Dawn of the Last Dragon Rider: A LitRPG Progression Fantasy, page 1
DAWN OF THE LAST DRAGON RIDER
THE LAST DRAGON RIDER
BOOK 1
Shawn Wilson
To my Wife and children. Without you, these words are meaningless.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from Podium Publishing.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2024 by Shawn Wilson
Cover design by Jack Nguyen
ISBN: 978-1-0394-5956-4
Published in 2024 by Podium Publishing
www.podiumaudio.com
Contents
1 A Mother’s Commitment
2 Treasure Found
3 A Bargain Struck
4 A Dragon Egg
5 A Boy and His Dragon
6 Training a Dragon
7 Learning to Hunt
8 Unexpected Surprises
9 Preparing for Adventure
10 What Lives in a Cave
11 Learning to Fight
12 Cave Fighting 101
13 Adventuring is Ugly
14 A Victor’s Return
15 Life Changing Plans
16 A Threat to All
17 Battle in Minoosh Part 1
18 Battle in Minoosh Part 2
19 Battle in Minoosh Part 3
20 Battle in Minoosh Part 4
21 Leaving Home
22 A Whole New World
23 The Fluffy Ingot
24 Kaen’s Future and Hess’s Past
25 Letter from Dad
26 Never Stand on a Dwarf’s Bar
27 One Road Leads to the Guild Hall
28 Inside the Guild Hall
29 Choices To Make
30 Trapping the Trapper
31 The Reason to Bet It All
32 Items Are an Adventurer’s Best Friend
33 Magical Jewelry Confirmed
34 Small Lessons in Adventuring
35 A Quest For Kaen
36 The Golden Goose
37 Getting Carried Away
38 Leaving Ebonmount
39 Reunited
40 Arrived
41 Quest Battle Part 1
42 Quest Battle Part 2
43 Quest Battle Part 3
44 The Trip Home
45 The Rank Earned
46 A Promise Kept
47 A Party to Remember Part 1
48 A Party to Remember Part 2
49 A Party to Remember Part 3
50 Leveling Up
51 Starting a Fire
52 How Rich Am I?
53 Money Well Spent
54 Making Plans for The Future
55 First Quests for Everyone
56 The Itch That Needs Scratching
57 First Flight
58 Honest Feelings
59 First Quest Part 1
60 First Quest Part 2
61 First Quest Part 3
62 First Quest Part 4
63 Pammon’s Fight
64 Grave News
65 Someone on the Inside
66 Finding the Mole
67 The One Behind It
68 Lifestone Unlocked
69 Partners in Plans
70 Dancing Again
71 Learning Things We Don’t Know
72 Everyone Flies
73 Aerial Scouting
74 Bow Practice in Flight
75 Kaen’s Real Purpose
76 Pammon’s and Kaen’s stats
77 Leadership is Cruel
78 Separation Problems
79 Hess and Pammon
80 Meeting Lady Hurem
81 King Aldric
82 The Secrets We Keep
83 The Road to Death
84 Hiding No More
85 Adventurers Falling
86 Fiola’s Stand
87 Time Runs Out
88 Two Become One
89 Hurt by the Ones We Help
90 Commitment Even Till Death
91 Returning Home with a Dragon
92 A Promotion
93 Truth In a Vault
94 Words Sometimes Cut
95 Figuring Out Life Together
96 Elies and Thurnok
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
1
A Mother’s Commitment
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, she would escape or die, taking her child with her either way. She had been watching and waiting for this chance for months.
She watched her brown and copper-colored egg vibrate slightly as Stioks ran his hand along the top of it.
“You should be proud to know your child will be my dragon. When it hatches, we will rule this kingdom and others, all because of the power we share.”
Stioks’s face cracked as he smiled at Indyn, blood seeping from the small fissure that appeared when he smiled. She saw the damage that she had done to him years ago when he’d captured her. The left side of his face, scalp, and shoulder was burnt beyond all healing. His bloodshot left eye contrasted sharply against the obsidian black section of his face as it tracked her. He never wore his helmet when he came to torment her, more than happy to remind her that her best had not been enough to defeat him.
“Is your collar bothering you, Indyn? I would take it off, but we both know I have not broken you enough to stay where you belong. Yet . . .”
Shaking her neck, Indyn felt the rusty metal collar rub against her silver scales as the huge red metal chains attached to its sturdy loops scraped across the stone floor and connected to the stone walls of her prison. The cave she was confined to had been carved out of the mountain, and a small window with bars was the only source of light in her cell. The stone roof was intentionally low to prevent her from standing at her full height.
