Dragon Hold

Chapter 1

Long ago in the days before dragons, giants walked the land. Men and women towered above the land and built monuments that touched the sky. No one knows what happened to them or why their towers still stand, but at the heart of the Ycradian Empire a tower reaches up from the flat desert plain to part the clouds. This is where the story begins.

A sorcerer stands in the top room of the tower, clouds swirling through the long empty windows, and he prays. The gods are silent, giving no answer to the question that still needs to be asked. Should I he thinks, waiting, hoping for any answer, while his apprentice holds the horses at the tower's base. The eggs, the keys to change the fate of this world and replace it with another, lie on a massive pillar that rises from the center of the room to well above his head. Spells to free the dragons and bind them to the world of humans lie heavily on the sorcerer's mind. To cast them is treason, a betrayal to the Empire and Emperor - yet. This is no longer about the Empire, when seers say the world would turn to darkness and magic would be lost. So this is the choice: Empire, to which he has sworn... Or magic, which he lives by and for. It is no choice, really. He does what he must.

-Flee- he tells his apprentice -you will not remember this place, only that I am gone- the boy takes the horses and travels back toward the Imperial City. He will go far, and one day surpass his master. The sorcerer begins the chants to awaken the eggs and bind them for the good of all. The clouds swirl in toward the pillar, hiding it as lightning forks the sky, arching through the opening at the top of the tower to strike the eggs. Within them, tightly coiled dragons shift and begin to hatch. This is the Dawn of Dragons.

Chapter 1

Elizabeth was the fastest and strongest person her age in the village. She had won almost all of the competitions at the summer fair, losing at archery to her friend Erin and to Corrin at diving. At almost fourteen, she stood 6 foot tall in her stockings. Her hair was almost always in a braid and her face was covered in freckles after a long summer in the sun. In a month she would start learning the trade of a blacksmith, like her father, and she had the strength to show for it. Her brother, Kai, would take after their mother and learn how to lead the village when he turned fourteen, in two years. He was just a little shorter than her, with lighter hair and a more tanned complexion. For now though, they had the afternoon free from chores and learning to explore and wander through the forest. Their friends Corrin and Farrin, the baker's sons, were waiting at the edge of the Northern Forest where Erin had found a small path hidden by an overgrown bush. The two of them were blond and short, stocky almost. Farrin held a basket that smelled deliciously of fresh bread, "What did you bring?" He asked.

"Dad let us have some bacon and mom gave us a pat of butter for the bread. Can we put our stuff with yours?" Kai asked, holding up a small sack.

"Sure!" Corrin said, "But you get to carry it!" he passed over the basket. Elizabeth grinned and helped her brother put the sack in the basket. "Have you seen Erin or Rose?"

"Nah."

"Wait, I think that's her there" Corrin pointed. A dark haired girl with skin the colour of coffee was jogging over. She waved at them.

"Hey!" She was slightly out of breath, "What's going on?"

"We were just comparing lunch foods. What do you have?"

"Cook let me grab the leftover cake from the royal visit two days ago. She said dad would never notice. I just hope Tamir doesn't think to look for it." Erin flinched at the thought of her older brother. "Oh! And Rose should be along soon, her dad had her doing laundry this morning because she got caught with the chickens in the store room."