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His hair was a dark purple like his own, but he had light blue eyes that were even softer than his mother’s. They often caught the light and appeared metallic blue, like fragments of silver were easy to see.

He had many of Rurik’s features. His own parents often told him Haelan looked similar to how he’d been as a child when he was seen in his human form.

Haelan didn’t obtain his bad temper, though. He was more like his mother in personality with his easy kindness and playful nature, which is how Amalia was with Rurik.

That was to the relief of most.

Many hadn’t liked the idea that this child could have been a hateful, angry thing upon the world with the kind of power it was foretold it would have.

Power Rurik had seen him produce. Like Rurik, he had a deep sense that was already easy to see. It’d been proved with his quick ability to learn.

But this child could harness both witchcraft and dragoncraft. He also had the ability to shift to a Dragon even though he hadn’t been hatched from an egg. He was smaller, though, since his height was obviously stunted.

With how large Amalia had gotten carrying him, Rurik had thought he was going to have to extract an egg from her belly and perhaps save her life again.

He was thankful he hadn’t needed to.

No, he’d been born human-shaped, stayed in the womb for a year, and both mother and child had lived through the birth. This had also been one of Rurik’s fears.

His scales were dark purple like his own, but he really was a spectacular child. He could form wings, claws, and fangs while human, something no other Dragon could do.

He was different, and he was being observed very carefully.

“Tell me more stories!” Haelan laughed, managing to get a hold and climb up to his spine.

Much to Rurik’s irritation, he climbed up to his head so that he may sit on it. He sat with his legs wide, one on either side of his brows.

Rurik had been booted in the eye a few times by the boy who turned absentminded when playing, and no matter how many times he roared at him for doing so, Haelan often forgot when he became engrossed in what Rurik was talking about. His son was very fond of him and the tales he had to share.

“Get down!”

Rurik bucked his head back, but the child’s grip was strong enough that he merely flailed.

“Noooo,” he squealed with laughter.

When it didn’t work because Rurik didn’t want to hurt the boy, he pawed at his snout. He had to stem the urge to throw him across the main room and into the wall.

He is my son. He is my son. I cannot harm him. I cannot bite or claw him. Amalia will be angered with me again if he injures himself because of me.This wasn’t the first time Rurik had mentally muttered these words to himself like a mantra, although he’d never intentionally harmed the boy.

Giving up, Rurik let him sit on his head like he was a living hat.

There had been many discussions between Rurik and Amalia about when the child would set off on his own. His kind would leave after a hundred years from their hatching place and their parents when they were the ripe old age of ten-year-old equivalent.

They were usually stronger and wiser than a human and they spent many of their first years out of danger, shaping their own lair to live. With little claws, it often took a long time after they found a suitable cave to their liking.

It also made them strong in form from doing so.

Rurik had left his parents when he had been one hundred. He expected for his own spawn to leave around the same age.

Unfortunately, to his dismay, Amalia wouldn’t allow the boy to leave until he was at least an adult.Why must I give her whatever it is she wants?

Rurik cringed, knowing he was going to have this child in his lair for longer than he wanted. With how fast he grew, he’d been hoping he wouldn’t have to put up with him for a hundred years.

Many were bewildered by Rurik’s interactions with his own child. He often got on his nerves, but he loved the boy without question and was violently protective of him.

He taught him to fight, taught him dragoncraft. He was determined to make him strong, not just in body, but in will. Rurik wanted him to live a long full life.

He cared for him, and like his mother, he was soft for him.