Leo floated in the darkness, assaulted by flashes of a life that was not his own. He saw mountains, jagged and sharp as teeth, rise up before him. Green trees loomed over him like giants, and he saw a shattered eggshell, its contents long gone. He felt a piercing loneliness, as if he had been alone for all time. He saw himself growing up, from a helpless hatchling to a young adult dragon. He survived in the wild, fending for himself against predators and the elements. He faced the dangers of phoenixes, unicorns, griffins, and other mythical beasts. He fought, he fled, but he was always alone and wary. He felt a mix of emotions that were both familiar and foreign, animalistic and wise. A lifetime of struggles and joys passed before his eyes as he floated in the black void. He wondered if he had somehow lived through them, but he knew they were not his memories. They were too emotional and intense to be anything but memories. They belonged to another creature, a dragon.
He felt his jaw drop in disbelief as he witnessed the latest vision. It was a scene he knew well, for it was his father who appeared in the black, climbing a hill with a large, shaggy dog beside him. His dad’s expression changed from shock to awe to fear as he realized what he was facing. He saw a small war unfold before Leo’s eyes as four wyverns attacked the tired, wounded dragon. The dragon had been running for three weeks from a pack of hunting griffins, only to be cornered by these ruthless hunters. They had finally tracked him down and were battering him with blasts of wind, creating a cage to trap the dragon. Leo was stunned as the magnificent, steel-scaled dragon erupted in a fiery dome that surged towards the bonded wizards and witches. Leo’s parents, hiding on the edge of the ridge and observing the fight, barely escaped the explosion but two of the wyverns and their riders dived down and sliced through the fire, using their own bonded magic to counter the wild burst. The dragon stood up on his hind legs and roared as two stone pillars tore out of the ground and smashed together, catching a wyvern in the hind leg. Leo watched as the leg went numb and the creature hovered in the air, shrieking in agony. The rider also grabbed his own head as the pain tore across the bond and into the man on the other end.
The dragon had been dragged to the wretched city, where it had been dominated by the five in their tower. Every day, as the dragon healed, it faced a crowd of teenagers and adults, each trying to bond with the beast. Each one had recoiled at the first sight of his burning, amber eyes and had the smell of arrogance about them. The dragon had scoffed at each. Leo sensed that the creature would never bond if it had the choice, even if that meant being limited in power and growth. Every time the dragon had lowered its guard, it had been met with betrayal or disappointment. How could one of these people, raised in luxury and abundance, ever comprehend the slightest bit of struggle the dragon had endured? That thought struck a chord deep within Leo, seeming to echo down to the essence of his being. He too, knew the struggle, the fight to earn every bit of freedom and opportunity within Aneham’s walls. The resentment at being looked down on just for being born into his circumstances. The sheer frustration at times, feeling like the world and its rules were rigged against him at every turn.
No, Leo could relate to this being, maybe not fully, but he felt a connection with it. Often he would leave the house in the morning before his grandmother was up and about, and might not get much time with her by the time he came back home at the end of the day. With his parents being gone on expedition after expedition, and with how hard Leo and his parents worked each day just to get by, often facing unknown dangers, he felt a tiredness deep in his bones. Often he would gaze up at the sparkling stars in the sky, wishing for a change of fate. For a new chance. He was lucky he at least had his family and Charlie, this dragon had had no one.
A cold bucket of water drenched Leo’s face and he jolted awake, gasping in shock. His body felt stiff, as if he hadn’t moved it in several days. At the same time, Leo felt a surge of energy coursing through him, rejuvenating him with each passing moment. Shaking from the chill of the water, he looked around trying to find the source, but all he heard was the slamming of a door and pitch black engulfed him. Leo pulled himself to his knees and crawled around, trying to figure out where he was but only felt rough, cold, wet stone beneath his hands. A moment later, a small panel on what Leo guessed was the room’s door, slid open to reveal a man’s eyes. Leo squinted at the dazzling beam of light that pierced through the gloom of his room, his vision slowly adjusting as the man opened another panel and slid food in towards him.
