During Avery’s youth, one of the king’s advisors, who also acted as Avery’s teacher, tricked Avery. Leading Avery to be the untrusting person of present.

    The teacher convinced Avery that his life would be at risk if he easily gave his trust. Due to all the civil wars and royal family strifes recorded in history, the young and gullible Avery believed these words. The teacher even advised Avery not to trust him, which inadvertently made Avery trust the teacher even more. Avery started to become wary of others, especially at the sign of goodwill.

    His family honestly tried to spoil Avery, yet it seemed to push him away. After the Queen’s death, they were uncertain what to do with the youngest who had developed such trust issues. The King’s decision to name Avery crown prince was to show that he cared about Avery, Avery was unaware that his elders brothers had also agreed with the king’s decision. 

    This confused Avery, as traditionally the youngest should be least likely to be chosen, and because he was blind to how much his family cared about him. Avery emotionally distanced himself from them. He was afraid this title would make his life a target by other members of his bloodline. He did not want the title, but felt he couldn’t come forward with this complaint. So he kept it to himself.

    Because Avery feared his life would be endangered, he took his martial and magical training extremely seriously. He had an extreme gift in magic, and greatly excelled in casting. And his swordsmanship improved immensely.

    And in his teens, this skills protected his life many times over. as he feared, he became the target of assassination attempts. However, whoever wanted him dead could not be traced. Causing the wariness Avery felt towards his family to grow. As he believed one of his brothers to be behind this matter. 

    Avery never felt at risk, even if the culprit could not be found. Avery dealt with the assassins with ease unexpected for someone sheltered in the castle. However his luck did not last long, while humoring his elder brother, Avery joined him for tea. Even with the presence of silver, Avery was oblivious that the tea was poisoned. And nearly died.

    Between the immediate use of an antidote spell (which was greatly weakened because of the self healing casting) and the soon arriving royal mages and doctors; Avery barely pulled through. Even with the resources available to the crown prince, it took months to recover. 

    His brother was put under house arrest, but no other punishment was given. Avery was furious over this, as he truly believed it had to be his brother. Even if it felt too obvious. But Avery didn’t intend to pursue the matter. He just wanted to leave. And wanted to leave behind his identity as crown prince. He just wanted to carve out life some place where no one knew him or had reason to pay him mind.

    So he planned to fake his death. His planned involved making a scene and with the help of complex magic. he would leap out into the treacherous sea at the castle base and slip away. Because flying magic doesn’t exist, Avery would have to use wind to break his fall while still appearing like he fell normally, as well as to get away while remaining under the waves. The magic control as well as the number of spells needing to be layered, no one would believe he could do it. But Avery was confident.

    However when he set his plan in motion, he was interrupted during his fall. A dragon of all beings grabbed him out of the air. Because Avery had focused all of his magic into breaking his fall, and couldn’t immediately prepare new spells. He was left to the mercy of the dragon who started to fly over the open seas.

    The dragon carried Avery in its mouth, and was surprisingly gently. Avery considered that the dragon would eat him alive, but he remembered that there was a species of people who could shape shift into dragons. They hadn’t been seen in centuries, but what if this dragon was one of those high dragon people.

    Avery attempted to communicate with the dragon. Trying to see if it would let him at least ride on its back, instead of in its mouth. But he was ignored. Avery started to have doubts about his conclusions.

    When they did landed over half a day later on a foreign shore, Avery immediately inquired if the dragon was a high dragon. If he still got no response and things looked bad, Avery intended to fight. Although he ended up not having to.

    The dragon immediately introduced himself as Vander, and transformed into a person. Uncertain if the dragon was familiar with his identity (and in the midst of almost introducing himself as Avery), Avery introduces himself as “Avi”.

    During their conversations, Avery learns that the dragon believed the other people had pushed Avery from the castle top. Avery phrased his response poorly, claiming that he had jumped intentionally, that drew the dragon’s concern.

    Avery just wanted to be left alone, and tried to part with vander. But Vander adamantly expressed his concerns for Avery wellbeing, and completely ignored Avery explanations. The dragon did not believe Avery was capable of casting the complex spells he described.

    Avery just wanted to rest at this point and came to an agreement with Vander. They would travel together until they reached a town. At that point Vander could decide if he believed Avery, and Avery had otherwise proved his mental soundness and if yes: they would part ways.

    However Vander did not bring it up when they arrived to a town several days later. (They walked, as Avery wanted nothing to do with riding a dragon after being stuck in Vander’s mouth for half a day). Avery felt it beneath himself to bring it up, as why would he care about Vander’s opinion.

    And this stubbornness proceeded to leave him stuck with a dragon, as Vander was planning to wait until Avery brought the matter up.

    Avery took one a job as an adventurer, as it did not require a background check or identification papers, while he traveled far and wide with Vander trying to find the perfect place to settle down.

    During his travels, Avery inadvertently let his guard down around Vander, coming to the conclusion that the dragon couldn’t possibly hold ill will or intend harm to Avery. Avery enjoyed being able to trust someone finally, but had no clue how to positively express it. And intends to protect Vander however he can.

    Although he trusts Vander without a doubt, he is still extremely wary towards anyone else.

((His and Vander’s relationship does eventually become romantic, but it happens so gradually that neither really acknowledge it))