Once upon a time, there was a Fire Dragon named Victor. He lived alone in the mountains, because unlike his fellow Fire Dragons, Victor couldn’t breathe fire as well as them. So Victor went to live a life of solitude in a volcano. He rarely left his home. Even during mating season, he would send up mating fire signals from his volcano, because he was afraid that the other Fire Dragons would bully him. Sometimes, a Fire Dragon or an Air Dragon would come by, but as soon as they saw the volcano, they turned and flew away. Most of the Fire Dragons didn’t live in volcanos. They lived near pits of lava or bonfires, which most female dragons found very interesting. Only once did Victor have a mate. It was a Water Dragon who had flown off to be with a stronger, more talented Fire Dragon. Every day, even when it was not mating season, Victor would send up mating signals to try and attract a dragon of some kind, any kind. Well, except for Ice Dragons. He didn’t care much for those cold-hearted overgrown flying lizards. Victor thought that he would never find a mate. Until that fateful day, the start of mating season…
Victor sent up a mating fire signal and let out a mating call. After looking at the top of his volcanic home for about a minute, Victor decided that no one was coming. Before he even walked in front of his bed, a mating reply came from the sky. Turning, Victor saw a Dark she-dragon land neatly in the volcano. Victor fully turned around to look the magnificent creature up and down. Victor had never seen a Dark Dragon up close. This female dragon was absolutely beautiful. Victor asked if she had chosen the wrong home. With a laugh, the she-dragon said she didn’t. She told Victor that her name was Evie and she had seen his mating signal from this volcano since the end of last mating season. Victor introduced himself, then asked why she had chosen him as a mate. He wasn’t as strong as the other Fire Dragons and certainly didn’t have their capabilities. Evie told Victor that she wasn’t interested in those fire-breathing show-offs. She was drawn more to dragons that weren’t snobby and obnoxious. Victor asked where Evie had come from. Evie answered him by telling the Fire Dragon that she lived in the Everlasting Night Forest, where every hour of the day was night. Victor, living in the Lava Plains, couldn’t imagine such a place. He told Evie that he would like to see her home someday.
Evie said that she wanted to be Victor’s mate. This shocked Victor. He only had one mate his entire life. After a moment’s hesitation, Victor nodded, and gave his new-found mate a tour of his volcanic home, even though it was just a one-roomed area with a lava pit that Evie was extremely cautious about.
After about two years of being mates, Evie had exciting news. When Victor returned from hunting near the rivers that separated the Flooded Swamp from the Lava Plains, Evie told Victor the news; she had an egg. Victor rejoiced at this. He nuzzled his mate with his long snout, then lay down next to her, wrapping his large red wings over her. Evie’s black wings were set protectively around their egg. After a few days of having the egg, red, flame-shaped markings around the top of the egg appeared. Victor rejoiced even more. Their egg was going to be a Fire Dragon, just like him.
Over the months of having an egg to care of, Evie was extremely protective. She wouldn’t let her egg out of her sight, not even when Victor was breathing fire on it to keep it warm, since Fire Dragon Eggs needed the extreme heat of flames. Victor was afraid that their hatchling may not be as strong as the other dragons because of Victor’s poor fire-breathing skills. Evie, although snappy towards her mate sometimes, told Victor not to worry. Evie would snarl at passing dragons, as if telling them to keep away. Evie couldn’t breathe fire, but she could easily blind her opponents by breathing dark particles towards them, that reacted like octopus ink.
The day finally came when Victor and Evie’s egg hatched. The top cracked open and a little Fire Dragon Hatchling head poked its way through the shell. Then, the rest of the body broke through. The dragon was a boy, just like his father. When the hatchling wobbled up to his mother a squeaked in an attempt to breathe fire, only succeeding by making a little bit of smoke, Evie cried from joy. Victor wrapped his wings around his mate and together they watched their little Fire Dragon, whose name would be Junior.
Years went by when finally, Junior was ready to start learning how to be a proper dragon. Having the shape of his mother’s wings, Evie would teach Junior how to fly. Being the same species as his father, Victor would be responsible for teaching Junior how to breathe fire. For the first two weeks of training, Victor kept putting off teaching Junior how to breathe fire. Finally, Evie confronted her mate about this problem one night. After a bit of refusing to explain to Evie his actions, Victor reluctantly told her with a sigh. He told Evie that he was afraid that if Junior saw how weak his flames were, he would have the same kind of flames. Then, Junior would be made fun of by the other Fire Dragons, and then he would start looking down on his father. Evie nuzzled her mate comfortingly and sympathetically. She felt the same way with her flying lessons. Back at the Everlasting Night Forest, Evie wasn’t as good of a flyer as the rest of her fellow Dark Dragons. She told Victor that he had to believe that he could teach his son and he would have the best flames of all the Fire Dragons. And Junior would follow in his talon-steps, looking up to his hero, his Fire Dragon father. Victor nuzzled his mate, thanking her for her advice.
The next lesson with Junior that Victor had, Victor followed his mate’s advice. He showed Junior how to breath fire. And when he did, he breathed the largest, most spectacular flames he had ever breathed before. Junior was wowed by his father’s skill.
Following in his mother and father’s talon-steps, Junior became one of the most successful Fire Dragons anyone has ever seen. Evie and Victor were happy for their son. For the next 10,000 years, this family would live happily together, as a Fire-Dark Dragon family.