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    Orphan Dani
    Orphan Dani
    Orphan Dani
    Ebook115 pages1 hour

    Orphan Dani

    By Simon Driscoll

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Dani is a young orphan girl, living on the streets of a medium-sized border town. Her only friend in the world is a dragon. At fourteen years of age, she should be starting her apprenticeship, but all her schooling has come from a dragon. The same day he promises she can some day become a dragon herself, a Mage finally comes looking for her. But is he there to help her, or control her?

    Simon Driscoll loves fantasy adventure books and spent years researching magic in many worlds. Now he's created a world of his own, where dragons, swords and scorcery cross paths in this exciting young adult adventure series.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGrendelmen Publishing LLC
    Release dateJul 22, 2018
    ISBN9781948451048
    Orphan Dani
    Author

    Simon Driscoll

    Simon Driscoll grew up in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University. He has been writing for the last three decades and minored in English in college, focused on creative writing. Writing has always been his first passion. His understanding of the Scriptures and Prophecy comes from a lifelong study of the written word. These two passions are combined in this series.

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      Book preview

      Orphan Dani - Simon Driscoll

      Copyright Info

      Orphan Dani

      Book 1 - The Dragons’ Bane Chronicles

      Published by:

      Grendelmen Publishing

      Mesa, AZ 85204

      www.grendelmen.com

      Second edition chapter book format

      copyright © 2018, Grendelmen Publishing LLC

      eBook Version 2.1

      ISBN 13: 978-1-948451-04-8

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission of the author.

      1- Fiction 2- Young Adult 3- Chapter Books 4- Fantasy

      Printed in the United States of America

      Cover painting and interior artwork by

      Meghan Mitchell

      One

      mooth stones shifted beneath my feet as I limped toward the dragon's cave. Anger buzzed in my head with no outlet. Two miles of walking on a sprained ankle hadn't helped my mood, or the injury. In addition to the ankle, which continued to complain with every step, my left eye felt swollen from a recent blow. The blow itself didn't bother me so much. Instead, I was concerned by why she hit me and how I got away.

      Two miles south lay Barrington, a village sandwiched between the kingdom of Puji and the mountains of Goldoon. Almost five thousand people lived in the village, including the families who had taken me in. Every winter for the past six years one family or another had taken me in as a housekeeper or cook, and shared what little food they had with me; rarely enough to truly satisfy me, or them. Eventually they would start to resent having me there. Thus every year, around the start of spring, I would find some reason to leave.

      This year, the reason had reached out and grabbed me by the throat, literally. There was no real love for me there, and hadn't been since my nanny died almost six years ago. Why should they care about a little orphan girl?

      The cave before me wasn't the adventure others might see. I wasn't here in a vain attempt to gain treasure or impress someone with my bravery. No one else in the village knew there was a dragon nearby. For me, this was my one escape from the cruelty of the world. The only place left where someone showed me kindness instead of hatred and violence.

      The last few feet were the trickiest of all and my injured ankle gave out. I scraped my hand on the cliff in a failed attempt to stop my fall.

      Cortiban's bones! The curse escaped my lips. Frustration boiled over and I had to close my eyes to contain the anger. Pulling myself up by grabbing the face of the cliff before me, I put all my anger to the task of overcoming the pain. I kept my eyes shut as I limped through the protective magic hiding the mouth of the cave. If someone watched as I entered, they would see me walk through solid rock. A protective spell hid everything inside. Now the magic hid me as well.

      I dared to breathe and look around. My eyes fell first on the pile of gold coins and smashed or mangled gold trophies of various kinds. The pile was near the back of the cave and served as Miazan's bed, though he rarely slept. The glittering gold still called to me, promising an easy life. But I held those urges back. I had not come to steal from my friend. Plus the penalty for using dragon gold was death in every country. Several swords, shields, and suits of armor were affixed to one cave wall as a sort of trophy collection. The various knights who came to this cave to battle the mighty dragon left them behind, though only a few escaped with their lives.

      Miazan stood on four legs on the right side of the cave. His gleaming dark green scales reflected the light from the magic balls embedded in the ceiling. He was showing two horns on his head, though I had seen as many as six at times. He shoved the bloody carcass of his dinner behind his spiked tail. I didn't care either way. But to him, eating in front of me without offering something would be rude. He rarely ate anything I would consider edible.

      There was a fierce beauty to his saurian face which looked both more inviting and more dangerous because of the smile revealing his razor sharp teeth. I tried to speak, but tears streamed from my eyes unbidden, and sobs choked my words before they could even form. He was the one being in the world who never judged me for crying or showing weakness.

      In the last six years, Miazan had come to learn quite a bit about my past. Yet in all that time, he'd never brought up the subject of my parents. I certainly didn't want to discuss them, as I didn't have any. At least, none I knew of. There had been four families in the last six years which seemed promising, but after the first two started insulting me and eventually beating me, I learned life on the street was better than living with people who didn't really want me there. Yet the freedom of the streets did not always protect me from being beaten by others.

      Getting away from one or two boys was easy, but they often came at me in groups. The fights had become frequent enough for Miazan to ask if I had started them or just finished them. Usually neither. The rich boys were always teasing me about being poor and weak. They called me names, but the one with the most sting was 'girl.' They used that word as an excuse every time I was unable to defend myself. They threw it at me as proof of how weak I was. I knew in my head my weaknesses were from being alone and hungry, but it still hurt to hear them use the term girl as the greatest insult they could devise.

      The night was warm for springtime, and the fireflies darted across the cave entrance like tiny flaming arrows. Miazan spread one massive wing, using the strong leather web to pull me gently towards him. The sobs and tears flowed freely as I curled up next to his firm, warm hide. I cried for nearly an hour before falling asleep next to him.

      *      *      *

      The scent of dew awakening the buds of the forest wafted into the cave as the morning sun wiped away the remnants of my dream. I had been flying atop Miazan as he dropped garbage on the houses of the rich kids. They were running for their lives. It was a very nice dream. Reality wasn't nearly as nice. I was sore from yesterday, though much improved from when I arrived. The stone floor of the cave wasn't the worst surface I'd ever slept on.

      My ankle felt as good as new, and the soreness from my black eye was gone. The scrape on my hand had vanished completely. As always, sleeping in this cave mended the worst of my injuries. When my eyes adjusted

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