Dragon Riders of Paranon

There weren't always dragons in the valley. The valleyway was meant for a free humanity, protected by the Warrior Men from anything that looked like it could be a threat. The sorceresses of Paranon could stay to the mountains and work their witchcraft on one another all that they saw fit. The dragons and likewise beasts just basically existed to themselves away from a humanity who might misjudge or misuse them. The FIRST of the dragons to arrive in the Valley of Paranon, the smallest of the young, did not arrive there by accident...

The tiniest of baby dragons materialized in the valley by way of enchantment; lost, motherless, and confused. Witchcraft had clearly done it; so said the warriors charged to safeguard the valleys of Paranon. Nonetheless, the sorceresses of the realm's magic sisterhood would not answer the warrior mens' accusatory charges directly. Either way, a small, defenseless dragon was displaced in the valley. Would this not bring the rage of an angry mother? Besides, what if the smallest and youngest remained in the valley and could not be returned home before it...GREW UP?

A baby dragon was young, alone, and very much confused by its new surroundings. A GROWN dragon would be used as a mystic steed by the sorceresses; or slain by the cold steel of the warrior as a beast that they didn't understand and, therefore, saw as a threat. Neither fate was becoming of a small and blameless hatchling; especially one without its siblings, let alone its mother...

The light of the night was the only comfort for the baby. It, rightly, hid from warriors' patrols during the day. By night, the warriors rested and it could be free to learn from its new surroundings. So long as the light of the moon beckoned to him, the baby felt comforted.

Then came the night of the eclipse; a "Sorceresses' Moon," the warriors called it. The moon was dark and shone no light. The stars couldn't hope to match the moonlight that the dragon child had found so comforting. It started crying to get the moonlight back with tiny whimpers and whines. Then, when that didn't work, it unleashed the smallest dragon roar; tiny enough to have risked being overheard if a warrior of the sword or sorceress of witchery had been nearby. Luckily, no human responded. Sadly for the smallest of the small, no moonlight or his dragon brood answered his call either. The baby dragon was misplaced and alone. With a final, delicate cry, it rested once more and let a lone tear fall into the ground...

For the briefest moment, the sorceresses thought that they had found the displaced dragon when it had protested the witchcraft of the "Sorceress's Moon." However, when their strongest sorceress, the one who had deposited the dragon in humanity's valley, had sought her unwitting minion once more, it was gone to her. It slept in innocence once more; a cherubic heart and mind that shielded it from the sorceresses' needs. However, there was hope if the foolhardy warriors should find and, undoubtedly, slay a helpless, infant dragon and have the firey fury of the mother fall into the sorceresses' hands...

Dawn broke and the youngest, displaced dragon baby had overslept; above ground. The terror and confusion of the night before had caused it to not awaken in time to dig its way back into its underground cave. Now, it heard footsteps. It knew the sounds of the sounds of the footsteps of man and knew what they could mean for it. However, these were not the footsteps of man approaching it. There was something...innocent...in at least one of them; an innocence that the dragon youth could relate to. It gave a cautious pause and gazed ahead from its very visible aboveground location...