My name is Lucca. And this is my story.
From a young age I was mesmerised by the dragon riders. I had heard stories of tyrannical reign of Bastard king Galbatorix, and of his defeat by Eragon Shadeslayer. It had been over twenty years since he had gone to discover a new safe haven for blossoming riders. He had found it of course and for years Urgals, dwarves, humans and elves had been taught the ways of the rider. Whilst the dragon chose the rider, the riders chose the place. They went from village to hamlet to town to city to let everybody try an egg, and whilst I had never been chosen I felt it deep down that I would one day find a dragon that wanted me.
My village, named Belatona, had announced that it had been chosen to try the eggs. As you could imagine I was excited, and so ready to be chosen! They would arrive in three weeks time (in my mind too long!) and would leave on the seventh day of that week, taking with them the lucky few. Me and my friends were excited and before too long were playing with twisted sticks and dreaming of being a dragon rider. In no time at all the three weeks had passed and we were expecting them to arrive at any moment! As me and my friends sat down on a nearby hill, my best friend Rowan nearly shouted "THEIR HERE!" realizing what he meant I turned towards where he was staring and saw on the horizon, twenty blurs heading towards Belatona. Jumping to my feet, I began tearing down the hill, closely followed by my friends. Once we reached the village hall, I saw my mother and father there, with my little sister Lily, waiting anxiously for my arrival. Not wishing to keep them waiting I meandered through the throng of people now gathering for the arrival of the dragon riders, finally making it to them. "Now son do you remember what I said about manners?" my mother asked looking at me. "Of course Mother" I said reassuring her. It took two minutes for the riders to touchdown, and dismount. Though this was not the first time I had seen a dragons, they were still as beautiful as the first time. They said very little to us and instead left for the nearby rider house, taking their dragons with them. After they had left my family and I drifted back to our home, above my father's masonry. After a quick supper of porridge, I and my sister were sent to bed, to get some rest before our calling to the Eggs. I didn't sleep a wink that night and instead fantasised about being chosen by an egg, and the feeling of flight. As soon as it had come the darkness melted back into the bright early morning light. Getting out of bed, I smelt bacon on the air and headed down stairs. Sat at the table was my father, gently stroking the family dog, Pippin, whilst my mother turned the bacon over the fire. Sitting at the table my father said that he wanted both me and Lily to go and bathe in the stream nearby. He said "You two will not look like filthy, little mice for the ceremony." After I and Lily had eaten breakfast, we packed some soap and headed down to the stream for a good scrubbing. I went first, removing my clothing and carefully waded into the bone chilling water. After scrubbing myself pink I quickly left the water, and dried off, giving my sister the soap and saying "It's cold" before heading back to the house. Later my sister came back looking equally as pink as me. We then changed into our best clothes and headed off to the ceremony, gradually becoming more nervous with each step, towards it. Suddenly as if it had leapt forward we were at the ceremony! People were gathered around a raised platform, where all the eggs were laid out like statues. The first name to be called was Mareeb, a young boy who at the time I disliked immensely. The reason for this being that his father, Chaberred, had once tried to stab my father in a drunken brawl and had ended up giving him instead a large gash that ran down from his neck to his hip. It had never fully healed, even with the help of the dragon riders. After touching each egg once he climbed down from the platform and scampered off into the crowd. Next was Rowan who did the same as Mareeb, and vanished into the crowd. Many went until finally Lily was called. This would be her first time doing it as you had to have seen ten winters, and I had seen fifteen. Once she had done, I was next to be called. Climbing up onto the platform, I took my place in front of the eggs. Looking at each I noticed their colours fully for the first time, marvelling at their beauty. I gently placed my hand on each egg in turn, and left the platform. Once the rest had preformed their part in the ceremony, the great feast began and we all had our fill of food. We danced and we played, enjoying both the music and the food, yet we all had that nagging feeling in the back of our minds that there were only twelve eggs and twenty of us. Once the night had become too late we went home, still fearing who the lucky few might have to leave behind. Over the next four days we heard no news of the eggs, and on the day before their departure they called a village meeting, about the eggs. Once everybody had arrived at the hall, they began their speech. "Now that we are all here, I would like to state that eight of the twelve eggs have hatched, and that we have discovered who each of their respective riders are. Now we must call out those riders, to their respective dragons." said a tall, brown haired Elf. The tension in the air at that moment was like a thick fog, which contained naught but fear and nausea. As that same Elf pulled a scroll from his satchel pocket, my sister pulled on my arm to get my attention. "Lucca I'm scared! What if we don't get picked, or worse only one of us gets picked?!" she whispered tears starting to form in her eyes. "Hush now sister, nothing like that will happen and if somehow it does then I will stick with you till the end." I said smiling at her, trying in vain to reassure her. Whilst we had been talking, the Elf had unrolled the scroll and was about to read the first name! The Elf opened his mouth and said "Mareeb Korpo!" As those words were uttered, my heart sunk to my boots, like lead. How could any dragon want to be ridden by him!? As I contemplated this the elf read out the next name "Rowan Boktor!" This name however did not make my heart sink any further, but instead brought it back up even higher than before! As the next four names were read out, my level of anxiety rose to "I am so not going to get picked am!?" and I could see in my sisters face the same thing was going through her mind. But it seemed that a dragon saw something it didn't in me, because when the Elf read out the next name it was "Lilia Obtaren!" my sister's name. I felt in my gut that I wasn't going to be picked, and once again I was wrong! The elf read out "Lucca Obtaren!" and my life changed that day, it changed so much! As the elf rolled the scroll back up he beckoned that we should all follow him to the rider house. We followed him in silence, all of us still in shock that we had been picked! As he opened the door to the house I gave one more reassuring smile to my sister, and we stepped into the house. He led us up some stairs to a closed room, with a lock. He unlocked it and we stepped into the room. As soon as we had we saw them, curled up in neat little baskets, like cats. The Elf said that the one furthest to the right was mine. As my eyes settled onto the basket he instructed, I saw a small, black baby dragon sleeping soundly. I walked towards it, reaching my hand out to touch it. As my hand found its head, I was thrown suddenly backwards into the wooden wall, and that's when everything went black...