Grendel

He couldn't take it anymore, mother was so mean! To them and to Papa! So he ran away when she wasn't looking. But it was so, so cold, and he was so hungry… maybe he should go home? But that would mean punishment, and he didn't want to be punished, mother's punishments were so scary!

Besides, he didn't think he could go home if he wanted to… nothing here looked familiar, and the trees were too tall to be anywhere near mother's castle. Just as the hatchling wanted to give up and lay down in the snow, he spotted something. A dip down under a log, and it looked dry! Scrambling, the hatchling squeezed into the small cave and curled up, this was much warmer! Now feeling safe, he felt himself drift off, dozing for a few hours until the crunching of massive paws on snow made the hatchling jolt awake.

"You're sure they said there was someone out here Libra?"

"Yes Beowulf , since when has Heather ever been wrong about what happens in their forest?"

The first voice was deep, and almost shook the very earth, while the other was light, but held a sharpness to it.

"Beo, Look, paw prints!"

"Too small to be an Adult, so they belong to an obelisk hatchling from the looks of it."

He felt his insides go cold. He would be found and returned to Mother, and by common folk! She would hate that more than his running away. Collapsing to the floor, he barely noticed when massive claws grabbed him and gently pulled him out, or when tiny talons ran through his mane. He definitely didn't remember the pleading babbles to not be returned home, back to mother and her cruelty, or the look the two adults shared.

No, he didn't remember, the panic attack making things too hazy to recall clearly. But being found was the best thing to ever happen to him, as the two didn't bring him home. Instead he was given a new name, Grendel, and raised by Beowulf and Libra as a bounty hunter and a warrior.

Grendel remembered the cruelty his father by birth faced, and wasn't content to leave the wildclaw trapped. He had studied under a master tracker and a brilliant strategist and warrior, he would put those skills to use. He would break his father's binds and make mother pay, he swore it, and his teachers would help make it happen.