Chapter 1
[This chapter is likely to undergo further editing but I wanted to release it now anyway. I write a lot but this is the first of me putting one of my stories out there is years..I have a lot to improve on but still I hope it's enjoyable!]
This weather was awful, it was far too warm to be dressed in so many layers. The petticoat alone would have been enough to keep her comfortable for today but she wouldn't be caught dead wandering around court in just her petticoat. That would be far to scandalous, would be sure to ruin her reputation as princess of Freyhelm.
With a sigh she gripped the skirts of her pale pink dress and lifted them up high enough so that they wouldn't get caught in the fabric of her dress as she walked up the stairs to the dais. Today was a special day so she couldn't afford to be making a fool of herself by tripping up the steps, especially not in front of the crowed that was gathered for this special occasion.
This day had to go perfectly, not a thing could be out of place, if it was then she was sure to be scolded by her parents later that night once the celebrations were over. Despite being nineteen she still hadn't escaped being told of by her parents, after all, she was a princess so she not only had a reputation to uphold but anything she did was a direct representation of her parents parenting so for obvious reasons she had to be perfect in ever aspect of her life, everything had to be just right with not a single thing out of place. She couldn't afford that.
"Vexia..right on time, as always " Her mother, Queen Seraphina greeted her, reaching out and guiding her daughter towards the chair that sat to the right of her own atop the dais.
"Of course." Vexia gave her mother a small smile as she began to fan her face with her hand, this heat was unbearable. "It is such a warm day though, this heat is unbearable." She heaved a sigh, smiling briefly at a few of the guards who passed by and wished them both a good morning. They were just waiting on her father now, then they could get things moving along.
"Well not too long now, your father will make a quick announcement then the hatching will behind." It was obvious in both her mothers tone and the shine in her eyes that she was excited, it nearly matched her own. Despite complaining about the heat and wishing so desperately to be rid of this dress, she was also excited for what was to come. Today they were gathered here to celebrate the hatching of a dragon.
Everything had been somewhat rushed and planned in a hurry when the royal caretakers had noticed that her mothers dragon, Swift's only egg had began to pip. It was an exciting time to say the least, dragon eggs were rare after all since so few dragons decided to reproduce and even when they did it very rarely resulted in an egg. Well that was the case recently, there was a time when the dragons reproduced often but that was no longer the case.
This year had been different though, both her mothers dragon as well as her own dragon had a clutch of eggs. Unfortunately out of both clutches only 3 eggs had made it, the rest had all been unfertilised.
Today swifts egg would hatch so it was a cause for celebration. First they would listen to her father make his boring speech, which she would probably drown out and then they would help the new baby hatch. The celebration would likely head into the late evening, perhaps even into the night if the hatching was successful. They could only hope that it would be.
"Good morning your highness " Vexia's head turned in the direction of the voice to see that the commander had joined them upon the dias and was now standing before them, a hand placed over his heart as he leaned forwards and bowed towards the two of them. "And to you too, Commander Hawk." Her mother greeted him.
"The king will be joining us shortly." He added as he stood up to his full height, glancing at Vexia and giving her a subtle wink before walking off to stand to the left of the kings chair which closely resembled the throne that sat in the throne room.
Vexia found her eyes lingering on the Commander as he stood dutifully as they awaited her fathers arrival. Ryker hawk was a lot more than just a commander, he was the kings confidant, personal body guard and assassin, when needed. He was a Jack of all trades really and their family truly was lucky to have hired him those few years ago.
Just as Commander Hawk had said, her father arrived shortly after. Ryker called for everyone to bow to their king as he approached the dais and stood at the front, waving to all those who had gathered before his speech started.
Vexia drowned it all out, she let her mind wander until all the surrounding noise was just mumbles. Her fathers boring words lost to the wind for her attention had found something much more interesting than what he was saying.
When her eyes caught the commanders deep brown ones, she returned his wink from earlier. Earning herself a subtle grin in return which made her heart skip a beat. Commander Hawk then tilted his head towards the palace which stood tall just behind them, before it was the royal garden which was where the celebration was being held. With a nod of her head she agreed to his silent request, later though. They couldn't run off right now but later, maybe. She would need to try and get away from the celebrations first.
With a pleased smile on her face she turned away just in time for her father finishing his speech.
"Thank you all for gathering here today..now, let's not waste anymore time. I am sure you are all just as excited as we are." King Gideon held his hands out to the side. "I call forth, Swift!" His words were followed by a mighty roar that thundered across the sky above their heads. The loud beeping of wings closely following the mighty roar. Those gathered with them all gasped in awe as the queens dragon Swift came soaring down to land in to gardens behind them.
The queens dragon was by far the most beautiful of the royal dragons, her scales were so white that they closely resembled the colour of freshly fallen snow and that caused her bright green eyes to stand out against her scales in a rather intense way.
Slowly the dragon lowered herself down to the ground, her wings flapping slowly as she descended and landed just behind them in the royal gardens. Watching closely as the caretakers brought forward her egg.
The outside of the egg was the same pristine white as Swifts scales, so bright that it almost seemed to glow under the sunlight. "Let us welcome the newest member of the royal dragon family..this is swifts first clutch of the year, unfortunately the other two in this clutch didn't make it but this baby seems strong." King Gideon announced proudly as the egg was placed down before him on top of a pedestal, that was filled covered with furs.
The king took a hold of the egg and examined the large cut that the baby dragon had made with its egg tooth but it was yet to emerge so they would have to help it along. "They pipped last night so today we will help them along.." Vexia's father held out his hand and Commander Hawk handed him a blade, as soon as he did, Swift growled. A low, rumbling noise emitting from her throat as she lowered her head, eyes focused on her one surviving egg. By the way her eyes darted between the egg and her father, Vexia's knew that the dragon was fearful that their baby might be hurt, in no way would she believe that her father might intentionally harm them.
