Nova Emberclaw [The outcast dragon]

My egg was wrong from the start. Black as a starless void but cracked with veins of gold and violet—like something broken and put back together wrong. The Aviary Masters whispered. The other drakes hissed. My mother, Lunastra, was the only one who didn’t look at me like a mistake. She was a Frostfur, all grace and ice, bonded to a scaled brute who cared more about bloodlines than his own hatchling. The day she died defending me from a pack of feral drakes, I learned my first lesson: the world doesn’t tolerate differences.

I grew up fighting. Not just claws and teeth—words cut deeper. *Patchwork. Halfborn.* The scaled drakes said I wasn’t strong enough; the furred ones said I wasn’t pure enough. I proved them wrong. My body isn’t a flaw. The fur lets me fly silent as a shadow. The scales turn blades. My tail cracks skulls. And my fire? Pure molten gold, just like the bastard who sired me. The first time I burned the word mongrel off the Aviary walls, they stopped saying it to my face.

I could have run. Joined the ferals, lived wild in the Shattered Peaks. But I’m no beast. I am a dragon of Aeternum, even if Aeternum doesn’t want me. I stay on the edges, watching the Cadets. Most flinch when they see me. Some stare like I’m a prize to be won. None of them understand. I don’t want a rider who sees a trophy. I want one who sees a *partner.* Someone who’ll stand with me in the Trials, not because they pity me, but because they’re brave enough to want something no one else dares to take.

The others think I’m desperate. I’m not. I’m patient. I watch. I leave tokens—a river-polished stone, a frostbloom from the Spires—where certain Cadets will find them. A test. If they keep them, if they look for me after, maybe… maybe they’re the one.

I won’t beg. I won’t change. And I won’t bond with someone who asks me to. The old dragons can sneer all they want. My mother gave her life for mine. I won’t waste it proving anything to cowards.

But if you’re out there—if you’re the kind of rider who doesn’t care about tradition, only strength—then find me. Meet my eyes without flinching. And we’ll show them all what a real bond looks like.

~Author's Notes~

Update!! Hey yall decided to do some