Chapter Text
All around the world, people have heard the old stories about dragons. In every one of the stories, the dragons are described as giant, fire-breathing beasts with inordinate, terrifying wings. Everyone knows the stories, yet nobody really believes in them anymore, can’t remember where they even come from.
Except for the people living in a small town far into the Blackwood Forest, that is. A town called Moonlight.
Everybody in the town knew the story of Cain and the first dragon, Blade, by heart.
As the story goes, it was nine hundred years ago that a young man, with the name Cain, was walking through the woods looking for a place to settle down. He chose the woods he walked in because the forest was vast and dark, so dangerous that anyone who wandered in too far was lost in them forever. It was the perfect hiding space.
You see, ever since he was a small boy, he’d been on the bad side of the law. Losing his parents at a young age and growing up on the street, he became accustomed to stealing and often fending for his life. That being said, before his parents passed away, they had taught him to be kind and to always help the ones that needed help the most, no matter who or what they were.
He was deep, deep into the woods when he came across an oversized lake, the inky black surface lit up from moonlight and the northern lights that were moving over the night sky. Thirsty from walking for hours, he sank down on his knees and put his hands in the water. When he bent over the water to drink, he saw something red glittering at the bottom of the lake.
‘What ever could it be?’ he asked himself. It was like nothing he’d ever seen before. Maybe it was something valuable that he could sell, fetching enough money that he could pay off his debt and be a free man. Curiosity got the better of him so he set his backpack down, stripped himself of all of his clothes, and dove into the water.
When he swam closer, he saw that it was a big, black and red stone. But, it was unlike any stone he’d ever seen before. It was like the stone was on fire, red flames moving on the surface. He almost expected it to be hot when he touched it. As his fingers brushed the surface, he realized he was wrong; it was as cold as ice, far colder than the water. It wasn’t heavy either, not like a stone this size should’ve been. Which was fortunate, because that made swimming back with it easier.
When Cain emerged from the water, the stone stayed ice cold but the flames stopped moving. Not knowing what to make of it, Cain put the stone down so it was half underwater and the flames started up again below the waterline.
Wet, freezing, and hungry, Cain pulled his clothing back on and quickly built a small fire next to the lake in hopes of keeping himself warm. Next, he unstrung one of three rabbits he’d captured earlier in the day and started preparing it for cooking. As he was about to put his dinner over the fire, he saw the stone from the corner of his eye.
The flames on the stone were dancing more than any fire Cain had seen in his life. His food forgotten, he made his way back over to the stone. When he went to pick it up, it was no longer cold but now warm to the touch. Not really hot, but warmer than a stone submerged in water, covered by the dark of the forest, should’ve been.
The closer he brought it to the fire, the brighter the flames got and the faster they moved. The temperature of the stone rose, but for some reason, the stone didn’t burn him. Before he knew what he was doing, he’d placed the stone on top of the fire. He stared, he waited.
Rationally, it must have been a few minutes, but he held his breath for what felt like forever. Nothing happened. Cain was just about to push it out of the fire when he noticed a crack in the stone. And then another one. Soon, the stone was covered in cracks, both big and small.
All of a sudden, pieces of the stone started flying all over the place with so much force that Cain had to back away from the fire and cover his face to protect his eyes. The clattering of stone pieces hitting the pebbles around him was loud until it was silent. He waited for a beat, breathed out. Silence.
Figuring it was safe, he slowly took his hands away from his face.
Where the stone had once been was now just a slowly dying fire. The stone had totally disappeared and with it, all of his hopes of getting money for it. He briefly thought about going back in the water and looking for another, but a quick glance up through the thick leaves showed the moon shining brightly above him. He figured it could wait until morning.
His stomach growling reminded him that he hadn’t had anything to eat all day, so he went back to the fire to stoke it and try to keep it alive long enough to cook his dinner. He turned to where he left his rabbit and came face to face with red fiery eyes and sharp teeth with blood dripping down them.
Frozen in fear, Cain tried to stay as still as possible while attempting to figure out what he should do. The creature before him was like nothing he’d ever seen before... though, it was some kind of animal. Not taking his eyes off of the thing, he took in everything he could, and at the same time, he felt it do the same to him.
