Teaser Tuesday…

It’s Teaser Tuesday. And yes, as the name states… I am going to tease you. I have only done one other in my vast blogging career (What is up with that?!) but since @MelanieRGolden did one and it was a fun peek into her MS… I thought, “Huh… Maybe I will too.”

So here it is… The first Chapter of Deglan Rising. Told in alternating POVs of each MC:

-DEGLAN-

“Deglan?” Mom’s voice rang through the heavy morning mist. “Deglan, get up! You are going to be late for instruction again.”

I shoved the pillow over my head and rolled over. The pale speckled face from my dream still lingered around the edges of my mind. I hoped to get a few more minutes in the fantastic dream.

“Deglan Borian,” said my impatient Mom. “If you don’t get up right now…”

I sensed her reaching to the floor and knew what came next. I jumped from my pallet as the book flew past me, narrowly missing. “Ha!”

“You better be up,” she said, unimpressed. “Carik is already waiting outside.”

“What? He said he wasn’t going to instruction today.” I peeked out the window to see the large grey body of Carik chasing a garden gnome. “Carik, leave him alone! Didn’t he already call truce?”

Carik looked up at me and laughed. “There is no such thing as truce to a dragon.”

The garden gnome ran between his legs and dove for his burrow, nearly caught by Carik’s swipe.

“If you aren’t careful,” I pointed at the other side of the lawn, “the whole lot of ‘em will revolt when your back is turned. I’ve seen it and it isn’t pretty.”

Carik laughed again. “Get down here; we’re going to be late.”

“Yeah, yeah. Keep your horns on. I’m coming.”

In the washroom, I gazed at my unfamiliar reflection in the mirror and cringed. I’d heard terrible things about the end of the ninth year, but this was ridiculous. Born with two horns, I now had several more jutting from the top of my dark blue head and running the length of my body. They certainly weren’t as large as a full-grown dragon’s, and I knew eventually they wouldn’t be so hideous. However, right now they looked like a row of baby incisors that had sprung out of my head overnight. I peered closer to the mirror and checked their length. I couldn’t suppress the growl when I realized they had grown again overnight. At least it wouldn’t be long before my tenth year, when they should be full length.

The pale, hornless face in my dreams flashed before me in the mirror. No scales, no wings, and her body was scrawny. Certainly not a dragon from our clan. She visited me every night in my dreams and last night’s had rattled me. In the past, she’d always maintained that I was in danger. However, last night, she urged me to fly over the mountains and find her.

I looked down at the mark on my arm and frowned. It looked like it had changed again too. Unlike my horns, my mark changed practically every day for as long as I could remember.

“Deglan?” Mom’s impatient voice called from downstairs.

The face dissolved from the mirror and left me looking at my dark blue reflection again. I wondered if my dreams had anything to do with the upcoming Rising Ceremony and all the changes that were happening as I neared my tenth year.

“Deglan Borian!”

“Okay, okay!” Inspecting the rest of my changes would have to wait. At least I could take the memory of her face with me.

Carik held the garden gnome upside down by one foot when I exited the dwelling.

“You’re so asking for it.” I watched the gnome kick his free leg and flail at the young dragon. “When they decide to fight back, I’m going to hold you down.”

Carik dropped the gnome. It flipped around and landed on its feet, just like a cat. The gnome glared, then turned and wiggled his rear at Carik.

“Why that little…” Carik scrambled for the gnome, but missed it by an inch as it dove into its burrow and disappeared. “How can you stand those guys?”

I shrugged. “They keep the pests out.” I looked sideways at him. “They aren’t doing a very good job.”

“Ha ha.” He narrowed his eyes on me. He looked up at my head, and I knew what was coming next. “Your horns look longer today.” He thumped one with the first finger on his claw.

“Do you mind?” I said, shrinking from his touch. “They’re still tender.”

“Sorry, tenderfoot.” As the words left his snout, I whipped my tail around and whacked the side of his face. “Ow!”

“My bad. Still trying to get used to this new length.” I grinned as we walked up the marble steps to instruction.

“I’m so getting you back for that.” Carik rubbed the side of his face, but changed subjects like nothing had happened. “So you excited about the Rising? It’s just under a month away.”

I groaned. Carik knew as well as anyone that I didn’t look forward to it.

The Rising Ceremony came twice a year under the cover of a lunar eclipse. It was like a big hatchday party the whole town attended, but no cake and no ice cream, just hundreds of eyes scrutinizing all the hatchlings turning ten. Lord Arthus, ruler of the Teken Clansman bestows a destiny upon each dragon. The dragon then rises to take his or her first flight in the shadows of the eclipse as a new part of society. Everyone is expected to accept his or her destiny from Lord Arthus without question. Every dragon hatches with a mark. The Teken legend says it forms the moment the light comes through our shell after we break it. Lord Arthus considers the mark, then chooses our destiny based on what he sees.

