Dragon of Three Colors

Chapter 3

I heard the crowd gasp and then it went silent for a few minutes. It was so quiet you could hear the stage as it creaked under the subtle movements of the dragons. I could feel it, nobody liked how quiet the crowd had gotten. Not even the dragons who I could sense were tensed up behind us.

The Kaveva rider was the first one to break the silence. They clear their throat and begin to speak but the crowd cuts them off. It seems that once the silence was broken everyone wanted to say something at the same time.

It was so jumbled that I could only hear snatches of what was said but it all seemed to be the same thing. "This is an outrage!" "There's no way she is a rider!" "Who even let her participate? Everyone knows girls are not allowed!" These painful comments continued until I heard a voice in my head.

"Don't worry little one I will take care of this."

"Anvar what are you doing?"

"Commanding silence Nightshade. Surely you don't wish to hear this any more of this than the rest of us?"

"Certainly not just don't scare them too bad."

"I can try."

All of a sudden the Kaveva's fire dragon, that I now know as Anvar, let out a tremendous roar that silenced the crowd. Anvar's rider looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. "Thank you Anvar." I then heard another voice speak up. "People, I know your town forbids the women from being riders but a person chosen by the judgment dragon is fated to be a dragon rider."

It was the rider with purple and blue hair. She was strongly defending me. I guess the villagers didn't think much when they decided to protest women riders in front of one. She turned her head towards me and gave me a reassuring smile. "If she is fated to be a dragon rider then it will happen no matter how you try to shield her. Wouldn't it be better for her to learn everything at a good pace, surrounded by people who can help her?" She has a point and the villagers know it. A few start mumbling to each other, probably voicing opinions of agreement and disagreement.

The Kaleva rider decided to step in as well. "If she is left here and somehow obtains the dragon that she is fated for what will happen when something comes along that she would need help in handling? If she doesn't know how to do something she may hurt herself and others trying to figure it out on her own."

I'm not so reckless as to do something dangerous in the village but they do have a point. Even if I wasn't in the village when something happened it could still affect them somehow. Scaring off the game in the woods, creating uncontrollable winds, or even executing an emergency crash landing could really mess everyone up.

All of the mumbling died down except for a few people who continued to mutter unhappily to themselves. It's probably a lot of the boys who didn't get chosen as riders. They must be upset with the fact that a girl was chosen as a rider but they weren't. The rest calmed down enough to see that the riders were right, though I suspect a few were just too scared of angering Anvar again to voice any more complaints. Either way, I was relieved that they weren't hurling insults at me anymore.

The Kaveva stood next to me and clapped their hands. "Alright, so now that that's over we can continue with the ceremony. Would our two riders please step up to the judgment dragon once again?" I looked at Storm and smiled as if to say, "See? I told you we'd get in." He just smirks and rolls his eyes, understanding what I'm trying to convey.

We stand in front of the judgment dragon again and she stands up on the pedestal. "This will mark you both as dragon riders and then you may go home to pack and say goodbye to your families." We both knew what was next. We have both seen these ceremonies several times by now. We stand side by side and both hold out our right hand.