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"Human?"
Charred scars littered throughout his body, his white shirt slipping down his shoulders until all of the old wounds bared. The figure stopped changing his clothes to look at the flying figure by the door frame.
"What are you doing here?"
"Children aren't supposed to watch adults change"
The human tried to turn his back and face the door to avoid his unkindly scars being seen, but it's not doing him justice since his front was also tainted with painful wounds that were supposed to be washed away.
The curious black blob breezed fast through the obstacles obscuring his view of the tainted skin, eyes of pity glancing left and right, confused on what the little one should do.
So the little black paw that bears the same scars and pain slowly pat the back of their human.
The child that held the year of four painful memories has overwhelming emotions that could be seen behind his eyes, and if you were to break the glass that was delicately holding the same emotions back, it might cause destruction from how many and complicated it is.
The back of his human is tense under the little one's gaze, winds flapping softly and voice were gentle.
It contrasts with their first meeting when the human talked to him with nonchalance, but the little one knew that he is a little angry at that time, so he understands.
Dragons are the most rational creatures after all.
"Does it still hurt?"
A familiar healing potion appeared in front of the human, the bright red-purple hue glistened with light under the moon since its night, rolled down the soft cloth of the bed and onto the figure who was still tense.
But the familiar scarred hands that were first gloved when the human saved him, pat his cold head.
The red-haired human dyed their hair black like the same hue of his scales, dyed their eyes with familiar sunset if the world came apart, and had hair as soft and smooth as the green hills and grass he slept on.
The human is the little dragon's salvation.
"Human?"
The human also blanked out in the sight of the potion, the room was a little quiet when both stopped talking and contemplated in their little mind space.
But the human just smiled woefully at the sight of the dragon's unblinking eyes.
"It's fine"
"I don't remember" and pat the little dragon's head again
The room is comforting. The dragon is full of famed scales of their species yet every time the hands glide through the little pieces, it feels cool to the touch. The dragon preened at the sight of satisfaction on the human's expression and also softly touch the scars on their hands.
The human hid his scars throughout the day, with their human clothing and all, but now the dragon can actually see the number of scars on his skin.
The dragon is curious, but the little one knows when to hold his tongue.
He is a smart dragon, and he will be a greater dragon in the future.
"Humans have this thing called Soulmate right?"
But the little one's intention is different.
"Where are yours?"
the little ear leaned on one side, and the eyes became larger and larger in an attempt to find the words.
When he first came out, he saw that the humans always hid their skin with fabrics in certain places, or they cover it up with paint. Some humans were prideful, not in the same level of commitment as the dragons of course, prideful about the words written in their skin.
In a world filled with mana and nature, the dragon can sense if it were written by ink or by paint but it's not.
Well, if it's a genuine Mark.
He can also sense the most unique and beautiful Marks were written in ink by a human calligraphist, but the most prideful
humans still boast about it nonetheless.
He turned around with a blind eye when he saw the other humans still gasp at the sight.
The human ignored it too because his human is smart like him! but a little less.
The Marks are part of nature, just like an arm or a leg would, and maybe at the same level of moles that were in the skin sometimes.
But the humans don't like it sometimes and the shiny humans with more expensive clothes faked it in many bad ways most of the time, especially adults.
"Don't worry"
"I won't get a Soulmate"
That's when the dragon saw it.
With the sight of the sad human upholding the same smile, the back that was always littered with big scars had blurry letters.
The dragon doesn't know the importance of Soulmates because he doesn't hold the same sentimentalities as humans would, but he saw that humans on the street with Marks with bright colours and their faces were as bright and happiest as they are.
He wants the human to be happy.
He always wants the best for the human because the human is the only one the dragon has, and the little dragon would always be thankful that he is saved from that metal carriage carrying him to a further place that promised him more pain.
The world he knows is harsh for him, but from what he knows from the human, he can make it a little bearable.
He wants the human to make the world bearable with him because the world is unkind to both of them.
In a little tradition of the humans, when both Soulmates meet they would colour their skin where their Marks are to show to everyone that they are complete. The dragon is confused but understands the complete part.
The dragons would hide that he wants to colour the human's back too. He saw his own scars ugly because of the reminders of his years, but if it were a little prettier with colours it would be pretty now.
He wants his human pretty with paint too.
"Raon?"
His own name.
"Raon Miru?"
He recently got his own name.
The human finished changing his clothes and is now cleaned from the blood, the small wounds are not gone because of the healing potion but the scars are still there.
The dragon blinked from his daze.
Ah, he is blanking out again.
The little dragon flapped his wings softly before floating up again, the little fast blob of black can't help but protectively hug the human.
He knows that his human used to be strong, but he doesn't know what happened and now the human is weak.
"Is your new job safe?"
The human blinked incredulously and turned his head to meet the dragon's eyes, that was still protectively hugging him.
"I'll have a dragon-" The human blinked again and glanced at his own dragon that can make float him everywhere.
"-and we are just barging into the silent palace to try and figure out a royal's Mark."
The dragon blinked back in an attempt to communicate with their human.
A human royal's Mark.
The dragon remembered the high walls of the human royal palaces and the white veils of the human royals that were weirdly silent.
"Human, what are the rules of the Marks?"
The human blinked again at the peculiar dragon, a bit confused.
"There are two rules"
The human leaned again on the bed and picked up the dirty clothes he changed from, with the dragon still sticking to himself.
"What the first words told by the other Soul, would always be embedded in the body."
"And both Souls would meet once in their life till they drift away in death."
"The bachelor and bachelorette royals are not allowed to speak to anyone under than the supervised candidates for marriage, if luck had it, the lucky candidates would always have to greet the highness in the most unique and beautiful ways possible typical for a royal."
"The Soul will be always be met once in their life, so controlling the crowd always worked for generations."
"But sometimes the royals meet their soulmates at the time of their deathbed and some early."
"Did that answer your upcoming questions?"
The potion bottle was thrown away in the trash, and the laundry was quickly tucked away to be washed. The human tries to entertain the young sticky dragon who was ignorant in human matters with a raised eyebrow.
"But why are we trying to find the Marks of a human if it was already determined who was the soulmate?"
With new info, the dragon flapped with newly found eagerness.
"It was to undermine a royal family's rule or make it difficult to find the royal's marriage partner if it were exposed."
"But how do you know if the Marks are real and not paint?"
"Paint?"
"It's called a tattoo, and the royals are not allowed to fake their Marks like other nobles-"
Oh, so the shiny humans were called nobles.
"-so they can only hide their Marks. If they hide the Marks they are also deceiving fate"
The dragon now has more questions than answers.
"Human, what is fat-"
A nearby pie that was bough earlier and only patiently waiting on top of the bed cabinet was shoved on the dragon's mouth.
"Human-"
Nom
"-who is the-"
Nom
"-Royal-"
Nom
"-We have to look for-"
Nom
The dragon knows he is asking too many questions but this is the most delicious punishment he had.
"Alberu Crossman"
"The human crowned prince?"
"Yes"
"Okay"