PROLOGUE

It was cold and dark.

Where am I?

Whatever kept it from moving was very hard and surrounded it on all sides.

What am I?

It tried to cry out but couldn't.

What's going on?

There was definitely a faint noise coming from outside of what it was trapped in. It let its beady eyes focus on the wall of its cage, and, very slowly, the wall seemed to melt away and it blinked at the many colors laid out before it in so many different shapes, sizes, and patterns.

It took a second to for it to realize that one of the shapes was moving. The creature had red scales that flowed over her body like frozen waterfalls. Huge wings were tucked against the even larger back, and small plumes of smoke puffed from her nostrils as she snorted.

Dragon.

The word just popped into its mind. It had never heard the word, but it had just appeared there like magic. All of a sudden it knew that this majestic creature in front of its prison was called a dragon.

Is that what I am? A dragon?

Something about the words felt right. Yes, it must be a dragon too. The word seemed to start a small flame inside its body that chased a small amount of the cold away.

The dragon outside was still moving around, but now with more urgency, as if she actually had a purpose. She sniffed the air more often now, and the fourth time she froze, her deep blue eyes flaring in alarm. The dragon reared onto her hind legs, her front claws slashing at empty air.

Huh? What's going on?

Suddenly the brush on the left side of the dragon rustled, and something emerged. It was nowhere near as beautiful as the dragon. It was, in fact, sort of ugly looking. It stood upright on its two back legs, and it didn't have fur or scales, but an odd, brown fabric that only covered its main body, its arms, and its legs. The only place it did have fur was on its head, and even there had scarcely any.

The arrival of this new creature seemed to alarm the dragon. She roared in panic, rearing up again and letting her heavy tail swing dangerously.

The other creature didn't seem panicked. It pulled a bent piece of wood with a string tying the two ends together, then took out another piece of wood that had what looked like a sharp stone on one end and feathers on the other. It carefully fit the second piece of wood against the string, pulled back, and then…

A scarlet liquid spattered everywhere. The dragon roared in pain, dropping back onto all four of its feet. The liquid poured from a huge gash right below the dragon's chin and showed no signs of stopping. The dragon thrashed her tail in anger, but before she could harm the second creature, it repeated the same procedure and another piece of wood and stone pierced the dragon's skin. She let out another roar, but this time it was filled with sorrow. She teetered precariously on her feet for a moment and then fell to the ground.

She didn't get back up.

Shivering, the dragon trapped in its hard prison gazed at the creature who had felled the dragon.

Human.

The word came just as the word "dragon" had, but this time it didn't make it feel warm.

Giving off another shudder, it knew that the word "human" could never be trusted.