Chapter 3: Death of Innocence.

About a day passed since Claire took Oculos to the market to spend some time with him. His parents made sure to inform he young dragon that they would be leaving to live with Claire even though he already knew this information. He was just happy that he would see his grandmother more and wouldn't be treated so badly by everyone.

Currently, Oculos was alone in his room and he was humming a cheerful tune to himself as he packed away some of his toys into a traveling bag. His father supplied him with the bag a few minutes ago and he decided to pack his toys first; starting with his stuffed animals and plushies.

The young dragon heard his bedroom door open behind him and he looked over his shoulder to see his mother walk in with a smile on her muzzle.

"Hello, sweetie. Are you excited?" Cynthia asked him with a soft tone of voice.

"Yes, mother." Oculos answered honestly with a nod.

His mother chuckled lightly due to his cheerful attitude, but she soon frowned. For some reason, his yellow and red eyes were beginning to glow brightly.

"What's wrong, mother?" the dragonling asked innocently with confusion in his voice.

Cynthia opened her mouth to reply, but she stopped when she felt a sudden pain in her heart. She let out a pained gasp as she stumbled back and suddenly fell onto the floor with a loud thud.

"Mommy!" Oculos screamed in horror as he quickly stood up.

"Is everything alright in here!?" Oculos' father asked worriedly as he stormed in.

His father gasped in horror when he saw Cynthia lying on the floor and her lifeless eyes stared up at him. He then looked up at his son's glowing eyes and he felt great pain in his chest. The adult dragon quickly looked down and started coughing violently. He soon started to cough up blood and he too fell to the ground.

"Oc…Oculos…" his father coughed as he shakily looked at his son's horrified face.

Oculos gasped in horror as the life drained from his father's eyes and tears started to slide down his cheeks.

"M-mommy… daddy… Help! Somebody help! Please!" the terrified young dragon screamed at the top of his lungs as he quickly looked around.

As his glowing eyes gazed around, various objects in his room began to violently shake and even fall off the shelves. Some of the objects that fell were lit candles. As the candles fell and landed on the floor, the small flames suddenly grew more intense and the walls of his room soon lit on fire.

Oculos began to cough from all the smoke in his room. He didn't want to leave his parents behind, but he knew he would die if he stayed in that room. He sobbed heavily as he sprinted out of his burning room and into the now burning hall. He ran as fast as his small legs could take him and made his way down the stairs.

The child soon rushed through his home's front door and gasped as he took in a lungful of fresh air. His eyes finally stopped glowing at that point and he panted heavily as he practically collapsed onto the ground. He shakily looked up to see that a large group of dragons had gathered around the front yard. Some of them were staring at the burning house with horror while others stared directly at Oculos with hate.

"That little bastard is no dragon! That thing is a demon!" an ice dragon roared as he pointed a talon at the crying child. "He just murdered his own parents in cold blood!" he continued, which started to rile up the crowd.

"Kill the Demon!" an earth dragoness yelled furiously and the crowd erupted in a cacophony of insults and death threats.

Oculos breathed heavily as he shakily stood up and watched as the crowd slowly came closer and closer. He let out a terrified scream before he suddenly turned to his left and sprinted as fast as he could away from the crowd.

The mass of dragons roared as they ran after the scared child. Oculos cried and screamed for help as he ran away, but no one came to save him. He ran down various roads and alleys and he even ran through the city gates. The crowd was still chasing him however and some of them even resorted to flying in order to catch up to him.

Eventually, the young dragonling ran into the thick foliage of the jungle and hid in a thorny bush. He winced as the sharp thorns poked his soft scales and he held his paws over his snout to muffle his sobs. He could hear the angry mob passing by the bush he was hiding in and once he couldn't hear them anymore, he finally released his snout.

"I… I hate my life… Oh ancestors, I hate my life… I hate my life…" Oculos sobbed miserably as he crawled into a small ball in the thorny bush and cried.

...

It wouldn't be more than a half hour later when the mob found Oculos again, and the chase continued. Despite being small and capable of running through tight spaces and putting a distance between himself and the mob that cried for his blood, Oculos began to grow tired...not just physically, but emotionally.

He killed his parents...two of the only people who loved him aside from his grandmother. He had no one left...if his grandmother learned what he did...then she would hate him to...he was alone...

"Get back here, monster!" one of the people in the crowd shouted with hate in their voice.

