He began as if it was a story he'd heard passed down not one he'd read. Tate didn't summarize it, he told it like a true storyteller.
"The man named Boumont was born into a time of chaos. Man and dragon were separated into different groups of nomadic peoples scattered across the realm from the sea to the veil. The largest of these groups were called the Tiylin People. They were a tribe that only kept and bred fire-type dragons. The other tribes had dragons as well, and of varying kinds, but they were nothing to the large quantities of bred fire types.
Boumont was born into the tribe of the Lyan People. In those times a dragon human pairing was not hindered by noble blood or common blood, such things did not exist in the first place. The only stipulation to being allowed to touch a dragon's egg was to prove that you were one of your tribe's strongest. For this reason, female dragon riders were rare but a few did exist. As for Boumont, he was born sickly and small. Both his older brothers hatched dragons at the ages of fifteen and twelve but Boumont was not even invited to try for the honor.
It was well known to the people of that tribe what sort of person Boumont was destined to be. The only thing such a child could be to a nomadic tribe was a burden. Luckily one of Boumont's brothers was kind to him, whenever the tribe moved locations he would allow his little brother to ride his dragon Rashavar with him.
This worked out well until one day they were attacked by a smaller enemy tribe on their way to their wintering grounds. During this attack, Boumont's brother did not join the fight because he carried Boumont with him. Instead, he fled, but he and Rashavar were chased down by the enemy dragons.
When there was nothing else to be done but turn and fight the brother and the dragon Rashavar did so. In a smooth move, the brother had deposited Boumont onto the ground while also turning to face the enemy.
Boumont's brother and Rashavar did not live long after. Boumont was terrified and weak as he searched for his tribe. After a while, the enemy dragons disappeared from the skies but so also did any dragon he recognized.
When he finally located his tribe it was to find that he was one of six survivors of the massacre. All the warriors, all the dragons, and all the dragon riders had been lost. All that remained of the Lyan Tribe was himself, three elders, a female baby, and a disabled warrior.
In grief and despair, the six found a way to carry on, for a while. The elders having lost their families in just moments and already being in poor health seemed to wither away in front of Boumont's eyes. The girl child was just an infant, he nor any of the survivors knew her name or who her mother had been but she was only a few months old and required someone to do everything for her. Boumont and the veteran took charge of this and took turns. This veteran's name was known as Kyi, he was not a dragon rider but had been a core member of the tribe's warriors until he'd injured his dominant arm making it useless.
The elders all passed away on the road, and the remaining three were so far behind schedule that they did not make it to their traditional wintering grounds in time. The cost was that they were stuck on a path where there was little to eat and what was available was hard to get. Kyi couldn't hunt with a bow or a sword and Boumont wasn't strong enough to wield either. They had to rely on crude traps for game meat and luck to stumble across any edible plants on their way. The worst part was the baby. She still needed a mother's milk but there was none to be had. They made do by feeding her what they could that was soft but she was nearly starved just as the other two were.
At one point all seemed lost, Boumont's weak health overtook him and he was wracked by pains and fevers. Kyi had no choice but to stop and make them a fire to wait it out. Snow fell all around him as the disabled man managed to build them a crude shelter. Boumont would remember the sounds, in reality, there was the sound of a squalling baby desperate for food and affection, in his mind there was the chatter of the lost tribe, his lost family. At one point he even thought he saw them in the smoke rising from the fire that was made.
Kyi was in such despair at this time that he would one day confide in Boumont that he had seriously considered whether or not it would be a mercy to kill both of them and end his own life right then and there.
He'd been on the point of doing so when Boumont's fever had broken and the baby had stopped crying and fallen into a deep sleep.
Somehow, by some miracle, the trio did eventually make it to the wintering grounds. The traditional hidden village was of course empty, but there were leftover supplies waiting that had been left from the year before, hidden in a cave.
Once they had their hands on these meager provisions they were able to survive. Somehow they made it to spring, but they did not try to move to their traditional hunting grounds. Summer and fall passed too and the three had made a home for themselves in the wintering grounds. The wintering grounds were a series of large connected caves. Boumont, Kyi, and the Girl, as they called her, had completely taken over one of the largest caves.
What once had housed hundreds was not home to only three.
When summer had come Kyi began to teach Boumont as best he could what he knew of combat. Boumont's body was adverse to this at first. Any strain would cause him to spend days in bed but Boumont knew, as did Kyi, that his body could not afford this weakness. Either his body would get stronger or he would die.
Over time his body did adapt, slowly and painfully. Kyi, who was not young to begin with, got older and stiffer but he instructed Boumont with words what his body could not show. As for Girl, she ran around as any carefree child would. Lost to any education she would have been given before. She was practically a wild creature.
Years passed in this manner until one day the children woke up to find that Kyi had passed on. Then there were two.
Boumont who was now almost an adult himself, and Girl who was exiting her childhood, now had to fend for themselves. They made the decision to leave the caves and look for another tribe to join.
They left and wondered for many months. The only information they had to go off of was Boumont's very fuzzy memories of the tribe's adults speaking of where their enemies lived in relation to themselves.
Eventually, they stumbled upon the Tiylin People. They were met with hostility at first but were eventually allowed to join the tribe providing they washed away the name of their old tribe forever and entered into the people as slaves.
For almost a year the two did every chore and degrading task imaginable, but they survived and were among other people and dragons for the first time in many many years. Girl was taken under the wing of a few kindly matrons but although they made her more presentable they could not fix that inherent "wildness" in her. As for Boumont he lived a life of humiliation and degradation. He'd given up the Lyan name to live among these people but he was constantly mocked for it.
One day there came a rare chance to change one's own fate. It was the Choosing Day. The day of the year when candidates fought for the right to touch an unhatched dragon's egg. Boumont and Girl both put forward their names and at first, this was hardly noticed at all. That is until they started winning.
As the two young people fought more and more opponents they drew more and more attention. Boumont, who had obviously been trained was surprsingly good with a swrod and a bow staff. He greatly impressed General Mytuk, leader of the Tiyin warriors and General Ima, leader of the Dragon Riders. When the finals arrived he did not win first but by being in the top five contestants he did earn his right to touch one of the red eggs.
As for Girl, she had no such training, but her savagry made up for it. She was a creature who's entire life had been one long endless struggle for survival and the matches she was palced in were no different. She didn't fight fiar or in any recognizable style. She just found a way to rip her apponenets apart even if it meant hurting herslef. She also made it into the top five wiht these tactics and earned the chance to hatch a dragon herself.
Of the five candidates who touched the eggs none opened except to Boumont and Girl. The two outsiders now became the partners of two of the Tiylin's sacred Red Dragons, as they called the fire types.
Thier postions in the tribe immediatly eleveated from slave to in the high class, and that was only the beginning of their legend."