As you age your friends begin to part
As you age your family grows far
As you age you start to become wise
But as you grow older, your loved ones aren’t far



“Oh my god”, said Arkais, the look of absolute horror on his face. His face grew a pale contrast compared to his black scaled face. He looked at Alseus, tears welling in the hatchlings eyes as he watched Alseus start to cry as well. He nuzzled his cheek, trying to cheer him up but to no evale. He wrapped his tail around Alseus’ tail and squeezed gently.

“I’m… I’m so sorry to hear about that. If I had known I wouldn’t have asked.” Arkais tried to comfort Alseus, but saw that it was little use as tears began to well up in the little hatchlings eyes. He sat with Alseus and waited for the tears to come, but saw that none would come, he saw instead the look of rage, of hate, of fear, of… of an emotion that he was not familiar with. What was this emotion? It looked kind, felt soft, but left a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach as he looked at it. Then, suddenly Alseus’ eyes snapped quickly and locked onto Arkais’, Arkais began to blush and tried to look away, to hide his face, to hide his shame of showing this new feeling he had just discovered.

“What? I-Is there something on my face?” he asked, looking around the cave wondering if there was anything around him that was particularly interesting. He saw none and turned back to Alseus, only to jump back slightly from being startled. It had seemed that Alseus had moved silently closer to Arkais.

“W-What? I-Is something wrong?” he asked again.

“No”, said Alseus

“Then why do you keep staring at me?” asked Arkais

Alseus made no response; he just continued to stare deep into Arkais’ eyes. He moved a little closer, his tail making a gentle brushing sound as it passed over the floor of the cave. Arkais made no move, he neither moved closer or nearer to the other hatchling, stunned by the sudden feeling he has. He tried not to resist, but at the same time he tried to resist. Part of him knew that this was not ok, but another part knew that he just didn’t care. He wasn’t certain of this, but he somehow knew that his mother had been right about what she’d said, about how he needed to be careful about things with Alseus, but he also knew that deep in his mind, in his heart, he didn’t give a damn what she thought.



“A-Alseus… I-… I-Is this ok? I-I mean… is what we’re doing ok?” he asked, knowing that his blush was turning his cheeks a deep shade of blood red, the pink of the blush mixing with his black scales.

“I don’t know… but I don’t care either. I… I don’t know what this is… and I’m almost certain there is a word for this… but I can’t seem to think of it. But all I know… is that it makes me want to be with you… for… for a very long time… Arkais?” Alseus looked at him with a questioning look.

“Yes, Alseus?” Arkais responded, trying to look away, trying to cover his blush, but he just couldn’t seem pull himself away from Alseus’ beautiful face. The soft ocean blue eyes, the snowy white scales coalescing with his sapphire blue underbelly. He saw that Alseus had started to grow wings, seeing the slight bulges under the scales above just below the shoulder. He grew slightly jealous, knowing that this other hatchling was at least ten years older than himself, but he didn’t mind it, he actually liked the size difference. Alseus wasn’t too tall, but still taller than Arkais, but he seemed to be growing the same way Arkais was, his legs and arms growing in a strange way, much different than his parents. His parents also had much shorter appendages at the end of their paws, not these odd looking long ones that seemed to jut out of his and Alseus’ paws. Alseus didn’t seem to respond, so Arkais moved a little more forward.

“Yes? Alseus?” he said, talking a little slower, hoping not to sound rude.

“I… I don’t know… I…” he sighed and looked up, much to Arkais’ surprise, not realizing that he had in fact been looking down this whole time. Alseus looked at Arkais in the eyes and stared intently again. “You’re so beautiful,” said Alseus, his cheeks starting to blush as well.

“M-Me? Beautiful?” at this he chuckled. “You must be joking right? Surely you jest? I mean look at me,” he turned as he was talking, showing off his onyx black scales, his blood red underbelly and what looked to be like hair growing from his head. This had started growing in some time ago, but he tried to hide it as best as he could, right now was just one of the days where he would forget to cover it up with either mud or bat blood.

“So what if we’re different in color?” he looked at the top of Arkais’ head. “It’s… coming out.” He tried not to look, but couldn’t help himself and let loose a quiet chuckle. “You know, it’s actually really nice. That… stuff on the top of your head.”

“No it’s not… it’s unlike…. I’m unlike any other dragon in history. Or so says my father.” He picked up some dirt from the cave floor, getting ready to smear it all over his head, but Alseus stopped him and looked him in the eyes.

