Cycle: Land of the Dragon. Selection: Choice or Destiny. Book One

I’m wearing a gorgeous red-coloured dress, with a deep cleavage, and my hair is pulled up in high hair. Thirteen gorgeous girls lined up in a semicircle in a glade. But the panic and the fear seem to have taken hold only of me, the skin is crawling, the teeth are tapping, the back is straight. One thing’s good, we’re just going to have a visual.

The Crown Prince of the Draconian Lands of Drakhodar evaluates us.

It looks creepy: wings (and he periodically spreads them) in a range of at least five meters, head (though scary to the cowardice) thank God one, the size of a quarter of me

Wait, wait, wait, it’s sniffing me out

So … Away …

He’s got a paw of four numbers in a total animated two-story-size movie

And this monster chooses wife among us… will choose from those who are in a clearing… As I drifted into a happy sample? Let me tell you.

Chapter 2. Three weeks before the bride field

So, there was a girl named Catherine. Tired at work, swearing to her colleagues, crying out for unhappy love, dreaming of a slightly higher salary and a new car. And then one day, there was a holiday: two weeks of the sea, sunshine and a truce with my colleagues. My friends suggested to check out a local legend: to go to the stone gate under a full moon in the local mountains, to say «I am coming to you from the people of the world to the world of two-faced,» then a miracle happens…

And the miracle happened, I was in a different world. But alone. I didn’t find any friends around

You don’t think, I didn’t realize the reality of what was happening right away. At first I thought they were such a bad joke. After passed under the arch I thought «Here are the jokers, and when have managed to hide ». However, after 3 hours of searching the joke stopped to seem funny. At dawn I realized I was lost, and when I saw the dragon floating in the sky, the first thought was, On the other hand, you don’t have to pay for it anymore»

Chapter 3. And in the new world there are people

I was confused for a while. You never know what imagined, especially after a sleepless night. I really wanted a warm bed, hot tea and pancakes. Whatever flies over your head, the first thing I have to do is find a house and locals, and find out how to get back home/

The place was strangely found. At the foot stood a small light house, in it appeared a friendly mistress, who opened the door for exhausted me, drunk some sort of herbal decoction and allowed to rest in the garden. It had a bed that looked like a hammock, only with a soft mattress and a warm blanket, (and you thought I was about to get a room ready, meet like a princess…? They haven’t kicked me out yet! After a night of wandering, I was a bit in the mud, slightly scratched, bruises under the eyes (hungry, cold and sleepless.) In general, they let me take a shower, take a break, and then ask questions later.

Chapter 4. A little clearer and a little scarier

I woke up in a wonderful mood, in the street the sun is bright (noon seems to), the smell of the divine lunch . After all, I wanted to know how to get home.

Elenelika (such a complicated name was at my hospitable mistress) has faded me lunch, the dress has given out (in exchange for my dirty clothes), but the name of the city «Sochi» was not familiar to her. My clothes seemed strange to her (nothing strange in jeans, as you can imagine), but she was dressed in the Slavic Saraphan, covered with flowers and animals.

After the phrase «tell me at least how to reach the nearest bus stop» Elegelika already frankly nervous, asking what I mean? (I would have connected the geolocation, but the communication in the phone has disappeared still in the mountains).

I was confused and afraid to ask the next question to this strange girl. Elegelika asked me what I was doing on my own at night, and I honestly said that I went with my friends to the stone arch. She doesn’t know about the jeans and the bus, but she knows about the Arch! The girl offered to go to the local magician, so he can at least take me to the arch. I was also in favor of a wizard, if it would help and we shaved to the local wizard’s cabin.

The wizard’s name was Vidon. He looks like he’s 100 years old. The dry old man’s cloak is hanging on him like a hanger, his eyes are light, almost transparent.

He said he can help me to return home, but will do so only under one condition. What condition? Help overthrow the local government that has ruled for 3,000 years.

