Seven years has passed since the dragon princess, Ember, had found the human, Virin, in the river near the Dragon Lands' borders. She and the current Dragon Lord, Torch, had been taking care for the human for seven long years. The human was grateful for their kindness and carefulness when raising him.

For Virin, he had managed to make a friend in the black drake, Nightwing, and were the best of friends that had an inseparable bond between the two. For the first race in the Lands, was the first time that Virin had lost to Garble. After that, he had decided to train more seriously than before. He had used many methods of how to his training. He had been doing push-ups, wing-ups, also his fire training to act like a normal dragon.

That had been going on for a year now.

After a year of training, both Nightwing and Virin met up with a brown drake in Zach, a lightning drake that seemed to be a descendant of Azzezz, but not. The trio were also inseparable, been able to counter Garble's gang's many surprise attacks within the first year of being friends. The trio had been friends for two years before an evil darkness had been unleashed within the red drake, Virin.

When the darkness incident had been finished, the trio began training for the trial that the Lands holds every six years as an announcement to get the greatest dragon to be a "Predator Hunter". Virin had been excited for the trial his whole life.

After three more years of intense training, Virin met up with two females, Minuette and Amber, both of whom were psychic and water drakes. Virin was surprised by theier elements, but decided not to question them with his curiosity.

In the six, long years of training for Virin, his ego of carelessness had all but disappeared. He was now more loyal, respectful, kind, caring, less cocky, less carelessly, and more serious in his training and battles with Garble now. The Dragon Lord was happy that his ego had gone for now, noticing the more serious expression on Virin's look now and then, showing that he wasn't kidding when he was shown fighting Garble before the trial.

When the trial had come, the dragons should do three tasks: Go on a journey to two World Protectors' statues, hunt for manticores, and then battle to their heart's content. Virin and Garble had cleared the first two without sweat, showing that they were the more serious ones when they had twelve manticores each, stunning the other competitors. The duo's long waiting battle for the best had arrived, with each giving blow by blow to the other, not giving up. After a long, hard-fought battle, Virin emerged victorious. Virin was gifted with a golden trophy as a sign of his victory in the trial, and had been appointed as the newest "Predator Hunter" since the first had died in old age. Virin wasn't the one to die pretty easily; he had a regeneration ability that made him look invincible in his battles.

Just one year after the trial, a dark being, known only as the "Dark One", attacked a kingdom near the Dragon Lands. Virin and friends sought out to investigate. The former found a new rivalry in the one-headed hydra, Hydra, and had fought against him between victory and defeat. The red drake emerged victorious, having unleashed a huge amount of strong power called "Ultimate Boost" that was seen afar from the kingdom, all the way to Ponyland, where a purple equine had heard his big shout when activating the attack. She sought out to investigate through her books about the dragon.

When the attack was finished, Virin laid there, unconscious, showing that it was a powerful attack than anything the world had ever seen. For Zach and friends, it was the most powerful attack they had ever seen since the attacks that Virin and Garble had used in the trial. Gilda was the one who was more surprised than shocked, considering she had seen other powerful attacks in her younger years.

Now, Hearth's Warming Eve was near, meaning that everything had calmed before anymore evilness attacking the world. There should be peace for now in the Dragon Lands and griffin kingdom.

With Virin...

Throwing punches in the air, Virin could've sworn he had seen gust of wind with each throw. He was glad for that, that his punches were getting faster and more quicker than before. He continued to throw punches in the air, before staring kicking in the air. With each kick, like before, gust of wind could be seen through each one.

More than seven years had passed since Ember had found him and took him in. Virin was happy that he found a sister in her, since what he had been told by his mother and father, Susan and Jonathan, his younger sister, Cerys, was killed by the humans in the forest nearby the White City by the humans with guns. He had wondered what "guns" was, but decided not to question them. He was getting more and more angry at the other humans because of their killing of his birth sister, gritting his teeth when he threw an angered kick in the air. A larger gust of wind was shown when the kick was thrown.

After getting a few more punches ready, Virin began to hear a very familiar voice in his ears. Mentally sighing, he turned to see Garble standing a few feet away from him.

