The Dragon Thief

In elder days when flame met air,

And dragons ruled the heavens fair,

Where once they soared on wings of grace,

Now storm and sorrow take their place.

Ryuki

"Seriously? You're hungry again?" I ask.

'I am a dragon. I'm always hungry. Just be glad I don't eat you,' Bynjym, my dragon says.

I love my dragon. Ever since I bonded with him a year ago, my life has changed for the better.

It was an accident. I stumbled across him while he was eating. Imagine that. My dragon was eating.

I smile, remembering that day. I had been running from a group of people I'd stolen food from. I was starving, not just in the 'really hungry' way, but in the 'I won't survive much longer without food' way. I can find water, but food is scarce in winter. It was just a small loaf of bread, something small enough that a normal person would eat it in one sitting, but I would have made it last for days.

I'd had my head turned, looking behind me, watching to see how close they were to catching me, when I'd run into a clearing and slammed into the huge carcass that Bynjym was eating.

I hadn't immediately understood the predicament I was in. My heart was racing and I saw the enemy as the people behind me. Then I'd felt his slick saliva drip onto my shoulder, smelled the blood of the flesh he was eating in his mouth, and felt the heat of his breath as he'd breathed in my scent.

When I looked up, I'd been equally terrified and mesmerized by the beautiful silver dragon. He lowered his head and looked deep into my eyes. I thought I'd fallen into an ocean of blue. It felt like I was drowning and being rescued at the same time. I've asked the other dragon riders about it since then, but none of them can really explain it either. It feels like you're giving up everything you are while also becoming everything you were meant to be all at once.

'Who are you?" I'd heard him ask me in his deep, baritone voice.

I didn't know at the time that when a dragon bonds with you, you can hear them, speak with them in your mind. All I knew was a huge, magnificently beautiful dragon had asked me a question.

"I'm Ryuki," I said, just as my pursuers raced up behind me.

Bynjym had growled low in his chest.

'Are they friend or foe?' he asked.

"Uh, they're chasing me because I stole some bread," I said truthfully. Technically, they weren't friend or foe, they were just angry merchants.

I learned at that moment to be very careful how you answer a dragon. With three snaps of his teeth, the merchants were gone, devoured by my dragon.

"You ATE them?" I asked, mortified and disgusted.

"I'm a dragon," he said, unperturbed as he returned to the large animal he was stripping of meat. He pulled a piece of meat and dropped it in front of me. "Eat."

I stared at the strip of raw meat that was half my size.

'Too much?' he asks, snapping it up quickly before dropping a smaller amount of meat in front of me.

I didn't want to be rude and, in truth, I was starving, but I'd never eaten raw meat before.

'Human, what is the problem? I can hear your stomach. You're obviously hungry.'

'Uh, you're right. I am hungry. I just need to find a way to cook this ..."

That was as far as I got before Bynjym sent a small burst of flame at the meat, cooking it through.

"Thank you. Do you want some bread?" I'd asked.

He'd given me a look of blatant disgust. 'No.'

So, I sat in front of this dragon, not realizing that he had bonded to me, while I ate.

"Hey, thanks for helping me and thanks for the food," I said when I was done.

'Where do you think you're going?' he's asked me.

"Well, I was going to let you go about your business," I'd said.

He'd lowered his giant head and put his eye in front of me.

'You look like someone who should know something about dragons. Do you not?' he asked, as if I'd offended him.

"I know some things."

'What do you know?' he asked.

"I know that you, as a silver dragon, are one of the strongest dragons there are. Only the golden queens are stronger than you. I know that there are bronze, green, red, and blue dragons as well," I said proudly.

He'd blinked at me as if unimpressed. Now, I'd say he was on the verge of rolling his eyes at me. My dragon has an attitude.

'I do not,' he grumbles, listening to my thoughts like he always does. At first, I found it intrusive. Now, I don't know how I'd go an hour of my day without Bynjym in my mind. His constant presence is soothing, reminding me that I'm never alone.

I hear his rumbling happiness at my thoughts as I return to my memory of that day. Bynjym had explained how dragons choose their riders and I was now bonded to him.

'Not anyone can hear a dragon, human. Only a rider.'

"What does that mean? I'm a rider? I'm YOUR rider?"

'Yes, my human. You are now a dragon rider.'

"Why? Why was I given such a gift?" I asked, awed by such a gift.

He had lowered his head again, looking at me with that eye that made me feel like I was drowning in the depths of the ocean.

'Because I have looked into your soul and I have seen the truth of who you are. You are now the rider of Bynjym, the silver dragon.' And that's how I learned my dragon's name.

'That's a good memory, but I like the memory of our first flight better,' Bynjym says, giving me his dragon's version of a laugh.

I mentioned my dragon has an attitude. He also has a very sarcastic sense of humor.

'You like it because you enjoyed terrifying me,' I huff.

I was terrified. I'd never flown before and whether he was showing off, giving me a taste of what being a dragon rider was all about, or just being Bynjym, he'd had me get on his back and we'd lifted up in the air.

I'd been sliding all over his back, trying to figure out what to hold onto and where to sit that was comfortable when he'd banked hard right. I slid right off his back, free-falling into the air and screaming in terror, my arms wind-milling as if I would suddenly sprout wings and fly.

'You needed to learn to trust me. I thought that lesson taught you very well. You've never forgotten it, have you?' he asks drolly.

No, indeed. I have not, nor will I ever forget THAT particular lesson. As much as it scared me at the moment, I did learn that Bynjym would never let me fall.

'What kind of a dragon would I be if I let me rider fall to his death?' he asks offended. 'What am I, a green?'

I grin. Even among dragons there is a hierarchy. Unlike most patriarchal societies, the dragons are ruled by their queens. Even the reds and blues, the lower ranked females, are given a status that is relatively equal to a bronze dragon.

'Without them, we no longer exist. They are our future. Why wouldn't we treat them with the respect they deserve?' he asks diplomatically.

'Not all animals think like you do, Byn.'

'Not all animals are as wise as dragons.'

Very true.

I've just gotten on Bynjym's back so he can go hunting for food, when his head snaps to west. He roars angrily as he lifts into the air.

'What is it?" I ask, feeling Bynjym's fury.

'Another egg has been stolen. Tymyr is dead.'

'Tymyr? They killed a queen?' I ask, my own fury blending with my dragon's.

'Yes. Ylys is calling the Thunder to attack.'

Ylys is another golden dragon. With Tymyr dead, Ylys is one of two remaining queens.

The other was just stolen by the royals.