50. The Compliance Officer We’ve Grown to...
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Pierre Hauteur Jr grew up in a world shaped by privilege, routine, and a father who was always just a little out of reach. His family estate stood tall in the rich part of Scaleville. Life was polished but never fully steady. Pierre Jr learned early to keep busy and out of his parents’ troubles by leaning into schoolwork, fantasy novels, cosplay, or anything that kept his mind from wandering into shadows he could not explain. As he moved into his pre-teens year, his father lost the family business and began to decline mentally. His mother, Rose, grew skilled at keeping the boys calm and Pierre Jr filled the space with responsibility he never asked for. He became the strong one, the one who guided his brothers, the one who tried to understand a father who seemed to be slipping further every month.
Everything came to a halt on the night the house burned down. Pierre Jr landed in front of the ruins only minutes after the flames were exhausted. He was the one who signaled his mom and brothers to stay back. He pushed through fallen beams, glass, and smoke to search every corner of the crumbling home only to find no sign of his father. He could not sleep without knowing where he was and searched all night to find him. He found his father collapsed next to a large boulder in the woods - weak, cold, and shedding his black iridescent scales which was very abnormal. Pierre stayed next to him and slept through the night. but by morning, his father had taken his last breath.
(Continued from our last post…)
After Pierre Hauteur Sr died, Scaleville turned the the family’s tragedy into a source of entertainment. The rumors spread faster than the fire itself. Neighbors whispered that Pierre Sr must have burned down his own home and students repeated the gossip like it was fact. Each retelling made the lie heavier for Pierre Jr to carry. His responsibilities at home were also becoming a bigger burden. He suddenly felt older than his years, trapped between protecting his younger brothers from the ridicule and trying to keep an eye on his mother’s well being, knowing she must be struggling the most after losing her husband.
The bullying at school grew vicious. Classmates no longer held back their throughts. With his father gone, their wasn’t any fear of repercussions to their actions. They mocked his father, the loss of the family business, and the ashes of his home. He took every blow in silence because he refused to bring any more pain to his mother, but she saw the change in him anyway. His once bright personality had faded. His esteem dwindled. He was disappearing right in front of her.
Rose decided to pull all three boys from traditional school to become a homeschool family which was an unpopular choice for the culture of the time. The shift gave Pierre something he had not had in months: time to rest and a place to think. The quiet days helped him recover from the disaster that had stolen their previous life. It also gave Rose a chance to bond with her oldest son. She watched him bury himself in fantasy stories and elaborate costumes. He escaped into make believe worlds which she encouraged believing it would strengthen his creative thinking. She was careful not to put grown dragon burdens on his shoulders again. Even so, Pierre stepped into the role of protector without being asked. He doubled down with strength and integrity, focusing on the traits he admired most about his late father.
They continued to lived in the family’s old den. Since it was paid for, Rose could homeschool with minimal bills, The den was tucked in the oldest part of town where snake families had moved in over the years. Pierre stuck out like the community giant, but the snakes welcomed him with a warmth he had not felt in quite some time. These creatures were nothing like the stereotypes that had been put on their kind from his kind. Even still, he never fully fit in anywhere, but he stayed anchored with purpose.
His purpose was born out of one tiny clue. His father had seen two cloaked dragons fleeing the woods the night of the fire, one with a streak of blue in its tail. It was a detail so small that it couldn’t prove anything alone, but Pierre knew it did mean the case couldn’t be closed without a reasonable doubt. The rest of the town was happy to accept his father’s infamous legacy. They preferred the easy story. The one that blamed a dead dragon with no way to defend his name. Pierre knew better. Some dragons out there destroyed their home and their lives, and those some dragons were still free. There had to be another reptile in town that knew something, anything, for a second clue.
As he grew into his older teen years, he began hunting for ways to follow the thread. He applied for any job that placed him closer to the residents and the history of Scalesville. When he finally earned a position at the Community Council, it felt like the first real step toward cracking the case. He learned every street, every archive, and every family name.
He stayed with his mother until the day she died peacefully in their den. He gave her the best life he could. He stayed sober. He never married. He watched his brothers leave and build lives of their own while he remained rooted in the place where everything had gone wrong. When Rose passed, Pierre became the disgruntled compliance officer that everyone looked upon with disdain, not because of his family’s lore, but because of the way anger gripped every interaction and spilled out of him in dramatic outbursts if the slightest mishap threw off his expectations.
His life has been shaped by a lie that the town accepted as truth, but he refuses to let truth stay buried. His anger will fuel his passion until justice has been served.
To be continued… New dragon story installments each Friday. Subscribe below to follow the dragons. Read the beginning of it all at Blog 1: New Adventure Awaits.
