Words That Hurt

When he returned to the door, he heard a conversation there. The Chancellor had come to talk to his Master. It was a pointless action but Silvy decided to hear what they had to say and without a sound positioned himself behind the door. His dragon hearing even in human form was good enough for him to be able to easily understand what was being talked.

“Miss, you should know better than to refuse me” the Chancellor said without a slightest hint of anger in his voice, but Silvy knew better. Throughout the long years he’d learned to judge the man’s emotions simply from the way he spoke. “I’m the one with power here, not you.”

He heard her sigh as she positioned herself more comfortably against the wall. He wondered if the ropes were tight enough to cut her and whether she’d been fed when he was gone. She had seemed starved upon arrival. Her stomach grumbled in answer to him. “I know who you are, Chancellor.”

“It doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“There are things that humans can’t do no matter how much they might wish for it. One of them is your request. It is simply impossible.” Her voice was calm and surprisingly strong. What had happened in the last two years, Silvy wondered as he thought about his own hazy memories. The world was such a bleak place.

“All I’m asking is that you keep him in control.”

“And I say that it is impossible. From the way things are, I’d be killed faster than I can walk up to him.”

Silvy wondered who they were talking about. Was there anyone in the castle that could pose her danger? Maybe he had gone too lax living here in lavishness, doing nothing but scaring officials.

“He’s your dragon” Red said in an icy tone, “No matter how ragged and in need of repair your bond is, its still there. He could never hurt you.” Silvy’s eyes widened, she thought he could actually hurt her?

“I’m at the top of his hated people list. If I were to make contact with him again, he would no longer ignore me but take my life away. Our parting two years ago wasn’t a nice one” she said in a tired voice. There was a hint of sorrow in it but nothing compared to the emotions raging inside Silvy’s heart.

She thought he could kill her.

Not only hurt her, but take her life away. One thing he had vowed to keep protected for as long as there was breath in his body. Had she forgotten it? Or did she think it was simply a political statement, meant more for show than anything else? His hands tightened into fists as he kept himself from punching the wall.

How could she ever think that? Hadn’t he made his feelings obvious on many occasions? In their parting those years ago especially? He had fallen on one knee before her, for god’s sake! How could that make him look like one who could threaten her?

“What happened then?” the Chancellor asked with interest. Silvy, after returning here had stayed in his dragon form, so his story was a mystery to everyone in the palace. There were thousands of rumours circling his return alone but not one had come close to the truth. They couldn’t imagine he’d have tried something so unusual and regarded by most as treasonous even.

“I refused him,” the girl answered, not going into details. “He didn’t like that decision and in rage turned into a dragon and left. That was the last I saw of him before you brought me here.”

“What did he want from you? And why he returned here? He’d stayed in this place only for you, he hated and still hates it here.”

Silvy could see her looking into the distance without seeing anything as she often did when faced with questions she didn’t want to answer. To say she was a horrible liar would be an understatement. “I told him his duty was to the kingdom and I had no place there. He had to return here. He belongs here.” She said with conviction Silvy admired and hated in her at the same time. It was the reason she had become his Master, she stuck with him through good and the bad after choosing him, but now it was the thing that kept them apart.

She was certain he should go and choose one of the few female dragons still alive and revive his dying race, and maybe she was right. He probably should do it. There were only twenty of them left in total and he was the oldest and most knowledgeable one, but at the same time the blood of wild ran in his system. He was taught to follow his emotions and the world be damned.

It was a lovely way of thinking until he was faced with an impassable wall of duty and honour in the one person he would have expected to see it least, his young and beautiful peasant Master.

“It seems to me, he’s still following his orders even if he’s mad at you for not joining in his plan whatever it they might have been. If he truly had free will, he’d be gone in a moment’s breath” Chancellor said with his usual perception. He was always good at guessing the motivation behind people’s actions and then using it to his advantage.