I shuddered to think what Arthus would see in my mark. It was on my forearm and changed every day. All the dragons compared their marks at one point or another in their hatchling years and no dragon I knew had a changing mark, though I don’t think anyone knows mine morphs on a daily basis. Every other dragon had similar marks to each other, like stars, crescent moons, or snake-like formations. At the moment, mine looked almost like a combination of everything and reminded me of a blob rather than anything normal. Who knew what it would look like in a month? With my luck, Arthus would see the blob and I would end up in a meaningless job, like a Waste Collector or something I really detested, like a Hatchling Sitter. Why couldn’t I just choose what I wanted to be when I was full-grown? The thought of someone choosing for me based on my mark churned my stomach with anxiety.

“It’s a stupid tradition,” I said, taking my place at the back of the large grassy field used for sparring. “I wish they would just do away with it already.”

Carik shook his large grey head. “I can’t wait until next year when it’s my turn. I think you’re the only dragon in the history of dragons who doesn’t want to rise.”

I seriously doubted that; the others just didn’t have the guts to challenge it.

-MEIA-

“Meia?” The teacher’s voice pulled me from my daydreams.

“Yes, Ms. Keller?” I tried to play off the fact I hadn’t heard a word she had said in the last twenty minutes.

“The answer please?”

“Oh,” I said, scrambling through the papers on my desk. “I… well…”

“You weren’t listening.” Her eyes narrowed to slits.

“No, ma’am.” I shrunk back into my seat and hoped to disappear behind the desk. My medium brown hair cascaded over of my face, hiding the embarrassment.

“Can anyone who was listening name the Earth’s layers?”

Hands shot up all around the classroom, and Ms. Keller called on snobby Miss Know-It-All Patricia Camry, who rattled them off, then turned and stuck her tongue out at me.

I glared at her and wished she would burst into flames, but I knew that wasn’t probably appropriate for fourth grade.

The lunch bell reverberated off the walls of the small classroom. Kids scrambled to their feet, bumping into each other as they exited for the playground.

“Meia? Stay after,” Ms. Keller said. She swept the whiteboard with the black and red fuzzy ladybug eraser.

I fell back into my seat and fiddled with the ragged edge of my spiral notebook. Cate, my best friend, hesitated at the classroom door and gave me the look that spoke a hundred words without uttering a single syllable. “You’re in trouble again?”

“Cate, close the door behind you,” Ms. Keller said, brushing her hands together.

Cate shuffled from the room. “Meet me by the swings,” she mouthed as the door snapped shut.

“Meia,” Ms. Keller began. Her pinched lips formed a tight line when she leaned against her desk to face me. She tried to smile, but I could tell she wasn’t exactly sure what she should say… this time. We had this conversation at least once a week since I’d enrolled at this school four months ago. Ms. Keller’s eyebrows knit together, then softened. “Meia, I know it’s hard for you having a new set of expectations, but I don’t think I’m asking too much for you to pay attention in class.”

A long, labored sigh escaped my lips. “I don’t try to daydream, it just… sorta… happens. One minute I’m listening to you babble on about the Earth’s core, the next minute I’m excavating to find the center of the Earth.”

She studied me thoughtfully, then crossed her arms over her body. “Can you try harder?”

“I’ll try, Ms. Keller. I really will.” The plea in my voice was hard to disguise. I needed to escape these four walls and disappear into the afternoon sun.

She lifted her face into a lopsided grin, then dismissed me.

Cate swung in time with the others when I appeared next to the metal swing set in dire need of a new coat of paint.

“What were you daydreaming about this time?”

I sat in the vacant rubber seat and pushed off, ready to soar high above the problems of the fourth grade. “Same stuff as always.” I glanced sideways at Cate, trying to match her height. “I told Ms. Keller it was related to her lesson, though. I thought it would be easier for her to accept.”

“Yeah, if you go spouting you were dreaming about dragons–”

I slammed my feet into the woodchips. They sprayed in every direction as I grabbed Cate’s swing and spun her around to face me. “Shhhhhh! Don’t tell the whole world.” I looked down the line of swings, relieved no one had heard.

“Sorry!” The sincerity in her voice was hard to fake.

I let go of her swing. “It’s okay.” I looked over at Patricia, who was skipping rope with the other snobby girls near the tetherball court. “You want to race?” I pushed back and stood ready for head-to-head.

“You’re on!” Cate pushed her swing back.

The rubber mat rested just below my armpits and I gripped the chains as high as my arms could possibly reach. “Ready? One… Two… Three!”

We gathered our feet up and plopped into the seats, pushing off the ground as we rose. Pumping my feet hard, I gained height. Exhilaration rushed over me as the wind whipped my hair back and forth. I climbed higher and higher. At the pinnacle, I looked over at Cate, who struggled as she attempted to reach me.

“I win!”

We both giggled and continued to fly through the air on the rubber magic carpets. I leaned back with my eyes closed and imagined I was on the back of a dragon, soaring high above the playground and its cares.