In a land far away called Exo, there lived a boy named Park Chanyeol. Chanyeol was a bronze class, meaning he was poor, faced famine, poverty, starvation, and inequality. He lived with his mother, Yoora, alone. He never knew his father, all he knew is that he left him and his mom behind after he was born. Chanyeol grew up always wondering what his dad looked like, all his mom told was, “You’ll find out soon enough.” She was too eerily prophetic with her words… 

 

         Chanyeol, now at 16 years old, is being sent to his warrior training. All Bronze class children 16-21 must enroll at some time. The oldest is 20 and the youngest is 16. Chanyeol, being a teenager, is the only 16 year old there. He feels like a Goliath compared to all these Davids, because of his height. They look at him because he is a strange boy. He eats raw meat (mostly cooked at times, but prefers the rawness of it), has a link with the rock lizards native to Exo, he loves the heat of flame, and can survive conditions most humans can’t, but what separated him from the other children were his eyes. 

 

Chanyeol has gold eyes as gold as the gleaming sun, like a topaz yellow, or a honey color. He feels like an outsider, his strange habits and eyes make him an easy target for bullies. But he is also really hotheaded. 

 

When he gets angry his face becomes red with anger and his head vein starts bulging like the Cesare Mounts. Chanyeol was sitting next to a girl his age named Yuri. 

 

“Yuri, you’re excused.” said Quicklimb, Yuri bowed respectfully, her black hair falling gently as she dipped her head. She flashed Chanyeol a wry smirk and walked away. Quicklimb turned his gaze to Chanyeol. His voice sounding harsh like a sword being sharpened, “Park, this is the fifth time you were sent here. Explain to me why you have a glutton for punishment.” Chanyeol kept his look straight, but couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty for causing the trouble he got in with that -up, prissy no good, Yuri.

 

He said, “I’m sorry, okay?” Quicklimb shook his head, “Sorry isn’t going to cut it, Park.” he gave Chanyeol a bucket and scraper, “You are to clean the stables after training.” Chanyeol’s jaw dropped. He grumbled in his own language pardon his French, and took the cleaning tools from his master’s hand. 

 

He exited the office with a heavy heart, how will he explain to his mom? He didn’t want to. He had enough to worry about, like how to control his anger, his “Fire Within” as his mother calls it. He sighed and walked down the hall, only to stop to lean against a wall. He buried his head in his hands, ruffling his brown hair up. 

 

He heard footsteps heading his way. He looked up to see his least favorite person, Cha Hakyeon. Hakyeon made fun of Chanyeol ever since they met. Chanyeol blurted out, “What do you want, Hakyeon?” Hakyeon spat back, “Heard you got in trouble.” Chanyeol stood up and glared at Hakyeon, Hakyeon shoved him, “You’re lucky you’re Quicklimb’s favorite.” he snarled at him. Chanyeol gently pushed him aside and walked off to the stables. 

 

Suddenly, he was knocked off his feet by the bully. The two boys tumbled onto the dirt and stone floor, Chanyeol felt a blinding pain in his nose and heard a cracking sound. His blood started to drip to the floor as 4 hard boney ugly knuckles hit him in the jaw The fire burning in Chanyeol’s gut told him to fight back, but he knew it would only make things worse. He instead tried to block the blows with his hands. Hakyeon wouldn’t back out now. 

 

An unknown force yanked Chanyeol watched as Hakyeon off of him, he got up, spat out some of the blood in his mouth, and saw Hakyeon get dragged off by Quicklimb. Chanyeol got up, brushed the dirt off of his white shirt speckled with red, and went on his way to the stables. He saw the stable boy, Shindong, who was sitting on a stool, snoring loudly like the pig he is.  

 

Shindong was a fat kid; his black hair was wispy and stuck to his head like clumps of mud. He snored loudly and smelled like something crawled up inside of him and died, and his nose was squashed in like a pig snout. He had a snot bubble puffing in and out of his nostril; Chanyeol looked away and got to work. The mud on the stable was crusty and clung to the walls like cement. Chanyeol cleaned the muck out of the horse stables, luckily the horses were out and being used for equestrian training. 

 

He stopped for a few minutes to wipe the sweat off his brow. Chanyeol was midway through scraping a big clump of muck off a wall until he heard a voice ask, “What did you do?” he looked to see Shindong, awake now and sitting straight, his red shirt covering his bulge of a belly held in place by a leather belt with messy gray pants. Chanyeol answered grudgingly, “I got in trouble.” Shindong asked, “How?” his voice was scratchy, like an old witch’s. 

