Chapter Text
I walk through the trees with purpose; feeling certain that I am going in the right direction. When I close my eyes and calm my breathing I can feel what professor Kaori described; a tug from somewhere behind my breastbone; like a thread has been wound around my heart and is pulling me forward. I'm certain I know which dragon is waiting for me at the end of this invisible line.
When Rhiannon asked me if I knew which dragon I was going for I had told her. She had been happy for me, a little surprised perhaps by my certainty, and told me she had a feeling about one of the green dragons who had sniffed me. We hugged each other and wished each other good luck, hoping to be reunited later that day as riders.
I reach the clearing a little more than an hour after the dragons first flew overhead. It is a huge clearing, with enough space for a whole riot, but only one dragon is waiting there in the center.
A glossy black head swings towards me as I stepped out of the trees and I pause for a moment, stunned again like I had been at presentation by the sight of them. The dragon is smaller by half than the next largest one who attended presentation and some other cadets had dismissed it based on size alone. I knew, looking at them, that that assessment was a mistake. This dragon is as deadly as any. Built for agility and stealth, with razor sharp talons and the scorpion barb at the end of their tail, this dragon will strike an enemy dead before they even see it coming.
The dragon stands from where it had been sitting and walks over to me.
‘Hello, Violet Sorrengail.’ They say, light and clear directly into my mind.
I gasp. She - yes definitely she- already knows my name?
‘I do.’ she says again, speaking as she had before.
Wait, I hadn't said that outloud.
The dragon gives a delighted chuckle. ‘I am glad to see you are as quick as they say. I am Andarna.’
‘It's wonderful to meet you Andarna.’ I say.
‘Likewise. I've waited a long time for you, Violet.’
I frown. ‘It’s still mid morning.’
I don't get more response for that than another dragon laugh.
‘Shall we fly?’ Asks Andarna. ‘I don’t think we should wait around and risk meeting any of your delightful classmates down here.’
I look up at her shoulder. It isn't as far up as the wall of the gauntlet. I can probably make it, but wonder how to pull myself up. I imagine I could if I grab hold of her pommel scales or the wing joint where it comes out of her back.
‘Would that hurt you?’ I ask.
‘No. My wings have to hold me up, I imagine I can handle your slight weight.’
Backing up to give myself as much momentum as possible I make a run for it. My rubber soled boots managed to grip on Andarna’s scales and I catch a hold of the wing joint. Then I manage to swing a leg up and onto her back.
‘I think you will want to face the other way.’ Andarna laughs.
Shit. I am facing towards her tail.
Feeling very foolish I turn myself around and settled into the dip in front of her wings. ‘Im sorry, I haven't done this before!’
‘Neither have I’ she tells me.
‘I am your first rider? I'm honoured!’
I wrap my hands tight around the pommel scales and when I feel I have as secure a hold and I will get Andarna crouches down before launching into the air.
Air whipps fiercely past me and my heart seems to leap into my throat. We rise, as swift as an arrow shot from a bow, into the sky until we were high above the valley. Andarna levels herself and we glide above the trees towards the snow capped mountains.
‘This is incredible!’ I cry, the wind ripping words from my mouth as I speak them. I can feel Andarna’s joy at my exhilaration radiating through my mind.
‘My elders say I must test your ability to hold on.’ Andarna warns.
‘I know,’ I tell her, and I share my memory of my brother’s warning in his journal.
Andarna soars towards the mountains and then banks right before diving sharply. I squeeze with my knees as hard as I can but I fell myself slipping, my backside lifting off Andarnam I struggle to hold my seat, cursing that I had not trained more for this moment, for what came after choosing, but I had been so focused on surviving this far. I try to get a better hold on Andaran’s scales but my hands slip and in a moment I am left behind, torn from her by the air resistance.
‘Violet!’
I tumble for a moment, certain I am falling to my death when suddenly all my breath is knocked from my body as I meet an unyielding surface and something wraps tight around me. I open my eyes as we roll and I see I am hanging in the sky, clutched against Andarna’s chest by her forelegs.
I am alive.
‘You caught me!’ I gasp.
‘Yes now hold on next time!’ Andarna suggested, panic colouring her voice.
She lowers us towards a snowy saddle between two mountain peaks. She hovers a little above the ground, her wings whipping up snowflakes.
‘I'm sorry I am not sure how else to do this, and this looks soft.’ Andaran warns me.
With that she let me go and I fall a few feet, face first into the snow. I splutter and flounder a little in the drift before finding my feet. Andarna sinks into the snow beside me.
I looked at her in shock and more than a little disbelief. She hadn't let me fall to my death, not only that I was being given a second chance.
‘I can leave you on the mountain side if you really want.’ Andarna says. ‘You can spend the year strength training and we can try this again next year, but I would prefer not risking misfortune finding you in the meanwhile.’
‘You don't want to reconsider? You don't want to choose someone else?’
‘I did not make my choice lightly Violet Sorrengail and I am not choosing a different rider. Now, climb back on.’
And then all my previous shock is overshadowed as Andarna kneels before me in the snow, allowing me to use her folded leg like a step to reach her back.
Dragons are supposed supplicated for no-one.
I scramble into the saddle and when Andarna takes off again I instinctively throw myself forward and wrap my arms around the base of her neck. My fingers are just a hands breadth from meeting on the other side. I hold on while Andarna soars, dippes and soars again. Each time I am filled with terror and delight. My grasp feels tenuous and by the time she was is every part of my body aches with the effort of holding on.
‘Allright, I think that should be sufficient.’ Andarna tells me as we level out one last time.
I release my shaking arms and sit up again. We turn gently and glide more tranquility back towards the box canyon.
‘Thank you for catching me Andarna.’
‘You are welcome.’ Andarna tells me. ‘I told you I didn’t make this choice lightly, I would not let you fall to your death.’
‘Why though?’ I ask in disbelief. ‘Why would you chose me?’
‘Do you think so little of yourself?’
‘I’m not what riders usually are; I trained all my life to join the scribes, I’m not strong, I’m not a natural warrior.’ I explain.
‘I know this, and, this is why I chose you.’ Andarna says.
‘Oh,’ There are no words for the absolute honour I feel at her conviction.
‘There is more than one kind of strength, now let us go and have our bond recorded by your elders.’