"They're almost ready, aren't they?", said Rubius, "We're about to become parents to two beautiful baby boy dragons!"
"Hush, the first egg is about to crack.", said Diamante, "They need to understand the world and let their instincts develop, don't they? Don't say anything and let them take their time."
Both dragons leaned closer as the first of the 2 eggs began to visibly crack, as a tiny claw, still glistening from the iris produced through the mist in the last rays of a dying sun, slowly pulled apart the remains of its old home and entered a new world...
On the other side of Dragon Valley...
"Don't worry, my precious Angie, our twin boys will be just beautiful. You'll do just fine. We don't need the technology of our so-called 'kin' if they don't see the dragons as a peaceful, intelligent race. We'll live happily ever after in Dragon Valley, with the all other dragons," said Melvin.
"Please stay with me, Melvin. I want you to be there with me when our twins come," said Angela, as she laid on a makeshift hospital bed.
Melvin, who had once been a doctor in the Village of Progress, had asked the dragons to steal some materials to make medical equipment for his wife's upcoming childbirth. As he waited with the love of his life, he looked out over the natural beauty of Dragon Valley. The mountains sloped perfectly to hide it from any oncoming passerby, and in this valley, lush green fields of rolling grass inside endless meadows stretched out as far as the eye could see. The waterfall that covered the main entrance produced a splendid rainbow that stretched over the blue, cloudless sky as the sun's last rays swept over the picturesque landscape. The sun illuminated all life in Dragon Valley, as its golden, warm beams revitalized everything in its path, and maintained a perfect balance with nature, as the dragons did. The dragons lived completely in harmony with nature, and whatever they took, they always paid back in plenty. Their nests were made from the hollows of trees, which the dragons shaped with their claws, talons and the fires they created from deep inside their fire pits. At night, they lit the excess wood for light, and, when necessary, used it for signaling to other dragon settlements across the valley. They used moss for bedding, had a community running smoothly, and preferred the daytime over nighttime, where they were weaker. Some aspects of their technology were even more advanced than the humans, so long as they had the materials to make it. They caught only the weak, old and sick of their prey to keep the herds and flocks strong. Everything was perfect in the valley. Then, the humans came.
The humans arrived in ships, from a place they called Alalëa. From their folklore, they saw dragons as evil beasts who needed to be killed to save their land. Beasts incapable of coherent thought. Beasts incapable of emotion, driven by nothing but instinct and anger. Nothing could be further from the truth. Melvin and Angela had always been radical thinkers. They had been excommunicated from the church for their ideas and protests. They did not care either, for they truly believed in what they thought, and didn’t care for religion. They were, most importantly, in love as well. They ran away together until they met with a member of this dragon settlement, Rubius. He had been out hunting when he spotted the two. Rubius had been ready to send the alarm, but he noticed something different about these two. Something new, which dragons had seen before but never in a human. He saw the gleam of curiosity, a thirst for adventure, and a hunger for knowledge. Rubius flew down to them and began to speak.
“What are you humans doing here?”, he said, “This is no place for someone like you.”
“Well, I didn’t know dragons could talk! Are all the dragons like this?”, said Angela, “How amazing! Everyone else was wrong, Melvin, we were correct about this after all!”
There definitely is something different about these humans. They would make great companions indeed. I must tell the other dragons. Rubius thought to himself.
“Here, come with me. I’ll introduce you two to the other dragons of my village.”, said Rubius, as he beckoned them towards his starboard wing. They got on and soared off into the distance, where they ended up staying till this very day.
Melvin snapped out of his reverie when he saw the main signal fire in the middle of the community light up. Something was wrong. (Ch. 1 Part 1 End)

The signal fire let off a warm glow in the cold, pitch-black night, as sparks shot out from its fiery depths. This glow was warm, but the general mood of those who knew what it meant to see the fire lit was bone-chilling.
“Our sentry Garnetia saw 2 platoons of Earthbounds [dragon term for humans] moving into the waterfall. They’ve discovered our location, and are fully prepared to wipe us out.”, said the village elder. Murmurs spread like wildfire through the gathered dragons plus Melvin, who had just arrived to hear this new turn of events.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine, we’re dragons, after all.”
“Mommy, I’m scared. I don’t want to lose you to the Earthbounds.”
“The eggs must be kept safe!”
“Silence! We must prepare ourselves for this! These invaders might be small in numbers, but the earthbounds have an advantage in that their race breeds like rats. Even if only 4 are left, the population will grow back to its original size very quickly. We must completely wipe out these platoons to prevent further attacks and strike fear into the earthbounds. We will teach them a lesson they will never forget!”, roared the elder.
