Thief Turned Rider [for JosephLeeCollins]

[animefangirl]

"This is crazy, I should go back..." Teddy muttered under his breath as he hid in the shadows beneath the great keep of the renowned Dragon Riders. It had taken him well over an hour to gather the courage to even approach the building, but now that he was here his courage was beginning to wane. His stomach chose that moment to clench painfully, painfully enough to nearly double him over and he clasped an arm against it in a futile attempt to quiet its grumblings. His parent had died months ago, and he had taken to the streets rather than stay at the work house he'd been dumped at, but it became obvious fairly quickly that he lacked the necessary skills to survive on his own. Hence his current predicament.

"Just do it. In and out, no one will notice" He whispered, once again gathering what was left of his courage before forcing his feet to move as he crept into the building. THe thought of being discovered terrified him. If he were lucky he'd get off with a beating, if he weren't he could lose his hand. Thievery was a serious offense. If he wasn't starving, he'd care more about that. The young boy, only eleven years old, slipped through unfamiliar halls as quiet as a mouse. Every time he heard someone hew oudl freeze and hide until they had passed. He was trying to find the kitchens, but the building was a maze of corridors and he became hopelessly lost.

Eventually he found himself in a large cavern of a room, that more closely resembled a cave than a proper room, and at first he was puzzled what its purpose was. As far as he could tell there was nothing but rocks in here. He paused to study one, reaching out to touch the raised pattern, and after a moment realized that it must be an egg! He was actually touching a dragon egg! He picked it up and moved to put it into his bag, thinking to himself that a dragon egg must be worth a fortune, but then he hesitated.

"You do not deserve that fate, little one" He whispered, setting the egg back down he stroked its shell once more before turning to leave. A strange sound stilled his feet and he looked over his shoulder to see the egg rocking furiously before cracking and a gold colored creature spilled onto the stone floor, its limbs awkwardly splayed where they landed. He was in awe, ignoring common sense he stared at the baby dragon while it blinked and looked around. And then it spotted her and...chirped. Of all the sounds for a dragon to make who would think it would chirp?

"Shh, please be quiet" He whispered urgently, not daring to touch the dragon and quickly turned to resume his search for food. He made it to the door when the hatchling seemed to realize he was leaving and it cried out for him so loudly it echoed off the walls of the giant chamber and surely would be heard by whatever guard tended the eggs at night. Teddy paled and ran to hide, ducking behind a large rock and tried to shoo the baby away as it attempted to follow him on unsteady little legs. His mind raced, trying to figure out how to escape with his head still on his shoulders. Terrified that he'd be killed if he were discovered by the precious eggs, with a priceless baby dragon following him. Little did he know his future was now determined. Dragons only hatched for their rider. Whether he liked it or not, this baby had chosen him and there was nothing he could do about it.

[17JosephLC]

Valera (call her Val) Stargaryen was board. Really, she was. She was a beautiful woman in her early twenties, with platinum-blonde hair done up in a ponytail, going down to her shoulders. She had beautiful amethyst-purple eyes. She wielded a spear and was coming back from the sparing grounds.

Sparing against the knights of Algora had gotten old, even the battlemages just didn’t seam to have much imagination to them anymore! Maybe she would go on a flight with Thorin? Such thoughts were put out of mind however, when she stopped in her tracks after hearing the call of a baby dragon from the Egg Cave.

That meant a dragon had been born, which means that it had found its’ destined rider.

Sprinting toward the cave, she opened the door and beheld a beautiful golden-yellow dragon baby trying to crawl towards a certain spot. “Calm yourself little one,” she sent it from her mind, ‘is your rider over there? That’s too small for an adult,’ she thought this next part to herself.

“Hello?” She called out, “come out child. I promise we won’t hurt you. A dragon has hatched because of you, small one, do you know what that means? You were destined by the gods to become a Dragon Rider like me,” she placed her spear down and got on her knees, doing ber damndest to appear as non-threatening as possible.

[animefangirl]

Teddy held his breath when he heard her footsteps echoing as she came into the cave before he heard her voice, sort of wishing that he had not decided to try his luck at raiding the kitchen after all. It would have saved him this mess. For now he stayed hidden, unaware that the woman was communicating with the baby dragon.

The dragon looked over at the rider and then flopped down, having tired himself out already. Hatching was a lot of work. "He's hiding" The baby answered her, not really sure why his rider was doing that but he calmed now that a rider was here. Inherently knowing that the woman was to be trusted and he focused his attention on his rider, trying to send soothing emotions through the brand new bond that connected them.

Teddy was too keyed up for the dragon to calm him, and he was looking for an exit when a female voice suddenly broke the silence. When he heard what she had to say he shook his head, thinking that this was a trap. People like him didn't get to be Riders. That was reserved for wealthy and important people, the nobility, not a street rat. Still, he peeked at her from his hiding place and saw how she was kneeling and not looking angry.

"Rider's are rich peoples kids, you're lying" He said back, slowly standing since he did realize that he'd been found and there was no point hiding. "Give it to someone else and let me go, I won't come back I promise" He added, still thinking this was some sort of trap and he was going to be executed for daring to put his hands on an egg and getting it to hatch.

[17JosephLC]

Valera sighed and frowned. She didn’t care for being accused as a lier by this boy, qs she considered herself to be a rather honest woman, but she could take it in stride. Offering her hand to the baby dragon, she picked the tired hatchling up in one arm. She then offered the other hand to the boy. “What you have said is mostly true, little one, but not wholly. There have been many Riders who came from commoner stock like you. And dragons only hatch for their destined riders. This dragonling hatched after you touched his egg, meaning you are meant to be a rider.

