Dragon Riders

I jumped when I heard somebody pounding on my door, sounding like they were trying to bust it down with just the sheer force of their knocking. Stumbling out of the bed I scrambled to the door and jerked it open. “Hello?” I asked the girl on the other side as I withheld a yawn.
The girl’s pale face transformed into a wide smile a second before she jerked me into a crushing hug. “Oh thank goodness! I thought you were dead! I’ve been knocking on your door for at least five minutes.” She told me before she released me, a deep blush covering my face. “I’m Stacy by the way! I’m a new recruit to, but I’ve been here a day. More people will be coming over time but for now me and you need to report to the Hatchery!” She said not taking a breath before she shoved her way into my room. “Oh good, they’re all this bare.”
Blinking at her back for a couple of seconds before I snapped out of my trance. “Oh, sorry about not waken’ up, Mother always told me I slept like the dead. And I’m Royse, let me get dressed and we can go!” I told Stacy before I rushed over to the closet and grabbed one of the outfits. “Did you get these to?” I asked, noting her normal dress.
Stacy’s head snapped away from where she was looking out my window to look at the outfit before her mouth fell open. “Oh geeze! I should probably go put that on! I totally forgot! I’ll meet you in the main room thingy!” She yelled already half way out the door. My walls shook with the force with which she slammed my door and a genuine smile tilted my lips.
Changing quickly I shimmied my way into the pants, which were black and skintight, a small bright red skirt draped from my hips to mid thigh. The top was an equally tight black op that was tightened to fit with red lacing on the side. Next I pulled on a set of chest and shoulder armor, which was still tight, but allowed me usual movement. Heavy black boots that were padded with medal between layers of leather, they reached up to above my knees. A belt went around my waist with a long holster draping down my leg.
Walking into the bathroom as I braded my hair I glanced in the mirror and gaped at my appearance. I looked like one of the Riders.
Moving out of my bathroom I opened the door and headed to the main room, where I could see a similarly dressed Stacy waiting me, her blond hair loose around her shoulders. When she saw me her blue eyes lit up and she strode over to me, eerily quite despite the armor and weight of her boots, now that I thought about it, I was nearly silent when I walked as well. “Don’t we just look fannnnnnccy!” Stacy cooed before she grabbed my arm and started dragging me to the stairs. “I’m so excited! We’re getting our Dragons today and we look like we could kick some serious ass.” She said as we started thundering down the stairs, the burgundy rug even more impressive in the light of day. In fact the whole house was beautiful.
A large Chandelier hung above the stairs and was visible when I looked over the edge of the stairs, the railing of which was carved with scenes that all contained Dragons and their Riders doing heroic feats.
All of the landings were the same, with the only exception being that they looked slightly more lived in than my floor. The bottom floor seemed even larger with light shining through the giant window that hung above the doors. The light shined off the blaring yellow paint, making the room look as if the sun itself was in the room.
Stacy, however ignored all of the wondrous sights and instead dragged me through the opening I had seen earlier, which turned out to be a really long hallway. “So the Hatchery is super easy to get to, as in I stumbled upon it yesterday, which was when I got here by the way.” Stacy told me as we reached the end of the hallway, which ended in a curved glass door.
Through the door I could see Dragons of all sizes moving about, their lizard like bodies graceful. The different shapes and sizes of the Dragons twisted around as different types filtered across our limited range of view. A loud noise had us jumping and turning to our right, where we belatedly noted the presence of an office.
The woman who stepped out was squat and motherly, with long white hair pulled into a bun, her lively green eyes were surrounded by wrinkles that showed a life well lived. Her clothing was similar to what Stacy and I wore, and despite her age she seemed comfortable in the clothes, and they looked comfortable on her. “You two must be the new recruits! My name is Jenna Mackinaw, you can call me Jenna. I’m in charge of the Hatchery, and there fore I’m in charge of helping the recruits get their Dragons. Now, all you have to do is go in there and walk around. Don’t worry, my Louisa won’t let anything happen to you, and the little Dragons will be interested and might as you questions, but they wont try to claim you unless you’re theirs. Any questions.” It wasn’t a question and after two seconds of silence she turned to the glass doors and hauled them open. “Well, go on, get in there.”
Stacy seemed a little to shocked to move, so I was forced to the take the initiative and stepped through the door. Immediately Stacy stepped behind me a second before the glass door slammed shut behind us, causing, what seemed like, thousands of Dragons’ eyes to turn in our direction.
Stacy latched onto my arm, her fingers digging into the only part of my body that wasn’t covered by clothes and armor. Figuring she was going to be useless while she was nervous I stepped forward another step. “Um, hello!” I called out, not quite sure what exactly I was supposed to do, Jenna had just told us to wonder around.
There was a long silence where nothing happened before a powder blue Dragon the size of a Clydesdale fluttered over to us. “Hello!” The Dragon’s voice boomed in my head, and from her tensing, Stacy’s as well. “You’re human’s, human’s are cool! I would introduce myself but I don’t have one yet because I don’t have a human yet.” The young Dragon rambled.
I smiled at the childlike acting of the obviously young Dragon as I looked up at it. “Well it is very nice to meet you! I’m Royse and this is my friend Stacy. We’re very new at this so I’m afraid we’ll have to ask you to take pity on us while we navigate.” I said sighing with relief when Stacy released me to stand beside me.
“I’m Stacy, and I’m very sorry about you not having a name, how do you identify eat other?” She asked.
Another Dragon fluttered over, this one an electric green one who was long and slender. “We have names, just not names that human’s can pronounce.” She said, her voice sounding snotty.
Stacy seemed to have the same opinion as her nose scrunched up. “Well, excuse me!” She said trying to keep her tone from being obviously snooty.
