I was sitting at my desk flipping through the latest missing shifter reports, the humans have amped up their hunting of shifters. They make a pretty penny just butchering a shifters animal form and selling it on market, but it's more lucrative if they capture a shifter alive. Live shifters can be sold as pets and used as weapons; the humans keep control of shifters with collars. These collars we found through our own research, that they are equipped with injectors that hold whatever toxin is most lethal to whatever species wears the collar. But we'll come back to that later I think we need introducing first. I am Anubis the Dragon King, as a dragon I am blessed with a longer life than most. Currently I'm one hundred and twenty-six years old, the youngest of my bloodline to take the throne. My father was obsessed with saving the shifters from the humans and went missing on a recon mission he insisted leading himself, my mother not being able to handle the grief took to the mountains leaving me to clean up the mess. I doubt father is still alive, but I'll keep searching until I know for sure to bring peace to mom, I know she is still alive I've caught glimpses of her dragon flying in the mountains. She lets me know by occasionally leaving a precious stone or some other small thing on the cliff that my parents had taught me to fly off of. As hurt as I am by her actions, I assume it can't be easy losing someone you've been with for most of your life; that you were meant to spend the rest of your life with.

     Dragons live the longest, are the strongest and fastest of the species; because of this it is our job to protect the shifter community. Although I will admit that this has inflated our already large egos. If it weren't for my multiple greats grandfather most shifters species would have been hunted to extinction long ago. Humans were not always the only threat to the shifters in fact, humans only became a problem in the last couple hundred years. Our biggest threat used to be other shifters; what we now call the War of Extinction was the most violent of times. Gods are prideful people, and they enjoy tinkering and creating interesting creatures. The problems started when one God or Goddesses' creation went after another, as retaliation or just simply as a way to protect their creations. They would create more and more creatures, causing weaker species to go extinct before we could even record their existence. Feuds over territory, turned into full blown wars.

     There were very few species who were not affected by the disputes because of the places they inhabited. The war lasted years and slowly species were going extinct or going into hiding, it wasn't until the Sun Goddess Daria approached my grandfather and the rest of the dragons that lived high in the mountains. She begged them to bring peace to the shifters and help save what little species were left. The dragons being a creature of the Sun Goddess' agreed to help, some rather reluctantly. My grandfather being the only remaining dragon of the first five, took charge and lead the dragons in the effort to bring peace. Dragons are hard to kill, it can be done but the number of resources and people that could be lost in the process. It wasn't something established packs were willing to do, in hopes that they'd get to keep as much territory as possible. The Dragons made swift work and brought peace to the realm within a year, it's easy to convince others to cooperate, when the alternative is being the next snack or having everything, you ever cared about reduce to nothing but cinder and ash.

     The more reluctant dragons we're left to erect a palace at the base of the mountains we call home, our palace being the largest because my grandfather insisted on respecting every God and Goddess. Naturally Daria had the largest statue and temple, as my species was her personal creation. After Grandfather had brought peace between packs and/or warring species, he'd send the reluctant dragons to help them build territory lines, pack houses and temples for the species preferred God or Goddess. Then he'd repeat the process over and over again, until everyone had either agreed to be under the dragons' protection and rule, or they no longer existed to be a threat. It may be harsh but that was reality for the time, we have become much more diplomatic about things and solving disputes between species and packs. We only use force if it nothing else works, then we don't have much choice. Plus, my species doesn't like doing more work than necessary, and burning a village down is "a lot" of work to some. 

     Now you must be sitting there thinking "well not every dragon helped or was willing to help right?" and you'd be correct. Those that completely refused to help or went against my grandfather we're dealt with easily; my grandfather did a lot more than bring peace to gain Daria's appreciation and blessings, if you get what I mean. Not everyone who opposed my grandfather was burnt or eaten, he gave them all the equal opportunity to go and find a different realm or land. Those that didn't take him seriously... well we already went over what happened to them. After years of ruling the lands peacefully it is said that my grandfather passed the crown to, his son another one of my grandfathers. Then he took off into the mountains, never to be seen again. Although even to this day people swear, they'll see him perched on top of the high mountain peaks that overlook the realm. Guarding it secretly, making sure that peace remains through the realms. I personally don't believe in such silly myths; I have looked and been all around those peaks, I have never found any sign that the ancient dragon was still alive let alone using the mountains as a perch.

     It was my fathers; father who uncovered the atrocious things the humans were doing with shifters. It started after shifters started finding human mates, it didn't take long for the humans to realize the money they could make. The value that a shifter poses to them is high, not only are we faster, stronger and in my opinion smarter; but because once you've grown tired of shifter you can sell them for high prices or send them to the market. The market was just a slaughterhouse, they would torture shifter into shifting and then kill them. Harvesting all that they could and selling it for profit. If a shifter refuses to switch to their animal form, they would be put up for auction to go serve a new human master. My father had heard reports that they had acquired a dragon shifter, no one knows for sure and it's just speculation, but my father wanted to know for sure. It would make sense if they had a dragon shifter though, as they were able to make my father go missing.