FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The world was becoming cloudy with dark clouds in the sky, covering up a slowly rising moon facing down the emerald grasslands and forests, although light from the sun still illuminated the world a bit. It was fairly windy, blowing tiny leaves around and other miscellaneous objects light enough to drift on the natural drafts.

A being very light and fragile shifted through to grasses, swiftly brushing past them, as if in a hurry. They were followed by another being, equally in a hurrying pace, although this one was heavier, more massive, and of a completely different species.

They both ran, not for the sake of exercise, but from certain death.

The being in front turned to look around for barely a second before the one behind them saw them do so.

"Keep going Lisa! Don't turn back!", The being told the person, now called Lisa.

Lisa, a female human being with long silvery hair, very beautiful facial features, bright blue eyes, and covered in torn golden white robes, obliged, following the being's instructions. Not that she shouldn't listen to them. She knew better than to look, but knowing what was coming was better than not knowing at all. She continued to run forward on her two legs as fast as she could, smooshing the soft dirt beneath them with her boots in an adrenaline rush, causing her pupils to expand. Stopping could risk her getting lightheaded, her fight or flight response returning to her.

What she previously looked at was judgment.

Several human beings, all heavily armored and adorned with pieces of dragons, being dragon claws, horns, scales, and even dragon skulls, all carried weapons with ferocity and hatred for not her, but for the being behind her.

The D.H.G.

The Dragon Hunters Guild.

As she curled her arms around something, the being behind her wasn't just following her, they were protecting her.

Arrows and spears whizzed past through the air hoping to strike the two. Thankfully, they were either too far away to hit her, and, in some cases, deflected by the one behind her.

They're getting closer!

Lisa!

He had to try to stop or at least impede them.

"Helios!", Lisa shouted to the one behind her, turning around to stop them from doing what she thought they were doing.

The one named Helios was the creature trailing her close behind. He was not a human, but a creature known as a dragon, or more specifically, one of the last if not the last, nearly extinct and lost _light _dragons in existence.

His size was significantly larger than Lisa's and had the quadruped stature of a male adult dragon, a drake. His hide was adorned with bright yellow scales, a creamy white underbelly with natural vertical chest plates, an equally beige-colored zig-zagging horn on each side of his head and skull, bright yellow back spines slightly brighter than his scales on his back ending in a long and flexible tail, along with two massive and leathery wings on each of his back. Each of his four heavily muscled legs ended in three claws each. His front legs were a different shape, with his front legs bending inward and his back ones having a joint that bended them the opposite way like the back legs of other four-legged creatures. His dark blue colored eyes were slitted due to the adrenaline rush also experienced by Lisa.

His dear sweet mate Lisa.

He sought to protect not only his beloved mate, but what she was holding as well.

Huddled in soft white fabric and silk, was a tiny creature, somehow quiet at this point despite the motion and noises. The creature was a small human baby child, with hair that was comparable to liquid gold and piecing blue eyes shared by the two of them, though it definitely came from Lisa more.

The creature was their precious child, their son, Brian.

A being created unknowingly between the two when they discovered and revealed their love to each other. When they mated that sacred night, a child of two universes was conceived.

He couldn't pay attention to anything else except defending them. His only family left in this world must be protected at all costs.

However, his efforts were marked with several injuries. Several scales fell off, leaving bloodied patches of bare skin all across from his body. Some arrows managed to stick into his scales, but some made their presence known. Perhaps the worst injury he suffered thus far was his left-wing lying limp on his side. A spear thrown with great strength, ferocity, and some bad luck not in his favor, pierced the bone connecting his wing to his back. It was completely numb and lost function, losing them an escape route, although that would arguably make their situation worse, as it would make them a massive defenseless target in the open sky.

Helios opened his maw lined with razor sharp draconic teeth at their attackers. A glow of golden of the Sun formed in his gullet, waiting be unleashed upon those who had the audacity to attack them and ruin their very lives.

"Spread out! Spread out!", A seemingly female voice shouted out from the massive group of human attackers called out, possibly their leader, in warning of the draconic attack. She seemed to be very much aware of patterns of movement shared by Dragonkind like she was used to this.

Helios, after a charge, unleashed the power he was blessed with by his god Bahamut, the power of light, from the Sun he and his people praised. A yellow and blinding light traveled faster than an eye could blink, warming up his throat as it traveled from deep within his body and soul. Due to the human's warning, some managed to either went prone, brought up shields in an effort to defend themselves, or tried to roll. Fortunately, some were unfortunate themselves and had the beam instantly disintegrate their bodies, or some part or limb that got caught in the beam. Both adult male and female voices screamed out in sheer agony, either losing limbs, forever losing something that would never return, or being separated from their lower half, incomplete for eternity if they lived or died. The shields, unknowing to the humans, did not have mirrors, preventing them from defending against it for long, not that they would know such a thing against a mostly unknown species of Dragonkind.

After Helios let loose his blinding light beam, he started to move his head to the left and right in an attempt to kill as many of them as he could, although some managed to heed the human's instructions and survived. The ones that did tried to retaliate, shooting their projectiles consisting of arrows and crossbow bolts. The human female leader meanwhile went prone and got a cantaloupe-sized round black object in her right hand. It had something thin and white coming out. She held the object like a stone to throw across a lake, and, while still gripping onto it, swiftly swung it on her left, heavily armored and dragon-ornamented arm, creating several sparks, leaving her right arm straightened to her right side, the white object on the sphere flashing, sizzling, and giving off smoke while sparking.

The object was not something conceived by not Dragonkind, but of the curious and intelligent mind of Humanity. It was one of their weapons of war, bombs. Packed full of combustible black powder and able to make nearly all living creatures, even dragons, into empty space with their former presence indicated by blood and blown-up limbs.

The leader, completely masked with a blackened dragon skull-like helmet on her head, threw it with strength and intent to kill what she perceived as a beast from Hell and a witch colluding with them.

They were the reason the world suffered.

Why they_ all_ suffered.

The heathens shouldn't exist.

Helios, hearing a fizzling sound, stopped his breath of light as he looked to the sky, seeing the flashing and black orb flying towards him. Time slowed down as he suddenly turned away from the attackers to protect his beloved. However, the explosive canister of death flew and suddenly exploded behind him, knocking him back into his mate, his sense of hearing partially and temporarily impaired. He managed to catch Lisa holding their son with his left foreleg. He suddenly saw that they didn't have very much time at all.

Recovering from shock, Lisa became aware of what just transpired. It was all so fast. She heard her own heartbeat and blood in her head.

Her love let her down on her legs quickly.

"Go! Go!", Helios cried out to his mate. She obliged and tried to run until her senses and spatial awareness kicked in. She gasped and suddenly felt her heart climb to her throat as she suddenly found herself on the top of a cliff, far from land below her, covered in calm, serene, and uncaring emerald green trees. Several loose rocks made sounds as they bounced the distance lower than them.

They were above ground. How on Earth and in the name of the Lord didn't she or her mate notice this?!

"H-Helios!", Lisa cried out to him, causing him to quickly dart his head to her face.

"Ready! Aim!", said a deep and authority-filled voice of one of their human aggressors with a knight sword held high, as several humans suddenly, as if they were prepared for their casualties and fighting dragons their entire lives, formed single file in two lines. A front one was filled with humans crouching with steel-tipped bolts in their crossbows, and the back one meticulously holding bows and arrows like a craft.

"Fire!", said the man, lowering his weapon down as if executing someone, causing them all to fire their weapon at them all at once.

Helios needed to figure out something quickly or they would both perish. His protective instincts suddenly kicked in. His shifted his face towards the onslaught, mouth flashing again, preparing not a beam of light. He needed everything to go according to plan.

As the sharp death-seeking projectiles threatened to kill them, he unleashed not a straight beam, but a cone of condensed light, incinerating the objects in a perfect circle in front of him and incinerating the grass in front of him. After he defended the three of them, he turned to face his mate with a scowling face.

"LISA! What are you doing!?", he yelled at his beloved, angry and confused as to why she stood still like a statue.

Lisa was suddenly hurt and terrified of his roaring voice, facing death itself, everything. It was all so quick that her mind was going into overdrive.

"H-Helios! There's no-"

As she attempted to tell him of the problem of their placement and their lack of space to actually move, a massive, yet thin and long object flew in the air towards his back, with him not noticing it. She couldn't warn him or tell him of the coming dragon-killing spear towards him. Seeing the projectile, his eyes became full of sheer shock and horror. He couldn't react fast enough himself, as the piercing weapon effortlessly pierced the scales and flesh of his rear left leg inside its joint. He roared the iconic yet infamous draconic roar in agony, blood sputtering out of the limb, now numb and unmovable as Helios suddenly collapsed, growling in pain and his eyes wide with even more adrenaline than before.

Lisa saw it all transpire with the child in her arms. She felt so terrified, having never seen such things before, starting to feel sick.

"Ready!", the man from before orchestrating the death squad before shouted, while another bomb flew through the air to end their time on this planet.

The leader had lit the object meant to kill them when the two were distracted from Helios's crippling injury.

Helios stared at Lisa looking at the wall of judgement, causing him to force his glace there as well.

"Lisa!"

With his last functioning rear leg, with great strength only possible from a dragon, he faced Lisa and jumped with such speed toward her, aiming to grab her. She suddenly found herself entangled in her mate's forelegs and covered with his only movable wing in an attempt to protect her and their child. He whizzed past over the edge of the cliff with Lisa in his legs to shield them not from the humans trying to end them, but from the fall into the forest below.

---

With a massive thud, Helios crashed back-first into the branches of the forest that he didn't know that Lisa was overlooking.

They just had to be above normal ground.

The front of his back slid on the ground, creating a shallow ditch from his large frame. He suddenly became so, so tired. He couldn't identify if it was him losing so much blood, the adrenaline wearing off, or a combination of the two.

He started to breathe heavily as his front legs relaxed, releasing the ones his wished to protect. Lisa, realizing that they stopped moving and that her body and internal organs weren't shaking anymore, opened her eyes, protecting their son with all her might. She then rolled onto the ground on her two feet, looking at her hurt and drained mate.

"H-Helios...", she said in concern as the several remaining D.H.G. members looked down the cliff at the escape attempt, their dark-armored and completely-covered leader looking down on them hidden in the forest filled with hatred. Lisa peered out to where they were.

"They can't be far. Get down there and surround the whole forest. Search it if you have to. Go!", said the being leading them all. They obliged without question, retracing their steps to find some way down the high cliff to find them. They both heard their rocky footsteps away from where they were, but they knew that they would come very shortly to have them slain.

After she saw them leave them be at the cliff's edge, she looked at Helios, beaten, bleeding all over, and breathing heavily to cope with the pain.

Dragonkind was very tolerant to such dangers and pains, but they weren't invincible.

"H-Helios. P-Please get up.", Lisa begged to him, shaking like she was getting hyperthermia in the frigid wastes. Helios growled as he lifted himself with three legs while lying on his back while in great pain. He slowly, but surely, dragged himself around and on his last working legs. He shakily tried to stand, but fell his chest in a thud, growling even more in pain as his face was scrunched up to tolerate him hurting himself.

He tried again, this time leaning his left side on a tree without any sharp branches poking out of it to cope with his paralyzed leg, breathing heavily with wide eyes as his body and pain receptors adapted to his position.

