Yang Xiao Long was tired. Her bones ached and her belly rumbled. Rain pitter pattered on her scaled body, just enough of a minor irritation to prevent her from sleep.

It had been four years since her mother had died, since she had been driven from her home by the little sister she loved.

"You are a monster!" Ruby spat, lip wobbling and tears in her angry silver eyes. "Father was right about you!"

Yang sighed, steam billowing out of her nostrils. It took too much energy to change into her human form and she doubted she would fit into Human culture well, her mother nor her father having taught her anything about what it was like to be Human.

Ruby had. For a short time at least. In the bright summer days before she had spilled out her heart and brought everything crashing down. Just like the entrance to her mother's cave, the entrance to Yang's home.

Having driven away the evil dragon and her vile spawn, Ruby and her mother had plundered the den, taking the gold and the jewels and everything else before sealing off the cave so no-one could enter the old den belonging to two cruel, fire-breathing monsters.

Yang didn't know what to think about that. Her home was plundered of anything of value, left bare and damp and cold. To be honest Yang didn't care that Ruby had taken the loot, right of conquest and all that, but Yang did care about the fact they'd sealed it off afterwards, preventing Yang from returning. It was a message. Clear as the silver that had once sat in heaps around her mother's den.

Don't come back.

So she hadn't. She had flown north, into colder and colder lands with fewer settlements and fewer creatures to hunt and feed off. Her mother had told her stories of the south. It was warmer and brighter and more everything. But that had meant more dragons. More knights coming to slay her and more competition for food and land and gold. The north was colder, harsher, less populated by humans and dragons alike. Yang figured it was her best bet until she could think of something better.

She'd been wrong. Yes the lands were less populated, but those who dwelled there were stronger and harsher than anything she had met before. The knights were as burly and hardy as their horse and the dragons were few and far between and while they were smaller than her, they were faster and more agile. Her wings were scarred now, from sword and talons both.

She was somewhere in Vale now. Not far from her old home. She was starved and cold and wretched in every way. It was winter now and instead of snow and ice it rained sleet and hail, battering her tired body as she sought refuge deep in a valley that seemed like it would flood any second now.

Her belly ached, running one fumes. She had managed to snatch a sheep from a farmer's herd a week ago and whilst that would've been enough to sustain her a few years ago, her body was large and required at least an entire herd of sheep to sustain. The sheep had barely been enough to keep the fumes she was running on going and now she could barely move, her wings and legs sluggish and her head throbbing. Even dragons got headaches.

At least she wouldn't die from a lack of water, which was in plentiful supply in the stream that ran next to her. She could see small flashes of silver sometimes, possibly salmon or some other breed of fish.

When she was young, she practiced hunting with her mother by hunting fish in a nearby river. She failed and failed, her wings were clumsy and unused to prolonged use. But after days of trying and failing, she finally caught a fish. A monster of a salmon that barely fit in her little claws. But the best part of her success was the pride that glinted in her mothers blood red eyes. It was one of the fondest memories she had left of her mother, and she was glad she could remember it despite the drowsiness she swept in.

She had considered trying to catch the fish that swam oh so tantalisingly close to her but they did nothing more than to emphasise the pain in her belly, too small to provide much sustenance.

She sighed again, the steam billowing out of her nostrils less than the last time. She could barely keep her eyes open anymore and she didn't want to close them out of fear she wouldn't open them again.

She was tired. So very tired. Her body ached and the pitter patter of hail and sleet battered her exhausted body.

Yang Xiao Long sighed.