The following morning, Jasper awoke with renewed excitement. In his whirlwind to get himself ready, Jasper realized that he could not find one of the most important pieces of equipment he needed for training. 

“Dad!” Jasper cried from his bedroom, “Have you seen my wooden sword?” 

As Jasper began to tear apart his room, Keirian poked his head into the doorway. 

“Why do you need it? Is training really necessary before you leave tonight?” 

Jasper paused his frantic search to look over at his father. He noticed the tell-tale pink haze of his father’s magic emanating from his hands.Jasper lifted an eyebrow and zeroed in on what Keirian could have been holding. 

Keirian closed his hands in an attempt to hide whatever was in his hand. With a gentle smirk, Keirian shook his head as he read his son’s mind. 

“No peeking until tonight,” Keirian chuckled. 

Jasper pouted and went back to searching for his practice sword. He always enjoyed watching his father’s mage magic at work. However, when Keirian was working on something of great importance, he required steady concentration. Jasper knew this and chose not to press further.

“You never answered my question,” Keirian continued. “Why are you training this morning? You should take it easy.” 

Jasper sighed and ran his hand down his face in defeat. It was too early to argue, and Jasper’s stomach was reminding him that he had yet to feed himself. 

“One final training session is what I feel like I need before preparing for my quest,” Jasper responded. Keirian hummed and turned to leave Jasper’s room. 

“Fair enough. Also, your sword is in Ryker’s room for some reason. I’ll grab it for you, but you need to get some food in you at least before you run out.”

Jasper couldn’t agree more. The rumble in his stomach could rival the small tremor he felt the night before. He grabbed an apple from the table and strapped his belt around his waist. For good measure, Jasper grabbed a second apple and stuffed it into one of the pouches on his belt. Keirian re-emerged from Ryker’s bedroom and set the wooden sword against the wall and went back to working on the enchantment. Jasper threw his jet-black hair back into a messy ponytail. He gathered his cantine and book on dragons to read during his breaks. 

“I’ll be back in a few hours!” Jasper called out to his family. 

He was sure Ryker was already out playing in a tree somewhere, and he didn’t bother to wait for a response from his dads. Keirian was spending the morning working on something for Jasper to take along on his travels. Kade was snoring in bed, a rarity as the man was usually up with the sun. Jasper assumed his father was emotionally exhausted, but Jasper did not have the time to investigate further.

With his practice sword in hand, Jasper closed the front door of the large manor and took to jogging to his usual practice spot. His friends, Eden Enders and Cora Mercer, would be waiting for him, no doubt having been sparring already. Jasper was notoriously late for their training sessions, and today was no exception. He was thankful the three of them were so close, otherwise he’s sure he would be training for the Dragonguard on his own by now.

Eden and Cora had basically grown up with Jasper in Lumen. They spent their adolescent years pretending to be knights, protecting their families and each other from the fierce dragons that dared to show themselves in the city. When Jasper learned that Eden’s parents were part of the Dragonguard, he became more inspired to join, much to his dads’ dismay. The stories Eden would tell him and Cora were exciting, and Jasper wanted nothing more than to become a knight and protect his dads and little brother any way that he could. 

Truth be told, Jasper never fully understood why his fathers were so put off by his desire to be one of their world’s greatest defenders. When he first brought up the topic of becoming a knight of the Dragonguard, one of his fathers walked out of the room without so much as a word while the other dropped to a chair and frowned so deeply that Jasper worried the worry lines on his father’s youthful face might never go away. 

“You know how I feel about the practice of slaying dragons,” Keirian sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Out of his dads, Keirian was usually the more temperate one; the calm to Kade’s more exuberant personality. The thought of disappointing Keirian caused a pit to form in Jasper’s stomach. But the thought of somehow hurting Kade to the point of avoidance was even worse.

“I know, Dad,” Jasper said as he knelt down to be on an even level with Keirian. 

“It’s been my family’s policy for decades. I raised you to respect life.” 

“But how else are we supposed to ensure Lumen’s safety?” Jasper argued. “It’s not that I disagree with our family’s traditions–”

“It’s not a tradition, Jasper,” Keirian interrupted, holding up a hand. “A tradition is a ritual. Something ceremonial. This is an ethical position. I understand your desire to protect us. Believe me, son. I understand it more than you know. And so does your father. But is this really how you want to do it? Is this what you really believe to be the right path?”

Jasper certainly felt a wave of guilt about what he wanted out of his life after the conversations he had with his fathers. But now wasn’t the time to feel that guilt. Viktor, the leader of the Dragonguard, had brought news to Lumen of a resurgence of dragons in the surrounding areas. Training hard and learning all that he can about the different types of dragons – as much as there was written down, anyway – in order to join the defense was the only way Jasper could quench his desire to protect the people he loved.