Chapter Text
Once upon a time, there was a boy who fell in love. A boy, who loved and was loved but never actually fell in love, thought it was impossible to ever actually fall in love. But one day he fell in love, with cold water and dark skies. With the smell of salt and rain. With the ever present essence of life.
He fell in love with the ocean. Got drunk off the feeling and would spend hours perched just at the edge of its grasp, mesmerized. It was an addiction, something that bubbled and called to him. Something he obsessed over. One day, he walked into the oceans chilly embrace.
He never returned.
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Dragons had a hatred for water. Nothing that made sense, because it really didn't make sense but this inane hatred, this fear that would crawl under their skin and pester them whenever it rained or when they were too close to waters edge. It was....
Stupid.
Something that wasn't appreciated, but something you learn to live with. Water was always cold, felt like death and made them heavy, slow. Something to be avoided, and usually easy to avoid outside of drinking out of small puddles. After all, if you can fly it isn't that hard to just skip over whatever water obstacle you meet, or hide in a cave when it's storming out.
If you can fly.
Keith, with his tiny dull crimson body and wings still locked under layers of skin and scale, could not fly. Usually it isn't a problem, usually mothers or fathers are there to care and nurture and teach little fledglings and help them. Or, if not a parent sometimes stray dragons come around and bond with a batch of hatchlings- not that Keith was a hatchling anymore.
So, it shouldn't be a problem. But it was, because the tiny little dragon with the scrappy tail and too thin limbs was in fact, alone. Defenseless, alone, and stranded on some thin strip of sand bar as the high tides came in to drown him.
A small life, doomed to be snubbed out and drowned in the cold hug of the ocean. A story that will never be finished before being stamped with 'The End'.
Until, suddenly things weren't quite as bleak- however maybe that was being optimistic. Keith wasn't fully grown, a runt all things considered and a sickly one at that. Easy prey for the ocean creature that circled, surfacing to offer shrill chirps before pushing closer and Keith skittering back with a high hiss erupting from his throat.
Push and shove, push and shove.
Like the ocean tides.
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Does one ever understand the difficulty of dragging some overgrown lizard to shore so they don't drown? Lance wishes he didn't, and originally he didn't. Until he saw some lost little pup stalking up and down a tiny sand bar and giving these distressing noises and Lance is weak okay? He has (had) siblings, and those soft little whines just spoke to the big brother part of him.
His original plan was just to scare the lizard into the small strip of water that separated the sand bar from the shore. That plan backfired when the stupid lizard went the wrong way. Lance doesn't understand how, because there really is only two ways to go and he was on one of those ways but the second water touched the lizard's back foot as it stumbled backwards, well.
It decided to go the other way, Lance's way.
Lance found out that overgrown lizards sink like stones and seem to black out once their head goes under. So maybe, maybe it was a good thing the lizard went the wrong way because it'd have drowned if it went the right way. But at the same time-
Lance really could have gone his whole life without finding out the struggles that is dragging an overgrown lizard to shore. He would have happily passed that chance, pick a new card, anything. If he knew that he'd have to carry the heavy thing he would have just left the thing to drown (he wouldn't, could never. He'd do it all again in a heartbeat.)
So, here he was. Lurking in water too shallow and too hot with sand itching skin that normal doesn't touch sand and he's watching a slumbering lizard that's half on shore, half in water. Alive, way too warm, but alive since its chest moved up and down, alive and asleep and Lance was debating on staying and scolding or leaving and forgetting.
He stayed.
If only because the giant lizard owed him a thanks for saving it's overgrown hide.
He stayed, and it was uncomfortable and warm he wished for cooler everything. So he'd dart off to deeper waters, slightly colder before going close to shore again to wait. And wait, and wait some more until finally- finally-
It's eyes flickered open, this odd grumble vibrating through it's body and water. Lance was quick to act, crawling close, so impossibly close to heat that's unnatural and-
"You. You are stupid. A really stupid lizard. If you can't, can't deal with water why come so close? Do you know what I had to suffer through for you? Thought sharks were heavy, you- you are just. Fat. Fat, stupid lizard who the ocean hates. Stupid. Why would you? So stupid." The words bubbled up in angry chirps, tail flashing through the water as he jabbed a sharp finger in the lizards direction.
The reaction was instant, the bubbling hiss, the flurry limbs as it scrambled out of the water, scrambled away- away. The eyes flashing purple and black, sharp teeth bared wide and whole posture screaming threat and scared.
