summary : Dragons had always been part of tales in Gotham. They were fascinating creature after all. But they weren't supposed to be real. Nobody, except the old Lady Drake, believed in them. That is, until Crown Prince is taken by one of them during his birthday party.
The Drake was one of the most powerful families of the Kingdom of Gotham. They owned the largest land, one that had once been mostly inhabited by savage that refused to follow the rules of the King, that nobody had dared to venture to until the Drake had conquered it. The life on this land was harder than in other counties with the rude winters in the mountain and the arid plains where almost nothing grew, but people had started to come, reassured by the Drake presence. Part of their fame and success was due to their competence as Dragon Hunters. Dragons had been one of the reasons why leaving in this land was dangerous and the Drake had eliminated this threat. They had explored the fallen Dragons lair and taken their hoard for them, becoming richer than anyone in the kingdom. The King himself often consulted the Drake on the kingdom matters, to ensured their support.
Emboldened by his parents' triumph, Charles Drake had wanted to slay a Dragon himself but there wasn't any left in this land. So when he reached adulthood, he left Gotham to find one. He returned with a Dragon scale to prove to everyone his victory over the beast and for a fortnight after his return all was well. They celebrated his success with a grand feast and dances for a few day and his wife gave birth to a healthy boy : Jack Drake.
But their happiness didn't last long. In his quest for reconnaissance, Charles had gone after an innocent Dragon, one that hadn't hurt anyone and that didn't deserve to die just to satiate a man's ego. So, one day the Drake family was visited by a spirit that cursed Charles, his wife, and son. They themselves became dragons and were to stay in this form until they learned to respect the ones they had hunted.
So Charles fleed with his family, afraid they would be killed. His parents stayed behind, still humans. They helped Charles built a house high in the mountains, away from humans villages. Their tragic fate spread in all the kingdom, yet the rumor was never confirmed. The only thing people knew for sure is that nobody ever saw Charles Drake from this day on.
***
This was ridiculous. Damian didn't understand why they had to go through this, they were royalty after all, they didn't owe anything to anyone. Yet, here he was dressed in white silk of the highest quality, covered in jewels and paraded in the street. Today marked his coming of age and the entire kingdom seemed to have come to the capital to celebrate it. Well, at least all the nobles and the wealthy, all with the same hope : marry their daughter to the prince. His father had refused any engagement, telling everyone that Damian would get to choose once he was eighteen. And obviously, they all had remembered. To be fair, they had started to fight for his hand far before his eighteenth birthday but before they had least tried to be subtle. Nothing seemed to deter this vultures. He had tried the gay card which wasn't at all effective. His preference didn't seem to matter as he would need an heir if he was to be king. They just proposed him to take a paramour, all their daughter ready to "accept it". As if he needed their authorization ! But even his father had agreed that he would need a child, need an heir. Some had suggested he renounced to the throne, probably hoping that Dick, the king oldest ward, would take it instead. They took Dick gentleness as naivety and thought they would be able to manipulate him more easily. Nobles were ridiculous.
After the march through the capital, he was to endure a ball, one he could not evade as it was in his honor and his absence would quickly be noticed. So he stayed in the ballroom, dancing with all the unmarried girls and groped by the older ones. And despite the growing need, he didn't touch more than one drink so the kingdom wouldn't worry about his "apparent alcoholism" like they had done with Jason after he had been sighted in a pub the day following his own coming of age. Most of the girls he waltzed with were insipid and boring. Thankfully, due to his reputation; he didn't have to bother with a faux smile. He didn't try to pretend to be interested in anything they were saying which did nothing to deter them. They did not care about it, only his status mattered.
He was saved from his suitor by the member of his father council. Not that they were any better. They kept praising him, his strength and his intelligence while just a few months ago they had criticized all his idea until they had been reminded of his age. They all wanted his favor to gain power in the council. Some even went to propose him to teach him everything about "lovemaking" with a man so he could have a blooming sexual life when he chose a paramour. As if he would want so old decrepit man that probably didn't know how to please anyone but himself.
