Dragon's Lover {KiriBaku}

~: Chapter One :~

-Kirishima's POV: Age 6-

I was running around with some of my friends from the village when I tripped over something. I fell down the hill, rolling over several different things before landing flat on my stomach by the river. I sat up, hearing my friends make their way down the hill to me. I quickly looked over myself to find that I wasn't hurt at all, not a single scratch or bruise.

"Kiri! Kiri! Are you ok?" Mira asked, running up to me.

"Ya I'm fine, see all ok." I said, smiling at them.

"Whoa, Kiri your teeth are so sharp. When did that happen?" Kiren asked, looking at my mouth.

"They are?" I asked, rubbing my teeth and cutting my finger by accident.

"What are you kids doing down here? You know that the river is dangerous to be near." Fatgum said, guiding us kids back towards the village.

Fatgum was one of the few people that worked at the hotel and orphanage in town. He was a really friendly guy that loved making food for everyone. When we made it back home he noticed the small cut on my finger. He held my hand up and examined it before he looked at me.

"Eijirou what happened here?" he asked, holding up my hand.

"Well I fell down the hill and that's why we were by the river and when I smiled at my friends they said my teeth were sharp so I touched them to check and I cut my finger." I explained, confused as to why it mattered.

"Did they see your teeth?" he asked, looking kind of panicked.

"They pointed it out, did I do something wrong?" I asked, scared.

"Go get the other kids, we're gonna be going on a trip." he said, starting to walk off to where the adults stay.

I ran off up the stairs and into each room, telling everyone to go down the main room. After everyone was in the main room Fatgum let them know that we would all be moving and to pack only what we could carry and need. I zoomed up to my room like everyone else. I grabbed the backpack I used for school and emptied it out on my bed. I put a few changes of clothes, a knife and sharpener, a small tarp, and water skin in the bag. I was barely able to close it so I put my mothers favorite ring on my finger.

I ran down the stairs just in time for the town dragon hunters to bust the door open. I looked around finding Fatgum and the others turning the corner. I looked back at the crowd and found Kiren next to his dad watching me. It suddenly hit me what was going on. I knew I was a halfling for a year now, but my teeth had just finished growing in and hardening.

"We have information that you are housing halflings, the perimeter will be searched." the lead hunter stated, the others filing into the building and pushing past all of us.

One of the hunters grabbed me and Fatgum rushed forward, yanking me from their grip and putting me behind him. The hunters grabbed his arm and started to drag him to a different room, getting stopped on the way by the headmistress.

"You stated that you were going to search the premises, that doesn't involve handling the children." she stated, somehow still calm.

"Ma'am, we were just trying to move him to a different room so we could get up the stairs." the guard stated.

"There was plenty of room to get up the stairs, watch how you act from here on forward sir." she said, her signature glare.

They glared at each other before they all spread out, looking through the building. Kiren was still standing with his dad watching me. I nervously moved behind the adults, everything seemed to get warmer as they searched, bringing the others downstairs. Kiren walked over under the watchful gaze of his father, giving me a small hug.

"Halfling." he whispered, going back to his dad as the rest of the hunters all filed back in.

I couldn't hear much over the rapid beating of my heart. It was a thundering, quick sound filled with terror. Everything got almost unbearably hot as things started to blur. One of the hunters held up my small pouch of smaller teeth, all sharp and pointed like a dragons. The heat kept rising and one of the caretakers put their hand on my shoulder, though it felt like a burning coal.

"There is a halfling here, now we have reason to search the residents." Kiren's dad directed towards the headmistress.

Each hunter came forward to grab a kid, some taking two, going into a different room with them. Kiren's dad grabbed my jaw tightly, pulling down until my mouth was open. I tried to plead with my eyes towards him but he just sneered, moving his hand to my arm. He led me with an iron grip out the door and into the small street.

"We won't tolerate halflings here, let this be a message to everyone here about the consequences." he yelled, throwing me to the ground and walking towards me.

As he raised his sword to swing down the heat under my skin became too much and I screamed followed by a quiet roar. I waited for the strike to come, to end me, but it never did. I opened my eyes to see him standing there with a broken sword in his hand. I looked down at myself to find a bunch of red scales and claws. I tried to speak to him, sounding more like a small chirp rather than words.

He reached forward to grab me and I quickly jumped to the side, running around him and over to one of the aids holding my bag out. I grabbed it quickly, feeling it slightly heavier and ran as fast as my legs would carry me. There was a very loud roar behind me but I didn't turn to see what was happening until I reached the edge of the village.

I turned back for a second to find most of the village ablaze, a large yellow dragon as well as a smaller purple dragon. They had caught every building but the hotel on fire as the staff and kids fled back to the building. I saw Kiren and Mira by one of the dragons, soon hidden in the next wave of flames and screams. I felt terrified of the dragons and sad at the loss of the only two people that would talk to me. I had to remind myself that they had caused this in order to turn and continue running.

"Halt halfling!" some hunters yelled, spotting me as I ran from the fiery ruins.

I didn't stop though, I kept running. I don't know how long I was running but I knew that at some point I had lost the hunters. I climbed into a tree nearby, curling up on one of the large branches and crying myself to sleep, hoping it was all a bad dream.