Not too far from the cave where James and Tyler slept, a small team of humans in pale blue military uniforms were quickly but silently moving through the forest. Four of the five individuals were riding powerful black horses, and the fifth—the leader, by the way he moved at the front of the group—moved on his own, without a horse. Though there were only five people in the group, the individual leading the march let off a domineering, powerful aura.

“Captain, are you sure we’re on the trail? Were-panthers are among the most dangerous of Beastkin. I’m worried that we’re currently the prey and not the hunters,” one of the soldiers said to the man in front. The captain took a long time to respond—a bit too long, even. The soldier who spoke began to fear for his life as a sharp, powerful intent began to leak from the captain’s figure. Finally, though, he responded.

“Do you doubt my skills?” The captain’s eyes seemed to shine with a piercing blue-white light as he turned his gaze towards the soldier.

“N-no, of course not!” The soldier stammered, sweat dripping down his neck. “I’m just nervous! I heard that the Beastkin boy killed over 30 soldiers in his escape with the stolen item, and I’m just wondering if our presence is necessary,” he backpedaled while indicating towards himself and the other three mounted soldiers. At those words, the captain burst into dark laughter.

“Hahaha, you wonder if your presence is necessary? Of course it isn’t. The only reason you’re here is as bait. I could take care of the kid thief by myself, but you four are here to make my job easier. Now, listen closely. Here’s what we’re going to do…”

***

Far from where Tyler and James rested and the soldiers plotted, but still within the same cold country, a palace stood surrounded by glaciers and mountains. The palace was constantly snowed upon, but the fierce design and steep roofs protected it from becoming buried overtime.

Although the palace looked empty from the outside, the inside halls were filled with bustling commerce. Despite the crowds of people in the palace’s outer circle, though, the inner circle was almost completely silent. In the menacing throne room, only a single man sat within. If one disregarded his facial expression, he could even be called beautiful. His long, pale blue hair and eyes like twin icebergs perfectly matched his pristine face with high cheekbones and a thin jawline.

At the moment though, any onlooker would find this man terrifying. This was due to the ugly, menacing expression etched upon his otherwise perfect face. Suddenly, though, the man’s expression softened, and shifted instead into a domineering sneer. That egg will be mine again soon enough, he thought smugly. That bastard may not be worthy of being an heir, but his skill with the royal blessing is powerful enough to obliterate that small thief in a heartbeat. He then sighed, and thought, if only my heir was so powerful. Oh well, at least I am guaranteed that egg back.

The King of Winter sighed in content, before standing up from his throne and retiring for the night.

***

Tyler woke up with a start and an ache in his back. Oww, he thought before rolling over and standing up. What the…? I’m in dragon form again? He thought, confused. Oh well, I guess my control over my form wasn’t as sturdy as I thought it was.

As he stood up on all fours, though, he felt a sudden pain in his stomach. “Argh,” he groaned aloud, before snapping his mouth closed and glancing in the direction of James’s sleeping form. I guess I need some food, he thought as he realized that the last—and the first—thing he had eaten had been his own eggshell. He immediately shifted into his humanoid form, though he was still unable to transform completely. He still had dark, starry wings protruding from his back, and a set of black horns that were short enough to be hidden in his hair. I guess that’s better than the first time, Tyler grumbled before creeping towards the cave opening. He needed to go find food, but he didn’t want to wake James to do it.

“Oh well,” he muttered. “I guess I need to hunt on my own.” He wasn’t too worried about being able to find food without help. He could tell, even without ever leaving the cave, that his newly gained instincts would allow him to hunt with ease.

After being reborn into this world, Tyler had noticed that his survival instincts were much more keen than they were when he was a human. That had been proven when he could sense James entering the cave with precision, even while facing in the opposite direction.

He also felt the need to try stretching his wings a bit. He had always enjoyed the feeling of being high in the air, which was why his comfort spot on Earth was a bench on the roof of his family’s apartment. Now, he had the opportunity to experience that thrill on a whole other level.

Right now, though, he felt hungrier then he had ever felt in his life. With a ravenous expression on his now human face, he began to silently run towards the cave opening.

He hadn’t had much of a chance to get a feel for his new body the previous day, but now that he was moving he could tell that things were much different than they had been before. His running speed was much faster than it was as a human, and that was without even sprinting or pushing his body to the limit.

As he reached the cave opening, he abruptly stopped before peeking outside. The cave was high up, at the midpoint of a sheer cliff. If Tyler had been the same as he was on Earth, he wouldn’t have been able to even exit the cave without dying or seriously injuring himself. However, now Tyler could leap out of the cave’s mouth without an ounce of fear in his mind.

