Sunlight shone through the glass of the secondary door as a woman stared out to the street of their suburban home with perfectly manicured green grass. A single white car sat in the left corner half of the driveway with plenty of room remaining for a second vehicle to pull along with it.

The humanoid woman smiled in pure excitement and made a quick sweep of their home to make sure everything in the house was in order.

She had thoroughly vacuumed the cream carpet and rugs, and the hardwood floors in the kitchen and two bathrooms swept, mopped, and polished to perfection.

Not a speck of dust remained in the house on anything, and even the freshly cleaned windows sparkled.

"The house is clean," the woman breathed in a sing-song voice as she stopped in front of a polished antique mirror near the door and checked her reflection. She wore the typical outfit for her kind, a white and gold hooded cape with shapes for her ears tied together with a beautiful matching embroidered scarf with blue also added to the design. Underneath her traditional outfit, she wore a simple blue velvet dress with two pearl strings that hung around her hips.

Black eyeliner accented her blue eyes, and a hint of blush made her cheeks stand out against her reddish-cream skin. Her pink lips shone with a bit of gloss, and everything was perfect. She was beautiful and had done everything to look her best for today.

She brushed her long brown hair out of her face with her fingers as she properly folded the hems of her cloak hood to display the blue closed meander pattern with stars outlined in yellow in the center of each geometric pattern. The meanders were the pattern of her family, but the gold and white stars added to the design belonged to her husband's family.

With her hood secured, she carefully adjusted her matching white cape off of her shoulders. "Everything is perfect," she assured herself, though she seemed a bit unsure. "Even if it isn't, he will still say it is," she promised herself as she moved to pick up a small framed photo from the stand next to the mirror.

Before she could look at the picture, a baby's cry distracted her from pestering over her appearance or anything else in the room. "Akio, mommy's coming," she called in a motherly singing voice as she put the frame down and rushed down the hall to a small bedroom in the back of the home.

When she arrived, she approached the small rocking crib in the corner of the pale yellow-walled room. "Mommy's here," the woman promised as she gingerly picked up the squalling two-month-old babe swaddled in a white blanket studded with gold stars hand-stitched into the cloth.

"There's no need to cry," she cradled the infant in her arms and gently rocked him back and forth as she sang a calming lullaby in her melodic alto voice.

"Stars shine bright on us tonight,

So calm and sleep my child,

And allow the dream makers to take you to lands of wonder.

Allow the waves of sleep to wash over you,

So sleep, my darling,

And wake to a better day."

As the lullaby continued, Akio yawned and snuggled into his mother's arms and slowly closed his bright yellow eyes. He cooed softly, then yawned one last time before he drifted to the realm of dreams.

The woman softly smiled down at her child and gently stroked the exposed cream skin to check for a fever, but he didn't. "you look so much like your father," she lovingly whispered as she carried him out of the room and back to the living space by the front door.

She blinked as she noticed the pale yellow furry ears that poked out from under the blanket. Though the babe's blond hair was wispy and practically invisible, the short strands of fur that coated his ears had already grown in like a carpet. "Oh, silly, you uncovered your ears again." She giggled, then gently pulled the blanket back over his ears. "At this rate, you're going to grow up into a teenager who cuts the ear coverings off their hoods. Ear coverings keep our ears warm in the winter and to be displays of prestige in the summers."

She looked at the picture frame again, then picked it up and gazed into the photo. "Liam never liked his hood when he was young either, but he looks so dashing in his uniform." She giggled as she gazed into the photo.

The man in the photo stared back with a stern expression of a military man posing for an official photo, but he still had a lively sparkle in his eyes. The man's bright yellow eyes stood out from his yellowish-cream skin. Though the woman knew his hair was pale blond, the hood of his uniform covered it up.

The man in the photo's uniform was the traditional formal wear for the army with a white coat, pants, and hood. His hood had the same star design as his family, while his suit had black and gold accents on the cuffs and shoulders.

