The Brave Mate of The Unknown

Chapter Two: My First Memories

Dawn's P.O.V

My first couple of memories are the most precious of mine, almost as precious as the day I met my mate. I remember a few things before the age of six, dragon’s were known to have good memories so a few of them even go all the way back to the ages of two and three.

To completely understand my story these first couple of memories are something you need to know, at one point I was shy, small, always scared, easily startled. Maybe I grew out of that and maybe I didn’t but I still love that little girl. 

I cried when my mom left the room, I didn’t feel safe without her or my father with me. No two year old did. My mom circled around and picked me up off the giant bed or maybe it just seemed huge to me because I was so small. 

“Dawn I have to go to a meeting.” It’s not like I knew what that was or why it mattered more than spending every waking moment with me. “I love you, we’ll be together tonight.” Even if I knew how long that was it wouldn’t have made a difference. “Auntie Kylie is going to take care of you.” She turned to my aunt. “Are you sure you can do this?” She asked worried. “Of course you can, sorry, usually Scorch watches her while I’m working but Queen Ameila needed him today.”

Auntie Kylie laughed. “I’m sixteen now which means I can handle more and more responsibilities. I got this sis. Plus Dawn should get to know me more one on one.” She looked down at me with a warm smile. But she wasn’t my mom so I didn’t care much for that.

“Okay, all her stuff is in the nursery but she only sleeps and naps in here, the nursery is just for play, and changing diapers. I already took a bath with her this morning but if she gets too messy there's a small baby bath with jets in the nursery.” That’s all I remember her saying but she went on for a hot minute. My mom was protective and loving, I often wonder who was more attached. Me or her? 

Aunt Kylie grabbed me and pushed her out the room. “Finally.” She took a deep breath and looked down at me in her arms. “I know what I’m doing, I’ve babysat you before with my mom plenty of times… just not for a whole day… and not alone.” She put me down.

For the whole day I gave her a lot of trouble, I constantly crawled away from her, I spit up food on her, whined for my parents and pulled her hair. But what matters is when we really connected for the first time. She was getting tired, she sat on the bed with me next to her. She shifted less than half way into her dragon form which was just her tail. It was big but much smaller than usual. When I saw it, it reminded me of my Dad since he’s a dragon from what I saw. I crawled to her and cuddled up in her tail with it filled wrapped around me.

She petted my head and smiled. “You like my tail?” She giggled. “That makes sense.” Then she held her hand out and a ball of fire appeared in it. 

My mouth made an O shape and my eyes sparkled. I was amazed, not because she was doing magic, my mom did magic all the time and I loved it. What amazed me was that she was doing both, neither of my parents could do that. I hugged the end of her tail and laughed and laughed. 

Auntie Kylie was one of my favorites.

I got pretty attached to Auntie during the next year. One day she told me she was leaving. It went a little something like this. “Dawn. I’m going to the human world, I know you can’t really understand that but I'm going on an adventure. You know what that is right?” She asked me who was being held by my mother.

“Venture.” I repeated and giggled, anything Auntie said made me happy but she said ‘going’ which confused me. “going?” I tilted my head to the side. I was only three 

“You won’t see me for a while.” She said and it made me sad and she saw that. “Don’t worry, we’re both hybrids, you know what that means? We’re connected, you can come visit whenever you’d like and I’ll come back too.” She kissed my forehead. "I promise I won't fail to be around when you need me most." I watched her turn away and she climbed on the back of my father in his dragon form and I cried as I watched her leave. 

Departures were the absolute worst, parting ways was heartbreak and I didn't have one to spare.

I saw less and less of Auntie Kylie. I didn't understand how a person could just disappear but I was only three so that’s understandable. 

Not that long after she left something happened. 

I was eating breakfast with my mom, dad and the rest of our family. “Maybe you can start working with me more, you wanted more responsibility as King and I think you can do it- oh and Scorch Dawn is burning up. Maybe we should go see the doctor after this.” My mother voiced her concerns.

My father looked at me. “She’s fine, she just needs to hiccup.” He shrugged.

“Hiccups don’t make you run a fever Scorch, seriously I’m worried.” She frowned.

I was about to grab my milk bottle when I breathed fire as if it was a sneeze and a tail for about three seconds before it went back to normal. 

“Scorch is that what you mean by hiccups?” She asked.

My father laughed. “Yeah, it’s normal, dragon shifter toddlers hiccup, her body is figuring out how to store her power.”

My mother sighed with relief. “Good.” She smiled at my Dad. “I’m so glad we have each other while raising her.” 

The two years I hiccuped brought me closer to my father, we were different but together. Growing up I felt so different, I was supposed to feel different for being a hybrid, there were only three of us. The thing is I never realized I was a hybrid when I was super young, all I knew was my mom was an elf and my dad was a dragon who spent most of his time in his human form. So when I started hiccuping I assumed I was just a dragon, same as daddy. 

I grew up in an elf kingdom, the kingdom my mother ruled and my Dad at times assisted her in that. Everyone I was ever around were elves, even my aunt and uncle were half elf, they looked it and both used magic. I thought me, my Dad, and my Grandma Jen were the only dragons for a little while. 

I think my mom knew how close this brought me and my father but she never once let us see her jealous, sad, envious or resentful over it. As far as I could tell she loved how close we were, maybe because me and my mom had been super close up until then and we would be again. In short she wasn't a selfish person and I'm glad she was one of the ones to shape me.

My earliest memory of ever riding on the back of a dragon was when I was five. 

“Daddy…I want to fly.” I pouted.

My dad shrugged. “Your mom doesn’t have the time right now, you can’t go on alone, you’re too small. She doesn’t trust anyone but herself to ride with you.” He explained calmly.

I pointed at a stray kitten, it reminded me of the one my mother tells me about, the one she says watches over me since we were born on the same day. We didn’t keep the kitten because it kept leaving and we didn’t want to force it to stay.

My Dad laughed. “A person Dawn.” 

We were on a walk in the forest. “Grandma!” I pointed, I ran to her and hugged her. “Grandma Jenny!” I looked up at her. “Let’s fly!” 

She laughed and picked me up. “I was also on a stroll.” She looked at my Dad. “I could go for a ride with my granddaughter.” 

My Dad looked annoyed but he could never say no to me. That evening I sat in my grandma’s lap on my father in his dragon form and he flew us above the whole kingdom. I saw what felt like the whole world from my perspective, a new perspective.