Here's the first bit of the prologue and first chapter (they're short for a reason)
When I had lived here, it was a bustling metropolis, a cliff-side city of unequalled proportions. It was unconquerable and incomparably beautiful. The sweeping walkways from tower to tower, each spire reaching to the clouds as outstretched fingers. Seeing my people diving from their eyries and spreading their leathery wings to fly anywhere they wanted.
Now, as I gaze at it, I feel only despair. The white towers sit crumbling, walkways collapsed. It looks, and is, deserted. Knowing I caused it is a heavy burden to bear, because I once loved this majestic city.
Wandering among the broken edifices, I can see the destruction my lack of action caused. Looking at the battered homes, my eye is caught by a small spot of colour. I move towards it, and push aside the rubble, revealing a small doll, slightly burnt and battered. I picked it up, remembering where I had last seen it.
- - - - - -
The hands of a little girl clutch a doll tightly as I was led in chains to the bottom of my home city. She didn't even have full-grown wings yet. Seeing the commander of her country's armies being exiled for something he did not do would damage this child. I smiled at her and mouthed that everything would be fine, but I knew it would not. A cruel shove from behind kept me moving, past the throngs of people gathered to see an even that had not happened in centuries. I was the first to be exiled in 500 years, and even for a Draconian, that was a long time. Finally we reached the lowest of the eyries, and the guards holding me released my bonds. I flexed my wings as one of the guards spoke the ritual condemnation, the relayed verdict.
”œYou, Glyph Drakau, have been charged and proven through evidence to be guilty of treason and attempted assassination. Your punishment is 500 years exile.”
