(Page 1 of 24) The First Dragoneer by M. R. Mathias
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SUMMARY: Two young men go on a hunt and find a cavern to explore. Inside they find something they will never forget!
The First Dragoneer
by M.R. Mathias
Copyright 2010
 
ONE
"So what are you gonna do? Have you decided yet?" Brendly Tuck asked his best friend.
They had known each other all seventeen summers of their lives. Brendly hoped that since he didn't have the option of getting out of Prominence Valley as March Weston did, that his best friend would decide not to leave. It was a small hope though, because Brendly couldn't remember March ever talking about anything else. March was always asking him things like, "Where should I go?" Or "What should I try to become? Should I go downriver to Camberly? What about up North to the borders? Maybe I could hire on as a guardsman, or maybe go down South to the coast and work a ship?"
Brendly loved his friend dearly, but as the finality of their last summer together grew closer, the gnawing sense of loss, and feelings that bordered on jealousy, were growing inside of him. If March kept rubbing it in, Brendly thought that he might just have to give his best friend a good ole thumping to take with him when he left.
Wondering now why he had asked the question, Brendly stopped on the woodsy game trail that they were traveling and waited for the answer that he didn't really want to hear.
"I don't know yet where I'm gonna go, or what I'm gonna do," March replied. March could sense Brendly's discomfort so he added, "But I sure wish you could come with me."
"So do I." Brendly dropped his head with the weight of the words to look at his scuffed up leather hunting boots.
"Well, let's make the best of it till midsummer, when I'm to leave. We can worry about it then." March forced a grin and started back up the trail. Brendly waited only a moment to follow, but March had already disappeared under the thick canopy of the woods causing Brendly to have to quicken his step to catch up.
"We won't even get a rabbit, much less a stag. Not if we keep skulking about thinking of that stuff," March called back over his shoulder. "Come on, it's getting late."
Remembering that they were hunting, Brendly caught up with his friend and let the worries of the future slip away.
They were hiking their way up toward Cander's Ridge. It was a little farther from Prominence than they usually came to hunt, but not so far as to cause concern. They were still easily in the kingdom's border, at least as long as they stayed on this side of the slope. Topping the ridge would only invite trouble though.
A pack of dark skinned, pointy eared, kobles had been spotted recently. The feral humanoid creatures could best be described as two legged dogs. They weren't very dangerous alone, but if you ran into a pack of them you could be in serious trouble. They seldom ventured across the kingdom's established border, which meant that they weren't completely void of sense. Only the hungriest of them ever hunted in the protected lands of Prominence Valley, and though a few had killed villagers and hunters in the past, those were usually hunted down and killed.
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