The Dragon Who Hated Us

A Rider’s Memoir

Chapter 1

I remember when I first heard that I was to join the Riders. I’d come home from an errand when I saw two magnificent dragons outside my house, with their Riders inside. One of them was a tall, handsome elf with silvery-blonde hair, and the other was a human, somewhat more scruffy, with a goatee.

I’ve never been particularly smart. Just good at the things I do, though I long considered I just did the things I was good at. But these Riders there thought differently.

“We understand that you’re something of a prodigy, young Justin.” The elf said. “We believe you have the mark of a Rider. Our dragons can see it.”

“Indeed.” Said his dragon (a female) through the window. “We can see it on him. He is open to bond.”

“Bond?” I asked. “You mean, with a dragon?”

“Yes.” The man said. “If you want to.”

Well, obviously I accepted. We have all heard the great things about the Riders, and many people owe their lives to the actions of the Order.

“Wonderful.” The man said. “You’ll want to make your way to Belaria. In three weeks, there will be a ship there to take you to the Academy.”

You see, Belaria is the coastal city. The Academy is on a large island of the coast. That’s the main headquarters of the Order of Dragon Riders. They have a distinct military advantage there. You can only get there by a ship or by flying, and if you were to attack by ship, they could easily fly in with their dragons and burn the boats. And obviously, very few people outside of the Riders can fly.

I’d never really met a dragon. Yes, I’d seen Riders before, but I’d never really gotten to meet the dragons themselves. That’s what I was really looking forward to, though I hadn’t really absorbed the fact that one of the creatures would be something of a life partner.

Everything about my life changed then. I remember my first day in Belaria. I’d never been to a really big city before. The whole place was bustling with activity. As a port city, it was a center of trade and commerce, and the streets were packed with people. There were even some Riders there, though the dragons themselves stayed out of the city, understandably.

Except for one. I saw one dragon near a butcher’s shop, looking hungrily at an ox that was waiting outside in a pen. The dragon had no apparent Rider in sight. He was a striking creature. He was about one-and-a-half times the size of the poor beast he was grinning hungrily at, and covered in glittering blue scales, with piercing blue eyes. I even noticed that he had a sapphire in his forehead. I wondered how that got there, though my thoughts were cut short when he turned his head and saw me. The ox seemed thankful.

“Oh.” The dragon said. “Hello. Never seen a dragon before?” he asked.

“No... I mean, yes, I have seen a dragon.” I said. The dragon turned to face me and sat down lazily. There was a sort of grin on his face that made me uncomfortable at first. “I’m going off to the Academy...” my voice trailed off when I saw him make a sort of scoffing noise, blowing a bit of smoke.

“Ahh. Joining the glorious Riders?” he asked, in a tone that was almost condescending. “I think you’ll like that.”

“I take it you don’t have a Rider...” I started, though I was starting to feel very foolish.

“Nope.” The dragon said cheerfully, standing over and walking by me. “Don’t care to have one. I live on that island near the Academy... Not my thing.” he said, admiring his silvery-white claws. “Though the Elders want me to get one. Though they simultaneously dread that happening.” he chuckled. A bell rang in the distance. “Oh, that’ll be the ship.” he said, walking off. He looked behind at me. “Aren’t you getting on?”

“Oh! Yes...” I said sheepishly, following him. “So... you aren’t flying there?”

“Nah.” he said. “I like boats. They’re fun little devices. Also it’s fun to see the look on the other peoples’ faces.”

This was completely unexpected. I’d always expected dragons to be much more formal. Then again, this seemed to be a wild dragon... or something vaguely similar to a wild dragon. He couldn’t really compare.

The boat was somewhat small, being that it only had a small number of other students on it. They were all surprised when the dragon boarded with them. They didn’t quite know what to think about the matter. They were all shy and nervous in his presence, which made for a somewhat quiet trip. A couple of people looked at the dragon with looks of disdain, I remember.

The boat set off, and we were all quiet. We didn’t know what to say. I suppose that with the presence of the dragon, and the knowledge of where we were going, we were all feeling very formal. The fact that we were with a very informal dragon made things quite awkward. We saw the island looming in the distance, with the shining Academy there. It was a large castle complex... it was beautiful to behold, a shining crystalline palace, it looked like.

