However, how could the small group have known that they had encountered a being that defied what they considered, common logic? An existence who's ancestors had even been able to force the old gods and countless species to unite against them?
They couldn't, and so, the moment that they sensed the natural world essence replaced by spirit energy the knew well, Chron and the two disciples relaxed considerably.
There was a common saying that was lost to the ravages of time, much like the knowledge of dragons. 'To irritate a dragon is to die. To anger, to lose your family. To enrage, your town. To intimidate, your country.'
Snow had, though most unwittingly, accomplished all of these with a mere gaze.
Memories contained in ancestral bloodlines were, at least to mortals, bizarre. They were composed of many lifetimes, with little to no chronological order, and could only be passed from mother to child. However, unlike common bloodlines, the dragonic bloodline was unusual as it wasn't set at conception, but upon the death of the ancestor.
As dragons were immortal, at least in the sense of time, this wasn't usually much of a concern, and mostly used to seek vengeance when one of their kind fell, yet in the case of Kai, it was akin to opening Pandora's box.
To access an ancestral memory, a trigger was needed. Kai's mother had died defending her egg against humans. Especially the man who desired to enslave them both, binding them to his whims. Kai, as if he was there, could see the lust for power emanating from his eyes.
Unlucky for Snow and her group, she displayed the same kind of eyes, both triggering the memory, and enraging the young dragon.
Before her facial features could even flinch, the predatory smile still etched on her lips, Snow was covered in dragon's flames, so hot that the hair of the nearby human's instantly singed. The heat was intense, so much so, that the young man, who had been healing the group was so close that his clothes and hair erupted in natural flames.
The middle-aged woman, strong enough to be considered a minor power in the clan, didn't even get time to realise what had happened, let alone scream as her organs cooked and her blood boiled.
Chron's features were still locked into a frown, his consciousness, still thinking about the interaction between Snow and the strange creature, as his head sailed high into the air, a trail of blood streaking across the clear blue sky. It wasn't clear what had decapitated him, the sharp edge of a wing or one of Kai's claw but it didn't matter. Chron's last moments were spent in utter confusion as to what had just occurred.
Lea hadn't escaped the dragon's fury, having been stood next to Chron and Kai's tail had pierced her abdomen, sending her flying back. The small, flying snake that was her bonded had been crushed in crushed in his jaws, the sound of bones still resonating long after it had been swallowed.
A thunderous explosion, the accumulation of the dragon's breath's intense heat and a sign that Snow was now nothing more than ash erupted and formed a small crater. The remains of the group scattered in all directions, any survivors having been given a swift death yet, even with the force of the blast slamming her head against the ground, Lea stayed conscious as she coughed out a mouthful of blood.
The young woman was in agony, her contracted beast had been killed, and her abdomen was a mess. If she had not trained in body refinement and reached a relatively good level for her age, she would have died instantly.
Forcing the spirit energy to move towards her wounds, Lea's head rolled towards the side and faced the direction she had come from.
The rage in her eyes instantly vanished as she watched Kai stalk through the remaining the flames as if he were the embodiment of a demon, the heat not bothering him in the slightest while bolts of lightning leapt from his black mist clad body and scored the earth around him.
His eyes, now completely red, which Kai now knew to be an inheritance from his mother, locked onto the fallen girl, causing the breath to catch in her throat.
Releasing a rumbling growl, one that would put any of the top monsters in the continent to shame, Kai stalked towards the injured woman.
"Why?" Knowing she was facing certain death strangely calmed Lea. Just like most of the disciples in the clan, death wasn't new to them yet, everyone liked to believe it would never happen to them. That they were special. Moments before her end, when she thought back to her family and friends, the only thing she could think of was all the choices she made that lead to this event and question what she could have done differently.
Regret and reluctance swelled in her eyes, yet even though she was terrified, she didn't turn away from the approaching monster and maintained eye contact like she was trained to do. She knew that if she broke it, she would die.
"Why?" Kai's spoke in the human tongue, though it was rough and broken.
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His mother had learnt many languages, something which most dragons couldn't be bothered to do, and luckily for him, some of them were still in use.
"Because we are at war." To Kai, the memories felt as if there were yesterday, a million years ago, today and even tomorrow. Their sudden acquisition momentarily warping his sense of time. "Because your kind slaughtered my kin for nothing more than your greed and false idols."
Lea thought she understood, humans had been profiting from the beasts and monsters since time immemorial, using them as nothing more than a resource. There were some, like her, who treated them with respect and as equals, yet most didn't.
Her assumption made sense to her, and while partially correct, it was a far cry from the full story.
To Kai, he responded without thinking, too focused on the empty feeling inside that finally made sense.
He was alone.
Completely, utterly alone.
