Child Of The Cursed Bloodline

In the southern part of Yigena lies a kingdom ruled by the Red-haired Silver Bloods. They worshiped the fire gods, and only them. Unlike the eastern and northern kingdoms, the southern kingdom had the red sun and fire-breathing dragons. It was common knowledge that the southern kingdom was the strongest among other domains and led by the most ruthless and oldest Silver Bloods.

As the scorching red rays of the sun seemed to penetrate the throne room, the king who sat on his throne stared at his son before him. His queen beside him never stopped scolding their son. His squires seemed uncomfortable by their queen's outburst, while his son seemed relaxed though he was not looking at them.

.

"Queen Reza, let the prince go." the king calmly said, but the queen huffed.

"You tend to spoil your son, my dear. He should learn some humility and not use his dragon against his people," the queen reasoned.

Earlier this day, their son, the prince of Euria, Frex, went to the capital city Xaxodom with his dragon. The queen thought nothing would go wrong, but a servant reported to her that her son burned a herd of cattle alive because the farmer's son did not bow to him. The queen had to give the farmer's family a hefty amount of Teran to keep the incident a secret. She could not tolerate Frex's arrogance, for he would sit on the throne someday.

And leading a fire nation such as Euria was a big responsibility towards the land of Yigena.

"Prince Frex, apologize to your mother."

The prince stood straight and gave his apology to his mother. "I apologize for my unlikely behavior, Mother."

But no matter how arrogant their son was, Queen Reza always had a soft spot for him. "Forgiven, just don't do it again."

Just as the prince with his squire was leaving, a white owl with a small paper rolled and secured to its talon rode straight to the king. The centaurs in the vicinity did not mind the white owl because the familiar crest hung around its head said it all; it was a message from the eastern kingdom Raxes.

The queen excitedly waited for her king to read the message aloud, but the look she never thought she would see again was etched on her husband's face.

'The message might be grave news,' she thought.

"Alistair!" the king called for his squire. His booming voice echoed inside the throne room.

A middle-aged man strode before the king. "Yes, your majesty?"

"Prepare my dragon," he said. Though balder dashed, Alistair immediately set off to prepare the king's dragon, which had been in deep slumber for a long time under the castle.

The people around the king seemed tense; they knew something was wrong, but they never dared to voice their questions. The look on the king's face was a fair warning for everyone, including the queen, to keep silent.

When Alistair's figure vanished, the king immediately stood up and walked towards the war room, where his armor and weapons were hidden for a long time. The king did not think that the day he would wear it would come again. As he strode away, the queen was hot on his heels, worried about what was happening.

"My King, is something wrong?" the queen asked quietly. She watched her husband wear his armor before her. Not answering her, he sighed and looked at her.

"Reza, prepare our son and our legion while I am away," the king answered instead.

"I promise by all the gods of fire," the queen, though blinded by what was truly happening, nodded and was determined to fulfill her promise. Satisfied by her answer, the king passed through her when a roar echoed next to the castle. It's his dragon.

Frozen and left hanging, the queen could not watch her husband go away. The last time he wore that armor was for political reasons and never out of danger. She was about to turn around when a small crumpled paper caught her attention. Slowly, she approached the paper from the corner of the war room and picked it up.

Her delicate fingers straightened the paper as she read what was on it and turned cold pale.

"An army of phantoms marched to the eastern wall of Raxes. Two Avatars died over the years, one remained, and one would be added. We need you to assess the situation."

The army of phantom would be the doom of all Yigenan if it breached the eastern wall of the kingdom of Raxes. The east wall was made of ice and stones, and high as the mountain was the only wall that separated the living and the dead.

She sensed that everything from this moment on would change.

RIGHT AFTER THE annual coming-of-age ceremony, Ryzen was dragged to a building near the outermost wall. How he ended up there was answered by the roaring of dragons.

'Of course, it's the dragons.'

A centaur practically dragged him to the cellars of the building, where an old lady was waiting. Remembering the familiar cape, it was the seer.

"Take off your cape," the centaur said from behind him.

"No," he said. Since his sister was away from this danger, he could now do all he wanted as nothing but Ryzen.

"I said take it off!"

The echo of the centaur's voice rang in his ears, which caused him to cringe.

"Enough," the old seer interrupted.

"Leave us," she said to the centaurs, to which the proud centaurs hesitantly obliged.

The seer stared at Ryzen for the whole time since the centaurs were gone. Ryzen grew uncomfortable under her knowing gaze.

"What?" Ryzen blurted all of a sudden, which earned him a soft chuckle from the seer.

"I know what you did, child. I won't say it's good, but I understand."

For a split second, Ryzen's eyes widened before he replaced them with nothingness—neither denying nor affirming the words of the seer.

'So she knows I cheated to save Raya.'

"Would you tell them?" Ryzen referred the 'them' to the Silver Bloods, but the seer shook her head.

"What for? It would be a total waste of time. The kingdom needs you, Avatar."

Avatar, when would he get used to being an Avatar? Ryzen did not even know what Avatar's work was?

'And the kingdom needed him? That's absurd.'

"Then I will teach you. We may have a short time, but I will."

'Did she just read my mind?'

The seer just smiled at him and stood up. "Before we begin. Let me ask you, this child of the cursed bloodline, are you ready to leave your life behind?"

"Yes," Ryzen answered. This was his only path, and there was no choice but to move forward. Into where? That remained unknown to him.

"What will be your name as an Avatar?" The seer asked him though he doubted that the seer did not read his mind.

"Raya. Raya Rozenhart."

'I may not be with my family, but their names will be connected to me —for eternity.'