“Don’t. Don’t try to hide who you are anymore. I mean look at me, I’m not exactly the picture of a perfect dragon either. But I still seem to manage.” Alseus smiled, hoping his words would encourage Arkais to not hide himself any longer. He liked how Arkais was; quiet, very curious, never seeming to stop moving but at the same time looking as if he were dancing underwater while he moves. What was the word for this feeling that they had for one another? He was sure he’d heard it somewhere before. It’s a kind of human emotion.

“Arkais?” said Alseus.

“Yes?” Arkais asked in return.

“Do you know what…. what this feeling is? This… this feeling between us… I’m not entirely sure of what it could be… but I feel like I’ve heard it before.” Alseus blushed as he said this, hoping he didn’t sound stupid to Arkais.

“I… I don’t know. I know what you mean. But I’m not certain of what it could be.” Arkais thought for a bit. He wondered if maybe he should ask his mother what this feeling was, but thought that maybe that would be a bad idea considering the circumstances.

“So… So what should we do? Now that… now that this is all out in the open I mean.” Alseus asked with a hint of worry in his eyes.

Arkais blushed slightly, not really expecting to hear that from Alseus. He suddenly took a new interest on the dirt beneath his feet.

“I-I’m not too sure right now… my… my mother told me not to get too attached to you. But at the same time she also said that I should wait until I’m older. But I don’t think I can wait that long… What do you think we should do?”

Alseus looked down as well, “I’m not certain. I don’t think this is a bad thing. But… I think that if two male hatchlings were to… to feel this way about one another… I don’t think that would be socially acceptable.”

Arkais thought the same thing. He also thought that all of that was complete… Oh what’s the human word? “Crap” he thought it was. Yes, he remembered from the story’s his father would tell him that whenever something bad happened a human would always spurt out some word like that. He also remembered some other ones but thought it best not to say those words quite yet. He figured he would take it up when he got older though.

For a while they were silent, looking down at the ground, then after what seemed like ages they lifted there heads back up and looked each other in the eyes. The scooted closer together and put their cheeks together, rubbing gently, a sign of affection in the culture of dragons. Then they blushed, not stopping and got a little closer, purring as they were doing this. They both knew this to be a bad thing. A social “no-no” as the humans called it. But they didn’t care. They didn’t care what Arkais’ mother thought about it. They didn’t care about Arkais’ father thought about it. And they sure as hell didn’t care about what anyone else thought about it. So long as they were happy that’s all they cared about. So long as they were together they were happy. They didn’t have a word for this feeling. They didn’t have a word for what they were doing. But they didn’t care. There was no word for what they had together. They only knew that this was only meant to be shared between a male and female dragon, and that what they were doing was a taboo, and they also knew that no one would be approving of this. They had no friends to help them with this. So they were alone in the world. Alone, but together. And so long as they were together they would never be unhappy.

As they rubbed their cheeks together Arkais’ mother had awoken and was watching, quietly and not moving so as to not disturb them. I sure hope that hatchling of mine knows what he’s getting into. But so long as he’s happy, I suppose I am as well. And if anyone touches a single scale on his body I will rip them apart, she thought to herself. She yawned quietly, watching his baby slowly grow, noticing his body starting to look more human like, noticing the hair on the top of his head but trying to not show that she knew since she knew it embarrassed Arkais. But most of all, she tried to refrain from interfering in Arkais’ love life. She wanted to be supportive but knew it was best for him to come to her and tell her when he was ready instead of pushing the subject. Then she looked at her mate, his beautiful copper colored scales mixed with a slight tinge of gold on his underside. She looked at herself, her green scales dimly shining in the cave. She looked over to the mouth of the cave; the beautiful night sky seemed to clash against the marsh lands beneath it. This had seemed the best choice for a den considering no human has ever built any kind of settlement in or near a marsh, at least in her time they haven’t. But times have changed and she began to notice that what had started out as a small village has begun growing, reaching ever closer to the marsh’s and soon they would eventually see the cave and would more than likely see the inhabitants that stayed there.

She closed her eyes and prayed they would never see the cave, but she knew that they would soon find them and they would have to move on to another safe-haven. She yawned again and figured that she needed to rest, hoping that Arkais was happy and that her love would still be where he lay when she awakes.

