Tune in here every other week to read the next installment of the dragon's heart series.

Part I- Beginnings

“The wars ended the day they landed, but no one realized it at the time. Especially not me, although in retrospect I think some part of me knew that I at least wouldn’t be the same the moment I laid eyes on my Kin.” I looked down at the woman cowering at my feet and smiled. “But I am getting ahead of myself I suppose. You likely need to hear whole of it in order, not just the end. Or the beginning, I am not sure what to call it because it was both you see. Whichever you choose the date was 5 years ago on July 4th.”
“There were no fireworks that day, unless you count pipe bombs and grenades. They went off with such frequency that you got used to it. Used to the boom, the clatter of debris, the wails of the injured. America was at war with itself and everyone else. Half the country lay in ruins and people like me well, people like who I was then, survived by staying off the streets and away from the Watchers. You know, they named themselves that, ‘the Watchers.’ The vigilantes who rose up after the first bombs dropped in an effort to overthrow the government. What they thought to accomplish no one knew, but their actions prompted the government to proclaim martial law and people started to disappear. Not like the early pogroms against the so-called illegal aliens where they rounded up thousands and left them to die in desert tent cities. This was soldiers descending on cities and pulling people from their homes, day in and day out. Shooting anyone who resisted, beating anyone who complained. Silencing protest in the most extreme way possible and the Watchers tried to stop them. The entire world was in chaos, so it was only natural that the Hesperon would step in and save us from ourselves.” I closed my eyes a moment, memories overwhelming me. The woman said nothing, and I wondered if the brutality of her capture had scarred her too much for what lay ahead.