When I think deeply about it there is only one answer to this question.
                At the time I was in one of the many valleys of my life, filled with misery and without any sort of shining beacon of hope on sight. In a sense, not much different from the rest of my life, every day a different coat of lifeless grey.
                I realize how me saying that can make you believe I’m just nagging you, I’m sorry, it was never my intention… Let me put it like this… My life has never been easy, or happy, or calm, regardless of how much I craved for it or worked for it.
                Throughout many times of my life I had some enjoyment out of it, but it never lasted… A month? A week? A single day? How long would I have before it inevitably got taken from me and I was left in pieces again?
                I never had that moment in which you can just relax and think ‘everything is gonna be fine from here on!’ or ‘I might lose a lot but I will always have this! This is special!’… Nothing was ever safe, nothing was ever mine, nothing was ever going to last, not for me, not now nor anywhere… Or so I thought.

                Don’t get me wrong, I sound very down on myself… But I guess those horrible things are what made me who I am, they made me appreciate my life and my companies for as little or as long as they stayed with me.
                I wished it got better, I prayed to the gods and spirits, and when that didn’t work I acted and failed time and time again… Until I came to this point.

                I would begin a story here because at this point in my life was when I had finally stopped fighting it… I would be mad or cry when things went south, I would hate my wrongdoers or judge them, but I accepted I couldn’t do anything anymore, that this was just how my life was supposed to be.
                There was even a twisted part of me that thought maybe I deserved all this, everything that happened might have been a necessary evil and I was just the karmic sacrificial lamb for the world to correct its course… I even took pride in thinking that, as that made me somehow more important than I actually am.
                There are things in my mind that I wished would just disappear, either because they bring me terrible memories, a feeling of helplessness or just flat out shame…. But what I thought never mattered.
                Whether I liked it or not, whether I screamed, cried, raged, accepted, embraced or even loved my fate, fate cared not for me. And this is why this moment is special to me… I was nothing, wanted nothing, cared for nothing and loved nothing anymore.
                I spent most of my time cherishing the few moments I had been happy for, and trying to forget the pain of now, thinking the days of happiness were over and that life was just misery from here until the moment I inevitably passed.
               
                I know this sounds sad and pessimistic, but alas there will be a time and place for commiserating later, and eventually the circumstances that led me to such a desolate place in life will be clear.
                Right now, I wanted to begin on a high note… Something that brings me those feelings of joy and hope I craved so much, as fleeting as I thought they would be.

                There are few things I should make clear before this, the first of them might already be crossing your mind so I’ll just come out and say it.
                My name is Vernon Ealdwine Redmane, and you’re excused for thinking why is this important… Well… To you this name means nothing really, you don’t even know what I am or what I look like, but this is the single most important thing in my life, or rather the three most important things in my life as it’s three words.

                You see, the first name, Vernon, was given to me by mother, she thought I’d be cute if I was named after my father, not that anyone gets the comparison since his name was Alder… Depending on where you go, this name will get you killed. But very rarely so, I try not to get on people’s wrong side.
                The second name, Ealdwine, was my father’s surname, his branch of the family was small and it’s safe to say neither me or my uncle would continue it so… Yeah… This name will get you killed in quite a lot of places, my father was not an upstanding citizen and made quite a lot of enemies.
                The third name is the real problem… Redmane…  it’s my families name on my fathers side, my mother never had a surname to begin with. This name will get you killed pretty much anywhere, and not just killed, maimed, beheaded, gutted… You name a horrible thing and it’s likely been done to other people of my kind or maybe even me, you’d be surprised at some of the things I survived.
                So I guess it’s obvious by now that having these three names combined means a whole lot of people want me killed in variety of unpleasant and highly painful ways…
                That is why I tend to only ever mention the first one, unfortunately, names and family are something you can’t chose and can’t get away from that easily, so no matter where I go trouble finds me, and if I’m lucky I’ll come out of it without too much damage, most of the times so far I’ve been lucky, but I do have the scars to remember the times I wasn’t.
                Still… I’m alive, right? That counts for something.

                Second thing is… I’m manned wolf… Big surprise, right?
                The name is not Redmane by chance.
                It makes it even worse really, I couldn’t hide even though I want to.
                Just how many manned wolves you think are out there right now that DON’T carry my families cursed last name? And even if they don’t, they still get terrible things done to them for stuff my ancestors did… which makes it even worse to think about it.
                I’d rather not open that can of worms right now to be honest.

                So moving on to the third… This world is ruled by dragons.
                it came to my attention that not every world is ruled by dragons so I guess it needed to be clarified.
                And they certainly are not the friendly goofy kind you see in stories in your world where they act like pets and are cute and obedient but only somewhat bratty.
                Right here we got the mean destructive type, the type that can do a flyby and raze a city to the ground turning people in piles of ash before they can even think about what they did to deserve that.
                Not just that, they are smart, dominant and pretty much invulnerable, so good luck opposing one of them on anything… Even if you could challenge them in one of those things they might smush you just for the audacity of suggesting it.
                I realize it might be hard for you to picture it, so imagine if EVERY major influence in your world suddenly had the power to motion one hand and exterminate thousands of people with no repercussions other than having his pers roll their eyes at them, imagine if no one in history could ever scratch any of them or do so much as a small cut in them…
                Yeah, that is the world I live in…  