"L-Lisa.", Helios sputtered out as he shifted his glace from the ground over to her.

"Helios, we've got to go! They'll come again for us again! Please, please just come with me...", Lisa tried to coax her mate from standing in such an awkward position.

Helios, now feeling strong enough to at least stand, stood on his three legs that weren't currently impaled. His mate moved herself to face and stand in his front view. He then suddenly appeared solemn and...

Sad?

No human other than Lisa would ever know that they truly felt the same emotions as any other person.

"L-Lisa, I c-can't.", Helios admitted. He couldn't move nearly as swiftly as a dragon should now that his rear left leg has stopped working normally, hanging limply connected to his back half. He never knew like any other light dragon that humanity was capable of such weaponry. He peeked at his crippled limb with great worry that his movement was compromised.

"Y-You have to g-go without me. I'll only slow you down...", Helios ultimately admitted. He was of no use in protecting her, his beloved. He could defend her, but they would be so sluggish and possibly a sitting duck, that him staying with her any longer would be a detriment rather than an advantage.

Lisa then had an anger not towards herself, Helios, or anything. She was so angry at the world. How could it be that everything was inherently against them? How could this hatred and suffering exist on this planet, nay, the whole universe? How could God, her Lord and Savior, allow this to happen? She prayed every day that the Lord above would save them both and protect them against fear and evil itself. Now her mate, the one she vowed with him to stay with one another until death tear them apart now had the audacity, the courage, and, to her, the sheer stupidity, to suddenly decide to throw away himself and everything they stood for when the forces of darkness threatened to ensnare them, never remembered and forever lost.

However, death was awaiting them, waiting like some coyote for an open opportunity to turn them from a living, breathing, and beautiful creature created to talk, have a happy existence, procreate, and make the world better, to nothingness that is dead, wasted, and gone, becoming only another being underneath the ground and a corpse for the crows among other scavengers to feast upon.

"No, no, no! Don't do this to me Helios. You can still move...", Lisa tried her hardest to convince him in her pretty, yet mature voice that reminded Helios of her vision of beings she called "angels". Even though he was right, her emotions got the better of her as her eyes became shiny as they started to water.

" Lisa!", Helios yelled at her, facing her pained face, not intending on making her feel small. He wanted to knock her back to her senses, to finally get to talk to her, to have a heart-to-heart interaction before they had to inevitably separate. Lisa suddenly flinched and shrunk down as his deeper masculine voice reach her ears, looking at him in desperation. She then looked down at her feet in a mixture of fear, anger, and, most of all, sadness.

"Lisa...", Helios called her name, realizing his mistake.

"I-I'm so sorry. P-Please look at me.", Helios continued in an attempt to comfort her. He spoke in the caring and gentle voice shared only by the creature she fell in love with all that time ago. The voice was also laced with a sadness as well.

He didn't want to be left alone.

She did slowly and surely lift her tear-covered face to him to reach his dark sapphire irises that were no longer slitted, but rounded, seeing the beautiful eyes of his that somehow flashed in the shade the trees provided them. He then lifted his right three-clawed paw to her face. While he didn't have any thumbs like humans do, he gripped the right side of her face regardless, balancing on his last two legs and careful not to accidently cut her with his sharp talons. He felt her soft, petite, and fragile face as he stared into her bright blue eyes, the endless ocean of emotions that he wanted to gaze into forever.

"I-It's ok-kay...", Helios said, his own eyes watering and his face saddened at not only the thought of leaving Lisa, but seeing her cry as well. Dragons unfortunately had a natural pride as beasts of nature, but he could care less right now.

She needed him now, and he needed her now.

Lisa, holding their son in her left arm, lifted her right hand to hold the right side of Helios's maw, feeling his smooth and layered scales on his draconic jawline.

However, despite Helios's claim, it was most certainly not okay.

Helios did not think, he _knew _that his time on this world was coming to its end.

As their stared into each other eyes and held each other, their memories of days gone past resurfaced and each reminding themselves of their lives. All of it, everything came in full.

Helios finding Lisa by complete accident, the first human Light Dragonkind has ever seen, in a forest slightly outside of the perimeter of the isolated Light Dragon City initially in the name of research. The Light Dragon City was the only home place for their kind and was locked away and hidden from the rest of the world to not only defend themselves from the savage actions of the others, but to shield themselves from evil thoughts and ideas from the unknown.

The sudden curiosity and angry glances his people gave them when showing her to the Council, the governing body of the City, after taking her in after learning she had no true home or people, as, ironically, she was a new subject about the world around them for them to research about. She wasn't a light dragon, but they gave him a slip anyways, which was surprising given the fact that Helios was part of the Council himself.

Then over time, they learned not only about each other's race, but each other.

The two remembered they realized that they were inevitably drawn to one another. Both tried to deny it, as the other was a different species and, from their peoples' perspectives, it was deemed unnatural in every sense of the word and could be considered a sin. It didn't matter however, as they started felt sick, lonely, and lost without each other. They didn't want each other, they needed each other.

Oh, how they revealed their forbidden love to each other and kissed for the first time in their lives, changing everything. Humanity and Dragonkind, together, wanting to coexist in peace and happiness.

They agreed to fly the sacred mating dance of Dragonkind in the sky in secret, holding each other as Helios held her and flew seemingly at the speed of light in the time where the sun was falling on the horizon, twisting and turning like it was a lost art. The first half of the most holy ritual in the world and possibly the whole universe was done.

They started to reminisce on the most precious time of their very existence.

When the night had draped the planet in darkness only illuminated by the Moon and the stars of possibly distant suns or planets, forever unreachable, they entered the most private of chambers to become one heart, one soul.

Lisa remembered it as the one of the most important and best days in her life. He was so big, strong, and powerful as a dragon, yet he was incredibly gentle, like how lovers would and should be when feeling and touching one another. The initial fears of the consequences of their act on not only both their lives, but possibly their world, washed away as they both thought about each other and only that. Helios after all didn't care if he threw away all of his life's accomplishments, his position in the Council, his family, his people, or even being called a light dragon, as he would give it all up just to be with her, his lover, his half.

It was all just so vivid. The way Helios gripped her shoulders as Lisa held some of Helios's scales on his back, her soft and warm body clear of any articles of clothing, and Lisa on her back on the softest of beds, feeling like it was made from Heaven came flooding back to their heads on reminiscence. There was great nervousness as to how to go about this, given this was their first and only time. Still, they strived on with determination to make their bond official and permanent.

Then, it happened.

The feeling of Helios so slowly, yet eagerly relieving her of her maidenhood and the pain she felt that was eventually and quickly replaced by carnal pleasure as their bodies started to move in unison, as if they were meant _to do this, made them feel the soul of the other like they were destined to meet. It felt so _good and so right, they wouldn't trade this experience for anything the universe could offer. The night, still young, was filled with sounds of contentment and Lisa stuttering phrases and his name among other things as Helios made simple, yet powerful movements while he faced her, his body and wings over her like a canopy sheltering her from the outside world.

However, like all things in the universe, it had to come to an end.

After what felt like days have passed and when the two of them realized they never wanted this to end, they inevitably approached their peak. When the two finally reached the apex of their most intense emotions as a result of their delicate movements, Helios made a primal and tired roar to the heavens, claiming to the world that she was his and himself hers. As they finally finished, Helios collapsed on Lisa's soft and petite body in the afterglow, both drained, breathing heavily, and drenched in sweat. They then held each other, Helios covering her completely with his legs and wings and Lisa hugging him, both never wanting to let go of each other for anything in the world. The deed was finally done and the two became halves of one whole, the mating finally complete.

Mates for eternity and together until the end of time.

However unbeknownst to both of them and the rest of Dragonkind, that night, Lisa conceived Helios's child.

They both said to each other before and after their first and only time they were intimate that it was impossible for them to have a child due to being two completely different species, a price they accepted in such a relationship. However, by some grace of God and Bahamut, the impossible did happen.

They didn't notice until Lisa started feeling incredibly strange to Helios and the ones around them, in which they found a doctor who secretly knew about their relationship in the private upper city to find a diagnosis. With extreme happiness and significant fear, they discovered that Lisa was pregnant.

They had so many questions that unfortunately had to be suppressed to protect not just the two of them, but now the three of them.

However, little did they know despite their secrecy, that the news was both the start of something new and the beginning of the end.

As if the world wanted them to suffer, somehow, someway, the Council, about six months into Lisa's pregnancy, discovered the truth of Helios's affair.

He remembered himself being sent out of the Council chamber in shame, rejection, and anger at what he believed was true love. They simply didn't and couldn't understand. They had such rigid ideals, that they were born and hatched to feel that his actions were wrong in every way. He was authorized to return within the month to hear his punishment, likely either expulsion from the Council, or, even worse, complete exile from the City into to a shadowy and hostile world.

However, all hope wasn't lost.

Helios's older brother, Brightson, disliked his younger brother's dedication to research as opposed to the Council, something he dedicated his whole life to as higher member of. He constantly berated his estranged younger sibling for forsaking his duties to the collective, viewing Helios as unfaithful to his people. However, after hearing his only brother's confession and emotion-filled sorrow and anger directed at him, Brightson gained a bit of sympathy for the two, deciding to help them in the only way possible with their strict systems and laws in the uttermost secrecy.

He needed something, anything to give them more time to be together before they lost everything.

Then he found it.

A loophole within their light dragon-written sacred documents dictating the law and systems of the whole City.

The day before Helios was set to appear in the Council for reprimanding and possibly removal from the Council or the City, Brightson finally did it. He found a hole in their untouchable doctrine which questioned who Lisa was as a human being in their judicial systems, as this was the first time a forbidden act occurred with the Council and the City in general involved with a being such as herself. When he revealed this to the Council, regardless of their condemnation of Helios, they had no choice but to look into their most important constitutions and study their contents.

While the investigation occurred, Brian was born.

Helios then suddenly looked down at their child resting and sleeping in his mate's arm, using a claw from his right foot to move the silk aside from their son's face. He revealed a beautiful, male baby face of Brian, sleeping as if nothing has happened to him or those around. He had a small tuft of growing hair the color of the brightest gold the world has ever seen. How he appeared to be human astonished the two of them, as they both feared something...different. However, they both knew that something was deep inside him that unfortunately they would never see.

"My sweet, beautiful B-Brian.", Helios whispered to his son, the only being related to him to carry the spark of Light Dragonkind to the world without him or anymore of his species. He lightly covered him with the silk to cover him from the horrors of the world.

Brian....

When the sweet miracle was born into this brave new world full of endless possibilities, after getting over the shock that he had no features of the light dragons, at least by appearance, Lisa suggested the name Brian. It was a human name according to her and Helios liked it as well, saying that it had a "light dragon flare" to it, although it was likely the use of the "i" in it.

A child born of a human woman and a male light dragon.

After Brian was born and the two took care of him for about a month, Helios was finally contacted by the Council, informing him that they reached a decision on his actions after looking at their doctrine, ordering him to appear within the end of the week.

Three days before he was to come before his people's court, all Hell broke loose.

