《A Benevolent Evil Dragon》


 Chapter 1: A strangely slow death

    The sun is bright, painfully so. The sky is clear, just a slight gradient of blue surrounding the shiny marble that is currently burning my eyes.


    It really is such a sickeningly beautiful day for this.


    My eyes look down at my severed lower body¡­ and yeah I wish it was a rainy day or something. The concrete wouldn¡¯t hurt so much if it was. Though I guess most of my pain comes from having my guts and assorted organs spread out on the road.


    Meh, what can you do?


    My eyes trail to the side and I see the drunk bastard that hit me. At most a concussion.. damn that drunk toughness..


    So this is it. Gone through so much, kept myself alive against my wishes for this long¡­ and all the results of that work will be wasted, passed on to some ungrateful assholes I happen to share blood with.


    I wish I could believe there¡¯s something more, that it won¡¯t be just darkness, but nah, this world¡¯s too uncaring for anything so kind.


    Why am I going on a detached monologue when I am quite literally dying? That¡¯s a great question little voice that I am pretending is not my own! Well I am now doped up on all the adrenaline my body has and time is moving so painfully slow! I have to do something and crawling away won¡¯t really do much for me. Honestly? I am happy I am not leaving anybody behind¡­ I am the last to go from those that matter. Ain¡¯t nobody gonna shed a tear and that¡¯s for the better, my fake friend.


    Fuck, that hurt! Wait, is it going away already? Is it time for the pain to truly hit me? It¡¯s hot- and it¡¯s dark. Wait, no, it¡¯s the tunnel people talk about. The edges of my vision are darkening, wasted processing power, need it for something better, for a fix.


    My body tries, I¡¯ll give it that. It tries oh so hard that it makes me blind. But only for a moment.


    It¡¯s pretty clich¨¦, but here I am, remembering everything. My memory, one of my greatest faults and points of frustration, here it is proving it could have always been so much better and it just didn¡¯t want to fucking bother!


    Aaargh I am actually getting annoyed while dying, ain¡¯t that funny?


    Back to memories. Welp, this is.. early? Way too early? How do I have baby memories? How is this useful???


    Full vision, full audio, all the touches and the weights and the feeling of my own organs moving and being alive and none of the pain. This is way more than I thought a brain could memorize..


    I feel the pain worsening, not by a bit. I scream in my own mind, and maybe outside too, I have no idea. I scream for I feel like I am being carved alive with a sharp, glowing hot spoon. No, not a knife, a spoon, because it is slow.


    My memories continue. I am living my life again, but this time only as an observer.


    I keep being chiseled like a monument.


    I hate it. Why can¡¯t it be any faster? No it is faster. I perceive the life I lived but it is all happening in the minutes I have before I bleed out and my brain starves.


    I remember wonder, I remember smile and joy, and I notice things I didn¡¯t before. When I was too young to know what a failing marriage looked like. When I was too young to understand those whispers and those laughs and that being beat as a toddler is not normal. I notice the glaring signs of the things I should have been diagnosed with so much earlier, but ignorance made everyone think I was just being difficult for no reason. But I also see that despite it all and in its own way it was a good childhood.


    Then I can see when my wonder started fading, when I started thinking just a bit too much, learning too much, going through my own existential terrors way too early in life. I see myself realizing just how twisted the world is, changing my beliefs over and over as I learn more and more.


    I feel my entire existence being eroded and CARVED And it¡¯s driving me ever so slightly mad, but I have to keep going.


    Then came a cold realization that I had willfully ignored thus far: I am actually remembering everything. It passed fast but if I focus I can see literally every moment I have lived. Every little thing I saw or heard of experienced. Here I sit looking at an equation I haven¡¯t seen in 17 years, written by people that are already dead, and it just keeps going.


    I experience high school, I experience college, and I remember everything. I experience all of it. The good, the bad, the fun, the awkward, the things that I will throw in a dark corner, never to be seen again, and most importantly: all that I learned and thought I failed to memorize despite burning nights trying over and over and over and It¡¯s all here!


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    All it took was me dying. That¡¯s all it took for me to finally be able and remember stuff for more than a week. This is such an annoying world.


    I stay silent as all of the knowledge and experience I gathered in my short life passes by me. It goes in a blur, forcing time to speed up, or at least forcing my perception of it to go back to normal. Don¡¯t worry, dear silent fake voice, I just skipped the worst of the trauma, like I did until now, this isn¡¯t a therapy session after all, just the musings of a dead man.


    Regardless, I am back


    No first responders yet. They¡¯ll be here in 20 minutes I guess. Yeah sounds about right. There¡¯s very few people that dare look at me, and they don¡¯t even do that when I look back.


    This is it.


    I am weak.


    I am in pain worse than I¡¯ve been in my entire life.


    It is a fact. I just checked.


    And despite somehow remembering everything, there¡¯s nothing there to tell my body how to survive this. So I die.


    All in all my life was not ¡°horrible¡±, just between neutral and bad with happy moments sprinkled few and far between. I didn¡¯t suffer the most, but I never stopped once I started.


    Whatever, I am dead, it doesn''t matter anymore.


    ¡­


    I said: whatever, I am dead.


    ¡­


    The hell?


    Why are you still here? WHY AM I?


    I can quite literally not feel my body anymore so why am I still thinking? At least the pain is gone. But again, I cannot feel anything! Did my brain turn off everything else and just retreat into itself? NO! Nononononono stop that! I experienced my entire life in a few minutes I don¡¯t want to know what happens if my brain uses absolutely everything to keep me functioning longer... I could experience centuries as a brain in a metaphorical jar!


    ¡­


    I hate this already. Well, I somehow have all my memories still, even if they¡¯re so all over the place. I guess¡­ I guess I can listen to music. Or, well, remember any of the many times I listened to music. Oo I love this clip!


    <hr>


    I am bored. I went through all of it again, just for the hell of it. Somehow I was still surprised about a few things that I cannot exactly remember. The human brain is a mess. I have all of my memories right here yet I cannot just remember something? Weird.


    Wait, I¡¯m in my brain, so can¡¯t I act like in a lucid dream? How about one of those fancy college libraries movies are full of? Welcome back dear voice in my head, I need you because I am bored so you can sit right here and watch as I struggle to invent something from pieces of my memories.


    ...


    So about 3 years of memories is how much it took. I am a slow bastard but hey it is detailed and beautiful and it¡¯s a mess of memories.


    Huh.


    I am not usually an order kind of guy, but I quite literally am bored of remembering my life and I will be here for a while, probably, so might as well try and make things neat.


    <hr>


    Did I live another lifetime? Or maybe two? It feels like I did and it also feels like it¡¯s only been a couple seconds... I don¡¯t remember what I did¡­ Ah¡­ I see. I can¡¯t make new memories anymore¡­ at least I think I can¡¯t? Well, whatever. Somehow I organized everything I¡¯ve ever lived through, in this massive fake library in my mind. Funnily enough it makes remembering any one thing based on a loose subject so much easier considering just how many copies of memories I have!


    Fun fact, little voice, remembering a memory makes a new memory of you remembering it! So yeah, I got a lot of everything. Well, of everything important!


    Hmm.. Still bored. Guess I¡¯ll be here for a whi-


    The world shook. This false world I made up shook and not because of me. At least I don¡¯t think I did it¡­ Well, either way, at least nothing moved since gravity and causality are a suggestion in dreams, ergo, in my library. Still, that shaking cannot be good. Wait.. I feel movement! Speed! Did the ambulance finally arrive? Wait, don¡¯t tell me I will end up surviving this.. I feel like my entire library would turn to dust if I did.


    Hmm, wait, no I still feel very dead. By that I mean that aside from this movement I don¡¯t feel anything. Strange.


    And then there was a hand on my entire being. I felt the grasp, I felt the fingers, I felt warmth and cold and heard a faint laughter.


    Let¡¯s hope I am just being delirious finally.


    Let me correct an earlier mistake. I am not, in fact, unable to make new memories, but my new memories are very flimsy and incomplete¡­ so I decide to do a dumb and materialized an empty book. My memories were all now books so maybe I could make a book with what I am experiencing right now?


    I can. And it hurts. I feel the carving again. Each stroke of my stylus causes my entire being to burn. It¡¯s much better than what I went through remembering my life the first time, but it¡¯s still bad. Yet I push through. Really, the constant pain is just making me feel alive again!


    ¡­


    The laughter continues, mumblings, sounds and feeling not my own¡­ or maybe they my own? Who knows¡­ Voice, I am starting to feel like I am going crazy¡­


    ¡­


    Alright that¡¯s enough. I inhale all the air in my imaginary world and then scream, loudly, to the nothingness that holds me so tightly still.


    ¡°SHUT! THE! FUCK! UP!¡±


    I feel fire and electricity course through me. I hear a faint yelp. And now I am falling. Weird, I just said gravity isn¡¯t a thing here¡­ Hmm¡­ Wait, no, I am still standing in my library, but the library itself is falling¡­ Huh, guess I¡¯m dying again. Or maybe this is my true death? Oh well, it took it long enough.


    And then the falling stopped.


    And then I opened my eyes.


    I have eyes. And they open. And they close. And they open again.


    I have a mouth. And it opens. And it closes. I feel everything, like in my first memory. I can feel my organs existing, I feel every inch of my very body and I feel my body pressing against something on all sides, so I stretch and struggle and open my mouth to bite against the damn thing standing between me and freedom and-


    And it cracks. And now, my dear voice, I have to sit here and wonder.


    Am I hallucinating or am I seeing light.


    Am I having a final willful fantasy, or am I actually alive again?


    One way to find out.

 Chapter 2: New Hardware

    My body is weird. I know what I would normally do in this situation. I would stare at the crack in the wall. And yet I feel myself doing something more stupid, and not exactly consciously. It¡¯s like when you see something falling and your hand shoots out to try and catch it. It happens even if it might actually end up hurting you and even if just letting the thing fall would have no negative impact. Well, at least I think that¡¯s what¡¯s happening because for some reason I am pushing my face into that crack. The annoying part is that I can¡¯t even complain, because it works.


    With a few more cracking sounds I feel my entire body shooting out of whatever was keeping me contained so tightly and I come to a stop as light forces my eyes to close. Alright, let¡¯s take this slow because that hurt a bit. Now, with my eyes closed I start noticing a lot of things being wrong with me, with my body. All at once red flags are raised, both tiny and enormous. My body is different. Very different. It¡¯s not behaving like it did... like it should!


    Deep breath. Wait, no, ahhh, I can¡¯t even breathe right! And now it¡¯s manual and I don¡¯t know how to do it and I am choking! In a panic I turn my brain off. Because apparently I can do that? Or at least I think I did that. I still feel loosely alive but like I am vegetating or maybe sleeping. I am back in my library, I can see it all again just like before, so I still have that going for me¡­


    <hr>


    I think some time passed. Maybe a minute? Maybe a second. Well, for whatever reason the void doesn¡¯t want me. So, let¡¯s take stock of my body and see if I somehow survived being ripped in two. Spoiler alert: I didn¡¯t. I am not in any amount of pain, but I am not numbed either. I open my eyes for a second, get blinded by the light again, close them. At least I managed to catch a faint, blurry glimpse of my surroundings and it doesn¡¯t look like any of the hospitals I¡¯ve been to. Too much space. Too much bright yellow and earthly brown, and I am not standing on a bed on my back or on my side, I am laying on my belly on extremely soft materials, which kind of remind me of that goat rug my grandma had.


    I will leave the ¡°where¡± for later, now time to see why I feel so strange. Starting small, I am not in pain. No joint pain, no pressure on my spine, my heart is loud but doesn¡¯t feel like I am one bad day away from a heart attack and despite laying on my chest I do not feel pain in my rib cage and sternum. Really I feel brand new, which doesn¡¯t bode well in its own way.


    The next issue? I can feel and hear my body. ¡°Ah, that¡¯s normal!¡± you say, in your adorable innocence? Well, not in this case, because this isn¡¯t me being able to feel that I have an arm, or hearing the air passing in and out of my nostrils, because that is normal, but rather it is the fact that my brain is picking up and translating literally every stimuli without having any tampering in place! I can hear and feel each beat of my heart, and not because it is going way above baseline, which it kind of probably is since I am panicking a bit, but because it doesn¡¯t yet have a baseline. That¡¯s going to take¡­ two days if my memories are accurate. Oh would you look at that, I can remember things pretty fast now. Again, it only took me more than likely dying to get a useable memory!


    Leaving my very justified anger aside, there¡¯s more. My body has been still, aside from the automatic breathing moving my rib cage, which is stranger than you¡¯d think. No finger twitching, no needing to shake myself a bit or else feel my joints locking, no background tremors or anxiety induced shaking. I am completely still, like a rock. I also have the urge to just keep doing this. I mean, I am laying on something soft and warm, and I still can¡¯t really open my eyes without burning spots into them, so I could just continue doing this a while longer.


    Right I should probably start focusing on that now, my senses. Firstly, my eyelids are weirdly thick, I think. I say that because despite being in a decently bright room and having looked at something that resembled a standing lamp, I am not seeing that red glow passing through. Even the spots from before are gone and now I am seeing darkness and nothing else. My nose is also strange. Well, firstly, I am actually breathing rather fast. Not hyperventilating kind of fast, but about twice as fast as I usually do when I am just laying down. And focusing on the actual smells, I am getting very weird vibes.


    I think I am having a hard time translating this because my brain is trying to give me very complex feelings from scents that are pretty damn new. I feel crisp yet stagnant air with a tinge of vegetation. I feel the smell of dry dirt and dust and of old tasty things. My brain says that it smells like home. I say that it smells like a weird cave with above average ventilation and maybe some kind of mushrooms.


    Another moment, I just need another second to just exist so I can try and dampen all this assault of information so that I can at least try and understand a bit more of what is even happening. I continue breathing, thankfully not falling into manual control, despite thinking so much of it.


    Finally, after a few minutes of calming down I manage to filter out most of the overwhelming feelings I¡¯m getting, or at least I manage to ignore them so I can focus on my final one. Well, not exactly the final since I have yet to check out taste, but I am not about to start licking whatever¡¯s nearby so instead I¡¯ll check what I can touch. The answer is, frankly, not much. I am just a fleshy slug right now, covering as little surface as I can, and my consciousness still needs to adapt to what¡¯s my leg and what¡¯s my spine.


    I guess it¡¯s time to try and move? At least a bit, so I can figure out my body plan. I try to get this over with and I stretch, trying to use as many muscles as possible to feel them. Problem one: my muscles are weak and moving a little bit coupled with being awake for who knows how long just trying to withstand my own senses has started making me feel tired and tingly. Problem two: I feel too much and too little of my body at the same time. My hands and what I can only assume are my legs seemed to be placed under me, and now they stretched just a bit away. They are tiny and weak. Baby limbs. Baby god damned limbs.


    Well, fine, brand new body, baby limbs, fine, I could live with that¡­ But what is up with the rest? Because I think I have a second pair of arms jutting out of my back, and an absurdly long fifth arm, this one a bit more mobile and with two fingers that I can kind of press against each other, but I¡¯m not getting back useful feedback. So, not human baby. Well, this plus the very obvious non-hospital kind of points to me, seemingly, being a baby. An alien baby. Well, alien by Earth standards since I am very clearly not human or even an animal. The fact that I have in total of 7 limbs, while being probably a vertebrate points to that at least¡­ This should be mildly distressing, but I am calm.. More weirdness to unpack.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    So¡­ what now? It takes a few seconds to figure out the controls, so to speak, but I am able to place all my limbs under me again and I try, still blindly, to get myself off the ground at least. I might as well test the limits of my new flesh. I strain and push, my whole body trembling from this effort, yet I am only rewarded by pain and exhaustion. My muscles are too new to function, and it seems that whatever I am isn¡¯t made to start behaving normally straight out of the egg. And I can only assume that I come from an egg because there is nobody else around even moving or prodding or existing, just me. That and also the whole ¡°Breaking out¡± sequence.


    Come to think of it, it¡¯s pretty weird that I basically exploded out of a hardy egg but am now unable to even crawl a bit away. Maybe I just used up all my energy on that stunt and now my muscles are demanding a break? Guess I¡¯ll find out at some point. For now I need to figure out a few things. Firstly, do I have a parent? Parenting does increase the chance of a viable baby but some animals can get by with just making a bunch of children and then leaving them to survive. I am not hungry or thirsty, probably won¡¯t be for a day or so since I absorbed all the egg yolk (something obvious by the lack of wet, sticky sensation on my body), but is that enough time for my body to become hunt worthy or am I going to be protected and fed by an adult after that? Hard to tell.


    ¡­


    I¡¯m bored. Good to know adhd transcends lifetimes. I have so much to unpack but all I want is to do something! Anything! But instead I am trapped in a flesh prison. Actually, there is something I can do while trapped, exactly what I did in my last life when stuck in place against my will. Music. Just some good old calming music while I think about my shitty body. Well, maybe it¡¯s a better one compared to my last body, what with me being at least a quadruped and all that. My spine at least won¡¯t give me as much of a problem, hopefully. Ah, but will I have the dexterity to use tools? That might be a problem, because while a dog is arguably better built than a human, it¡¯s still lower on the food chain because of tool use.


    If I reincarnated and remember the past, does that mean that there¡¯s more people from back home out here? Maybe mo-


    Argh this is why I wanted to do something or think of something weird and tangential! The millisecond I am left with my thoughts it all turns back to bad things and now my heart hurts and I hate that I still feel that in this new life. Note to self, second body has embodied emotion too. Annoying.


    I yawn, and I am actually glad for that. Babies tend to sleep a lot more than adults, this is just a general way of how growing works. My body is currently growing, probably at a rate that would be slightly visible if you only saw me every week or so. This burns through most of my energy reserve and complex thought coupled with physical exercise (if you can even call trying to get up an exercise) resulted in me being spent. Good, might as well nap through my adaptation-


    The air rushes past me, feeling like the wind before a particularly nasty storm. Seeing as 1 and a half of my senses tell me I am inside an artificially illuminated cave, that is a very strange feeling. Stranger yet I hear and feel a thud, like something enormous fell. It sounds a bit farther away, clearly not inside the chamber I was in, but close enough to affect it and make a thousand sounds of clinking metal from the earth just shaking.


    There goes my nap.


    I wait, quietly, still as a rock. Or at least, I try, but it seems that while my little limbs can¡¯t hold up my weight, the arm that¡¯s almost as long as the rest of my body is muscular enough to be able and move, and from the nervousness I am feeling, I have apparently swayed it enough to hit something hard pretty strongly, which hurt a bit and made sound that traveled easily through the enclosed space. In response I hear weaker thuds, not like a whole building falling, like before, but more like a car dropping to the ground, over and over. It¡¯s getting louder, closer. I am actually starting to be afraid.


