"Kamu!" A voice spoke from behind the leader of the Mist, which made him turn towards the man. "The time has finally come." Kamu's ghost predecessor puts his hands on his hips.
"For what?" Kamu asked back, with a suspicious look.
"That I can give you a gift." He tells him calmly.
"Why?" The leader of the Mist blinked widely.
"Because you're going to die, aren't you?" The ghost asked and grabbed Kamu's shoulder. The smile didn't disappear from his lips, but his figure slowly began to fade.
"What are you doing, Teike?" Kamu's eyes widened.
"Spirits be with you and congratulations, from today on you are the ghost king." The answer came before the ghost that had followed Kamu in every step of his life had completely disappeared. Kamu's eyes froze and he collapsed there in the largest room of the current center of the Mist.
The wind was raging, the cold penetrated to his bones, Elestie, one of the mage apprentices, stood next to him, literally shivering so much that he could hear her teeth chattering. However, he had no idea why the other one was so scared.
"Are you sure you want to go in? They could punish us just for coming here! The inside-out people would take you away Teike, you won't be a born mage even if you run into the dragons." His hands clenched into fists at the girl's words.
Born mages, the strongest mages, but no such mage have been born in a generation. However, he wasn't in that particular place to pretend to be a born mage. He wasn't that stupid. He was only there that day to prove that he wasn't as good for nothing as they thought he was. He wanted to get a dragon so that he could be the youngest mage to get his dragon.
"If you're scared, go back and tell the master. I'll tell him that I came with a teleport stone." He pulled a black pebble from his pocket, then after tossing it once, he put it back in its place and started towards the cave of the floating rock.
"Teike! If you don't stop, I will really snitch on you!" He just rolled his eyes at the girl's voice, but he kept going. "Teike!" The girl shouted. "That's it, I'll tell it to Curtol!" He heard her start running and heard her clap her hands together to make the bridge appear between Geren and the smaller floating rock of the dragons.
His entered the huge mouth of the cave, there was no way back from here, if he didn't get a dragon until the master mage arrived, he could forget about magic for the rest of his life. He would be kicked out of Geren. He walked further and further into the dark tunnel, afraid, until he saw some faint greenish, bluish light. He stopped, his mind telling him to turn around and leave the place, but he didn't give in to the temptation and continued on.
He soon reached the huge cave hall. He stared at the place with his mouth open. The light came in through a single gap at the top of the hall, which reflected off the crystals, giving the place a faint glow. There were small niches all around the walls, all the way to the ceiling, and at that moment a dragon's head emerged from each niche.
Fear seized him again, as more and more dragons appeared and came closer and closer to him. He stood in the middle of the room, with no chance of escape. He swallowed hard, feeling like he was no good for anything. A true mage would have found his dragon by now and left. And now these majestic creatures would attack him because he had come here without permission.
"Teike!' His heart was pounding in his throat and he felt the blood pounding in his ears when he heard his mage master's voice from afar. The dragons were dangerously close. "Teike!" He heard the voice again, closer now, his gaze constantly moving between the dragons. Until he felt something slip past his feet.
He immediately looked down, but saw nothing, when the amulet made of dragon heart stone on the chain around his neck began to glow, first faintly, then more and more brightly. When he took the pendant in his hand, all the dragons bowed their heads before him. At first, he thought so, but his gaze slowly moved behind him, where he found himself face to face with a dragon that was larger than the others. Their gazes locked, the dragon slowly leaned closer to him and their foreheads touched.
"Greetings, Teike, the chosen one. I am Ilque, your dragon!" He heard the deep, unearthly voice of the beautiful blue-scaled creature with deep sea blue eyes.
A sense of relief came over him from somewhere deep down, but it wasn't because he had acquired a dragon, it was much more than that. He carefully stroked the dragon's head with his right hand, and the creature suddenly shrank and now barely reached his ankles. With incredible speed, he climbed up his pants, then his shirt, and finally peeked out from behind his back over his right shoulder.
"Teike, you're here! Come out of there right now!" At the voice of the master mage, Teike immediately turned towards him and blinked in fear. He had been caught, so he knew that he would face a heavy punishment. "That dragon..." He saw the surprise in the man's eyes and felt the muscles of the creature resting on his shoulder tense, he didn't need to see it to know that the dragon had opened its wings. He raised his head high. To his greatest surprise, his teacher, grumbling and struggling, knelt down before him. He blinked at him, but before he could ask, Ilque began to explain.
"Look, that little green dragon up there!" Teike followed his direction with his eyes and indeed saw the dragon, who was crouching down with his head bowed to the ground. "That is his master. The mage does not choose the dragon, the dragon chooses the mage."
"But why does he bow before us?" He asked back.
"Because the leader of the dragons wants me to." The master muttered under his breath, to which Teike turned in surprise towards the blue creature, who seemed to be smiling at him. They just stared at each other for a few moments, finally Ilque nodded and Teike heard the master blow a breath when he was finally able to stand up.
"Teike, put down that dragon and come with me. This matter must be discussed before the council." The master mage said, and Teike reached out protectively towards his new companion. Something deep inside him wouldn't let him leave the dragon here, no matter how much the older man looked at him as if he wanted to curse him. "Then bring him too, what do I care!" The man finally shook his head, then turned away from Teike and started into the cave. The boy followed him slowly, the dragon on his shoulder.
When they reached the sunlight, Teike saw the blooming rock of Gerin and the faintly glimmering bridge leading to it. He knew he couldn't escape the council, so he just followed his master towards the almost island-sized part of the floating rocks floating in the central height. He always had to smile when he saw the huge mountains covered with forests, when he saw the springs and the great river, how it fell into the depths over the edge of the cliff, leaving behind a white mist.
Birds flew high above the forests, in the distance you could make out the towers of the capital, those tall graceful stone towers that according to the tales were built by the gods. This was Gerin, the land of the floating rocks, where every living being wanted to go, but only those who had the ability to use magic could come. This was usually discovered at the age of six and families were especially happy if their child could become a magician's apprentice.
It seemed that being a magician was all fun and laughter, that it was the greatest honor, but according to Teike it was not. It took a lot of work and study, and after becoming an initiated mage, one could not leave Gerin, being a mage was more like a prison than a gift. Yet here he was, with a dragon on his shoulder and hurrying to his place of execution, because he was sure that for this deed, judging by the face of the master, he would pay handsomely.
As his steps got further and further away from the dragons' cave on the shining bridge, the image of the strange event slowly began to fade, to be replaced by a new fragment of the story, which Kamu followed one after another in his mind for long, long hours.