A/N I'll be updating and editing this constantly, so it'll change slightly over time. Not drastically, and the main story line will not change. Please, if you like the book, could you vote? Thank you for reading!
A cloaked man on horseback stood at the edges of a feebly burning battlefield. Smoke curled into the warm summer night air, thick with the smell of blood. The four men at his side reared their horses next to his.
"They're all dead?" The cloaked man asked.
"We're not done documenting them, my Lord, but we've searched everywhere and couldn't find a sign of one," a man at his right said.
"Search every cave, burn every nest, I want them gone!" snarled the man. He gave his horse a kick and trotted toward the charred remains of a huge reptilian skeleton.
"That’s one more for the books."
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"That'll show the brutes."
A boy, almost eleven, with a rusty dagger hacked at the bones in the field.
"Theodore!" I called anxiously. "Any remains we find, we're supposed to report, remember? Come on, I'll tell father." I twisted the folds of my skirt around my fingers nervously.
"Oh, cheer up, sis," my brother said, breaking a rib bone off of a skeleton with a sickening crunch, "now that the dragons are dead, we can return to our homes! The king will even provide the funds to help us build the most badly burnt ones."
"But what if we get into trouble? Please, Theo, just go tell father, he'll know what to do!"
Theodore held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright! I'll get him, you wait here."
And with that, he ran into the burned forest and out of sight. I sighed, and kicked up piles of ash. I walked over to a particularly large ash pile, hoping it was a rock to rest on, and brushed off with my hand, only to recoil in horror. Another dragon, but this one was not as charred as the others, it still had skin, but it was bright red and the magnificent beast was clearly dead.
I took the edge of my dress, and uncovered the whole thing. It was lying protectively over a slightly smaller dragon, with its wings stretched around the second. It was pair of adults. I was hit with a pang of guilt.
Nothing has ever deserved to die like this. Nothing will ever deserve to die like this.
I walked around the dragons, tears streaming silently down my face. I examined a wing, full of holes, and scorch marks.
When father comes I want him to see this dragon in all of it glory. I want them to understand how horrible this is.
I took the left wing and slowly spread it out, tripping over things hidden by the ash. Then I went round and started on the right. This one was impossible, wrapped under its mate's body, it would probably take one hundred men to move, and then some.
My arms sore and my feet aching, I looked desperately for something to sit on, anything but the ground. I finally found a small boulder, it was about the size of a football, it certainly wasn't the most comfortable, but then it moved. I jumped up with a yelp and probed the moving specimin cautiously.
It was gray, and lumpy, anyone would mistake it for a rock. But rocks don't move. Unless...
"It's a dragon's egg," I whispered.
I picked it up and turned it in my hand, rubbing my ash-smudged fingers over it. It was very heavy, and I could feel a tingling sensation running through my whole body. In the distance, I could hear the pounding of hooves. Father has come.
I turned my back and shoved the egg under my dress. It looked very awkward, but my father doesn't question much.
"Althea," he called through the smoke, "are you alright?"
I straightened up hastily, wiping the tears from my face.
"Yes, father, just a little scared."
I'll say," he replied, dismounting his steed and prodding the dragons with his foot, "they are gigantic! Theodore, why did you leave your sister here, she must have been terrified!"
Theodore hung his head. "I'm sorry, father."
"I'm fine," I interrupted, "may I go home now?"
"Yes, Theo go with her."
"But father-" complained Theo.
"I can go myself, if Theodore wants to stay."
My father looked at me closely.
"What happened to your dress?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, nothing," I said, "I just don't want it to get to dirty."
I looked down at my soiled dress.
Worst excuse I've ever made.
"Okay," my father said doubtfully, "go ahead.
I smiled and ran toward her village, the wind at my feet, clutching the precious dragon egg under my dress. When I was out of sight, instead of taking the dirt path that veered right, to my village, I went left into the forest.
Before the dragons came, I had a safe haven in the forest, a small rock shelter, with a gurgling spring running by. It was my place to be alone, where I could think clearly, and play with my tiny fairy world I made from the sticks and leaves and berries. But that was over two years ago. When I returned to it after all that time, I could barely recognize it, so overgrown with weeds. I took the egg from under my skirt and placed it on some dry wood. Taking two sticks, and vigorously rubbing them together, until I eventually got a fire going. I stepped back, satisfied with my work. Hopefully this will keep the dragon warm enough so it will hatch. Mother dragons breathe fire on them daily, and keep glowing coals around the egg, so I wasn't even sure if it will last the night. But I gave it my very best.
And that is how I found the last dragon.
