Fifth Wing -A riders tale

Chapter 1

Calypso pov

Mom I hear a scream rip through the air, turning to my brothers, Aster looks tense, he rips his gaze from mine.

"Mom, Dad, we need to find them!!" I shout to Hasphis who was in the ocean, he runs over, trying to not trip in the sand, Aster breaks into a run, he starts towards the village away from our beach area next to the gray mountainy region around it. I run after my 6 year old brother catches up and hope he can keep his pace. Our village was always under the threat of the kings guards. It was only a matter of time that someone in our family was killed, someone in everyones family was killed, that didn't help my anxiety. 

Aster got to our house first, finding it empty, he lead us to the tree in the center of our town. Soldiers had captured both our parents, I surge forward, Aster pulls me back. 

"Don't, you might get killed to, I don't want to lose my sister to if this plays out that way." He mumbles to me. I watch as Dad gets knocked out by a soldier while trying to protect Mom, a steady stream of blood started to trickle down his head. I bite my tongue while a wave of blood hits my senses. I stifle a gag as a soldier pulls out a sword and starts to speak.

"This is an example of our grand King Darin's response to treacherous actions such as treason against the king, and sparks of a rebellion" the Kings guard explains, then slitting my mothers throat, I hear an audible gasp and some screams, one which comes from my siblings and I. We watch as they greet my father with the same purposes. 

Aster pulls us away from the crowd, an Elder in our village who was good friends with our father found us, ushering us away towards the forest near the mountains. He gave us some food, tunics, water-skins, Aster a sword, me a couple of knives, and Hasphis a bow. I didn't know what I was going to do with it. Everything blurred by as we ran, the Elder saying it had to do something with our bloodline, or last name, it just happened so fast and I was still in shock.

6 Months Later

Aster was out hunting while I was skinning a bear we had hunted together earlier that week. I didn't usually do the killing only for small game like squirrels and such, we found a cave maybe a few days walk from our old home. I wasn't sure, but I never did want to see, the only way I knew what time it was by hearing the dragon riders fly over and swap posts, thats also how I tracked days, by now it was my birthday, ninth, nothing special was fine with me, at least I still had my life and siblings. In my sleep I still get flashbacks to the day of our parents death, I try to think on the small details, like what were the guards wearing, what were the guards eye color or hair color, I wanted to know so I could recognize them and that would be when I kill them. Its a little morbid, but they took the words of our demanding, paranoid, selfish king.

Since we had ran away we noticed more guards flew into the outposts, it used to be one to two now it was three to four. I had an odd feeling about it but pushed that down, usually the riders quadrant was small so I didn't like the idea of them just sacrificing real people. The riders quadrant was small because they did trials and killed each other, killed themselves on courses or when walking across the castle wall, which was skinny, and had no railing, to get to the castle for their quadrant. Thats when the bonded riders, second and third years call their dragons, scare shit out of the first years and if they do then they die when bonding probably. I only know because like our great great great something grandfather kept a journal of his time joining the quadrant, or just from surviving guards in our old town.

I hum an old tune my grandmother used to lull me to sleep with, I keep skinning the bear until I hear something. Looking up I see an injured wolf, limping its way towards me, grabbing a dagger I watch the ice blue eyes bore into me. Don't you dare I step in front of the skinned bear and the wolf advances lowering its head, I raise my dagger, then look behind it. Its leg had netting around it and a large slash against its chest. The wolf started to fall to the ground, I caught it slowing its fall but eight year olds don't really have good muscles. I get up from laying the wolf down and walk to the bear I was skinning and used my dagger, slashing some of the meat off of the body. Walking toward the fire next I hold it over for a couple minutes, prepping a water skin for the wolf to. I head back to the fallen wolf and tilt its head up and feed it some bear. I start to bandage the wolfs stomach it snaps at my hand, the one with the food in it. I quickly finish the stomach and move my dagger to its leg, the wolf lets out a low growl trying to see what I am doing. I quickly cut off the netting and the animal yelps, scanning the leg I notice some of the netting had eaten at the skin and fur. I start to bandage that up to, wrapping the leg slowly while rubbing the wolves head. 

