An Extraordinary Bond by Lorian Lilsiel (hardest books to read TXT) 📕

You can’t sleep now! Regardless of whether this discussion continues, you still need to pack your things and prepare to leave tomorrow. Don’t tell me The Rising Dragons have become lax. It has always been their policy to fetch successful summoners on the 23rd, the day after the ceremony. At least start packing a bag.”

“But I don’t wanna…” Quinn buried her face in her pillow.

“You’ll regret it tomorrow.”

Quinn sighed. As much as she didn’t want to get up, she knew Kiea was right. Mealky was a good distance from Colinwood, and even though the representatives came by dragon instead of horse, Mealky’s future dragon riders had to get up earlier than most.

“Fiiiine.” She sat up and dug around under her bed until she found her old backpack. Her mother had always liked camping, but Quinn hadn’t gone in the years since she had died. The bag was a little dusty, but it was big and would work well for traveling a long distance. Quinn emptied her dresser of the few clothes that still fit, which meant pants and linen shirts like what she was wearing now. She had been dressing as a boy for so long, none of her dresses, skirts, and blouses fit anymore.

With what space was left, she packed books. Dragon Color and Its Effect on Rank, A Tale of Lief and Airia- the book she was currently reading, and of course, The First Dragon Rider- her favorite. She folded her blue wool cloak on top of it. Quinn had done a lot of research into dragon riding, and she knew that the heights dragons flew at tended to get cold. She bought the cloak in hopes of one day wearing it to ride a dragon.

“There, now I’m going to sleep.” Quinn flopped on her bed once again and closed her eyes, and, for better or worse, drifted off into one of the happiest dreams she’d ever had: Soaring across the sky on her platinum dragon.

***

    “QUINN! Blausst it where are you girl!? It’s tife for you to make dinnner!” Quinn woke up to the sound of her father yelling. Kiea had been looking through books, but jolted out of her trancelike state when she heard the noise.

    “Is he… drunk?”

    Quinn yawned and sat up, “Yeah, probably.” She straightened her clothes and got out of bed.

    “You aren’t concerned?”

    “No, he gets like this a lot, it’s fine.” She raised her voice and yelled through the wall, “COMING!” She sighed and walked to the door, “I’ll be back soon, hang on.”

    She walked down the hall and turned into the kitchen. Mr. Seabury was sitting at the table with a bottle. He looked a little wobbly, but more sober than usual, “There you are you ufseless girrll, I’m hungry and therfe’s no food on the table. Now who’s fault is that?”

    “Heh, sorry Dad. It was my ceremony today, so I was kind of tired-”

    “I know about you’re bloody teremony, just hurry up and make food. I already held off to make you fell better about not getting a damn drakon…” He trailed off. That would explain why he wasn’t as wasted as he usually was.

    Quinn messed around in the kitchen getting food ready, “But I did get a dragon.”

    She heard the sound of a glass bottle slamming into the wooden table, “WHAT?”

    “I went to the temple, and summoned a dragon.”

    “Don’k you lye to meh girl, the ifs no possible way, that you ummoned a drakon.”

    “Why not?”

    “Beckaus I said so!” He went back to drinking.

Quinn turned on the stove and started making omelettes. The milk and eggs were probably going to go bad soon, so she used all that was left, along with some rosemary from their window box herb garden.

After a about fifteen minutes Quinn put the two omelettes on plates and set them on the table, one in front of her father and the other in front of her seat. She sat down and started eating. When she was done she went back to her room without a word to her father. She knew he’d eat it when he noticed it was there.  

“That was… shorter than I expected.”

“He’s busy drinking, so I didn’t really talk to him much. It’s fine though. I made him dinner, and he’ll eat when he realises it’s there.” Quinn thought for a second, “Speaking of dinner, are you hungry?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it… I suppose I could use some food. What is there to eat?”

“That depends on what you can eat. There aren’t any woods nearby- aside from Wild Wood- but you might be able to catch rabbits or something like that in the plains. If you want fish, we are right next to the ocean…”

“I’ll find something. Go ahead and go to bed, you’ll need the extra sleep for the long flight tomorrow. I’ll be back by morning.” Kiea started to head to the door, but Quinn stopped her.

“Hang on a sec,” she went to the window over her bed and unlatched it, “It’ll be easier to go this way,” she pushed it open.

“Thanks…” Kiea jumped up on the bed and through the window into the street. Quinn watched as she spread her wings and took off in the direction of the coast.

“Well, I guess I’ll get some sleep!” Quinn flopped on her bed, barely taking the time to kick off her shoes before falling asleep with a smile on her face.

***

“Quinn, wake up. Quinn! Can you hear me? Someone’s at the door.” Quinn woke to Kiea standing over her, the dragon’s voice urgent in her head. A loud pounding noise came from the front of the house.

Quinn blinked and stared at the ceiling, trying to collect her thoughts. Once she had woken up enough to process what was happening, she sat up so fast Kiea had to jump back to avoid getting hit in the face, “The Rising Dragons are here!” The next five minutes or so consisted of Quinn scrambling to comb her hair, straighten her clothes, put on shoes, bag, and cloak, and shove a piece of bread in her mouth. After she decided she looked presentable, Quinn dashed to the door and opened it.

