Chwe Hansol never asked for this life. He didn’t want to be the way he was, he wasn’t the one who decided to fall in love with a dragon, but yet, here he was, having to deal with the life he was given. It’s not like his mom was sorry either, all she did was mope around at home, wailing for her lost love, and basically being the typical dead beat mom. Hansol sighed, digging his hands into his coat pockets, and left the house. The house stank, it hadn’t been cleaned in years, and the food in the cupboard had begun to go bad. Not like it mattered, Hansol’s stomach could handle a little rot, but he still didn’t want his sister to grow up thinking that eating garbage and carrion was the norm. He didn’t really have a choice though. Hansol wasn’t old enough to have a stable job and his mom wasn’t working so all they had to eat was the pickings Hansol or his sister, Sofia, found on the streets.

            Hansol was a dragon, not a full one – thanks to his mom – but he had enough dragon blood in him to make it quite obvious. His eyes slanted on an abnormal angle, his hands looked more like claws than fingers, and he had a higher affinity for magic than most humans. All of this caused the villagers to hate him and his little sister. It wasn’t even their fault; his mom was the stupid one. She fell in love with what she thought was a foreign noble and without even learning much more about him, took him to bed. It was only a couple months later that his mother learned that said noble was actually a dragon in his human form, but by then it was too late. She was smitten and was determined to bear the baby, convinced that it would prove her love to him and make him fall back in love with her. But she was wrong. The dragon didn’t care about her, he was young and foolish. Five years after Hansol had been born; his mother and the dragon had another affair – which would turn out to be their last. After Sofia was born, the dragon broke the news to his mother and destroyed the last bit of her sanity. The noble was engaged, and with that, he flew off, leaving Hansol’s mother with two young Halflings, a destroyed mind, and a broken heart.

            Hansol shivered, the seasons were starting to change and they lived far enough north to feel the beginnings of winter. This year would be particularly bad. The harvest wasn’t very plentiful and the farmers were worried that even the rich wouldn’t have enough food to last the cold season. Their paranoia showed. Hansol and Sofia found less and less scraps in the trash. Families were starting to be less picky and eat everything they had, meaning Hansol had less to bring home. It was worrying, as half dragons, Hansol could go without food for a significantly longer time than humans could. He could also digest more poisonous materials and handle raw meat. These facts were the only reasons why Hansol and Sofia were still alive. Their mother always somehow seemed to find food, but she never shared it with any of them. They were a living reminder that her romance hadn’t worked out, so Hansol had learned from an early age to fend for himself.

            Making his usual rounds, Hansol placed everything he could find in a small, worn, sack that he had nabbed from the local general store. The owner was nice enough, making sure to give Hansol any expired items, but Hansol had to do what he could to live. And if that meant stealing a couple pieces of equipment from unsuspecting humans, he’d do it. Anything to keep Sofia and himself alive. As Hansol arrived at the final spot on his routine pick up, he stopped. Something was wrong. Narrowing his eyes, Hansol focused. Dragons could easily change shape from their beastly form to their human one, much like werecats or werewolves. But Hansol wasn’t a dragon. He was a Halfling, so unlike others, he had to concentrate and could only change one part of his body at a time. This didn’t bother him however; Hansol had already perfected the art of changing his eyes into his dragon ones. His slanted chocolate brown eyes turned a deep orange and scales formed around the eyelid. Looking from side to side, Hansol took a sharp intake of breath as he saw traces of magic. Even more alarming was he could see his sister’s magic mixed in with the unfamiliar one. It looked like there was some kind of struggle, half dragons had limited magic, and Sofia had obviously tried to use it in order to escape. However, her assailants were more powerful and with a sickening feeling, Hansol realized that she had been kidnapped.