His Master seemed to ponder it for a moment before replying. “Do you think you know him well?” There was something in her voice Silvy didn’t recognise. Was it sarcasm? It didn’t sound well on her tongue at all. He once again wondered, what had happened in those two years he left her alone.

“Well enough, I’d say” he answered and after a moment elaborated. “He’s a cold being, lacking emotions but that is natural to blues. His silver skin signifies him belonging to the Soriden clan and his coal eyes with golden specks show that both his parents were blues too. His flame is hotter than that of other blues but that is most likely due to him being much older than them. His main trait is his lack of caring. He does what he’s told without giving much thought to what it means to others.”

Silvy wanted to punch the old mage but kept his emotions intact while his Master gasped in surprise. “You know about his lack of affection to anything?” she asked in surprise.

Silvy felt like he was torn apart little by little. What was she saying? He didn’t know what caring meant?

She was the centre of his universe! Everything he did was in some way linked to her! Not once had he acted for himself! Yes, the Chancellor could think so, Silvy didn’t mind much the happenings of the palace, but she? How could she dare?

“Did you think I wouldn’t have picked up on it? But you’re not the one to talk. He adores you. He would lay the world before your feet if you just asked for it.”

She shook her head, the bells in her hair tingling lightly. “Maybe it had been so at some point but do you know why it had been so? I saved his life when he was just a baby and he got stuck on it. In his mind, it meant he owed his life to me.”

Silvy wanted to come in and shake her forcefully till she would start thinking what she was saying. His emotions were made from something that happened all those years ago? What stupidity!

Yes, in his mind he owed her even if he had saved her countless times afterwards, but that wasn’t the point here. His feelings were born of their time spent together and the way she carried herself through life. It was a beautiful sight as she fought against fate and all its hardships while having no power whatsoever.

And now she said he was only imagining what he felt.

Was it the fault of his expressionless face or was he so bad at showing his emotions? It was laughable to even think he had no feelings. He was just a bit more cautious with showing them than the rest of the world.

“Well, that sounds perfectly convenient for my plan” Chancellor said in a jovial tone. “There’s nothing better than a person who thinks he owes you something.”

“You don’t understand!” the girl said loudly, angrily. “He’s not what you think he is!”

“And what is that my lady?”

“A soulless monster” she said with a sigh. “As you said he lacks the ability to care for others. I knew that from the beginning but he was good at pretending to be humane.”

Red went to her and pushed her in a threatening manner, her bells chingled violently. “Explain yourself and be sure its believable. It’s my teacher you’re disrespecting here.”

She shifted her head and Silvy could see her sorrowful gaze landing on Red. He had seen it numerous times when she had to tell people about the deaths of their loves ones. That look was enough to pass the message, but instead of angering people it made them cry more often than not. There was true unmasked compassion there alongside feelings of remorse because there was nothing more she could do but tell the truth of what had happened.

“Your teacher and my dragon, Silvoregan, destroyed a whole village in a fit of anger. He burned it to ashes. Not a single structure or being was spared. I found remnants of children bones farther away from where he had used his flame. That is what the oldest and strongest dragon alive is.”

Silvy’s eyes almost bulged open at the accusation. He had burned a town full of people for nothing more than being in the path when he was angry? It sounded far fetched and impossible. He knew she would never forgive that and even though his memory of what he had done after leaving her near that lake was hazy, he was sure he hadn’t done it.

Behind his every action there had always been a thought for her. He wanted her to admire him, to be proud of him, not to despise him. Something that would make her hate him was out of the question, he’d rather die than have that happen.

Although, it seemed like he might have to do that sooner than he expected.

“That doesn’t sound like him...” Red said without conviction. He was a smart guy unlike what people thought of their type. It was said they were stupid because they were largest in size, raw muscle power and weakest of flame but those exact reasons made them the smartest of the three types.

