Dragon Chosen: The Dragon Riders of Eryieth Read online

  DRAGON

  CHOSEN

  DRAGON

  CHOSEN

  The Dragon Riders of Eryieth

  KRISTIN SECORSKY

  Copyright © 2016 by Kristin Secorsky. All rights reserved.

  Cover Design: bobooks

  Dragon Logo Design: John C Walborn & GDJ (openclipart.org)

  Map Cartographer: Beee

  ISBN: 153963745X

  ISBN 13: 9781539637455

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2016919596

  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

  North Charleston, South Carolina

  This book is dedicated to my family.

  Table Of Contents

  CREATION OF ERYIETH

  THE LEGEND OF THE LOVERS LLYWELYN AND AERONWY AND THE ORIGINS OF THE RED-AND-BLACK DRAGONS

  ABOUT ERYIETH

  PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

  HOLIDAYS AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS IN ERYIETH

  PROLOGUE THE PILGRIMAGE OF KING FARRYN III

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ALSO BY KRISTIN SECORSKY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CREATION OF ERYIETH

  In the beginning, a powerful red fire dragon named Yng dwelled in a deep, fiery abyss. After a while, Yng became lonely. One day, he climbed out of his molten pit. He came across a frigid world where Gyr, an ice dragon of blues, silver, and white occupied the frosty land in solitude, frozen by her lonely tears. Yng breathed his dragon fire on Gyr and melted her free. The water trickled off her, creating the oceans, the lands, the trees, and the mountains. The beautiful new world was named Eryieth.

  However, Yng was accustomed to the scorching heat of his abyss, and Gyr missed the ice cold. They loved each other too much to be separated. In order to live in harmony, Yng blew a bright ball of fire into the sky for half the day, and Gyr blew a ball of ice into the sky for the other half. Thus, they created the sun and the moon. Yng and Gyr also agreed that half of the year would be warm for Yng, and the other half of the year would be cold for Gyr, creating the four seasons.

  They loved each other and laid four eggs: one in the north, south, east, and west. From the north came the fae races, magical beings. They are the faeries, pixies, sprites, gnomes, and brownies. From the east came the dragons and their descendants: wyverns, drakes, and wyrms. From the west came the races of men, elves, and dwarves. Elves and dwarves retained some of the dragon’s magic; however, not all men retained magic from the dragons. Mages, witches, wizards, and sorcerers were the only amongst men who had magical abilities.

  From the fourth egg in the south came a great evil spirit. This evil spawned all of the demons, giants, wraiths, dragyrs, orcs, goblins, trolls, ogres, hags, imps, and other evil beings and creatures of the land, some with magical abilities, and others without. They ravaged the lands for thousands of years, creating endless turmoil with the other children of Yng and Gyr. The evil spirit also corrupted some mages, witches, wizards, and sorcerers by tempting them and giving them powers.

  A large group of wizards sealed this great evil into a magic realm from which it could not escape. This involved a great sacrifice of the wizard population, taking many of their lives and declining their numbers. However, the offspring this evil created were not so easily destroyed. Their numbers multiplied rapidly, and they kept their strength in hordes. The other children of Yng and Gyr fought them for the lands of Eryieth for all their days to come.

  Ages passed, when another dragon climbed out of Gyr’s fiery pit. He was black as night and fearsome. He brought destruction and death upon the lands. He was bent on destroying all that Yng and Gyr had created. He wanted the land for himself, a fiery land with rivers of molten lava.

  Yng and Gyr united their human and dragon children, creating the first dragon riders, to overthrow the destroyer dragon and send him back into the depths of the pit. The remaining wizards of Eryieth sealed the destroyer dragon in the pit with magic for a thousand years. It is said that the destroyer dragon will rise again, bringing death and destruction upon the land. Only a powerful sorcerer could raise him. It was prophesized that one day an ancient evil power would return to the land, and this dark power would raise the destroyer dragon from his pits and ride him. He would conquer the land and enslave the creatures of Eryieth.

