To You

I remember it like it was yesterday. You were so helpless, so small.

I was going to eat your parents. They looked tasty. Though your Father looked a bit old even for my palate. Your Mother on the other hand looked worried, agitated, anxious even, but young. She was always peering over her shoulder, checking her surroundings, telling your Father to hurry up or she would leave him there too. It was only once they'd left that I truly realised what they'd left behind...

I remember your confused wailing and your eyes filling with tears. You tried wandering the clearing but kept falling on your hide. It looked like you'd only just learnt to walk.

They'd left you alone in the forest with no intention of coming back.

I sat on that cliff overlooking the trees for a moment and then realised it was time to reveal myself. I remember making quite a commotion when I landed and you were hysterical. I imagine you hadn't seen something quite my size before. Once you got over your overdramatic, extremely humane emotions, you wiped your eyes and stumbled over.

I do admit I was taken aback being poked and prodded. Most humans ran at the mere sight of me. But you didn't. You felt my scales and touched my snout. You climbed on my back and grabbed my horns. I even remember you crying out gleefully when I spread my wings.

You didn't seem to be scared of Dragons.

My initial plan was to put you out of your misery. To eat you. Or to save you from being eaten by something else. But you intrigued me. And honestly? I'd never seen anything quite so sad.

So we took to the skies and I ended up taking you under my wing. Literally in some cases. We raided villages for food. We hid in caves when the humans hunted us. You slept under my wing when the rain came and there was nowhere left to hide.

As you grew older, you asked about them. Who they were. Where you came from. For you were smart enough to know you didn't come from any egg of mine.

And I would never answer you in more than a few grunts. But I would never forget their faces as long as I lived.

One day we saw them among the common folk. Dirty and grimy like the rest. Doing chores in the wheat fields outside some magnificent castle. You had just done your fourteenth lap around the sun. I had never seen you so quiet before.

We commenced our usual plan. I would burn the crops to scare them away. You would raid the villages. It was no more than show for you of course. I was the one that did the real damage. But I lost track of you that day. I was onto consuming my ninth or tenth victim when I realised you'd left my sight. I began searching for you, using my enhanced sight and smell to scope you out. But it wasn't until I heard the horrific cries of a woman that I knew where you'd gone.

You had ran your Father through with a sword outside of his home. It was on the edge of town. Your Mother was there too, howling. I saw the look on your face. It was cold. Not how I raised you. But I assumed it was because they hadn't raised you either. There was only so much a Dragon could do!

I remember you holding your sword to her throat and asking why. She hesitated, and that's what did it for you. I remember you asking me for one thing as you climbed onto my back and I obliged. I burned them both to a cinder.

You changed after that. You were no longer the happy-go-lucky scared little child I had found in the forest. Innocence was lost that day. But at least now we knew your name.

For it wasn't your Father's name your Mother was screaming.

For three more cycles we continued to raid and pillage what was left of the land. You started saying less and lashing out more but it was nothing I couldn't keep in check. And then one day we stumbled upon her.

Tied up. Bound and gagged. We heard rumours of a Princess being abducted up north but never in a million years did we expect to run into her on one of our raids. She had dark, auburn hair and eyes like a doe. You were immediately smitten despite my many warnings. And when you found out what they did to her...you didn't rest until we'd put every last bandit's head on a spike.

We returned to the King with his daughter and she professed us her saviours. Naturally, the King's men were quite nervous having a dragon in the castle, but you insisted I would behave. The King offered you treasures beyond your wildest dreams! But you asked for his daughter's hand in marriage and a place for an old friend instead. He gave his blessing. She accepted your offer. It was a match for the ages.

Oh, how I wish that was all your heart truly desired.

And so we went from Vikings ransacking villages to heroes of the Kingdom. From outlaws on the road to Knights of the Realm. The King had given me a grand cave where he hid all of his gold and magnificent jewels. He fed me fifteen sheep a day so I wouldn't feel the need to go picking off his people. I grew quite fond of my comfortable, new life. And fat.

