Hibana walked through the forest, his MP drained to nothing.The guard's clothing hung off him like rags, heavy with blood and the stink of fear. He shed it piece by piece, each step marked by a flicker of distortion as scales returned, horns regrew, and his true form reasserted itself.
Wings flexed—painfully at first, then with surprising strength.They'd lengthened again.Twice the span they were this morning.
The ache in his shoulders had shifted. It no longer felt like injury. It felt like growth.
He found a stream and trudged into the shallows, stone claws sinking into the pebbled riverbed. Water rippled around his limbs and chest, cold and clean. He lowered his head to the surface and stared.
The reflection that greeted him was not the same dragon who had set out to save Solryn.
His horns were darker now—a dark umber color, almost an orange chocolate.His scales, once smooth and soft, had grown jagged. They layered like shale, giving him a hardened, earthen look. The scales glistened like a bright orange coppery metal. He had to admit they looked very pretty. Like an apex predator who has no reason to wear camouflage. No longer a hatchling's armor, but a young warrior's hide.
His mane trailed down his neck and back like tangled ribbons of brass.He remembered that neither his mother nor father had a mane.He stared at it, wondering if this was some byproduct of his time spent as a human... or if it was something entirely his own.
He dipped his head, letting water pour across his muzzle, then shook it off with a low rumble. He rolled onto his side, dragging his back through the current, letting the stream rinse away the stink of blood, sweat, and death.
His voice, when he growled softly to himself, was deeper now.Uneven.Cracking.
He was growing again.Not just in size. In something else. Something older.
Adolescence had begun.
Hibana found his way back to Hearthflame.
The lizardfolk saw him first. Their chief stepped forward and bowed low.
"Get up," Hibana said. "None bow to me."
As he walked further in, Zerrusha rushed toward him, eyes wide."Hibana! You're alive! Solryn said he gave a bunch of bandits the slip, but he didn't know what happened to you. I was furious he left you behind like that!"
Hibana nodded. "It's okay, Zerrusha. I had to deal with the leader of that camp."
A pack of kobold children suddenly tackled his legs, squealing and laughing. Hibana chuckled, walking forward anyway, dragging the little ones along with each step like oversized boots. Dundru stood nearby, smiling warmly. Hibana returned the nod.
Then Solryn came stomping out of a nearby hut.
"Where the hell were you?!" he snapped. "I gave you a perfect escape, and you just stood there! That maniac and his minions could've torn you apart!"
Hibana smiled. "I know. But I had to deal with Riven. And Dekar. I couldn't let them continue as they were. They were a threat to every town nearby."
Solryn scoffed and folded his arms, glancing back toward the distant treeline."Well… good riddance to bad rubbish."
Finally, Hibana approached Tsu.
She sat near the training ring, sharpening her nodachi with a flat stone. Her mane danced in the breeze. She didn't look up.
"So, you returned," she said.
"I have," Hibana replied. "And I have an announcement for everyone."
Tsu paused. Then slowly, she set the blade down."You slaughtered them all, I take it? If so, that's your business. But they deserved whatever fate you gave them."
Hibana shook his head. "Tsu. Some of them… may be coming here soon."
She turned toward him. A furrow formed between her brows."What?"
"I've invited them to live here. If they come, they'll follow the laws of the Fae, just like the rest of us. And I'll make sure Riven understands that."
Tsu stood, her hand gripping the hilt of her blade.
"Do you have any idea how foolish—and stupid—that is?!"
Hibana nodded."Even a fool can see what a blade cannot.""You let me handle things my way—and so I shall.""I hold no grudge that you didn't come to help me, Tsu. I don't need your blade. What I need… is for you to see what I see."
He looked her in the eyes."I'm glad you're still here. Because when they come, you'll be here to witness it. To judge it for yourself."
"And if I'm wrong, I'll pay the price. I'll carry that burden.""But this path… this is the only one that feels right."
Tsu stared at him for a long moment. Then she sighed, rolled her eyes, and sat back down beside her blade. The stone resumed its slow scrape across the steel.
She said nothing else.
Hibana raised his head and turned away.There was no anger in him—only resolve.
He walked toward the heart of the settlement, the sound of his steps firm and unshaken.
"I will give rest to the forsaken of this world," he thought.
He gathered the kobolds.He called the lizardfolk.And soon, the settlement stood quietly before him—misfits, outcasts, survivors.
