An Extraordinary Bond, Lorian Lilsiel [best romance books of all time .TXT] 📗

lot less complicated if they could communicate without speaking. 

“I suggest that you become fully ready quickly.”

“Are they here?”

“Yes. A male. Five foot eleven inches tall, in his middle thirties. He has two horses with him. He’s walking up to the door.”

“How can you tell?”

“I can hear him, as well as smell him. He’s at the door now. It’s time.”

Three knocks came at the door, loud and sharp, echoing slightly through mudroom and into the rest of the house. Kara’s breath caught. She was nervous. The time had finally come to leave her family behind and head to Colinwood. 

Kara’s mother tensed up and she paused in stirring the scrambled eggs for the twins before removing them from the stove and hurrying to open the door. Kara followed behind her, stuffing her last bite of toast into her mouth. Kara watched as her mother opened the door, but stayed back, opting to look from around the corner. 

“Mrs. Woodensly, I presume?” The man was as Opal described him. About five foot eleven inches and appearing in his mid thirties, he had a pleasant voice and well kept dirty blonde hair. His face was clean shaven and his clothes were on the finer side as well. He wore the purple cloak of the Rising Dragons and had a serious look at his face.

“Yes?”

“I’m here from the Rising Dragons. I hear that your daughter Kara has had a successful summoning, I’m sure you know what that means.”

Mrs. Woodensly’s face fell, “Yes.”

His face softened. “I see you care for your daughter. Rest assured, she will be happy and well taken care of. She has been given a great blessing in the form of her dragon, but if she and the dragon aren’t properly trained it can lead to problems in the future. I hope you understand.”

“I do.” Kara’s mother turned to her. “Kara, the Rising Dragons are here.”

Kara took a deep breath before stepping nervously around the corner and into full view. Opal came up next to her and rubbed against her leg. “It’s going to be okay, just breathe. Don’t tell him about us talking yet, it isn’t something commonly known.” 

Kara gave a small nod that only Opal noticed before speaking to the man. “Hello.”

He smiled. It appeared warm, but it seemed like something he wasn’t used to. “Hello, am I correct in assuming that you are Kara Woodensly?” Kara nodded. “Wonderful. My name is Trevin Akers, I’m here on behalf of the Rising Dragons. I hear that you summoned a dragon, congratulations.”

“Thank you.” Kara spoke quietly but managed to keep her voice from shaking.

“You know why I’m here then?”

Kara nodded. “Yes.”

“Then you should get your things and say goodbye. We have a long road ahead of us. Do you know how to ride a horse?” Kara nodded again. “Good, that makes this much easier. I won’t keep you longer. Take what time you need, but not more than that.”

Kara gave a final nod before turning and going down the hall to her room at get her bag. She saw the man stiffen out of the corner of her eye when he saw Opal follow her, but he didn’t say anything. Once she got to her room, she put on her cloak and bag, and looked in the mirror attached to her dresser, noticing a single tear roll down her left cheek. She quickly wiped it away before going to the twins' room, which was next to her’s. 

The twins were doing their own things; Tyler was reading and Tae was drawing with graphite sticks on some paper, “Hey you two, I have to leave now.”

Both of them snapped to attention. Tyler dropped his book to jump up and hug Kara. “Now? But it’s so early! Why can’t you stay longer?”

Tae was more careful because she didn’t want to mess up her drawing, but she went to hug Kara in distress. “We don’t want you to go!”

Kara knelt down so she was eye level with them. “Trust me, I want to stay too, but I don’t have much of a choice. Training is important, I’m sure you’ll learn that when you get your dragons someday.”

“You think we’ll get dragons?”

“Of course! If Opal isn’t proof that our family’s dragon-less streak is over I don’t know what is. I love you both, but I need to go now. Say goodbye to Opal too.” The twins nodded and hugged her harder before hugging Opal the same way. Opal was very tolerant, and even nuzzled them a little. “I need to say bye to Charles and Gail now, so you be good, okay?”

“Okay!” They chimed in unison. 

Kara went to Charles and Gail’s room, the next one down from the twins. There she found Charles writing at his desk. “Hey Charles, I um, need to leave now.”

He looked up from whatever he was writing. “Already? Man, I didn’t even have time to finish the poem I was writing for you. Tell you what, I’ll send it to you when I’m done, ‘kay?”

Kara smiled and nodded. Charles aspired to be a writer, and poems were his specialty. He would write them for birthdays and other special occasions. “Thanks, Charles, you’re the best.”

“Don’t let Dorian hear you say that. He’s touchy about his status as ‘best older brother’ you know.” They both smiled and laughed. Charles got up and hugged Kara, then turned to Opal. “Take care of her, got it?” Opal gave a respectful nod. Charles seemed satisfied. “Good then. Stay out of trouble, go say bye to everyone else. Oh, and be expecting letters from both Dorian and Claia.” He ruffled her hair before pushing her out the door. Of course, Kara didn’t think that the two oldest siblings would be kept in the dark about their little sister summoning a dragon. She could imagine Claia sending a lengthy letter about how proud she was, but Dorian was more likely to come bursting into Colinwood to hug her.

