Summary: Addy is the only known woman to be born with the mark of a dragon rider. Her parents, afraid of what people would do if they found out that their daughter was born with this mark, abandon her to live with the only man who could defend her and train her to become what she is meant to be, a dragon rider. As she grows up Addy becomes one of the top ranked dragon rider recruits. But on the day of the Testing, the day she will find out if she will be able to become a part of the Dragon Guard, a group of mercenaries attack her kingdom, Bentharia. In the fight to defend the castle, she finds the king badly wounded and as he dies he tells her that she needs to get his son, Prince Damian, out of the kingdom where he will be safe and that she needs to protect him at all costs. As Addy struggles to keep her promise to the king, she finds that there is something about Prince Damian that the royal family has been desperately trying to hide. Something that rival other kingdoms desperately want to destroy.

Authors Note: So this isn't an actual fanfic but I had this idea and I just wanted to get it out there. I really want to know what people think of this story so please read and give me feedback.

Chapter 1

I duck as a double bladed sword comes flying towards my head. The man goes to strike again but I parry his sword away with both of mine. The clang of metal against metal invigorates me and I smirk as I move to strike the old man. However, he moves much quicker than one would think an old man is capable of and dodges my attack. Sweat pours down my face as I see an opportunity and fake another attack. As he prepares to break my attack, I duck and kick his legs out from under him. Both of my swords are pressed against his throat before he even hits the ground.

"You're getting slow old man," I smirk down at him.

"And you're getting cocky," he replies and before I know it, I am the one pinned on my back with a sword at my throat.

"Damn," I say as he removes the sword from my neck and stands.

"How many times have I told you? When you get cocky, you die," he scolds as I stand and sheath my swords. He turns and walks away from our private training area behind the house and says, "The Testing begins tomorrow and you still can't beat me. If you want to pass you need to do better."

"Come on, Cyrus," I say as I pick up my pace to keep up with him. "You and I both know that I am one of the top ranked recruits. There's no way I'm not going to pass the Testing."

"That's right," Cyrus says, as he continues to stares straight ahead with a frown. "You're one of the top recruits, not the top recruit. Besides, you can't know if you're going to pass the Test or not until you complete it. The Testing is different every year and no one ever knows what it is until it is happening, so don't build yourself up only to fall. Allow both the possibility to pass and not to pass as you won't have so much disappointment when you fail."

I suck in a breath through my teeth and feint hurt, "Ouch. You know, for the man that raised me, you don't show very much support for me."

"That's because you're such a disappointment," he replies in a joking voice as we reach the house. I laugh as I step inside our small little home.

Cyrus isn't my real father, I never met my parents. They left me here after I was born to live with Cyrus. They thought he would be more suited to raise me, and they were right. Cyrus is the head trainer of the recruits, so I get pushed harder and trained better than most of the others. If my parents had raised me I would never have had so much skill with my two swords as I do today. If they had raised me, I would have always felt empty and incomplete.

But they were afraid of me. Of what I am. Of the danger I pose to them and anyone else. They were afraid of the responsibility of having a child with the teardrop shaped mark. Of how people would react when they found out that a girl was born with this mark. So they dumped me on Cyrus and left before I was even one.

To be honest, I don't blame them for what they did. To some people, I'm an abomination. I shouldn't exist. Which is half true, I shouldn't exist. I mean, no woman has ever been born with the teardrop mark. I am the first. It's true that a woman can be given the mark, but never in history has a girl been born with it.

The teardrop mark means that a person is destined to be a soldier and a soldier cannot be a woman. Well, until now I guess. I was born with the teardrop mark and I am a girl. So I guess that means that I am the first of my kind. A woman soldier.

I am a soldier, but the teardrop mark doesn't mean just that. It means that I am to one day become one of the greatest defenders of my kingdom, Bentharia. It means that I can touch the clouds each and every day. It means that I can only feel complete when I have finally claimed my true partner. It means that I am a dragon rider.

Being a female dragon rider can be tough. Most people don't like it. They think I cheated the system. Some people are at peace with what I am, like Cyrus. But most either want me imprisoned, banished or even killed for it.

By the time I was ten, I was used to people avoiding me or belittling me. I just ignored it. However, once I was Matched with my dragon things got much, much worse for me.

