you will
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: never be powerless again. Basalt should have said no. Somewhere
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: deep down he knew that. But he thought of the
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: eggs that had never called to him. He thought of
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: every child who had been chosen while he stood watching.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: He thought of his parents writing dragons while telling him
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: he mattered without one. And then he looked at the
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: controlled Earth dragon waiting in the yard. Basalt took the
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Dragon King's hand. That was the first choice, not the last,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: but perhaps the one that changed everything. The Dragon King
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: kept his promise in a way. The link he gave
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Basalt was not like the true bond Basalt had always imagined.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: It didn't feel warm, or natural or alive. It didn't
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: feel like a second heart beat in his chest. It
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: felt more like holding chains. The dragon obeyed him because
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: magic forced it to obey. Still, when Basalt lifted his
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: hand and the Earth dragon stomped, stone pillars rose from
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the ground. When Basalt pointed, The dragon hurled boulders. When
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Basalt focused, the dragon shaped the earth itself. The power
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: was not inside basalt, not really. He didn't share the
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: dragon's magic the way true dragon knights did. But through
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the control link, he could command the dragon to use
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: its power, and that was enough. At least that's what
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: he told himself. He trained harder than anyone. He learned
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: to fight from the back of a dragon. He learned
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: to read battlefields. He learned how earth could be used
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: in a thousand different ways. Stone walls for defense, boulders
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: for attack, metaled chains to restrain enemies, sand to blind them,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: dust to hide movements, spikes from below, caves collapsed from above.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: The earth was not flashy like fire. It didn't dance
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: like water or fly like wind. But it endured. It pressed,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: it crushed, it waded. But salts understood that he rose
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: quickly through the ranks. The other soul respected him because
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: he was useful. The dragon king trusted him because he
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: had already chosen power. Once over the old ways, and
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Basault told himself that he'd done what he needed to
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: do to survive. He told himself that his parents were
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: gone anyways, he told himself that the old dragon Knights
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: had lost. He told himself many things, But at night,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: when the controlled Earth Dragon slept outside his quarters, Basalt
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: sometimes wondered what its real voice had sounded like before
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the spell took it away. And sometimes, though he tried
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: not to, he wondered where his parents were. Years passed,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the Dragon King's rule spread farther and further. The Earth
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Dragons were the fourth group of dragons to fall, and finally,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: after a long and difficult campaign, even the Air Dragons
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: were defeated. The true dragon Knights were gone, or imprisoned,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: or hiding so well they might as well have been legends.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: But the dragon Kings still had one problem. Rebels dragon
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: knights sympathizers, pesky little groups of farmers, miners, former servants,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: escaped prisoners, and ordinary families who refused to accept that
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: the Dragon Knight's rule would last forever. They lived on
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: the outskirts, in forests and caves and mountain valleys and
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: places where the King's patrols had trouble reaching. They stole supplies,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: they hid fugitives, they warned villagers when soldiers were coming,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: and sometimes they even freed prisoners to the Dragon King.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: They were insects, but annoying insects, and insects the Dragon
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: King believed had to be crushed before they could become
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: a storm. One day, he summoned Basult to the throne room.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: By then, Basult was no longer a frightened boy in
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: ruined halls. He was a young man, a skilled soldier,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: and one of the most promising earth riders in the
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: King's army. Not a true rider, but no one said
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: that part outloud. The Dragon King sat on his throne,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: looking down at him with that same calm expression he'd
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: warn during the fall of the Earth Dragon Kingdom Besult,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: He said, I have a special mission for you, Basult knelt.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: I serve the kingdom. Yes, the Dragon King replied, and
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: now you will serve it in a way few others could.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: He explained the problem. A rebel camp hidden deep in
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the outer forest had become more than a nuisance. It
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: had started organizing other small camps. They'd had spies in
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: nearby towns, but had helped several wanted families disappear. The
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: king could attack blindly, but the rebels would scatter. He
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: needed someone on the inside, someone with a believable story,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: someone he could pass as a displaced citizen of the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Earth Dragon kingdom, someone who could tell the truth well
