Prologue
What is a gift?
Is it a fleeting moment of grace made immortal through the kindness of others?
It gives the coldest of hearts a beat of warmth, and for one to present a gift is replenishing in it's own right. Yet when someone does receive a gift, a truly undeserved gift, it inspires them to repay the act of kindness to someone else, making the initial act far more potent.
A good gift, a true gift; will manage to change hearts, inspire others to give in their own way, give hope to a soul that has lost it all and turn strangers into family.
Everyone has a gift like that.
And it may very well be, that to find one's gift is their purpose.
Yet is there a greater meaning to that gift than to give it away?
Chapter 1
"This winter is especially rough, it seems."
The snow fell cool on the dragon's neck as he trudged his way through the wilderness. The icy terrain of the white forest laid bare in front of him as he pursued his one mission. To be free from his captors.
He came across a narrow stream and stopped in his tracks to take a breather. Heavy wheezing accompanied by his leaking wound prevented him from overexerting himself.
"Damn them… if only I ended it sooner."
He pressed against his deep laceration to mitigate the bleeding. There was a deep sense of regret that washed over him. He still remembered that day so clearly, the day he went against his own kin, the day he rebelled against the dragon empire.
He coughed once more before being sent to the ground by his pains. Blood slowly spilling from his side.
"They'll find me soon if I'm not careful. If I don't...make my way out of here and recover, my death won't carry any honor."
As he began to lift himself from the ground with a determined grunt he heard a noise that bothered him. It was a sharp nasally sound.
"Have I been found already? Is this a sensory attack of some kind? What the hell is going on?"
All dragons had especially sensitive hearing, to the point where even the slightest increase in volume was detectable by their ears. If this assault kept happening it would more than spell trouble.
The dragon flapped his wings and proceeded to make his way towards the tempestuous noise. He glided across the snow and soon landed in front of a mountain with, what seemingly, had a cave attached to it's front.
"It's definitely coming from here."
He winced, before deciding to stick his head inside of the cave. Ready to neutralize the attack, he examined the inside of the area. Before being abruptly caught off guard by the sight of a crying baby.
"...What? That's where all this noise was coming from?"
His eyes widened as he gazed upon the helpless infant, wailing and flailing to survive. The baby boy had short dark hair and bright azure eyes accompanied by screams of terror that could make the dragon's ears split.
Neatly tucked in a straw basket, wrapped with a thick white blanket to cover him. The baby had no real reason to cry, other than being abandoned in the heart of winter in the middle of a cave.
"Poor thing, I should smite his parents for the sake of his revenge. What kind of a person forsakes their baby like this?"
The child continued to cry until he locked gazes with the dragon. He briefly stared at the monster blankly.
"Should I just kill the kid now?"
The dragon was not fond of the thought, but he felt he had no other choice. If he were to let this child be, eventually he would die of starvation or his body would surrender to the elements. Without anyone to take care of him, this baby was doomed. But what was more likely, was that the dragon empire following his trail, would run into him first and show exactly what their opinions on humans were.
"It's truly such a shame. It seems the world outcast this child just like it outcast me."
As far as he was concerned, the only choices were slow and painful or quick and painless. But either way, much like him, this baby was marked for death.
"Consider yourself lucky young one, I, Krieus the dark dragon, will hereby grant you a mercy killing."
The baby found a way out of his basket and crawled towards the dragon who was deeply immersed in thought considering how best to dispose of the child. The infant placed his hands on the dragon's snout and asked a simple question.
"Papa?"
The dragon ceased all of his thoughts as he looked down at the baby. He was introduced to a new idea.
"Does this child think I'm his...father?"
The dragon blushed, he was clearly caught off guard by the fact that the baby was not only, not terrified of him. But even thought of him as his kin.
"I- It's possible I have misjudged."
The dragon had been wandering the forest for so long as just that, a dragon. Everyone he came in contact with either feared him or wanted to destroy him. To have a companion was not even conceivable, it was too dangerous. He was completely alone. But this… this could be a nice change of pace.
