The firelight from the cavern flickered against Aurelius' scales, casting shadows that danced like predators. The other hatchlings had backed off, wary of the strange half-human intensity that seemed to radiate from him. Yet something else stirred in the darkness, a small, fragile heartbeat that didn't belong to any dragon.
Aurelius' molten-gold eyes caught movement near the cavern's far edge. A girl, human, pale, shackled, trembling, peered from behind a pile of rocks. Her wide, fearful eyes met his and for a moment, Aurelius froze.
Instinct screamed: dragons did not hesitate. Dragons devoured, dominated, and burned. Yet the whisper of his human soul, the one that had died thousands of years in the future, urged him forward.
"Stay there." he growled softly, claws scraping the stone. The ember haze around him flickered with warning. "Do not move. Do not scream. I will not..."
The girl flinched.
"Please... don't eat me." she whispered.
Her voice trembled, a fragile wisp in the cavern's oppressive heat.
Aurelius' human mind recoiled at the desperation in her tone. He lowered his head, keeping a careful distance.
"I... am not here to harm you." he said.
His voice was strange, uneven, part human, part growl.
"But you must stay behind me. If they sense you... they will destroy everything."
"Who... who are you?" she asked, curiosity peeking through fear.
"You're not like the others... the Pyreclaws... they burn everything they touch."
Aurelius' eyes narrowed. Should he tell her the truth? That he remembered the apocalypse, the cities that burned, the lives he had failed to save? That he himself would one day become a tyrant if he didn't survive and change fate?
Instead, he said, carefully.
"I am... Aurelius. A hatchling like them, but... different."
The girl hesitated, then nodded, trusting the warmth in his gaze.
"I'm Lira... Lira Solan. Please... help me get out of here. They... they're looking for me."
Aurelius' claws twitched.
Instinct.
The draconic urge to devour, dominate, and assert supremacy rose like molten iron in his veins.
But he gritted his teeth.
No.
"I cannot lose myself. Not yet."
"You will follow my lead." he said, crouching low, his tail instinctively flicking in warning. "One wrong step, and you'll be nothing more than ash. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Lira whispered, shivering. "I'll do whatever you say."
From the shadows, the silver-eyed hatchling he had faced in the first trial emerged.
"So, you've taken a human under your wing, Flameborn? Bold and stupid."
Aurelius hissed, claws sparking embers.
"She is not yours to judge."
The hatchling laughed, a cruel rasp.
"Judgment comes with fire, little one. Do you even know the rules of Pyreclaw?"
Aurelius' molten-gold eyes glowed brighter.
"Rules..."
He remembered the future. He remembered fear, betrayal, bloodshed. He remembered the humans who had perished because dragons were gods and gods did not yield.
He took a step forward, heat rippling along his scales.
"Then consider this your first lesson: survival is more than fire. It is cunning, it is restraint, and above all... it is control. Remember that or you will burn alone."
The other hatchlings recoiled, whispers spreading:
"The new one... he commands even the Core..."
Lira blinked up at him, awe and fear mixing in her eyes.
"You... you're different." she murmured.
Aurelius crouched lower, close enough that the ember haze danced around her hair.
"I am and if you survive by my side, you may yet learn to be different too."
The cavern trembled, a deep, rolling vibration that shook stone and bone. From above, the Matriarch's voice boomed, echoing across the walls:
"The trial is not over. Those who cannot control the Core... will feed the flames!"
Aurelius' claws dug into the stone.
He glanced at Lira. Fear flickered across her face, but determination followed quickly. Together, hatchling and human, predator and fragile tether of humanity, they stepped toward the roaring blaze.
And in the shadows, the silver-eyed hatchling watched, calculating, waiting for the first sign of weakness.