Today sucked.

Yesterday hadn't been so bad. I'd only been rained on and caught one of my wings in a tree. Not so bad. If I could strangle today though, I would gladly take the chance. I was already beginning to wonder if the world would seem a little better if I self-induced a concussion by banging my head on a tree. So far, my wing was sore from the tree, I'd fallen in a sinkhole, tripped over a tree root, and hadn't had any successful hunting. It was like all the creatures knew I was hunting and had decided to hide just to tick me off.

Maybe I should set something on fire.

I was starting to stalk back along the river that I used to as my navigation back to my camp, when my talons slipped. I went sliding into the river with some highly graceful yelping and splashing. Then I proceeded to attempt haul myself out of the river onto the wet sand. Of course, the wet sand didn't agree with that plan and decided it would be funny me slide me back into water. The next time I was a bit more forceful. Okay, in reality I thrashed myself onto drier sand with a lot of creative cursing and some extreme loss of pride. I stayed on the sand contemplating throwing myself back in the river and finding out whether I had miraculously learned to breath under water. Somehow I didn't see that suddenly becoming part of my arsenal, but it was probably a fair bit more effective than a concussion.

I knew this place like my own right wing. My mother disappeared of the face of the continent ten years ago. I was seven at the time. By then she'd already taught me basic survival skills and I went from there.

I'll be honest here, I loved my mom. She was kind and trusting, and very smart. Her empathetic link was very strong, which helped I think. If your curious, I'm half Emathea and half Serpentres. Color changing scales and Serpentres something or other . I also lived on the territory of a tribe I'm in no way related to. See the issues here?

I'll admit, I'm a little bitter about her disappearance. I'm also a little terrified that something could have happened to her. So I don't dwell on it. So there you go, there's the oh-so-necessary tragic back story.

I was so deep in useful thought; I almost didn't hear the approaching wingbeats. Almost. Fortunately, years of living on my own (and a large amount of paranoia) had led me to always subconsciously listening for sounds of the dragons that patrolled this area. I don't think they'd take well to a strange dragon living and feeding off their territory. I groaned and straightened myself from spread eagle to a somewhat more elegant thinking position. I let my muscles relax and the pale color of the sand and pebbles beneath me cascaded over my scales. I slowly disappeared into my surroundings. I liked to believe that all my years of never being found were because of my stealth and skills. I would guess it was actually due to the fact that no was looking for an overgrown chameleon terrorizing the little fluffies of the forest. Maybe someday the fluffies would have a rebellion and get revenge for their fallen comrades. And maybe I'd turn into a butterfly and fly off into the sunset for my happily ever after.

I've never been very patient. I was that dragonet that jumped off cliffs long before she could ever dream to fly. I leaped to early on prey and read all the books before I was supposed. I always asked the uncomfortable questions and demanded answers before my mother ever dreamed any dragonet would be considering such questions. I'm also that dragonet who broke her leg and attempted to walk the day after. If I fell out of a tree, I considered it a challenge and would be back up stuck in the branches before I even registered I fell out. This was no different. Time was moving too slowly for me and it felt like the patrol would never get far enough away. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and I thought my eye might have started twitching. I was tempted to set the lizard that crossed in front me on fire for amusement. Then I figured that might be cruel. If the lizard had bitten me, we would have been talking another story.

My wings twitched and I focused on sounds outside my own heart. I didn't hear anything. The patrol was gone. I let the camouflage melt away and get replaced by a dappled earthy pattern. It kind of reminded me of sunlight on leaves through a forest canopy. Yeah, I know, I'm such poet. Dream on.

I slid back under the trees and started off back in the direction I was heading, a little farther from the edge of the river than before. I was not repeating my very soggy and embarrassing experience. I was pretty sure this was the opposite way the patrol was headed. Well, I thought so until I was ambushed by a brightly colored flying lizard.