            Gulping down his fear, Hansol felt the uneasiness in his stomach turn into a hateful anger. Growling lowly, Hansol expanded his vision and saw that the trail of unfamiliar magic stretched across the street. Following it, Hansol kept one eye out for assailants – if they had gone after Sofia, then there was a chance they’d come after him as well – until he ended up at a medium sized cabin at the edge of town. If Hansol’s memory was correct, then this cabin was inhabited. The last family had moved out over a decade ago and no one else had moved in. Stepping forward cautiously, Hansol scanned the house for signs of trap magic, and, when he found none, peeked into a window.

            Inside was a group of men, maybe around six or seven, and in the middle of them, was Sofia. The very sight of her relieved Hansol immensely, she hadn’t been killed, but she was definitely injured. There was blood flowing from her head and her left leg was twisted at an awkward angle. Gritting his teeth in anger, Hansol jumped up and crashed through the window. A little unplanned, and probably an extremely dangerous move, Hansol’s regrets fly out of his head when he sees that Sofia doesn’t seem to be conscious.

            “What the, it’s you!” one of the men stands up as the others look around in a daze. “It’s the other half dragon!” At this proclamation, the other men, (soldiers, Hansol realized) snapped to attention. They quickly formed a circle around Hansol; spears aimed at his chest, and awaited further orders. “We’re from the Imperial Guild.”

            “What?” Hansol said, buying time. His village was fairly secluded, they didn’t have much experience with foreigners, but he did know almost every soldier he encountered was extremely self-righteous and liked to talk about themselves and whatever cause they were sworn to.

            “Of course, you’re too ignorant and lowly to understand what I’m saying,” the soldier in charge laughed. “The Imperial Guild is made up of only the best warriors from across the continent. We are sworn to the Holy One, Maldova, who has ordered us to kill all Halflings as they are not pure. Halflings are spawns of hell; they taint the perfectness of all races and deserve nothing more than death.”

            “What did you do to my sister?” Hansol growled lowly when one of the soldiers came a little too close. He whirled around, glaring at said soldier with his dragon eyes and watched as the soldier flinched away.

            “Nothing, yet,” the commander smirked. “I decided that it would be much easier to kill you both together. We knew you’d come see, but who would’ve thought that someone with the blood of the dragons – known to be one of the wisest races – would come alone?”

            “Who says he’s alone?” a dark voice asked. The commander looked up sharply, confused. His uncertainness spread to his soldiers, and they fell back, still in a circle, but much less well formed. At this, Hansol sprung forward, knocking down the closest soldier. He ducked under the soldier’s wild stab and turned around to bring his foot up to the man’s temple. With a swift kick, the soldier crumbled to the floor, unconscious, while Hansol took his spear and sword. Dropping into a defensive stance, Hansol observed as the other soldiers took up ranks against him.

            Before they could charge however, smoke rose from the floor and filled the room. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but soon enough; the soldiers began screaming and clawing at their eyes. Hansol watched in amazement, the smoke never touched his half of the cabin, as half of the soldiers threw their weapons down while the other half ran out of the building in order to escape the smoke.

            “Stop! Hold!” the commander shouted, but his order was unheard as he began to cough almost instantly. Gritting his teeth, the commander watched through watery eyes as the Halfling remained untouched. This would not do, Maldova did not promote him just for him to fail. Sneaking a hand under his shirt, the commander the necklace Maldova had given him. She had told him to only use it under extreme circumstances, and, even though the commander couldn’t have fathomed that he’d use it against a measly Halfling, he pulled down and unlocked the charm.

            Hansol’s eyes widened as the commander transformed. He roared in pain as his human consciousness was snuffed out and replaced with a shadowy beast. He expanded in size, and in his thrashing, broke the roof and walls of the cabin. The remaining soldiers tripped over their feet in their haste to run away from their commander. It wasn’t correct to call him a commander anymore, his human side had been lost the minute he released the charm. In his place was a demon-like wraith beast, intangible but still able to stand. The beast sniffed the air, confused and in pain from its transformation. It looked down at the ground to see the few soldiers who had been unable to escape and were trapped under the debris from the cabin. With a roar, the beast brought its paw down and killed them instantly before it leaned down to feast on its companion’s flesh.

