• Prologue







    It was Dawn S. Night's tenth birthday and she was happy about it. The sky above was a bright blue, the sun was casting its warm, golden rays down onto the town, and there was not a single cloud in sight. It was the best day of Dawn's life.

    However, there was also an air of sadness about that day that put a damper on its mood. It was that very same day, ten years ago, that Dawn's father had died in what her mother had said was a harsh battle. Dawn, having never known her father, was waiting for her mother to return from the grave yard.

    Dawn's hair was a glossy black and her eyes were a bright blue just like the sky above on that day. She wore a golden dress and her feet were bare. Th gloves she normally wore sat on the step beside her. On her right hand was the birthmark her gloves were ment to hide. The birthmark was a dragon with its wings out stretched, legs and paws held close to its stomach, andits tail reached down to Dawn's elbow.

    Dawn was never supposed to let any one see her birthmark but no one ever came to her house.

    Suddenly she saw her mother racing up the path. Dawn leaped up and reshed to meet her. Her mother did not sweep her up in her arms like she normally did though. Instead her mother grabbed her arm and pulled her into the forest behind their house.

    "Hurry Dawn," her mother said. "You don't have much time."

    "What are you talking about Mommy," Dawn asked.

    "I promised your father that if you had the mark when you were born that I would not let them take you away," her mother replied quickly.

    "What am I Mommy? What does this birthmark mean? What was Daddy? What am I?"

    "As you know the birthmark you bare is a dragon but what you do not know is that is is a birthright. It marks you as some one to be feared by all people in this world. It marks you as one of them for the rest of your life."

    "One of who Mommy?"

    "Not now Dawn. Now where is that old creature of your father's?"

    Just then a mighty roar shook the entire forest. Dawn stopped in her tracks and her mother had to pull her the rest of the way. Soon the pair came upon a clearing where a huge dark purple and black creature laid sprawled out in the sunlight.

    Dawn's mother pulled her right up to the massive creature's head. As the pair approached the creature it opened its large, green eyes. It raised its huge head on its long neck and let out a huge yawn.

    "Dusk, I need you to take Dawn away from here before the others claim this town as part of their realm," Dawn's mother told the creature as she lifted Dawn off the ground. The creature lowered its head and Dawn was placed behind one of its spines. Her arms wrapped around the spine in front of her.

    "Dawn," her mother said, "You must never return here as long as you live. This is the only place where you will never be safe even if just stay for a short time. You have to keep moving no matter what happens. They will never stop hunting you. You must run Dawn, you must run and escape."

    Tose were the last words Dawn ever heard from her mother. The dragon took off running into the forest with a ten year old Dawn clinging to his spines never to return home again.

    Dawn was a Dragon Rider and she had escaped from the other Dragon Riders who wished to use her. However, her escape was a turn for the worst for the kingdom.