The Heart of the Dragon

Prologue

(11 years ago)

It was a nice day to be outside, it was also a nice day to be flying a helicopter. And as for a young 9-year-old boy, that was exactly what he and his parents were doing as their helicopter flew over some tropical islands. The young boy couldn’t take his eyes off the view of the islands as he gazed through the window.

“What do you think honey?” his mother asked next to him.

“It’s amazing” he grinned “Can we go down and see the islands?”

“Sorry son” his father who was sitting up front replied, “But these islands are off-limits.”

“Great...” the boy groaned while slumping in his seat.

“Hey” his mother spoke “I know how much you want an adventure, and you will get one. You just gotta be patient.”

He gave her a small smile before staring back out the window, hoping his mother was right about him going on an adventure soon.

Minutes passed, and soon it was time to head back. But as the helicopter flew over the waters, the young boy spotted something out the window that caught his attention.

“Are those storm clouds?” he pointed as everything turned their heads.

Sure enough, there were grey clouds heading in their direction, and it was moving quick.

“I thought it was supposed to be clear skies today” his mother noted her husband.

“So did I” his father replied, already getting nervous by the sighting as he turned to the pilot “Let’s move quickly.”

The pilot did his best to fly the helicopter as steady and fast as he could, but seconds later, they noticed that the grey clouds were beginning to form around them, and lightning was starting to flash beyond the clouds.

“Is that lightning?” the young boy shivered in fear as his mother wrapped her arms around him “Are we gonna crash?”

“It’s alright honey,” she comforted “We’ll make it out of here.”

But as soon as it began to pour down rain, the young boy began to fear for the worse as the helicopter began to shake. He watched as the pilot did his best to fly through the rain, but he noticed the pilot was struggling as the helicopter began to sway.

“Mom!” the young boy screamed as he held onto his mother tightly “Dad!”

“Just hang on Hayden!” his father shouted as he tried to help the pilot.

Knowing that they were most likely going to crash, Hayden kept his hold on his mother who held him tightly against her body. Pretty soon, an alarm went on, indicating that danger and most likely death was coming. With tears rushing down his cheeks and his heart beating out of his chest, Hayden began to breathe heavily as his mother began to speak gently into his ears.

“Hayden,” she began with fear in her voice “Whatever happens, know that we love you.”

At that moment, his father reached his hand from up front and took a hold of his son’s hand.

“Be strong,” he told him.

Those were the last words of his parents when the young boy began to feel the plane crashing down as he closed his eyes and waited for death.

__________

It happened so quick, but the plane did not crash into the water as the boy had expected, instead, it crashed onto an island where the helicopter had burst into flames and was completely demolished. It was all quiet except for the sound of the now light rain which was putting out the flames of the crashed helicopter. But that’s when another sound was heard when something big made its way through the large jungle leaves and came upon the crash site.

This magnificent beast couldn’t take its eyes off the scene as it began to crawl around on its clawed hands and feet while examining the site. As it gave a few sniffs, something new caught its eye when it found the body of a young boy laying on the ground. The boy was covered in faint burns, bruises and deep cuts on certain parts of his body. Needing to see if he was dead, the beast gave the body a sniff, only to soon realize that the boy was miraculously alive, though unconscious, he was barely breathing.

The beast knew what it had to do to save the boy’s life, so after making a cut on its own body and letting the blood drip onto one of its claws, it held the claw over the deep gash on the boy’s shoulder and let the blood drip into the wound and stepped back. It waited until the boy’s body began to twitch, and soon the boy began to make cringing noises. With his eyes still closed, the boy felt an intense heat and power running through his veins, so intense that he began to scream in pain.

But as the pain got stronger, the louder his screams were as he felt his whole body changing. Blue scales began to form on parts of his body while tearing through his skin, his burns began to fade, his nails grew out longer and sharper along with his teeth, his muscles tightened and became broader, and as he turned to his side, he could feel something fighting its way through his back as he kept screaming in agony. Soon, after fighting their way through his back and skin, a pair of large blue dragon-like wings sprang out from his back and stretched out their thin muscles.

At that moment, the pain had stopped, and Hayden laid there puffing with exhaustion. With his eyes still closed and his body completely changed, he continued to breathe heavily as he managed to open his eyes, but they were no longer his natural green color, instead, they were now a bright yellow with slit pupils.