The day I was Matched was a hot and humid summer day. Most of the day had consisted of hours of hiking with the other eleven year old trainees to reach the dragon dwellings up in the mountains west of the kingdom. As the head trainer, Cyrus was accompanying us to the dwellings. He was reviewing with us what would happen when we were Matched with a dragon but I wasn't listening because he had drilled all of that information into my head at home. Instead I was quietly talking to Matthew, my best friend and fellow trainee.

"What do you think your dragon will look like?" he whispered to me as we stepped over a branch that had fallen onto the path.

"Blue," I replied with a smile. "With yellow eyes, and teeth and talons that could tear through even the strongest of metals. What about yours?"

"Red. With black eyes and scales stronger and thicker that any armor ever made."

"I can't believe this is actually happening," I exclaim excitedly. "We're actually getting Matched with our—"

"Adalia," a deep voice boomed from the front of our group. I whip my head up to see Cyrus scowling at me and Matthew. "Perhaps, you could tell me how you and your dragon will be Matched since you and Matthew seem to think that you don't need to listen to your trainer."

I sighed and refused to break eye contact with Cyrus as I recited, "When we reach the dragon dwellings we are to line up in the order we are ranked. We are not to enter the fire dragon dwellings under any circumstances, only the designated dwelling. We will each enter the dwelling one at a time. When we enter the dwellings we are to go up to each dragon in the dwelling and bow to it. If we are to be Matched with one of the dragons that we approach it will bow back to us and spread its wings. We are allowed to touch the dragon but we are not allowed to ride them until the first day of riding lessons. When we have been Matched we are to leave the dwelling with our dragon and wait for the rest of the trainees to be Matched."

"And why can we not enter the fire dragon dwellings?" Cyrus asked.

"Because the fire dragons are not to be Matched and would kill us upon entering their dwelling," I replied.

"Very good," Cyrus said, a frown plastered on his face. "You are lucky that you know all this. If I see you and Matthew not listening again you will be punished. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," I said with a smile. Cyrus has always been all tough and mean to me in front of the other trainees but once we are home he has quite a soft spot on his heart. Which I am fine with because I don't want any of the other trainees thinking that I get special treatment from our trainer just because he's my guardian.

Our hike continued for another hour before we reached the dwellings. The dwellings' entrances look like caves but once you enter them they become large clearings where all the wild dragons live. The Matching is the only time of the year when humans are allowed to be near the dwelling. If someone comes up here any other time they would be killed by the dragons.

The dragons that are to be Matched are not adults but they aren't babies either. They are in their teenage stage of life and will grow for another two years before reaching adulthood. There are some dragons that do not get Matched and those are the ones that remain wild and breed the next generations.

When we got there Cyrus had us line up in the order we would be going into the dwelling. Because I was one of the top ranked trainees I was the third recruit to be Matched, with Matthew right in front of me.

It took about ten minutes for the first ranked trainee, Vincent, to be Matched. He was strangely quiet that day, none of his annoying remarks about how he's the best at everything. Which put everyone else in better moods. Vincent has always been a horrible person, especially to me. He picks on me the most because I'm a girl, but I'm always on my best behavior because I know that if I do end up breaking his already crooked nose outside of training, that I will not get to graduate and become a full-fledged dragon rider.

After ten minutes, Vincent emerged from the dwelling with a large black dragon with red eyes. It had twisting horns on top of its head that gave it a menacing look like the devil. As Vincent walked to the other side of the clearing his dragon followed him, hissing at all of us trainees who gawked at the beast in front of us.

This was the first time we had ever seen a dragon this close before. Usually if we saw one it was from a distance while it's rider taught us about caring for the dragons. We were never allowed to go up to one.

"Matthew!" Cyrus's voice snapped us all back to reality. I looked over at Matthew and gave him an encouraging smile as he entered the dwelling.

He emerged not even five minutes later with a beautiful dragon. Matthew's dragon was basically the opposite of Vincent's. Mathew's was all white with beautiful green eyes that gave it an almost gentle look.

"Adalia, you're up," Cyrus said. His voice sounded different, almost like he was nervous. Which made me start to feel nervous.

I looked over at Matthew for reassurance but he was fixated on his dragon, so I quickly looked ahead towards the entrance to the dwelling and took a deep breath to calm my growing nerves.

