"One day, there began the story of a girl who faced the last dragon on earth."
Abide in the Wind is an ongoing fantasy webtoon by Shin Weol. It can be read it its original Korean form here
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One day, 18-year-old craftsman apprentice Reana Forte encounters a wounded creature in the wilderness. When she approaches it, a disembodied voice tells her that this creature is Dragon Lord Kairak, who has been mortally wounded but can be saved using a little bit of her help. She agrees to heal him but in the process the dragon pearl - the source of a dragon's power and life force - embeds itself in her body. Since the dragon cannot part with the dragon pearl, the voice she heard, the spirit guide Didan, requests that she lets them live with her for a year until Kairak, who takes on the form of a beautiful boy, fully matures and can reclaim the dragon pearl.
Abide in the Wind contains examples of:
- Accidental Marriage: When Reana volunteers to help save Kairak, he makes her his Riyenas completely without her knowledge or consent.
- Action Girl: Karin. Reana gradually develops into one, as well.
- Alliterative Family: Roy, Ras, and Reana Forte.
- Ambiguously Brown: Played with - both Didan and Eren are dark-skinned blondes, but one of the more prominent dragon knights is very clearly black.
- Anyone Can Die: Reana's father Roy and her brother Ras find this out the hard way.
- Berserk Button: Kairak really doesn't like other people touching Reana.
- All dragons have what's called an "Irrationality" which is essentially a specific Berserk Button that is the only thing that can make them leave their Riyenas. Ironically, Kairak's is loneliness, which takes it's form in the fear of Reana leaving him.
- Break the Cutie: Reana gets hit with this hard, especially in the second season.
- Cast from Lifespan: The purification spell that Reana uses to heal Kairak. Didan conveniently leaves this out in his explanation.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The second season is significantly darker in tone than the first, and the colors used are much more desaturated to reflect this.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Kairak, who is rather fond of leveling Death Glares at anyone who touches Reana.
- Creepy Good: The Imugi.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Reana can't leave someone in danger, even if doing so would be best for her and Kairak. It causes trouble on more than one occasion.
- Disappeared Dad: Kairak's father is never mentioned in the story.
- Disappears into Light: Roy and Ras Forte, after Reana tries to save them with the Purification spell.
- Eternal Recurrence/Vicious Cycle: Courtesy of Kairak, who restarted the world every time Reana died and consequently went mad ... And now the history repeats for the fourth time...
- False Friend: Eren is supposed to be Reihart's childhood friend, but he easily betrays him, when Reihart gets suspicious of him and demands answers.
- Family Disunion: Ras and Reana. After finally seeing each other after ten years they only get a few hours to enjoy each other's company until Ras gets killed.
- Fantastic Racism: Against an elf-like species known as Akoom.
- Grand Theft Me: The parasitoid's main ability.
- He Is All Grown Up: The adult Kairak in the dragon pearl.
- Here There Were Dragons: When a world fully matures and sentient species evolve, the dragons leave to avoid being corrupted and to find new worlds to form.
- Hot Consort: A Riyenas is the life partner/consort of a dragon.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Kairak's eyes are a quite bright turquoise color, and seem to glow no matter how dark the lighting in the scene is. They make for very effective Death Glares.
- Interspecies Romance: Reana is an 18 year old human girl. Kairak is a 299 year old dragon.
- Last of His Kind: Kairak is the last dragon still living on the planet, and as such the prime target for a number of people vying for power.
- Locked into Strangeness: Reana's hair turns white and gets significantly shorter after the dragon pearl leaves her body.
- Love at First Sight: Kairak makes Reana his Riyenas the very first time they meet.
- Ralton becomes smitten with Reana the first time he sees her.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Kairak's infatuation with Reana quickly grows into an unhealthy obsession.
- Manipulative Bastard: Didan deliberately withholds important information from Reana, whom he initally sees only as a tool for getting Kairak to maturity.
- Marriage Before Romance: Kairak and Reana.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Riyenas or not, Reana is still only human and will most likely die long before Kairak. As Munyak is quick to find out, he does not like being reminded of this.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: When Mugi flirts with Reana, trying to get in her good graces thinking she was the dragon, Kairak's immediate response is to attack him full force. He survives the encounter.
- Missing Mom: The last time Reana saw her mother was when her parents got divorced.
- Kairak also grew up without his mother, but she does show up later in the story.
- The Mutiny: Dark is Prince Reihart's personal servant, but betrays him at Eren's command.
- Not Even Human: Eren appears first as Reihart's childhood friend, but is actually a being much, much older than he appears.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After he and Reana admit their feelings for each other, Kairak starts acting very bright and affectionate towards her in order to get her to concentrate only on him.
- Our Dragons Are Different: They're expressions of pure consciousness. They're also ridiculously powerful, but are easily corrupted by the parasitoids.
- Physical God: Fully grown dragons are powerful enough that they can change the weather with their mood.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Reana is often seen wearing pink, while Kairak is heavily associated with blue-green.
- Plucky Girl: Reana.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Kairak's human form grows older after Reana summons him to her side in the third arc. It seems to be linked to their bond deepening as he grows even older after they share their first kiss.
- Pretty Boy: Characters comment on Kairak's beauty quite often.
- Rebel Prince: Reihart.
- Really 700 Years Old: When the story begins, Kairak is 299 years old but looks about 12.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Dark, Prince Reihart's Akoom slave.
- Scenery Porn: The backgrounds are gorgeous.
- Scenery Gorn: Scenes of destruction are given just as much attention.
- Shock Collar: The slave collars that the Akoom wear. They have a ring which, if pulled, immobilizes the wearer as well as causing a great deal of pain.
- Spell My Name With An S: The first scanlation group romanized Reana's last name as "Porte", but the next group that picked up the series romanized it as "Forte". Without official romanizations, it's near impossible to tell which is correct, as Korean lacks an "F" sound and commonly uses the "P" sound to replace it.
- The Stoic: Kairak, having lived for nearly three centuries in complete isolation, is this. He gradually develops emotions as he spends more time among humans.
- Wrench Wench: Reana.
- Yandere: Kairak, for Reana.