The other clans had left, his tribe, or at least his mother's as he was never officially accepted into it, was long gone. Annihilated in their final stand. Refusing to flee or submit... just like his mother had done.
Pride, anger and sadness battled inside the young dragon.
He wanted comfort, he was still considered a mere hatchling in dragon standards, yet he knew that it was impossible.
He now knew the length of time an egg took to incubate, and if he hadn't been recovered during that time, there was little chance that any dragon's had passed. The instinct to protect and nurture their young, even if it wasn't their own was or had been, legendary.
Still, he couldn't help himself but ask, a yearning inside wanting to cling onto something. "Where are the dragons?"
"Dragons?" the girls face screwed up, half in pain, half in fear that the creature was suddenly talking her language. It seemed completely different from before. Where the creature earlier was energetic, curious and seemed a bit... naive, the one before her was like a storm waiting to break, a sword waiting to be unleashed. "Dragons where are?"
While similar, the language had changed over the course of time.
Kai pointed to himself with a claw, the sight causing Lea to flinch, yet hope was kindled in her heart. If she could be useful, maybe the monster would let her live. It was apparent that her elder's attempts at manipulating the area had enraged it yet it had not been entirely hostile before. She knew that while her wound's, while grave, was just within her ability to heal.
She just needed time.
"I don't know but if you let me live I ca-" Lea never got to finish her sentence, Kai's claw crushing her head into a meaty paste.
The memories from his mother had triggered other ancestral memories, mainly interactions between dragons, and he rapidly ticked off each one until only he was left, at least for the black dragon clan.
They had all perished in the war and, with the fact that it seemed like this group didn't know what he was, or even the term dragon, it was likely that most of the knowledge was lost and only a few, if any, would know what he was.
Kai snorted, regaining control over his emotions. He knew short-lived species were like that. It was their most significant weakness yet, at the same time, their greatest strength.
Moving away, Kai started to limp revealing the wounds caused by his crash into the ice wall and slowly descended the mountain, his eyes continually analysing the surroundings for any sign of danger.
He needed to find somewhere to hide and work on his human form, an ability he gained insight with the help of his mother's memories. If any of the gods noticed what he was, or any other species with ancestral bloodlines, he would be in serious trouble. The gods and their followers had already displayed their might, the memories of battles that no one else but he knew of, flittering across his mind's eye.
He needed to recover his strength, repair his wing and to disguise himself as soon as possible. Only then would he be able to gather the information he needed. The info that would enable him to search for his father's clan.
Kai released a silent prayer to the elder dragon, a habit his grandmother had, praying that some of the clans had survived.
The more he gained from the ancestral bloodline, the more he realised he needed other dragon's to reach his full potential. Some things could not be transferred by memory and genetics alone.
If he managed to find his fathers clan, being a half-element, he should be accepted relatively quickly. That was if it had survived.
Pushing the doubts and fears to the bottom of his soul, longing appeared in Kai's heart, as the desire for revenge faded into the background.
He was too weak to go against the gods yet, and the mortal species that allied against him, well, the guilty would all be dead. Kai felt, like most dragons, that the sins of the parent did not fall upon the child and so, he wouldn't even feel better if he slaughtered them, nor would it bring back the dead.
To him, his views warped by his unique start to life and fragmented inheritance, humans, like most creatures, weren't worthy of his attention.
Time would get them like it always had done.
His actions earlier might have indicated different yet, it was more to eliminate the threat that Snow and Chron represented as well as remove any witnesses than taking vengeance for his mother's death.
Kai felt a tinge of pride with the unfathomable sadness. She had killed her assailant, like a true dragon. Appart from the gods, who were too strong for the current him, there was no one to blame.
The pain in his chest resurged as he fought back a tear, his mother's emotions were painfully evident at the moment of her death. She had given up everything so he would have a chance to live, wanting him to find happiness and be born in a new age. An age where he could live in peace.
While he doubted the ways of mortals would have changed, it didn't impact the growing resolve to ensure that he carried out his mother's final wish. He would live, proud and strong as she had.
He would never bow before another yet, the time spent in the cave had shown him that there was no honour in defeat. He would not make the same mistakes that his kind had, standing tall and challenging the world. He would live in the shadows, striking without mercy when he was in a position of power, disappearing when he wasn't.
Kai's eyes slowly reverted to their golden colour, yet the aura they gave off had hardened significantly. Usually, a bloodline would be awakened slowly, under the careful guidance of elders and years of careful nurturing and tutorage.
Kai knew he had none of that, nor did he have the time and even though the memories demanded that he find a place to rest and compose his mind, he pushed through the first few trees and rapidly disappeared into the snow-locked forest as he locked onto a strange, yet familiar scent.
He needed to recover and leave this place. The memories told him that human's always lived in huge nests and reacted like a swarm of angry ants if you killed a few of them.