by Jada Fisher
“Hullo,” Dille said, walking in under her arm. It was still rather comical to see such a tiny, thin woman with such a chunky dragon. While Dille had certainly gained some weight in their months at the academy, being provided with solid meals every day, she still was quite slender. “How’s your first day been?”
“Fairly good,” Eist answered honestly, stepping inside so Yacrist could come in as well. While she hadn’t been expecting company, she was happy to have the two of them with her.
Once, she would have been content to be alone, and she had told herself she didn’t need friends for years. But now that she had support through these two, she knew that her younger self was full of it.
“How about you two?”
“Pretty easy,” Dille said, flopping onto Eist’s bed. Pulling the pillow that she had brought from under her arm, she set it on the ground next to the empty box and placed her chunky dragon on top of it. “As it turns out, my little girl will eat pretty much anything and everything.”
“She’s a girl?” Yacrist asked, going over to the other cot and pushing it closer to Eist’s so that they were only a foot or so away. He had fashioned a sort of sling that held his purple dragon to his chest while separating their heads to either of his shoulders, supporting them so that they couldn’t get tangled together.
“Yeah. She’s gonna lay a lot of healthy eggs when she gets older.”
“You’re already thinking about being a grandmother?” Eist teased. “You really do work fast.”
But the dark-skinned girl just shrugged. “Life is short, and we are guaranteed nothing.”
“That’s a bit nihilistic, don’t you think?” Yacrist objected.
Eist crossed to the corner of her room and grabbed some of her older clothes that she had torn or worn thin and hadn’t had time to repair yet. Finding the worst pieces, she went back to the box and lined it thoroughly until it was quite plush.
“I think it’s rather truthful,” she said absently. “Tomorrow is never guaranteed. My parents left one day and then they died with hundreds of others. One day, my grandfather went to work, and then the hatchery was struck by lightning. He still hasn’t woken. It’s important to have dreams for tomorrow, but also know that they’re just that, dreams, not promises.”
“Ah right, for a moment, I had forgotten that you have a tragic backstory that you’ve had to overcome.”
“What? I don’t know about that,” Eist said, finally putting her little guy into the bed that she had made.
“Are you kidding me?” Yacrist asked, letting out a short laugh. “Your parents were famous dragon riders who were killed in a giant battle against the kingdom. You were struck by an illness and your hearing was damaged and your eyes did that, uh, thing. I don’t know what you would consider a tragic backstory if not that.”
Eist shrugged. “I don’t know. We all have our histories. Why don’t you ask Dille about hers?”
“I’m not that interesting,” the girl said, leaning down to pet her dragon under the chin. “I grew up on the coast just outside of Baeldred. If I had parents, they either died or disappeared when I was too young to remember them. I was picked up by one of the street rat crews that look for young ones and I ran with them until slavers picked off most of our numbers and forced us to scatter. Then I came here.”
“But slavery is illegal!” Eist objected, sitting beside her on the bed.
“A lot of things are illegal, but the rich do them nonetheless.”
“Wow…” Yacrist murmured, his cheeks colored a bit. “Now I feel bad for living a normal life.”
“Your life isn’t normal,” Dille challenged matter-of-factly. “It’s privileged more than most people will ever get to experience even for a day.”
“Aaaaaand now I feel really bad.”
“You don’t have to feel bad,” Eist said, watching his face as he emoted. He certainly did look a bit guilty, but there was some subtle defensiveness there too. “You just should be grateful for the good things you have and share with those who do not have as much whenever possible.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind. You lovely ladies feel free to correct me if I’m ever being bad about it.”
“I think that can be arranged.”
Their food long since grown cold, the three of them settled down and pulled their plates into their laps, digging in. The conversation drifted from topic to topic, with all of them telling their dreams and hopes for their futures with their dragon. Eist kept her hand on top of her brindled baby’s head, not wanting to be out of contact for very long.
But it wasn’t until all of their eyelids began to droop and they went from sitting on the cots to laying across them that Dille rolled to Eist and gave her an intense look.
“Her name is Verelda.”
“What?” Eist asked, a bit too sleepy to follow the conversation jump.
“I’ve decided her name is Verelda. And I am now Dille of Verelda. I have a house name.”
Eist smiled happily for her friend, not knowing quite what to say. “I think that’s perfect.”
“And my dragon’s name is Alynbach. The right head is Alyn and the left head if Bach. If they managed not to strangle each other by the time I get to the records hall, at least.”
Eist laughed at that, picturing the next few frustrating days Yacrist had in front of him.
“What about you?” Dille asked.
“Me?” Eist murmured, a million thoughts flowing through her mind. She had been pondering his name since she met him, wondering if she should dedicate him to her parents, or her grandfather, or the dragons of ancient times or even one of the True Three. But none of those seemed to quite suit him.
Looking down at his small, curled formed, she felt all that love well up in her again. “His name is Fior.”
“Fior?” Dille echoed quietly. “That’s…that’s the old trader tongue, right?” Eist nodded, feeling the rightness of her choice fill her chest with pride. “What does it mean?”
