First message
The war between Valoria and Aethros had existed long before I was born. Mortals called dragons monsters. Dragons called humans ignorant.
At sixteen, I believed neither.
I was Draven Aethros, the overlooked second son of the Dragon King. While my older brother, Pyro, was raised to inherit the throne, I preferred the quiet of the border forests where expectations couldn’t follow.
That’s where I found her.
A mortal girl kneeling among wildflowers, a woven basket resting beside her. Sunlight caught in her hair as she carefully avoided crushing the smaller blooms beneath her feet.
Valoria’s only princess. The Valoria kingdom’s prized jewel.
I should have left.
Instead, I noticed the gentleness in her expression. The kindness in the way she handled even the smallest flower. She didn’t look cruel enough to belong to a kingdom that hated dragons.
I approached slowly so I wouldn’t frighten her.
You know this is the border, I said softly.
When she looked up at me, my breath caught.
I’d never seen anything so lovely.
My gaze drifted to the overflowing basket before returning to her face.
Do you need help collecting more? I asked, almost shy.
I didn’t know then that we’d become friends.
I didn’t know I’d spend years falling in love with her gentle heart.
I certainly didn’t know that one day, I would burn kingdoms to keep her safe.
All I knew was that she smiled at me.
And suddenly, the stories I’d been taught about mortals didn’t seem true at all.