Chapter 1

Kellan left school late not wanting to go back home where Lamya undoubtedly waited for him to back, and probably thinking up more wrongs he could not have in reality have done so that she could punish him. It had been this way for the past four years though to Kellan it seemed as if it had been forever since that fateful day when his parents Tristessa and Calais had been in an accident on their way home from a business trip in the northern part of the country. The accident left his mother with her spine broken in four places which was odd in it self, but her spine just below her neck was not just broken it was crushed to the point that it did not even resemble bones any more. That had all authorities completely confused since the extent of injuries anyone should have been acquired from the accident was a few broken bones not the number of broken bones Tristessa had received. On top of that was the fact that Calais was completely missing though a large amount of blood that was determined to be his threw tests left authorities to believe that he had been thrown from the vehicle and some wild animal had taken the body.

Though Kellan, and the human authorities did not know it Tristessa and Calais where both dragons, and had fled the dragon community some years before Kellan's birth to avoid the wrath of the king, Tristessa's father, who disapproved of Calais as a match for his eldest daughter at the time. They hid the fact that they where dragons from the humans with magic to change their appearance, and never told Kellan of his ancestry. Having planned to tell him when he matured and started to develop his powers that all dragons have with varying degrees of power. With Kellan's parents hiding from the dragon community the royal family never knew of their deaths, nor of Kellan's existence until fate decided to step in and change things.

Aislin was flying high over the outskirts of a human town her magic masking her presence from the humans as she observed them in their daily lives. It was a common hope that one day they would find a way to form peaceful relations with the humans again, and as such the king had ordered observations to be kept on the humans to look for likely humans to form a bridge between the races. Dragons having taken to avoiding direct human contact ever since the dark times as they where known when a few of the more zealous members of both races attacked each other sparking an all out war that destroyed most of the human records of their past and of the glory the two races had achieved when they worked together. The fighting lasted for several generations by human standards at its end the humans knew nothing of any cooperation between the two races on the past. This lead the elder council to advise the then king to break off any contact with humans and the scholars devised spells to hide dragons from human notice.

As Aislin watched a young boy around 15 by her estimation of human ages left a human school. She had a strange feeling as she watched him and decided he was worth investigating further. Changing her glide path she followed him for a way, and noted that he seemed to be really depressed and in no hurry to get where ever he was going she assumed it was his home. He stopped several times and looked around like he expected to see some one following him though other than the little bit of traffic there on the street there was no one around. After the boy started walking after the last time he looked around Aislin saw a large truck a little ways behind him start moving erratically around the road, and then start heading right at the boy from behind. With out stopping to think what she was doing Aislin dove for the boy, and grabbed him from in front of the out of control truck.

Kellan

On my way home from school I couldn't shake the feeling that some one was watching me as I slowly walked home to another beating probably. As I was in no hurry to get home any way I stopped several times to look around to see if I could figure out who it might be watching me if it wasn't just my imagination playing tricks on me. As I walked the feeling I was getting never went away or changed so I finally just decided it was only my imagination. After I had walked a little way farther a couple of things happened so fast I never would be positive that they didn't all happen at once and it just take a few seconds for my brain to acknowledge each one.

First was I felt like I was seized by two large hands, and lifted off the ground. The next thing was that I heard the squeal of tires and looked around to see where it was coming from and what was happening, and as I did this I discovered some thing that really confused me. That I was suddenly on the opposite side of the road than the one I had been walking on, and that exactly where I had been just seconds before was the remains of a large truck smashed into the side of the building. I walked the rest of the way home dazed and not even worrying any more what fiction I would be accused of and punished for when I got home. I was too preoccupied with trying to figure out how I had ended up on the other side of the street and why I was not dead or at least severely injured pinned between the truck and the wall.

Aislin

I flew high over the young boy once again as he walked home looking really confused, and I was just as confused if not more. For when I lifted him I felt the magic within him both his, and some one else's magic. I couldn't be sure with out confronting him but I thought that the boy had to be a dragon child who had grown up as a human and probably never knew of the dragon community and aside from his parents who ever they where the dragon community didn't know he existed either. Deciding that this required further investigation I followed him to a house on the edge of the town closest to the forest that I assumed was his home. I began to have doubts as to if what I felt from him when I saw this house as it was worn down and in more than a few places looked as if it was about to fall down and no self respecting dragon would live in such a miserable place.