The only one he didn't mind talking to was Lady Drake. She was a really old lady, but not one to pinch his cheek telling him he looked precious or "a beauty worthy of being taken by a dragon" (one of the most frequent and stupid "compliment" used by dodderer toward young ladies and exceptionally young lords.). And nobody dared come bother him when she was with him, she was far too powerful for that. Her lack of heir had enhanced said power, as all hoped for a part of her wealth when she would inevitably die. And despite her advanced age, she was still quick-witted and they could discuss for hours without Damian getting bored. Sometimes she would wander to fantasy, talking about dragons as though they were real creatures and not just tale to scare young children. But Damian, while he thought the idea of dragon ludicrous, didn't mind her oddness. She was good at telling stories and it was often a welcome distraction.
Lady Drake eventually retired from the party, not able to stay awake at wee hours as she used to in his youth. Damian didn't have to wait long after she had left his size to be assaulted anew by nobles. He was envious of the lady, he would have liked as well to escape from the room and its dull people. But he was discouraged from doing so by his father gaze. He had promised to stay at least until two in the morning and had still more than one hour to go at.
Ignoring several offers to dance, he started searching for his "big brothers". They liked to call themselves that, always talking about their duty as older brothers. It was mainly an excuse to baby him, they had barely changed the way they treated him in the last six years even if he had grown from kid to adult. Dick took seriously his role as big brother but Jason mostly did it to rouse him. Damian had hoped to take advantage of it tonight, using his brothers to shield him from the dangerous predators that were the young ladies in attendance.
However, to Damian despair, it seemed that Dick didn't have more luck than him, surrounded by his own crowd of invasive aristocrats. Two women were splattered to him, each one to a hip, their hands on his chest like a sign of ownership. The competition was tough as they were a dozen of women in Dick's company, all of them trying to catch his attention by miscellaneous means. Some of them had corset so tightly bound that their breasts seemed about to burst out of it. Yet, as much as they could bend toward Dick to give him a better view, his brother eyes never wandered below their faces.
So Dick wasn't an option at the moment. He scanned the crowd for Jason, careful to never stop. Being still for just a few seconds could be perceived as an invitation. He searched the entire room, not forgetting a single corner, before it became clear that Jason had managed to sneak out unnoticed. Lucky him. It also meant that he would get no help from his brothers. His father wasn't either an option and Cassandra wasn't even here. She was rarely in the capital nowadays. She had always been discreet and, apparently, it allowed her to go explore the world without the court noticing her absence. Maybe he should have done the same. But considering he was the king only biological son it seemed unlikely that nobles could have under any circumstances forgotten about his existence.
Damian didn't have much choice but to resign himself to endure innocuous highborns for one more hour. An opportunity presented itself to him when a tray full of glasses shattered to the ground. The commotion was loud enough to attract everyone attention and he took this occasion to slide through a balcony door and close it behind himself. He couldn't leave as he had to make a final appearance that would signal the end of the party. If his father found out he had been hiding on a balcony, he could just pretend he had been here for only five minutes to take some fresh air. Nonetheless, he was careful to blend in the shadow so no one would see him from the inside and join him. The isolation offered by his hideout could make some people bold. Well, bolder than some already were.
The cold air of the night hit him, his clothes were doing nothing to warm him. In fact, they were supposed to keep him from getting warm so he wouldn't overheat in the ballroom. But Damian didn't care in the slightest, the bite of the cold was more pleasant than the party going inside. Plus he had his glass of whiskey, still half full, to warm him. He started to sip his drink slowly when he heard a strange noise behind him, as if something had scratched against the brick of the roof. Damian didn't see anything when he looked up, yet he had the sensation of being observed. He was probably getting paranoid after the event of the evening, so he dismissed the feeling and went back to his drink.
Just a few minutes later he heard a deep huff of breath that couldn't have come from a human. He tensed automatically, his feet moving to face the unknown threat. He didn't manage to get a look at the beast as its claws had already ensnared his waist and before he knew it, his feet weren't touching the floor beneath him. He struggled in the creature grip, his legs battling uselessly in the air, and his glass slipped from his fingers when he tried to free himself from the beast clutch with his hands.