The nigh/black drakes were quickest and had white flames that burnt through almost anything so they were untouchable and had no need for strategies. Blues or so called water drakes were somewhere in between with blue flames and lean body but they had water. It did no damage to only their type so they simply hid away and lived peacefully, leaving the thinking for reds, otherwise known as fire dragons.

“You sure it was him and not someone else?” the Chancellor inquired with a passive tone but Silvy could notice worry in his tone. The man didn’t like to be wrong and this was a very large thing. “Were you, by any chance, just jumping to conclusions?”

Silvy almost laughed out aloud but stopped himself with a fist in his mouth. Or maybe he stopped himself from thrashing the doors open and making his entry.

But no, he coudldn’t do it. He had to hear the rest even if it shattered his already broken heart to pieces.

“It was a day after we had had our argument, in his path and done by a blue dragon on a rampage. Do I need more evidence?” she asked, quietly. There was sorrow in her tone as if she didn’t like what she was saying, as if she was pleading someone to say her she was wrong but Silvy’s hands fell at his sides as he lowered himself to the ground.

He leaned against the wall with a pained expression on his face.

He could go in and say it was staged, mages could fake a dragon’s rampage and they had done that numerous times throughout the history but what would be the point? His hands went to his hair and he started braiding it as he had been taught by her. The one who now rather believed what was shown to her than what she knew about him. In her eyes he was guilty, a monster. And all that was decided without asking him a single question.

He smiled wryly. All his life he hadn’t dared to ask her why she had saved him that fateful day, fearing she’d decide she’d made a mistake, and now he no longer had to do it. The answer was clear in the way she was mourning him already.

“He didn’t do anything for two years” Chancellor said in a voice that came from the bowels of earth. He was a man who’d seen the world in his fifty years and turned cold and deceitful because of it, but never in his life had the man been faced with someone that could trick even him so much. A harmless creature that does what is told in the day and a monster from nightmares at night.

Silvy had never liked the Chancellor because of his manipulative ways but to be abandoned by even him was surprisingly hurtful. Didn’t he have anyone that knew him enough to see the truth?

His lips twisted in a disgusting smile as he remembered his Master. He had given everything to her, made her all that mattered, and in return she ripped his heart out and kept on stabbing it with the sharpest accusations she could find.

He was a fool to trust a human so thoroughly.

His parents, of course, had been right. They said humans were fickle creatures, their feelings and desires changing with the flow of the wind but he had thought they were exaggerating. She had saved him after all! Didn’t that mean she was different from all those other heartless humans?

It shows up not by much.

“When we were together, it wasn’t once that he had attacked me but I had dismissed it as signs of his nature. I believed him when he had said he was in control of it. What a fool I had been!” the girl said, a tear running down her cheek. Couple more soon followed after, falling in her collar as her hands were bound behind her back. She hiccuped. “I really thought he could control it.”

Silvy wasn’t sure whether he should laugh or cry alongside her.

Him hurting her were always accidents because of his lack of combat training and unavailability to control his own body’s momentum. Should a child be blamed when he bumps into his parent when trying and failing to walk? Apparently, yes.

“Nature?” Red asked suspiciously. “Dragon’s don’t have instincts to hunt humans.”

“You don’t” she said in a crystal clear voice, her sorrow forgotten for the moment. She had to care for the grown up child before her when his teacher betrayed him once again and for that she had to be strong.

Silvy hissed in the emptiness around him as he knew what was coming next. Yet another betrayal of hers.

He should have really left when she betrayed him for the second time near that lake. Why did he decide to stay and do as she had told? Why had he believed in that vain hope she might return to his side, even if only as a Master.

He was such a fool.

“You’re like all the other eighteen dragons, born of parents which had been in pact with humans for generations. You’re as humanlike as one can get. This is not the case for him. He’s a child of the wild, of the few dragons that didn’t agree to the pact and kept their bloodthirsty natures, lack of emotions. Silvoregan has inherited those traits. That is why he’s so much colder than other blues and cares so little for anything that has nothing to do with hunting or mating. He shouldn’t be allowed to roam the world freely.”

