Chapter Fourteen

Summary

• The chapter opens with the protagonist waking up to smelling salts and realizing they are in a forest with both riders and infantry cadets who are all confused and disoriented.
• Riders and infantry cadets have been forcibly drugged and removed to a forest known as RSC without their consent as part of a training exercise.
• There is a stark difference in appearance and uniform between the riders and infantry cadets, emphasizing their unfamiliarity with each other.
• Professor Grady briefs them on the purpose of their sudden relocation: to complete a joint land navigation exercise and enhance cooperation among the military segments.
• Both groups are provided with maps and objective to find a marked location and secure it, but they discover they have two different maps.
• Riders notice they cannot fully communicate with their dragons due to a herbal concoction given to them by their superiors, dulling their connections and power.
• Professor Grady reveals a twist: there are two groups in the exercise, and their dragons will be hunting the other group while they might be hunted by unbonded dragons or the other group's dragons.
• The two groups are instructed to work together despite their differences and lack of trust; Ridley, an infantry cadet, is critical of the riders and challenges their importance.
• Riders are forced to take the lead when threatened by a Scorpiontail dragon, recalling past lessons on dragon encounters for survival.
• One cadet,Gwen, breaks the rule and runs from the dragon, leading to being saved in a near-miss situation by Tomas before a dragon's fire blast presumably kills Tomas.
• The chapter ends with the aftermath of the dragon's attack, the group reeling from the shock and a lesson emphasized by Rhiannon: never run from a dragon.