As if a spell had been placed over the people, all too soon, it was gone as an uproar of shock and delight rang through the crowd. I didn't have much time to register what had happened before I was pulled away from the center of attention and shoved behind a closed door. Chay and Keaton were by my side, as well as the man with golden honey hair. Outside, I could hear the bustling crowd's volume, their voices pounding on the door to see the female dragon rider.
"What happened?" I croaked out, confused and in awe.
Ahren paced before the closed door, not answering me as he battled his conflicting thoughts.
I turned to Chay and Keaton, who stared at me in bewilderment. The shock on their faces made me realize the events that went about just before. I looked down at the stone in my hand, recognizing its call to me. It's as if I had never been without it as I heard its whispers float through my head.
"I need to get you to the Academy. Immediately. We'll leave right now through the back," The golden-haired man said as he moved through the building. I just now realized we were in someone's shop. Leather gloves, saddles, and reins adjourned the wooden walls and boots of varying sizes were placed on shelves as high as the wall would go.
"Wait just a minute," Keaton stepped forward, stopping the man in his tracks. "You can't just take our sister away from us like that." He snapped his fingers in the air. "She has a family and parents out there who have no idea what's happening right now."
I silently nodded in agreement, not quite fully in the real world yet, as I heard the stone's songful cries of peace race through me.
"I'll find them," Chay said, moving toward the door. "You. Stay. Here." His stern voice had the man reluctantly agree in silence. Chay was gone through the front door, where people awaited him. Their cries were quieted down when the door closed, and the three of us were left to listen to their chanting.
I sagged into myself, realizing the weight of the situation. "How could this be?" I questioned aloud to no one in particular.
"One of the reasons we need to make our way to the Acadamy as soon as possible." Ahren moved toward the front door, peering out through one of the curtained windows. "The Council will need to be informed. Arrangements need to be made. The sooner we leave, the faster we can figure this out, and the faster we can get you to your bonded."
I perked up at the last part. My bonded. My dragon. I was a dragon rider. I fell against a seat, grasping at it with a weak hand as my other was still clutching the stone for dear life. I sat down, my knees weak from the news. A female dragon rider, me. Who would have thought?
Ahren moved away from the curtain and opened the door just as Chay reached it. Mom and Dad came in behind him, and the door was shut once again to the prying eyes outside.
"What's going on here?" Dad said, immediately turning his attention to the golden-haired man. Mom came to where I was, pushing my hair behind my ears as she knelt down to stare into my eyes. Her sapphire blue eyes stared into my dark brown ones that had a piece of hers haloing the edges. Concern pressed her features into a tight frown as she pressed a hand to my cheek.
"You're freezing, Navi dear." She said as she wrapped her black shawl around my shoulders. The colourful flowers decorated into the material gave me something to look at as Ahren explained the situation to my family.
Once hearing of the stone, my mom's eyes went to my hand that was clutched into a fist. Her hand wrapped around my own. Even though I knew I could trust her, something in me stirred at the thought of her stealing the stone from my hand.
"Oh, my baby," Mom said as she squeezed my hand.
I sighed roughly, "Mom, I'm twenty years old. I'm not a baby."
Her smile was soft, warming her neverending blue eyes as she began to grow tears in them. "You will always be my baby."
I wanted to cringe away from her emotional state, but I knew this might be the last I saw of her for quite some time. So to silence her, I wrapped my arms around her and held her as I watched my dad and Ahren bicker over what needed to be done.
"The crowd is growing by the second in front of that door," Ahren said as he gestured toward the front of the building. "We need to leave now so we can get her to the Academy."
"If you think I'm going to let my daughter leave here with a strange man, then you're sadly mistaken." Dad's voice meant business as he and the man stared each other down.
"Oh, Ronan," Mom said as she released me from her hug, wiping away at her watery eyes. "She'll be fine." Now standing, she looked more grounded than before. "She's a rider. She can hold her own."
A rider, I thought. How strange it was to hear such a thing.
"I have two available horses over at the stables. If we leave now, we'll be at the Academy in two days' time." Ahren moved toward the back of the shop, awaiting an answer.
"We better be on our way then," I finally found my voice. Standing from the chair, I felt myself come back to reality as I grasped the situation. My dad, who didn't look all that impressed, stayed silent when Mom's hand clutched his tightly.
"We'll go back to the Inn and grab your bag. You'll be needing your things. A change of clothing, at least on your travels." Mom was already on her way, following Ahren as we began to exit the shop through its back door. The street was quiet on this side, dark with no commotion other than a stray dog who rummaged through a garbage can.
