Luna

Luna never understood why her siblings didn’t like her. They bullied her badly, to the point where at one point they broke her paw. She never told anyone. Her parents never cared. Her siblings treated her like a slave. They pushed her around and stepped all over her, and she let them. There was nothing she could do; she was useless, helpless, defenseless, because her siblings would punish her when she tried, they'd break her so badly that she didn't want to move for awhile after that. She was a dragon pleaser, and didn’t want to hurt them like they hurt her. At first. But over time, things changed. Break someone bad enough, and they don't grow back right, they grow back twisted and messed-up, they become an altogether different creature, a much nastier one. And secretly, so secretly that even she herself didn't know it, she wanted to hurt them. She wanted to see them writhe in agony. She wanted to torture them as they had tortured her for all her life. But she was strongher for it. She never cried, never made a sound. She'd learned to hold her tongue, ever sence she was just a little hatchling. They wanted to see her weak, and so she wouldn't let them, and she never would. She became stronger for what they put her through, but inside she had just hidden her broken behind wall after wall, to the point where she wore the kind dragon she used to be as a facade to hide who she had become, and anyone who could see past that couldn't see who she used to be. That dragon was gone. Her siblings had buried her in the past. And so had she. Luna didn't want to go back. She didn't want to be stepped over and to still love her siblings, and wish they'd love her back. She didn't believe in the kindness in dragon's hearts anymore. It was all just a twisted labaranthine mess of cold, soulless metal. We lost our kindness long ago. We lost our compassion, we lost any desire to help each other. And my siblings prove that, they prove it more than anything else ever can, beyond question. When adoption time came around and she was the first to go, she was surprised. She never thought that anyone would ever want her.
Deep down she feared that she wouldn't even be adopted, that she'd be left to die long after her siblings and parents had already gone to better homes, better places. Her parents were surprised, but happy to get rid of her. She knew that, deep down, they hated her just as much as her siblings id, if not more. Her siblings were happiest of all. At first, when she came to her new home, she expected things to be no different. She expected these dragons to treat her as nothing more than a roach, to be crushed underfoot, ground until she could take no more, a servant all over again. But, to her surprise, she found a clan that wanted her for her, not one that had been pressured into taking her. The entire den had its broken secrets, at night, when she listened too closely, she could hear wishes and whispers and silent screams, set loose into the night air, left to leave for a different place, a better place, somewhere less broken. And yet the den was one of the happiest places she'd found here. A den where everyone was just as broken from her, but they were better for it. And, slowly, she was able to return to the dragon she had been, that happy dragon-pleaser who just wanted to see that happy look on everyone's faces. In the end, she had the one thing she had always wished for but never dared to ask for; a family. Sometimes, she wondered what she did to deserve it, but no matter how hard she thought, she could never figure it out. Maybe, someone was out there, watching for her. Or maybe her siblings had been wrong to treat her like garbage. Maybe, just maybe, this clan was right. Maybe, buried beneath all those walls, there was a dragon worth saving. Whatever the reason, she was thankful for it. It was all she ever wanted, and more than she could ever have asked for. She had a life worth living. And that was all she really needed.