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People from select bloodlines could change into dragons and were considered invaluable warriors, even though there were many accounts of rogue dragon-borne wreaking havoc. Most dragon-born families were "protected" (a fancy term for imprisoned, if not enslaved) by the realm in which they lived and forced to serve in that realm's military. There was an illusion of honour and prestige, but dragon-borne freedoms were extremely limited. They were little more than prized possessions, like exotic pets for others to control and flaunt.

I was dragon-borne, but when I was a child, our reserve was raided for children like me, not by officials of the realm, but a band of outlaws seeking to amass their own dragon-borne army. They forced us into our dragon forms and kept us in them by way of enchanted collars and shackles that prevented us from turning back.

We were abused for years while the outlaws used us to attack their enemies. We were even made to battle our own brethren. We moved around constantly, never staying in one place for too long before the threat of being found and attacked forced us to move again. At some point I had been a dragon for so long that I had forgotten I could turn back.

The few of us that still remained after those long years were finally freed by a group of fellow dragon-borne who operated on their own, independent of a realm, side-by-side with humans. They introduced themselves as the "Seijō Guild", mercenaries with the ultimate goal of liberating all dragon-borne. I didn't trust them at first and made many attempts to fight them or get away, but they were persistent in their efforts, even going so far as to hunt me down again when I eventually did manage to escape.

Hanamaki, Iwaizumi, and Kindaichi were dragon-borne, while Matsukawa, Oikawa, and Kunimi were their respective "dragoniers". Yahaba was a scholar and a healer, Watari a former knight, Kunimi and Matsukawa were mages, and Oikawa the self-proclaimed leader of them all with an ambiguous history. Thusly, Iwaizumi also had some command over Hanamaki and Kindaichi, and later myself.

After so much time spent as a dragon, even with the freedom to change into a human again, I preferred not to. Trying to adjust back to the full range of thought and emotion humans possessed was more challenging than I cared to deal with at the time. Thankfully the Guild was mostly accommodating when it wasn't inconvenient to travel around with a creature as large as a dragon.

There were three other dragon-borne that had been liberated alongside me that the Guild convinced to stick around as well, but they didn't stay long. One of them was significantly more volatile than even myself and skittishly tried to make a break for it in a very sketchy neck of the woods that just so happened to be the hunting grounds of a group of poachers that took them out without hesitation.

Another, Kuroo, was far more collected than the rest of us ever were and often spoke about returning to his homeland in Nekoma. The Guild helped him do that and eventually reunited him with his childhood friend Kenma, who would later become his dragonier.

Then there was Akaashi, who, like me, didn't really have anywhere to return to. He had always kept to himself and could be a little prickly at times, but I never got to know him beyond that. I got the impression that he had been somewhat close with Kuroo, however, since he became noticeably more moody after Kuroo parted ways with the Guild.