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

“So, how'd your first fetching go Nanden?” Quinn heard a voice she didn't recognize and turned around. A boy with curly red hair and a mass of freckles came out of the den and walked over to Nanden, leaning on his shoulder.  

Nanden pushed him off his shoulder and punched the red head gently, “Hey Cidus. It went well. I think so anyway.” He looked to his sister for confirmation; she nodded. “It went well.”

Cidus laughed, “Well that's good to hear. My first fetch was a disaster…”

“Pfft, I know, you've only told me a million times.”

“One hundred ninety three. Far from a million.”

“You've been counting?!”

“No, but it sounds cooler when I throw out a random number.” Nanden punched Cidus again. “Ah! How dare you.” He said, feigning offense. “Anyway… Who's the lucky recruit?”

“Hehe, see for yourself.” Nanden pointed in Quinn's direction.

Cidus looked over. Quinn waved at him. He waved back. Then he saw Kiea. His mouth dropped open, he clutched his chest, and he gave a theatrical fall to the ground.

“Thanks for the warning friend.”

“Anytime.” Nanden helped him get back up.

Cidus walked over to Quinn and offered his hand. “The name’s Cidus Tollorn. Pleased to meet ya’!” He grinned.

“Quinn Seabury, nice to meet you!” Quinn smiled, and stood to shake his hand.

“Quinn huh? Welcome to The Rising Dragons.” He looked over his shoulder at Nanden, “I like this guy.”

Yvette rolled her eyes. “Yes Cidus. Now, Miss Seabury needs to go meet up with the rest of her class.”

Cidus’ eyes went wide. “No.” He looked at Quinn. “Really?” Quinn nodded. He looked back at Yvette. “No.” Yvette nodded. Cidus flushed red. “Okay then… I'll just be… over here… trying to wash off this embarrassment…” He retreated into the den with his head down.

Yvette laughed, “He's too easy.”

Suddenly, a blue blur came out of the den and tackled Nanden. “Ack!” He fell over, a blue dragon the size of a large dog sat on top of him. “Frear, I love you too buddy, but you are heavy.” The dragon jumped off and started rubbing against Nanden’s leg.

Kiea’s eyes went wide. “It's a hatchling…”

“A hatchling? Like a baby?”

“Yes. Dragons are summoned from our homeworld as adults, and usually become smaller during summoning to reduce the amount of power needed to summon us. Every once in a while, this doesn't work and a fully grown dragon is summoned.”

“Okay, and?”

“Most dragons grow again quickly, only taking a few years to become big enough for a human to ride. Nanden summoned that dragon about two years ago, yet they’re still very small. That's because they were still growing. It's amazing really, there are few hatchlings at any one time, and they are rarely summoned.”

“Huh.” Quinn looked at the small dragon. It did seem to act like a puppy.

Nanden managed to stand up. “Quinn, this is Frear. He's my blue. Say hi Frear.”

Frear looked over at Quinn, partially hiding behind Nanden as he did so. When he saw Kiea he immediately stepped out front and gave a sloppy bow.

“Haha. He's adorable. A bit of a runt, but I love him anyways.”

“You don't have to bow little one. It's nice to see that younglings still exist in this world.”

Frear stood straight again, and gave a small chirp. Then he cautiously walked over to Quinn. She held out her hand, and Frear rubbed against it, and then her leg. He chirped again.

“Looks like he likes you. Come on Frear, Quinn has to go meet her classmates. Say bye?” Nanden smiled. Frear nuzzled Quinn one last time and chirped twice before rushing back into the den.

Yvette finished getting Daefnhia’s saddle off. “You have to take her in Nanden. It's part of the whole ‘first fetch’ thing. I can't do it for you.”

“Fine. Can you get the saddle by yourself?”

“If I need help I'll just yell at Cidus. Get going!”

“Alright, alright!” He turned to Quinn. “Come on, I'll show you to where the class is meeting.”

Nanden lead Quinn out of the dragon den area and into a walled garden. Despite it being early in the year, plenty of flower buds dotted bushes and trees, and a few fully opened blossoms caught Quinns attention. She paused to stare before Nanden pushed her along towards the towering main building of Colinwood. Again, Quinn became distracted by the five stories of polished white stone until Nanden pulled her back to reality.

They arrived at the back door to Colinwood. Nanden took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door, revealing a small, simple antichamber. “Now let's see if I remember the way. These back hallways always confused me…”

He closed and locked the door behind him before leading on to the rest of the building. After a couple turns through plain, white, stone hallways, he opened a door into what had to be the main hall.

“Hah! Knew I remembered that shortcut. Now I just have to find the right room…” Indeed, the hallway sporadically broken by doors. Quinn wondered how she'd ever keep them straight.

The stepped into the hall and Nanden closed the door behind them. It almost disappeared into the wall. “Cool! There are secret doors here?” Quinn was excited by the very fantasy-adventure-esc element.

“Yep, all over the place. They're only really useful if you know where to find them though…”

He trailed off and continued down the main hall in the direction of where he thought the meeting room was.

“This is so cool!” Quinn did a little spin around to get a better view of the hallway.  

“Please contain yourself. It's not that impressive.”

“Easy for you to say! I bet you came here all the time.”

“Occasionally. The outside is the same, but they downgraded the inside so much…”

“This is downgraded?” Everything seemed so big and bright. Even the carpeting seemed fancy.

“Yes. Almost everything used to be crusted with gold, silver and jewels. I suppose at some point they ended up needing the money back.”

Quinn was quiet. She couldn't imagine the vaulted ceiling and polished-to-glowing walls ever being anything but that. It was the kind of thing that seemed eternal.

“I think this is it!” Nanden stopped in front of a fairly plain door labeled “1” with the words “Lir trenelii ilien liene rem.” carved into the wood.

“What's ‘ler trenaly ilien lean rem’?” Quinn tried to read the carvings, but she didn't recognize the language.

“Oh, that says ‘your new life starts here’ or something like that. It's in elvish. ‘Supposed to be a tribute to the founder, I think.” Nanden knocked on the door. “Hello! Special delivery from Mealky!” A girl with long black hair opened the door. “Ina, you're back already?”

“Duh, I was only up in Freama. I got back like half an hour ago. You got the successful-” she looked around Nanden at Quinn. Then she saw Kiea. She muttered under her breath, “Holy shit another one.”

“Um… Hi!” Quinn smiled, but she felt very awkward.

“Hi, I'll introduce myself later. Promise. Nanden,” she turned to him, “get her to meeting room two before these other kids see, or there will be a freakout. Two others like her are waiting already, just go.” She shut the door in their faces.

“She seems nice.” Quinn's voice was void of the expected sarcasm.

“Yeah, real nice.” Nanden's was not. “Well, come on then. Guess we're going to meeting room two.” He walked across the hall. “Normally that would take forever, but lucky for us, I know a shortcut.” He pressed on the wall and it opened up.

The walked down so many random hallways full of paintings, vases, and suits of antique armor that Quinn's feet started to hurt. She was glad Nanden knew a shortcut.

“Here!” They stood in a hallway lined with doors slightly fancier than all the others. They had stopped in front of the one marked “2”. “Ready?” Quinn nodded. She couldn't wait. “Great.” He started to open the door. “Oh, but Ms. Greenwitch is probably going to be in there, so be on your best behavior. Kay?” She nodded again. “Great. Here we go…”

Publication Date: 07-01-2018

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