"What have I gotten myself into? They're not going to like this," the mother said. She was frantic in her speech and pace as she was pondering what to do with her newborn considering her situation. She then sighed and said: "There's not much I can do I suppose," as she walked to the balcony. "I can only let nature take its course." She laid the swaddled infant, umbilical cord still attached, and laid him on one of the chairs.
A dragon flying overhead in the dead of night was looking over the area. This particular property in Los Angeles had problems with children born into their 'society' and many dragons like her knew this was an excellent spot to find a child as their hatchling. That's when she spotted the newborn in the chair. With no way to safely land on the balcony, and on top of that, the child was too young. Her species was relatively bright though, and she knew what to do. She swooped in and grabbed the newborn. As she left with it, the mother ran deeper into her home crying, praying to the monotheistic god saying: "Oh Lord, please keep him safe. Don't let him suffer the same fate."
The dragon took the newborn to a hospital in the city and began grunting at the door to get someone's attention. One nurse stepped out and saw the newborn in her arms. The nurse was a shifter, so he could understand what the dragon said. "The young boy was born into dire circumstances. His mother had little power on what she could do," the dragon said to the nurse. She then handed the nurse the infant, but stayed near the hospital, keeping his scent in her mind, waiting so that she'd have her hatchling one day.
Meanwhile, the nurse rushed to the maternity ward with the infant in his arms. They cut the umbilical cord and found that the infant was born with only one arm. That infant would later be in a loving foster home that would eventually adopt him and name him Ivan. The foster family soon noticed the attachment the same dragon had to him. One of them was a shifter, and the dragon was able to relay the story to them, and eventually, once he turned six, to Ivan. Ivan grew an interest in religion from that, but it soon turned to philosophy. By the time he was 8, he had amassed well over 15 Word documents of his own philosophical thought and had inspiration from philosophers and theologians like Avencinna, Aristotle, and St. Thomas. The history of religious persecution was what he wrote about the most whenever he had to do a history paper, and the time needed was right.
He wasn't without flaws, however. Besides having only one arm, he only ever slept well in a living dragon suit that put him on all fours, even if he was a limb short. Something about that was a comfort for him. One that his soon to be captor, Megan, soon saw as them needing each other. However, one of the suit's legs was unusable due to him not having an arm to fill it.
He couldn't keep many friends from either sporty jock kind of kids or nerdy often needed glasses due to becoming nearsighted type kids. The former found that he fitted more with the nerds, yet the nerds didn't notice anything academic with him. He didn't have much interest in anything they like either, on either side. He had some friends, sure, but only because the teacher told them to sit with him and grew interested in what he had to say.
Eventually though, he wouldn't be with his human family for a while. In the middle of summer, his dragon was rearing up to take him to her world. To make him hers, to make him a shifter. Ivan knew what she wanted though, and he was willing to comply. "You helped my life all those years ago; now I help yours. By bearing you the hatchling you always wanted," he said to her. She was hesitant though to take him. She saw such a bright child and didn't want to hinder his development, yet she knew she had an obligation to fill, and Ivan wouldn't let go. That's when she knew it was happening either way.
"You and I both know this has to happen," she said. She then carried him off to her world for a time.
Ivan was anything but hesitant to get into her egg. Yet he was calm about his excitement, unlike most kids interested in dragons and the like, who practically dream about this sort of thing. Once inside the egg though, he was anxiously waiting to emerge. Yet after a while, that slowed as he began to ponder about religion here. He heard the stories about the alien creatures in these lands, and he couldn't wait to document what he would see.
After a week, he burst forth from that shell, now covered in scales from his neck down in one form. Yet while in his dragon form, he only had three legs. His left front leg was missing. "Welcome Ivan, how do you feel?" His now captor asked him.
"Hard to say, other than that I'm hungry," he replied. His captor handed him a fish, and he began eating. It was the first fish he ate raw, and it seemed better to him than a cooked one. "So good, I've never had something that tasted this good with this texture," he said to his captor.
"Your taste will change Ivan. What once tasted awful to you, may now taste godly," she told him. "I'm going to have a friend stop by with his hatchling. It'll give you someone to talk to," she told me. He'd soon find the girl interested in literature, a topic that mixed well with his interest in philosophy. She seemed interested in everything he had to say, and thankfully for the both of them, she had multiple notebooks and pencils on her. Soon they'd begin their journey through this world to find what many others wouldn't.