The Sixth Dragon Rider

Part 9

Aura had been at Stone Haven for two weeks and was starting to regret her abrupt descion to leave home. She wasn't sure how she ever could have thought she'd fit in. People never accepted those who were different and there wasn't a thing about her that was like any one else. She was younger, a girl, had a female dragon, and had yet to discover any "special powers" that her teacher chose to recognize in Basic Skills. And the other students, they were awful. They didn't just not accept her, they went out of their way to publicly humiliate her. Take last Tuesday, for example, Aura was walking back from Dragon Teachings and was going to study her new packet on a bench in the courtyard. Nobody ever went over in that part of the courtyard, so she wasn't paying attention going over. If she had been looking, she would have realized that there was something on the bench, but she didn't and when I got up she realized the back of her dress was stuck to the bench, luckily she was wear leggings, but in shock Aura jumped back straight into a trap that left her dangling by my ankle from a tree. She knew it was the other students because a sign saying "Chosen, Special, Unique? Ha! Not if you're reading this, Aura!", was pinned to the tree right in her sight line, and the boys liked to mock her by saying things like"precious chosen one," and "our special little rider". Luckily she cut myself free before anyone saw her, but it was an awful prank. They also tried to trip her at every meal and constantly in the halls. They had also tried to break into her room on multiple occasions. You would've thought teachers would be above this though, but they weren't, or, at least, not her combat teacher. He was always finding ways to make her seem silly, inexperienced and dumb. He even went as far as to lock Nirvana in an iron cage one day when everyone was sparring, as Nirvana always helped her, and then attacked Aura himself, saying you had to always be on your toes. He also accused her of tampering with equipment when Nirvana got out and came to help her. And as a cherry on top of the awful sundae, she still couldn't get the diary open, which is why she was headed to the library.

The old doors creaked on rusty hinges when Aura entered the library. None of the boys ever went in and the staff had no reason too, so the library was always empty and deserted. There wasn't even a librarian anymore which was why she was able to look in restricted, off-limits sections, and get into the banned book storage area, which was where she was headed today. She had already scoured the rest of the library for things on her room, and the tower it was in, but still had yet to look in the banned and restricted areas. She assumed, though, after thinking it through, anything on her room would be in the banned area, seeing as they had tried to erase it from existence already. Sneezing as she walked down the stairs into the banned books area she began to wipe the dust away from the spines of the ancient books, seeing nothing that seemed of importance. There were books on failed dragon riders, and other things that would make the dragon riders look bad, but nothing that related to her room. Bending down to look at a stack on the ground Aura found a dust covered, book that looked as if it had been made after many of the other books in the room, the title was gold embossed and said "The History of the Dragon Riders: Man's Noble Saviors. Curiously she flicked through it trying to figure out why Stone Haven would ban a book that seemed to be about praising Dragon Riders Going over to sit on a crate in the corner, she was so absorbed in the book she didn't see the book in her path, and it slid out from under her as she stepped on it. Crashing to the ground, the book she had been carrying flew from her hands and smacked into the middle of the only empty wall in the room. But it didn't just hit the wall and fall down to the floor, instead the part of the wall it hit sank in, and she heard a loud screeching noise.

Jumping back, Aura watched on in amazement as the floor quite literally opened up to reveal a staircase that descended beneath the floor. Her curiosity getting the better of her, Aura whistled to Heaven to come over and crept closer to the staircase. Grabbing the candle she had been using to see Aura started down the staircase, with Nirvana close in tow. The staircase wound, down until it reached an old door. Pushing the door open Aura entered a dark room with a row of what looked like unlit torches along the wall. Lifting her candle up to try and light one if the torches, Aura was amazed for the second time that day when not only did the torch she was trying to start, light up but all the other ones too, as if the fire was spreading from torch to torch.

Soon the whole room was lit and Aura looked around in wonder, it was another room filled with books, like the banned area had been but much more organized, with a massive wooden table in the center that had a single book lying on it.

Intrigued Aura went over and looked at the title on the book. It was gold embossed like the one from upstairs, but much older, and the title was "The Dragon Warriors" and simply that. It was strange though, she had been told the symbol on her diary meant dragon warrior and now, there was this book, but she had only ever heard the riders called, well riders, never warriors.

Flipping open the cover Aura began to read the first lines of the book, "Long ago there were not only the Dragon Riders, but the Dragon Warriors as well. More powerful than the Riders these warriors possessed great power and sometimes even magic. Not much is known of these powerful people however and most of the knowledge is myth and lore, although it is suspected that some of the warriors may actually have been women. Thousands of years ago, though they disappeared without a trace, leaving the dragon riders to fill their place." Incredibly curious she flipped the page to read further about these Dragon Warriors and see if she could find any possible connections that could help her unlock, literally in some cases, the secrets that surrounded her and solve the mystery of her and her dragon.

A/N: Another chapter, in three days like I promised. I hope you like it and comment telling me what you think. The ending isn't my best, so I might change that at some point, although I would leave the same basic points. Also I'd you haven't already go to my Author's Note and vote for the cover you like. This chapter is dedicated to AnyellaDan, who helped give me a lot of ideas! Oh before I go I'm also thinking about changing my pen name and so comment what you think of that please, because I'm still not sure. And one very final thing, I have such amazing loyal readers and I want something to call you guys, any ideas comment them!!! And don't be shy, please!  Also if you could just take a second and vote for this story I would be over the moon, so please do!!! Thank you!!!

Bye for now, Kat