"AH HA!" She cried landing in front of me and throwing up leaves and dust around. "I knew I heard someone!" She was probably a year or two younger than me and a little bit smaller. If you're wondering, I'm around seventeen, a year past when I'm legally considered an adult, so to me she was still a kid. Well mostly. I was almost sure I could outfly her. Or at least give her a hard time. Well, that was until her backup landed. Three other guards. One female who was probably around her mid-thirties and roughly twice my size. I was fairly small for my age and gender. Our kingdoms are female dominant societies. In regular speak, females generally rule, and they're bigger and meaner. We grow very fast until around sixteen then continue to grow a little every year after. The older you are, the bigger. The other two guards were male. One was probably around twenty-one and a little bigger than me and the other was the oldest, he stood maybe a head over the female. They all had a moderate amount of light armor and customary spears attached to their backs. The first one however didn't have a spear and had a silver head piece that dipped down on her forehead and curled neatly around her horns and behind her ears. A familiar looking silver pendant rested on her chest. A dragon wrapped around a tree and a shining, translucent opal rested in its curl. She was bright blue with startling purple eyes and gold flecking her scales.

There went my escape plan. I glanced at the guards and quickly decided I rather not have my wings broken. I turned back to the triumphantly grinning dragonet.

"I knew it! I told them I could hear someone!" She continued her excited rant. I glanced back again (I think I was starting to develop a nervous habit) at the female guard. She looked amused. The others had roughly the same expression. Lovely. I'd been hunted down by a maddragon. She beamed at me for a few seconds before the youngest guard got up the nerve to nudge her lightly in the shoulder. And whispered something to her. Her eyes flashed and she gasped.

"Oh! Right, I forgot. You're an intruder on our land!" She didn't sound very terrifying, the terrifying thing being her small army around me. Surprisingly, she seemed to be the leader of the group, which told me not to underestimate her. Still, it was hard. She was smaller than me and very bubbly, the exact opposite of her stoic guards. She appeared as though she was expecting an answer. I certainly hoped I hadn't missed the question.

"Um..." I tried. She received another nudge.

"Oh! Uh, what are you doing here?" She sounded like she was reciting from a manual on how to question intruders.

"Um, living?" I supplied. She frowned.

"Well that's not very interesting. It would be much cooler if you were a spy. Not to mention I'd look impressive for catching a spy. Then again I guess I'd be bad if you were a spy 'cause then we'd have to kill you and I kind of like you so far." Thank the Starwings I wasn't a spy. "I mean; you haven't run away or attacked anyone or anything. But this makes it all difficult. There's no definite answer on what I'm supposed to do with now."

"Maybe let me go?" I asked. Never lose hope. She grinned at me and it was one of those contagious smiles that made it hard not to grin back.

"Nice try," she said. "But sorry, that's not the way it works. I won't kill you though, so don't look so worried. I actually have to get orders from higher up on this one. So we're going back to the palace to talk to my mother!"

"Is your mother like head of security or something?" I asked hopefully. I was kind of hoping she wasn't who I thought she was.

"Nah, my mom's much more interesting than that old bat. My mom is the queen herself!" I thought I might pass out for a moment. There were black spots around my vision and I think the world may have tilted a bit. I was certain I was going to die. If this dragonet didn't kill me, her mother certainly would.

I'm not stupid. I know what tribe I'm living in and I didn't want to face the queen of the Skarborrow Tribe. Anyone stupid enough to do that was either not expendable or had a death wish. I was neither.

"Uh oh. It's not that bad! I swear! She hardly ever kills anyone anymore! It'll be fun!" Yeah, when pigs sprout gills and swim like dolphins.

******

When I was feeling less like fainting, we took off for the center of the kingdom. Of course there were several villages around the outer edges of the territory, and more and bigger ones as you worked your way deeper into the forests until you reached the capital city where the palace was located. I had occasionally ventured into some of the small outer villages, and a few of the bigger ones for supplies, trading, and updates on some of the latest news.

