Chapter 2 The Dragon

Late at night, deep in the woods not far from Yvytal City, a lone soul in a midnight black cloak traveled about. This person had no lamp, nor any source of light, aside from the faint moonlight guiding them from above. If it were any other person in this figure's shoes, they would be frightened, and hastily seek for a safe place to rest, especially given how dangerous the woods were at night. On one hand, there was the possibility of bandits roaming around, seeking to steal from this person. On the other...

The figure stopped in their tracks, sensing something nearby. They were silent, unwilling to move, as they listened carefully to their surroundings. It did not take long for something to shoot out of the bushes behind them. The figure instantly turned and caught his supposed assailant, which turned out to be a Horned Rabbit, struggling to be out of their hand. The figure tightened their grip on the poor creature's neck, snapping it and killing the thing. Once the creature was dead, the figure licked their lips and sunk their fingers into its body, tearing it apart, and feasting on their prey. As they ate, nearby, there was one other presence hiding from their sight. This other presence leered at the figure, drooling hungrily, for they had taken away its prey. One part of the presence's instincts was telling it to run, but another part, the hungry part, ignored the warning, as it rushed at the figure.

The figure did not bother facing it, as they simply held an arm out. The new presence, revealing to be a large wolf, clomped on their limb, and sunk its teeth into its flesh. ... At least, it should've, only for the fangs to fail sinking into it their arm. In fact, from the feel of it, the beast realized the arm did not even feel like any human arm it was used to biting. Heck, the skin did not feel like any human skin, nor was it even protected by any armor.

"You know, mutt..." the figure spoke in a male voice. "It's really rude to attack a greater being when they're hungry." He turned to the wolf, eyes glowing yellow, as his mouth started to glow yellow, crackling in electricity. Next the beast knew, lightning came out of the figure's mouth and struck it at point blank, shocking it to oblivion.

Once the light show was over, the wolf was completely charred, and the figure removed the body from their arm, revealing their beige, undamaged skin under their ripped sleeve. Under closer inspection, however, one could see that the 'skin' was actually scales.

The figure clicked his tongue upon seeing his sleeve ruined by his kill. "Great... Now I really do need to go to town..." he grumbled, as he reached into his pocket and took out a small pouch. He dumped the contents into his hand, revealing only a few bronze coins left in it. The guy grimaced upon seeing this, knowing well that it was not enough for a new shirt. And he would much rather not stick around any human town longer than he liked.

Putting the money away, the guy quickly devoured the rest of his rabbit meal, as well as gobbled up the cooked wolf. Satisfied with the meal, the guy took in a deep breath, and took off to another direction. After a bit of running, he ended up at a river, and cleaned himself of the rabbit blood. If he was going to head into town, he would rather not have the humans smell blood on him in any way. Once he was clean, the guy climbed up a tree nearby and settled himself on a nice, sturdy branch, hidden by many leaves and other branches.

As he lied on the tree branch, his mind went back to a certain tragedy ten years ago, when his whole life changed. The many screams and roars that were heard at the time, the smell of blood on the battlefield, the change that was forced upon his people, his race. The day... when dragons lost the Great War...

Ten years had passed since that day, and still, he could remember it so well, as though it was just yesterday. He especially remembered the words his mentor told him when he fled from the battlefield.

"You need to live, Arkadiuz! Live, and get back the Heart of Magic! Fix this mess, or it will be the end for all of our kind!"

The Heart of Magic. The one and only gem that yields unlimited power. The gem once belonged to dragons, but was stolen by a human. And it was that very power the humans had used to win the war, by turning dragons into humans and sealing away their powers.

Arkadiuz gritted his teeth at the memory. He could not believe such an important gem had been stolen from right under their noses, and is being used as a secret weapon against dragons. On one hand, he was glad the person who used it did not use its powers to eradicate his kind. On the other, slavery did not make things any better for them. They were dragons, after all; a proud and powerful race that can move heaven and earth, cross the stormy seas, a race that was worshipped or feared by humans. And yet... because of the Heart of Magic, the humans gradually raised their magic and strengths to their level, and started to fight on even ground. While dragons are very strong, such strength was meaningless when the humans had the advantage in numbers, for when one fell, two more came in their place. Eventually, the person who possessed the Heart of Magic had the idea to, rather than constantly increasing the humans' strength at the risk of implosion, use the Heart of Magic to make the dragons weaker, and strip them of their powers. In other words, make them human. With the Heart of Magic, anything was possible, so long as a price was made for each wish.

Arkadiuz looked up at the night sky with a glare. 'Whoever you are, you who started this war and used the Heart of Magic to put us dragons in this humiliating situation... I will make you pay.'