Kurt always had been an early riser, but the morning made him slow and disorientated. He turned over expecting to feel the weak sun on his face, filtering through his tiny window but instead he felt the gentle puff of warm breath against his skin. He opened his eyes and realised that they must have drifted during the night. Blaine was still sleeping, smoke curling out of his nostrils every now and again. Kurt could feel one of his wings beneath him, the other wrapped around him like a leathery blanket, smooth and cool compared to Blaines scorching skin. They were touching. However, Kurts internal panic was initially quelled by his desire not to wake Blaine. Maybe he could slip away. He shuffled carefully, reaching out a tentative hand but it instead landed on Blaines chest. He just stared at it until he noticed his chest vibrating, a soft rumble resonating within it.

Kurt froze. Blaine popped his bleary right eye open to a startled looking Kurt. His mouth started to twitch up into a smile until he was awake enough to take stock of the situation and could feel Kurts hand on his chest. His one opened eye widened in shock.

"Hello?! Oh baby brother!" A voice called as the door flew open, startling them both further. Blaine, with both eyes open, tried to yank his wings up from under him, forgetting that Kurt was on top of one. They were both pulled from the bed, smacking into the stone floor in a heap of bruised limbs. "Oww ouch oh fuck oww."

"Im so sorry, are you okay? Lemme just-"

"Woah woah warn a guy Blaine seriously, why did no one tell me this was happening when I arrived I am going to have words with Alexander and Nevaeh they are supposed to be my eyes and ears." The man continued to ramble on, hiding his face behind his wings as Kurt and Blaine disentangled themselves, faces burning with embarrassment. Finally standing but with a face no less red, Blaine rolled his eyes.

"Nothing is happening, Cooper, we were sleeping. There wouldnt have been such a scene if you hadnt barged into my home without knocking as per usual." Blaine said scornfully crossing his arms. Cooper peeked cautiously over the top of his wings, his eyes narrowed. "Yeah ‘sleeping," he muttered, "well its nice to see you too Blainey, its so good to be home. Oh but whos this?" For some reason Kurt was given the impression that this Cooper had the attention span of a puppy. He was tall and handsome and his eyes were a piercing blue alight with mischief and amusement. "This is Kurt, a friend; hell be staying with me until we can figure out a way to help him save his village. Kurt this is my brother, our Elder-in-training, Cooper Taliesin." Blaine said, looking warningly at Cooper.

"Its nice to meet you." Kurt said, smiling he extended a hand but Cooper chose to ignore it, scooping him up in a hug instead. Cooper started to squeeze and Blaine was there in an instant seeing the pained look on Kurts face. "Cooper, Cooper!" Blaine fretted "Put him down, hes still wounded you might hurt him."

"Sorry, sorry." Cooper mumbled, still smiling as he let go. "Wow youre lovely." He added and Kurt blushed, charmed by the man with icy blue wings. Blaine started to smoke again as he narrowed his eyes at his brother "and youre mated." He almost growled and Cooper chuckled throwing up his hands in surrender and ruffling his brothers hair. "Just an observation, Aine has already filled me in on the whole story." Cooper stated nonchalantly as he sauntered toward the door. "Then why-?" Blaine huffed. "Because I missed you brother." Cooper replied with a soft smile and with that he door closed behind him.

.oO0Oo.

She watched as they entered the antechamber of the Hall of Elders. Kurt looking nervous but determined, she could see wit in him, strength and resilience. Blaine walked tall beside him, a reassuring and sincere presence. How he had grown, from the scared little dragonite she had once known. How strong and courageous and giving the boy had become. A fire that continued to burn, even when starved, even when there was no end to the darkness.

Ailidh Cerridwen was a quiet, beautiful woman who had lived more than a hundred years. She had had her fair share of wars and had made sure her people flourished in peacetime. Ailidh Cerridwen was born to the Milaukan caves and had always served her people, since the day she was born she was raised as an Elder, as a leader. She led them well, she was kind, decisive and had wisdom beyond that of what most of their kind could only imagine. She was also cunning and mischievous and when she found herself in charge of two younglings from a different tribe she used it as an opportunity not only to nurture them but to play.

Many years ago the western lands were ravaged by war. To the warlocks of the land, dragons were nothing but a useful tool, a power to tame and control. The dragons fought their attempted enslavement, and many died for their freedom. The warlocks bound the dragons to their human forms, to contain their fury until it suited them. They sought to conquer all the beings and beasts of these lands and they laid waste to civilisations thousands of years old. Ailidh was a warrior in this war and it was amongst the chaos that she, along with her mate Selma found Blaine. They found him, a mere youngling of six or seven, sobbing over the corpses of his parents. His home lay in ruin; his kin lay in the ashes of the defeated. They tore him away, Selma urging her to get the poor dragonite to safety when out of the smoke and fire ran a boy, his brother, equally distraught. He screamed at them to let him go but they held tight until he agreed to leave with them, giving the lifeless bodies of his parents one last look before they fled, the battle lost, their family broken.

Ailidh watched as Cooper bore the scars of battle and wept for what theyd lost. Ailidh watched little Blaine grow up hating himself, blaming himself, clinging to a brother who looked at him with guilt in his eyes. Not long after they arrived at the Milaukan caves did Blaine start asking questions. "If I hadnt gone to explore...", "If I had stayed closer to home..." It crushed all those who knew his story to hear such a young dragon blame himself, when he still knew so little, understood nothing about greed or war. He withdrew, he was shy but clever and he knew all the words to the songs his mother had taught him. When he sang, only very occasionally, and oh so quietly it was the sound of hope itself.

Cooper and Selma were the first to discover that he couldnt obtain his full form. They thought it was because of what he had suffered, that he felt shame in his full form so refused to assume it. They asked him and he began to cry. He thought that they were angry at him; he explained that the warlocks had hit him with something and he couldnt turn anymore, he thought it was his fault once again. Cooper and Selma boiled with anger as Blaine clung to him; Blaines soul had been bound to his human form, magic that they could not reverse.

It seemed as though the odds were stacked against them from the very start, but Ailidh and Selma did their best. They healed their wounds and taught and raised them as their own. Cooper was to be his tribes next Elder anyway and Blaine, Blaine was something special. He was spirit. As Ailidh watched Cooper sneak into the Hall of Elders without an invitation, with an amused smile she hoped that they only continued to grow. Kurt followed Blaines lead in lighting the fires and she called to the ancestors that they would grant Blaine just one gift, "Let his heart be fulfilled," she whispered, "let the mortal give him his."