WHOS AFRAID OF LITTLE OLD ME, fourth wing

chapter one

CHAPTER ONE

Raised voices sounded through the stone corridor, she could hear Mira's voice from where she was stood across from General Sorrengail's office, waiting as her eyes stayed trained on the door.

She was glad Violet had someone to defend her against her mother, The General had decided to send Violet to the Riders Quadrant six months ago and before that Violet had be preparing her whole life to become a scribe.

The Gods knew she would be in there spitting words full of wrath if she could do so without dooming herself, the few times she hadn't held her tongue around the General it never ended well.

Her own future had been set since the day her own mother passed. The day she was born.
She's been training for the Riders Quadrant since she could walk, the path for her set in blood covered stone.

Her instructors had told her she had the strength, the speed, the agility, the quick mindedness, the mind of a Rider, but she did not feel like one. She felt like an imposter, she felt like she was pretending to be someone she was not, although Riding a dragon had always been alluring to her. The freedom of soaring through the sky on the most beautifully violent creatures.

She remembers the way her sister talked about it, what it felt like to fly, to have that bond with a dragon. The passion her sister spoke with had always caused herself to hope, to hope she could be like her sister. To be a strong rider, warrior, and to find that special bond with a dragon her sister had with her's.

She had once wanted to become a healer just like her mother, but from a young age she had realized that wouldn't be possible, not with her father, General Aaron Elysian, no, he would've sooner had her dead than watch her become anything other than a Rider.

Her older sister had told her stories of her mother growing up, including stories of her mothers healing skills, she was one of the best healers known, she was brave, she was soft but still strong and she was courageous, confident.

Her sisters voice sounded in her head as she recalled some of the stories shared.

And now, well, her father is probably watching her follow the path he set for her from the deepest pits of hell. She can picture his constant expression of cold indifference. A family of the greatest Riders it was what he had always wanted, for people to hear their family name and to tremble and shake in fear, to praise him like he was some God.

Instead he got a family cursed for death, that is what Seren believed, she had no doubt she would not be spared from that curse, that she would soon be next.

The door to General Sorrengail's office nearly flew off its hinges as the door was thrown open so harshly, Seren barely startled but blinked out of her daze, her racing thoughts fading. The expressionless guards positioned on either side around her did not even blink, that wasn't a surprise seeing as it was Basgaith.

Every Navarrian officer, whether they chose to be schooled as healers, scribes, or riders, is molded within these suffocating stone walls over three long years, honed into weapons to secure our mountainous borders from the violent invasion attempts of the Kingdom of Poromiel and their gyphon riders. The weak don't survive here, especially not in the riders quadrant. The dragons make sure of that.

Her sapphire blue eyes watched Mira Sorrengail exit the office, her expression a mask of calm but Seren could see the fury of emotions beneath her gaze.