The Boy and The Dragon

Deep deep in the forest below, lies a great beast that rules over all. This king if you may, is nothing but a humble Dragon just trying to find his way. The other beasts made me their king out of fear. This is something I never wanted but fate can be a tricky thing. So I’ve made the best of things and this predicament that I am in. I knew I had to be responsible so I came up with a scenario where I could be left alone for six out of the seven days of the week and my Lieutenants would have to report to me only once a week about the matters going on down below. I kept myself in a cave at the highest peak in the land. I was able to have a peaceful life and enjoy myself. It's been 547 years since I became the king and a lot has changed. We went from Wild beast fighting in the jungle to a society of magic Beast living in the forest.

~

One day while I was out hunting for food in my favorite hunting grounds, I heard what I thought was a baby crying. When I went to investigate the noise, I was surprised to find a Human child. The child was very young but could still answer some of my questions. For instance I asked him how old he was and he said holding out 2 fingers, Im this many old. But when i asked him what his name was and where he was from all he replied with was, Raku. I didn’t know if it was his name or where he was from because after that he didn’t talk anymore. With the little information I knew, I decided to bring him back to my cave so he could rest. I’d figure out what to do after that.

It's been about three days since i've returned and my lieutenants should be back with news by now. I had sent them out to try and figure out where this child came from so that we could safely return him to his home. Sensing my men returning from their missions I went out to greet them.

“Welcome back George, I hope things are well. How’d the mission go?”

“Things are well thank you for asking Lord Damion.”

With a quick change in temperament George began his mission report.

“Sir, I am sorry to report that we have failed. We could not find any clues as to where this child came from. During our investigation in the neighboring human kingdom, we asked not only our contacts in the royal palace but some of the civilian population as well. Our contacts in the palace said they are going to report it to their justice department.”

“Well that's good. I hope the detectives on the case will be able to do something about it.” I was concerned about this child’s well being but…. “In the meantime I will personally take care of this child.”

“But sir, I may ask why you are going to do that?” My advisor said to me. He and the other maids come out of the cave to attend to me and my lieutenants. Badger used an earth spell to conjure up a table and some chairs. It was nothing fancy because like usual, it would disappear back into the ground when we were done.

“Well Badger if you must know I feel responsible for the child seeing as I’m the one who found Him.”

Badger immediately began to judge me saying, “For the 500 years that I’ve known and served under you, I’ve never once seen you keep a pet, a plant, or even a hobby alive for longer than a month. So how are you basically going to be a parent? ”

“Well This time is different. It’s a human child after all. These things are smart and plus I have the confidence that I can do this. The kingdom is peaceful right now and this is a new exciting challenge that I wanna face.”

“I still advise against this idea, but what the hell. Raising this child will Probably make things less tense between us and the humans.”

I was happy to hear my subordinates had approved of my decision. I wasn’t a fool. I was well aware that I couldn’t just do what I wanted to do just because I was in charge. I decided to end the meeting on that high note so I raised my glass and said, “To my new son Raku Drakōn.”

“Come back here you little brat!”

Right after we all had our drink, my head maid, Aunt Rita, came out of the cave chasing Raku. She was also soaking wet and Raku was in his undershirt and shorts. “What is going on?” I said as Raku hid behind me.

“I was trying to give this child a bath and get him into new clothes but all of sudden got scared and splashed the entire grand bath on me.” She began eyeing Raku down and said, “He also caused a lot of damage to the room.”

I noticed that he wasn't wet at all and this confused me. Looking at Aunt Rita I said “Take me there. I want to see what happened.”

“Okay then, Follow me.” Aunt Rita said as she signaled us to follow her.

We all got up from the table and started to follow. As usual the table disappeared into the ground like it was never there in the first place. I’d plan to dismiss my lieutenants but I could see the curiosity on their faces so I didn’t say anything.

As we entered the cave we stepped in a puddle of water and that's when we noticed the door missing from my bath house so I ran over to see what happened. To my surprise, there was no more water in any of the tubs and there was noticeable structural damage to the walls and foundation.

From that moment on I knew what I had to do, I was not only going to raise this child as my own but I was also going to turn him into a fine warrior. I looked at my men and said to them, “I’m going to train this child in the way of Magic and when the time is right, George, Nigel, Arthur, Sofia, can I count on you four to aid me.”