He should probably call for help, but he didn't want anyone to see him in such a state, unable to defend himself. Dick would without a doubt tease him mercilessly if he was the one to save him. If only he had brought his sword. His father had forbidden him from taking it, fearing that he would snap at one point while having to go through an entire day surrounded by stupid people.
Damian was still trying to loosen the creature grip on his waist when a cry pierced the silence. A middle-aged woman had opened the balcony door and was frozen in its entrance. Then two things happened at the same time : all the party seemed to gather at the windows, some shouting the word"Dragon", and he was violently projected in the air as the beast (dragon ?) jump in the sky. He heard his father calling after him in a horrified voice. His father was strong and a knowledgeable man but he had never encountered any dragon. Bruce was known, by his family and friends at least, to have contingency plans for everything. Almost everything. Dragons had never been something they took seriously. So, for the moment, Damian was on his own.
The strength of the sudden move cut the prince breath for a few instant, leaving him with a searing pain in his chest. The speed at which they were going didn't help either. Damian felt as if he was going to throw up, his inside being shaken in all direction. This wasn't the only thing he had to worry about. If he had been cold on the balcony, it was nothing compared to now. He was completely frozen, covered by thin clothes and flying at high speed in the glacial wind of the night. At this rhythm he wouldn't have to worry about the dragon intention, he was going to die from hypothermia before that. His fingers were already starting to go numb and soon he would be too weak to move. He was on the verge of passing out when he began to feel warmth where the dragon skin was touching his own. Between the scales of the beast, he could see its skin glowing slightly as if a fire had been lit inside him. And why not ? If Dragons were real, so their rumored ability to spit fire could be too.
Despite the dragon apparent effort to keep him alive, he had been too dizzy to stay awake and had drifted slowly to sleep. He didn't know how much had passed when he woke up. As he had no mean to know for how long they had flown and in which directions, he had no idea where he was. It would make his return home harder. But it wouldn't be enough to deter him. He was a prince, he wouldn't end alone in a strange land, eaten by a fucking dragon !
He wasn't really sure that the Dragon planned to eat him. He had been laid on soft furs, near the hearth where a fire was still slightly burning. The whole room was pretty cozy, entirely covered in enough furs and pillow that the floor had disappeared. It was like a giant bed, and maybe it was. Maybe this was where the dragon usually slept.
For the moment Damian was alone, an opportunity he couldn't waste. He got up on his shaking legs and went for the door. Although he had difficulty opening it, it wasn't locked just old and rusty. The door led to a wide hall illuminated by the cold light of the winter sun entering through the large windows. He just took a glance for Damian to realize that he was on a mountain, at a high point.
The forest outside the castle - he could be nothing else than a castle judging by the size of the rooms and the quality of the wood flooring - was bare. The trees had lost their foliages thus he would have to move fast and never stop if he wanted to escape as the forest would offer no cover from the sky. The tree trunks would probably break like little wood under the beast weight.
He didn't have the time to plot his evasion before the rustling of wings echoed outside. The dragon was already back and running into the forest was no longer an option. But he could still evade the creature. Surely, dragons were gigantic being. So the one that had taken him couldn't possibly have access to all the room. He would just have to hide in one with a small door.
Damian went to the first floor, the rooms downstairs were made for holding parties and were generally bigger than private quarters. He chose the narrower corridor and picked a room without a window opening onto the front yard so the dragon wouldn't break it to grab him. It was a small bedroom, perhaps for a maid, with a single bed and basic furniture. Everything was covered in dust, making his nose hitch in discomfort. He restrained himself from making any noise to not betray his location. He tried to open the closet but it creaked too much so he gave up. He had hoped to find other clothes as he had started shivering again. There was no fire to warm him in here.
He waited for the dragon to come for him, tear apart the door and snag him but nothing happened. The castle remained silent. No roar of anger. No claws scratching against the wall.
Hours passed and the sun declined, and the dragon never came to find him. Tired and freezing, he shook the sheets and pillows before settling on the bed, fold back on himself.
