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Fated to the Ancient Wyrm - FULL | DramaReel
#shortdrama
#heartstringshub
#shortdrama
#heartstringshub
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Short filmTranscript
00:02This familiar scene is exactly the same as in the previous life.
00:06The sky outside turned the color of a wound.
00:09A lichen lord, in his full power, in human form.
00:13But how did the person in his arms become my sister?
00:15In my previous life, on the day of the sacred bonding rite, my sister chose the phoenix.
00:21She left the bear shifter, the one nobody wanted.
00:24It was fate.
00:26A cast off for a beast.
00:28Instead, I saved a lichen lord by accident.
00:31He took me as his queen.
00:33After the bonding, I bore five heirs for the lichen bloodline, a clan that had gone generations without children.
00:40I became a legend across the realm beyond.
00:42My sister, bonded to the phoenix, was cast out for barrenness.
00:47I came home with my youngest.
00:48My sister poisoned my bowl, me and my child both.
00:59When I woke, it was the day of the rite again.
01:03Everyone present is a worthy son of their bloodline.
01:07Choose freely.
01:08The hall filled with glances, with quiet negotiations between bodies and bloodlines.
01:13I didn't want any of it.
01:15In my last life, childbirth had nearly killed me.
01:18I wasn't doing it again.
01:19I stood alone.
01:21Then the doors blew open.
01:22Time returns to the present.
01:24And for some reason, my sister has taken my husband from my previous life.
01:31Vivienne saved my life.
01:33From this day forward, she is my true mate.
01:36A lichen lord choosing one of ours.
01:38Choosing her as first and only.
01:40It hadn't happened in living memory.
01:42I knew then.
01:43She'd been reborn too.
01:45Now I looked at her.
01:46Draped against the lichen lord.
01:48Already victorious.
01:50She thought she'd won.
01:51She hadn't thought through what it would cost her.
01:54Lichen lords are of the fire element.
01:56Their mates sleep in fire.
01:58Eat fire-aspected food.
02:00For a bloodline like ours, cold-aspected by nature, that's not a marriage.
02:06It's a slow execution.
02:08Last time, I had no choice but to pretend to like it.
02:11Every day.
02:12I smiled through the sacred fire walks.
02:15Through the meals that felt like swallowing coals.
02:17By the time I was pregnant, my core was already cracked.
02:21The children drew what was left.
02:23Vivienne was cold-aspected too.
02:25She just didn't know what she'd agreed to yet.
02:28The whole heap celebrated.
02:30Every un-mated girl in the order delayed her own bonding to help prepare Vivienne's.
02:35The gift list ran ten feet long.
02:38The high lord nearly emptied the sanctuary's vaults.
02:41I was the only un-mated woman left.
02:44That made me the obvious choice for handmaid.
02:46Vivienne stood over me and smiled.
02:49Before you were the elder, I deferred to you.
02:53How does this feel, sister?
02:54I said nothing.
02:56Ha!
02:57That look.
02:59You'll get used to it.
03:00The high lord has already agreed.
03:01You belong to me now.
03:03I'll hit you when I want.
03:05Praise you when I want.
03:07You have no say.
03:09Start learning.
03:10A courier arrived from the Lycan Lord.
03:13A red and gold cloak.
03:15Light as feathers.
03:16Fire-resistant.
03:17Enchanted for speed.
03:19Vivienne touched it with both hands.
03:21I knew that cloak.
03:23For fire-aspected bloodlines, it was a treasure.
03:26For cold-aspected bloodlines, it was a punishment.
03:30I'd worn it every day of my first marriage.
03:32It had carved away at my core for years.
03:35Vivienne would find that out eventually.
03:37Then a girl came running.
03:39Fire on the back mountain!
03:41What an awful omen.
03:43Today of all days.
03:44I didn't wait.
03:45I ran.
03:46The mountain was burning hard when I arrived.
03:49Black smoke.
03:50Screaming from inside the tree line.
03:52The elders stood at the edge and wouldn't move.
03:55That fire belongs to a Lycan Lord.
03:58We interfere.
03:59We offend him.
04:00Your sister's bonding is today.
04:02Don't make trouble.
04:03No rank fallinities.
04:06I looked at him for a long moment.
04:08Then I went in.
04:10The smoke blinded me fast.
04:12The fire took my fur.
04:14But I was cold-aspected.
04:16Wherever I moved, frost spread behind me.
04:19It slowed the flames enough to matter.
04:24But I can't stop this fire with my own strength.
04:28I remembered what my foster mother taught me.
04:30Clear a line.
04:32Deny the fire somewhere to go.
04:33I shifted to full form and called out.
04:36Wolf.
04:37Eagle.
