A Dragon's Rider (Edited)

Chapter 2

Strolling into the town square, I hear a boy complaining to Hunter. "Why aren't we allowed to pack any of our stuff when she is?"

"Because," Hunter sounds incredibly exasperated "the academy has prepared for five boys. Not four boys and one girl. The uniforms will not fit her and she has no roommate! Stop complaining! She isn't complaining and she wasn't expecting to go to the academy!" I clear my throat and they both spin to face me. He looks at me for a second, dark eyes scanning my bag before he turns to the rest of the mages. "Alright." Hunter rubs his hands together. "We will be taking four dragons with two of you on each." Four dragons land right after we split into groups. I'm with some water mage. I think his name was Henry or something. Hunter doesn't say anything, just points us to our respective dragons. My group gets a cream-colored dragon with a rider who has black hair and green eyes. The dragon lowers his head and evaluates us. He snorts derisively and turns away, obviously not impressed.

Chapter 3 -

The rider introduces himself as Vlad and his dragon as Lance. He totally ignores me which is fine. He seems rude. I walk up to Lance and start petting his face. The scales are smooth and almost soft, though they are hard as diamond. Vlad glares at me before taking my hand off his dragon.

"It's not polite to touch a dragon without permission." his voice is hard and emotionless, not betraying what he's thinking. I blush lightly before nodding my understanding.

He stares for a second before turning and asking Lance's permission to get everyone up on his back and situated for the long journey ahead of us. Lance nods his large head and turns his back towards us. Vlad comes over and lifts Henry onto the spot behind the large saddle. I go up next but Vlad doesn't help me, he just tells me to get on behind Henry. Lance's back is nearly 6 feet tall, but my training takes over and I walk away from the dragon. Everyone has now stopped what they are doing to watch me.

I turn around to face Lance's back before running at it. Right as I am about hit his stomach, I launch myself into the air, twisting gracefully into a front somersault so I'm facing forwards, and land right behind Henry without so much as a wince from Lance or me. All the dragon riders laugh with the exception of Vlad and Hunter. Vlad says nothing and vaults into the saddle, much like I just did. We wait for a moment while everyone else gets onto their dragons.

Everyone is safely on and secured before the dragons start to take off. Lance goes first, beating his massive wings and jumping, his powerful hind legs bunching up and extending fluidly. He rises up a good hundred meters into the air before the second dragon takes flight. The air whips my long, blonde hair out of its braid and the strands fly in my face as I search the clouds for our town. The town is fading into the distance until all I can see is a speck of black against the ever-growing forest. Before long, that speck fades as well and I search for something else to watch. Vlad looks back at us and starts to quiz us on the villages and cities we're passing. With each village passed, we gain more dragons in the train. Hunter and his dragon, I think he told me his name was Reyna, is in the lead with Lance and the other dragons from my village following.

"What was the city we just passed called?" Vlad questions. We are all stumped for a second until the answer comes to me.

"Dragomir?" I answer.

"Correct," replied Vlad. "Who can tell me how many types of dragons there are?"

"Six general categories, with more subcategories being discovered each year," this time Henry responded.

"Good. Can you name the six general categories and five subcategories?"

"Elemental (storm, water, earth, fire, air), western, eastern, northern, and southern." I respond without thinking very hard. When I became a performer, my father made me learn the dragons by heart so I would know who was watching our shows.