“It means perfect,” she answered honestly. “Because he is.”
They both agreed that it was a good name and the conversation drifted to other things before fading entirely. The three of them all laid on their close convergence of cots, two of their dragons on their makeshift beds between them and the third strapped to Yacrist’s chest. And it was like that until they all fell asleep, Eist drifting off into dreams of touching the clouds.
4
Dark History
“Now, if any of you can remember anything from before you had your dragons, last class we finished our unit on pre-unification of Rothaiche M’or. Today, we are going to begin with the first dragon riders and the struggle that caused the formation of the council to combat the Blight.”
Almost instantly, a student’s hand shot up. Since the class had been whittled down from roughly a hundred all the way down to sixty, they had been split into two groups of thirty who took classes opposite of each other. Normally that would have made a lot more room in the rooms where they were supposed to be learning things, but thirty baby dragons certainly took up quite a bit of space.
“Yes?” the teacher asked, looking at the student’s raised hand.
“What’s the Blight? I’ve never heard of it.”
“That’s for your second year,” he continued, looking down his hawkish nose at the student. “Although you have dragons now, you still have four more months and a harvest before you are ready for the responsibility of that knowledge.”
“But I…”
“No buts. Now, we will start with Gwendolfis the Third and his twin sister Gwendolyn, the first dragon riders to create a cadre of riders who worked together to defeat a roving band of brigands who were terrorizing the countryside.”
The student sat back, her golden dragon tugging at her hair as if it sensed her distress. The mystery didn’t bother Eist, however, as she already knew a bit of what the teacher was talking about.
The Blight was the enemy that had killed her parents and co
untless other dragon riders in that great battle. She didn’t understand much about it beyond it being a great and terrible evil. She wasn’t sure if it was a single person, or an army, or something else, but no one was really willing to talk about it. Whenever she asked her grandfather, he would just clam up and shake his head.
Normally that would worry her, but the Blight had been well and truly defeated so she’d never have to worry about it in her life. It had already taken enough from her.
She listened idly to the lecture, already knowing most of the stories of the early dragon riders, and mostly paid attention to Fior. He was sleeping on her lap, still full of the breakfast of bread and berries she had fed him. She could hardly believe that he was real. All her dreams had come true and were there right in front of her.
Amazing.
Soon, however, the history lecture ended, and they were heading to flying lessons.
Eist was almost shaking with excitement as they headed toward the outer court. Obviously, their dragons were all too small to carry a human mount, but this was the time to implant commands and lessons while they were still in their formative stages.
They arrived to see Ale’a and their regular training instructor standing in the courtyard. But there was a new addition in the shape of a quite large green dragon with one eye.
The students all gawked at the impressive creature, coming as close as they dared. Ale’a smiled at them, seeming to soak up the attention before loudly addressing them.
“Hello everyone, meet Lydar, my faithful companion of three years. He’s not quite grown yet, but he’s a very big boy.”
“He’s almost the size of a red dragon!” Yacrist breathed, holding his blue dragon close.
“That he is. It takes a big dragon to hold a big girl like me.” She laughed heartily, as if she had told a great joke, before gesturing to the teacher. “Now, who wants to learn to fly?!”
There was a cheer that erupted from the students and then they were put into line for a flying test. Apparently, some dragons were more adept at using their wings right off the bat while others needed to learn a little more and strengthen the appendages that would one day carry them across the skies.
Eist waited patiently for her turn, holding Fior as he shuffled uncomfortably in her arms. After he nearly vaulted out of her grip, she set him on the ground and told him to stay.
He didn’t stay.
One of the students who she thought might be named Pyaia was about to let her dragon take a leap off the little perch that Ale’a had set up. But before it could even flap its wings, Fior leapt up the post, jumped on its back, and vaulted into the air.
Only to fall to the ground below.
Eist dove for him, her arms outstretched, crashing into the ground and sliding. She was short, however, but thankfully, Ale’a reached out and caught him.
“Whoa, looks like we have an eager little guy.” She tried to return him to Eist as she picked herself up, but he ran up into her red hair and dove his head into her thick curls, his horns getting tangled in the mess.
“The one day I actually have my hair down…” Eist heard Ale’a mutter, her cheeks burning with embarrassment.
“I’m so sorry! Here, let me get him out!”
Between the two of them they managed to get Fior out and Ale’a stood, looking a little red in the face. “All of you should take this as a valuable lesson. Right now, when your dragons are young and still figuring out their boundaries, it would be best to wear your hair up and back and leave your jewelry behind. No family rings, no necklaces, and no earrings. They’ll learn eventually, but they’re basically like claw and scale-covered babies who can move quite quickly.”
With that, Eist returned to her spot in line, but she could still feel everyone’s eyes on her. What a way to make an impression.
But as it was, the lesson was over soon enough, and it was time for the humans’ physical activity, then feeding the dragons, then eating dinner in the cafeteria. Eist found herself spending almost all of her day with Yacrist and Dille, wondering what kind of luck she had for both of them being in her class, but thankfully not Ain.
