Chapter 0 — The Rooster Who Dreamed of Being a Dragon
Lil Red was not particularly large, nor especially fierce, nor even impressive to look at. His feathers were a simple rusty red—hardly the blazing crimson of the legendary roosters sung about in traveling folk songs. His comb flopped over his brow; his legs were a little too thin; his crow cracked embarrassingly in the mornings.
He was, in truth, an ordinary rooster.
But inside his small chest lived a dream far too big for his body:
Lil Red wanted to be a dragon.
No one in the village took him seriously, of course. The hens only clucked and preened as they always did. The old cow snorted whenever he practiced jumping, claiming even a dragon would struggle to lift his scrawny frame. The pigs rolled in their mud and laughed. Even the village children called out, "There goes Lil Red, practicing his dragon jumps again!"
But Lil Red paid them no mind.
He was already five years old.
Half my life gone, he thought. Dragons live for thousands of years. I… I barely have ten.
That realization haunted him every morning when he crowed the sun awake. That very thought tightened his small heart until it was no longer possible to stay in the safety of the coop. A dragon would never hide behind fences. A dragon would never accept an ordinary fate.
So one blue dawn, with frost silvering the fields, Lil Red climbed to the highest fence post in the village, puffed out his little chest, and whispered to himself:
"If I only have ten years… I will spend them chasing the sky."
He spread his wings—still stubby, still weak—and leapt into the cold wind.
He glided approximately three feet.
Then landed face-first in the dirt.
But he stood up, shook dust off his feathers, and marched toward the horizon.
Thus began the journey of Lil Red, the world's most determined rooster.
Two days into his grand adventure, Lil Red discovered he was not alone.
A young man walked the same road, tall and lean, carrying nothing more than a worn satchel across his shoulders. His steps were steady but aimless, as though he did not know where destiny wished to take him yet—but trusted that the road would reveal it.
Lil Red watched him from a distance at first.
The boy shared his food with stray animals.
He hummed quietly as he walked.
He slept beneath the stars with no fear.
He's brave, Lil Red decided.
Maybe he's a dragon in disguise.
So the rooster made a decision:
He would follow this human.
Secretly. Quietly. Always ten paces behind.
And the boy, for his part, never noticed the small red shadow traveling in his wake.
The Beginning of Strength Refinement
Lil Red's training began the very same week.
He needed strength.
Dragons were mighty. Roosters were… not.
So Lil Red devised his own training method:
• He pecked stones until his beak vibrated.
• He kicked tree roots until his legs tingled.
• He jumped off everything he could climb—even if he landed poorly.
• He chased squirrels, clouds, and sometimes his own shadow.
The boy he followed trained too, though in a human fashion—slow breathing exercises at twilight, strange stances that made no sense to a bird, and long silent meditations by riverbanks.
Lil Red often sat beside him, copying the posture with absolute sincerity, though his wings kept slipping.
Ten years passed like this.
Ten years of running across plains, sleeping under thickets, fleeing from foxes, fighting sparrows he had no business challenging, crowing at thunderstorms, and practicing jump after jump after jump until his wings grew strong enough to glide from tree branches.
Ten years beside the boy—never noticed, never acknowledged, yet never left behind.
Lil Red was no longer a scrawny village rooster. His legs were firm. His chest broad. His feathers glossy. His crow rolled like a tiny drum across the valleys.
And one crisp morning, as he stretched his wings atop a cliff overlooking miles of open country, something stirred inside him.
A warmth. A pulse. A quiet thrum of strength that had never been there before.
His claws dug into the stone. His breath steamed in the air. His heartbeat drummed like a warrior ready to claim the sky.
Lil Red had broken through.
He didn't know the name of it— but the heavens did.
Strength Refinement — Martial Initiate.
A realm no rooster had ever touched.
He flapped his wings once.
The world trembled beneath him, slightly.
Lil Red stared at the horizon, eyes bright with foolish hope.
Dragons… I'm coming.
And somewhere down the road ahead, the young man he followed turned briefly, frowning toward the distant cliff—
as though sensing something awakening behind him.
Lil Red puffed out his chest and let out the strongest crow of his life.
The journey had only just begun.