Gail wasn’t in the room with Charles, which most likely meant she was in the garden off the side of the house where the family grew things like carrots and herbs.  Kara went out the back and around the side to find Gail weeding the herb portion of the garden. Gail spoke without looking up, “You’re leaving?”

Kara nodded, then realized that Gail wasn’t looking at her to see. “Yeah, I’m leaving.”

Gail paused in her weeding and stood up, turning to look at her sister. “Are you ready?” Kara nodded in response. Gail sighed, “I guess that’s all you can hope for.” She walked over and gave Kara a big hug. “Go live the dream I wasn’t able to.” She pushed Kara away and went back to her weeding. 

Kara stood in silence for a moment before turning and walking back inside. It had been Gail’s wish since she was little to be a dragon rider, and she had been the most affected out of Kara’s older siblings when she failed the summoning. 

Opal nudged Kara’s hand. “That’s all of them, right?” 

Kara nodded. Her dad wasn’t home, so the only person left was her mom. Kara went back into the mudroom, where her mother and the man were waiting in awkward silence for Kara to return. 

“Ah, there you are. Hurry up then, say goodbye to your mother and then meet me outside.” Trevin turned and walked outside to wait. 

As soon as he was gone, Kara rushed to her mother’s side and buried her head in her chest. “I love you Mom, I don’t want to go!”

“Look at me Kara.” Mrs. Woodensly’s eyes were on the verge of tears, but she held them back for her daughter’s sake. Kara looked up at her mother, tears flowing gently down her cheeks. “I love you too, which is why you need to go. Don’t let us hold you back.”  She looked down at Opal, who was standing behind Kara, then looked back at her daughter’s face. “You have a dragon now. You are going to be more than any of us will ever be. To do that you need to leave, so do it with your head held high.” Kara nodded, and Mrs. Woodensly turned to Opal once more. “Please, take care of my daughter.”

Opal gave a respectful nod. “Tell her she has my word.”

“I thought you said that we should keep this a secret?”

“There is nothing stronger than the love a mother has for her child. A nod doesn’t do enough.”

“Mom,” Kara’s mother looked back at her, “she says you have her word.” Mrs. Woodensly’s eyes widened, but Kara gave her a final hug and ran out the door before she could say anything. She called back, “I love you!” but didn’t turn around. 

Opal followed behind her. “You’re doing great.”

“Am I really?” Kara took a second to rub the tears from her eyes and collect herself before walking over to where the man was waiting. 

He stood next to two horses, a roan and a gray. “Are you ready?” 

Kara laughed a little in her head. “I’ve been getting asked that a lot, haven’t I?”

“Have you found your answer yet?” Opal looked up at her, silver eyes glinting slightly in the light of the sunrise. 

“Yes.” Kara answered both at the same time. 

“Then we should get going. The gray is yours - you said you knew how to ride?” Kara nodded. “Good. Hop on, she’s good with younger riders. We need to meet up with my associate and the other successful summoner, they should be waiting at the edge of town.”

Kara nodded again and walked over to the gray at an angle, holding out her hand and keeping her eyes down as she tried to remember what else her uncle had taught her about meeting a new horse. The gray sniffed her hand. Kara thought through what she needed to do, Now I breath back… Kara blew gently on the gray’s nose. This went back and forth for about thirty seconds. Kara gently stroked the horse on the shoulder. “Good girl, good girl…”

“Hurry up, she won’t throw you.” Trevin was getting impatient. Kara slowly moved to the horse's side and mounted. It was a little awkward with her skirt, but she managed to adjust it so it wasn’t too unbearable. “There, you see? Come on then, we don’t have all day.” He got on the roan and set into a fast walk. Kara did the same to keep pace with him, and Opal jumped into a low flight and followed beside her. “You really do seem to know a lot about horses.” Trevin called over his shoulder. “Where does a working class girl from Tealer learn something like that?”

“My uncle.” Kara raised her voice slightly so it would reach him over the wind that was blowing again today. “He lives in Samdra, and trains horses. We visit him in the summer sometimes, and he taught us how to ride.”

They rode in silence for about twenty minutes until the reached Tealer’s east gate across town. They stopped, and Opal landed next to Kara’s horse. “I’m going to go hunting. Don’t worry, I’ll catch up with you later. It would be better for your traveling companions anyway. I’m not surprised to be off putting.”

“Right. You can meet up with us after we start if you need to.”

  Opal took off and the wind picked up again, and Kara pulled her cloak tighter. Trevin did the same, but was more discreet about it. “We made good time, looks like we got here before them. It shouldn’t be long though, so hold tight until then.”

Almost as soon as Trevin finished speaking, someone called from down the street, “Ho there! Sorry we’re late, the lad’s never ridden before so I had to give him a crash course!” The voice was that of a burly man with a kind face, unkempt red hair, and a scraggly beard riding a black horse laden with traveling packs. He was leading a white horse carrying the same boy who had summoned a red the other day, his dragon sitting on his shoulder