Prologue

Scarface stumbled towards the ocean, into the bounding waves. Letting all the misery and pain wash away with the receding tide. Red spun into the water as the salt seeped into the newest scrapes and gashes on his tail. He winced, but bit back the pain. It wasn’t always like this. He didn’t always have these scars.

The X shaped one over his heart, where the NightDragon Queen had almost succeeded in sending him into the land of Eternal Slumber. And the one almost directly above his eye, where the ferocious new Queen of the DiamondDragons had attempted to replicate that feat, only in a more painful way.

And of course, the one on the side of his face. Where else would he have gotten his name? Being the most prominent and visible scar, it had inspired his new nickname, Scarface.

The jeering villagers had relentlessly called it out whenever he passed by, the sound of the crying dragonets soon drowning it out, until he could take it no more and eventually had to leave.

Scarface sighed and looked down at his claws, rippling beneath the blue ocean waves. From this angle, they looked like ordinary dragon talons. Looking at them from this way, you couldn’t see the nasty scars that marred them.

One day, he hoped dragons could ignore the scars and just see him.

Not the Scary Scarred Dragon.

Not Scarface.

Just Canyon, the dragon he was supposed to be.