The First Dragoneer (2016 Modernized Format Edition) Read online

The First Dragoneer

  A Dragoneer Saga Novella

  M.R. Mathias

  © 2016

  2016 Modernized Format Edition

  Created in the United States of America

  Worldwide Rights

  Formatting by Dominion Editorial

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any form, including digital, electronic, or mechanical, to include photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the author, except for brief quotes used in reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

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  Other titles by M. R. Mathias

  The Dragoneer Saga

  The First Dragoneer – Free

  The Royal Dragoneers – Nominated, Locus Poll 2011

  Cold Hearted Son of a Witch

  The Confliction

  The Emerald Rider

  Rise of the Dragon King

  Blood and Royalty – Winner, 2015 Readers Favorite Award,

  and 2015 Kindle Book Award Semifinalist

  The Legend of Vanx Malic

  Book One – Through the Wildwood

  Book Two – Dragon Isle

  Foxwise (a short story) - Free

  Book Three – Saint Elm’s Deep

  Book Four – That Frigid Fargin’ Witch

  Book Five – Trigon Daze

  Book Six – Paragon Dracus

  Book Seven – The Far Side of Creation

  Book Eight – The Long Journey Home

  Collection -To Kill a Witch – Books I-IV w/bonus content

  Collection –The Legend Grows Stronger – Books V-VIII

  Books IX-XII coming soon!

  And don't miss the huge International Bestselling epic:

  The Wardstone Trilogy

  Book One - The Sword and the Dragon

  Book Two - Kings, Queens, Heroes, & Fools

  Book Three - The Wizard & the Warlord

  Short Stories:

  Crimzon & Clover I - Orphaned Dragon, Lucky Girl

  Crimzon & Clover II - The Tricky Wizard

  Crimzon & Clover III - The Grog

  Crimzon & Clover IV - The Wrath of Crimzon

  Crimzon & Clover V - Killer of Giants

  Crimzon & Clover Collection One (stories 1-5)

  Crimzon & Clover VI – One Bad Bitch

  Crimzon &Clover VII – The Fortune’s Fortune

  Master Zarvin’s Action and Adventure Series #1 Dingo the Dragon Slayer

  Master Zarvin’s Action and Adventure Series #2 Oonzil the oathbreaker

  Master Zarvin’s Action and Adventure Series #3 The Greatest Quest

  Crimzon and Clover I-X

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Bonus Material

  About the Author

  The First Dragoneer

  A Dragoneer Saga Novella

  Chapter One

  “So what are you gonna do? Have you decided yet?” Brendly Tuck asked his best friend.

  They had known each other all seventeen summers of their lives. Brendly hoped that since he didn’t have the option of getting out of Prominence Valley as March Weston did, his best friend would decide not to leave. It was a small hope though, because Brendly couldn’t remember March ever talking about anything else. March was always asking him things like, “Where should I go?” or “What should I try to become? Should I go downriver to Camberly? What about up North to the borders? Maybe I could hire on as a guardsman, or maybe go down South to the coast and work a ship?”

  Brendly loved his friend dearly, but as the finality of their last summer together grew closer, the gnawing sense of loss, and feelings that bordered on jealousy, were growing inside of him. If March kept rubbing it in, Brendly thought he might just have to give his best friend a good ol’ thumping to take with him when he left.

  Wondering now why he had asked the question, Brendly stopped on the woodsy game trail they were traveling and waited for the answer that he didn’t really want to hear.

  “I don’t know yet where I’m gonna go, or what I’m gonna do,” March replied. March could sense Brendly’s discomfort so he added, “But I sure wish you could come with me.”

  “So do I.” Brendly dropped his head with the weight of the words to look at his scuffed leather hunting boots.

  “Well, let’s make the best of it till midsummer, when I’m to leave. We can worry about it then.” March forced a grin and started back up the trail. Brendly waited only a moment to follow, but March had already disappeared under the thick canopy of the woods causing Brendly to have to quicken his step to catch up.

  “We won’t even get a rabbit, much less a stag. Not if we keep skulking about thinking of that stuff,” March called back over his shoulder. “Come on, it’s getting late.”

  Remembering that they were hunting, Brendly caught up with his friend and let the worries of the future slip away.

  They were hiking their way up toward Cander’s Ridge. It was a little farther from Prominence than they usually came to hunt, but not so far as to cause concern. They were still easily in the kingdom’s border, at least as long as they stayed on this side of the slope. Topping the ridge would only invite trouble though.

  A pack of dark-skinned, pointy-eared kobles had been spotted recently. The feral humanoid creatures could best be described as two-legged dogs. They weren’t very dangerous alone, but if you ran into a pack of them you could be in serious trouble. They seldom ventured across the kingdom’s established border, which meant that they weren’t completely void of sense. Only the hungriest of them ever hunted in the protected lands of Prominence Valley, and though a few had killed villagers and hunters in the past, those were usually hunted down and killed. The dead then hung up in the trees, to draw carrion, for their violation.

