1 Demise of a Race (Prologue)

"Burn it down, all of it." Said the dark and deadly voice. "I'll find the one that killed her." The man was tall and had blazing green eyes. There was no other way to describe them at the moment, they were glowing in the darkness. He stared down at the village below him. He was higher up on the mountainside. The very air around him was filled with malice and hate.

"Da, are you going to come back?" Said a small voice, and there was a bit of uncertainty and fear there. The man turned his head and his expression softened. He squatted down so that he was the height of the young boy there. His son met his gaze.

"I will try." He said, but he could not promise. His mate was dead, and this would eventually cost him his own life.

"I want to come with you." The man blinked, and looking closer you could see that his eyes were more like a reptile's. The slits were narrower, and next to him, there was movement, and a huge body appeared. It was massive from how long it had been alive and growing. The dark form of a dragon there.

"You cannot, you are far too young yet. They hunt us too readily. The fear that these peasants have of us has driven them to sorcery and find a way to kill us. You will live for us. Keep our race going Xerxes even if you do not see it yet."

"Shouldn't they fear us?" The young boy asked, and the man smiled. His rather fierce face changed with it. He looked almost dashing for a moment and he met his son's eyes. A younger face but already looks so much like him.

"Of course, but now they kill us. There is no such thing as complete immortality, remember that for they will hunt you and others that are close to it. What makes us different drives them to hunt us and desire our magic. They have let the darkness in their hearts."

"They will hunt us just because they fear us." The boy said mumbling. "They got mother." The man's face changed again and was replaced by stone coldness a moment later.

"Her death will be avenged shortly." He put a finger under his son's chin lifting it so he looked at him and met his gaze. "You will stay here and not follow. If I do not come back, leave this place and find another place to grow and live for us. To show them we will not be pushed back to nothing. Learn how to live and how to make them pay Xerxes." Xerxes looked at his father, it felt unfair. It felt horrible inside to know what was going to happen. He lost his mother, and his father would not live long without her. Xerxes even young knew this. Dragons had one mate, and that was for life.

"Do you understand me?" His father said rather severely.

"Yes," Xerxes said but looked upset.

"Zani." His father called turning his head and meeting the gaze of a smaller creature that was sitting there. Its body looking very lizard-like and reptilian. Wings were folded against its body and its color a jet black yet seemed to shimmer with a deep purple, the eyes a sapphire blue. "You will see to it that he stays here and leaves when needed. This is your duty to each other." The smaller form looked up at the larger one meeting the purple gaze of the larger dragon. He gave a head bob a moment later.

'I will protect my chi.' Sounded the voice in their minds. Dragons had their true dragon form and then that of their chi. Their soul that lived outside their body. Xerxes was Zani's chi and they were linked in life and death. As were his father and the dragon next to him. Humans knew little of dragons and their customs. That dragons were here for a far greater purpose. One the people of this reality were starting to forget. Not that it mattered this night, and no dragon wished to converse with man anymore.

"Good." The man touched Xerxes's hair as he turned and moved up to the massive dragon's side. Once more he looked down at the town and the small bit of campfire there.

"None live, understood?"

"Yessss." Was the sound that came from the large dragon's mouth. More like a hiss than anything but they knew what it had said. Xerxes' father moved going up the creature's side in a quick fluid movement. He crouched low near the shoulders but not sitting. He wouldn't be on him long. Both of them were dragons and both had lost their mate. They knew they were saying goodbye to their sons.

"I pray the stars are for you this night Da." Xerxes's father looked down. Xerxes was looking up and then past him to the billions of stars glowing overhead. The world was still wild in this age, but soon even the stars would fight to shine as man attempted to subdue the earth.

"They will be." With that he and the dragon he rode dove from the large cliff at a high rate of speed. Xerxes' father glanced up just a moment to the stars and sent one prayer to them.

That his son would grow and outlast the plague that was mankind. That he would get a chance to know what it meant to have a mate. To have children and something to fight for. That Xerxes and Zani would never have to know and face true darkness. 

Xerxes stood at the very edge of the cliff looking down at the huge shadow that swooped low over the forest and heading straight for the village. The one that had taken his mother from him. The one that had been slaying many of his kind. The tips of his feet hanging over the edge. He saw the smaller form break away from the larger one a moment before flames erupted over the village. He couldn't help the small smile he felt watching the destruction.

Next to him, Zani stood watching feeling the exact same thing. What neither knew was that this was the start of mankind's bid to destroy those like them. That forces greater than any dragon were at work. Neither knew standing there that they would eventually become the last of their kind, with little hope left.