We Make it Work... Most of the Time?

Youngjae the Explorer and Jokomato the Pirate.

It was supposed to be a simple journey to visit some old friends; they had traveled that exact path hundreds of times in the past. Yet, the sole survivor stood backed against a tree as a rogue dragon approached ready to finish the job. Her beloved husband laid motionless on the dirt ground and the carriage holding her two most precious sons was almost completely smashed, bits and pieces thrown everywhere. She let out one final sob, praying for a swift death. She closed her eyes when the rogue stood in front of her, then nothing... All the pain was gone. The rogue dragon took to the skies, leaving behind the dead bodies for the Dragon Guard or scavengers to clean.

A loud wail caught the attention of a passing wild dragon, curiosity bringing the dragon to the remains of what appeared to be a trip gone wrong. At a quick glimpse it looked as if the human carriage had crashed into a tree but a closer look revealed the dead bodies on the ground. The wailing grew louder and the dragon was quick to move the debris covering the horrid screaming. The crying stopped immediately as the baby looked up at the dragon in awe. The baby was mostly covered by a blanket and strapped into some sort of chair-doohickey. Another child laid only a few feet away but sadly he wasn't as lucky, body crushed by the same rubble hiding the now soothed baby.

"It's okay little one. I'll make sure you're taken care of." The dragon knew it shouldn't interfere with human problems but the baby looked so adorable with it's big eyes, grabby hands and pouting lips. The dragon picked up the child carrier by the handle and started heading towards the nearest village, near the edge of Eternal Forest. The baby giggled and made strange gurgling noises the whole trip to the village, the dragon was highly amused by the sounds, cooing softly at the baby.

When they made it to the village outskirts, they were quickly approached by a few Dragon Guard members and villagers. The dragon informed the dragonriders about the tragic fate of the baby's family and offered to take them to the site. A woman villager came up to them, questioning the whereabouts of the baby's family. the dragonriders relayed the information to the woman and she began to tear up, telling them that the baby was her friend's son. The family was traveling to this village to visit her family. The riders asked if the now sobbing woman would look after the child while they investigated the attack and figure out what to do with the now orphaned baby. In an odd twist of fate, the baby ended up being taken in by the friend when no other family members stepped up to take the child. The woman raised the baby, Yoo Youngjae, alongside her own son, Im Jaebum. Both were blessed with Harmonia's mark, she knew they would grow to be amazing dragonriders.

The sun was barely peeking over the horizon when a loud thump woke everyone in the house. Youngjae, now an energetic 10 year old, fell down the stairs. Well, there goes his stealthy escape. Before he could recover from the fall, Mrs.Im grabbed his ear and sat him down at the kitchen table, Jaebum joining him a few minutes later.

"Where do you think you're going so early in the morning on a school day? You know your teacher won't let you skip anymore class time." Mrs.Im crossed her arms and gave Youngjae a pointed glare before turning around to start on breakfast.

Like any kid his age, Youngjae would rather ditch school to go on a "made up adventure" then spend his day sitting in class listening to a teacher drone on about stuff he already knew. Most of the time he would 'drag' Jaebum along with him on weekends. What Mrs.Im didn't know was that their adventures weren't so made up. Both Youngjae and Jaebum broke the rule to never go into the Eternal Forest.

The forest itself had many legends and myths, that scared most from going in but the main reason now was for the increase of rogue dragon activity. Neither boy thought about what would happen if they ran into a rogue and the old ruins deep inside the forest held too many wonders to care about the consequences. Everyone assumed the boys were playing pretend when they told tales of their adventures but in reality they were actually running around the forest, mapping out the area, climbing around the abandoned ruins, and looking for anything of interest. Youngjae has spent countless days just sitting in the rubble of abandoned buildings reading any old book left intact. When he wasn't reading then he was sparring against Jaebum with dull, rusted weapons, the score was 9-15, Youngjae cursed Jaebum for his slightly stronger build and natural battle instincts.