My name is Archoness Valera Stargaryen. What is your name? My, you look rather hungry. If you come with me, I’ll take you down to the kitchens and we’ll get you a warm meal, doesn’t that sound nice? And after that, I’ll introduce you to the Lady Commander.”

[animefangirl]

Teddy of course had no way of knowing if Valera was honest or not and life had not been kind to him since his parents died so he was choosing to assume the worst of pretty much everyone. Seemed the safer option to the child right now anyway. When the woman walked over and picked up the hatchling he once again glanced towards the door, wondering if he could get away or if she would catch him if he tried it. Before he had made up his mind she spoke again and he gave her another doubtful look. He'd never heard of any riders with common backgrounds. Though now there was a glimmer of hope in the little boys eyes, despite his best intentions. If it was true that dragons only hatched for their rider, maybe he really was supposed to be a rider.

"Teddy...Theodore" He answered, hesitating a bit beforehand but she so far seemed nice and she'd offered to get him some food and that was enough to get his stomach to once again cramp painfully. He hadn't eaten in a couple days, it was hard for anyone to turn that offer down but especially hard for a child of ten. So after a brief hesitation he slowly walked towards her, though he made a point of staying out of her arms reach just in case. He followed her towards the kitchens and his stomach growled audibly at the smells.

"What about the dragon?" He asked belatedly, worried now that the baby would be hungry too. For his part the dragonet had rested his head on Valera's shoulder when he was picked up, sighing and a little puff of smoke came out of his nose. He was too young to breathe fire, but it would come in time. He looked over at Teddy when his little rider spoke about him being hungry and that amused him, apparently this one thought he was like a pet that needed someone to care for it. "Don't tell him yet, he'll get scared" The dragon spoke to Valera, wanting the Rider to wait to tell Teddy about the bond and how Teddy could have just asked him if he was hungry.

[17JosephLC]

Smiling gently, Valera kept an eye on her charge as she led him to the kitchens. “Don’t worry about the hatchling child, I don’t think he’s hungry right now,” she told the boy. She thought about offering her hand, but decided that might scare him at the last second and decided not to.

A few minutes later, the boy had some fried chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, green English peas, and some roles with purified, cold spring water. Valera watched as he ate. “Don’t eat too much or too quickly Teddy,” she addressed him gently, but firmly. “You might get sick, and then that wouldn’t be fun at all.”

[animefangirl]

While it seemed strange to him that the dragon wasn't hungry after hatching he just shrugged it off, nodding and accepting Valera's word on the matter. "How do you know its a he?" He asked instead, his natural curiosity coming out now that he was no longer afraid he was going to be punished or something for what he had done. At least it didn't seem that way to Teddy, they wouldn't likely feed him if they were going to throw him in jail or kill him.

When they reached the kitchen he took a seat at her urging and his eyes widened at the food that was put in front of him. That was a lot of food, a lot more than he was used to getting recently and he immediately started to scarf it down as if he were afraid it would disappear or something. He glanced at her when she told him not to eat too quickly and tried to slow down a bit, but not a whole lot. It took him minutes to clean his plate and his stomach did feel a tad upset but he ignored it. It was a lot better than being so hungry he felt like his stomach was touching his backbone.

"Why're you being so nice to me?" He asked then, giving the woman a confused look as he did. It wasn't like she had a reason to be nice to him. She didn't know him, he was a filthy street urchin, and he had been caught more or less red handed trying to steal an egg. At least that was what it had looked like, even though he'd changed his mind in the end and put the egg back there was no way for her to know that was what he'd done.

[17JosephLC]

“Well, let’s just say that I have a feeling,” Valera smiled again.

When she was asked why she was being so nice to him, she patiently explained, “well, you are a desperate child who probably just wanted a good meal. I can’t claim to know what that’s like, but I do sympathize. Also, as a dragon hatched because of you, that means you are destined to be a fellow rider. You will doubtlessly be placed under a mentor once we meet with the Lady Commander.”

She took a sip of water herself, “also, it’s just the right thing to do. We can’t help everyone, but I do do as much as I can.”

[animefangirl]

Teddy looked confused when she said it was just a feeling, for some reason the child thought there should be physical differences between males and females or something like with other animals. He just shrugged that off though and focused on stuffing his face.

"Is she gonna be mad?" He asked, anxiously, when she brought up visiting the Lady Commander once again. The first time that she'd said it he'd been too distracted by food to bother questioning it but now he was fed and worried. The thought of being assigned to some mentor he didn't know wasn't really a pleasant thought for him either but he supposed at this point he didn't really have a choice.

That was when the baby dragon decided that he was going to try and help his rider. He scrambled off of Valera's lap and climbed across the tabletop to go and sit on his riders lap instead, looking up at the boy he met Teddy's eyes and then spoke. "It will be okay, if she tries anything I"ll protect you! The baby wasn't attempting to speak only to Teddy so Valera would be able to hear his words too. He may be a baby but he was already protective of his little rider.

Teddy gently stroked the dragon's scales when the baby climbed into his lap before openly gaping, wide eyed, when he heard a voice inside his head. It seemed impossible but the way the dragon was looking him right in the eye let him know that the baby could in fact speak to him. "What the hell? Is he, talking? How can he do that?" Teddy asked, glancing over at Valera.

[17JosephLC]

“If she is mad, it’ll be at the guards who are on patrol, not at you Teddy,” Valera assured him. She watched as the dragonet went over to him, and she giggled with one hand over her mouth at the shocked look on his face. “No, you aren’t hearing things. Dragons and riders can communicate to each other through their minds,” she explained, before mentally adding, “just like this.”

Then she waited for him to finish his food, stood up, and offered him her hand. “Now, let’s go meet the Lady Commander. It’s not polite or wise to meep her waiting for too long.”