Soon after I was done and brought the wolf to our cave, Aster and Hasphis had returned. They looked at the wolf and then me, Aster had his sword up at this point.

"Let me explain, I was skinning the bear and the wolf came to me for help. I helped nurse him, and then started to pack our things because I thought the netting and slash might have been from a soldier nearby scouting." I tell them, hoping they would understand. "Alright then lets get a move on, scatter the fire, make the area more wild." Aster demands, I start to grab everything, I cut up all our meat, wrapped it in large leaves, and put it in our bags, I put a little more in mine for the wolf. 

"Should we name it?" I ask Aster, "If it stays, but let's call him something simple, like..." he looks around "Flint?" He questions, I nod, I hand us our packs and we get a move on, walking along a trail of the cliff edge of a mountain. I stayed in the back, Flint trailing behind me as I take each step, the trees around us were turning a golden yellow, orange, and a flaming red. Fall was approaching, and after winter would become of it. I felt anxious of what was to come as we travelled.

7 Days Later

I had been carrying two packs since yesterday, well kind of, Hasphis got tired and climbed onto my back and Flint had allowed me To secure Hasphis' pack to him.  Flint helped us hunt, we taught him certain whistles and was just a loyal friend. We came upon a militia quadrant a couple days ago while hunting. They didn't spot us but they were working on a navigation trip, thats all I overheard, Aster had heard more about the Kings son, Zephyr, he had his 12 birthday two days ago. He apparently training for the riders quadrant, I thought he was crazy, scribes were probably better for me, I loved history and was really good at it in our school, there was a slight problem though, we only had scrolls aged up to 300 years. Which was after the war, that had been waged against the last royal bloodline, the dragons of that bloodline fled to the mountains, and that was the last time we saw the queens Black morningstar tail dragon, he's probably dead by now, but the general has a much younger swordtail one that he somehow bonded to. 

Enough about history, we were rounding the mountains edge, coming to a large cliff that dropped off into the Fade, a place outside the magical barricade that keeps the kingdom and major cities safe after the war happened. Dragons that were unwilling or unbonded usual flew out there I think. I watch the long grasses wave as wind blows over them, thinking back to the last few months of me and my family all together. Flint sniffs the air beside me and nudges me forward. 

"Ok, ok, sorry buddy, thank you." I keep moving forward, my heels were sore snd my body was tired, Hasphis arms were choking me slightly, I kept moving when we came to a clearing near a river. Aster dropped his stuff, "We can rest here, for a few days, but then we move again." Aster tells me.

"When will we get to another village?" I ask him, laying Hasphis on a bedroll.

"Well, the closest village beyond the mountain is Harpentille, so I assume we head there, it should be south of the river." He says looking at our worn down map. I start unpacking and getting a camp set up to stay at.

At night 

Flint lets out a howl when I wake, it was midnight I assumed, dark. Flint was growling softly, his paws padding near me, looking outside I saw a glint of fire and the cladding of armor. Knights, infantry? Oh if it was riders we were dead. I shake my brothers up.

"Hmmmm..." I slap a hand of there mouthes, "Knights, infantry or riders...." I whisper

The memory ends when Calypso wakes from the nightmare of her childhood

"Parapet day" I mumble, jumping out of my bed to get reading, rushing to Aster, that was before I remember he had died a couple months before, killed by some assassin or something probably. Aster was my older brother, a Wingleader at that, and killed by someone sent by the royal family right now I suppose, and now I am forced to enter the Riders quadrant after the Ravens existence was revealed. I grab some riding leathers he had brought me after his second year, fit me well, and a dragon scale corset that he had shrunk from his dragon, Pilias, a red clubtail. 

I rush to head with every other wanting rider, the guards who observed me following quickly, they took care of us after years ago when our parents were killed and we were captured. I grabbed my rucksack of belongings, sheathing the daggers I had stolen from them, which they still didn't figure out. I did have a dream if not being forced into the place I was going, I wanted to be a scribe, not a rider, I wanted to study dragons, not fight to become bonded to one,

We arrived at the entrance to the Elstarin War College....hoping not to die today.