Unbeknownst to Light Dragonkind, the D.H.G. had been secretly gathering forces for months to rid the Light dragons once and for all, fearing their powers in addition to the ongoing war that they also had knowledge. One of the largest forces of Humanity, with the D.H.G.'s leader, Angelica Courtney, the most feared of all of their hunters for her brilliant strategist mind and unmatched ferocity, formed a perimeter around the City within the shadows, undetected. They had dragon-slaying weapons and the element of surprise.

It didn't matter if the light dragons were possibly more powerful, stronger, and more numerous in numbers if the opposing side could ambush all of them all at once.

That, they did.

The light dragons were not only unprepared for such a large scale and organized attack when they relied on isolation to be their cloak to the world, they, even with Lisa's limited knowledge about her own people, also had no match for their weaponry, small sizes compared to them, and sheer strategy each and every one of the fighters had. They could also somehow take down the white marble buildings of their seemingly indestructible city with their tools, either smacking building columns clean off with the sticked mass of iron known as hammers or blowing them up with such flashing lights and such loud noises leaving almost no shelter spared.

Within only four hours, the great Light Dragon City, the last bastion for their species, was gone from the face of the earth.

It was a massacre. The entire Council was slain, Helios's only brother and blood relative Brightson was dead, and the mass of the light dragon race was forever lost. Those that did try to make it out alive were either hunted until they were destroyed or perished on injuries sustained. The lifeless bodies of Light Dragonkind killed were defiled in various ways and left to rot through the ruins of their once beloved city.

Helios, Lisa, and their son Brian were the lucky ones.

That unfortunately brought them to their current time and situation. They couldn't dwell in the past, but live in the present to strive for the future.

However, they had no future.

Time is a currency that they were running astonishingly low on. Helios knew he was going to die protecting the ones he loved, and Lisa, despite her mind trying to deny it, knew she was going to die as well.

When Helios became crippled from the human invaders, they both silently agreed together that they had a seemingly far away task before the last breath came.

They had one mission: save their only son and the only being left besides Helios to have Light dragon blood to carry on their lost and nearly extinct race, Brian.

"Y-You're s-so b-beautiful...", Helios said to his mate softly, holding her face and looking into her pretty and shining eyes in just as much fear as she was in.

They then shifted their free arms to move around each other's heads. They then lightly closed their eyes as they both pulled their heads closer, shifting their faces as well.

Then, they made their last kiss on the mortal plane.

They felt each other intimately, Helios's maw on Lisa's lips on each other, and tongues dancing in the other's mouth. They shifted their jaws to feel each other as much as they could, tasting the mouth of the other before they would be torn apart in this life. They felt not the pain, fear, or even the world around them, but only each other. The universe seemed to slow down to a crawl as they continued their loving embrace, oblivious to all of the hatred around them. The pure love like a river flowed between the two as they continued in the kiss.

They didn't care if they lost their home, lives, or even became damned by either God or Bahamut for their union.

They would still love and find each other, whether alive or dead into the afterlife.

Unfortunately, like all things in the universe, it had to come to an end.

They separated and broke their kiss, a line of saliva initially connected breaking. They started to breathe heavily after being without air for the few minutes they engaged in the act.

They then touched their foreheads together, a draconic gesture of companionship and passion, looking on the lively and green ground under them. They both never wanted to leave. They just wanted some more time to hold each other before the unstoppable.

Then, the unspeakable started to happen. They had to go their separate ways because they loved each other so much, they couldn't fathom seeing the other die without at least him making it out of this bloodbath.

"Lisa...", Helios called his mate with tears of sadness and fear crept up into his heart. Lisa directed her watering eyes in attention to him.

"Y-You must go.", The light drake continued, regretfully stating that they must part ways to ensure both his mate's and son's survival.

"H-Helios, I-I c-can't...", Lisa tried to stutter her words out.

She never wanted to leave him, but she soon began to grow afraid with the simple thought of leaving him and even being without him, her love, for even a few seconds.

However, even she recognized that the time they had together in this life was coming to a close.

"Lisa, go! P-Please...", Helios tearfully said, as they started to move apart, with Lisa walking away slowly while facing her mate.

"I love you...", Helios said as the soft and smooth paw Lisa held for the last time slipped from her grasp.

"I love you too...", Lisa said with a salty tear-covered face as well.

She then slowly started to walk away, slowly turning her back completely to him to face death in the face and likely lose. Before she did so and left him completely, she looked into his eyes one last time.

She didn't want to go.

"W-W-Will you...?", Lisa stuttered, but Helios somehow knew what she was about to say.

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. Now go! I'll buy you time! Save our son!", Helios told Lisa, who then turned her back on him completely and started to run deeper into the forest to find an opportunity to escape to safety.

He then suddenly had an empty feeling inside as his mate, the one he vowed to protect at all costs, even if his life was forfeit, left him after telling her, begging her to go in order to save their son. He felt a piece of himself lost to the darkness for eternity.

Nothing.

He felt nothing.

However, that emptiness and lack of feeling was replaced by an emotion, one that was characterized by humans as a stereotype of Dragonkind. One that caused his blood to boil and wanted him to completely and utterly destroy everything.

That emotion was anger, seething, unhinged anger.

His eyes slowly but surely became not rounded, by slitted.

"Bahamut have mercy on me and the ones I love.", Helios quietly and angerly said, making one last prayer to his creator before he gave in to his primal fury.

He started sniffing, using one of Dragonkind's gifts to seek the ones responsible for it all.

He will find them and slaughter them all like how they killed his only people.

He would fight them all like a true dragon.

---

Angelica Courtney walked alongside her warriors, her people, her brothers and sisters in arms. These people were the ones that she fought the heathens with. The creatures were abominations of nature in her perspective on this cruel and grueling life.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, many others shared he sentiment.

These people lost so much and couldn't regain any of it back. She lost possibly the most of all, but thinking that way was not only selfish, but could be considered a sin amongst the D.H.G.

When she walked into that one settlement not in one piece, she, somehow by the Grace of God, recovered as a broken and beaten husk of her past life and vowed to destroy them all, every last one of them. They were created only to cause suffering, to kill, and degrade and destroy the world around them in the most unfathomable of ways.

They shouldn't exist.

She, as one of the ones to be unwavering in the incoming pressure of her people's pleas to end the tyranny once and for all and a war unlike anything Earth has ever seen, founded the first and only movement to match and rival the scaled beasts, the Dragon Hunters Guild, becoming its most prominent figure and possibly Humanity's finest warrior.

She wore blackened armor outlined by very dark blue plating. It was so dark, she could easily blend into the darkness, awaiting her next kill like a jaguar in a crowded jungle. Her helmet, a dragon skull painted with the dark blue with her armor highlights and a black shell that created her visor, a faceless and rounded mask. Her right arm had a shoulder pad with the same design, adorned with various ornaments from her prizes, her trophies. Several dragon claws of various sizes and scales painted a very dark void color with some small pieces of protection that matched the rest of her set. A similar situation occurred on her legs, with long and shaped fragments of metal in the same color scheme.

However, those weren't the only distinguished parts of her appearance.

On her right shoulder pad was an engrained image of her rank in the Guild, The Moon covering the Sun, the two celestial bodies giving them peace and warmth as a sign of hope, the Guild's highest honor.

Her left arm also was a different story.

Unlike her right one, it was almost completely covered in shadowed metal, like a thick, unescapable cage. It seemed backwards in the name of combat, but those who truly knew her wouldn't dare ask her reason for such a pointless and overly heavy article of armor or did know and either feared her judgement or gave her incredible respect, deciding not to question it any longer.

The back of her helmet gave her a very unique appearance as well.

Behind her helmet, was a very spikey, long, and very straightened piece of cloth, her "battle hair" as she called. It served next to no purpose in terms of defense, but it became one of the most known features of her entire suit, sticking out amongst the pack.

However, on her chest piece, lied the symbol, the image that would strike fear into nearly all dragons in existence, the sign of the D.H.G., the Dragon Hunters Guild.

On her chest was a permanently painted picture of a drake with two swords, perpendicular to each other, impaling it in an "X" shape. It was the true display of hatred towards the demons and where their alliances were. It was the odyssey of the lost history of peace that was replaced with malice that was met with equal amounts of courage and strength in the name of those who died both as innocents and those who fought the good fight.

In addition, her entire undershirt beneath all the seemingly heavy armor had several layers of dragon scales from all the dragon races, offering the greatest protection one could possibly have.

She earned it all with her tools of the trade, her weapons of war.

She appeared to have a weapon for nearly every occasion. On her left hip secured by a belt that was barely noticeable, was a short sword, and an incredibly sharp one too. It can slice through most drakes with a single slash like a knife through butter. However, she only used this if a dragon so much as step into her breathing space or if she lost her other ways of slaying the monsters. Secured by a belt around her chest, somewhat obscuring the D.H.G.'s logo, was a light crossbow stuck to her spine, a quiver with bolts even lower down and somehow secured above her pelvic region, a ranged option if she was desperate or her primary option somehow failed. Angelica Courtney also had several miscellaneous weapons adorning her suit. She had a small pouch attached to her right hip filled with explosives for crowd control, her left arm armor had sharp spikes and spines over it, and the long piece of leather behind her helmet could be whipped to give a scratch or two if she had to, as she barely did so.

However, her primary weapon was the true dragon killer, her javelin.

Rather thick, yet light enough to hold, it was the one weapon she depended on the most to save her and to kill their aggressors. She could stab and slash it faster than the mortal eye could see, and, if thrown, puts all other weapons, bolts, arrows, and such to shame. If tossed, it could fly through the air with next to no sound, making it a great option for stealth, and could pierce the hide of any creature, including the drakes. It was one of the only weapons every created that Dragonkind had no true equal to on the planet.

This armor and weaponry required great strength to wield, and that she had.

She not only had the arm and leg strength to with all of this, she could also use it all like she was born to do so. The swiftness of her feet and her arms when readying any of her methods to end the heathens' lives was talked about amongst the humans who knew of the free world. She could even strangle an adult drake with her bare hands alone.

Any dragon who would dare face her was right and justified in being _terrified _of her.

She was grateful that God gifted her with these abilities. Everybody unfortunately couldn't have the weapons, skills, armor, and intelligent mind due to the oppression from the scaled menaces taking the world for themselves, for they had the resources, knowledge, training, and people, but not a whole lot. They were lucky to not be some nameless laborer threatened with death everyday under the dragons.

She walked with her warriors, Humanity's finest, as they searched the outside of the forest for them. They were planning on surrounding them, making it impossible for the drake and woman to escape. To be fair, she didn't fight such a dragon before this day. This led to her studying the way he and the other beasts used the natural element of light itself like they were wielding the Sun itself, thinking of it all inside her head, intrigued. She was just glad that they were all almost dead and wiped from the face of the Earth.

Another body to add to the pile, one less problem to worry about, a sign of victory and peace when the world sorely lacked it.

They walked in small groups to spread out, slowly taking in the surroundings, waiting for something to pop out of the wood and ambush them.

They were expecting them.

There was a small group behind her and in front of her as she studied the placement of trees for a sign of something, anything.

The people knew her to be like this, always uneasy and uncomfortable when her mind and body had nothing to do when in the middle of a hunt. She was a naturally born dragon killer after all.

The small group of men and women around her back engaged in small talk, curious about the lost Light dragon race they just fought. The scales, the powers they had, how they never seen anything like them on the planet, thankfully, and how they were unseen on the world's stage.