            “Run,” a voice commanded, and Hansol turned to his side to see a pink haired werecat. “Hurry up, I have no ing clue what the hell that thing is,” the werecat continued, pulling Hansol up and forcing him to run in front of him.

            “What about my sister?!” Hansol screamed as the werecat continued to push him away from the village.

            “Fake, it was an illusion,” the werecat responded simply. “I should know, I specialize in that kind of magic. They bent the light rays to make an image of her, kind of like a mirage in a desert.”

            “O-oh,” Hansol stuttered, head reeling at the explanation. He never really thought about his magic, it just kind of happened. Hearing magic being explained in such a theoretical way hurt his head a bit. “So where are we going now?”

            “Seungcheol is going to distract that... thing and we’re going to regroup. Of course, this is the best case scenario. There’s always a chance that the beast catches up to us,” the werecat answered.

            “You’re not very comforting, you know that?” Hansol muttered under his breath, but by the twitching of the werecats ears, it was obvious that he was heard. The werecat merely smirked however, and Hansol decided that he liked him. Anyone that lived a hard enough life as Hansol knew when to address things and when to leave them unspoken.

            “Jihoon!” the dark voice, the one Hansol heard before the smoke appeared, called, causing the werecat to turn back. The two stopped as a third, taller, man approached them. He was limping and was trying to hide the blood flowing from his leg, but to no avail.

            “Seungcheol what the ,” Jihoon gasped, running forward. With a gentle touch, Jihoon aided the other being, Seungcheol to the ground. Hansol watched as Seungcheol breathed in and out in short, fast breaths.

            “I’m okay, don’t worry about me,” Seungcheol said, through gritted teeth. In Hansol’s opinion, Seungcheol was the exact opposite of okay. He was obviously in a lot of pain, but from the minute the other male saw the alarm in Jihoon’s eyes, he had swallowed his own needs and tried to maintain a strong front. “The more concerning thing is that beast. It’s a wraith, and that’s the annoying part. Wraiths can turn intangible so no physical attacks can hit it.”

            “Then use magic,” Jihoon demanded. “, I can’t do anything. My magic doesn’t work well in battles like this,” Jihoon dug his sharp claws into his palm, “can’t you hit him with magic?”

            “Jihoon you’re going to hurt yourself,” Seungcheol reached out, clapsing Jihoon’s smaller hand in his own and forcing the werecat to open his fist before the werecats claws could dig any further into his skin. Hansol shuffled uncomfortably, feeling as if he was invading, but before he could leave or say anything, Seungcheol looked up at him. “I can use magic, but the wraith has some kind of enchantment on him. I don’t know what it is exactly, but he has some kind of armour. There should be a weak spot though.”

            “Where is it?” Hansol said, panicking when he heard a loud thud nearby.

            “I don’t know, I can’t focus on casting magic and spotting the chink in the armour at the same time, especially not in this state,” Seungcheol answered honestly. “But you can. Your eyes,” Hansol reached up and realized that his eyes had not reverted back to their original form. “They’ll be able to tell. You can see magic can’t you?”

            “I, I can,” Hansol gulped, nervous. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins and although he had been in fights before, he had never been fully trained in magic. “B-but I don’t know if I’ll be able to find it in time, who knows if there even is a chink, what if-”

            “Doesn’t ing matter,” Jihoon snapped, standing up. “The beast is coming, I can hear it. I’ll distract him, Seungcheol you focus on casting your spell – and don’t even try to convince me to stay ‘safe’, that I can take care of myself – and you, you just find the weak spot. I’ll buy you as much time as you need. Once you find it, tell Seungcheol or we’re all going to die.”

