A Dragon's View [Book 1 in Rising Dragons]

Chapter XX: Written in Ink

I cannot make a certain person find this, so I hope that you – the reader – will do what you think best with this information. Use it to save everyone.

I was forty when I left the mountain ranges I call my home. Forty-years-old and still young in comparison to many of the other dragons within our group. We were one-hundred strong with many of the younger dragons leaving to discover the world.

The eldest of our group was said to be sixteen-thousand. There were two of them, actually. They were both the same age but not our leaders. They were old and I used to consider them boring creatures. I understand them more now. The two dragons had been hatchmates and were willing to watch over their family.

No one really knew their names. The dragons themselves said they had forgotten them. I doubted that though. After all, having a name was important to a dragon and if those two could remember such long stories... Well, it doesn't particularly matter. I learnt much from the pair, although I did not realise that until I had left the mountain range.

It unnerves me to find how much of our history is lost and how little the humans cared for us. I'm a dragon and we live old lives. Despite this, most dragons only survive for a few hundred years. It is a shame that the humans do not truly understand the bond a dragon and rider has. It makes me ache, right down to my bones, that when a human rider dies, dragons are dragged into slavery.

The humans are to blame and so are the dragons. However, my family is also to blame, I believe. If what I believe occurred... well, let's just say I think that Krelgrah and Kiinbo are two very old dragons. Not that that matters.

I was far too old and – perhaps in this world of young dragons – wise to let humans capture me. I was flying when I heard the earth rumble and shake. It was something I had lived through once, although it was much more dangerous where I had lived. It was an earthquake. I did not think much of it. It was only natural for it to occur. However, this earthquake changed my life.

After the earth had stopped moving, I heard a voice crying out for help. Now, unlike many of my older relatives I lack the experience, and possibly the ability, to speak aloud as if I were human. That did not stop me from understand what was being said or from attempting to help.

I landed near a young girl. A five-year-old I know now. The young human had fallen from a hill, a landslide occurring due to the earthquake. She was injured, but unafraid of me – wary, yes, because that was what she had been taught, but unafraid because she truly did not understand the danger I brought, did not know what I could truly do. And maybe... Maybe there was something else there. I was first and foremost a dragon brought up by the elders of our race. I had been taught the stories of old, unknowing if they were true or false. It didn't truly matter if they were or not, I still learnt.

I still learn, even now. I may not be much compared to others of my family. But in this world of young dragons and humans, I am powerful, perhaps one of the most powerful to exist. That five-year-old I met? I don't believe she ever understood properly, sentiment had blinded her before she was old enough to understand.

It did not matter. I knew what and who I was. That was enough for me.

Nonetheless, right now, I am telling you the tale that will show the proof of what happened ten years after I met a young girl, my rider.

She was fifteen when we found out. She was fifteen, young and impatient, in that way all young ones normally are. I was older, seventy then, but the awe and happiness of having a rider had yet to fade. I suppose it made me feel young.