A Dragon's Rider (Unedited)

Chapter 3

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'Hello. My name is Lance.'

I smile and approach him. He seems polite and nice. "Hello Lance."

"How do you know his name?" asks the rider accusingly.

"He told me."

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The rider glares at me but ignores my comment. I mean, it was him talking, right? Great. To add onto my troubles, I'm hearing voices! The rider introduces himself as Vlad and his dragon as Lance. He totally ignores me which is fine. He seems rude. I look at Lance and the dragon has a sad smile on his face but I can tell that he wants to laugh a bit. I walk up to him and start petting his face. The scales are smooth and almost soft though they are hard as diamond. The rider yells out and runs over. He takes my hand off Lance and stands in front of me protectively, in the process knocking me down. Lance roars and gently pushes Vlad to the side. He comes forward and for a moment I think he is going to hurt me. I cringe backward as Lance reaches me. He lays down in front of me and puts his head in my lap, his long whiskers tickling my legs. He huffs at me and says, 'Are you ok? I will talk to Vlad. He has no right to treat you like that. I would never hurt you, neither would any other dragon. You can speak to us and that is a special gift. The riders sometimes twist our words to fit their own purposes but now that you are here, you can stop them!' his warm brown eyes are soft and hopeful.

I laugh and reply, "I will sure try." He smiles a dragon smile before getting up and walking over to his rider. Vlad pales a bit as I stand up. He nods his head before asking Lance's permission to get everyone up on his back and situated for the long journey ahead of us. Lance nods and turns his back towards us. Vlad comes over and lifts Henry onto the spot behind the large saddle. I go up next but Vlad doesn't help me, he just tells me to get on behind Henry. Lance's back is nearly 6 feet tall but my instincts take over and I walk away from the dragon. Everyone has now stopped what they are doing to watch me. I turn around to face Lance's back before running at it. Right as I am about hit his stomach, I launch myself into the air, twisting gracefully so I'm facing forwards and landing right behind Henry without so much as a wince from Lance or me. All the dragon riders laugh with the exception of Vlad and Hunter. The dragons are laughing as well and I just smile. Vlad lifts Garett up and vaults into the saddle, much like I just did. We wait for a moment while everyone else gets onto their dragons.

Everyone is safely on and secured before the dragons start to take off. Lance goes first, beating his massive wings and jumping, his powerful hind legs bunching up and extending fluidly. He rises up a good 100 meters into the air before the second dragon takes flight. The air whips my long, blonde hair out of its braid and the strands fly in my face as I search the clouds for our town. The town is fading into the distance until all I can see is a speck of black against the ever-growing forest. Before long, that speck fades as well and I search for something else to watch. Vlad looks back at us and starts to quiz us on the villages and cities we're passing. With each village passed, we gain more dragons in the train. Hunter and his dragon, I think he told me his name was Reyna, is in the lead with Lance and the other dragons from my village following.

"What was the city we just passed called?" Vlad questions. We are all stumped for a second and Lance calls to me, 'Dragomir.'

"Dragomir?" I answer sending my thanks to Lance.

"Correct." replied Vlad. I guess Lance was just speaking to me as I don't think Vlad heard him tell me the answer. "Who can tell me how many types of dragons there are?"

"6 general categories with more sub categories being discovered each year." this time Garett responded.

"Good. Can you name the six general categories and 5 sub categories?"

"Elemental (storm, water, earth, fire, air,), western, eastern, northern, southern, and faye." I respond without thinking very hard. When I became a tracker, my father made me learn the dragons by heart.

"Good." Vlad asks some more questions but I stop paying attention and answering when a huge castle comes into view. 'Windamere Fort.' calls Lance. All the dragons land, starting with Renya and ending with a dragon who Lance calls Aerea. There are a total of 120 dragons from 30 different villages and towns (four per town). That means there are a total of 150 dragon riders. I hide my hair in my hood so I look like a boy, I don't need to be answering all kinds of questions. Everyone gathers around a stone platform where all the riders are standing with Hunter in the front.

Hunter clears his throat rather loudly and when that doesn't get their attention, I hear him ask Reyna something. Reyna roars and breathes a short burst of flame at the sky. All the kids immediately stop talking and look to the front.

"Alright!" Hunter says. "So, this year, we have 150 dragon riders with us. 51 of each fire, earth, air, and water mages. 52 mind wielders, 50 wizards, and 52 shapeshifters. While you are here, on no account other than a direct order or attack, are you allowed to use your magic. Will the people we got from Stone Heart village please come up on the stage." I look up in surprise, 'Stone Heart?'. That's my village. I walk up with everyone else and stand towards the back. Alabaster's Stone is taken out again and I am getting a very bad feeling. Starting with the first boy in line, Hunter asks them to step forward and touch the stone again. Everyone is now whispering but the boys do it anyway. Each time a person has their hood up, they are forced to remove it and look at the audience. This is because Stone Heart has a reputation of producing the best mages and dragon riders. I am at the end of the line so I will go last. When it is my turn, I go up to the stone but under my hood, I'm silently pleading Hunter not to make me take my hood off. He doesn't but merely nods at me to go touch the stone again. I comply by reaching out and placing my palm on the smooth surface. Nothing happens for a second before the show starts again. For everyone else, the glow is soft, some stronger than others depending on their power level. The brighter it is, the more powerful you are. The golden flames come back, enveloping me in their warm embrace. The wind picks up and the animals and plants go crazy, shrieking and waving. I pull my hand back and it all stops. I didn't notice Hunter come up behind me but now I sense his presence. I duck right as he reaches for the hood but he's too fast and my hood falls. My long blonde, hair and amber eyes are shown and everyone stills. After as few minutes of nothing, one boy raises his hand and asks what everyone wants to know.

"Is that a girl?"

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Hello! Thanks for reading. Please comment and vote if you liked it.

Ciao,

101silver_wolf

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