A Fifth Daughter [Book 1: The Dragon Rider]

Chapter ~ 7

~ Chapter 7: Trains, Islands, and Roommates... Oh Great! ~

Eaton sits down beside me and sighs heavily. "You have a very..." He trails off.

"Annoying?" I offer. It's easy to know what he's talking about.

He shakes his head. "No, more like interesting family." He nods to himself. "Yeah, interesting."

I shake my head. "Well, I think they're annoying."

"Isn't it sort of your job to?"

I shrug and look out the window, we haven't moved yet, but I can feel the train preparing to as the breaks hiss. Slowly there's a jerk and then spinning, but soon we're moving at a hopping frog's pace. The Vixen pulls away from the farm house and begins its gradual ascent. The front end rises and turns, it starts circling like a bird, gaining height and speed as it goes. Ten circles... fifteen... twenty... nearly fifty circles before it stops and travels in a straight"ish" line.

I turn to Eaton to distract me from looking down. "Where's your dragon?"

"Nyx? She's in the caboose."

I just nod and stare ahead. The car is lavished in red carpet, red booths, and red walls. The ceiling is a long window and the clouds mist over like phantoms. A glass chandelier hangs from the center and barely moves as we travel through the air. We're the only passengers in the car and I'm too far back to see into the second car and the fourth is black. A moment later, a man enters from the third car and approaches us, in what I can only describe as the clothing of a waiter; black with a white apron.

He stops and clears his throat. "Mr. Knight," he says, offering a board. "We are picking up a Filly Ashmere and Niccole Brigham, can you confirm this please?"

Eaton takes the held out clipboard and signs. "Where are we picking them up?"

"Just outside Parnes Mountains."

Eaton nods and returns the board. The man walks away.

"Why did you have to confirm them?" I ask, watching the waiter as he takes a seat up ahead.

"Just a precaution. It used to be that anyone could ride The Vixen, but about a month ago the rules were changed when a De–" He stops short and clears his throat. "It just changed."

I sit up, feeling a little excited. "When a... what?"

"Don't worry about it."

I deflate and sigh. He's obviously not going to answer me. I wish he would. I've barely been in here an hour and I'm bored. And to add to my misery, it starts to rain. I sigh again, this time in weary.

"What's it like?" I mumble quietly after a maybe fifteen minutes of silence. My head is on my forearm leaning against the window, I don't look away from the dark rain-thick clouds.

"What's what like?"

I shrug. "Dragonmage, Legend, being a Rider, take your pick."

"Alex told me he had to dare you to join." Amusement laces his tone.

"I didn't take the dare, I took the challenge. Now... answer my question."

Eaton's reflection shrugs in the window. "It's not that bad. Legend is a bit hard to navigate at first, but this'll be my third year, so I can't say much, and I don't really remember much before everything seemed normal."

"Were you ever afraid?"

"No. For the most part I was excited. Who doesn't want to have the ability to protect the ones you love?"