  This side of the ridge was kingdom territory, and not even the huge, dark-skinned wood trolls that roamed the foothills dared to trespass. King Timothy’s border guard patrolled the boundary well and often. The border guard was feared by even the giant Karsithian warriors, who sometimes ventured too far south out of their high mountain territories.

  The game trail the boys were following led them to a clearing that held a small pool. When they stopped and looked around for tracks, they both noticed the valley spreading out below them. The rich, dark shades of the green treetops flowed down the mountainside on their way out into the lower slopes of the valley. The trees thinned into large clumps, only to disappear completely in the valley floor. There, squares and long rectangles of brown, gold and russet took over. Some of the greener fields were speckled with the black and brown dots that were livestock, but most were empty of life save for the rows and rows of crops. The silvery-blue thread of the Prominence River wound its way through the pastures and crop fields, splitting the valley into two misshaped halves. The river was speckled with dots, but those were the fishing boats and cargo ships that used its flow as a source of bounty. It was a view that neither of the boys had seen before. They were entranced by its overwhelming beauty.
r />   “Let’s make camp here,” March whispered as if his voice might disturb the tranquility of the valley far below.

  “Yup,” Bren replied simply, not taking his eyes away from the sight before him.

  They made a circle of rocks and started a fire inside it. Then they set up a makeshift tent by draping an oiled sheet of canvas over some low hanging branches and stretching it wide at the bottom. They fastened the corners of the canvas with wooden stakes so the breeze couldn’t flutter it away.

  They had planned to be hunting for at least five days, or until they got a fat, late spring buck, or some other sizable game they could carry home and parade proudly around town. Neither of them got in a hurry over anything.

  They both knew that this was a goodbye hunt. In only a few short weeks March would set off to find his fortune. His father and two older brothers would take care of his mother and sister, and the family farm. It was the unspoken duty of a third son in a struggling family to move on and make his own way. March didn’t mind. He had been dreaming of leaving since he found out he would someday have to.

  Brendly had no brothers. He did have four sisters which he and his father would labor to care for until they were eventually married off, but even then Bren wouldn’t be free. He was destined to take over the family’s herd of horses, and the small farm where they raised them. It wasn’t likely that he’d ever escape the boring, yet ever growing village of Prominence.

  Prominence was at the easternmost edge of the kingdom. It was originally a river stop for the copper miners that had once swarmed the other side of the valley. As time wore on and the veins in the mountain dried up, farming and ranching had slowly taken over the area. A large reservoir, up in the eastern foothills at the head of the river, was rich in krill and whisker fish. If you had a net boat, you could fetch a fair share of coin in Camberly, a city that was a two-day float downstream to the west.

  Prominence sat at the base of the large, jagged mountain range known simply as the Teeth. Throughout the Teeth, wood and rock trolls roamed, as did kobles, and many other unfriendly creatures. Brendly and March had both heard the myriad horror stories their parents had used to keep them close to the home fires when they were little. They both knew that the stories weren’t just wives’ tales either. Much blood had been spilled over the years to make the kingdom safe for humanity. King Timothy’s border guard was one of the main reasons for the sense of security.

  As the sun disappeared and the moon washed them in a pale silver glow, they were content to sit by their small fire and listen to the symphony the forest provided. The woods could be frightening at night, but both Brendly and March felt comfortable. They were men now. They had been on many a hunt, both with their fathers and without. They felt safe inside the borders of the kingdom.

  “When I was looking for firewood by the bigger pool upstream I saw fresh tracks,” March said quietly. “If we can get up early enough, we can find a spot near there, and maybe get a shot at something coming to water at daybreak.”

  “Yup,” Brendly replied halfheartedly. He was thinking about March leaving again and wondering who he would hunt with after his best friend was gone.

  “You can’t be a sad-sack till I go, you know!” March jested.

  “March, I don’t want to be stuck in the valley all my life,” Brendly responded passionately. “I don’t want to be a horse rancher. I want to go on an adventure like you.”

  “Bren, you're gonna marry Canda Shilling, or Deanda Bargery, and have a family, and a good, happy life!” There was more than a little envy in March’s voice. “It’s going to be a lot of boring days and nights without my friends and family for me, no matter where I decide to go. It won’t be all fun and exciting like you think.”

  “But what if I went with you?” Brendly lit up at the thought, as if he would really run off in the night and leave his structured world behind. “You’d have a friend with you, and we could make our fortunes together.”

  “Your ma would hunt us both down, and then strap you all the way home. I can’t let you come with me!” March laughed.

  Bren laughed too, and after a long, awkward silence said, “I’m sure gonna miss you.”

  “I’m not gone yet, Bren. Let’s get some sleep so we can get up to that bigger pool before daybreak.”