In fact, Ain was separated from even Ather, who was lurking in the background of all their classes like a silent lump. Unsurprisingly, he too had a red dragon. Eist hated to think of a small, agile dragon like a golden or silver trying to carry his already massive frame. And she couldn’t be quite sure, but it seemed like he was getting even bigger.
Once that was all done, and they were heading opposite ways for study and homework, Eist headed towards the healing room.
Her grandfather was there as usual, his breath rasping past his dry lips. He just looked like he was sleeping normally, and it confused her subconscious to no end that he wasn’t waking up. Most of his bandages were gone now, save for his hands and a few on his legs, leaving fresh, pink skin in its wake.
“Hey there,” she said, sitting beside him. Just like before, Fior left her shoulder to curl up on his chest, where his slow breathing made the dragon gently rise and fall. She hoped that maybe he would sense the being on top of him and awaken in joy, learning that one of the babies from the hatchery was saved from an ash pile, but he remained asleep.
“I hope they let you wake up soon so you can meet Fior. You would never believe what he did in our first flying lesson today.”
She launched into the story, watching his face closely for the slightest minutia of emotion. But he just lie there, a living statue, only kept alive by the mix of nutrients that the healers poured down his throat twice a day.
Eventually, she couldn’t put her work off any longer. Even though she no longer was going through her special training gamut to make sure she got through the final test, she still needed to make sure she didn’t fall behind again.
“Come on, Fior, let’s go.”
The little dragon yawned and stood up to hop off the bed, when a slight noise caught Eist’s attention. It was so quiet that she wasn’t even sure if it was real or not, but then she heard it again.
If she didn’t know better, she would think that it was coming from her grandfather. Her eyes flicked to his face, hoping against hope that it was somehow him making the noise. But that was impossible. He hadn’t—
And then his lips moved again.
Eist gasped, dropping to her knees and leaning over his face. She turned her head so that her good ear was over his mouth, and he whispered again.
She held her breath, her heart thundering in her chest and she wished that she could reach into her chest and rip it out so that it would be quiet for a moment. It took another feverish moan for her to figure out that he was whispering the names of her parents.
But just as soon as she realized what he was saying, he fell silent again, leaving her alone and Fior anxiously pawing at her thigh. She stood shakily, trying to force back tears, her mind full of thoughts.
Something wasn’t sitting right in her stomach. Could it be possible that he was having a bad reaction to such prolonged contact with distilled green dragon gas? It certainly didn’t seem healthy to her that he had been under for so long.
Taking several deep breaths, she forced herself to calm down before looking around to find a healer. She spotted one down the hall, sitting at one of the desks that they had toward the end of the great room.
Eist approached carefully, not wanting to surprise the woman in case she was doing something important. She wasn’t wearing a blue belt like the dragon specialists, but she was still dressed from head to toe in healing robes.
“Excuse me,” Eist said, clearing her throat.
The woman turned, a pleasant smile on her features. “Oh, hello, child. You usually leave by now.” It wasn’t surprising that one of the healers would recognize her, she did spend hours upon hours in the large room, posted by her grandfather’s side, watching him and telling him about her day.
“Yeah, my schedule has changed a bit.” Eist said. “But hey, I was wondering, Grandfather has grown most of his skin
back, so I think the worst of the pain is over. Would it be possible to wake him up again?”
The woman’s face shifted into a sympathetic expression. “Goodness, my child, I understand that thought, but it’s just not time yet. We need him to stay under until he is completely healed.”
“Are you sure?” Eist pressed. She didn’t want to be impertinent, but she couldn’t help but feel that she needed the woman to take her seriously. “Almost all of his bandages are gone, and isn’t there a point after so much exposure to green dragon gas where he passes into a dangerous—”
“You have plenty to worry about with your new dragon friend,” the healer said, cutting her off. Eist took a breath, meaning to continue with what she was saying, but then the woman interrupted again. “He is quite the unusual one, isn’t he? What kind of dragon is he?”
“Um, we think a copper dragon and he just has some injuries after being struck by lightning. I found him in an ash pile with other destroyed eggs.”
“Oh really! Goodness. How curious of the Storm, it’s taken your grandfather’s company for the time, but in turn has given you this little one.”
“I don’t think it was the Storm that deliberately did this, and I’d love my gra—”
The woman waved her hand again, cutting Eist off for the third time. “Go, get some sleep. We will take care of your grandfather as best we can. The moment he is ready to be awakened, you will be the first we call to his side.”
“But—”
“Go on now. Everything will be fine, I promise.”
“Al…alright. If you say so.”
Eist quickly exited, too many emotions swirling through her head. She needed to trust the healers as they were the experts, but something about the whole thing wasn’t sitting right with her. Why didn’t the woman even hear her out? Didn’t she at least want to entertain the idea of maybe it was time for her grandfather to wake up? Also, she had never addressed the issue of being under green gas for too long, and that was what was making the hair on the back of her neck rise.