Silvy’s eyes watered with unshed tears.

It was very long time ago when he had told her that. They had been attacked and he was forced to transform to defend them. He had killed the giant chief and his second in command before the thieves understood what was happening and started to run away. He had felt no need to chase them until he heard them whispering about returning here to hunt him down. He would catch a hefty price, they were sure of it.

He didn’t want to be chased through the whole world so he caught each single thief from the band and killed them to make sure they kept their silence. It was the thing that kept them safe but he was afraid the girl, his only friend, would leave him if she knew that he was such a sought after prize so he told her a half lie.

He couldn’t force himself to lie to her.

He had explained about his nature as if it was something horrible and made sure she understood that he would never hurt her but that blood made him angrier than usual, that it was hard for him to stop when he was hunting.

Now that he though of it, it seemed an even worse thing but at that time it sounded better somehow. He had thought it was okay to share about his origin, spicing things a bit here and there.

In truth, his mother was a loving blue drake with golden eyes who always called him her little warrior, her little conqueror. His father had been a more distant figure but there had been love in his eyes whenever he had looked at him. Both of them had taught him various things, all that they had learnt about the world, good and bad. He had only fond memories about them until one day they never returned to the cave.

Humans did, however.

But Red knew nothing of that. He knew only horror stories about the wild dragons killing innocents, chasing kids till they fell dead and burning villages simply to have a fire to roast a boar. They were worst of the worst, doing horrible things to both humans and dragons aiding them for no apparent reason or one so stupid it was almost believable.

“He couldn’t...” Red whispered softly, he wasn’t yet as good as his Master with hiding his feelings.

“But he is” the girl cut him, sharply. Tears were running down her face but it didn’t seem like she noticed. “He told me that long time ago before he knew better and started to keep his secrets to himself.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The Chancellor didn’t ask what she meant by her last statement and went straight to what mattered at the moment. “What do you think he’s doing now? Is he already on his way back?”

Dragons and their Masters normally lived as one. They travelled together, ate together and slept under the same roof which meant they knew each others habits as their own. It wasn’t much you could hide form a person you usually were together for twenty-four hours each day.

In that regard their relationship was different, they had had way too many breaks from each other, bur Silvy knew she would guess correctly. Or more like as correctly as she knew him.

“He went to eat which he will do with unmatched thoroughness. He’ll first look for the healthiest animal around, most likely an elk, then take time stalking it and only when he’s made sure it has no way to escape will he attack. On-”

“An elk escaping from the dragon? What are you talking about?” Red asked and suddenly Silvy felt admiration for the kid, who had already grown up when he hadn’t been looking. The young dragon was shocked by the revelations, rattled, but his misplaced loyalty was still there. In disbelief Silvy understood that Red still believed in him. Where love had faltered and lost, a simple student’s trust of his teacher had prevailed.

Silvy wasn’t sure whether he should be happy or hurting even more.

“Redeenar, let her talk” the Chancellor said, putting his hand on the dragon’s shoulder. The man might have been a thorough bastard when competing for power but he had emotions too and knew when one had to be gentle.

“He doesn’t hunt as if he was a dragon” the girl explained anyway. “He acts as if he was simply and overgrown cat looking for a meal, no flying or using dragon speed. So when he catches his prey he carries it to a wide clearing where he eats it leisurely. There were times when it had taken him six hours to eat a small rabbit. Satisfied he’d fly to the highest place in the perimeter and after turning into a human lay for hours watching the clouds passing by or stars making their way over the night sky depending what was the time of day.”

The Chancellor found this routine unusual for a dragon but a certain part caught his attention more than the others. “He hadn’t changed into his human form for two years straight. Do you think he’ll shift now?”

“That sounds strange. He loves his human form almost as much as his dragon one” his Master answered in a puzzled tone. “But this was his routine for as long as I knew him whenever he was pressed with a decision to make. I think he’ll change. And then again to leave and never return here.”

