Prologue.
She shut her eyes tightly, as she gripped her left arm with her right. She could feel the blood dripping, cascading down and droplets falling onto the rocks. She breathed in heavily as she tried to tune out the hot pain in her arm and in other areas of her body. She took a step, barely maintaining control as she could feel herself getting light headed for all the blood loss.
She was exhausted and in pain. She hated using this form, she really did. Made her feel week and reminded her too much of them.
However she did not have too much of a choice.
The war had been going on for weeks already. The amount of bodies she had seen, both human and dragons, was sickening. Even with her eyes closed as she tried to tune out the pain, all she could see was dismantled bodies thrown on the ground. She had tried saving her family, but they were all dead.
Dead thanks to them. Thanks to him.
The first time she saw the transformation, she was sickened. It was sickening that it could even be possible. And now so many were dead.
She opened her eyes, the electric blue barely focusing as she tried to look for a place to lick her wounds.
She smelt it, and in any other conditions, she would have appreciated the smell of rain coming. But she had to move. She had to live.
While leaving a trail of blood behind her, she made her way over to the cave she could see not that far from her, going as far in as possible. The sky rumbled, and soon enough, she could hear the rain pouring right outside. Her body finally collapsed, her back harshly slamming onto the wall, scrapping it as she fell leaning against it. Her breathing became more labored as she soon realized she had developed a fever.
A growl escaped out of her body as she soon came to the realization that she was going to die.
Maybe this way she would be back with her slaughtered family.
The scent of a fire burning reached her nose, slowly awakening her senses. She felt exhausted and sore, and as her mind replayed the last memories she had, she did not recall starting a fire. She could feel something over her, like if something was hugging her.
Her eyes finally snapped open when she caught the scent of someone else with her. Her senses acted up, suddenly sitting up, and although her head was making various spins, she looked around for the source of the scent. Her eyes locked with those of a man with the darkest green eyes she had ever seen. A growl combined with a hiss escaped her lips. The man had the sweetest scent she had ever smelt, but she also knew that scent.
And she had heard of him.
Fear seemed to rip through her as she was in a very dangerous situation as inside the cave, there was no way she could retrieve back to her original form. She also doubted she could even fight for how weak she felt, Her long silver hair seemed to fall like a curtain in front of her, leaving only one blue eye menacingly staring at him. She was trying to remain strong, but she was also terrified. She had caught his scent after his slaughter of others. But this was the first time seeing him, even if it was in his original form.
He was tall, graced with a muscle mass she had never seen on a human. The blue markings she had heard rumors about could be seen on his arms, that seemed to be highlighting from the dark hue of his skin. His jaw was strong and squared and midnight blue hair in various layers framed him.
She swallowed as she saw him taking a step forward and quickly bared her fangs at him.
He raised one arm, in form of a peace signal.
"You were wounded. I bandaged your wounds."
She knew he had. She wasn't stupid. She could feel the snug feel of made up bandages on her arm and on her torso.
"Why?" she hissed out as she crouched low in a defensive stance, "You could have killed me. Isn't that what you do Dragon King?"
His face was void of any surprise, "You know who I am."
She growled again as she spat out, "Of course I know. You've killed almost all of my kind!"
The moment she raised her voice, a wave of nausea seemed to hit her like a boulder, making her eyesight have dark spots as she tried to focus. He walked to her, and as she tried to get up and move away, she stumbled due to the weakness of her knees. She collapsed onto the hardness of his chest, and as much as she wanted to get away, she couldn't.
After their first meeting, he had not said much since then. She still didn't trust him. How could she? He was one of them. One of those slayers. He broke terror in the skies. She knew exactly what he was capable of, but yet, she was alive.
She had heard of his hatred towards her kind. So she still didn't understand why he had not disposed of her.
It had been three weeks, but he would still bandage her, he would still hunt for them.
Three weeks without him saying a word.
By the sixth week, she finally had enough strength to step outside. Her skin seemed to rejoice the moment the sunlight hit it. She felt goosebumps as the fresh air of a morning after a night of rain filled her lungs.
She immediately felt his presence, but didn't flinch. As the weeks had gone by, she had gotten used to by his quiet demeanor. His footsteps were so soft, that she could never know when he was coming. That didn't remove the nervousness she still felt around him. She felt small and vulnerable next to him and she despised it.
She swallowed, "Why?"
He looked down at her, his gaze locking in hers, "I still have an urge to kill you. You reek of draconic blood."
Her gaze didn't waver, "Then why don't you?"
In an instant, he had her against a tree trunk. She saw the way his eyes flashed and for a moment, she thought he would finally do it.
His lip lifted in a silent snarl, "I just can't."