Indyn released a bestial roar in Stioks face. She felt the rage and shame of knowing she had been pulled from the skies and imprisoned within the hole she was kept in, hoping she might birth an egg. If she could have, she would have engulfed him in flames, even if it would have cost her child its life, but her collar prevented it. It would have been a mercy and prevented a life of slavery.
Stioks chuckled at her futile display of rebellion. He moved closer to Indyn when he saw the runes on the collar glowing. Standing a few feet from her muzzle, he turned the burnt side of his body to her and gently tapped his chin.
“I think you missed a spot around here,” Stioks added. He laughed at his own joke far too loudly.
“Try to enjoy your time off,” he called as he left her prison cave. “Juthom and I will return in a week and see if my newest addition is ready for the ceremony.”
Finally, those three fools are gone.
Not long after she had been tortured by his presence, through her cell’s window, Indyn saw Juthom and Stioks ride to the east. Right behind him were the other three female dragons who worshiped Juthom, leaving the mountain for the feeding grounds. Their complete devotion to Juthom allowed them freedom she would never be given.
They despised her for giving birth to an egg without having to be taken by Juthom. For years, they had freely given themselves each time they were in heat. He had ridden them across the skies, but thankfully, none of them had produced an egg. They revered him because he was a black dragon and a powerful creature who was almost as old as she was.
It has to be the magic Stioks infects Juthom with. That could be the only reason why they cannot seem to conceive. That awful human reeks of death, and everything he does damages the kingdom.
What fool of a man coops four female dragons together? It was a wonder none of them had killed each other yet.
She knew Juthom and Stioks were headed out to ravage the countryside and make kings pay tributes of large caravans of food and wealth to his mountain. Even with all they could ask for brought to their doorstep, Stioks and Juthom felt the need to terrorize the people, fanning the flame that once swept across all the kingdoms, resulting in her kind being hunted for centuries. Men like Stioks were why the world had forgotten the age of Dragon Riders, when men and dragons bled and died together to safeguard the innocent.
That fool was moving them all, anyways. He had a city built for them. For years Stioks had forced the two kingdoms to the east to construct a hall he felt was worthy of his power. He had promised towers for each of them, but Indyn knew what they were. Prisons. They were captives that only had one purpose. To bear an egg for him. A dragon he would bond with.
The three of them disappeared from her view. They would be gone for hours, gorging themselves, hoping against hope it would allow them to get pregnant when Juthom took them.
Indyn unwrapped herself from her egg and struck the chain near her neck again with her last talon. She had been striking it for half a day, hitting the same spot every time. Two talons were gone already, broken by the magic in the chain. But she could feel the link weakening.
When her last talon snapped off, she snarled in frustration. Testing the chain with her aching nub of a claw confirmed her suspicions. The link was almost broken. So close! It was now or never. If she would get away before the other three returned, or just like that, she would lose her only chance. She strained against the chain, tugging with all of her might. No one would call her weak, but this prison was built to hold her and her alone.
They had believed it was enough.
They had underestimated her will.
She struggled to breathe as the collar began to choke her. Every ounce of strength she had surged through her back legs as she strained to break free of the chain.
It dug deep into her neck, cracking scales that most weapons could never hope to pierce. Blood ran down the chain, but she felt the weakened link failing.
They will not break me! Indyn screamed in her mind.
Her back claws dug into the stone, creating deep furrows as she groaned. She was so close, but the pain was worse than anything she had ever experienced.
Her gaze landed on the egg. Inside the pit of her stomach, her rage roared from red- to white-hot, its fire fueled by a mother’s love for her first child. With one last massive lunge, she gave everything she had left and drove her body across the room.
The link snapped, and Indyn crashed into the stone wall beside the gate, shaking the room and causing small rocks to pelt the floor. She lay there, almost motionless, as she tried to regain her breath. Blood ran down her neck, painting her silver scales a rusty red.
She was not worried. She would heal in time.
It was over. Freedom was hers.
Joy filled her heart, replacing the rage, as she beheld her child, knowing they would escape this place. She was carefully lifting her egg in her claws and preparing to leave, when a jolt of pain lanced through her hands where they touched the smooth bronze shell.
Something was wrong with her egg!
[Identify]
Bronze Egg
Sex - Unknown
Ailments
Cursed - ?
Oh no, no no. This can’t be?! she thought frantically as she stared, first at that notification, then at her only child.
STIOKS!! She seethed, not daring to bellow her rage, worried she might attract unwanted attention.
