Chapter 1
Kara
It's happening, I thought, it's finally happening. Today, my first flight feathers had begun peeking out from under my fluffy down. I am finally fledging, after three years of staying on the ground in my parents cave.
I view the nice iridescent indigo, black, and dark purple primary on the tip of my right wing as it buds out. Tuffs of plumage drift to the ground as I flap my wings. Another feather is exposed; this time, a secondary on my left wing. I shake out my wings, causing it to snow little feathers that are only used to stay warm.
The little gray feathers swirl in the light of the full moon. I smile as they swirl around in the breeze, blowing off the flat half-plateau. Ah, the plateau. Through some event in history, half way up the plateau, a large section had fallen away. It left a huge exposed air bubble that once was in the heart of the plateau: my home. Plus, there are many boulders alongside the cliffs edge, with verdant trees and things growing from them.
Well, besides knowing that the plateau had broken centuries and centuries ago, that's about all I know about this place, expect that my father's snoring is probably going to cause another landslide.
I go inside to get my needed five or six hours of sleep. Lying in my usual spot by the cave entrance, I watch the stars twinkle and shine. Sleep is knocking at my door when I hear the soft whuff whuff of a dragon flying.
I peek out of my cave and see none other than Prince Shakra flying around my plateau. His long banking turn leads him to the backside of the plateau, north and into the Alps. I see his figure glide back around, closer and closer with every time he rounds my home.
He gets close enough that I can see him carrying a bundle of purple feathers and a torch, and that he is not alone. A great gray owl flies in his wake, a single purple feather from his tail feathers, marking him as Shakra's companion.
They get extremely close to the rocky boulders down the bluff of the plateau. I creep from my cave and watch my prince and his owl pick through some pebbles before driving a purple feather into the ground. They leap from rock to rock, tree to tree, examining the ground and occasionally poking a feather somewhere in the ground.
His owl drifts around above him, cocking his head. He looks straight to me and hoots. I duck down lower, almost out of sight. Shakra looks in my general direction, scanning the cliffs edge for someone, before going back to work. I breathe a heavy sigh of relief, causing the owl to hoot at me again. Shakra ignores him.
The prince continues to hunt for places to put out feathers, seeming to pick them out at random. He goes into the bushier part of the rocky cliff side where the light of the moon can't get through. I crawl down the boulders like a ninja, making no noise. Well, I guess I make some because the owl looks to me and hoots some more.
I follow the prince and his noisy owl into the forest-like section. I hear him grumble something about bad lighting. He holds up the torch and it catches fire. I gasp at the use of forbidden magic. He looks up suddenly, listening. I duck behind a boulder just as his head turns my way. I wait until I hear him move on with his magically lit torch before scampering back up to the flat shale in front of my cave.
I watch his torch move throughout the forest, a dim light barely peeking though the evergreen branches. After a while without seeing the torch, the prince flies up from the treetops. My heart pounds and I dart quickly back to my cave, but not quick enough; his owl sees me and hoots a screeching noise.
I hide behind the cave wall, hearing Shakra's unique wing beats. He's part of the royal Draco family, the last of the featherless dragons. His leathery wings are easy to hear as they approach me. Heart pounding, and telling myself to calm down, I wonder what the prince will do if he finds out I saw him using forbidden magic.
Ever since the kingdom of Europe was created, along with the other regions of the world getting leaders, magic has been forbidden. Due to the fact that most books, if not all, mentioned magic, reading and owning books had been forbidden too. The ancient monarchy had done that, before the monarchy was overthrown and a king took the throne.
Still, the reign of the Draco family enforced the banning just as much, if not more, than the monarchy. Punishment for using magic is severe, a lashing to the face. It left a dragon marked, and no one cared if the scarred dragons lived or died.
And now, the prince who had done what his parents and ancestors forbid is flying close to the entrance of my cave.
I almost scream as his head darts into the cave, his long horns and neck trills glimmering in the moonlight as if they were the source of the light. He glances around. I can see his slit pupils expanding as they adjust to the darker lighting.
