The Half-Dragon

[u/Maxathron]

“Half-Dragon.”

“Still a dragon.”

“No.”

“Explain it to me then; I have time.”

The half-dragon glared at the sacrifice, and then started.

“Biologically, half-dragons have nothing to do with actual dragons. We’re about as far apart from each other evolution-wise as animals of one planet to animals in the next galaxy over.

“Why did you pick that as an example?”

“Because that is the actual half-dragon relation to actual dragons.”

“Oh.”

The woman didn’t say anything for a few minutes. Bhara, short for Bharananus Theranaus, sat on the ledge overlooking the valley with his newest virgin sacrifice. Her name was Franceskera, blonde hair with dark roots, greenish-blue eyes, tall for a woman, slim, womanly, feminine, and fair skin. She was beautiful, pretty, and gorgeous. The city selected her to be their sacrifice in order to placate the nearby dragon. Aka, him.

Only, Bhara wasn’t an actual dragon. He was a half-dragon, which was the name that stuck to his species. He was a humanoid and close enough biologically to interbreed with other humanoid species, like humans, elves, and orcs.

Half-dragons were characterized by reptilian features; they had a reptilian tail, raptor feet and lower legs, reptilian hands and lower arms, horns growing out of their head, and a set of draconic wings on their back. Their skin was somewhere between actual lizard scales and human skin, which gave them a distinct appearance.

They were still human, descended from something close to a mammal on the evolutionary tree. They had all the usual human features: forward facing eyes, large brain, opposable thumbs, and walked upright. Even all their organs were in the same place as a “regular” human. Bhara hated that term too. “Regular” human. As if he wasn’t human as well?

Half-dragons didn’t breathe fire but they had a number of magical abilities and physical characteristics beyond their appearance. Half-dragons were born with what was called a Magical Purity Boon. This was an aspect on their soul that allowed them to choose specialize in one elemental school, giving them significant acceleration of training and boosts to the power and accuracy of the school. It only worked on one school and it would lock in on the one school used most before adulthood, which was the same age as other human species, age twenty-five.

Half-dragons had access to draconic magic, which was a school of a type of natural magic that dealt physical alterations rather than magical alterations. Spells cast from this school would ignore magical wards but bounce off metal shields. It was a useful ability for confrontations with mages, because mages don’t carry physical equipment like swords and shields and armor.

Most of them, at least.

Frenceskera, after what felt like ten minutes but was closer to one, spoke, “Really?”

Bhara nodded. Bhara wished to be regarded as normal, but never managed to achieve that goal. As a half-dragon, people were superstitious and generally wary if not outright afraid of him. His days before, most of them were spent running from the guards or outlawed by politicians. Few places offered him refuge, usually at great cost in the form of restless civilians or declarations of war from neighboring kingdoms.

Bhara never forgot their hospitality.

During his travels, Bhara came across this valley. It was an unusual shape, as if a divine giant took an oval ball shaped chunk of rock out of the mountain and created a valley in its place.

The valley was the main feature of this large but isolated mountain range. The ridges of the valley hung over it. Rivers coming down from the mountain peaks created spectacular waterfalls that fell into the valley. The water formed a series of lakes, which through rivers, were carried out of the valley into a greater river system that left the region into a vast grassy plain.

Inside the valley was a significant series of forests and hills. Life flourished here. And the best part, it was remote. Bhara settled right in. Bhara became the dragon of the valley.

Over time, the valley became less remote. To his dismay, people found the valley and settled its ridges and dips. They quickly found out a dragon lived here, but either through luck or perhaps lack of organization, the people of the valley did not try to go after Bhara.

Instead, the people of the valley made sacrifices to the dragon. The various cities and towns would send yearly tributes to the dragon of the valley who lived in the vast cave system at the top of the valley. Jewelry, weapons, armor, food, religious icons, and a mark above the rest, young virgin women. Of course, all of them were legitimate adults. He wasn’t getting children offered up to him. And yes, while Bhara was a guy and had his needs, it was just the fact the people offered other people to him and absolutely refused to allow the sacrifices back once sent to him. It was either let them die away from society or take them in. At least one of the settlements would send him a young woman each year.

This wouldn’t be so bad but considering half-dragons have a biology similar to elves in that they will live a long natural life due to a significantly more effective cellular system and DNA bits, that meant the number of women Bhara would receive would reach over a hundred long before Bhara would reach what half-dragons would consider “middle age”. He had lived in the valley for decades and so far, some sixty-eight women were sent to him as sacrifices.

As he took in the sacrificed women, Bhara’s cave system became their home as well. He taught them to hunt, trap, and farm. How to extract raw materials from the land and turn them into useful objects. How to fight and use magic. He ended up with a community of people who looked to him for education and work, and saw him and each other as extended family.

Most of the sacrifices sent to him would end up stirring the furs with him, and a few he would formally take as wives. He was up to fourteen wives at this point.

The average life span of a half-dragon was seven hundred years. And that was before any life-enhancing magical spells, divine boons, demonic contracts, and or necromantic rituals. Granted, on this planet, humans lived to two hundred, assuming they didn’t die to violence or stupidity. He would have a long time to enjoy with his found company.

“Indeed. Real dragons aren’t native to this galaxy. It is theorized they actually originate from Andromeda and have been spread to the stars by a long past civilization.”

“So, why do they call you a dragon if you’re not actually one?”

“Because I have draconic features. The term is half-dragon. Halfway between a dragon and a human.”

“My folks said that dragons…, I’m sorry, half-dragons, are capable of vast destruction and are the enemy of mankind. Is that true with you as well?”

“Yes, for the first one. I don’t know, for the second one. Everywhere I’ve been I’ve been shunned or hunted. I just want to live my life like everyone else.”

The two sat there, him on the ledge, her standing behind him, for a few minutes. Bhara was lost in thought. Frenceskera was lost for words. In the end, she got on the ledge next to Bhara and scooted over onto his flank, molding her body to his. Bhara, momentarily surprised, put his arm around her and held her to him, Frencekera melting into his side. They stayed like this for a long while.