18th of Frostbirth, 457

Father, having been a wealthy man and a powerful ally to the Crown of Esterland, took me along with my sister to the royal palace for negotiations about...I don't quite know what exactly, but it must have been important for us all.

We've had quite the fun while in the castle courtyard, as it seems they've been preparing not only a feast but also quite a few games for us.
Training with the bow and arrow, running blindfolded.

Of course, people stared at me quite a bit as well...considering my unique nature.

My sister Anna's had quite the fun flirting with some of the servants, as seems to be her main prerogative when she's not embroiled in activism on my behalf.

But when the Queen called for me to take part in conversation, she seemed...almost afraid of me.
She was desperate to find out more about my origins, but I could only state that I did not know them; as one would know, I was an orphan girl of sorts.

On their doorstep I was dropped as a young babe, my father told me, a small scaly blue dragon with the build of a human child and a long tail adorned with a bluish feather to top it off.
Even the little wings were present, as they would be on a small drake.

When my father saw me, being a wealthy wolf man and the proud father of a wolf child, I suppose there must have been many factors that led to him adopting me instead of killing me on the spot.

Perhaps there was great value in a creature like me, but for most of my life I did not realize why people stared at me so.

Later he told me that it took quite the deal of money to have me protected at all times, and now the Queen told me she had also been involved in such.

She did not discourage my activism for wider acceptance of “inferior” species, nor did she call me out on my defence of the human rebels in my home town which were later imprisoned by our leader; instead she reminded me rather gingerly that the more I put myself into the daylight, the more risk there was of unfavourable involvement with people who don't mean too well with me.

I understood her plight, very much so, but told her that the benefits would far outweigh the risks of doing as I did.

From my very birth, the people I lived amongst did not accept me as a person, but as a monster incarnate, a freak of nature.
Only my older sister Anna would support me, short of taking blows in my stead if it need be done.

Despite being associated with me and my scaly glory, this brown wolf girl would always stand with me throughout the very worst of experiences and support me when I felt down.

She always found some new friends who would accept me as one of them, though I didn't really care much for talking with people; instead, I preferred to look through our father's library, reading about things like mathematics and the inner workings of the world, old families and their politics, men who wished to cure all the world's ills, and even an old book chronicling the rise of the Dragonslayers of the Northern kingdom of Drakon.

But I must digress, as the Queen was still upon me.

She hugged me silently and gave me a kiss upon the forehead, as her servant Archibald approached me to take me to my room.

There was one servant sitting beside her, a young cat man with gray fur and green eyes...he just stared at me in total silence the entire time, perhaps afraid I would eat him or something silly as such.

As she turned her gaze to him, however, I was already on the way out to spend the night.

The next morning he stood at my door in a blue shirt and brown pants, to serve me my breakfast; a quite generous offering of freshly squeezed apple juice in a large cannister, with a glass to accompany it...in turn accompanying a plate of freshly cleaned herring and the most exquisite grapes I'd had in ages.

I thanked the young man, whom I estimated to be no older than myself although looks might deceive at times.

Yet he seemed so...he pretended to be grateful in turn, but I could sense his fear as he spoke.

So I invited him over at the bed, to have a little talk with me.

Though he protested, I assured him of no ill intentions on my part.

Eventually he conceded, and I told him my name and where I came from.

He had heard of a Stormwind, he said to me, as sometimes news would pass to him at home.

I asked what his home was, but he seemed rather reluctant to answer me on that; so I let it slip.

He was utterly amazed to see something so close to a dragon with his own eyes, and he apologized desperately to me for his “insolence”.

I assured him that there is no shame in curiosity, for what man is not curious to learn more about the things he does not know?

His name was Terri, or so I suspected he had been told to tell me through the Queen's orders.

Though he lighted up briefly as I reassured him, eventually he broke and started crying.

One of the guards came to take him away – without the slightest resistance – as I started to ask myself some serious questions at the state of the servants here; were they all forced into servitude, like this desperate man?

Perhaps that would be an appropriate question to ask her Majesty in the future...
But for now, the journey home awaits me.

So I must rest again, until the light of the morrow draws us out once more.

-AnSt