What a good idea. Your world is believable and the added touch of the bad economy to complicate the selection process was great. I related to all of your characters. Bennett, trying to distinguish himself; Daniel, trying to overcome a curse; and the wizard, comfortable and just doing his job.

I liked the way the wizard was informed of the death of the unfortunate dragon keeper and found it easy to believe that he never went to visit him, since the dragon didn't like him anyway. After so many years, it would be easy to become complacent and turn his mind to other things.

I was confused by a couple of things, though. First, the white cat. Was Daniel with the wizard, close to the dragon he was searching for, or was it a different cat? If it was Daniel, why did he travel hours up the road to find Bennett?

Second, If the wizard is the king's uncle, why didn't he recognize Bennett? Wouldn't he have met him, or seen him at official functions?

Finally, as much as I credit the dragon for her cleverness, how did her blood "enter the royal line"? Daniel drank the blood, but unless I missed it, you did not tell me that he was royalty.

Minor things: one: the wizard did not tell the king that the dragon was female before the king exclaimed, "She? For two hundred years we called it "he". Did you mean to have the wizard refer the the dragon as "her" in the previous paragraph?

two:" He carefully lifted it up to the table, with great trepidation, read the open page. we neen an and either before "with" or "read", depending on your meaning.

I had a lot of fun reading your story and hope the questions I raised are helpful and not discouraging because I did enjoy your work.

Sincerely,
Cheryl (Lady Crow)