Kulning a Dragon

Chapter 2

Kirishima had been traveling for weeks, no destination in mind letting only his instincts guide the journey. Each young dragon and dragonkin participated in a coming of age tradition where when reaching a certain age, normally around 19 to 22 seasons old they would set off on their own for a few months or even years to prove their worth and ability to survive on their own.

There was some mumbo jumbo that the elders believed stating that a divine deity would assign you a mission while on your travels but no one knew when in the journey or if it would even happen at all. Which honestly sounded like a load of horse shit to him.

His clan's beliefs were based on the old folk tale of the dragon Fafnir who was once a dwarf and warrior. Fafnir was admired for being the most strong and aggressive amongst his 3 brothers and guarded his father's wealth. Filled with greed in a moment of passion he slew his father and stole the riches.

Not realizing Odin had cursed all the gold, Fafnir turned into a hideous armored beast doomed to care only for wealth and live for decades before finally being killed by a young hero named Sigurd.

In fear of giving into that same greed filled tendencies his clan was only allowed to have things that they worked themselves to make, meaning they functioned solely off-trade, craftsmanship and farming economically. This limited their ability to sometimes trade with other villages and creatures, though dragon folk was known to be a more solitary bunch as it was.

Each clan had their own beliefs or take on different folk stories and traditions, theirs differed from the dragonkin village only a few miles away. This at times of high stress created conflict between the neighboring groups. Meaning while it wasn't necessarily frowned upon to befriend people from other tribes it wasn't something encouraged either.

So when young Kirishima brought home a fiery ash blond dragonkin, both boys being covered head to toe in mud and more than a few bruises to get cleaned up and have dinner he was surprised to be shooed off by his dam and told "To not bring anyone from other places into the village" and that if they wanted to get cleaned up, they would have to do in in the stream not far from there. As for food, she would pack them some bread and jerky but they would have to eat it somewhere else.

Discouraged by her off-putting and weird attitude about having Katsuki over he solemnly led his new friend to the woods bordering their village after grabbing the food and said they would have to meet here from now on starting tomorrow afternoon. After the blond proved he knew exactly how to get home the new friends split ways.

Even with a rocky start to their friendship, he could confidently say the angry and blunt boy was his best friend. The two spent hours every day after that playing in the woods together. Building forts, "conquering" kingdoms together, talking of all their hopes and dreams for the future.

Having nothing but time while Kirishima waits out the still-raging storm he reminisced about how he and Katsuki first met. Tracing a now faded scar on the bridge of his nose from that incident and also heavy heartedly thinking of everything that let up to the last goodnight they spent together before everything went so wrong.

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Flashback to 14 years prior

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When they first met many moons ago in their 8th seasons the redhead would have never imagined that he could maintain such a strong bond with such an aggressive and at times downright feral boy.

Kirishima as a child was timid, stemming from the fact that the only other child in the village that was his age was busy with her family never leaving time for socialization. Meaning most of those first years were spent alone and somewhat isolated.