Oculos started crying as he ran between two large rocks, only to get cornered and he whipped around to see his furious pursuers. He started to breathe heavily in terror as he backed up against the wall and the Atlawans slowly approached him.

"Please don't hurt me…" Oculos begged through his sobs as he tried in vain to stop crying.

"Restrain the bitch!" one of the Atlawans said harshly and a bunch of them roughly grabbed the child.

They took out a bunch of rope and began to tie his limbs together and his snout shut. His vision went to black as they firmly tied a blindfold over his eyes and he was thrown onto the ground. He whimpered pathetically when he heard the sound of a dagger or knife being unsheathed and he started crying behind the blindfold.

"Wait. Who're you-AH!" Oculos heard one of the Atlawans cry in pain with the sound of something slashing into flesh.

'What's going on?' the little dragonling thought worriedly to himself as he heard the sounds of intense fighting.

He didn't have much time to think because he was hit in the head with what felt like a club. This caused him to black out and his world went dark.

...

Oculos drifted between both consciousness and unconsciousness. There were times Oculos would open his eyes, but would only find his surroundings blurred. But before he would lose consciousness, he felt the familiar feeling of dragon scales underneath him...someone was carrying him on their back.

One of the times he regained consciousness the young dragonling slowly moved his body, only to feel a strong, but gentle, wing cover his body.

"Shhhhhh..." A soothing voice said to the dragonling.

Before the Dragonling could reply, he found himself drifting back into the dark void of unconsciousness.

…

Oculos groaned quietly as his unnaturally colored eyes fluttered open to see a cloudy sky above him. He also quickly noticed that he was wrapped in fur blankets to keep him warm and he was in a snowy environment.

"You're in Dante's Freezer; just outside of Lumimyrsky." He heard a female voice speak out.

The little dragonling looked to his left to see a black dragoness sitting next to him and she was tending to a small campfire. He tried to get up, but he heard her speak again.

"You're still weak from earlier. Rest." the larger dragoness told him. "You've been out for a whole day." She added.

Oculos eyes widened at the realization and he figured that she must've saved his life. He laid back down in the warm blankets and looked at her with those yellow and red eyes of his.

"Who are you?" the gray scaled child asked quietly after a few moments of silence.

"My name is Persephone. I seek to change the world and make dragons ascend to their rightful place; making the world better for everyone." the dragoness, now identified as Persephone, explained with some proudness in her voice.

"What do you mean by that?" Oculos asked with interest, but he still sounded nervous.

She just chuckled at the question and fully faced him. Oculos looked into her eyes...and saw a pair of piercing yet, in his opinion, beautiful crimson eyes that seemed to radiate an unnatural glow. The eyes put the dragonling at ease.

"That's a story for another day. What I want to talk about, are those eyes of yours and your abilities to kill someone just by looking at them." She replied with a small smirk.

"How did you-?" the small dragonling started, feeling a sense of dread fill his little body.

"I know all about you, Oculos. I've been watching you for awhile now. I know that you accidentally killed your parents and how people treat you like a monster just because you're different." Persephone spoke, cutting him off. "I want you to use your abilities on me." she said all of a sudden.

"What? No, I don't want to hurt you." Oculos said quietly with a very uneased expression, but she just smiled at him reassuringly.

"Go ahead and do it." Persephone told him, but he still refused. "I promise that everything will be okay." She added.

Oculos began to feel frustrated from her persistence and his eyes began to glow. He still didn't want to do it, but he knew that she wouldn't stop until he did as she asked. He focused his death powers on her, a familiar feeling coursing through his body, the same feeling when he accidentally killed his mother and father with his power, but was greatly surprised when nothing happened. His eyes slowly stopped glowing and Persephone's smile widened, revealing pearly white teeth.

"You can't kill something that can't be killed." The black scaled dragoness said softly before she gently placed her paw on his head and proceeded to gently stroke his cheek, making the Dragonling blush. "Your eyes aren't scary nor hideous… your eyes are beautiful…" she told him with honestly in her voice.

The little gray scaled dragon was greatly surprised by her words and he felt a lot more comfortable around her. For some reason, even though he had only met her...he felt safe in her presence...the same feeling that his parents and grandmother made him feel. She then pulled her paw away and smiled down at him.

"I'm going to give you a choice that will determine your future. You can either go to Lumimyrsky where my friends will take care of you. You will also never go through suffering there or any hardship. OR… you could travel with me." she spoke up after a few minutes of them staring into each other's eyes.