One thing I had always marveled over with all Skarborrow villages I'd visited was how incorporated they were to their surroundings. They were literally built into the forest. Vines grew everywhere and tree were parts of buildings. Something else fascinating was that almost nothing was built from wood. Most building I'd seen were made from stone, probably harvested from the singular nearby mountain. The Skarborrow Tribe didn't really work hard to camouflage their villages, although it seemed to happen anyway. Most tribes wouldn't challenge them anyway, one of the great strengths of the tribe was how united they were throughout the kingdom. They were well organized and had well trained soldiers.

"So, what's your name? I'm Celebration by the way!" The dragonet called over her shoulder to me as we drifted high over a small village in the middle of dense forest.

The wind rushing past us in flight made it hard to hear unless you yelled. "Prime!" I called back.

"Unique!" Well, that was one way to put it. I have no idea what possessed my mother to name me Prime.

With attempt at conversation ended, my mind returned abstract thought, bouncing from one thing to another. Finally, it settled on Celebration.

Celebration was strange. She didn't seem hardcore enough to be queen. Then again, what do I know? I was a sarcastic pain in the tail, I didn't seem all that clever or like a survivalist, but I was anyway. Almost every dragon has some hidden aspect to their personality. There must be something that would make her a great queen, I may just not see it right now. Although, I still doubted she could ever challenge her mother.

Her mother was named Riot, a somewhat fitting name considering how she rose to be queen. Riot was in her mother's youngest, and last, clutch of eggs. Riot was always smart, cunning, and fierce. She didn't take anything from her siblings, no matter their age. Almost all amongst the royals knew she would rise to queen one day, whether it was by challenging her mother, or a sibling who rose to the throne, she would ignite her challenge eventually.

To everyone's surprise, she challenged her mother at what seemed like the worst possible time, an unusual move for the clever princess. She challenged her mother in the middle of a war.

The Skarborrow Tribe had been losing, the kingdom was divided, and dragons were upset and afraid. Riot had seen the unrest among her tribe. She was certain she could do better than her mother, so in the heat of the war, she publicly challenged her for the throne. Riot came out the winner of the vicious fight. Riot pulled the kingdom together and fixed everything she had believed her mother was doing wrong. Doing so, she quickly turned the tide of the war, finally resulting in the Skarborrow Tribe's win of the war. Riot was a great political and military leader, and a great queen. No one was going to mistake her for a queen of only brains. One of her acts that brought the people of her tribe was closer was that she led many of the battles herself, claiming that "She wasn't going to force her soldiers to fight in a battle she wouldn't fight in herself." She also made the large capital city and palace much more open to regular citizens, allowing them to feel more welcome and cared about by the higher residing dragons. She rebuilt cities and focused more on the care of her people. Most of her dragons would die for her. She was, in all, a great queen that most tribes would think twice about before challenging.

Celebration titled her wings and started angling down in front of her, the capital city had appeared, rising out of the forest to meet us, with the palace at the center. Upon landing inside the gates, the other three guards were quickly dismissed by Celebration.

"Come on, follow me." Celebration said, giving me a cheerful smile that was probably supposed to make me feel better. It failed.

I was sure dragons like me had been found before, and probably considered racing out after they got somewhat deep into the palace and their guard was distracted. I quickly saw why I had never heard of this happening. The inside of the castle was practically designed like a maze.

Whoever designed the inside layout was either a genius, blind, or a two-year-old scribbling on her father's architectural designs.

The castle itself was filled with carvings, tapestries, or paintings on the wall. Precious metals had been inset into some parts of the wall to create designs and some paths had metals inset into the floor in the shape of talonprints, creating a path. Flowers grew all across one stretch of wall, and vines covered another. In one spot the vines twisted together into a scene. I assumed they had been enchanted.

Overall, it was highly impressive and quite beautiful. My wings twitched slightly as we approached a large set of double doors. The room inside must have been somewhere around the middle of the castle. Two guards relaxed outside, one was female and probably a few years older than me and a fair bit bigger, and the other was roughly around my age (maybe a year or two older) and male. They were playing a game with cards, the female seeming relaxed and confident while the male was deeply focused on his cards (and probably losing).

