Chapter Five

That was a miscalculation. The next two months were grueling on her mind and body. She had classes to make sure she had a basic education, where MeiAnne learned she was already well off. She was made to work on her strength and endurance. Lessons were taught on flight basic's and formations. All the while Gen would make sure to check in on her, usually with Raba in tow.

This morning when she woke, MeiAnne was excited for the day. It was the day eggs were supposed to be assigned. Her training unit would go through the assignment, find out the unit they would later be attached to, and then begin the process of raising a dragon.

She was greeted by a beaming Gen as she opened her room door.

"Excited?" He was beaming.

"Are you more excited than you should be, perhaps?"

"Not at all. I am reasonably excited for my new friend. And hopeful that you will be in my flight so I can bug both you and Raba." He walked through the building with MeiAnne, just as had become usual.

"Have you run that by Raba?"

"What do you think?" He snickered. MeiAnne could imagine the face Raba would make if he had heard Gen. They are good friends. At a short glance one would wonder why Raba puts up with Gen. After getting to know them both MeiAnne learned that Gen pulls out all the best in Raba. Especially his laugh. If Gen isn't around he shuts himself off, being less open and more cold. MeiAnne had her own theories about perhaps it being a defense.

MeiAnne separated from Gen at the mess hall. She continued to meet up with her training unit. She wasn't necessarily close to any of them, but she didn't have anyone she was on bad terms with either. She thought it had something to do with Gen being so quick to take her under his wing the others would keep their distance. It also didn't help that MeiAnne wasn't the most extroverted person in this new environment.

Everyone found their spot in formation and stood. All waiting for the training officers to give their specific instructions and their go ahead.

"Go in one at a time. The clutch is still in the possession of Rithi, the mother. Wait until she picks an egg for you to touch anything." Then the officers had them start to file in, one at a time. There were only 25 eggs so only 25 of the trainees were graduating. MeiAnne was towards the top of her class but didn't stand out enough to be a top dog or anything.

Eventually it came to be her turn in the nesting room. She held her head up high all the way until she came to see the dragon in front of her. It had beautiful blue scales, the color of the sky in the afternoon. It's eyes looked her over, deep green with gold around the pupils. MeiAnne felt her shoulders relax as Rithi held her gaze. There was a calm understanding in the air as the dragon turned to look over her eggs, now down to about 15. She gently took one in her mouth. MeiAnne extended her arms to receive the egg.

It was warm as she held it to her chest. She bowed her head to Rithi before exiting, to which Rithi watched her the whole way out of the room. Just as she had done when the other trainees exited with an egg, the trainees still waiting applauded.

She took the egg and followed the spaced out line of trainees ahead of her to the stables. They were asked to reform their formation, still holding their eggs. Some were struggling to hold the eggs up while others seemed to barely notice the weight they carried. MeiAnne found herself drifting away from her attention on the officers and onto the egg. It had an off white shell, tinted blue. She had been told that the tint of the egg usually correlated to the type of dragon that hatched. She was most likely going to ride a blue dragon if that was the case.

"Listen up!" MeiAnne's head snapped to return her attention to the training officers. "We will now assign you to your Flight. Your dragons stable will be connected to your flights stable."

They then returned to filing one by one. This time they were given a paper with their assignments for after the dragon was full size.

MeiAnne's paper was folded in half, unlike the others she had seen. The training officer pulled her aside for a moment.

"You will be in General Raba's Flight. You were requested by name. You will find his Flight's stables towards the back." They then directed her to move in that direction.

MeiAnne couldn't believe Raba would request her to be in his personal flight. She wondered if Gen forced his hand, but no, Gen wouldn't push Raba to make a decision like that. They were very good at keeping their friendship out of the way of Raba's rank.

Maybe she did better in training than she thought? Then again if that was the case why didn't Raba select a graduating trainee that was higher in the class than she was.

It wasn't making sense no matter how she thought about it. She found herself interrupted in thought as she made it to her dragons stable. There was already a warming setup prepared and a cot set up for MeiAnne. The eggs weren't predicted to start hatching until the end of the week. The officers called it a break, but it wasn't truly one. While they eagerly awaited the hatching on their new partner they had to maintain that the egg stayed in the perfect condition.

She gently laid the egg down and sat beside it. She ran her hand over the shell. MeiAnne wondered if the feeling she was having was similar to the one a mother has over a pregnancy. She could feel the little dragon inside shift some through her fingertips. It made her heart swell.

Even though training was rough, and would definitely continue to be so, she looked forward to meeting this little creature.