    I am still very much tired and my body is urging me to just nap, but that same body has understood my feelings of fear and decided that adrenaline was the best option for me. New to the world as I may be, the muscles I have should still allow me to drag myself away if my life depended on it. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug after all, and even if I don¡¯t have the strength of my adult human body this time around, I should still be able to give a mean hit with this giant fifth arm of mine.


    I wait in darkness until I hear the thuds coming from within the room. Whatever it is, it¡¯s enormous. Like Jurassic Park type of enormous. I stay still, waiting, hoping for it to mistake me for a rock or something. I would try to see it, if not for knowing that my eyes are somehow worse than my grandma¡¯s for how blurry and sensitive they are. So, instead I try to hear it. And hear I do, because not only do I know it¡¯s in the room by its heavy steps, but it seems to vocalize. It¡¯s not a bark, or a hiss (not that I was expecting a massive cat, mind you), hell it¡¯s not really any sound that I heard an animal make. It sounds like rocks being crushed together, like electricity zapping the air, like somebody trying to scream while whispering and speaking in slow motion. What¡¯s worse, being taken by surprise by that sound made me pause just long enough for the being to somehow appear in front of me.


    I can feel its massive presence. I can feel a hot breath wash over me as it sniffs me then exhales enough air to lift up a weather balloon. Now I am actually hyperventilating, my body tensing as I try to make it move but it refuses. I am terrified and petrified and I am actually going to die minutes after defying all logic and reincarnating.


    Man do I suck at living.


    ¡­


    The moment passes. I am not dead. I am however very wet right now. I think I got my answer to the parent question. I have a parent and they¡¯re enormous. Well, really I should have thought that a possibility¡­ I mean, human babies are born a quarter the size of an adult human, and that¡¯s only in height. Other species have even bigger differences, like puppies being able to fit in your palm while the adult being bigger than a person. Kangaroos and pandas literally make tiny jelly beans that somehow turn into massive beasts, of course my parent, be it mother or father, is big enough to make me feel like the earth is shaking¡­ Or at least I hope that I was just being overly sensitive and that my parent isn¡¯t actually the size of a building. The only reference of their size I have currently is the tongue being able to easily wrap around me. Which is normal I think? At least in animals. I¡¯ve seen enough cat and dog videos to know that.


    It makes those sounds again, different ones, actually. Language, hopefully. I am sapient, but I don¡¯t know if that is a property of me or of my species. For all I know my parent could be just be trying to make me used to their calls so I know to approach when they make it.


    My musings are cut short however, as I realize the downside with my body being put into fight or flight right before I wanted to nap. I am exhausted. I don¡¯t even get to yawn again I just fall, and I find myself back in my library. I can still feel the outside, but barely. Like trying to hear the toaster going off in the kitchen while you¡¯re listening to music on headphones in your room kind of faint. Well that was certainly a first day of being alive again. I am not a human, my mom is kind of big and I live in a cave that now that I think about it I am not sure if it is artificially lit up or if it just has some kind of glow in the dark function, like a special moss or something.


    I hope it¡¯s artificial, as freeing as it would be to live as a beast, I know I wouldn¡¯t be able to just enjoy that for too long. Especially with me having knowledge of science and technology just swimming through here. Honestly, even with it being a bit under 30 years of life, I still know more than most people just by virtue of remembering every little fun fact and rabbit hole that I followed every single time I hyper-fixated on something. I remember every single class of biology, of chemistry, of physics that I have ever been to, even those I did not even pay attention to, because I still heard the teacher talk, or glanced over at drawings. I know history, geography, economy, politics, science, literature, and most importantly I know how to survive and build primitive tools and shelter based on the many guides I watched. I have a lot of junk too, but with all this¡­ I could live a pretty damn good life, no matter the situation. Of course most of it will be useless if I am part of just a mundane beastly species and have my one giant arm as the only one with opposable thumbs, and even that only has two of them in the first place. Let¡¯s just hope tomorrow brings more good news than bad.

 Chapter 3: Baby Brain

    So, something to note about my current condition. I can¡¯t dream. It¡¯s not about my species, or at least I don¡¯t think it is since I know animals like cats and such can dream just fine, but rather about my little library. I spent the entire night inside of it, going through all the animal species I knew, trying to find something that was similar to me. Sadly, all the species that were somewhat similar were also equally dissimilar. I have functioning limbs of some kind on my back, while already having four legs and what I now realize is more than likely a strangely prehensile tail, and having a similar musculature system to my last one. Meaning that I am some kind of 6 limbed vertebrate, something earth simply did not have (or at least they didn¡¯t survive long enough for us to know they existed).


    The only animals that could fit were all fictive, like a griffon with a particularly long tail or a dragon, or maybe even a manticore. Actually, that would be pretty damn cool, being in a fantasy world as a monster of some kind. I could continue going down this river of thought, but something drew my attention.


    As I woke up I found myself feeling the weight of something pressing down on me. Another thing to note is that my background bodily motions and sounds were muffled enough to not be noticeable, faster adaptation than a human, that¡¯s nice. I open my eyes tentatively and see a lot more than I expected, but not as well as I had hoped. There is something blocking the light coming from the front, something bluish grey? It¡¯s pretty close to my face and my eyes are refusing to focus enough for me to get details.


    Let¡¯s see, can I move? I struggle for a bit, trying to wiggle like a worm, but nothing happens so that¡¯s a negative. I try to look around, only to focus back on what¡¯s in front of me. Why? Because it¡¯s breathing. It looks like a breathing rock, but it can¡¯t be, so I try and get a feel for it. I manage to stretch my neck a bit, so the tip of my nose(?), no, snout, can brush up against it and the sensations I¡¯m getting are strange. After a bit of trying to decipher them I realize that I am feeling hard-ish skin brushing up against hard-ish skin. It¡¯s scales. It literally feels like the smooth but hard scales of a lizard but I have them too. Also, it¡¯s warm, and breathing pretty fast, just like I am. Not only that, but once I crane my head, which is a bit more flexible than I expected, I see that there¡¯s more like it. There¡¯s the one right in front of me, another to my right and the one laying on top of us all. So, I guess, there¡¯s at least four of us.


    After inspecting all of them I come to an exciting realization. I am in a dragon baby cuddle pile. An adorable dragon baby cuddle pile! They all look somewhere between a crocodile and a komodo dragon, with tiny, horn-like nubs coming out of their heads, and most adorably of all they are all round! Absurdly round at that and with all of them sleeping so soundly I can¡¯t help but squeal! Which comes out like a very weird sound, something like a croak and a sci fi plasma rifle at the same time. Yeap, definitively got some crocodile ancestors or something.


    So, taking a step back from the urge to pet the baby dragons, I need to wrap my head around this. I am an adorable baby dragon, currently cuddling what could only be my clutch mates, laying on a sort of nest made out of furs and hay. I can still see a few egg shells around. This explains yesterday¡¯s encounter at least. The reason my supposed parent sounded like a moving house is probably because that¡¯s what she is. If we are actually dragons then it¡¯s likely that she is enormous and didn¡¯t just teleport from the entrance of the room to me, but rather leaned her head and reached me.


    Still, I am a dragon. Not on Earth, that¡¯s for sure, but I am a European dragon. This is basically a dream come true. I mean who hasn¡¯t dreamt of being a huge, powerful hermit that has as much gold as a small country just used as decoration? Some mighty beast of magic and flames that, much like a bumblebee, seemingly defies all logic and reason and can just fly through the skies! Yes, I know bumblebees don¡¯t defy the laws of physics, just use very advanced one, but still they look like they shouldn¡¯t be able to fly, as do dragons. Or at least I hope I am the ancient sapient wizard kind of dragon and not the mindless beast that eats livestock and steals shiny things. Or maybe I am fully wrong and I am not even a dragon, just some reptilian with vestigial wings. Or maybe it¡¯s a mutation and my kin is slowly moving to turn airborne? Who knows? Who, indeed, knows?


    I am getting bored already, just being stuck here, so I think back through my years of listening to music and put on some classic sneaky music, since I am trying to crawl away without startling the others. I wouldn¡¯t want to have croaking babies draw the attention of our mother. Really it is strange, I can think faster than in life. I mean I am currently remembering a whole song perfectly, running it without accidentally repeating a section, all while also contemplating my seemingly draconic heritage. I really need to figure out what happened to me and why I am like this.


    I shake my body and despite failing to crawl my way away, I manage to do something better: I rolled away. Well, not exactly away, just turned a bit and the dragon on top of me fell face first into the fur, continuing to sleep peacefully, which pushed me out of the pile and to the edge of the nest. Well, at least I now have a better view of them all. So, my three siblings seem to be very different yet also very similar. All of them have those faint blues and greens coupled with grey for coloring, something that cannot be that useful as a camouflage, so I guess it might just be baby scales that are still not fully pigmented.


    Now let¡¯s talk differences. Two of them have red scales, one only has a faint splatters on its front legs and on its side, while the other has the entire tail as a rusty red. I cannot see their full bodies but safe to say the red is not the expected color for them, as it manifests in certain areas instead of all over the body. Maybe one of our parent had more red scales while the other had more blues and greens? Could be that we only inherited one of theirs as our main pigment and the other will just be tonalities and natural imperfections, kind of like how diverse calicos are.


    Aside from color there are other things that differ. The head shapes and horn-like protrusions are completely different in all three. Red tail has a longer and sharper face and only two wide horn beginnings coming from the side of its head, red hand has a rounder and shorter head and six tinier nubs in total, three vertical dots on the left and three on the right and the final one, the one without any red seems to have a taller head and flat snout, with way more even smaller beginnings all around it. It seems like¡­ 10? 12? Well, regardless, that¡¯s a lot of horns. I wonder how many I got? Either way, looking even closer it seems that there¡¯s even a difference in how big the individual scales are for each of them.


    I try to focus a bit and get rewarded with the entire room darkening for it. I raise my head, surprised, and it goes back to normal. Damnit, new muscle to keep track of. Seems my eyes, while worse than my last ones at close range, have a way better light filtering system, with an entire conscious muscle for that express purpose. Alright, there¡¯s already dissonance. That¡¯s not good for me, not at all. I have a brand new body, that already seems to bring more promise than my old one ever did, but by that very fact I am now feeling a bit disconnected from everything, it¡¯s becoming a problem. Hmm, time to think about something else before existential dread and depression sink their grabby little claws in me.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Let¡¯s see, I inspected my clutch mates, but I can¡¯t exactly inspect myself much.. Well I guess I can at least look over at my- what the hell? Great, I am born a freak, it seems. Why am I reacting like this, you ask, oh voice that I have been neglecting so far? It seems that while I realized my last limb is a special tail, it did not come to mind that none of my siblings have two fingers at the end of theirs. But I do. Or rather my tail splits in two close to the tip. Not only that but it seems that my tail is split in coloring roughly down the middle. With my right side being painted rusty red, while my left side has washed out blues and greens, the split being where each tip gets separated into its own color. Am I a genetic chimera then? Born from an egg with two yolks, both fertile, both starting to make little dragon babies but I ended up devouring the other one because of limited resources? That¡¯s sad. Is it at least fully functional? Well, I can move both tail tips at once and can also seem to move them separately pretty well, after all I did mistake it for a huge arm at first so I guess this is fine. Just fine.


    Now let¡¯s hope the fact that I am a mutant will not make my mother think I am not worth raising. Who knows what makes a runt when it comes to dragons. More problems to navigate. More things out of my control. I really hate this feeling, but there really is nothing I can do to get rid of it, so I just ignore it, and try to look around the room, while I still have the energy to do so. A quick glance is really all I need to realize that I am getting closer and closer to confirming that I am, in fact, a fantasy European dragon. After all, from here on the edge of the nest, I realize that we are raised off the ground by being on top of a pile of valuables. It¡¯s hard to get detail of each individual thing but I am pretty sure we¡¯re on a small fortune of gold, silver and gems.


    There¡¯s also stranger stuff. Like an actual giant sword sticking out the side of the pile, that looks way too much like a claymore. It even has the ornate angled cross guard! It does not look like steel, though, or if it is steel then somebody painted over it, because it looks perfectly white, maybe changed in tone just a bit by dust, and it has strange patterns painted golden along the blade and on the guard. It even has what I can only assume is a regalia, some kind of flower impaled by a spear. So, an ornate sword, interesting. It¡¯s not even the only thing that looks straight from medieval times, seeing as there¡¯s even pieces of a suit of humanoid armor scattered about, together with a few other weapons, but none are as ornate as the sword.


    Now, the thing that really drew my attention the most: the lamp. Well, it¡¯s not a lamp, really. It does remind me of those salt lamps, being an uncut crystal that exudes white light, however this one doesn¡¯t have wires, it¡¯s transparent like glass instead of a shade of orange and is just placed on a rough pedestal made of stone, which I think might just be a big rock in the end. It¡¯s not even just one of them, there¡¯s at least 5 spread around the room, probably meant to keep it lit up since I do not see a direct exit with natural light anywhere around.


    So, to recap, I am one of four baby dragons, sitting on a hoard of valuables in a cavern lit up by weird crystals. This is a fantasy world, straight up a sword and magic kind of fantasy world. Sure this is just my first overview from details spread only around a single room inside a cave, but still, it all points towards me being reincarnated somehow into a fantasy world, as a literal dragon at that. Once again, dream come true, at least if I ignore the metaphorical writing on the wall.


    The problem, then, is what can I do now that I have observed all that I can. I still can¡¯t walk around, I know, I tried. Either my muscles are still too weak, or I am still too fat. I mean, the others look like overweight munchkin kittens, so it¡¯s no wonder I can¡¯t exactly walk well like this. The others are just sleeping, breathing peacefully. I hum, a strange sound coming out instead, and decide that I can¡¯t just go back to sleep by virtue of simply not being tired. So I try to focus on my body. My breathing is still strange and fast, but it feels so effortless that I can barely even notice it, despite the fact that I actually strained my body by moving around.


    Hmm, let¡¯s see, what else, I can see my snout! Somewhat. It¡¯s bluish, just as pale as the other¡¯s, and that¡¯s about it.


    <hr>


    I am bored. Very, very bored. So, while listening to some rock to keep my brain active, I try my luck at using my tail as a hand. I throw it over the side of the nest, then spend close to 5 minutes just trying, and failing, to grasp a coin. Scales, to be fair, aren¡¯t known for how they stick to stuff, so it makes sense it takes me a while to figure out how exactly to wrap something to make it stay. Still I get a coin and I get to analyzing it.


    Honestly it kind of draws my attention more than I expect. It does look very realistic and has a beautiful design, showing that it might be actually minted currency and not just a decorative piece. It¡¯s shaped more like a polygon than a circle, probably beaten into shape rather than poured into a mold. Or maybe it¡¯s just from the wear and tear¡­ It also has a particular smell, not just of metal, but of life and growth and power and more! And that intrusive thought makes me stop and think a bit deeper. Why does it feel like that? Why does scent give me these abstract ideas and thoughts? Alright, dragon instinct I guess. That¡¯s bad¡­ Or is it?


    We, humans, like to think we beat our instincts and that¡¯s why we are above the rest of nature, but we haven¡¯t. The acceptance of others is part of our social nature, an instinct to be accepted into the whole so we may survive easier. The fear of the dark and the unknown are instincts. Really if you break down everything that a person does, there¡¯s a good chance you can trail it down to some survival mechanism, an instinct passed down through genes for generations. Sapience simply grants the ability to analyze and override a few of these instincts with enough effort. So now I have a bit of a bird brain situation, being excited about shiny stuff, but I can make do if I just work towards keeping that in check.


    Still, I do have to try, is this really gold? How can I try though? Well, one thing that I know about gold is that it is fragile. Sure, it doesn¡¯t react with much of anything and it¡¯s basically impossible to truly destroy, but it does scratch and bend easily, so I guess I can try that. Do I even have teeth? A quick check with my tongue gives a resounding yes. Not only do I already have grown teeth, but they seem pretty damn sharp. All of my front ones seem to be either canines, sharp and thin, or wider but equally sharp ones that kind of remind me of shark teeth, but I do also have a few flat ones in the back. That is strange since I expected dragons to be obligate carnivores, but I guess being an omnivore helps with the ludicrous caloric consumption a giant flier would have.


    Regardless I focus back in the moment at the coin in front of me and try to test it. While my tail can pick it up, it does not have the force or joints required to squeeze it, so I use my mouth. It¡¯s actually easier than I expected to just grab it. It¡¯s tiny, to be fair, and having an elongated mouth makes biting stuff easier. Now that I have it between my front teeth I angle my head to the side and lead it with my tongue to my molars, biting down on it, lightly at first, then slowly using more and more force.


    I feel just a bit of strain, but not more than I felt in my past life biting through wood or metal sheet. That is interesting to note. What is even more interesting, though, is what happened to the coin. I spit it out and the thing is, plainly put, punctured straight through. There is a bit of flat sheet left behind, but I managed to put a hole through a gold coin. Not an impressive feat if this is pure gold, but still it is something to note. Wait, did I seriously just¡­ I just picked something up off the floor and put it in my mouth then bit it.


    I literally used logic to talk myself into acting like a baby.


    What even is life?

 Chapter 4: Scented Rocks

    Somehow I fell asleep. One moment I was awake, dreading the fact that my mind might start reverting to a baby¡¯s thought process, which would really mess me up, then the next my body just slumped. I hope I didn¡¯t roll off the side. What was surprising to me, however, was how quickly I was awake again. I have a theory that I will need to test, namely, that the time in my library is completely arbitrary and based more on how much active thought I use than how many hours pass.


    After all I spent the previous night trying to see if there¡¯s anything I can extrapolate from a few random feelings, while this night I just spent being confused for five seconds about just collapsing following by light hitting my eyes. It wasn¡¯t like only a bit of time passed, because, at a minimum, one of my parents came by and moved me back in the center of the nest. I do not think it was instinct or moving in my sleep because I find the little bitten coin next to my head, meaning my parent saw me sleeping after finding my way to the side of the nest, saw me next to a coin with baby teeth marks on it, then tucked me right back to safety and gave me the dented coin like it was a teddy bear.


    This may point to my parent being sapient, which would be nice. More things point towards me being an ideal kind of dragon and I am all for it. Now, speaking of other dragons, there¡¯s my siblings. And they¡¯re sleeping. Why though? Sure I understood them just napping yesterday, I am 90% sure I was born first and that they only got out of their eggs while I was sleeping, which may mean that we got our activity clocks inverted, but I figured at least one would be awake at the same time as me. Strange.


