The Greatest Dragon Rider

SAMANTHA

"Can't the queen have chosen a better time for delivery?" shouted an old cringy maid while walking past me, I felt the same way in my heart but I just could not bring myself to say such a thing because no queen would choose to deliver a crown prince in the eye of a horrible thunderstorm raging the sea. Every increase in the flashes of lighting brought more agony to the queen. We were all beseeching her to push at this point but the harder she tried, the harder it became, the queen's once beautiful face was now replaced with a teary, messy and, pain-stricken face. The midwives asked us to pray for the survival of the queen and her son. All this while I kept on nurturing some superstitious thoughts in my mind, What if the thunderstorm had some connection with the crown prince whose fate was not even yet decided? Our king comes from a lineage of powerful magicians and warlocks but for about five generations of his family, there has been no magic in their blood. While I was still in deep thought, I heard a bitter cry and rushed into the makeshift delivery room, the prince had been successfully delivered but the queen after such a strenuous delivery was on the verge of death. "Bring me my baby boy, let me see how handsome he is," said the queen while making repeated attempts to sit upright but are strength kept on failing until one of the midwives held her down and told her to rest. She was given the baby, she cuddled him and kissed his head then she started weeping because she would not get to spend time with the boy. The queen called me to her bedside, hugged me tight, and thrust her newborn son into my hands. "Promise me to care and love this child like you would love your child," requested the queen. "I promise to love him like one of my own," I promised. Unlike most children who spend their first hours on earth crying, this babe had a smile on his face and giggled as his dying mother stroked his hair. A few hours after midnight the queen passed away and the storm finally subsided. Fate or should I say destiny had successfully bounded the prince and me together.

KELVIN

In my years of service to King Geoffrey, never have I ever seen him more sorrowful than today. The ship his wife boarded to the North to visit her brother arrived today but it arrived with the queen dead. He wept thrice before the laying-in-state ceremony for the late queen and spent the whole night sobbing and blaming himself for allowing the queen to travel to visit her brother, Byfurst. Byfurst the Great is a very renowned warrior with over thirty victories on the war front and twenty duel victories to his name but all these wonderful records were tainted by his attempt to forge a kingdom for himself, his brother, the great King Ashbury of Everlyn stopped him and withdrew the charge of the army from him (Everlyn is currently joined with Rensbury due to the marriage of King Geoffrey to Queen Brienne ). Byfurst feeling disgraced went into self-exile and swore to never step foot into Everlyn again. The laying-in-state ceremony took the larger part of the day. Everyone present spoke about their experience with the queen. The king broke into a sob during his turn and asked for the ceremony to be rounded up on time. The queen was buried in Rensbury's style of burying royals. The corpse was first burnt with dragon flame before the ash was swept up and put in a special ornamental jar which was placed in the coffin with the queen's most prized possessions. The king spent the rest of the day sulking about and refused to see his newborn son, the death of the queen was truly a great loss to the kingdom. In the evening, the king sent for Samanthra to bring his son into his chamber. He sat down and stared at the baby boy for a very long time until the boy fell asleep, The king turned and saw me standing at the other corner of the room where portraits of past kings were hung, he walked over to me and took to the portrait of King Rytman, the last king to ever ride a dragon. The story of King Rytman can never be forgotten in the kingdom of Rensbury. The king already had an excellent spirit from a very young age. He was faster, stronger, and wiser than all his mates, and he easily won other nobles in duels and wrestling matches but his childhood happiness and enjoyment were cut short by the sacking of Rensbury. The sacking of Rensbury stands out as one of the darkest points in the history of our kingdom. Lemmeryn, our archenemy joined forces with other enemies, they even employed the services of the Manobie savages who came from far North of the realm. The Manobie hooting raiders first attacked, they scaled the walls of Rensbury and laid siege on our city. They burnt houses, shops, and taverns. They killed and raped women, slaughtered men and children they met on the streets. The king deployed the army to neutralize the attack but it was too late, Lemmeryn alongside combined forces of about two other enemy kingdoms surrounded our kingdom. The army of Rensbury tried their best to slaughter as many Manobie raiders as they could but the savages just kept on scaling the walls. The Manobie raiders took over the siege forts and killed the soldiers mounted there, this gave the army of Lemmeryn a chance to ram down the gates of the city. While the siege was going on Prince Rytman was taken to the dragon lair for protection alongside six guards. It was in the Dragon lair that Prince Rytman first bonded with his dragon, the Elder dragon, Klaryxis.