  THE LEGEND OF THE LOVERS LLYWELYN AND AERONWY AND THE ORIGINS OF THE RED-AND-BLACK DRAGONS

  A long time ago, Eryieth was plagued with wars. Frequent uprisings by those who desired the power to rule kept Eryieth in constant turmoil. Orcs, goblins, ocduens, koduens, trolls, ogres, giants, and all other lesser beings ravaged the lands, wiping out significant numbers of the faery, elf, man, and dwarf populations as well as other creatures of good. Creatures of good lived in constant fear, as goblins and orcs stole them and bred them with their own, creating the fearsome ocduens, human or elf bred with an orc, and koduens, human or elf bred with goblins. The remaining wizards took to both sides of good or evil.

  Man, elf, faery, and dwarf fought side by side in the wars. They were victorious in the end. They banished the evil beings to the war-torn lands east and south of the Dragon’s Teeth Mountains called the Forbidden Lands and to the Everlasting Wasteland south of Dread Mountain. The dwarves retreated to their mountains in the north, and the elves and nearly extinct faeries and other magical beings to the forests of Farryndell to the west of the Dragon’s Teeth Mountains with no interest in ruling the realm.

  It was decided that the kingdom would be ruled by nonmagical men with a council of representatives from all beings to speak for the populace, leading to the formation of the Council of Kings. The council was made up of royal representatives from the humans, elves, dwarves, wizards, and mages to form one great kingdom.

  Two noblemen, Aeron and Meuric, had the strongest claims to the throne. War broke out all over again for the throne. Aeron had a daughter, Aeronwy, and Meuric, a son, Rhys, so they formed a peace treaty. They agreed that Aeronwy and Rhys would marry, and both of their fathers would serve on the Council of Kings to advise the young couple.

  It so happened that Aeronwy was a dragon rider and had taken the dragon-rider oath. She flew a fierce red, fire-breathing dragon. Until the day she became queen, Aeronwy continued to serve and protect the realm. She wasn’t in love with her betrothed, Rhys. Upset by her upcoming nuptials, she took solace in riding her dragon.

  One day, Aeronwy and a few other dragon riders were dispatched to squash an orc rebellion in the south. The rebellion was a trick by an evil wizard named Gwythr to get Aeronwy alone so he could capture her. Gwythr wanted the beautiful girl and the throne for himself.

  Gwythr held Aeronwy captive for many weeks. Gwythr was on the Council of Kings and led search parties to find her, deceiving everyone so that she would never be found. Human and elf dragon riders searched high and low for Aeronwy. Rhys and his army scoured the countryside to find his beautiful bride-to-be without luck, for Gwythr had hidden his fortress with magic.
/>   An elf dragon rider named Llywelyn, who was also one of the princes of the elf kingdom, found her and rescued her. One of his black dragon’s magical powers was to reverse magic with its smoke. The dragon breathed his smoke over the fortress, undoing the strong invisibility charm and revealing it to Llywelyn. Llywelyn tried to kill the wizard, but Gwythr was too powerful. Llywelyn only succeeded at banishing Gwythr into a magic spirit realm. He set Aeronwy and her dragon, which had also been held captive by a magic spell, free.

  Llywelyn was enchanted by Aeronwy. When she asked him what he would like as a reward for rescuing her, he simply desired a kiss. Aeronwy obliged the handsome elf prince.

  Days after being returned safely to the palace, Aeronwy couldn’t get Llywelyn or their kiss out of her mind. She dreaded her upcoming marriage to Rhys even more. Aeronwy sent a message to Llywelyn, asking him to meet her in secret. There was only one place they could be alone, the wizard’s abandoned fortress on the cliffs of Dread Mountain. Aeronwy and Llywelyn proclaimed their love for one another and became secret lovers from that moment on. They met at the Dread Fortress often. Their dragons also loved each other.

  Soon the wedding day arrived. Aeronwy was beside herself with grief, and Llywelyn was devastated that another man would take her for his own. Aeronwy and Llywelyn both agreed that the peace of Eryieth and the needs of their people were more important than their own happiness. They vowed to continue meeting in secret every chance they could.

