Silverglade Book 1: The First Dragon Ch.1

Instructions

Chapter 1 As the sun rose, birds sang their morning songs and shop keepers prepared their shops for customers. As light shone through the windows, Belen groaned and turned away from the windows. Suddenly there was a tap on her shoulder then another and another she groaned again and pushed the thing away. For a sec it was peaceful then suddenly something jumped on top of her. She wrestled with the sheets and the objects trying to see what it was. She was finally able to grab it and she sat up to see a vixen in her hands. Vixens were very interesting creatures that resembled a fox and cat and most of them had two tails. This vixen was female, she had only one tail, mostly red fur with black tipped ears and tail, a scarf of black fur around her neck and bright blue eyes. “Ugh Sarahee what was that for” Belen said exasperated at her familiar's audacity of waking her up. Sarahee wiggled out of her grasp and walked over to the onnock candle. An Onnock candle is a special candle that lasts for a year and people tell the time with it based on how big the flame is. Sarahee gestured towards the large flame “Shoot I’m gonna be late” Belen got out of bed and quickly changed, she grabbed her bag off the desk next to her bed and stuffed it with book after book. Once she was sure she had everything she ran out the door. She went from hallway to hallway running past many rooms and people until she came to a stairway heading down. She quickly ran down the stairs until she reached the bottom floor. The bottom floor was dark and gloomy, the only light coming from torches on the walls. Belen walked past three doors before rounding a bend to see one lone door at the end of the hallway. This part always freaked her out because barely any light from the torches reached this part of the hall causing a dark shadow to be casted onto the door. She took a deep breath and walked to the door and opened it. A purple light illuminated the hall chasing away the darkness that once stuck so heavily to the walls like a fly stuck in a spider's web. “Come in come in and remember to close the door” said a voice from inside the room. Belen smiled as she stepped into the room almost forgetting to close the door. The room was large and made out of stone with many tables and bookshelves lining the walls. Dried herbs hung from the walls, the tables and bookshelves were filled with many bottles and books. The floor was cluttered with more books and bottles filled with all sorts of items from one filled with herbs to ones filled with odd substances. “You're late, you know when you asked me to teach you I expected you to be on time” Belen looked to where the voice had come from. An older woman emerged from the shadowy corner. She had black hair with a few gray strands tied up into a bun, she wore black robes, and had deep brown eyes. “Yeah sorry Hatana I overslept”. Hatana snorted “Well you're here now so lets get on with it, we’ll start with a warm up, make a flame”. Belen nodded, she made a cup shape with her hands and concentrated. She reached inside herself and imagined the spark of magic that was always there. At first nothing happened, she concentrated harder, summoning it with her thoughts then she felt it. It sparked up more with each thought until it became a small fire inside her. She directed the energy to her hands, imagining the small green flame just barely hovering over hands. She felt the energy travel up her arms until it reached her hands and made a small green flame. Belen smiled at the familiar warmth, Hatana nodded “Now give it more energy, let it grow”. She nodded and let it steadily grow. As it grew it became harder and harder to keep it alive and stable. The flame danced in her hands warmly, Belen was starting to feel weak but she gave it a bit more energy until it was about the size of a toad. Hatana came over to inspect the flame and Belen smiled, happy with her progress. Suddenly the flame started to sputter and shrink. Belen reseled with herself to give it more energy, trying to keep it alive. The flame sputtered then it grew huge, bigger than she meant to. She gasped as the flame of magic inside her suddenly went out. She stumbled backward as the flames started to touch her skin. Pain shot up her arms, she tripped and everything went black. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Belen was floating in darkness for what felt like hours, trying to find a way out. Did…. did I die she thought as sat down, wrapping her arms around her legs. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes, What happened? Why did it go so wrong? Then she noticed something from the corner of her eye. She turned around and saw the familiar green flame