Chapter 1.

Once long, long time ago in a far off land lived a young man. This young man was an adventurer, so he did not stay in one place for very long. He was always on the move searching for a new story, a new adventure. Luckily for him there were lots of adventures to be had, this young man lived in a time of castle, wizards, and dragons, so no matter the time or place there was always something to be explored.

Yet even with all the adventures he had there was always one place he would find himself back at. A small unknown village at the edge of Paralithian. Paralithian was a large country with many trading docs and large villages. This was a place known for wizardry, many people would visit just to get a wizard help, or buy some kind of potion. Paralithian was ruled by a lovely queen and her husband who did all they could for this great land, not many were poor because of this. Even in this great land there were very small not well known villages, and that's where our adventures tale begins.

In a small village called terarithian we see a young boy about the age of ten, he stands in front of a small run down cabin, which isn't odd as that's how most of the cabins look in this village, he has an impatient look to his face and an anxious stance, his short brown hair is tousled, and his clothes are light brown with splotches of dark brown mud caked to them. His face brightens up as he sees a young man in his early twenties walking down the dirt road. The impatient look and anxious stance fades away as he runs up and jumps on the man.

"You're late." The young boy states as the older gentleman catches him.

"I'm never late your just early." States the older man

"Is you brother home?"

The young child rolls his eyes, and poses dramatically, "As I thought you never here to see me only my bother." The older man chuckles at the young boy and his dramatic act. "But ya, Noah's here, he's inside." The older man runs to the house with the young child in his arms, and slams open the door. The door makes a loud crash eco through the cabin and they here a mans voice yell,

"JAMES, didn't I tell you to stop slamming doors nobody cares about the rocks you found."

A young man about nineteen walked out, he had long dirty blonde hair tied into a bun on the top of his head, he had the same light brown shirt and dark brown shorts as the younger boy, except his were cleaner and the t-shirt had been cut into a tank- top. He had dull hazel green eyes that stared right at the young man with his brother in his arms.

"Is that any way to treat your long gone friend, who has finally returned from his long and dangerous journey." The young boy, James then jumped out of the man's arms and went into another room.

"Robert! Your back," explained Noah excitedly. As he pulled Robert into a hug, "it's been so long man what was it this time?"

"Trapped in a dragons cave." Robert explained like it was an everyday occurrence, and with him it really could have been.

"Well you seemed to have quite the adventure, huh?" Noah exclaimed.

"Ya, but it was a shorter one so… here I am." James stated while Noah gave him a skeptical look.

"Dude you were gone for like three months." Noah stated while shaking his head, "how did you lose track of time like that, jeez?"

Noah then gave a good look at Robert, he looked like a different person by then. His once baby smooth face had a large amount of stubble grown on it, he clothes looked dirty and mangled, one sleeve of the long sleeve shirt he had worn had been torn off and hastily bandaged around his arm, there was dried blood seeping through the this cloth, it looked like it had been there for awhile. He had lost a lot of weight, and he was now all skin and bones, he had never weighed a lot but now he looked as if he weighed nothing, Noah was surprised he could even handle the weight of James; his blonde hair was now brown caked with dirt and soot. The only thing that was the same were his dark blue eyes still shone full of happiness and adventure, no matter how much Robert changed every time Noah had seen him his eyes still shine with that lust for adventure, which always made him smile. Robert was the type of person when he smiled it was contagious; he always radiated happiness where he was.

James then walked out from whatever he was doing in the other room, he looked Robert up and down the stated,

"You look like shit." And just casually stared at him.

"LANGUAGE!" Noah yelled.

Robert just laughed and said, "Thanks kid, I haven't gotten to a mirror in awhile, and needed to know now my status." He looked as if he just had a sudden realization after saying that. "Oh ya! I almost forgot I brought you something." He then knelt down on one of his knees and slung his backpack off his back and onto the floor, unzipping the bag he pulled out half a hatched dragon's egg. It was a beautiful red with swirls of lighter and darer red making amazing patterns that could never be recreated by man on it. It was a fire dragon's egg one of the most dangerous dragons knows to Paralithian, their even more dangerous when it comes to their eggs, the mothers are very protective over the eggs hatched or not. Not many people who try to get one make it out alive, but just like always Robert somehow to manage it.

James stared at the half of egg mesmerized, he had never seen anything like it, and he couldn't even tell what kind of dragon it was from. It was so rare that not many people even knew what they looked like, that included James. Robert pushed the half towards him; James was startled for a moment,

"For…for me?" he asked skeptically and a little surprised.

"Yup, just keep that safe, and it's all yours." Robert exclaimed beaming.

James gently took the egg half in his hands and walked to his room to put it in a safe area. Noah seemed to be thinking for a moment, then his face seemed to morph into the realization what the egg was.

"WAS THAT A FIRE DRAGON EGG?" he shouted.

Robert replied with a simple ya, while he was zipping up his bag and flinging it back onto his back.

"What were you doing in a fire dragons cave, and why when you were there of all things, why did you go after their egg. You know that's one of the most dangerous dragons known to this land AND SO YOU GO AFTER IT!" near the end he started yelling, the more he spoke the more he realized how much danger he put himself in, which made him angry.

Robert finally looked up and stared at Noah for a moment the spoke, "ya, I mean I got out… so were all good, no one got hurt."

"And what about your arm?" Noah said as he pointed at the blood stained sleeve.

"Oh this, I may have gotten scratched a bit, but I took care if it see." As he held out the horribly bandaged wound.

"You know what… just come with me." As he said that he started to pull Robert out of the cabin towards the dirt road and yelled to his brother that he would be back.

He pulled him through the street towards the busier area of the small town, there he pulled him through the groups of people at the street side supermarket, many people tried to stop and talk to Robert, him being pretty well known and popular in the small town. No matter who tried to stop though he just kept getting dragged along.  All the way until they were at a small hut, which was well known as the medical hut, Noah dragged him in there and they were greeted by a young girl, about seventeen or so. She was darker skinned, and had a large poof of dark brown hair that was pushed back by an orange bandana. She was on the shorter side and was a bit chubby. Her name was Alice, Noah had known her since he was a child, and Robert met her when he met Noah, under some testing circumstances.

"hey ali." Robert said, once they all got to know him he started calling her ali. She didn't seem to mind so it continued to be that way.

"Robert! Your back, it's been so long. How have you been?" she scurried out of behind her desk to greet the two men.

"I've been swell my lady." Robert joked.

Noah rolled his eyes at this and said, "Ok no more jokes, you need to check his arm. He can't do anything himself so here we are." He held the bandaged arm up. Alice took a quick look at the bandaging and told them to follow her to the back. Once back she sat him down on one of the beds and closed the curtain. She picked up the damaged arm and started to unwrap the makeshift bandage. Under the bandage there were the large gashes in his arm, which looked like claw marks. Surrounding each claw mark were scorches, the skin around was smeared in dried blood and puffed up in almost a circle shape surrounding toe marks.

"How did you do this?" Alice asked.

Robert looked at her then started to tell his story.

"Well I was down in the deserted plains of Bargenham..."