First Demonic Dragon

– Original timeline: Several hundred years before Exedra’s eighteenth birthday…

“There we are. Y’see? That wasn’t so bad.”

A five-year-old Audrina looked down at the salve covering the small burns on her hands.

The flesh still stung a bit. But she didn’t want to complain any more than she already had.

“…It’s sticky.”

Above her, a woman laughed. She was charming and beautiful. Radiant and full of life.

Her smile was too bright for any vampire to possess. It was a miracle she didn’t burn herself up whenever she laughed.

Her white hair was short. Her skin was as pale as milk in the moonlight.

Her almond-shaped eyes sparkled with a ruby red light.

Audrina was envious of her mother’s eye color. She liked it more than her own.

“Your hands are sticky, huh?” Her mother laughed. “Well, just make sure you don’t go leaving your sticky little handprints all over the castle, alright? We shouldn’t give Kirina and her maids more to do than they already have on their plate.”

Audrina looked down at her palms again.

She glanced next to her at her young sister, who was only a year behind but just as adorable.

Isabelle had worn glasses ever since she was young. The only reason was that she wanted to look a lot more like Miss Kirina, whom everyone complimented on her beauty.

“….” Intrusive thoughts got the better of Audrina, and she placed her palms over both of her sister’s glasses -smudging them beyond repair.

“Mom, she’s touching me! She’s touching meee!!!” Isabelle shrieked.

Audrina laughed like an evil little menace.

“Alright, girls, that’s enough.” Their mother sighed in exhaustion. “Audri, what did I tell you about harassing your sister?”

“Yeah, ADRAIN!” Isabelle said obnoxiously.

“My name’s not Adrian, four eyes! That’s a boy’s name!”

“You look like a boy!”

“No, I don’t!”

The girls’ mother became visibly exhausted as the children began fighting like little animals.

“Should I just… tape you both to opposite sides of the wall and tickle your feet?”

Audrina and Isabelle paused with their fists full of each other’s hair. Their mouths were agape in horror.

“Ah, sweet silence… I had almost forgotten what that was like.” Their mother exhaled.

She took her daughter’s glasses off her youngest daughter’s face and started trying to clean them with a cloth on the nightstand.

“Now, you girls are supposed to look out for each other. How many times do your father and I have to tell you that…?”

At the mention of their father, Audrina seemed to deflate a bit.

“Daddy doesn’t seem to like me lately…” She said sadly.

The girls’ mother felt her heart wrench. “Oh, my darling…. t-that’s not true, your father is just…. stressed. His research isn’t going too well, so he’s a little more distant than normal.”

“What kinda research..?” Audrina pronounced the word awkwardly.

Truthfully, their mother didn’t know how to answer that either. Dagon had been icing her out as of late as well.

“Your father just wants to be stronger to protect our family. Don’t want any of those mean old dragons coming down to swoop in and steal from us, do you?”

“”No!”” Both girls yelled in unison.

Audrina stood up on the bed, small and completely unintimidating, but with her fist raised high.

“When I become Queen, we’ll hunt down all the dragons! I will even make jewelry from their scales!”

“Yea!” Isabelle agreed.

“No.” Their mother grabbed both girls by the head and clashed them together.

“Oww! Why!?” Audrina complained.

The girls’ mother looked around the room to make sure they were alone before speaking. She sighed as she held both girls by their hands.

“Look, kids… Sure, the dragons are our enemies right now. But maybe one day they don’t have to be.”

Even though the concept seemed simple, for the children, it was difficult to follow.

“Do you mean like because they’ll all be dead?”

“No.” Their mother emphasized. “I mean that… perhaps one day our two sides will come to more of an agreement. We shouldn’t waste so much time bickering amongst ourselves when there are already individual members of our races living in harmony every day.”

On paper, the vampires and the dragons were not at war.

But there was no one in the world who was under the delusion that they were ‘friends’.

Helios was a benevolent king to his people, but tyrannical to his adversaries. He had already toppled many nation’s democarcies by this point in time. Sometimes, he didn’t even have to leave his throne to do so.

Dagon was a prideful man, as many vampires were. The idea that he had to place himself in a slightly subservient position to the golden dragon so as not to provoke him, did not at all sit right with the vampire.

The day was coming when the two rulers would come to blows over who would be Dola’s top power. As such, there was a noticeable tension between the two castles.

Dagon regards the dragons with a particular degree of hostility. Even considering firing Kirina at one point due to her marriage to Hajun.

