Some say the world will end in fire. Others that it will be shrouded in ice. But all of them forget that the end usually comes in darkness with blood dripping down a silver blade...
***
A thousand years ago, the great House of Dracofyre marched into the frozen plains of the North along with help from the Southern Kingdom to kill an evil brewing for long, hidden in the snow; a king, they said, who had traded his soul to control beasts that spat out ice rather than fire as the great dragons that the royal family of the dragonriders had in their control for years.
The battle ended in blood, fire and ice. The evil king of the North was destroyed, a monster slain, bones crashed under the boots of the fearless dragonriders. But as it usually goes, both sides lost some of their finest warriors, both the South and the the riders of Dragonbourne Hold.
At least, that's what history remembers and those who were alive back then now rest in cold...
***
[1000 years later]
On the coldest day of the year, in the heart of winter, the first child of King Tae-seung and Queen Sae-yang was born. A baby, healthy and strong, with pitch black hair and eyes that would be sharp and amber like those of his great ancestors.
And as it is customary, within 7 days after their birth, the members of the royal family are meant to go through the Charring, a process where a single dragon egg is placed in their crib.
The heat of the small dragonrider is the final thing needed to make the dragon hatch, bonding the two together for life. They become partners, friends, and if the right conditions are meant, the dragon may even assume a human form to guide and be with the new Dragonrider King throughout his life.
If the egg fails to hatch, though, it can either mean that the child is a bastard or the royal blood in their veins wasn't enough to make the dragon egg hatch.
Weak...
If you fail to make the egg hatch after the 7 days of your life, you are no better than a pig. Because power and tradition, you see, is all the House of Dracofyre ever loved.
Now as the newborn son of the King is placed in the Crib, the Master of Fyre brings forth the egg that chose the young Prince. The shell is white, unlike the rest of the eggs. This one has been sitting idly in the hatchery for years.
Some scholars even wrote that it had been waiting for a great king to come. Whose warmth would hatch the greatest fire dragon the kingdom has ever seen. And now as they place the egg next to the youngling, a boy whose name means the great gift of the gods— Taehyung— his father and mother smile. Their son is to be thegreatest king of all. Fierce and brave. Beautiful and kind. A dragonrider who will lead Dragonbourne to prosperity.
The doors close as the veil of the night covers everything. The baby and the egg remain alone in the room. The youngling coos, feeling drawn to the white scaly shell and then it hugs it as if it was his mother's bosom.
Something shifts from inside. Something powerful and old.
Something that will make Taehyung of House Dracofyre the most dangerous and wise person in the Kingdom of Bangsan.
Something that prophecies haven't foreseen. And something that will change the course of history and make everyone bend the knee.
But as it is natural, prophecies can be wrong... And the next day, as the Queen opens the door, she finds the egg intact and the young Prince crying in the crib.
This means two things, either the Queen cheated on her husband or the promised Dragonrider was simply not meant to be... A pyrless, they call them, children without fire in their blood. Common. Nobodies. Destined to never have a dragon.
And now Taehyung is just that. A commoner, a nothing, a member of the court, but as the Great Frost approaches again after 25 years from his birth, he can't help but wonder, is he really a pyrless child as everyone has claimed him to be or there's something else, lurking in the cold plains of the North, waiting to give him the answer he has always craved...?
❄️ ❄️ ❄️
[25 years ago - Dawn - Taehyung's Charing]
"This is impossible."
"It can't be! My son is supposed to be a dragonrider!"
"He is, your majesty. But this, this is—"
"An abomination! Every ice dragon was killed during the Great King's time. How did you not know this was in the hatchery?"
"We are ao sorry your majesty! The Grand Master had no idea. We had no idea. This egg, it chose your son. This creature—"
"I want you to call Sir Namjoon immediately," the king spoke, looking at the creature with the white scales sleeping wrapped around the baby's body.
"We are so sorry, your majesty! The Grand Master had no idea. We had no idea. This egg, it chose your son. This creature—"
"I want you to call Sir Namjoon immediately," the king spoke, looking at the creature with the white scales sleeping wrapped around the baby's body.
The room felt cold. The egg was cracked. And from within had emerged a creature of legend. There's not fire here. Just ice.
"What for, sir?"
"To take this creature to the woods and slay it before it kills us all. The Prince must never know. My precious son," tears streamed down the King's face. "Nobody should know about this. Only you, Wooshik, Sir Namjoon and the Master of Fyre."
Winter's here. And along with snow, it has hatched the kingdom's worst enemy. Its doom and demise with white scales and eyes that would burn everything with cold fire...
An ice dragon.
But since it was slain, no harm can be caused to the Kingdom, right?
Well maybe, or maybe Fate had other plans that cold morning when the brave knight took the white creature to the woods and, supposedly, turned the snow of Dragonbourne Hold red...
***
Or the dragon taekookau where Taehyung has been a Pyrless child, a royal dragonrider without a dragon after failing to awake one during the Charring. Yet all his life he has had visions of himself holding a white egg. Until one day he meets a boy with white hair in the North and his vision changes drastically from him holding a white egg to him having a white dragon wrapped around his body.
Who is the boy who saved him? Why does he live in the border? Where is the man he claims to be his brother and why Taehyung feels the fire coursing in his veins making him want to hold the white-haired stranger even though he seems to hate his guts and all the remarks he has made about him so far...?