Surprisingly, Celebration slid up to the female and peered over her shoulder to see her set of cards.

"Hey Wisp, who's winning?" She asked.

Wisp, the female, who was a pale green with white lacing through scales responded. "That would be me!" The male frowned.

"This is no fair; I always lose to her!" He complained. He was a deep blue with silver lacing through his scales.

"Aww, it's okay, I'm sure I'd lose to you!" Celebration tried comfortingly. She then moved on, talking to Wisp in a quiet voice. I shifted uncomfortably, as the male, being left out of their conversation, turned his eyes to me. They were a bright, deep blue. The kind of blue that made you get that terrifying feeling of falling in and abyss, or that the world was being drowned around you and you couldn't move.

The staring contest was interrupted when Celebration declared we were going in now, and Wisp and the male pushed the doors open, then closed them behind us.

The room wasn't massive and didn't have much in it. It was decorated with flowering vines on the wall and a spiraling pattern made of inset precious metals and gems swirling across the floor. Against the far wall was stone throne (some back part of my mind wondered how that could be comfortable). Various papers, books, and things were placed neatly around it. Curled on the throne was Queen Riot.

Queen Riot was huge compared to me. I didn't know for sure, but I was pretty sure she was over one hundred. I think she took the throne around thirty years ago, she was a very young queen then and was still far from old. Her scales were black and blood red splattered across them. Her eyes were the same intense blood red color. A few scars were visible and she wore the same pendant as Celebration. Lean and trained muscles shifted under her scales. Despite that, she was lithe and elegant.

Riot looked up as we entered. Despite her relaxed muscles and posture, I was sure she was ready move at a moment's notice. Her eyes became slits, they had a light gleam of curiosity in them. I could practically feel Celebrations excitement skyrocket, and her nerves for that matter.

"Mom, this is Prime! She was living inside our territory.... uh, how long?" Celebration faded off, her voice was happy and excited, like she had made a great discovery.

"My whole life." I was proud my voice wasn't shaking.

"Her whole life, and we didn't find her! You have to be at least seventeen!" She switched to address me.

Riot shifted forward looked like she was analyzing me more thoroughly. After a second she responded. "Your point?" It wasn't sarcastic, it was more like she was trying to get Celebration to admit something.

Celebration shifted, looking a little humbler. "Well... I know we need a champion, and obviously she's smart and a great hunter. I'm guessing she's probably fast and I quick learner, I bet she could learn to fight if she doesn't know how to already...." Celebration shot me a quick apologetic look for speaking like I wasn't there, and for unknowingly dragging me into this.

I was in complete shock; I wasn't even the same tribe as her!

"Excuse me?" I said. Riot looked amused.

"Sorry, but, well.... we need a champion and no one's been willing to step up and-"

"I-I I'm not even in the same tribe as you!"

"Well, technically you are if you were born in our territory. And since we can't prove you weren't born here, you could totally qualify! Plus, wouldn't it be better to live here than out there hiding from every dragon you see?" She gave me a pleading look. Her mother, amused, didn't seem surprised about the reason her daughter dragged me here.

"Celebration, that's enough. I think you've surprised her enough for one day." She changed to address me. "I'm sorry, my daughter's a bit excitable, especially when she gets what she thinks is a good idea in her head." Celebration made and offended noise.

"Key words, what she thinks is a good idea." Celebration grimaced and turned with me to face the new voice.

The dragon resembled Celebration physically, but taller with a wirier build. He was deep green with Celebrations same piercing eyes and dark purple splattered across his scales. He was probably a few years older than me and roughly my size (maybe a little taller). His tail whipped back and forth, his eyes were thin slits, and his voice was taunting.

I heard a deep growl in the back of Celebrations throat. "Who..." I barely got to start my question before she spat out an answer.

