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The ultimate tale of the dysfunctional super hero family.

An Embarrassment of Dragons

CHAPTER ONE

When the world of Hydrasil first forged together a dragon egg emerged out of it's molten core. As the mountains closed around it and the oceans filled the cracks the core was sealed away from the egg forever. The egg could not grow without the immense warmth the core provided. Even the shining sun was not able to bring it to life. It was not until the first of man found the egg did it sufficiently receive enough growing warmth from their constructed bons. Man found and nurtured the egg. The egg hatched Auraura Mother to all dragons. Generously nursed through her vulnerable hatchling form she was able to grow into planetary prominence.

There were 2 dragonary attributes the humans wish they knew before her rise to power: one was she could asexually reproduce, and two, at fully grown adult age she became nearly invincible. Auraura lived long enough to see her descendants evolve past her wildest expectations. While she lived for millennia, the harmony between dragons and humans remained upheld without fail. Now it has been two thousand and twenty years since her death and the human race has been relentlessly subjected to war, enslavement, and discrimination all at the diverse hands of the vastly evolving dragon species.

The Social Classes of Hydrasil

Harbinger Dragons sovereign upper class from Skyrule, a floating city in the clouds

The Rangers human noble class that serves Skyrule, policing harbinger subjects

Infernal Dragons baron class fire dragons, gold-mongering governors 

Drakefolk middle class earth dragons that evolved into biped mammals

Sapefolk lower class of humans, representing the majority of their species  

The Auraulauri endangered species who hold the key to dragon/human hybridization  

Usurpentine Dragons rebel tide dragons of curious origin from the Salt Shores

Our story starts with Urchin of the sapefolk.

“Wake up, we are about to arrive.”

The guard knocked him on the leg.

“Wake up, Upchuck.”

“It’s Urchin.”

“Where did they find you?”

“Moonfast by Bayside.”

“Well I’ll be damned. Have you ever seen a dragon before boy?”

“You mean besides drexels and scagtooth? No, sir. I grew up on my father’s farm.”

“What did he grow out in Bayside? Was it seaweed?” the guard chuckled.

“It was a conch farm.”

There was a brief pause before the guard almost keeled over in hysterical laughter. What neither of them knew was that conch meat was a delicacy among highborn dragon lords from Barontown and Skyrule alike. Captain Ren Horvath of the Rangers worked out a deal a long time ago with Urchin’s father allowing him to make a proper living for his family. Now Urchin was eighteen years old and already had just about enough of farming shells in the muck. He enlisted in the Rangers volunteer division and boarded a carriage to their training facility in Kiln City commonly referred to as Barontown.

When they arrived Urchin was escorted to Captain Horvath’s office. This was uncommon to say the least, especially for someone like Urchin, or to be more precise, a lowborn like Urchin. Just like most of the human race in Hydrasil his family ranked nowhere close to nobility. Horvath, on the other hand, was part of a larger family that served the Barons Infernal dating all the way back to the age of Auraura. Urchin had never met the guy, so this wasn’t a social call. Perhaps the captain was expecting a thank you from young Urchin for the tremendous favor and opportunity? In which case he would be more than happy to oblige.

“This way.”

The guard he was with was not like the others. Sure he stood on two legs but he was not a descendant of first man. Urchin looked into his eyes. No, this guard was a descendant of Auraura, one of the drakefolk. Compared to a human his eyes were stretched sharply almost to corners and his brow pinched with an elongated snout. Everything about the guard's features were harsh, from his bone structure to his smile, or lack there of. The drake guard motioned towards the door Urchin was facing and walked away to let him complete the journey on his own.

As he went to open the door to the office a paralyzing screech came from outside followed by a woosh loud enough to make everyone in the building quiver along with its foundations. Urchin centered himself and walked in on massive black wings flapping just outside the windows and ducked for cover. Urchin hid behind a stone chest while a dragon the size of the room torched the office.

The cascading fire moved across the floor like it was phantom volcanic. Urchin backed away as it approached him, carefully and slowly pedaling backwards on all fours. He was running out of room. In a desperate moment he decided to risk revealing himself rather than getting burnt. The dragon stopped spewing out fire as Urchin got to his feet. He could tell it was getting ready to fly away by the awkward flapping of its wings.

Ranger guard rushed in and grabbed Urchin who was still in shock. He was quickly escorted out of the room and down the hall to the staircase where they walked down to the basement. Urchin was restrained by the hands.

“What’s going on?”

The guards opened the metal bar door that led to the dungeon and threw Urchin inside.

“I had nothing to do with that attack!”

The door slammed shut and after the guards went back up the stairs what little light that was left went dark. It took Urchin some time to get used to the darkness. Soon enough his eyes acclimated to the pitch black conditions and the definitions of his surroundings settled in. The room wrapped around the corner behind the stairs. He slowly followed the wall and crawled at a snail’s pace. The room seemed to be completely empty. That was until he reached the corner and turned to find out he was not alone.

