I dreamt that I was standing in a field of green mist, like the night I finished forging Kokuryu, face to face with the dragon I had fought. I stood their for several seconds before finally asking,

"I never got to ask your name, what is it?"

"Young one... speak with the tongue of your soul, I cannot hear you..." the tongue of my soul, I spoke again in Japanese,

"Watashi wa anata ni shitsumon o suru chansu, anata no namae wa nanidatta no o yatta koto ga nakatta? (I never got a chance to ask you a question, what was your name?)"

"It is Blackfire, a dragon's name dies not with it's body, but lives with it's successor."

"Kuroi hi? (Black fire?)"

"Yes... I pass my name onto you, I feel your soul burn with the same fire mine did several millenia ago."

"Anata wa hontōni nagai jikan ga nakatta sunde iru? (You really have lived a long time haven't you?)"

"Yes... from the banisment of Nightmare Moon to the return of Discord, we dragons have seen, heard, and felt many things. Now I rest... Has my scale been of use to you?" I unsheathed my sword to reveal the black dragon hamon.

"Ah... I feel it... my scale rests within your blade now..." His face becomes serene, "My bones sought to taste the strain of war and strife, driving me to attack your Stalliongrad but my heart knew it would be my last."

"Node, anata wa tan'naru kimagure de Stalliongrad kōgeki shi? (So, you attacked Stalliongrad on a mere whim?)"

"Just like you killed me to save Stalliongrad, but I felt you didn't do it just for that, did you young one..." I remembered what I felt just before rushing into the city.

"Hai, watashi wa sore o setsumei suru hōhō ga wakaranai. (Yes, I don't know how to explain it.)" I lightly stabbed the sword into the ground.

"Indeed... for 3 millenia I tried to explain that feeling, It was the feeling of doing something new, something you've never tried, it felt... exhilarating. Which is why I chose you to be my successor?"

"Kōkei-sha? (Successor?)"

"When we dragon's have a moment in our lives when we know our lives will come to a close, we chose a succesor to out line, to keep our soul, our spirit, and our power... I chose you, storing a piece of me into the scale I gave you... to you, it was instinct to take the scale... I loved to fly, soaring across the clouds, even destroying peaks of mountains with my collisions into them," I smiled, "Which is why you felt my wingbeat, why your blade now rends the very air around you with a single swing..." He looked at me intently with emerald eyes, "Tell me young one... have you named your blade?"

"Hai... 'Kokuryū no saishū-bin' (Yes... 'The Black Dragon's final flight')"

"Ah... of strong words indeed, thank you for honoring my last wish... from now on, when you speak in your sou'ls tongue, my voice will sound along with you... Well done, young one... but I must now ask... what is your name?"

"Watashi wa Aoi Myoujin gozen. (I am Aoi Myoujin)" I take the blade and sheath it.

"Very well... I aknowledge you as Aoi, successor to Blackfire..." The green mist starts to thin. I wake up.

The first time I had a good night's sleep since I got here. I was no stranger to insomnia, but it always felt good to earn some rest once in a while. I sit up, still on the cliff's edge, the sun now high in the sky. I looked below the cliff, there was a rock plateau about 60 feet from the cliff, I dropped down, landed with surprising ease then dropped down to the forest below. I had no idea where to go so I found the nearest road and stuck to it for about a couple of miles. I shot a deer for the meat, the katana easily filleting the flesh, wrapped the meat in the hide, then picked a clearing in order to cook it. Cooking meat was many times easier than swordsmithing, the only think to keep an eye out for were burn marks, even so, veniso didn't get tough unless cooked for an exceedingly long time. I took time to savor the first morsel of meat I ever ate since I got here, soft, melting fat over a rich fillet of meat. I doused the fire and continued on my way. For the first time in my life, I had no Idea where I was going, and I didn't care one bit.

I hiked for about a month, making my way closer and closer to Equestria's borders, getting a feel for the land. It had a liberating atmosphere, unlike a nature reserve, but an actual forest. It was a haunting feeling of eyes watching you, not to control you in fear, but to remind you that you were just as likely a target as everything else in its dominion. It kept me on my toes. Nothing too eventful arose, aside from the occasional bandits attempting to mug me. It was brought to my attention that I was a lot taller than most of the things dwelling in the forest, standing far past the first few branches of a tree. Maybe that played into my uneventful encounters.

That notion soon shattered when just then I heard a scream, relatively close too. I ran towards the source of the sound. A young woman was screaming by the tone, and she was hurt. I reached the scene in less than a minute to behold the situation: a ninotaur wielding a large hammer was about to attack someone who looked like a griffin, heavily wounded by the bruises and how a bag leg had been broken. I stood in the way of the charging minotaur, who swung indifferently at me, hitting me scabbard with tremendous force, sending my rocketing into a tree, the impact causing me to rebound and fall onto the ground.

'Dammit...' I staggered and got back up, releasing adrenaline for the pain in my back.

Rules of Engagement: Hostile with lethal intent, fight to kill.

I looked over to see the minotaur still charging, his eyes bloodshot with rage. I retook position in front of the wounded griffin, standing in a quickdraw stance. As the Minotaur swung I dodged the blow, then unsheathed my blade and slashed upwards cleaving the behemoth in half, stopping his charge immediately, the halves of the minotaur gliding past me, his blood splattering on my clothes. I sheathed my sword and fell backwards. I've never encountered anything that had that much force. I coughed and regained my stature, staggering towards the wounded griffin.