And she was right. He had done exactly that. He could still taste the deliciousness of the deer he’d found in the nearby forest and he had turned into a human to stare at the clouds without any conscious thought going into it. He had only noticed it when it took him a couple of hours to get back to the palace.

“Not return?” Chancellor asked, somewhat surprised. “Why would he run?”

“He doesn’t like conflict. If there’s something in his path, he’ll first try to walk around it before resorting to eliminating it.”

Aren’t you contradicting yourself now, Silvy wanted to ask her. Didn’t she say he was a monster that preferred killing, that loved the taste of human blood?

“You sure of it?”

She laughed mirthlessly. “He’s done that twice before in such high fashion and a couple more on smaller scale.”

“Dammit, we need to go and find him before he does something stupid and endangers our lands. Redeenar fly following his scent, maybe you’ll be able to find him before he leaves. It seems he likes to take his sweet time.”

The young dragon grunted, moving towards the direction of the door. “You know I’ll never find him if he doesn’t want to be found, which he certainly does. It was him who taught me all I know about being a dragon.”

“Still try your best” Chancellor said. “We don’t have other options. Violanka is on a mission with Orangwar and Bluesilla is always away with her Master.” He turned to the girl for the last question. “Why would he run away from you, once again?”

She shook her head, her bells answering in a jovial tune. The Chancellor had already turned to follow his dragon, who was near the door, when the girl answered in a soft barely audible voice, Silvy had to strain to hear her. “I had entrusted my heart to him, but he didn’t want it that way. He wanted more. I should have never given him another chance...” her voice trembled as she said it. “It was like returning him a dagger that he’d previously thrown at me and missed.” Tears rushed down her cheeks in great torrents as she murmured more to herself than anyone else. “One should never give his heart to the wild.”

Silvy closed his eyes as they clouded in pain and anger, disgust and frustration, his whole body vibrating with the emotions passing though his system.

All he had ever wanted was to be able to love her freely but it was always too much for her. She constantly reminded him of duty and honour, love and respect for his country. One that wasn’t even his. It had made him laugh at first, before it had all went so horribly wrong. Before she had stopped caring how her words hurt him.

He had acted strong, as if nothing could hurt him, but oh how wrong she had been to believe that. His eyes landed on his hands, fingers that were so humanlike yet never good enough. Against his will they started shifting, changing into claws and it took all his power just to keep them from turning fully and taking him away from this place, never to look back again.

It was tempting.

Why had he even returned? It would have been so much better if he had left and flown somewhere to rest for a couple years. He would have missed the conversation and the world might still be standing on the correct axis instead of being upside down.

But he knew it was impossible.

Even if he was to return in time, he’d do the same. Again and again, millions of times with that same little stupid hope. What if this time she had changed her mind and won’t say those words? What if? He laughed silently.

In the end it always came down to one thing, one person whose mere presence made him rush to their destination, abandoning any logical thinking.

HER.

Uncontrollable rage welled inside him at that thought. She had twisted him around her little finger and then abandoned when he lost his usefulness. She had taken his heart with a smile and then bashed it into pieces, using dragon flame to turn it into shards so small they were impossible to be put together. No eye could even see them any longer.

What had she called him?

Silvy, the cute shiny firefly?

A soulless monster?

He could become one or the other. Luckily, she seemed to be in need of the other one at the moment. So be it. He had the potential for sure. Hadn’t his mother always called him her little conqueror? Had she known? Maybe, maybe not, it mattered little to him.

He wanted revenge.

Revenge for himself.

Revenge for his broken heart

Revenge for the love she had betrayed.

And the little boy she had charmed and then cast away.

He stood up shakily with madness burning brightly in his eyes. He knew what he had to do.

The first sight he had seen when he was born was a world of ashes, that’s what he was going to make his last sight too. A fitting end to his miserable excuse for existence.

