BLOODDRAGON

PROLOGUE

"Tell me Ed, whose child was that?" A sound of a woman yelled at the back of a man with dark brown hair who had just got out from a room with an oak door and a banner of a bear hanging on the door.

Only when the man turned his head to face whoever had yelled at him that he realized it was Allira, his wife who had yelled. He took quick glance at her facial. Her raven hair which she let loose, her eyebrows which were frowned, her brown eyes were dam as if she would cry out a stream of tears in any moment, and her lips were shivering as if she came in from a winter storm, but truly she was the one who brought the storm to him when he had commanded some maids to bring a baby to a chamber in his castle. He concluded that she was distraught for that very reason.

"Tell me Ed, whose child was that?!" She stated again, her voice almost shattered this time. Her husband let out a breath of air before caressing her right cheek letting it rest on his palm, yet her shallow breath, almost tearful eyes, and whimpering voice hadn't stop yet.

"Is it because you have given up on me for having a son?!" She yelled again this time a streak of tears flown through her eyes as her husband let out a pleading no to her still keeping his palm on her.

"Or it was you who had another woman?!" Again she screamed and again he let out a pleading no.

"Then whose child was that!" A sadness fell upon the man as he laid down his palm from her.

"I wish I knew love," She looked surprised as seen with her wide eyes and half parted lips before confusion flown through her. Her brown eyes gazed through her husband's deep raven-colored eyes, only to find out that there was a deep sadness from within.

"What happened Ed?" She said before putting both of her palms on each side of his cheeks.

"Tell me, my love, it's alright," She tried to reason with him, seeing her husband Edwin in sorrowful stayed was not her reason for yelling at him, and yet she still wanted to know about the child for she knew her husband was a man with honor, so much so he never put himself in some cheap brothel only to come out with a bastard child on his arms. At least that was what she thought, but still, she could not confirm it not until he told her.

Her husband looked her straight at her eyes, seeing a soft gaze of a concerned wife. Her brown eyes similar to his own, her plump soft lips, the tenderness of her skin, he could not lie to her, his honor wouldn't allow it.

"I killed his father whose wife just died after labor," His voice started to crack as a stream of tears flown from his eyes through his cheeks before dropping to the leathery armor he wore.

His wife parted her lips as to say something to him, only to bite her tongue back after she heard her husband took another deep breath and let it out a moment later.

"We were attacked, we thought it was an ambush. Under the darkness of the night one arrow could bring panic to a group," His wife swallowed a gulp of saliva to her throat.

"My men proceeded to return the attack only to find out that it was a doing of a single perpetrator, a man with a bow and quiver on his back," A moment of silence fell upon both of them and both eyes still gazing on each other.

"All I thought was that he was a spy from the Blooddragon, so I started questioning him only for him to break free and almost strike me with his dagger," Another silence surrounded them before Ed opened his lips to speak again.

"It was luck that saves me as I had unsheathed my sword before facing his face. So you see I had to do it, I had to..." His voice cracked at the end before he started to whimper, and tears flew rapidly from his eyes as he rested his head on his wife and both of them wrapped each other's arm in a hug.

A moment later both of them unwrapped themself from the hug before the husband grabbed his wife's hands and pulling them onto his chest, "Then we saw a small house with a small tomb beside it. When we got inside that we realized, we just made a child orphaned, that child in that room right now."

His wife looked surprised though she quickly putted those thought to the back of her mind before she broke free one of her hand from his grasp and cupped his cheek, "Oh my beloved Ed none of that was your fault, it was something that you couldn't have known as it was your kindness and your honor to that man, made you brought that child here at Bear's Claw, our castle, our home." She let out a heavy sigh as she let her gaze to the ground in between her feet before facing his gaze back again. This time her face was lit up with a faint smile.

"And if you wanted to adopt him as our own, I would be happy to accept as to copped the lost of Nyx our firstborn son in my miscarriage," She said as she felt another tear flown down from her eyes.

Then she saw her husband curved his lips upward a bit indicating that he was happy for that decision, for a moment at least before he changed into his common brooding expression.

"Though he will not have our family name and this castle will be his, I will accept him as one of us," She said.

"Then we shall name him Nyx, Nyx Wintersnow," Her husband replied.

Both celebrated their decision with a simple hug before his wife left him alone in that stony and cold corridor as this time it was her who entered the same oak door her husband had gone out from.

Only when the door closed the man wept yet again not because of his decision but because his consciousness told him that he had lied to his wife, at least half of it was the truth.