Thanks again for all who submitted. Hope you enjoy the story (I do not own the Inheritance Cycle or any of the franchise attached to it.) Please excuse the horrible dialogue grammar. I should have paid attention in Language Arts!
Yuri's POV (1st person)
The day was unusually foggy, like a giant had breathed hot, steamy mist into the port. I didn't like it. It was far too oppressive and dreary. I remembered back to the last foggy day the docks had seen and I shuddered at the memory. The boy next to me looked around and observed. "It's… pretty cold out here." No duh.
"Not really. I was just… thinking." The boy nodded like this was a satisfactory answer. As he turned away, presumably bored with my amazing conversation skills, I blurted out a question. "What's your name?" He smiled and said "Mercury. What's yours?"
I smiled back and replied "Yuri. Yuri Reams." He turned away again, and this time I didn't stop him. Everyone's nerves were on edge. Some people chattered incessantly to deal with nerves, like I did, while some became as talkative as a rock. Today was the day we started our training as riders. Several people were gathered on the dock, waiting for someone to arrive, to whisk us away to somewhere magical. One of the others started throwing rocks at some seagulls to amuse himself. Unexpectedly, a large, iridescent blue shape appeared on the skyline.
"Look!" someone shouted, "It's Saphira!" We all craned our heads to see her descending form. Not far behind her was either impossibly large boat or a lot of very large boats. Saphira landed gracefully and surveyed us. Not one person moved. We all heard a voice rumble "Welcome, little ones. You have a long journey ahead of you. Some of the hatchlings can fly, others cannot. I brought these boats for this reason. The journey will not seem long, but for every mile you think we travel, we are one hundred miles further from Alagaesia."
Everyone, including the dragons, looked awed. Once we were on the boats, I began to observe the other riders. There were a lot of elves this year, as far as I could tell. A few humans and… was that an urgal over there? Cool! Urgal riders were very rare, even rarer than dwarf riders. I walked over to my dragon, Cinero, and asked him a question. "Did you notice the urgal rider?"
"Yes. Do try and be polite, Yuri. This would not be a good time to stick your foot in your mouth. The last thing we want to do on a first day is to offend a fellow rider." I made a pouty face and said "Yeesh, Cinero, I know these things, you don't have to play the part of guardian angel. I know what I'm doing."
Hith's POV (1st person)
Everyone was staring at me. Nothing new there. What mystified me was how they thought I couldn't see them. "Hey!" I shouted at a human boy who was staring at me, "Keep your eyes to yourself!" He looked away, embarrassed. For a moment, I felt bad for being so harsh on him. But then I told myself that he had deserved. He was staring at me like I was an animal, and I had to show everyone that if they messed with me, they were gonna pay.
I feel horrible for not putting this chapter up sooner. And now I can't update in a while because I'll be at my summer camp in Tennessee for six weeks. I appreciate all reviews, and here are special thanks to all the people who submitted riders!
armegddon
Betusta Morla
Ocadioan (for both riders)
ShadeDarkHeart
Daughter of King Orrin
Soren0666
SidTheSeer
Du Hljodhr Sundavar
awesomosityrox
SophieForeverCharmed
ShiningIDOL
Joda-Eragonsson
slytheringirl4life
You guys are the best! Please don't hate me for procrastinating so long. Feel free to PM me what you think your characters would do in a certain situation. HHFN (Huzzah-Huzzah for now!
-GreatIceDragon!