{"sf1_id":2219583,"sf2_id":"ZeqOXy9n","title":"Chapter 4: The End of the Beginning","author":"CaptainMemes","words":20381,"posted_at":"2025-01-26T13:48:53.000Z","tags":["Dark","Death","Dragon","F/M","Gore","Inexplicit Sex","Interspecies","Love","M/F","Male/Female","Non-Anthro","Pregnancy","Quadruped","Realistic","Romance","Sex","Slow-burn","Tragedy","Violence","War"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2219583-chapter-4-the-end-of-the-beginning","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/ZeqOXy9n","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/5a/f2/5af220c5-cf3a-4dbb-9c82-ed93da729d58","description":"Imported from SF2 with no description provided.","content":"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.\n\nA 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.\n\nThey both ran, not for the sake of exercise, but from certain death.\n\nThe being in front turned to look around for barely a second before the one behind them saw them do so.\n\n\"_Keep going Lisa_! Don't turn back!\", The being told the person, now called Lisa.\n\nLisa, 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\u0026nbsp;_shouldn't_\u0026nbsp;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.\n\nWhat she previously looked at was judgment.\n\nSeveral 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\u0026nbsp;_behind_\u0026nbsp;her.\n\nThe D.H.G.\n\nThe Dragon Hunters Guild.\n\nAs she curled her arms around something, the being behind her wasn't just following her, they were\u0026nbsp;_protecting_\u0026nbsp;her.\n\nArrows 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.\n\nThey're getting closer!\n\nLisa!\n\nHe had to try to stop or at least impede them.\n\n\"Helios!\", Lisa shouted to the one behind her, turning around to stop them from doing what she thought they were doing.\n\nThe 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\u0026nbsp;_the_\u0026nbsp;last, nearly extinct and lost\u0026nbsp;_light\u0026nbsp;_dragons in existence.\n\nHis 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.\n\nHis dear sweet mate\u0026nbsp;_Lisa_.\n\nHe sought to protect not only his beloved mate, but what she was holding as well.\n\nHuddled 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.\n\nThe creature was their precious child, their\u0026nbsp;_son_, Brian.\n\nA 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.\n\nHe couldn't pay attention to anything else except defending them. His only family left in this world must be protected at all costs.\n\nHowever, 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.\n\nHelios 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.\n\n\"Spread out!\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nHelios, 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.\n\nAfter 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.\n\nThe 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,\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nThe 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.\u0026nbsp;\n\n_They_\u0026nbsp;were the reason the world suffered.\u0026nbsp;\n\nWhy they_\u0026nbsp;all_\u0026nbsp;suffered.\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe heathens shouldn't\u0026nbsp;_exist_.\n\nHelios, 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.\n\nRecovering from shock, Lisa became aware of what just transpired. It was all so\u0026nbsp;_fast_. She heard her own heartbeat and blood in her head.\n\nHer love let her down on her legs quickly.\n\n\"Go!\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nThey were\u0026nbsp;_above ground_. How on Earth and in the name of the Lord didn't she or her mate notice this?!\n\n\"H-Helios!\", Lisa cried out to him, causing him to quickly dart his head to her face.\n\n\"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.\n\n\"_Fire!_\", said the man, lowering his weapon down as if executing someone, causing them all to fire their weapon at them all at once.\n\nHelios 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\u0026nbsp;_everything_\u0026nbsp;to go according to plan.\n\nAs 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.\n\n\"_LISA! What are you doing!?_\", he yelled at his beloved, angry and confused as to why she stood still like a statue.\n\nLisa 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.\n\n\"H-Helios! There's no-\"\n\nAs she attempted to tell him of the problem of their placement and their lack of space to actually\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nLisa saw it all transpire with the child in her arms. She felt so terrified, having never seen such things before, starting to feel sick.\n\n\"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.\n\nThe leader had lit the object meant to kill them when the two were distracted from Helios's crippling injury.\n\nHelios stared at Lisa looking at the wall of judgement, causing him to force his glace there as well.\n\n\"_Lisa!_\"\n\nWith 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.\n\n* * *\n\nWith a massive thud, Helios crashed back-first into the branches of the forest that he didn't know that Lisa was overlooking.\n\nThey just\u0026nbsp;_had_\u0026nbsp;to be above normal ground.\n\nThe front of his back slid on the ground, creating a shallow ditch from his large frame. He suddenly became so, so\u0026nbsp;_tired_. He couldn't identify if it was him losing so much blood, the adrenaline wearing off, or a combination of the two.\n\nHe 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.\n\n\"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.\n\n\"They can't be far. Get down there and surround the whole forest. Search it if you have to.\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nAfter 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.\n\nDragonkind was very tolerant to such dangers and pains, but they weren't\u0026nbsp;_invincible_.\n\n\"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\u0026nbsp;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.\n\nHe 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.\n\n\"L-Lisa.\", Helios sputtered out as he shifted his glace from the ground over to her.\n\n\"Helios, we've got to go! They'll come again for us again! Please,\u0026nbsp;_please_\u0026nbsp;just come with me...\", Lisa tried to coax her mate from standing in such an awkward position.\n\nHelios, now feeling strong enough to at least\u0026nbsp;_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...\n\nSad?\n\nNo human other than Lisa would ever know that they truly felt the same emotions as any other person.\n\n\"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.\n\n\"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.\n\nLisa then had an anger not towards herself, Helios, or anything. She was so angry at the\u0026nbsp;_world_. How could it be that everything was inherently\u0026nbsp;_against_\u0026nbsp;them? How could this hatred and suffering exist on this planet, nay, the whole\u0026nbsp;_universe_? How could\u0026nbsp;_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\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nHowever, death\u0026nbsp;_was_\u0026nbsp;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.\n\n\"No, no,\u0026nbsp;_no_!\u0026nbsp;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.\n\n\" **_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.\n\n\"Lisa...\", Helios called her name, realizing his mistake.