Dragon Blossom

The man at the door.

Flying over a human cave was dangerous for a lesser dragon like him, but he had to warn the king; two of the princes had sent warriors to destroy his new offspring. The king was finally, after nearly two hundred years, about to lay a new egg. And of the four princes, two were trying to steal it and the other two to destroy it. How could a being of such pure and great power have bred so much disloyalty?

The king had chosen the perfect human cave to nest in, one of his largest strongholds but away from the villages on top of a mountain. Eighteen years earlier, the king had chosen a very different one for himself, the king had cleared it personally, but disinfecting it had destroyed the stronghold and everything else, and in the end, the egg was lost. Humans had destroyed the dragons' caves millennia ago, believing it would lead them to extinction, but they had provided much better places to spawn. Foolish creatures.

The king was already fighting the two assassins when he reached him, poor unsuspecting traitors, they stood no chance, the king would tear them apart without delay if he were not weakened by creating new life. The humans also fought him, but they were less than the wind against his stony scales.

He descended upon the castle wall trying to fight one of the assassins, but he was too small compared to them. Perched on one of the walls, he managed to see that the king had already spawned; an egg the size of a boulder lay abandoned in the middle of the courtyard, defended by the king who had taken the highest tower from where he eliminated his enemies with his black flames without taking his eyes off the egg.

If the egg broke or spent too much time under the sun, it would be lost; he would not allow it. He might be perhaps the last of the loyalists, but he owed his life to his king, so he was willing to commit the utmost atrocity. The humans were escaping, but some of them had stayed behind; he chose one who was trying to aim one of those strange weapons from the walls at his king, and devoured him. Alive and whole. It had to be so.

With the ancient spell that every dragon knew, he took over the human's body in exchange for his fire. He opened his eyes to find himself "standing" on the same wall, feeling fragile, small, and invaded by disgust. Occupying a human's body was one of the most shameful things a dragon could do; it was created by the cowards among them who hid in the villages until their fires went out. As soon as he could, he would abandon that body; right now, he needed it. He even had the human's clothes; even with all those things on, the body didn't feel protected, they were barely bags of bones. Pathetic.

He ran with those slow legs feeling tired already; but the spell could not lock away his loyalty or his determination. He went down to the courtyard, circling the flames and debris falling from everywhere, looking for the egg; it was easy, his fire already shone through the shell. There it was, he continued even though he felt pain and fatigue until he reached it. He took it under his arm and kept running; the king could see the truth in his soul, surely he would protect him while he carried the egg deep into the castle to let it hatch. It was the most beautiful he had seen since his own egg. Suddenly...

—Run away, Master Frigg! —A woman with long pink hair carried in a perfect braid and silver armor swung down from a nearby battlement— I will fight the dragons, escape with everyone else, dad is injured and they are already taking him to Artemia. Run away at once! —The woman had mistaken him for the body he occupied; if she was a dragon slayer, he could not face her in that body.

—Yes! This... The exit is very far, I will hide inside...

—Alright, I will look for you when this is over. —The woman jumped towards the tower, directly to confront the king with the silver spear she carried. If only he had devoured her, her body was not as fragile as the one he had chosen. Luckily, she had not noticed that he was carrying the egg.

He continued running to the largest and deepest room he could find, placing the egg on a seat right in the center. The stone walls were already affecting the shell... Or was that a crack? Preposterous, cracking a dragon's egg was nearly impossible, so... one of the others must have struck it or perhaps the debris...

The egg was going to spoil, the fire was escaping through the crack prematurely, and he couldn't stop it with those human hands, but the room was too small for his real form. Outside, the earth trembled with roars of pain that could only belong to the king. Had that woman injured him? No, surely one of the traitors.

Silence. Suddenly there were no more tremors or sounds of combat, perhaps the king had taken them to fight far from his egg, or he had lain down to rest...

—Master Frigg —The woman from before entered through the door covered in her own blood, leaning on her spear dragging a shattered leg, driven by a will and determination comparable to his own— don't worry, I can break the egg, my spear...

He couldn't allow it. He attacked her head-on, but despite her state, she was a warrior, and he was in a useless shell. She brushed him aside as if he wasn't there, and before he could get up, the woman had plunged her spear through the egg's shell.

From inside, an iridescent fire made its way up the spear's handle to reach the woman, she burned for an instant, she didn't even have time to scream, the egg exploded in a multicolored flame and immediately, only the bones of what was perhaps the most terrifying human he had ever seen remained. And an empty shell. The fire had consumed the human at its own expense, and now it was slowly fading away forever. He had failed.

The sound of crying put him on alert. Where was it coming from? He searched the sound around the room and finally saw that where the fire was finishing extinguishing, there was a human baby breathing the remnants of that fire. Was it perhaps the prince born from the egg? What had happened? Had it stolen the woman's body? No, it didn't work that way, and the baby had small wings and horns. Yes, she was a dragon, her fire was there, despite the crack it was one of the most intense he had felt.

He didn't know what to do, she was the king's daughter, he couldn't abandon her, but he also couldn't show her to other dragons in that state, only the king might know how to return her to her real form. He decided to wait, the king must return, surely he would, until then, he would keep the little one safe and away from the eyes of the traitor dragons. But if humans invaded the castle or something happened, they would hurt her...

For five years he took care of the little one without letting her out, in the castle he found human clothes and things like beds or toys, humans must think she was human or something similar so they wouldn't hurt her, although he couldn't help but detest her and himself for the form he was forced to adopt over and over again, at the expense of his own fire. He taught her the language of dragons and humans.

Until two horses approached the castle.