Dragon Binder: Book One of the Dragonblood Priestess Series (First Draft)

Chapter 2: Training

Smiling Yina strolled through the temple, ignoring all of the looks other binders were giving her as she passed.  They all knew what time class got over with and it was still a couple hours away.  Yina did not care though, they would never dare kick her out, and if they did o well.  

Digging through her bag she pulled out two very intricate looking vembraces that had dragons carved on them.  They were made of a black metal, two long slits could be seen on either side of them.  Snapping each one on her arms she felt a hundred times better.  The vembrace came up to her elbow, providing her entire arm protection.  

Clicking a button a blade whipped out of the crack on her right vembrace snapping into place so that it pointed directly away from her arm.  Twisting she slashed the robes with the sharp blade, it only took a few moments before it lay in tatters on the temple floor.  Yina had plenty more as she just left them laying there walking away.  

Under the robes, was what she wore under all her clothes.  Brown leather vest that fit very snugly, probably way to snug for her mother or fathers approval but it was combat armor.  She also had matching brown leather pants that provided the most protection while still giving her full movement.  Kicking the plain boring shoes off she pulled on her combat boots several binders gasping at the sight of her.  

"Do you mind, it is not like you have not seen other woman wearing armor."  Yina huffed at them before moving on shoving the shoes into the bag.  Slipping her hair loose from its braid, she shook it out before quickly putting it into a bun that way it would stay out of her way.  

Yina was not short for her age, she was just a little over five feet tall and was still growing.  She had a very lithe body type but it was laced with muscles.  Her chest had started to come in a year ago, against her wishes.  The leather armor naturally drew more attention to that area then she wished, but it was a price one paid.  

Stepping out into the sunlight Yina blocked it with her arm grimacing.  The temple was so dark, the stained glass gave in light but it was colored and tended to be lighter then outside.  Taking a deep breath she strapped the bag onto her back and took off at a rather brisk jog.  Sastan was a rather large city, building were closing built together, and her goal was on the outskirts of the city.  

There were several larger roads that allowed for swift direct paths through it, but Yina preferred the winding alleys that spaced out the buildings and houses.  Many people avoided them, some of the more unsavory people liked to use them.  This close to the main part of the city however they were pretty save.  Figuring she had passed most of the busy sections, she broke into the main road she turned to look back at the palace. 

It sat in the very middle of the city with a large wall that separated it from the rest of the city.  Several large manors were found inside of the gate, one of which was where Yina lived.  She hated it, made it hard to sneak out of the house but she had found a few ways.  Some of which involved bribery.  

The palace itself was huge raising at least ten stories above the three story wall.  It was made out of pure white marble, with gold accenting different parts of it.  She spotted at least four dragons from her vantage point perched on landings created just for them.  From this distance she could not make out riders on them or not,  regardless they would be close by.  

Large towers rose up on the four corners, more of the platforms could be seen almost like giant staircases up the towers.  No dragon's roosted in those, the years of peace had caused Sastan to become a little to lax on defense in Yina's opinion.  They still had a large force of Dragon Bound but they were usually sent out on scouting missions or trivial things.  

Turning she took off down the road, trying to cover as much ground as she could.  Her goal was the training grounds, she had a few friends there that would let her spar with them and hone her physical strength.  Unless she was kidnapped by her parents she would almost always go here after school.  Lately one of them would always be there after class and so today she was going to make sure to train.  

Half a hour later she arrived, panting and sweat dripping from her face she took a few minutes to calm herself.  Feeling that she was composed she strolled into the rather dull looking building.  It was a large oval, much like the Colosseum but to a smaller scale.  The training grounds were only a few rooms thick before it opened up into a open area.

The open area was divided into several different subsections, men and a few women were sparing or training with weapons.  A couple of them were running the obstacle course that was hanging above half of he grounds.  To be a competent dragon rider you had to have the balance to stay on the dragon.  

Scanning the area she found her goal, naturally the young boy was training in the area covered in sand.  Most of the grounds were dirt, but a few spots had sand.  Yina knew from experience just how hard it was to move in sand.  

Before she made it to the two sparring they had sat down to take a break, backs to her.  She came up on them in the middle of a conversation.  "Seriously, no I had not heard that.  So someone assassination the Emperor of Rak a month ago."  

"Yeah, strolled right through the fortress and on his own killed the emperor."  The older guy stated, he had dirty blonde hair that could be seen as brown in certain light.  He was quite tall coming to just over six feet tall.  

"Impressive, the Iron Emperor felled."  The younger boy stated.  He was a year younger then Yina, almost exactly a year.  Only a few days separated their birthdays, he had brilliant blonde hair and deep blue eyes.  Slightly taller then Yina at 5'5, his body was build quite solidly with muscles from his years of combat training.  It helped that it also worked as a mason to build the stone buildings favored in Sastan.  

"Wonder what that will mean for the balance of the world, Tyn."  Yina's stated to the young man causing him to jump and nearly fall of the bench.  This got a laugh from the older man, Clous.  "Glad to find you here as well Clous, I have a few things to talk to you about."  Yina stated slyly watching his face pale a little.  

Pulling himself back together Tyn unconsciously smoothed his leather training armor trying to avoid glancing down at Yina's chest area.  "Yina, what are you doing here.  After the absence from the previous week I thought you were under house arrest."  Tyn fidgeted with his wooden practice sword as he spoke.  

"Well, kind of, mom and dad would always be waiting to take me home.  Seems they are determined to prevent me from participating in the Endorsement."  She stated anger slipping out near the end.  

The endorsement was a event that happened twice a year.  During this time dragon bound hopefuls will compete in several different types of challenges such as the obstacle course as well as one on one combat.  During each of these challenges the person will be graded and those who are in the top ten are guaranteed to become bound.  That is if they can find a dragon egg within the next month.  

Tyn had competed in the last two Endorsement's and finished in the in the top twenty but not making it to the top ten.  Usually it was due to his age, being thirteen and fourteen against fifteen year old's tended to end badly.  Nobles rarely attended and if they did it was out of ego as noble males were already approved to become bound.  The event was for commoner men and women.  

Yina however was going to participate because the Endorsement is a law, a tradition of the nation.  Even Yina's mother or the king even could deny her the ability to become a bound if she got in the top ten.  With her birthday so soon though, she had to start looking for a dragon egg now not after.  

"Well, for the sake of the rest of us I hope you do not."  Tyn stated with a sly smile.  They had been sparring together for years, and she always won.  Yina had avoided trying the Endorsement until now because if she failed even once she knew her mother would find a way to get a law passed barring binders in the Endorsement.  

"So we going to spar or just talk."  Yina shot back slipping her vembraces off and replacing them with wooden ones.  Testing the mechanisms as the wooden blades snapped out of the slots.  She preferred the real ones, but sparring it was best to use the practice ones.  Tyn did not have access to a bound healer like Yina did.