“Hello? Can you hear me?” Urchin whispered, “Please be alive, please be alive.”

He got closer and closer until he could see it was a girl. He reached out to politely touch her leg when she moved away. Urchin took a couple of steps back as well. He lowered his shoulders as a sign of submission in hopes that she would drop her guard. It would have looked like he was bowing to her, a sweet scene, if anyone could have seen it...

“My name is Urchin.”

“I am Odessa.”

“How long have you been down here?”

“Three days.”

“For what?”

“No papers.”

Urchin wasn’t quite sure what that meant but he did not want to give his oblivious nature away. Maybe he was better off staying on the farm. It was too late now. He was clearly wrapped up in something he had no business taking part in. He sat down next to Odessa and thought of what to say next.

“I don’t know what I did.”

“You are man. I am Auraulauri. We are both down here.”

“I was arrested for just being a man?”

“A crime accused with their eyes not their words.”

"What is so wrong about being Aurau..."

"lauri." Odessa smiled, "Auraulauri are going extinct, barons and harbingers want to forget about my people."

"I thought I was going to be like a janitor or something."

"You do not see through the dark as well as Auraulauri. May I be honest with you Urchin?"

He shook his head. 

"They are still moving wreckage out of the office. I can feel the vibration through the walls. I already see where the ripples lead. You will be framed for the captain's murder."

"WHAT?!" he jumped up, "That can't be. I didn't even know the guy."

"That is why you make such a good stooge," Odessa laughed. 

Urchin slid back down on the wall defeated, "I want to go home."

"You are innocent like child."

"I am not a child. I just know when I am out of my element."

"I do not pity you, Urchin. I test you to make sure you are one of the good ones."

"You are so odd."

Odessa took her shirt off to reveal an obscurely bony back covered in tattoos. While she covered herself with her arms Urchin got a good look at her skin. She was not human but she did not look entirely drakefolk either. Odessa looked as if she evolved from a different, possibly unknown, species of dragon. She was too busy getting herself ready to make anything of Urchin's gawking. She straightened up her shoulders. Urchin was startled.

It looked like something was crawling under Odessa's skin. Her spine rolled through into her bones bringing the tattoos on her shoulder to life. They lit all the way down her arms and glimmered like a flame. The tattoos did not burn Odessa's skin but peeled away along with the extra bone on her back fusing together to make wings. It was beautiful and unsettling at the same time. Urchin could not look away.

Odessa coughed in her hand a couple of times, almost as if she was trying to do it on purpose. On the fourth cough fire shot out of her mouth. She grabbed Urchin by the restraints and held him close. The fifth cough blew apart his restraints freeing him. But Urchin did not try to get away. He stayed close as she lowered her wings around them and began ramming the dungeon door. Urchin could tell by its rattling that it would give after a couple more strikes. He braced himself for the jailbreak and tried to find a polite way to grab Odessa and hold on for dear life. 

In one fluent motion she broke through the door, scooped up Urchin and flew into the stairwell. They tumbled through the hallway leveling any of the guards unlucky enough to get in their way. Odessa found the nearest window to shatter and flew out to safety and the open air while the Ranger Headquarter's alarm went off behind them.

Odessa positioned Urchin so she could look back behind them as they climbed higher and higher. He was slightly larger than her so it was not an easy feat. The path behind them looked clear for the moment even though the alarm was still sounding off below them. When Odessa turned back to look forward she felt a snag of her left wing and knew. The headquarters squadron was upon them. She quickly redirected and kicked off of the amberush squadling, breaking his grip and maintaining Urchin's trajectory free of any crash course.

"Well, I'll be damned," Urchin exclaimed as he whipped through the air in Odessa's embrace, "dragons riding dragons!"

Although now it was considered out-dated and slightly racist terminology, they were dragon riders in the purest sense of the words. The amberush squadron were all drakefolk pilots, cloaked in their gray and bronze standards, throwbacks to a past that no longer existed, hired by the Rangers for airborne security. They were known for how they flew. The amberush rode on the backs of lesser species. Wild sky dragons large enough to saddle. Part of the animal kingdom of lessor dragons destined to spend eternity unable to move past beast on the evolutionary chain. Where sentience halted adeptness advanced exponentially. The wayfarers were the fastest of their kind in the skies.

Odessa moved through the attacking fighter squadron like she was successfully water dancing with a baboon. Both Odessa and Urchin were too small and unpredictable of a target to get a good shot. The squadron had their wayfarer dragons trained to launch fireballs instead of breathing fire in order to maintain altitude, balance, and stride. At the moment their limited capacities and vulnerabilities were being taken advantage of by a couple jailbirds. Urchin watched helplessly as Odessa's face exploded in dissipating embers. Their luck had ran out. The fireball did not burn her but it was enough to shake loose her grip on Urchin who was now plummeting to the ground, which awaited him a great many unforgiving stories below.

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