At the end of the short voyage, we were greeted by one of the Elders with his bright red Dragon. I recognized him as the elf that came to recruit me. He was very tall, must’ve been 6 foot 5. Had silvery-white hair, and his dragon was rather striking as well. A bit bigger than the blue dragon on the boat with us, and more intimidating.

“Good day, new students.” he said to us. “I am Caeras, and I will be one of your teachers during your training.”

“And I am Kiryst.” the dragon said, bowing her head. “You will be free to find your rooms to stay at. And tomorrow, you will meet the dragons to find your partner.” she threw an icy glare at the dragon with use, through those vivid green eyes. “And I expect you to be there, Pernas. No hiding this time.”

Pernas sauntered up to her, smiling a serpentine smile. “Oh, you know I’d do anything for you, darling.” he said in a teasing tone. Kiryst growled at him. Caeras folded his arms.

“Pernas.” Caeras said in a patient, though stern tone of voice.

“Oh, why do I have to?” Pernas asked. “I’m never having one of these guys on my back.”

“You don’t have to, no.” Caeras said. “But we’d appreciate if you did.”

“Fine, fine...” Pernas grumbled, trudging off.

“You’ll have to excuse Pernas here.” Caeras said, turning to the other students. “He’s a bit unruly. Perhaps one of you will be his Rider-”

“Doubt it.” Pernas called back, before taking off into the sky and flying away to another part of the island.

I was surprised with how frugal my room was, and a bit relieved. It was comfortable, but not particularly grand, like the rest of the Academy was. It had all the necessities and was neat and all. I just set all my stuff on the floor (not that I had much baggage) and lay there on the bed.

I thought about what it would be like to bond with a dragon. Would he (or she? I wasn’t sure) like me? Would I like it? Was I up to joining this grand Order? I stayed up for awhile, pondering. I didn’t really know many dragons. There were the ones that the Riders were on, but they were never able to socialize much, and I was often nervous around them. The only one I ever got to talk to was Pernas, today. And he was completely different from what I’d come to expect. Caeras more fit what I had been expecting. Solemn, serious, grave in most aspects. But Pernas was different; he has loud, boisterous, and generally cheerful, from what I had seen. Guess that shows what I know, I thought.

Before I knew it, I heard talking.

“So, Pernas, if one of those people were to ride you, who would it be?”

I looked over. Somehow, I was sitting on a mountain, and there was Pernas, surrounded by a few other dragons, apparently female. I really had no idea how this had happened.

“Oh, don’t ask me that.” Pernas said lazily. “It’s always either a human with rocks in his head, or an elf with the personality of a rock. That or it’s a half-and-half, but they almost always have family problems, what with a parent being dead or something.”

“But if you had to choose?” a small female cooed.

“Well...” Pernas said, thinking. “I think I’d rather go with the human.”

“Human?”

“Yes. They’re more amusing and generally more likeable and less boring. And if they get pretentious, it’s easy to deflate its ego. Elves, not so much. They have infinite egos. And he has to be very stupid.”

“But humans are generally very stupid.”

“Yes, but this one would know that he’s stupid. Thus, a lack of pretension on his part.”

My thoughts were, for a very informal dragon, he liked to use big words like ‘pretension’ on a regular basis.

“And also, the human would have to have some interest in artistic things. I’ve always liked human art and music. That might be tricky... has to be artistically inclined, but an idiot. Not like it matters. I intend to stay free as a bird, and nothing is ever going to bring me down.”

“How did this get in my room?” I asked at length, after racking my brain as to what exactly was going on.

“Huh?” Pernas asked, looking at me at last. The female dragons seemed to just exit. “What are you doing on my mountain? And where’d that bed come from?”

I looked down. It seemed the bed was right there on the cliff. We were silent for a minute.

“Umm...” I said. “Goodnight?” I asked, turning over and going to sleep.




Chapter 2

Well, when I woke up in the morning, all was normal. I figured that I’d been dreaming the other night. I must’ve just dozed off while thinking... It’s funny that way. When we have dreams, most of the time we aren’t aware that they’re dreams. Then we realize the next morning how silly it was...

