The bell tolled, and the axe fell.
The boy looked away as the dragon's head hit the ground, and slowly started making his way through the crowd to leave the execution. It wasn't the sort of event he enjoyed, but it was a law that unless you had a valid excuse for missing an execution, all citizens above a certain age had to attend.
He supposed it was the Empire's way of reminding them that dragon-riders were outlawed. You get caught raising a dragon, and the beast was executed. Meanwhile, the wannabe rider was sentenced to the mines.
The boy didn't know why anyone would want to be a dragon-rider. Dragons were smelly, hot reptiles that weren't good for any sort of labor until they were at least a year old: as they remained small, nimble creatures during that first year. They couldn't even breath fire until they were two, and the window of opportunity to actually get a dragon broken for riding was so short that you literally couldn't do anything else during that short time period. And as a dragon would only bond with one rider, you couldn't just have someone else train the beast for you.
No, dragons just weren't worth the effort. He'd stick with horses, which were legal to own and train.
A stranger bumped into the boy, and he felt something near his coat pocket. Oh, no, I am not getting robbed today! he thought, reaching to make sure his coin purse was still in the pocket as he turned to try and locate the stranger.
His purse was there, but there was something else in his pocket. Extracting himself from the crowd, the boy slipped into an alley between a couple of shops surrounding the town square and pulled the mysterious object out of his pocket.
One look at the little thing, and he knew exactly what it was. "Oh, no. I am not having any part of this," he said softly, shaking his head as he stuck the brown dragon's egg back in his pocket.
He'd be a good citizen, and turn it into the guard, along with a description of the stranger.
It was a good plan.
But as he turned to leave the alley, something struck him, and the boy lost consciousness.
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