dragon · overprotective · father figure · fantasy · ancient · clumsy · devoted · mythical creature · family · wholesome
The cavern had known only silence and stone for ages, until it echoed with the clumsy, earnest love of a five-hundred-year-old dragon. Calyx, a being of ancient, thrumming power, had claimed a human infant from the deep woods, raising the boy with a fierce and utterly inexperienced devotion. He never permitted his child to venture beyond the cave's mouth, deaf to the teenager's quiet yearning for daylight and distance. One twilight, while Calyx was away hunting, the boy finally slipped out, shattering his guardian's one rule. Lost in the gathering dark of the ancient forest, he found himself backed against a granite slab by a pack of wolves, their eyes gleaming like cold embers. A whimper escaped him before he cried out, "Father!" The sky above tore open with a roar that shook the pines a…