Raygate's Forbidden Love Story

Filial Son

The city of Raygate stood proudly in the sun and the small, insignificant member of the lower class ring city of Oldtown woke up from his slumber in the wee hours of the morning. He rubbed his eyes and yawned softly, pulling the sheets away and looking up to his mother who stood in the doorway.

"H-hey mum~" He yawned and scratched his fur-covered head. Everyone in the city were mostly beings who were anthropomorphic animals. Some were as unique as dragons, those lived in the upper echelons of Raygate, mostly highborn. But in Oldtown, the people there were mostly sloths, dogs and some wolf refugees. Elijah's family were the only dragons around since they came to Raygate several years ago. His sleek, golden-scaled mother, Bertha and his dark brown scaled father, Ridge, had moved here because of the city's promised safety.

You see, they had escaped a dastardly war, which had taken place many years ago in the country and after losing both their jobs from old age, Elijah had taken up a fun, yet stressful job at the old mill called Brightmill in the Wetmarsh, outside the inner wall. He had to farm cotton and aided it through many processes before it became threads to be made into silk and its other products.

He was a good worker and always arrived on time. He started work around 3 am and it was about 1 am now. Slowly, he got up from his slightly sunken bed that had been groaning under his weight for a few years now and walked to the bathroom.

Inside, there were small patches of moss that he had tried to scrap away, but to no avail so he left them as they were. The shower was rusty, but it gave them water with no problem so they accepted it gratefully. He slowly started to strip himself of his clothes as he locked the door.

There had been a problem with the door and the lock so his dad actually walked in on him while he was bathing once and he had to spend a bit of money for it to be fixed. He turned the weathered knob and water squeaked its way into the pipe and showered over his head. The icy water had no effect on the dragon and he started to brush his teeth and wash his hair and body at the same time.

He loved the way his scales was a beautiful baby blue and his royal blue scaly skin.

He stroked and brushed all the scales on his body and quickly turned off the shower when he was done so his parents could use it too. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he came out of the bathroom and trotted to his room, now awake and ready to start on his familiar journey to the Wetmarsh.

He dressed up in his black shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans before putting on some boots. He packed his books for the university in his bag along with a change of clothes and footwear.

As he was walking to the front door, his mother grabbed his arm and smiled, leaning in to kiss his cheek. He blushed slightly and laughed softly and rubbed Bertha's hand gently.

"Mum, it's alright, I've done this a billion times alright?" He smiled and Bertha gently placed a hand on his head and ruffled it gently.

"I know son, I do...so be extra careful today, just in case ok?" She gave him a small sad smile and kissed his forehead gently. He replied with a nod and smiled at her before turning the knob on the door and exiting the house.

The dreadful, yet familiar smell of rotting food and just poor people hit him as it did every day. He sighed softly and promised himself to work even harder to help his parents into Barrowedge so they didn't have to live on the horrible air every day.

Quickly, he unchained his bicycle and made his way to the steel doors that led to Wetmarsh. He peddled quickly and braked gradually harder until he came to a stop at the gate where several Gatekeepers worked the gate. He smiled at one of the guards and he saluted at them before one of them pressed a button and tugged on a lever. The gears on the wall clicked and whirred into life as the door opened slowly and stopped halfway to let Elijah out.