by Ramy Vance
The First Human Rider
Dragon Approved™ Book One
Ramy Vance
Michael Anderle
The First Human Rider Team
Thanks to the Beta Readers
John Ashmore, Kelly O’Donnell
Thanks to the JIT Readers
Billie Leigh Kellar
Misty Roa
Kelly O’Donnell
Deb Mader
John Raisor
Diane L. Smith
Micky Cocker
Larry Omans
Dave Hicks
Angel LaVey
Jackson Hendricks
Jeff Eaton
If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!
Editor
The Skyhunter Editing Team
This Book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2019 by Ramy Vance & Michael Anderle
Cover Art by Jake @ J Caleb Design
http://jcalebdesign.com / [email protected]
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US Edition, December 2019
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-64202-669-6
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Wee John!
—Ramy Vance
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
to Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
to Live the Life We Are
Called.
— Michael
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Author Notes Ramy Vance
Author Notes Michael Anderle
Other Books by the Authors
Connect with The Authors
Chapter One
The old wizard stood over a boiling cauldron. Myrddin felt older now than he had in some time, although he wasn’t sure if he looked it. In the reflection, he could see his hair hadn’t grayed more and his skin hadn’t wrinkled further.
The side-effects of being immortal, he mused.
The cauldron was roughly half his height, made of pewter, and its feet were clawed like dragon’s feet. They were real dragon’s feet, in fact, and they served as an anchor for the large bowl.
And that was exactly what Myrddin needed right now: an anchor.
He leaned over the cauldron and heaved a heavy breath as if he were trying to empty his entire body of the air inside, exhaling all of his fear and worry. He gripped the sides of the cauldron, the heat not affecting his magic-enhanced hands, and peered into its depths.
The water of the cauldron was dark and murky. Shapes moved but had no definition. Faces formed slowly out of the shadows and things began to move in the darkness—thousands upon thousands of creatures.
At first only orcs. Then goblins. Then trolls and drow and all manner of dark creatures. They were marching to meet another force—that of elves, dwarves, and halflings.
Then finally, humans.
As the forces of light banded together, Myrddin saw they were armed and marching toward a bright red light in the distance. He could even hear the screams. Everywhere.
He felt the heat from the red light and knew what he was watching: the armies of the Dark One.
Something behind Myrddin moved. The wizard turned and whipped his wand out, pointing it at the shadows behind the door. When he looked out of the window to his left, he saw shadows that could not have been there naturally with the sun’s current position.
A voice came from the darkness, and someone wearing a large black cloak that covered their face leaned forward. The shadows clung to his features as he walked into the light.
“What do you see?” the figure asked, this time loud enough that Myrddin registered that he was being talked to.
Myrddin pointed at the cauldron with his wand. “Nothing we haven’t seen for an eon. In other words, nothing new.”
“Then why are you still looking? Show me. Show me what you see.”
Myrddin waved his wand above the cauldron and the water changed color once more. A red streak flashed across the water’s surface: a meteor. The piece of space rock flew toward the earth. It was obvious what would happen upon impact.
The hooded figure sighed as he pulled away. “This is sooner than I assumed it would be. We need to assemble the Riders.”
Myrddin was still staring at the cauldron. “They aren’t ready yet,” he whispered. “She is not ready yet.”
“She?”
Myrddin nodded. “The one we’ve been waiting for. She is female. A youth. And a human.”
The figure hissed. “A girl, and a human? We haven’t had a female Rider for centuries. And we’ve never had a human Rider.”
Myrddin touched the cauldron’s surface. The liquid bubbled under the old wizard’s fingertips, and wisps of smoke in the shape of dragons lifted from the surface. “And now you know why I’m hesitant.”
“I do,” the figure said as he placed his hand over the cauldron’s surface. Immediately the liquid calmed and the wisps of smoke formed an image of a girl. “Then get her ready.”
“There is one more added complication.”
“What is it now?”
“The girl—the human—she’s blind.”
The figure waved a bony hand. “Hardly important. Do what you have to. Get her to Middang3ard.”
The cloaked form walked to the wall and disappeared. Myrddin turned from his cauldron and shook his head as he sat down. Things were moving faster than he’d anticipated. Hopefully their gamble on the Dragonrider program would pay off.
Chapter Two
Alex pulled up the coordinates Jim had sent her and locked them into her HUD’s navigation. It wasn’t quite autopilot, but it was close enough. The battle wasn’t too far away—a ten-minute ride if Alex decided to take her time.