\n\n\"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.\n\nHe didn't want to be left alone.\n\nShe 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.\n\n\"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.\n\nShe needed him now, and he needed her now.\n\nLisa, 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.\n\nHowever, despite Helios's claim, it was most certainly\u0026nbsp;_not_\u0026nbsp;okay.\n\nHelios did not think, he\u0026nbsp;_knew\u0026nbsp;_that his time on this world was coming to its end.\n\nAs 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,\u0026nbsp;_everything_\u0026nbsp;came in full.\n\nHelios 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.\n\nThe 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\u0026nbsp;_wasn't_\u0026nbsp;a light dragon, but they gave him a slip anyways, which was surprising given the fact that Helios was part of the Council himself.\n\nThen over time, they learned not only about each other's race, but each other.\n\nThe 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\u0026nbsp;_needed_\u0026nbsp;each other.\n\n_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.\n\nThey 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.\n\nThey started to reminisce on the most precious time of their very existence.\n\nWhen 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.\n\nLisa 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\u0026nbsp;_should_\u0026nbsp;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\u0026nbsp;_only_\u0026nbsp;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.\n\nIt was all just so\u0026nbsp;_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\u0026nbsp;_only_\u0026nbsp;time. Still, they strived on with determination to make their bond official and permanent.\n\nThen, it\u0026nbsp;_happened_.\n\nThe 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\u0026nbsp;_meant\u0026nbsp;_to do this, made them feel the soul of the other like they were destined to meet. It felt so\u0026nbsp;_good_\u0026nbsp;and so\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nHowever, like all things in the universe, it had to come to an end.\n\nAfter what felt like days have passed and when the two of them realized they never wanted this to\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nMates for eternity and together until the end of time.\n\nHowever unbeknownst to both of them and the rest of Dragonkind, that night, Lisa conceived Helios's child.\n\nThey 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\u0026nbsp;_did_\u0026nbsp;happen.\n\nThey 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.\n\nThey had so many questions that unfortunately had to be suppressed to protect not just the two of them, but now the\u0026nbsp;_three_\u0026nbsp;of them.\n\nHowever, little did they know despite their secrecy, that the news was both the start of something new and the beginning of the end.\n\nAs 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.\n\nHe 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\u0026nbsp;_couldn't_\u0026nbsp;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.\n\nHowever, all hope wasn't lost.\n\nHelios'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\u0026nbsp;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.\n\nHe needed something,\u0026nbsp;_anything_\u0026nbsp;to give them more time to be together before they lost everything.\n\nThen he found it.\n\nA loophole within their light dragon-written sacred documents dictating the law and systems of the whole City.\n\nThe 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.\n\nWhile the investigation occurred, Brian was born.\n\nHelios 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.\n\n\"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.\n\nBrian....\n\nWhen 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.\n\nA child born of a human woman and a male light dragon.\n\nAfter 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.\n\nThree days before he was to come before his people's court, all Hell broke loose.\n\nUnbeknownst 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.\n\nIt 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.\n\nThat, they did.\n\nThe 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\u0026nbsp;_own_\u0026nbsp;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\u0026nbsp;_noises_\u0026nbsp;leaving almost no shelter spared.\n\nWithin only four hours, the great Light Dragon City, the last bastion for their species, was gone from the face of the earth.\n\nIt 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.\n\nHelios, Lisa, and their son Brian were the\u0026nbsp;_lucky ones_.\n\nThat 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.\n\nHowever, they\u0026nbsp;_had_\u0026nbsp;no future.\n\nTime 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.\n\nWhen 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.\n\nThey 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.\n\n\"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.\n\nThey 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.\n\nThen, they made their last kiss on the mortal plane.\n\nThey 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.\n\nThey didn't care if they lost their home, lives, or even became\u0026nbsp;_damned_\u0026nbsp;by either God or Bahamut for their union.\n\nThey would still love and find each other, whether alive or dead into the afterlife.\n\nUnfortunately, like all things in the universe, it had to come to an end.\n\nThey 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.\n\nThey 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.\n\nThen, 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.\n\n\"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.\n\n\"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.\n\n\"H-Helios, I-I c-can't...\", Lisa tried to stutter her words out.\n\nShe 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.\n\nHowever, even she recognized that the time they had together in this life was coming to a close.\n\n\"Lisa, go! P-Please...\", Helios tearfully said, as they started to move apart, with Lisa walking away slowly while facing her mate.\n\n\"I love you...\", Helios said as the soft and smooth paw Lisa held for the last time slipped from her grasp.\n\n\"I love you too...\", Lisa said with a salty tear-covered face as well.\n\nShe 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.\n\nShe didn't want to go.\n\n\"W-W-Will you...?\", Lisa stuttered, but Helios somehow knew what she was about to say.\n\n\"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.\n\nHe 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,\u0026nbsp;_begging_\u0026nbsp;her to go in order to save their son. He felt a piece of himself lost to the darkness for eternity.\n\nNothing.\n\nHe felt\u0026nbsp;_nothing_.\n\nHowever, 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\u0026nbsp;_destroy_\u0026nbsp;everything.\n\nThat emotion was\u0026nbsp;_anger_, seething, unhinged\u0026nbsp;_anger_.\n\nHis eyes slowly but surely became not rounded, by\u0026nbsp;_slitted_.\n\n\"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.\n\nHe started sniffing, using one of Dragonkind's gifts to seek the ones responsible for it all.\n\nHe will find them and slaughter them all like how they killed his only people.\n\nHe would fight them all like a true\u0026nbsp;_dragon_.\n\n* * *\n\nAngelica 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.