Young Writers Society

Davin

The strangers left, and a silence descended on the valley as we all stared at where they had been, each of us completely stunned. Dragons had been that close to us. We were lucky to still be alive, that was for certain.

"Torhilda!!"

The call from the village was shouted out again, snapping us from our daze, and I stood up, offering a hand to Adela. She glanced at it sceptically before standing up by herself, lightly brushing the dirt from her clothing, and I tried not to let her hear my disappointed sigh. Evidently, she heard it despite my efforts, gaze lingering on me out of the corner of her eyes, watching me until she reached some kind of internal conclusion and set off back in the direction of the village. Great. Things with my fiancé were going as swimmingly, as usual.

My brow furrowed as I stood there, before I made to go and follow her. The sound of a voice calling me stopped me in my tracks, and I turned to see who was speaking to me. Rune stood just behind me, one eyebrow raised in what appeared to be amusement. "I've said it once, and I'll say it again. I really have no idea why you're marrying that girl."

I scowled deeper, looking away again. "Whatever," I replied after a moment, looking for a way to switch the topic. "We need to tell the Elders about this dragon herd being so close to the village. They must be planning an attack."

Rune

I would never understand arranged marriages. I saw no point in them whatsoever besides the great sadness it brings to both the bride and groom, depending. I couldn't see any positive outcome in them. But then, I wasn't much positive about anything.

I really saw no reason why Davin wouldn't rebel against his parents or whoever had arranged the marriage between him and Adela. He should just whip out that hammer of his and BAM! I thought. But maybe that just wasn't in his schedule. Each to their own.

I noticed also, then, that Davin was looking at me, waiting for a reply about some dragon attack thing and telling the Elders. "I don't think we should," I finally said. "Perhaps we should go hunt them down ourselves. Take the glory!" My voice was raised and I expected agreement, but by Davin's expression he was glaring at me.

"Be realistic, Rune," he said. "I doubt you could take them down, let alone with companions."

I made a point of disregarding what Davin had said. I only nodded a tad darkly and said, "Fine. Shall we, then?"

I didn't show it, but I thought perhaps Davin could make a good friend. And we set off, trailing a bit after Adela.

Adela

I chewed on my bottom lip, heart pounding with anger. Anger at those two... whatever they were, anger at the villiage, anger at my mother. Anger at Rune. As if being forced into a marriage wasn't bad enough, now the bloody idiot was asking things like... that, and probably assuming that I couldn't heart.

My pace quickened- I needed to gain some distance between us before I turned around and took my axe to the ugly little thing. Not that he didn't have a point; I'm the last person that I would want to marry. Wasn't that the point, though? Two more days, and Davin and I would be man and wife, and by then it would be too late to save us both from years of absolute misery. Irritating him to the point of his abandoment hadn't worked, nor had the vicious comments and threats...

Either he was dedicated or he was insane. A mixture of the two, perhaps.

And now there was, well there was whatever this was. Dragons, two traitors who claimed that the aforementioned dragons wouldn't hurt us. That they were living, breathing creatures that deserved some sort of respect. Ha. Perhaps the dragons and I could relate on some level. Of course, I was quite honestly still waiting to wake up.

Two days.