But it seemed like whatever was happening was important enough for Alex to focus on getting there as soon as possible.
She pulled back on the imaginary reins of the dragon and sped up. It still helped her to imagine there were actual reins so she didn’t get caught in the disorientation of moving in unison with her dragon.
As she descended from the clouds, the air got thicker and breathing came more easily. From this distance, she could see the skirmish with three other Dragonriders and could tell they were her party members.
One of the perks of being a Dragonrider was that the HUDs automatically upgraded the eyesight of their Riders, not that Alex would have noticed. She did, however, think it was funny that she’d spent her entire life not being able to see, and here in the game, she had better vision than most of the players of Middang3ard.
It
looked like Jim was the only one of Alex’s party who’d shown up for the fight. That was obviously the reason he’d messaged her with such urgency. She was surprised he decided to show up for a fight without the rest of the party.
Alex patched her HUD to Jim’s so they could talk. “Hey, Jaws. What are you doing here all by yourself?” she asked. “Didn’t feel like waiting for anyone else?”
Jim’s voice crackled through the HUD as Alex sped toward him. “Not much of a choice,” he replied. “No one else was able to make it today. Not like it matters, though. There’s a couple of people from other parties coming on the raid. We’ll have more folks backing us up than usual.”
As Alex got closer, she could see Jim was totally outnumbered by the swarm of harpies who surrounded him. Initially, she’d thought the mass of wings was a bunch of dragons flying together. Jim was weaving in and out of the swarm, trying to take down as many as he could.
Fun wasn’t the word for what Alex was ready for. She dove headfirst into the swarm of harpies. As she pulled back, her dragon roared and spread its wings to catch the warm thermals that allowed it to lift into the air as it shot ether fire from its mouth.
The dragon’s fire scorched the closest harpies, and their screams filled the air as they scrambled, grasping at whatever they could rip into.
Alex had fought harpies in the sky before; they weren’t difficult enemies. They liked to group around one target. Facing them by yourself could prove to be difficult, but if you had backup, it was a cakewalk.
Jim had been doing well so far. He probably could have cleaned them up without issue, but with Alex’s help, this would be over before it even began. Might as well take the chance for some practice, Alex thought to herself.
A harpy with a little bit more intelligence than the rest came for Alex, while most of the others tried to attack her dragon.
Alex didn’t even issue commands. She knew her dragon would snatch up any harpies close by and tear them to bits by instinct. The only thing Alex had to focus on was the harpies that knew enough to go for the Rider.
As one swooped down, Alex felt a surge of excitement. She’d seen some of the veteran Dragonriders try something like this, and she’d always wanted to give it a shot. This was a simple enough encounter that she could.
She imagined herself letting go of her reins to allow the dragon more freedom of movement. Then, as the harpy descended, she pulled out her bō staff, an elegantly-crafted piece she picked up from the corpse of a dead monk. It was the first weapon she’d found, and her favorite.
Veteran players had mocked her for holding onto her first weapon, but over the last few months, they’d been silenced by her proficiency.
Alex vaulted off her dragon into the air and felt the weightlessness that had originally terrified her. Her dragon darted forward and attacked the nearest harpies.
Alex sailed through the air with her bō tucked behind her back. She snapped a harpy’s neck with a single flick of her wrist, swung herself onto its back, and rode the falling body into the next harpy.
She jumped from the dead harpy to another and wrangled her bō around its neck to steer it to the next. She let her grip relax briefly to bash the head in before settling back on the harpy she rode.
She guided it back and leaped off, casually hitting it between its eyes as she landed on the back of her dragon. With a yank of the reins, she commanded the dragon to shoot another blast of ether flame.
Jim was faring well as he swooped through the swarm and fired blasts of fire where he aimed his bow. He picked off any harpies who were foolish enough to try to get close to him. Alex absentmindedly admired his work; the boy was an excellent shot.
As Jim lined up his shot, he also activated his dragon’s missile launcher and fired a volley of heat-seeking missiles to compliment his rapid shots. Each of his arrows hit its mark.
Within a couple of minutes, Alex and Jim had taken out the harpies. The skies were silent when Jim guided his dragon to Alex. “Nice little fight, right?” he asked.
Alex sat on her ether dragon and yawned theatrically. “I mean, if you call that a fight,” she replied.
“I saw that little move you pulled. It was amazing.”
“Just trying to keep up with you, Jaws.”
He laughed as he brushed his hair out of his face. Alex could see he was blushing. She’d read about people blushing for years. It never ceased to amaze her how red Jim’s face could get. “So, what are we up to today?” she asked.