She didn't pay them any mind, blocking out what she perceived as background noise, thinking, calculating, and studying like any strategy-oriented mind would.

"Ma'am, what do you think?", one of the armored and D.H.G. symbol-covered men with helmets obscuring their face questioned her, breaking her from taking all the information of the hunt in her head.

"About what?", she asked simply, her voiced muffled by her dragon skull helmet.

"These drakes..."

"Are quite something?", she finished his sentence. She was so ahead of him in the line of thought, but respected him to ask it.

"Oh...Do you think it has any more tricks up its sleeve? You know, so we don't end up like paste or ashes?", he challenged her train of ideas on their true power. She stopped her analysis of their mission and conjured up an answer.

"Well, it appears to be lightweight and obviously wants to disintegrate us into nothing, whether close up or far away. Does that answer you?", she scoffed, stating the obvious of something she felt even a citizen could figure out.

"Oops, my bad for asking.", the man shamefully and somewhat annoyed that his comrade would give him attitude for being asked such things. Despite her attitude and roughness, they all knew it was warranted.

She sighed.

"Look, I'm in the dark like everyone else. We only fought them for one fucking day.", Angelica Courtney bluntly stated, swearing at him.

"True, true.", the man agreed, nodding. He was at least glad that she was treating him equally like everyone else despite his seemingly stupid question.

After all, he may no longer be fighting alongside her after today, as the battle was not completely won yet.

Little did they suspect that Helios, light as a feather, was peering at them after dragging himself to the forest outskirts, still obscured by the brown, wooded trees, oblivious to the conversation.

He needed to find an opportunity to strike, to kill the wicked, destroy the ones that took everything from him.

His home, his city, his family, his world.

His mate and son.

He started a short and incredibly low growl that he felt throughout his throat as he waited for a target to enter his sights, like he did before when hunting the local wildlife for food for the City and his mate, especially when she required more sustenance than normal when she had their child in her womb.

He stopped, thought, and waited for what seem to feel like both a few minutes and an eternity who to pounce on with his last remaining leg that wasn't hanging limply from his battered body, useless.

He waited...

And waited...

And waited...

And...

There! There!

A group of armored humans that held their weapons of warfare walked so slowly, searching and trying to surround him.

He then realized, they were all trying to surround the forest not just for him, but Lisa and Brian as well. How dare they? How dare they try to kill even one of their own kind for something they couldn't ever hope to process and comprehend?

He narrowed his slitted eyes, taking his right rear leg and springing it up to jump without the strength as before, but enough to knock away the light humans like some insignificant rocks on some important stone road. He bared his razor-sharp carnivorous teeth proudly that glittered like silver and ivory as his readied to jump on them to disorient them and kill as many as he could.

After all, his life no longer mattered. He only needed to give the last remaining people he could call his family a chance to get away, a chance to live another day.

He took his front legs in front of him and positioned them to propel him to cope with his crippled leg, his claws sharpened, and his body continuing to bleed all over. He needed to do this and hope to Bahamut that he didn't die from bleeding out first.

With preparations finished, he let his primal instincts take over as he flew like a grasshopper and faster before any of them could react.

Some of the humans flew everywhere, screaming in agony, either being shaken up for being launched so far or from gaining slices across their back to having a limb or two irreversibly cut off from them, painting the once peaceful forest outskirts and grass a sanguine red that reeked of iron.

The groups both behind and in front of the one he tackled noticed him immediately and went to attack instantly.

The front group was the one with Angelica Courtney.

Helios let out a draconic bellow as he slashed his claws on his front legs and his functional rear right leg, lacerating the group he was in. He cut a man's head off of his shoulders and pushed so hard on a woman behind him so hard with such force of a back-leg kick, that despite her wearing armor, she had most of her ribs cracked as she flew away from the forest. Helios then opened his maw and chewed on another one's neck and took his two claws on their exposed back and spread them with such speed and strength, the human couldn't blink as they died instantly, their body split in two, leaving entrails, exposed organs, and what seemed like gallons of blood. Helios looked behind him to find more of the humans, deciding on using his tail as a weapon. With a growl, he whipped it like a leather one, except his tail was an appendage that shared the strength of a dragon. It broke some of their necks or knocking then back more with several clangs of metal hitting either the dirt underneath them or from the strike from the drake.

Angelica Courtney, after her men went to assist the group that were unfortunately cut down by the dragon, took out her left hand's fingers covered in the heavy and thick frame and brought them to her helmet, her right arm shifting a bit on her visor to slightly lift it from her. With that she brought her thumb and pointer finger in a loop to her revealed mouth with her other three fingers cradling her hand, taking a deep breath. Then she let it go, lifting her head to the sky, the whistle in her finger going off like the call for the angels of death.

After he killed nearly the whole group, he heard a piecing noise that caused his brain to get tickled. Helios shook his head to try to get it out of his head like a parasite, his draconic ears not used to or immune to such frequencies. The ringing in his head rattling as the noise subsided.

He turned his gaze towards the source of the horrific noise and saw them, saw them all coming.

The black and blue armored one was calling them all here.

They were the leader.

The one who started all of this.

The root of evil that destroyed everything he ever loved and cared about.

He tensed his three legs clenching and ruining the dirt without care as he roared the mighty and well-known draconic roar, reverberating through his diaphragm and forcing the humans to stand shaken as their armor, bones, and organs shook at such a powerful noise. They stood their ground and knew the creature to be slain.

It was a challenge to the death.

With a battle cry, the warriors of Humanity ran with various sharpened weapons to intercept and accept such a challenge from the demon, with ranged crossbows and simple bows readied to impale him as well.

Angelica Courtney standing where she was, took her most trusted weapon, her javelin, from her back, pulling it back with her right arm like all the times before, her left arm straightened in front and her left fingers spread out.

Helios, with his strength, launched himself like a speeding cheetah at her, his greatest and worst enemy, with the human leader launching her weapon of destruction like an arrow from an angel.

However, while she knew the light drakes were more nimble and agile than most other drakes, they never saw one so fast like this before, leaving Angelica Courtney shocked, forcing her to curse to herself as she narrowly missed the dragon's chest when his pounce led him to the air. Apparently, the others shared her misfortune as they somehow underestimated his sheer and raw speed like her.

He collided with the group like a group of bowling pins as they screamed and flew everywhere, with even Angelica Courtney flying with armor and all, rolling on the ground until her right hand brushed the dirt, leading her to push herself off the ground and onto her two feet. With her primary weapon out of reach, she took her right hand and grabbed the handle of her sharpened dragon slaying short sword and pulled it out of its sheath.

Helios rolled around some more as a byproduct of having one less leg to work with. With his front claws, he tore up the dirt and ground underneath him as he slid and tried to stabilize himself. He then made a short pounce to claw some of the disoriented humans to pieces in the name of vengeance and anger. He crushed a woman underneath her armor with his right paw as he landed, also clawing three red lines from the top of a close vulnerable man's armor to his lower stomach, causing intense bleeding from them.

Helios then saw a large, burly man without a helmet, likely due to losing it in the impact, ready a long-handled battle axe with intention to cut his head off and into a fireplace ornament. He saw the strike coming, and, with the fast and natural reflexes of a light dragon, ducked his head, horns and all, to narrowly avoid the massive left-handed slice.

The drake, seeing some more of the malicious fighters attempting to surround him, pulled his Bahamut-blessed power of light from himself. He took a breather and let loose the power of the Sun itself and swung his head to the left and right, holding his good legs in position to brace himself. The sound at the speed of light reached their ears as his beam of destruction blasted through those less fortunate, disintegrating them into nothingness and ruining even those who so much as touched by it, the ones caught on the other end screaming at losing and arm, leg, or having a hole in their body cavity, that is, if they even were there anymore. However, he soon ceased his breath of light as he noticed he left his back open to more of them. The people he faced recoiled in defense as Helios suddenly looked at them, with all of their eyes being filled with hate, Helios to them, and they to him. The three he faced pointed their weapons, two with spears and one with a longsword. The spear users didn't appear to have head protection, as they likely lost it from the armor being too bent to use from his pounce. This thankfully left them open from the upper half. Helios took this opportunity and lifted his draconic tail, reeling back for attack. With his left side with his limp wing and leg facing them, he gave a draconic hiss and growl as he suddenly whipped it with frightening accuracy and coordination at their heads. A sickening sound could be heard as his appendage caused the two grown men to suddenly cry out at having lost something in this world, rolling on their back and cradling their face in agony as whitish matter from their dislodged and shattered eyeballs lay on where they were standing. The one in the helmet was lucky, but they got knocked back a few feet before they fell on the ground cold, their helmet bent and dented at an unusual angle, leaving them unconscious and open to his judgement.

As he tried to stand up to kill the blind humans, lifting his right foot with claws primed to rip apart, a slash from behind in between his wings disturbed his skin and body as a large bloody cut emerged from an attacker that he hadn't noticed behind him. He let out a roar of pain and anger at his scales and skin being ripped from his body and a wound of leaking blood being opened as he immediately stood back on the ground to look at the one who dared to hurt him.

It was the one he quickly grew to hate.

Angelica Courtney made the dragon scream in agony as his slitted and deep-blue eyes faced her through her helmet, roaring that infamous and loud draconic roar as she readied her sword with both hands, pointing it to the sky and her legs spread out in position.

She wasn't expecting that roar or the beast to prepare to make her into past tense, as usually they actually thought when facing her, the most feared human being by Dragonkind striking terror into them, forcing the heathens to think about what to actually do against a being that could outsmart and kill them in a matter of seconds. Either this one was incredibly dull, somehow didn't know about her, or was so angry and desperate that he fought with full force.

Helios tried to then claw at her and through the open spaces in her armor, but he underestimated her fast speed despite being covered in such heavy armor. He overhead-slashed with his right claw, only to have her side-step it to his right side. He then leaned unnaturally on his right side as he tried a horizontal cut with his claws, the metal-clad human dodging backwards, making the swift and calculated move of turning herself like the startup of a top, switching sword hands to her left hand. She made a quick side-slash across Helios's chest as he attempted to stand on his one leg to avoid the injury. He roared loudly in anger and pain as blood started to stream out of his punctured wound.

Thank Bahamut he had adrenaline and primal anger as fuel at this moment.

Helios slashed with both claws downwards, unintentionally causing dirt to fly everywhere. Angelica Courtney, however, saw this coming. She swiftly made a backflip to behind her current position, her right hand lifting and turning her body around Earth's gravitational pull with the elegance of a ballerina, making some metallic clanging as her feet touched the planet. After getting her footing after a couple of miniature and insignificant bounces, she prepared for a strike with her trusty blade. They walked around each other for what seemed like forever. They were waiting for the other to make the first move to think of a plan to react and end this fight as soon as possible. Angelica Courtney, suddenly remembering her most dangerous weapon, her javelin, was rather far away, she took a peek while her body faced Helios to gauge its location in case she needed it. It was standing up from the ground like a marker for a grave.

_Big _mistake.

Helios, realizing what she was doing, roared to get her attention and opened his maw wide while trying to awkwardly get to his opponent, aiming to bite her head off, crush it, and then remove it from her neck. However, Angelica Courtney, in a split-second reaction, did what Helios didn't expect her to do.

She punched him.