 

Chanyeol explained while picking up a clump of something mushy off the floor, “I was in the middle of spear training, when Yuri taunted me by saying that I couldn’t throw a spear 3 feet in front of me..” Shindong leaned in his seat and nodded to say “Continue.” Chanyeol said with a hint of anger and shame, “I tried to throw it really hard, but it kept missing, Yuri laughed at me and called me weak, the poor excuse for a Bronze class warrior. After that…” he trailed off 

 

Shindong said, “You snapped.” Chanyeol nodded, “I threw the other spear in my hand at her...it missed her face by just an inch, she screamed and went running to Quicklam.” Shindong sniggered, which made Chanyeol smile. Shindong said, “About time someone made that dragon-poop shut up.” Chanyeol smiled, a known fact about Exo was that they were the home to the dragons, fire-breathing, flying, giant, winged lizards that terrorized the people. 

 

Chanyeol finished his punishment and sat up. His back ached from bending over for a long time. He grabbed his bag and walked out of the stables. He ran out of the academy and into the streets of Greendome, his home. Greendome was ruled over by Lord Yunho, who is looked over by Queen Changmin.

 

Chanyeol saw Yunho’s castle; colossal spiked torrents rising out of the ground like mountains, he was the “Dragon Savior”. Chanyeol was never one of legends and folktales, but the tale of the Dragon Savior always fascinated him, legend goes that a human, no one knows for sure, will unite humankind and dragonkind into one nation of peace and harmony. Yunho was the Dragon Savior, so he was given a huge castle, army, and land to rule over. 

 

Chanyeol jogged to his house, a small shack with a straw roof, stonewalls, and a wooden door. He walked in and took in the musty air of home. He saw his mother, Yoora, over a kettle, stirring a soup. She saw him and with that special tone reserved only for him, teasingly said, “Hello, my mighty warrior.” he walked over and said, “Hey, Mom.” Yoora smiled and kissed his forehead, and asked, “How was training?” Chanyeol felt like he was frozen by an ice dragon’s breath. He did not want to answer that question. 

 

He said, “Mom. I got in trouble, again.” Yoora did nothing; she scanned his face as if he was a tangled necklace she was trying to unwind. She asked, “What did you do?” Chanyeol answered, “I was trying to practice my spear throwing, but Yuri nagged me, I lost control of my anger and threw the spear at her, it was only an inch from her face but she screamed.” he looked at the floor in shame. Yoora kissed her son’s forehead again and said, “Your Fire Within is growing strong, a sign of manhood.” she said, “Come, I have to show you something.” 

 

Chanyeol followed his mother upstairs to her room, the walls were draped with pink and rose curtains and her bed was soft and had a white wolf skin over the headrest. She got a box, a small wooden box with a gold dragon wrapped around it like a ribbon, its head as the lock and its mouth opened to reveal the lock in its jaws. Yoora opened it with a key and inside was an amulet. 

 

The amulet was small, it was a ruby with the most beautiful shade of red . In the center was a black line, making it look like a dragon’s eye. Chanyeol took it and placed it on his neck, the ruby glistened in the sunlight. He lifted it up, it was light and it glowed as if it was on fire in the inside. Chanyeol felt power flood into him, nothing like he felt before. He let it plop onto his chest and he said, “It’s beautiful.” Yoora said, “It was your father’s. He gave it to me to give to you.” Chanyeol hugged his mom and said, “Thank you.” She said, “Get me some fresh flu rabbits for me.” He nodded and got out to the market place in the town square. 

 

He saw warriors, older than him, a man and woman, both bandaging themselves. He shuddered and kept walking, his amulet on his chest hanging by a leather strap. He got the flu rabbits and walked back home, only to get stopped by Hakyeon. He groaned and muttered, “Not today, Hakyeon.” Hakyeon was with his goons, Hyuk, a skinny redhead with a gap in his teeth, Ravi, a scrappy bald kid with fake scars he gave himself to look cool, and there was the brutish of their group was Leo, he was a buff and monstrous child. 

 

Chanyeol saw the bullies and began to walk away, he was tired of Hakyeon’s antics and just learned to deal with it and walk away. A tactic he did for a couple years now. Hakyeon made Leo pin Chanyeol down, he instantly reacted, he leaped out of Leo’s way and broke off into a sprint. Hakyeon shouted, “Get him!” and they all ran after him, Chanyeol was a good runner, and he was excellent at dodging obstacles, he weaved through the merchants and people in the streets of Greendome and left a cat’s cradle in his wake. Hakyeon, Ravi, Hyuk, and Leo were pushing and shoving the people out of their way. Chanyeol hid behind an alley, panting madly like a dog. The amulet was doing nothing but sitting on his chest like a rock embedded in the earth. 

He hid there for a long time, clutching the flu rabbits for dear life. He kept staying there for a few more minutes and peeked out behind the alley to see Hakyeon and his gang running off away from his spot. He walked out slowly and ran off to his home, never looking back.