But you didn't. You grew restless and during my visits I noticed there was always something in the back of your mind. Something bothering you. Some unknown itch that needed scratching and would rattle you. But you never knew what and so I couldn't help you.

That was until one day you came of age and the King passed away under mysterious circumstances. You became their new ruler! A rude awakening and shock to both of us, but you came to embrace it wholeheartedly. And I stayed by your side, as your occasional advisor and friend.

But your rule was different to that of your Father-in-law. Only in subtle ways at first but it quickly became apparent that you had vastly differing ideologies. For starters, you made a lot more sweeping changes than the kind King before you. You hired a new Captain of the Guard, one more brutal and cruel than the last. You brought back the public execution system, for you said it would provide "entertainment" for the citizens and make an example of those who deserved it. You grew tired of your wife and brought many other women into the castle while she turned a blind eye. But the moment that I realised I wasn't needed anymore was when one of the soldiers brought an abandoned baby into the room.

I saw that glint in your eye as you asked where they'd found it. I saw you shaking with a violent, uncontrollable rage as they told you it was deserted in one of the stables. And then you ordered for every parent in the kingdom to be hunted down until you had found the ones it belonged to.

I understood where this was coming from. I knew why you had called for such drastic measures and were so unwavering in your resolve. But it was all too much for me. And that says a lot, for I am a Dragon. But I just couldn't handle how much you had changed.

And so I went into hiding. For how long? I don't know. Ten cycles? Twelve? I hid in that cave and entered a deep hybernation where I lost all track of time.

The only way I knew a significant amount of time had actually passed was when the Queen came to visit me. She had grown noticeably older. Perhaps she had almost reached her thirtieth? She told me that the Kingdom had become a depressing place. That there were no more parents; only children and slaves and the north had now come under martial law. The soldiers and the Captain of the Guard ruled the realm. The King hadn't been seen for months now. She hadn't seen him since he'd sent her away...

I agreed I would find you and left at once. I flew over the Kingdom and saw that each home had a corpse or two hanging from it's roof. Former mothers and fathers, I assumed. I flew over the town once or twice more, spraying it with fire and taking down the legion of guards that opposed me. Once I was done, I headed for the castle and crashed through the walls into the throne room.

You were there, looking as terrified as you had the day I met you. The Captain of the Guard and his soldiers met me head on. I dispatched them quickly and threw the Captain into the air, plucking him out of the sky and swallowing him whole. I addressed you directly.

"Orion, King of the North, named by your Mother; named after the constellation of the night sky. Martial law has come to an end. Speak now or forever be caught in the eternal flame."

And immediately you ran over to me, reminding me of when you were small. You prayed and pleaded for me to take you away from this place. You told me how the soldiers had taken over and had lost faith in you after your most recent orders and how you had been imprisoned in your own castle for several years. You said you wanted to live on the road again, to live off the land like we used to. And somehow I found it in my heart to believe you. But you said we had to do one last thing first.

We went to the forest just outside the castle. It wasn't the same forest as when you were little. That had burned down long ago. But it still gave me echoes of the past all the same. It was only now I realised you had a small bundle with you. We went into a clearing and to my surprise it was a baby. Even younger than you were when I found you. And you said there was no place for a child in a world as cruel as this one and left it there.

Something shot through me. It wasn't fire. Some intense form of fury I'd never felt before. You helped make this world the way it is! The madness. The hypocrisy of it all.

I remember asking you one thing, barring you from leaving the clearing.

"Orion, is the baby the Queen's? Or one of your whores?"

You looked at me with a confused expression.

"The Queen's. I'm not a monster, Draco."

I remember shaking my head.

"Correction, I am a monster. You are something much worse."

I burned you until there was nothing left. And then I took your baby to its Mother, hoping I would get it right this time.