"That's Venom." I saw something flash behind her eyes, it could have been emotion, or an idea.

"Bringing in more strays?" He taunted quietly as he passed her, probably so Riot couldn't hear what he said. I saw Celebrations jaw tighten and she dug her talons in the ground. I was rather offended at being called a 'stray'.

"Let me guess, you think you've found our new champion?" He was still speaking to Celebration.

"And let me guess, you 'talked' to Wisp." Celebration spat. Her sarcasm on the word 'talked' made her assume Wisp was less than willing.

Riot was watching the exchange with mild interest, she clearly didn't have any intention to stop them. She looked more like she was waiting to see whether they would try to kill each other.

He shrugged, looking somewhat smug. "Maybe." I honestly thought the other guard would have probably talked to him, but apparently not.

"And to answer your... question," she spat the world out like it tasted bad. "Yes, I do think I found our next champion!" She sent me a worried glance. She was risking her pride challenging this dragon, who must have been pretty important or something since Riot didn't look like she felt like destroying him for talking to her daughter that way. Celebration was risking a lot on bets on me, a dragon she barely knew. It was kind of heartwarming. And a little terrifying.

"I don't think she's fit to be champion, I'm not even sure she can fight." His gaze had turned to me. He was flat out challenging me. It was a dare, if I thought I could be champion, I'd have to prove it to him.

Dragons have our own kind of code. If you want to prove your metal, you take anyone who would challenge you. That was one way to earn respect.

Venom currently had his back facing me. Turned toward Riot although his gaze was transfixed on me. I could almost read Riots expression. 'Well? What will it be? Are you going to try to earn the title?' I had a choice, I could defend myself and Celebration, or I could take the easy way out.

I surged forward, claws extended. My claws scraping down his back, he yelped and turned tail, sending me crashing into the wall. Leaping to my feet, I raced towards him, Venom reared up on his hind legs. Not smart. I thought, sliding down onto my back and slashed his legs out from under him, his jaw smacked the floor and his teeth clacked against the stone with a hollow thud. Spinning to my feet, I saw that he was already in the air. His claw flashed in front of me as he swerved overhead. Pain exploded from my back as his talons tore through the flesh along my spine. Blood splattered onto the floor, making it slippery. Into the air I when. Yet he had disappeared. "You think you're a champion?" his said. His voice all around me. Bouncing off the walls. My breath was heavy and ragged

"I'm more of a champion than you'll ever be..." I was suddenly yanked out of the sky as he pulled me down by my soft belly scales. I was dragged beneath him, his teeth latched onto my throat making my screams warped beneath the blood which I spat onto the queens painted floor. Using my hind claws, I shoved him off of me. I jumped to my feet again, but to my dismay he was gone from sight again. Celebration's cheers had grown quiet and the normally bubbly dragonet's face was stricken with grief and terror.

"More of a champion? You can barely stand!" Claws tore through my shoulder making my arm go limp flapping my wings in order to stay balanced. I turned seeing only air. "Your weak!" Claws ripped through my hind leg "Foolish!" across my muzzle. "Disgraceful!" Down my other shoulder. My snout smacked the ground as I fell. Every part of me was hurting. Venom landed in front of me, spirals of color disappearing from his scales, replaced by purple. "And above all else, alone." I growled and snapped at him, anger filling the holes of pain.

"Aww, not giving up are you? Come on then." He vanished again and I was on my feet. Where was he.... There! a twisting lump of color on the wall. Venom leaped and I caught him midair, my claws sank into his throat and his body was thrown to the ground. In a second I was on top of him, my teeth claw lengths away from his throat when a voice called out to stop. I crawled off him and sat on my haunches. My body rearing from the pain.

The queen had called a halt. She was watching us with unreadable, blood eyes.

"I think you've both had quite enough for today." She said. "Prime has more than proved she has the traits of a champion. The both of you should head the healers. Celebration, I trust you'll show Prime the way. As for any other preparations, leave them to me. Now go before one of your passes out." with that, the conversation was at a clear end.