"Quickly now," Ahren beckoned as we made our way down the streets of Solaris. Having reached the stables in under a minute, Ahren reluctantly agreed to wait a couple more minutes as my Mom and Dad parted ways to grab my belongings from the nearby Inn we were staying at. My brothers stayed with me, positioned on either side of me as we waited in silence for our parents to return.
I opened my clutched hand to peer at the stone resting in my hands. Its gloomy storm swirled within its prison, calmer now than ever as light poked through the thick rolling clouds. I was chilled to the touch, but it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.
Footsteps in the shadows had me snapping my head in their direction, and Chay and Keaton stood on edge at my sudden movement. Two pairs of feet quickly scurried on the ground, coming closer to our location. Mom and Dad rounded the corner, and everyone visibly relaxed at the sight of them. Dad was holding my bag in his hands, and he came over to me. He placed the bag at my feet and wrapped me in a tight hug as he whispered instructions in my ear. I smiled softly onto his cheek. He was a protective father; he always had been with me. He took off his belt that held his knife around his waist and secured it around my own, cinching it up as tight as it would go. "Use this if you need to," He ordered.
I didn't protest, knowing it would ease his mind if I had a weapon on me just in case anything happened. Somehow I knew this golden-haired man was no threat to me. I could sense it within him that he held no ill wishes for me.
Ahren came out with two large horses, saddled and ready to make haste as their ears flickered forward at the company they shared. Ahren gave me the reins to a stallion whose coat was patterned with red and grey flecks of a raging storm during sunrise. The horse licked his lips as my hand instinctively scratched his cheek. I had to reach high above me, as his stature was enormous—far larger than my Zenny was.
I said my goodbyes individually to my family. Chay warned me, just as my dad had done, that if anything happened on our travels, he would be there as soon as he was able. Keaton took off his cloak, pulling it over my shoulders and securing it tightly. The colder weather was still in the air, and the nights would get cold. He ruffled my hair before stepping away so Mom could wrap me in her embrace. My family's goodbyes were full of sweet words and a promise to see each other once again after everyone seemed to calm down and realized I would be leaving them for a while.
I mounted the red and grey horse who I learned was Angus, and with a final wave goodbye, Ahren and I were racing out of the streets of Solaris and towards the Academy of Rhydderek.
The school seemed to come out of nowhere. One second we were riding on an open road with trees and mountains jutting on either side of us, and the next, we topped over the hill to see a large castle sitting in a clearing between mountains that acted as protective barriers.
The building had many windows; most were lit with light coming from the interior of the building. The peaks of the mountains were tipped with snow, and white flakes even fell from the cloudy skies. The sun was peaking over the mountains, setting to finish off the day with golden orange and purple colours painting the sky.
Underneath the light layers of snow, the grass was still a crispy brown. The snow would soon melt, and the sun would beam down with its warmth, spreading life into the lands.
"Come along, Miss Withers. The stables are this way." The man told me before nudging his horse down the smoothly graded hill. Following behind him, I had my eyes wandering the world around me, scanning it with naked appreciation.
Halting our horses in the middle of the stables, the golden-haired man and I slid off our horses and grabbed our bags. A burly man came out of a side door with a rag in his hand stained black. His once brown hair was fading to grey, and his tanned skin was littered with bunches of freckles. A bushy beard covered his neck and chin, and his large frame was draped in daily work clothes, stained with unrecognizable substances.
Deep chocolate eyes widened at the sight of the man and me before he came rushing over and took the horse's reins in his hands. "You're back early, Ahren."
Pete looked at me, a neutral expression on his face while adjusting his cloak on his shoulders. "Yes. Circumstances such as these made me cut my travels short."
The man stroked his bushy beard as he gauged the two of us, but it seemed like he was more interested in the person with their hood covering their head. Me. "I heard the rumours of a new rider being found, but I wasn't sure if it were true or not," He said as he began tying up Angus to untack the horses.
"They're true alright, Henry." Ahren scratched the back of his head as Henrey finished up with untacking Ahren's horse.
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, lad." Henry came over to me and stuck out his hand. I shook it, my small hands disappearing in his.
"It's nice to meet you, too." As I said this, I took off my hood.
Henry's eyes widened a considerable amount as I took him off guard. "Oh my," He said, taking a few steps back. Something unrecognizable crossed his features; fear or guilt. I wasn't sure. Perplexed, I stared at Henry curiously until he broke the silence. "Well, this is certainly a predicament. Is the Council aware?" Henry turned to Ahren who nodded.
"We're meeting with them soon," Ahren said, moving toward the opening in the stables we previously rode through. "We should be on our way as they are expecting us.