    Well, maybe they don¡¯t yet have the neural activity needed to do anything other than sleep. It¡¯s been two days and I do not remember eating. We are a bit less round than yesterday, but still plenty plump so I figure we¡¯ll only get hungry tomorrow. Maybe that¡¯s when we¡¯re supposed to actually start being dragons and walk around, maybe have our first meal? I don¡¯t know about where we¡¯d fit on the evolutionary tree, but I really don¡¯t think dragons are mammals, so I doubt mother will bring us milk. Maybe it¡¯s like birds and she¡¯ll bring.. what? A dead snake or mouse to feed us? That¡¯s¡­ not exactly appetizing. Actually no, that¡¯s gross and the image is playing in my head and I should feel my stomach turning but it isn¡¯t. Alright, my mind is repulsed, my body is nonplussed. Something to unpack later.


    For now I just attempt to get up and for the third time in a row I fail. Well, not completely, at least. I fail to raise myself off the ground but I manage to push myself forward instead, headbutting one of my sleeping siblings. Somehow, still doesn¡¯t wake it up. Damn weird. Well, with my newfound mobility I manage to make record time reaching the edge of the nest¡­ wait I have no idea how to guestimate length so I don¡¯t know how big this place is. My perception is skewed since I am so tiny and close to the ground. Damn, that¡¯s something I¡¯ll need to solve. The definition of a meter is not exactly something a baby fat lizard can just follow, because how the hell am I supposed to mark down how far light travels in a vacuum during 30.663318988 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom?


    I pause for a second, well, metaphorical second. Yeap, so much physics knowledge in this odd brain of mine that it still genuinely surprises me. I mean, I failed physics, twice, but now I just have the answer to most problems right here. My biggest problem was always that I couldn¡¯t remember more than 3 equations at once and sadly that doesn¡¯t cut it at college level. What was I doing? Right, I wanted to look around some more now that I could crawl. Hopefully my belly scales could handle being dragged around a bit.


    It takes some effort getting down, mainly because I didn¡¯t feel like turning into a ball rolling down the hill, but I managed to get down with only a bit of sliding at the end, as coins got loose. Note to self, my body is tough. Probably not incredibly so, but I am not feeling pain despite dragging myself over these coins and putting quite a bit of weight on my feet when I move. Well, that¡¯s great, especially if I will live in this cave for a while.


    I did look around previously, but it really is different when you¡¯re up close and personal. The mountain of riches is absurd. Like I could unironically swim in all this stuff like I was in a cartoon. From down here I can also see more stuff around here, like the fact that there¡¯s a sort of ring of silver around the pile of gold where the nest is. I thought all this stuff was just spread around here randomly, like a dump of riches, but the ring of silver seems intentional. I sniff at it, being hit with the scent of clean air and sterile bandages, then scratch at one with my claws, and the result is not what I expected. I originally thought it was fake when I saw just how shiny and clean it looks, but below the shiny coins, there¡¯s more, less shiny ones. Actually, looking close, the symbols differ between the ones that started tarnishing and the ones that didn¡¯t, meaning it¡¯s less about purity and more about age. These are new.


    Another thing to note, from the existence of these coins that I did not really think about yesterday, or rather didn¡¯t get time to think. There¡¯s people. At least there¡¯s roughly human sized people with roughly human-like tendencies, since I doubt a dragon made these tiny coins. After all these are small for me, a baby, I doubt a real dragon can even hold a single coin it its claws.


    So fantasy world with fantasy people with a fantasy society, probably. I will need to think about what relations there might be between whomever made this money and my parents. Dragons could be anywhere between noble, respected members of society and public enemy number one. The cave makes me think that reality is closer to a pessimistic answer.


    Coins aside there is one thing I was wondering about, namely the gems and if they are actual gems. Honestly I can¡¯t accurately test it, but I can at least give a good guess on if it is glass, plastic or something different. I doubt it¡¯s plastic, but hey, you never know what a whole different world has in store. So I go for the closest gem to me, a dark blue one. I focus my eyes on it, seeing the intricate pattern within the crystal.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    I see waves. I see the slow movement of the ocean in its endless expanse of nothingness. I can smell the water, a faint trace of salt, I can hear the waves hitting each other and splashing. I am there. I am in the ocean and there¡¯s no sky above or land below. It is just water encompassing my entire being and I run.


    Well, I am being generous. I am not running, I am just clawing my way away from the pile of valuables and hide next to a jagged rock, breathing much faster than I should. Somehow my mind is both panicking and calm at the same time. It takes a minute for my terrified half to focus enough so I can understand what the hell happened. Short answer: dragon instincts. Long answer? I don¡¯t know. I genuinely have no idea what happened. I can guess that something about me being a dragon gave me hallucinations but beyond that I don¡¯t know.


    This kept happening though. It was to a lesser extent, but I also focused less the last couple times. The gold and silver coins. I had sniffed them and got hit with the scent of power and growth, then with cleanliness respectively. The sapphire looking gem smelled like the ocean and like water, but I not only smelled it, I saw it. It might be a combination at work. The gem was big, actually. I¡¯d say it was a bit wider than the coin at its widest, but it was sculpted in the form of a teardrop so it was comparable to an apricot. That was a lot more crystal than the metals. And with the gold and silver I looked a bit closer but I didn¡¯t focus my eyes as much as I could like this time.


    I have to keep in mind, it seems, that focusing any senses too much on something that might be precious will give me hallucinations. Is this drugs? Are valuable metals and gems just dragon drugs? Then mother must be extremely irresponsible.


    Coping comedy aside, this does intrigue me, so time for a control test. I take a silver coin, a golden coin and the teardrop. With them like this I do notice that the gold coin is a bit bigger than the silver, noticeable but no more than that. Regardless, back to my test, what happens if I sniff each of these, with my eyes closed? Not too deep a breath, just normal breathing, but still close to the precious material.


    First, the one I somewhat tested before successfully. It is still power and growth, but I sense something else too. At least part of the ¡°more¡± from before seemed to be energy. It feels revitalizing just breathing in the air close to the coin. That¡¯s interesting. Also I am not lost in it, maybe because I didn¡¯t take a deep breath. Might as well see what happens then. And so I take my first deep breath of this life. Honestly I am surprised how much air I can take in, I feel like I became twice as wide by the time no more air can push its way in. Of course this deep breath seems to have done more than expand my rib cage. I do not smell just growth and power, there¡¯s more. I realize, then, that in my rashness I forgot to think about the fact that I am sitting next to a small hill of mixed riches.


    It smells like I fell face first into the spice rack, broke everything, and then took a deep breath. I cough and squeak, then shake my head, but I feel my body heat up. Of course, from all the coughing, I emptied out my lungs and went back to breathing normally while trying to calm myself up, but my body feels better than before, paradoxically. I follow the feeling of warmth and it literally just feels like I drank a whole bowl of soup. I can feel it spread, radiate, from my chest to the rest of my torso, to my limbs and head. I am pleasantly surprised then when I try again to lift myself up on my feet and actually manage to get off the ground. It only lasts a few seconds before my body collapses and I start breathing a bit harder, but that doesn¡¯t matter.


    I was stronger. For a moment my body was stronger. The warmth is replaced by normalcy, no, by actual cold, and I can¡¯t help but breathe a bit deeper than before. Not a lungful, just a bit more. There was something happening and I needed to understand it, since it seemed my current body worked entirely differently from my previous one. A deep breath was enough to make me feel every smell I can think of, to the point where I had no hallucinations since they were all overlapping chaotically, but either one of the scents or the act of just breathing was enough to make me temporarily stronger.


    Hypothesis one: Oxygen, I use a lot of it. There is the possibility that my muscles just consume so much energy to move my body that what I get normally isn¡¯t enough. That is a dumb idea however, since if I was to get less than I should, my body would just naturally breathe harder. I¡¯ve been high up in the mountains in my past life, where the air was thin, and my body naturally breathed faster to compensate.


    Hypothesis two: Smelling salts. Just like there¡¯s those salts that smell so bad they can wake somebody up from a concussion, maybe one of these smells gave my body a kick that forced it to use 100% of power, but the effect faded quickly and that coolness was a sort of backlash to the body, or a regulatory effect.


    Hypothesis three: Magic. Dragon, fantasy world, magic. Holy trinity and all that. Dragons are supposed to be magical in a way or another, so say there¡¯s mana floating about, in the air, and I just got a lungful of mana and used that to empower my body?


    Hypothesis four: It was literally just adrenaline from my body thinking I was attacked after smelling a lot of everything all at once, and I am overthinking it.


    Got no clue, but it¡¯s fun to put feelings into thoughts. And now that I managed to calm myself down it is time to-


    It happened again. I am back in the library, completely randomly and unprompted. One moment I am contemplating rocks and metals, the other I am out like a burnt matchstick. My siblings were still sleeping, I did not hear any sounds to imply otherwise, maybe I am being dumb by being active and I should be resting like them, maybe I am running through energy I don¡¯t have and that¡¯s why I don¡¯t even get a slight warning.


    Well, whatever might be the reason, I decide that I am not going to get anything out of my own mind to explain dragon biology. So instead I focus on passing the time faster, which actually works, somehow, as I open my eyes. Once again I am in the nest, and once again I am in a cuddle pile. I just shake my body and try to drag myself away, when I hear stomping. I freeze and look towards what I recognize as the entrance of the room. The sole entrance now that I think about it. I look at it and get a feeling of anticipation as something massive approaches.


    I realize then that I am feeling something other than anticipation: hunger. And probably feeling the same thing, my siblings all stir awake, raising their heads and starting to make.. sounds? Yeah they sound somewhat similar to my squeak from before, but I can¡¯t exactly focus on that. My focus is entirely spent on the entrance, massive as it is. I see the shadow way before I see a body. The earth is now actually quaking, a few pockets of dust from the ceiling coming loose and falling down slowly.


    There she is. Yes. She. There is mother, before me.


    That¡¯s a lot of eyes.

 Chapter 5: Big Scary Momma

    That is a lot of eyes. An absurd amount of them if I can say so myself. That is also an absurd size for any creature to have, even a god damned dragon. If I was a clownfish she is a whole blue whale! Seriously she could eat the entire nest as well as all the gemstones and coins and I doubt it¡¯d even fill her mouth! I take a deep breath, but I am not assaulted by spices, instead there¡¯s something completely different. I realize then that this must be her scent. Yes, her, my mother.


    She is a lake with reeds and lilies and willows and algae. She is a slow river filled with life that decided to get up and walk off. She is beauty and peace, a quiet that makes you just want to sit down and exist. I cannot be afraid of her, for she is nothing but the kindness that nature gives to those that take the time to appreciate it. She is a life giver, she made me and my siblings after all, so why would I be afraid of her?


    Maybe it¡¯s the six front facing eyes that are absolutely focused on me. That might be it. Now that I am no longer assaulted by hallucinations I can see her, and maybe as an after effect of whatever that was, I am not terrified anymore. Rather, I think she is an absolute beauty even if she looks more like an eldritch creature than a dragon. Don¡¯t get me wrong, the basics are there. She has scales, a long neck, wings, tail. But no, she is much more than a big lizard with wings slapped on her back.


    Let¡¯s start with the head. Ten eyes. Why so many? I don¡¯t know, but she has ten whole eyes, of which six are front facing and the other four are spread between her sides. The front ones are arranged in a sort of sideways hourglass shape, with the inner two being much larger than the other ones, turquoise and having round pupils, while the other four are either deep blue or verdant green, with the upper two having plus shaped pupils while the lower two having them in an x shape. Her four lateral eyes are similarly split between green and blue, with the pupil being similar to a goat¡¯s. Just a big rectangle. They are also arranged strangely, with two slapped just on the side, while the other pair is actually much lower and seems to be actively angled towards the ground.


    She also has horns, at least 20 of them, all reaching upwards and seeming to make a sort of crown. They¡¯re not big, comparatively, but they look carved, complex patterns and ridges being visible around. They¡¯re also a pure white, cleaner than any ivory I¡¯ve ever seen. She has four wings, all of them folded neatly and pressed against her body and her legs are just something else, since she has six of them. They¡¯re thick, with only the two up front seeming to be a bit slimmer and actually having long fingers, the back four looking a lot like elephant legs.


    Now that by itself shouldn¡¯t make me think she is more horror than dragon, even if the eyes are weird, but her neck and tail(s?) are making it pretty hard not to think of her as such. I am a bit confused on the tail situation because it looks like she has a lot of them, or maybe it¡¯s just a weird big one? Whatever the case, it looks like someone took a lizard and made it cosplay as a peacock. Not only does she have the same green and blues of a peacock, but also has a lot of small feathers with the same pattern of multiple, hypnotic eyes. As she steps towards us I see her tails move, now confirming that they are in fact just many of them wrapped to look like one. They are extremely dexterous, have a sort of spike coming out the end, and there¡¯s even a thin membrane seemingly linking all of them to one another, though that might also be part of the illusion her feathers make.


    Then there¡¯s the part that solidifies her eldritch aspect: Her neck has tendrils. Not just one or two, mind you, but I swear it looks like she is a willow with how many she has and how they sway as she moves her head. They do not look like decorations or plants, they literally look like scaly tendrils with small spikes at the end of them. The fact that she carries what looks like half a deer certainly points to them being used as limbs.


    Scratch that, what really earns her the title of eldritch horror is her mouth. Why does she have five rows of teeth? Who, in the history of everything, has ever needed that many? Ah, and don¡¯t think that this is a shark situation with the rows being in the back of her head, waiting to replace the forward ones as she loses them. She literally has five rows of huge sharp teeth all of them placed at the front, with barely any space between. Some are serrated, some look just sharp, some look like oversized canines and all of them are ready to work as she bites.


    She makes sounds, they don¡¯t seem threatening but they are sounds I cannot comprehend and that would probably paralyze someone with fear. Her eyes then shift from me over to my other siblings. They all are awake and squeaking fearlessly, their eyes more focused on the carcass than on the huge dragon thing that apparently made us. She does not seem too surprised by that and places the body on the floor, right next to the pile of riches we sleep on. After that she makes a short sound that seems soothing compared to her other vocalizations, but it doesn¡¯t seem to calm my siblings at all as they quite literally slide like penguins down the almost two meter tall hill of valuables, before starting to rip at the body, clearly enjoying the fresh meat.


    I don¡¯t know what to do. My instincts seem to want me to just focus on the meat as it smells really good and my eyes keep going down to it, but then I remember about the huge mutant dragon and I look back up at her. She tilts her head and I do the same. She tilts it the other way and I follow. She laughs. She actually just laughs. It is a melodious yet powerful sound and the coins bellow me rattle as they are hit by the low vibrations. After seemingly having her fun, she looks¡­ kindly? At me and lowers her head, wrapping a few tendrils around my body.


    At first I panic, thinking that I may have done something wrong by hesitating, but instead it seems like this was a hug, as her tentacles retreat after giving me a bit of a squeeze. She makes a few more sounds, no, scratch that, she speaks a few words. There¡¯s a clear pattern to the sounds, but I do not yet get it and learning it will take a lot of time since it sounds completely different from anything I heard back on Earth. Still that should solidify it. She thinks, she can be amused, she can embrace her confused child. She has emotions and a mind and is a fully sapient being.


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    Also, that¡¯s a pretty positive first interaction. Her scent is intoxicating but she does have a calming presence, and I actually feel comfortable just looking away from her, now that I know she is not just an animal running on instinct that might turn around and crush me by mistake. So I climb down, a bit more gracefully than the others and I try to get in on the fun, but it seems that I won¡¯t have the chance to be picky. Less than a minute and they ate most of the body. There¡¯s still some meat and bones, as well as intestines that I can only imagine why they are untouched¡­


    Ah, problem, I have to eat raw meat. It looks disgusting. I sniff it and it smells good, even if less than before, but it still looks like a corpse torn apart by wolves and I don¡¯t know how to feel about it. The others seem full as they just curl up close to the body, mother reaching down to pick them up and place them back up on the nest. At least I now know how she kept placing me back with the others.


    Alright, here goes nothing. I chomp down on the meat, using my left front foot to keep the bone down and after a bit of quick chewing I am certain that his is the best meal I¡¯ve ever had. It is also my first meal in this life, to be fair, but really it tastes way too good for raw, unwashed flesh from a wild deer-like animal. Still I continue eating and I actually continue enjoying it. It¡¯s different from eating back as a human. This time I feel it all. I think my digestion is a bit different because not even a minute after eating I feel my body warm up and energy flood me. It makes me want to eat more so I do just that. I quite literally devour all that is left, and this is how I find out that my tongue is cat-like, at least in the sense that it has papillae which really help with stripping the bones clean. Even after that I still felt a bit hungry so I started nibbling the bones and they crumpled under my teeth, showing their juicy insides.


    10/10 meal, would certainly eat half deer raw meat again. Damn do I feel full now... I think I went back to ball shape. Looking down at my victim I only see bone splinters, intestines and a bit of fur and hooves left behind, and realize I literally ate the entire creature. No wonder I feel full. My eyes move up just fast enough to see the tendrils reaching down for me and I close my eyes, collapsing into sleep.


    <hr>


    Things are different this time. The next time I wake up I do so for only a moment. I am on my back, a sibling¡¯s head resting on my expanded stomach, and after that moment of observation I am right back in my library. This happens again. I just wake for a moment, have time to notice that I am in a different position and then I collapse again. I doubt it¡¯s been a day each time I fall asleep, but at the same time I have no point of reference for time, especially with the fact that I am underground, permanently illuminated by those crystals.


    What happened? Why am I no longer able to stay awake? Well, my siblings did presumably sleep since they were born, only waking up enough to crawl around a bit. I guess this is how I was supposed to act. That¡¯s going to be a pretty boring life¡­


    <hr>


    It takes me waking up about five times before I am able to wake up properly and I see change. Looking around I realize that I grew at an alarming rate, as did all my siblings. Secondly, the only one still with me is the one with a crown forming. The two with red scales are actually down below, squealing and play fighting. The one next to me was curled up and sleeping, at least until I raised my head. It seemed to instantly wake up from that and turn to look at me, letting out an adorable squeak as it stared at me with bright blue eyes similar to a cat¡¯s.


