I still remember the prophecy... I was the chosen one, I was born the chosen one..and I did everything I was told to do. The maids took care of me and I was a simple dragoness.

Everyone admired my beautiful purple eyes. Life was simple and the only thing I wanted, that I desired, was to please dad and make grandpa proud of me. I was madly in love with my grandfather, Aldebaran when I was little, but I lost my mom too soon. Way too early! I was not even four years old.

I was often on vacation in the south and it was peaceful.

I was often in Grandpa's lap. "What can I do to make Grandpa love me?"

It was terrible. I tried everything to get his attention but he always looked off into the distance, over my head, into infinity. He wasn't hurting me but I was trying, trying, trying again and again.

I was also trying with grandma, the last wyvern, his main wife, Sangria's mom, dad's mom being a concubine but as distant as grandpa.

Dad would tell me that staying close to grandpa while he was alive was a blessing in itself. You should never irritate or anger grandpa. It was very, very dangerous.

Mom, when she was alive, told me that I was too nice and that family was a human thing, but that we dragon lords and high humans were a masquerade for order and nobility.

That's when I got serious. I began to study, to become a model student, studious and slowly I was getting better.

I devoured books, then libraries. I was at the top of my class in everything and I wanted to learn everything faster than the others.

My room was a pile of books and by the time I was 10, I had up to 3 tutors at a time. I was preparing to become Dad's successor, King Uriah. If mom was gone. So could the king and his new wife. But his new dragoness could not have children, so she put her "love" on me and even if it was only appearances, it was better than nothing.

Then came the exams and a competition between nobles, dukes and high humans in the whole kingdom.

When I received my results, the whole palace was jubilant. I was the first in all the tests and even the servants and slaves congratulated me.

Even my mother and father told me that they had never seen anything like it in their lives.

My housekeeper reassured me that the Lord of the Bull would be pleased with my results, with my efforts.

I looked at my report card, the result of a lifetime of effort. I hoped for at least some encouragement, some sign of affection.

After being teleported through a special archway, I found myself in the palace of Lord Aldebaran.

"Granpère! Lord Aldebaran!"

I threw myself flat on my back in drag. I was all clean and adorned with golden jewels and he was leaving his throne to go to the council chamber.

It was the best time not to disturb him.

He saw me coming and looked at me sideways with his huge red eyes.

"Grandpa... Please, look."

I held out my bulletin but he turned his head and in a voice that shook the mountains:

"If it's not urgent, come see me later..."

Later...it could be years....

On my knees, head bowed, I was crushed by his aura.

He suddenly seemed immense. As tall as a skyscraper but it was the aura...well, I guess...

"Sorry Grandpa...I'm sorry for bothering you while you're busy."

He never once held me in his arms......

I was heartbroken.

I was defeated...

But I didn't realize that it was a demon... I didn't even know it existed.

I was shaking. My consciousness was wavering.

Then I climbed up to the roof of the palace.

I whined with all my soul, defeated that he didn't even look at me.

"If... if I do this... he will at least look at me, finally!"

And I jumped into the void, as a human.

The staff, the servants screamed when they saw my condition.

I found myself in a room, and fortunately, I had nothing broken. Had I been treated while unconscious?

I could hear heels on the pavement. Dragons? Grandpa? Would he come to see me at least once?

I waited for the huge door to open.

"Grandpa?

But what was my disappointment?

"Princess Uriah!!!"

They were only slaves and 2 servant dragons, slave too. At least they had the privilege of serving instead of being in the stables.

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Everything sank. Everything collapsed around me!

The colors disappeared again.

Everything was black, darkness.

It was the work of the devil. Yes... that's it... the devil....

Lost in my disillusionment, I began to dream...

"Grandpa... grandpa... I wish you would love me..."

But I saw only his back

"Grandpa... Grandpa... just once!..."

I was bringing him flowers.

.

I was reaching out, I was reaching out....

But it was his eternal back that I saw...

He was my sun, my light.

I lived 14 years...

14 years trying to be recognized only once by my grandfather...

If only... if only Sangria didn't exist.

I still saw her on her birthday...

A ball was organized for the nobles in the presence of the God Aldebaran

The floor was red like her eyes, like her father's eyes, like a bed of lava, of magma.

She expressed grace and power.

The other high humans and dragon lords were in human form and adorned in their finest robes.

The palace vaguely resembled an 18th century castle in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The height of art and decoration. The only thing missing was the empress Sissy to complete the decor.

She bowed to the nobility and opened her magma eyes wide.

"I am Princess Sangria, daughter of The Arch-Duke Nifilheim and the Divine Lord Aldebaran of the constellation Taurus."

Her presentation was overwhelming and devastating to me.

She moved to a kneeling position in front of Gramps.

"It is an honor to be in your presence, Father and Lord!"

I was terrified and my little brother who was a carbon copy of Grandpa, with his red eyes and blond mane, white wings and even the edges of his scales were similar... My little brother clung to me, terrified. I was like a beacon for him...He was only 6 years old. But he was everything to me...

Coming out of my disillusionment, I saw the scene in front of me again...

Sangria had barely finished her sentence when Aldebaran challenged her.

"Father? You called me father? How do I know you are really my daughter? There are so many eggs born from me..."

These words were raw and cruel and worthy of a wild beast.