\n\nFortunately, or\u0026nbsp;_unfortunately_, many others shared he sentiment.\n\nThese people lost so much and couldn't regain\u0026nbsp;_any_\u0026nbsp;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.\n\nWhen she walked into that one settlement\u0026nbsp;_not_\u0026nbsp;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.\n\nThey shouldn't\u0026nbsp;_exist_.\n\nShe, 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.\n\nShe 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.\n\nHowever, those weren't the\u0026nbsp;_only_\u0026nbsp;distinguished parts of her appearance.\n\nOn 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.\n\nHer left arm also was a different story.\n\nUnlike 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\u0026nbsp;_did_\u0026nbsp;know and either feared her judgement or gave her incredible respect, deciding not to question it any longer.\n\nThe back of her helmet gave her a very unique appearance as well.\n\nBehind 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.\n\nHowever, 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.\n\nOn 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.\n\nIn 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.\n\nShe earned it all with her tools of the trade, her\u0026nbsp;_weapons of war_.\n\nShe 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.\n\nHowever, her primary weapon was the true dragon killer, her javelin.\n\nRather 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.\n\nThis armor and weaponry required great strength to wield, and that she had.\n\nShe 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.\n\nAny dragon who would dare face her was right and justified in being\u0026nbsp;_terrified\u0026nbsp;_of her.\n\nShe 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.\n\nShe 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.\n\nAnother body to add to the pile, one less problem to worry about, a sign of victory and peace when the world sorely lacked it.\n\nThey walked in small groups to spread out, slowly taking in the surroundings, waiting for something to pop out of the wood and ambush them.\n\nThey were\u0026nbsp;_expecting_\u0026nbsp;them.\n\nThere was a small group behind her and in front of her as she studied the placement of trees for a sign of something,\u0026nbsp;_anything_.\n\nThe 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.\n\nThe 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,\u0026nbsp;_thankfully_, and how they were unseen on the world's stage.\n\nShe didn't pay them any mind, blocking out what she perceived as background noise, thinking, calculating, and studying like any strategy-oriented mind would.\n\n\"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.\n\n\"About what?\", she asked simply, her voiced muffled by her dragon skull helmet.\n\n\"These drakes...\"\n\n\"Are quite something?\", she finished his sentence. She was so ahead of him in the line of thought, but respected him to ask it.\n\n\"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.\n\n\"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.\n\n\"Oops, my bad for\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nShe sighed.\n\n\"Look, I'm in the dark like everyone else. We only fought them for one\u0026nbsp;_fucking_\u0026nbsp;day.\", Angelica Courtney bluntly stated, swearing at him.\n\n\"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.\n\nAfter all, he may no longer be fighting alongside her after today, as the battle was not completely won yet.\n\nLittle 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.\n\nHe needed to find an opportunity to strike, to kill the wicked, destroy the ones that took everything from him.\n\nHis home, his city, his family, his world.\n\nHis\u0026nbsp;_mate and son_.\n\nHe 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.\n\nHe 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.\n\nHe waited...\n\nAnd waited...\n\nAnd waited...\n\nAnd...\n\nThere! There!\n\nA group of armored humans that held their weapons of warfare walked so slowly, searching and trying to surround him.\n\nHe 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?\n\nHe 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.\n\nAfter 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.\n\nHe 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.\n\nWith preparations finished, he let his primal instincts take over as he flew like a grasshopper and faster before any of them could react.\n\nSome 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.\n\nThe groups both behind and in front of the one he tackled noticed him immediately and went to attack instantly.\n\nThe front group was the one with Angelica Courtney.\n\nHelios 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\u0026nbsp;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.\n\nAngelica 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.\n\nAfter 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.\n\nHe turned his gaze towards the source of the horrific noise and saw them, saw them all coming.\n\nThe black and blue armored one was calling them\u0026nbsp;_all_\u0026nbsp;here.\n\nThey were the leader.\n\nThe one who started all of this.\n\nThe root of evil that destroyed everything he ever loved and cared about.\n\nHe 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.\n\nIt was a challenge to the\u0026nbsp;_death_.\n\nWith 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.\n\nAngelica 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.\n\nHelios, 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.\n\nHowever, 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.\n\nHe 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.\n\nHelios 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.\n\nHelios 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.\n\nThe 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\u0026nbsp;_touched_\u0026nbsp;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\u0026nbsp;_were_\u0026nbsp;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.\n\nAs 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.\n\nIt was the one he quickly grew to\u0026nbsp;_hate_.\n\nAngelica 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.\n\nShe wasn't expecting that roar or the beast to prepare to make her into past tense, as usually they actually\u0026nbsp;_thought_\u0026nbsp;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\u0026nbsp;_didn't_\u0026nbsp;know about her, or was so angry and desperate that he fought with full force.\n\nHelios 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.\n\nThank\u0026nbsp;_Bahamut_\u0026nbsp;he had adrenaline and primal anger as fuel at this moment.\n\nHelios 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.\n\n_Big\u0026nbsp;_mistake.\n\nHelios, 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.\n\nShe\u0026nbsp;_punched_\u0026nbsp;him.\n\nThis 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.\n\nHe roared with pure anger and rage as he stood up. He's had\u0026nbsp;_enough\u0026nbsp;_of this.\n\nHe 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.\n\n\" **_Arrrrgghhhhhh!!!_**\", she said in hatred and rage, struggling to get the beast off of her.\n\nHelios 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.\n\nAngelica 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\u0026nbsp;_sun_\u0026nbsp;into her face.