They land on my figure as I crouch down, still as stone.
"Have you been spying on me?" his deep voice asks. My eyes widen in fear. He knows! I think, panicked.
"N-no," I stutter, his eyes squint, reducing to slits of gold with a black pupil inside.
"I'm so sure you're telling the truth," he mutters sarcastically. My father snorts a loud snoring noise. "Oh, goody, your parents are home. Come outside." I move my frozen paws forward, following his strong scaly figure outside. "Now, who are you?" he asks.
"Kara, my prince," I say meekly. He watches me closely.
"Alright, Kara. Did you see anything odd tonight?"
"No, my prince," I murmur. His eyes seem to glow as his patience begins to run out.
"I don't believe you, young Kara. I think we both know what you saw." He takes a step toward me, and I take two steps back.
"I won't tell anyone. I promise, my prince," I vow. He barks a laugh.
"Sure you won't," he says dryly. "Why on earth would you tell someone the prince of Europe used magic? Oh, right, because magic is forbidden." He takes another step toward me, and I try to walk back. However, the cave wall is behind me. He squints at me, his eyes scanning over my shabby wings. "How well can you fly?" he asks.
"Not at all," I say hesitantly. "I'm fledging now." Adrenaline begins to pump through me like fire through my veins as he takes another step forward.
"Very well then. I want you to do me a big favor, and go and jump off that cliff," he says, pointing to the eastern side of the cliff. All the boulders lie of the southern side, so the western and eastern sides were dead drops. If I jump off, I won't live to tell about it.
"But I'll die," I speak my mind quietly.
"No, you won't," he assures me slyly.
"Yes, I will, my prince," I plead, "Don't make me. I can't fly and will die."
He sighs in exasperation. "Fine, we'll do this the hard way, I guess." Suddenly, the ground beneath me grows hot, making a thermal. My down flies up around me.
"What—" I start to ask when he interrupts me.
"Alright. Try to fly." I blink in confusion.
"But I—" I try to say.
"Do it," he advises. "There is no other way, or I would be doing that instead of what I'm about to do." I squirm nervously. "Come on," he encouraged, "don't you trust your prince, your future king?" I pause for a moment, and then nod. "Then for the love of the stars, fly."
I flap my wings, causing more and more fluffy feathers to leave and exposing more flight feathers. "See? I told you I can't fly." He sighs again.
"That's because you're not doing it right. Cup your wings, roll your shoulders. Holy crow, the mentors these days. They don't even teach fledgling to fly."
"Hey!" I growl. "My mentor is a great teacher!"
"Then fly," he taunts. I flap harder, rolling my shoulders and gaining some lift. He sighs. "I guess I'll bring in a current, too," he mutters as a wind picks me up from the ground. I gasp, flying somehow with only a few flight feathers on my wings, flight feathers that haven't even finished coming in. "Alright, Kara, now just fly along with where the currents push you."
"You're not going to take me off a cliff, are you?" I ask.
"Yes," he says. I tuck my wings in, hitting the ground. "But I'm not going to drop you. Come on, fly, we have a place to get to before too long." I slowly begin moving my wings.
"Where are we going?" I ask, letting the hot winds push me off the cliff and away from home. He flies beside me, a few purple feathers and the unlit torch in his claws.
"A little place I discovered one night when I ran away."
I look to him, surprised. "You ran away?" I ask, dumfounded at the young prince's lack of loyalty.
"Just for one night. No one even noticed I was gone," he adds gruffly. "So I just started coming out to this spot sometimes, taking little breaks from life." He seems to realize he's saying more than necessary and flaps hard, gaining some height above me.
I watch our shadows shimmer across the ground, moving over trees and bushes like black liquid. The plateau I call home is far in the distance as we fly southeast, and soon we leave the grassy landscape behind for a more forest-like area. We fly for quite some time, passing over boulders shaped like mountains; they are no higher than the average one story building, but they are ruggedly pointed a the top.