            “Jihoon has a way of words doesn’t he?” Seungcheol laughed nervously as the werecat nimbly bounded away. Hansol nodded but realized that Seungcheol wasn’t paying attention to him. The beast had arrived, and Seungcheol’s eyes were focused on Jihoon, gaze watching carefully as the werecat dodged the beast gracefully. As Jihoon disappeared from view, Seungcheol turned back around and began muttering furiously. Smoke began to appear from his hands and Hansol realized that Seungcheol was initiating his component of the plan.

            Taking a deep breath, Hansol resolved to do his part. Concentrating, Hansol focused and morphed more of his eyes from human to dragon. Most of the time, Hansol only transformed his iris’, but for this, Hansol made sure his entire cornea was in its dragon form. It hurt, as it always did when Hansol stretched his abilities too much, but Hansol could see every bit of magic coming from the wraith. He realized now, that he could see so much more than just the traces of magic. He could see the very essence that made up the wraith’s armour and, Hansol realized with a shock, he could see how the magic moved through the wraith. Gasping, Hansol saw the wraith begin to cast a spell. It was going to be a powerful one, with the amount of magic the wraith was taking in, so Hansol had to hurry up and find the weak spot. Scanning the monster, Hansol in air as the pain from his transformation increased. His eyes moved from side to side, examining every detail of the armour.

            “Are you ready yet?!” Seungcheol called, voice laced with pain. “I’m almost done here and I think you’ve noticed but the wraith is going to cast a spell! Jihoon won’t be able to last much longer either!”

            “Almost!” Hansol said, he could almost see it. There was a messy spot of magic near the wraith’s left hip. It looked like the armour was hastily melded at that point and, seeing as Hansol couldn’t spot any other abnormality in the magic, Hansol decided that the left hip was the chink. “The left hip!”

            “Jihoon move!” Seungcheol stood up, leg injury straining. In his hands was a smoky weapon, it looked to be some sort of cannon, and was vibrating with magic. Jihoon twirled around mid-jump, kicking off of the wraith’s tangible head in order to dodge its swipes, before the agile werecat bounded away and hid himself in the trees. With a painful grunt, Seungcheol aimed carefully, before his finger pulled the trigger (well, what Hansol assumed was the trigger, seeing as the cannon was practically incorporeal) causing a dark beam of light to shoot directly at the chink in the wraith’s armour. Howling, the wraith twisted, trying to dodge the beam, but was unable to do so due to its large and bulky body. As the light hit the wraith, it spread underneath the beast’s armour until the entire monster was glowing in a dark light. Panting, Seungcheol lowered the cannon (which had started to dissipate) and raised his hands. Closing his fists slowly, Hansol watched in awe as the light began to collapse into itself, taking the wraith along with it, until the light and the monster disappeared forever.

            “Holy ,” Hansol swore, eyes blinking as his heart race slowed. He still couldn’t believe what had happened. Just a couple hours ago he was planning on what he needed to survive in the winter and now, now he was in the company of a high class demon, a Bijou, and the remains of a wraith beast.

            “Seungcheol!” Jihoon’s voice broke Hansol out of his trance. As the adrenaline left his body, the half dragon collapsed onto the ground. He watched as Jihoon raced towards Seungcheol, face straining to maintain a calm composure (Hansol’s eyes were still in their dragon form however, so he could see the signs of concern on the Bijou’s face). The werecat helped Seungcheol sit down on a nearby log before turning around to look at Hansol. “You, your sister, I got her from their main hideout. She’s waiting for you near your house.”

            “Sofia!” Hansol shot up, angry with himself for forgetting about his sister in lieu of the events that had happened.

            “Wait,” Seungcheol’s rough voice stopped Hansol in his tracks. He turned around, slightly confused. “Hansol right? I, do you have somewhere to go back to?”

            “What?” Hansol blinked, eyes turning back to their human form. He had wanted to rush back to Sofia and forget all of this had happened but there was something in Seungcheol’s earnest gaze that kept him rooted.

