Tsubasa

Tsubasa's search had taken him across kingdoms, through villages, ruins, and whispered dead ends, all for one reason: he refused to believe his cousin Emerarudo was truly gone. In the Dragon Wastelands, where scorched earth and broken trees marked the passage of creatures far older and fiercer than chimps, that determination carried him up a brutal mountain toward a dragon's cave. There he called out in a foreign tongue and was answered by Tatsuya, a red-scaled dragon large enough to crush him without effort. Tsubasa asked for news of Emerarudo, but the dragon only laughed and demanded proof that this tired, stubborn traveler truly shared blood with the one he sought. So Tsubasa transformed. Emerald scales spread across his back, wings burst from his body, and for a moment the dragon saw the truth for himself. It was not enough to bring answers, but it was enough to keep hope alive. Tsubasa descended the mountain with no certainty — only another road ahead.