\n\nShe 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,\u0026nbsp;_would_\u0026nbsp;happen, allowing her to live longer and finish him off.\n\nHowever, it did\u0026nbsp;_nothing_.\n\nDespite 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\u0026nbsp;_excuse for a human_\u0026nbsp;once and for all.\n\nAngelica 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.\n\nAs she stopped struggling, she saw the bright light.\n\nWas it of God himself?\n\nMaybe. She silently praised her lord and savior.\n\nShe praised God that she wasn't alone.\n\nA 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.\n\nHe 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.\n\nHelios weighed his options. He needed time to think to find a strategy.\n\nHe needed time and space.\n\nThe drake then decided on something they haven't seen, his wild card, his ace in the hole.\u0026nbsp;_That_\u0026nbsp;will stop them, for a time anyways.\n\nHelios 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.\n\nHowever, it wasn't an attack in the traditional sense.\n\nLight 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\u0026nbsp;_flash_\u0026nbsp;_of grace_.\n\nSince 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.\n\nIronically, the ones\u0026nbsp;_without_\u0026nbsp;eyes were completely fine, although not having any eyeballs to look out of at all didn't help their situation a whole lot.\n\nHelios, 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.\n\nHe didn't have much time, but he had\u0026nbsp;_plenty_\u0026nbsp;of space to work with.\n\nHe 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.\n\nHe 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,\u0026nbsp;_anything_\u0026nbsp;to kill them all or to do so with as minimal injury as possible.\n\nHe could...maybe...\n\nNo! That would be a terrible idea, that would make thing more\u0026nbsp;_complicated_\u0026nbsp;than they already were.\n\nOne of the great gifts of Light Dragonkind from Bahamut was the manipulation of light around them in any capacity possible.\n\nLight wasn't only something that could enable vision, but could\u0026nbsp;_impede_\u0026nbsp;it.\n\nWhat 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,\u0026nbsp;_invisible_.\n\nLike 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.\n\nHelios however noticed two glaring issues that reared their ugly head as he kept going.\n\nFor 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\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nThe second one was arguably even\u0026nbsp;_worse_.\n\nHelios\u0026nbsp;_could_\u0026nbsp;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.\n\nThose people were his only family left.\n\nLisa, his mate, and Brian, his son.\n\nHim 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.\n\nHelios then thought of the last power he could that was his most powerful, but it was also one that he never wanted to use.\n\nIt 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\u0026nbsp;_everything_\u0026nbsp;completely and utterly. It would incinerate all that existed probably within a mile or two.\u0026nbsp; 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.\n\nThe other problem was one that was obvious and so, so\u0026nbsp;_awful_.\n\nWhile 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.\n\nHis mate and child.\n\nHe 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.\n\nCome on,_\u0026nbsp;come on_! Think,_\u0026nbsp;think_!\n\nAngelica 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\u0026nbsp;_had\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nThe\u0026nbsp;_devil_! How could she not know it could do such a thing? It seemed like it could do\u0026nbsp;_anything\u0026nbsp;_with the light around them all. She would have to research into that a bit later.\n\nShe 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.\n\nHelios wasn't trying to get away, he was trying to get\u0026nbsp;_distance_.\n\nHe was trying to think of a battle strategy now that he was in the open.\n\n_Got you._\n\nA truth made itself known.\n\nFor 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.\n\nFor Angelica Courtney, all she needed was an opportunity.\n\nWith 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.\n\nYanking 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.\n\nHelios kept going. He decided he would destroy more of them with his beam of light from within given it was his only ranged option.\n\nHowever, 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.\n\nHelios was planning on turning and blasting them all to the afterlife.\n\nThen...\n\nThen...\n\nHe stopped.\n\nA sickening sound of punctured skin and scales could be heard.\n\nHelios 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.\n\nHe 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.\n\nThat is, if he even\u0026nbsp;_did\u0026nbsp;_have a heart anymore.\n\nHelios, 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.\n\nThey got him. It was all over.\n\nHelios started to realize this.\n\nHe 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.\n\nThe Sun wasn't there to guide him home.\n\nHelios 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.\n\nHelios, with his eyes still wide, started to breath shallowed, ragged, and, worst of all,\u0026nbsp;_empty__\u0026nbsp;_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.\n\nWithout his heart to supply vital oxygen to his battered body, his organs started to fail one by one.\n\nHelios 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.\n\nHe was just so\u0026nbsp;_scared_.\n\nHe didn't want to die.\n\nDragonkind 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.\n\nThey feared\u0026nbsp;_death_.\n\nHis 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.\n\nIt was happening so\u0026nbsp;_fast_.\n\nWhy had this come to happen? What did he do wrong?\n\nWhy couldn't he live a happy life?\n\nHis 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.\n\nEverything came back.\n\nHis family, his brother, his people. His city. His...his...\n\nHis mate. His child.\n\nHer sweet voice of an angel reaching his ear holes.\n\nHer gentle and delicate touch on his scales.\n\nHe small but comforting embrace making him feel compassion he wasn't given.\n\nHer lips on his maw, tasting her and flooding him with love most other creature could only dream of.\n\nHer body, soft and warm, against his as he felt and made permanent the true connection with her, unaffected by the darkening universe around them.\n\nBrian's fluttering and tiny hands touching his face as he recognized him as his true father.\n\nHe started thinking about Lisa, his mate and beloved, and his son Brian, the miracle of life he sired.\n\nHe tried to hold on.\n\nHe fought valiantly, yet he lost to death and hatred.\n\nHe wanted to live, even if it was impossible.\n\nHe 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.\n\n\"_...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.\n\nBarely a second passed, then Helios fell into oblivion.\n\n* * *\n\nThe dragon was finally dead.\n\nThe 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.\n\nAngelica 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.\n\nAnother day of battle, another night of life.\n\nShe 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\u0026nbsp;_left_\u0026nbsp;of them.\n\nSome were no longer complete, some missing a leg, an arm, or eyes.\n\n\"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\u0026nbsp;_awful_\u0026nbsp;it was now.