Strings of Sin

Prologue

"The strings, the strings, they pull, they squeeze, they grip and tighten, and you are now frightened; they rip your bones and limbs, and sin will sting and kill your will."

"Nature and nurture vs your pureness, will you kill others' will to live or will you thrill and fulfill to instill your seizure?"

"Will you accept your completion to become my instrumentation, or will you persist to exist?"

"You are going to be something new. You are going to be something special. You are going to be free of the twill of sins."

"Who do you want to be?"

"I want to be strong. I want to be smart. I want to be brave. I want to be kind. I want to have a voice. I want to have great ambition."

"I want to be loved."

"Are you satisfied with your choices?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe in fate or free will?"

"I believe in neither."

"Understood."

"Your answers, your spirit, the wonderful mind you have created for yourself... mean nothing to me."

"None can choose whom they want to be, and you are no exception. But your belief means something."

"It means that your life will be complete hell."

"You are going to be my experiment. You are going to be..."

***

"Stardom," a gentle, black nightwing whispered. "It's perfect. Your father would have loved it if he were here to see your hatching."

"You are my moonlight, see, there are no moons in the sky," the kind, nightwing mother pointed to the place where the moons usually sat to give off their light on the darkest of nights.

The newborn looked around and watched the empty sky, unaware of the existence of light until he saw the stars. He was not strong, and he was not smart, he was not kind and was not even brave, he didn't have a voice and no ambitions, but the one thing he was gifted was love. His hopeful mother sat before him, amazed at what wonderful dragon he may grow up to be.

"Your father would have loved to witness this. He was always ethical and so, so wise," the sympathetic nightwing drew a picture in her mind, imagining as if her perfect partner were right here with her. "He's been gone for a while, and I'm sure that he will be back soon enough to see you grow up into a thoughtful, strong dragon."

Stardom seemed happy to hear those words from his mother, even though they had no meaning, yet. The nightwing mother gently picked Stardom up and hugged him. She admired Stardom's beautiful dark blue scales and clear, blue eyes and finally felt wanted. She was given a dragon to take care of and raise as her own, and he depended on her. She would not let her son down and never wished for anything bad to ever happen to him. The dark, sparkling sky seemed to dim as another thought crossed her mind; she would certainly never want her son to ever hurt another dragon.

"I think that we should go home. It's a shame that you won't grow up with any powers, but I will always love you with and without them," the caring mother took her newborn dragonet down the rocky mountain that stretched up to meet the empty sky. "I can't wait for your father to come home from the war. Maybe then, we will finally own this territory."

***

A couple of years had passed since the young nightwing's birth, and he grew up with a singular parent who taught him the ways of kindness and acceptance. His mother always talked about Dignity and how much she missed him. Some days, his mother seemed sad, and others she seemed completely fine. She always talked about how much Stardom would love his father. And she always tightened the strings grasp on her poor son's willful body.