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: enough to hide the lie. You will leave your dragon behind,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: the Dragon King said, You will go as an ordinary man, refugee,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: a victim. You will tell them your parents were dragon
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: knights taken away during the conquest. Basalt looked up sharply.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: The Dragon King's expression didn't change. That is true, is
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: it not. Basalt swallowed.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Truth is useful, the Dragon King said. People believe truth.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Tell them enough of it and they won't notice the lie.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Basalt understood. He did not like it, but he understood.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: When you are accepted, you will send information back by messenger, pigeon, numbers, defenses,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: supply routes, names, anything useful, and when you have enough,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Basalt asked, then we end the problem. The words settled heavily.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Basalt bowed his head, as you command. A week later,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Basalt walked alone into the forest, without armor, without dragon,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: and without anything that made him look like one of
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: the Dragon King's soldiers. For the first time in years,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: he looked powerless. He hated how familiar that felt. It
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: took him three days to find the rebel camp, or rather,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: it took him three days for the rebel camp to
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: find him. That was how good they were. Basalt had
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: been walking through the forest, pretending to limp more than
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: he really needed to, when a voice suddenly called from
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: behind him, that's far enough. Basult stopped. He slowly raised
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: his hands. I am not here to cause trouble, he said.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Then why are you here? The voice asked, Because I
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: have nowhere else to go. That part was not entirely
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: a lie. Two people stepped from the trees. One held
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: a bow, the other held a short spear. They didn't
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: look like soldiers, but they carried themselves like people who
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: knew how to survive. The woman with the bow looked
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: him up and down. Name, Basalt, where from the Earth Kingdom?
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: That changed their expressions for a moment, the forest seemed quieter.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: What happened to you, the woman asked. Basalt looked down.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: My parents were dragon knights.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: True ones.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: When the Dragon King took the Earth dragons, my parents
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: were captured and taken away.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: I escaped.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I've been trying to survive ever since, all true, every word.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: The rebels brought him into their camp. It was hidden
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: in a valley surrounded by thick forest and rocky cliffs.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: There were small homes made from logs and mud, gardens
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: tucked beneath the trees, and watch posts so well hidden
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: that even Basalt only spotted half of them. Children ran
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: between shelters, Adults carried water, sharpened tools, patched clothing, and
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: prepared meals. It wasn't an army camp exactly. It was
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: a village, a village made of people who'd refused to
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: give up. At first. They watched Basalt carefully. They asked questions,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: many questions. He answered them well, because his story was
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: true enough. He told them about the fall of the
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Earth Kingdom. He told them about his parents being taken.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: He told them about hiding in the ruins. He did
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: not tell them about the Dragon King finding him, of course,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: And he did not tell them about the controlled Earth Dragon.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: And he did not tell them that Every few nights,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: when the camp slept, he crept out beyond the trees
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: and tied small notes to messenger pigeons hidden in a
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: hollow stump numbers, guard rotations, paths through the forest, food stores, names.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: He told himself he was only doing what he had
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: to do. He told himself. These people were rebels, and
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: rebels broad danger wherever they went. He told himself the
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Dragon King would crush them sooner or later. Anyways, each
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: day he spent there, the words became harder and harder
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: to believe. The rebels were not monsters. They were farmers
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: whose crops had been taken, Miners who fled the quarries,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: parents hiding children who had spoken too loudly against the king,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: old soldiers who still remembered the true dragon knights. And
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: then there was Bennett's mother. Her name was Mirah. Basalt
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: met her by a stream while carrying two buckets of
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: water back to camp, or to be more accurate, he
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: tripped over a root while trying to look more tired
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: than he was, dropped both buckets and sent water spilling everywhere.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Mira burst out laughing, not politely, not quietly. She laughed
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: like the whole force had just told the world's funniest joke.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Basalt sat in the mud, staring at the empty buckets.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: I suppose that went well, he said, It depends what
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: you were trying to do. Mira replied, if you were
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: trying to water the path, you did beautifully. Basalt tried
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: not to smile, but he failed. Mira helped him up,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: handed him one of the buckets, and walked with him
