College, what a blast!

This One Is New So I Hope You Enjoy It I Love You All.

If there was only one feeling I could take with me when I die, this would be it. With the wind flowing on my face and through my hair, the hood of my golden cape pushed back, flying in the wind, surging up and down with the different currents.

The softness of my cotton shirt and pants against my dry skin, and the rough leather of my shin and arm guards, as well as the ones on the inner legs used for riding. Saem’s white feathers edged with gold beating so closely behind me I could hear the wind whistle through them. And the heat from her body warming my body just enough.

“Mae, stop day dreaming, we’ve been called for speed.” Father Beo yelled to me. He is clan leader, and a good one at that, he sat upon his own dragon, Meona, who was a deep royal blue, and Beo in his matching cape and eyes, looked absolutely powerful upon her.

I answered him by speeding to the front of the group. I am a dreamer by admittance, I do not mean to be, but it is just my nature. Often times my head is more in the cloud than I am, even on the back of my dearest friend.

“If you’re going to let me do all the work, I may as well drop you now and lose the weight.” Saem told me strictly. “Start navigating or start growing some wings of your own.”

Yes, she can talk. In fact it is quiet annoying at times, and I wish I couldn’t hear her. But like every other living creature, I can not tune her out. Neither can those who start listening.

I adjusted our altitude and direction, mostly because I don’t doubt Saem would drop me, she’s difficult that way. I doubt Meona would do that to Beo, but she was a much calmer dragon.

This brings into fact that every dragon differs from the others, and not only in mind, but appearance and other varying ways. Saem, for example, had glossy golden scales on her long slender form, she looked like a stretched out lizard, her torso was much longer than a lizards would be, if they were her size, but she looked more like a lizard than Meona, who was much like a long, blue, cylindrical, flying snake, with appendages. And still Alic’s dragon Zelic, didn’t even look like he had scales, he looked more like he was covered with soft green goose down. And While Saem and Zelic had bird like wings, Meona had veined bat like wings. The differences were so small, and yet so vast.

I had to pay close attention as we dropped altitude to land on the palace’s landing platform. We swooped in one by one, like a dazzling rainbow, but with more variety. When we were all landed the same question that had been asked for generations was asked, they didn’t even bother to update the wording.

“Who art thou?” The guard asked, and I had to refrain from rolling my eyes.

“The Clan Dolfius.” Beo answered as we slid from our dragons’ backs, and all bent into a respectful bows.

There is one thing that someone who hasn’t been around dragons for a long period of time would not know. Dragons can shrink. As weird as it sounds they can shrink down to about eighteen inches long, at least that’s the size most chose to stop at. They do this when their rider must hide, or are going some place where their usual size would not fit, or even if they are not being ridden, so they did not have to waste energy on walking.

And the packs that a Ridden Dragon carries with it, is consumed by the shrinking magic as well, after they’ve shrunk, I could pull out one of he many blankets I store in them, and it will pull out as if it had never changed size at all.

I picked up Saem after she finished shrinking and I laid her across my shoulders, where she crawled under my long loose hair and warmed my neck.

“The king is expecting you.” The guard said in the same bored tone with a bow, he must have seen the transformation one too many times, though I’m not sure how that is possible, I’ve seen it countless times, and it still amazes me.

Now, while our clan was independent, we gave loyalty to our young king, as we are in debt to his great grandfather, so we flew under his banner and were devoted to the young boy.

When we entered the hall I made sure to get my usual spot behind Beo, who was very much my hero. He had fought on behalf of the throne and clan on countless times, the multiple scars upon his body flaunted the fact. I knew I would be like him when I grew up, though maybe a little nicer, I could never be that gruff or world weary.

When we reached the dais we all fell to one knee to show our respect and devotion to our king.

A boy, a child of only eight years old, sat on the throne, dressed in piles of purple silk, on his dark short-cropped brown hair sat a small unadorned golden circlet of gold, he did not looked pleased to be there, until Saem slithered down my arm and went to him. His small face lit up as Saem climbed into his lap and nuzzled his neck. I was smiling, until I caught Beo’s eye.