                And though a while later I would learn not everything I just said is true, it helps to illustrate my point right now, so forgive my deceit.
                Some of these dragons are kings filled with royal self-importance, some are horrifying tyrants on a quest to enslave all types of kin, some are great sages loved by the people and worshiped like gods and some don’t show their faces at all to the point we might question their existence and influence entirely.
                It might sound bad… but it’s all we’ve known here really, it’s hard to imagine a world without them, it’d be like the sun was different color, it’s just crazy to think about.
                I was lucky enough to be born into one the nations where people are not slaves to those beasts, or worse, cattle… In fact, I was so lucky I was actually born in the lands of one of the few dragons who never cared for our existence… I was so fortunate, I never got to see a dragon until I was in my late teens, let alone talk to one or get within an arm’s length of one.
                As I mentioned before though, nothing in my life lasts and that birthplace is pretty much all I can say was lucky in my existence, so soon enough I had to move, and then before I knew it I left the comfort of my home and my uncle to be… Here.

                Those are the three basic facts you needed to know, there is more to me than that, but I suspect if I keep digressing you might get bored so we should keep the exposition at that level for now… Moving on to our story then.

                We begin in a terribly hot and dry summer day, the scorching heat was relentless causing every living thing around to sit in silence and cool off in the shade.
                Every living thing except a rather dumb manned wolf who thought it would be a good idea to travel in these conditions… I was slowly but surely making progress even if I was sweating profusely from every pore in my body and my pace was erratic and hazy.
                I had left the previous town in a hurry, I don’t even recall the name of it, but I do recall something involving the local guards chasing me when some guy confused me for a thief. That lead to my current predicament of not having the proper amount of water, food or any sort of heat resisting sigil to help ease my suffering.
                As I waltzed from side to side taking every step as if were the last, I remembered feeling desperate, I had no friend with me and no prospect of being saved by anyone, without provision I couldn’t reach the next city nor could I go back… I was going to eventually collapse from heat exhaustion and just die in the middle of nowhere, no great battle to my name, no great deeds or heroism, no songs, nothing heroic or meaningful just a slow, miserable and lonely death.
                A small pile of bones would sit on the side of a road with a duffel coat, a dirty shirt and worn-out pants, people would look at my pack for anything valuable but see only trash, that to them was useless… And they’d probably spit on my remains for not carrying anything of value.
                I remember walking in the middle of the road next to the large fields of yellowed out grass that swayed in the wind forming these beautiful waves of gold and thinking ‘What more could I wish for? If this wasn’t an acceptable death what would be? More pain? Dying for someone I loved?’
                None of those things would make sense… nor make this better or worse.
                I started feeling my body getting heavier, my legs were completely out of balance, my head shook violently with every tired step. My breath burning my insides, the hot air coming out felt like my lungs were a furnace churning hot coal… and finally, my knees gave in… I fell on the ground slamming into the dry dirt hazily gazing around thinking that maybe, just maybe, I could finally rest, fooling myself into thinking. ‘It’s just for a little while… Just sleep, I’ll be fine.’

                Looking back on it now, it feels depressing to know I ever thought that would be an acceptable outcome… Just what was I thinking? I was so naïve back then it’s frustrating to remember.
                And though, as much as I curse my fate, IT wasn’t cursing ME back then, in fact it’s the whole reason I survived that particular day… As I laid there drifting back and forth into my own mind I felt very little of the real world, every now and again I’d open my eyes and see the sun had moved a few more inches, feel the added layer of sand the wind blew over before taking another faint breath and fading out again.
                However, amidst those confusing feelings I felt something more real and palpable, a tug at my leg, then in my arms, then finally I was completely off the ground, I was being moved somewhere… By someone, or something.
                I tried to keep myself awake and analyze my surroundings, I quickly found that there were people there, large men and women covered almost from head to toe with coats that had shimmering surfaces and patterns on them… The intricate designs and matched yellow colors were enough for me to recognize they were some sort of military organization.
                They lifted me up from the ground and brought me over to the back of an auto-wagon, the steel below me was cold as the cart was shielded from the sun by a thick piece of canvas that made a flailing sound when hit by the breeze.
                As the temperature went down I was able to regain consciousness… I still had a major headache due to the heatstroke and my body felt like it was on fire, but I was alive… Luckily the vehicle was stopped otherwise this would’ve been way worse, and not a pretty description to give.

                A voice seemed to appear out of thin air as a hand touched my blazing forehead. “What were you doing out there little one?”

                I moved my head and swayed my eyes around till I was able to lock my gaze onto a pair of caramel eyes followed by a black and brown fur… Some sort of Shepperd dog… He had a gentle expression on his face, but like all the others outside, he was a soldier.
                “I… hot…” I still couldn’t form a proper sentence.

                “*Shhh*… Drink this first…” He started to tilt my head up and made me drink from a bottle allowing fresh cold water to run down my throat, my body instinctively tried to swallow it all be he gently held me back. “… Not so fast or you will end up puking.”

                I gulped with no concern for the mess I was making until I sated my thirst, I could actually feel the water going down as it cooled off most of my throat and sent a feeling of relief down and into my chest.

                Having been rehydrated I started feeling a lot better and I could finally properly think. “Thank you… *Ah*… I needed that.”