    I instinctively sniff her, and that¡¯s how somehow realize it¡¯s a ¡°her¡±. I am taken aback by that somehow working, but then remember that scents are a big part of how animals recognize each other, so maybe humans are just weird for relying solely on appearance. Well, her horn crown has already started to sprout, and I now realize that it will probably look like mother¡¯s. Her colors are also more defined, really she is looking to become the spitting image of our mother at some point and it would probably fit her well.


    Right, mother, who somehow has a lot more limbs than either me or my siblings have. I look down at the other two as my sister nuzzles my side and I see Red Tail spreading his tiny wings as he does a dive attack into Spots. They¡¯re both males, I realize, as I focus on their scent. The wings don¡¯t seem to carry him at all, but it probably trains his muscle memory for when he does get to fly. Well, seeing as I finally get some time to be awake, I decide to use it and get up. It¡¯s easy. My whole body feels lighter, or maybe my legs are just stronger after growing a bit? Regardless I take a step forward, shift my weight forward, then move the leg furthest back to follow and I am walking.


    I am a tiny predator so I just have to act like a cat and I should probably make do. For now I actually want to try and see myself somehow. Sure I can analyze my front limbs and tail, both seeming to just be longer and thicker than before, but nothing else being changed, so I instead focus on finding something shiny. There¡¯s a lot of metal down here, so there should be s-


    My instincts scream and I instinctively twist my whole body, swinging my tail with all of my weight behind it. I swat red tail from the sky, knocking him down on the rocky floor. I feel my body remaining focused, almost in a combat mode for a second, before getting back to reality and rushing over to him. I hope I didn¡¯t seriously injure my brother during our first ever interaction, that would suck for years to come


    As I reach him I notice that he is already up, squeaking and taking nips at the air. He¡¯s playful. That didn¡¯t hurt him. Damn, ok, dragon infants are tough. Wait, no, babies are tough in general. At least that¡¯s what I heard about human babies back when I was alive. They¡¯re indestructible so long as you don¡¯t let them realize they¡¯re hurt, might be what happened now. However rushing to my brother wasn¡¯t useless, just a bit to the side of him I see something I didn¡¯t notice before, probably because of the limited awake time.


    It is a sort of ornate shield, but it¡¯s not the shield part that¡¯s important, but rather the mirror. Because somebody had the bright idea of making a tower shield and slapping a whole mirror on top of it. Well, regardless of bad design choices, it does help that I can see myself in it. I am weird. Lots of horns with little pattern starting to grow, bright red eyes like a tree frog¡¯s when all the others seem to have blues or greens and my scales are mostly sky blue, with a light grey belly. I am also pretty damn cute.


    You know what? I can work with this.

 Chapter 6: Illegal Activities

    It takes a while for me to finish observing my body, which lets me notice that I have spikes growing down my spine. That might be useful at some point, or just another redundant defense system. Actually that was one thing that always confused me about dragons. They¡¯re predators, at the apex of the food chain, yet have sharp defenses all over. Herbivores should have spikes and horns, even in dinosaurs this was mostly true. And seeing mother¡¯s horn crown I cannot imagine it being very useful on defense, unless she does a giraffe attack with all her horns hitting an enemy¡¯s body.


    Wait does that mean there¡¯s other creatures of dragon size around? Maybe. Regardless those are big musings and I am very, very tiny. Speaking of tiny, Red Tail (Yeah I¡¯ll just call him that, I suck at names) is looking mighty adorable right now as he wags his tiny claw in my direction, trying to get a swipe in. Our legs are still kind of tiny, once again making us look like a slightly wider komodo dragon, so he is failing to actually hit me with them. I laugh a bit then decide to act like a cat and rub my head into him. That seems to calm him down and he returns the gesture.


    Once again, cat behavior is the language of tiny predators. Man do I miss that little furball¡­ At least she won¡¯t have to wonder why I am so late to bring her food and scratch her belly....


    I crumple and throw that thought in the dark corner with all the books I would rather have burned, and go back to thinking about my new world. Firstly, mother looks different from us, but also similar enough. If not for her coloring and her overall shape I would have thought that she stole us, but no, it seems that despite having twice our wings, an extra pair of legs, tentacles, 8 extra eyes and God knows how many tails, she is our progenitor. So the question then is, how?


    Amphibians are a weird kind of creature. They lay eggs inside the water. They do not protect the eggs like reptiles or birds with a shell, but rather keep the fish method. When the egg forms into a baby, if you look at the infant and the mother they would be absolutely nothing alike. Like in frogs, one looks like a tiny fish, the other is a whole land animal. Four extra limbs, no tail, primitive lungs, massive eyes and mouth, a different stance¡­ Are dragons amphibians?


    No, that¡¯s stupid and I know it, especially since I am nowhere near water and I have yet to drink anything even though I have lived for at least five or six days by now. Maybe over a week actually. So, dragons are reptilian in appearance, but my blood is clearly warm, so leaning towards mammal? No, mother has no mammary glands, and clearly no fur, and even furless mammals have some hairs. What am I then..? Ah. I¡¯m a god damned bird.


    Really the fact that mother has feathers should have clued me in earlier, but hey. Well, actually she only really has tail feathers, her wings seemed the same leathery type we got, so maybe leaning more dinosaur. Heavily modified dinosaur. It could be that we will slowly start growing other parts, but that will be very strange. After all designing completely new structures, especially complex ones like eyes is pretty much impossible. Well, there¡¯s axolotls but we don¡¯t talk about those adorable abominations.


    Well, let¡¯s keep this in mind for later, I am not exactly looking forward to observing the world in 360 vision, with upwards of 10 different viewpoints. It will probably be pretty disorienting. And I can¡¯t even stand here and imagine that because I feel someone nibbling my tail. Right, they are just dinosaur cats. Of course they¡¯re going after the tail. It¡¯s Spots (again, I suck at names) doing it too, since Red Tail¡¯s still rubbing his face into my neck. I did not have siblings in my past life but this is about what I expect it will be like until we grow up. Let¡¯s see, communication. I nip at the air and it seems to scare him away from me for a second, then he tries going right back to it but is rewarded with a light tap on the snout, to which he answers by falling on his side and clawing at the air with his front legs. He¡¯s so precious!


    Really it is strange how easy it is to control my tail, it literally feels like a mix between a tongue and an arm, but farther away than either. My wings also feel sort of like long, flat hands as I open them up, like I would spread my fingers, noticing the pitiful wingspan, then fold them right back. I think my mind is translating dragon signals into human ones, let¡¯s hope that doesn¡¯t become a problem in the future.


    Where was I? I swear I wanted to check something out. Ah! The rocks and metals! I kind of collapsed last time I tried, so time to try again to figure out if the weird hallucinations are normal. I pull away from my brothers, letting them go back to playing with each other, and turn to find a bit of close to everything. It takes maybe ten minutes to make sure I got a sample of every different material. And I have to say there¡¯s a lot. I am not a jeweler, so I have no idea if the deep blue is sapphire, tanzanite, alexandrite or some other exotic stone, but I can see that it is a finely made crystal and all the other ones are similarly beautiful gems.


    There¡¯s a whole rainbow of crystals out here, even ones whose color does not fit on the rainbow, like transparent, white, black even a brown one. Even the coins aren¡¯t all just silver and gold. There¡¯s coppers and even something silvery, a bit bigger than the gold and with very few other similar coins in this pile, which leads me to believe it might be platinum. It¡¯s really the only valuable metal I can imagine being used as a higher, rarer currency than the gold.


    Regardless I take my small pile of valuables and brush them with my tail into a corner, a bit away from the others. Tails are better limbs than I expected. Really lizards just don¡¯t really use them as well as they could. Argh, my brain¡¯s been so short on focus, and I swear I wasn¡¯t this bad before. Well, if you think about it, babies are supposed to have no attention span, going from one interesting thing to another in order to learn like the sponges they are. I guess that plus actual adhd makes thinking kind of hard.


    One smack to the back of my head later and I am right back to the experiment. Firstly, the gold, just to make sure again that it does smell like it should. Yep, still power and growth. Then comes the silver and I smell the cleanliness and freshness as well as power, but much less than the gold. Really it gives me the feeling of a hammer being compared to a rapier. Both can kill, sure, but one will crush things into paste while the other is precise and clean. I think the smell of purified air has a correlation to the fact that silver can purify water and the like. Maybe I just detect that happening with my new nose. I move on and the next thing to check is copper. It¡¯s.. copper, mostly. It smells like copper and a little bit of something more, but mostly just metal.


    A bit of a break is needed since apparently metal smelling metallic gave me whiplash, but I am right back to checking the next fancy thing, the platinum. It smells like so much more. It¡¯s pure in a way. It smells like the beginning of a journey, like a blank sheet of paper, like a freshly opened book and knowledge and power so much more raw than whatever the gold had. If anyone else can smell this, it¡¯s no wonder they used it for the biggest coin.


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    There sadly are no other coins for me to test and see if there is anything else different, but it doesn¡¯t matter as I have all the gems still. I check again the blue one and it is still the ocean. Still and powerful. I move on from it to the light blue one and the air feels cold, no, my lungs feel cold. I exhale and it feels like I just had a mint, and I can just imagine the freezing mountain peak. Alright, then this bright red one is-


    Like snorting cinnamon. I took too deep a breath and it hurts. I cough and curl my head downwards, slapping it with my front legs as I struggle to get that heat out of my body. That was straight fire going into my lungs and it did not feel good. Once I calm down and look around to notice Red Tail looking at me from a way¡¯s away, I go back to sniffing crystals. I swear there¡¯s a joke here.


    Anyway from my sample of three crystals I am starting to form an idea and I am vibrating with excitement. Magic. It might just be that what I am smelling is magic. Red for fire, deep blue for water, bright blue for ice (which is strange as ice is mainly white or transparent but whatever), it all makes some pretty good sense. I look over at the artificial light from before.


    A transparent crystal, continuously making light, no cables or anything. I stroll up to the stone it was placed on, and try to climb my way up. I am not strong enough or light enough to just climb a sheer stone surface, but this is literally just a rock, not even cut in any fancy way, so I manage to make it after trying for a minute. Once up I see it¡¯s not just a transparent crystal, but there is something trapped inside. It looks like.. no I genuinely don¡¯t know what to say it looks like. It¡¯s a 3d geometrical shape and modern sculpture in one. Reminds me of those optic illusions but this one is actively moving inside there and it seems to be the actual glowing bit, not the gem.


    I sniff the crystal and it is what I expect. It is the smell of sun baked stone, the sensation of warmth as you lay down to bask in the sun. Honestly, since I pretty much look like a lizard, I am tempted to just hug the sun crystal and just exist for a bit, but I shake myself awake and step back from it. So, that is either a super high tech lightbulb, or straight up magic. Yeah no it¡¯s just magic. And not only was that crystal magical, it was enchanted to act like a permanent source of light. I can only guess that the transparent crystal actually has enough mana to keep it going for so long. That¡¯s a lot of energy if you think about it, but I do not know how much physics play a part in sorcery.


    So, there¡¯s magic, and crystals play a role in this. On one side I am glad about the fact that I do, at least, know a lot of precious and semi-precious gems and rocks, but on the other I have limited knowledge of what each might be associated with. When I was collecting them my mind was more about how cool they were and not what ethereal energy they were supposed to give you. Who knows, maybe the ideas wouldn¡¯t have aligned anyways.


    I go right back to my pile of valuables and now I cannot help but imagine how lucky I am to be a dragon in this world where precious stuff seems to be related to magic. I¡¯m basically a trust fund kid. Did I stockpile my luck from my past life to this one? That would certainly be rewarding now that I think about it. It¡¯s also depressing now that I think about it.


    Back to magic. So, then, what¡¯s the black one? I approach the dark crystal and it takes only a single sniff for me to recoil and back away. It¡¯s death. It¡¯s corpses and decay. It is entropy and the end of all things and it looks like a baby claw-sized black crystal. Alright, black magic, literally, left around your kids. Mother, I am starting to think that I gave you too much credit. Or maybe I didn¡¯t give her enough? With magic just being inside precious things, the hoard of valuables with a child nest on top of it makes so much more sense. It might be why it takes us days to get hungry despite being warm blooded, all the mana in these things is somehow sustaining us and maybe even helping us grow.


    So then, if all of these have a different type of mana clinging to them, doesn¡¯t that mean that spreading them all around in the pile would let us get as much mana as possible without poisoning us one way or another? It¡¯s why my nose didn¡¯t just burn or freeze last time I took a deep breath. It¡¯s a bit of everything and as such it is nothing at all. Like air. It technically has a lot of poisonous things in it, but in trace amounts so it doesn¡¯t exactly affect us too badly. Even the main thing we use, the oxygen, is extremely poisonous in high concentration. So I guess death mana could help us grow in a roundabout way. Guess I better throw it back in the pile then, and better to stop sniffing random crystals before I end up regretting it.


    <hr>


    As I finish spreading the gems in the pile, I look over at my siblings, who seem to have tired themselves out after playing around too long. My sister, who I might just call Crown or Princess or something, no, scratch that, Princess is a shitty name, even by my standards, let¡¯s stick to Crown, seems to be the only one awake, as she is looking down at the others, bumping her head into them and even nibbling on Red Tail¡¯s tail. I look at her and still see nothing that indicates she might be female, but once again my nose tells me that she categorically is. You do you, nose. You do you.


    I don¡¯t actually know how tired I am. I might have more energy than before, but I don¡¯t want to keep collapsing randomly, and I swear my body isn¡¯t giving me any signals by itself so I try and look inwards to check if there¡¯s any hidden warning bells. Answer: there¡¯s none. At least nothing I could detect by focusing on any part of my body. I can very clearly still feel the world, so why can I not feel tired? Is it just a dragon thing? Am I supposed to just nap most of the time? In stories they are often just lazing around on a pile of gold so maybe.


    On the other hand I do not feel even remotely tired so I will just do something different, something maybe stupid. I know where the door is and I am about to crawl away from my crib. I am really getting into the baby mindset here. Of course turning around to jump back down from the nest makes my sister squeak, drawing my attention back. She squeaks again as I pause and she gets up, coming closer, then boops my nose and goes to curl up next to the others. That was fucking adorable.


    One melted heart later, however, I am back on my mischief. Why am I escaping the relatively safe nest? Mother seems to not really want to spend much time with us so I am curious what exactly she is doing, and also, what the rest of our home is like. I¡¯m dying to see what a massive dragon even thinks is good decor! There¡¯s also the fact that mother may have an even bigger gold pile that she¡¯s lounging on.


    So here I am, walking slowly through the oversized tunnel, which has light crystals embedded into the wall and spread around just enough to not let dark spaces to form. It is strangely smooth and oval, with only the floor being filled with deep cuts, likely from mother¡¯s claws. Strange thing is that there¡¯s plants spread about. Bellow every single light crystal there¡¯s vegetation growing, clinging to the walls. It doesn¡¯t seem to grow too far from it, probably because of the lack of light, but there are plants here. They¡¯re really just green vines with leaves and nothing else, not even flowers. They do work as decoration for an otherwise barren tunnel.


    It takes me exactly 43 minutes and 28 seconds of walking to leave the tunnel leading to our nest. How did I figure out a way of keeping time? Once again, songs. I just played music continuously and added up the length of each song up to where I stopped. Improvised stopwatch, obtained!


    Now, as for what I find at the end of the tunnel? More tunnel. Way more tunnel. But at least this one¡¯s a fancy tunnel. And maybe a bit of a proof that mother¡¯s a narcissist if the giant portrait on the ceiling is any sign.

 Chapter 7: Fun, Dinner, Bedtime, Repeat

    I walk into the somehow larger hallway, and find myself in awe. This entire place is just gorgeous. A different kind of light crystal must be used here compared to our cave, because this light feels warm. Looking at the nearest magic lamp I see that it is a compound work. There is the transparent crystal, but it is almost merged with a small red crystal, probably to give it the warmth, and a yellow crystal that I am not sure what it actually represents. My eyes, sadly, cannot see the magic formation that no doubt is directing the spell and shedding the light.


    Looking at the rest of the hallway it is obvious why a different kind of light is needed, a more natural one: plants are absolutely infesting the place. I can¡¯t actually tell if it is intentional or not, but it looks like the jungle claimed a building made thousands of years ago. It¡¯s mostly greens and crawling vines, but I also see some flowers clumped together on a few specialized vines. And where there¡¯s flowers, there¡¯s fruits, because I can already see some bright, yellow, round-ish things up closer to the ceiling. I can¡¯t reach them, sadly, but it is nice to see that underground planting is just something easily achieved in this world. That must help a lot with places that aren¡¯t the best in terms of weather.


    I would also have been curious how all this life can stay alive down here, but it is quite obvious if you look on the floor, right next to the walls. While plants cover it almost completely, I can see and hear a very small trail of water. I go and use my claws and snout to push the plants away, and there it is. Clear water, flowing inside a clearly artificially made bank with small dots of space made here and there so it flows into the ground. The plants take from the wet earth and straight from the source simultaneously. This does remind me of a natural spring I used to visit when I was young, best water I¡¯ve ever had. In this life I have yet to drink even a drop of water, which may be concerning, but do I really want my first taste to be floor water?


    Yes, yes I do. My first taste of food was a deer¡¯s ass and its bones, I am way past worrying about diseases and hygiene in general. I press my snout in, just enough so I don¡¯t start getting water in my nostrils, and then try to suck in water. And fail. Damnit, I hoped this wasn¡¯t the case, but it seems that a tiny design flaw that many animals had back home appears here too. I don¡¯t have lips. Or rather, the lips I do have aren¡¯t able to seal properly, meaning I am sucking in mostly air, like a dumbass. So, can¡¯t drink water unless I have a bigger source, or, if I use the painfully slow and inefficient method that those same animals used. My tongue. Meh, I just wanted a taste anyway. So I get to scooping up water in my mouth, which is hard since my tongue is mostly cylindrical and refuses to flatten. The result is both good and bad. Good because it feels like refreshing mineral water, bad because there¡¯s dirt and sand and a lot of plant root taste in it.


    Meh, not everything can be as good as meat on an empty stomach. Regardless, I think it¡¯s time to address the elephant in the room, or rather, the painting of the elephant-sized dragon on the ceiling. It¡¯s mother, obviously, but like, why? A closer look at the walls show bits and pieces of different artworks, none whole enough for me to understand what exactly was supposed to be shown in them, but mother¡¯s portrait on the ceiling is perfectly safe from the growths. Really, it is actually accentuated by the circle of hanging vines that surround her image. And what an image that is, since the way it glints in the false sunlight makes me think that it is not only a painting, but it might even be a mural made with precious gems and metals for accents. Which is exactly the kind of spending I expect from a dragon. Well, I mean, she already spent plenty just for the hallway itself, since not only is it painted, probably by hand, by somebody, but I notice that it is filled with lines of gold plating. I think it is plating, at least, but that¡¯s genuinely gold, my dragon senses tell me it is. And aside from forming patterns on the walls, it seems to be stretched from one side of the hallway to the other.


