“The Black Dragon” — it was a story passed throughout Jaradym’s small village of shifters. It was a dragon of mystery, one that brought on the cold winters that threatened to cause death if you hadn’t saved gifts by its grave.

The story remained with him even after ten years with the humans. They’d torn him from his home and forced him to listen to the screams of his old friends, family, and pets.

He was raised on others deaths, forced to be used as a weapon and trained killer against human enemies. At first he was too terrified to touch the daggers, but now it came as a need. He trained alongside others like him in the academy under the “Severed Horns” training course.

Large crowds in cities shrunk into each other, whispering his name on their lips in fear and hatred. Some would tell stories of feeling sharp pricks of cold air in the shadows, each prick referring to his next victim.

It was a constant winter, and death would recur till the world freezes over.