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Chapter 15

Once a long time ago, there once was a little dragon. She, like all other dragons of that time, was the result of a demon taking a body in the world of the living. This little dragon cared not for hunting or the slaying of humans, like all of her kin. Instead she enjoyed wandering the wild and seeing the beauty of this world with its beautiful plants and peaceful harmless animals who care nothing for destruction. She reveled in nature and peace, but she was a dragon, and humans hated dragons much the same in those days as they do in the current age. Every time the little dragon would find herself around humans, all she would want to do is see them work, see them play, see the wonderful things they build. But the humans would chase her away with sharp things and torches, they cared not she was a peaceful soul completely unlike her kin, they only saw a dragon. The little dragon's life remained this way as she wanders the land, until one day she finds a little village in the mountains.

She wanders into the village while trying to keep quiet as she looks at all the simple wonders of the humans. Things that to you or I would seem crude or unimpressive to her were marvelous works of genius, all forms of creativity fill this very different little dragon's heart with admiration for the humans. She sees them as the most wonderful of all the creatures in this land, and her only sorrow is that they cannot see her for the kind, and gentle being that she is. The suns are rising and the day grows brighter, the humans of the village quietly watch as this small by dragon standards, but still large creature creeps through their village. These villagers do not attack her immediately upon seeing her, and instead they slowly begin to put their heads out of doorways and as quietly as they can follow her while remaining hidden.

One boy from the village, he must have been 5 or 6 years old, walks past her seemingly unaware or unafraid of her as passes her. When the little dragon sees the boy she cringes and pulls her clawed hand up recoiling from him being so close, she has never been so close to a human, let alone one so small and armed with nothing more than a plush doll in the shape of a dragon. The boy stops and looks at her, then drops his doll and slowly walks forward while making noises like one does to beacon a shy cat. The dragon watches in awe and with worry that the other humans may attack at any moment. The boy puts his little hands on her belly, and presses against her in a hug. The dragon's tender heart melts in the tiny embrace of this little one, she feels the bond between them that she has dreamed of for years, from the very first time she discovered humans. She smiles and puts a more paw-like than claw-like hand on the boy and returns his embrace.

The villagers see this display, and they for the first time in history, do not attack the dragon. They slowly circle around and whisper their curiosity at this unheard of exchange between man and dragon. But these villagers are wiser than most, they are the Shamen, a people who live at one with nature, and who share a deep bond with the wild magic that flows through all living things. They sensed her nature and that is why they did not attack. This tribe raises the little dragon and she protects them as well as helping them with things that are too hard for a horse, or just helps them hunt. Before she was accepted by these humans the little dragon had survived mostly on eating crops, or wild plants. It was never satisfying however, and when the villagers fed her cooked meat for the first time, she couldn't eat enough, she ate and ate until her belly grew and became fat with all the food. Her body became softer with time as the live with the villagers did not require her to be entirely self-sufficient anymore. The hunters and farmers of the village were able to produce more food than they needed to feed themselves, even with the little dragon eating so much.

One day, the little dragon is sleeping in the sun at the foot of the village fields, harvest draws near and the hay is golden and ripe for the picking. The little dragon opens an eye and looks around. It is only when she looks up that she sees the source of the dark shadow. A male dragon, much larger than her and wreathed in black scales. His horns and the coloring of his body identify him as a young alpha dragon. He circles the area as if searching for something, his massive wings physically representing the intelligence and magical aptitude of the demon within him. Demons with the mental capacity and creativity combined with the power required to shape their living host into a shape capable of flight, are immensely rare and even more dangerous, especially to humans.

Once the little dragon remembers the humans are in danger she jumps up and hurries towards town as fast as her stubby legs can carry her now fat body. She thinks only of protecting the village and her adoptive family, the changes her body has undergone in her time here have not prepared her for combat with another dragon in the slightest, worse, she has traded her soft scales for soft skin, and her horns have shrunk along with her once trim muscles. Her pink flesh jiggles comically as she scurries, more akin to a massive walrus than a regal dragon. By the time she arrives in town everything is ablaze but otherwise quiet. The alpha dragon sits in the center of the village with his back to her as he chews on something.

To the horror of the little dragon the alpha has her little human friend between his teeth, and when he senses her he turns and snaps his jaws crushing everything and causing blood to drip from his maw and run down his neck. He chuckles as he sees her horror, and swallows. The little dragon is too horrified to do anything more than stare as tears run down her face, everything she loved has been taken from her by this monster. The monster stands to his full height, muscles rippling powerfully under his scared and heavily scaled hide. Battle has shaped this fearsome beast into a hardened killing machine, but has done nothing to dull the burning of intelligence in his eyes. He speaks in a language the little dragon hasn't heard since she was a lowly lust demon in hell, Old Demonic. The language spoken by the royal demons in the Palace of Despair. His words are unknown to her, but the magic in them forces her soul to bow to his every desire.

