Plot

Years before the events of Dawn of Dragons, we first meet our adventurers as children. A young Benedict works with his father, Erebus, in the blacksmith shop on a commissioned sword with a unique pommel while his cousin Cordelia greets them with her mother Lorahana. Meanwhile Zorin and Zane sneak into the Howling Mountain Inn and spy on a few dwarven miners. Sophie and Cordelia later meet up at the stables to care for a horse while their friends bring news of an adventure that will change their lives.

In the early morning light of the quiet town of OallEnAkhan, young Benedict Shieldheart (Jesse Davis) works with his adoptive father Erebus Shieldheart (Jesse Phillips) to forge a greatsword commissioned by Lord Pallus, the local justice. Young Benedict works the bellows to keep the forge hot while his father rolls the steel blank in the coals until the metal reaches the correct temperature.

Distracted by the sculpture sitting on the nearby table, Benedict finds himself feeling unsettled. The sculpture is of a dragon turtle worked in fine detail, crafted of strong mithril with red garnet eyes. Feeling as though the piece is calling to him, in his distraction, an errant ember burns his arm, bringing his attention back to the task at hand.

The morning passes as the man and boy work together, sweating hard and lost in the rhythm of the work. Lorahana Shieldheart (Laura Jerdak), Erebus' wife and Benedict's adoptive mother, interrupts along with Cordelia Shieldheart (Arianna Atchley), Benedict's younger cousin and Erebus and Lora's daughter. Lora brings them a midday meal of freshly baked bread, smoked trout, and cool water, which Erebus and Benedict gladly break from their work to enjoy. Cordelia meanwhile, focuses on the glowing hot metal of the nascent sword and the heat of the forge, fascinated, but keeping a respectful distance.

Cordelia chatters to her cousin Benedict of her plans to visit her friend Sophie (Sabrina Patten) later in the day, while Erebus and Lora quietly discuss how proud his father would be of the young boy, and the promise he shows in blacksmithing. They cannot help but make comparisons to Benedict's older brother, Zane Shieldheart (Stormy Cone), who is very different from the boy. Though they see both boys as ultimately good children, Zane is seen as an undisciplined and unfocused, free spirited child, though he reminds them of their sworn sister, Elona, the two boys' mother, whose loss still saddens both Erebus and Lorahana.

Across town another young lad, Zorin (Gryffn Foote) practices honing his awareness of the world around him based on what he can hear rather than what he can see, noting the sound of a window being closed, a cat pattering along a rooftop, and the soft sigh of the arid breeze. Zorin fails to notice his best friend Zane though, hiding behind a stack of barrels outside the locked rear entrance to the town's only tavern, the Howling Mountain Inn.

Mischief in his eyes, Zane gains his friend's attention with a whispered sound, and the two boys stealthily begin trying to sneak in through the locked door using a set of lockpicks Zane had gifted Zorin for the inevitable buried treasure the boys were convinced they would find someday when they were pirates. Zorin, as the son of the town's justice, Lord Pallus, was the more nervous of the two, but picked the lock easily nevertheless, letting Zane take the lead into the building.

As Zane leans in to scope out the empty kitchen, Zorin can't help but notice the horrible scar on his friend's forearm, remembering how proud Zane was that he got it saving his younger brother Benedict from the fire that had killed the two boys' parents. The loss of their parents was why Zane and Benedict had been adopted by Erebus and Lorahana Sheildheart, who raised them alongside their daughter Cordelia.

The family had moved to town five years ago and Zorin - then called Ariakan - had been the quiet, mopey kid shyly watching them move in and unpack. Zane had been the one to suggest the new name, laughingly telling the younger boy "Ariakan" was too big of a name, and suggesting Zorin instead since it had a 'Z' in it like his name. The two had been fast friends ever since.

Back in the present, Zane and Zorin sneak into the kitchen, using the shelves of the baker's pantry to climb up and reach the rafters of the building. Balancing on the wide beams, the two boys crossed from the kitchen to the dining room, Zorin catching Zane when a distracted misstep almost had him tumbling down the twelve foot drop to the tables below.

Reaching the rows of bookcases in the back, Zane and Zorin use them the same way they'd used the baker's pantry in the kitchen, clambering down the shelves as though they were a ladder. Now in the dining room with none the wiser, they begin to look for patrons to eavesdrop on. Finding only two tables occupied - one with the solitary elven ranger Elloveve Hawklight, and another with a trio of dwarf miners (Mike Atchley) - the boys listen intently to the loud discussion happening among the dwarves.

The leader of the miners, Chieftain Ricarver Bearcharger, tells his men, Whitacin and Olacul, that he doesn't care about bad luck and he's determined the Mine will stay open as they've found worse than an old hallway plenty of times. Whitacin tries to reason with his chief, telling Ricarver that the other miners aren't worried about the hallway itself, but the possibility of what it might contain, warning him that something in the darkness seems to be calling to them.

Looking at one another in curiosity about this discovery, Zane and Zorin each steal a stale slice of spiced currant cake from a nearby shelf and climb back out before they can get caught.

In another part of town, young Sophie wipes down the small table in her home that she'd just used for lunch, and takes her plate and silverware to a sudsy bucket to clean them. The house is empty but for her, silent and lonely, and she looks to the front door as she cleans and dries her dishes as though hoping to see someone come through the door any moment now.

Kartilaan, Sophie's sister and guardian, is eighteen years old and six years older than Sophie. She is off earning money using her skills as a swordmaster currently, leaving Sophie home alone. Hard though it is for Sophie to walk the straight and narrow with her sister away, she makes a point of completing her chores before heading off to find her best friend, Cordelia, as planned.

She thinks briefly of Zane, whom she has feelings for, his recklessness and spontaneity a match for her own. She thinks also of Zorin and the marks she sees on his face whenever his father, Lord Pallus, is home. Hopefully with the justice out of town for a few days for a meeting, Zorin will have an easier time of it as she cares for him like a brother, as she does Benedict, and Cordelia like a sister.

Chores finished, Sophie rushes out to the stables to meet with Cordelia, where they talk and brush out the mane of a chestnut horse named Buttercup, though Zane and Zorin join them a short while later, joking about their future as First Mate and Captain, and the treasure they will surely find. It is during their talk of pirate treasure that Benedict finds them and, the whole group together at last, Zane reveals his idea to explore the old hallway unearthed in the dwarven tunnels.

Benedict is hesitant to go along with his older brother's idea even though, as oldest, Zane is the de facto leader of the group. It is Zorin's plea that convinces him though, reminding Benedict that he doesn't often get opportunities like this with his father out of town, swaying the rule-abiding young boy into going along with the plan. Thus is it that the five children head north to the mouth of the Mines.