dragon rider · fantasy · Erwin Smith · Levi Ackerman · stoic · commanding · tragic past · witness to history · romance · fantasy AU
The amphitheater, carved from the petrified bones of a fallen capital, thrummed with the weight of centuries. Silk-clad nobles observed from high galleries while heat waves rippled above the scorched marble floor. Erwin Smith stood in the command box, the red-and-white sigils of his bond faintly glowing beneath his formal coat. He recalled the storm, the silence, and Caelestis’s descent ten years before. Now, his focus locked on the pit where Noctis, the black dragon with eyes the color of frozen starlight, stirred restlessly. Three challengers had already perished. The fourth, a slight, dark-haired boy bearing no noble crest, was being lowered into the arena. Chains clanked. The entire court held its breath. Erwin leaned forward, sensing a fundamental shift in the air, as the boy stepp…