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: back to the stream. She was clever, kind and stubborn,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and the way that forest people often were. She knew
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: which berries to eat, which mushrooms were, you know, not poisonous,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: and exactly how to insult a person while making them
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: feel better at the same time. At first, Basult told
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: himself that he should probably avoid her. Then he told
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: himself that getting close to someone in the camp might
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: help his mission. Then he told himself he was only
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: asking to sit beside her at dinner because she knew
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: useful information. He told himself many things, but none of
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: them were really true. The truth was he loved her.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: He didn't mean to, he didn't plan to, but it happened,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and for the first time since the fall of the
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: earth Dragon Kingdom, Basalt felt like he wasn't just surviving,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: he was living. The rebel camp accepted him more fully
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: after that. Mirah trusted him, and others trusted Mira. That
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: meant they trusted him too. Over time, he stopped feeling
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: like an outsider pretending to belong and began to feel
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: like a man who accidentally found a home that made
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: the messenger pigeon thing harder. Each note felt heavier than
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: the last, Each piece of information seemed less like strategy
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: and more like betrayal. But he kept sending them because
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: by then he was trapped. If he stopped, the dragon
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: king would know if he confessed, the rebels would hate him.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: If he ran, soldiers would come anyways. So he stayed,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: and then Bennett was born. Basalt had thought he understood
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: love when he met Mirah, but he was wrong. The
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: first time he held his son, something inside him changed,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: not softly, not gently. It cracked like stone under pressure.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: The baby was tiny and wrinkled and angry about being cold.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: He had Mirah's eyes and Basalt's serious frown, which everyone
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: found funny except Bennett himself, who seemed deeply offended by
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: the entire world. What should we call him, Mira asked.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Basalt looked down at the little boy in his arms.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: He'd spent most of his life chasing power, wanting a dragon,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: wanting respect, wanting to be chosen. But this child had
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: chosen him, without knowing anything about him, without caring what
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: he'd done, without caring what he'd failed to become Bennett,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: ba Sault said softly. Mirah smiled Bennett. For a short time,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: life was wonderful. Danger still existed beyond the forest, of course,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: the Dragon King still ruled, patrols, still searched, rebels, still
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: whispered about supply lines and safe routes. But inside that
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: small hidden camp, but Salt had something he'd never expected
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: to have a family. He held Bennett while Mira slept.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: He fixed roofs. He carried water without spelling it. Most
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: of the time. He taught some of the younger children
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: how to tell the different kinds of stone apart. And
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: each time he looked at his son, he felt the
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: truth pressing harder against his chest. He couldn't keep doing this,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: He couldn't keep sending messages. He couldn't keep feeding the
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Dragon King information that might one day bring soldiers to
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Bennett's door. Then the order came. The message arrived by
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: pigeon just before dawn. Basalt opened the tiny scroll with
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: shaking hands. The Dragon King had enough information. The camp
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: would be attacked in three days. Earth dragons would seal
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: the exits, fire dragons would burn the shelters. Wind dragons
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: would stop anyone from escaping through the trees, the rebels
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: would be captured. Basalt read the message three times, then
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: he burned it. For the rest of the day, he
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: moved like a man and made of stone. He helped
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: repair of fens. He carried wood. He smiled when Mira spoke.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: He held Bennett, but inside the earth itself seemed to
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: be splitting open beneath him. That night, when Bennett was asleep,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Basaul told Mira the truth, not all at once. He
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: tried to begin gently. He failed. I have something to
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: tell you, he said. Mirah looked at him, immediately, knowing
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: it was bad.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: Basault took a long breath. I wasn't a refugee when
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: I came here. Mira didn't speak. I was sent here. Still,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: she said nothing. The silence was worse than shouting. Basaul
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: told her everything. He told her about the Dragon King
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: finding him. He told her about the controlled earth dragon,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: about being linked to it. He told her about becoming
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: a soldier. He told her about the pigeons. Mirah's face
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: changed with every sentence, confusion, hurt anger. By the time
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: he finished, she looked at him like he was a stranger,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: wearing the face of someone she loved. You gave them
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: our names, she whispered. Basalt didn't answer, But that was
