Breathing is in and out, inhaling and exhaling. Why is it that the natural habit is so hard for me? Maybe it's because I'm about to jump the side of a ship while its crew is searching the decks for me. Another reason could be acknowledging the fact that I'm now a fugitive in my homeland. It's all, but a small price to pay for freedom that comes from escaping debt.

I take in a deep breath and a cast a look at the moon. It's full. Not the best time to be making my escape but I no longer have a choice. I sense a guard coming up the stairs to my right. It's time to jump. To jump overboard a ship bound for the Imperium, to jump into a new life, to jump into the unknown.

The fall feels like an eternity.

As I fall, I feel and see my life flash before my eyes. Am I truly to die today? After all I did to get here? His face holds that smirk that I hate so much. I won't die now, that would make him happy that my escape failed. The faces of my sister and her son play before my eyes, they await me inside the city and I must survive this fall, the sea and get to land to make sure they survive.

The descent takes what breath I had away. As I fall I have no choice but to think, meditate, and focus on what is next to come. I guess I should start at the beginning.

My name is Junko Ryu Mitsu and as I fall into the sea I am 17. I was given the nick name of Ryu by my "employer." It was meant to be a pun for that is what I am; a Ryu, a dragon, or at least I have the soul of one.

I come from a small island nation of Tivia where mages are leaders in an aristocracy. Tivia is all but isolated save for contact with the Tevinter Imperium. Since mages here have much more respect than the rest of Thedas, those without magic are less respected. My family was no exception.

Over a century ago my great grandparents made a deal with a family that had magic, so that they too may have power, respect and influence. They got what they want, but not without a price. The family would get magic in their bloodline but only if those with the power served, protected and paid back the debt that my family had created. My great grandparents agreed all the same and my grandmother, born a few years later, was the first mage in my family and the first debtor to the magical family: the Wakahisa.

If only my great grandparents knew that the magic was forced upon our non magical bodies and that soon it would became a curse. Only the Wakahisa could control and sustain the magic in our veins for it wasn't ours to begin with. The magic rejected us and it was until my generation was born did the Wakahisa found a way that we can have magic without it killing us.

Research and experimentation revealed that only the blood and soul of a dragon could seal the magic to the body, but this was an unheard of ritual. The ritual required one being branded using the blood of the dragon as fuel and then violently merge the two souls together. This process killed two of my cousins and my half brother. I was the only one to ever survive and I was only two. It took me some time to distinguish myself from that beast and when I did I learned that it had a name; Drakkan.

So I grew up living as an indentured servant and never knowing much about my family. Rumor has that my father left my mother when she became pregnant with me and returned to his wife. In spite, my mother left me in care of my father's family. They rejected solely for my parentage. Even in Tivia where elves and humans are seen as equals, cross breeding is still a taboo. Only my maternal grandmother, Nana, accepted me for she saw me as an innocent prescribed to horrid life conditions.

I have an older sister on my father's side, Penelope. She came to live with me as a maid under Wakahisa employment. Even though Penelope was older I still looked after her, so when she became mysteriously pregnant I went berserk. Unfortunately, the to-be father was Lion Wakahisa, and he's the one who holds the leash to my life. Lion is my employer and the mage who can controls Drakkan and me. Without him, I would be dead or insane from the corruption that this curse forces upon my body and soul.

I couldn't stay under the mercy of the Wakahisa after Penelope had her baby. She named him Hiro, generous in common. It took time for me to maintain control of my inner demons, but I did. I was uncertain if escaping was the right way, but the Father works in mysterious ways.

Before I realized it my family's debt to the Wakahisa's was paid according to the contract Nana had. We were to be freed of this curse if only the Wakahisa were as noble as they claimed they were. Lion kept adding on months to the debt whenever he felt like it, so much in fact that by the time Hiro was a year old, I had to serve an additional twenty years.

I refused to be his servant any longer. I as turned my back on him; he yanked my chain, figuratively speaking. He is in control as he reminded me. I felt myself being taken over by Drakkan and then nothing.

I remember nothing of the acts he made me do, but when I gained consciousness of my body I was covered in blood in the middle of a burning building. I had no idea what I had done or to whom I had harmed, but I did know who forced me to it. I went to Lion that night and tried to kill him, but his magic is greater than I had expected. As I lay at his feet, like a bloody rag doll, he told me how we were going to be visiting his cousin in the Tevinter Imperium. There we were going to be wed or I was to be sold as a slave, the choice was mine. This was to be my punishment for attempting to end his life.

That same night I saw the opportunity to escape and agreed to marry him on the condition that Penelope and Hiro were able to attend. Little did he know that I had made preparations to escape once the ship was close to the Free Marches.

At the port of some city state, my sister and I feigned an argument that resulted in her and Hiro being left behind. I went to my room, keeping up the act of being upset with my sister and stole away during the middle of the night. We were not far from the city's shore line, so I got rid of the guard outside of my room and raced to jump over board.

Now here I am, free falling into the black waters of the sea in hopes of keeping my family safe. The jump will look like suicide and I hope they will think I did just that. The water feels like I'm being impaled by ice and I feel the dragon in me awaken. Holy Father, carry me to the shore for I can't fight this anymore.