\n\nThey wanted to cry at losing such a gift from God, but the thing was that they\u0026nbsp;_couldn't_.\n\nThe 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.\n\nThere was quite a body count.\n\nAngelica Courtney couldn't pay attention to that.\n\nShe was one oriented to save and\u0026nbsp;_kill_\u0026nbsp;lives, not grieve for them.\n\nShe lost many men and women, some better than others.\n\nThe 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.\n\nShe tore her mind back to the present. She looked at the beast she ended there.\n\nSome of the humans brought out tools out of their pouches and belts while around Helios's lifeless body, aiming to defile him.\n\nOne 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.\n\nThey were trying to make a trophy out of him.\n\nAngelica Courtney pulled her javelin with surprisingly little effort and a sick, fleshy sound, holding the red-stained weapon in her right hand.\n\nAfter 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.\n\nAngelica 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.\n\nIt seemed that others shared her mindset.\n\n\"Now this..._this_\u0026nbsp;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.\n\n\"I'll say.\", she responded, a tiny smile climbing up her face and her hand on her hips.\n\nThe Great Angelica Courtney fighting a dragon of unknown scales and power and killing it with the Grand Dragon Hunters Guild.\n\nTruly something to find itself in the books of human literature and knowledge.\n\nShe 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.\n\nHowever, 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.\n\nShe tried thinking of what it could be...\n\nShe thought...\n\nAnd thought...\n\nOh.\n\nThat's right.\n\n_Her_.\n\nThe\u0026nbsp;_witch_.\n\nHer brain was assaulted with questions she hoped she never would look at ever again.\n\nThe silver-haired woman was with the dragon, calling it a name, and was protected by it.\n\nJust...why?\n\nShe just couldn't wrap her head around it. A human colluding with one of the scaled beasts?\n\nFor starters, a beautiful woman like herself should easily realize that Dragonkind was evil incarnate.\n\nThey'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?\n\nAngelica 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.\n\nAnd if that was true, why would she stay with them, especially this particular one?\n\nThen her thoughts went to the darker sides of her mind.\n\nThe woman was\u0026nbsp;_with_\u0026nbsp;a dragon.\n\nShe was instantly disgusted over such a possibility.\n\nIf the two were together even in the face of danger, then...then...\n\nOh.\n\n_Oh_.\n\nOf course.\u0026nbsp;_Of course_.\n\nThis woman. This\u0026nbsp;_anomaly_.\n\nAngelica Courtney had only one conclusion.\n\nThe woman turned on her own people and\u0026nbsp;_God_\u0026nbsp;himself for the winged monsters.\n\nShe suddenly started to get angry. She clenched her hands.\n\nHow dare she? After all the needless suffering of countless innocents and the lack of sympathy at the claws of them?\n\nShe was no longer mad, she was\u0026nbsp;_livid_.\n\nAnd if the woman\u0026nbsp;_dared_\u0026nbsp;to\u0026nbsp;_bed_\u0026nbsp;with one of them, she would...she would...\n\nNo!\n\nEnough.\n\nAngelica Courtney needed to keep her emotions in check and under control.\n\nBesides, she had a plan to end the woman's life for siding with them.\n\nWith her attention now directed on the witch, she raised her head to her comrades.\n\nShe 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.\n\n\"Everyone!\", she called out to the group spread around her. They instantly looked at her, attentive and open to hear orders from their leaders.\n\n\"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.\n\nThe people she referred to simply nodded and started to gather together with others doing the same task.\n\n\"Everyone else will stay here with me.\", she issued further orders to her remaining fighters.\n\nThe hunt wasn't done yet.\n\n\"We will spread out around the forest and kill\u0026nbsp;the witch.\", she said to her fellow humans meant to be with her.\n\nSome of them suddenly groaned in frustration.\n\n\"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.\n\nShe then stared him dead on with her covered face, making him to flinch in surprise and gulp.\n\nThis witch\u0026nbsp;_needed_\u0026nbsp;to die.\n\nYet, they were right.\n\nThey invaded what seemed like a small country, killed all of its inhabitants, this drake, and now they were tired.\n\nShe 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.\n\nThat, and a big victory glass of ale on the house was calling her name at a tavern somewhere.\n\nShe then sighed in defeat. Today has been a long day. She then made her decision.\n\n\"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.\n\nIt was almost completely unnoticeable to the naked eye. It was almost impossible for any normal person to truly notice, but she\u0026nbsp;_wasn't_\u0026nbsp;a normal person.\n\nShe focused more...\n\nAnd more...and...\n\nShe 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.\n\nIt was\u0026nbsp;_her_, the witch.\n\nShe needed to sift their focus to the town and fast.\n\n\"Change of plans!\", Angelica Courtney said to everyone, lifting their eyes at her faceless visor and halting what they were currently doing.\n\n\"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.\n\nThey got their weapons and started a jog instead of running in order to conserve energy after such a long day.\n\nThey needed to get to that settlement.\n\nThe humans set their aim on what they thought was the woman that stuck with the dragon until his death.\n\nLisa.\n\n* * *\n\nLisa 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.\n\nShe needed to keep her mind off of what just happened to her, her son, and her mate.\n\nHelios...\n\nNo! She had to concentrate on her mission that was forced onto her by fate itself.\n\nShe 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.\n\nLike 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.\n\nShe loved him, so,\u0026nbsp;_so_\u0026nbsp;much. She never wanted to leave him, even if it was for a few minutes.\n\nShe then all of a sudden became depressed. Tears threatened to come out of her eyes.\n\nShe tried to control herself, keep her mind on the task at hand to save her child. However, that was easier said than done.\n\nShe didn't notice that the tree she was leaning on was close to the end of the forest.\n\nShe then heard a noise. It pierced her eardrums as she looked down at the source.\n\nIt was her and Helios's child Brian crying, somehow\u0026nbsp;_now_\u0026nbsp;awoken.\n\n\"No,\u0026nbsp;_no_! Not now!\u0026nbsp;_Shhhhhhh_! I-It's okay! It's okay...\", Lisa tried to calm down her wailing son, much to no avail.\n\nIt\u0026nbsp;_wasn't_\u0026nbsp;okay.\n\nShe needed to silence him before attention could be drawn to them. They needed\u0026nbsp;_anything_\u0026nbsp;but that.\n\n\"_Shhhhhhhhh..._\", she attempted once more to get Brian back to sleep. It was also ineffective.\n\nLisa was then starting to get anxious and irritated. She couldn't blame him for his cries, but she has already been through so much.\n\nSeeing 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.\n\nShe had to leave Helios.\n\nIt suddenly hit her as everything going on.\n\nThen an idea struck her throughout her mental storm.\n\nWith Brian still in her arms wailing, obviously wanting something or in distress, she started so sing him a lullaby.