Part 2: Chapter 2

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Lonely were the days of the young dragon. It had been a long time since he had last seen his own kind and he had no one he could call a friend. The sun shone the same since the time he descended to the Earth. Yet the stars had changed. He watched civilization grew but he had never been able to be a part of it all. His responsibility was bound and he shall not leave until the last call from the Eldest.

He lay rested in the glade letting the sun shine upon his enormous hide as he wondered what made people fear him so. He wondered if there would come a time when a kind soul will speak to him without fearing him when a rustle and crackle of leaves on the forest floor woke him from his reverie.

"Aren't you one majestic beast..."

A man spoke, his built sturdy, his voice confident. The young dragon lifted his head acknowledging the man's presence.

"Aren't you afraid?" The dragon asked him.

"I am not." The man replied.

"How confident this man seems." The dragon thought.

But the Universe knew how happy it made the dragon to have met a valiant young man who would go out of his way to speak to a dragon who would be nothing but a beast that protected the forests to the other villagers.

The man did not seem at all disturbed by the dragon's presence. He instead seemed to be at ease.

"Instead I should thank you for being the guardian of this land."

The young dragon has never heard such words from a human and hearing them amused him.

"You're different." The dragon remarked.

"I have been told so by many... But thank you." The man replied.

"A cocky one he is, but maybe I'll finally have some company." Thought the dragon.

That evening passed with an exchange of stories and the dragon did make a friend of the young man for the young man paid the dragon frequent visits from that day on. The young dragon's days were spent with him listening to the man telling him stories of his childhood and about the things he encountered during his ventures in the deep valleys and rivers. The young dragon would listen with keen interest to the folk tales the man would tell him and the stories the man would weave on the spot. Tales of the toad and the heavens, of tigers and stars and his stories of spirits and fortune, of wealth and curses.

The man had his own principles he abide by and to be loved by people made him the happiest. He was well respected by the people of the village and his name shall be spread far and wide even after the village's fall, as the man who saved the village.

The young man had to leave the village one day to go on a long journey. He had bid his farewell to the dragon and told him he would return in three months. The dragon waited.

But it happened that on one fateful day during one of his ventures he  met a storyteller in a faraway town who wove a tale so fine that the man became entranced by her story. A tale of wealth and prosperity, of respect and of sacrifices made.

"I'll weave another tale so fine you won't have to worry." She said.

"Get me what I need and I shall show you a world of wealth and respect."

A year had passed, the man never returned in three months as promised. The young dragon was lonely again. His head hung low, the days passed by. Slowly and painfully loneliness crept.

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"How many days has it been?" The dragon thought to himself. It had been almost a fortnight the girl had gone with the woman with raven hair and crimson eyes.

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