As I entered the cave-like entrance to the dwelling, I felt off. Almost like I wasn't supposed to be there, but I kept going because I knew my dragon was waiting for me inside. The uneasiness in my stomach grew with each step I took until I was in the heart of the dwelling, surrounded by dragons.

I have never seen a more beautiful sight in my life. There were dragons everywhere. All of different sizes and colors. Some of the dragons, either not of age to be Matched or ones that will never be Matched, were flying up above. The others were all on the ground patiently watching me as I took everything in.

The first dragon I approached was white with blue eyes. The membrane of its wings was so thing that it was almost transparent, which made me wonder how it didn't tear when it flew.

I hastily bowed to the dragon as I was instructed and waited for it to bow back but apparently this was not my dragon. It's icy blue eyes stayed fixed on me as I moved on to the next dragon.

I moved down the line of dragons, bowing to each then quickly moving on when they didn't bow back. After fifteen minutes there was only one more dragon left for me to approach. It was red with yellow eyes and black talons. I smiled and bowed, knowing that this dragon had to be mine. It was the only one I hadn't approached yet so it had to be. I straightened back up and waited for it to spread its wing and bow back.

But it didn't move. I frowned and bowed again. However, it still didn't move. I looked around thinking maybe I missed some but there were no other dragons that I hadn't approached. Panic quickly set in. I hadn't thought that this could happen. Have there been other riders that don't get Matched? Is the mark on my ankle only a birthmark resembling the riders mark? What do I do? I thought. How could I not be Matched? There must be some mistake! Maybe I missed one in line.

So I hastily approached each dragon making sure I bowed to every one of them. Still, none of them bowed. Tears flooded my eyes as I walked back to the entrance in defeat to go face Cyrus and the other trainees.

As I exited the dwelling, I felt everyone's expectant eyes on me. I stopped at the entrance and heard the other trainees murmuring as I contemplated what I should do.

"Where's her dragon?"

"She didn't get Matched."

"I knew she wasn't a dragon rider."

I looked to Cyrus and desperately tried to hold back my tears. I saw sadness in his eyes as he said, "Peter, go in."

Peter, one of the few trainees that I got along with, passed me as he made his way inside and gave me a look of pity as he went. However, I could see a fire in his eyes that proved he didn't believe I was a true dragon rider.

I looked around, desperate. I knew I was a dragon rider. I've known all my life. There's this missing piece of me and I know that that can only be filled by being Matched with a dragon.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. What if my dragon wasn't in that dwelling? What if I tried going into the fire dragon dwelling? Would my Match be in there?

I think Cyrus knew what I was thinking because he suddenly reached out to me to grab my arm. Yet, I was determined to find my Match and I twisted out of his reach. I sprinted towards the fire dwelling entrance and ignored Cyrus as he screamed my name.

This dwelling was different. It was terribly hot and the dragons were all scattered about, unlike the other dwelling where all the dragons that were to be Matched were lined up neatly. I immediately regretted my decision to go in this dwelling when all the dragons turned to look at me. I instantly knew that they intended to kill me when I looked into their menacing eyes.

The closest one to me was probably the biggest one there. It was brown with black eyes and horrible, rotten breath. It bared its teeth at me and rose to strike me.

I closed my eyes, preparing for the end, but it never came. Instead, I heard a loud roar and when I opened my eyes the brown dragon was being attacked by a smaller, black dragon with gold eyes. I stood there in shock as I watched them battle. The brown dragon was much bigger than the black one but the small one was quicker. It's talons and teeth blurred together at it ripped into the larger one. The brown dragon shot flames out of its mouth, desperately trying to shake the black one but it was in vain. The black dragon had the brown one pinned and there was nothing the brown one could do but surrender in submission. The other dragons and I didn't move a muscle as the black dragon turned to face me.

This dragon didn't look as menacing as the brown one. It seemed to have a curiosity in its eyes that drew me in and before I could think about what I was doing I bowed to the dragon before me. I slowly straightened back up waiting for a response and to this day I still remember the awe of seeing my dragon spread his wings and bow back to me.

Author's note: Thank you so much for reading! I know it needs work but that's the whole reason I am posting this. I want your feedback on what I should do to make this chapter and all that follow the best they can be.