“Where am I? What happened? Why am I in here? I can explain about being in the Grounds past dusk! I forgot my watch, please come back!!” he shouted as the man simply walked away without a word. Leo looked at the lonely tray in the dim ray of light and fell upon it with sudden hunger. The meager food, a hard biscuit and a small bowl of slop, filled his stomach as he devoured it trying to ignore the taste of the slime he was eating. The biscuit followed the substance down like sandpaper, and Leo felt a pang of thirst for water to wash it down. Looking around and finding none, his eyes fell on the tilted bucket the guard had used to splash him awake. Crawling to it, he lifted it and saw a small puddle of water that hadn’t fully spilled out of the bucket. Sighing in relief he gulped it down and leaned back against the wall, trying to figure out what had happened for him to be treated so cruelly. He knew walking through the tower entrance that he might be caught and thrown in a cell, but to be handled so roughly was completely beyond his expectations. The only source of warmth in the room coming from the watch on Leo’s wrist, he glanced down and looked at the dials. Four days? Leo saw the dial for the days of the week had moved four notches since he had picked it up from the bench that night in the dungeons, and suddenly his stomach rumbled again. Feeling a jolt of pain as hunger and thirst swept over him, he once again felt that surge of energy emanating from his chest, washing over him in soothing waves and pushing back the hunger and thirst.
The blackout, the strange memories that had flooded Leo’s mind as he lay dormant in his coma, the amount of time that had elapsed. All of these events swirled through Leo’s head as he tried to grasp what reality was telling him.
Leo had bonded. And, if his intuition and memory was right, it was to an ancient dragon. The dragon his mom and dad had been talking about.
“No, no no no…” Leo sat there in utter disbelief, rejecting what his gut was telling him was the truth. If this was true, Leo had basically snatched one of the rarest chances from the Five Families themselves. A heavy dread settled over Leo as he realized this was why he was locked into such isolation. He could only hope he would be questioned eventually, maybe there was a way to break a bond, undo it. Leo had never heard of such of thing, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible. But did Leo want to be unbonded?
He could recall the countless nights dreaming of such an opportunity, a chance to prove himself worth more than the city slums. To achieve some degree of greatness that actually mattered to the world, and not just as a tracker or house servant to some unpleasant family. And now, he had just that chance, even if he was locked in a cell for the rest of his life. He, Leo Cassemir, was a dragon-bonded wizard. A deep pride and excitement surged through him, helping to overcome his shock, panic, and despair. Then and there, Leo pleaded with fate to get him through whatever came next, and to allow him this chance to prove himself as one of the greats. Time passed at a slow crawl to him as another day passed with no contact from the outside world. Leo knew his parents and grandmother must be frantic and trying to find him, and hoped they would be able to sort this out. As another day passed, Leo was jolted awake by his cell door swinging open and a pair of guards walking into his cell. Roughly pulling Leo up, they cuffed him and escorted him out of the room and into the bright hallway beyond. At least, it seemed bright to Leo, but there was only a scattering of torchlights, magically enchanted torches, attached to the walls. The guards pushed Leo down the hall at a fast pace, half dragging him as he stumbled behind them feeling weak from the lack of food and water. He kept feeling that revitalizing magic pulse through him as the days had crept, which had helped combat the lack of nutrition, but even that had been having a limited effect as of late. Leo felt as though he were half asleep as the guards pulled him up a winding staircase and into a large room with five grand chairs perched around a lowered dais. He looked at the five chairs and the people sitting in them through a blurred vision, having a hard time focusing on what was happening around him. Leo felt a jolt of pain as the two brutes threw him onto the sunken floor. He knew this was the moment of truth, the moment he would face the judgment of the Sinu lords for his forbidden act. He tried to get up, but his body was too weak and weary from the ordeal. He collapsed on his hands and knees, barely able to lift his head and meet the eyes of his accusers.
He never imagined he would end up here, on trial for bonding a dragon. He felt a surge of fear, loneliness, and despair, but also a flicker of defiance. He had always worked hard and endured the scorn and contempt of others. He had always dreamed of something more, something better, something magical. And he had found it in his dragon. His bondmate.
If they wanted to imprison him for that, so be it. But he would not beg for mercy or apologize for this twist of fate. He would face his outcome with dignity and pride. As a wizard. As a dragon rider.
“Leo Cassemir, you are brought before us today to be sentenced to death for the illegal bonding of an Ancient Dragon. In the name of the law, what say you to negate these charges?”