INFANCY & EARLY CHILDHOOD

Zelda Esther Morgenstern was born November 24th, 1995, the only daughter of Adara Morgenstern and the result of a liasion with Theodore Luther, her ex-lover. At this point in time, the Dragon Riders were in disarray. A year before, a group of riders had betrayed their own, including Theodore and his twin sister, Tabitha. Because of the pregnancy, Adara had lost all credibility. She was supposed to be a hero, but she had fraternized with a traitor. The other riders wanted nothing to do with her baby.

Despite this, Zelda's first three years were good. Her mother adored and cherished her. She had a second mother in Seraphiel, Adara's bondmate. But Adara continued her secret mission given to her by the leader of the Riders. She simply brought Zelda along with her. She had a job to do and there was no one else she could trust with her daughter, as her parents were members of the Dragonforce and simply too busy. But Adara and Seraphiel failed.

No one knows the full story. Adara was killed by Tabitha Luther, her former best friend. All they knew was by sheer willpower, Seraphiel ferried the toddler to safety before dying from the loss of her bondmate.

It was a difficult decision to decide what to do with the now orphaned Zelda. Her grandparents wished to take her, but they were too important and too busy to have the time to properly care for such a young child. In the end, her aunt agreed to take custody of her. So she was sent to live with her aunt and uncle, Odelia and Herbert Klein, in a small town in New York.

CHILDHOOD

Unfortunately, Odelia held a bitter resentment towards her older sister, Adara. This led to her being unnecessarily hard on her niece. When Zelda first arrived, her aunt and uncle were in the process of trying to have their own child. About six months after she was taken in, the doctors gave Odelia horrible news: she wasn't able to have children. That afternoon, Odelia took her anger and grief out on Zelda.

It got worse from there. Both her aunt and uncle treated her terribly. They were verbally and emotionally abusive. When Zelda expressed a fear of the dark, Odelia refused to let her sleep with a nightlight. Herbert, who was a chain smoker, refused to smoke outside when Zelda developed asthma. She was belittled and berated for being softhearted and a crybaby. When she started school, she was quiet and timid. She struggled to make friends and was subjected to bullying. But her teachers all agreed she was a kind and bright little girl.

As she got older, the abuse escalated. Odelia limited what Zelda could eat so she "wouldn't get fat like her mother." She was never allowed to go clothes shopping and was given hand me downs from the extended family. Her only toys were stuffed animals her mother had given her, worn with time. She was punished severely for every little mistake she made, from being grounded to being beaten with a belt. Then, one day, when Zelda came home upset from school, Herbert had had "enough of her bellyaching" and took his lit cigarette and burned the inside of her arm. After that, he burned her just for the humor of it.

Zelda was incredibly alone. There was nowhere safe for her—not home or at school. And yet, she still remained a sweet, kind-hearted girl. No matter how terrible her aunt and uncle were to her, she continued to smile. She took to drawing and writing for comfort. And despite how she was denied any access to her family's life with dragons, she was absolutely fascinated by the creatures.

This would all change, however, when the Kleins were invited to a Morgenstern family reunion that they were most definitely not allowed to skip.

1ST YEAR AT DRAGON'S BLOOD ACADEMY

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