Fairytales: Short & Sweet by Derr Megan

Author:Derr, Megan [Derr, Megan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Dragon Rider

A/N: Written as a birthday present for the marvelous London <3

—–

Hob was sober.

Absolutely, completely sober.

He was also happy, damn it. Fucking cheerful.

He was not drunk and utterly miserable because he had failed to match with a dragon and so was the only one with absolutely no reason to celebrate whatsoever. Again. For the third time. And there would not be a fourth, because if he hadn’t been wanted at eighteen, twenty-one, and twenty-four, no dragon would want him when he was twenty-seven.

No, instead he was drunk as hell and stumbling around in the dark in search of dragonberries because the Seneschal had felt sorry for him and sent him out for them, and even though he’d really just given Hob an excuse to slip away to bed Hob was getting the fucking berries. Anything was better than being a castle full of happy dragon riders and dragons and being the only rider sitting alone.

He sniffled, and told himself it was the cold making his nose run and his eyes water. Stumbling along the path into the woods, he tried to think where the dragonberry bushes were located and then admitted he just didn’t care.

So he walked, and walked some more, fervently hoping he managed to get lost or fall down a hill and break his neck.

Instead, he found the dragonberry bushes—by falling right into them and scratching himself badly all over on the nasty brambles. Swearing, he tried to get out, but every time he moved he just seemed to make it all worse.

He yelped as something grabbed him, froze as a voice growled, “Hold still, you sod,” and stared at the figure barely visible in the dark as he was finally pulled from the bushes and spun around. “You’re a dragon.”

“You’re drunk,” the dragon replied, still a growl in his voice. “What in the hell is a bloody rider doing alone in the woods in the dead of night, drunk as a sailor and clearly three times as stupid?”

Hob flinched, all his misery returning. “Yeah, dragons seem to have a low opinion of me tonight. Every night. Sorry to disturb you.” He pulled away and turned around, then walked back the way he’d come—or, he thought it was the way he’d come, but didn’t particularly care.

He wondered idly why a dragon was alone in the woods, but figured it really wasn’t his place to ask anymore. He was a dragon rider who had failed to match in the last three broods, which meant he was no longer really a dragon rider.

It made his chest ache, left a ball of sick misery heavy in his stomach, made him want to cry like a little kid and drink until he passed out. But he’d finished his stolen bottle of wine halfway to the woods, and he was well and truly lost.

He yelped as he was grabbed again, and bellowed in outrage as he was spun around and thrown over the dragon’s shoulder, then hauled off like some maiden kidnapped in one of the comedies put on every summer by the travelling performers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.