\n\nOne meant for a light dragon hatchling.\n\nHer 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.\n\nHer voice suddenly became melancholic.\n\nShe thought of her previous home, life, and people, even if she was a human and not a dragon.\n\nShe thought of Helios, her mate.\n\nThe 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.\n\nThat gave her\u0026nbsp;_meaning_.\n\nShe then ended the ballad of Light Dragonkind with Brian now sleeping in the silk wrapped around him.\n\nSuch a blessing from God.\n\nWith the silence now permeating throughout the forest, she suddenly had a moment to think.\n\nReinvigorated with her newfound courage, she walked a bit to the outer edge of the wooded area on what looked like a plain.\n\nTouching the woody tree trunks with her free right hand, she finally reached the outside.\n\nWere they waiting for her?\n\nShe 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.\n\nUpon realizing the coast was clear, she took a deep breath, glad that she was free to escape.\n\nBut where?\n\nShe had no home, no money, and no people.\n\nShe didn't even have direction, granted that was what led her to finding Helios before he took her in.\n\nAh, memories.\n\nShe looked around at the very edge of the forest for someplace to hide. One hiding place for another.\n\nShe 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.\n\nShe needed to move.\n\nWhile she didn't think she would disappear completely there, she at least could plan her next move with silence.\n\nThere was nobody, no creature,\u0026nbsp;_anything_\u0026nbsp;that could harm her now.\n\nTaking a leap of faith, she started the grind of running her heart out again.\n\nOh boy, here we go again.\n\nShe was already drained from running so much and the events that transpired today, but she would do anything to protect her child.\n\nAs her swift yet careful feet pushed on the soil the grass remained, unshaken and unbroken.\n\nLisa 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.\n\nHer sprint easily slowed to a brisk stride.\n\nIt went on...\n\nAnd on...\n\nAnd on...\n\nIt felt like an eternity.\n\nRunning made time feel like it was flowing so slow.\n\nCarrying her child didn't do her any favors, but she would do it for him and her mate.\n\nThere!\n\nIt was getting closer...\n\nAnd closer...\n\nAnd closer...\n\nAnd...\n\nFinally...at last...\n\nLisa 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.\n\nIt took her a good five minutes to calm herself down.\n\nOnce the labored breathes calmed down, she was still sweating. She gazed around the angled wall into the settlement.\n\nIt 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.\n\nThank goodness...\n\nThere was nobody here.\n\nShe supposed she could find an inn or someone to take her in, although, being a stranger may not make that easy...\n\nWait!\n\nWhat...\n\nWhat if she was followed?\n\nHer bright blue eyes shrunk as she looked behind her towards the forest, then....\n\nThen she saw several specks, all darked yet shiny from the moonlight.\n\nOh no, they were coming!\n\nThey were coming for\u0026nbsp;_her_.\n\nShe turned her head back to the wall, still holding Brian with her left arm. He was still sleeping somehow.\n\nWait a minute!\n\nWhy were they coming after her?\n\nDid they know she was coming here, as if she had nowhere else to go?\n\nShe 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.\n\nWait...\n\nIf they were pursuing her instead of Helios, then...\n\nThen...\n\nThen...\n\nOh.\n\nOh.\n\nOh no.\n\nNo.\n\nOh.\n\nOh no.\n\nNo, no, no, no, no.\n\nOh no.\n\nNo.\n\nPlease God no.\n\nPlease no.\n\nNo.\n\nNo.\n\nNo!\n\nOh no!\n\nNo!\n\nPlease God **no**!\n\n**No!**\n\n_ **No!** _\n\n_ **Please God no!** _\n\nHer legs shook and involuntarily buckled underneath themselves.\n\nThe dams within her eyes easily burst open, releasing the floodgates.\n\nShe started sobbing.\n\nIt came to her like a freight train crashing into body.\n\nHer heart, or what was left of it, was shattered into millions upon millions of pieces and scattered amongst the wind, forever lost.\n\nShe wished it wasn't true.\n\nShe prayed to God that it wasn't true.\n\nHowever, the truth slapped her in the face and told her to\u0026nbsp;_wake up_.\n\nShe 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.\n\nThe one that found her in the forest, searching for something within the unknown.\n\nThe one that sheltered her, fed her, and made her feel welcome, like she belonged.\n\nThe one that made her happy, hopeful, and excited for the coming day despite how scary the planet could be.\n\nThe one that made her feel companionship in another, a friend.\n\nThe one taught her to find the joys and bright lights within her life in a lost and ruined world.\n\nThe one who defended her against all odds in the face of fear and hatred itself.\n\nThe one that filled her with a feeling that she never recognized until she met them.\n\nThe one that gave her purpose and meaning in a land where she was seen as\u0026nbsp;_worthless_.\n\nThe one that gave themselves wholly for her, and she them.\n\nThe one that loved her.\n\nThe one that impregnated her with their child and made her feel sensations she never thought she could ever have.\n\nThe one that bonded with her eternally until the end of time.\n\nThe one that saved her from destruction that felt like it could make the earth implode on itself.\n\nThe one that gave her the courage to not be afraid.\n\nThe one that selflessly sent her to save herself and their son.\n\nThat being was Helios.\n\nHer dragon.\n\nHer mate.\n\nHer beloved.\n\nHer second half.\n\nHer light of hope in a universe of darkness.\n\nThat person was forever\u0026nbsp;_gone_.\n\nShe could never look into those handsome and deep blue eyes again.\n\nShe could never hear his gentle and calming voice despite being a creature capable of destruction again.\n\nShe could never feel his smooth and beautiful scales of the Sun again.\n\nShe could never feel his paws and wings on her, whether it be on her back or her face again.\n\nShe could never feel the sensation and joys of being in the open air of the sky with him again.\n\nShe could never feel the emotions of having someone to call \"friend\" again of happiness, joy, and peace.\n\nShe 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.\n\nShe could never talk to him ever again to express herself again.\n\nShe could never face the world with him by her side again.\n\nShe could never feel companionship and, most importantly, love, from him as it flowed into her like a waterfall again.\n\nShe could never feel his mouth and tongue against hers in a kiss again.\n\nShe could never feel his body going against hers in the sacred ritual of mating again.\n\nShe could never feel happy\u0026nbsp;_ever_\u0026nbsp;again.\n\nAnd now, he was gone for the rest of time from the face of the earth.\n\nWhy?\n\nJust, God,\u0026nbsp;_why_?!\n\nWhat did she do wrong?\n\nWhy did everything go wrong?\n\nShe prayed and prayed and she and Helios were blessed with Brian, but...\n\nBut why?\n\nJust\u0026nbsp;_why_?!\n\nWhy did God let Helios, her beloved, her second half, her\u0026nbsp;_mate_, die?\n\nJust...\n\nJust...\n\nShe was now forever\u0026nbsp;_alone_.\n\nShe was now trapped in the cell that was her body.\n\nA piece of her was lost to the eternal void, making her feel forever empty.\n\nShe suddenly wanted to die.\n\nShe wanted to be with him, to hold him, to talk to him, to kiss him, to feel things with him, to...to...