The hot sun beat down upon the people below. Logan swiped his hand across his head and flicked away quite a substantial amount of sweat onto the cobblestones below. It was the middle of the day, and summer. Usually right now he would have been swimming in the ocean and having a relaxing day on the beach.

A strained crowd of many different people were on the streets today, waiting. Everyone knew what day it was. Today was the day the elves were coming, baring the dragon eggs that were to be hatched. Many people were excited about the chance to finally touch a dragon egg, even if it was only for a moment.

Logan wasn’t excited in the least. He was bored. This was the sixth time he had come forward for the dragon eggs, and had been doing it since he was sixteen. The first time he had been excited, and the second, and the third, but now it was more for show than anything. After all, he was the governor’s son.

His mother put a comforting hand on his shoulder, “After this, you want to go swimming.”

He smiled back at her. Not many people would have suspected a woman to be ruling a city, but not many people would suspect one to be ruling a country either. After his father had died his mother, Regal, took his place. She refused to remarry, even if many suitors came for her after the death. He had always admired how strong his mother was.

He smoothed out the folds of his long clothes, which were purple in colour. They were hot and sticked to his skin, not the ideal material to be waring to a place like this.

Finally there was a trumpet blast and the crowd of people parted like a wave, cheering and yelling. The elves came through the streets silently and solemnly, as if they were board by the proceedings. Logan wasn’t surprise. They had gone through this a hundred times and were probably longing to be back at there own hometown.

There were ten of them in total. Four in the front, two in the back, and four holding the pedestal that hoisted the dragon eggs, which were draped in golden linen that reflected the sun. The elves themselves were beautiful as always. The each wore green tunics that swayed in the wind, like tree leaves. They each had a beautifully crafted elven bow across the shoulder and a delicate looking blade at their hip.

Logan wasn’t astounded by there appearance, as most would have been. He had met many elves before, for he often was forced to attend meetings at Illirea, the capitol.

The elves placed their pedestal in the centre of the market, and people quickly surrounded it, eager to get a chance to touch the egg. Regal walked over to the elves, escorted by Logan and about six guards. They nodded to her in greeting and she nodded back.

“Welcome to our hold, wise ones,” she said with a slight dip of her head.

A male elf smiled lightly at her, “Thank you for excepting us. We hope this won’t take too long.”

“We should get started then,” smiled Regal, “You may stay the night if you wish and rest for the long journey tomorrow.”

The elf nodded, “You are to kind. We will be happy to stay.”

He looked at Logan, “I assume you are the first.”

Logan smiled grimly and nodded. His heart leapt slightly as the uncovered the eggs. There were five of them, which was usual. One was deep sea green, followed by a dark blue, and a purple, a dull gold and fierce red. He quickly calmed the rate of his heart, and allowed himself not to hope. It was very unusual to have five eggs that hadn’t hatched.

“Whenever you are ready,” said the elf.

Logan walked up to the pedestal. He skimmed past them, placing his hand upon the gem like surface of the eggs. Green, blue, purple, gold and red all passed under his hands. After he had finished he looked at the elves. Silently they shook their heads and he sighed, walking over to his mother. The royal family under them was next, and then the rest of the proceedings went forward.

An hour went by and Logan felt extremely board. He watched as people’s hopes and dreams were crushed by the lack of eggs hatching. One or two of them ran away, crying. A few cursed the elves and still others just walked away in such a disappearing manner that Logan felt sick in the stomach. He looked away from the crowd and up into the sky, deciding something.

“Mother, I am going for a ride,” he said, “I will be back before the proceedings are over.”

She simply nodded, watching the unhatchable eggs. He walked away from her and towards his home. When he got to the palace he redressed into some more comfortable riding clothes and strapped his fathers sword to his waste.

He walked to the stables where his spotted grey stallion waited. It nicked in greeting as he came up to it. Patting it on the muzzle he led it out of its stable and saddled it up.

Before long he was out of the city, riding towards the ominous ridge of mountains called the Spine. It was a rather safe point in the mountains. There was an Urgal village at the top that discouraged most dangerous animals and men from living here.

A sudden roar startled both him and his horse. His horse reared crying out in terror. Logan managed to hang on and calm his horse down. He looked up into the sky and started in surprise.

There was a dragon; he couldn’t see what colour, flying above the mountains. It was big, huge even. He hadn’t seen Saphira, but he had seen Firnen once or twice and this dragon was easily twice the size of him. It roared in pain again as a fireball shot from the forest up at the dragon.

