The city of Raygate stood proudly in the sun and the small, insignificant member of the lower class ring city of Oldtown woke up from his slumber in the wee hours of the morning. He rubbed his eyes and yawned softly, pulling the sheets away and looking up to his mother who stood in the doorway.
"H-hey mum~" He yawned and scratched his fur-covered head. Everyone in the city were mostly beings who were anthropomorphic animals. Some were as unique as dragons, those lived in the upper echelons of Raygate, mostly highborn. But in Oldtown, the people there were mostly sloths, dogs and some wolf refugees. Elijah's family were the only dragons around since they came to Raygate several years ago. His sleek, golden-scaled mother, Bertha and his dark brown scaled father, Ridge, had moved here because of the city's promised safety.
You see, they had escaped a dastardly war, which had taken place many years ago in the country and after losing both their jobs from old age, Elijah had taken up a fun, yet stressful job at the old mill called Brightmill in the Wetmarsh, outside the inner wall. He had to farm cotton and aided it through many processes before it became threads to be made into silk and its other products.
He was a good worker and always arrived on time. He started work around 3 am and it was about 1 am now. Slowly, he got up from his slightly sunken bed that had been groaning under his weight for a few years now and walked to the bathroom.
Inside, there were small patches of moss that he had tried to scrap away, but to no avail so he left them as they were. The shower was rusty, but it gave them water with no problem so they accepted it gratefully. He slowly started to strip himself of his clothes as he locked the door.
There had been a problem with the door and the lock so his dad actually walked in on him while he was bathing once and he had to spend a bit of money for it to be fixed. He turned the weathered knob and water squeaked its way into the pipe and showered over his head. The icy water had no effect on the dragon and he started to brush his teeth and wash his hair and body at the same time.
He loved the way his scales was a beautiful baby blue and his royal blue scaly skin.
He stroked and brushed all the scales on his body and quickly turned off the shower when he was done so his parents could use it too. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he came out of the bathroom and trotted to his room, now awake and ready to start on his familiar journey to the Wetmarsh.
He dressed up in his black shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans before putting on some boots. He packed his books for the university in his bag along with a change of clothes and footwear.
As he was walking to the front door, his mother grabbed his arm and smiled, leaning in to kiss his cheek. He blushed slightly and laughed softly and rubbed Bertha's hand gently.
"Mum, it's alright, I've done this a billion times alright?" He smiled and Bertha gently placed a hand on his head and ruffled it gently.
"I know son, I do...so be extra careful today, just in case ok?" She gave him a small sad smile and kissed his forehead gently. He replied with a nod and smiled at her before turning the knob on the door and exiting the house.
The dreadful, yet familiar smell of rotting food and just poor people hit him as it did every day. He sighed softly and promised himself to work even harder to help his parents into Barrowedge so they didn't have to live on the horrible air every day.
Quickly, he unchained his bicycle and made his way to the steel doors that led to Wetmarsh. He peddled quickly and braked gradually harder until he came to a stop at the gate where several Gatekeepers worked the gate. He smiled at one of the guards and he saluted at them before one of them pressed a button and tugged on a lever. The gears on the wall clicked and whirred into life as the door opened slowly and stopped halfway to let Elijah out.
"Thanks!" He shouted to the guards as he rode off into the direction of Brightmill. The big burly wolf who looked like he was half asleep was standing at the doorway of the mill smiled and waved at Elijah and shouted a greeting at the incoming dragon.
He braked gently before braking harder and stopping just in front of the wolf.
"Boss! How's the mill?" He asked and smiled. The wolf laughed and smiled at him.
"It's going well, but it'd be better if you were in it! The others are just too slow for me and you work really fast!" He said and Elijah blushed at the praise that the wolf rarely gave out.
The wolf - who went by the name Tony- always loved it when Elijah came to work and would pat his back whenever he felt Elijah was doing a good job. He would give Elijah some extra money once in a while like mini-bonuses as he knew about Elijah's financial situation. He always fully appreciated the help and he often tried to return the money, but it would always end up in his pay envelope.