A resounding cry rose from the recipients, “WE WILL FIGHT!!!!”
“Now, is everyone present? Wait a minute, where is Rubius and Diamante?”, asked the elder.
“They are with the medic dragon Hertia because their eggs are ready to hatch,” said Melvin, “and I will fight alongside you, and try to persuade my ex-brethren to make peace and stop all the pointless violence that has occurred between our races.”
The elder nodded his head deeply. “Very well, then. Is Angela going to be okay with what we have available?”, he asked.
“I’m confident that she will be,” replied Melvin. “Now let’s do this.”
In the hatchery...
“So, it looks like our second child is quite a late bloomer!”, said Rubius. “While he still hasn’t hatched yet, our first child is already discovering his dragon instincts.”
“Don’t be so harsh, you are a parent now, remember?”, said Diamante. “Don’t forget, our valley needs all the dragons it can get in the defense against the human invasion. Better to hatch late than never at all.”
 “True, so true,” sighed Rubius. “What if he doesn’t hatch at all, though?”
“Don’t say that, please,” fretted Diamante, “I’m sure he’ll hatch safely.”
“Your second son will be fine, Rubius,” said Hertia. “There should be no problems with this hatching.”
Both dragons stared out into the night, as the never-ending blackness stretched far across the sky, into a place where the eye could not follow. It was oppressing, as it began to swallow them up...
At the community center...
“So here is our plan of attack,” said the elder. “We will strike-”
A rumbling started. The very earth seemed to thunder, her anger slowly building up as the emotions became too much for her to handle. The Earthbounds came out in full force, yelling savage war cries, with bloodlust and hatred gleaming in their small, beady eyes as it controlled their every thought from here on out...
“RUN! GET AWAY FROM HERE!”, said Melvin. “IT’S NOT SAFE! TAKE THE YOUNG AND RUN!”
The mothers and children took off in flight, leaving a small platoon of dragons left to fend off the invaders, including the elders and Melvin. However, these were dragons, and they would not be defeated so easily by mere Earthbounds. They rose up and dove down at the earthbounds with tooth, claw and flame. Steel clashed against bone, and soldiers screamed as they began melting under the intense heat that could have come straight from the pits of Hell themselves. Some soldiers screamed in high-pitched voices as they were suddenly plucked from the ground by a flying dragon and tossed miles away into the dark sky infested with crows, vultures, and other carrion birds waiting for their next feast. Others broke down on the battlefield from witnessing these events, curling up into the fetal position and rocking back and forth as their blank eyes darted back and forth while muttering strange archaic languages known only to those who have descended into madness.
But on the other end of the fight, dragons screamed in pain as swords and arrows cut into their flesh, spilling warm blood onto the battlefield and tainting the purity of the dragons’ homeland. Other dragons gasped their last breaths as giant rocks plunged into their chests and wings from large catapults, sending them tumbling down into the battlefield where they met their doom. Some were even split in half by giant battle axes and swords cleaving and hacking through their flesh until two halves of one body remained, lying ominously on the battlefield.
While the dragons were able to massacre most of the earthbounds, they could not stop some of the humans that broke through their offensive lines to kill on the inside. This was where Melvin stepped in, for his job was to stop this from happening. He cut down dozens of men on his own, but one soldier, armed with a crossbow managed to break into the hatchery where Rubius, Diamante and Hertia were waiting for the second egg to hatch. Melvin burst in as the soldier aimed and fired, while the dragons stood frozen at the sight, unable to react in time. He rushed forward in front of the dragons as fast as he could as the bolt sped towards them, and he dove for it...
“NOO!”
“...Melvin? MELVIN! NO! Wake up! ARRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!! I’ll kill you! I’LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!!!!” said Rubius. He dove at the frightened soldier like a tiger jumping on a rabbit and bloodily tore him into thousands of pieces.
The second egg burst open in a flash of light, and a hatchling came out, staring out into the world as the scene developed in front of his innocent eyes, watching murder and sorrow happen in an instant right before him...
At the human medical center where Melvin lived, 2 minutes prior...
“ARRRRRGGGHHHHHH!”
The scream of a dying man rent the night. Angela and a medic dragon were in the medical center when the scream was heard, shattering the silence like it was a pane of fragile glass. Angela was in the middle of childbirth when she heard the scream.
“MELVIN!” screamed Angela. “Please, don’t leave me!”
“The children! The children! They’re here! You’ve done well. You have twin boys! Here they are, here you go.”, said the medic dragon.
“They’re so beautiful,” choked out Angela. “It’s too bad they won’t be able to know their father. But maybe someday, they’ll rise up to the heavens and we’ll finally be a full family at last...”
