The young girl woke up shaking, she couldn't remember ever being so cold. She turned her bleary eyes to look for her mother only to remember that her mother was not there. She stood on shaky legs and hugged herself as she walked a few steps to work out the stiffness that came from sleeping on the hard dirt of the alleyway that had been her home for the last few months.
She and her mother had used to live in the Master's house, in that house her mother had left her in their room all the time but she hadn't minded. They had blankets to sleep on instead of the hard ground and a roof over their head. The Master also gave her mother food every day and she would hide a bit of it to give to her when she got back to the room. The girl would spend her days looking out the small window at the sky. They had not always lived in such a nice place. When she'd been very small they'd lived on the street just as she was now. She'd preferred the "Master's" house but she'd understood why her mother had taken her and run away in the middle of the night. The Master had begun to visit her during the day when her mother was working. He'd barge through the door and stare down at her. The fear she felt when Master looked at her was still engrained in her mind and body. He would bring a glass of a dark liquid and just stand there and stare at her as he drank.
She would never forget the look on her mother's face when she told her about the Master coming when she was away. Her face had turned whiter than the snow and her hands had trembled as she'd asked if Master had touched her. When she said no, her mother had swallowed and nodded then said.
"We're going to leave soon, don't tell anyone that we are leaving."
She'd nodded at her mother's words but knew it wasn't so easy to leave. Her mother seemed to be trying to do something before they left but she didn't know what it was. In the meantime, Master came one more time and this time he had taken her from the room. She'd never been out of the room before and with his hand clamped on the back of her tunic he'd half dragged half marched her out of the building she lived in and into a huge house that she'd seen when she and her mother had first come. It was right next to the house with the room she lived in only separated by a dying garden.
He'd taken her into that fancy house, the walls had gleamed white and clean. Gold trim was everywhere. She'd never seen a sight so grand as the endless doors and hallways so big that a horse could pass through. Finally, they stopped at one of the doors and he shoved her in.
He'd slammed the door behind her and she stood paralyzed. She felt like a fish that had been taken out of the water, everything seemed too bright and it was hard to breathe. A woman came in shortly after. She was older and dressed in a plain black dress with a crisp white apron, her grey hair was fixed in the same style her mother always wore before leaving their room in the mornings.
"Poor dear." Was all the woman said before grabbing her. After that, the woman took off the girl's tunic and then put her in a basin full of water and scrubbed her until her skin was red and tears were rolling down her face. When she'd pulled her out she roughly dried her with a cloth and then put a clean tunic of dark blue on her. It wasn't a dress like the woman or her mother wore, but it was clean and fit her better than her previous tunic. The woman had then brushed her hair, a horrible and painful process, then plaited it down her back. When the woman was done she'd been told to wait there.
After the woman left the girl had waited in uncertain terror for what seemed like forever. The light outside the huge windows faded as the sun left the sky. The door to the room opened with a bang and she'd nearly jumped out of her skin. She turned to face the door and almost collapsed in relief when she saw her mother.
Her mother had a dark red mark on her cheek and blood splattered on her forearm. Her eyes were frantic as she took the girl in from head to toe. She drew herself up and held out her hand. "Come here, now."
She'd run to her mother and they'd fled out the open door and into the night. Later her mother would comment that they were lucky to have escaped with no one catching them, even if she'd "cut the bastard up."
The girl didn't know what her mother meant, she just knew that their time in that room safe from rain and with good food was over, and somehow it was her fault.
The girl didn't know how to keep track of time very well but it had been during the summer when they'd moved into the master's house and it had been two summers later when they'd run away. She and her mother had been living in this alley since the summer. Fall had come, then winter, and now it was spring. Her mother had started coughing at the end of the winter. The cough had gotten worse and worse until the girl could barely sleep due to the sound of her mother's labored breathing at her back every night. She'd been worried to death about her mother, but her mother had assured her that she would get better soon. The girl had asked if they could find a healer but her mother said they had no money for a healer.
It had been a few days since she'd woken up to find her mother dead and stiff behind her. Her mother had been in charge of everything, getting food and making any little bit of money she could. However, since she'd been sick she couldn't do any work so there was no money. The girl didn't know where to get food since he mother had refused to let her leave the alley. When her mother left during the day or night the girl's only job was to hide herself the best she could. Now that her mother was gone, she was starving. It only took these few days for her desperation to overcome all the rules her mother had ever set for her and she stepped out of the alley and into the bustling street.
Her nose was how she found the baker's stall. Rows and rows of golden bread were stacked neatly on a rugged table. Her mouth had watered and her hands shook. Her mother had once said taking what didn't belong to you was wrong. She said the only way to get something to belong to you was to pay money for it. She had no money and no care if it was wrong. She was just hungry. Her hand had snatched a roll before she could even think. Unfortunately, the baker noticed.
Her body, weak as it was, moved before her mind caught up with what was happening and she ran. She heard him scream behind her. He heard pounding footsteps and yelling for her to "stop." She couldn't stop, she wouldn't stop until she reached her alley and ate the bread. There was only one problem. There were so many people, and she was lost.
She couldn't find her alley, she didn't recognize anything. Bodies were everywhere, she felt like a ball being bounced off of so many people. She slammed into someone's back hard. Her bread toppled onto the ground and with a wail she reached for it but someone's moving foot kicked it into a sea of other feet. Despair crashed down on her, but then she heard the voice behind her, screaming.
She stood and ran again. She didn't know where she was or where she was going, she just had to get away. Up ahead she saw a gap in the bodies and made her way towards it. Once she broke through she found herself in an area that had far fewer people in the space. Had she been in her right mind she might have noticed the people in fine clothes, the men surrounding the area with spears and swords who looked startled at her appearance, or even the table of strange shiny objects. She heard the Baker's screech behind her once again and desperately looked for a way out.