This wasn't a normal attack, however. She had such strength and power, that when her balled up and armored right fist collided with the left side of his shocked face, he was knocked back to the side to the point of rolling and kicking up several patches of soil and the grass stuck on it due to having one less leg to stand on. He stuck his front two clawed paws on the ground, creating tiny, mouse-sized ditches in the ground to stop himself from going too far off course.

He roared with pure anger and rage as he stood up. He's had _enough _of this.

He pounced at his assailant with such speed, Angelica Courtney couldn't react when Helios managed to jump on her upper half, pinning her heavy and metal-covered upper arms down underneath his powerful feet. She couldn't move her arms to get him off of him. She tried to lift her arms that the dragon was trying to crush into the dirt. She fumbled around, cursing and swearing at him in a rage like her.

" Arrrrgghhhhhh!!!", she said in hatred and rage, struggling to get the beast off of her.

Helios gave her a deathly glare that would terrify even the most courageous and strong-willed warriors as he roared at her face, causing a loud and intense ringing in her eardrums as the sounds bounced inside her helmet.

Angelica Courtney then witnessed the heathen on her open up his gullet not to roar again but to prepare to remove her from the universe to harm no other creatures ever again. A light appeared in his throat, charging to fire the might of a sun into her face.

She desperately shook around in a vain attempt to escape death like she has every time she fought any dragon. Breathing heavily, she realized that she was running out of time and options to get out of the monster's grasp. Remembering her tools and using her ingenuity, she managed to whip her last weapon she could think of, her "battle hair" on the back of her helmet, to at least stagger Helios to give her a slither of an opportunity to slip from his claws. When her spiked piece of her suit hit the dragon in the side of his face, she assumed that what she thought would happen, would happen, allowing her to live longer and finish him off.

However, it did nothing.

Despite a sickening sound of a whip slashing onto the side of his maw and creating a nasty gash with blood slowly leaking out, he barely moved. He was truly determined to destroy this abomination, this devil, this excuse for a human once and for all.

Angelica Courtney's gaze widened underneath her helmet as he was nearing the charge up of the cone of light aiming to wipe her from existence, angry and proud, even if death was staring her in the face. She had no fear, even when her life was threatened.

As she stopped struggling, she saw the bright light.

Was it of God himself?

Maybe. She silently praised her lord and savior.

She praised God that she wasn't alone.

A few moments before her face were to be blasted off by concentrated light, several armored hands grabbed onto Helios's frame on his body, shoulders of his forelegs, and his horns. They yanked him off of her, the unexpected pull causing him to release the cone of light intended for her into the air above her. Then, with strength, threw him off, causing him to roll around once more, causing another effort from Helios to get his back his ground. After clawing the grass again, he stood up in burning hatred despite the warriors' efforts now facing him. He roared the signature roar of Dragonkind towards the ones that thwarted his attempt to kill Angelica Courtney.

He then saw the numbers of them. There was so many of them, some of them trying to surround him from the front, ready to strike and many readying crossbows with clanks and bows and arrows with a stretchy sound.

Helios weighed his options. He needed time to think to find a strategy.

He needed time and space.

The drake then decided on something they haven't seen, his wild card, his ace in the hole. That will stop them, for a time anyways.

Helios closed his eyes glimmering with hate as he took a deep breath in front of the human fighters. Seeing him reeling something fierce, they prepared to evade or to run towards him to stop such a destructive attack taking the lives of their comrades and themselves.

However, it wasn't an attack in the traditional sense.

Light brighter than anything in the world appeared in the deep parts of his throat. Helios let it all go, not firing a beam of death or cone of destruction, but a flash of grace.

Since his eyes were closed, he was immune to his own assault on the sense of sight. The humans, after seeing the blinding white light burning into their retinas, screamed in pain as they held their face with their hands and arms if they were standing still or slowly prepping a weapon of theirs. Those running slipped onto their rumps, not expecting such a thing from the devil, their eyes in great discomfort.

Ironically, the ones without eyes were completely fine, although not having any eyeballs to look out of at all didn't help their situation a whole lot.

Helios, seeing that the humans fell into his trap, tried his best to turn around with his body hurt and bleeding with two of his limbs hanging limply. With his three legs, he attempted to get away for at least a few seconds to conjure up a plan.

He didn't have much time, but he had plenty of space to work with.

He tried to at least get into a very awkward stride with his disability. It wasn't fast at all, and pouncing was a better option. However, it would drain more of his already dwindling energy reserves. He needed to stay active to react to anything in retaliation to his acts of strength and power to the armored men and women and to keep his adrenaline surging through him for a bit longer.

He got ample distance from them, taking a peek while staying in his weird and sluggish run by dragon standards. He tried to think of something, anything to kill them all or to do so with as minimal injury as possible.

He could...maybe...

No! That would be a terrible idea, that would make thing more complicated than they already were.

One of the great gifts of Light Dragonkind from Bahamut was the manipulation of light around them in any capacity possible.

Light wasn't only something that could enable vision, but could impede it.

What Helios thought he could do was to affect the light around himself to make himself appear translucent, or, for the lack of a better term, invisible.

Like everything on the mortal plane, it wasn't perfect, but it was an invaluable tool to evade the monsters on his tail. If they squinted their eyes hard enough, they could see the shape of his figure currently reflecting all the lights on him and he had to keep an effort to maintain it which wasn't the best idea given that his energy reserves were on autopilot.

Helios however noticed two glaring issues that reared their ugly head as he kept going.

For starters, if he decided to use it offensively, he would get more kills and catch the humans by surprise. However, the problem arose that they would instantly realize that an invisible force was attacking them. It was useful when being stealthy or against a small group, but not against a slowly growing small army. Him using it to disorient them all would leave him completely vulnerable, as doing so would put him in the center of their group, possibly sealing an unintentional death wish earlier than he wanted.

The second one was arguably even worse.

Helios could use it to evade them a bit longer, as it was more challenging to see his frame at longer distances while translucent. However, a fear crept up in his heart that they would see that he has, at least temporarily, avoided their detection for some time. The reason why was that, if the worst possibility came to fruition, they would lose interest in him and start searching not just for him, but the ones that he was trying to distract them from who didn't have such powers.

Those people were his only family left.

Lisa, his mate, and Brian, his son.

Him evading them would cause them to likely switch targets and set their sights on them for at least a time, defeating the entire purpose he was fighting the D.H.G. warriors.

Helios then thought of the last power he could that was his most powerful, but it was also one that he never wanted to use.

It would be a power unlike anything else, but it would turn him into a kamikaze. He could unleash all of his power all at once to create the brightness of a star. However, it would result in him destroying everything completely and utterly. It would incinerate all that existed probably within a mile or two. There were many issues with this, as it was only a last resort, would leave him completely defenseless to everything, and would leave him in a power nap from a few hours to days.

The other problem was one that was obvious and so, so awful.

While it could destroy the most powerful and feared member of Humanity in the planet's existence with no effort, it would also instantly kill the ones he was fighting for in this battle of wills.

His mate and child.

He already made his choice. He would rather sacrifice himself for a chance of Lisa and Brian making it out alive than guaranteeing his own life's safety and the destruction of Humanity's best and worst members at the price of the two.

Come on,_ come on_! Think,_ think_!

Angelica Courtney, with her helmet over her whole face, even over her visage, was dazzled. However, her visor was black glass, her eyes being undetectable with the rest of her blackened mask of a helmet. This didn't make her completely immune to the flash, but made her have a bit of resistance to it. Her right arm was over her eye holes, Angelica Courtney blinked quite a bit. It was very blurry and her sight had a white overcast, but she wasn't completely blinded. Those around her weren't so lucky, as they had their hands and arms on their eyes if they still _had _them, still dazed with the white flashy dome. She started to notice not only hers, but her comrades' situation. She darted her head around, her brain still trying to make sense of what just happened.

The devil! How could she not know it could do such a thing? It seemed like it could do _anything _with the light around them all. She would have to research into that a bit later.

She stared ahead with the limited vision she had as she saw that the dragon had got away pretty far from them, she would guess about a little less than a quarter mile. She then scrunched her face under her helmet in irritation and anger as she noticed what the drake was trying to do.

Helios wasn't trying to get away, he was trying to get distance.

He was trying to think of a battle strategy now that he was in the open.

Got you.

A truth made itself known.

For Helios, the objective was to give his mate and son some time and find a way to kill the humans in large amount without getting injured himself.

For Angelica Courtney, all she needed was an opportunity.

With worsened sight, she gazed behind her, seeing her great javelin that slayed many dragons before this one, and will soon slay another. It was still there, planted into the ground like a shovel. With her nimble feet, she saw a hole in her group and made a run for it, the weapon that brought many of the scaled beasts down to their knees. With several clangs, she finally felt the familiar grip on her weapon, her most feared tool of death, in her right hand.

Yanking it out of the thick dirt, she did what she did every time she used the javelin as a deadly throwing weapon, she pulled her right arm back to heave it back, her left hand spread out on the lengthened arm. Despite having below average vision from the flash, she could see just enough with her slowly returning sight. Then, aiming to end this dragon's life as quick as possible and once and for all, like an arrow from an angel, she threw it with grace, silence, and the power of Humanity.

Helios kept going. He decided he would destroy more of them with his beam of light from within given it was his only ranged option.

However, he didn't notice the quiet, sharp, and long javelin hurled towards him in the air. It was so noiseless, as it could be mistaken for the wind. It was flying at such a velocity, that it could kill anything and destroy any target its user desired, with the great speed only matched by the strength needed to use it.

Helios was planning on turning and blasting them all to the afterlife.

Then...

Then...

He stopped.

A sickening sound of punctured skin and scales could be heard.

Helios instantly halted when it happened. His eyes widened and his mouth open in shock. He had a feeling of a sword of great fire through him.

He looked down at himself at his cream-colored chest plates and saw a long metallic pike-like weapon through his chest covered in what seemed like pints of his own draconic blood. Several scales and his own internal life essence was gushing out and falling down his now red-colored body. He would have involuntarily had his heart jump up to his throat in sheer terror at seeing himself impaled.

That is, if he even _did _have a heart anymore.

Helios, in a daze, started limply walking one step at a time. He started to feel light-headed, still staring at himself. He didn't notice the sounds of humans, weapons, or the arrows and bolts attaching themselves to him. His mind was starting to comprehend something he wished never happened even though he knew it would happen.

They got him. It was all over.

Helios started to realize this.

He then stopped, tears starting to fall out of his already tired eyes, wrecked with fear and sadness. Helios then looked up from the weapon that destroyed his heart, one of his most vital organs. The drake peered at the sky, seeing the Moon boring a hole in the darkened early night sky. It then dawned on Helios that fate had dealt him a bad hand and that he had the worst thing happen to him. An unescapable and most horrific fact made itself true.

The Sun wasn't there to guide him home.

Helios didn't realize he started falling to his left side until he touched the dirt, the javelin, arrows, and bolts still deep in his hide.

Helios, with his eyes still wide, started to breath shallowed, ragged, and, worst of all, empty_ _breaths, his lungs also damaged from the weapon stuck in his chest. He started bleeding profusely, his ichor coming out of himself and onto the grass and dirt below, staining it the sanguine color. Energy fled from him rapidly like his blood, making him feel tired.