I stretched, and blinked, holding up my hand to shield my eyes from the sun coming in through the window...

Then I realized that I’d overslept. Well, I didn’t know when we were supposed to get up, but I had thought that it might be early.

I rapidly threw on some clothes and ran out. Largely due to the fact that I had crammed both my leg into a single one of my pant legs, I fell down quickly after exiting my room, crashing into another one of the students.

“Uh! Oh, that’s okay.” he said, after we both hit the ground. I looked up at him, perplexed at his response. My first thought was that he might be one of those ‘half-and-half’ people that Pernas had mentioned in the dream. He certainly did seem like that. He was tall like the elves, with silvery-blonde hair, and subtle points at his ears. Though his eyes were hazel. Not like the more glassy colors of some of the other elves. “Oh... dear...” he said, getting up, burying his face in his hand.

“What?” I asked, perplexed, righting my legs in my pants while his eyes were obscured.

“I said ‘that’s okay’ before you said ‘sorry...’” He said. “I’m sorry...”

“Huh?” I asked, still not sure what he was getting on about. Though it was a bit odd... I was just opening my mouth to say ‘sorry’ when he...

“I’m a telepath.” he said, sighing. “I try not to use it so much.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“It’s rude. Mother always said not to invade on peoples’ privacy. I try not to look at people too closely... but sometimes I can’t help but hear what people are going to say before they even open their mouths...”

“Well...” I said, shrugging. “Seems like an honest mistake... At least you’re not looking at my-”

“Don’t finish that sentence, please.” The Halfer said awkwardly. The subject was dropped. Which is odd, because I wasn’t even sure what I was about to say. “Here,” he said, holding out a hand, which I took, and he helped me get up. “My name’s Lawrence.” he said.

“Justin.” I said. “Uhh... we’re not late or anything, are we?”

“No. I don’t think so. Then again, because they don’t think so...” he laughed a bit at his joke. “Don’t worry. We’re just supposed to look around the academy and grounds today. Meet the dragons and the like. We’ll begin training when we get our dragons. Well, I’m off. I’ll see you in classes.” he said, walking off, while I just stood there.

I just stood there, looking around for some time, not knowing where I wanted to go. The place felt... surreal. I’d been from a very modest back-ground, and this place... it wasn’t modest. It was pretentious and cold. Not warm and humble like the things I was used to. Sure, it toned down the pretentiousness in my room, but out here...

I don’t think it was the pretentiousness that bothered me. No. It was just too cold. Pretentious and warm I could stand. But pretentious and cold... No. I couldn’t. I had to get outside.

I tried not to face the Academy when I got out and the sun hit me. I felt better. I didn’t like the Academy so much at this point, but the land around it was pleasant. Mainly consisted of grasslands and forest. It was sunny outside, and I felt comfortable.

I saw a large white dragon sleeping out in the open. I sat down and looked at it. After having seen a couple of dragons, I was much less nervous about them. And at least there wasn’t much to be nervous about, as this one was asleep and a fair distance away.

After a length of time, the dragon woke up, giving a wide, toothy yawn. As if right on cue, Pernas appeared and started walking up to the other dragon, slowly. I quickly gathered that the white dragon was a female.

“Hey there.” he said, with that Don Juan-ish glint in his eye. “Have a nice rest?”

Well, the female didn’t say anything. But she hissed at him rather nastily. Pernas flinched backwards. “Woke up on the wrong side of the grass, eh?” he asked, trying to keep what sense of dignity he had. The female growled and walked off. Pernas snorted, two puffs of smoke coming out of his nostrils. Then he saw me out of the corner of one of those blue eyes, and turned to look at me.

He was silent. He then turned to face me, and began walking towards me, slowly. I felt... a strange sort of connection. I’d felt something like it in the dream. Then I knew. I was his Rider. How did I react... I don’t remember. I wasn’t really thrilled. I was a bit numb, likely due to Pernas. He stood there, in front of me, making himself tall, and looked down at me. Then he opened his mouth, and said in that slow, choppy way you talk to an idiot.

“Go. To. Hell.”

Chapter 3

There are alot of dragons in the world. I just happened to get stuck with the sex maniac.