He laughed cruelly drawing the attention from those inside the room.

“Who’s there?” Red asked warily, he was surprised he hadn’t felt anyone approach them.

Silvy didn’t answer, he was looking at the chord that connected him and his Master. It was a sorry thing, old, grey and unkempt but it still held them connected.

He cut it off with an angry hiss.

Madness washed over him. All the emotions he had ever felt being around her, thousands of memories and feelings flashing though his head in quick-motion. He could hear screaming nearby but he was sure it wasn’t him.

His mind was overflowed with things long gone, he wasn’t sure where he even was anymore. And then it was over. He felt clean.

And empty.

He couldn’t feel a single thing and it made him angry. He had vowed to destroy her world and yet she was taking things away from him. Fury breathed like a living thing inside him, consuming the last bits of sanity that were left for him. And the remnants of compassion.

So he did something unforgivable, something so profane even wild dragons frowned upon it. He stole his Master’s magic through the lingering drafts of their connection trying to reassemble itself, this way destroying any chance of it happening and taking the only thing she treasured the most away.

The cries nearby intensified.

His smile widened while his eyes darkened. He felt no joy in taking away the things he had given her.

She had been a peasant when he had met her, unsuited to be a dragon’s Master but he had said it’ll be fine. He’d be good enough for the two of them. That there was no point for her to learn magic which he gave her as he’ll always be there for her. Honouring that promise of theirs, even when she was alone, she had only learnt basic spells and it meant he could take her magic without any resistance. Something even a mediocre magician could have defended against.

“What is happening?” Chancellor asked in a worrier tone, forgetting all about the intruder. “What’s going on, miss?”

“He... he...” she tried answering, but the thickness in her throat stopped her. She couldn’t utter those words, else they became real. Her sobbing grew even louder. “He... he...” she hiccuped.

“Dammit Milla, tell me what is happening!” the Chancellor said, resorting to her name, but it didn’t bring the expected results. She was still sobbing uncontrollably, unable to utter a sound without breaking up again.

Red’s eyes widened in shock and horror. “No! He couldn’t have... It’s impossible!” he shouted out to no one in particular.

“Redeenar?” the Chancellor asked in annoyance. “Don’t become like the girl. What is going on?”

The young dragon took a deep breath before replying. “He broke the connection.”

“You said it had fallen in disrepair a year ago, maybe it jus-”

“No, he cut it off forcefully” Red said in a deadpan voice, seeing the female before him anew. Had she been telling the truth all along? Had his teacher always been this crazy dragon that could do something so cruel?

Breaking a bond was firstly against the law as it threatened the sanity of both parties and secondly it went against everything the pact had been about. It meant the dragon abandoned his civility, emotions that a connection with a human gave him and returned to the wild ways of killing and slaughtering for the fun of it. Only one who was absolutely lost to the horrid ways could do that.

If one had an argument with his Master, he took a leave of absence until it was resolved or for forever but never broke the bond. It was a pact between humans and dragons, exchange of magic for emotions, nothing more nor less. It wasn’t like one could read other’s mind or feelings with the bond present.

And he had destroyed it.

If only they knew what he had done more, Silvy chuckled to himself entering the room silently.

As if sensing him, his Master rised her eyes to look up. He searched them for something, anything but only a vacant stare met him. His heart tightened, as it broke yet again, seeing no recognition in there. Her gaze passed him as if he was just another person.

He activated the magic stolen from her and did something forbidden.

He casted.

Dragons weren’t supposed to use spells. They were creatures made of it or so the legends explained why it surrounded them so thoroughly and even turned non-mage people into casters if they spent enough time around. One could only imagine what a being with unlimited supply of magic and the strength of a dragon’s body could do.

It was a blasphemy to even think about it yet Silvy cared little for that. He was labelled as a monster so he had to act the part.