The woman smiled softly at the photo. "Liam, I can't wait for you to see your son and hold both of us in your loving embrace." She placed the frame next to two other photos: one of their wedding and another of her and Akio on the day he was born. Happy tears welled in her eyes, "Then we can have a picture of all three of us together."

Akio stirred and reawakened, then looked to his mother with a whimper. At the sight of the tears, water welled up in his eyes as well.

"I'm okay," she promised as she dabbed away her tears with tissue from the box on the nearby table. "Mommy is just happy." She sniffled as she finished drying her tears.

When Akio stuck out his bottom lip and began to cry, the woman pulled out a pair of pale red feathered wings from beneath her cape. "Wanna play with mommy's feathers?" She cooed and dangled and wiggled the tips of the leading feathers of one of her wings in front of the child's face.

Akio blinked, then giggled as she wormed his arms out of the swaddling cloth, then waved his hands towards the feathers that were just out of reach of his grasping hands. He giggled playfully as his tears dried up.

None of her kind was born with wings. Her cape, which had been a gift from her husband for their first anniversary, magically created her wings.

One of the very few legal uses of magic, the mystical fabric, often called a dimensional cape, was mysterious in origin. No one knew how or when the first one appeared, and few people had ever figured out how to make them themselves. Sometimes the magic appeared on an already-existing article. Much of the time, the cloaks gained magic in times of need or after a selfless act. No matter their origin, the capes were beloved as gifts from the stars.

The capes came in many different styles and colors. Some of the more powerful ones even changed to fit the preferences of the wearer. All of them did have one thing in common: they summoned wings. A theory was the wings matched the soul of the wearer, but no one has proven anything yet.

"There you go," she smiled down to Akio as his tiny tears dried and left a giggling babe ready for his father's arrival. "Daddy doesn't need any tears; he needs a brave son that will grow up and help defeat the dark mage."

Akio simply continued to laugh and play with his mother's feathers, oblivious to the world. Nothing but he, his mother, and the magical feathers that dangled just out of his reach existed in his two-month-old mind.

Noises came from the front yard and distracted the woman away from her child and to the front door. "That must be him!" She stood on her toes for a moment, then shifted Akio to one arm as she bolted to the door.

She took a deep breath as she unbolted and unlocked the door, then opened it with a smile on her face. "Welc—" she froze as her mind struggled to take in exactly lay before her.

Monsters. Monsters in every shape and size roamed the streets, raiding houses, and destroying property in every direction.

The woman screamed and slammed the door shut as she frantically ran away from the door but tripped and fell to her hands and knees. Thankfully, her free arm caught her before she landed on the now-terrified child in her arms.

Panting, the woman scrambled back to her feet as the door shattered; shrapnel flew into her back. Thankfully, none of the splinters pierced her cape, scarf, or hood. She flinched as a roar sounded but did not look back as she attempted to flee into the basement.

Though she knew magic was against the law, she still blindly threw mana behind her and allowed it to take shape on its own. She knew her mana's basic ability was a shield. Hopefully, it would allow time to hide.

Akio cried as his mother tightly held him against her chest, but she had no time for thoughts of calming him.

A massive feathery form burst through the window at the end of the hall. The bulky grey bird with dark blue eyebrow feathers squawked angrily at her.

The barrier she had created broke with a beautiful but sickening twinkling sound of the magic shattering behind her.

She swiftly glanced up to the beaded string that dangled from the ceiling. With a frantic leap, she grabbed the hanging object mid-air. There was a click, and then the hidden hatch dropped.

A ladder fell and careened straight into the heron-like monster. It squawked furiously on impact and flared its wings as it struggled to free itself from the sturdy wooden construction.

The woman roughly landed on her feet, then ran to the basement door and put her hand on the doorknob.

"No!" She cried out in pain as the monster that broke her door tackled her to the ground with outstretched claws and pinned her under the weight. A thud and a crack sounded in the room at the same time.

In one swift movement, the woman was dead.