Suffice to say, my career wasn’t looking like it was off to a good start. I’d learned that Pernas was not exactly in the highest esteem with the Elders, or most of the other Riders. Some of them admired him as a ‘bad-ass.’ However, what the younger, more impressionable riders thought of my dragon was little consolation to the hostility that I felt from the more serious members of our Order. But it wasn’t my fault.

I tried to get on time to my first class, but Pernas happily pointed me in the wrong direction. Granted, perhaps it was my fault for suspecting nothing when his direction led me away from the Academy...

I got in some hot water with the teachers for that. Though Pernas received much more scorn. Late one night he crawled into my room and sat on the floor (thankfully the rooms were big. I just wish they didn’t have such a draft). I asked him, “Why were you so late?”

“I had to stay after” Pernas grumbled. “They did a most abominable thing.”

“What did they do?” I asked.

“They managed to take flying and make it stop being fun,” he said, lying down in the middle of the floor. “Now shut up.”

He still didn’t like me.

He did a few things to stop me from getting to my classes. He’d lead me in wrong directions, trap me in holes, tie my shoes together... to this day I have no idea how he managed to do that last one... But after awhile, I tried to just avoid him and depend on other, more reliable people to point me in the right direction. Lawrence was always helpful. His dragon hadn’t started taking classes yet. She was just a baby. A little green dragon that he named Cassandra, after his mother.

Though there were mornings that I couldn’t avoid Pernas and his dastardly deeds. He was always awake earlier that I was, and he’d start trouble first thing in the morning. Say, for example, that I needed my arm guards for sparring? They’d somehow disappear. I swear, he would just wake up and sit, staring at me. I swear, sometimes I thought he was going to set fire to the bed, or eat me, or something. It’s not like my fears were unfounded – he was blowing smoke at me.

I was feeling a mixture of anxiety, frustration, and a little depression. Here I was, part of an important organization, the Dragon Riders – and my dragon hated me.

“It isn’t just you.” Lawrence said. “He hates all of us.”

“All of us?” I asked.

“All the Riders, and all the dragons.” Lawrence said, sighing. “He was... upset that you pulled him into this.”

“Hey, don’t eavesdrop on my thoughts, Halfer!” Pernas growled from the rooftops, before slinking out of sight.

“So... all of us?” I asked.

“Yes.” Lawrence said. He looked up where Pernas had been. “It isn’t like it’s a thought you’ve been keeping secret.” he called. He looked back at me. “With the way it radiates from him, it’s like he’s parading around the fact. Not that he doesn’t anyway.” he said, shrugging.

“It’s just... jarring.” I said. “Not to mention bothersome. He keeps trying to keep me from getting to class.”

“He’ll get bored of it eventually. He’s in this to stay, and he’ll have to come to grips with that. And I wouldn’t worry about him hating you. There’s never been a Rider and a dragon that truly hated each other. It’ll pass. He’s just cranky that he’s been dragged into this. Many dragons simply don’t want to have Riders. Alot of the wild dragons are like that. If you went up to a wild dragon and asked him or her to be your dragon, they would take great offense.”

That was more or less the idea that my teachers had.

“What you have to understand is that we’ve all known Pernas for quite some time,” my sparring teacher, Mr. Lawson, said. He’d been more sympathetic to my plights than some of the other teachers. “And he has been, from day one, insolent, boorish, and crude. He’s always treated us with a sort of... snide contempt. But everything about our relationship with him is common knowledge. Tell me about how you get along with him.”

“I don’t, for the most part.” I said. “We avoid each other, except when he tries to give me grief.”

“He’s done practical jokes on all of us at some point. He’s something of a mascot to the more... unruly Riders. Though I don’t think he likes them much more than the rest of us.”

“Why does he hate the Riders?” I asked. “Does he hate humans in general, or...”

“Oh, no. He’s not a racist like that. He likes humans. Otherwise he’d be off in the mountains with a colony of other dragons. If anything, he gets along better with humans than with dragons. He’s been said to admire things that they do.”

“He likes boats...” I said, remembering our first meeting.
“It’s very rude to talk about people behind their back.” that almost sing-song voice came from the roof again, as Pernas looked down on us. “Ah, there’s my little Justin, eh?” he asked, noticing me.

