The Trials of Ascension ~ Chapter Ⅰ

Instructions

The links to the next and previous chapters are always in the N&C! S T O R Y 400 years later (than the prolouge)… A draganet is curled up in a window seat, her pale orange-yellow scales glinting in the sun. She fidgets with her golden sun medallion while she reads a scroll. She looks up as an older dragan enters the room. “Hi, Sunrise!” greets the older dragan. “Dusk! You’re back from boarding school!” Sunrise cried with excitement as she threw her wings around the dark red-orange dragan. “I missed you too,” chuckled Dusk. “How have you been?” “Fine. We've been learning about the Trials in school because they’re this year…” Sunrise trailed off as she looked outside, trying to remember exactly what she had learned. “Oh, yeah!” Dusk said, shaking his head. “We learned about it too! Just a little bit though. Too bad I’m a boy…. I would love to be ruler, in that fancy castle!” he joked. “Dusk!” Sunrise gasped in mock shock, and she poked him with her wing. “The High Queen’s job is very important and diplomatic!” Dusk laughed. “What have you learned about the Trials? Same old stuff?” “Yeah, pretty much.” Sunrise sighed. “Every fifty years, the twelve tribes send 5 female draganets between ages 10-20 to participate in the Trials, the winner becomes the next Great Queen after battling the current one, blah, blah, blah.” She perked up. “Do you remember the Trials?” “Um…. no.” Dusk said after some thought. “Not very well. Besides, I’m not that old! But, I remember a little bit. I was only like, a few days old, but every family has one of these gold cube things. Ours is in that chest.” He held out his hands in a sort of cube shape. “They project screens that you could watch, and they have footage of every Trial of every year. Our parents were watching it. I think they are animus-touched. Anyway, I remember the Trial that I watched was simple: The draganets had to figure out how to get out of a cave a few hundred miles underground. They all made it, except one draganet was hurt by a cave-in.” Sunrise’s eyes shone with excitement as Dusk scratched his head. “I don’t know why our parents don’t watch the cube anymore...” “Wow!” she breathed. “I can’t wait to watch it!” Dusk pulled out a package from the bag he had. “Here. For your birthday.” “Oh, thanks!” Sunrise smiled. “I forgot it was today… I’m turning 10!” She opened the present with excitement. It was a note. “Go to the gardens.” Sunrise read. She skipped out the door and flew over to the family’s garden. A small golden cage was hanging in an alder tree. Sun gasped. “You didn’t....” She rushed over to the cage, which was covered. “It hasn’t seen a dragan yet, so it’ll bond with you!” Dusk smiled. “You did!” Sun gasped and took the cloth off the cage, revealing a sparrow just big enough to perch on her shoulder. “Yeah, but it’s only a sky shifter, mainly birds. Its original form is a hummingbird. And don’t worry, even if it does eagle or something, it can’t get more than a little bigger than that.” Sun laughed and let the bird out of the cage, and then held out a hand. The sparrow landed happily on it, and then shifted to a cute baby chick. Sun laughed. “I’ll call you...Tifón! That means squall in the old language, right?” Dusk nodded, but he was more serious. “The Day of Selection is tomorrow,” he told Sunrise. “You could be picked…” Sun poked him. “In that case, we should have all the fun we can have today!” They went to all of Sun’s favorite places: the bakery was first, of course. The bell on the door tinkled cheerfully as the two walked in. The owner of the shop smiled at them as he took their order (honeyed cakes and two tarts) and boxed it up. Next, they went to the fountains, which were a trio of fountains that flowed down a short cliff as waterfalls, into a large, shallow pool with a sandy bottom and all sorts of fish, coral, and animals in it. Sunrise and Dusk swam for a while and then went to the gardens, where they admired the monument of the peace treaty between all of the tribes. ....(continued in N&C)