The fact that they live and work apart is likely the only reason why she was allowed to stay here. That, and the may have some uses one day as a hostage…

“I get what you’re saying, Mommy.” Isabelle nodded.

“You do?”

“Yeah! Make love, not war!”

“Please tell me you don’t know what that means.” Their mother’s heart dropped.

“Making friends and boyfriends?” Isabelle tilted her head cutely.

“Ah… Sure, babydoll. Sure. But no boyfriends until your sixteenth birthday.”

“I’m going to have LOTS of boyfriends.” Audrina said proudly.

“Darling, plese don’t say that or your father’s blood pressure might spike.”

The girls’ mother hugged both of her daughters and kissed them on top of their foreheads.

“My point is that one day, I hope that one day, you two can make lots of friends with dragons. Even get married to them if you want. Like Miss Kirina and her husband. He is the right hand to the dragon king, you know?”

Audrina stuck out her tongue and gagged. “I will never, ever, ever, marry a dragon! They’re too big to love!”

“I’m not raising any bigots, little girl.”

“What does bigot mean?”

“It means fat.” Isabelle answered.

Audrina gasped and looked down at her stomach in horror. “I-I-I thought you said we couldn’t get fat!?”

Their mother was about to explain how unbelievably wrong the girls were when the door suddenly opened.

A younger-looking Dagon entered the room, wearing his usual fine clothes and a stern smile.

When he entered, all of the energy seemed to get sucked out of the room. A quiet air fell over the girls inside.

“…I heard there was an accident in the kitchen.” He said after surveying them all.

“A-Ah, yes… Audrina burned her hands trying to get her hands on a pie tin. The little glutton couldn’t wait for it to cool.”

Audrina lowered her head in embarassment.

Dagon stared at her carefully. “…Are you alright?”

She nodded slowly without looking up.

“…Perhaps it is wasteful for us to harbor a kitchen in the first place. It isnt as if ‘food’ has any uses for us.”

“Think of it like a place for cultural exchange.” Their mother smiled nervously. “We learn about the other races this way. The pie was made with berries from Rennanin. Queen Ricela sent us some to mark the birth of her daughter.”

Dagon still looked unconvinced. But after a moment of prolonged thought, he decided there was little to no harm in letting them play.

“…The girls should concern themselves less with eating sugar and more with their studies. I’ve decided they are to begin their training tomorrow.”

“W-What? Dagon, we haven’t discussed-“

Dagon left the room without another word in response. As if his word was law and he expected everyone to follow it.

When the door clicked closed, the girls’ mother was left in a state of disbelief. She didnt know what, why, or how her husband had changed so dramatically.

She felt something tug on her dress, and looked down to find Audrina staring up at her with inquisitive eyes.

“Mommy… What’s training?”

Their mother sighed. “It’s… just like excercise, dear. Your dad will start showing you girls how to put some muscle on.”

Isabelle didnt look interested, but Audrina’s eyes sparkled like gems. “I like muscles. I like people with muscles. I want my own muscles!”

Their mother laughed. “Take it easy there, kiddo. Muscles won’t come overnight, and I don’t believe your father will have yu doing anything too strenuous. But if you like people with muscles, do you know who typically have a lot of muscles?”

“Who!?”

“Dragons.” Their mother giggled.

“Ewww!”

– Current Timeline: Now…

Audrina’s father didnt look any different from her memories. But not that twisted, sickly version of him that she allowed to go free.

This was the former King of Upyr.

Dagon was tall. Strong. His shoulders were broad and his body was like chiseled marble.

Long locks of grey hair came down to the middle of his back. His jawline was sharp but strong, and his deep violet eyes were forged with dicipline.

He wore armored pants and bracers with a red cape across his shoulders.

His lip curled in disgust, and Audrina could see that her fangs had grown back since the last time she’d seen him.

“What’s the matter, old man?” Isabelle put on a confident brovado that was not indicative of how nervous she actually felt inside. “You don’t look happy to see us.”

Dagon stared at both of his daughters with an unveiled look of disgust.

“A harlot and a simpleton. Am I supposed to be thrilled to see a bad circus act? I do not even have the luxury of canon fare to dull my ears from your voice.”

For Dagon Sanguine, a firm believer in vampire superiority, there was nothing more detestable for him than seeing the daughters he once knew bearing tails and horns.

Audrina in particular had fallen staggeringly far. She was even worshipped by the monstrosities.

“It is a good thing your mother didn’t live to see her children become such wretches. She is lucky I killed her before she could behold this tragedy.”