“Apparently, you two haven’t been getting along?” Lawson asked.

“Oh? Oh, I’m so sorry...” Pernas said, spreading his wings and gliding down near us. “I’m sorry, Justin. Please, don’t take it personally. I’d be pissed at anyone who tried to get on my back.”

“But I haven’t tried to get on your back...” I started.

“You haven’t seen me pissed.”

There was a silence for a few seconds before Lawson chimed in.

“You’ve been preventing young Justin here from getting to his classes on time.”

“Or at all.” I said.

“I’m simply preparing young Justin here for his higher education,” Pernas said with that serpentine smirk. “Besides, classes are so boring. Think of it as a favor.”

“I guess...” I said.

“Not very sharp, are ya?” Pernas asked, peering at me through one eye.

“Now, Pernas, that’s enough.” Lawson said. “Stop tormenting your Rider.”

“I am not tormenting him.” Pernas asked, turning to look at him. “Am I?” he asked, looking back at me. I shrugged.

“Very well...” Lawson muttered. “Justin, I’ll be seeing you during class.” he glared at Pernas. “On time and with all his equipment.” he said, before walking away. Pernas snickered.

Chapter 4

A partial list of various torments is as follows

Stealing my breakfast
Stealing my lunch
Stealing my dinner
Loudly farting next to me
Hitting on any and all female dragons bonded to teachers
Dumping me into the lake
Dropping me into class late
Flying in and lifting me out of class early and then dumping me into the lake
Burning my clothes
Eating my clothes
You get the idea.

But, eventually, he got bored of tormenting me and started to mellow out. He didn’t act in such a snarky manner towards me any more, though he was still disdainful of the rest of the Riders, of course.

He was generally cordial towards me, or at least not openly hostile. I remember the first time we were sitting at the lake and he didn’t throw me in. He seemed more interested in taking a nap, while I was fishing.

I have no idea why I was fishing. I don’t particularly enjoy it. But I guess at the time I just glad to have quiet time without things being on fire. Something of a breather, I guess.

Of course, there were no fish in the lake. It’s funny how we sometimes do completely irrational things and only realize the absurdity in hindsight. Pernas actually seemed quiet right now, if only because he was asleep. Though I was still slightly nervous – any second now he could spring up and push me into the lake.

I closed my eyes for a minute, and then I smelled burning wood. I opened my eyes.

My fishing pole was on fire. I jumped up and tossed it into the lake. I turned and saw Pernas snickering behind me.

“Why’d you do that?” I asked.

“Everything’s better on fire.” he said, with that grin plastered on his face.

“I beg to differ...” I muttered, turning back to look where the cinders of the pole were floating in the lake.

“That’s because you hate fun.” he said.

“No, I do not hate fun, just-”

“My kind of fun?” he asked. “What, you prefer the... intellectually stimulating fun that comes with complete boredom? I don’t get it, quite frankly.”

“Because you’re young?” I ventured a guess. Pernas found it highly amusing.

“What’s that got to do with anything?” he asked, laughing. “Besides, you’re not particularly ancient, yourself.”

Well, I didn’t have much to say to that. I just sat there like an idiot while he laughed.

“I just like some innocent amusement in my life.” Pernas said, sitting down again. “That’s all that I want.”

“Free spirit and all?” I asked. “You still a wild dragon at heart?”

“Well...” Pernas said, weighing my assertion. “Maybe you could say that...” He grinned lightly. I could still tell he was being condescending. Even if I didn’t know what ‘condescending’ meant.

Then he pushed me into the lake.

Chapter 5

Hey, believe me, that was an improvement over the general given day.

Things mainly carried on in a sort of passive-aggressive manner. It seems my greatest respites were the classes themselves, when I didn’t have to be near him. Which is all the more ironic considering how I embarrassed myself.

“You aim too much for the legs.” Lawson said one day towards the end of sparring class. “The legs might seem an easy target, but aiming for them leaves your whole upper body wide open.”

“I don’t see the problem,” I said. “If I can hit them at all, well...”