Tyler started to laugh giddily as he fell from the great height of the cave opening and towards the trees below. His instincts told him that even if he landed at full force on the ground below, he would be mostly uninjured. However, he didn’t feel the need to test that at the moment. As he grew closer to the tops of the trees, Tyler suddenly spread his wings behind him. With a small swooshing sound, his wings caught the air and abruptly ceased his rapid descent.

As soon as Tyler began to fly, his senses extended outwards, searching for an animal to prey upon. For a moment, Tyler was overwhelmed by the amount of life he could sense in the forest. After a moment, he grew used to the sensation and began to use all of his senses.

After becoming a dragon, each of Tyler’s senses had enhanced dramatically, and he had even gained a new sense. He was able to, somehow, sense the energy in the environment. Now, though, he focused mainly on his sense of sight and smell as he searched the forest below for an animal to prey upon. I’m a predator now, Tyler thought. Not only that, but I feel like I’m near the top of the food chain. At least, I will be once my body grows more.

At some point, Tyler saw movement below him. With a grin, he shot towards a small clearing in the trees. As he descended, he shifted into his draconic form. As a dragon, he had more natural weapons than he did in human form, namely his claws and teeth. The only problem was that if he wasn’t careful, he would tear the new clothes that James had given him. And so, as he shifted, he gently removed the clothes and dropped them in a tree. That way, once he needed to shift back, he could easily find them again.

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Mere seconds after dropping his robes over a tree branch, he emerged in the clearing and flew, full force, into a large deer. Tyler’s draconic form was heavier than his humanoid form, but he was still only about as large as a medium sized dog. Still, he was moving fast enough that he could easily slice his sharp claws through the creature’s neck.

The creature resembled a deer, but it had two sets of glossy, metallic antlers that resembled a pointy crown. If Tyler hadn’t managed to catch it by surprise, the creature would have either ran away too fast for Tyler to catch, or attacked with its razor sharp horns. Either way, though, its regal horns now hit the ground with a soft thud.

Tyler licked his lips, and charged towards the corpse with an open mouth. Moments before his teeth reached the flesh of the creature, though, he suddenly stopped. What am I doing? Have my new instincts completely taken over? I am not an animal. He then turned and, beating his wings downward, flew into the sky towards the tree where he left his clothes.

Now that he had found his clothes, he shifted back into a human form. He made sure to cover both his wings and horns, before picking up logs to build a fire. It really is easy to start fires now that I can do this, Tyler chuckled inwardly while breathing a stream of violet flames towards his newly built stack of logs.

As Tyler began to cook his meal, in a not so distant expanse of woods, a certain blue-uniformed human lifted his nose to the sky. Is that the smell of… cooking meat? The captain asked internally. He turned his blue eyes towards the direction of the scent, and saw a distant pillar of smoke. If it had been anyone else, they would have missed it, because the fire was hot enough to only emit minimal amounts of smoke. However, the Captain of the Winter Guard was no ordinary person.

“Come on, men. Let’s go check that out,” the captain said softly. The four soldiers with him had no idea what they were about to ‘check out,’ but they knew better than to disobey their captain’s orders. With a shrug, they nudged their horses to follow the blond man on foot in front of them.

Back in the cave, James woke up with a start. What the… what was that powerful presence I felt? James thought, somewhat disoriented. Well, luckily I have the prize with me… he thought, but then looked around the cave.

“Oh, Lux above. He’s gone, isn’t he?” James groaned. “This is bad, isn’t it? I need to go and find him,” James muttered while quickly hiding any traces that he was ever in this cave.

Back at the cook fire, Tyler had noticed a strong presence quickly moving towards him. Oh crap. These are the hunters that James mentioned, aren’t they? Tyler sighed. Well, they found me now. I might as well play the innocent bystander. After quickly making sure his wings were covered with his cloak and shifting his hair to cover his short horns, Tyler sat down in front of the fire and started to eat the crispy, freshly cooked venison.

Deep in the forest, the group of soldiers in pale, ice-blue uniforms raced through the underbrush. In the front, leading the charge, was a tall, muscular blond man. His eyes were a clear, icy blue and his bare arms were covered in thin sword scars. Following behind him were four mounted soldiers, each on strong black stallions. Even so, the horses were struggling to keep up with the man on foot in front of them.

Suddenly, the group stopped right before the opening of a clearing. Before stepping fully into the clearing, the captain drew a beautiful longsword from his belt. The steel of the blade had a tinge of blue, as though freezing it solid had been part of the forging process. In the center of the hilt was a large, beautiful encrusted sapphire that, if sold, could feed a family for a year.

