Dragon Story (working title)

Chapter 1 (unedited)

I stared at the room around me, fighting back the sense of dread that came with the anticipation of waiting. All around the room people from my class sat on cushions, either reading or talking quietly to friends. I flipped back to the beginning of the book to reread the Oath of the Dragon Rider incase I would be quizzed. There were only a dozen chosen each year, and even less that survived the training.

I had spent most of my schooling in the pre program since I had shown early signs of the required magical talent. Still, there was no guarantee for acceptance. The council had to approve you, then an egg had to choose you. This usually happened in the fall around a candidate's nineteenth year.

If selected, there were only a few more tests to pass, ones we weren't privileged to know, but had guessed at. Our best guesses involved hatching the egg and raising a young dragon. We had learned them in book studies of course, but there was no hands on experience with dragons until you met your own.

The idea of further testing didn't bother me. My worst fear was the council. Most of them, I wasn't on good terms with, but every fiber of my being screamed that an egg would respond to me. Hopefully they could look past prior issues, but I worried it was unlikely.

I was a little outspoken on things...

And rules were guidelines for learning right?

I may have snuck my way into the dragon eggs keep when I was younger. It may have been forbidden. But truely, who wouldn't try? We all did at least once.

As I waited with the others, thirty-five of us all told, I found I couldn't keep up any sort of concentration. So far it had been an hour that they kept us in what was called 'the holding chamber'. The room was drab and bare. Little was here aside from the cushions we sat upon. No paintings for the pale yellow walls. No tables or chairs to fill the circular room. Just a single, though large, iron chandelier that hung in the center of the room.

The lights flickered, though not due to any wind. The flames were heavily responding to all of our magic. Us fire elementals had trouble not making the flames jittery. Keeping our own magic in check was hard enough on a good day. Sometimes I longed for an easier gift to maintain. Emotions were high, fears running rampant. At best they would choose twelve of us. Another fifteen or so would go on to the next round, another year to prove themselves and hope to be selected. The rest were cut.

I fidgeted with the edges of my robe as I sat with the three I normally spent time with. You could say we were friends - there was a sense of loyalty afterall. I wouldn't say we were besties, or that we knew each other extremely well though. With the constant ring of competition we were always reminded that the person next to us could steal our chance at acceptance into the position we wanted.

The door to the council circle opened and a rather bored middle aged man glanced passively around the room. His ceremonial robes looked baggy on him, his features sunken in. Was he getting sick? Before I could wonder too much he called out a name and someone from across the room jumped up and walked quickly over to him, and then they were gone.

"This is going to either take hours, or be over much too quick." Liza stated softly before let out a long sigh.

I watched her for a moment as conversation picked up once more in the room. "Hopefully quick." Liza added before she pulled the hood of her robe over her ebony hair

Garrett grunted. "If it's quick that means they aren't explaining anything for the next stages. Garrett's stern expression was nothing new.

I shrugged, "That's fine. Surviving this round is all I need to get through the night."

"Yeah, like-" Liza started to comment when the door opened again and all attention shifted.

A new person looked passively about the room. Her hair was in a high ponytail and she looked as if she rather be doing anything but this job. How was it we'd never seen either of these people before? She called a name, and like before, a person got up and they quickly vanished into the council chambers.