To the Eldest! - Jordan Pierce (best books for 7th graders TXT) 📗

humans killed Luna.  You need to get out.  Get some sunlight and shake the ground.  Send a warning to the humans.  Let them know that an angry earth dragon is against them.  Don’t let them kill more of us.  Don’t let Luna’s death be in vain.”

 

“We agreed to not talk about her.  I still can’t even bring myself to go to her grave.  How can I live with the knowledge that I let her die?  I let your daughter die.  The future Queen of our village is dead because of me.”  Crusher motioned me to fly to my friend.  He unfolded his giant wings and flew after me.

Chapter 3: Community With No Queen

 

We flew up and up until I felt the first wind current pushing me toward Lucia and the others. I let the wind carry me, but I didn’t feel like soaring after hearing about Luna.

 

Crusher must have noticed my somber mood and spoke as softly as he could. “She died four months ago. Luna was Cobolt’s daughter. Her mother was the Queen and she was next in line. Her mother fell sick and passed away five years ago. I was given the duty to guard my closest friend’s only daughter. It was her mother’s birthday. We were going to her grave to visit. We were flying over a meadow when she told me she wanted to land and rest. I did as she asked. She also asked me to allow her to walk off by herself. I said yes because I could see the sorrow in her eyes. I knew she wanted privacy.

 

“I had dozed off while she was alone. A commotion woke me up. I just waived it off as birds being disturbed by Luna on her way back. Then Hellhounds jumped on me. But the ones that were tearing at my scales didn’t bother me. The sight that held me captive was the three that were desecrating Luna’s body. I didn’t even hear them attack her. I made the earth open under the beasts. They were swallowed whole. I merely shook of the ones on me and crushed them."

 

"That's horrible. I thought that I have been though a lot. But watching your friend's daughter die is terrible. The blue dragon—Cobalt, was it?

 

“Cobolt.” Crusher corrected me. “He's like a bolt of lightning when he flies. And he's blue.”

 

"Okay. He never asked where I came from. But two of my friends and I come from Skarre. A village at least five days' flight away. Only the three of us are left out of the village of eighty. So many humans attacked us. My mother was the Queen. She sacrificed her life to get me to safety. Hounds that the humans use ripped her apart. I watched them tear at her wings, scales, and face. Even with the Hounds on her, she did not fight them until I was away from the village. Avary and Jinx escaped with me. Our entire village is dead. We told ourselves that we need to get everyone to safety. Humans want us gone. They're willing to kill every one of us to do so. They think that this world is theirs. We need to combine all of our forces and attack them. We can wipe all of them out… if we tried."

 

The rest of the flight was flown in silence. The wind finally lifted my spirits enough that I fully spread my wings. The familiar push of the wind against my wings urged me to push in return. The ecstasy that came coupled with soaring caused me to forget all of my worries. I knew I should look for my friends, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care about the human armies. I didn’t care about having my village destroyed. I didn’t care about Crusher flying behind me, unable to keep up.

 

I forced myself out of my fantasy and made myself scan for my companions on the ground. I couldn’t see them, but I could feel the heat from the fledglings on the ground. They were huddled in a grotto hidden by vines. Hounds and humans were patrolling around looking for them. One hound began growling in the direction of my friends. Then the others joined in. The humans let them loose and the Hellhounds attacked the grotto. Before they could breach the woven vines, my instinct took over. With the wind under my wings, I swooped low and raked my long claws across either flank of the Hound closest to my friends. Then I batted with my wings and buffeted the creatures with strong blasts of wind; the smallest ones went flying.

 

I was about to land when an earthquake shook the ground beneath me. I looked up to see Crusher smashing humans with his tail and making the earth open to devour our enemies. Our ambush was over quickly. Jinx came out first to check out what happened. His jaw dropped when he saw Crusher. He stared in astonishment for a moment before turning around to get the other two. They came out shortly after. Both Avary and Lucia were astonished by Crusher’s sheer size. The earth dragon simply chuckled.