Queen Seraphina reached up and placed her hand against her dragons cheek, rubbing back and forth in an attempt to calm the huge beast who's head was ginormous in comparison to her mother. If she was to hazard a guess, she would say that Swifts head was longer than a horse drawn carriage but she was one of the smallest dragons who called the kingdom of Freyhelm their home.
"It's alright Swift, we only want to help." She whispered to her dragon whilst the King continued with the task at hand. "Your baby is safe in his hands."
Vexia could sense it too, the barely restrained rage and worry of the mother dragon who feared for her young but it was true, they were only trying to help the little one hatch. "My dearest daughter Vexia Star flare..I would like for you to do the honours in brining this dragon into the world." Her father suddenly announced, leaving everyone in a state of surprise as he turned to hand her the dagger. She accepted the blade and bowed her head slightly out of respect for her fathers request. "Thank you, father."
The blade felt heavy in her hand, the metal of the hilt cold against her fingers as she approached the egg. There was a clear cut along the top but no baby had emerged, Usually that meant the baby inside was either to weak or tired to continue to cut the egg open so cutting the egg open in times like this was now necessary. Usually they wouldn't interfere because a baby dragon who couldn't hatch from its egg could easily be seen as weak but in recent months more and more of the dragons clutches had been unsuccessful so when one finally survived to make its hatch date they were left with no choice but to intervene for the sake of the baby dragon surviving.
Not that the public knew about the amount of clutches that hadn't survived, it was kept a very close secret that only the royal family and their closest advisors knew about. So that made her even more nervous about doing this, she had watched her father do it many times but still her hands trembled ever so slightly as she reached for the egg. She could feel the warm breath of Swift against her back as she raised the knife and began to lengthen the cut that the baby dragon had already made. She could only hope that the poor thing was still alive inside and hadn't drowned in the amniotic fluids.
With a deep breath she pressed the knife into the egg, the shell was thick and tough to cut but for the sake of not hurting the baby inside she took her time and opened the egg little by little until the cut in the egg was large enough for the baby dragon to get through.
Vexia set the knife down, taking another deep breath as she steadied her hands and prepared herself to open the egg, silently hoping that the little one inside was alive and kicking. It had to be, if not then those gathered would surely be confused and desperate for answers but more importantly, Swift would be heartbroken and she didn't want that. Her mothers dragon hadn't been the same recently after loosing so many clutches in the last year. In total she had lost two whole clutches and the majority of this one. This baby had to survive, it just had to.
Suddenly a small, muffled sound came from the egg. Earning the attention of every around who had been excitedly speaking amongst themselves until that very moment. Vexia paused, looking down at the egg to see if the noice would be made again.
When it didn't she carefully pulled on either side of egg, creating a large opening so that she could peer inside. What she saw when she leaned closer was enough to bring tears to her eyes but she held them back for want of not panicking anyway as she reached inside of the egg, giving the baby dragons wing a gentle tap to see if it would respond.
Vexia hadn't expected much, from what she could see of the baby it wasn't moving or responding to having its egg cut open but inside it was still quite dark so she would need to pull the egg open to get a better look. With another tug she tore at the opening, allowing more light to flow inside. Just as she made another attempt to reach inside her hand was suddenly butted out of the way as the baby dragon emerged from the opening head first.
The crowd around them all cheered in excitement, some even shouting their congratulations up to Swift who was still watching intently, waiting for Vexia to let her baby out before she did anything. The princess gave the dragon a proud smile before returning her attention to the baby who she very carefully picked up, accepting a towel from one of the caretakers who had rushed over to help clean the little one so that she wouldn't get her dress dirty. Not that Vexia cared, she would give anything for an excuse to get out of this damn dress.
"It's a little boy." One of the caretakers announced as she bundled the baby dragon up in a large white fur before passing them to Vexia. Now that they were clean of the fluid from inside the egg she was able to get a better look at them. For the most part, the baby resembled it's mother. It had white scales and bright green eyes but there were some differences that set them apart and reminded them of who the little dragons father was. For example, she could see that there were small grey markings on the underside of his belly and on the inside of his wings, just like their father had. Right now they were just a pale grey but chances are that the colouring of the dragons scales would change as they grew. It always did.
Swift carefully lowered her head down to Vexia's level, sniffing calmly at the baby dragon in her hands before leaning in and pressing the end of her snout against the little dragon. A low rumbling sound emitting from her throat.
The princess smiled fondly at the mother dragon, "congratulations Swift." She reached out with her free hand to pet her mothers dragon on the nose, finding it incredibly difficult to hold a fidgety baby dragon with just one arm since the little one was roughly the same size as her torso despite the fact that they were just a hatchling.
"What do you want to name him? The choice is yours." Her mothers voice came from beside her, one of her hands having reached to wrap around her shoulders as she admired the newborn dragon who was currently trying to chew on the fire that it was wrapped up in.
It didn't take much thought from Vexia to choose, she always found it easy to match a dragon with a name so fortunately she didn't need to spend long ruminating on what to name them. "How about Zaron..it's a good, strong sounding name and I think that this little one is a fighter." Her mother nodded in agreement, a smile tugging at the edges of her lips as she reached out to pet the little dragons head. "Welcome to the world, little Zaron."
[Just a simple chapter to start off with, I hope to get more chapters out soon but they might take some time. Thanks to anyone who got this far, let me know what you think. Any kind tips on how I can improve would be appreciated. Thanks!]