"Virin." Garble then stated, "I would like to have a fight with you. If you dare, because I know that you dare." Virin simply looked at him, unmoving from sight.

"Let's get this over with, then." The red drake responded. Garble smiled cruelly, thanking himself for that little talk. The tall drake flew straight at Virin, bumped into the smaller drake's stomach, causing Virin to take a step back while holding his stomach.

"Okay. That's it." Virin growled angrily, blasting a fireball at Garble, who blasted his own fireball, resulting in a collision and smoke. Looking at the smoke, Virin couldn't see the taller drake anywhere. Maybe he disappeared through the smoke? That was a possibility. But, in answer, Garble shot himself into his belly, causing him to stumble back in surprise.

Growling, Virin shot an fireball at Garble, hoping to get a direct hit. However, Garble shot his own fireball at the other one, resulting in another collision. Sneering, the tall drake got ready to scratch the smaller drake in the eye. However, Virin saw this and moved to the side...only to be kicked in the guts by Garble, who made a kick when the small drake dodged the first attack.

Garble snarled as Virin had dodged his attack yet again. "C'mon. Stop evading my hits!" He roared, blasting another fireball at Virin, who dodged the attack. Growling in frustration, the tall drake charged up with a power boost, getting ready to finish this. Virin noticed his boost, and charged up as well. Red auras were surrounding them both, and were ready to attack now.

Both charged at each other, with each one believing to be victorious. The attacks collided and made a smoky collision as they made contact. A yellow beam of light appeared as the attack stopped, with neither victorious. Both laid down on the ground, panting for breath.

"Well, that was a short battle." Garble mused mockingly. Virin nodded, mimicking his own mocking. Both stood up, glaring at each other. "However," the tall drake continued, "this isn't over. Our rivalry is not. Because it is almost Hearth Warming Eve, I wanted to have a short fight, not a big one like at the trial. You understand, don't you?" Virin nodded. "Good. Until then, twerp." Garble spread his wings and flew off.

Twerp? Virin thought, getting angrier by the second at the word. Then, remembering what Garble said about Hearth Warming Eve coming closer, Virin remembered that he still hasn't bought a gift to his sister for her care for him. Oh crap!

The next few days...

It was here. Hearth's Warming Eve has finally arrived. All of the dragons presented their gifts and presents to their family, each young one was happy to receive the gifts they had wished for.

For the Dragon Lord and his daughter, Ember, they were waiting for the former's son to arrive with his present to the latter. Ember was getting impatient for the waiting, wishing that her brother would speed it up.

"C'mon, brother." She grumbled. "Hurry up." Her father looked down to her, smiling comfortably.

"Don't worry, Ember." He reassured her. "He'll show up."

"He'd better." The Princess grumpily replied, getting a bit more impatient. Then, she noticed a much familiar red dragon flying towards them. Her smile widened as she finally saw her brother.

"Sorry I'm late." Virin apologized, landing softly on the ground. Torch shook his head.

"It is alright, son." The large dragon assured him. "We were just getting worried for what happened, to have gotten you so late." His son smiled sheepishly, waving a dismissed arm.

"It's probably nothing." Virin lied, giving a fake smile. The snow were all but on the ground, giving it a white form. He looked at his sister. "Ready to have your gift, sis?" Ember smiled warmly at him, nodding. Virin presented his gift to her, who took it with great care. She wrapped it up, getting the fabric off the gift inside. What was inside was a special necklace, made entirely out of steel. It looked like it was burning hot, but it was cooled down by water, which was how it was made to steel. There were a middle ring inside the present she had received. It was a golden ring, in order to match the colour to the necklace.

Ember's smile grew wider as she gently laid her right hand on the necklace and ring. Tears started to string in her ember eyes. Unable to control it, she quickly gave her brother a big hug, who squeezed in surprise. Torch gave a small hearty laugh at the sight before him, happy that his daughter liked her present.

"Thank you." She whispered in her brother's ear. "It means a lot to me."

"You're welcome." Virin whispered as well. "Happy Hearth's Warming Eve, sis, dad." The two dragons smiled gratefully. This year's Hearth's Warming Eve was going to be the greatest yet.