    Pure opulence that would disgust me nine times out of ten, but I can see the beauty it brings in this case, as it contrasts the green vegetation and fits right in with the theme of nature taking back land from civilization. Well, at least I now know what an adult dragon thinks of as beautiful decor, and I am not against it. Now, if I was a giant, vain dragon, where would I be? I look to either side of the hallway and there¡¯s really no telling. There¡¯s a bit of a curve which means that after a point it just seems like it ends in a wall. Well, it¡¯s not like I have nothing to use to guide myself, there¡¯s still the trickle of water. It has a direction, after all. So, up or down? Up, might as well see where this water comes from, because it might either be the innermost spot, or the actual exit of this place. Time to walk some more.


    <hr>


    It takes me about five minutes to notice something strange. There¡¯s movement on one of the vines. It¡¯s noticeable because none of the others are even swaying currently, so I look at it, and after a bit I realize what is causing it. It¡¯s a bug. A big bug. It¡¯s a whole giant, like, Giant African Snail type creature. It¡¯s a beetle of some kind, with rough carapace that seems to grow out spikes. It is eating one of the fruits I noticed before, just chomping through without a care and it does not seem to even notice me.


    One thing to note, is that while I am very fascinated by insects, I do also have a massive phobia of them when they get too close, so I back my butt into a dense bit of foliage on the opposite wall and sit still like a rock, observing the creature. It doesn¡¯t seem to have any special defenses aside from those back spikes, and even those seem half baked. It actually looks like it has a hard time with its right side, where its biggest spike juts out from. Is this a case like those crabs that have one claw so big that it is useless, but they keep growing those handicaps larger and larger because they are seen as attractive?


    Either that, or this guy¡¯s an unlucky mutant. Ah, there it is, it made a mistake. It tried to step a bit above, but instead put one leg on a fruit and while raising another leg to move up, the fruit fell and so did the bug. I am surprised to see it fall harmlessly on the floor, since it did sound like a nasty hit, but it gets back up and doesn¡¯t seem to have even a small crack on its carapace. It doesn¡¯t even seem to mind the fall as it just starts munching on the fruit that fell with it. Unlike the bug the fruit is just a pile of mush that smells appetizing. Now, back to the beetle, I see now that it did have a kind of defense aside from its lopsided carapace, namely, leg spikes. Might give a nasty wound since it is as big as my head. I should fear it, but instead I sit here savoring its insides.


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    It¡¯s filled to the brim with half-digested fruit juice making it very gooey, with only a few more meaty and crunchy parts, and unlike those larger animals it doesn¡¯t seem to have much space to hold in waste, so I get to eat almost its entire body. Why does this taste so good? Why can¡¯t I stop? Not only do I feel this ravenous hunger, but I also feel a small wave of strength overcoming me, like my first deep breath.


    My body is weird. My mind is even more so. I am almost trying to force myself to be disgusted, but while I could feel physical pain because of my emotions, I cannot seem to retch despite my thoughts. I do not know how long I just sit here, in this large space, looking at this carapace, but I do. And suddenly I hear a heavy landing, followed by stomping steps. I tear my eyes from the dead bug and look up ahead. It seems I was right and the water is coming from the entrance. My ears are not as advanced as my sense of smell, but I figure I needed to walk another 10 minutes and I would be there. Something tells me mother won¡¯t take me outside though.


    A few seconds of wait time later and I see her, moving absurdly fast down the hall. I think for a moment that her legs help, but then remember that six legs aren¡¯t much better at speed than four, just at holding more weight, so in fact it is just that a step for her is about a minute walk for me. I squeak and thrill at her, hoping one of those sounds makes sense to her (they literally do not mean anything to me), and see her expression shifting as she watches me from pretty far away. Once she is close enough to notice the tiny shell next to me, she seems to laugh, speak two or three words in her strange tongue, then she reaches down for me. Once again, she has food, and once again I am picked up with little effort by about two tendrils.


    The walk back to the nest is absurdly fast, either because of just how swift mother is, or because I am focused on the scent of meat. She brought another carcass, maybe more than last time actually, for us. On one hand, I am famished, despite the bug. On the other, this means another long nap for me. I did somewhat enjoy the sleep, it¡¯s just so relaxing and I can let myself catch up on my past life¡¯s sleep debt, mentally if not physically, but that also means I get less time to adapt to being a dragon. My siblings had already figured out how to run and jump, while I have trouble walking a bit faster, so I need more time than them to adapt my human mind to this body.


    And so, by the time I finish my musings I find myself placed on the floor, with my siblings piling together as mother places down a small horror. It is a full carcass this time, with the only wound being the ripped neck. And I don¡¯t mean like something took a bite out of it, I mean something literally ripped the spine and the head is only hanging by some flesh. Now, what is this thing? A heavily mutated wolf is my best guess. It does look like one, somewhat, but it also looks like it took steroids from a guy who lives in the sewers.


    I dig in, together with my siblings, while trying to focus on its appearance. It has tough skin and very long and curly fur that gets stuck in my teeth and makes it extremely hard to even pierce it. It¡¯s almost like a puzzle in the way I need to use my front claws to reveal an area and then I have to scrape with my canines until I puncture the skin. I am faster than my siblings so there¡¯s that. At least my problem solving skills are better than week old lizard babies.


    Now, the rest of the creature¡­ It has one whole leg bigger than the others, with massive claws that look more like bone knives. Now that I look at it, that same paw actually has bone spikes jutting out. That cannot be healthy. On the other end of the creature is the tail, which is actually naked and thick, looking more like an oversized possum tail. Finally, we have the weirdest part. It has a single massive eye and a horrifying mouth. Its singular eye is about five times the size of what I would have expected for this animal¡¯s size, and its pupil seemed to be like two circles connected by a thin corridor. The mouth was only horrifying because it had like 3 times the teeth count it should have, and they didn¡¯t seem to care that they were pushing others away when growing. I am starting to feel that mother killing it was a mercy.


    I¡¯ll leave the head to one of the others, and just focus on its decently thick chest muscles. Despite my meal being clearly a canine, I still enjoy it. It¡¯s just tasty, which means it¡¯s good food for this body of mine. Or at least, most of it is good. I do come across a few weird parts as I dig through its torso. First, tumors. At least a couple. So yeah, cancer is a thing here, and this guy had it bad. There¡¯s a whole clump of clearly malformed flesh, bone and even what looks like half a tooth, and it is pushing against its left lung, must have caused quite a bit of pain. Second, a thing that at first I thought was also a tumor but instead realized is so much more, a sort of special kind of organ that it should not have. It grew next to the heart, apparently drowning itself in blood flow since I see a whole new aorta growing to connect only to it and back.


    At first I don¡¯t know what function it might have had, since it looked like a smooth sack of flesh, but after taking a bite out of it, it becomes clear. It¡¯s making gemstones. I spit out the tiny rocks and look at them a bit. They¡¯re very cloudy, rough and tiny, their main colors being dark red and an off white. I sniff them and I am confused a bit at first, since it just smells like the body I¡¯ve been eating, but then realize that that was intentional. It¡¯s blood, flesh and bone, and a mutant wolf was creating them inside of itself. So I guess that explains how people might get material for their magic, if animals can just grow them casually. Sure, these are not even ring-worthy gems, but gather enough of them and you might be able to do some kind of enchantment or gather a decent amount of mana.


    At least this made it obvious for me that I would not survive out there as I am. I can barely even walk, yet there¡¯s mutants roaming the world. Dragon or not, I am just a baby and for now I am safe here. Even if I wish I could see more, I will just have to wait for when I am considered old enough.


    I am done, it seems. I ended up eating the organ despite the tiny rocks it had inside. It tasted the best out of any other part of the wolf and seemed to be just what I needed to feel full. My siblings are still tearing at the carcass but I let myself fall asleep, face buried into the corpse. Not my best sleeping spot, but it¡¯s sufficient.


    And so I am back, sitting in my library of memories. One book falls from the shelf it was placed on and I pick it up, and it takes me to a better time. I was alone, bored, so I went on a walk through the forest. It wasn''t like the purposeful garden in the hallway, and it certainly was not that green, but it had its beauty, despite seeming like a bleak place to most. I remember following the dried out river, out into a clearing and finding the top half of a cow''s skull, perfectly cleaned, just sitting there. I remember curiously examining it, as the sun beamed down as it does in summer.


    Oh well, enough musings, time to go through my cycle of waking up for seconds at a time and then sleeping again. I can¡¯t wait to start growing enough for mother to start taking us out¡­ It¡¯s been maybe weeks since I¡¯ve last seen the sun and I bet the nature outside is much more exciting than what I am used to!

 Chapter 8: Kapro Teaches Babies About Arson

    I genuinely do not know how much time has passed. I kind of fell into a rhythm and it¡¯s hard to fall out of it. After my last meal my life has really just been made up of sleeping days in a row, waking up and getting tackled or cuddled by my clutch mates, listening to songs while stretching my body and after being awake for less than an hour, mother would come in with new food. It started normal with a bit more wolves (none as strange as the first), a few giant rabbits, and maybe another half a deer, but then things started getting weirder.


    The mutants became more frequent, first another wolf that instead of having a large body and bones all over, had become even more slim, with very thin fur and an elongated body, then came in a boar that looked like a battering ram, or some kind of living tank, because of the spiked bone armor growing on its face and its sheer size. The worst creature though? A deer. It looked perfectly normal, until I got to its face. It had more teeth than me. It also had bloodshot eyes and seemed to ooze the scent of blood despite not having any open wounds. Its core showed that yeah, it was making a lot of blood mana gems, and its stomach, which was turned from the four-chambered one a grazing animal should have, to a single chamber, massive thing, was filled with half-digested parts of so many creatures that it made me shiver.


    Still ate the nightmare fuel deer, but the point stands, thing was scary.


    Right, mana gems, I decided that, since I cannot properly identify each crystal, and the fact that, for example, two red crystals that look almost identically draw in completely different mana types, I decided to just call all of them mana gems and be done with it. Will be more explicative like that anyways. Same thing with cores. Whatever that organ actually is, I do not know, but I know that it makes crystals inside living things and that those crystals draw in and hold mana. All of the animals had them, actually, but the more mutated ones had way more and bigger crystals, and even the organ itself was bigger, irrelevant of the size of the specimen.


    And speaking of these things, I¡¯ve been binge eating them recently. I may be a bit rude for doing it, but I made sure to dig into the chest of each animal mother brought us and eat the core. Again, it tastes the best and gives me a surge of power, meaning that it likely helps me more than just the meat. I think it might even help grow my own core since I am pretty sure there¡¯s one in my chest too.


    Where was I? Ah, I was awake, right, that¡­ I have been pretty absentminded even when awake, but today? Today I feel like I actually opened my eyes for once. I also feel like the nap after this last meal was my longest yet. Looking down at my front legs, I see that they are much bigger than I remember. Absurdly big actually. One look around and I am sure, we hit a growth spurt. I mean, I am sitting in the nest together with Crown, who is still asleep, and we only barely fit. I look down and see that only Spots is awake, with Red Tail napping, on his back, at the base of the pile. He might have fallen there and never bothered getting back up.


    Well, time to see what changed aside from my size. I stretch, noticing that my legs are actually very flexible now, I am finally able to actually reach behind my head. I even do that and tap against my horns. Those grew fast. At this point they¡¯re still small, just like thicker spikes, but I¡¯ve only been alive for a month or two, unless I lost track of time horribly, so I will soon need to be aware of them.


    Rather than continue this blind I hop down, which is actually pretty easy now, and go over to the tower shield. I am a bit taken aback. I realized that I had changed fast, but this was a bit absurd. I mean, sure, more defined scales and bigger size, I understand that, but I am already starting to look different from my siblings. And while being a bit different makes sense, I literally am built different right now.


    My siblings¡¯ growth seems to be explained pretty easily: bigger, shinier. They literally just became like twice as big as before, from all points of view, then got a bit of a paintjob. Sure, like with RT who got red scales all the way to his hind legs now, their coloration changed a bit more than just being more defined, but it¡¯s still all superficial. They¡¯re still komodo crocs with undersized wings slapped on their back.


    As for me? My shape changed. My legs are much longer by comparison, and instead of being angled slightly sideways, and being more round, they are positioned like more of a dog¡¯s or cats and look slightly slimmer and certainly toned. I crouch down, and jump in place, seeing that I am still stronger than before, I don¡¯t think the tradeoff was that big, if I even ended up trading anything for this agility.


    My face is one thing that didn¡¯t change too much. I mean, aside from all then new spines growing on top of my head, and the fact that my eyes look a lot more vibrant than before with oranges and yellows detailing my otherwise red irises, I do not see a big difference. It¡¯s just bigger and better, and sometimes that¡¯s enough. Ah, no, there it is, there is the thing that changed. I have lips. Why though? I mean, they¡¯re not exactly lips, if I¡¯m honest. It¡¯s just that my upper side has a slightly longer muscle all around that can seal my mouth close, instead of keeping it basically open. That is a weird thing to just get for being a bit older.


    Other changes include my much more vibrant and bigger blue scales, my wings growing out a bit and even starting to develop spikes on the bony parts, but my tail takes the cake. It¡¯s split at the midway point now and while the base is like my siblings¡¯, the two ends are much slimmer. What my tail now has going for it, compared to my siblings, is dexterity. My two tail ends are just so mobile that they behave more like mom¡¯s tentacles, which makes me think that the balance purpose is just a nice secondary compared to being having an extra arm. Just to test I use my red tail to pick up a rock and it¡¯s pretty effortless. The muscle groups that go into making this possible must be crazy¡­


    Now, time to think. While my siblings grew like normal, just getting bigger, I went from a crocodile, to a galloping crocodile. No, it¡¯s not just that. I went up to Crown, sleeping cutie that she is, and checked her mouth. No lips. But I got them. The only reason for it that I can imagine is my experience of drinking water. It was hard because of my lack of lips and my strange tongue, so I adapted to that? I¡¯ve used my tail to pick up and move things, so it¡¯s more of a hand than a tail for me now. Yea, I think my thoughts and behaviors related to my body are what caused this. And while I had these complex thoughts, my siblings were probably thinking stuff like ¡°Biiiig¡± while looking at mother, thus growing fast but keeping the same shape.


    It might also be because I¡¯ve had a diet of cores for a while now. Those things felt like half the meal despite being just a tiny bit of the carcass.


    Oh well, enough musing about appearance, time to see what this thing can do! Since my body is more capable now, I mimic what I remember lots of predators doing. For example I crouch low, stalking forward while keeping a steady body. This could make me pretty sneaky if I wasn¡¯t a shiny blue lizard in an open cave¡­ but hey, might be useful if I ever reach the outside. I even test out my jumping, climbing and running skills. RT, waking up and seeing me be so active, seemed to have decided to try and follow my lead. He, uh, failed. Badly. He managed to run very well, using a sway of his torso to speed himself up, like a lizard would, but that simply wasn¡¯t enough to keep up with me. Fast lil guy, but not fast enough.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    There¡¯s another great thing about my much stronger legs. They¡¯re not paws. Why¡¯s that so great? Because, in truth, I have functional fingers, including one that is opposed to the others. And since I am still a tiny juvenile compared to my species, and unlike my siblings I have much slimmer limbs, a fact that extends to my fingers, I am now able to pick stuff up! I got hands! Ain¡¯t that something? I reach down, pick up a coin, and then throw it forward. Yeah, I expected that being god damned pathetic. I think I managed to throw it like twenty centimeters? If that. But, I am a dragon, not a human. Throwing stuff probably isn¡¯t my way to success. Or¡­


    I pick up a coin with my tail again and this time try using it to throw. I move my hip, my tail swings like a whip, and when I let go of the coin, it flies pretty fast, but 90 degrees into the heavens. Binocular vision is cool and all, but I don¡¯t have the rough throwing sense humans have, so it seems I¡¯ll need to really work for any accuracy. A bit of a bother, but hey, I basically have a primitive slingshot built in, so that¡¯s cool. And since I have two ends to my tail I can bunch up a few stones and with a twist of my hip I get the rock throwing equivalent of a shotgun.


    I turn my head, and of course, two adorable idiots are staring at me with sparkly eyes. Scratch that, make it three. Crown woke up and was watching me throw stuff. Of course, immediately, Spots and RT try to do it too, but fail to even pick up a coin or rock. As I said, their tails are just tails so far, somewhat fat and stiff, I never expected them to be able and do anything like this in the first place. Still it¡¯s cute to see them try! They¡¯re absolutely adorable and I wish I could give them proper scratches¡­


    Hmm, that attitude might be bad in the long run. I can¡¯t think of them as my siblings, not really, but thinking of them as pets is bad. They¡¯ll, at some point, become sapient critters that I can actually converse with, so I should not let myself think of them as ¡°cute animals¡± even if that¡¯s technically what they are.


    Oh well, I decide to play with them a bit, since it seemed Spots was starting to get annoyed at failing to pick up the coin. I instead teach them to sweep their tail to toss the coins and rocks around. It¡¯s fun, and since our bodies are much tougher than they have any right to be, we keep playing until we start getting sore.


    <hr>


    After taking a bit of a break, burying my face in some gold to recover, I hear something strange. It¡¯s hard to describe, but it sounds like it¡¯s coming from RT. Like he suddenly has a cold and an inflamed throat, and he¡¯s trying to sing opera. So I go over, as do Spots and Crown, and before we can approach, he exhales once more, but instead of a dying sound, he lets out smoke and sparks that jump on the stone floor before vanishing. It¡¯s beautiful, seeing that light show so suddenly. My other siblings agree since they yip and jump around happily.


    So, my sibling just learned firebreath. Well, sparkbreath, since he¡¯s a baby. Still, that¡¯s god damn dangerous, imagine if we were in a woo- nevermind, that¡¯s why we¡¯re in a cave, and not out in the forest. It¡¯s probably why mother didn¡¯t let the plants grow here, just to be sure that we don¡¯t start a fire.


    Red Tail seems very proud of himself, puffing up his chest, but I am more focused on the thing he¡¯s almost sitting on. It¡¯s a red mana gem, probably a fire one. After Crown and Spots show no signs of calming down, RT cranes his head, takes in a deep breath from near the crystal, then opens his mouth and almost throws the sparks with his whole body. Huh, back when I was sniffing crystals that didn¡¯t happen. Weird. I try to reach for the gem, and to my surprise, RT puffs up his chest, opens his wings and stretches them to be visible, then lets out an actual roar, even if a high pitched one, which makes my body lock down.


