Warriors of the Dragon

The Girl in the Shadows

Some MAJOR editing is going on with this book and the next one! I had made some decisions early on that I reversed with later decisions now that I'm working on the third book. I hope you like the changes!  Let me know what you think of this chapter in the comments. :) Thank you for reading.

A small girl ran silently through the giant, dark, looming trees. Her ornate, dark-grey dress made her blend into the scenery as she neared a solitary stone archway, the entrance to her home. Beyond the archway, a small stream from the north cascaded down smooth black rocks and came to a small pond around the roots of a large tree. The life-giving water nourished the forest and the dawn sun reached through the trees to bless the water. It twinkled in the early morning light. As she glided through the old, mossy archway, a staircase appeared between the immense trunks and twining roots. The pale grey ash-wood staircase blended into the water, the bottom step, stretching over the surface of the pond like a flat leaf. Stairs spiraled high around the single large tree in the center of the pond. She stepped across the bottom platform and ascended the staircase like a cat. After three long minutes, she came to the top onto a leaf-shaped platform that balanced on the lowest branches high up in the large tree. She gazed upon the blue-grey spires and arched windows of the city in the sky. They were built into the branches of the trees and hung under the canopy like a shadow.

The girl ran smoothly to the western edge of the city, stepping higher into the canopy to the leader's dwellings that overlooked most of the city. There, her twin brother stood petting his brown tabby Cooncat that sat purring in a branch at shoulder height.

"Sorin." She called, making him turn his blond head in surprise. "Are you ready?" she asked, making him furrow his eyebrows.

"I don't know." He said truthfully. "Are you?"

"Yes." She smiled a sharp-toothed smile at her nine-year-old twin brother.

"Sephira!" came her mother's familiar, sharp voice. "Where have you been? You were supposed to be ready at dawn!" She appeared in the doorway on the pale steps with her arms crossed over her chest which was clad in sharp-edged black armor. Sephira didn't answer, but it was clear from her black bow and quiver that she had gone hunting and she clutched the rabbits she had caught behind her back.

"You shouldn't have gone alone. I would've gone with you." Her brother murmured to her, but she couldn't tell if his mouth had moved to speak the words or not. She sighed before heading inside with her mother and laying the rabbits on a table in the entryway. Their mother was leader of their people, called 'Feuryn' in their native tongue. She had been groomed to be leader by her own parents and had groomed both Sephira and Sorin to be leader after her. It was still unclear which one of them would be chosen by the Black Council to lead and they could elect to choose someone else entirely, but Sephira knew her parents had already chosen. They'd never said it outright and neither had Sephira, but she knew she was more similar to her mother than her sweet, sensitive brother. He probably wouldn't care anyway, but she preferred them to be equals no matter what. Her mother was fierce, but Sephira had grown used to it.

"Today is an important day for you and your brother." She said, moving through the open rooms towards the upper front balcony facing the east sunrise. Sephira followed, standing in the shadow of her mother's dark form. Her mother's impossibly long hair was raven's black with braids and dreadlocks throughout. Some of Sephira's hair had been braided as well, but her fine soft hair had no dreads despite its length.

"Renaisse, I know." Sephira echoed, speaking of the binding ceremony for the dragon riders. They looked out off the balcony at the painted shadows of the leaves from the red-orange light that fell on their blue roof-tops.