The boy waiting nervously on the other side of the door was just that- a boy. He wore the purple cloak of the rising dragons, but he couldn’t be older than 18. He had messy brown hair and wore a simple apprentice tunic. In his hand he clutched a crumpled paper, “Ah! Are you Miss Seabury?” His nervous face looked more relieved when he noticed Quinn.

“Call me Quinn,” she stuck out her hand like her father had taught her, “Are you from The Rising Dragons?”

He shook her hand, “Yes, my name is Nanden Bliss, I’m here on behalf of The Rising Dragons. Are you the successful summoner?” Quinn nodded, Nanden looked relieved, “Great, this makes it so much easier,” he coughed, “Do you want to say goodbye to your family?”

“Dad’s sleeping, he doesn’t like it when I wake him up. I’ll just leave a note, it’ll only take a minute,” Quinn rummaged around the multitude of boxes looking for a pen and paper. She one in the form of a calligraphy set, and scrawled a quick note to her dad.

 

Hey Dad, The Rising Dragons are here, and you’re still asleep so… I have to go! You told me not to wake you up when you’re sleeping, but I thought you’d like to know where I went. Don’t worry, I’ll still visit on holidays!

                Love, Quinn

 

“There!” She set the note on the table where she was sure her father would find it, and went back to the door, “All set! When do we leave?”

Nanden blinked, “You’re done already?”

“Yep!”

“Um, then I guess you can call your dragon and follow me. We can set out right away.”

“Okay!” Quinn turned back to the house, “Kiea, we're leaving!”

“Alright, I'll be there in a minute.”

“She'll be out in a minute.” Quinn smiled. She was so excited to finally be heading to Colinwood, she couldn't wait.

“What did you say her name was?”

“Kiea.”

“Like the-?”

“Yep! You'll see!”

Kiea wove around boxes until she made it to the front door. Nanden’s face went white when he saw her, but he kept a straight face, “I guess I did see. Well then, let's head out.” His voice shook slightly, but he maintained his overall composure.

He turned and started walking down the street, glancing behind to make sure that Quinn was following. She was of course, with Kiea only a step behind her. After about five minutes of walking in silence, the two made it to the northern- and only- gate of Mealky.

“That was faster than I expected. Maybe you won’t be a trainwreck of an apprentice after all.” Waiting for them by the gate was a stout woman in what seemed to be her thirties. Her dark auburn hair was twisted into a braided bun, her purple cloak almost completely covering her short body. She had her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.

“Gee, thanks, Yvette. I’m glad you have such confidence in me.” Nanden rolled his eyes at the woman.

Yvette ignored him and held out her hand to Quinn, “The name’s Yvette Bliss, nice to meet you. I see Nanden managed to get you back in one piece. Sorry if he was mopy or whatever, he’s just mad he got apprenticed to his sister.”

Quinn shook Yvette’s hand, “Nice to meet you! My name’s Quinn.”

“Well, we need to head out if we want to make it to Colinwood before it gets too late. Alex is waiting outside the gate for us.” Yvette turned and went through the gate. Nanden followed close behind, along with Quinn and Kiea.

As soon as they rounded the corner, Quinn’s eyes lit up. Curled up with its tail under its chin rested an enormous, emerald green dragon. Beyond it spread the vast rolling plains between Mealky and Flomon Forest. Quinn had seen dragons before- she watched kids who summoned dragons leave the temple- but she had never seen a dragon this big before. Its head alone was the size of a small horse, its eyes were closed. A large saddle was strapped on its back, and straps emulating reins curled around the dragon’s horns and neck. “Whoa…”

“Interesting. Greens don’t usually get that big. I wonder…”

“Meet Alexandra, my dragon. She’s a bit bigger than most, but that makes us perfect for transport.” Yvette rubbed between the dragon’s nostril ridges, and Alex opened her eyes.

The green uncurled her tail and lifted her head, slowly rising to stand. When Alex noticed Kiea standing next to Quinn, she immediately turned and bowed her head, flaring her wings behind her. Kiea nodded and Alex rose. Yvette shot a glance in Kiea’s direction for the first time, her eyes becoming wide. She didn’t pale like Nanden did, but it was obvious that she was filtering her actions more.

“Well, let’s get going. Come on Alex, stretch out some so you don’t cramp up.” Yvette patted Alex’s nose again as the dragon started to stretch and flap her wings slowly, then made her way around the dragon to adjust the straps of the saddle. When Alex was done warming up and Yvette was finished adjusting the straps, Nanden and Yvette showed Quinn how to climb up the rope to get into the saddle.

Quinn was internally screaming with excitement. While she had seen dragons before, she had never been on one. The saddle was very comfortable, thought saddle wasn’t really the right word. It wasn’t like a horse's saddle, where you had to straddle it. It was more like a leather bench, it had a back as well as space to put your legs in front of you, and sides to keep you from falling out. The saddle Alex wore had two rows, and each row could fit three people.

Yvette climbed the rope ladders into the saddle, got into the first