04:38Tiger.
04:39Bear.
04:40They came.
04:41They carried ice-hardened vessels in their jaws.
04:44An elephant used its trunk.
04:46Ants and mantises worked the fire breaks.
04:48We were losing.
04:50Then we weren't.
04:51Then the mountains shook.
04:53The ground split open.
04:54A dragon came out of it.
04:56Black.
04:57Ancient.
04:58Large enough to block the sun.
05:01He opened the door and it rained.
05:03The fire died.
05:04The dragon's voice didn't come from one direction.
05:07It came from everywhere.
05:10This mountain is mine.
05:13Who lit it?
05:14The elders said nothing.
05:16A thousand years in this valley.
05:18And nobody had thought to check whether something older already lived here.
05:22Then Vivienne pointed at me.
05:23Ash everywhere.
05:25Burned fur.
05:26It had to be her.
05:27Every eye turned.
05:29Charred.
05:29Bleeding in two places.
05:31The same hands that had just spent an hour fighting the fire.
05:34I was certain someone would say it.
05:36Any of them.
05:37They'd all seen me run in.
05:39The elder looked at me for a long time.
05:41Then he knelt.
05:44The dragon's sovereign.
05:46Our wayward daughter did this.
05:48She is yours to punish.
05:49We offer her freely.
05:51I stood still.
05:52Not one of them spoke for me.
05:56I had bent myself in half for these people in my last life.
05:59I had burned from the inside out.
06:02Carrying children for a clan that wasn't mine.
06:04For a man who never once made me warm.
06:07I'd done it for them.
06:09Kept them safe.
06:10Kept them proud.
06:11And now they were handing me to a dragon.
06:14To buy themselves a quite.
06:15The fire was lyakon.
06:17Everyone here knows that.
06:18I'm cold as sected.
06:19How would I produce sacred flame?
06:21You're my handmaid.
06:22You had access to my husband's fire tokens.
06:24Easy enough to steal a spark.
06:25If I started it, why did I try to stop it?
06:27To look innocent.
06:28What do I have to gain?
06:30Any of it.
06:31What exactly do you think I wanted?
06:33Mara.
06:34Just admit it.
06:36I'm done with this covenant.
06:37All of redept between us is settled.
06:39Enough.
06:40The girl comes with me.
06:42Whatever she is to you, she isn't anymore.
06:44When I opened them, I was somewhere else.
06:47Torchlight.
06:48Stone.
06:49A ceiling so high I couldn't see the end of it.
06:52He was in human form.
06:54Black robes edged in gold.
06:56He sat like someone who had never once needed anything from anyone.
07:00He was watching me with something almost like amusement.
07:03He said.
07:04Go ahead.
07:05Say what you want to say.
07:07You knew.
07:08You knew the whole time what happened.
07:11Why play along with them?
07:12Because you needed a reason to leave.
07:14And my palace is considerably more comfortable than a foxhole.
07:18I thought you might prefer it.
07:20I thought about what he'd said.
07:21In my last life, he had sent me a healing stone during my labor.
07:25Only later did I understand.
07:28The mountain was his.
07:29I had defended it.
07:31He remembered.
07:32Thank you, my lord.
07:33I'll serve faithfully.
07:35Don't do it again.
07:36He looked satisfied.
07:38Do what?
07:39Throw yourself at people who aren't worth it.
07:42He tilted his head.
07:44Get dressed.
07:45We're going to watch the bonding ceremony.
07:48He handed me a gown.
07:50Black.
07:51Covered with shimmering scales.
07:52I put it on and stood beside him.
07:55And we looked like we matched.
07:56I felt my face go warm without meaning to.
07:59The ceremony hall blazed with firelight.
08:02Vivienne walked the red carpet on the Lycan Lord's arm.
08:06She looked extraordinary.
08:08She always did.
08:09Then they reached the threshold.
08:11Every Lycan bonding began the same way.
08:14The new mate had to walk a path of sacred embers.
08:17The Lycan Lord stepped onto the embers without pausing.
08:21For him, it was nothing.
08:23Vivienne stopped cold.
08:24People noticed.
08:26He pulled her toward the embers.
08:28She dug in.
08:29The hall went quiet in that particular way that means everyone is watching, while pretending
08:34not to.
08:35He leaned in and said something low and sharp.
08:38She went white.
08:39Then she walked.
08:41The sound when the fire touched her was something I would remember.
08:45She made it through.
08:47Barely.
08:48She knelt before the clan elder with shaking hands and held a cup of tea for half an hour
08:52before he finally took it.
08:55After the ceremony, in the corridor outside...
08:58No mate in our head have insulted the sacred fire at her own binding.
09:03Not one.
09:04You were the first.
