The Dragon s Bride

"How Not To Get Chosen," Belladonna mumbled to herself in her silvery voice, her blue eyes on the cover of the thin black book she had just picked.

It was fairly covered in dust, making the letters on it a little unreadable.

She went down the ladder, then blew the dust off the book which made her cough lightly.

"By Moria Nakuriver," She mumbled the name of the author to herself and instantly shook her head.

This book would be of no help because the author actually ended up being chosen as a bride.

Moria was the daughter of the Village Head of Nakuriver, one of the seven villages that made up the mighty Kingdom of Ignas, which was ruled by the dreaded Dragon King.

When Moria was 18, she had participated in the Choosing Ritual, as the rules had demanded, and had somehow been lucky enough not to be chosen.

That was when she had written this book.

Almost every lady across the kingdom started reading it, so they could be as lucky as she had been. But then she got chosen at 25, and people threw the books out their windows, realizing that even the book couldn't save them from the doom they called a King.

In fact, Moria was the bride that had been chosen last year. Everyone had thought she would be the last bride but no! Something unknown had gone awfully wrong once again, and as usual, it was the next village's turn to produce a bride.

That next village happened to be Inaymi, the smallest and seventh village in Ignas, also the one where Belladonna lived.

Belladonna climbed up the ladder and put the book back in its place. She got down and then continued her search.

As her hands tapped across every book, flipped through some, reading their titles and seeing if they could help, she couldn't stop thinking.

The Choosing Ritual had been in existence for as long as she could remember. Each year, every lady between the ages of 18 and 27 who was neither married nor pregnant was presented during the ritual.

Seven of them would be chosen by the Dragon King as Potential Brides; they would leave with him to the castle, and then after some days or weeks, six would return.

The six that returned usually would have no memories of their days in the castle, while the one who had been chosen as the bride would stay behind, never to be heard of or seen again.

Many said the chosen brides were killed, and some said he fed them to his dragon. Many people came up with different theories of what he was doing with them.

None, good.

The truth was that nobody knew what truly happened to those brides or why the Choosing Ritual existed, to begin with, but no one dared to question the Dragon King.

He was ruthless and powerful, and anyone who fought against him, no matter how slightly, was sure to meet his end in a terrible way.

It was even rumored that the Dragon King was not human.

Truth or not, nobody knew.

They had never even seen his face before. Many suspected that he hid it away because it was hideous and monstrous - because he wasn't human.

Belladonna held the same belief.

She suddenly stopped and looked around the library. The sun was no longer brightly peeping through the window, but it was now golden, signifying the setting of the sun.

The library was now so empty that she could even hear the sound of her own breathing.

She sighed heavily, her legs already getting tired from all the searching, her eyes watering from lack of sleep.

She really needed to rest but she couldn't.

How could she when the Choosing Ritual would soon be upon them?

Everyone in Inaymi was scared right now. If possible, they would run away from the village with their families but they couldn't. The Dragon King's guards would hunt them down and drag them back here. No one had ever escaped from the Kingdom of Ignas and no one ever would.

Belladonna sat down in a chair, feeling absolutely exhausted. She heard the low rumbling of her stomach and she sighed.

For some days now, she hadn't been eating regularly, but how could she eat when there was fire on the rooftop?

Truthfully, she had no need to worry. In three days, she would no longer be qualified to be presented at the Choosing Ritual as a Possible Potential.

Why?

Because she would be getting married!

She smiled to herself, her stomach fluttered with butterflies at the thought of her fiancee.

Lytio.

Lytio was the perfect man in Inaymi and the one everyone wanted.

The 'standard'.

He was humble, handsome, and every other thing anyone could ever want in a man. He was also the first son of the Village Head and the best fisherman their village had.

In fact, sometimes, she wondered why he had picked her.

Lytio was a wonderful man, she had nothing but respect and love for him. So much respect and love that she adored the ground he walked upon.

She, on the other hand, was the weirdest of them all. Not because of anything she did but just because of how she would think. Her ideas were mostly termed ridiculous, even by her own family.

Belladonna normally had her extra curly black hair packed into a low messy bun, while she went through shelves and shelves of the library in her long blue tent gown. She was slim, curvy, with caramel skin, average height with a small, pointed nose and electrifying blue eyes

Those eyes - Lytio said, he loved most about her.