Zhen Xiong's Links
Zhen's beloved father and king of their clan. Zhen gets a bit upset that he doesn't get to spend a lot of time with Shen. Though he does respect his father and understands the condition of his position despite his young age.
Made to take the throne at a young age due to his father's untimely death, Shen was rushed into a world full of politics and intrigue.
Only a couple years after that, due to the untimely death of his father and Shen's young age and inexperience as a lord it was demanded that he produce an heir so as to continue his line should Shen come to an early end like his father.
Shen had little choice in this matter, for the alternative would be for the crown to be overthrown and replaced with a more suitable ruler.
The child he came to father was named Zhen, born through the unconventional use of magic between himself, Zhang and Qiu, leaving him as a young dragon with a great deal of magic that hadn't been seen in a long time.
Shen cares deeply for his son and regrets being unable to spend as much time as he would like with him, occasionally, days passing by without so much of a glimpse of his son the paperwork has been piled so high.
However, when given time to spend with the young prince and his heir, Shen is sure to teach his son a great deal, or as much as he can of the kingdom's politics, the land and people they govern.
Due to these brief periods of time, Shen will also often spoil the young prince much to Zhang's chagrin, being the more serious of the parental units.
Regardless of their limited time, Shen loves his son dearly and hopes to live a long life so that Zhen will never have to succeed the throne at such a young age as Shen had to.
Zhen is unaware that Zhang is one of his fathers and so he treats him as nothing more than a servant, though one he treasures and would be very upset to see leave him...
Zhang is quite attached to his son Zhen and cares deeply for him.
However, due to concerns of heresy or refusal to the throne, Zhang remains silent of Zhen's relation to him.
Rather than that, Zhang remains close to his son through his most recent posting as a palace servant and assigned caretaker of the young prince.
A more serious man from his experiences, his title as duke of the kingdom revoked many years past and his name sullied, Zhang plays the part of a stoic servant.
He scolds the boy when necessary and spars with the boy to train him in the art of warfare to be able to protect himself. Scolding and training Zhen when necessary.
Despite his rough and stoic exterior, Zhang spoils Zhen as a father might on rare occasions.
He also goes about teaching him the basics of royal etiquette to one day take the throne as he himself was once a duke in the kingdom before a chain of events unfolded surrounding the death of Shen's father.
And due to his royal lineage within his own clan, and the death of his older brother, he's being called back to his own clan to take the throne, leaving him in a difficult position...
Zhen has mixed feelings towards Qiu. He is often rather annoyed by the cryptic responses to his questions that this dragon wishes to find his amusement from, but even so Zhen goes out of his way to try and find the answer with or without any outside help. Qiu is difficult for the young prince to understand or read which tends to deter him from being in the other's presence unless absolutely necessary or he seeks answers to questions no one else seems to know or cares to answer. If it came down to it though, Zhen probably relates quite easily to Qiu since they both seem to be relatively detached from most people. Despite the aggravation of feeling toyed with, Zhen would probably have to say he still enjoys Qiu's company.
Zhen's legal godfather and also the one who brought Zhen into the world through powerful magic.
Qiu often acts aloof and can more often than not be found lazing somewhere in the castle though he is much older than anyone who currently lives in the castle.
He often enjoys being mischievous with Zhen and adores giving the young prince cryptic answers to his questions feeling this would help him develop and learn to solve puzzles and answer questions for himself. Though he had to admit he loved answering questions with more questions when it came to answering questions even Zhen's parents would not reveal to him.
When not doing any of these things he enjoys spending time with Zhen and speaking to the young prince as an equal or of things Zhen wishes to speak of. Though very magical it cannot be said that Qiu has ever spoiled the young prince in any way other than with knowledge.
Upon first meeting Xuihcoatl Zhen had mistaken him for his own father due to the similarity in their eye colour. While Zhen is still in the dark about who his real father is, there was no doubt in his mind that this bodyguard is the man he thinks to be his other father (He has been told that he has two fathers, which he blindly accepts). Xuicoatl's denial has only spurred the young prince to delve more on the subject, thus he has become quite attached to the quiet bodyguard who seems to only humor it out of uncertainty for how to handle the situation.
Zhen finds Bai to be infuriating sometimes because the older dragon seems to be very... patronizing, to say the least. Regardless though, he tolerates him because he is Xuihcoatl's brother. Zhen feels he is a lot like Qiu since he likes to speak in riddles just for the fun of it and to tease the young prince much to his chagrin.