Shades POV: flashback

"Please?" begged Damian"you know that I can't do it alone" he whined.

"Alright fine" I finally agreed "but father can never find out" I concluded, looking down at my little brother's now happier face.

Our village was made up of witches and warlocks that studied the old ways, this meant that they also followed old teachings which included myths about dragons being dark and vile creatures that would only bring pain and suffering upon us, because of this the whole village hated the dragon riders and had the rule to kill both beast and rider if they were to cross into the village boundaries.

My brother had happened to stumble upon a shot down dragon, leaving the rider to pass him an egg which hatched upon his touch, proving his dragon rider blood. The village had no knowledge of this fact as we did well to conceal it, but they planned on killing the baby dragon which would mean that Damian would suffer great emotional pain.

"How are we going to rescue him?" asked Damian, his wide hazel eyes shining up at me.

"Him, how do you know it's a him?" I questioned, raising one of my eyebrows.

"I just...know," he said, looking at the ground in concentration "oh, and his name is Rockey!" he exclaimed, bringing his gaze back up from the ground.

"How creative" I sighed sarcastically, ruffling his chocolate brown hair.

"Hey!" he shouted, punching me lightly in the chest.

I laughed at his behaviour and sat down on the grass to think of a plan. If we were caught the punishment would be most definitely be death, they didn't care how old we were, they stated that rules were rules and must be upheld at all times. Besides, our father was ruthless at the best of times so I dreaded to think what he would have to say about Damian's dragon rider side.

"You stay here" I commanded, getting to my feet.

"Why? I want to help" he complained.

"Just trust me" I pleaded.

"Ok" he replied plainly.

I nodded my head and begun to walk away when he stopped me.

"Hey Shade?" he questioned, causing me to turn around to face him.

"Yeah?" I questioned when he didn't continue.

"How come your eyes are not like ours?" he asked, his features filled with curiosity.

"What do you mean?" I replied, a bit taken back by the sudden question.

"Well our whole families eye colours are shades of brown, but your eyes are pure gold" he explained.

"I don't know why" I replied, not really knowing what else to say. "If you want to see the dragon, meet me in the eastern forest" I finished, causing his face to light up.

He nodded his head and sat back down on the grass, he was such a smart and curious child, that's part of the reason why he was always getting into trouble.

I jogged over to the stone prison building and discretely pinpointed the guard's positions, noticing that there was an unguarded window on the top floor.

I swiftly ran around the side of the building and scaled the stone wall, it wasn't actually that hard considering that its old stone structure left plenty of foot holes. I quietly pulled myself through the window and moved across the room with my back to the wall. I suspected that they were holding the dragon in one of the steel cages on the second floor, probably wanting to give it a public execution to show off their power.

I ran briskly but silently down the steps and across the corridor until I reached the holding cells. Luckily for me, there were no actual prisoners here other than the dragon so the building was guardless. I approached the dragon's cage and tugged at the chains that held it closed, causing the baby dragon to wake up. It immediately let out a small squeak and smashed into the bars of the cage.

I held my hands out and shushed in its direction trying to calm it down, the last thing I needed was for the guards to come running in.

"I'm here to help" I whispered, breaking one of the chains.

I had to make it look as though it escaped on its own so I used some of my fire element to scold the surrounding area.

"Come on" I called, opening my hands to encourage the dragon out.

After staring at me blankly for a couple of seconds, the dragon decided to trust me and scurried out of the cage, jumping directly into my arms. With the dragon now in my possession, I sprinted back up the stairs and through the window, heading straight for the eastern forest that marked the village border.

"Damian?" I called, scanning the area carefully.

I advanced further into the trees on high alert, there is no way he would miss a chance to see this dragon, especially since they were bonded.

"I knew it" bellowed a horrifyingly familiar voice.

My head snapped in the direction of the noise to see father and a couple of the village men walking through the trees towards me, Damian struggling against my father's harsh grasp.

"You are an abomination boy!" he spat with what seemed like a smug grin on his face. "Dragon rider filth, you're a discrace to this family" he finished, filling me with shame.

I tightened my grip on the small dragon and looked over at him, trying to hide the terror that he struck into me.