“Angela, stay with me! We can’t lose you! Angela! ANGELA!”
The heart rate monitor that Melvin had built out of his bare hands using nothing but wires, a 9V battery, some plastic and metal began to show steadily smaller blips as it slowly began to flatline, to move to that number 0.
“I see him. I see Melvin. There’s a bright light, I know we’ll finally be together forever...”
Blip ... Blip ... blip ......... blip..... beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep ... beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep ... beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. (Ch. 1 Part 2 End)

“Sir, we have a visual on the location of the beasts,” whispered one soldier.
“Good. Stand ready for sneak attack. After the invasion last night, they’re probably still licking their wounds. They’ll never see this coming. The objectives are clear, am I right? We rush in, bag the marks, and run. Hit-and-run operation. Do you understand?”, said the commander.
“YES, SIR!”
In Dragon Valley...
The scene was devastating. What was once a paradise had turned into something that a tornado would leave behind, after having a fit or rage and tearing through the countryside, all because of one fateful night. The dragons shuffled by, their eyes glazed with sorrow, lost in a dark forest of their own thoughts. No birds sang, no breeze blew. The ominous silence was ubiquitous and oppressing. Rubius and Diamante sat, while the twin sons of Melvin and Angela slept in one corner, and their newborn sons played in the hatchery. Rubius and Diamante felt that it was their obligation to care for their closest friend and savior’s newborn children, even if they did not know what the baby had to learn as an Earthbound.
“What are we going to do now, Rubius?”, said Diamante. “We don’t have any idea how to raise Earthbound children. One child would be enough, but they’re twins too. That’s too much for us to handle.”
“But we’re obligated to. Melvin gave his life to save us, Angela died, and no one is left to care for them but us. We were closest to them, after all.”, said Rubius.
Suddenly, both dragons heard Garnetia cry out, “SNEAK ATTACK! INVASION FROM THE EARTHBOUNDS!”
“What? How? They should still be caring for their wounded!”, Diamante screamed.
“Those heartless fiends! How could they be so base? They have gone too far this time!”, exclaimed Rubius.
The Earthbound kidnap squad burst from the cover of the undergrowth, running double time into the stricken valley. Dragons sluggishly raced to defend themselves, only to gape as the squad flew by them, as if the enormous, fire-breathing dragons were nothing but ants to the fleeing group.
“Wait a minute... STOP THEM! THEY’RE HEADING TO THE HATCHERY! RUBIUS! DIAMANTE! LOOK OUT!”
The dragon couple heard the roar in the distance. “No... It can’t be. After our children! They’re going to kidnap our children! I won’t let you!”, roared Rubius. The squad ran into the hatchery as the leader lobbed a smoke bomb.
“-coughcough-I can’t see! WHERE ARE THEY!”
As the smoke cleared, the dragons gasped in shock. Two of their charges were missing!
Under camoflauge, outside the Dragon Valley...
The kidnappers finally alighted upon a great oak tree after running from the valley.
“Open the bag, check the merchandise. We need to make sure both have been secured safely.”, barked the commander.
As the drawstring went slack, the bag fell around the two dragons inside. Well, two dragons were supposed to be inside....
“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS? WHY IS THERE A HUMAN CHILD IN HERE?”, exclaimed the commander. “What have those beasts been doing to this child?”
“Sir, these are the traitor’s children! Melvin and Angela’s!”, said the second-in-command. “They died last night in the invasion! But I guess the kids are still alive.”
“Don’t worry, these two will soon know nothing but to hate or obey.... A human and its beast raised together, huh? Quite the powerful bond, I must say. They will be very useful to us...”
Back at Dragon Valley...
As the smoke cleared, and their eyes stopped burning, Rubius and Diamante opened their eyes to a horrifying scene. There was one dragon, and one Earthbound child left!
“NOOO! My baby, my baby!”, Diamante exclaimed as she broke down crying. “They took my firstborn son!”
“Those damn Earthbounds, those pieces of ****! The poor kid never even got a name...and they went so low as to take Melvin and Angela’s elder twin son too!”, Rubius cursed, as he slammed his hand against the walls of the hatchery, making it tremble at the force of his blow.
“What are we going to do?”
“We have no choice, we’ll just raise both as our own. Hopefully we can see the other two someday...if they live that long, that is.”
Both dragons accepted their grim fate and slowly sat down as the rest of the village came running, wondering what momentous events just passed.
And so, I was born. An outsider, a completely different species from the dragons, yet I still managed to survive in the valley. I became one of them, and managed to grow up in my own way. The dragons gave me a name too. What is it? Striga. (part 3 and Chapter 1, END)