This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

The ancient mountain of Pyreth had slumbered for three centuries, its volcanic heart beating in slow, steady rhythms that echoed through the caverns deep within its core. Here, in chambers carved from obsidian and veined with gold, dwelt Draconis—a dragon whose scales shimmered like captured starlight against midnight waters. His massive form had remained motionless for decades, curled around a treasure hoard that gleamed with the accumulated wealth of ages.

But on this particular morning, as the first rays of dawn painted the mountain peaks in shades of amber and rose, something stirred within the great beast's chest. It was not the familiar hunger for gold or the territorial instinct that had driven him to claim this peak as his domain. This was something altogether different, something that made his ancient heart quicken with an emotion he had never experienced in his eight hundred years of existence.

Draconis lifted his great head, ruby eyes opening to survey his domain. The sensation that had awakened him was like a flame that had been kindled in the deepest part of his being, warming him from within in a way that his own fire breath never could. He unfurled his wings, stretching muscles that had grown stiff from long rest, and felt the strange new feeling pulse through every membrane and sinew.

As he moved through his cavern, the dragon's massive claws clicked against the stone floor, sending echoes bouncing off the crystalline formations that hung from the ceiling like frozen tears. He had always taken pride in his solitude, in the fierce independence that marked him as one of the last great dragons of the old world. Yet now, for the first time in his long life, that solitude felt less like strength and more like an ache that resonated through his very bones.