Glancing outside, she checked to see if she could spot Juthom’s broodmares returning from the feeding ground. When she didn’t, she collected her mana and empowered a spell.
[You cast Dispel Curse on [Bronze Egg]]
[Dispel failed - This Curse is too high level to remove]
Indyn flexed her neck, wincing as the collar rubbed against her broken scales. She sighed, knowing what she had to do.
[You cast Transference on [Bronze Egg]]
[Transference Complete]
[You are now cursed - Unable to heal]
[You are now cursed - You are being tracked]
A scream escaped Indyn that was nothing compared to the fire that suddenly raged through her bones. She felt weakened, and her body ached. The effect of the curse was more than she had imagined!
Blinking back tears, she grasped her child in her talons.
We must go now, little one!
Ignoring the pain that wracked her body, she kicked the door with her back leg. The wooden door tore off its hinges and clattered into the massive hallway outside her prison. Together they moved into the hallway and toward the exit of the mountain that had been her prison for years. They needed to escape now!
A day into their prison break, Indyn had noticed the three females miles behind her. She had glanced back, as she had every so often, and had seen them as she had been slowly gliding below the clouds. She was trying to decide if she would trust her egg, and her life, with the Dragon Rider she had heard about in the West.
The curse!
Frustration filled her, as she knew that plan would no longer be viable. If Stioks and Juthom attacked the Dragon Rider with these three, he would stand no chance at all.
She beat her wings and rose into the clouds, feeling the cool moisture across her scales as she climbed above them. They would still be able to track her, but she needed to add some distance between her and them while she figured out her next move.
[Activate Flight Burst]
The wind buffeted against her as she surged forward. Her skill launched her across the sky like a bolt of lightning. Her talons gripped tightly around her child as she left a trail of clouds swirling in her wake.
What to do? Where can I go?
Her egg moved slightly in her claws, and she rotated her head a bit as she streaked across the sky and gazed upon it.
I will find you somewhere safe!
By the second day of nonstop flying, fatigue was setting in, and Indyn felt the slow and steady trickle of the blood that ran down her neck. She had been cooped up in the mountain far too long, and the stamina she had once enjoyed when she’d roamed free was gone.
She knew where she needed to go and changed her direction, realizing the only hope her child had was a future without her. The mountain range near Ebonmount would be the safest place for her child. It had been home to dragons ages ago and was her only option now.
Checking behind her was a constant chore, and she had to drop below the cloud level to ensure she could spot her pursuers if they got near. This plan would require everything she had, yet she still did not know if it would be enough.
A predatory smile still remained on her face as she glided across the sky. Hundreds of years being up there had taught her how to fly as efficiently as possible.
Blast those three!
She knew this moment would come; changing direction had allowed them to catch up. Sometime during the early morning, they had appeared miles behind her. She had almost not seen them as they had climbed high into the sky, right below the clouds. Against the red and orange colors of the sky, she had noticed that petty yellow female, Upi. Her youth and size allowed her to close the distance faster than the other two.
Gazing down at the landscape, Indyn calculated the distance to where she needed to be; she was almost a day away. Based on the lead she had now and the time she expected she would need, she would have to wait a while before using her flight skill again.
As the third day stretched on and the sun started to set, Indyn knew the time to make her move had come. The sun would block their view of her as she made her next move.
Fear not, little one. Mother has a plan.
[Activate Flight Burst]
Indyn’s wings felt weak. Four days of constant flying combined with the stress of her flight skill was taking its toll. She glanced down again and saw her small bronze egg nestled gently between her massive claws. She cherished these last few moments she had, caressing her child that was moving inside. Soon she would have to abandon it. Soon it would hatch, and she would rather die than let it fall into Stioks hands again.
Hold on, little one, Indyn thought as she crested over the top of the snow-capped mountain.
Growling to herself, Indyn admitted that bastard Stioks was no fool. The trap he had set on the egg had cursed her. The three females could follow her, and she could not heal. More blood flowed from the cut on her neck every day, weakening her even more. Every second counted now, before she bled to death.
Her eyes were heavy when she spied what she had been looking for. For days she had flown here, knowing a quarry was located in the circle of mountains that dragons once claimed. She hoped it would be refuge enough for her unborn child.
[Flight Burst Expired]
Indyn groaned and tucked her wings as she dove down the mountainside. Using her skill to widen her lead on the three dragons chasing her was draining her mana at an incredible rate. Soaring to the bottom of the quarry at night, she was unseen by the world. No one saw her massive form blocking out the stars in the night sky. There were only a few small lights off in the distance in the town that worked these rocks.
