First Mission
Dragon Approved™ Book Five
Ramy Vance Michael Anderle
The First Mission Team
Thanks to the JIT Readers
John Ashmore
Misty Roa
Kelly O’Donnell
Kathleen Fettig
Diane L. Smith
Deb Mader
Dorothy Lloyd
Jeff Eaton
If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!
Editor
The Skyhunter Editing Team
This Book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2020 by Ramy Vance & Michael Anderle
Cover Art by Jake @ J Caleb Design
http://jcalebdesign.com / jcalebdesign@gmail.com
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
A Michael Anderle Production
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact support@lmbpn.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
First US Edition, February 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-751-8
Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-752-5
Dedication
To dragons… who knew you mythical beasts would give me so much. Here’s to 100 more dragon stories!
—Ramy Vance
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
to Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
to Live the Life We Are
Called.
— Michael
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Author Notes Ramy Vance
Author Notes Michael Anderle
Other Books by the Authors
Connect with The Authors
Chapter One
It was Alex’s first weekend off since she became a dragonrider cadet. She was surprised the instructors cared enough to give any of them time off, although she was glad to have it. The events of the invasion of the Wasp’s Nest were still hard to deal with.
Alex was spending her Saturday staying in bed far later than she could have gotten away with at home. However, she did wake up early enough to snag breakfast before the rest of the cadets made their way to the mess hall.
Hot chocolate and cereal were all the breakfast she needed. Currently, Alex had all of her blankets over her and was propped up on her pillow, casually flipping through her HUD to see what textbooks had been loaded onto it.
Underneath the covers, it was cozy. It was familiar, even if the bed wasn’t hers, and she had no idea what the covers were made of. Something soft—that was the part that mattered.
Alex had found a book titled Advanced Tactics for Dragon Battle Groups of Ten or Larger and opened it. It was more than just trying to kill time; reading always kept her mind off things, and there was a lot Alex didn’t want to think about at the moment.
From the looks of it, the entire curriculum had already been uploaded onto Alex’s HUD. Every class’s books were open for her to read whenever she had time. Finding that out was a mistake, Alex thought to herself, fully aware she was going to have to stay on top of her reading. It really was easier reading letters than Braille. She was glad she had learned in Middang3ard VR.
Ever since she was a kid, Alex couldn’t pass up a book. It didn’t matter what kind of book it was. She didn’t care whether it was fiction or non-fiction, or if she liked the subject. If it was written and she could access it, she was going to read it like some kind of literature-craving hoarding-dragon.
Alex’s love of reading had definitely benefited her with a wide range of knowledge. Some facts were useful. Others, a large number of them, seemed as if they were far too specific to be useful. But, Alex thought, better to know than not, just in case.
The dorm room door opened and Jollies flitted into the room, holding a plate of food far too large for her. She set it down on Alex’s desk and then flew over to her own bed, which was across the room. “Still in bed, I see.”
Alex pushed her HUD down so she could see Jollies. “Hey, it’s been a long week,” she argued. “You can’t blame me for wanting to keep the day as simple as I can.”
Jollies sighed as she threw her arms up in exasperation, her color changing from a soft yellow glow to deep blue. “That’s exactly why we should be celebrating!” the pixie shouted. “We’re alive! We need to capture our lives, and truly use them! We can’t waste any time!”
Jollies zoomed around the room, doing a couple of laps before coming back to her chair and taking a seat. “I’m just saying, it’s kinda lame to stay in bed all day. Unless you’re hiding from something. I can’t see you hiding from anything, not after what you did. Talk about badass.”
Alex pulled her HUD back up and tried to ignore all the noise Jollies was making flying around the room and yelling. “I’m not hiding from anything,” Alex muttered under her breath.
Jollies flew toward Alex’s face, hovering below her nose. “Are you sure?” she inquired. “Are you telling me the whole truth or half a truth? Because I know something or someone you might want to hide from.”
“What are you talking about, Jollies?”
“Two young men were asking about your whereabouts this morning. Both of them seemed very disappointed that you had decided to stay in bed all day. You sure you don’t want to see them?”
And there it was, the thing Alex had spent her entire morning trying not to think about—Gill and Jim. Even when she had been running for her life, it had been hard not to stare at Gill’s butt. It looked so good in his armor, and he was unbelievably smart and levelheaded.
Jim was a whole other problem, one Alex had never thought she was going to have. She had been crushing on Jim ever since they’d started
