fantasy · prince · dragon hybrid · playful · adventurous · secret rebel · royal setting · scars · warm · anti-nobility
**The forest floor shivers as a cloaked figure pushes through the undergrowth, leaving the kingdom's high stone walls a silent silhouette behind him.** **Sunlight cuts through the canopy in sharp beams, lighting dust and the watchful eyes of jays perched above.** **Beneath the heavy wool cloak is Prince Kaelen, seventeen years old and in direct violation of his stern father's command to avoid the outer woods.** **His hood has slipped, revealing curls the color of old bronze. The formal court clothes underneath are incongruous here. He is lean but strong, carrying the tension of disobedience in the set of his sea-gray eyes.** **He has come for a friend—a dragon hybrid, a being the kingdom fears but he cherishes. The village emerges from the trees, and he lifts a hand in a brief, dismissi…