Lance huffed, message clearly didn't come across that he was the one who dragged the scaled beast to shore. Saved it from indisputable death. The lizard's savior so to speak, and the stupid beast didn't even realize. Figures. Land creatures were always stupid, so stupid (he used to be that way too, so stupid.)
Finned ears flared, spreading wide and cupping the sides of his face with startlingly blue as he hissed back. A, don't mess with me sign. Universal sign for 'I can mess you up too' with the large, fanned out bright fins encasing a face of glowing eyes and so many sharp teeth. Carnivore teeth, something that could put even sharks to shame.
The lizard snarled this nasty sound, creeping away with it's tail ducked low to the ground. And then it was gone, in some limping mess of a run it was gone. No thanks, no nothing. Just gone.
Lance figured it would be the last he sees of the stupid lizard.
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Once upon a time, there was a boy with a heart so big and warm. Someone who wished and wanted to love and be loved that, that was all he could do. He loved with all his might. His one and only sibling, loved until they died. His parents, loved until they stopped showing up at the nest. The older one who took care of him afterwards-
He loved until that one too, vanished without a trace. And that once big, warm heart sat crippled and withered. Something useless that mocked once was.
Something that made him flinch at the sounds of noises, of the presence of others. Had him furious and angry when he couldn't run away far enough.
And then he met the boy who was in love with the ocean.
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Keith was starved, starved and broken and his back itched and hurt and was streaming blood. Still a welp, flightless and defenseless but bigger now. Bigger than he was with his first encounter with the ocean. First and last, he avoided the sandy shores like a plague, kept them a good distance away. Kept the sea monster with the brilliant blues and greys and browns far, far away.
He was older, not such a scrappy little thing and his wings were rustling under a thin layer of protection. Flight, freedom so close he could taste it.
He dawdled with magic too, barely any actual experimentation but he could change form- barely. Enough to get by, to be small and hide or large and threatening. It was more a trial and error and he could never master other tongues, kept too far away to learn. But, he was broken because of an error, miscalculation. Not enough though.
Humans don't take nicely to his kind, even when hidden apparently. Not that he didn't know that already. He just-
He thought-
Maybe he could find someone. Blamed the humans for their vanishment (or himself, maybe they vanished because of him?) but he couldn't hide enough. Not well enough. Too much scale, too much tail, teeth too pointy, eyes too unnatural. Too much everything.
Humans fought with fire, Keith never thought he'd fear fire until fire tipped spears were pointed at him with a strange tongue yelled at him. Magicked human flesh is weak to fire, the bits that weren't covered with dull dragon scale turned a dark red, black and burnt smelling.
It transferred over later, a painful ebb. Unnatural and something that made him want to hide away. Dragons, no matter the age, do not burn.
He did though.
Starved little dragon he was, found himself by the sandy shores. Reason unknown, but unable to leave. A wish for freedom maybe? A wish for flight? Maybe even a wish for an escape.
Escape how, he doesn't know but he still stared, and stared.
Until brown and blue and grey consumed his vision, a creature darting out and beaching itself. Huge blue eyes glowing, dark on the edges and almost white in the middle, an ocean with it's own currents and waves. Tan skin, soft with hard scales scattered about like freckles, ears folded but still so blue, sticking up into the sky on either side of the creatures head which was encased by dark hair, curling and fighting amongst itself.
It chirped, an angry little chirp and those teeth, thin and jagged and so many- they flashed. Screamed predator. Screamed threat and had Keith scrambling back on instinct, mouth curled in a snarl and a growl bubbling up his throat. The growl tasted like smoke, hot to the touch. Alive-
Keith was too young, too broken, for fire though, the most that would happen is smoke curling from his nostrils.
The creature's ears flared open, a hiss escaping and it jerked back, tail swinging around in the wet sand. A glorious blue and grey, sharp fins and spines sticking out each way.
Then-
Nothing, the creature stared at Keith, broken, bleeding Keith and its ears folded in again. Mouth softened and the hiss came to a startled stop and it gave another chirp. A soft chirp this time, a song almost that hummed through the air and then-
It was gone, turned around in a bundle of beautiful scales and fins and colors and vanished out into the ocean. Keith watched from his defensive crouch, teeth bared still and that growl come to a withering halt as he was alone, yet again.
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Burnt lizard, it's a smell that carries for miles and is absolutely foul. Smells wrong, unnatural like a drowned siren. It's what drew him in initially, first thought on his mind being an easy meal but no.
Still alive, and it was the stupid lizard. The one he had to drag to the shore eons ago. Older, not such a pathetic sight build wise though it still looked so damn skinny. Starved.
