Breathe in, breathe out. Squeeze your shins. Lean back. Take off.

The beast beneath you quaked, rearing against its restraints as it yearned for the open sky. You knew how the dragon felt—that pull to the clouds was your whole life. It was why you’d come to the academy in the first place.

“Focus. You’ll fall,” a familiar, gruff voice scolded from your right. Il Capitano—your riding partner. Everyone at the academy had one… a measure to defend from plummeting through infinity and meeting a grizzly pancake-style death on the ground below. It just so happened yours was a permanently masked, impossibly tall, dauntingly imposing man.

Capitano's massive black and blue dragon huffed at yours, as if scolding it similarly. You’d met your beasts recently, and were being taught how to ride them. A duty necessary to protect the nation and its people. Dragon riders were the lifeblood of your homeland. Since you were young, you’d watched them streak across the sky like wily comets.

“Are you ready?” Your partner inquired, his hidden eyes fixed on his own steed’s restraints, raking over every detail so as to ensure nothing went wrong. Other pairs reigned their dragons around you. Today was takeoff day. You’d finally see the sky for the first time.

You hardly had time to respond before academy stewards unhitched the ropes that grounded you and your dragon shuffled, ready for your command.