By this point, she was unsure for how long they had been sharing the cave. Although it seemed he had no intentions of killing her, he didn't have any intentions of setting her free. She was back at her full health, and although she had yet to transform to her true body, she knew that defying him would mean her death.
One night, as they sat across of one another with the fire softly crackling, pieces of ember flying around, he spoke.
"Your name. What is it?"
She felt her throat tightening at the intensity of his voice as he asked. She took a moment before answering.
"Hidari."
Silence graced the cave again for several minutes until finally she heard his voice, "Acnologia."
And for some reason, the name seemed to fit him.
It had been four months when one morning he came, rather hurriedly. She had been stretching her limbs when he suddenly gripped her wrist and pulled her outside. She was confused as she could barely catch up to his longer strides with her own.
He stopped abruptly, making her crash onto his back with a small sound escaping her lips. He turned around, not even bothering by stepping away.
"We will train."
She was getting tired of his simple answers. She snatched her arm away, "Why? Why do I need to train? So you can fight me and then kill me how you did with all the others?"
His gaze didn't change, but his voice went to a low whisper, "I can't kill you."
"Why?"
"I'm not sure."
Those months of training, became years of companionship. He was still not as outspoken as she was, but somehow it seemed to work. They shared the cave, they trained, and they took turns hunting. She wasn't even sure why she was still around or why she hadn't attempted to kill him in his sleep. She could feel that she had gotten stronger. Her lightning had grown immensely and she was confused if it was really because of him.
She had already transformed into her true self several times around him during the few years they spent together. The first time she did, she was afraid. Afraid that once seeing her in her real self, he would kill her.
But he hadn't. He had transformed into his own draconic body and she couldn't help but be impressed and downright afraid. His body was mastodonic. Probably one of the largest she had ever seen. The black scales of his entire upper body seemed to shine with the movements of his body. She was unsure why his green eye color didn't transfer over to his draconic form.
Possibly could be because of the magic he possessed.
She was aware that he had killed his own comrades, the hatred for those of draconic blood buried deep in his heart. But he never was violent with her. Even for five years, he remained a mystery on why he kept her alive. It didn't go with his way of being. She had heard him talk about both dragons and humans, yet he preferred to be in human form and he had not disposed of her. During those five years, she came to the conclusion that besides being deadly and powerful, he also had an arrogance that sometimes would surface. Sarcasm was another thing that she would almost deal on the daily whenever she would try to have some sort of communication with him as well.
Where he seemed different, even if the arrogance would surface like a second habit, was when they would fight. He seemed more relaxed, his posture not as stoic. If anything she could almost call it excitement.
It wasn't until one night, that he came back to their cave injured and bleeding heavily. She had been reading a book, as she had taken it upon herself to go to the nearest village and pretend to be a human to find some sort of entertainment when she wasn't training. The metallic scent made her heart grow heavy, and soon enough, she was by his side, having him lay down on his own pelts he had made. She looked for anything and grabbed water by the river close to the cave. She cleaned him and bandaged him, just on how he had done so for her several years back.
As he had his eyes closed, she couldn't help but analyze him. The bridge of his nose, the long eyelashes he had, the high cheekbones and his strong jaw. Even if he was the cause of so many deaths of her kind, she couldn't help but admire what a handsome man he indeed was.
She made motion to move from her position of kneeling next to him, but she felt his hand gripping her elbow.
She looked down at him, and she felt her being freeze for a few moments as she felt being pulled by his green eyes, resembling a forest at night. He tugged at her elbow, making her lean closer.
With his other hand, the waves of her hair that were now cascading in front of her, he placed them behind her ear. She almost let out a purr at the softness of his fingers against her skin. She gasped as she felt him putting his hand behind her neck and pulling her down.
Soon enough, his lips were against hers.
And she liked it.
The first time she heard him laugh, she couldn't believe she had even heard it in the first place. After so long of being together traveling, and just recently forming some sort of relationship, she finally heard him laugh.
And it was because she had slipped and fallen.
She wanted to hear him laugh again.
Six months after their first initial kiss, he kissed her again.
It was more possessive than the first kiss. More dominant. Her mentality was to fight him for the dominance, but she couldn't.
The familiar vibration that her own mother had described to her as a small dragon came to her.
The Dragon's song.
Ultimately, she bared her neck to him. His eyes widened, as he was trying to figure out what was so compelling about her since the first moment he came across her. He could have easily killed her. She was a dragon after all. Vicious beings that had no respect for human life. But he couldn't. She was vulnerable, shaking from the high fever and from the puddle of blood she laid.
He could have killed her when she was back up in health so it would be at least somewhat honorable.
But he couldn't.