Her face is forced into the dirt by an unseen hand, magic, a power that only the royal demons use freely in hell, and equally as freely in the world of the living. Despair fills her as she resigns herself to whatever may come, she barely feels the brutal experience that happens next, as time seems to pass in slow motion. She barely hears the ferocious roars of domination from behind her, as her mind focuses on a flower just in front of her nose, as a bit of burning rubble lands near it and slowly burns it to death. She feels like she is going to die here, if not from the vicious rape of the alpha, then surely from the sorrow in her heart. She is fortunate that her reproductive system is large enough to handle the alpha, but unfortunate that she has a large number of eggs inside her that will surely be fertilized.

She falls into a deep sleep, so deep she does not wake for days as she lays there in the ruins of her beloved village, surrounded by all the little memories she formed over a year with these people. Her violated body heals, but her heart remains scared and sorrowful for years to come. During that time, she begins to hate other dragons and the way they behave. Her belly grows heavy as her body tells her it is time to lay in a nest. But she defies her body, and keeps wandering. Her head hangs low as she walks aimlessly down human roads not caring whether people scream and flee, or stare in curiosity.

She comes to a port town with that enjoys frequent trade from sailors who brave the sea in attempts to find passage between the imperial heartland and distant lands with exotic trade goods. And one more thing of importance, this port town hosts one of the first mage's guilds. When the sorrowful and heavy laden dragon plods into down she weakly sniffs at the smells of humans and their cooked food that she so loves, but she continues her exhausted journey without taking anything. She eventually ends up on a dock looking out to sea, she stands there watching the suns setting over the sparkling water and feels a spark of wonder shine through the suffocating sadness that has been all she felt for weeks since that darkest of days in her life. She collapses on the dock and falls into a deep sleep again, one she hopes never to wake from.

The massive crowd of people that followed her on her slow parade through the main street of town forms a circle of whispering onlookers. The guards run to get the mages and bring them to the docks, the mages come quickly and pass through the crowd. The can hardly believe their eyes as the gaze upon this withered starving, and filthy pink dragon. Her skin has faded from the bright pink it was before to a browner more leathery color, further darkened by the dust and dirt and mud on her. She breathes deeply as she lays there on the dock. A young mage pushes past his mentors and peers to walk up to her, he puts a hand on her swollen belly and pushes gently in places as he inspects her. The youth has always been good with animals, and particularly good with helping women with birth and child care. He came from a village not unlike where the little dragon came from. The young man walks to the little dragon's head and squats by her eye. He looks at her and sees trails cut in the dust by tears on her face, this solidifies all his remaining apprehension into a resolute desire to help this suffering creature.

The tiny dragon hears the young mage speaking forcefully to the crowd and one of the elder mages rebuff him for speaking to them as if he were in charge. The young man responds too quietly to hear what he said but the elder steps back shocked, then leaves with a huff. The elder yells back "Fine! Have it your way, but don't come crying to me when a dragon is chewing on your head!" The young man doesn't reply, but he does speak to several people and make several requests of each of them, then he returns to beside her head and speaks comforting words softly to her.

The scent of food fills the tired little dragon's nostrils and the sound of clanking pots and the squeak and clatter of tiny wheels on pavement. She raises her head wearily, and opens her eyes to look and see what's going on. She sees a young man smiling happily in front of a line of men and women pushing carts of food of all kinds, fish, pig, cow, vegetables, fruits, raw, cooked, kettles of soups, and broths. The young man thanks the people who brought the food, and brings the little dragon a haunch of pig. She watches him with brows raised, wondering at why he would bring her food, but when he holds it under her nose those thoughts begin to fade away. It's not until he actually pulls her mouth open and shoves the haunch into her mouth that she decides to let him feed her, she chews the delicious food and swallows. Her eyes snap open and she smiles. The young mage smile to, and runs back for more food. He nurses her this way until she can't eat another bite. She nuzzles him in the belly and smiles as she shakes her head in a wordless 'no more'. He understands and returns the food to the people.

Then he asks the crowd as a whole if they will help him feed this dragon in the future, as he cannot afford to feed her from his earnings alone even if he himself forwent food and shelter. He promises them to protect them from her and train her to be a good dragon so long as they help him save her. He asks them to "tell your friends, your families, and your neighbors to help as this is going to be a project that requires them all to participate, and from which, they will all benefit, of that," he sincerely promises, "I have no doubt." The crowd is moved by the skill of his speech, his confidence, and his courage. They are silent for a few moments, but then they all come forward and start raising their voices with countless "Count me in!" and "I'll see what I can do" and "If you can befriend that dragon the same way you befriended my dog 'Nibbles' I have no doubt you will be able to do what you say. I will give you everything that I don't sell before it's too old to eat." And many many more. Nearly everyone in the crowd wants to help somehow, and the young man is the perfect person to organize them.

The young mage is recorded in the mage's guild history books as Arcanus Sevilius Snow, Arc to his friends, and the first low born mage to ascend to the throne of the mage's guild, Guildmaster. Legend says that Arcanus's mage's tower which he had built after his reign over the mage's guild ended, is surrounded by dragons to this day and is located somewhere in the far north, atop a mountain and overlooking the Imperial Heartland.

Onyxia reads the scroll this story is written on in Jacob's chamber. Once she reads the name of the young mage who saved the little dragon, she gets extremely excited and dashes down the stairs to find Jacob and tell him what she just read.