Dragon Trials (Return of the Darkening Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

well?
    The red chirruped again and her head bobbed up and down on her long neck.
    I grinned. “Oh, you want me to play with you, do you?” It was then that I realized just how young she was. She was a little older than me, I saw, maybe about Thea’s age in dragon terms.
    She just wants friends. I did, too. Raising my hands, I pulled an exaggerated snarl and then ran toward her like I was a monster. The red chirruped excitedly, let out a small puff of flame and darted this way and that over the wooden platform in a game of chase. And I knew I had one friend—but a friend I would not see again for two weeks.

5: An Introduction to Bruises
    “No, it’s like…” I tried to find the words to explain what I meant, but the look on Seb’s face only showed just how much he didn’t get it.
    “Across your body and then up. ” I demonstrated the move with my own practice wooden staff. It was actually a classic defensive, one of the first you learned when you started any training. I had mastered it by the time I was twelve. Sebastian was seventeen, just a year younger than me, but he was a blacksmith’s son. He had muscles and not much brain, or so it seemed. He should be able to perform one simple movement with a quarterstaff, but I was starting to wonder if he could do anything right.
    Seb looked up at me from the floor, rubbing his elbow where a red welt was slowly appearing.
    I sighed and pushed my hair out of eyes. It was coming out of the leather tie I used to keep it back, and I was starting to think about cutting it to be short the way all the boys wore theirs. “Look, it’s okay. Come on, up you go.” I reached down and helped Seb up before walking back to my starting mark and turning to begin the exercise again.
    It had been almost a week now, and I had been training with Sebastian every day. We started with exercises, running over the trails on Mount Hammal in the morning, doing a bit of rock climbing, then swimming in the cold lakes that formed under the snow caps of the mountains. In the afternoons we had weapons training. Today, all the trainees—we were called scrubs, for we weren’t even fit to scrub down a Dragon Rider’s saddle—were working our way back and forth across the sandy practice floor of the open area between the towers of the Academy, trading blows and attacking moves.
    The other trainees were having a great time so far as I could tell. I could hear them laughing and talking. It was hard work, but nothing that was too far beyond our skills. Most of the others, like Beris, Shakasta and Syl, were from the noble Houses of Torvald. We’d all had our share of weapons training, paid for by the throne itself. Commoners weren’t allowed to train with sword and staff. Commoners like Sebastian.
    I turned to see he was standing near the white chalk starting point, totally oblivious, looking up past the high, stone palisade wall. I could hear distant chirps, whistles and dragon calls coming from the dragon enclosure. In the distance, I could even see a few dark shapes, zooming across the underside of the clouds scattered overhead. Dragons in flight practice, some with riders and some without. I thought I saw a flash of red, but I turned back to Sebastian.
    He’s not paying attention! I stamped my foot, making him startle and jump. He turned back to me, guilty look on his face. “Uh, sorry. I got distracted.”
    “I’ll just have to hope you don’t get distracted when we’re out on patrol,” I snapped. He lowered his face, and I instantly felt mean. Sebastian picked up the staff and gestured that I should try again. I nodded. “Okay, now remember you are trying to connect with the staff, to parry it away. ” I emphasized the movements as I spoke, showing him how he could twist his wrists to turn his own staff and catch my own blows.
    And then I swung.
    Sebastian pulled up his hand just in time, flinching as he did so and half-closing his eyes. I stopped my staff just short of wrapping him on