A strange little kingdom in the Fae Wilds.And it was about to grow.
———
"What do you mean, Riven?! We're not gonna kill him?!" a bandit shouted, eyes blazing.
"Yeah! That guy made a fool of you—and the rest of us!" another chimed in.
Riven stood slowly, his gaze heavy.
"He was stronger than me.""You didn't fight him. I did. He could've killed every last one of us."
He looked around at the familiar, angry faces.
"And he didn't even care about the bounty on my head.""Yeah, he made a fool of us. Of me. And... he spared me.""I'm going to hear what this Hibana has to say."
Nearly half of the camp left that day—disillusioned, bitter, done following the man they once called leader.
Riven watched them go.
Then he sat down, pulled his cloak tighter, and muttered under his breath:
"Let's see if a different road hurts less."
———
Inside a crumbling tower deep in the wilderness, a shadowed figure dragged a whetstone along the blade of a naginata.
"Orange-haired runt… I'll show you.""This will be the greatest hunt of my life! Hahaha!"
Kurt's reflection stared back at him from a shattered mirror—dozens of broken pieces, all showing the same twisted grin.
"Nobody can stop me. I will have my revenge."
With a sneer, he hurled a vial of acid at the mirror.The glass sizzled and bubbled as it melted, dripping to the floor like liquid rage.
"Just you wait, monster.""I'm coming for you… and I'll make it slow.""You're mine, Hibana!"
———
In a gilded throne room deep within the Demihuman Kingdom, a tall crane-woman in flowing robes stepped forward. Her feathers shimmered like polished ivory, and her movements were pure poetry.
She bowed low before the dais where an ox-man sat slouched in full samurai armor, his massive arms crossed over his chest.
Rising, she tilted her pointed beak toward him.
"My lord, the Fae Wilds… something extraordinary has happened there. You would be wise to notice."
The Ox Shogun sneered, his breath a guttural snort.
She continued, eyes half-lidded, voice smooth.
"Or don't. I adore watching a kingdom rot from the top."
A tense silence followed. Then he raised one massive hand, more annoyed than angry.
"Watch your beak, bird. If it's so extraordinary, go look into it yourself. I have more pressing matters."
She bowed again, elegant and cool.
"As you wish."
Then she turned, her silk robes trailing behind her like falling petals, and left the throne room without another word.
———
Somewhere in a dim pub in Solarsa, an old elven merchant sat alone at a corner table. His cloak was worn, his boots dusty, and his long white beard curled like drifting smoke.
He watched the patrons move about their lives. Laughter, arguments, spilled drinks.The same scenes. Over and over.
Then, from a nearby table, he heard something new.
"Yeah, there haven't been many bandit attacks lately. I hear it's the work of some new adventurer."
"Rubbish," another scoffed. "Probably that sorcerer from the Fae Wilds."
"The Fae Wilds? Nobody enters or leaves there, dummy."
The first man shrugged and took a swig of ale. "That's just what I heard."
The elf stroked his beard slowly, eyes narrowing with interest.
"Interesting," he murmured.
———
Hibana rested atop a cliff overlooking his settlement.
Below, Hearthflame stirred with life.
He saw lizardfolk patrolling newly built watchtowers, keeping vigilant eyes on the treeline.He saw fresh crops beginning to sprout in the fields.He saw huts rising from the earth—simple, sturdy, full of promise.And he saw children—kobolds and lizardfolk alike—playing at the village's edge without fear.
That, more than anything, pleased him.
With time, he thought, this place will only grow stronger.And this time, I will protect it.
This wasn't his army.This was his family.
And woe to any who dared try to take them away.
Hibana laid his head against the warm stone and looked up at the sky.Clouds drifted lazily overhead. Somewhere in the stillness, Solryn's voice echoed in his memory.
"Ordos? Why, he's the King of the Gods. He is the architect of the Divine Law that rules over us all.It is by his will that our fates are determined.And no one—not even you, Hibana—can escape the destiny he has set for you.So don't even try. It will only lead to ruin... and death."
Smoke curled from Hibana's nostrils in lazy rings.
"Perhaps my fate is set in stone.""Perhaps not."
He closed his eyes.
"But right now?""This is living."
And in the land of the forsaken, the dragon dared to dream.
This was only the beginning.