by Duke Kittle
The Dragon Eaters
By Duke Warren Kittle
Copyright 2013 Duke Warren Kittle
Illustrations Copyright 2013 Donovan Kittle
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Dedicated to my Uncle Jim and Aunt Lindy for their help in editing and sharing their experiences in writing. Also dedicated to my mother for believing in me.
Special thanks to my brother, Donovan, for the cover art.
Glossary
Akoa: A nation of bulls on the eastern coast of the continent of Velratha.
Aracheah: A subterranean race with the abdomen of an arachnid and a humanoid upper torso.
Braka: Several tribes of hyenas living in the woods west of Fenore across the mountains.
Cerra Sevatia (Cerra): The world in which the story takes place.
Fenore: A nation of lapines (rabbits, hares, etc.) and other smaller races of herbivore (squirrels, chipmunks, etc.) on the southeastern coast of the continent of Velratha.
Idassia: A nation occupying much of the eastern and central areas of the continent of Velratha. It is populated by many races, but dominated by tigers.
Kamadene: A race of lizards found on the island of Kesira east of the continent of Velratha.
Kerovnia: A city in the nation of Levansia and home of the Council of Stars. Due to its purpose, the population of Kerovnia includes many different races.
Khanifran: A race of lions living primarily in the Khanifran Desert in the southern regions of the continent of Velratha. However, the rulers of the Khanifran tribes are called Khans and resemble sphinxes, though their heads remain leonine.
Kylith: A nation of lesser felines, which was conquered by Idassia, in the central region of the continent of Velratha. Kylathians, the natives of Kylith, are the most widely spread race in the world.
Likonia: A colony of native Levansians who settled on the western continent.
Levansia: A nation populated by many races of the mustilidae family (weasels, minks, badgers, etc.). It stands on the western coast of the continent of Velratha.
Maldavia: A nation of dragons living on the western continent.
Madrigaarde: A nation on the western coast of the continent of Velratha consisting primarily of canines, lupines (wolves), and a high population of otters. Madrigaarde boasts the largest naval power in the world.
Mateah: A small nation on the northern border of Levansia predominantly populated by mice.
Velratha: The eastern continent divided into north and south.
Pronunciation Guide
All of the names in the story The Dragon Eaters are spelled as the characters themselves would spell them. But because of cultural differences which produce unique sounds for varied letter combinations, I have decided to include with this book a guide to the pronunciation of certain names as the characters would render them. A couple of cities/regions are included as well, and their pronunciation is sourced from either those who live there or the most widely used pronunciation.
Chapter 1
The spell had gone terribly wrong.
Tina stood in the middle of Master Hidrago’s laboratory with her hands still perched over a piece of paper with a circle of runes drawn on it and her mouth agape. All that remained of the bottle, which had moments before sat in the center of that circle, were shards and glass dust. She slowly lowered her hands as what looked like waves of heat rising on a hot day faded from the front of her body. Had she not remembered her master’s protective spell, she might have been injured.
But she still didn’t know what had gone wrong. Carefully, Tina pinched the corner of the piece of paper and slid it out from under the remnants of the bottle, letting the glass dust and shards slide off onto the table. She blew on the piece of paper and shook it to throw off any stray glass dust. Holding it in both hands, she looked over the symbols she had drawn into it. Each one had been meticulously positioned and perfectly drawn, at least as far as she could tell.
Putting the piece of paper back down, Tina took a moment to collect herself and rubbed her hand against the side of her face. Her short claws rested in the brown fur on her cheek, and she idly wiggled her whiskers. She turned her eyes up from the table as if searching for a thought, and her breath caught in her throat.
The bright flash which had accompanied the instantaneous destruction of her attempted spell had also momentarily blinded her to the condition of her master’s laboratory around her. All but a few of the shelves which had previously been attached to the wall had been shattered or had fallen to the floor, spilling precious spell reagents all over the ground. Bookshelves with priceless tomes had been knocked over, and many of the books had fallen into broken vials of both staining and acidic liquids. Some were covered by powders of various kinds from her master’s toppled collection, many of which he had warned her should never be mixed.
When Tina saw two labels from a pair of broken vials lying next to each other, she could not help but release an alarmed ‘eep!’
The mouse apprentice ran toward the stairs leading up to the door as she heard the telltale bubbling of the reaction she knew was on its way. Throwing the door shut behind herself, she squealed as she caught her tail in it. She yanked the door open and pulled her tail free before throwing the door shut again. Her tail stung from the painful slam, but she didn’t have time to nurse it. She made a dead sprint for the front door of the house which stood over her master’s alchemical laboratory and, as she threw the door open, ran head first into his chest.
