Chapter 1 - The Blood on the Altar
The iron of the manacles bit into Queen Elara’s wrists, raw and weeping fresh crimson to match the dried stains on her torn white nightgown. Below her, the Dragon Pit yawned like an open wound in the earth, breathing out a suffocating gale of sulfur, ash, and ancient heat. The murmur of the capital’s masses swelled like a restless tide against the stone walls, thousands of throats hungry for a spectacle they had been promised by heralds since dawn.
King Aldric stood a few paces back, his golden crown gleaming cruelly under the midday sun. His face was a mask of calculated righteousness, though a subtle twitch near his left eye betrayed the nervous terror he tried so desperately to bury.
"Push her," Aldric commanded, his voice carrying over the wind.
The guards stepped forward, their gauntleted hands pressing against Elara's bruised spine. Just as her bare toes hovered over the sheer, black drop, a piercing, desperate cry sliced through the heavy air. It wasn't the roar of a mythic beast, but a fragile, terrifyingly familiar wail.
From the churning smoke below, a small, dark silver shape erupted. It beat frantic, unpracticed wings against the thermal currents, soaring upward until it hovered directly before Elara’s face. Its scales shimmered like polished steel under the sunlight, soft along its delicate throat. And wrapped securely around its hind leg was the intricate gold bracelet—the exact heirloom Elara had fastened around her newborn child’s ankle mere hours before she was dragged into darkness.
The young dragon locked its gaze onto hers. Its eyes were an unmistakable, piercing green, identical to Elara's own.
A collective gasp sucked the air right out of the courtyard.
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"Kill it!" Aldric roared, drawing his broadsword with a screech of steel. "Kill the demon spawn before it poisons the realm!"
Elara didn't hesitate. Driven by a primal surge of maternal fury that eclipsed her physical exhaustion, she jerked her chained hands upward, smashing the heavy iron links against the nearest guard's helmet. As the man staggered back, she threw herself forward off the stone platform—not into the deadly abyss, but directly into the path of the descending dragon.