"Travel with you? Where would we go?" Oculos asked with honest curiosity and she simply smiled.

"The road I travel is one filled with pain and most likely loss… it is not a road for young dragonlings to follow. But if you do follow me… there is no turning back." The black scaled dragoness answered as she stood up.

She then began to walk away, not giving him much time to think about his choices.

"Don't go…" the little gray dragon said quietly as he sat up, but she just kept walking, not once doubling back.

Oculos slowly looked towards the city of Lumimyrsky in the distance, liking the thought of staying somewhere safe for the rest of his life, but he didn't want to leave Persephone...someone who made him feel like an actual person. He looked over at her again and ran after the dragoness who saved his life.

This decision, unknown to the dragonling at the time, would change his life larger than he realized.

...

Oculos tailed Persephone for what felt to him like hours. The dragoness continued to walk in a continuous pace, not once looking back at Oculos. Despite being small and having to put much more effort into keeping up with Persephone's fast walking pace, the dragonling did not once get to far behind the mighty dragoness that saved him. He did not care how long it would take until Persephone acknowledged him, but he would do so until she finally did.

But at last: she did.

Persephone came to an immediate halt, causing the dragonling to bump into her hind leg and back up as the dragoness turned to face him.

"Very well Oculos." Persephone said, arching her neck as she lowered her head so the two were looking at each other eye to eye. "You may travel with me."

Oculos smiled at the dragoness. But he noticed how serious the dragoness looked, her eyes were emotionless.

"But..." Persephone said softly as she proceeded to circle him. "Just as I warned you: life now will not be as simple as it was back in your home in Tasangot with your parents. Now...you will be entering a whole new world."

Oculos felt his heart beat rapidly, surprised at the sudden change in Persephone's tone. But it was not hostile. While it was still friendly, it had taken an edge. Persephone was warning him about the life he had just chosen.

But despite feeling nervous: he did not regret following her.

Oculos nodded at Persephone.

The dragoness smiled.

"Good...but before we set camp for the night: I will tell you four rules that I expect you to obey while you are under my wing." Persephone said.

"What are they?" Oculos asked.

"I expect you to obey any command I give you." Persephone began. "I will not tell you to do something that I would not do myself, but when I tell you to do something: do it."

Oculos nodded, finding the rule reasonable.

"Remain aware at all times, training will begin without warning." Persephone continued. "You are entering a hard life: one that includes death and if you are not prepared then you will die. The enemy will not wait for you, and neither will I when I decide that you should be trained whether in combat or controlling your powers."

Oculos felt slightly nervous about this rule...this meant that at any time, Persephone would most likely initiate a training session...most likely even when he was sleeping. But if it meant controlling his new found powers...he would do it.

"No excuses, only answers." Persephone said, sitting down on the ground in front of Oculos, which the dragonling did as well, looking up at the dragoness who was now his mentor. "If you fail and you are going to tell me. I expect you to tell me EXACTLY what happened and why the task failed. Do not blame anything else for your failure."

Oculos nodded silently.

"Now...the most important rule:." Persephone paused, slowly reaching out with her paw and gripping Oculos' chin, causing him to look up to see Persephone's eyes turn cold. "Do not lie or show any disloyalty to me. If you betray me, show me disloyalty or lie to me. I promise you: You will regret crossing me. Dragonling or not...I do not tolerate disloyalty."

Despite the cold tone of his new mentor's words...Oculos did not feel frightened. No...he saw something flicker in Persephone's eyes...a moment of sadness as she told him the last rule.

Oculos nodded one last time to Persephone.

"I will never lie to you..." Oculos answered. "I will not break ANY of the rules...I promise."

"Good...very good..." Persephone said, before standing up, removing a bag from her shoulder, which had a contents of fur blankets for Oculos to sleep in. "Rest. I will set a fire. Tomorrow: we have much to do."

With that the rest of the night passed with a blur. Despite knowing the life he was entering would be difficult: Oculos did not care.

He had a new life...Persephone offered him a new life and he accepted it. Persephone had a dream, she mentioned before about Dragons ascending to their rightful place. This was enough. Persephone wanted to change the world, she did not judge him by his eyes. That was enough.

He would prove to his new teacher that he was capable.

But now: he would rest...and be ready for the morning to come.