“That’s enough, children.” A frail voice called as a large burgundy Dragon rambled over. Wise brown eyes regarded Stacy and I as the Dragon’s stuck a forked tongue in our direction. “I apologize for them, now you two should just wonder around, your Dragon will find you.” She told us before she turned and rambled away.
Glancing around I noted that a lot of the Dragon’s had wondered back to doing what they were doing before our arrival, but our two inquisitors were still present. “So, would the two of you like to show us around?” I asked, noting that they weren’t planning on leaving us anytime soon.
The blue Dragon lit up before he started walking around, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Stacy and I were still there as he gave us the grand tour around the Dragon enclosure.
“And this is the Nesting space, where we sleep, I think it’s empty but I can check really fast! We wouldn’t want your Dragon sleeping through your visit!” He told us before he jumped into the sky, his thin wings seeming to struggle to keep his weight off of the ground.
He flew in a random pattern for a few minutes before he was forced to dodge quickly to avoid a stream of flame that was shot at him from an occupant of the nest. My jaw dropped in shock. Despite many myths fire breathing Dragons were rare, and the fact that there was even one here was amazing.
The blue Dragon seemed unperturbed by the hostile actions of the other Dragon and continued to fly about above it, chirping at it until a set of large wings could be seen above the high nesting material.
With my attention focused on what the blue Dragon was doing it took Stacy multiple tries to get my attention, and when I did finally turn to her it was to see her tangled up with a long thin purple Dragon who was twining around her. “About time! Royse, I would like you to meet my Dragon, who I have yet to name!” Stacy told me, her entire body more at ease, her smile wider.
Smiling at her I moved to congratulate her when I saw her grin slip slightly at something behind me, and her Dragon twined more tightly around her as if to protect her. Tensing up as a loud thud sounded behind me, I slowly turned and looked up, and up, and up.
The Dragon behind me was large, seemingly full grown, and a was a gold so dark it seemed almost bronze. Small horns rested atop its head, making a crown, while to large horns curved out from the back of its head. Bumps traveled down his pointed snout and glowing green eyes peered down out me.
I felt my mouth drop open as the beauty lower it head till it was at about my level. “My Human,” He declared in my head as smoke blew from his nose to brush my face. His large head nuzzled gently against my chest as he let a low rumble sound in his chest.
A rush of pure joy shot through my chest at my Dragon’s declaration before I moved my hand to one of the bumps on top of his head. The small scales that covered his face were slick and soft the touch, the color looking more like a dirty gold up close than the dark gold that it appeared when far. However, when my hand came clean I conceded that the color was truly his, and seemed to fit.
“Good, you’ve found your Dragons, sometimes it takes people forever!” Louisa said, rumbling up to us. “Head back to the front door, and please remain on your feet for the time being, you’re untrained and a test flight now would only get you seriously injured. Now go on, Jenna is expecting you.” She told us, sparring a quick look at our Dragons before she moved away.
There was a long awkward silence before Stacy gave an excited shriek and grabbed my arm, hauling me after her in the direction we had come from. “Oh my gosh! Do you realize what this means?” She asked me as she all but dragged me through the hatchery.
Feeling my forehead clasp as I tried to figure out what this could possibly mean I turned and glanced at the Dragons who were following us, Stacy’s Dragon making sure to leave a lot of room between her and my Dragon. My Dragon seemed to not care, and responded to me. “I have no idea what this means.” He told me, his voice lazily content.
“Umm, no, what does it mean?” I asked noting that we had made quick time across the Hatchery when I saw the glass doors come into view.
Stacy gave a heavy sigh. “It means we didn’t just get lucky, we’re actually supposed to be here!” She cheered stopping in front of the door and inspecting it, trying to figure out how to open the door that lacked a knob.
Blinking at her words a rush of relief flooded me, she was right! This wasn’t a mistake; I had a giant Dragon following me around to prove it.
After a couple of seconds the door in front of us swung open to reveal a grinning Jenna. “Good, good, come along out of there you four. Time to get the bonding out of the way so you can be on your way to learn to fly!” She cheered stepping aside and opening the door wide enough that the Dragons, or more appropriately my Dragon, could rumble through after us. “Oh how wonderful, a new attack team and doctor team, we’ve been running low on those, everybody being defense and the like!” Jenna said perkily as she watched our Dragon’s waddle out of the hatchery.
Confused at her words I remained silent as she turned to face us after closing the hatchery doors. “Now for the bonding. It’s quite simple really, you have to give your Dragon a part of yourself, literally, and they do the same!” She chirped.
A horrified expression painted itself on my face. “Wait we have to like give them a toe or something?” I asked, watching as the same expression covered her face.
“No of course not!” Jenna said, quick to reassure us as she held her hands up in a ‘whoa’ position. “What happens is you take one of their scales, and replace it with a fake one that contains a lock of your hair. It is painless I swear! You just have to have a part of each other, so that you can find each other and understand each other better.” Jenna told us as she pulled a piece of leather cord and a slim black thing out of her pocket.
Watching her move towards Stacy’s Dragon I winced when she pulled one of the lavender scales from her chest. The Dragon seemed not to care as Jenna quickly strung one of the cords around the scale till it was held tight inside. Next she moved and tied the string around Stacy’s neck before reaching up and clipping a blond curl out of her hair. She opened the slim black thing and slid the lock inside before she moved back to the Dragon. Her body blocked my view of what she was doing, but when Jenna pulled away there was a black scale seemingly embedded with the lavender.
Jenna repeated the motion with my Dragon and I, settling the dark gold scale against my chest before she sniped a small bit of my hair off of my head. Once she was finished she stepped back and admired her handy work. “There, now, you four head off to the training grounds, feet on the ground the whole way. Also, be thinking of names for those beauties, having a name will help you bond.” She told us as she moved towards a large door and opened it.