So, "The Dragon Mounted Knight" is a story I've been writing in real life for a few weeks now.
It is based in a medieval earth, in a kingdom called Exano, the hero being a guy named Danjot.
All my stories have to meet those 3 criteria: Being in medieval times, being in a kingdom called Exano, and based on Danjot. But it isn't like a series or something like that, it's just when I feel like writing a story that do meet those criteria, I write.
Anyway this was the first story I ever thought of with Danjot and Exano and all that, but I never wrote it down until recently. I'm on about chapter 11 right now, which is pretty far in, so I decided I'll share it with you.
One last thing: There ARE, obviously, Dragons in this story. But otherwise I try to keep fantasy at a minimum. There will be some more fantasy
, surely, but not Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter level fantasy.
The Dragon Mounted Knight
Chapter I: Patrol
"Okay, Quinn," Danjot said as he saddled up his white horse. "We're going for a ride."
Danjot had been a knight of Exano for four years now. Technically, only 1 year, since he had been knighted only a year ago, but he considered himself a knight since the moment he became a squire.
However, he had not had to go on campaign since he had become a knight. No one had, in fact, since he was born. Exano was a powerful Kingdom with powerful allies, so it had been at peace for as long as Danjot could remember.
But now, Danjot had been ordered to go on the weekly patrol. Here in the capital city of Darim, every week a knight was randomly selected to go on a patrol of the area. This was the first time he had been selected. It was also the first time he had the opportunity to leave the city since he had become a squire. As a squire he had been too busy training, and as a knight he was usually on guard duty. A strict life, but it paid well - in denari and in respect.
As Danjot rode out of the city, he noticed some citizens smiling and waving at his direction. He was well known as the youngest knight in the city, and possibly the Kingdom: 17, going on 18 years old.
As he started to ride down the bridge across the moat, the gate guard stopped him.
"The gate will be open at hour seven of night, and will stay that way until the 30th minute." That meant he could come back at 7:00 PM, but if he was 30 minutes late, he'd have to spend the night in the wilderness.
"Hurry back if you see anything, we'll be out here until closing time." The guard added.
Danjot nodded and left, the bridge across the moat being pulled back up by chains until it became the gate to the city.
Danjot pat his horse on the head. "Well, Quinn, we have 4 hours to go... we might as well get to work."
It was pleasant enough. It was a sunny, but cool day, and there was plenty of greenery around Darim.
As Danjot rode farther from the red and black flags of the city, he realized what perfect positioning it had, and wondered why knights needed to patrol in such peaceful times.
It was positioned in the middle of wavy green hills as far as the eye could see. The hills weren't so tall as to keep sentries from seeing an approaching enemy, but were tall and wavy enough to give the enemy a very difficult time marching.
Plus, there were 3 Exanoan villages stationed around the area that could let Darim know if they saw anything.
Soon Danjot realized he had been pondering this far too long, instead of looking. He dismissed the idea, and wondered why he was questioning such trivialities.
He continued patrolling as the sun dropped farther, and the sky turned darker.
Danjot flicked awake as he heard a booming roar in the distance. It was no human, no animal, but it sounded as if the sky was being torn.
As soon as he had registered the sound, his horse neighed and brought his front hooves up off the ground and lifted his body into a defensive position until he could no longer resist gravity.
"So I was drifting off...?" Danjot mumbled to Quinn. "I don't know what in hell that sound was, but thank God for it, because we only have an hour until the gates are closed for the night." He said, judging the night sky.
"But," He started, dismounting Quinn. "We still have some time to spare."
Since he woke up, his mouth had been dry, and his stomach aching for food. He opened some baggage connected to the horse's saddle and pulled a fresh loaf of bread, a jug of water, horse treats and a bowl big enough for a horse to drink from.
Danjot sat down and sliced some bread for himself, as Quinn eyed the horse treats.
When he was done with his own meal, he got up and poured what was left of his water into the bowl for Quinn, and fed him some treats - these treats were made by Darim's castle chef himself, and were sold all around Darim. They were popular because they were very healthy for horses, and knights who owned any horses got a discount.
When the two were done resting, and Danjot was about to mount his horse to return to Darim, the roar sounded again, and Danjot found himself glancing upwards to see if the sky really was being torn as his horse neighed and jumped out of control.
It wasn't being torn, but he could swear he saw the sky moving.
And then he saw it. He had been eyeing the part of the sky that was moving, when finally it neared the moon, and he caught a glimpse of a scaled wing.