At first he thought that he could be bewitched by her beauty, but the dragon seemed to not have any sorts of magic of that liking.
Then how and why was he so entranced by her?
As the years went by he grew attracted by her. Not just her beauty, but the way she was. He knew she was still afraid of him, but that lessened with the five years they ended up spending together. And then he couldn't help but want to kiss her as she tended to him after a battle and received various wounds.
He hadn't dare to touch her again after that. It was wrong. Wrong in so many levels.
Until he finally couldn't take it anymore when he accidentally walked out of the line of trees as she was getting out of the lake near the cave, bare for anyone to see.
And the idea of anyone else seeing her in such a position, drove him mad. Within seconds, he was upon her, pulling her tightly against his body and claimed her lips with his. He expected her to fight. After all, even though he could win a fight between the two of them, she possessed a great amount of magic power. Probably why she had been capable of crawling to a cave with her battle wounds.
He was unsure with the primalistic feelings he would have around her, and all he could blame it on was due to the dragon seed in his body, giving him more than just draconic magic. It gave him abilities of a true dragon, meaning one of those things, was mating. However, that human part of him didn't just see her as a mate as his animalistic side did. His human heart desired her completely.
The moment she bared her neck to him in submission, he could never, ever, kill her.
They both learned of a strange sense of happiness the more they would open up about one another. She was still careful of asking him questions of his past, but anything else, she would ask. She was curious who this dark skinned beauty was. She didn't want to, but instincts seemed to win. He cared for her more as they continued to live their life together as mates. He had marked her that night, and she didn't regret it. She felt completed and she could feel her soul growing in strength because of it. She wasn't sure if the mating would even happen since in all aspects, he was still human. But they did and seemed to affect her differently than what she expected.
Until the night that she was gone from his life.
He had been flying through the dark skies when he found her. She reeked of the Dragon King, and that could only mean one thing.
She was his.
His mate.
And when a mate dies, so would the other.
He didn't waste any time as he flapped his wings and soared down, fire erupting through his mouth in attempts to burn her alive. For a moment he thought he had been successful, until the familiar roar of a dragon seemed to shake the trees and the sky rumbled. Her light blue scales seemed to shine with the moonlight, but it was then covered as black clouds covered the sky. She inhaled, lightning erupting out of her mouth against her attacker.
She was fast, she was deadly, she was powerful. He could see that although she was a dragon, why the Dragon King would claim her as his.
He knew what was at stake if he wasn't successful. Although a plan had been formed to stop the terror that Acnologia caused, maybe this could fix everything and make things easier for the chosen.
Even as powerful as she was, as amazing as her magic was, she lost.
The dragon fled immediately as the scent of Acnologia reached his nose. He could not remain there. He almost felt pity to see the body of the powerful dragon reverting back to its humanoid form, but this time covered in wounds, blood, and barely breathing.
When Acnologia found her, she smiled at him while her last breath left her body.
He shouldn't have left her.
Because of him, his Hidari was gone. And he never verbally told her that he loved her.
Those that knew the death of his mate, they thought of him to be dead. Dragons mated for life and once that life was gone for one, the other partner would follow. Some searched for possible signs of his body, but as the years passed, they never saw him again or heard of him.
After burying her body, he had fled the continent. The memories, even if the good memories were not that many, were giving him a pain that he never thought he could feel. He felt stupid because he was supposed to be the all powerful Dragon King, yet he mourned the death of who was his.
Her image would forever remain in his head and heart.
Centuries passed when he had decided to return to the continent where he met her. As he flew high up in the blue skies, his body covered by clouds, he heard the familiar sound of a dragon roar. He could smell the fire of said roar and his mind almost snapped. It was such a familiar scent, because the scent of that fire had been around the area of where she died.
He had intentions of killing whoever had casted such a roar, when his senses caught a sight of her.
It had to be her. There was no mistake. The features were familiar. The same face, the same lips, the same body. However, the eyes were wrong. They were golden and her hair wasn't long.
But nonetheless, it was her.
He tried getting her, but the wizards were stubborn. Even as they attacked him and he felt the hit of electricity, he could taste his Hidari through the blast.
But as he attacked and expected the wizards to be dead, they had been swallowed by the ocean with the island.
He had lost her yet again…
Until seven years later on a night that all he could smell were dragons, he felt her soul pulling him to where she was.
He focused his magic and used his old bond of their souls to have her appear before him. He caught her, and he could smell the scent of death gracing her body. She was bandaged all over and she was extremely pale. He ignored the stench of dragons and quickly took her away.
In that old cave that he continued to live on after coming back of centuries of being gone, he laid her just like the first time that he found her.
When she finally opened her eyes, one was golden and the other one was that electric blue of his Hidari.