“We’re trying to improve how you hit them.” The instructor said, smiling patiently. “I see the problem. Your aim is to simply win as quickly as possible – and that is a good way of tackling a problem. If you find yourself in combat, you want to get it finished quickly, but you also have to be careful. And you can’t rely on the same tactics every single time.”

“I’ll remember that.” I said.

“You’re improving” Lawson said, walking off to tend to some other student who had gotten very angry with his sparring partner and had proceeded to try bashing his head in with a stick. Thankfully, that didn’t work out very well. I saw Lawrence’s little green dragon, Cassandra, staring at me.

“What d’you want?” I asked. Cassandra just stared at me a little while, and then left, making a little squeaking noise. Baby dragons don’t really like to make conversation often, except with their parents or their Riders, if they happen to get Riders that soon. Cassandra was rather shy, yet she seemed rather snooty with they way she walked around, as though she was contemplating whether or not she should indulge the ground in enjoying her step.

She was, at the moment, the only dragon on the island that was affiliated with the Riders. The others had gone off to visit a colony of wild dragons on a nearby continent, far away from any human or elven settlements. Very few of the dragons here were specifically ‘wild.’ They had been born in the world of humans and elves, accustomed to us. Very rarely would a wild dragon take on a Rider, for sheer pride.

I had the feeling Pernas would be right at home out there. Maybe he’d never come back... and thus have me kicked out of the Order... well, I hoped I wouldn’t be kicked out. Though that’d be highly unusual for a dragon to leave his Rider. Then again, Pernas was a highly unusual dragon.

Well, more ‘crass’ than ‘unusual.’

With class over, I went back to the nearby cliff, looking out over the ocean. I could see the city from here. Just liked the time to myself. Being alone, to ponder things, or just enjoy the serenity.

I tried to forget that I had things to work on – I hadn’t touched my violin since I arrived, even if I was supposed to practice every day, I had to review history and literature –

I didn’t quite get why they wanted us to learn about history and literature – what on earth does that have to do with being a Rider?

“Education is important.” Lawrence said as he was passing by.

I didn’t really like it when he did that, even when it did answer the question. I care for my privacy.

And for a few days, Pernas was off on the visit of the colony. I improved in my courses due to this, for one being able to get to class on time. Also, I didn’t have any distractions to get in the way. And my homework didn’t keep disappearing. Well, wasn’t disappearing as much. Come to think of it, at times I was grateful to Pernas for burning that stuff, though I didn’t let him know. Maybe he would have been happy to do it anyways, I don’t know.

But the important thing is that right now, he was gone.

But the thing that became very apparent after a week had passed was that things were very boring. Classes were immensely dull for me. Then again, that’s probably just because I’m naturally stupid. At least having my day ruined makes it memorable.

He did return, eventually, with the other dragons, after another week. It’s hard to really remember the details of what happened during his absence, given the complete boredom, but I remember when he came back.

I was fishing at the time. With no bait, as I didn’t want my daydreams to be interfered with by a tug on the line. I enjoy sitting out there... I just don’t like fish.

Anyway, as I was saying, Pernas returned. I saw all the dragons flying back to the Academy, but I noticed something odd... One of the dragons seemed to be having trouble flying, and was being supported by two others. Then I squinted my eyes to try to see who it was, and to my shock, it was Pernas.

I dropped my fishing pole (or, more accurately, stick), and ran to the Academy as they were landing. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who noticed something was wrong. All of the teachers and a large amount of the students were there.

Pernas was badly hurt. He was bleeding all over from several gashes in his skin, and his wing seemed torn. His eye seemed to be shut, due to a large cut over it, and he was limping badly.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Just get away!” Pernas snapped, forcing his way through the crowd, limping. “What, is it that everyone in the world who annoys me is now drawn to me or something?”

He limped his way away from everyone, though they still kept a close eye on him. Everyone was wondering what had happened. Everyone except for the dragons, of course. No doubt they’d explain everything to their respective Riders. Not that it was very comforting for me at the moment, as my dragon didn’t seem to want to talk. That was the impression he gave me as he ignored me, limping over to our room. “Go away, I want to take a nap.” he said gruffly, shutting the door with his tail.

I put my hand on the doorknob. Then I took my hand away.

He had locked it.