My face was serious, my eyes were piercing and sharp, but I had a laugh attack. The Mage let me recover, waiting for me to calm down.

– Me? Taking down the dragons? Are you serious? How interesting?

I was told the following:

Аccording to the laws of dragons, (I tried not to laugh, really. Just listen, to laugh, to return to the arch and friends.) when power changes, the father abdicates the throne in favor of the son, and the son within a month must marry. They marry once for a lifetime. The dragon has five years to have an heir. The dragon has no right to divorce. Within 5 years an heir should be born. And a dragon without offspring (in 30,000 years) loses the right to the throne.

Why do you think he’s telling me this story? It turns out he has a devious plan:

I must participate in the selection of brides. Win in it. Become a dragon’s wife. And immediately after the wedding, Vidon will bring me home (to my world). The Dragon can not get divorce and an heir also. But I do not care in my world for dragon marriage. This is such a simple and insidious plan. I of course said «yes no problem». I just could not have guessed that it was not a joke, not a prank.

Now I’m standing here tapping my teeth.

Chapter 5

I was walking around the room. Things are packed, dressing up doesn’t make sense in a couple of hours anyway, coming down for dinner. Corset was sucking in, keeping me from breathing, keeping me from thinking.

Tired of throwing and thinking about how to live on, sank into a chair. It was located in front of the window and let a little view of the sky. Why a little? Because in a couple of hours, they’ll announce that I’m being removed from the selection. And I do not know what's worse – return to the magician, not last even a day or wait for charges in connection with the conspirators, who decided to overthrow the dragon..

The chair in which I thought about my fate was in a room not quite the usual castle. The dragon lived in a cave where many rooms, halls and passages were constructed. The light in most of the halls was artificial, and in the living rooms (including those who settled in the candidates) it came through windows cut in rock or natural slits equipped with a system very similar to our plastic windows. In the castle there are no usual level of floors, the rooms are located at different altitudes, do not have the usual rectangular shape and are connected by complex corridors to memorize.

The guest rooms have no usual corners, the bedrooms are very spacious with high ceilings. The cave’s a little wet and chilly, so I dug up a warm shawl and I tucked myself into it, but whis fire in the fireplace it will be warmer in the night.

Under the rustle of the wind outside the window, in the arms of a warm shawl did not notice how she fell asleep. The knocking on the door woke up, a man came to accompany me for dinner. (Due to the complex architecture, we were strictly forbidden to move without an escort during the first two weeks, even if the space we seek to enter is located nearby.) I asked you to wait a little. Sleepy and slightly disheveled after sleeping (there was no time to take a bath, or to create a new hairstyle), but with my head held high out to the young man, and went to the verdict.

Chapter 6. Dinner

At the table all the participants gathered, something quietly discussed among themselves (I did not have time to make friends in a day, therefore silently hypnotized an empty plate). Our fire-breathing monster did not appear, but at the same time, a man entered to be 45 years old (if measured in human years) with gray temples, a proud bearing. On the whole, he may be considered beautiful, but an arrogant icy look repels him and makes him completely unattractive.

– Good evening, beautiful ladies.

Let me introduce myself, Lord Emiron, personal assistant of His Majesty. On behalf of His Highness, I welcome you and must inform you that the Heir has departed an hour ago for urgent business. It’ll take three days, he won’t be able to attend dinner. The castle gives you access to the castle’s library, but remember that it is strictly forbidden to be unaccompanied, so call the Companion (you will now be given communications bracelets). Tell us in advance of any travel outside the castle. His Majesty has decided not to remove anyone today, you continue to the selection at full strength.

Thank you for your attention, enjoy your appetite and let me leave you.

And I walked out.

After he left the room was quiet. But it was also cut by the sound of the dishes served, by the shuffling of the servants' clothes. The girls woke up, the sound became brighter and louder. I had no appetite for food, which is why I asked to serve me dinner in my room and walk me to my island of safety.

