Falling.

That was the sensation Darius first felt when he regained consciousness and he found out exactly why when his eyes reopened.

"AAAHHHH!" He let out a scream as he noticed himself falling from the sky and the ground was quickly approaching by the second.

From the looks of it, that was definitely not going to be a cushioned fall and he’d immediately turn to paste it if he reached it.

Darius’ instincts immediately took over and he closed his eyes, prepared for the incoming pain from the fall.

Strangely though, even after a few minutes of his eyes being closed, there was no pain.

Hell, even the sensation of falling had stopped, and he seemed to have landed on something that definitely didn’t feel like the ground.

Well, except if the ground had somehow become scaly.

{You’re louder than the one who last visited this place.}

Darius heard an aged voice directly in his mind, which caused him to slowly open his eyes. Only then did he notice that he was no longer falling; instead, he was now on the back of something incredibly large and scaly.

"Huh?" He let out in confusion as he looked around, noticing that instead of down, he was heading forward.

Getting the chance to finally have a good look at what was carrying him, Darius was shocked as he recognized the creature at a single glance.

How could he not? After all, he had seen it in multiple stories, in their libraries and even in their family’s banner.

A Dragon.

He forgot how to breathe.

The creature had massive wings and white scales, unlike the ones he had seen in books; even the pressure coming from it was intense.

{Try not to fall.}

The voice was heard again, snapping him out of his frozen state and he immediately looked ahead, noticing that they were quickly approaching what seemed to be a small gap between two mountains.

"...you’ve got to be kidding me..." Darius muttered, gripping onto one of the scales instinctively.

The dragon didn’t slow down in the least bit; instead, it suddenly leaned to the side, quickly passing through the gap.

Darius struggled to hold on, but at the current speed they were going, he knew a single mistake would cause him to immediately fall on the spiky rocks below.

So he held on tight.

Fortunately, though, they soon crossed the gap and came upon an opening that could only be described with one word.

Beautiful.

The field was filled with grass and flowers of different kinds, and there were also shimmering lakes here and there.

But that wasn’t even the most breathtaking part, the part that made Darius freeze was the number of dragons flying around.

Normally, if this were something seen in Avera, it’d cause panic, but here? It felt spectacular seeing this many dragons in the sky.

"Where the hell am I?" Darius asked, his voice barely steady as he looked at the scenery before him.

{A place between your end... and your beginning,} the dragon replied, {the land of dragons.}

Darius frowned at the answer, but before he could ask, the dragon spoke again,

{Get off.}

"Y’know, you could say that more poli—"

He didn’t get to finish his words when he was suddenly shaken off, causing him to land hard on the grassy ground.

{I guess you’re as much an idiot as he was,} the Dragon said looking at Darius, its golden eyes held what seemed to be disappointment.

"Damn it, you geezer dragon," Darius muttered as he got off the ground and dusted himself.

{It has been a while since one of you came here,} the Dragon ignored his words and said, How many years has it been in your world?}

"Since the Grand Duke was the last to visit here," Darius placed a hand on his chin, "maybe thirty years?"

{I see,} the dragon nodded before muttering to itself, {then the bloodline has not completely faded.}

"About that," Darius muttered as he sat on the grass, "how did my great great grandfather discover this place, and why the hell has only him and father been the ones to enter here?"

The dragon’s gaze moved to him, as if considering whether or not to even answer him. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

But in the end, it did.

{Long ago, before your kind learned to name the world you stand on, one of your ancestors crawled into this land with nothing but broken bones and an unyielding will.}

Darius raised a brow, but remained silent.

{He was not strong, not by our standards,} The dragon continued, {but he was so stubborn that he refused to die, even when his body had already given up and his soul was barely holding on.}

A brief pause followed.

{So we tested him.}

Darius sat up straight, for someone as hot headed as him, it was surprising that he could quietly sit and listen.

{And surprisingly, he endured and passed, so in the end, one of us acknowledge him,} the dragon seemed to be reminiscing, {not because he was strong... but because he refused to accept weakness.}

Darius felt himself getting motivated from those words alone, it seemed his ancestor was as awesome as he always heard.

{That acknowledgment became a contract,} the dragon continued, {and that contract became your bloodline.}

"The Dragon Bloodline," Darius muttered.

{Yes.}

Silence followed for a moment before the dragon spoke again, {but not all who carry that blood are worthy of it, most of you are born with diluted traces}

{You live your lives without ever hearing our voices or ever stepping into this land.}

{Only those who reach the threshold between life and death... and still choose to push forward... are granted passage.}

The dragon’s golden eyes locked unto him and they narrowed,

{However,} it added, {your case is different.}

"What do you mean?" Darius looked at it with a bit of confusion.

The dragon studied him for a moment longer before speaking again, {you did not arrive here naturally.}

The words caused his expression to change slightly, as if he finally understood what the dragon was referring to.

{Something forced the door open for you, someone with knowledge far beyond what your kind should possess guided you to this place.}

It took a short pause before adding, {or at least they ensured that the conditions to send you here were all met.

Darius immediately thought of one person before asking, "what would’ve happened if the conditions were even a bit off?"

The dragon looked at him for a second before answering, {you’d have truly died.}

"That bastard..."