Chapter 2

“So how come you stood up to that dragon,” Elizabeth asked when she sensed Bier had caught up with her, “I’ve never known anyone outside of my family who could look a dragon in the eye without fear.  And even then some of my siblings cringe.”

“Well,” he said with a sigh, “it’s a long story.  But in short, I was raised by dragons…which is why I have no surname.”  He paused, “I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors of the boy raised by dragons…well that’s me.”

Elizabeth giggled, “well the rumors make you out to be a savage half-dragon.”

“They do?” Bier asked uneasily.  Something about the rumors seemed to ring true, and he wasn’t a savage person.  But how could he possibly be half-dragon?  He decided to attribute it to being raised by dragons.

“Yeah, the mainstream rumors do,” she said conversationally without really thinking, “but there’s another rumor that says you’re a sexy beast with gratuitously placed red scales.  But Pita is known for making sexy men out of everything.  I don’t know what Kain’s brother saw in her.”

“They probably saw me in my light armor,” he said, “it’s red and is made of soft dragon scale.”

“Where did you get all this dragon-scale stuff anyway?” she asked as she admired the cloak she was still holding.  “It’s really nice.”

“Heh, you like it?” he asked.  “You can have it.  Lady Arian told me to give it to the first person who expressed an interest in it.  No don’t worry, “he said before she could protest about taking his cloak, “I have another one, see?” he showed her an identical one, except that this one was black.  “As for where I get them from,” he went on, “Lady Arian gave me my first set of dragon scale armor before she sent me to train with Kain.  She told me to give him some, otherwise he wouldn’t train me…something about how Kain doesn’t really like her.  Arian taught me how to make the armor after I had returned from training with Master Yang.”

“You’ve trained with Yang too,” she asked, “who else have you trained with?”

“Heh, a lot of people,” he said, “I’ve trained with King Edward, Kain, Master Yang, Queen Rosa, King Edge, Rydia, King Cecil, Lord Kunzite, Lord Golbez, Master Golau, Master Noson, and Lady Zreti.  In that order.  I only need to train under your parents and Dimension in order for my training to be complete.”

“Why are you training so much?”

“I honestly don’t know,” he replied, “but Lady Arian insists it absolutely necessary that I be trained before I turn 22, she always says something about a major change a few days after my 22nd birthday.  I turn 20 tomorrow.”

“Really?  I turn 18 tomorrow.  How cool that we have the same birthday!”

“Hurry please,” the hatchling said, “I won’t last thirty more minutes.”

“If I run, I can be home in fifteen minutes,” she said, “think you can keep up?

“Easily,” Bier replied and matched his pace to hers.