Dragonsdale
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| Dragonsdale | |
| Author | Salamanda Drake |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Gilly Marklew |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Dragonsdale |
| Genre(s) | Children's Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Scholastic |
| Publication date | 2007 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 288 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0439871730 (first edition, hardback) |
| Followed by | Riding The Storm |
Dragonsdale (2007) is a fantasy novel written by Salamanda Drake.
The novel takes place in a fictional location called the Isles of Bresal, where there are stables that train dragons. Cara, the protagonist, cleans dragons for the stable Dragonsdale. Many children attend Dragonsdale to learn to train dragons and take them to competitions, but Cara is forbidden to ride any dragon even though her father is the head of Dragonsdale. This is because her mother had deceased in an accident during a flight with dragons, and her father, Huw, couldn't afford to lose Cara as well. However, Cara is allowed to help clean the dragons, and she has a favorite one called Skydancer. She ends up having to train a young farm boy called Drane to muck out the stables and do all the things she does. But all is not what it seems about him as Cara and Drane slowly become better friends. Now, many children at Dragonsdale are preparing for the dragon riding competitions. Although Cara cannot participate in it, she supports her friends Breena and Wony. Cara is still determined to convince her father to let her ride dragons and one day go to the competitions with Skydancer. Dragonsdale follows Cara as she goes through obstacles, such as an arrogant child called Hortense, who is constantly making Cara mad, and finally achieves her goal. Cara runs away with Skydancer to the mountains, only to be followed by Drane and attacked by vicious creatures called Firedogs. In order to escape the Firedogs, Cara must ride on an anxious-to-fly Skydancer. Drane convinces Cara to ride on Skydancer and
they fly back to Dragonsdale.
She secretly trains Skydancer to fly through obstacles. Hortense and Huw discover this and Huw banishes Cara from ever seeing Skydancer again. A competition comes up and Hortense is to ride Skydancer. Skydancer makes mistakes on purpose, but Hortense rewards him with a whip on the muzzle. Skydancer gets mad and gets ready to set Hortense on fire. Just on time, Cara stops Skydancer, and they decide to do the obstacle course together. Cara does an excellent job, but she knows her father is mad. Surprisingly, Huw lets Cara ride again and banishes Hortense from riding a dragon ever again. The dragon and dragonrider live happily ever after, at least until the novel's sequel.
