Through the Eyes of the Dragon

Prologue

“…!”

Stained and bloodied was the ground below him as he took several hesitant steps back, one eye widened in horror. The mysterious troops before him were indeed not foreign invaders… but his own father’s squad, returning from the enemy’s main camp.

“Father!” he screamed, an uncontrollable wave of fury and sorrow crashing over him. Falling to his knees, he leaned forward to cradle the lifeless slump of a body before him, tears cascading down his cheeks as he prayed more than anything that the kindhearted man who raised him was still breathing. But it wasn’t night; the sun sat high in its throne of a sky, shining mocking warmth down on its subjects. He could see the colour leave his dear father’s stiff face.

‘It’s all my fault…’

“You! Why did you shoot him!” the young prince screamed, unable to hold back his rage as he whirled on the man responsible for following his father’s orders.

It wasn’t supposed to end like this. Why had his father done this to him? Ordering his own men to shoot him down, it was preposterous! And yet, in the end, there he was, limp and dead on the ground.

The young prince seized his lieutenant by the collar, glaring him straight in the eye.

“I’m sorry, my lord,” came the lieutenant’s quiet rasp, his amber gaze eerily dull against the blue-grey glare of his young lord, “But it had to be done. Sengoku needs a powerful leader… Did you not swear to be that man?”

Hissing, the young prince roughly shoved his lieutenant to the ground, his emotions causing his body to quiver and shake in a rather unsightly manner. Sengoku? Their lord was dead, and all the man cared about was region-wide domination?!

“Even if I had, that doesn’t mean it’s alright to just dispose of whoever just because they’re in the way!” he snapped, kicking his lieutenant hard in the chest. His face contorted slightly into mild pleasure when his victim let out a pained wheeze, not caring that he was letting his anger get the best of him. “The future I seek is one of peace, unity, and happiness! You are my servant, you have no right to decide for me what is right or wrong. From now on, I give the orders and you sit back and do as I say. From now on, Aeros will no longer be allied with the treacherous Ignese. From this day on, it shall be the Dragon who unites this pathetic island, and none else!”