            “A home. He’s asking if you have a home,” Jihoon said.

            “Yeah,” Hansol answered quickly, before stopping. What even was a home? It wasn’t his house, that’s for sure. It wasn’t the rotting building he lived in, with his moping mother and the town of villagers that hated his guts. Home wasn’t with his sister either. He loved her of course, but they wouldn’t be together forever. He had accepted that one day; they’d separate ways, still keeping in contact, but not together every second of the day. So what was home? Hansol wasn’t sure anymore.

            “Looks like you don’t,” Seungcheol commented, standing up again despite Jihoon’s protests. “They’re going to come back for you I hope you realize. But they don’t have to. You can get stronger, train your magic and learn to fight.” Seungcheol paused, allowing Hansol to process his words. “And I’ll help you.”

            “Wait, do you, do you mean...?” Hansol stuttered, not wanting to utter his thoughts out loud in case he was wrong and entirely too hopeful.

            “Come live with me,” Seungcheol offered. “Okay that sounds weird. But what I mean is, I live in a huge estate near the capitol. People are more accepting of races there. And I don’t have much people living with me either since this kid,” Seungcheol nudged Jihoon and sends him a playful glare. “Is constantly running around the country.”

            “There is no way I’m staying in a dusty old castle with you and watching you run around and play politics,” Jihoon sniffed, and Hansol gets the feeling that this problem was a running joke between them. However, by their body language (Hansol was more than adept at reading people, it was the difference between a fight and a free meal in his world), he saw that this whole ‘why don’t you stay with me’ thing was probably part of a bigger problem. Whatever that was.

            “In any case,” Seungcheol rolled his eyes, “I have room for one, or two more. Plus, Jihoon’s adoptive sister, Yeri, is kind of close to your sister’s age so she won’t be alone. How about it?”

            Hansol bit his lip, a habit he had when he was thinking. It sounded great. Seungcheol’s offer could be the answer to his problems. He’d be able to leave this town and his mother and never have to worry about food again. But he barely knew these two. Who’s to say they won’t immediately sell him and his sister as slaves the minute they get out of the mountains? Hansol wouldn’t be able to defend his sister and himself if that happened. Wait. Hansol couldn’t defend his family. He realized that today, when he couldn’t even save his sister from Imperial Guild. But Seungcheol, Seungcheol was willing to teach him. To train him to be stronger. So that one day, maybe he’d be able to protect the ones he loved. And even if this was probably the stupidest thing Hansol has ever done, he decided that it was worth the risk.

            “Okay. But uhm, Sofia and I don’t know how to wash dishes.”

            “Oh my God, Yeri didn’t know how to wash dishes either what is with children nowadays.”

            “Seungcheol some days you don’t even dress yourself. You don’t get to say that.”

            “...shut up Jihoon...”

~ ♦ ~

Sorry for the wait. My laptop is broken so I have to use the family computer (which is as old as dinosaur) and I have to share it with my mom. So updates are going to be a bit slow until my laptop is fixed. So this is Hansol's chapter. He's a cool dragon (well, half dragon). Idk if I explained about half-dragons very well but I'll work on expanding it and filling in the holes in later chapters.

I also ended up writing about injustice in society again. I really need to stop that whoops. *shrugs* Anyways, Hansol is going to live with Seungcheol now and there was a JiCheol moment because I AM TRASH. Also, if you didn't catch it, Yeri is also living with Seungcheol. Reasons? You'll find out LATER. =3

Once again, thanks for reading and I do not own anything in this story other than the idea and plot, any similarities to other works of fiction are purely coincidental or have been used as sources of inspiration. Please do not repost this anywhere without my permission; plagiarism isn’t nice!

Hope you're smiling!

~ alateni

PS: Thanks to xXmysteriousXx, hyundeul, snsdsmtown, and iluvEXOforever for upvoting!!