Please note: this is a third-draft story but is not revised.
More than a century ago, dragons and the blue-eyed Shaderi flew together. Then they were brought down by jealous men who feared their power. Now blue eyes are a curse and dragons are a laughingstock, neither seen outside of slavery.
Born a slave, her fair features mark her as a witch who is worth less than even the right to a name. He is a dragon who was raised in the arena, a life that left him unable either to fly or to breathe fire.
Thrown together by an ambitious showman, they are united by a bond as old as the legends. Together, they have a hope for something more than the lives to which they were born, if only they can learn to trust each other.
The words of a mysterious minstrel point them west, where rumors say their people live in freedom. The road there is hard, and at the end of it they find themselves a world embroiled in a secret war. This new world is ruled by a king who values tradition above all else. At every turn their new friendship is tested, and they are forced to decide how much they are willing to pay for a place to call home.
He wants to help her learn the truth of where she came from, and she wants to give him what every dragon deserves: a chance to soar.
My golden dragon was ready to fly me. You cannot imagine my excitement for the opportunity. Ailleacht (my dragon) has devised a cunning harness for me to buckle onto as she plans to push the limits of maned or should I say womaned flight. I climbed onto my dragon's back and buckled my ankles and knees down and adjusted the flight straps then immediately after signaling my dragon we were airborne. Our little island home appeared to fall way from me as we soared higher. It became a landscape in miniature. A mixed flock of puffins, guillemots and gulls joined us but were soon left in our wake as we soared higher and higher. The sea from this height appears calm and the sky clear and sun bright in a cloudless sky. Ailleacht then rolled and I was upside down as we fell like a cannon ball from the sky. I held up my hands and screamed for the joy of it and I admit to the terror. I screamed and screamed until I lost my voice and I gasped for breath. Then mere inches above the calm waters of the loch my dragon rolled me upright as we skimmed the surface. My belly felt like I was floating and weightless and I felt the spray on my face from the disrupted water surface as the powerful wings of my golden companion drove us along. We climbed again and I could see spread out before me my home and all of the Hebrides. In the distance out to sea we rapidly approached a thick band of snow white clouds and drove through them again and again rising higher. Then once again we climbed to enormous height and could find no air to breathe. We stalled in the silence of dead air and fell back to earth in a flat spin.
I must fly again
Aurelija, Dragon Rider