"Hand over the beast and we will make your death quick" he commanded.

I looked at Damian's terrified hazel eyes and shook my head.

"No" I stated plainly.

He released Damian from his grasp and ran gravely towards me, I quickly turned in the opposite direction and sprinted as fast as I could, never looking back. Once I reached the border I held the dragon out in front of me and threw him up in the air, causing him to open his wings and instinctively start to fly.

"Go!" I instructed before running back through the woods.

A searing pain shot through my leg causing me to crash to the ground. I skidded through the pine and screamed out in agony as two people yanked me back to my feet.

"You're going to pay for that, boy" shouted father before hitting me forcefully across the face.

He had never fully accepted me as one of them but he has never had a reason to get rid of me before now, but now that he has, there was no way that he was going to show any kind of mercy.

"Father Shade isn..." began Damian desperately but I immediately cut him off.

"You'll kill your own son?" I shouted causing father to turn his attention back to me.

"You are no son of mine" he replied, his words stabbing me through the heart.

They dragged me back to the village centre and threw me to the ground in the execution circle, which was basically just a circle of bricks among the villages natural paths.

"This dragon rider has lived us among for years, claiming to be one of us!" bellowed one of the village men "No more" he screamed causing a few cheers to erupt from the crowd.

I pushed myself into a kneeling position and faced my father, waiting for him to deliver the traitors mark. He stepped forward and removed a small dagger from his belt.

"Father NO!" screamed Damian who was struggling against a village guard's grasp.

"You are hereby a traitor to Cresent peak village" stated my father grabbing the right-hand side of my face.

"Vincent? Please don't do this!" pleaded the shrill voice of a woman.

I turned my head to see my mother pushing through the crowd.

"He is our son!" she shouted in disgust.

"We both know that that's not true" he replied venomously.

Upon hearing his words confusion clouded my brain, I jerked my head up to look up at him but he tightened his grip on my face and pressed his blade in the centre of my forehead, dragging it behind my eyebrow, down my cheek and across my chin to end just below the centre of my bottom lip.

I screamed out in pain and instantly brought my hand up to cover my wound, causing the disgustingly warm red liquid to run down my arm.

"You will now die, forever a traitor to our village," he said with no emotion in his voice as he moved to stand behind me.

He grabbed my chin and pulled it upwards, holding his blade to my throat preparing to take my life. I looked into his eyes to see nothing, no remorse, no regret, no hint that he contained any sort of emotion.

My mother's painfilled scream pierced the air, causing something inside me to snap. A thunderous growl filled my throat and my eyes began to burn with fury, sudden fear morphed onto my fathers features giving me the chance to remove myself from his grasp.

I Immediately got to my feet and turned to face him, touching my cheek to discover that my traitor's mark was healing.

"Demon!" he exclaimed pointing to my face.

He dropped his dagger and drew his sword threateningly, I looked into his polished silver blade to see that my eyes were no longer a warm gold but a crimson red, sudden panic struck me and I immediately tried to stand down but found that I was no longer in control of my body, I lunged forward and easily disarmed my father. I internally screamed for my body to stop but instead, it morphed into a black wolf, continuously attacking my father.

Screams filled the whole village as people either fled or tried to fight me, my fathers body suddenly became limp, causing me to drop it and run into the woods, I pushed away my horrified emotions and battled my conscience to try and gain control but by the time that I was finally back in control I was miles away from the village.

I involuntarily morphed back into my human form and curled up on the forest floor, I had murdered my father... my own father, and who knows how many others, it was all my fault.

"You ok kid?"

I looked at the source of the noise through my tears to see a rather tall man with dark tanned skin and pitch black hair stood in front of a humungous golden dragon.

"Whats happening to me?" I asked, not knowing or caring who the voice was.

He looked down at me empathetically and knelt down beside me.

"Look kid, you look like you could use some help and I specialise in the training of the gifted" he said slowly "If you come with me I can look after you and train you to be the best... you may even get to attend Angel Academy in a couple of years" he added with a smile.

I nodded my head and got to my feet, I wouldn't usually follow a random stranger that approached me in the woods but I had nothing left to lose... I was a monster.