Kasa

Blood dripped from her muzzle, and Kasa raised a claw to wipe it off, the faintest hint of irritation coloring her move. It didn't last long. In her profession, the sight of blood was something one had to get used to.

Giving herself one final shake to clear off the disgusting liquid, she turned away from the carcass, so mutilated she was unable to tell if it was monster or dragon. It didn't matter anyway. It had crossed into Katanakaji territory, and her orders were to eliminate anything that so much as stepped beyond the borders. If it wasn't an enemy, it would have notified Leader beforehand of its visit.

Kill or be killed, that was all her life seemed to have been reduced to. Leader's training was harsh, and one might as well be fighting for their life against their fellow trainees as well as the monsters and hostile dragons that lurked beyond the borders. Kasa had survived this long because she was strong. It didn't matter, it couldn't matter that her heart gave a twinge of longing when she saw a female dragon together with her young, the happiness and affection between them so evident she could taste it in the air. It didn't matter that she would never get to feel the winged embrace of another, be it friend, family...or dare she say it, lover. Such attachments, such open displays of affection were a weakness.

(Kasa had long since stopped volunteering be part of the group that went out to trade for supplies.)

Suddenly, she was drawn out of her thoughts by the snap of a twig behind her. Snarling, she whipped around, claws already held at the ready. Dammit, why hadn't she noticed these new intruders sooner! Leader would surely punish her for growing careless of her surroundings.

The sight that greeted her eyes, however, was that of a huge dragon, at least twice the size of her. He looked like he had been forged from fire itself, his scales as black as the aftermath of a molten flow, with veins of gold stretching across his body.

He looks beautiful, she thought dazedly. Then growling, she shook her head, horrified at her own thoughts. What had she been thinking?

The huge dragon grinned down at her, his warm smile somehow offsetting his intimidating appearance. "Hello there, are you lost? You look much too young to be wandering around alone."

Kasa hissed at him. "On the contrary, you are the one that's lost. This is Katanakaji territory," she said, puffing herself up to her greatest height. Sadly, she still barely reached his chest.

The dragon looked contemplative. "Katanakaji? You mean the clanless group that goes around hiring out their dragons as assassins?"

"We don't need a clan, because we are strong," Kasa declared. "The weapons we forge are the best across the eleven lands!"

And with that, she lunged at him, her metal enhanced claws flashing as she prepared to show this foolhardy trespasser just what the Katanakaji weapons could do. She had already spent far too long entertaining a conversation with someone who would soon be dead anyway.

To her eternal surprise, he side-stepped, shockingly nimble for a dragon of his size, and whipped around, his huge tail nearly breaking her neck in half had years of training not kicked in.

Panting, she leapt a safe distance away, eyeing this trespasser with newfound wariness. Clearly she had underestimated him. It was not a mistake she would repeat.

The dragon gazed at her, something like...sadness? in his eyes. "An assassin, and at such a young age too," he rumbled.

"I don't need your pity!" Kasa roared. If she wasn't mad before, she was now, white hot rage coursing through her until all she could see was red, red, red. Curse these dragons and the pitying looks they had cast upon her since she'd been a hatchling, abandoned by her very own parents. Curse those whose pitying looks had then turned to ones of hate as she proved what she could do. They had no idea, could not even begin to imagine, what she'd been through to survive!

She didn't even realize she'd blurted all this out until a roar answered her own: "It's not pity I feel, but sadness that one so young never got to experience the love of a parent or clan! And that's what I'm setting out to do, to form a clan that will welcome any dragon, regardless of who they have been in the past, that wishes to join; it is my dream to form a clan that will nurture its young and care for them as if they were their own hatchlings! A true fire clan isn't one that uses and discards its dragons as if they were no better than the tools they forge—like the flames they stoke, a true clan of fire is both warm and protective as well as fierce and strong!"

Kasa stood, stunned, as the dragon's words sunk in. She...wasn't just a tool? That's right, she had a will of her own. Had Leader's conditioning truly rendered her so low that she couldn't even think for herself?

And all this time, she'd thought she'd been strong, too.

Kasa didn't even realize she'd been staring at the ground, her world as she knew it crumbling around her, until two large clawed feet came into view. One of them raised to rest itself on her shoulder, and before she could stop herself, she flinched violently, as if any physical contact was only followed by pain. The dragon, thankfully, didn't comment on it.

"Join me in my new clan," he rumbled. "Together, we will see to it that no hatchling in the Ashfall Waste will ever have to go through what you went through again. Together, we will see to it that the Ashfall Waste becomes known for more than just the deadly rage of its dragons. In the wake of a wildfire," and as he spoke, several more dragons emerged out of the shadows, their presence gone unnoticed until now, to stand by their leader, "a new life begins."

Kasa stared around her, amazed. Some of these dragons looked slightly thin, true, but their eyes were content and warm, so unlike the fierce desperation she'd gotten used to seeing in the eyes of her fellow trainees. This...this is what family, what a clan should look like, part of her thought, and the rest instinctually agreed.

Before she knew it, Kasa was smiling, her mouth curving up in a grin, albeit crooked and unfamiliar because she'd had so little chance to do so before. As she flew over to join her clanmates (the word strange but not unpleasant on her tongue), Kasa agreed, privately, that perhaps fire could leave something more than destruction in its wake. After all, the most beautiful metals were forged in the hottest flames.




Art by Drackana



Art by Cielka



Art by me



Art by Zaayn