Jim pointed east and cleared his throat. “There’s a big raid happening today,” he explained. “The rest of the party is meeting us near Mt. Caton. I went ahead to clear the way and introduce us to the other Riders. It’s the expansion raid.”
Alex felt a twinge of irritation but tried to keep her face from betraying her emotions. “I don’t need you to plan my quests for me,” she finally replied.
“Wasn’t trying to. I wanted to see what the expansion has in store for us, and I didn’t want to wait around for you to figure out if you want to do it.”
The irritation Alex felt was quickly replaced by embarrassment. She hoped she wasn’t blushing. “Oh, all right. Makes sense, I guess. Well, how about we go meet those other Riders and get this thing going?”
He smiled, and Alex felt her heart skip. “Sounds good. Let’s find out what all the fuss is about.”
Jim turned east and sped off. Alex chased him until she overtook him, then she took the lead.
Chapter Three
Alex and the Dragonriders arrived at the area the coordinates indicated. It was a massive mountain, and its peak was covered in clouds. It was larger than anything Alex could have imagined.
She’d heard of Mt. Everest and had been given descriptions of different objects she could feel and touch to give her context, but she could never have dreamed of anything this large.
This was the same mountain she always saw in Middang3ard. It was visible almost anywhere on the map, and it looked like an unattainable dream. It was easily more than a month’s journey by horseback.
Whatever this mission entailed, Myrddin had obviously had a plan if he’d placed the mountain too far for the average player to consider reaching.
Jim was riding beside Alex when he pointed to the mountain and asked, “You see the cave ahead?”
Alex squinted to follow the imaginary line of Jim’s finger. She could see the cave, and there was someone standing in it. “That must be Shiva. We need to get into the cave.”
Alex didn’t waste time waiting for the other Riders to catch on to what she was doing, but Jim and the rest of her party were ready for that. Alex was always the first to dive into battle.
It wasn’t as if she were Leroy Jenkins-ing the situation. She wouldn’t have gotten the reference anyways; she was just fast. Faster than anyone else. No one ever had to pull her out of trouble. They just had to catch up to her.
As Alex raced toward the mountain cave, she could see Shiva better. The four-armed god wore a belt of human skulls and held a human head in one of his hands. Two of the other hands held scimitars, and the last one a rose.
The blue-skinned god smiled as he held the rose toward Alex. What the hell did I learn about Shiva? Alex thought, trying to remember the comparative religion class she’d audited at her local community college.
I wonder if Myrddin based this on any of the stories about Shiva, or if he’s using them as a template or something. What should I do, attack?
Alex slowed to a glide. Before she had time to figure out how best to handle the situation, another Dragonrider zoomed past her. “For the realm!” he screamed as his dragon’s shoulder-blade blaster fired.
Alex shook her head. She could already tell this was a bad idea. A better idea would be to get out of what was going to quickly become Shiva’s warpath. Still, Alex was mildly interested to see what kind of fighter Shiva was, and what kind of god Myrddin had programmed.
Shiva raised his hands. A few laser blasts hit his palms, but most
were deflected before they got anywhere near him.
Shiva smiled sweetly as he shook his head at the Rider. “Foolish human,” Shiva said, speaking softly. “Do you think I fear the monstrosity of flesh and technology you’ve created? I was born at the time of the first dragon. I have ended countless cycles of repetition and watched the fireworms make their way to the earth again, a millennium before any Dust Child had reached for its first fruit. You will find me meditating. Farewell.”
Shiva’s rose stretched and hardened, transforming into a long silver trident. He threw the trident, and it impaled the eye of the attacking Rider’s dragon. The dragon screamed in pain and flailed.
The Rider tried to get control, but Shiva thrust one of his swords through the Rider’s chest. The Rider’s screams mixed with the dragon’s as they plummeted toward the ground.
Even though it was a game, it always shocked Alex to see a player die. Myrddin hadn’t wasted any expense when it came to death animations. Blood smelled like iron, and the pain on the faces of fellow players was always gruesome.
In a morbid way, it was one of the best parts of the game. Sure, you could respawn later if you weren’t one of the hardcore “one-lifers,” but avoiding seeing your friends in such a dismal position was a good motivator for teamwork. Immersion was where the fun was found.
Alex guided her dragon away from the mountain. She had a bad feeling about what was coming next. There was no way this quest was going to be this easy. A dozen or more Dragonriders taking on one god in a mountain cave?