Prologue to the Dragonfire Series: Serena
Serena
Centuries passed. Kingdoms fell. Cities rose. Still, the curse endured.
The dragons learned to live in human skin, their blood burning quietly beneath flesh and bone. They built lives, had children, and passed the curse down like a scar that refused to fade.
In the far north, a child was born beneath storm and silence. One who would change everything.
Serena was ten when she found the wounded dragon in the snow.
His scales shone silver and gold under the frost. He should not have existed. The curse had bound all dragons to mortal form. But elders whispered of ancient eggs that could sleep through centuries, waiting. And some, perhaps, had waited long enough for the curse's grip to loosen.
The creature before her blinked with eyes older than time.
She should have run.
Instead, she reached for him. Gold spilled from her hands, weaving across torn wings, sealing flesh and bone. The dragon's breathing steadied.
Serena smiled through her tears. "You need a name," she whispered. "Auren."
The dragon blinked once, slow and deliberate. Acceptance.
She returned every day after that. Through winters that buried the meadow in white. Through springs that turned snow to rivers. She brought food, sang songs, whispered secrets meant for no one.
The dragon watched her grow. Auren. The girl of ten became a young woman of seventeen. Her hands, once small enough to fit between his scales, now spanned the width of his chest.
He was healed. He could fly.
But he stayed. Because so did she.
On a morning bright with new snow, she entered the meadow and found him changed. Silver light surrounded his form, bending and reshaping. When it cleared, a man stood where the dragon had been.
His eyes were still Auren's. Ancient and kind and hers.
"Serena," he said. His first word in human form was her name.
Her breath caught. Then she smiled.
He was still Auren.
That night, beneath storm-lit skies, he crowned her with ferns and called her name in a song that bent magic around love.
Their child was the first. Born of mercy and fire. The line endured. Fire and light braided through blood, waiting for the world to shift again.
And somewhere in the dark, old magic stirred. This tale, fitting for the prologue of a fantasy novel, weaves together the destinies of Serena and Auren, a story of enduring love and ancient magic.