09:06Congratulations.
09:08He walked.
09:08Don't wait up.
09:10I had turned to leave when my foot landed on a dry branch.
09:14Vivienne spun.
09:15How are you here?
09:16Her face twisted.
09:18She lunged.
09:19Her feet still burned.
09:21Betrayed her.
09:22She went down hard.
09:23The dragon should have killed you!
09:26I touched the fabric of my new gown.
09:29He's fair-minded.
09:30He doesn't punish the innocent.
09:31I looked at her.
09:33I'm his now.
09:34You can't touch me.
09:35She grabbed my throat.
09:37Her nails drew blood.
09:40You're lying.
09:41If he wanted you, he'd be here.
09:44He wouldn't leave you alone.
09:45One more inch, and she'd have managed it.
09:48I'll kill you right now, and no one will care.
09:50The air moved.
09:52Vivienne flew sideways.
09:54She hit the wall hard enough to cough blood.
09:58A hand settled at my waist.
10:00Warm.
10:01Steady.
10:02Power moving through it, like current.
10:05The dragon sovereign said pleasantly.
10:07I'm her intended.
10:08You can call me Aldrich.
10:10Or dragon sovereign.
10:12Either works.
10:15Vivienne stared at him.
10:17You can't.
10:17She has no standing.
10:19She's nothing.
10:20The Lycan Lord appeared in the doorway.
10:22Took one look at the dragon sovereign.
10:25Your grace.
10:26I apologize for my mate's behavior.
10:29Today of all days, I hope you'll forgive it.
10:32Your mate could use managing.
10:35The dragon sovereign glanced back at Vivienne.
10:38Then he took my arm, and we left.
10:41The next morning, his household was buzzing.
10:44The Lycan Lord's new bride had lost favor on her wedding night.
10:48She'd insulted the sacred fire.
10:50He'd taken a sparrow shifter servant to his bed,
10:53and elevated her to second mate.
10:55Vivienne had locked herself in her chambers.
10:57That news traveled fast.
10:59I found a mineral spring in the upper realm.
11:01I went every night for a month.
11:03One night I arrived and heard laughter.
11:06I looked.
11:07Then I wished I hadn't.
11:08Vivienne was in the water.
11:10With two men.
11:11Two dragon shifters.
11:13Junior officers by the look of them.
11:15I left quietly.
11:16The heat didn't go away.
11:18I wandered the grounds trying to walk it off.
11:20Aldrich was outside his own chambers.
11:22Not sleeping either.
11:24He looked like the night had gotten into him.
11:26Dragonkind had their own rhythms.
11:28Their own seasons.
11:29I looked at him for a moment.
11:31Then I made a decision.
11:32I used the oldest skill our bloodline carried.
11:35He would experience it as a dream.
11:38He wouldn't remember clearly.
11:41You're too thin.
11:42I don't know how you're holding yourself up.
11:44His skin against mine carried a faint, natural coolness.
11:48Like stone in a river.
11:50It moved through me like relief.
12:10I'd planned to clear the memory.
12:12He seemed not to have noticed.
12:14Or not to care.
12:15Then my body reminded me of something.
12:17I recognized the feeling immediately.
12:20I was pregnant.
12:22Around the same time.
12:23So was Vivian.
12:24The Lycan Lord's servants spread it everywhere.
12:27Seven heirs expected.
12:28A miracle for a clan that hadn't produced children in generations.
12:32The keep rejoiced.
12:34Even Aldrich's household received the announcement.
12:36I thought about those two men in the spring.
12:38I hoped for her sake.
12:40She knew what she was carrying.
12:42She came to see me a few weeks later.
12:44Surrounded by attendants.
12:46She looked radiant.
12:47She always found a way to look radiant.
12:49She pressed her hand to my stomach.
12:51Then looked at my broom.
12:52I thought you'd found yourself a dragon sovereign.
12:55Looks like you're still sweeping floors.
12:57I'm going to be named Holy Sovereign of the Lycan Clan.
13:00First woman in a thousand years to carry their heirs.
13:03The clan elder promised.
13:05Once these children come, I'll have everything.
13:08You should stay away from my hall once I'm settled.
13:11Don't embarrass yourself pretending we're still family.
13:14She turned.
13:15With a gesture, she scattered dead leaves across the path I'd just cleaned.
13:20Then Aldrich appeared.
13:21The leaves reversed direction and hit Vivian in the face.
13:26My household staff aren't yours to entertain yourself with.
13:30I'm carrying the Lylan Lord's A's.
13:33You wouldn't dare hurt me.
13:35My wife is also expecting.
13:38You disrespect her.
13:40I haven't begun to address that yet.
13:42You.