\n\nTo....they...\n\nThey weren't mated for even a year before he was taken from her by the claws of death.\n\nDead.\n\nLost.\n\nGone.\n\nThere was almost no reason to exist anymore.\n\nAlmost.\n\nShe looked with burning and tear-filled eyes full of sorrow as she looked at Brian.\n\nHe was all she had left.\n\nEven then, as the last full-blooded light dragon had his last breath in her name, she felt as if nothing mattered anymore.\n\nShe had a momentary period of silence as she wiped some of the salty teardrops on her face.\n\nShe made her decision.\n\nThose people. No, those\u0026nbsp;_excuses_\u0026nbsp;for those people.\n\nDamn them.\n\nDamn them\u0026nbsp;_all_.\n\n_Fuck_\u0026nbsp;them even.\n\nShe got up on her wobbly legs, her soul permanently broken.\n\nShe had to get her child in her arms to safety.\n\nAfter that, well...\n\nThere wasn't much.\n\nShe 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.\n\nIt was a bit darkened outside.\n\nA storm was approaching.\n\nShe kept on walking through the cleaned and flattened cobblestone path as she walked in front of several similar looking buildings.\n\nStones 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.\n\nWhy would they attack them unprovoked, she would never know.\n\nShe needed to hurry.\n\nHer mind started to feel numb as she started to lose feeling and emotion at this journey's end.\n\nShe looked at the buildings in irritated denial.\n\nNone 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.\n\nHer walking stopped.\n\nShe thought she found it.\n\nIt 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.\n\nLisa saw something next to the doors in the doorway itself.\n\nIt 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.\n\nShe looked around.\n\nShe knew they were nearing the gates and entrance to the quaint little town.\n\nShe walked on the smooth, grey walkway to those double doors.\n\nHer clip-clops of her woolen boots sounding off into the open air. She approached the door.\n\nLisa looked at the basket solemnly. Her right hand reached for it.\n\nShe stopped.\n\nWas she really doing this?\n\nLeaving her only son that she birthed from her fertile womb to live in a fatherless and motherless world?\n\nShe was so emotionless, the questions only lasted but a few fleeting moments.\n\nShe slowly took the basket with her right hand and looked to Brian in the face.\n\nHe was awake, looking up at her with his piercing bright blue eyes. She knew he got them from her.\n\nLisa hesitated.\n\nShe started to cry again.\n\nShe slowly lowered herself onto the stone floor, gently lowering her own son down.\n\nLisa did so with the greatest sorrow and regret anybody could ever feel.\n\nLisa held her own son on his head. Brian gently held her fingers, as if wanting to be closer to her.\n\nThen, she couldn't take it anymore.\n\n\"I-I'm...\", Lisa tried to start, but failing miserably.\n\n\"I-I'm so sorry Brian. I'm sorry you couldn't live in a bright and happy world with me and your....\"\n\nShe gulped.\n\n\"...f-father. I...\"\n\nLisa sighed.\n\n\"I d-don't know why this happened or why this is happening. I wished...\"\n\nLisa thought for a moment, her mouth quivering and her face wet with tears.\n\n\"...I wished you would grow up in a better world, b-but...\"\n\nLisa stuttered.\n\n\"...b-but...\"\n\nShe broke down.\n\n\"Oh God, why, why,\u0026nbsp;_why_...\"\n\nLisa had such a lack of things to say. Who would blame her?\n\nShe 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.\n\n\"I-I, j-just...\"\n\nHer left hand cradled her forehead.\n\n\"I know you won't understand this. You never would.\", Lisa admitted.\n\n\"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.\n\nShe 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.\n\nA necklace with a gold-outlined dark blue cross.\n\nThe 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.\n\nShe looked at it as the cross shook at the bottom of the loop partially in her hand.\n\nShe 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.\n\nShe took her left hand once again into her collar. She took out another chain, but with something else on the bottom of the loop.\n\nIt 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.\n\nIt 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\u0026nbsp;_world_.\n\nIt 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.\n\nUnfortunately, that already happened.\n\nShe became a person of two worlds that day.\n\nAs the little boy stared at her, she sniffled. It was the only thing to remind her of Helios, her fallen mate.\n\nShe shook her head and looked away.\n\nAfter a few seconds, she brought her attention to the symbol of Bahamut.\n\nLisa then looked at Brian still holding her right hand, making incoherent sound a person his age would usually do.\n\nShe gently lowered the silver necklace of Dragonkind's creator into the soft cloth with the cross.\n\nTwo beings seeing the once-beautiful world slowly destroying itself against their creations' purpose.\n\nThen, finally, she took out a metal rectangle in her pocket.\n\nIt had a word engraved into it and a small hole in the top, indicating it was part of something itself.\n\nThe word was her son's name in English.\n\nBrian.\n\nThe last of herself, Helios, and Light Dragonkind.\n\nShe placed it on his covering.\n\nLisa 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.\n\n\"I-I'm sorry me and your father couldn't see you walk into the world, Brian.\", apologized Lisa tearfully.\n\n\"I-I love you, I love you so much...\", Lisa whimpered to Brian, lowering her face to his.\n\nShe gently kissed his forehead and nuzzled him. He grabbed her face, wanting her to stay and come closer.\n\nLittle did he know that this was impossible as if fate dictated it.\n\n\"Y-Your father loves you too.\", Lisa said for her dead mate.\n\n\"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.\n\nHe started to wail.\n\nBrian didn't want his mother to leave.\n\nShe 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.\n\nShe didn't even notice she walked into the open road.\n\nThe silver-haired woman looked at the way she came. They were closing in, aiming to search for her.\n\nShe started breathing heavily.\n\nThis was it. This was the beginning of her end.\n\nShe took out her free pointer fingers and gradually lifted them into her mouth, crossing in between her crown of teeth.\n\nShe hesitated.\n\nLisa heard the crying of her son.\n\nThere was no hope for her.\n\nShe 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.\n\nThey instantly saw and heard her.\n\n\" **_HEEEEEEEEEEEY!!!_**\", Lisa screamed while starting to run away from them down the road, waving her arms for a few seconds like a madwoman.\n\nShe never looked back on anything.\n\nNot her people.\n\nNot everything that happened to her.\n\nNot even on her life.\n\nThat 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.\n\nLisa kept running, not caring about the noises behind her or how far and fast she was running.\n\nNothing else mattered.\n\nShe ran, reverberating the sounds of stones off the taps on the bottom of her boots.\n\nShe went on...\n\nAnd on...\n\nAnd...\n\nShe suddenly got pushed forward from something behind.\n\nA horrific pain instantly came when her nerve receptors acted before she could.\n\nShe looked down.\n\nThere was an incredibly long metallic object in her abdomen, staining her white robes a sickly red.\n\nThey impaled her.