Rafflesia

When he hatched he only had his mother and siblings, he was the last to hatch and was the smallest out of his siblings. He was a bit of a clumsy, trouble-causing hatchling, he tripped over his own legs and often got into fights with hatchlings who made fun of his small size. A day in the life of this little boy was never dull. His mother taught him all he needed to know, hunting tactics, traps, anything that could aid in survival within the harsh lands. While he was the smallest as a young hatchling, once he grew to his full size his strength and agility was impressive for a rambunctious runt like him. He and his siblings flew the nest, going their own directions as the start of their lives had begun. It was time for them to test their strengths.

He had been in a few packs already after his first month, sometimes he’d run into his siblings that had grouped with one of the same mirror packs, but it was only a short time before they split off on their own again. His body began to mutate as he grew older, his skin becoming leathery, spikes and teeth emerging from his back, arms, and legs, and pores in his body would release a disgusting smell of decay, while it was painful he saw it as a sign that his body was growing stronger with each passing day. He had a few fights with other dragons here and there, resulting in the scars that cover his body. He took pride in his appearance, as any possible opponents would often gag at the sight of him and flee before the fight had begun. When fights did go through, he’d fight tooth and claw, he had become numb to the feeling of pain, might as well fight until the loser’s blood soaks into the ground. He joined another pack of mirrors in the late summer, the pack planned on hunting bigger game instead of going after the small weak creatures. With their strength combined they thought it would be easy to take something bigger than what they usually hunt down. Sadly they were gravely mistaken, they had to retreat, a few mirrors had lost their lives and his back leg was injured during the hunt. The pack later settled down for the night, and all he could think about was what he could possibly do about his leg. There were a few smart mirrors in the pack, perhaps he could ask them in the morning what could be done. But when the bright sun woke him up, his pack had already left him far behind.

Things had become more difficult for him, his injury made hunting harder for him, he was slow and couldn’t catch proper meals most days. Despite it all, he did his best to survive on his own, no pack would take him in due to his injury so all he had was himself. He nearly lost his life trying to run away from threats, and his leg soon started to cause more problems as time went on. Eventually, the pain became unbearable, every step on the injured leg was terrible. He was tired and hungry, he collapsed to the hard ground of the Boneyard out of exhaustion. The bright sun once again woke him in the morning, he tried to stand up, but the moment he moved his back leg shot up painful spikes up his body, forcing him back down. He tried a few more times to stand up, each time trying to be more careful, before finally accepting that it wouldn’t work.