  Months after the wedding, Rhys grew suspicious of Aeronwy. He told her she had no need to ride her dragon now that she was queen. Aeronwy explained that it was the one thing she truly loved to do. So Rhys, out of love for his bride and desperation for her to love him back, agreed to let her continue to ride her dragon whenever she pleased. In return, Aeronwy agreed that she would only ride her dragon for pleasure and would no longer take part in battles and quests to calm her husband’s fears for her safety.

  However, the king was no fool. He sent another dragon rider to spy on Aeronwy. The lovers were soon found out. Instead of stopping Aeronwy, Rhys devised a plan to get rid of Llywelyn. He had Llywelyn captured and hidden where he couldn’t escape.

  The false news of Llywelyn’s death in the Forbidden Lands reached Aeronwy. She flew to the Dread Fortress where she saw Llywelyn’s black dragon alone. She was so depressed over the death of her lover that she flung herself into the fires of Dread Mountain. Llywelyn fought his captors and escaped. When he learned of Aeronwy’s suicide, he followed her suit and threw himself into the fire of Dread Mountain.

  Their dragons never left the mountain, waiting for their riders to return to them. They bred and created the first red-and-black dragons of Dread Mountain. Many tried unsuccessfully to capture the red-and-black dragons, believing them to be the most powerful dragons, until they no longer spotted them and considered them extinct.

  Rhys eventually remarried. His line inherited the throne for generations to come, much to the dismay of Aeron and his supporters for his claim to the throne. Aeron remained on the Council of Kings to ease tensions.

  ABOUT ERYIETH

  SEASONS

  Winter

  Spring

  Summer

  Fall

  DAYS OF THE WEEK

  Sunday

  Moonday

  Skyday

  Yngday

  Thunderday

  Gyrday

  Starday

  MONTHS OF THE YEAR

  Dark Frost

  Frost Born

  New Life

  Rainfall

  Flower Bloom

  Gold Sun

  Fire Sun

  Hay Fell

  Gathering

  Leaf Fall

  Cold Wind

  Snowfall

  PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

  Characters

  Áed: Aid

  Áedán: A-din

  Aeron: Air-ruhn

  Aeronwy: Air-ruhn-we

  Castien: Cass-tee-en

  Elysbyth: E-lees-beth

  Evalina Voll: Ah-va-lee-na V-ol

  Farryn: Fair-in

  Freyda: Fray-duh

  Garan: Gore-ran

  Gwyneira: Gwen-ay-ruh

  Gwythr: Gwith-er

  Islwyn: Ee-s-loo-win

  Llywelyn: Lee-well-in

  Meuric: May-rick

  Myrddin: Mer-din

  Rhys: Rees

  Rowena: Ro-ee-na

  Places

  Eryieth: Air-e-eth

  Farryndell: Fair-in-dell

  Creatures

  Dragyr: Drag-gur

  Koduen: Co-dwen

  Ocduen: Ock-dwen

  Wyrm: Worm

  Wyvern: Why-vern

  Dragons

  Eira: Ay-rah

  Emrys: Em-riss

  Gyr: Gurr

  Saria: Sar-re-uh

  Taranis: Tuh-ran-iss

  Yng: Ing

  Other

  Wyrre: War

  HOLIDAYS AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS IN ERYIETH

  YULE

  Snowfall 20 to 31—Yule is a celebration of the New Year. It is also a celebration of Gyr’s sacrifice to give up the cold for Yng to unfreeze the world and bring back the warmth. Yule begins at sunset on the winter solstice, which is the darkest time of the year when the daylight is shortest. Yule festivities last for twelve days. The twelve days are devoted to baking breads and sweets such as cakes and cookies, feasting, and dancing. On the night of Snowfall, the twentieth, people exchange gifts with loved ones, and there is feasting and dancing. Evergreen trees are brought inside houses and barns and are decorated. The trees symbolize the rebirth of the sun. A log is burned all night to symbolize Yng returning warmth to the world. The last night of celebration is New Year’s Eve. They end the celebration of Yule with one big feast to celebrate the coming of the new year. It is a celebration of endings and beginnings, death and rebirth.

