I remember… it was a weekend, so Katelynn definitely went out to the village to sell our wares, especially the freshly-minted phoenix rings. We both woke up at the same times we usually do; Lynn at the ass-crack of dawn, and me a few hours later. She made us both breakfast: eggs and toast for her, leftover stew and a few stale loaves of bread for me. She carefully packed all the merchandise, the rings, a few necklaces, a large bracelet, several saddles that I had modified to add iron to, and a breastplate I had made a week before. Lynn made the jewelry and accessories since her hands were small enough to do that and I did modifications, armor, weapons, and the like.

Anyways, she loaded it all into the hand-drawn cart and, armed with a dagger and a few sandwiches for lunch, she headed to the town with a wave and a smile back to me. I lifted a paw in response from the mouth of the cave, and as soon as I couldn’t see her, I turned back inside and started cleaning. Our lair was actually smaller than most other dragons’, and it had no excess possessions, as Mom wasn’t the Hoarder type; she was more a Maker than anything else. 

That’s probably what made her such a great Protector. All Dragons, once they become of age, leave the dens they grew up in and choose a piece of land to protect for the rest of their lives. They find a cave, or lake, or something, and live there the rest of their adult lives. They are tied to that area, and protect it from any and all dangers. After protecting the land for long enough, they “Die”. Their heart stops beating, they stop breathing, and their bodies might even start decaying. But it was more a hibernation than anything else. It was just a chance for them to leave their lands and visit friends and family. Then, after a few more years of that, they came back to their bodies and were resurrected. They continued to protect their lands in that neverending cycle, and after completing the first cycle, a dragon’s den grows the Dragon Vine. It allows them to have children, either on their own or with a mate or mates. That was what Mom did with Da. And Dragons, because of this cycle, are basically immortal, so when one dies, it’s a big deal. Because not only does the Dragon die, so does their mate and their lands, often overtaken by illnesses that they were once protected from. That’s why all the crops in the nearby village have been doing so terribly after Mom was killed. The only reason the woods were fine was because Mom’s magick still permeated the trees and plants around her cave.

Either way, I wasn’t leaving once I came of age. It’s not like I was going to protect the lands either though. I couldn’t; I couldn’t shift and didn’t have a human form. But I wouldn’t do so willingly anyway. Let the Humans suffer for what they did to my parents.

But maybe Fate heard that, and decided to punish me, because that day, that awful day. I waited and waited for Katelynn to come back. I waited and waited. For hours after she was supposed to come home. I told myself that she was just late because a deal was difficult, or, Gods forbid, she had another pesky suitor.

So I waited. Hours and hours and hours and- 

Where is she?

She should be home by now…

She should have been home hours ago!

What if something happened to her?

What if she’s in danger?!

What if… what if…

“Fuck this,” I growled. I marched towards the cave entrance-

And stopped. What was I doing? I couldn’t leave, what if I get caught? I’m no good to Lynn if I’m dead.

‘But she could be dead,’ a little voice in my head whispered. ‘You need to help her!’ it called.

I… I needed to help her, protect her. I can’t lose her too. Not Lynn…

So, silently whimpering, I walked out to the field just before the village, and stopped again. I’d never gone any further than this. Not even as a hatchling.

Then, suddenly, I heard a very pissed-off voice. A very pissed-off Lynn!

“Lynn, thank Gods! I-” I broke off after I finally saw what was causing her distress.

There she was, Katelynn, my sister, surrounded by what looked like royal guards, trying to hold her back from slapping the shit out of another man, who was looking up at her in awe and shock.

None of them seemed to notice me, which was weird because I was a twenty-something foot reptile with wings, but whatever.

“NO, I WILL NOT FUCKING MARRY YOU, YOU RICH ASSHOLE. JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE A PRINCE YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST PICK A WOMAN?! FUCK THAT, I HAVE A BROTHER TO TAKE CARE OF AND A BUSINESS TO RUN. I’LL TELL YOU WHERE YOU CAN STICK YOUR POSH DICK YOU-” she was suddenly cut off when a hand shot out over her mouth.

“It’s not like I want to marry you, you psychopathic woman, just let me expla-”

I didn’t hear anything he said after the hand covered Lynn’s mouth. I snarled in rage, a sound I had never heard come out of my own mouth. The younger man (prince?) cut off his words when he heard me, and the guards and my sister looked at me in horror, likely for very different reasons.

“Zair…” she whispered, staring up at me in shock and confusion.

The other guards were a little less subtle.

“DRAGON!” They shouted. And that was the word that started a panic.

Townspeople started rushing around and screaming. The guards reached for their swords and drew them, pointing them at me. The prince, whom I’m assuming was harassing my sister for her to get so angry, thought it was a good idea to grab Katelynn’s arm and drag her off to “safety”.

I saw red.

I let out a fearsome roar as I lunged at the prince’s arm, trying to get him off her.

“Protect Prince Ric!” I faintly heard someone shout, but I didn’t care.

‘Give me back my sister, give her back! I’m not losing her to Humans too!’ The voice that had originally prompted me to go after her was back, and putting my feelings into words perfectly.

I was just about to reach Lynn when I felt a sharp poke in my right hind leg, then a burning pain. I had never felt something so painful before, not even when I accidentally grabbed a still-white-hot piece of metal from the forge with my whole paw.

As I let out another yowl, this time in pain, I heard Lynn scream, “Zairyn!” before I saw her being dragged off by the prince, Prince Ric I think they called him, to a large white carriage. The prince quickly got up into the driver’s seat and snapped the reins, causing the horses to run off in fear. With my sister. With my Katelynn!

‘No! Give her back! Give me my sister back!’

I was about to chase after her when I felt the blade in my leg start to twist. Gods it hurt so much. My body moved on its own, and instead of running towards the rapidly disappearing carriage like I wanted to, I leaned away from the pain. My wings, on their own accord, unfurled in a strange, sore feeling. I had never used them for anything more than balance occasionally. Some odd and long-buried instinct in me made my wings beat experimentally, and when my body found that it didn’t hurt so much, they moved much faster and harder. The air stirred by my wings swirled around me in a miniature vortex, and the loose dirt and leaves followed. Eventually, the guards were so blinded by the dust that they gave up attacking me and cowered beneath me. I wasn’t even conscious of my movements by then, so when I lifted off the ground for the first time in my nineteen years, there was no time to celebrate.

Eventually, I somehow found myself back at the mouth of the cave. I was panting hard from the strenuous activity that was flying, and slumped down next to the larger rocks nearby. I couldn’t focus on how I just flew, or how I had technically just seen my first Human village, or that said Humans now knew I existed. I could only think about Katelynn. Katelynn, and that prince that had stolen her.

And I needed to get her back.