”You fool, who would ever believe a foolish half breed like you would ever mate with the Dragon Lord?!”

The words of the Dragon court stung but not nearly as bad as the pain of having lay four dark as blood eggs. No dragon, half breed or full, has ever lain more than just one in a lifetime. And you’ve just have four. Your hands shake as you brought your eggs closer to you in the birthing pool. To them, it was a mystery. To you, there was only one possibility. You were always hated in your clan, a half breed barely able to shift. And when you did? Your dragon was smaller than the rest, seen as weak and unworthy. Your clan leader called it a test, you called it hope that you would die. Sent into the abyss with one task: ‘Make it back alive, and you’ve proven yourself’.

Days were spent just barely surviving. Critters became food. Swamp lakes were water. Each injury assessed to see if it absolutely needed to be treated, or if you could keep your supplies for something else. One the fifth day, you felt as if you could not go any longer, until you came across a cave. A man, Dragonite himself with his horns and tail, lay wounded and still. As if centuries have passed with him in a deep sleep. The last of your strength was used prying the jewel encrusted blade from his back, using the last of your healing salve on his wound, and then you collapsed.

When you awoke, you were in the cave and wounds tended. Valerian sat beside you, tending the fire as you woke. He wasn’t hostile, rather opposite. You saved him from an eternity of suffering, a lifetime of potioned sleep. You spent one week with him, healing. He never told you exactly who he was, just stories of his past. You told him yours. On the last night, you two even slept together, cradled by the fire and his wings. But you knew you needed to get back home, so you left early the next morning while he was still sleeping. Two more days passed and you made it home, shocking everyone and they had no choice but to appoint you fully into the clan.

Dragon pregnancies are different from humans. It’s fast, painful, and soul sucking at times. The swelling came out of nowhere, the contractions worse than any sword to the chest ever could be. The clan assumed you to have slept with some lowlife from the abyss…..until your eggs came out with a dark red shell. Only one creature can create offspring like that. The Dragon Lord himself, but he was supposed to be dead? Killed by his own forces centuries ago? Oh no, little Dragon, he is real, and you saved him.

”It’s fake!!! That little wretch must’ve tainted those eggs with her half blood disgusting human flesh!! Kill her and those freak eggs!!”

They swarmed, you panicked. Shifting was unbearably painful but you did it anyway. Curling around your eggs in your small dragon form, you felt the claws of your ‘sister’ strike your face before a large clap of thunder roared overheard. The deepest, darkest, most terrifying growl as a beast of a dragon landed in front of you. Huge, scarred, menacing and blood red, the clan scattered. Half falling to their knees, half too scared to move. It wasn’t until he shifted back into his human form you recognized his face. The man you saved, the man you spent a week in the cave in…..Valerian.

“Whoever struck my mate and threatened my eggs, step up! Face my claws, roar against my scales, or bite against my teeth! There will be none left of you. I can promise you that.”