    ¡°Mine!¡± says, no, imposes the infant dragon. He has made his claim, that one gem is now his hoard and he will fight me if I try to take it. Whenever he tried to attack me from behind, or challenge me, or really any playfighting he tried to have us do, he always lost. Despite that, he is affirming that he will fight me if I try to take the thing. It¡¯s weird how effective that roar was, it made my whole body seize, my mind was split between roaring right back or turning tail and scampering away. My siblings seemed to have done the latter as they were peeking from behind a big rock. I on the other hand was still frozen.


    What do I do? I don¡¯t want to fight him, not for real, but it feels wrong to run from him. I feel my throat rumbling, my new lips raising to show fangs, but my heart¡¯s not in it. Then, a thought comes, no, a memory from my past life. A memory of me thinking that very few things are ever split into only two sides, only two options. And this certainly isn¡¯t it, despite how it feels. I don¡¯t need to run or fight him, my instincts be damned, I can just huff. So I do that. I puff out some air from my nostrils, then just sit, calmly. I keep looking at him until he cranes his head lower, at which point I walk away.


    I know that I can win, and I could maybe do that to make sure he understands it, but I don¡¯t need to. I can just let him enjoy his thing and understand that I never planned on stealing his little hoard. Hope he gets the right message though.


    Still, since testing it with his crystal¡¯s a bust, I search through the pile and find a few red crystals, making sure they¡¯re all fire, then get to work. So, my sibling just spewed sparks, how do I imitate that? I try to breathe in the fire mana, then exhale it out, and predictably nothing happened. If it did, just putting a few of these together would start a bonfire. So then RT did something else¡­ What? Just for the hell of it I imagine the sparks as I breathe out again and nothing happened. Hmm.


    I breathe in the fire mana once more, but this time I keep it in and just sit on the feeling of warmth in my chest. I can feel the mana in my lungs, with a bit of it spreading through my body, radiating through my blood. I take another breath, following the feeling even closer. The warmth expanded from one side of my lungs to the other, and more of it spread to my blood, but none of it is drawn to a particular part of me. I go back to breathing normally and ponder some more.


    Alright, logic isn¡¯t helping. So then what could? I shove my face into the crystals, and sit there, breathing in and out continuously, feeling the warmth spreading through me. Then I imagine fire. I¡¯ve seen plenty of it in my life, and I¡¯ve seen many iterations of a dragon¡¯s firebreath, or a flamethrower of some kind. I try to apply that to me, imagining myself breathing out fire without care. I am a dragon, it is what I should be able to do, it¡¯s in my blood, it¡¯s in my body¡­ But that is not enough still. I try to think, about fire, what it is, how it works, about what it could consume to burn. I think about myself, what I am, and what could turn the mere air that I breathe out into fearsome flames. Then, all of a sudden, it clicks. All that thinking, all that imagination and information made the feeling of warmth focus on the base of my throat, and something there is vibrating.


    I once again take a deep breath, the image of fire flowing forth almost printed into my mind. I feel my eyes closing without closing. I have a third eyelid I didn¡¯t know about, and it protects me as I spew out actual fire in front of me. It is not the stream that I wanted, it simply can¡¯t be, but it is a small wall of expanding flames, like somebody set off a small explosive, and I created that from basically nothing!


    I turn my head, and sure enough, Spots, Crown and even RT who is carrying his gem in his mouth came by and looked at me as I spewed fire. Then I see RT do his thing again, but this time instead of making sparks, he makes a small puff of fire.


    Then Spots comes forward, reaches for a gem, and when I just look at him, he takes it and starts breathing in the fire mana, before letting out another, smaller, fire ball. Even Crown manages to do this, hers being the smallest yet, but still very much a flame.


    They¡¯re all so excited they start painting the brown floor black, and I can only feel fear.


    I think I just turned my siblings into arsonists.

 Chapter 9: Touching Grass Has Never Been so Violent

    So, turns out, I¡¯m not locked into using flames. My siblings are, mostly because of their ignorant little brains, but I am not. It seems that I can technically breathe out just about any element, if I saturate my lungs with the correct mana and I use the right combination of imagination and information. Which, I have to say, is a bit of a design flaw of our nest. I mean, my lungs are filled with a lot of mana, because of the pile, but if I try to make a jet of fire I can barely manage the equivalent of spraying perfume into a candle. Cool, sure, but ultimately a party trick compared to what I can do with some specific mana saturation.


    Back in my first attempt I was barely able to make a fireball that existed for half a second, but now? I have figured out how to do a constant stream, and it¡¯s not just ¡°more fire¡±. I gathered more red gems for this, but also two different shades of green. The red makes fire mana, obviously, the deeper green makes nature or wood or forest mana, one of them I am not exactly sure, and the very light green bordering on turquoise seems to be air. If I use a majority of fire mana with a bit of air, I can focus on drawing in higher concentrations of hydrogen and oxygen, as well as focusing the flame to be more of a forward cone than a directionless ball. The air mana, coupled with a bit of imagination also lets me continuously push the air that I am breathing in (which, funnily enough, I can do despite exhaling) into the cone of fire, thus fueling an organic flamethrower for longer.


    A bit complicated in theory when put together, but it really only took me five tries, after figuring out the whole thing, to engrave the process as muscle memory. Ah, why do I also have nature mana in my pile despite only talking about fire and air? Because I figured out something pretty damn funny. Nature mana, when using the proper imagery, and when combined with fire, turns to fuel. I can set rocks on fire, or at least make it look like I do, by combining some nature mana to fuel the flames even after they set. I even managed to make fire just hang midair for 3 whole seconds before vanishing. Magic is weird but so fun! I should, however, probably note that I am being inefficient with it. Not that I know how to optimize magic at this stage, but still, it is important to be mindful of the fact that I need to rest for about half a minute between breaths, because of how mana intensive a breath attack this complex is and how slowly my reserves replenish.


    I hope mother will teach us how to really use this power¡­ Ah, I was talking about different elements before, right? Because yeah I tried different gems and the results are mixed (as such only technically able to use anything), but not as bad as I expected. I tried almost every gem (because I am not dumb enough to try and fill my lungs with ¡°death¡± or ¡°poison¡±. I may have died once already but it doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m rushing to my next trip into the void) and the less physical something was, the easier I could use it in a breath attack. For example, water sucked. I tried it and the result was a fastball made of all the spit in my mouth. Ice on the other hand was much better, since rather than shooting out chunks of ice, I just breathed out very cold air.


    My working theory so far is that mana is aspected energy that reacts to a will, or maybe to an organ in me that I can control. Either works for my purposes, really. I use fire to push energy into particles, making them ignite, or ice to draw away energy from particles, making them cool down everything around. I also found and used lighting, and while I wasn¡¯t able to give it a direction, I was basically able to do an electric ray move and make electricity arc between my teeth. It felt tingly, and not particularly useful since my bite is strong, but I figure I¡¯ll be able to use my knowledge of electricity and electromagnetism to get some interesting results later on. Another kind of breath that worked well was air, which when used by itself either made me blow out gales of wind like the big bad wolf, or it made me shout really, really loudly. So, yes, more energy at work.


    Water, earth, metal and nature, by themselves? Nothing. Or rather, the effect was that it got me tired. Water was using my spit, which I guess was close enough, but the others would just try to get something from me, fail, then it would all make me exhausted since all my mana of that type was burned with nothing to show for it. My best result was actually spitting out a grain of sand. My worst was bone ¡°breath¡± which had a very annoying result of giving me a toothache for half an hour after rattling them. I did not try blood or meat because I was frankly terrified after this result. So yeah, sticking to the classic, energy based elements for now.


    Speaking of elements, there is one thing that I found interesting about mana. It seems to not exactly affect the world until it interacts with me or anything meaty or enchanted I guess. Take ice and fire mana, for example, since both of them cause me to feel the temperature of my body change, and the result of breathing out the mana while focusing on making it a breath attack is air that is either so hot it ignites, or air so cold it instantly becomes a visible mist, but the gems and the air around them have completely normal temperatures. I¡¯d like to say that mana is somewhat inert and something about me, probably an organ like the core, refines it into something useable. After all when I just breathe out air that I know is filled with mana it doesn¡¯t have any particular effect.


    After noting down in my mind my progress, I turn to look towards the entrance of the cave. Mother is coming, which is pretty late since we¡¯ve been awake for a lot of time now, at least half a day, really. I wonder if she¡¯s here with food again, I don¡¯t really want to go back to sleep now that I can do actual magic¡­


    And there we go, mother is back. My siblings are even more hyperactive than before, jumping up and down, snapping at the air and doing a wide range of calls towards her. They even show off their small puffs of flame and mother looks surprised, before squealing and going in to give them a big hug. She¡¯s surprisingly gentle and human-like when I see her like that. I tilt my head as she turns to look at me, saying something I cannot understand, then laughing. I think for a moment after which I realize that she¡¯s probably urging me to try it too. Might as well. I curl up over my little pile of gems, take in a few breaths, feel my body drawing in the nature, the fire and the wind, then I start breathing it all out in front of me, making a semicircular wall of flames. They burn a bit longer, then die out and all that¡¯s left is scorch marks on the floor. Mother¡¯s eyes seem to sparkle and she reaches over, picking me up.


    I feel her swaying her head, though I have problems with seeing anything since I am in a mass of green tendrils. My siblings are at least making happy vocalizations so I guess they¡¯re enjoying it. Thankfully the swaying stops a minute later and we are on the move. Uhm, didn¡¯t expect that. It seems she is taking us somewhere else. Maybe we¡¯re big enough to finally start learning from her? Once again, fast growth. It both worries and excites me that we can advance so fast.


    <hr>


    I listen to a few songs to pass the time and suddenly we stop. Mother places us down and I am taken aback. It¡¯s beautiful! It feels amazing! The grass is so fresh and soft, and it¡¯s so tall I could probably hide in it. I feel the sun beam down on my scales, that natural heat feeling just so perfect! I look around, marveling at the diverse flowers and overgrown plants all around us, though I see a strangely normal forest just a bit further away. Really, on closer observation, it¡¯s only around the cave entrance, which is hidden somewhat by hanging vines, that nature seems so wild. Anywhere else it seems to be just like back home, if a bit more young and fresh. Interesting.


    Now the other thing that draws my attention is not on the ground, but up above. I wanted to look at the sun to see what time of day it is, and I find a very odd image. There¡¯s two. There¡¯s a slightly smaller yellow sun, and a bigger red one. Binary system, huh. And looking just a bit to the side, I see a terrifyingly large moon. I say terrifying because it looks to be twice or maybe even three times the size of the moon back home. Now whether it is just bigger, closer, or a combination of the two, I wouldn¡¯t be able to tell, but it¡¯s still concerning how big it is and just what effect it could have on the oceans.


    I feel a nip on my back right leg. I turn and see Crown nibbling it. Now that I see it, my siblings have been ignoring the beauty and are just playing. Or maybe they¡¯re enjoying the beauty in their own way? Regardless, it seems mother sat down and is just watching us while¡­ smiling? Yeah, very human-like, or maybe I am just humanizing her. Regardless I guess stretching my legs on a bigger field wouldn¡¯t hurt, so I shake off my sister and start running.


    I wasn¡¯t exactly an athlete back home, but I always enjoyed a good walk or run on grass. It just feels nice, and with my new body I can run even better than before and without having to be careful about stones and broken glass. It feels so nice I end up just sliding on the grass after a while, plopping down and stretching my body. My wings are splayed out and I catch as much sunlight as I can, enjoying the warmth greatly. Strangely enough I can feel energy filling up my body. Maybe, here, even the sun is magical. Maybe it¡¯s not just the gemstones and precious metal that gather it, but rather anything can. Whatever might be the truth about magic, I enjoy the sun, just like mother is.


    <hr>


    I think a few hours pass until my siblings are finally tired and mother gets up to take all of us again. I expect her to put us back in the cave, but instead I feel my stomach dropping and I hear howling. We¡¯re flying. Mother grabbed us and took off. That was much more sudden than I expected, no running start needed. I try to shake my head free and look out of her mass of tendrils, but by the time I manage I see we are descending towards a lake. I don¡¯t have time to even look around for our location, as we splash down, with me and my siblings being placed down on the shore. The others seem to have gotten their sense of balance a bit confused, but I am fine, probably since I understand what happened. I look at our mother and she¡¯s just relaxing in the pond, only her head and wings being above the water. Even those are spread on the surface, getting soaked.


    I take in a deep breath and, just as I thought, feel an absurd mana concentration all around. More than our cave. I look down towards the bottom of the lake and I see it sparkling. The water is clear¡­ ah, it¡¯s more of an accumulation lake than anything. There¡¯s a river passing through, so it keeps moving away, it isn¡¯t allowed to properly stagnate and form algae.


    Still, looking at all the shinies below I have to admit, mother is absurdly rich. I was wondering why she leaves the cave so often, but it seems her hoard was actually here, and if there¡¯s anything else in that decorated tunnel, it¡¯s probably meant for winter. Wait, is winter even a thing here? I¡¯ll find out later.


    Interesting thing to note, mother¡¯s hoard isn¡¯t random. Unlike ours which is just valuables thrown in a pile, I manage to notice a pattern in hers. I shove my face into the water, pleasantly surprised that my third eyelid is able to protect me from it and that my nose can close so well, then observe the bottom of the lake. So, it is mostly gold, even though it is pretty deep I can see the gold clearly spread out to form a sort of disk. Then there¡¯s deep blue and green gems that are making their own shapes, which seem to intersect in multiple spots. Wherever they do happen to connect there¡¯s a few very strange stones instead of either of the crystals. They look a lot like jagged amazonite, but a lot more vibrant and with a wavy pattern.


    I pull my head out to take a few breaths, then start drinking in some water, only to get hit by a wave of power. Right, the water is probably saturated with mana of mother¡¯s liking because of the gems. Which is to say, nature and water, as well as something else that I am having problems parsing, whatever the fancy rock¡¯s drawing in. Despite not understanding it completely, I feel for the mana, feel for the parts it¡¯s trying to fill. I try to gather it, now that I have so much more mana than before, and try out the waterbreath once more. Result is again just a ball of spit. Sure, more than usual, almost like it forced my salivary glands into overdrive, but not what I wanted¡­ so why is that? Well, I thought it before already, mana is energy. As such me trying to just shoot out a beam of water is me telling mana to turn from energy into matter, then to move. I¡¯m giving it two energy intensive commands on the budget of baby lungs, no wonder it fails so spectacularly.


    What can I do instead? I can gather the water around me. I replenish myself with some more mana infused water from the lake, then start imagining everything play out. I am lucky I¡¯ve always been able to visualize things pretty clearly, like geometric shapes, an electric circuit, or a program¡¯s dependencies and relationships, so this step isn¡¯t that hard. I imagine air and water mana combing through the air, filtering water vapor and moving it closer, then ice mana cooling down the vapor just enough to make actual water. Any excess needed would come from a mix of my saliva that is already there, and the lake next to me. Finally I need it to move, so that¡¯s just more water. I wish I had something like force or motion, but there¡¯s no gem with those aspects, at least there¡¯s not one that I have seen yet.


    Mother seems to have two eyes focused on me specifically as I open mine. Maybe it¡¯s bad to show such complexity, especially since I doubt I¡¯ll be able to stay above the curve forever and I¡¯ve already gone through the pains of being just a bit too smart to be average, but a bit too dumb to be special in my past life, but at least I now know how to deal with it. I shake my head, too many intrusive thoughts, too little focus. Time for action.


    It starts with droplets, and it¡¯s slow. Drops of water push themselves up, towards me, and start gathering inside my mouth, as does water vapor which condenses back into actual water. I think it takes about a minute and my mouth is cramping and paradoxically dry, but I finally have enough water gathered. I will it forward in a tight jet, and I manage it! Downside: everything. Takes forever to gather, consumes absurd quantities of mana, and the final result is just a 2 second water hose jet. I feel robbed. Mother doesn¡¯t seem to share my woes however, as she makes an excited sound and moves her massive head closer to nuzzle my side, which makes me plop down as I lost my balance from my exhaustion.


    I turn to look at her, a bit confused and yip to at least try and pretend I understand why she¡¯s so excited. In response I see a scene straight out of a kaiju movie. She shakes her head, tendrils flailing around, then I feel a wave of mana hitting me. Her neck starts lighting up blue, showing the gaps in what I can only imagine is subdermal plating as magic flows to her body. She opens her mouth and instantly a powerful jet of mist shoots out, absolutely covering the sky. In the slowly descending mist, I see rainbows, so many I can¡¯t even count, which makes it all the more beautiful.


    Of course, she¡¯s not done. She turns to the side, opens her mouth, and I see her shoot an actual water beam towards a massive, overgrown tree, obliterating it and everything 50 meters behind it. Is that her way of saying ¡°Keep it up, you¡¯ll be able to do this one day.¡±? Because that¡¯s sweet, but also terrifying since she just casually used artillery level destruction on a dime. I figure she has a lot more where that came from.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    I can¡¯t wait for her to teach me how to do that, but sadly I am currently tired from filling myself up with mana and shooting it out so many times in a row. I give her a happy squeak, to show I am impressed, then turn to the water to drink up. I feel myself recovering a bit, but after the third mouthful I feel sick. Have you ever done something stupid like chugging a two litter bottle of water in a single breath? Because I did and it felt horrible. That¡¯s happening now. Water sickness, I got water sick from a bit of water. That doesn¡¯t seem right.


    It actually starts hurting my stomach so I pull away from the lake and lay down below the sun, all stretched out like before. I am feeling so bad I don¡¯t even manage to keep up with what my siblings might be doing now. I think I¡¯ll take a small nap¡­


    <hr>


    So, time passed. Not a lot, since the suns are still up above, maybe a couple hours? Well, that seemed to be enough. The sickness is gone and I feel good again. I know I did not need to drink water for basically a month straight, but still, I did not expect this to be enough to make me feel bloated. Good to keep in mind. Another good thing to keep in mind, now that I am away from our hoard, is that I am filling up with very specific mana types. Sure there¡¯s gold down at the bottom of the lake, which technically will draw in any kind of mana if my senses are right, but this whole area only presents a few mana types. I take in a deep breath and feel water, nature, the strange one that makes me feel calm, air and sun which is a combination of mild fire and light if the lamps in the tunnel are right. So, yeah, should keep in mind that my body is filled with mostly those elements now, only a bit is left of the multitudes of our nest.