13:43You have no bond.
13:44No ceremony.
13:46No standing.
13:47You're a hollowborn with a child and no covenant.
13:53Mara became my wife before heaven and earth witnessed it.
13:57This stone is my line's oldest heirloom.
14:00It belongs to her now.
14:02She is my mate in full.
14:06A messenger arrived from the High Court.
14:08Mara of the Holy Maiden Bloodline, recognized for valor in defense of a sacred site, is hereby elevated to Holy
14:14Sovereign.
14:15Her bonding to the Dragon Sovereign Aldrich is sanctioned and recorded.
14:19Let it be so.
14:20Vivian's eyes filled.
14:22She cried silently, and the tears were not the soft kind.
14:25The Lichen Lord arrived shortly after.
14:28Dragon Sovereign, I apologize.
14:31The pregnancy is affecting her temperament.
14:33Aldrich looked at her one last time.
14:35She could use a firmer hand.
14:37Then he brought me home.
14:40That night.
14:42Do you remember it?
14:44My gift of recall isn't something your bloodline's arts can touch.
14:48You were never dreaming either.
14:51I wanted you.
14:52I've wanted you since I watched you fight a sacred fire to save animals that weren't yours and people who
14:59didn't deserve it.
15:01I took you to my bed.
15:03I owe you a name for it.
15:05A name isn't enough.
15:06So I owe you the formal bond, witnessed by heaven and earth, and every treasure in my line, and the
15:13largest bonding celebration the realm has seen in a century.
15:17You'll have all of it, after the children come, when you're ready.
15:23But you are mine, Mara.
15:27That part was settled the moment I chose it.
15:29I held on to him, and for the first time since waking into this second life, I didn't have to
15:34hold myself together.
15:36My body moved through the pregnancy with almost uncanny ease.
15:39I was tired, and hungry for strange things, and I slept too long.
15:44Vivian's nights were another matter.
15:46She screamed through them, every night, longer.
15:50The Lycan Lord put a silencing ward around her wing.
15:53It didn't reach the gossip.
15:54They sent fire-aspected tonics, womb-strengthening remedies.
15:58All of it intensified the fire.
16:01None of it helped the mother.
16:02She came to show off, still.
16:04By the time I saw her, she was enormous.
16:07Her face had hollowed out.
16:08Her hands and feet were swollen.
16:10She moved like it hurt.
16:12I took her arm before she fell.
16:14You shouldn't be walking around like this.
16:16She shook me off.
16:18My husband says movement makes labor easier.
16:21He knows more about this than you do.
16:23He knows Lycan physiology.
16:25That's not the same thing.
16:27She looked at me with complete contempt.
16:28You're jealous.
16:30You've got that cold little belly, and you know I've won.
16:35Seven heirs.
16:37Seven!
16:38What do you have?
16:40One.
16:43I'm going to be holy sovereign of the most ancient shifter bloodline in the realm.
16:48My children will be legends.
16:51Yours will be a footnote.
16:53She used her power to scatter leaves across my clean steps on the way out.
16:56I watched her go.
16:58Vivian.
16:59What's going to happen when those children arrive?
17:02And none of them are what anyone's expecting?
17:05Vivian went into labor before me.
17:07I brought snacks and found a good position near the back.
17:10She'd been sending celebration suites to every household in the upper realm since she announced the pregnancy.
17:16Half the realm had shown up to witness the arrival of the Lycan clown's first heirs in a thousand years.
17:23The Lycan lord paced outside.
17:25His entire extended family had come in.
17:28The high court had sent observers.
17:30They weren't there to congratulate anyone.
17:32They were there to record.
17:34I spotted the two dragon shifters from the spring, both very still.
17:38Vivian screamed from midday to sunset.
17:41Then she went quiet.
17:42The crowd held its breath.
17:44The attending midwife came out first.
17:46Then six attendants behind her.
17:49One after another.
17:50Seven children.
17:51The Lycan lord went to look.
17:53He picked up the first one.
17:55It shifted in his hands.
17:57Black scales.
17:58His face had gone very wrong.
18:00What is this?
18:01My lord, please, don't.
18:03The Lycan lord looked at him.
18:05Then at the child.
18:06Then back.
18:07He understood.
18:08He picked up the next five.
18:11One by one.
18:12His hands were shaking by the third.
18:14None of them were Lycan.
18:16He looked up at the crowd.
18:18Hundreds of witnesses.
18:19The high court observers with their recording stones.
18:22Then six more men stepped forward from different directions.
18:26Each one claiming a child.
18:28The seventh child was half sparrow.
18:31The same bloodline as the servant Vivian had despised enough to betray on purpose.
18:35The crowd didn't make any sound for a long moment.
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