 

“I see that you’ve never seen an earth dragon before. We are not often seen by others, but a few of us choose to live in a community. I’ve been asked to carry the injured one to my community. Our healers will try to save your wings. Come on, climb up my wing onto my back.”

 

“Thank you.” Lucia said while stepping onto Crusher’s wing. She continued when we all took to the air. “Not many dragons know what it feels like to be flightless. A dragon being stuck on the earth feels helpless. I can’t fight the Hounds. I’m weak. I feel mortal, like the humans. The only thing that is worth being on the ground is the pools of water. I can swim better with broken wings than I can with fully healed wings. The rush that comes with diving through the water mimics that of flying. There are some fish that will swim beside you. Others, if you blow air at them, they play dead and float to the surface. I swam for hours before the humans chased me into the glade where I found Jinx and the others. I’ve been on solid ground ever since. It’s making me kind of twitchy.”

 

“Don’t worry, Lucia.” Jinx said while flying over her. “You’ll fly again soon. I’m sure of it.”

 

The rest of their words drifted away on the wind as I fell back into my fantasy. The wind pulled at my soul, making me want to do tricks that I’ve never even seen before. Without thinking, I dropped one wing and flew into a spiral. Before I hit the ground, I expanded my wings and let the air catch me. My claws grazed the grass as I flew parallel with it. Then I beat my wings and flew faster, faster, and faster. I flew up above the clouds, unaware of the glares coming from Avary and Jinx

Chapter 4: Saving Her Wings

 

Above the clouds, the wind currents were stronger. I flew even faster, I flew faster than anyone. Nothing could keep up with me. No other sound was in my ears except for the wind. I finally came out of my reverie when I sensed the heat of the village. I drifted down and landed in the same cave as before. Cobolt and the obsidian dragon were sitting there, waiting for our entourage. I craned my head around to look for them. They were not even in sight.

“Where is Crusher, young one?” The black dragon asked.

“They were right behind me. I flew up and I guess I flew too fast for them.”

“Fledgling, how did you leave Crusher behind? My friend may be big, but he’s fast.”

“I have been told that I have a large wingspan. Look.” I spread my wings fully, my wingtips touching both sides of the cave. Cobolt, too, spread his wings, they were two-thirds the length of mine. Both of the other dragons stared at my wings.

“That’s amazing. You said you were only seven years old. How can your wings be bigger than mine? I’m six hundred and twenty eight years old. I’ve been to the other communities; no one has a wingspan greater than mine. But now an adolescent that is still growing has the largest wing ever. I do believe that you’ll be the speediest dragon to ever live. I now wonder what your element will be. Because you have legs, you cannot be a sky dragon; your wings are too big for being an earth dragon; no fire dragon gets as long of tail as you. I do believe that you’ve begun the process of transcending the three classes. You may be the start of a new classification.”

Cobolt’s words lost me. I stared at him, dumbfounded. “What does that mean, ‘The start of a new classification.’?”

“It means that you’re unlike any other dragon in this world. Maybe more classes will emerge now that the change has begun. It seems that Crusher is finally returning home. I can see his silhouette. Come with me. We need to inform our healers about the gravity of your friend’s situation.”

Cobolt and I walked out of the entrance cave and into the antechamber. Instead of going to the ledge, we walked into a tunnel to the eastern side of the cave. The warm air in the tunnel smelled of sickness and blood. We entered into a brightly-lit cavern where three dragons laid on stone tables. Two of the dragons had long gashes crisscrossing their bodies. The third was asleep, but her scent informed me that she was dying. She was given sleeping medicine to ease her pain. We continued walking past the infirm dragons and into a smaller tunnel. The tunnel opened into another cave, larger than the infirmary, but smaller than the landing cave. Eight dragons with white scales sat around a table. Each was eating a small deer. They all forgot their meal when Cobolt walked in. The eight jumped up and stood at attention. Cobolt waved them into relaxation.

He and the smallest healer shared some words, but I could not hear them. Cobolt stepped back and nuzzled me to stand in front of him. When I finally moved, he began to speak.

“This is Kalli. She is from a nearby village that was raided by a human army. She has a friend that has been injured by Hellhounds. Kalli, please tell