Hadron Khan was actually sad. He had bonded with Alira and he felt the loss of her death. A mental bond could be even stronger than a physical bond between two beings. But now he had other things to consider.

He had fled to the far north and found a cave whose previous owner's skeleton was near the entrance, picked clean. He deduced it was the stupid white dragon who didn't even know the great sword he'd had in his hoard. He had seen the events at Emagean's tower through Alira's eyes when he had emerged from the treasure chamber. All the way up until things went black and the bond had been broken. He knew what had happened.

In the ten years he'd known Alira, she let him study the tomes at the ancient wizard's tower she had occupied. The wizards knew more than just the orbs, they knew dragons very well. They had, in fact, come to this world because of the dominance of dragonkind on it. Through their studies he learned much about himself.

Hadron Khan was an anomaly. He was the product of a forbidden coupling. Dragons are not to couple with others of a different kind. Chromatics and Metallics never crossed bred with any dragon of any sort. Red with red, blue with blue, silver and silver, bronze and bronze and so on, was all that was allowed. Each dragon sub-species was different enough that couplings outside of like type, produced what has been termed an "abomination".

"The chromatics and metallics are the result of magic and divine origin in the first place, unlike normal dragons." That had been a passage he had read, but didn't understand what was meant by the term "normal dragons." He never got an explanation to that, but did see other references to "normal dragons." The offspring of such a relation, say a bronze and a copper may produce eggs and hatchlings. But the combined power of such a coupling meant an offspring that required much energy and in turn produced much energy, especially in the molting stages. Metallics and Chromatics, if they survived normal life went through eight stages. Birth and then seven moltings that established the known life stages of dragons. Abominations, the few that have been documented in the multiverse, have survived the first few moltings, but the fourth molting into full adult usually claimed the life of the offspring. It had been observed that when they enter the chrysalis stage, after some time the heat energy build up for the transformation to take place was usually enough to kill the dragon within the chrysalis. The brain and body would stew in its own shell. Sometimes it had been observed that the dragon didn't have enough sustenance and never was able to generate enough energy for a transformation.

Khan had been considering this for some time. What only a few knew was that Hadron Khan's father was a huge red dragon that lived on the other side of the ocean. Kavalla was right. He was young and ready to change and large for his age and type. It is known that most blue dragons like temperate climates and rugged terrains. He was counting on that. As he was, the cold didn't bother him and he hoped the freezing weather of the north through winter may enable him to survive the molting to full adult. Summer was already passing and he had one, maybe two months to fatten up before he'd have to retire as a chrysalis formed around his body to protect him and aid in the next stage of his life. How ironic that what was to protect him could bake someone of his kind alive. Alira was supposed to have helped him with this, but he was now on his own.

Standing outside the cave he looked at the setting sun and observed a lone and twisted tree and the skeleton, that was somewhat buried in the snow. In five months he would either be a survivor like the tree or just food for scavengers like the ignorant white dragon.

Story, characters and setting are all original by me. The context, dragons, magic and artifacts are all based in an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons universe, going on my knowledge of the game from the 80s to early 90s. It's my own world/multiverse creation, but I don't think I'll ever have the time to use it, so I'll write about it and illustrate it.

Thanks for looking and your interest. Comments and critiques are always welcome.