Ethan once had dreams. Those died along with his father.

"I'm glad I at least could see you grow to be a man," his father told him weakly. He gripped onto his hands tightly before his stepmother pushed her way into his spot. It was she his father looked upon last. That was the very first moment in which Ethan’s stepmother, Raymona, would terrorize him. 

If, of course, he didn’t count the first night she showed up at their doorstep with her children, Bren and Vergil. The three of them were just kids at the time. Bren was not unlike how he was now, rude, ignorant, and bullying. Vergil, however, had been shy and hesitant. Ethan was thrilled with having siblings and immediately took to the boy. But as Vergil grew older he’d turned into someone Ethan disliked most of all. For Bren, he was merely tolerated and Raymona was neglectful. But it wasn’t until his father passed that his life had taken a turn downward.

"Ethan!" Raymona called from the sitting room. The young man rolled his eyes as he collected the last egg from the hens. "Ethaaaan!"      

He considered taking his time, but the annoyance he’d receive wasn't   worth it. Instead he  speedily went into the house, placed the basket of eggs on the kitchen table, and walked with a sigh into the sitting room. "Yes, stepmother?"

"What is this?" she wiped a finger across the top of the mantle, below the large family portrait of which Ethan was surprised he hadn't been cut from. Her finger rose to his face covered in dust, leaving the mantle with a streak where it’d just been.

"Dust, I gather," he smiled his best innocent smile, relishing in the small bit of impertinence he allowed himself.

"You gather? Well, I gather, that you didn’t gather it because it’s still there. You were supposed to dust yesterday."

"Yes, well, if the boys did their part and took up some of the chores more often, maybe I wouldn't have so much on my plate. Dust gathering solved," he shrugged his shoulders.

She scowled at him and appeared ready to snap. Maybe he’d gone a little far, but it was much too early to be dealing with her. She seemed to think the same for she shook her head and wiped the dust off her finger on his shirt. "I woke up from some unusual noises. I thought it might have been Vergil sneaking back inside," she crossed her arms and stepped away from him, her voice sounding tired and distant. "But that boy hasn’t had the decency to not walk straight through the front door in a long while."

"Why don’t you head back to bed and I’ll check to see if anything’s happening outside. I’ll be back soon with your breakfast."

She looked at him over her shoulder and stared blankly for a moment. 

It was a riddle what his father saw in her with her appearance as plain as it were. She blended in perfectly with any other older woman in a crowd. His mother on the other hand was a woman of such great beauty he imagined people would stop whatever they were doing if she passed them by. It was her, that Ethan resembled more closely, though handsome rather than beautiful, features sharper and more defined and blond hair a little duller. His green eyes were his father's. 

"See to it that you do, and quickly too. I have no patience this early."

He was certain she had no patience regardless of the time of day. Instead of saying so, he meekly pressed his lips together. Raymona slipped back into her bed chambers and Ethan slipped out the front door. He’d heard nothing while he was out back with the animals but his stepmother always seemed to have an ear for trouble.

He stared out now into the wide expanse of land and listened. There! What was that sound? It was like the howling of an animal but not one he recognized. Then in the air he spotted something, at first it appeared to be a small dot but as it closed in, it grew larger than a house.

"What is all of that racket?" Bren stepped out beside him pressing his knuckles into his eyes. "Causing more trouble, Ethan."

"Get back in the house," Ethan pushed into him. Bren stumbled backwards but quickly latched a hand to the door frame.

"How dare you? You’re just like a boar, and stupid like one too."

"You’ll be dead and stupid if you don’t get in the house, now."

"Are you threa," his words were cut off as he looked up into the sky and at whatever was coming nearer. He fell into the house and scooted backwards. Ethan quickly closed the door behind them. "Mama!" Bren’s voice echoed through the house.

Raymona slammed open her bedroom door, "What is the matter now?"

No one needed to answer her because just then a great roar shook the house. She lost her footing and fell. Ethan wobbled but stood while Bren clamped his hands over his ears. Raymona scrambled her way to the window and pushed aside the curtains to peer outside, Ethan looked out behind her.

"Whatever is that thing?"

Winged like a bird, or more like a bat, yet it was a fourlegged reptile. Its head was long and broad covered in spikey horns. Matter of fact, there were spikes along all of its body, down to the tip of its tree trunk tail whipping side to side. Just getting knocked into that tail would shatter every bone. The sight of that horrid beast made Ethan feel like a little boy again.

It circled around something on the ground, hissing, growling, and roaring. Then, as if it were something out of a nightmare, it breathed out flames. After a moment to clear his head of the shock, he realized it was men on horse back the beast had been hounding. The men raised their bows and fired but the arrows bounced off the scaled armor. In retaliation it snatched a man from his horse, threw him the air, and opened it’s sharp toothed mouth to swallow him whole.

The sound of the man’s screams all the way till his death pulled Raymona from the window which she’d been glued to. "Why has that thing come here," she cried, falling to her son on the floor and clinging to him. "How much more suffering must we endure?"

"We’ll die here," Bren said. "And how unfair it is that Vergil will have escaped the same fate because he’s out gallivanting."

Ethan turned to him mouth gaping wide open. "What?" Bren said. "Don’t give me that look. It’s true is it not? He’s more deserving than I to receive this treatment."

"He’s your brother," was all that Ethan could muster. Somehow, he’d thought it was good that if they were to die, Vergil would be away. Truly, it was times when one’s life was on the line that their greatest character could shine through.