The babe continued to squall, much to the wolf monster's dismay. He growled as he stepped off of the woman, then paused as he noticed the blood on his claws. While the other monster continued to struggle with the ladder, he sat and licked the sticky red liquid off of his paws and tried to calm the static leaking from his side.

With a final heave and the sound of splintering wood, the bird monster broke the ladder and heaved it off of herself. "Why coo-dn't you have helped Wolfire!" She cawed in a monstrous feminine voice.

"Fearcrow, I am not going to help you in your time of weakness, I was going to de-bow-ur your magic before you dissolved." The masculine voice of the wolf monster sounded unamused as he checked his large paws for more blood. Once he determined they were pristine, he swatted the limp body at his feet away like a fly.

"Master will be pleased with this find, though I do wish it would stop howling." The beast spat a fireball into one of the side rooms, then leaned down and gripped the baby in his massive jaws lined with sharp teeth.

"Caw-ful! Master wants that alive!" The bird shook the shrapnel and glass shards out of her now-hazy brown and blue feathers, then jumped back as the fires in the other room spread. "You coo-ld have let me out first!" The thing cawed and jumped away from the heat of the flames.

Unable to speak with the squalling child in his mouth, the canid monster uncaringly snorted. He turned around and burst out of the room and through the door, not caring what he knocked over.

He barreled through the table by the door and flung both it and everything on it through the door. Once he crossed the threshold, he stomped across the scattered coins, keys, and small broken picture frames.

The avian beast hissed at her companion as she flew through the shattered window, even if her anger fell deaf on his ears.

The building collapsed into cinders behind the two beasts as they emerge into the chaos that engulfed the land.

Dragore, the massive gluttonous dragon, gleefully tore through houses, the trickster beast Magica blasted people apart with dark magical spells with painful results, and a multitude of other monsters destroyed buildings and ended the lives of people.

The annoying child continued to squall, but at least it was alive. Very few monsters had managed to keep the babies they captured alive.

In the center of it all, a thin hooded figure stood in the street, surrounded by an ominous swirl of black magic. Despite its imposing shape, it wasn't the real Master, just a magical manifestation. Master rarely left his fortress, mostly because he was training or creating more monsters.

The figure looked to Wolfire as the red wolf approached with the loud being. "Well done, Wolfire," the dark mists swirled and opened a portal next to him. "Bring the child to me and collect your award."

Wolfire obediently bounded through the portal and emerged into a large tiled room. The black stone was cold and unforgiving, and statues of monsters in various states of completion stood randomly scattered across the massive tiles.

"Drop it there, Wolfire," a hoarse voice sounded from the dark, seemingly coming from everywhere at once.

Wolfire flawlessly obeyed, though he did not have much of a choice to disobey the man who created him.

Freed from the wolf monster's jaws, Akio squirmed mindlessly, scared and too young to fully comprehend anything. He missed his mom and cried out in a fruitless plea for her to embrace him.

Wolfire backed away as his Master emerged from the mist. The powerful being was much different from the normal-looking illusion present during the raids. That merely represented his original form.

The necromancer's current form was far more monstrous. His thin form stood eight feet tall, and four curved horns adorned his head, the outer two larger than the inner two. Large black draconic wings hung erect behind him and framed his head when viewed from the front. The skin on his triangular head was dark and covered in wrinkles and a few scars, but he was very much alive.

"Excellent, Wolfire," a weathered hand with long, claw-like nails emerged from beneath the tall figure's cloak as he conjured a ball of purplish-black magic. He casually tossed the treat to the monster in front of him.

Wolfire grabbed the treat out of the air and swallowed hit, his body absorbing the energy. The wolf-like monster grinned as he felt the new power surge through him. The fur along his back now waved and emitted heat like real flames, and his tail was a stream of fire. "Thank you, Master." He bowed his head slightly.

"Now, leave me to work on our new subject." The king of monsters stated as he refocused on the still-crying baby in front of him.

Wolfire immediately turned and ran through a door that opened for him and briefly allowed light to flood the room.