Without his heart to supply vital oxygen to his battered body, his organs started to fail one by one.

Helios felt the iron taste of his own life essence in his mouth as it started to leak from it, coming from inside his chest and into his throat. He had the worst fear happen to him like all the others before and after him. He had tears coming out in waterfalls and cried for dear life, to stay just a bit longer.

He was just so scared.

He didn't want to die.

Dragonkind had an unshakable will and some of the greatest power that could ever be possessed on the current mortal plane. However, like all other creatures in all of creation, they feared one thing above all else. Something that was inescapable and inevitable. It came to everyone all the same.

They feared death.

His pained breaths turned into wheezing, which was becoming more and more hollow by the second. His vision started to become blurry, his body trying to convince him to stay still and rest for eternity.

It was happening so fast.

Why had this come to happen? What did he do wrong?

Why couldn't he live a happy life?

His blurred vision was only temporarily shaken off for a few fleeting moments before he inevitably fell into darkness, Helios trying to stay awake just for a little longer.

Everything came back.

His family, his brother, his people. His city. His...his...

His mate. His child.

Her sweet voice of an angel reaching his ear holes.

Her gentle and delicate touch on his scales.

He small but comforting embrace making him feel compassion he wasn't given.

Her lips on his maw, tasting her and flooding him with love most other creature could only dream of.

Her body, soft and warm, against his as he felt and made permanent the true connection with her, unaffected by the darkening universe around them.

Brian's fluttering and tiny hands touching his face as he recognized him as his true father.

He started thinking about Lisa, his mate and beloved, and his son Brian, the miracle of life he sired.

He tried to hold on.

He fought valiantly, yet he lost to death and hatred.

He wanted to live, even if it was impossible.

He then tried to speak, blood gurgling in his mouth and throat. He just wanted to say something before the shadows took his soul to the afterlife.

"...L-Li...s-sa...", Helios said with as much strength as he could. He just wanted to say her sweet name again, to feel the best part of his life, his everything.

Barely a second passed, then Helios fell into oblivion.

---

The dragon was finally dead.

The still form of the deceased drake lied in the now red grass, with more blood pooling up around him, the soil attempting to absorb the metal-smelling substance.

Angelica Courtney and her men and women managed to catch up to the monster, surrounding it to examine and to poke at it to prepare to take the fortunes of war they so desired. She just stared at it, its eyes forever looking into nothingness now that they were lifeless. She was so glad that at least a part of it was over.

Another day of battle, another night of life.

She got her bearings like the others. She stood near where the beast finally passed on. The humans that weren't with her were gathering the dead, or what was left of them.

Some were no longer complete, some missing a leg, an arm, or eyes.

"I can't see... I can't see!", she heard those poor souls scream out in agony as they realized they would never see the world ever again, regardless of how awful it was now.

They wanted to cry at losing such a gift from God, but the thing was that they couldn't.

The ones turned into medics tried to remove some cloth from themselves to turn it into either makeshift bandages since there was only so many normal ones to go around or a stretcher for who went into shock, are unconscious, or simply can't move. Some were so broken at losing something precious to them, whether it was another or a part of themselves.

There was quite a body count.

Angelica Courtney couldn't pay attention to that.

She was one oriented to save and kill lives, not grieve for them.

She lost many men and women, some better than others.

The one she was talking to before the encounter perished, his eyes lifeless and staring into outer space as his body was bloodied and battered, his armor removed and his neck at an awkward angle.

She tore her mind back to the present. She looked at the beast she ended there.

Some of the humans brought out tools out of their pouches and belts while around Helios's lifeless body, aiming to defile him.

One brought out a hacksaw and made back-and-forth motions on his right horn. Others took their knives to lightly scrape off the Light dragon scales one by one with precision now that the drake couldn't kill them now. About two were using sharp blades to remove the claws from his paws.

They were trying to make a trophy out of him.

Angelica Courtney pulled her javelin with surprisingly little effort and a sick, fleshy sound, holding the red-stained weapon in her right hand.

After all, they killed the first Light drake that they could actually do anything with. There was no invasion, no massive groups, just one of them.

Angelica Courtney thought about the dragon, the way it fought, and any other secrets she could possibly figure out on her own. This would be a story for the ages.

It seemed that others shared her mindset.

"Now this...this is a tale to tell my kids.", she heard one woman say. Angelica Courtney couldn't tell if it was directed at her or themselves, but played along.

"I'll say.", she responded, a tiny smile climbing up her face and her hand on her hips.

The Great Angelica Courtney fighting a dragon of unknown scales and power and killing it with the Grand Dragon Hunters Guild.

Truly something to find itself in the books of human literature and knowledge.

She just hoped others of its kind would know its place, laying their heads down in submission to be wiped away from the face of the Earth in one fell swoop.

However, her happy thoughts of coming back with such a prize and the praise she and her fighters would receive slowly turned into a frown behind her helmet as her mind started nagging at her, trying to tell or remind her of something.

She tried thinking of what it could be...

She thought...

And thought...

Oh.

That's right.

Her.

The witch.

Her brain was assaulted with questions she hoped she never would look at ever again.

The silver-haired woman was with the dragon, calling it a name, and was protected by it.

Just...why?

She just couldn't wrap her head around it. A human colluding with one of the scaled beasts?

For starters, a beautiful woman like herself should easily realize that Dragonkind was evil incarnate.

They've killed hundreds upon thousands of Humanity, enslaved them for eternity, and turned their lives into a living Hell. With that knowledge, why would one live with, let alone exist, with a heathen that was a natural born killer?

Angelica Courtney thought that maybe she was deceived. Maybe she lacked the knowledge of such dangers. Perhaps she lived in isolation like the rest of Humanity not fighting for the right to live free or that are enslaved by the dragons. If so, she likely stumbled across such an unknown species of Dragonkind by sheer accident.

And if that was true, why would she stay with them, especially this particular one?

Then her thoughts went to the darker sides of her mind.

The woman was with a dragon.

She was instantly disgusted over such a possibility.

If the two were together even in the face of danger, then...then...

Oh.

Oh.

Of course. Of course.

This woman. This anomaly.

Angelica Courtney had only one conclusion.

The woman turned on her own people and God himself for the winged monsters.

She suddenly started to get angry. She clenched her hands.

How dare she? After all the needless suffering of countless innocents and the lack of sympathy at the claws of them?

She was no longer mad, she was livid.

And if the woman dared to bed with one of them, she would...she would...

No!

Enough.

Angelica Courtney needed to keep her emotions in check and under control.

Besides, she had a plan to end the woman's life for siding with them.

With her attention now directed on the witch, she raised her head to her comrades.

She then saw a settlement about a couple miles away in the distance. It would take perhaps an hour or two on foot with their dead and the dragon in tow.

"Everyone!", she called out to the group spread around her. They instantly looked at her, attentive and open to hear orders from their leaders.

"Those taking care of the dead and injured will prepare to take them to that town over there!", she said with great authority, pointing at the far-away collection of buildings with her free left hand's pointer finger.

The people she referred to simply nodded and started to gather together with others doing the same task.

"Everyone else will stay here with me.", she issued further orders to her remaining fighters.

The hunt wasn't done yet.

"We will spread out around the forest and kill the witch.", she said to her fellow humans meant to be with her.

Some of them suddenly groaned in frustration.

"Don't you think that she isn't worth it? I mean, we just nearly got our asses handed to us.", a man tried to reason with Angelica Courtney.

She then stared him dead on with her covered face, making him to flinch in surprise and gulp.

This witch needed to die.

Yet, they were right.

They invaded what seemed like a small country, killed all of its inhabitants, this drake, and now they were tired.

She also had to consider the possibility that the excuse for a human being was no longer in the forest. It could be a wasted effort at the end of the day. Also, her head needed a rest from all the thoughts going on through her head like several bridges going in different directions and into each other.

That, and a big victory glass of ale on the house was calling her name at a tavern somewhere.

She then sighed in defeat. Today has been a long day. She then made her decision.

"Alright, we will-", Angelica Courtney was about to reveal to her surviving group of warriors and people caring for the deceased. However, when she looked at the village on the plains, she planned to have the bodies buried at and show them all the grand prize of the hunt, the Light dragon, that is, until something caught her eye.

It was almost completely unnoticeable to the naked eye. It was almost impossible for any normal person to truly notice, but she wasn't a normal person.

She focused more...

And more...and...

She saw an object closing in on it on the ground. It was a mere speck, but it was bright colored in white. Her eyes widened.

It was her, the witch.

She needed to sift their focus to the town and fast.

"Change of plans!", Angelica Courtney said to everyone, lifting their eyes at her faceless visor and halting what they were currently doing.

"Those taking care of the dead stay here and watch the drake until we return! Those with me! To the town! The hunt isn't over yet!", she revealed her discover and of a new task for her fellow hunters.

They got their weapons and started a jog instead of running in order to conserve energy after such a long day.

They needed to get to that settlement.

The humans set their aim on what they thought was the woman that stuck with the dragon until his death.

Lisa.

---

Lisa kept on running with the child in her arms, her lungs burning from exhaustion. She was sweating up a storm as she tried to keep her mind on avoiding the rocks, roots, and bumps on the forest floor.

She needed to keep her mind off of what just happened to her, her son, and her mate.

Helios...

No! She had to concentrate on her mission that was forced onto her by fate itself.

She stopped on a tree, leaning on it. She was breathing very hard to get her breath. She wasn't used to such vigorous running. She hadn't needed to if she flew with Helios. Her sweat cooled down her heated face. She needed to get her thoughts back in order.

Like Helios before her, she felt like a piece of her soul was ripped from her and thrown into the darkness where she left her beloved, Helios.

She loved him, so, so much. She never wanted to leave him, even if it was for a few minutes.

She then all of a sudden became depressed. Tears threatened to come out of her eyes.

She tried to control herself, keep her mind on the task at hand to save her child. However, that was easier said than done.

She didn't notice that the tree she was leaning on was close to the end of the forest.

She then heard a noise. It pierced her eardrums as she looked down at the source.

It was her and Helios's child Brian crying, somehow now awoken.

"No, no! Not now! Shhhhhhh! I-It's okay! It's okay...", Lisa tried to calm down her wailing son, much to no avail.

It wasn't okay.

She needed to silence him before attention could be drawn to them. They needed anything but that.

"Shhhhhhhhh...", she attempted once more to get Brian back to sleep. It was also ineffective.

Lisa was then starting to get anxious and irritated. She couldn't blame him for his cries, but she has already been through so much.

Seeing so much blood and death, moving at such speeds where the worst was happening left and right. Even when staying still, she still just could not have stable and clear thoughts for one second.

She had to leave Helios.

It suddenly hit her as everything going on.

Then an idea struck her throughout her mental storm.

With Brian still in her arms wailing, obviously wanting something or in distress, she started so sing him a lullaby.

One meant for a light dragon hatchling.

Her sweet and motherly voice gifted by God himself started to sing, a beautiful melody of shining suns and stars with the art of flying and the might of the Light dragon race. It was a song of a lost era, a lost people, and a lost hope for a better world.

Her voice suddenly became melancholic.

She thought of her previous home, life, and people, even if she was a human and not a dragon.

She thought of Helios, her mate.