It was no bigger than a puppy and reminded him of a lizard in a way. It had piercing red eyes and big, sharp teeth. Its body was black with red lines running down its back, extending to its wings. And the wings! They were magnificent. Big and strong with razor-sharp spikes at the ends of them, almost like the knife Cain himself carried. In fact, as the story goes, that’s where Cain got the creature’s name: Blade.
Even if it was a lot smaller than him, it looked dangerous and Cain was no fool. He’d seen the arrogance of the biggest of men and watched them be taken down by the smallest, most innocent-looking things. He was not about to let the same thing happen to him.
He was contemplating what to do, how to act. But before he could do anything, it lifted its wings and leapt forward, only to lose its footing and land on its nose. Cain couldn’t help but chuckle when he watched it trying to stand up again. It became obvious pretty quickly that it had no idea how to work some of its body parts. Taking pity on the poor thing, Cain reached across the space between them and helped it back on its feet. When he was sure it was stable, he let go and brought his hands back towards himself. Even before he knew what happened, the little thing jumped him again, only this time it succeeded, and Cain found himself with a lap full of the little beast. By the sound of it, a very happy beast.
Over time the two of them developed a bond, stronger than any other known bond. They always knew what the other was feeling or wanted without making a sound, even if they were miles away from one another, and they could feel it if the other one got hurt. Cain's vision and hearing got better, it even got so good that he could see in the dark. He could also run faster and jump higher, without getting tired.
Not wanting to leave this place, Cain had soon found the perfect spot to build his house. It was far enough into the woods that people wouldn’t easily find him, but not too far from the lake. Weeks passed and Blade got bigger and bigger. He went from being the size of a big puppy to the size of a horse. It made building the house easier since Blade's wings could cut down trees three times as fast as Cain could, and Blade could even drag all the wood back. If Cain needed something, Blade would fly deeper into the woods and find it for him. After he got big enough to carry Cain, he would take Cain along for a ride. It took some time to get the positioning right so Cain wouldn’t cut himself on Blade’s spikes, but they got it in the end.
Soon, Cain went everywhere with his dragon.
As much positivity as Blade brought to Cain’s life, their bond came with a downside too. They soon found out they couldn’t be far from each other for too long without it hurting. A deep, soul burning ache that was impossible to ignore.
The first time it happened, Cain had traveled back to the nearest town, Mountain Hill, which happened to be a four-day ride away. Worried how people might react, he told Blade to stay in the forest so no one would see him. He’d been gone two days when the pain started. Worried something might have happened to Blade, he reached out to him. Thankfully, Blades was alright but was feeling mild pain, too, just not as bad as Cain. Hoping it would stop or at the very least he could have it checked out in town, Cain continued.
It was in the middle of the night, when he was half an hour outside of town, when the pain got so bad that he passed out. Back in the woods, Blade was restless and when he lost contact with his human, he ignored his orders and his own pain to fly over. Flying was a much faster progress and Blade reached Cain within hours, right before the sun had risen. Not knowing how to help, Blade carefully picked Cain up and flew him over to the town. Trying not to be seen, Blade traveled in the shadows and put Cain down in front of the nearest house before going back into hiding where he stayed until he was sure that someone had found Cain.
The next few days, Blade hid in the mountains around the town, and waited for his friend. On day three, Cain woke up, and the pains were gone. After many, many tests, and questions, the town’s doctor couldn’t explain what caused his pain, but since they were gone she had no reason to keep him anymore.
Cain wasted no time in getting what he had come for and leaving town. Since Blade had brought him there, leaving his horse behind in the forest, he had no other choice than to start out on foot. At the first chance they got, Blade came and picked him up, flying as high up as he could with Cain on his back.
Despite their best efforts, they hadn’t been as sneaky as they’d hoped. A few of the townspeople had noticed a shadow hovering in the mountains the last couple of days. Soon questions followed of how Cain had gotten to town, but that only raised more questions than answers.
Humans, naturally, were curious and so people went in search of answers. Some came back with stories so unbelievable that they were locked up, marked as insane. Others never came back, either moved on or lost in the woods, never to be heard from again. And yet, that is the story we’re here to tell, the story of Moonlight, the hidden town in the woods, and how it became the most famous city in the world.