\n\nIt came through where she birthed Brian.\n\nBlood came out like a dreaded waterfall of her own life blood.\n\nShe took her right hand to her stomach, covering her hand in her own blood.\n\nLisa fell onto her knees.\n\nShe 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.\n\nSo, this is how it ends.\n\nHer own people giving in to violence and savagery like they were claiming that the dragons were committing.\n\nLisa asked herself several questions.\n\nWas her life forfeit from the start?\n\nWas she and Helios always meant to die? Every single time?\n\nNothing made sense anymore.\n\nWhy did this happen?\n\nWhy were they hunting them?\n\nWere the dragons as evil as the humans thought they are?\n\nShe didn't have all the answers and probably never will.\n\nIt was all over.\n\nShe was dying.\n\nThere simply wasn't anything left to say or do.\n\nThe world made that readily apparent.\n\nShe just waited.\n\nLisa 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.\n\nTo 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.\n\nShe and Helios lost it all.\n\nThen...\n\nEverything became so,\u0026nbsp;_so_\u0026nbsp;dark...\n\nSo dark...\n\nSo...\n\nThen, nothing.\n\n* * *\n\nA 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.\n\nIt started to rain, the dark grey clouds making their presence known by covering the whole sky, even with the Moon out.\n\nThe people outside saw them. The D.H.G. Their protectors.\n\nHowever, 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.\n\nWhy that contest started or where they got such a creature, nobody will ever know, nor would they care.\n\n\"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.\n\nNobody paid Brian attention. As a baby, he\u0026nbsp;_needed_\u0026nbsp;it.\n\nThe left of the double doors of the building he was in front of creaked open.\n\n\"What's all the commotion about?\", the elderly, yet wise man in the door asked nobody in particular.\n\nHe 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.\n\nHe 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.\n\n\"What in the name of...\", he was about to say and finish until he saw the source of the racket.\n\nThe 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.\n\n\"Oh, hello there.\", the man said softly with intentions to calm the child down.\n\nHe 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?\n\nThe man held the child in front of his chest calmly. The baby's screaming now reduced to soft whimpers.\n\n\"Now, who might you be?\", the man asked, expecting no response, as he was speaking to an infant after all.\n\nHolding 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.\n\nBrian.\n\nThe 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.\n\n\"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.\n\nHis eyes.\n\nThe deep blue eyes of an endless ocean of not only emotion, but of great power. They shined in the raining night.\n\nIt was as if the fires of justice were swirling in them.\n\nCould...\n\nCould this be a sign?\n\nHe looked around some more. His parents left the baby here. He couldn't pinpoint why.\n\nAfterall, he didn't know the full story.\n\nThe man sighed.\n\nHe had to take the boy in. He couldn't leave him out here in the dark.\n\nHe just hoped it didn't end in disaster for him. A lot of that has been happening quite a bunch.\n\nHe turned around towards the double doors and started to go through them.\n\n\"Well, young Brian, let's just see who you'll be, hmm?\"\n\nThe doors shut, both covering and sheltering the two from darkness.\n\n* * *\n\nThen, the night ended as if nothing had happened.\n\nA dragon was being carried on a table as humans touched its corpse.\n\nA human was lying dead at the end of the town.\n\nThe 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.\n\nTwo formerly living people, dead and forgotten.\n\nThe world slowly neared its destruction with war on a grand scale amongst several fronts.\n\nWhy did it happen?\n\nWho were the ones involved?\n\nAnd, more importantly, what is the price when all is said and done?\n\nPeople either simply accepted it as reality or given up on asking knowing they would never get a clear or good answer.\n\nRegardless, death and warfare were so commonplace, it was taken into the collective conscience of people to the point that it was expected.\n\nSomebody dying was like a tree falling. Nobody paid it any attention due to its insignificance amongst several just like it.\n\nPeople, human or dragon, simply never cared, nor would they ever despite hatred on their doorstep.\n\nThat's the problem, they were\u0026nbsp;_people_.\n\nCreatures gifted with intelligence and sapience, only to forsake it all.\n\nAnd for what?\n\nFor 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?\n\nFor some living being or beings that is objectified to the point that they are nothing more than property?\n\nFor some land or possession that is treated to be more valuable and worth the bloodshed than that of a breathing, thinking, and talking creature?\n\nFor misplaced grievances based on face value instead of the contents of oneself, turning itself into a needlessly colossal problem?\n\nOr is it simply ignorance?\n\nIgnorance towards the creatures? The actions? The events? Everything?\n\nThe people were all ignorant and careless.\n\nThey were humans were born, dragons were hatched, and both raised to become that.\u0026nbsp;\n\n_Ignorant_.\n\nDespite all the senseless death, blood, hatred, and the eventual destruction of the planet they stood on? That they shared?\n\nNo, they didn't notice it at all.\n\nOnly Helios and Lisa saw through it all.\n\nThe illusion of purpose through this bloodlust and true ruin to Earth and its creatures.\n\nThey saw all of it in full force and the only ones out of billions to find that none of it was true.\n\nIt was all false.\n\nYet, when they realized this unshakable truth, it was already too late.\n\nThey died not because they chose a side, but because they both refused to and got caught in the crossfire.\n\nIt 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.\n\nAnd 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.\n\nHe 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.\n\nDespite 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.\n\nBrian never asked for such things.\n\nHe never asked to have gifts of both of his parents.\n\nHe never asked for wars to tear the ground he stood on.\n\nHe never asked to face death and hatred in a universe where all born were unwelcome.\n\nHe never asked to be abandoned by his parents to save him.\n\nIt didn't matter. Helios and Lisa could only give him this world. It was the only one that they had left.\n\nBrian would have to rise up, to become what he chooses, what he is destined to be.\n\nHe will become either the world's savior or its destroyer.\n\nHe will choose to kill or spare the ones responsible for it all.\n\nHe will decide to live with a side or neither of them in a conflict deciding the fate of the world and possibly the universe.\n\nHe will become the one to protect the weak and destroy the wicked or become the one to rule them all.\n\nHe will do it all not just for Humanity, but also for all of Dragonkind.\n\n* * *\n\nNote: 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.\u0026nbsp;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!","series":{"name":"For All of Dragonkind: The Beginning","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2219573-chapter-3-the-beginning-of-the-end.json"}}