Dragon Trials (Return of the Darkening Book 1) by Ava Richardson

Author:Ava Richardson [Richardson, Ava]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

16: Mountain Stories

Morning came too early for me. Seb and his stories had kept me awake, and so I rose with heavy eyes and dragging feet. We were expected to continue with our flying practice, I had to once again promise Seb that I would endeavor to see the prince.

But first I had only one thing I wanted to think about— flying Kalax!

I’d been working with Seb to try and feel the dragon’s thoughts. It pushed away any fear—but it wasn’t so much the flying that strung my nerves tight, it was the fear of falling. Putting my focus on Kalax made it better, and I’d gotten so I hardly worried about jumping up into the saddle. Today, the cadets were all practicing the skills we had learned during our weeks of training on the ground and on our fake dragons. This time, however, we would be mounted on real dragons as we glided, swooped and soared.

For me, this meant unslinging my bow and trying to hit tall targets that had been fixed onto the end of the dragon platforms on top of the walls. We were to choose moments when we would have a clear shot across the dragon’s back or neck without the dragon’s wings in the way. Our arrows were blunted, so that no stray shot would hurt any dragon. The tips were also daubed with paint, so any hit—stray or accurate—would be marked. Any cadets who shot their own dragon would be in for a stern lecture from the instructors, and a lot of ribbing from the other cadets.

To start with, it was more than awkward. My arrows kept getting caught in strong gusts from Kalax’s vast leathery wings. But the connection with Kalax that Seb was teaching me made it easier. I could feel the heartbeat of the animal reverberating underneath and through me—it matched the beat of her wings, and I tried to match my breaths and slow my too-quick pulse to match hers.

I hit the target once out of five fly-overs, which was the best that any of us trainees did. And I didn’t hit Kalax—not once. Beris, on his big blue dragon, managed to scrape the poor beast’s wing with one of his practice arrows, causing his dragon to flinch and dive, almost throwing both its riders off of its back.

By mid-afternoon we were all saddle-sore and weary. My arms ached from the effort of holding the bow drawn for the long moments it took to get a clear shot—I wanted to be able to shoot like I did on land, with fast pulls and releases. How am I ever going to get the hang of this? I thought.

As Kalax landed, Seb made his usual cooing sounds at the beast to soothe her. I just stowed my bow and arrow with the ties meant to hold them to my saddle. On a sudden impulse, I leaned down to put my hands on her warm scaly side, wishing her thanks for keeping me alive for the past few hours.

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