Chapter 7. Some Rules

So, I eat a tasty muffin in room, drink milk, enjoying the warmth of the fireplace and the lack of a corset.

I am concerned that the emperor did not specify why I did not see the dragons, and in fact the magician invented the legend, which would explain the ignorance of this world. Poor Catherine lived on a small estate on the outskirts of the empire, only people worked on the estate. I was cared for, I wasn’t allowed outside the gate. So it happened that I was with a lot of things just do not come across.

But he didn’t asked, which means that he will start figuring out independently , and that is dangerous for me.

But back to the selection.

For me «selection» is such a TV show where the beauties a man comes with roses and every week informs who goes home. At the end of show there are two beauties, and the whole country guesses right or left, left or right… And now he is coming to the left brunette with a predatory smile, and you’re the whole month was a fan of the blonde on the right… and do not know who is more upset, you’re behind a screen or she there, getting royalties … Or like in fantasy, when the rivals poison each other, prove that they know how to rule the country, but the prince chooses tthe same one that in all behind, but was the sweetest and most beautiful.

So I imagined ’selection’.

But here in fact a monster instead of a handsome man with a rose…

Weedon laughed long after my version of the beauty contest and told me what was really coming.

Okay, first of all, the emperor have the right not to exclude anyone until the last day, just announce his decision when the time comes. There are no requirements for a new member, invariably only total number not more than thirteen participants

Third, the choice itself lasts six months (in this place I had to accept that I had lost my job, my belongings from the rented apartment will end up in unknown places, and the relatives will go mad with grief, because it is not possible to survive and not be discovered for so long).

Fourth, only the ceremony of acquaintance (meadow), the ceremony of announcement and the ceremony of marriage are regulated. The selection process itself and the types of competitive tasks depend on the Emperor’s preferences and are agreed only with him. Participants are notified in the process.

Why is that? He’s choosing a woman he can’t divorce for hundreds of years. Accordingly, the time limit for selection is quite long.

Now about me. Very tormented by the question, both physiologically and most importantly why a human being should be a wife and, more difficult, a mother of dragons. And I’m still an ordinary person, the portal does not aroused my dragon’s blood, did magician magician and so on… So why would the monster fire-breathing, even greater than the growth of me at least twice to choose me as a couple??

If in order, first to the question "How?" I was told the following:

Dragons look like ordinary people. They become monsters only when they want to fly, hunt or fight, generally at will or spontaneously for defense. Children from marriage to humans are born as an ordinary child, the transformation starts from the third year of life. The child must have a mentor by this time. (What about eggs? Magician said that there is an island of active volcanoes, where are living pterodactyls that lay eggs… But the dragons are viviparous) so the argument «I can not lay eggs» doesn’t work.

On the second question «why, we live much less», Vidon replied that it is necessary to tell about the history of the rulers:

So, a few thousand years ago, or a little more, an ancestor of the current ruler was wounded in the war, was to the brink of death in the mountains alone, but accidentally fell into my world, where he was found, rescued and loved by the beautiful maiden Feodosius. The dragon fell in love with the maiden, returned, married and lived happily, the soul in the soul, but not for long (people in this world Physically here feel better, the empress had the best doctors and magicians, and yet she lived to her 100 years and died).

The heir grew up, his father bored, mistresses changed, but one day he got drunk and flew to our world. Villages burned, forests fired, the arrows of the beast did not take, in general for my world catastrophe. But the alcohol weathered off, the dragon calmed and the locals went to negotiate. What can men do to appease a deity? Blood sacrifices and the most beautiful virgins.

Dragon ate Slaughtered lamb and moved into his world 13 girls of different compositions and appearance (although from tears they were not much like beauties already), settled them in his castle, and went headlong into affairs of state, leaving the girls in the care of son’s mentor.

The son was by then a grown man, attracted to one of the sacrificial maidens, and after six months, the young dragon decided to announce that he was getting married. The father did not object, the son married, the authority transferred (with headache of War with werewolves).