I follow him farther into the area, my down being taken away by the wind. I peer at my feathers, losing my aerodynamic form. There are several primaries on each wings, and a few secondary feathers too. My coverts haven't even budded yet, making the soaring we are doing difficult and putting extra strain on my new primaries.
A large craggy rock comes into view, with several trees managing to grow on it. It's on the southeast side of the meadow that quickly moves into my line of sight. Inside the meadow, a small circle of rocks is in front of the craggy rock. The western meadow is ruled by a crackling fire.
He banks a turn and lands near the fire, while I am lucky to crash land without getting singed. I peer into the fire for a moment. Bad move. My eyes are blinded for a while, and Shakra wanders off, leaving me alone.
"And who is this?" a snarly female voice demands.
"Kara," Shakra answers in his deep voice.
"Whoa, guys!" another female voice shouts in a wild tone. "Check out the fledgling!" I blink hard, finally able to focus on what's around me. A red and orange dragon walks up to me. I think it's the female that just shouted. "Hey!" she greets happily as a male blue dragon with small sharp horns and a baby blue and golden female with slender long horns gawk at me. The fire-colored dragon watches me. "Who are you?"
"Kara," I say hesitantly. The slender horned female approaches me.
"Hello, Kara," the baby blue and golden dragon greets. "I'm Air. This is Fire," she says, pointing to the red and orange dragon, "and that over there is Water," she tells me, pointing to the blue dragon with short pointy horns. I stare at them, the odd one out in this strange group. "Of course, those aren't our real names. We just go by them here."
I look to Shakra and see the other dragon he's talking to, and almost swallow my tongue. "Holy crow!" I yelp, looking at her. "She's…featherless! Is she Shakra's sister or something?" I rake my mind, trying to remember if anyone has ever mentioned a princess.
"Nope," Water says, walking to us. "She's the scaled dragon, the secret one. You know, of the prophecies. That what we are you know, the magic users—ouch!" He hisses as Fire kicked him.
"Water!" she screeches. "Shut up!" He blinks at her.
"Fine," he snaps. "I was just trying to help."
"Well, help by tying your jaws shut." She turns back to me. "Excuse him, if you can." I nod.
"Shakra?" Air asks, "What is this about, anyways?"
Shakra looms over to me, his featherless friend following. She glares at me while Shakra talks. "Kara saw me use magic." Fires eyes widen in disbelief. "I brought her here so we could explain."
"Which I disagree with," the featherless female hisses. Shakra turns to her.
"Chira, please," he says, trying to sway her opinion. "If she leaves and tells someone about me doing magic, it will be no worse than if she leaves and tells everyone about me doing magic and the legends. This way, we might convince her not to tell at all."
The featherless female known as Chira sighs, saying, "Fine. Just be wary of what she might take the wrong way." Shakra nods solemnly.
"Kara," he says, "you saw me doing magic, yes?" he asks. I nod. "What kind of magic?"
"Fire magic," I whisper. "You lit a torch." He pauses for a minute, his eyes searching mine.
"What is your opinion on magic?" he asks. I answer the way I always have when someone asks me that, the safe way.
"It's forbidden." He sighs, shaking his head.
"Okay, that is established. What is your opinion on magic? Is it good or bad?"
"Um," I say, looking around. "I think it depends on how you use it?"
"Oh, really?" he asks. "So, when I lit that torch, I wasn't doing anything wrong?"
"You defied the law and your parents and ancestors." He rolls his eyes, or tried too. The bright fire makes his pupils contract, so rolling his eyes just looks like he looked forward then backward. Still, I got the point.
"But did I hurt anyone?"
"No."
"Did it cause any harm?"
"It might have if you accidently caught a tree on fire."
"I could have used magic to douse the fire. Then I would be doing something good, wouldn't I?" His questions make my head swim.
"Look," I say, "all I know is that you can get your face clawed if you do magic, so I stay away from it. Whatever you do is your business."
"Kara," Fire says, "magic isn't bad. Just deeply feared and misunderstood. Dragons recoiled from it after what the Evil One and the Evil Child did, and it was the wrong thing to do."
"What did who and who do?" I ask.