Everyone must suffer some kind of pain
Whether it be the pain of love
Or the pain of hate
Everyone can escape these pains by resisting them
But no one can escape the pain of death



The morning was cold. The cave was damp and moist from the rain that had passed by sometime around midnight whilst everyone in the den was asleep. The bat’s fluttered around, trying to find some insects to feed on before the dragons would wake. Everything was at peace in the cave, everything was still and quiet. Nothing seemed to go bad. Outside the cave there was a camp, nothing big, but still noticeable by the column of smoke that slowly rose from the mass of trees and swamp that lay below the mouth of the den. The sound of birds chirping in the sky made Arkais slowly wake, his eyes lifting open lazily; he yawned, looked around and saw Alseus cuddled next to him, unmoving, but still as beautiful as ever. He slowly got up, being careful not to stir Alseus from his slumber and started walking towards the cave mouth. He noticed that he was starting to get a little uncomfortable while walking on four legs, he wanted to walk on two just to see what it would feel like but decided it would be best not to do that, mainly out of fear of his parents waking up to see his strange behavior.

He looked outside and saw the smoke and followed it down to the trees that seemed to shield anything from the view of an onlooker. He looked back and saw his parents, still in their deep slumber, and looked at Alseus, still in the same spot where he had left him. Then he turned back to the swamps that were a good twenty feet below the cave mouth and gulped. He wanted to go down and see what was down there, but had remembered that his father had told him to never venture outside the cave alone. He had never really left the cave, mainly because he didn’t really want to since he found the den interesting enough as is, but a part of him has always had this strange affinity towards sneaking about and being adventurous, always wandering about and trying to be as quiet as possible. He had even taught himself that if he lifted up his tail slightly from the ground he could still keep his balance, while his tail wouldn’t drag on the ground behind him, effectively making him less noticeable. Once he’d been able to sneak up on Alseus, much to both of their surprise.

He decided he would risk the punishment of being found out and head outside, praying to himself that he would not be caught in the act. He started down the cave mouth, realizing that it wasn’t as steep as he originally thought and started to feel a little braver about what he was doing. He picked up the pace and was down below the tree line within minutes. Arkais took the moment to look around, observe his surroundings and take it all in, trying hard to memorize the path that he was going to take and then backtracked in his mind so he would have a set trail to follow when he was done exploring and wanted to head back. Then he started walking, but stopped once he took his first step, a cold shiver running up his spine. His front paw had landed in a rather disgusting pile of rotting wood, marsh water, and mud. Lot’s of mud.

He pulled his paw out, the mud making a sickening sucking sound as he did, and took a different path. This path being much more solid, and without the mud, seemed clear of vegetation as well. In fact, it was too clear. That’s odd, he thought to himself as he began walking. He stopped, feeling uncomfortable and stood up on his hind legs, propping himself up on a nearby tree to keep himself steady as he tried to keep his balance. “Come on now, you can do this”, he said to himself. He struggled slightly but after a couple of minutes of wobbling and shaking he finally seemed to get the hang of it. He took one step with his right leg, noticing that this felt much more natural that walking on all fours. He wondered why this was so, but thought better of it and put his left foot out. He smiled at this new accomplishment he had just done and let go of the tree, using his tail to balance himself as he walked bipedal, laughing slightly.

Arkais began walking a little faster, noticing that with every step it seemed much easier to keep his balance and make every step solid enough to stand on. Then he relaxed his back, standing straight and without a slouch in his back, also noting that his back now felt much better for it. Maybe I should talk to my parents about this… I think they would want to know, he thought. But, then again… Maybe they will get mad, or maybe just not accept me anymore, because of it… No… I have to tell them, they need to know that I’m different than normal dragons. So it was settled, he would return to the cave when he was done exploring, and he would tell his mother and father about this new found ability. Arkais looked down at the ground and noticed that his legs were beginning to look a lot like a humans, much thinner at the thigh than any dragon’s legs. He noticed the same thing was happening to his arms, they had begun to grow much longer and his hands had even begun transforming more. What was happening to him? He looked around and saw a camp of humans and ducked down, squatting behind a bush. This is so odd, he thought to himself, trying to keep himself from freaking out.

He peeked through the leaves and saw that these humans had weapons. The metal blades called swords they had on their hilts. They even had bows and arrows. “S***”, he said to himself, trying to be as quiet as possible. What are they doing here so far out in the swamps? They’ve never come this far before. He heard the humans conversing to each other in their odd guttural tongue. Their language had no elegance whatsoever; it was all just grunts and meaningless words. They had no respect for their history, and neither did they have respect for the land around them, or the creatures that took refuge in the land. He wanted to rush in, his head full of rage, and just slaughter them all and make an example of them, but decided that it would be best not to antagonize them any further than they seemed. One of them looked directly at Arkais’ direction and seemed to just stare at the bush he was hiding in. Arkais froze in his place, staring back, hoping that the human wouldn’t see him, and if the human had seen him then he hoped the human just thought he was some animal instead of the beast he truly was. The human continued to stare for what seemed like ages, then finally turned and walked into a nearby tent.