Junior loved his Svetlana, but their happy was short-lived also. In one of the battles against the werewolves, he died. Leaving his little son and wife in the care of a parent.

Senior dragon, having learned about the death of her son burned most of the land of werewolves, those who survived accepted the dragon’s rule and still are part of the empire (the truth is many dream of regaining freedom and power).

When he returned home with a victory, Dragon was restless, and once again went to let off steam on the other side of the portal… And again the sacrificial lamb and girls. Dragon liked the role of a deity, and he began to fly every 5 years, taking part in the festival in his honor, eating lamb and taking the girls. But what to do with the harem of crying girls so quickly replenished?

The emperor didn’t planned to marry, mistresses in such an amount dragon did not need, but also but did not want to give up «holiday in honor of «God of the dragon» also. Celebration of it was getting more interesting by the year. People began to prepare theatrical productions with dragon masks, invented technical novelties, the girls themselves gathered different nationalities. In general, the portal has become an outlet of the sovereign. And refuse the victims was impossible refuse because he is a «deity»

And therefore he gathered a council to develop the rules. They decided as follows:

1. Before a dragon marries, to give him a choice of 13 maidens. Нe must communicate with them for at least six months, the contenders may live all the time in a castle, the emperor may replace any of the maidens (this is in case he wants to go again to Land of people).

2. Every five years the palace arranges a ball, to let girls meet a couple.

3. On the outskirts of the empire to create a settlement Old Believers, to resettle people there are not ready to live among two-faced (dragons and werewolves). (It turned out that not all the girls were able to believe in and get used to a new life, and frankly went mad).

So I have, first of all, a plausible legend (a human settlement exists, some behind high walls are really completely closed and barely communicate with the world), and, secondly, a right to participate (according to the law, if a person from such a settlement wishes to participate, they cannot be refused but they may be expelled or replaced the next day. However, few people in the settlements themselves know about this, so they do not claim the right.)

4. The girls who did not choose a pair at the ball or the Royal selection, but refuse to live in human settlements provides a work.

So, rules are created, the war finished with the victory of the emperor. Grandson of the emperor grew up and it was time to try out the rules with the selection.

But the grandson fell in love with the maiden of the dragon family, took advantage of the opportunity of replacement and put a chosen one in the castle. Six months later he announced his choice, married and lived in a marriage with his beloved 300 years. These 300 are considered the golden Reign in dragon history. The dating balls for the nobility were still held, there were no wars during this period, and our lucky man asked his grandfather to bring thingsthat are not present in this world from his travels (he himself could not walk thro ugh the portal, too much jealous wife he had). This period was recorded as the Age of the Flourishing Arts, Science, Technology and Magic.

The new emperor decided to complete the regulations (knowing that the next selection would be for the son).

First, the right of dragons to send their daughters for selection has been secured.

And the final change: if after six months the heir has not decided on a choice, the coronation and transfer of power are postponed, and after two years a new selection is made.

And then two things happened:

1. As a gift to our lover of sacrifices was given to a beautiful woman, to whom a certain George has turned out to be in love. The guy was young, hot, and our emperor was quite the opposite. George became a local hero who killed monster and even on his coat of arms painted the defeated dragon. So the active communication of worlds was interrupted, the new emperor did not want to walk between worlds. The method of transition is preserved only by the Emperor’s family (in the library) and by some Mage-keepers.

2. Grew up new ruler.

New selection was carried out, the Queen is determined (again chose the dragon), but there was no love in marriage. During the six months allotted for selection, the families of the future wife and husband discussed: the merger of capital, rules (including the freedom of choice of lovers, after the birth of heirs), the appointment of some relatives in key positions, and so on.