Venom whipped around and stalked out of the room. If looks could kill, I'd have been struck dead by lightning or something he was glaring so hard. The ground shifted a little, and there were shadows at the edge of my vision.

"Nuhhh...." I groaned.

"Okay, let's go." Celebration said, leading me out with one wing.

We left the same way we came in, and I made note of the fact that Wisp was missing and that the other guard was resting, eerily calm, in the same place he had been before. He watched us as we passed, doing a double take when he saw my condition. We rushed past and down the corridor.

As soon as we were out of hearing range, her original personality bubbled to the surface.

"I can not believe you did that! That was AWESOME! Not a lot of people would challenge my brother, let alone win! Prime? Uh, Prime? Wait, AHH-" I had stopped paying attention after 'Brother'. For probably the third time today, I nearly fainted. Except this time I went staggering sideways towards the wall and Celebration had rush to catch me before I went slamming into something.

"Your brother! Why in the name of the Starwings didn't you tell me he was your BROTHER!!!! Holy Starwings, I attacked a prince!"

"Um, actually he's the prince..." Celebration said not so helpfully.

"MY HEAD SHOULD BE ON A STAKE RIGHT NOW!" I earned a few stares from passing dragons for that one. Celebration tried to quiet me, and I was busy ignoring her and hyperventilating.

"It's fine! See? Your alive, not on stake, and you really need to get patched up before you bleed to death or something!" Celebration said, leading me away carefully as I tried to remember how to breath.

I was never going to live this down. Kill me now.

******

Queen Riot watched as they left the room. She dismissed the gawking guards, but not before stopping one and ordering him to bring a dragon in. Riot was going to get a room and training time arranged for Prime, but she had to deal with this first. The dragon entered, bowing lightly.

"You know that's not a custom for you," She said.

"I know, but your still my queen and I believe it's only right you show you the proper respect. " He said, straightening. Riot gave him an amused look.

"I'm sure you saw the dragoness Celebration brought." Riot said.

"Of course, why?" He added, tilting his head like he always did when it was curious. It was an odd habit she'd noticed over the years and she wondered where it developed from. His brother never did it. Then again his brother was... troubled to say the least.

"That dragoness is our new champion. She defeated Venom in match and managed to remain undetected by patrols for eighteen years." He looked impressed.

"And you want me to protect her?" He guessed.

"Yes, I want you to not only protect her, but guide her. She must be ready in three months, and the same thing that happened to Hope must not happen to her. For all its worth, your best dragon we've got to protect her. I know you've been busy with your brother," Riot stood up and walked to him. "But please." She pressed something in to his talons, a necklace she would later tell Celebration to give to Prime. It bore the symbol of the champions. He glanced down at the necklace, knowing what she meant.

"As you wish, my queen."

A/N:

Hello! I know basically no one is reading this yet, but maybe it'll get there. Anyway, yeah here's the first chapter. Pretty boring so far but work with me, there's some plot building going on. Well, the fight scene isn't boring, but heres the important part about it... I DIDNT WRITE IT! My best friend in real life wrote for me, shadowheartartist . Thanks so much, Feather! Also, about Primes mother, that's not just for dramatic effect I swear. Something actually has happened to her but you don't find anything out about it in this book in the series. This chapter is being a pain about being published, so I want to throw my laptop across the room. This is why I prefer my kindle and the app... This is also my first time trying first person PoV, I usually do third, how'd I do? Feel free to comment or anything. By the way, I'm so proud of this chapter! Before the authors note it reached 4947 words, thats nearly 5000 and one of the longest chapters of anything I've ever written. Let me know if it's to long, but until then I'm going to try to make sure all my chapters are at least 4000 words. Also I think I'm going to try update on Fridays maybe. How would that be? Also, no, there will not be an authors note every chapter. Probably. Anyway, thanks for reading and if you skipped the note, I don't blame you. Anyway,

Allons-y!

-Crimson