"He’s just scared, is all," Raymona said, pressing Bren's head to her bosom. "He doesn’t mean it at all. It’s better me here than Vergil, at least." There were tears in her eyes. Despite everything, Ethan was glad that she at least had some humanity in her heart to be capable of loving her sons, if not anyone else.

When Ethan had again looked out the window, he saw a tall man holding a long, thick chain with metal balls at the end. He swung the chain over his head, and what great strength that must have needed, and threw one side. The top wrapped around one of the beast’s legs and the man clung to the other end with both hands. Then he spurred his horse into a run, caught by surprise the beast was grounded. 

Ethan's heart pounded watching him. A wide toothed smile reached the man's shining eyes making it look like he was only playing a game. His long black braid swished in the air like a brilliant living animal. Ethan wasn't sure if he was more mesmerized by his strength or the man in of himself, because watching him made his breath catch in his throat. There was some recognition alongside his feelings of admiration, but he couldn't quite place where he'd seen the man before.

The other men circled it, swords and arrows at the ready. However, it didn’t take long before it caught it’s bearings and ripped the chain off with its fangs, bits of metal flew. It turned sideways and swung it’s massive tail towards the man who’d felled it, cutting the air with a high pitched whistle. But before it could hit him with the full brunt, a girl lept from her running horse and upon its flank to pierce the flesh between its scales with a sword.

Some instinct came over him and he rushed outside. As the woman was flung from the beast with a great shake of its body, Ethan grabbed a spear from a fallen man, now noticed to be a knight. Its head lifted and its chest puffed up, the scales parting as air visibly gushed toward them. As its chest reddened and steamed like metal taken from fiery coals, Ethan pulled back his arm and threw the spear. It sunk into the flesh between its parted scales and the flames burst within the creature.

A great cry of pain and fury rang through the sky as the beast stumbled and reared. It landed back down shaking the ground like a earthquake and then with its powerful wings, took off. The force of the wind knocked every man and horse to the ground.

Ethan wobbled to his feet and ran to the man who’d taken the hit from the tail. He allowed only a short moment of surprise at seeing that it was the prince and lifted him in his arms. A large ink shaped beauty mark beneath his closed eye running to the edge of his jaw marked his identity. He was a hefty weight of muscle and his firm body warmed Ethan's hands and arms. The man moaned and he took it to be a good sign.

"Brother!" the woman shouted as she crawled toward them. "What do you think you’re doing? Unhand him!"

"I’m taking him to my home," he pointed with his head.

She followed his gesture with a tense expression. "Thank you," she said softly before wincing and clutching at her side.

"You too, come in."

"Shortly. Go on."

He did as she asked of him, listening to her order the knights to bring the badly injured inside and for someone to go on and catch a doctor. Raymona opened the door and ushered him upstairs to her bedchambers where the sheets had been pulled back from the bed and a bowl of warm water, a cloth, and bandages awaited. He laid the prince upon the bed.

Loud clambering behind the bedchambers announced the incoming of the knights. Ethan looked out to see the kitchen table being cleared off with haste, the porcelain tea set shattered upon hitting the floor, and a man wreathing in pain was set upon it. A mess was made as they searched for anything to help.

Raymona cared delicately for the prince, taking scissors to his clothes to get to the wound. There was a nasty gash from his chest to his abdomen turning purple. Raymona took the soaked cloth and cleaned the wound, the prince was unconscious and hardly reacted but for the squeezing of his closed eyes and the sweat dripping down his paled skin.

"My brother, how does he fair?" the woman came in holding up her many layered gown. It must once have been beautiful but was now covered in blood and dirt. Her red curled hair was mussed, falling in every direction and her soft bronze face was streaked with sweat cutting through dirt and makeup, but still her beauty nearly stopped Ethan’s heart. "Will he…" her voice broke and tears flooded her amber eyes.

Raymona finished pinning the bandages around his wound and went right to wiping down his sweat. "I was a nurse during the war when I was girl, I saw men in worse conditions survive. But he needs a doctor soon. I don’t know if there’s something worse than just what we can see." That surprised Ethan, he’d not known about her past.

"Then this," she sniffled. "Is all you can do?"

"Yes."

"Go care for the other men," she sat on the bed beside the prince fixing her gown to the side so she could move in close and grabbed his hand. She pressed his knuckles to her lips. A warm olive tone began to fill in his skin, still fairer compared to his sister.

Raymona curtsied and made to leave.

"I’ll tend to your horses," Ethan said.

"No, the...boy, will do it, you stay," she gestured to Bren, whom Ethan hadn’t noticed slipped into the room. He opened his mouth but his mother gave him such a look that his mouth snapped closed and he rushed off. Then Raymona left the room after him.

"What would you have me do?"

"Sit." He did as told. "You saved us, I’m eternally grateful," she laid her forehead upon the prince’s.

In that moment the gears in Ethan’s head began to turn. His face burned, "Your highness, it was nothing but my duty."

"People make their own choices, you made yours," she looked to him. Her eyes were bright and narrow, almond shaped, her brows were thick but neat and naturally slanted inwards, and her lips were full with a slight curve upwards at the corners. She had a look in her face that made her seem perpetually disinterested. "Duty or not, actions are true to someone's heart." Then she went back to watching her brother carefully, pushing his bangs back from his sweat soaked face.

"I’m honored to receive your wisdom. May I ask what that creature had been?"

"You drove it away so you have earned it’s name, however until the king has been informed and makes the decision, no one else shall be told. Can you keep it a secret?"

"Yes, of course, your highness."

"It was a dragon."