    Let¡¯s see, something is happening. My siblings are all lined up In front of mother, who seems to prepare... Ah, that¡¯s magic. That¡¯s literally magic. I feel the mana around us shift, not a wave of power but more like mother grabbed the air and started moving it, with her crown of horns lighting up green and a shape appearing above it. It¡¯s like the one in the light crystal, but radically different and colored green. Still it does shine and seems to have an effect on the world around us as mother speaks a few words that feel charged with power, causing the shape to visually pulse. I hear the wood groan and the earth tremble and I see a wall being formed from the plants around. All the trees, all the blades of grass, everything grows and twists to completely block off the area around the lake, with only a few things further away from the rim being spared to keep shade and such.


    Weird thing to do hours after getting here if you wanted to keep your babies from running wild, so why..? Then I see it. A cage, similar more to a crate than a birdcage, made of molded living wood, floats down and its door opens. It is angled slightly and out fall giant rabbits, with furs in many colors and with different mutations being visible. They are alive. They fall and gather together, trembling in fear as mother¡¯s many eyes turn to them. She then literally sends the cage flying off beyond the wall of nature and sinks her head into the water, only her eyes remaining above.


    I am moving closer. It¡¯s like with the bug. While my mind is trying to understand, my body is already seeking prey. I am in the body of a true apex predator, and my conscious mind is failing to take hold of my instincts. It¡¯s annoying, in a way. Back in my past life I never ate rabbit, on one hand because it¡¯s absurdly expensive, on the other because the little furballs are too damn cute. But I can¡¯t see that cuteness now. They are big and poofy and I would love to hug and smush my face into them, but also, they taste and smell so good! And these ones are more mutated than the ones before, I can smell the mana that tries to cling to them. Like always it is blood, meat, bone, but this is a whole different level even compared to the murder deer!


    The biggest rabbit thumps its legs. It warns us it will fight. It knows it can¡¯t run, our mother wouldn¡¯t let it, so instead it tries to threaten us. It fails. Crown and Red Tail have gone together towards the left, aiming to encircle them, while Spots is posturing to try and scare them into scattering. There¡¯s some tall grass for the tinier fellows to hide inside, so they might go for that option.


    What am I doing? What are my instincts saying? I am moving forward currently and unlike the others I am just aiming center mass, ready to rush in and take a bite out of anything. That¡¯s what my instincts tell me. I am the biggest of my siblings, the most developed in both body and magic, so my blood rushes as the simplest answer presents itself. But is that smart? No. I am a month and some days old at best, what¡¯s some genetic instinct gonna know about strategy? So how do I stop because I am already close enough that the roided up bunnies can jump at me, and there¡¯s a couple of them with wicked horns growing on their heads, meaning they have the chance to just kill me if they get lucky.


    I finally lock up and forcibly stop myself. I can¡¯t turn away from this meal, I am feeling like puking just from the thought, so instead I keep my eyes focused. I do not want to kill them. My grandma had chickens back when she was alive. When I visited and I was 12 she wanted me to kill one of the chickens, saying that''s expected of the "man of the house". I couldn¡¯t, not because I couldn¡¯t exactly kill something, but that was probably part of it, but rather because touching a struggling animal gave me such a repulsive feeling deep in my chest that I just let it go. I wish I could think more about this but I fail as the standoff continues without me.


    One of the rabbits in the back of the herd twitches and I see Crown leap at it, only for one of the herbivores to turn around and kick her in the face with enough force to push her back and disorient her. RT jumps in at that and grabs hold of the legs, but gets kicked too, and then one of the horned rabbits headbutts him, causing a small flash of rainbow light to appear as he is pushed away. The stab didn¡¯t penetrate, but his scales lost color and look damaged, and that light seemed like some kind of instinctive magic which I doubt he can use more than once or twice. The same rabbit jumps again and this time draws blood. As I said, unlikely to use more than once or twice.


    A second passed. Everything is moving absurdly fast. This is an animal hunt, not a human one. This isn¡¯t a few guys with rifles sitting around, killing something hundreds of meters away in a fraction of a second, this is a fight for life and two of my siblings are hurt, yet mother doesn¡¯t react. She just watches, narrowing her eyes and puffing up some water.


    I hear my heart. I breathe faster than ever before. I feel my body heating up, I am terrified, I am angry, I want to run, I want to protect my siblings, I want to stop all of this, I want to kill. I lose. Or I win? Regardless a wild rage is taking over and I roar, actually roar, not what my sibling did before, and all my prey freezes. There are only five targets. One is massive, two can impale us, and two just have very developed legs and teeth. The big guy jumps at me, not as affected by my roar as the others, but it doesn¡¯t matter. It¡¯s massive, sure, but it¡¯s just as big as my torso. It¡¯s massive by comparison to other rabbits, to me it¡¯s just a large hunk of meat. It turns around, legs aimed to kick me, but I turn around too and my tail slaps its side, making it roll on the dirt. Spots rushes by, sending a puff of flame towards the leaderless herd and helping the others. Good, I don¡¯t need help dealing with this one.


    The anger fades for a moment, clarity hits me, fuck you mean you don¡¯t need help with an animal that¡¯s the same size as you and that looks ready to kick you into next Tuesday you fucki-


    It gets up fast, and seems ready to attack again. I feel heat flow back into my body, fingers and joints trembling as adrenaline starts taking over, making me grab the nearest rocks with my tail and step towards him. He jumps, squeaking, ready to try and hit me again, so I whip my tail towards him, sending the rocks flying. Most failed, but one hit his head, only to do nothing as the beast bites through it. I don¡¯t think I can bite rock. Fuck. It lands next to me and kicks my way, which I block with an arm. Bad decision though since the kick makes me hear a crack. My bone breaks, I am sure of it, but I manage to put weight on my leg so I don¡¯t think it snapped in two yet, maybe just a fracture that I can ignore for a bit.


    It backs away and looks at me and at its kin at the same time, almost calculating something. I don¡¯t have the luxury to see how my siblings are doing, but I know that a three versus four isn¡¯t good odds, even if one side is dragons and the others are just bunnies. Actually, especially because of that since it seems this world has murder bunnies.


    It turns its head towards me and I see it jump to the side, then again and again. It¡¯s massive and fast at the same time, it¡¯s not fair. I am terrified. I feel sick, my stomach is grumbling something, but I don¡¯t have time. I don¡¯t have the mana for a proper flame breath and the rabbit is faster than me so even my bite is a gamble. Hell, with how big it is it might kill me with a kick to the chest.


    Time slows. I feel nothing. No, I don¡¯t feel nothing, I just feel detached. I am not in the real world, I am in my library. I am not dying in the next second, I have days¡¯ worth of time now, just to think. And I think. I do not feel my fear and disgust and anger here, but I do know that I need to live, so I take into account all that I do know from my meat body.


    I am different.


    I might have time to think about the fact that I am different from myself, but I worry I will waste all the time dilation on it, so I throw it in the locked box in the dark, locked room. Someday else. Not today.


    Now, with all my focus on the fight I am in, I realize there is really only one option for me. Or, maybe two, but only one that has any sort of reliability. I could try and do the defense that RT used, somehow. However that¡¯s a trick I just observed and I have no clue how he even activated it, so no use relying on it.


    My actual option? Dragon breath. Rundown of my notable mana types: water, nature, unknown, air, sunlight. Water is useless, even if I somehow had the time for it, it is barely even a deterrent. Nature breath suffers from the same issues, the only effect that it might have is raising the grass level by a centimeter. Something unknown is equivalent with useless, so all that I have left are air and sunlight. I have used air successfully, but the bit of wind I can make won¡¯t stop this beast, so I will only be able to use the sound part. It might disorient it. As for sunlight? If it wasn¡¯t my first time using it I might have tried something fancy like shooting out very concentrated photons, but that won¡¯t help, not here.


    I make up my mind and time starts moving. I don¡¯t need to gather the mana since it is already in my body, I need to somehow do a very different dual breath however. Using air and fire to make better flame is one thing, but using air for sound and sunlight for light? This is like trying to write two different words with each hand at the same time, and I¡¯m not ambidextrous.


    Still, I try, just as the rabbit is dashing towards me. I open my mouth and I imagine searing white light as well as a loud sound of explosion. My throat strains, the thing at its base is painful as it twists in patterns it shouldn¡¯t have.


    Still I do it.


    Flashbang breath attack, achieved, and it seems to be successful as the rabbit loses balance and rolls down, twitching painfully on the grass, kicking and pawing at the air and ground. This small giant has a lot of blood and meat mana in it, so as I move closer and bite down on its skull, it crumples like paper and I get a mouthful of brain. No bone mana for tougher bones. It stops moving instantly. A small titan of strength but lacking the defense to resist even a bite once it was immobilized¡­ Fuck that was close.


    My arm fails me, I am panting as I feel about a third of my mana gone with the flashbang. Still, the animal is dead and I would feast on it later to recover. For now I turn to see that there¡¯s only the horned rabbits left alive, but Spots somehow ended up out of commission, bleeding from multiple holes and cuts. RT is still on his legs, but he¡¯s also heavily wounded and Crown is doing her best to cover for them as she merely has cracked scales, no actual bleeding wound, but from the limp on her back foot, I think she took a nasty hit like me.


    Mother still isn¡¯t doing anything. She has two eyes fixed on me, dilated to take in information. Must¡¯ve been the flashbang.


    It doesn¡¯t matter. If she won¡¯t do anything, I will have to. I get up, limping and turn to my siblings. Rabbits have almost 360 vision, so losing my ability to sneak won¡¯t matter. One of the rabbits turns to me, only to get its rear bitten by Crown. She does however get kicked for her trouble, causing her to collapse, looking dizzy. I am too far still, why did it turn already¡­ The flashbang must have affected their fight too, I guess, but now it¡¯s just RT defending against two horned rabbits. What can I do?


    Nothing really. I am tired and my two useful elements are gone. No dragon breath, and throwing stuff their way won¡¯t help. Fuck¡­ FUCK! I run. I can¡¯t run, not really, but I do regardless. I am in pain for the first time in this world, and I don¡¯t care. I¡¯ve gone through worse, even if my body isn¡¯t used to it, at least a part of my mind is. So I push through, and I see as one of the rabbits twitches an ear my way, only to look at Crown as she struggles to get up. Red Tail is locked with the other, he can¡¯t stop it as the horned creature tries to go for the throat. I am about two body lengths away. Won¡¯t stop it in time and my life is not in danger so the only dilation of time that¡¯s happening is from being drugged up on adrenaline.


    What can I do, I am not fast enough¡­ Water.. nature¡­ NATURAL, nothing linked to nature but something natural. There¡¯s one last thing I have. Water so far has tried using my spit, bone tried to use my teeth... I have a lot of water mana in me right now, but I still have a small percentage of everything else that stuck around. Fire, lightning, earth, all the way to even something like blood or death. Too little individually to be useful, but what if I just try to base it all on water and throw everything else to support something that isn¡¯t quite water?


    I push. As the animal opens its mouth to bite down on my sister, I shoot forward the only fluid I could imagine being useful right now. Stomach acid. It¡¯s a fluid and I have access to, and I infuse it with all the mana my little body can hold as I force water to accept that even that acid is, in part, water, and as such should be under its control.


    It feels different from my other breath attacks, mostly because my entire throat actually burns as I puke out my guts, but also because of how potent and chaotic it feels. More than fire, this feels alive and powerful and it sure looks like it has an effect as the fluids splash hard against the rabbit body.


    It screeches and what I see is not the result of acid. Its fur singes, its left leg stretches and gets locked that way, its front paws wither quickly, they¡¯re not melted by acid, they rot and turn to dust. Its screech dies out but it continues to struggle. The mana around it feels wrong, but it doesn¡¯t matter. Crown manages to crawl away, and there¡¯s only one threat left.


    It¡¯s just Red Tail and the final horned rabbit. The rabbit is mostly unhurt, but half its fur is short and black, burnt by RT himself probably. They can only bite at the air between themselves and back away, because neither is confident in ending the other. But now I can help, or at least I would be able to if my body didn¡¯t deny me.


    I can¡¯t see the edges of my vision anymore. I am out of mana. I am slowly recovering by breathing it in, but it isn¡¯t enough. I look at the half melted puddle that was once the horned rabbit, but I just feel sick from the smell, so instead I turn to one of the smaller bunnies. The least dangerous of the bunch. One is close, and I just barely manage to push it closer with my tail. My leg is messed up, I really can¡¯t even crawl now, but I do manage to burrow my face in its chest and bite out its core.


    It takes a few seconds for the wave of mana to go through my body. Flesh mana. Perfect. I get just enough energy to get up and slowly walk towards the final enemy. It gets desperate, it rushes at RT, scoring a bloody graze but losing a leg in return to his vicious bite. I am close now. Close enough that if it tries to back away it will get caught by me. But it doesn¡¯t seem to care. Of the two of us, RT is the more wounded, but I am clearly the most winded, so it turns on a dime and rushes horns first towards me.


    I stomp on it. It''s slower than the big rabbit, after all, and I weigh way more than it, so as I have my foot on its body, laying most of my weight on it, the creature can only scream and struggle, grazing me with its horns a bit.


    It¡¯s pathetic so I bite the back of its neck, severing its spine.


    It¡¯s done.


    We¡¯re alive.


    I turn to see our birth giver raise her head, showing a frown, then her crown lits up and a much grander and more complex rune appears, connected to a few smaller ones. I see the details on her horns light up too and I realize they are fully engraved in runes, so who knows how complex this magic truly is. It sends mana our ways and to my surprise I feel fine. No pain, just exhaustion and a lack of mana. My leg is fine again, my scales too, same for my siblings.


    I take back my words.


    She¡¯s not human like at all.


    And she¡¯s a horrible mother.

 Chapter 10: Killer Instinct

    The rest of the day was a blur. I was exhausted despite my body telling me that I was mostly fine. Whatever mother did to us, it fixed our physical exhaustion but I figure it didn¡¯t recover our mana. I didn¡¯t just use 100% of the mana saved in my lungs on my desperate ¡°breath¡± attack, instead I had used 100% of the mana in my entire body, or at least, close enough to it. From the feel of it I squeezed dry every cell I had just to kill that measly rabbit. Sure I got a bit of a boost from that core I ate after, but it was barely enough to keep me moving.


    Mother was going to let us die, probably. I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s to weed out the weak early on. Doesn¡¯t matter, I need to eat. I turn to the corpse of the largest one and start devouring it. I managed to stop myself from eating its guts and other more disgusting organs, but everything else was gone. Not even a pile of bones was left of it. I was full, but I didn¡¯t yet feel satiated so I went by the lake and laid there, breathing in the mana.


    That was my last memory of that day. I think I just fell asleep just like I expected before. However I didn¡¯t go on to wake up and fall asleep multiple times in a row, I woke up the next day, back in the nest, seeing things had changed a bit. The nest was expanded, more riches were brought in to accommodate the size of our nest and everyone else was asleep. I jumped out, observed the newest treasures, of which the only special ones were a very beautiful stone, similar to a jasper, but in various shades of red. Scent testing it only made me get very angry. I let out an involuntary growl and noticed that my siblings shifted in the nest.


    Going to need to test this out more, but I hear mother¡¯s stomps, so I rush over to as many red crystals as I can find and start breathing in the mana.. My siblings woke up, stretched a bit, then squeaked as she came into the room and picked them up. I was a bit reluctant, but I did go up to her. The trip barely took a few minutes and we were back at the lake, with the wall prepared. The wooden cage was there again, so I prepared myself for a fight the second she put us down.


    She opened the cage and inside.. Were two rabbits. Only one was horned and the other was just a normal one. I looked over at her, a bit confused, but she just sank into the lake. So¡­ She toned down the difficulty? I observed as my siblings stalked over to them, but the two bunnies saw themselves being overwhelmed and ran away. Of course there¡¯s massive walls of wood stopping them from actually escaping, and they don¡¯t seem too able to climb, so this is little more than an endurance run around the place Well, they could theoretically go through the slow river, unless mother thought about that and made wooden grates, but I doubt they are smart enough to figure that option. The ¡°hunt¡± ends swiftly as when they finally finish a lap, I am sitting here, unmoved and cut off their path with a flame breath and with my body. I kill the horned and tail whip the other into my siblings. I¡¯m still confused¡­ Were we just so bad she decided to make things easier? Well, either way this was an easy kill and an easy meal.


    <hr>


    The following day my musings are somewhat answered. Since we¡¯re not sleeping weeks at a time anymore, we can afford to eat less but more often. So now we¡¯re placed face to face with three rabbits. All normal ones. Once again, easy hunt and kill. My siblings cannot keep up with them, but I can outrun most bunnies, and a bit of fire is enough to push them in the direction I want. Once again, we have an easy meal that we share.


    <hr>


    I should be worried about how easy killing has become. My instincts are basically beating me with a bat over the head every time I even insinuate I am not going to kill them, but still, it shouldn¡¯t be so easy to just end a life considering how much trouble I had with this in my previous life¡­ I am changing and not all of it is for the better. I still enjoy my meat but I am trying to analyze my behavior better.


    <hr>


    Next day is all the same. We get a bit of time to wake up, then we get taken out to hunt much easier prey than before. It¡¯s annoying that she decided to be more gradual now. Had she done this from the very beginning we wouldn¡¯t have been one hit away from dying. Still I enjoy our fifth serving of rabbit. They do taste amazingly, but I think they¡¯re causing me to change faster. I¡¯ve been growing after each meal. Small scale, but still growing. Each time I ate a core filled with meat, blood or bone, I would find my body either stronger or tougher, so I am guessing the respective mana is being used passively to accelerate my body¡¯s growth.


    Bone and meat are probably the best ones for that, since I think my scales, horns, claws and actual bones are part of that category. It just feels right, so I think it is. Meat or flesh mana on the other hand encompasses my muscles, so a balance is needed. At first I didn¡¯t understand why blood mana is separate or what it could be doing to help, after all growing and improving my bones should help with the blood creation. Turns out the blood mana is actually the one that stirs up the marrow, since when I ate just flesh and bone cores and meat, I ended up getting tired much easier the next day. A balance is needed or I might end up growing deformed in the end.