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: an answer itself. I was wrong, Basalt said, I know
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: I was wrong, but I can still save you. The
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Dragon King is coming three days from now. You need
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: to leave tonight. You and Bennett. Mirah's eyes narrowed. You're
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: not coming.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: I can't.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: You mean you won't. Basalt flinched. Maybe she was right,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Maybe he was still a coward. Maybe he was still
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: that resentful boy in the ruined egg chamber, taking the
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: king's hand because power was easier than pain. But there
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: was one thing he knew for sure. If I go
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: with you, he will hunt us. He'll search every forest,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: every mountain, every village. But if I return, if I
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: tell him what he expects to hear, if I stay
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: inside the army, I can keep him away from you.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Mira shook her head. You expect me to believe that, no,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Basalt said, I don't, but I need you to go anyways.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: He took a small stone from his pocket. He was
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: smooth and dark, polished by years of worry. Between his fingers.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: My father gave me this when I was young. Give
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: it to Bennett when he's older, or throw it into
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: a river if you'd rather. I don't deserve to ask
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: anything of you. Mira stared at the stone for a moment,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: then she took it. Before dawn, Mira left with her son.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: She didn't say goodbye. Basalt watched from the trees as
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: she disappeared into the forest, carrying Bennett wrapped against her chest.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Then he walked the other way back to the Dragon King.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: The rebel camp fell two days later. Basalt made sure
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: many of the people escaped, not obviously, of course, never obviously.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: The Dragon King considered the mission a success. The camp
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: was destroyed, several rebel leaders were captured, supplies were seized
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: and besie well. He was rewarded. Over time, he rose
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: higher and higher in the army. Eventually he became the
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: earth Dragon General. He had more soldiers under his command
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: than he'd ever imagined, He had a powerful controlled earth Dragon,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: and he had the Dragon King's trust. He also had nightmares.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: He did many things he wasn't proud of. He crushed
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: rebel supply lines, he broke mountain hideouts, but he kept
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: his promise. He kept soldiers away from Mirah and Bennett
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: through spies scouts and carefully placed lies, but assault watched
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: from a distance. He learned that Mira had traveled far
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: beyond the ordinary patrol routes. He learned that she'd eventually remarried,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: a good man of four worst rebel, who knew how
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: to survive, and who loved Bennett as his own. That hurt,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: but it also helped, because by all reports, the man
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: was kind. Bennett grew strong. He learned the forest, He
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: learned to hunt, to build fires, to read tracks, to survive.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Basalt heard stories of him from time to time, and
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: one day a very interesting story arrived. Bennett had found
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: an earth dragon, a real one, a free one. He'd
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: become a true dragon Knight. For a long time after
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: reading that report, Basalt couldn't move. His son had been chosen.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: The thing Basalt had wanted his entire childhood had come
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: to Bennett, and to Basult's surprise, he didn't feel resentment.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: He was happy for his son, but also worried because
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: a true dragon Knight wouldn't be able to hide forever,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: not with the dragon kings searching, not with strongholds being
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: taken back and the fire dragons being freed, and the
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: water dragons rising up, and that whole nature dragon thing
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: he just heard about recently. And now, according to every
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: report coming through Basalt's spy network, Bennett and the new
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Dragon Knights were coming for the Earth Kingdom Stronghold, his stronghold,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: the place where controlled Earth dragons waited and rose, their
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: glowing eyes fixed ahead, their riders ready for war. Basalt
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: stood at the highest balcony of the stronghold, looking out
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: over the mountains. Everything was prepared, Everything was ready except Basult,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: because soon his son would come. Bennett would come wearing
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: true dragon Earth armor, riding a dragon that had chosen
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: him freely, and Basult would have to decide what kind
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: of man he really was. Was he the resentful boy
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: who took the Dragon King's hand. Was he the soldier
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: who betrayed a rebel camp. Was he the general who
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: served the dragon thief? Or was he still somewhere deep
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: beneath all that stone, the father who had once held
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: a tiny baby in his arms and named him Bennett.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: He went to sleep that night slightly uneasily, because he
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: knew that tomorrow would likely be the day he'd have
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: to decide.
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: Good Night everyone, m.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: M M
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: M