Metal, Blood and Fire -- A fanstay dragonish story

Chapter 1- Olive

Being forced to give up your dream job and out of your comfort zone is one thing, but then dragged into the deadliest one of them is another. And the fact that this is my own mother that stuck me in this damn uniform and is currently grabbing me by the wrist, pulling me towards the field is making it even worse. 

"Mom!" I complain for the eigth time. She knows I'm not built like her, I'm thin and barely have muscles and she still expects me to survive this very muscle-based trial. That's some bullshit parenting right here.

"I will not argue with you again, Olive. You will take part of this, end of dicussion." 

I scoff. "I will die!" 

"And if you do, I will send your soul to Alios."  Of coure, the God of the Underworld. Why even bother caring about you daughter if the Gods can do it. 

"Can you at least act like you care?"

"I care, Olive, that's out of question, but I also care about our country which is currently in war. Now I'm simply sending you to this collage so you can fight for it."  And if I die at the election it was no use. It won't hurt our country if they have one rider less. Even if -IF- I survive, I will die two months later when the dragons bond. 

I keep complaining, I even try using the dad-card, yet nothing works and thirty minutes I'm standing on the fiel, surrounded by multiple soo-to-be-riders. Most of them are over 1.70m -which is my height- and way more muscular. Great, looks like I'm the only one that will die. 

Someone bumps into me and I stumble a few steps foreward earing a few glares from the other people around me. The blood rushes in my cheeks and I quickly stand up straight again, turning my head at the woman that walked into me. She's about five centimeters taller than me, her eyes are poison green and her darkbrown hair is in a messy ponytail. 

"Shit, I'm so sorry," she apologises. "I didn't look where I was going." 

I wave it off. "It's alright. I suppose you're nervous?"

She forces a laugh. "Is that so obvious?" I notice her fiddling on her finger, more specifically with the ring on it. 

"No, but I think everyone is." I smile hoping to give her some currage. 

She smiles back and streches out her hand. "I'm Kaia Grain."   Grain. Her family is the one that has to sacrifice every second kid to Etdis, the God of Freedom as an offering. They have to get tortured for five whole years.  

Hopefully it's not her, she seems like a nice person and looks thrustworthy, so I taker her hand and shake it.  "Olive Leavgrow." 

Her eyes widen -making me admire those eyes evenn more- and I know what's about to happen. "Leavgrow?" she asks suprised. "Like the Leavgrow?"

I sigh. "If you mean Claire Leavgrow, the King's assistant, then yes."  Unlike me my mom is hella famous, my name's been named in the reports about her years ago and probably only once or twice. 

"Wow, I expected a lot but this..." she points at the whole me. "I don't know how to react." 

"Is it that I'm her complet opposite or that I'm here?"

"Both," she admits. "No offense." 

"None taken."  It's nothing new that they expect something else, I'm thin and fragile, nothing like my mom. I like books and stuff like my dad, he probably didn't expect me on the fiel either. 

I am about to ask her a question about her family, but the sudden voice we all hear over the whole field makes me stand up straight again, hand behind my back and I look at General Mirow. "Welcome to Neverend's War Collage," he greets us with his friendly yet strict tone. "I think you know what will happen next. Everyone of you will cross the river and the cliff, hopefully reaching the other side, which will be the side of our building." He points behind him at it. "If you fall, you die. You are allowed to fight but if you do, please remember that you're putting your own life at risk and that you will make the number of possible riders shrink." 

A guy next to me says something to his neighbour and chuckles, the one's around him don't. He instandly stops when Mirow's dark eyes meet his gaze. Clearing his throat, he puts his hand behind his back again.

The General shakes his head and continues lookig through the crowd, stops at me and Kaia for a second longe than necessary before continuing. "If you finish you will have the opportunity to bond a dragon, if you don't, you have two months to kill a bonded rider and bond their dragon, or you can try your luck next year."

"I heard Nodocray is ready to bond this year," Kaia whispers in my ear and now my eyes widen. Nodocray is the Lord of Fire. The last time he bonded his rider tried to drain his powers so he unbonded him and then killed him. That was a decade ago. And his rider's name was Forein Blarenth, a fucking traitor and cold blooded killer.

"He recovered?" I ask, still not beliving what she just said. "It almost killed him."

Kaia just shrugs. "Apparently he has is full power back."

"With everythink said" Mirow's voice is loude again to gain the attention of everyone. He puts his feet together and holds the back of his right hand against his forehead. We all do the same at the same time -it's the sign to show respect, greet or to say goodbye. "Good luck, see you on the other side."

Out of respect we have to stay in the position until he is out of sight. Most of us watch him get on his green dragon and fly off, then chaos breaks out. Everyone runs towards the ruin of a bridge, which -of course- is wet from the rain last night.

The huff I hear next to me makes me turn around and I see Kaia crossing her arms and her extreme...hot poker face

I mentally slap myself. Now really isn't the time for crushing on people I just met nor fanatsising about them. I need to focus.

With a deep breath I follow the hot -stop it- Grain towards the stone bridge. With quick steps Kaia wlks on it and balances on the wet stones. "See you later, Leavgrow."  She smiles with that so very kind smile and I wave after her. Later or on the other other side.

"Here goes nothing..." With one hand I reach for a collar and set my first foot on the ruin, entering the election for the stupid idea of my mom.

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So this is the first chapter. You can decide if I should write about the trial or skip it. Also you can text me if you want me to add certain moments that base on smething -like a song or a moment out of a movie/series, quotes work too.

Tysm if you read it  :)

also the next chapters will be longer, I'm still learning :,)