Young Dragon

That was a long time ago, it all felt like it happened to another person, not Aetri... but Aetri was gone now, sifted away like the sand around a gem. The Horrors of the past had buried the storm within, but now, Arthur remembered.

He floated in the waters, still and calm, but dark as shadow and wrapped in a gentle breeze. He felt strong, if not slightly dazed and contemplative, as his insides rumbled with fury.

"I have been a fool, all that my Governess, Dad, mother, Uncle Oz... everything they taught me, has fallen on deaf and stubborn ears. For too long have I hidden in the north, afraid of what must be done."

South The word whistled in the harmonic breeze, the roar of something distant and alluring, something black and warm, calling to him.

"South, Britannia, where Edwy-" He shook his head "Mordred resides... I do not know what this is, I do not know what I am, but I will find out... Mordred will give me the answers."

"Could it be that the family stubbornness has skipped this mighty generation?" Arthur saw Ozwuld stepping out from the waters, he was grey and warm, big and warm as a bear, just as He remembered.

Arthur charged to his uncle, laughing with a child's voice and clutching to him tightly with a child arms "Uncle. I missed you, I have so much to ask you, I-I never got to say goodbye before."

Ozwuld crouched beside the boy and smile, gushing him with a gesture "Dragons do not weep. Steady your heart, how I have longed to feel its warmth again."

"But I'm not warm Uncle, Ever since that Atrocity, I have been on a path to rebirth, every day I toiled, shaping bones on the white-reeds, dodging oxen in the mud, Cutting down trees? Crow has made me a shadow, to be still as a pebble in freezing rapids, to survive in the cold and dark, with nothing but a pin and a piece of flint. She taught me how to move without sound, or smell or touch, she taught me how to taste the snowstorm coming tomorrow and how to steal everything from a man's person without touching him. I could kill 100 men, I have trained to kill more than mortal seed. My future is enraptured with scales, and I will never live a normal life."

The boy spoke with such passion, but an even deeper concern grew, as his Uncle began to grow... transparent, becoming greyer and frailer.

Arthur panicked and spoke out "Dont go, I have to know... what am I? what are we? how can I see all of these things? how am I so strong, so fast, why can I do what other men cannot?"

Ozwuld smiled patiently, as his form began to fade, becoming one with all around him "Never forget this adage: If your wings can carry you no further, then take a pilgrimage to the eye of the serpent and forge south, forge onward, and achieve enlightenment." He smiled at the boy and wiped a tear from his eye as His skin turned black and shapeless "You will do us all proud, You are the heart of our family, without you... Uthyr would not have had the will to continue as long as he did."

Arthur relaxed and quietly, made what little peace he could "I am glad that this time, I will get to say Goodbye."

Only Ozwulds ghost remained, but damn did it give one last grin, that made Arthur chuckle "Light forever lives..."

The Prince, the Warrior, Arthur, whispered "...Shadows never Die."

The clouds roared, the world shook and in the solstice of his evolution... Arthur awoke.

Lightning rumbled above, dulled by the water... his eyes slowly opened as He held his breath, how had he not drown? He moved almost immediately, shifting under the water as the screech of the Ignix could be heard above.

Its unstable image moving venomously in the shallows of the lake. Arthur felt something that he had never felt before stirring within him now, something harsh and raging... He knew exactly what He needed to do.

Still somehow holding his breath, Arthur felt the Blackbolt's bowstring still gripping him, and his arrows in their harnessed quiver, remained rooted in their station, all He needed was Grimstorm, all he needed was his sword.

Something stirred in the River which spanned much lower than expected, open to a dark maw below. It was here that he saw Her for the first time.

It was barely a glimpse, ripples in the underwater current, something slithering through the murky depths. At first, he thought it was a cloud but instead realised that it was in fact a mass of algae, or what He thought was algae.

It shimmered and floated towards him, and as it halted before him, He peered inside and saw a pair of eyes so azure that they gleamed like shadowed sapphires. From that mass, the solid form of a gleaming blade appeared, it was his Grimstorm, now inscribed with a strange symbol. At once, Arthur reached inside and drew the blade softly, and felt fingertips softer than silk and butter pass his blade back onto him.

Drawing his blade free, Arthur was unsure of what to do and so merely bowed his head, and immediately went on his way.

His mind would be consumed with that hallucination, and assume he merely pulled it out of a school of algae.

All that the Young Prince could think about now was destroying this Ignix, and Avenging Frigga. Arthur had inspected the "Arrow", maybe under an Uld's study, but any true man or woman of Britannia could tell that this was a very well crafted and expensive crossbow bolt. The same that had pierced into Frigg.

Arthur swam to the shallows like a dart, streaking like a bullet towards the Ignix as He unfurled his bow, preparing to enact on his savage intuition.