The ashes before Strife

Episode 9 : Hatching Trouble ; 5

"Now then. Any ideas what we should call them Lupra?" She poked her nose atop its head sniffing at it. The dragon then opened its crimson red eyes staring up at us striking at Lupra's nose scaring her off my back making her fall to the earth 'how's about meany mc mean face!'

I laughed slightly placing the angry kitten onto the ground watching it wobbly learn to walk. "Not a bad suggestion but it's a little long Lupra."

I then pulled out a stone with glowing blue veins, a clean wooden box, and a pen as well as a large mat with a magical gold diagram on it placing the items atop it. 'What's that papa?' Lupra tried to pet the cat-shaped lizard still learning to walk with her paw as she asked me

"this. Is a mobile version of the contracted circle we used together. With this, I can tame anything anywhere without worry of preparation." The four-legged tiny dragon then walked its way over to me wobbly, staring at the golden ink diagram on the mat curiously. It then looked me in the eyes showing obvious intelligence "you wanna name?" It nodded its head immediately.

I then pondered for a moment thinking of good names "how's Fafnir?" It shook its head in disagreement "ager?, Ajax?, Citan? Cradle? How about scar?" It denied all of my perfectly good names. Unknowing what else to do I pulled a corrupted wisp out of my head scaring it, then I flicked it into its head "what kind of name do you want?"

"A powerful one idiot human!" The dragon's voice was like that of a boy in the middle of puberty "first of all I'm not a human. I'm a demon. Second of all don't call your owner an idiot." It acted stunned as it realized it could now talk to me, not acknowledging Lupra licking him. But why a royal name? I didn't refuse its request so I thought for a little longer until I thought of some "so how's Qrow, Kralthorn, or Cerberus?"

"I like the sound of being called Kralthorn. It's simple yet realizes evil and power!" He then gave an evil chuckle as I started creating the contract sticking a piece of paper to his head the same as mine

"I Cayde Barbaten with mana as my witness shall create a contract with the dragon KralThorn." Red and silver chains then sprouted from the pieces of paper on our foreheads binding each other together unable to move. The chains then evaporated disappearing as if they were never there and I opened my green eyes to see Thorn staring deeply into mine with his red ones.

"Lupra why don't you introduce yourself to your baby brother." Thorn gave a displeased look as I said this but didn't say anything.

Lupra then happily sat in front of me atop the mat staring into Thorn with her yellow eyes "I am Lupra your older sister! I'm a Fenrir so I promise to keep you safe with my ice and wind magic!"

I then introduced myself "I'm Cayde of the demon race. I can manipulate fire, ice, lightning, darkness, and a little bit of water and wind magic. I've got an aspect that's a little hard to explain but it's called corruption." I then spread multicolored veins around the area amazing the red-eyed tiny black dragon

"I am Thorn! I can manipulate fire and earth magic and I am of the mighty family of dragons!"He then bowed his head down "I hope you treat me well Cayde." I smiled at the tiny dragon and started scratching the back of his head placing the blue-veined stone to his forehead gently. "Call him papa, meany mc mean face!"

"Ew no! He may have horns as well but that doesn't mean we're related!" Thorn then shot a pitiful fire breath at lupra barely reaching her, she then breathed slightly and covered him in ice freezing him "c-cold!" I then pulled the stone away and lit my hand that was still scratching him alight with silver fire thawing him out "seems like we're a family already."

I then stood myself up, picking thorn up by the back of his neck. "Until your strong enough little guy I'll protect you from Lupra." Lupra then jumped atop my shoulder sinking her body into mine only poking her head out. "I'm gonna be in the soul veil papa, sleeping. Wake me up if you need me." I nodded at her as she disappeared and Thorn stared at me amazed "what the hell was that?!"

"It's a soul veil. It uses my body as a portal to a subspace that you can call home and rest in." I then placed him onto my shoulder where he slowly went through heading in "cool!" He then disappeared and I headed back to the city making a plan to help Thorn grow quickly.

The next morning I woke up on an inn's bed feeling extremely tired, shirtless unable to move.

I tried to get up but was being stopped by a blue maned white wolf lying on my chest. I moved Lupra aside and headed into the bathroom to brush my teeth, as I was in there I could hear the clattering of something approaching me from below.

I looked down in the reflection of the mirror to see a black bat-like creature crawling towards me with red eyes and two short silver horns. "Thorn... is that you?"

"Of course it is! Who else is this handsome and amazing?" Still confused by the change of his forelegs to wings I stared silently still brushing my teeth. I then spat out the toothpaste and turned to face him crouching down "why are your um?... why did your forelegs become wings?"

The tiny bat looked at me confused as if I just asked a stupid question "I told you I was a dragon yesterday right? Dragons can change their form as they desire."

Shocked by the new information I ran into the other room grabbing my necklace pulling out my notebook going to a page with multiple drawings of different dragon species, then turned around presenting it to Thorn who was following after me "what's the problem?" I then tapped at the drawing of drake, a dragon that has four legs a big build, and a long tail but no wings. "Can you turn into something like this?" Thorns shape then covered in red flames then dissolved revealing a tubby scaled black dragon with no wings almost looking like a fat cat.

"Thorn... how many species of dragons are there actually?"

"Only one. It's just that there are different tiers of us. Whoever told you there was more than one was an idiot." I then struck the back of his head into the floorboard and basked in the realization that the wyrm I killed wasn't half a dragon but a full dragon! As well as all those poor drakes I hunted for sport in the past two years. "What tier of the dragon are you Thorn?"

Crying Thorn pulled his head out of the floor "what did I do to deserve this?" I gave him a threatening look and he quickly shut up "if I knew I'd tell you but as I don't know my birth parents I can't say."

That's unfortunate "can you tell me about the difference in tiers then?" I flicked to a new page in my dragon notebook readying to write down the information "you won't hit me again if I do right?"

I gave him a nod and handed him some jerky as an apology "so! There are five tiers to dragons. Lesser, medium, high, true and mythic." Thorn then stopped and peered at me for a moment "what?"

"Can I have some of your blood?" I looked at him perturbed and quickly put my hand to my neck "I don't mean in that sense idiot!" Relieved I lowered my hands "okay why do you need my blood?"

The tubby cat-like dragon laid down getting comfy "it's so that I can see what tier the dragon you killed was at. I may figure out what tier I am with it." Agreeing to it as the benefits seemed good I used a shadow to jab the edge of my finger leaking out a droplet of crimson blood that matched Thorn's eyes.

I shoved the finger in his mouth choking him as I forced him to quickly drink it "alright tell me, quickly" Thorn choked as I pulled my finger out but licked his lips in satisfaction "Hmm. Taste like lesser tier to me."

I dropped slightly upset by this "you figure out what rank you are?" Thorn gave a confused look as he tried to think "sorry can't say."

Aggravated at the lack of good news I punched him back into the floorboards face first. "You said you wouldn't do it again!"