World's Tale: Royalty and The Dragon

Chapter One: The thread that binds Us

There was a time and age in which deities were worshipped by the common people. A time in which they'd even make offerings to their altar to ask for prosperity and safety for their villages or families. It was a time, back then, in which things were simple: no wars, no hate, no witch hunts.

However it was not meant to last long.

It just so happens that the common people did not know that the very deities they worshipped were in fact humans themselves whom were bestoved the gift of shapeshifting. When one of said deities was caught in the act of shifting between their forms, word travelled fast between cities and villages and the same people that loved and cherished them before, feeling hurt and lied to, ran the altars to the ground and burnt down the temples. Ever since then shapeshifters were chastised out of society, demonised and hunted down like animals in every realm. 

Alon was no different than any other, on the contrary, it was the very first realm to reveal the shapeshifters for what they were and then pinpointed them as liars, deceivers, demons sent to slowly destroy humanity. The royal family proceeded to chase away the Dragon deity protector of their own bloodline and has tried to put the beast down ever since then. A hundred years have passed and the Royal Alon Family still raises their successors to be Dragon hunters along with numerous established Guilds to take upon the dangerous task.

Or at least they tried to.

In the past century the royal family had always been blessed with strong and brave male successors, but this was meant to change when the reigning Queen, Sheila, gave birth to a beautiful, kind and caring daughter. Growing up, their daughter, Alina, refused her father's teaching of hatred and violence and turned down her role as a Dragon hunter stating that if it was his wish to hunt down a person most innocent he could do it on his own. 

It's been 12 years since those events and Alina had, by then, grown into a wonderful woman. The year of her twentieth birthday, she set out on a journey to visit all the outers villages, briging them hope and help in both money and food. As she travelled with her escort through the borders of the country, her next stop was going to be a secluded village by the shadow of the highest mountain in all Alon, Wrego.

It is here, that our story begins.

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"M'lady, the knights say that we should be in Wrego in a day's time by now" Alina's attendant had flanked her on her horse once again after taking off to speak with the head of the guards escorting her. Relieved by the news, she placed a hand over her heart and sighed heavily, her attendant, Phiida, smiled sympathetically.

It had been a long journey, after all.

"That's.. surpisingly good news" stated Alina, leaning down to caress her horse as they kept up the peace "We may have to stay there longer than we did the past villages, the sole journey from Shina to Wrego has been exhausting for men and horses both", from the corner of her eye she saw Phiida nodding attentively and then hurrying her horse to reach the head of the guards once again.

In a sense, Alina felt better at the thought that she didn't have to explicitly give her attendant orders and that she was instead able to understand when she wanted something done.

The princess never liked her position of importance to begin with, she believed that a more humble life would probably have done the cut for her, far better than all this was ever going to do. She knew, however, that with her position came responsibilities that she couldn't, nor wouldn't, for that matter, turn a blind eye to.

People all over Alon were suffering, either from starvation, sickness or because of the trail of destruction that her father's sensless hunt for the Dragon always left behind in all those years.