The Four of them without hesitation replied “Yes Sir” In unison. Their lack of formality and seriousness in their eyes told me their answer came from the heart.

From that day on, I made some changes to my policies and had my lieutenants report to me more often so that they could also have the chance to visit and bond with Raku. This would turn out to be a very wise decision. Some time after the bath incident, Raku would refer to them as his aunt and uncles. I had also begun to see them as more than just my subordinates. We became family. For the first time in over 500 years, I have a place to call home.

~

It's been five years since Raku came into my life and let's just say that we’ve already had our ups and our downs. But what family doesn’t go through these kinds of things. He was already pretty developed, since he was already two when I found him. This meant that he could already run around a talk so our relationship was off to a rocky start. I didn't understand much about humans but the one thing I knew was that their instincts were not like ours and they were very impressionable at a young age. I tried to bond with him but it didn’t matter what I did. He would either cry or run away and hide from me. But like i said, humans are smart and Raku got used to living here on the mountain and after a rough two months we were finally talking like a normal father and son. I had found out some of the things he liked which wasn’t much. He liked to do two things, fish and he liked to eat the fish he caught.

After some time, he developed more hobbies and interests like any normal child would. But when he turned four I decided it was time for education to start. Raku was not happy about this but I did my best to make it fun so as to keep his attention. And it worked after one year, his IQ skyrocketed and it was like talking to an adult. He only grew smarter after that.

By age six I decided to start his training. I first taught him the basics. Sensing world energy around oneself, absorbing it and refining it into mana. By doing that I could see what kind of magic he had an affinity for. If one could have seen my face when I saw that not only he had an equal affinity for all four elements, but for the fifth element as well. I was in the presence of the genius and I knew I couldn’t mess this up when raising him. So I went back to my lieutenants and I entrusted them each with training a specific element to him. I would focus on the fifth one myself because it was my specialty.

Things were off to a good start with Raku’s training. The first element he was able to conjure and control was wind. At first I was particularly happy that it wasn’t earth or fire because I knew he would cause the most damage with those two elements. But boy was I wrong. He caused just as much damage, maybe even more so. Because of Arthur’s laid back attitude, his basic attacks yielded Immense damage and Raku was able to learn them within a couple months. Fearing what would happen to the structural integrity of our home, I had a new training area constructed on a separate peak. George thought it would be a good idea to have part of Raku’s training be excavating the cave. It actually was a good idea. Raku needed to learn control if he was going to be successful. He actually learned a lot from each of his teachers. Arthur taught him that a powerful attack didn’t require a complicated formula. George taught him control and precision with magic. Dealing with Nigel and his neverending lectures, Raku learned to be patient. Nigel may be the nicest and most caring Leviathan I’ve ever met, but if you let him keep talking, he won’t ever stop. His training with Sofia was a different story. Sofia’s training regiment was more practical unlike Nigel’s magic theory lessons.

Over the next two years, Raku would progress faster than any creature I’ve ever seen and this scared me. I was worried that he would stand out too much and not be able to make friends with any of the other young magic beasts. The solution I came up with was to enroll him in the Magic Beast Academy. This was not an easy conversation to have. Raku was very resilient at first but eventually came around.

“What are you talking about Dad? Why would I want to go to some Academy and leave my perfectly good mountain cave?” Raku snared at me. He did not like change and was not happy that I suggested the Magic Beast Academy.

I didn’t that stop me. I replied with, “Because it’ll be good for you to go out and see more than just the same two caves everyday. Look, you need to be at least 8 years old to enter so you still have three months before you need to make a decision.”

He seemed to have calmed down because ina normal tone he said, “I'm telling you right now, it’s not something I wanna do. But I’ll think it over since you asked me.”

“Thank you.”

Like I knew he would, he eventually came around after realizing that he really didn’t have any friends and wasn’t going to make any if he stayed up on the mountain and never came down. Three months had passed and the next thing I knew it was Raku's birthday. We didn’t do anything crazy to celebrate, in fact this was the first time we celebrated it. In the past we would have a special dinner or just have cake. But having a party was fun. I was able to invite a lot of guests from all over the country. Even the headmaster of the Magic Beast Academy came and he never leaves his tower.

I was hoping that this party would convince him to go and I was right. He made friends with some of the kids who came and the speech the headmaster gave convinced him. He decided right then and there he was going to not only be the strongest mage there was but now he had a new goal: to make as many friends as he could.