Prince of Dragons

Prologue

The dungeons were a terrible place to be.

They were cold and dark and, to make matters even worse, the air reeked of things better left unnamed. The only human beings in these parts of the dungeons were a guard and a prisoner who had been chained to the wall. He was only freed from that position when he was fed, at those times of day when an extra guard would arrive with a chunk of bread and some soup. Then the prisoner would eat and the guards would gaze at him suspiciously. And point their halberds at him, that is, lest he would make any ever so small movement that could vaguely resemble an attempt at escape.

As for the guards, they weren't particularly sociable. They had been given strict orders not to talk to the prisoner. Otherwise the prisoner could easily... well, they didn't really know what harm talking could do, but their commander probably knew and every guard understood it was never a good idea to defy the commander's orders.

The prisoner was completely alone and in his position, any normal prisoner had long gone mad.

The thing was, he wasn't a normal prisoner. Which meant he hadn't gone mad.

He chuckled slightly. Well, at least he hadn't gone any madder than he used to be, that is.

The truth was, he was a patient person. He knew how to wait. Moreover, thanks to his unnaturally long lifespan, he had the privilege to wait. He didn't mind the cold, either. He was never cold.

And the best thing was that he didn't have to wait any longer. The temperature in the dungeons had dropped to an even lower level now that it was winter. Any normal prisoner would have been freezing, wearing the simple linen clothing he was wearing.

But then again, he wasn't a normal prisoner. Actually, he was a draconic human.

The cold triggered a natural reaction in his body to maintain his abnormally high body temperature. Now more than ever, he was inwardly burning fuel like a madman. The results: hunger, weight loss, but highly increased draconic abilities. And those abilities would be even stronger than that because of the density of the air. Even though he would have to eat a huge lot after he got out of here if he used those abilities now, he knew it would be worth it. He would be free again.

So Arwund, draconic human, rogue and prisoner - at least for now - bided his time, waiting for a moment to strike.

A moment he felt would arrive soon enough.

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He thought he had known what the word honour meant. But he now realised he was only just beginning to understand its true meaning.

"Enorwin of the Flaming Lands," his father, the earl, proclaimed, "do you swear on your sword to aid this county in its battle against the draconic forces in these regions?"

"I swear!" Enorwin said confidently, his hand over the sword - his sword - which his father held out in front of him.

"Then may the gods be with you," the earl said, more softly than before, "my son."

Enorwin simply nodded and took his sword by its hilt. He turned around to face the huge gathering of people in the throne room. Then he held up the weapon, as if reaching out to the battered fresco of dragons flying through a clear blue sky on the ceiling, and cried: "For Garowain!"

And the crowd repeated after him: "For Garowain!"

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A/N: Hi everyone! Thanks for reading this prologue! If you want to, please leave a comment so that I can improve my writing. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Also, if you enjoyed this, a vote would make me very happy (but don't do so if you thought this was bad or if you simply don't feel like it - it happens). Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter!

Also, my friend @sushipanda99 has been so awesome to draw some Prince of Dragons fan art. I've added a drawing of Arwund to this chapter and there are more pictures to come for the next three chapters. And if you have time, please check out @sushipanda99's works: they're quite good, but they don't get that many reads.

I apologise for the fact that two of the pictures are turned to one side; Wattpad apparently puts pictures that have been turned around back to their original position, at least with me. If anyone is familiar with this problem and knows how to solve it, please let me know. Thanks in advance.