Welcome to our first interview for this month! We are with this talented author Eternalautumnfire , who penned the story Crimson Dragon .

Dark Fantasy Team: Can you tell us a little bit about it and your Wattpad journey?

Eternalautumnfire: Crimson Dragon is my most recent project, and the first I've created for this year's ONC. The story takes influence from Andzrej Sapkwosk's The Witcher series and various other stories to tell the tale of Xercsies. Xercsies is a Slayer who was betrayed by his only friend for greed. Now, he finds himself hunted by the world admist a coming war.

It's a grim tale that shows how one man can turn another into the enemy of the world while polarizing two peoples against each other and exploit that to push the world into a large scale war. The story uses fantastical symbolism and setting to discusses the current political landscape in America following the recent election to highlight the fact that both the right and left seem intent on demonizing the other side, and, if left unchecked, could eventually result in a second civil war.

As for my journey on Wattpad, I've taken great pleasure in utilizing the community to play with ideas and hone my skills in the hopes of one day pursuing publishing my works. My skills have grown exponentially, and my stories reflect that growth respectfully.

DF: What was your inspiration for your story?

E: Honestly, I got the spark from creating a character on a game. I always write in the same universe, so I didn't have to create much of the setting, knew what elements I wanted to take [the story] in, but the prompt from ONC gave me the direction to take it in.

DF: What was it like building a world around dark fantasy?

E: The freedom to explore the darker sides of things.

DF: Have you written in this genre before? What drew you to it?

E: My more popular story is a dark fantasy as well. It was kind of a sinful pleasure when I let myself dive into the darkness when writing that story that really drew me in, and it showed.

DF: Can you tell us a little bit about your leading character(s)?

E: Xercsies is a Slayer (monster hunter) with a dragon's eye in place of his left eye. Because of the rituals performed on Slayers and the number of implants they take from their kills, all Slayers loose portions of their humanity and emotional range. This makes them hated among the mortal races, but tolerated for the service they provide in return. Xercsies is no different. His emotional capacities are muted aside from anger. However, his lack of emotion also allows him to see humanity in all its shades, and understand people's motivations more clearly than they may know. This has led him to also question if he even cares about helping the mortal races after he was betrayed.

DF: What are some things that you find more interesting to write in dark fantasy than other genres?

E: I feel like mature stories fit the bill better. All my stories definitely have dark undertones, but if it's not a dark fantasy, there's certain subjects I won't touch.

DF: What are some goals you look to accomplish in the future? Whether it's on Wattpad or in general.

E: I eventually want to become a published writer. I love writing, and getting to put out something people would want to invest in would be really amazing.

Thank you so much, Eternalautumnfire, for being with us and agreeing to our interview. Check out the novella, Crimson Dragon, to support our author!

- The Dark Fantasy Team