I landed close by to wait and watch what would happen. As I landed I could smell fear and faint traces of blood in the air about the house. This caused me to worry for the child, but did not know if I should act right away or not as the smells where not fresh so I could not be certain if the fear was from any one currently in the house or even from the boy. As I sat debating what I should do next I heard a female shouting coming from the house that I could not really make out what was being said as the words where muffled by the walls of the house. As the shouting died down I heard three hard blows on flesh that made my heart rise to my throat and my anger almost slip beyond my control. The boy then ran out of the house with his head down running as fast as he could for the near by forest.

A woman of middle years came out of the house holding a long wooden stick yelling at him to get back inside and do his chores or he could expect to go with out food for a few days. When I heard this I grew furious at this female as no child should ever be treated this way no matter what they did, and to refuse to feed them simply because they didn't do a few insignificant tasks around the house. Wanting to rip her apart I took off but instead of heading for her I followed the boy into the forest. As there where many creatures in there that would see him as an easy meal especially with the smell of blood on him. He ran for quite a while in the forest and when he came into a clearing by a lake I used frequently to swim in in the high heat of the summer he tripped on some exposed roots at the edge of the clearing.

As I approached him I heard him sobbing, and it made my heart break to hear the pain and suffering in those sobs. I called out to him, "Child what makes you hurt so that you would run into this forest alone and so close to dark?" As I spoke I dropped the spell that hid me from the notice of humans.

Kellan

I entered my foster mother Lamya's house even later than normal, and knew I would be in for it for being out so late not to mention what ever other wrong she imagined I did. As I shut the door she turned around in the chair she was in to see me standing there. She jumped up and started screaming at me immediately, "Where have you been! What low life scum have you been out doing lord knows what with or what slut have you been with all this time. I saw the news of the truck that wrecked between here and your school what did you and your friends shoot it with to cause it to loose control. Te driver is in critical condition in the hospital!"

I did not even bother to try to deny it or to point out the fact that what few friends I had in the past had all been driven away by her in the years since my parents died knowing that would just make her even more angry. Since I had been sent to live here I had a long list of injuries ranging from broken bones to cuts that required stitching. Lamya always lied to the authorities saying they where all self inflicted and I must be trying to follow my parents into death. I also knew it would be pointless to point out the fact that I was still a virgin even if many other kids my age no longer where while many of the girls in my classes like me and even pitied my conditions at home none where brave enough to face Lamya. As I was distracted by my thoughts I had stopped listening to her and she screeched at me even louder and ran at me faster than I could react holding a broom handle "HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME WHEN IM TALKING TO YOU. YOU PIECE OF SHIT I WILL TEACH YOU PROPER RESPECT FOR ME!"

I tried to curl into a ball to protect my head from the beating I could see coming already, but I wasn't fast enough the first blow caught me across the side of the head and I heard a ringing in my ears. The second time she hit me in the left arm so hard I heard the bone snap. After she hit me again in the ribs I decided I had enough and I wasn't going to put up with her any more I shoved her away with my good arm and ran out of the house oblivious to the blood running down my cheek from where it split open when she hit me the first time. As I ran for the trees I heard her yell at me again but I ignored her as I was never going back to her again even if it meant starving to death out in the forest.

I don't know how long I ran but as I came to a clearing with a small lake in it I tripped and fell landing partially on my broken left arm. I was in so much pain both physical and emotional I just sat there unable to get back up and cried. I was startled when I heard a voice come from behind me but not really scared as the voice held a note of concern and sounded so kind, "Child what makes you hurt so that you would run into this forest alone and so close to dark?" I turned around to see who had spoke to me and nearly feinted from shock for there not 4 feet away stood a large green dragon. I was so stunned I couldn't get my voice to work. At that point every thing that had happened to me that day got to be too much for me and I passed out.