Ahren and I bid farewell to Henry. His steps hurried as he led me across the field where many people trained with various weapons and dragons. None, fortunately for me, had paid any attention to our fleeing forms.
But I couldn't help but stop and stare. The men fighting were incredible, their bodies packed with muscle, and their technique with their weapons was graceful. The dragons watched their riders fight beautifully, just sitting still. Their scales were dazzling in the sun. Their colours were magnificent and vibrant.
"Miss Withers, we must keep moving," Ahren said beside me. I hadn't noticed him stop beside me in my distracted haze. With a final glance at the beautiful beings, I reluctantly turned away and followed after Pete, all the while wondering what it would be like to have a dragon and be able to fight like those men out there.
After a few minutes of walking, during which I had gotten even more exhausted, we finally made it to a heavy-set door at the side of the castle. The golden-haired man didn't slow down as he pushed the door open and closed it behind us, leaving us in a candlelit entryway.
On one side of the entry was a set of white swinging doors on top of a small group of stairs that could most likely lead to anywhere but possibly a kitchen, and on the other was a long corridor. The hall was covered in various decorations and pictures that I chose to ignore at the time, and we began to walk quickly down the quiet, carpeted hallway.
I followed in behind the golden-haired man as he went down the continuing corridor, and we soon came into a gigantic room with walls upon walls of coloured books. Behind all of this was a door where Ahren knocked a few times before entering. "Council members. This is Navidean Withers."
Suddenly, I wanted to crawl out of my skin and leave this place. The attention of four men was on me in an instant, gauging me with critical eyes.
"Close the door, Ahren." A man with wide owl eyes and a snowy white beard said as he beckoned us to enter the room further. "Navidean, was it?" He asked as he clasped my hand in his own.
I nodded my head as he led me to a seat by the large desk occupying the room. "Navi is fine."
A man with eyes that swam with a burning fire made a disgruntled noise as he came to hover over me. His eyes made my skin smoulder, and I refrained from shrinking away from his gaze. "A female dragon rider," He announced to the room full of people as if they needed a reminder. "How peculiar." His voice was smooth as he then circled around my chair.
"The stone that hasn't been claimed for years glowed at her touch," Ahren stated breathlessly. I turned to see wonderment captured within his eyes as he spoke on my behalf.
"Stone or no stone," A man with coal for eyes walked out from the shadows. The dim lanterns flickering along his features created an illusion of a deeper frown. "No female should be in this war. It's a dangerous world out there, and the demons we're fighting show no mercy to those who they hold captive."
My muscles stiffened at his words. I should've expected weariness from these men, but I would have never thought they would turn me away. There's no sense in that when I was destined to become a rider. It wasn't up to them but to the Gods who gifted the stone when they sensed my presence.
"Agreed." The man's red eyes burned brightly in my direction. "She's of no use to us dead." My skin prickled. Something didn't feel right. Deep within me, I felt something stir at his predator-like voice. The shadows around me flickered as my emotions grew, but I barely noticed as I stared in disbelief at the Councilmen.
"I'm a little confused here," I began. "Shouldn't this meeting be about me attending this school? Figuring out my classes and, more importantly, arranging a trip to find my bonded?" I feel like my words fell on deaf ears as I heard a low chuckle come from the man with bright blue eyes.
"Not exactly," He spoke. Pools of a deep ocean stared back at me. "You're not who we expected to be in possession of such a powerful stone. "
I grounded my jaw, feeling a slight pop from the intensity of my bite. They expected a man; this I knew for sure.
"Well, surprise." I nearly sneered out. "You've got me."
"That we do," The man with red eyes spoke antagonistically. "But what to do with you now."
"We send her home, of course," The man with pieces of coal in his eyes spoke up. "It's the easiest option."
My mouth nearly fell at how quickly the Councilmen agreed—all except the one with a long, snowy white beard. "If she is a dragon rider, then she should remain here. The stone she possesses looks to be that of a Niarvat bonded. Her skillset could prove useful to this battle."
The man with red eyes waved a dismissive hand in the air. "You know better than that, Colin. A female in battle? Seriously? And I guarantee you she doesn't know what a Niarvat is." He eyed the stone in my hand. "Let alone how to use a sword." He shook his head while clicking his tongue. "Absolutely not."
"You're at a disadvantage, Colin. We all agree she should return home. You're outnumbered." The man's blue eyes swam with malice as he stared down at Colin. His head, which was held high throughout his speech, had sunken down in submission.
"It's agreed then," The man with red eyes clapped his hands together. "At the crack of dawn, Miss Navi Withers will be returning home."