After drawing his weapon, the captain motioned to the soldiers behind him to stay put. Then, he began walking into the clearing.

Tyler was still eating his cooked venison when the captain marched into the clearing, sword drawn. Of course, with the amount of aura he was putting out, it was impossible for Tyler to not sense the captain coming. Either way, though, Tyler pretended to be surprised by the man’s sudden appearance.

“My Lord,” Tyler said reverently, bowing his head low. The venison grease on his face somewhat undermined his polite actions, but Tyler didn’t care.

“What are you doing here?” The man demanded. Tyler put on an expression of being taken aback.

“I’m simply eating my breakfast, great lord. Would you like some?” Tyler said, holding part of a deer leg towards the man. For the first time, the man seemed to really notice Tyler and the prey that he had caught.

“You… you’re just a kid. How did you catch a king deer?” The captain looked taken aback by Tyler’s appearance as a 5 year old boy. Oh, so that’s what it’s called. King deer. I guess because of the shape of the antlers. Tyler turned towards the head of the deer, which lay forgotten next to the campfire. Then, Tyler looked closer, and his vision changed. Whoa, is that… what did James call it? Mana? Tyler thought.

“I asked you a question, kid. How did you catch—kill—a king deer? And all by yourself?” The captain gaped, seemingly dumbfounded.

“Uhh, I guess I just did it. Does it matter?” Tyler asked with a weird look on his face. When his vision shifted, it enabled him to actually see the mana in the atmosphere, and he hadn’t figured out how to switch it back. When he looked at the antlers of the king deer, though, he could tell that they were filled to the brim with dense mana. When he saw that, his stomach began to rumble. What the… my instincts want me to eat that? Tyler wondered, slightly aghast.

“I guess it doesn’t matter,” the captain muttered, before turning back to look at Tyler. “Well, where did you come from?” The captain asked suspiciously, slightly narrowing his crystalline eyes.

Tyler simply shrugged, his mouth full of venison again. Eating the meat had somewhat sated his hunger, but his stomach was still growling. Without answering the captain, Tyler stood up and started throwing dirt on his blazing fire.

“You know, you can’t put a fire out like that. It’s too big to suffocate. You need water, or I could put it out,” the captain sighed.

“How can you put it out?” Tyler said, his mouth still full of meat.

“With my blessing. You know what a blessing is, right?” The captain said inquisitively.

“Ohhh, yeah I know. I thought you were a human though! How do you have a blessing?”

Is this kid serious? He doesn’t even know the history of the Seasons? The captain thought while pinching the bridge of his nose. Who even is he?

“Well, I carry the royal bloodline of the Winter family. The four royal families were each given blessings by Lux bec—what are you doing?” The captain had been interrupted because after finishing the remaining venison, Tyler had picked up the decapitated head of the king deer and began pulling off the antlers, one by one.

“Well, these are valuable, right? So I’m taking them off.” The real reason he was pulling the horns free was so that he could try to find a way to eat them later. My new instincts haven’t failed me yet, so I might as well follow them for stuff like this, Tyler reasoned.

“Ughh. You know what? I’m done. I’m going to keep searching for that little thief.” Suddenly, Tyler and the Captain felt a dangerous presence catapulting through the forest towards them. In an instant, the captain readied his sword in one hand, and swung his other hand towards the fire. From his palm, a ball of blue-white light was flung towards the blazing fire. When the two collided, the fire froze completely in a block of ice, which then shattered into millions of tiny pieces. Tyler, who still hadn’t found a way to switch his vision back to normal, stared at the incoming presence in the trees with a slight look of horror written on his face.

With Tyler’s dragon vision, as he had decided to name it, he could see the world through a different perspective. When he looked at the Captain through that le we, he saw a bright beacon of mana, which looked to him like bright smoke that was constantly shifting colors. When he had used his blessing to put out the fire, it had been completely blue, but Tyler hadn’t figured out why yet. However, the presence in the distance looked like a monster. It shined so brilliantly with mana that Tyler needed to look away. Come on, turn back, Tyler frantically thought while blinking hard and then rubbing his eyes. Surprisingly, as he thought that, Tyler’s vision slowly turned back to normal.

While Tyler was having trouble with his vision, the incoming presence had already made it to the clearing. The four soldiers, who had rushed into the clearing as soon as they felt that something was wrong, could only see a black blur shooting towards their captain. The captain, though, was able to see exactly what had transpired.

“Is that… the thief?”