Arkais let out a breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding and made a silent sigh of relief. He looked around him, trying to find any way to escape without being seen by the humans but could only find a pool of sulfuric acid that seemed to be quite abundant in the marshes. He wondered if maybe the stories he’d heard about pathways in which lay beneath the ground by a network of pools of acid were true. He’d also remembered that his mother had once told him that because he was a black dragon that his scales would be resistant to acid and that he could lay in a puddle for many weeks without any harm done to him. Arkais decided to test this and put the tip of his tail into the puddle; noticing that the pool was just slightly cold he also noticed that nothing was happening. He smiled and prayed to his ancestors for letting him be a black dragon and slid into the puddle.

The puddle had indeed turned out to be deeper than he’d thought, so he slid down deeper into it, holding his breath and submerging himself in the acid. He opened his eyes and looked down, seeing that the submerged land bent slightly the further it went down. Arkais dived further in, swimming elegantly, using his tail to propel him down faster than any human diver could. He followed every twist and turn that the tunnel had and saw an opening to the surface. Arkais swam up and poked his head out, observing his environment and saw that he was now much farther away from the human camp and was actually in front of the pathway that lead up to his den. He reemerged from the acidic liquid he’d been swimming in and started up the path, not realizing that he was running on his hind legs instead of running on all fours. Once he got up to the cave mouth he ran in and looked for his mother, frantically breathing and thrashing his tail as he did.

Arkais found his mother laying in her usual spot, now awake and looking worried. She heard the breathing and looked at Arkais, a flash of relief mixed with a hint of anger in her eyes as she observed his return. Then the look turned to surprise once she saw that Arkais was standing on two legs, his figure now more human-like than ever.

“A-Arkais, where have you been?” asked Ler’Nava.

“I-I went wandering mother. But I have to warn everyone about the humans out in the marshes. They look well armed and angry mother.” Arkais whimpered and looked at Ler’Nava for assurance that everything would be alright. But it wasn’t. He knew it wasn’t. But he just wanted some kind of reassurance that it would, just a hint of hope that what had happened to Alseus wasn’t going to happen to him.

“Sweetling… I-I don’t expect the humans to be happy that there are dragons in their hold. And I don’t expect them to be excepting of us either. All I have to say is… be prepared for the worst.” This is not what Arkais wanted hear. He prayed to his ancestors for some kind of guidance, anything to help ease his mind, but he got nothing. Tears began to form in the back of his eyes, and unable to hold in his emotions he let them drip down his cheeks. His eyes burning slightly from the tears; he wiped them away and slowly walked to where Alseus was laying, leaving his mother to watch him walk, his shoulders slouched and his tail drooping and dragging on the ground. He sat next to Alseus and curled around him with a sigh, hoping that what he and his mother were thinking would not happen.

Arkais closed his eyes and wrapped his arm around Alseus, feeling the bumps of Alseus’ wings digging into his shoulder, but he didn’t care, he just wanted to lie down after what had seemed like the most terrifying experience of his life. He never wanted to be that close to humans ever again, but had this strange feeling in his gut that he would soon have no other choice but to be surrounded by humans. Images of the humans coming in and slaughtering his whole family kept creeping into his mind, the screams of his mother and father, the crying of Alseus as the humans loomed over him with their sharp blades. His mother’s body covered in arrows, blood streaming from her wounds and forming a pool beneath him. Her head severed from her body and in the human camp site he had found. His fathers’ corpse lying not but ten feet away from his mother’s his head too had been cut off, but this time they had skinned him and taken his three hearts, along with his claws and tail. Then he saw Alseus, but the image had been too much for him and made him open his eyes with a sharp gasp. He got up and ran to the mouth of the cave and vomited, he then fell to his knees and began to cry, never wanting to imagine that again. Then he opened his eyes and looked down at the camp site and saw that the smoke was beginning to move. His eyes opened wide and saw that the humans were moving towards the cave, he got up and started to run to his mother, wondering where his father was during all this.

“Mother! The humans! The humans, they’re coming this way!” he yelled as he ran, waking Alseus, and startling his mother. Indeed, the humans were getting closer, and with every step they drew closer the steps of death along with them.