The fireball exploded on the dragon’s wing causing it to spiral down in a trail of smoke. Logan felt rage rip through him. Who would dear try and kill a dragon?

He spurred his horse into a gallop, riding towards where the dragon had landed. The horse was fighting against him, really not wanting to head towards the fearsome creature, but Logan kept it under control.

He spotted a mixture of purple and green scales through the forest, and then a fireball flew out of nowhere. It hit his left leg, the one where his sword was, and exploded.

The force of the explosion caused him and his horse to fly into the forest on the side. He kicked free of the stirrups and managed to free himself from the horse before they landed. A cackle of laughter followed as a dark figure made its way towards the downed dragon.

Logan ripped his sword out of its sheath, not realising that the ruins in the blade were glowing a fierce white light, and his leg wasn’t hurt at all. He went through the forest carefully, heading towards where the dragon was.

It was groaning in agony, and was almost sobbing. There was another sound mixed in with the groaning, chanting, in some different language.

{The ancient language!} Logan realised with a start.

He spotted the dark figure in the tree line and his eyes narrowed. That person had just tried to kill him, and was now destroying a dragon. He gripped the hilt of his sword a little tighter and leapt out of the foliage, striking his sword down towards the figure. His sword cut right through it, and the figure screeched in agony. It’s head fell from its body. The skin around it changed into dark tendrils and it disappeared.

He looked over at the dragon, which was staring at him with surprise and immense relief. Its scales were bloodied and singed in many different areas. There was a gaping whole in its left wing and one of its horns was missing. The most destructive wound however was the disastrous cut on the side of the dragon’s neck. Air was flooding out of it as well as blood. The dragon didn’t have much time left.

Suddenly something prodded his mind barrier. His sword was instantly up as he looked around for the assailant. One no one obvious appeared he lowered his sword, confused. A small whimper came from the dragon behind him. He turned towards it. It pawed at the ground with its injured leg and the mind gently brushed his barrier again.

“That’s you!” he gasped in surprise.

The dragon gently nodded its head, but even that movement hurt. Logan felt sorry for the creature, and carefully removed his barriers. The dragon entered his mind almost instantly. He gasped in shock. The mind felt so different from everything else that he had come across before.

{Thankyou human} said the gentle feminine voice of the dragon.

“Ah… you’re welcome,” replied a startled Logan.

{I don’t have much time left} said the dragon {But the shade isn’t dead and should be back before long. So I have something to give you.}

“That was a shade!” cried out Logan in shock.

{Yes, but he wasn’t after me} said the dragon {He is after this}

The dragon rolled a golden stone out from under her. It was big, bigger then any other dragon egg he had seen before. An inner light was coming from it causing the small clearing to light up golden. Logan shielded his face from the sudden glare.

{Get this egg to the elves} said the dragon {They would know how to look after it. Please}

Once Logan’s eyes had gotten used to the extra light he glanced towards the dragon again.

“I could get you to the elves, they could help,” he said.

{No!}

Logan clutched his head groaning at the force of the voice in his head.

{Sorry, but time is to short for me. You must get the egg to the elves! Before the shade comes back. I don’t know why he wants my egg but it must be fore something}

The human nodded and went to pick up the egg. As soon as he touched egg warmth shot through him. A warmth unlike any other. A warmth like the friendly raze of sun after a storm. A warmth like curling up under the bead covers after a hard days work in the rain. A warmth like that of a mother giving you a hug after something hard.

Logan tried to pull his hand away from the egg but it was stuck. A crack ran over its surface, followed by another, and another. Light shone from the cracks, before it suddenly filled the whole clearing with sunrays.

After it was gone Logan found himself sitting on the ground. Another dragon was sitting in front of him, a golden one. It was small, probably about the size of a large house cat, and it was staring directly at him.

{What? But how?} said the dragoness.

There was an itching sensation on my palm. I looked down surprised and saw that there was a golden swelling on my hand, like a bar of gold had melted on my hand. The baby dragon yelped. Strange colours filled his head like a tornado and he felt himself smile.

The baby dragon leapt at him, giving him a huge hug with her wings. How he knew it was a her he didn’t know.

{You should feel honoured} said the golden dragon’s mother {This is only the second time in the whole of dragon history that a wild dragon has hatched for someone}

He looked at her with surprise, “A wild dragon?”

