Dragon Bond

Marked

"Are you sure he's breathing?"

"He looks pretty dead to me, oh well, can't say we tried."

"Would you two shut up? I'm trying to concentrate here! Shit, I think he's waking up."

Keith groaned as he groggily opened his eyes a little, staring up at the canopy of an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. He would scold himself later for how long it took him to get his bearings, slowly sitting up and looking around as he tried to remember what happened. He blinked and was met with the light brown eyes of a young girl, who was staring at him curiously.

"Agh!" Keith pushed them away, also realizing he had no shirt on, and covered himself with a blanket.

"Aw look, you scared him." One voice laughed from the other side of the room.

Keith looked over towards it, getting a look at the three teens who seemed around his age. The girl, he thinks it's a girl anyway, had short light brown hair, pale skin and large glasses. There was a boy standing behind her with darker skin and hair, also fairly larger, with an orange bandana tied around his head. The third was the boy who had laughed at him, a tall, caramel skinned, blue eyed, beauty. That's how Keith would describe him anyway, despite his seemingly overconfident and annoying personality.

"What? Captivated by my incredibly good looks, mullet?" The blue eyed boy smirked.

Keith immediately decided he didn't like him. "No! I just...where am I? And who are you people?" He quickly changed the subject, saving himself from further embarrassment.

"Well, you're in the kingdom of Altea. My names Pidge. I use they/them pronouns and I'm a scientist here, so I'm mainly down in the labs. The big guy behind me is Hunk, he's a chef and probably the most lovable guy you could ever meet. And the annoying kid over there is Lance, he's an archer and basically just full of himself." Pidge shrugged.

"Hey! I am not! I'm like the hero of the story, saving maidens, giving money to the poor, the cool ninja sharpshooter." Lance exclaimed, crossing his arms with an over exaggerated pout.

"Um...alright then..the names Keith. So..how did I get here?" Keith asked, still trying to process everything. At this point he knew he must be dreaming, none of this could be real, especially as he heard a loud roar outside and his eyes widened slightly.

"See we don't actually know. Shiro was the one who brought you here, he found you in the forest at the base of Titans Mountain." Hunk explained, wringing his hands together nervously.

They all acted like they hadn't heard the roar, which confuse Keith even more. "Ok this has got to be a dream..." He closed his eyes and pinched his arm hard, the skin turning an angry red before he opened his eyes again, only to see he was still in the same place. "Ok not a dream.." He rubbed the area he had pinched, freezing as he felt something rough. He slowly looked down at his arm. There, on his left bicep, was a patch of dark red scales. "What the hell is this! What did you do to me!" He yelled, glaring angrily at the three.

"Cool your jets man, we didn't do anything!" Lance snapped, glaring back at him.

"When you were brought in they were already there. Theres more too, some on your right leg and in the middle of your back. That's what the Marked have, it allows a special connection between Human, or any other alien, and dragon, which is what the Dragon Academy was built for, to help young Marked strengthen their dragon bonds and help protect the kingdoms." Pidge told him, crossing their arms with a frown.

"Ok so...you're telling me that I just randomly showed up in this world and was deemed one of the..the Marked and now I'm bonded to a dragon?! Are all of you Marked?" Keith felt like ripping out his hair and screaming or laughing, he was probably going insane. 'Dragons aren't real Keith, you are going crazy or these people are crazy.'

"Basically yeah, but you're not bonded to a dragon yet, most Marked don't have a dragon at first so the Academy breeds dragons and lets newbies have one of the offspring or you can go out and take one yourself, but no ones that stupid. Anyway, most kind are pretty picky and you can only choose them if they choose you." Lance shrugged, like it was no big deal. He pulled up his sleeve to reveal sparkling, light blue scales.

Hunk rolled up his pant leg to show the dull, but still beautiful, yellow scales that resided there.

Pidge craned their neck to the side to show their glimmering green scales. "And yeah, we're all Marked here in the Academy. Since you're Marked than that means you can register to train here too, assuming you have nowhere to go that is." They looked knowingly at him.

"How did you...never mind. You're right..I don't have anywhere else to go." Keith muttered, staring down at the bedspread angrily, fist clenching in the soft fabric.

"Great! We'll take you to the Headmaster in the morning. For now, you need to rest. It looks like you got in a fight with a corrupt Razorleaf Dragon, nasty little things. Their teeth practically leak acid and it's very bad for your skin. So just rest for now, Mullet." Lance said sarcastically, less then careful when pushing him down by the shoulder to lay on the bed as Pidge grabbed some tube like thing.

"Stop calling me that..." Keith growled, growing drowsy as Pidge presses the tube onto his skin, the liquid in it draining and entering his system. "S' not a mullet.." He muttered, eyes closing as he drifted off.