The soothing sound from her vocal cords of a people devoid of any war, conflict, and darkness, slowly but surely calmed down her son. She had a few drops of salty tears accidently leave her eyes as she sang in reminiscence of a better time in the name of those beings along with the only one that made her feel happy in her life.

That gave her meaning.

She then ended the ballad of Light Dragonkind with Brian now sleeping in the silk wrapped around him.

Such a blessing from God.

With the silence now permeating throughout the forest, she suddenly had a moment to think.

Reinvigorated with her newfound courage, she walked a bit to the outer edge of the wooded area on what looked like a plain.

Touching the woody tree trunks with her free right hand, she finally reached the outside.

Were they waiting for her?

She looked both ways like one would for crossing the road in a busy city. She wanted to make sure there was nobody tracking or waiting for her to come so they could ambush her.

Upon realizing the coast was clear, she took a deep breath, glad that she was free to escape.

But where?

She had no home, no money, and no people.

She didn't even have direction, granted that was what led her to finding Helios before he took her in.

Ah, memories.

She looked around at the very edge of the forest for someplace to hide. One hiding place for another.

She then found it. A rather decent sized settlement of human building that seemed quiet. She looked up and saw that the moon was coming up. Dark grey clouds were also moving in, plump with rain to drench them all.

She needed to move.

While she didn't think she would disappear completely there, she at least could plan her next move with silence.

There was nobody, no creature, anything that could harm her now.

Taking a leap of faith, she started the grind of running her heart out again.

Oh boy, here we go again.

She was already drained from running so much and the events that transpired today, but she would do anything to protect her child.

As her swift yet careful feet pushed on the soil the grass remained, unshaken and unbroken.

Lisa felt her heart pound rapidly like an army drum. While this was expected, running for her and her son's life was something she didn't do every day.

Her sprint easily slowed to a brisk stride.

It went on...

And on...

And on...

It felt like an eternity.

Running made time feel like it was flowing so slow.

Carrying her child didn't do her any favors, but she would do it for him and her mate.

There!

It was getting closer...

And closer...

And closer...

And...

Finally...at last...

Lisa placed her right hand on a wall on a building at the edge of town, sweating the most she's ever had in her entire life. Her heart felt like it was about to slip out of her own throat. She was breathing heavily, her lungs trying to cope with not being pushed this much.

It took her a good five minutes to calm herself down.

Once the labored breathes calmed down, she was still sweating. She gazed around the angled wall into the settlement.

It was a ghost town, although to be fair, it was beginning to become night, the Moon and some stars coming out to light the sky. Darkened clouds drifted in slowly, shrouding most of the sky a dark grey.

Thank goodness...

There was nobody here.

She supposed she could find an inn or someone to take her in, although, being a stranger may not make that easy...

Wait!

What...

What if she was followed?

Her bright blue eyes shrunk as she looked behind her towards the forest, then....

Then she saw several specks, all darked yet shiny from the moonlight.

Oh no, they were coming!

They were coming for her.

She turned her head back to the wall, still holding Brian with her left arm. He was still sleeping somehow.

Wait a minute!

Why were they coming after her?

Did they know she was coming here, as if she had nowhere else to go?

She thought that Helios was supposed to stop them and give her some time to vanish into the world to meet with him later and forever together after that.

Wait...

If they were pursuing her instead of Helios, then...

Then...

Then...

Oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

No.

Oh.

Oh no.

No, no, no, no, no.

Oh no.

No.

Please God no.

Please no.

No.

No.

No!

Oh no!

No!

Please God no!

No!

_ No! _

_ Please God no! _

Her legs shook and involuntarily buckled underneath themselves.

The dams within her eyes easily burst open, releasing the floodgates.

She started sobbing.

It came to her like a freight train crashing into body.

Her heart, or what was left of it, was shattered into millions upon millions of pieces and scattered amongst the wind, forever lost.

She wished it wasn't true.

She prayed to God that it wasn't true.

However, the truth slapped her in the face and told her to wake up.

She clenched up her right fist against the wall as she cried uncontrollably, giving off whimpers of the biggest amount of despair she ever felt in her life.

The one that found her in the forest, searching for something within the unknown.

The one that sheltered her, fed her, and made her feel welcome, like she belonged.

The one that made her happy, hopeful, and excited for the coming day despite how scary the planet could be.

The one that made her feel companionship in another, a friend.

The one taught her to find the joys and bright lights within her life in a lost and ruined world.

The one who defended her against all odds in the face of fear and hatred itself.

The one that filled her with a feeling that she never recognized until she met them.

The one that gave her purpose and meaning in a land where she was seen as worthless.

The one that gave themselves wholly for her, and she them.

The one that loved her.

The one that impregnated her with their child and made her feel sensations she never thought she could ever have.

The one that bonded with her eternally until the end of time.

The one that saved her from destruction that felt like it could make the earth implode on itself.

The one that gave her the courage to not be afraid.

The one that selflessly sent her to save herself and their son.

That being was Helios.

Her dragon.

Her mate.

Her beloved.

Her second half.

Her light of hope in a universe of darkness.

That person was forever gone.

She could never look into those handsome and deep blue eyes again.

She could never hear his gentle and calming voice despite being a creature capable of destruction again.

She could never feel his smooth and beautiful scales of the Sun again.

She could never feel his paws and wings on her, whether it be on her back or her face again.

She could never feel the sensation and joys of being in the open air of the sky with him again.

She could never feel the emotions of having someone to call "friend" again of happiness, joy, and peace.

She could never hear his laugh, as he made him feel true happiness as well, or hear his cries with him, making him feel that he wasn't alone again.

She could never talk to him ever again to express herself again.

She could never face the world with him by her side again.

She could never feel companionship and, most importantly, love, from him as it flowed into her like a waterfall again.

She could never feel his mouth and tongue against hers in a kiss again.

She could never feel his body going against hers in the sacred ritual of mating again.

She could never feel happy ever again.

And now, he was gone for the rest of time from the face of the earth.

Why?

Just, God, why?!

What did she do wrong?

Why did everything go wrong?

She prayed and prayed and she and Helios were blessed with Brian, but...

But why?

Just why?!

Why did God let Helios, her beloved, her second half, her mate, die?

Just...

Just...

She was now forever alone.

She was now trapped in the cell that was her body.

A piece of her was lost to the eternal void, making her feel forever empty.

She suddenly wanted to die.

She wanted to be with him, to hold him, to talk to him, to kiss him, to feel things with him, to...to...

To....they...

They weren't mated for even a year before he was taken from her by the claws of death.

Dead.

Lost.

Gone.

There was almost no reason to exist anymore.

Almost.

She looked with burning and tear-filled eyes full of sorrow as she looked at Brian.

He was all she had left.

Even then, as the last full-blooded light dragon had his last breath in her name, she felt as if nothing mattered anymore.

She had a momentary period of silence as she wiped some of the salty teardrops on her face.

She made her decision.

Those people. No, those excuses for those people.

Damn them.

Damn them all.

Fuck them even.

She got up on her wobbly legs, her soul permanently broken.

She had to get her child in her arms to safety.

After that, well...

There wasn't much.

She tried to force herself not to cry or sniffle for at least a few second as she walked into town, looking for her son's salvation.

It was a bit darkened outside.

A storm was approaching.

She kept on walking through the cleaned and flattened cobblestone path as she walked in front of several similar looking buildings.

Stones and brick houses and structures with wooden roofs with dirty metallic shingles. It was likely this way to at least somewhat defend them from a dragon attack.

Why would they attack them unprovoked, she would never know.

She needed to hurry.

Her mind started to feel numb as she started to lose feeling and emotion at this journey's end.

She looked at the buildings in irritated denial.

None of them would take her in. She was a target here now that the hunters knew she was at this settlement. She would harm innocents who knew nothing about her and would blindly give her shelter without context of her life and what transpired with her. Lisa knew she couldn't do that. She couldn't be selfish despite all the suffering she had to go through.

Her walking stopped.

She thought she found it.

It was a cathedral-like building created with smooth white stone. It seemed like it was well kept up to date. Above its entrance, a pair of polished wooden doors, was a stained-glass window. It was that of the Sun and Moon, always surrounding the planet they all stood on and refused to share. It showcased bright oranges that seemed darker than they should and soft and cool blues that popped out, as if the darkness has already taken over Earth. There was a short tower behind the entrance in a dome shape. There was a cut in the top side of the dome-like top, as if one cut it open like a pie.

Lisa saw something next to the doors in the doorway itself.

It was a gently weaved wooden basket that had the English word "Donations" on it. This was likely a place of great knowledge for something like this to be here. There was a neat cloth at the bottom with no golds or silvers of coins in it.

She looked around.

She knew they were nearing the gates and entrance to the quaint little town.

She walked on the smooth, grey walkway to those double doors.

Her clip-clops of her woolen boots sounding off into the open air. She approached the door.

Lisa looked at the basket solemnly. Her right hand reached for it.

She stopped.

Was she really doing this?

Leaving her only son that she birthed from her fertile womb to live in a fatherless and motherless world?

She was so emotionless, the questions only lasted but a few fleeting moments.

She slowly took the basket with her right hand and looked to Brian in the face.

He was awake, looking up at her with his piercing bright blue eyes. She knew he got them from her.

Lisa hesitated.

She started to cry again.

She slowly lowered herself onto the stone floor, gently lowering her own son down.

Lisa did so with the greatest sorrow and regret anybody could ever feel.

Lisa held her own son on his head. Brian gently held her fingers, as if wanting to be closer to her.

Then, she couldn't take it anymore.

"I-I'm...", Lisa tried to start, but failing miserably.

"I-I'm so sorry Brian. I'm sorry you couldn't live in a bright and happy world with me and your...."

She gulped.

"...f-father. I..."

Lisa sighed.

"I d-don't know why this happened or why this is happening. I wished..."

Lisa thought for a moment, her mouth quivering and her face wet with tears.

"...I wished you would grow up in a better world, b-but..."

Lisa stuttered.

"...b-but..."

She broke down.

"Oh God, why, why, why..."

Lisa had such a lack of things to say. Who would blame her?

She had her mate die, her city destroyed into the ground, was about to lose her life from evil itself, and now she was giving up her own son to fate.

"I-I, j-just..."

Her left hand cradled her forehead.

"I know you won't understand this. You never would.", Lisa admitted.

"B-But please forgive us, forgive us all, humans, dragons, all of us, I...", she stopped caring about the struggle the more she thought about it.

She used her left hand to fish something from the collar of her torn robe. She got behind her neck as she took out a durable leather string in a loop.

A necklace with a gold-outlined dark blue cross.

The symbol of her creator, the one who made the universe, her Lord and Savior, the one that dies for the sins of all to guide them along the path of righteousness and serving him into the paradise that was the afterlife.

She looked at it as the cross shook at the bottom of the loop partially in her hand.

She looked at Brian and slowly lowered it into his silk. A gift from her to him to remember her by, even if he doesn't recall any of this later on down the road of life.

She took her left hand once again into her collar. She took out another chain, but with something else on the bottom of the loop.

It was a small silver dragon, its wings connecting itself in a tiny loop of its own to attach itself to the necklace. In its eyes were tiny diamonds and in its breast was a glowing sapphire.

It was Bahamut, the creator of the universe and Dragonkind in their view. Dragonkind's deity, the one that gave up his life for dragons to live in his stead, the one that gave them intelligence and hope in their world.

