With Christmas fast approaching, I’m drawn to Dragon’s Future, my debut novel which was written around a dream-like family vacation complete with a white Christmas.

So, here’s an excerpt from the early section of the book.

A frosty morning

When Ruskya and Kyn exited the abode the next morning, a heavy fog hung in the air so that the top of the canyon could not be seen. A thick layer of frost crunched under their feet. Each blade of grass seemed to be enlarged three times or more with tiny hairlike particles; it was as if each flake of ice built on the next to create miniature castles.

The riders went about their normal morning chores and training, but over it all hung an air of anticipation for the time when Ruskya would go to Caravan Canyon to meet with Kyle and the woman who wanted to be a dragon rider. Duskya had a bad feeling about the whole thing and tried to talk her brother out of going, but Ruskya was adamant. She opted to follow him with their mental link. Glendyn had decided that he and Kyn would wait at Meredyth’s abode. Her place was the closest to Caravan Canyon they could get without freezing or drawing unnecessary attention. They arrived just before the midday meal.

Meredyth greeted them with hugs. When she heard that Ruskya couldn’t stay but needed to go to Caravan Canyon to meet up with Kyle, she quickly set about making a snack and fixing tea that she poured into a container wrapped with skins to keep it warm. Ruskya thanked her and headed back out into the cold.

The fog had lifted, but still hung from the sky as low clouds. The frost clung to the sagebrush and grass, but the slightest wind would create a small blizzard. The cold sucked the breath away from the young rider, and he drew his furs tighter. He was glad his ma had fixed him some of her tea. He had tucked it and the snack she had given him away under his cloak where they would stay out of the cold.

Ruskya made it to Caravan Canyon in good time. He looked around for the others, but didn’t see them. He wasn’t sure if he was early or not. He waited a few minutes and then heard some voices coming up the canyon toward him. He walked toward them and found Kyle and the woman just arriving from Woolpren.

“You made it here. Good,” Kyle remarked. “I wasn’t sure if you would when I didn’t see you in Woolpren.”

“You said to meet here at the canyon,” Ruskya replied, “so that is what I did. I haven’t been here long.”

“So, where is this dragon rider of yours?” the woman inquired.

“I don’t know,” Kyle said, pulling the hood of his cloak closer around his face, while looking around as if the rider would materialize out of thin air. “He said to be here. He should be here.”

A Dragon Rider Appears

Ruskya decided to watch his companions for signs of anything amiss. Neither of them seemed to have picked up on the presence further out of the canyon. He figured that if he watched Carryl and took his cues from her, he would appear normal. A few minutes later, he noticed a sparkling frost fall upon the edge of the canyon behind them. Ruskya repositioned himself so that he could watch that side of the canyon without appearing to do so. Carryl noticed the shift and looked around. Her sharp eyes picked out the frost shift, also.

“Is someone coming?” she asked.

“Where?” Kyle asked, looking back the way he had come into the canyon.

“I don’t know,” Ruskya answered truthfully. He didn’t know if there was someone with the dragon.

An uneasy silence hung over the group as they watched around the canyon. Ruskya’s dragon senses saw the person first and flared away immediately; this was someone who would recognize dragon senses being used on him. Ruskya knew it was a man and that he was strong. He seemed different from Glendyn or any other rider Ruskya had met or felt. He immediately moved to guard his thoughts and his dragon senses.

“What was that?” Glendyn asked.

“It’s the rider,” Ruskya carefully called. “Do you think he can hear this?”

“No, Ruskya,” Wyeth answered. “No matter how strong, another rider cannot hear a dragon’s communications with his rider. Talk only to me. Glendyn can still watch through your thoughts.”

“Okay,” Ruskya answered shakily.

“Courage, young one,” Wyeth called. With his dragon’s words, Ruskya felt strength return to him as if he had just received dragon courage breathed on him.

“There,” Carryl whispered, “there’s a person coming down the ridge.”

“Where?” Kyle demanded, sounding loud compared to Carryl’s whisper.

Ruskya noticed the look of offense that Carryl sent toward the other man. She almost held him in contempt.

Before she could say anything, Ruskya replied, “She’s right. He blends in with his brown and white outfit, but there is a man coming down.”

The look Carryl sent Ruskya was the exact opposite of what she had thought of Kyle, her green eyes searched him, looking for what he was made of.

“How can you tell it is a male?” she questioned.

Ruskya thought quickly; he had known it from the first contact he had. “I thought I saw his figure as he came around that small bend,” he said truthfully. The glimpse had been enough to confirm what he had known all along. Carryl nodded, satisfied, her hair bouncing like little springs.

They waited in anticipation for the next couple of minutes as the rider made his way down the canyon wall toward them. When he arrived, the rider paused before greeting his perspective riders. Even Kyle had the presence of mind to wait until he was addressed before talking.

Summary

The rider tests them and then when the sun’s all but set they await his decision.

Shocking Ending

The rider waited again. This time no one moved. The fog seemed to creep into their bones. Ruskya felt the touch on his mind again. His mind felt unclean after the rider moved on to the others. He wondered what the rider was searching for.

“I admit, there is only one more test,” the rider said, as the sound of large wings beat in the air.

“You did bring dragons with you,” Carryl said with awe in her voice. No sooner were the words out of her mouth, then an enormous turquoise dragon landed at the rider’s right side.

The dragon’s wings were larger than any Ruskya had ever seen, and the light of the torch made them glow in their iridescence. The dragon folded his wings, and Ruskya noticed the dark veins of blue streaking through the dragon. It reminded him of a large turquoise gemstone set into a cloak clasp or on a belt hook. There was something unnerving about this dragon. The dragon landed and Ruskya had barely taken in all of him, when Ruskya felt Wyeth’s scream of agony.

“Wyeth, are you okay?” he called urgently.

Before Wyeth could respond, Duskya called to him, “Ruskya, is everything okay?”

Ruskya had no time to reply to his twin, for the rider had stepped up to Kyle and with a roar, brought his hand back and slapped Kyle across the face.

“What were you thinking, you imbecile?”

Kyle went down onto his knees at the force and unexpectedness of it.

The rider drew back his hand and smote again. “How dare you bring a rider here!”

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