Tame

I'll edit this later.

Blurb
They called them insane for wanting to have those in a school.

The dragons had existed for centuries in Aglen. They weren't like our imagined, mythical "dragons"; these beasts were respected and feared by the public, and any thought of harming one was punishable by death. National reserves protected the animals, like any sort of wild cat or wolf, and tourists, travelers, you name it, people would come to see them. They were completely and entirely awed by the reptiles.

Then that trust in the dragons was gone. Nobody likes to speak of what happened, but when it did, the fragile bond of respectfulness of the humans and dragons was shattered. Many humans tried to stop the anger at dragons, but then another incident happened. And another. And another. And another.

That was it. The war went on, against the dragons--most of them were wiped out instantly. Bombs, egg-stealing, new "leather" purses and shoes, they all became well-known and used for around ten or more years. What was once an island filled with thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of perfectly healthy creatures were mercilessly slaughtered. There were soon only around six hundred dragons left--of two subspecies, total.

There were protests of many. The dragons were too little left to do anything. The dragons, as some scientists found, were too smart to let die off. Did anyone really want another woolly mammoth situation on their hands? The government agreed that, yes, that was horrible. But what could they do now?

And then the humans had an idea.

Use the dragons for work. Use the dragons to help the humans. Use them as horses of battle. Teach humans to ride the dragons.

There were several schools that opened across the continent, but the most famous was on a small island in the middle of the largest gulf, a large campus that looked as though it had been there, waiting, for centuries. Maybe it had. Whatever the case, exactly twenty scavengers were pulled from across the cities and towns to come and train relentlessly, to become the best there ever was...and to ride the dragons.

That's where our story begins, you see. Except for the fact there is one fault in the school's plan:

Under NO circumstances were these dragons tame.