Once the invisible door slammed shut, the Master looked down and refocused his attention to the blanket-wrapped babe with a sharp-toothed grin. Thankfully, the child had lost the energy or will to scream, but he had kicked himself free from the star-pattered blanket. "Now, to see if you will survive and be of use to me." He created a small sphere of dark magic in his fingers, then pressed the purple and black energy into the squirming baby's chest.

The infant pitifully cried out and howled in pain for a moment as the magic spread through its tiny veins. However, after a few moments, the baby began to laugh in pleasure.

"Yes, the first bit hurts the worst, but you are a survivor," The dark mage grinned in pleasure as he began to create another, larger sphere of magic. "Unlike the others, you survived." A dastardly grin spread across his face. "Finally, a monster with the potential for a decent level of intelligence."

He paused, "Now, how to best use you to mess with the rest of our disgraceful species and destroy them unless they see things my way." He hummed as he fiddled with the magic in his clawed fingers.

Soon, a despicable grin spread across his face as he stopped flipping the pages and began to shape the transformative magic. "I can use the blanket as a material base for wings. They are a must and add silence to those flaps and padded paws for stealth." He paused as the magic continued to form like putty in its hand, "heavily armored with scales, this will be a killing machine that is ruthless and unstoppable."

After a few more moments, he looked at the magical shape and studied it in his hands. The draconic form in his hand seemed like the perfect monster. The winged serpentine creature had sharp fangs and glowing eyes on its horned triangular head. The dragon's scales and spikes gleamed, and its muscular form and claws could shred anything it desired.

"He will be obedient, but still able to make decisions and strategize. He will be an intelligent killer." He fine-tuned a few details, then paused and studied his work to make sure it satisfied him. "A monster, despite his origins.

"Perfect," the dark mage grinned as a deep chuckle escaped his throat. "I dub you a name in the language of the ancients," he slowly pressed the carefully created transformative magic into the child in his arms and watched his new creation take shape, "Hoshiryu."

The babe squirmed as his entire body became engulfed in the dark purple magic and slowly transformed. The blanket that swaddled him unwrapped and magically became flesh and bone wings attached to his back. The infant squirmed as a tail sprouted from his back and tore his clothes apart. His limbs lengthened and strengthened, his hands and feet turned into large paws with sharp retractable claws. He released a wail that transitioned into a pitiful roar as his face lengthened as sharp teeth filled his mouth.

When the glow faded, the Master scowled. "Not the result I was expecting."

The babe had turned into a dragon, but nothing like the image the necromancer had crafted.

The now-unconscious babe had transformed into something vaguely draconic, with the basic body shape, but was bulkier and boxier than the sleek design he had hopped. Much to the necromancer's disgust, the infant dragon was mammalian in appearance and covered in soft pale yellow fur with a lighter underside that even covered the lower jaw of his squared muzzle.

"Your natural magic resisted mine," the evil sorcerer concluded as he studied the transformed infant, "but perhaps you will still be useful. We can use that magic to wreak havoc on my enemies.

"Nageneral!" His summoning bellow opened a portal.

A four-armed serpentine monster slithered out of the portal, and it closed behind her. "You ssssssummoned, massssssster?" The creature flicked her tongue as she bowed. Her chain mail rattled with every move.

"Take this new monster to training. Start with a growth serum injection." The dark mage dropped both the new monster into the waiting serpent creature's arms. "Don't put him into his cage until he either succeeds your requirements for the day or collapses."

"Yessssss massssssster," the serpentine being thoughtlessly carried the completely unconscious Hoshiryu by the scruff of his neck in one hand.

"This monster is special, do not kill him. Train him physically and magically. Give me a report on his progress once a week." The dark mage stood up straight as his commanding tone echoed around the room.

"As you command," Nageneral bowed.

"Dismissed," the evil lord stated, then turned to one of the statues and began to sculpt and animate on the next monstrous project.

The snake monster obediently carried the new addition to the army back through the portal.

Author Notes!

And now we have the origin story of a monster! What do you guys think of Hoshiryu? Is the Master trustworthy?

I love hearing your thoughts and reactions!