He came from the bowels of the earth, gestated in the supervolcano under the island known as Thera, now Santorini. He didn't remember the magma, only the feeling of being launched into the air, his body breaking into the clouds, his wings cracking open and catching on the thin air. It had been glorious to feel the wind around him, the rush of the flight. 

His kind were a rare sort, earth-created rather than born. While Magi, of all varieties, were the children of their elements, were perhaps the closest in creation nature, his kind were the strangest. 

All forming in fire from small bits of gathered rock able to stand the heat, they were born by being launched into the sky, where they would mostly stay, looking down on their mother. Their nature, too, was inherently different each time. For example, he was wrapped in darkness from the moment his body rocketed into sky, the murky essense filling his lungs and voice, darkening the mireless blue to a purpled black even in the stark of day. 

He'd never had much interest in the pesky mammal ants on the flatlands. Not until their structures started to climb and things were launched his way did he look into them, decending for the first time on a not-so distant meadow. His body shrunk to fit in the small area, his tail and wings shrinking back and melting into his body, scales retreating into smooth, faintly luminescent skin. It felt strange to have locks of hair appear, irritating for the first while during the time his dragon sensibilities retreated for a more human set of qualities. 

Of course, when he landed to explore these primitive beings, he was greeted much kinder than he had been when he'd been as a dragon. They took him in, gave him food and rest, revelled in festivals with him and given him a name - Jiyong; Ji-dragon; G-Dragon. 

He'd kept himself smaller than his original form, maybe only an equivalent of his strangely lithe and short human facade, and flew around that way, occasionally coming back to the land that gave him his name. He didn't care to recall all of the old names places had, save for Thera, preferring to keep up with the times rather than linger in the past. After all, his mother never lingered, despite her age, and if he couldn't keep up with her, then there was no point in continuing to ride the currents of time. This land, while perhaps not his birthplace was his home and he liked it here, this place called Korea. 

But he felt the need to stretch himself, expand his size and dominate the wind currents in a way he hadn't for long years, so that's what he did. 

When he landed again, he overheard those bastard Hunters discussing him (because there was no other inky black dragon to have ever been in Korea) and how to kill him, the ungrateful wretches. 

He'd never harmed a human, despite how many times he'd been fired upon, forced out of homes or offered as a sacrifice to some incubi or vampire because he was apparently very pretty. He had no will to, no want to eat them or their monuments despite how obnoxious their buildings became as the years progressed. But it wasn't until their gleaming silver and glass towers pierced the clouds into his domain that they really gathered the nerve to take aim at him, specifically. 

He had never done anything wrong, never terrorized, never harmed, never took advantage, never strayed into dense human territories. All he wanted was to be allowed to fly in peace, feel the burn of the sun as he breached the final layers of cloud. He'd been peaceful, never in conflict.

Now his shoulder and wing were screaming an unfamiliar agony, like fire inside his body, something unnatural lodged in his flesh. His wing membrane was burning in impossible fire, huge chunks ripped off, scales shorn off by jagged, steaming metal and he was plummeting. No freefall had ever scared him like this, he'd never had this loss of control in the air, never felt the winds turn against him quite like this. Another explosion rocked the air next to him, sending him hurtling with new velocity in another direction, towards water. 

Just as he was about to smash into the deceptively liquid surface of the sea, his small body was wrapped up in warm-ish foam, then ice-chilled water that extinguished the burn, gentle on the aggravated flesh. The sensation of strong limbs around his torso was a comfort, because they were not human, did not belong to a Hunter. They were Ethereal, if the way they commanded the waves was any indication. 

He didn't know how long this invisible water creature carried him, not even sure if he was awake or alive through all of it, but suddenly there was moon and street light, the beautiful caramel face of a Siren hovering over him, caressing the charred scales of his face. 

"Can you shift human for me? I can't bring you home like this."

"Home?" He murmured, voice higher and more nasally than normal. 

The Siren nodded, over his face. "Please, shift for me."

He did as he was told, letting the beautiful creature pick him up, careful of the burning on his back and the shards of metal buried in the meat of his shoulder.

He woke again to a gentle hum, his entire body encased in a fine sheen of water, save his mouth and nose, which was refracting light of all colours on the ceiling. 

"Don't worry." The panda-eyed face of a dryad appeared in his view, smiling kindly, youthfully. "It's just TOP-hyung. He's got light healing magic or something and he's fixing your back and shoulder. Daesung-hyung's got you in water, so the energy conducts better, I think."

"The Siren?" He rasped, his throat unbearably dry.

"That's the one." The dryad looked up above him, then reached back to a something else unseen, appearing once more with a leaf between his fingers. "Here. Chew on this. It'll abate your hunger and fix that dry mouth of yours."

He took the leaf when the dryad put it in his mouth, a cool, soothing sensation spreading through his mouth and down the back of this throat. "Thanks. What's your name?"

"Seungri." The dryad replied, smiling crookedly, a little mischieviously. "You're pretty cute, for a dragon. How old are you?"

"Mmm." he chewed thoughtfully. "Three and a half thousand? Maybe four. I never kept track of time."

"What volcano did you come out of?" A deep rumble came from above him, thick and sending shivers down his back.

"Thera. I came from Thera."

"Three thousand six hundred, then." The voice answered. 

"Were you there, hyung?" Seungri asked. 

"No, but I was around Greece at the time. It was a catastrophe, honestly. So many people starved out and the sun was blocked for longer and longer."

"Who's speaking?" He asked, feeling uncomfortably excluded. This was the first time he'd really, properly interacted with other Ethereal races and he felt horribly socially bereft. 

"TOP-hyung." Seungri chirped. "He's an Elder Vampire."

He almost choked on the leaf he was shocked so still. "What? But they were killed off thousands of years ago. Before I was launched."

"Well, TOP-hyung beats the odds." Seungri smiled like such an age was his own achievement. "What's your name?"

"G-Dragon." He replied automatically, then blinked. "Eh, Jiyong. The name I was given is Jiyong."

"Take the leaf from his mouth." TOP commanded. "He needs to sleep more."

Seungri plucked it out of his mouth and left the room, a small smile and wave seeing him off. "Good luck, YongYonggie!"

"That boy." TOP sighed. The water around Jiyong shifted, cradling him gently. "Jiyong, then. Daesung is going to sing you to sleep again. Please do not fight him. Repairing this will hurt you alot and I would rather you not remember this after already getting blown out of the air by anti-aircraft guns in the firstplace."

"What's your real name?" Jiyong gasped, feeling a burn start at the base of his spine, a lullaby starting that sounded like he was listening to it across the ocean. Its hypnotic effects were no less potent, however, and he could feel himself slipping away.

"My real name is Seunghyun, little dragon. Seunghyun the Dark."

Jiyong knew that name, from bird-whispers, but was not frightened by it. A dragon was a child of the earth, dominant in all below it, and even if Seunghyun was the grandchild of the sun and the moon, this was a dragon's home domain.