Child of the Dragon (prologue)

Prologue1

Dao-Sing spread his great red wings, scales glittering in the dawn light, and surveyed the damage of the small village below, the village he had destroyed. It was no real loss. It was a rather annoying village that had been too nosy for its own good. Those meddlesome folk had been so close to discovering him. 2

And humans tended to react violently to the presence of a dragon.3

This village was no real loss to the Polavno region. It was deep in poverty from lack of production and half its people were dying of disease. Yes, this measly, intrusive village was better off gone. No one would suspect him; the other villages in the region would chalk the burned and charred village devoid of any life to be the victim of a troll attack. Those were getting more and more common by the day. Still, Dao-Sing would have to see if any had survived his night attack. Damn these humans, always putting their noses where they don’t belong.4

Dao-Sing took pushed off the mountain peak and shot vertically up into the sky, dipping down into a graceful arc before diving down to the village. He glided over the ruined huts and gardens, the sweet smell of burned flesh tantalizing Dao-Sing’s sensitive dragon nose. Death and destruction were everywhere, dead blood painting the ground. 5

But not all the blood was dead. 6

The copper scent of live blood was on the air, very faint, but it was there. Someone had survived his purge. It could only be one, the smell was so faint, but precautions had to be taken. This one nosy villager could be his downfall. Leading with his nose, Dao-Sing followed the scent, drawing closer to the unfortunate human. 7

He was most surprised when the scent led him to a dead old man. Nudging the carcass with is nose, Dao-Sing tipped the carcass over, revealing a small bundle, a moving bundle with two black eyes peering out from it. 8

It was a baby, girl from the looks of it. She couldn’t be more than a few months old. What in the name of the Guardians was he going to do. This couldn’t be the only infant he had killed, but it was so much harder to blatantly kill the child than mindlessly destroy the entire village. And he couldn’t leave her to die either. Damn his conscious!9

He could take her to Urga. Yes, that’s what he would do. The old woman lived all alone, with only a bitter dragon to keep her company. She would love a child. 10

Gently, Dao-Sing took the bundle in his jaws, careful not to hurt the child. He took off from the village, heading over to Urga’s cave. Then a sudden thought hit him. This child was young, too young to remember her former life. What was to stop him from raising the child? He could bring her up with him, be her guardian and raise her as his own. He could keep her away from humanity, teach her about what they were really like, and in the process, save her from becoming just like them. Yes this child would be his, an archetype of what a human should be like, a perfect human.11

Oh, there was another reason he would keep her, but she wouldn’t know. Not until she was older. He had a bargain to fulfill. 12