Fire Heart

Prologue: One

Fire consumes all, never wavering, never faltering.

This was the simple reason that dragons ruled for thousands of years, anything that opposed them burned. Humans never prospered, they were food to be played with, animals to be hunted.

Dragons knew no compassion towards humans, only toward their own kind.

Until him that is.

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Hell had descended onto the river city of Trinity, rubble covered the once pristine marble roads, smoke billowed from the remnants of the once inhabited houses. The sky was black with ash, like a cloud over the entire city.

In the midst of the madness stood a small boy, no older than ten. Before him lay two corpses, his mother and his father. His Mother dressed in her usual blue gown, and his Father in his guard armour, sword by his side. They had died together, dragon fire had claimed them like it did everyone else. He had no idea how he had lived, at this point all he wanted to do was to be with his parents.

He shed no tears, simply staring at their cold dead bodies.

"H-how dare they, those m-monsters" His words were soft, hardly spoken at all.

He looked up to the sky, one dragon flying high with flames spewing from its mouth. The boy knew it would see him eventually, dragons never left anyone alive.

A crash rumbled through the ground, he looked over his shoulder already knowing what would be behind him, but instead of the large hulking beast that he expected, a small greyish-black dragon approached, its body no taller than his waist. Its wings looked barely useable, scales missing in places, it seemed feeble and weak, but the boy knew that no dragon could be deemed as such.

The boy knew what it wanted, his parents. He wasn't going to let it have them. He turned round, facing the small grey beast, glaring at it in defiance. It snarled back at him, giving the boy a look inside its mouth, fire covering its throat.

It paced forward, the boy stood his ground.

It gave a feeble roar, more like a deep whimper, he did not flinch.

It took another step, now just a few feet away.

The boy took a step forward, balling his hands into fists.

It took a step back.

The boy shouted, coming out as a roar.

The dragon quickly backstepped, tripping over some debris is it went.

The boy stamped on the floor as the beast lowered its head.

Reaching down, the boy took his Father's sword from his corpse, holding it up high, even in his weak and distraught state. The steel shone from the light of the fire around him, illuminating his face, dirty and distraught.

He looked into the dragon's eyes.

It looked into his.

He dug his feet into the ground. He would protect his parents till his last breath.

The dragon suddenly leaped claw first at the boy, bloodstained teeth bared at him, shredded wings giving it a boost of speed, he raised the sword in defence, the beast running its scaled underbelly onto the blade, blood flying onto the boy. Its razor claws dug into his arms as he drove the sword further through.

The boy gave the sword one last push, feeling the life seep out of its body as it fell limp, giving one last large, ear piercing screech as the fire died out from within its throat.

The boy dropped the sword, blood pouring down from his arms. He looked down at the bloodied corpse that lay convulsing on the floor. He didn't know how to feel about it, he just felt numb.

Suddenly the ground started to shake, his very bones rumbling from within him. He looked up uncaringly to see what he had expected the first time.

A Dragon, proper one.

It was a hulking mass of scale and flesh, towering over the boy like the once perfect houses that crowded the streets. Its throat rumbled with hellish flames and uncontrolled rage. The boy realised, he'd probably just killed a infant dragon.

And this was its mother.

But still the boy stood defiant.

He would not die.

Not now.