  YNG’S FEAST

  Dark Frost Full Moon—A feast celebrated on the full moon to honor Yng driving back the frost so that spring may return.

  DAY OF THE PLOW

  Frost Born 2—The day of the plow celebrates the beginning of planting season. This day marks the first day of plowing. After the first day of plowing, there is a feast in the village hall for everyone to relax and celebrate.

  LOVER’S DAY

  Frost Born 14—Lover’s Day celebrates the day Yng crawled out of his abyss, saw Gyr, and melted her with his love, creating the world as the people of Eryieth knew it. All lovers celebrate this day of love by exchanging gifts and sweets.

  THE HATCHING

  New Life 20—The festival of the Hatching celebrates renewal and fertility and the day that Gyr lay the four eggs that created the children of Eryieth. Children and adults celebrate this holiday by coloring eggs that represent the dragon’s eggs and give them to friends and loved ones.

  DRAGON RIDER CHOOSING

  New Life 28 to Rainfall 8—The dragon rider choosing ceremonies last twelve days, one day in each major city of Eryieth. Festivities begin in the afternoon with dancing in the village halls. Then the dragon keepers parade the dragons through the streets so that they may select their riders, if any. Afterward, the entire village celebrates with a feast and more dancing, regardless if a rider was chosen from the village or not. River Town’s day is Rainfall 4.

  REMEMBRANCE DAY

  Flower Bloom 30—Remembrance Day is to remember the fallen dragon riders, members of the King’s Army, and all who sacrificed their lives to secure the lands from evil. This day also celebrates the day the lesser creatures were banished to the Forbidden Lands.

  DAY OF THE DRAGON RIDERS

  Gold Sun 9—The Day of the Dragon Riders commemorates when Yng and Gyr first created dragon riders to fight against the Destroyer Dragon.

  MIDSUMMER

  Gold Sun 21—Midsummer celebrates the summer solstice. The sun is at its strongest, signifying Yng’s power. It is the longest day of the year and is celebrated with feasts and dancing.
/>   THANKSGIVING

  Fire Sun 31 to Hay Fell 1—Thanksgiving is a harvest festival to give thanks to Yng and Gyr for their food. It is celebrated with feasts and dancing.

  HARVEST END

  Gathering 21—Harvest End celebrates the fall equinox and the beginning of fall. It is a festival to end the harvest season. Food is gathered and stored for winter, and then there is a feast and dancing to celebrate.

  WINTER NIGHTS

  Leaf Fall 29 to Cold Wind 2—Winter Nights Festivities mark the end of fall and the beginning of the winter season. It is also a time to remember dead loved ones and honor ancestral spirits.

  PROLOGUE THE PILGRIMAGE OF KING FARRYN III

  The elf king had been climbing up the side of Dread Mountain for hours, an arduous journey to be sure, especially in the month of Cold Wind. The trek surely would have been easier had he been a dragon rider or a few centuries younger. He paused and leaned into the ragged rocks of the mountainside, producing his bladder of water and taking a long sip. The special water of his magical forest refreshed him, giving King Farryn the strength to continue his long difficult climb up Dread Mountain to the fortress. He returned the bladder to his side, hooking it to his leather belt. Then he wiped the sweat from his brow with a small piece of cloth from his pocket and studied the sky.

  Dark, ominous clouds loomed above the mountain, threatening to unleash a tempestuous storm. He would hopefully make it to the fortress, pay his respects, and make the journey down the mountain before the storm began. King Farryn had left his horse at the foot of the mountain under the influence of a calming enchantment so it would not be tempted to run off should something startle it. Many nasty, vile creatures dwelled on this side of the Dragon’s Teeth Mountains. The last thing Farryn wanted was to be stuck in the Forbidden Lands without his horse to escape any approaching hordes of orcs or goblins.