Pazii Anna - 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.

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»

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.