The noises of the machinery of the mill broke him out of his thoughts as he chained his bike to the mill's steel doors. He dusted his overalls and he walked into the mill. Tony led Elijah to the back of the mill and told him what to do until about 1 pm and then he could come back to him to get his pay.
He nodded and smiled when he was set to watching after the machinery that sorted the cotton and to process it into the sheets of cotton that they shipped around the city.
Hours flew by as he set himself to doing the work and nothing less. Once in a while, an image of someone he liked at the university popped into his brain.
A black panther who went by the name Ngaire, sat next to him in his classes in university, but she never really paid any attention to him. She only gave him the casual 'Hello' or 'Morning' but beyond that, she didn't say much.
He had been teamed up with her to do group projects and they always, always topped the class when they did it together. Her sweet voice and her posture when she sat already told him that she was either from the Newbrook or Barrowedge, well out of his league.
A burst of steam that gushed into his face brought him back to reality and he realised he had been thinking of her for more than a couple minutes. He was insanely lucky that he hadn't been caught by Tony and quickly worked.
By 12 pm, the inflow of cotton had stopped as the workers were taking a break and he went to James's office to be greeted by some Gatekeepers who were telling Tony some information. He hid behind some boxes of cotton to eavesdrop on the conversation.
He heard whispers vaguely about a missing prince who was supposed become of age soon and yet was still missing. He couldn't hear much, but he hid again when the Gatekeepers came out of the office and exited the building. He got up and knocked on James's office door.
"Come on in." A slightly irritated voice came from behind the door and Elijah immediately felt guilty for listening in. He opened the door and walked into the office. It was messy inside, with papers streamed all over his desk and the wolf clasping his head in his hands.
"Tony? Umm is this a bad time?" The dragon asked, fiddling with his fingers. Tony looked up and instantly smiled.
"Elijah! Oh sorry, I thought it was...Never mind that, you need your payment right? Here!" He gave Elijah a thick envelope and he looked inside.
"Sir! This... isn't for me, right? You got the amount wrong, this is like a month's pay!" He squeaked softly and showed Tony the amount. Tony shook his head and placed his hand on the envelope and pushed it back towards Elijah.
"Yes, it's for you, you've been working so hard here for over how long again? Coming to about 5 years? You deserve this, you really do so, please take it before I change my mind." Tony said and hugged Elijah. The Gatekeeper in royal robes stepped into the shadows, watching the dragon and wolf hug.
"T-thanks boss, you're really nice to me..." He smiled and wiped away his tears with his shirt and Tony chuckled softly.
"Ay, go and get changed for your school, I'm giving you the day off too!" Elijah gasped and squealed loudly.
"Sir! B-But!" He was cut short when the wolf held up a hand to silence Elijah.
"It's fine~ go shower and get ready for school ok? We'll be fine here~" He smiled and laughed softly as Elijah nodded and made his way to the locker room.
Once Elijah left, the Gatekeeper stepped back into the light and took off his cap.
"So that's him? He looks so young..." He murmured, and Tony nodded in agreement.
He showered quickly and dressed in slightly more formal clothes for the university had strict rules on what to wear. He wore a white shirt and a tie with a black vest over it and a royal blue blazer on top of everything. As pants, he wore the universities' royal blue pants and white shoes.
He got onto his bicycle and Tony came out of his office and patted his back, slipping him some more money just for the heck of it and running back into the mill to work. He smiled and rode off back towards the inner circle and smiled at the guards as they opened the gate to Oldtown. He parked his bike at his house and sneaked in to keep the money. He took out some of the notes to give to his mum and dad for them to buy food. He took some for himself and kept a majority of the rest in the safe in the floor of his room.
Slowly, he made his way to the train station and prepared his passport to get pass the customs and onto the monorail. He sighed as the train moved off towards Barrowedge.