The Rider's Fate

Prologue

Chp.0 : Prologue.

Warning: This story contains depictions of violence and mental health struggles that may be upsetting to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Over a century ago.

The world below him burned.

Settled on the highest ledge, Dragon Rider Mazus Lynch surveyed the carnage below him. His fingers, either broken, bruised or sprained, clenched tight onto the hand-holds of his saddle as a high pitched roar sounded somewhere in the burning forest below.

His attention shifted as his dragon settled her weight. Rocks trickled under the ledge and his dragon snorted, her sharp eyes scanning the skies for threats.

His body ached from the days of fighting. His skin was slurried with muck and blood. He would have felt guilty about the deaths at his hands, but what was one live in the pursuit of true freedom?

Ishkar shifted her weight again, perturbed. Her large chest heaved and with a long breath, she expelled a cloud of freezing air. The icy cold was familiar on his skin and he welcomed it's comfort.

Mazus didn't want to admit it, but he was losing. Badly.

Ishkar's suddenly emitted a low, gravelly snarl. A dragon emerged before him from the smoke, his navy wings treading the air.

Basset. Of course.

He was the only one Mazus would consider his mortal enemy. Once classmates, they were now at the opposing ends of a civil war that was tearing the country apart.

Mazus didn't want to call that bastard by his first name even if it was the last thing he did.

"Lynch," Basset called.

Basset's beast snapped the air, challenging Ishkar's frayed temper.

"Surrender now and end this carnage," Basset motioned with a sweeping hand to the devastation below.

Ahead the Valaxian academy was in ruin; a large hungry fire rose into the air, sending a thick plume of smoke upwards. The fire had caught onto the trees of the forest, and even from up on the ledge, Mazus could hear the screams of those caught in the blaze.

"And why should I do that?" He replied coldly.

Basset face twisted into a sneer, "You have slaughtered hundreds of civilians and taken the lives of young Riders and their dragons. "

Mazus smiled at him. He felt little guilt about killing the young Rider's in nest, many of whom didn't know how to properly wield a blade. Their blood ran through the Egg Hollow, staining the before innocent ground with the blood of dragons and Riders. If any dragon hatched there now, they would grow mad with the scent that would never leave the earth.

"I have done what is necessary. The world of Rider's has become corrupt. You refuse to listen to my ideas, so I must bring them in by force. "

Just as he said that, a high cry of pain reached his ears. Mazus' eyes snapped towards the burning battle field and something clenched his heart tight.

It doesn't matter.

Even if he died today, his wife and son were safe from these scum.

Suddenly Ishkar's temper snapped and the white dragon leapt from the ledge, spreading her wide wings out. Basset roared in fury and his dragon echoed the sound. Blinding dark blue flames shot at Mazus, but his dragon retaliated with ice white fire. Both dragons fought to press their fires further towards the enemy, but they didn't succeed.