It was a gift Helios gave her in the City. Even though Bahamut was essentially Humanity's God, both humans and dragons saw them as separate entities, both feeling the other is false. She took it anyway, as she had nowhere to go and she would eventually be mated to Helios until death tear them apart.

Unfortunately, that already happened.

She became a person of two worlds that day.

As the little boy stared at her, she sniffled. It was the only thing to remind her of Helios, her fallen mate.

She shook her head and looked away.

After a few seconds, she brought her attention to the symbol of Bahamut.

Lisa then looked at Brian still holding her right hand, making incoherent sound a person his age would usually do.

She gently lowered the silver necklace of Dragonkind's creator into the soft cloth with the cross.

Two beings seeing the once-beautiful world slowly destroying itself against their creations' purpose.

Then, finally, she took out a metal rectangle in her pocket.

It had a word engraved into it and a small hole in the top, indicating it was part of something itself.

The word was her son's name in English.

Brian.

The last of herself, Helios, and Light Dragonkind.

She placed it on his covering.

Lisa then looked at her son's eyes. They were the endless ocean her eyes were. She thought that there was a certain power behind them, something she couldn't ever see if they ever were a sign of anything. She wouldn't live long enough to see it.

"I-I'm sorry me and your father couldn't see you walk into the world, Brian.", apologized Lisa tearfully.

"I-I love you, I love you so much...", Lisa whimpered to Brian, lowering her face to his.

She gently kissed his forehead and nuzzled him. He grabbed her face, wanting her to stay and come closer.

Little did he know that this was impossible as if fate dictated it.

"Y-Your father loves you too.", Lisa said for her dead mate.

"G-Goodb-bye, B-Brian. Know that me and your father love you very much. M-may God and Bahamut guide you home...", she made her last goodbye to her sweet child. Her heart felt like a lead weight as she slowly lifted her legs away from the basket, Brian's tiny and fragile hand slipping from her, still trying to grab onto her.

He started to wail.

Brian didn't want his mother to leave.

She felt like her heart was trying to claw itself out of her chest. Lisa was leaving the child she birthed, that she held within her own womb, that her beloved sired.

She didn't even notice she walked into the open road.

The silver-haired woman looked at the way she came. They were closing in, aiming to search for her.

She started breathing heavily.

This was it. This was the beginning of her end.

She took out her free pointer fingers and gradually lifted them into her mouth, crossing in between her crown of teeth.

She hesitated.

Lisa heard the crying of her son.

There was no hope for her.

She then blew as hard as she could, lowering her face a little bit. A very loud and high-pitched sound reverberated in the air as if it was a calling for the Angel of Death to come and take her.

They instantly saw and heard her.

" HEEEEEEEEEEEY!!!", Lisa screamed while starting to run away from them down the road, waving her arms for a few seconds like a madwoman.

She never looked back on anything.

Not her people.

Not everything that happened to her.

Not even on her life.

That shout was the last word that Brian ever heard from his own mother. It wasn't something towards him to shelter him from the terror and darkness surrounding the world, but to ward off attention from him.

Lisa kept running, not caring about the noises behind her or how far and fast she was running.

Nothing else mattered.

She ran, reverberating the sounds of stones off the taps on the bottom of her boots.

She went on...

And on...

And...

She suddenly got pushed forward from something behind.

A horrific pain instantly came when her nerve receptors acted before she could.

She looked down.

There was an incredibly long metallic object in her abdomen, staining her white robes a sickly red.

They impaled her.

It came through where she birthed Brian.

Blood came out like a dreaded waterfall of her own life blood.

She took her right hand to her stomach, covering her hand in her own blood.

Lisa fell onto her knees.

She instantly felt pain reverberate through her body, causing her to go into shock. She didn't notice her right side fell onto the ground, the weapon still jutting out unnaturally out of her through her back.

So, this is how it ends.

Her own people giving in to violence and savagery like they were claiming that the dragons were committing.

Lisa asked herself several questions.

Was her life forfeit from the start?

Was she and Helios always meant to die? Every single time?

Nothing made sense anymore.

Why did this happen?

Why were they hunting them?

Were the dragons as evil as the humans thought they are?

She didn't have all the answers and probably never will.

It was all over.

She was dying.

There simply wasn't anything left to say or do.

The world made that readily apparent.

She just waited.

Lisa didn't care if she was remembered or forgotten. She simply waited for Death to whisk her away to her dead mate, to finally feel his paws and wings around her being again.

To finally have him close again for the two of them to watch their son and the world play out. She didn't care if Dragonkind or Humanity destroyed themselves or the world. The two races of sapient beings had only one chance and lost it all.

She and Helios lost it all.

Then...

Everything became so, so dark...

So dark...

So...

Then, nothing.

---

A baby was crying throughout the town. Lights turned on in the buildings through their windows. People began to shuffle out, confused and disturbed from the loud sounds waking them from their sleep or some late-night activity.

It started to rain, the dark grey clouds making their presence known by covering the whole sky, even with the Moon out.

The people outside saw them. The D.H.G. Their protectors.

However, they were tired like all of the civilians. They just wanted to call it a day after they had their body count and showed off the slain dragon like a trophy that they won in a contest of strength, showing its unique scales and features not seen on any other. A basis for many human stories and arts of warfare.

Why that contest started or where they got such a creature, nobody will ever know, nor would they care.

"Nothing to see here", Angelica Courtney said to the growing amount of people surrounding her warriors with curiosity as to why she was in their little settlement and adoration for being the strongest of them all in the face of tyranny of the dragons.

Nobody paid Brian attention. As a baby, he needed it.

The left of the double doors of the building he was in front of creaked open.

"What's all the commotion about?", the elderly, yet wise man in the door asked nobody in particular.

He wore deep blue cotton robes of the night, covering him completely except his head and hands, along with holding long, wooden staff in his right hand. The man was bald with a white and long beard and moustache connecting to one another with chocolate brown eyes of knowledge and the hunger for it. His face was wrinkled with old age as well.

He winced as he heard the annoying and loud noises outside of his door, his already partially deuterated hearing hurt even more than it already was.

"What in the name of...", he was about to say and finish until he saw the source of the racket.

The respected man of intelligence looked down and saw the origin of such obnoxious sounds and saw the child, lonely and needing something. It was crying bloody murder.

"Oh, hello there.", the man said softly with intentions to calm the child down.

He reached down to grab the child wrapped in a blanket of the softest silks. The baby slowed its fit as his hands surrounded him, confusing it. What was this? Who is this?

The man held the child in front of his chest calmly. The baby's screaming now reduced to soft whimpers.

"Now, who might you be?", the man asked, expecting no response, as he was speaking to an infant after all.

Holding the little one in his right arm with as much strength he could, he took his left hand to a shiny distraction to his vision withing the cloth. He slowly slipped his hand into it and pulled out a metal rectangle with a hole in it. He saw English letters on it that spelled a word.

Brian.

The man instantly looked around into the town. Just commotions with the towns people and the dragon slayers. Such mundane chatter distracted him from his studies.

"Just who would leave such a beautiful child like this here? I...", the man, confused, asked himself. He was about to continue until he saw them.

His eyes.

The deep blue eyes of an endless ocean of not only emotion, but of great power. They shined in the raining night.

It was as if the fires of justice were swirling in them.

Could...

Could this be a sign?

He looked around some more. His parents left the baby here. He couldn't pinpoint why.

Afterall, he didn't know the full story.

The man sighed.

He had to take the boy in. He couldn't leave him out here in the dark.

He just hoped it didn't end in disaster for him. A lot of that has been happening quite a bunch.

He turned around towards the double doors and started to go through them.

"Well, young Brian, let's just see who you'll be, hmm?"

The doors shut, both covering and sheltering the two from darkness.

---

Then, the night ended as if nothing had happened.

A dragon was being carried on a table as humans touched its corpse.

A human was lying dead at the end of the town.

The hunters threw the human body into a forest somewhere. Why they did it, nobody questioned. The D.H.G. were not only incredibly well respected, but the people were scared to even ask anything about it.

Two formerly living people, dead and forgotten.

The world slowly neared its destruction with war on a grand scale amongst several fronts.

Why did it happen?

Who were the ones involved?

And, more importantly, what is the price when all is said and done?

People either simply accepted it as reality or given up on asking knowing they would never get a clear or good answer.

Regardless, death and warfare were so commonplace, it was taken into the collective conscience of people to the point that it was expected.

Somebody dying was like a tree falling. Nobody paid it any attention due to its insignificance amongst several just like it.

People, human or dragon, simply never cared, nor would they ever despite hatred on their doorstep.

That's the problem, they were people.

Creatures gifted with intelligence and sapience, only to forsake it all.

And for what?

For some deity that can only be seen through written words that convinced them to kill their own creations, as if giving them the privilege to be a force of destruction?

For some living being or beings that is objectified to the point that they are nothing more than property?

For some land or possession that is treated to be more valuable and worth the bloodshed than that of a breathing, thinking, and talking creature?

For misplaced grievances based on face value instead of the contents of oneself, turning itself into a needlessly colossal problem?

Or is it simply ignorance?

Ignorance towards the creatures? The actions? The events? Everything?

The people were all ignorant and careless.

They were humans were born, dragons were hatched, and both raised to become that.

Ignorant.

Despite all the senseless death, blood, hatred, and the eventual destruction of the planet they stood on? That they shared?

No, they didn't notice it at all.

Only Helios and Lisa saw through it all.

The illusion of purpose through this bloodlust and true ruin to Earth and its creatures.

They saw all of it in full force and the only ones out of billions to find that none of it was true.

It was all false.

Yet, when they realized this unshakable truth, it was already too late.

They died not because they chose a side, but because they both refused to and got caught in the crossfire.

It wasn't their faults that they were slain and had to leave their son behind. It was because they were meant to die in the eyes of the universe around them.

And now, Brian had to live in not only a parentless world as an orphan, but in a dark and lost world tearing itself inside out as well.

He would have to face many challenges filled with adversities, hatred, heartbreak, sadness, the unexpected, and creatures trying to either trying to search for him as a friend or an enemy.

Despite it all, he would have to carve out his own path in life on his own without any help and in a land breaking the weak and tossing them aside.

Brian never asked for such things.

He never asked to have gifts of both of his parents.

He never asked for wars to tear the ground he stood on.

He never asked to face death and hatred in a universe where all born were unwelcome.

He never asked to be abandoned by his parents to save him.

It didn't matter. Helios and Lisa could only give him this world. It was the only one that they had left.

Brian would have to rise up, to become what he chooses, what he is destined to be.

He will become either the world's savior or its destroyer.

He will choose to kill or spare the ones responsible for it all.

He will decide to live with a side or neither of them in a conflict deciding the fate of the world and possibly the universe.

He will become the one to protect the weak and destroy the wicked or become the one to rule them all.

He will do it all not just for Humanity, but also for all of Dragonkind.

---

Note: If you are reading this, thank you for reading this story. It is the first, so no flames with errors found please. From this point forward, Brian's adventures are fractured. Each will take place in different timelines. This is something I plan on doing, but I'm also building the road along the way, so this may take a lot of thinking. Anyways, thanks a bunch, and remember to embrace the memes and hydrate!