The following three generations of emperors entered into arranged marriages, but each of them followed the tradition and ritual of selection

It means that the monster with which we are acquainted probably already have a bride with whom the deal of the century is being negotiated.But it’s night, so I’ll start working out a plan tomorrow. Right after breakfast.

Why i didn’t it before? I had 3 weeks for it in the house of Vidon, but only when I saw the monster with my own eyes I realized that it wasn’t a hoax.

When in front of you stands up monster and gives a volley very real fire, and his skin looks like a live crocodile – you start to realize the reality of what is happening.

If it had been friends joke, it wouldn't have lasted more than a week. They are not so cruel to let me to miss the flight. So we will have to accept and live in a cave.

Chapter 8. Making plans

The morning greeted timid dawn, fighting mood, clothing home. (Dresses I had brought with me to the castle were bought for me: four of it were mind-bogglingly memorable, three were solemnly beautiful, fifteen were decently closed and securely tightened, and two were free, without a corset, in the style of peasant women).

Today I was dressed in one of the peasants. Because the heir was absent, there’s no one to seduce, so there’s no reason to suffer with a corset. I Plaited my hair, belted my dress, and put a communication bracelet on my arm, and went down to Breakfast in this modest fashion.

In the dining room there was silence again, and now the cause of it was my appearance. It turns out they without a corset does not come out, I’m a redneck against them. But I sat down at the table and said, breaking the silence

«Enjoy your appetite, excuse me if my appearance seems strange to you, but in the estate from where I arrived we wear dresses with corset rarely, I am more accustomed to a simple tailoring».

The beauties exhaled, mentally crossing me out from rivals, because the girl in the bag with the pigtails can't be the Empress of dragons.

The breakfast was delicious, the crepes with the cream cheered up the mood, my head gradually lined up the next plan of action. I'll start it with the library. It is necessary to assess the amount of information available and useful.

I looked around our friendly company at the table, and I discovered that I was the only one who didn’t talk to anyone. The beauties were actively sharing impressions, plans and news from their families.

So, after finishing the pancakes, still silently I left the table, calling an escort in advance. The chair screeching caused silence and bewilderment again, but I think I’ve already broken all the rules, so leaving will be just one point in the long list of oddities of the girl from the outskirts.

***

My preliminary action plan consists of four points

1. The library: Try to find information about the portal, to escape early by myself. And to find any information on the local world order.

2. Avoid the heir to the extent possible. It is desirable simply to avoid expulsion.

3. Avoid contenders. Without friends, I half-year somehow hold out, but how to deal with those who uzreet in me a threat to their future of the Union, I have not thought of.

4. Finally, find out who is a contractual bride. What should I do with this information and especially how to get it is not quite clear yet, but I will leave it as a goal.

Chapter 9. Knowledge is power, nescience is disaster

Library – a room with an infinite number of racks filled with books, part of the halls is closed for visiting. There’s no damp here, and there are deep, comfortable, soft chairs for visitors. The library will be my favorite room!

The caretaker of the library, wizened little man with a cane and a small bald spot smiled affably.

– What’s your name, young lady?

– Catherine.

– Catherine, I have to tell you about the rules of the hall: in the reading room at the same time you can leave with him no more than three books, reserve for no more than three days. In your room, you can take no more than one and not more than for a month. What do you want to read?

– It is possible the book, which described the events of the first selection?

– What language do you prefer to read? Slavic, imperial, foreign?

It became hot, fingers cramped little sweat trickle slid down along the spine.

– Let's, one in each language?

The caretaker probably thought I was a very educated girl, but no, I just didn’t think the alphabet of our worlds could be different.

After receiving three books bound in leather, I moved it on the table next to a soft comfortable chair.

The text of the first book was written in signs similar to our hieroglyphics, the text of the second was reminiscent of the cuneiform of Egypt, the third book is clearly ancient, written by hand ink in Old Slavic.

None of the lyrics are available to me, so I started going through all the books to see if they had pictures, sketching out But here, too, I was unlucky, all three books contained only text.