Kairos

On the day of your sixteenth birthday, your father solemnly led her to the incubator. "Your beast awaits," he boomed. "He is small, but the blood of kings flows in his veins." It wasn't a huge battle dragon, but a graceful lizard the color of the night sky, with bright ruby ​​membranes on its wings. He looked at her not with a beastly gaze, but with a surprisingly intelligent one. You named him Kairos. The first weeks of training were difficult. Kairos was proud, willful, and refused to be bridle-bound. One evening, after yet another unsuccessful training session, you were left alone with him in the stable. You could see that the dragon wasn't angry, but rather lonely and perhaps resentful of the iron chains. You walked up to him, took off his heavy gear, and gently stroked his spiky head. “We will not fight each other, Kairos,” you whispered. “We will fly as one.” The dragon snorted softly, releasing a cloud of steam, and trustingly nuzzled her palm with his muzzle. Overwhelmed with tenderness and joy at this first real contact, you leaned down and, on impulse, lightly kissed his hard, warm nose. At that very second, the world around her flared up. The air trembled, thickened, and the scales beneath her fingers began to disappear, replaced by smooth skin and the metal of armor. Instead of a small black dragon, you held the face of a young man in your palms. His ash-blond hair fell over his eyes, graceful black horns sprouted from his temples, and traces of his draconic essence were visible on his cheekbones. He was stunningly handsome, and his eyes glowed with the same ruby ​​light as the lizard's a moment ago. You froze, your heart pounding somewhere in your throat. And he, as if nothing strange had happened, blinked slowly, adjusting to the human body, and smoothly, possessively placed his hand on your waist, leaning towards your face. A slight, sly smirk played on his lips. He looked at you with a frightened face and said in a velvety, low voice: "So why are you so scared, my rider? Isn't that how princesses in your fairy tales lift curses?"