"Are you alright?" It didn't look good, her bruises showed massive amounts of trauma. I upped the dose of adrenaline and made a run for the road, carrying the wounded griffin to the next town. Thankfully I got her to the hospital in time, I was treated for the bruise on my back, and she was treated for broken bones. About a week or so after treatment she woke up and looked at me.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the guy who found you, glad to see you're alright. Who are you?"

"Chime," she says it softly, her body still probably aching from treatment.

"How old are you?" I had no idea, but her voice seemed soft, my guess was young.

"15," I'm guessing they mature quickly, no parent in their right mind would leave a child to fend for her own at 15, but then again I'm not quite familiar with the parental traditions of this world yet. She yawns, then winces, then turns onto her side, "thanks for saving me," I backtrack to all the times when others shied away from me because of my eyes, there was no trace of that fear in Chime's. She falls back to sleep, I get up to sign my release from the hospital, but something holds me back, I look back and find Chime's claw gentle latched onto my tail. I slowly pry the talons from my tail and go sign the sheet in the lobby. I grab my weapons and gear then leave. I'll probably never see her again in my life, maybe I will, but for right now, its best I leave. I don't want to endanger a griffin not even old enough to drive.

I grab a local newspaper from a park bench and look things over, news got about my dragon slay in Stalliongrad, I never really told anyone my name so they marked me as the wolf dragonslayer. I see something that catches my interest, the Grand Galloping Gala, a party that Princess Celestia hosts in Equestria annually happening in a few months time. I've never been to a party, maybe I'll enjoy myself. I head to a nearby tourist stand.

"Excuse me, sir, do you happen to have a map?" He was looking down when he pointed to a lower shelf, I dropped a bit coin on the table and left. Currently, I'm in a place called Gridfeather, the Equestrian border is near so I can just walk the way there. I restock on rations and head on out. I stuff an apple in my muzzle just before leaving the town gate. Apparently not many people can distinguish between a diamond dog and a wolf unless they get a good look at my face, so up until now, everyone had addressed me as either "dog" or "mutt".

I walked while reading the rest of the paper, glancing over the rest of the stories, most of it's about the Grand Galloping Gala, I read over a small strip, 'Griffin Pirates Recruiting through Equestrian Tour' I chuckle thinking of Keith and his music... Then drop the paper and unsheathe my sword and turn around. No one's there, but I feel eyes watching me... I quickly sheath my sword into a low quickdraw stance...

'Shinigami no toiki (A Reaper's sigh)" I quickly do a cross slice that brings down all the trees in a 5 meter radius. I feel someone... There! I point my sword towards the direction of the presence.

"Come out, there's no use hiding anymore," I hear the pull of a bowstring, I duck to avoid the arrow, then sidestep to avoid the next, then back flip to avoid the third, there was only one shooter. I grab Kokuryu between my teeth and pull out my bow, the next arrow I catch between two fingers and immediately send it back. No response for a second, the presence still there, then I hear a jump, I drop my bow and then ready Kokuryu for deflecting, the figure reveals itself from out the trees, it's a diamond dog diving into a jump strike. The form is skewed so I sidestep easily and grab him by the scruff as he lands, he swings backwards but I bring Kokuryu up to deflect using the flat of the blade, then twist the blade around to sever my attacker's sword in two, still keeping a firm grip on the diamond dog's scruff. I pick him up higher, sheath Kokuryu and punch him in the face. He looked too young to be wielding a blade.

"Who the hell are you?" His answer surprised me.

"Why should I tell you, you killed my father, YOUR PELT IS MINE!"

"Who am I..."

"Don't try to fuck with me, you're Ensin!"

"Wrong," I kick him in the ass to set him straight, "I'm Aoi Myoujin, you've got the wrong guy. Beside, even if I was him, you certainly wouldn't kill me with those moves you pulled, they were too rash, I could detect you and your form is off, never go for the jump attack as a last resort. Now," I hold him higher and drop him on the ground, "I think an apology is in order don't you think."

"Wait if you're," I hit him on the head with Kokuryu's sheath to correct him, he stands up and looks away, "I'm sorry. If you're not Ensin, then who are you, and how did you dodge everything."

"Tell me what's going on and I'll tell you," He picked up his broken sword, he had a bow over his shoulder, I towered over him, he then took another look at me, his eyes widened. He fell backwards and started to edge away.

"Hey, what's wrong!" He pointed square at my forehead, I had no idea what that mean, so I just picked up my bow and slung it over my shoulder, "Your mother never taught you it's impolite to point?" It was actually kind of unnerving to have a speechless diamond dog pointing at you. I brushed myself off and tried to leave, I wasn't getting any information from him. When I walked past him he grabbed onto my leg. I looked at him, and he looked up at me with tears in his eyes.

"First you attack me, then you point at me speechless, and now you're grabbing on to me like your life depends on it, what's going on?" He let go, stood up straight, and then straight out bawled

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was you." I handed him a cloth to blow his nose in, he wiped his face and continued, "You, please, you must help me," he started to calm down, he sat on a nearby stump while I leaned against a tree, "Our Alpha, Ensin, he is a cruel ruthless alpha, hoarding gems dug by slaves, then sending the slaves to be offered to the dragon, last month, Ensin sent my father as one of the offerings, I ran from the pack, waiting in the forests so that If he ever showed his face around here, I'd kill him..." I raised my hand to talk.

"I'll help... don't say thanks... now, where does this offering take place?" his eyes widened at my agreement to aid him.

It looks like I'd be fighting another dragon soon...