A Future Fighter
    
“We can’t let her leave.” Mother’s voice.
    
“How can we stop her?” Father.
    
“I don’t know. It’s just—” Mother’s voice catches, a sob issuing from her throat. “She’s tough, but how can she survive this?”
    
“Aela knew the risks. She chose this path.”
    
I push away from my parents’ door and go to my bedroom, not wanting to hear anything else. My parents don’t understand me. We’ve lived in poverty my entire life, in the slums of our kingdom. I’ve been looking for a way out since I can remember.
    
Such a way came in the form of Aaron Tide, a desperate man. For years he looked for an apprentice Dragon Fighter. Dragon fighting is dangerous and not a popular sport anymore, as everyone’s favorite Fighters kept perishing. The pay, however, is incredible. After a while, I could earn enough to journey back here and rescue my parents, something I’ve always wanted to do.
    
Tide was a Fighter himself, until nearly fatal injures made him retire from the arena. He wanted his legacy to live on. Finding no one in the kingdom to take on the job, he turned to us, offering riches in exchange for an apprenticeship. I agreed, even though dragon fighting has come to be associated with almost certain death.
    
As dawn approaches, I take one last look around my room, feeling no particular affection for it. Mother opens my door. “He’s coming.”
    
I walk outside, standing with my parents until a tall, African-American man missing half his leg and quite a few fingers lands astride a speckled white dragon. He dismounts carefully and limps toward us.
    
“Mr. Tide,” Father says. “A pleasure.”
    
Tide nods, hobbling toward me. “Aela,” he says, his voice surprisingly soft. ”Are you ready?”
    
I nod. He takes me to the dragon. “Hop on.”
    
I climb onto the saddle. Tide converses briefly with my parents before climbing on behind me.
    
I’ll come back for you, I silently vow, my parents growing steadily smaller as we rise into the air. I swear.
    
With this promise, we fly away into the orange-streaked sunrise.