The teenaged mouse woman practically bounced off the foot-and-a-half taller canine male. She landed hard on the floor, and her long, strawberry blond hair fell over her face. Pushing her hair out of the way, she recognized her master. “Master Hidrago!”
“Tina,” the canine wizard ticked one eyebrow upward as he looked down at his apprentice, “what in Cerra’s name has you in such a hurry?”
Tina’s surprise over seeing her master was short-lived when she heard his question. “Master, run!”
“Run? What for?”
Tina didn’t have time to explain. Calling upon her gift for magic, she collected together what looked like waves of heat between her hands. Throwing them outward, she unleashed a wave of pure magical force on her master and threw him twenty yards from the front of his house. The surprised canine let out a yelp as he landed on his back and bounced a few feet farther.
Tina jumped to her feet and sprinted away from the house moments before a fireball filled with every color in the spectrum erupted straight up through the house. The force of the blast threw Tina off her feet, and she rolled through the tall grass until coming to a stop next to a bush. The explosion had knocked the wind out of her, and she took a few moments to collect herself before getting up onto her knees.
There was little remaining of her master’s cottage, and what was left was on fire.
Tina swallowed hard as the blood drained from her face. She had just destroyed not only her master’s house but a collection of such irreplaceable spell reagents the likes of which could rarely be found in the world. She expected Master Hidrago to literally skin her hide.
The canine wizard looked as shocked as Tina had when her spell had gone wrong, though she could tell the depth of his in comparison to her own was far greater. She ducked her head down and pulled her knees up, wishing she could hide in the tall grass. Unfortunately, the explosion had blown all o
f it back.
A deep and furious growl poured from Master Hidrago’s throat before he roared in anger. “Tina van Schtoffen!” He turned around and spotted Tina quickly.
As he marched toward her, Tina thought he looked angry enough to inflict upon her every terrible punishment in her imagining at once. When he grabbed the shoulder of her simple, grey apprentice’s robe, she let out a loud squeak of fright. “I’m sorry, Master! It was an accident!”
Master Hidrago dragged Tina by her robe to the edge of the long grass and threw her to her knees in front of the burning cottage. Taking hold of one of her large, rounded ears, he forced her to look at the cottage. “That is not an accident, Tina van Schtoffen! That is failure on a catastrophic scale! What in Cerra’s name were you trying to do!?”
Tina had her long incisors pressed firmly against her bottom lip and was doing everything she could to keep from biting through it. When her master let go of her ear, she dropped back to her knees and rubbed it with both hands. Tears were edging her eyes by then. “I-I’m sorry, Master! I was trying to create lightning dust.”
“Lightning dust!?” He thrust his finger in her face. “You are but ten years an apprentice, and you were trying to create lightning dust!?”
Tina sniffed and nodded her head. “I th-thought I could do it, Master. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Master Hidrago clapped his hand against the side of his head and growled angrily. “Tina van Schtoffen, the day your former master sent you to me to learn, I recognized that you possess a great talent.” He glared at her. “But both you and your former master have a recklessness about you that seems emblazoned into your minds like a scar! This is not the first time you have been careless with magic at personal cost to me,” he thrust his hand back toward the cottage, “but it is without question the highest cost I have had to pay for your foolishness!”
Tina whimpered as she looked down at the ground. She didn’t know what she could do to make up for the damage she had done. Her family was poor, and she was no different. “I’m sorry, Master.”
Master Hidrago growled. “No, Tina van Schtoffen. If you were sorry, you would have ceased your recklessness far before now.” He lifted his hand and pointed his finger at her. “For this, you will learn what being sorry really means.”
Tina felt her breath catch in her throat as she heard her master chanting. A string of runes flowed into the air from around his finger and leapt out toward her. She tried to push herself up, to run away from him, but she found herself unable to move. The string of runes wrapped around every inch of her body and disappeared beneath her grey robes. She felt her master’s magic weaving into her more intensely than she had ever felt anything before.
When Master Hidrago lowered his hand, Tina could see nothing but grey clouding her vision. Her master’s words then found her ears. Though his voice sounded strange, his words were clear in her mind, and they were full of venom.
“Go now, Tina van Schtoffen. You are no longer my apprentice. Go forth into the world and discover what fortune makes of you.”