A Fifth Daughter [Book 1: The Dragon Rider]

Prologue ~ 0

[Dedication]: for being the first person to read the old, old draft of 5D.

"So Alive" by Goo Goo Dolls seems like the best song to describe this book. If you don't agree, that's okay, I think it's perfect (well almost):

~Prologue~

The dragon landed and roared out a plume of blue fire. The bright aqua scales glinted in the late night, but silence was her only greeter: Silence and death. The thick smell of decay met her and she snorted. At first she'd allowed herself to hope, but now she was losing that hope. Was Damitri actually dead? Had the Elves really completed their mission? She hoped to the Dragon Lord Flame they had. Damitri Damien Davenport was not one to be forgotten, but hopefully he was one to be killed.

She jerked at the approaching shadow. The smell that wafted her nostrils was one of death, blood, and the faint underlying current of forest. An Elf was running her way; his pointed ears twitching in apprehension.

"Lady Samantha," knelt the Elf as he came to her. He was covered head to toe in a mixture of blood; black of the Dark Elves and demons, green of the dragons, blue of the Fair Elves, and red of the Riders. But even under all that, his features showed forth: a strong jaw, pointed ears, a hooked nose, black hair and a pair of blazing green eyes to match his forest scent.

"Calisto, please give me good news." The aqua dragon spoke, ignoring her title that she loathed more than Davenport.

"The Recluse has been killed." The Elf answered. She snarled at Davenport's nickname he'd picked up as a pirate and revolutionist.

"His beasts?"

"One wounded, the other escaped." She bit her tongue to keep from toasting the Elf where he stood.

"You left one alive?!!!" She roared instead, advancing on the trembling Elf. "How dare you! Two is bad enough, but do you know what one will do without their twin?! Tell me Calisto, which one did you, incompetent tree-huggers, capture?"

"We captured Willow." His voice crack at the end, but Samantha was too relieved to care. She sat back on her haunches and raised her head to the heavens before speaking to the Elf again.

"Well, at least you aren't as stupid as your ears, seeing as you've caught the worst one. Felix will be easy to find; he never leaves his sister's side and will come back for her. We'd best be prepared for him."

"Y-yes, Lady Samantha." He bowed low.

"Drop, the 'Lady,' Elf, I'm a beast, the same as you. Has Queen Hays been warned?"

"Not as of yet, I was about to send a message when you landed."

"Don't bother, I'll deliver the news, I have other things to discuss with Her Majesty myself. Now, be off."

Calisto bowed again with a quivering; "Yes, La – ah – Samantha," and then scurried off.

Now, thought the aqua dragon, to find Queen Hays.

Samantha brought her parchment wings up high above her head and with a mighty shove, launched into the air. She twisted around halfway into the atmosphere and glided over the trees; watching some of the Fair Elves trudge through thick underbrush to their camps, while others finished off the rest of the Dark Elves and demons; capturing the willing and killing the others. The Elves would canopy themselves in the trees unlike the Riders' camping out on the plain. Camp fires roared in randomly spotted places, but Samantha just flowed over them and their smoke tails. Fog rolled in and curled around her wings as she flew over the tree line and into the plains where the Riders had set up their camp and picket battle-wall.