My Dragon King

The Choosing

Today is The Choosing.  And I'm truly terrified.  The Choosing is a graduation of sorts.  Every year on January 1st, all of the humans who are eighteen are chosen for what they're to do next in their lives.  There are many jobs you can be drafted into.  You can be a farmer, a rancher, a water purifier, a servant, a miner, an apprentice, or a sacrifice.  

Everyone wants to be an apprentice since they live the best lives.  They get taught a skill such as sewing, carpentry, healing, or masonry for a few years, then they get to sell their skills to high-class beings and live a comfortable life.  However, only a hundred of the ten thousand graduates gets chosen to be an apprentice. 

The next desirable job is to be a rancher.  They take care of cows, horses, chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, dogs, and cats.  They raise the dogs to be sold off as guard dogs, hunting dogs, or pets.  The runts of the litters remain as herding dogs.  The cats are raised to be sold as rodent catchers and pets.  The horses are raised mainly to help farmers in the fields.  Some are bought as racers or pets too.  The sheep, pigs, goats, chickens and cows are raised for slaughter.  They remain alive so long as they can provide wool, milk, or eggs.  The ranchers monitor the animals and decide when the animals will be killed or sold.  They also provide them with food, water, shelter, and ensure that the animals breed fast enough to meet the demand.  This job has the third-highest amount of people drafted to it.  Two thousand get drafted to be a rancher.

The third desirable job is to be a farmer.  They plant tho crops, tend to them, and harvest them.  The job takes up the most people since there are subsections to farming.  Some of them are distilling, cleaning, preserving, and canning.  It's hard work, but the up side is you get more to eat than the rest of humankind.  This is the job that has the second-highest recruitment at two thousand four hundred.

The other jobs are all less than inviting.  To be a miner is not only dangerous, but unpleasant.  They work in dark, hot, small areas for precious metals, jewels, and coal.  While mining, there might be a cave-in, or a natural gas leak that causes an explosion, or a deadly gas leak that causes death.  No one wants to be a miner.  Thankfully, not many are called to that job.  Only five hundred of the ten thousand graduates become a miner.  

Being a water purifier isn't much fun either.  The natural water of the world got so polluted that most of it is toxic.  The water purifiers go in and separates water from the polluted substances.  This is dangerous work since the pollutants are often deadly when exposed to humans.  The workers have protection, but many still die from the toxic pollution.  About a thousand people are drafted into this job.

The second most hated job is being a servant.  No one knows who you'll be assigned or what position you'll get to so it makes everything worse.  Some masters are nice enough, but many are cruel and will hurt you for no reason at all.  There are also many terrible positions.  The positions possible are blood donor, kitchen servant, cleaner, personal maid, and sex slave.  This job holds the most people.  Four thousand graduates end up as servants.  And half of those servants will be dead by the next year.  But that isn't the most feared of the jobs given.

The job of sacrifice is the most feared job of them all.  Why?  Because one is given to each of the nine leaders of the supernaturals.  Once given, the nine humans are never seen again.  No one knows what happens to them but we can all guess easily enough what happens.  The troll king kills the human by ripping off their limbs and head.  The queen of the witches sacrifices the human in some magic ritual.  The vampire king drains the human dry.  The werewolf alpha bites the human and watches as he or she dies from the venom in the wolf bite.  The goblin king eats the human alive.  The fae king and queen drive the human insane and watch as their subjects kill the human.  The siren queen and the demon king rapes and eats their human.  And the dragon king.  He rules over everyone, not just humans.  No one is sure what he does with the humans he's given.  No one can guess since they've never seen a dragon since the dragon king is the only one of his kind.  We've all seen at least one of the other eight races while they abused or killed one of us, but never a dragon.  

I don't have to wonder which job I'll be given.  I'm going to be a sacrifice.  What makes me so sure.  Well, the nine sacrifices are the most beautiful of the ten thousand graduates.  And not to brag, but I've been termed the most beautiful girl in my year.  So me being a sacrifice is pretty much guaranteed.