Silver Ribcage

Chapter One: Wake Up Nightmare

Mép awoke startled, and looked around her room. It was just a bad dream, thought Mép. She stretched her arms and slowly got out of bed, she was still wearing the shorts and tang top from the day before. Mép's room took place high in the trees, like a tree house. The entire village was tree houses connected by bridges. There were houses, bathrooms, shops, and hospitals, all above ground. The Chieftain had said the ground was full of danger. Yet nobody in the village had gone to the ground except the Warriors, dragon tamers, and hunters, whom had never spoke of real danger besides the wild Dragons. Any well trained hunter would be able to take them down without a huge problem. There were many types of dragons, some hostile, and some docile. Wyvern dragons and Mexican Amphithere Dragons often sat above the village in the trees, some of them were even domesticated because of their calm attitude towards things. Since Amphithere Dragons didn't have legs, they hung on the tree branches like bats, and usually had a good attitude toward people, even though they were very large and could just strangle a human with its tail. American Amphithere Dragons were usually a threat because they hunted buffalo, the villages main food source. Warriors often shot them down with arrows. Warriors often wore their feathers too because they were many colors, and very beautiful.

Mép climbed out of bed and looked up out the sky roof to see a Amphithere hanging from a tree, looking at her. This one dragon was always above the room every morning. "Good morning Hachiro", Mép said to the dragon. Hachiro looked as if he smiled at Mép, with a red amulet hanging from his neck. Mép brushed her long white hair then headed out her doorway. Many villagers were hustling around on the bridges, and some had a few Wyvern chicks following them. Mép approached a fish shop and handed him a few coins for some crabs and cod. "This isn't enough", said the man.

"Really? I'm only two coins off, can you let it pass and I'll pay you back tomorrow?", Mép said in an innocent voice.

"I said no, give me the money or you'll have to leave", he said. Mép looked behind him and saw Hachiro grab three cod and some small crabs with his mouth upside down and vanish. "I guess I'll have to go somewhere else then", said Mép smiling. She grabbed her money and ran back to her room, where Hachiro hanged in the doorway. "Thanks buddy", Said Mép and she took a cod from his mouth. Hachiro then swallowed the rest of the seafood whole and flew away back into the trees. Mép put the cod on the stove in her house then ate it at a small table. In her room she had a stove, cabinets, a small table, a sink, her bed, a dresser, and a rug on the floor. It was like a mini house, a tree house. Hachiro was a pretty large dragon, but Mép had never really thought about riding him. Few people rid Amphithere's because they don't like to cooperate and can't really land, since they don't have any legs unlike the Wyvern. Hachiro was a pretty dark green with bushy feathers on his head and at the end of his tail. Some Amphithere's have actually killed people, but not in this village has it ever happened. Most likely because they are kept well fed by the villagers. Stealing was against one of the rules in the trees, and you would be fed to a Cockatrice if one were to do that. But Mép's partner in crime helped her with getting food everyday from the markets.it isn't easy earning money in the village, you usually have to be a hunter, warrior, or dragon tamer to get a good amount of money. There was only one dragon tamer teacher, but he hadn't been giving lessons in years. Mép promised her parents she would become a warrior, but she didn't have any money to do so. So she would decide to be a hunter, but that costs even more money to get lessons. The only option left was to be a dragon tamer until she had enough money to become a warrior, but again, the dragon tamer hadn't given lessons in years, leaving her jobless. The only thing she had left from her parents was a diamond fencing sword, believed to be the sharpest and strongest sword, that had great magical powers to electrocute its opponents. Mép has held the powerful sword, but it didn't do anything. It didn't fill with lightning or show any sign of magic, so Mép just hid it under her bed out of the time, unsure of what to do with it. She thought of selling it, but it was what her parents gave her to inherit before they died. Recently at night for the past two months, she'd watch the Warriors training far down on the ground, and she would take the sword and copy their movements, and she got better night by night, but no lightning Magic appeared. On the handle of the sword there was dragon script on it, but nobody around the village could read it, except the dragon tamer.

Mép sighed and walked out her doorway again when she finished the fish, as she was walking she looked through the spaces between the wood on the bridge, and wondered if someone fell onto the ground they would die, cracking everything in their body. As she kept thinking about that, she ran into a man with a white beard and all his scrolls fell out of his hands and over the bridge railing. Most of the scrolls fell down, down to the ground. "Oh I'm sorry!", Mép said as her face went red with embarrassment as she picked up the remaining scrolls on the bridge. She got up and looked at the old man, who wasn't too happy. "Give me those back you arse!", said the old man as he snatched the scrolls. On the scrolls their was dragon script. "Hey you are the dragon tamer!", Mép said.

"Yea yea, and look what you did! All my precious scrolls are on the surface! Go get them!", the dragon tamer yelled.

"I'm sorry! How am I supposed to get them I can't go down their if I'm not a hunter, warrior, or dragon tamer", explained Mép.

"Ugh! Well today you are dragon tamer! Go get them!", yelled the dragon tamer.

"But I can't ride Dragons, I'm not a real-".

"You are today! Whistle for your dragon friend!", said the dragon tamer as he cut off Mép.

"Wait, how do you know-".

"I see you and him stealing from the fish market all the time! Now whistle for him!".

"Shh! Someone might hear you, okay okay", said Mép in a whisper. Mép put her fingers to her mouth and whistled. She waited a few seconds and Hachiro came out from the tree tops and flew past Mép, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a dog. The dragon tamer pushed Mép off the bridge. "Hey what are you-", she said. Mép fell towards the ground screaming. Hachiro flew under Mép and caught her. She held onto his long neck as he descended to the ground. They crashlanded at the bottom , both tumbling onto the ground. Mép slowly got up, dizzy. As the world stopped spinning, she slowly looked around, she had never been on solid ground. She bent down and felt the soft green grass between her shoes. The trees blocked a lot of the sunlight, and it shined through the branches. A few butterflies fluttered by her, and she looked at them with amazement. A few rabbits hopped in the distance, she had only ever seen them from above. And they looked different on the surface. It was all so beautiful, why hadn't people been living here all this time?. "GET THE SCOLLS!", yelled the dragon tamer from above. Mép quickly gathered the scrolls in her arms and sat back on Hachiro's back. "Okay... Let's uh... Go back up", commanded Mép as she swallowed. Hachiro flapped his wings but he couldn't lift off the ground. Mép got off him and he flew up a few feet and hovered their. Mép ran towards him and jumped onto his back, surprised she made it. Hachiro flew up slowly and Mép hopped back onto the bridge. "Thanks for getting the scrolls, I didn't think you'd actually survive doing that", said the dragon tamer.

"What do you mean? You mean I could have fallen off and died!?", yelled Mép, astonished.

"Yea I guess oops".

"That's it!? Oops?.

"Well uh, since you are pretty talented with this kind of stuff, you should come see me", said the dragon tamer as he started walking away.

"You mean lessons? Your going to teach me to be a real dragon tamer?!", shouted Mép.

"Uh yea", the dragon tamer shouted back. Mép was speechless. A smile slowly spread across her face and she laughed. She hugged Hachiro's head and squealed with excitement. "Hachiro I'm going to be a dragon tamer!". Hachiro licked Mép's face and he did that funny smile. I won't let you down parents.