1 Prologue: Chapter 1

In a land far from our own, a dimension, a world different than our own, a battle is being waged. A battle between the King of the NightBlade clan, the last living, strongest, and most populated clan left of the once great dragon empire, and the mercenaries and bounty hunters. For the price on the ancient dragon king's head would draw even the most fearful of humans to the dragon's abode.

Not alone of course, no, only a fool would step foot into his den when his eggs are about to hatch. Only a fool would peer into a cave with a protective mother hovering over her eggs and a father who looks jumpy enough to breathe fire at the cricket coming too close to his mate. Only a fool... No one said there were only so many fools in this world. Because only fools would fight the dragon king. Hundreds and hundreds of fools, but fools nonetheless. But even fools, if there number is great enough, can overwhelm a dragon, especially one protecting his mate, his eggs, his children. Especially a broken one, one who just saw his mate perish and his eggs, all but one, burn to a crisp.

But when that last egg's shell cracks, and a small, midnight black snout sticks up into the air, the dragon king regains his will to live. If only to show his son the cruelty of this world, this world he now has to live in. Because only the strong survive and thrive and the weak are trampled.

And this is where this story begins, on a night where everything burns, where the dragon king falls, where his family perishes, all but one. A night where the NightBlade lost its leader, where they had to go into hiding lest they suffer the same fate, where the hatchling lost his father, his mother, his nest mates, where the dark seeds of hatred fester inside the young's ice-cold heart.