His first spell was a very simple one, he made his pupils slitted as in his real form and violet in colour, one for mourning. Then he allowed his transformation to start but froze it at the very beginning. Most of the upperside of his hands had turned into scales while his fingers sharpened into something close to claws. Silver leathery wings sprung from his back, ripping his shirt apart. He tried them out raising a few feet up.

They were as good as his real ones.

“Who are you?” Red asked loudly, trying to shout over the wails of the female near them, and eyeing the newcomer with undisguised disgust.

Silvy was no longer surprised to not be recognised. His hair, usually cropped short were now past his knees and braided into a thousand small braids, his eyes violet instead of coal and he was halfdrake, something even the legends didn’t dare to talk about.

The Chancellor watched him with a certain admiration mixed with fear and disgust. Silvy was an abomination, one that shouldn’t exist, but for that no less glorious.

He smiled twistedly.

And then attacked. He was no longer the honourable teacher, the oldest dragon and the most knowledgeable one so there was no need to play by the rules. He stopped before the kid’s face and hissed at his face. “Turn.”

“What? No way!” the young drake answered, rattled slightly by the speed he was approached with. He was smart enough to know he could never match it even in his dragon form.

Silvy had counted on his refusal and pushed a small indentation in the boy’s right head side. It made his body grow in size, shifting form as he hissed and spluttered, proclaiming how this was impossible.

Child, Silvy thought as he watched the transformation he’d seen dozens of times before, you have no idea what is possible and what is not. I was too nice teaching you, knowing I was the last dragon with that knowledge and hoping it’ll die with me, and your parents were too naive to not explain it themselves, believing as a dragon living among humans you shouldn’t be burdened with such things, or maybe they no longer even knew themselves. Bottom line being you have no chance against me. Even if all of you, the last remaining dragons, came for me at once, I could defeat you with tricks and lies I’ve had passed onto me.

To think humans believe us almost invincible, “What a joke” he murmured to himself as he leaped for the huge lizard before him. It had feet the height of a man with width of a very burly one, skin red of colour and scaled from head to the end of the tail. The creature roared loudly at him showing its anger against being forcefully turned and tried to spit a mouthful of fire but Silvy was too fast for something like that.

He jumped upwards and landed on his right foot on the guy’s head, crashing it to the ground. Huge dent appeared in that place to which Silvy smiled. He gave the dragon time to try and escape but the weight on his snout was too heavy for him to be able to move. When he tired and fear mixed with worry started mingling in his eyes, Silvy noticed the guy’s master using spells which had no effect on him.

He was a dragon.

And they were beings of magic. All spells dissipated around them and turned into their natural form of energy without leaving any trace. Not even the strongest spell could have any effect on them.

“Are you done?” Silvy asked with a mocking smile. He was twisting his mouth upwards today more than he had ever done before. Only he could learn to smile when it was the worst day of his life. He laughed at that.

It didn’t really matter if they thought him crazy for that. For all he knew he could have went mad ages ago and just hadn’t noticed.

“What do you want?” the Chancellor asked, hiding his emotions like a true politician but he didn’t need to show them for Silvy to know. It was in his actions. The guy only settled down when he was cornered and had no way out. Then only did he stop and listen without trying to control everyone and everything.

“To see the sun rise in the west” he answered still standing on the red dragon, one that was trying to push him off without any success for close to ten minutes now. “Aren’t you tired yet my friend?” he asked conversationally to which he received only a glare. “Youth” Silvy muttered with overly sweet adoration, lowering himself to pet the overgrown lizard and push another soft point.

It made the red’s eyelids close against his own will and his body grow sleepy. “Who are you?” the Chancellor asked, for the first time in Silvy’s eyes showing genuine emotion, fear for himself and his dragon.

Silvy smiled like a chechire cat as he answered, extending his wings and raising in the air. “Gadaraah, Prince of Dragons!”

The Chancellor paled as he remembered the children’s tale. “And the One that Sets the World on Fire.”