"Don't...leave...papa." The baby barely got the words out, yet said them with as much conviction as a baby boy could.
Truthfully, he never considered taking the child with him, let alone anyone. Most would rather die.
"Well, if this child doesn't mind me, why not let him accompany?"
It's not like there was anybody to tell them otherwise. Ordinarily this would be a terrible idea due to the relationship between dragons and humans but that was irrelevant now. The child didn't want to die and the dragon didn't want to kill him. And considering this baby didn't want to be abandoned again and the dragon didn't want to be lonely, this deal seemed to work out well both ways. Though they were both outcasted to be alone, at least they could be alone together.
"Very well then, consider yourself lucky young one, I, Krieus the dark dragon, will hereby adopt you as your father."
This day was when a dragon had gifted a doomed newborn life. Or was it that he had received a gift in the form of a companion? It was up to time to tell, if this decision would ultimately be a curse or a great boon for the universe.
Years later Krieus found himself and the boy living in a set of some quiet woodlands, next to an old and abandoned dungeon. A place hidden from most, where the majority of life was only low tier monsters. This was perfect for them. It was spring, and the dragon was returning home, which was a humble stone cave adorned with a generous amount of moss. Carrying a huge haul of fish with him in a sack, excited to cook his favorite meal, the only thing more exciting than that was who he was going to share the meal with.
"Areon, I brought lunch!...Areon..?"
He scanned the area to find the now eight-year-old boy being chased around the fields by a group of small orcs in broad daylight.
"Wahhh!" The boy's scream could be heard from afar.
A sigh left the dark dragon before lamenting the situation.
"Not these guys again."
The dragon groaned. Raising the little human had proved to be more challenging than he initially thought. There were many parts of it that were simply, frustrating. On one hand, he wanted to train Areon as soon as possible.
But Krieus was worried.
He couldn't train him as one would typically with a dragon, by dropping him off in the wild, holding the reasoning that if he survives so be it and if not, he wasn't worth living. That was far too cruel and cold of a tactic and humans were very fragile in their early stages of developing anyway.
Which was another problem. Even dragons who were overly eager to begin died an untimely death. Krieus himself didn't begin his training until he was one-hundred years of age. As much as he wanted Areon to increase in strength, he didn't want to accidentally kill him, he had to raise him differently and wait for him to be ready.
That being understood, he had no idea how the humans actually raised their kin. There was no step-by-step guide for that. He couldn't be invisible in the woodlands forever, soon the world would find out about him.
If the dragons ever learnt about his existence, they would certainly deem him an inadequate lifeform and he already knew how the humans discriminated against themselves, it was unlikely that Areon would be well received.
So since he was bound to be hated by both sides, this was a necessity to be prepared for the future, but only once he was ready.
The only question was how.
Because if one thing remained certain, it was that he couldn't stand to watch his son be bullied by a bunch of low tier orcs, not like this. It was just too embarrassing.
The orcs continued to chase Areon around the fields and proceeded to corner him, with his back pinned against a giant boulder.
"We got you now! You fleshbag!" One of them chortled.
"Yeah don't even think about running away!" Another chimed in.
The rest snickered to themselves until a large, menacing shadow appeared from behind them. They turned their heads back to find Krieus' glowing yellow eyes, jet-black scales and threatening scowl.
"Oh-ho, hey Mr. Krieus, we were just playing around with him. Hope you don't mind!" One stammered whilst sweating profusely.
"Uh yeah, but it's getting terribly late, we should probably get going. He's not hurt or anything Incase if you were wondering. Have a nice day~ toodles!"
After being thoroughly intimidated, they nervously chuckled before frantically deciding to leave, sprinting for the hills.
"Whew…!"
The boy fell to the ground, with deep wheezing, panting for air. Areon's eyes lit up when he looked at the dragon as he struggled to get his words out due to his exhaustion.
