It took a while to recount my experience to Zarathul, made longer because he repeatedly made me go over certain parts, dredging every inch of my recollection, until I satisfied his curiosity, but he still looked baffled.

Maybe it was because I did not tell him about my memories, about the great dark hand that ripped my world from me, and the words it's spoke. Words of power I adopted.

“Do not resist" Zarathul said as he placed a hand on my chest, a grey light came from his hands and covered my chest, and like a sophisticated x-ray machine, the inner workings of my body was revealed, and I once again gape in marvel at the sight.

Beneath my skins were the lines of my musculature, with precision that harken to the hands of a god smith, every inch of fibre in harmony, that almost whispered to me of an awful strength.... I needed to know that capabilities, the hunger to taste my prowess filled me.

The light brightened and I saw below the muscles to the nerves, organs and bones hidden underneath, once again my eyes were drawn to my six heart, which should be expected as most of my internals below the rib cage was just a single massive organ, and my bones almost looked like armour, with little to no spaces between my ribs. The grey light penetrated my bones and I could finally properly observe the workings of my heart.

The six heart beat were not in harmony as I had previously imagined, each beat according to its own rhythm, one were fast and another slow, one beat erratically, and the other a slow ponderous match, one was awfully silent beating once in a long while, and the last_ golden one was..... steady, the only word I could find to describe the beat.

“well that is interesting.” Zarathul stroked his beard, his eyes crinkling as little golden sparks shot off the iris, the activities of the six golden drop of blood who had been mindlessly jumping about inside my heart, to their unknown purposes and amusement, slowed down, aware that they were being observed, they reduced their rate of activities and hid themselves, all of except golden one.

Unlike his other more docile blood drop, golden one was exuberant and defiant, as he strained against the invisible pressure of Zarathul gaze, I indistinctly realised I had assigned genders to the blood drops...weird.

Golden one was the eldest, I dimly remembered he was the first drop of blood formed, he was prideful and strong, and protective, he always took on the larger share of the work, and now under the scrutinising gaze of Zarathul, he stood firm, drawing the bulk of it. He glinted, and little needle like spine covered his surfaces... he was prepared to defend his territory.

Zarathul sniffed, and a tiny thread of golden light that had a distint engraving of dragons on it, encircled golden one, who vibrated intensely and extended it thorns a little more. The thread whirled around golden one, rapidly enclosing it in a cocoon, it released surges of red lightening to attack golden one.

Of course these were all happening microscopically but my vision was keen enough to follow. Golden one spun around in panic, the red lightening made his colour rapidly dim, and I felt an emotion of anger from him. He tried to break out of the circle, but was repeatedly shocked back into place. The thorns that touch the thread rapidly broke the links much to Zarathul surprise but he replenished the threads so fast it was meaningless how much was broken off.

Vague cries of anger and shock pulsed from golden one, making me nauseated.

“old dragon.” Irritation surfaced in my voice, “stop hurting him!”

“Your wishes matters little to me, hatchling.”

“stop hurting him, this very moment!” I spoke more loudly

He cocked an eyebrow at me and leaned in, reminding me that even though I had grown he still towered over me, and the grim realisation that this Zarathul was just a small part of himself.

He spoke “funny, you called it a he. So much of your personality were not wiped by the initial shedding.” He mused, “food for thought.”

I tensed up, my agitation rubbing off on the other golden blood, as they showed signs of pushing out spines from their body, golden one seemed to go insane and furiously attacked the coiled thread, pieces broke down, and as it seemed like he was about to burst free, zarathul gasped softly and released three more thread, and the red lightening increased by an order of magnitude.

Golden one slowly grew lethargic as the lightening was incessant and slowly it fell into stasis. Any more shock to it, produced no visible reaction, he looked faded, my six heart beat stopped, Zarathul gaze wandered to the rest of my heart, and I cried out in fury.

If I had time to think, maybe I would have reconsidered my actions. Understand the enormous divide between our strength and knew any hint of resistance were futile. I decided__ No, I wouldn’t, sometimes I forgot how much I’d changed.

My body moved, even before the intent flit through my mind, I threw a punch that bounced back against hardened air, the metacarpals in my hand cracked, the rebound pushed me away from Zarathul, whose face still held an annoying look of indifference, I rapidly stepped back.

I raised my hands in placating towards him, "hey...." and was cut short by a sudden gust of wind, it blew against my back, and threw me towards his outstretched hand, I cursed as my feet left the ground and my limbs flailed around as I was pulled towards him, instinct took over and my limbs shot to themselves and I arched my back, and shot my legs in a semi circle, forcing my body to curve around his out stretched hand missing his grasp by inches, my feet touched the ground beside him, and I slid a little way down, before I could get elated at resisting capture, a hand like a vice held my hair, and I was hurled back. Damn hair, I was cutting it to the scalp, first chance I get.

I grabbed above my head, my hair was about four feet long, and Zarathul had grabbed it by its end, even with his arm straight up, my face only reached his chest. I levered myself upward by using my hair, now I was eye levelled with him, I threw an head-butt, again I hit a shield of hard air.

I reeled back a little dizzy, I watched him raise his other arm to my chest, and panic gripped me again, I yelled and tried to claw his face, punch and kicks slid harmlessly as small hexagon shaped blur air blocked my every move, frustrated I tried to yell at his face, to serve as a distraction and chocked when a column of air rushed down my throat.

His arm was almost at my chest, so I let go of my hair, instead of touching my chest, his hand arrived at my face, and I bit on his fingers, and worried on it like a starving wolf.

A quick shake from his hand broke teeth, as slight trace of annoyance flashed through his face. He encircled his hand around my neck and with a slight squeeze, and a flash of pain he crushed my spine. My hands fell limp, I had been paralysed.

He coldly lay his hand on my chest and sent multiple stream of light into my heart and soon red lightning shrouded it... and my little babies fought back, i had no way of knowing how the battle went, he no longer showed me, but I could feel the tides of the battle, and knew they were losing.

In a while the commotion in my heart went silent.

Zarathul spoke “listen well to me Hatchling, my patience has its limit, and you should trust that you are my heir and I wont deliberately hurt you or your interest. You are all that is left from my precious daughter Miranda, you carry her legacy, your soul harnesses bountiful potential, and above all you have my blood that defy the heavens themselves, be calm, and let me help you."

"You..." I chocked, " broke my neck"

"It was necessary hatchling, for what comes next"

"What...."

A long silver needle appeared on his hand, and he drove it through my heart.

I gasped like a fish out of water, the pain did not bother me, I could feel the cry of golden one, the needle did not only pierce through my heart, it also speared golden one also.

Five more needles appeared in his hand, and he dove them into my hearts in succession... darkness slowly consumed my vision, I faded into oblivion to the sound of Zarathul hushing me gently