WIP - Those Three Days

Prologue

Emilia Rook smiled as Ravenspire's representative Sir Richard Whittmore appeared on the stand in the city square and gave the same speech he gave every Solstice Ceremony. She did as she always did and stood admiring Blue Starstreak, Whittmore's dragon throughout the speech. Since first seeing the dragon, Emi had never seen another like it. Her bright blue scales were laced with gold colouring and the golden markings on her face seemed to create a picture of true beauty as the flash of colour rose from her snout dividing in two before continuing on above her eyes. The markings slowly faded out as they curled back inwards on her forehead.

When the speech was over and the Ceremony began, Emilia gently closed her eyes. Everyone in the square would do this at each Solstice Ceremony, in the hopes that one day they might hear a dragon's voice.
Emilia had always wondered what a dragon's voice would sound like. Would it be gruff, powerful or just full of wisdom? Sometimes she would imagine a dragon with an accent from one of the neighbouring towns, which always made her chuckle.

As always, there was no voice in her mind, not gruff, not powerful nor with an accent. Emilia held back a sigh, she had really thought that this time she might get lucky. It was then that the incredible happened.
A small gentle voice echoed in Emilia's mind.
"H-hello?" it asked as if unsure that anyone could hear it.
Emilia's eyes gently blinked open and she glanced around the square to try and pin point where the voice had come from. She realised suddenly that this more than likely wouldn't help and so tried to reply to the voice using her own mind.
"Hello..." she smiled, trying to imagine herself speaking in a cheerful tone rather than a bland one.

"Emilia?" the voice in her head replied. It too seemed to gain a cheerful quality now that it had gotten a reply.
"Where are you?"
Emi was too ecstatic to wonder how the dragon knew her name and so instead jumped up, waving her hand in the air and replying out loud;
"Here!"

Some of the members of the crowd turned their gaze to her as she raised her hand from her position at the front of the crowd. They continued to give her disapproving looks until one of the dragons flapped their wings and took a few tentative steps towards her.

The dragon had emerald green scales and a paler, creamy coloured belly. Her wings, which were furled neatly by her sides were the same emerald colour as her scales, though when she stretched her wings, you could see that the undersides were brown like the leaves in the fall. The dragon also had a line of fur stretching from what looked to be almost like her shoulders, to the base of her tail. On her head, there were more tufts of brown fur on either side of her head as well as what looked like actual brown leaves growing from the end of her tail.

Emilia had seen this same dragon earlier. She had noticed that no one else seemed to look at her as much as the silver scaled dragon that had yet to find who they were bonded to. Everyone thought that the silver one was prettier, but Emilia had preferred the subtle beauty of this 'leafy dragon'.

The dragon seemed to have an expression of almost smiling on her face as she slowly but surely padded over to the front of the crowd. Emilia held her hand up to the dragon as she had seen so many do before her and the leafy dragon nudged her head into her hand, nuzzling it gently. This was the universal symbol that showed the crowd that the dragon had found it's partner and an indicator to the Ravenspire representative to congratulate the new duo.

Emi grinned and petted the leafy dragon's snout. She had golden coloured scales on the tip of her nose and underneath her copper brown eyes. Even those eyes seemed to be laced with a soft golden colour.
"What's your name?" asked Emilia, still smiling with her hand on the dragon's golden scales.
"Whispering Leaf-fall," she replied.


Post-Ceremony
After the ceremony had ended, Emilia had introduced her dragon to her best friend Wilona. She too had found her dragon today, a dark black scaled one that went by the name of Armoured Night. After a short congratulations, they had both headed home. Once Emilia had dropped off Wilona at her house, she carried on down the streets with Whispering Leaf-fall at her side. The leafy dragon walked easily along the wide streets.
"In the ceremony earlier.... you knew my name," Emilia began, seeking some form of conversation with her new dragon partner. She wanted to know all about the dragons and their mysterious powers and abilities.
"How did you know?" she asked finally, Whispering Leaf-fall smiling as best as a dragon could beside her.

"All dragons are born knowing their names and the first name of the one whom they are bonded to," she replied, her voice soft and calm.
"Really? That's... actually kind of cool!" grinned Emilia. Now that she had gotten hang of speaking with her mind, she communicated this way in busy areas so not to attract more of people's stares. After all, it looked like you were talking to yourself when a dragon replied in your mind rather than out loud.

"Oh. I just had a thought. Perhaps we should shorten your name? Since it's quite long to say in full every time," chuckled Emi. Whispering Leaf-fall nodded.
"What would you like to shorten it to?" she asked, "Leaf?"
Emilia shook her head, "I think Whisper is nicer."
"Whisper it is then!" replied the dragon, a small laugh accompanying it. The noise, though you could easily tell it was a laugh, was a pleasant sound, much different to a human's laugh. Emilia had no idea how you would describe it.... all she could say was that it was a wonderful feeling to hear a dragon's laugh, even if it were only a small one.