Aldebaran was not known for his finesse, yet he knew how to use words like a sword. He was a brute. He was probably raised by Bestial, a demon of the abyss, known for his twisted sexual tastes mixing together pleasure, taboos, tortures and, as his name indicates... bestiality.

Like knives brought to red, Aldebaran sketched a smile at his daughter, and... he... well... he looked at me.

"Then prove to me that you are indeed my rightful descendants!"

We both knew what we had to do... and we knew what that meant.

It was the race for the crown...but more importantly, the race for life...

From that day on, everything changed for me.

It was a battle, a merciless war that began between Sangria and me.

We both had the name Uriah and nothing could be taken for granted.

Our kingdom, Uriah was north of Mexico, like the western half of the old United States. We had lost the East and were in a kind of status quo and it was a miracle that Dad still had his head on his shoulders. But Aldebaran didn't care. They had other goals... even darker and more unfathomable.

In my palace... my own palace...

Sangria was sitting opposite me.

A huge rectangular table separated us.

The light entered by several windows decorated with hangings. The sun was coming in through dozens of tiles whose edges were plated with gold.

The moldings on the ceiling and walls were also in relief and showed dragons fighting proudly and the ceiling was made to the glory of our empire.

20 people could have sat at our table

Sangria ate as a human, but to challenge me and show her power, she had dragon claws for fingers and relished the red, rare meat for a breakfast. While I had a healthier diet of fruit, milk, water and cereal.

Sangria: "My room is really comfortable. It's better than Dad's.

Your butler really chose my room, the one with the softest matress..."

Sangria was trying hard to please me but I wasn't fooled... I knew... and I knew she knew...

Without looking her in the eye, totally indifferent, I was showing how uneducated she was and how she didn't know how to behave at the table. A total lack of manners.

Eating like a beast in a world of high humans? Where does she think she is? In a cave? Wild dragons live in caves and that's why we despise them, they are only good for nothing. They are only animals... cattle at most...

I, challenging her with my most haughty air "Indeed, this room is much more comfortable than the one I had at your birthday party, dear Sangria..."

The servant dragons, small and adorned with a doily, understood our verbal joust. They understood all the orders but could only express themselves in draconian, human language being impossible with their dragon jaws. They were shocked by the violence of our words. A dull and symbolic violence. Verbal jousts.

Sangria: "Can I visit your apartments, after our breakfast?

but in the meantime, she spilled her wine on her dress and the liquid spilled on the carpet, under the table.

The tapestry was ruined...

She screamed "My dress... the carpet... I'm sorry...!"

Losing her temper, she dropped the chair and her cutlery and hung up the tablecloth..

Meanwhile, I didn't even look at her and continued to enjoy my tea; served at the end of breakfast.

The maids tried to reduce the damage and asked the lord to calm down, not to panic anymore.

"Noonnn not the plate! " cried Sangria. Cling!

Sangria apologized a thousand times but I was unmoved.

While putting my cup of tea back, I answered: "I will ask my butler to find you a teacher of manners. I finished eating, it's too noisy here.

I went out and she wanted to follow me but she lost my track in the corridors of the royal palace.

Day after day I trained as a human. I wielded swords, knives and rode dragons.

I had to show that even though I was born a hybrid, part dragon, part high human, that I was worthy of being a princess of my kingdom and that it was up to me to rule these lands one day.

SLASH

SLASH!

"What a lack of education... And who does she think she is? Sangria...

she's just a beast! Stupid and mean and doesn't know anything... She didn't even dare to show her report card because she doesn't know anything.

But tradition is tradition.

Only one can inherit the powers of Aldebaran. Only one, the other one being only the progenitor of the disaster and the end of the kingdom.

I must do it! My powers must appear before she does.

Then, while I was cursing her, it was said that when talking about the wolf, you could see its tail.

Sangria arrived near me as I was practicing

"Natalia, Natalia...I saw these beautiful flowers. I thought that cutting them would make you happy...And also to apologize for this morning".

All smiles, she was already radiating a power that I did not have. Her beauty was undeniable.

"What are you doing with a sword? Natalia?"

I knew that sooner or later this dragoness would be my undoing.

"Know, that one cannot apologize to oneself. We say 'I beg your pardon'... So what you are saying makes no sense!"

Sangria followed me and then asked me why I was so cold, so hard on her.

Sangria: "I would like to be friends...."

"Friends? Are you kidding?

Being your friend is the last thing I'll ever be."

Then, pulling me away from her, she giggled behind my back..

"Is it because you're not the legitimate daughter of King Uriah? You don't have the eyes of the family, let alone the colors. Do you have a golden mast like me? Do you have white wings?"

GRRRRRR!

Anger overtook me and rage went to my head.

Sangria was openly mocking me. Obviously declaring war on me by not caring about my origins, trying to plant doubt in me.

She bent down towards me and, with her blood red eyes, dared:

"Your poor mother. Too bad she had affairs with other dragons. Hah! That you are only an illegitimate princess of unknown pedigree!"

GRRRR

RAGE

ANGER

"Natalia, it's not your fault! You mustn't feel responsible. Don't you? It's all your mother's fault!"

BANG

BANG

My blood ran cold!

I ran into her in drag.

She too was in dragons but my training and my strength were increased tenfold by anger and I had kept my sword.

With one paw I crushed Sangria who was lying on the ground, in the grass, in the garden and with the other I held the rapier, the point against her throat.

"If you insult my mother again, I will personally see to it that your ugly face never insults anyone again."