He was glaring at me, so I stood up and went to the throne. Beside the young boy’s throne I fell to one knee and bowed my head.

“Is she yours?” He asked me, I was startled into looking up, I had never heard him speak, and I thought maybe he just didn’t; now I realized he just never needed or wanted to.

“I am more hers than she is mine, your highness” I replied smiling at the boy.

“What is her name?” He was much more timid than what I thought a king should be, but it wasn’t like an often dealt with royalty.

“You may ask her, sire, she will tell you.” I told him, and he looked at me like I was making a fool of him, I gave him a small nod to go on, and he looked Saem in the eyes and took a deep breathe before a man stepped from behind the throne, no doubt there was a door that came out behind there.

He was the Adviser Geon; he was quite a handsome man of around 30-years-old. His hair was sandy blond and he had large rings on every one of his fingers. His blue eyes blazed at me, I knew it was because I was so close to the king, I’m not anyone important, I was not allowed anywhere near him.

Saem nuzzled the young king once more and leaped into my arms, and I stood quickly, nearly falling as I walked backward repeatedly bowing, until I was again behind Beo, there the gaze didn’t seem so bad.

“The king thanks you for coming at such short notice.” Geon was much more like what I expected royalty to be, haughty and snobbish; I glanced at the king who seemed to be half asleep, a glare on his face at Geon. “He invites you to rest for the night as he knows you have ridden hard, and his highness has past his own bed time.” Geon paused as if waiting for laughter, I felt myself glaring, until Saem bit me to remind me he could see me clearly and I was not in good waters with him.

Guards came in and escorted us to our rooms and I stripped off my leather guards, pulled my cloak on, and without even glancing at the room, I lifted Saem to my shoulders and went out of the room to explore.

The hall was lit dimly with torches at each intersection. My feet were silent, as the soft leather shoes we wore were made for being silent, because spying was a dragon rider skill.

Every time we come to the castle I explore it, even though I’m not actually supposed to. I know almost every part of the palace, we’ve been here a lot lately, except the royal wing, which I’m going to explore tonight, to practice my spying skills, and see why that boy is so sad.

The halls were all marble, the whole palace actually, but I knew when I entered the royal wing, for the marble walls were now inset with priceless jewels. I stopped for a moment to look at an emerald the size of my fist.

I was seized with the urge to pull it out of the wall, greed I knew it was, but I fought it down, and went along the way, refusing to stop for any more of the large gemstones.

I was a bit shocked at the fact that there were no guards to be seen, usually there were two at the beginning of the royal wing, and sets of two set out along the way, with two more at the King’s door, and one apiece for the adviser and the King’s mother.

I crept into the king’s inner chambers and I felt like something was amiss. Creeping along I came to what I figured was the King’s door. I started to open it, until I heard a voice down the hall.

“You’re going to be beheaded; you know you shouldn’t be here!” Saem whispered to me, as I looked for a place to hide. There was a small alcove behind a statue of the late King Han, and just as I slipped in there the voices stopped outside the King’s room.

“If you get rid of the boy for me, we could rule forever.” A feminine voice whispered seductively, I peeked around the statue to get a good look at both people. It was the King’s Mother Yvenne, she was speaking with Adviser Geon, who had a knife in his hand, and the metal gleamed in what scant light there was.

I couldn’t move his own mother wanted to kill him? He was eight years old! I started to hyperventilate, like I do every time I get scared, but Saem nipped my earlobe and I started taking deep, silent, breathes. I knew I couldn’t be caught, though at the moment I wanted to jump from behind the statue and kill these two.

I would be brought up on charges, and everything I ever had, would be worth nothing. But still I wanted to rip that woman’s cold, dead, heart from her chest. How can a mother want to kill her only son?

“And we can rule together?” Geon asked, he sounded much less self assured than he did in the throne room.

“Of course my love, we can rule the world and the best part, we can blame it on the Dragon riders, and we would never be expected.” She whispered and kissed him passionately.

Needless to say Geon looked convinced.

I could feel the bile rising in my throat, and the tears rising t o my eyes. I looked to Saem and she seemed to be in agreement with me, so I hunched down to wait until the Queen left the area and Geon entered the room.