It was the dead of night.
So normally, those who had finally managed to slumber after waiting wouldn’t expect so sort of rude awakening.
But more importantly, the fad and mighty dragons of Dravaryn wouldn’t expect to suddenly appear in their pajamas, encircled in thick bubbles of mana, in the uncanniest of all places.
A crypt.
To be specific, one hell of a dragon crypt.
One where they were greeted with a sight that no one would normally see the mont they opened their eyes.
But if such ancient beings were wildly surprised by what was happening, how much more a young part-human child who had absolutely no idea what was going on.
Liam gasped so hard he nearly slipped inside the bubble that held him.
All the sleepiness vanished instantly when he realized that in the middle of the enormous chamber stood two ginormous beings.
Dragons.
Like really, really big dragons.
For a mont, the young dragon enthusiast and recognized number one fan by virtue of "they said so," simply stared.
His mind reached for the easiest explanation he could co up with.
He had to be dreaming. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched because he’d been so worried earlier. And normally, whenever he got worried, his stomach would ache in panic, and he would usually end up dreaming about his concerns.
So that was probably what was happening now.
Because there was absolutely no way that what he was seeing right now could possibly be real.
There, beneath the vast ceiling of the crypt, stood one golden dragon whose scales glead like molten sunlight and one black dragon whose body seed to swallow light itself.
They were enormous.
Majestic.
Terrifyingly beautiful.
Liam blinked hard and rubbed his eyes just in case.
When he opened them again, the two dragons were still there. They were still looking at each other like they were the only ones in the room.
Slowly, cautiously, he turned his head to the left.
Floating beside him in another bubble was his mother. She was still wearing her nightclothes, her hair slightly disheveled from sleep, and the stunned look on her face mirrored exactly how young Liam felt.
He turned to the right.
More bubbles hovered quietly in the air.
His father was there, and he, too, was on his knees.
Then, just next to their bubbles, the other mbers of House Dravaryn were present as well, all in human form, all in their pajamas, and all staring down at the sa unbelievable sight with wide eyes.
Liam’s thoughts began racing.
This couldn’t be a dream.
Not when everyone else was here too.
He slowly looked toward Orien, his partner-in-cri.
The other child’s eyes were so wide that it was impossible to think he was dreaming either.
Orien looked just as stunned as he did. And the part-human child was honestly about to call out for the first ti, but before he could holler for the golden dragonling, he just had to pause.
Because Liam realized that the scene in front of them had begun to change.
Sothing was happening.
Sothing that drew his attention back to the center of the chamber, whether he ant to look or not.
In front of them, in their full and terrifyingly beautiful forms, the golden dragon and the black dragon began to move.
They circled one another.
Slowly.
Gracefully.
The movent was deliberate and strangely srizing, their enormous bodies gliding through the space with a rhythm that was truly compelling. It was completely foreign to the child, and yet it was just impossible to take his eyes off them.
And really, if he hadn’t made the conscious effort to take everything in, Liam wouldn’t have noticed that a smaller glowing circle had ford around the dragons.
Crimson runes floated within it, rotating gently as though guided by an unseen force. The circle pulsed softly, and each pulse sent waves of mana rippling through the crypt.
The two dragons continued to circle.
Closer.
Closer still.
And then they ca together just as the rotating circle tightened around them.
But unlike the slow, graceful movents earlier, this one felt raw and primal.
There was a flash of teeth.
A sharp, deliberate bite at the curve where neck t body.
Liam gasped, covering his mouth in surprise.
But then an answering bite followed imdiately as the golden dragon bit in return.
Blood shimred briefly against dark scales before vanishing into heat and fla as the mysterious shape flared brighter around them.
Liam instinctively tensed.
He had spent his entire short but fruitful life fascinated by dragons. He had read countless picture books and listened to so many stories about them. He had imagined their power and ferocity many tis before and even had the chance to et so many dragons in real life.
But this was nothing like what he had imagined.
Most of his encounters with dragons were with them in their human form, or in the case of Orien, he was usually small, cuddly, and very nice to carry around as a dragonling. So this was definitely the first ti he was seeing the dragons in their full form like this.
It should have been frightening.
Instead, it was magnificent.
The two dragons closed in on each other, their heads touching as the circle’s glow intensified.
Yet what suddenly caught Liam’s attention was sothing happening along the edges of the chamber.
At first, he thought it was simply his eyes playing tricks on him.
But when he looked again, he realized the shapes were still there.
Faint outlines of enormous bodies.
Massive draconic figures that seed to exist sowhere between light and shadow.
Their eyes glowed faintly like distant stars as they watched from the sides of the crypt.
Liam didn’t know what they were.
But they were unmistakably dragons.
And they were watching.
The child’s heart began pounding hard in his chest as he stared at the sight unfolding before him. Slowly, almost without realizing it, he lifted a hand and pressed it against his chest as though trying to steady the wild rhythm.
Because in the heart of one hopeful child, he couldn’t help but hear what Orien once told him: "a bigger family."
They were probably his big brother’s family.
And he, despite being just Liam, had sohow been allowed to witness sothing that no child, and perhaps no living dragon, had seen for centuries.
His eyes remained fixed on the two dragons nestled within the glowing runic circle as awe filled every corner of his mind.
"Wow."
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