She saw it, past a table and where a few people were sitting down in fancy chairs was a gap in the crowd big enough for her to get through. She could disappear in that side of the crowd. She darted that way but her body chose that moment to give up. She tripped and instead of running around the table she fell into it. She clasped the table with both hands to keep from breaking her nose on the edge and found her vision filled with an odd sight. Something as large as her head that was white and silvery was directly in front of her face She saw it rock in its place, tipping slightly away from her but as it rocked back towards her it just touched her knuckles. Everything faded to black.
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Tate wished he were faster. There were many reasons why that girl should not touch an egg. The most important reason was that this girl could push an egg over in the state she was in. Tate would die before one of these innocent creatures died on his watch because of some freak accident. The second reason was the Emperor had entrusted him with this task, should something go wrong the Emperor would hold it over his and his family's head forever. It was the first time since he'd been appointed to his position as an instructor at the Dragon Academy that his godfather, the Emperor of the nation, had asked him to do another task. He'd be happy if the man forgot his existence entirely, but he doubted that would happen. He'd foolishly hoped that after appointing him to the Dragon Academy he'd not think of Tate ever again, but this business with the Choosing had proven him wrong.
It was too late. Glossy shell and pale skin touched and time seemed to stop. Literally, he felt like a force went out from the egg itself and he was suspended in time with everyone else. He along with the entire capital bore witness to something amazing.
The poor girl's face had at once been forcefully changed from fear to immense pain. Light bloomed from where her hand made contact and a tiny crack sprouted, the noise it made doing so sounded deafening like a mountain splitting open. His body may have been restrained but his mind was racing at full speed taking in the miracle happening in front of him. Eggs didn't just hatch for anyone, it has been a long-held belief, backed by some decent evidence, that an egg would not hatch except to one specific person. If that person never came along and died without touching the egg, it was believed the ownership transferred to a new candidate, but only one until that person died as well, and so on and so forth. There was also the belief about eggs not being able to hatch to commoners. Whether that had any merit or not it didn't take away from the fact that the crowd was held in shocked and awed suspension.
The girl was screaming but the sound wasn't heard, no sound was heard as the magic coming from the hatching egg ate all sound in the vicinity. Tate watched as the runes started searing themselves into the girl's skin. Tears were silently rolling down her face and he understood well how she felt. She was being burned alive from the inside out, she was being branded with internal fire. It was the kind of feeling that one who experienced it could never forget. The marks began at the fingertips of her left hand and slowly made their way up.
Most dragon rider marks began at the hand and ended somewhere just above the elbow. Anything higher than that usually meant the dragon in the relationship was very powerful. Tate's markings which only showed under direct lighting these days, were very unusual because they went all the way over his right eye, stopping at the place where the bridge of his nose began. He watched as the girl's marks traveled up her arm and then kept on going. He felt the breath leave his suspended body as it kept climbing past her small bicep, up to her shoulder, disappearing under her threadbare tunic, peeking out above the neckline, crawling up her neck, over her jaw, up her cheek, over her left eye, and encircling her forehead like some sort of sparking diadem.
Marks were not black like charred skin but were silvery and pale like scars and they almost glowed in the right lighting. The thought struck Tate that suddenly this unknown girl looked like a princess with her dragon-bestowed diadem.
As soon as the mark stopped moving, the egg burst. Onto the silks a pale, almost translucent dragonling was wiggling, trying to flip to its feet. As the shell crumbled and pieces fell to the ground the contact with the girl was released. Tate didn't know why but he knew what was about to happen and sure enough her eyes rolled upwards and her knees buckled. His body seemed to be released from the force holding it back at just the right moment and he finished the lunge he'd started and caught her as she fell.
He propped her onto his raised knee and tried to be gentle. The poor thing weighed nothing, she felt like air in his hands. Her tiny bones could be felt through her clothing and as he got the first good look at her face he grimaced. This child was starved, as in on the brink of death starvation. It was a miracle she'd been able to move at all, which was probably due to sheer desperation. He pushed the matted hair out of her face and estimated her age to be somewhere around eight.
The Emperor shot to his feet and bellowed down at him. "What just happened?"
The question did not require a response. His godfather stood over him trembling in rage, disbelief, or frustration? Tate couldn't really fathom what the Emperor was thinking at that moment. He could barely collect his own thoughts as it was.
"Sir?" Lou asked coming up beside him and addressing him properly for once.
Tate shook his head he didn't know what to say or do either. The dragonling took this opportunity to jump from the table and cuddle up to its new partner. The little thing was beautiful but odd looking. No one had ever seen a dragon that color before or with such wicked looking spikes down its tail. Tate wanted to examine the dragonling closer but knew it would have to wait. Lou took a step closer and the dragonling sprung into action. It raised its new and clumsy wings above its head and hissed fiercely. It snapped threateningly in Lou's direction. It tried to stand on it'd hind legs to make itself bigger but it was a brand new being after all and it wasn't used to its legs yet. It toppled back rather adorably which minimized the impact it was going for.
Tate couldn't help but smile a little he somehow understood what the little dragonling was trying to say. "Back away from my human!"
After all this had occurred, in what was really very quick succession, everything exploded. It seemed like everyone had been on mute and were all unmuted at the exact same time. He heard gasps, outrage, anger, cheering, whispers, and shouts all from different people from all walks of life.
He didn't know why this had happened or what would happen next but this was unprecedented, and unprecedented things tended to change things. For the first time in years, he felt just the smallest twinge of anticipation for what came next.