He was all skin and bone. He had trouble breathing. Telltale signs of a Fate Driven.
They didn't even name him.
The name was for the gods to choose, not the mortals.
The nurse had the daunting task. The infant was wrapped in a thick blanket and laid to rest near the bank of a river. As the child warbled weakly, the nurse gave a series of prayers to the gods. A merciful passing.
The floods were to come soon with the passing of winter. The snow melting and easily pushing past the river banks.
The dragons made it first.
A dragon as dark as night approached cautiously. The smell of humans was fresh and all too familiar. It paused and listened for any abnormal sounds. A footstep, a sigh of breath, but nothing. It approached cautiously, hesitating at the slightest noise.
As it neared the infant, it noticed how weak and frail he seemed. 'How could humans do this to their own kind?' It thought. Sure, there were dragons who rejected their own hatchlings, but for the humans, this behavior was unheard of.
An instinct took over the sleek beast. 'If the humans will not care for it, then I will.'
It gently picked up the infant in a toothless mouth and returned to its den. There, it lay the infant on the pile of pine needles blown in by the wind and stuck in a corner of the cave. It left only to return soon after with a maw full of branches. Careful to keep far from the makeshift pine nest, the dragon lay them down and set them alight with a small, controlled blast.
'Now for food.'
The dragon sat in silent contemplation, staring at the infant. What do the mammals feed their hatchlings? After a few more silent moments, the beast came to an impasse. He simply didn't know what to do. It knew of how birds fed their young, but it knew that this was not the same.
It recalled a memory.
It was a vague memory and one it did not see as being useful at the time. A furry beast stood over a metal bucket as the Viking teased the milk out of its teat. Viewed from the safety of the treeline, this was the beginning of the dragon's intrigue with humans.
'Think. How would I feed it?'
There was no way the dragon could feed the infant for lack of a teat and a furry beast to provide one.
'It looks like I will have to make do.'
For the story's sake and mine, please let this magical feeding take its turn as I rectify past mistakes on this hellscape of a fic.