"Pops! Thanks for that, I thought I was a goner for sure… Sorry you had to save me back there." He had a bright beaming smile, yet said the words slightly abashed. Still, he was glad to see that Krieus had returned.
The dark dragon was soothed by the boy's unharmed face, his one and only treasure. So he calmly crafted a smile that hid his underlying worry, and asked a question he harbored for a long while.
"Areon, these children's bullying bothers you, doesn't it?"
"You wouldn't believe, when am I gonna get big and strong like you?"
The dragon hesitated to answer, though he sympathized with the boy's struggles he still wasn't convinced that he was yet ready.
"It will happen in due time, you mustn't rush these things, Areon."
"Gah! But you say that every time! The more I hear I can't rush things makes me want to rush things even more! How much longer do I have to wait?"
Krieus chuckled as he watched Areon return to catching his breath, the boy used his shirt to wipe the sweat he had from one end of his face to the other, before noticing the large sack of fish that Krieus had brought home.
The dragon watched the boy's mouth water as he witnessed his favourite meal, albeit uncooked.
"Can I at least know when I can go hunting and fishing with you? I really hate being home alone…"
Krieus winced at the question.
"You're not going to like the answer."
"Damn it… When will I be ready?"
"When it's time."
"When is it time?"
"When you are ready."
The boy groaned as Krieus softly chortled. He did not like leaving Areon alone, he didn't like seeing him bullied. But if this was the temporary cost of not ending the child's life prematurely he would pay it every single day.
He wished he could have done the same for his late brothers. Although Areon was confident, he did not want to risk anything.
"Please! I promise I can handle it! Can I just follow you one time-"
Loud barking followed by a low growl echoed from the distance near the bushes, cutting off Areon's plea. The two froze as their heads tilted in the direction of the sound.
"hmm…It sounds like there's a wolf nearby, I'll go check it out. Areon, wait in the cave until I get back."
"Wait! Can I come with you? Maybe it's not even dangerous, it could be our friend."
"Not now Areon, this is serious, I'll go take care of it."
Krieus began to extend his wings and go but was interrupted by Areon's complaining.
"Wait! But you didn't answer my question, can I join you with hunting, next time?"
"Areon, this is not the moment for this."
As Krieus stepped away the boy's footsteps followed, clearly determined and not seeming to take no for an answer anymore.
"Please…"
Krieus sighed.
"Okay, if you can bring that bag of fish into the cave before I get back, I'll consider it. Deal?"
"Deal!"
Areon's eyes flickered with excitement as he ran towards the sack, then without skipping a beat, Krieus took off into the air and landed where he heard the noise of the wolf.
"Oh, Mr.Krieus! Glad to see ya! We have quite the predicament here."
There was a wolf just as expected, but it wasn't alone.
There were three hunter orcs who had came to see the dark dragon. The wolf was being held by ropes frimly tied around it's neck, barking and exuding a sense of primal fury. Barley being held back by two fully grown orcs.
Krieus glared at them.
"...Explain."
Nervously, the lead hunter cleared his throat and began.
"We tried to tame some of the wolves for hunting, but this one was quite feral. It has already injured seven of our orcs and honestly, we're too scared to kill it ourselves."
"So you want me to kill it for you."
"We'd be most grateful."
Krieus snarled.
"What did I tell you about making requests like this at the cave? There's an eight-year-old child in there and you bring a wolf?"
"We're sorry about the inconvenience, we found no way to neutralize it and couldn't find you anywhere else."
"Inconvenience?"
"Don't be foolish, what if something were to happen?"
"We wouldn't dare waste your time like that Mr.Krieus. We made sure that this wolf was safely secured, there's no way that-"
As the lead orc was finishing his sentence, the wolf snapped free from the ropes and ran toward the cave, right in Areon's direction. Krieus watched the wolf speed away before spinning his head towards the hunters, with silent rage in his glowing eyes.
"...That was not supposed to happen."
The dark dragon sighed, as he would not have to save Areon's life once today, but twice.