The next morning Nathan went to work. On his usual route he spotted a crowd of people in an alleyway congregated around a tall woman, a foreigner by the looks of her. Intrigued, Nathan went to investigate. The crowd consisted mostly of children and young teens, swarming around her. On closer look, he realized that she was no human at all, she was an elf! Nathan had only heard stories of them, and never thought he would ever actually see one in person. In her hand Nathan could see her holding a green stone. The children and teens all shoved past each other, reaching out to touch the stone.
"I want to touch the dragon egg", cried a little girl to the right side of Nathan.
"No Natasha, come along". Her mother dragged the little girl away as she wailed through the streets.
The stone is a dragon egg? It can't be can it, though Nathan. The crowd sure seemed to believe it was, and the elf's mysterious apparition just confirmed it. Why they were touching the so called dragon egg, he didn't know. Perhaps it's a magical source of good luck, Nathan had thought. Waiting for his turn he proceeded to touch the egg. The elfin woman looked at him expectantly as he approach and smile lightly at him. Nathan reached out with a hand stroked the smooth jade surface. As he turned to walk away the elfin woman called to him.
"Boy", she said. "Come back please".
Nathan turned around and saw that on the egg was a conspicuous crack. He was worried that he might have accidentally broke it. She smiled even more warmly at him and as if she was reading his thoughts said, "Don't worry you didn't brake it. In fact, you caused quite the opposite effect." The crack grew and the shell was penetrated, a tiny horned snout poke through. The people on the street were aghast and it seemed to Nathan that the busy port town of Teirm had come to a complete stop. The dragon continued to break out of it's shell, and the elf beacon to Nathan to come closer. Nathan walked up to her, well aware of the steely gazes he was receiving from everyone in the street.
"She wants to see her rider", said the elf overcome with joy. The dragon stopped its struggle of breaking out its shell and looked up at him. It's golden eyes peered deep into his, full of wonder. It was a beautiful green color with golden eyes. Black strips crossed it's back, giving the dragon hatchling a different look from that of most dragons he had heard of. Nathan was about to touch it when all of a sudden it lurched out to his hand poked him with its nose horn. The sneering pain lurched through him and caused him to recoil. It burned his palm and when he turned it over to look at the damage. On his palm there was a silver coil in the shape of a coiled dragon glowing with a hot intensity.
The elf continued to stare at him, pleased with herself. "What is your name"? She asked him.
"Nathan".
"Come with me Nathan", she said and strode away. As she walked away from the crowd of people with Nathan in tow she was join by four municipal guards carrying lances as they formed a defensive perimeter around them. They walked for awhile in silence until they came to a small governmental building and went inside. The building was completely vacant; the guards at the elf's command remained outside. The room only had two chairs, set sitting across from each other. The elfin woman motioned for him to take a seat as she helped the dragon out of the remnants of its shell.
"Now, I understand you have many, many questions and probably don't know what to ask first", she said sitting down across from him, the dragon hatchling in her lap looking at Nathan with unblinking eyes. "But please let me give you a proper introduction".
She took a small bag and opened it to reveal small bits of dried meat. "Come sit closer and feed her". Nathan did as the elf had asked and pushed his chair closer to hers. She handed him the bag of meat and the dragon hopped over to his lap looking up at him with maw open ready to be fed. Nathan propped a piece at a time into the dragon's mouth.
"Now, I'll introduce myself; my name is Oria of house Meli'ivue. I come from the elfin city of Kitran." She splayed her right palm to Nathan the same symbol that was on his own palm. "I am a dragon rider, and now so are you". There was silence in the room for a long while. Oria let Nathan digest what he now had become. The dragon hatchling did not want to wait for Nathan to give her another piece of meat, and helped her self.
"Why-"
"Why me, were you going to say? It is because she has chosen you to be her rider. It is truly a great honor. The greatest there is. Have you been told of the stories of the riders?"
"Yes, my mother would tell me about them at bedtime when I was very young."
"Then you knew of their great exploits how Alagessia had flourished because of them. They were diplomats, peace keepers and great heroes of their time before they were betrayed and now in the renaissance you will be one of the new generation of riders. I sense that you were one of those people who felt like a loser all his life and now, being handed his duty, his destiny in sight, and you do not know how to precede?"
"I do…how do you know that"?
Oria laughed. "When you're trained as I were you'll understand". Now she moved closer to Nathan. Her gace morphed from joy to seriousness. "There is a great destiny ahead for both of you. Dragons are creatures of power, so great that even they do not understand it, but understand this- a dragon would not have hatched for any person if it didn't feel you to be the right one for it. But I will not force you to become a rider, I am giving you the choice of accepting it." This surprised Nathan the most.
"What will become of it if I don't choose to become a rider", he asked.
"Honestly I do not know. Such a thing has never happened in the Rider's history…she would probably become a wild one. Also, please address her with a female pronoun, dragons are sentient creatures just like both of us. Please give them the respect of knowing their gender". Before he could give say what he was going to say, she spoke again. "Remember she would not have hatched for you if she didn't know you were the right one for her. Isn't that better then being a teamster all your life?"
Silence as he thought, and then and enthusiastic, "I'll do it!"
Oria leaned back into her chair, the smile returning to her face. "Thus the journey begins". The dragon hatchling had finished her meal, and curled up she had fallen asleep in Nathan's lap. "Have you picked a name for her yet"? Oria asked. As if on cue the dragon woke up and looked up at him as if she was pleading. The gaze they had shared at the alleyway. A random name had popped into Nathan's head out of nowhere. Nace.
"I shall name her Nace", he said. The green dragon Nace gave a loud chirp.
Oria laughed. "I think she likes it". Nace continued her joyful squeaking for a short while. "So, Oria, does this mean I will now leave and go off to be trained in the arts of magic by the elves"?
"Yes and much more. Come now, it is time we start your preparations for the trip to Ellesmera".
Review Replies-
Teenchick2004- heheh, glad you like it. And we will try to add more description of our main characters in the next few chapters. Thanks for the comment!
Ginger-Bizkit- glad you enjoyed it and thanks for reviewing!