And it was just as stupid as it was before, which doesn't explain why Lance was doing this.
This being carrying fresh fish to the shoreline and dropping it just far enough so the sea couldn't take it back. When Lance reappeared the burnt lizard seemed rather shocked, a noise escaping but past that nothing else outside of wide eyes and a twitching tail. Then, Lance was gone again to find another fish to deposit.
Then there was a pile of fish, beached and burning in the sun. Lance originally stayed close by in the too warm water but the dragon just gave low grumbles and bared teeth so Lance darted further away. Close enough to watch, but far enough not to scream threat to the stupid lizard.
It took awhile, but eventually the lizard crept closer with its body low to the ground and neck out stretched as it sniffed. A curl of the nose at the fish stench but it still, albeit reluctantly, snatched one of the corpses up and dragged it further away from the seas reach.
Lance just kept watching, a strange awe as the overgrown lizard pawed and sniffed and nudged the fish before taking a hesitant bite. And then, just as suddenly the fish was gone and it was creeping forward to the second one, and this, this Lance took as a good thing. So he moved closer, but the second he came close the burnt lizard lurched back with a growl and if that wasn't a warning Lance wasn't sure what was.
'Come closer and I'll eat you' the bloodied canines seemed to say, tail lashing through the air.
"I fed you, you stupid lizard. The fish you were just eating? I got it. I got it and gave to you. Stupid lizard. You should be grateful!" The words were hissed out, an angry clicking noise following as he moved even closer to the shore to the lizard cowering in the sand.
Apparently he never learned not to corner a scared animal. Given the lizard wasn't really cornered but Lance was fast sliding out of the water to give aggressive chirps and clicks because the lizard was stupid.
Stupid and violent, and it lashed out just as quickly, darting forward with pointy teeth that dig into vulnerable skin and Lance screams. Screams and thrashes and he hits wet sand with a thud, quick to wriggle back into the ocean and vanish.
Blood followed him the entire way into the abyss.
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Regret, is an odd taste. Sour and heavy, and it lingers. It's always in the back of the mouth, just there- ready to consume on a moments notice. It has the distinct flavor of iron, of blood Keith noted in disdain as he watched the ocean.
It was, not an accident but an instinct. Teeth and fins fanning the creatures face with those angry, aggressive noises streaming from its throat. It screamed danger, and then it moved closer and his starved, broken body just moved.
No thought.
Nothing. Just....
Instinct.
And then the creature was gone with this horrific scream and just-
So, so much blood. Everywhere, in his mouth, in the water, on the sand, on his scales. A wretched smell unlike the corpses the creature brought to the shore and-
Regret.
He stayed, he waited. For what, he wasn't exactly sure. The taste to go away? The creature to return? The ocean to reenact it's wrath on him? He didn't know. He just waited, water touching his front paws, sand uncomfortably damp on his soft under side.
He just,
He waited.
Starved and broken and bleeding and he waited for who knows how long.
The creature never returned.
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Trial and error eventually gave way to constant success. He could blend in thoughtlessly now, no one would know a thing. Soft pale skin instead of rough dark scales, short stubby fingernails instead of deadly claws, dull teeth instead of the jagged terrors that used to reside in his mouth.
Keith could look completely human now. Even caught on, on some of the language. Not much, but enough to get by. And sure, he was a bit rough on the wording and phrases and his voice was more of a strangled growl than a humans normal drawl but.
He could do it. He could blend in, no longer in danger of being hunted down and treated as some sort of war trophy.
He got his wings too, not long after the sea creature incident. They sprouted and they hurt, but in a good way. A good hurt, an ache to move and fly and-
He was free. Finally, he was free.
And then he wasn't, the sky to high for fragile wings to reach but-
It didn't matter.
He had a shack by the ocean, something small and unnoticeable. Big enough to house a dragon but small enough where it'd be cramped if he did go natural in the house. And he couldn't resist the temptation to be close to the horrible frigid death trap that was the ocean.
To be honest, he was hoping he'd see the creature again, make sure it was still alive.
Regret was still a sour taste in his mouth. Hatred was the newer bitter one that takes over though. Because, he did something horrible. Absolutely horrible. Just because he didn't think, just because he just... reacted.
A mistake.
He never actually expected to see the creature again though. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he'd see it again.
And then suddenly, in the middle of a rainstorm when he's darting home because water is still evil, and horrible, and cold, he sees it.
A limp body on the shore line, tinted blue and brown.