She nodded, then gasped {Take care of my daughter human. Her name is to be Sashi, sunshine.}

“Wait, you didn’t tell me your name,” said Logan.

{Names aren’t important} said the dragon {Take good care of her}

With that the dragon gasped one last time and the light died from her eyes. The golden hatchling sensed her rider’s anguish and nuzzled him. He carefully stroked her.

“Don’t worry, I will take care of you,” he said to the dragon.

He got up, and the newly hatched dragon yelped with happiness. She crawled up her rider’s back and perched on his shoulder. Stroking her one last time he began to make his way back to the city.

The guards started in surprise when they saw Logan arrive back at the gate, without a horse, slightly ruffled and a golden dragon hatchling sitting on his shoulder. Wordlessly they let him in.

 As far as he could tell the line up for the dragon eggs were only about half way through. Sashi was gazing around with wide eyes. Logan could feel the immense curiosity in her head at the strange smells and sights of the city of Kausta.

As he reached the back of the line people started looking around to see whom it was. He heard gasps of surprise and many people crying out at the strange site. The elves spotted him easily. A golden dragon would stand out quite easily in a crowd.

One of the elves broke away from the platform and came to meet him. He looked curiously at Sashi, who stared fiercely back.

“Dragon rider?” he asked.

Logan nodded and showed the elf his golden Gedwey Ignasia. At this the elf was even more surprised and quickly pulled him through the crowd, to the rest of the elves. He whispered something in there language to another elf. She nodded and before long he was being dragged towards the palace.

His mother followed them, probably wanting some answers herself. They walked into a room. Sashi was getting confused at all the moving around, and was angry about being locked from the outside. She growled angrily. Logan put a soothing hand on her head.

“It’s alright dear,” he said, “We’ll be out in the open again soon enough.”

The dragoness calmed but still seemed very agitated.

“Begin with the start,” said the female elf, sitting across from them.

“Yes, I would very much like an explanation myself,” said Regal.

He felt a question form in the dragoness’s head, but she couldn’t speak so she stayed silent. Logan looked back and forth between his mother and the elf, and decided to tell the truth. He went through all that had just happened to him, including the shade.

The elf hissed with distaste at hearing about the creature and his mother looked fearful.

“And this is all the truth?” asked the elf.

He nodded, “I swear.”

The elf looked at Sashi, who seemed to have developed a fascination with Logan’s hair.

“Well then I guess you will have to come with us. Pack your things and be ready by tomorrow morning,” said the elf.

She got up and walked out of the room, leaving Logan with just his mother and Sashi. The looked at each other for a long time, before his mother finally spoke up.

“Well I guess this is good by,” she said.

Logan smiled grimly at his mother, “You’ll do okay without me.”

She laughed, “Don’t worry about me, its you I’m worried about. What if the shade comes back?”

“Then I’ll just have to fight him off again,” said Logan, looking at his dragon.

She seemed to understand him and nodded her head, yelping. His mother laughed again.

“Just make sure you don’t fall off her back, and visit,” she said.

“I will, though maybe not for a while,” replied Logan, “Once I’ve finished my training I’ll be there. It shouldn’t be that hard.”

His mother nodded, sighing, a tear in her eye. She quickly wiped it away. She stood up straight at took a deep breath, just like she did before she met with the high queen or some other important noble.

“Well son, I give you my blessing,” she said, “And know that this will always be a place of refuge for you if you shall need it.”

“Thankyou mother,” said Logan, standing up.

He embraced her in a hug, causing Sashi to squawk with surprise and fall off his shoulder. They bother laughed as the dragoness glared at them. She hopped back onto her perch and whipped Logan lightly across the back of his head with her tail.

“Hey!” yelled Logan.

His mother laughed once more, along with Sashi, “Well at least there’s someone to keep you in line.”

That night they spent packing Logan’s bags for the trip ahead, they still had to pass through a few more cities before reaching the great elven forest. Logan slept peacefully that night, despite the horror of the shade. Sashi was curled up next to him and snored soundly. She woke first, and was quick to wake Logan up with a craving for meat. First light was just coming over the hills and he knew that they would be travelling on.

All the packs were on his horses, as well as small nest for Sashi. He said goodbye to his mother and led the horses through the streets of his hometown. It would be the last time he would see this place in a long time, so he took his time.

Once he reached the gates, the elves were waiting for him. None of the other eggs had hatched. The guards let them through the gates and before he knew it they were up on the wild road off the spine, heading to Ellesmera.