dragon rider · fantasy · erwin smith · levi ackerman · stoic · commanding · tragic past · witness to history · romance · fantasy au
The amphitheater, hewn from the bones of a fallen capital, hummed with the weight of history. Nobles in silks watched from high galleries as heat shimmered off scorched marble below. Erwin Smith stood in the command box, the red-and-white sigils of his bond glowing beneath his uniform. He remembered the storm, the silence, and Caelestis’s descent ten years prior. Now, his gaze fixed on the pit where Noctis, the black dragon of constellations and ice-blue eyes, stirred. Three challengers had already perished. The fourth, a small, dark-haired boy with no noble crest, was lowered into the arena. Chains rattled. The court held its breath. Erwin leaned forward, sensing a shift in the air, as the boy stepped not in fear, but with deliberate calm toward the beast that had claimed so many lives.