I knocked on the door lightly but after five minutes of waiting a loud bang was called for.
“Come in” a voice said. I ran my hands over my dress to fix it and then opened the wooden door slowly. The room was bigger than I imagined but made completely of wood. The walls were a dark brown colour, the floor a light brown and the furniture also the same light brown. There was a bed in one corner of the room and a small table next to it. The sheets on the bed were neatly folded apart from where a man was sitting. He had dark green clothes on and had a sword with him as well. He also had a bow and some arrows with him; I assume he was the guard I spoke to last night, the lights were out when I reached the Varden yesterday so I couldn’t see his face clearly, but those eyes seemed familiar. Other than the man there was a tall lady in the room. She was standing directly in front of the bed but at a distance from it. She had a red ribbon in her hair and was wearing a long red dress. She was a little pale in colour but had the face of a leader. She’s definitely Lady Vanessa.
“My name is Zarine, I reached here last night but I was told by your guard that you were sleeping so I thought I would come later. Lady Vanessa, I need to talk to you about some urgent business” I moved forward, but only slightly and let the door close behind me.
“Oh yes, my guard told me about your short visit, please take a seat”, Vanessa pointed to a chair next to her.
“I must take your leave my Lady” the guard said, his voice was deep and as he stood up I realised how tall he was. The guard bowed and left the room as quietly as I had entered. I was surprised that such a big man didn’t make a single noise as he left the room, the door didn’t even creek, I guess this is the way things are done here, in an adequate manner.
“Now then Zarine, tell me how can I help you?” Vanessa’s voice was gentle and kind. She spoke in a calm and composed manner.
“Lady Vanessa, I have come here as I heard that many riders will come together to train for a fight against the empire. I have come searching for the rider of this egg” I carefully took the egg out of my bag and held it with both hands to show Vanessa.
“That’s an unusual egg, much larger than any egg I’ve seen, are you sure it’s a dragon egg?”
“Yes Lady Vanessa, an egg of this size could not belong to any other species” I replied in confidence. “I have carried this egg with me for 18 years. I have taken it to many places but have not found it its rider yet. I have come here in the hope that maybe the rider is here, among the other riders. Whether the rider is a human or an elf I do not know, but I am hoping the rider is not on the side of the empire”
“Hm I see. Zarine you may stay here for as long as you want and for all of us I hope that you find the rider among one of us here. There are many here who are not riders so it very well could be that the one you are looking for is in Tronjheim. This egg belongs to a powerful rider Zarine. The dragon chooses it’s rider and this dragon will not hatch until it has found its chosen one. 18 years is a long time to wait, both the dragon and its rider would be powerful as the egg of this dragon is much larger in size than others and has not hatched for many years”
I looked at the egg and then carefully put it back in my bag. “Thank you Lady Vanessa, I am very grateful”. I turned and walked out of the room calmly closing the door behind me. I looked around and sighed. Where are you dragon rider?