    <hr>


    Another day, another¡­ deer? It¡¯s just a deer. We¡¯re goddamned ankle biters, mother, and I know for a fact a deer can kill us with a stomp. Argh, my siblings aren¡¯t even bothered¡­ They¡¯re just pushing forward.. So I go from the flank, roar to draw its attention, then posture up with my wings open. I¡¯d like to say, with the deer for comparison, that I am the size of a medium to large dog, while my siblings are small to medium. I guess, technically, we could take it down, but it¡¯s still troubling. At least this one doesn¡¯t have horns, and by the smell of the mana, doesn¡¯t seem to be that modified.


    It seems spooked, both by me and by the others, causing it to jump and sprint every which way. Sadly it jumps over Spots and gets away. My siblings chase but I know we can¡¯t catch the damn thing. So, instead I just settle in the tall grass and wait. My eyes have a bit of a downside, as seeing something right on my nose would be hard, but they do have the upside of making it easy to see taller things while I am low to the ground. It¡¯s the favorite eye shape of things like snakes and cats after all, perfect for a small predator. So I act like one and when the deer comes close to me, but out of my bite range, I let out my breath and cover its right side with lingering fire.


    It screeches and tries to run off, but the fire affected it too much. The deer runs a bit, then falls and tries to snuff out the flames in vain, then turns to go towards the lake, but the sight of our mother¡¯s head stops it frozen. It¡¯s too late, it didn¡¯t know what to do and ended up stopping just enough for me to catch up and jump on its back. I dig my claws in, ignoring the small flames still burning its hide, and start taking bites out. I would have gone for the neck if I was bigger, but I¡¯ve seen how a gazelle or wildebeest can stomp on lions while they go for the neck, and I¡¯m not going to test if deer can do that too.


    In the end, the deer dies of shock, at least I reckon that¡¯s what does it. It is terrified, half burnt, has its back filled with bite marks, it tries to shake me off but simply can¡¯t, so it collapses, barely breathing. Either way I chomp its neck, breaking the bone. The meal is hearty, even if the core was pathetic, and it had so many tastes I don¡¯t think she even had a specialized element of some sort.


    Another good meal, and this time we get some play time too. While my siblings run and play fight in the grass, I go to the water and start taking a dip. Mother looks at me a lot, probably afraid I¡¯ll start drowning, but I just stay by the edge of it. I can sort of float, but I don¡¯t have the doggy paddle muscle memory required for actual swimming, so I don¡¯t tempt fate.


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    <hr>


    This is how things continued. Mother would bring in prey and we¡¯d hunt. More often than not I had to be the strategist, and since I couldn¡¯t tell my siblings plans, I just had to hope I can adapt to what they do. One thing to note is that after about seven hunts we would get a couple days of just sitting in, getting to absorb more of the mixed mana does help in some way, and since I don¡¯t feel so sleepy if I don¡¯t eat, I get to test out some things in these days.


    What I am currently trying to do is figure out magic. Actual magic, not just my breath attack, or whatever defense RT used that first time. I haven¡¯t seen him use it since, and I don¡¯t feel like taking a hit just because, so I leave that thing on the back burner. The magic I am attempting to get the hang of is mother¡¯s runic magic. I couldn¡¯t see the tiny runes on her horns, but the runes she conjured for her spells I could observe and memorize. I also have the light rune to look at, but I cannot figure out how to even start conjuring one. Mother gathered a lot of magic, spoke words that held power, and only then was able to make the magic happen, which consisted of bending everything plant and fixing our bodies perfectly.


    I am not dumb enough to not realize that any one of those acts would require absurd mana amounts, so I am starting small, light rune type of small. I already got light breath and even though I am still only able to shoot a flash instead of a beam. It might be a mentality problem rather than an energy one, since my very first use of it was a flashbang.


    Regardless, back to the light rune. I have imagined it, but nothing happens. I tried imagining light mana flowing and forming it, but nothing happened. I even filled up my lungs with it, then tried to breathe it out and imagine it forming into the pattern, but nothing happened! It¡¯s annoying, but I think I¡¯ll need to wait for mother to teach us¡­


    <hr>


    A week passes, then a month. We grow fast, my siblings are even starting to catch up, though they still grow in their shapes rather than modifying too much. I become more spiky, and bigger, my current form being plenty useful. I do try to focus on imagining myself with separate tails and with better muscles and more dexterity on my ¡°hands¡±, but if that influences something, it¡¯s slow.


    We¡¯re not even eating just deer or rabbits anymore, mother started giving us fights too. Wolves, boars, I¡¯m just happy she didn¡¯t send a bear our way. However despite the growing difficulty, we¡¯re managing. Mostly because our growth is not just about size. I kept trying to figure out magic in our free time, but nothing worked, at least until I woke up and it clicked. The answer was simple, I was too young. If I have an organ that manipulates mana, that organ is currently baby sized and baby trained. So I just needed more use and simply to be bigger for some things to start working. My breath attacks are what helped me realize that in the end. It has been carrying me and my siblings during our fights, as we started needing less mana to get better results.


    We¡¯re becoming better with each passing day, with each change to our bodies. Mother has been feeding us only animals with the three mana types that boost our growth, so maybe we¡¯ll soon be big enough to actually use power like our mother¡¯s.


    <hr>


    More time passed, I stopped bothering with counting days. My siblings grow smarter, wittier and stronger. I¡¯ve also gotten to the point where I can fight even a heavily mutated wolf by myself, mostly because I¡¯ve gotten to the size of a large wolf. My tails are now three quarters free of each other and my wings have been growing nicely. My breath attack is now an actual threat that can cover an enemy in flames or slow them down with frost, or even outright kill something if I manage to bite it and let out electricity to flow through them.


    As I wake up after a longer nap than usual, I come to realize that I changed more than just by physical aptitude, as I start detecting mana better than ever before. I can literally see a sort of mist around our pile, and even an outline around my body that I am sure is mana. It¡¯s very faint and I need to focus to notice it, but I can now feel the actual mana, not just hallucinate that I do. I can¡¯t differentiate the types unless I get to sniff them, but hey, i can see mana! That should be worth something¡­


    And it turns out it is, because now that I see the mana, I notice the way the pattern looks is not the entire story. The light pattern, while it looks like a sort of ribbon turned and twisted to make a complex geometrical shape, I see that the mana causing this is far more complex, looking like a sort of scaffolding keeping the ribbon from collapsing.


    I follow the example, first by filling up my reserves with light mana, then by imagining it moving into the shape of the scaffolds. I breathe out and I can see the mist taking shape. It starts to dissipate, but then it gets fixed back up when I focus harder. I feel my chest hurting as the shape finishes and it suddenly lights up. It¡¯s tiring, and a bit painful, but I manage to make the rune! And it even continues shining, though I need to keep focus on it. The mana I weaved into it lasted about half a minute of normal light output and honestly? It¡¯s a start! Especially since I realized, thanks to the fancy scaffold, that I can modify the rune without ruining it. I do just that in my next try, and despite my chest hurting a bit more, I manage to make it light up brighter, though for shorter.


    I can make runes. I can cast magic! I do feel.. very tired, like how I did during my first couple flame breaths, actually even worse, but that¡¯s probably because I am doing this earlier than I should. I don¡¯t care, I am happy to finally get actual spells going!


    Mother doesn¡¯t let me celebrate too much. I hear her and go straight to preparing fire mana for the coming fight. Who knows what she¡¯ll bring us this time around, especially after a growth spurt? So I am ready with two thirds fire, one sixth air and one sixth electricity, just in case.


    <hr>


    The flight is swift and when we get there I realize something is different. The mist, the scent, the mana that is coming from that crate-like cage now has entirely different scents. I guess we¡¯re big enough because I don¡¯t feel the bone, flesh or blood of beasts, or rather not just that.


    I smell fire, actual fire, nature mixer with earth, a different feel than mothers for sure. I smell water and ice, then shadows and a sweet poison, and finally, the one that smells like flesh and bone, but more than that, smells like a beast, like a true predator.


    My mouth is watering, my muscles tensing. She brought us actual food, not just for the growth of our body, but for the growth of our mana. She opens the crate fully and I feel ecstatic, as do my siblings. It¡¯s easy prey. Two of them are young, one a child, and one barely qualifying as an adult. The youngest also seems crippled, missing two limbs and an eye, far too easy to devour as the others run.


    Another is too old to be of worry, it might have the most mana, but with a body so frail it will die to a tackle before getting any use out of it. The last two might be of concern. Two proper adults, thankfully we are in luck. Both of them are tied with cuffs, and the one that smells like a predator is bound in chains. This isn¡¯t really a hunt, it¡¯s an offering to us.


    We approach, ready to swiftly end them, to devour that precious core in their chest, but as I get ready to jump, teeth flashing, saliva dripping like from a fountain, I do not jump on one of our meals to be. I jump on Red Tail, the only one close enough to also attack them. For the others I spew flames and sparks, scaring them off. RT tries to bite me, but I slap his side with my tail twice, sending him away. I pace between my siblings and our prey, then let out a clear roar.


    ¡°MINE!¡±


    I claimed without care for perceived injustice from my siblings, because this is the only way. I claim the five as my hoard, because only then would I be able to keep them alive a while longer.


    Why go so far? After I killed without mercy whatever mother threw at us? After I used my intelligence to kill innocent beasts, why protect them now? Because these aren¡¯t beasts.


    They¡¯re people.


    And it was so fucking hard to stop myself from becoming an actual monster.


    And... it keeps getting harder....

 Interlude 1: Perspective of a Maiden

    Interlude 1: Perspective of a Maiden


    I was lucky. Loving parents, a quiet village to grow in, enough friends to pass the time and only once did I have to witness The Mistress of Tranquil Waters come to take her tribute. From what the elders said, she was far more lenient than most other monsters of her power, yet still she did remember every few decades that she had towns in her territory from where she could take more coin for her hoard¡­ or more bodies for¡­ whatever dragons use them for.


    It was my best friend¡¯s older sister that was the sacrifice back then. She benefited the community the least with her talents. Bone mana could only take you so far, and already she was showing signs of growing wrong¡­ ¡°Poor girl¡± I had thought, as a na?ve 5 year old, but now, looking at my charred hand, I realize that it might have been a mercy. A mercy I will share.


    I was one of three girls allowed to train my magics. Our village was too poor to have any more than that, after all, and out of the three I ended up with the least useful element for a somewhat peaceful mountainous village. I had a talent for fire and absolutely nothing else. My friend? She got nature, and with training from the older women she could make the fields give their share ten times over. The other girl, the chief¡¯s daughter, had both a metal and a water affinity. With the metal she could help the blacksmith, or mold the coins into better formations to capture the wild mana of the world, and with water she could end droughts and make sure everyone has clean water.


    I could light a fire.


    I was a glorified spark-iron. Something that the chief¡¯s girl could do herself too, to add insult to injury. So when the dragon came demanding tribute, scaring even the chief with how suddenly she returned, I wasn¡¯t surprised to see the whole village push a plain white dress towards me.


    I was allowed a moment to say my goodbyes and to change into the dress. I could only look at my reflection in a bucket of water, stains of charcoal skin spreading up my neck to my cheek, my hand that I used to channel my magic had little meat left, the bones being visible through the thin, scorched skin¡­ I was as much a freak as the last sacrifice.


    And so I bowed to that massive monster that owned this corner of the world and sat down in the wooden cage she formed from the ground. There were a few tears from my parents, but even they wouldn¡¯t have been able to do anything. The dragon could have spoken a single word and everything would be gone. Nobody around here could deny her and live a second longer.


    <hr>


    It took a few minutes and the flight wasn¡¯t exactly pleasant, but it wasn¡¯t the worst either. Power, control, anything related to magic was better when done by a dragon. That was just the way things were. The only beings more powerful in mana were made of it, or at least that¡¯s what my mother told me before bed. Tales of monsters mimicking humans while being made only of rampaging mana¡­ Tales of Gods and their absolute rule, that not even dragons could contest¡­ At least not normal dragons like The Mistress.


    Ah, the cage opened. And in came a woman that could have been my grandmother. She had skin tanned by the sun, with deep creases to show her years. It was no mystery what talents she had, it was a mystery why she was chosen. Sure, I could see the bark growing out of her torso through her dress, a few actual branches puncturing through, but regardless someone of her power and experience must have been valuable¡­ We locked eyes as she slowly got down. She noticed my confusion and understood my thoughts.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to last more than a winter or two before I would wilt. No use spilling young blood for a few more moments in this world.¡±


    She smiled, just like my grandmother did back when I was still a kid and she was still sane. Tears start falling and my body trembles. I was going to die. It took until I met someone actually resigned to it for me to really understand. I was barely twenty, I was supposed to fall in love and marry a cute boy¡­ I was never that good at housework, but still, I would have preferred that over just walking to my death. But it was too late, from the moment the dragon decided she wanted new toys or a snack or whatever she wanted, my life was forfeit.


    I sobbed and the old woman, mercifully, let me do so quietly. By the time we got to the next place, my tears ran dry.


    <hr>


    ¡°NO! Let me go, you cur! He deserved it! Every fucking second he choked, he deserved it and more!¡±


    This one wasn¡¯t a tribute like me or the old woman. Or maybe she is but she is less than willing. When we were allowed to train our mana, our very first oath was to the village. If ever we are called upon to lay down our life, we have to comply. That was the price for being allowed to harness the entire town¡¯s worth of riches to empower ourselves.


    The first thing that drew my attention as two burly men pushed her in were the cuffs. Ah, a criminal. Black iron cuffs with a golden engraving. Expensive things but they guarantee lesser mages like ourselves would be left crippled. I try to notice what might have pushed them to do something like this, but the woman looks perfectly normal to me. Dark hair, green eyes, fairer skin than most, she might have been a housewife of a rich man, with just barely enough mana to be a worthy sacrifice to the dragon¡­ or maybe she was gifted enough to not suffer changes like the rest of us. This one¡¯s a proper town, after all, with bigger, richer houses at the center and even actually armed and armored guards.


    ¡°Fuck! That rotten pig¡­ Just a bit more and I would have been free!¡±


    I look at her as she grits her teeth and hits the now closed cage, even clawing at it while screaming with more fury than I have ever seen in anyone before. It doesn¡¯t do anything, of course, and the dragon takes flight again. Now I have to be the one sitting quiet and letting someone else cry. It¡¯s¡­ sad¡­ so I try to get closer to the old woman and leave this new one space.


    <hr>


    Another village. There¡¯s no fanfare, but as the cage opens I see a young man, just a bit older than me, walking closer to us. He is not the sacrifice, but rather the kid in his arms. He can¡¯t be older than 7. One icy blue eye, a soft, visible breath, and the missing arm and leg. The boy looks already dead and he just lays where he was placed, barely even breathing.


    ¡°I am sorry.¡± whispers softly the man who I assume is his brother. ¡°I am so sorry¡­¡±


    The foul mouthed woman jumps to her feet and tries to run past the man, only for a branch to explode out of the side of the cage and drag her back by the leg. She screams and thrashes, but it doesn¡¯t matter. She gets stuck on the wall of the cage, held down tightly by living wood.


    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°One hundred more years on this earth and I would not be able to do that still¡­¡± whispers the old lady. I have to agree. Wood, as slow as it should be, feels more like lightning in the hands of The Mistress. I feel my chest empty, no fear, no rage, nothing left. All was burned by the fire already, just kindling left keeping me alive. We fly away as I am once more reminded that this is my doom.


    <hr>


    Our last stop is the most terrifying. It is another town, the biggest in the area, the one that the dragon¡¯s river passes through, blessing it with more than enough valuable resources, and here we have another prisoner sent to be sacrificed. It is not one of their own, however, but a wildling from the east. Much like me, her transformation is rushed, molded by whatever barbaric, beastly practice her kin does. While her right side has black hair, brown eyes and a glossy, light brown skin, her left one is a lot more primitive. Her arm has fur and bone spikes growing wildly and randomly all the way up to her face, her mouth has a lot of sharp teeth like a wolf¡¯s and her lips look cut off to keep the fangs always revealed, like someone burned half her mouth.


    Her mismatched eyes jump to each and every one of us as she is thrown inside. She towers over us all, with more muscle than any human, let alone woman, has right to have. Then again, she is no maiden, she is a barbarian slave, probably used in place of a work ox, since she might be similar to one in strength. If it weren¡¯t for the many cuffs, iron chains and even leather straps, I might have been too scared to even be in this cage with her.


    Then again, does it matter that she is a barbarian when we¡¯re all heading to the same chopping block? Probably not. She looks stoic, but that unnatural tail she has grown shows how agitated she truly is.


    Maybe, in a different life, we could have been friends.


    Maybe.


    <hr>


    Here it is. It is happening. We landed and were left to wait. The old woman is meditating, taking in mana, making the cage around her bud out leaves, if for no other reason than that she can. The boy is no longer motionless, but all he does is hug his leg, his fingertips starting to frost over. He¡¯s losing control¡­


    The two chained women could not be different. The beastly one is actually just sitting still, taking in deep breaths and then exhaling, sometimes flexing against her bindings, but not with all her strength. The other is hitting against the cage with her cuffs, hoping to destroy the enchantments, I imagine, but it is no use. Even the iron itself would be enough to ruin her magic.


    Then there¡¯s me, sitting here, empty. I raise my darkened hand, fire flickering at my fingertips, but it is no use. The nature and water around snuff out any fire mana my core can produce. Here, in what I assume is the dragon¡¯s nest, I am just a simple woman with no power of my own.


    I wish I still had tears left, it might have at least helped pass the time. Instead I have to wait here, to listen to cries and huffs and metal hitting wood, until the only sound I can hear is the powerful wings of the beast coming towards us. Time to figure out what she wanted us for, she who barely ever touched humans before¡­


    The cage opens and I see them. Babies. The Mistress became a Matriarch.


    Ah, that¡¯s why¡­ I think as I see them creeping closer. They couldn¡¯t be more than a few months old by their sizes¡­ Big as the common wild dogs barely touched by mana. They are likely already able to fight for their food. And that¡¯s what we are. In those lizard-like eyes I can only see hunger.


    At least in the three normal ones. The last one is terrifying. It¡¯s not looking at us as a general meal, its eyes are swiftly moving through all of us and I can see it think. It barely spares me and the boy a passing glance, it looks at the old woman like one would a wounded deer, then its eyes jump between the faces of the criminal and the slave, and their bindings. After taking it all in the large beast becomes larger still, for while his siblings were like wild dogs, he was like a flesh-cored wolf from the deeper parts of the forest.


    It¡¯s big, with wicked horns and fangs, with twin tails that brush against the grass as it steps closer. I can see the claws twitch to dig into us, I can see its large tongue glide through each and every tooth. It makes no sense, why is this one so different. The others are scary like any wild animal, this one is the only one that feels like an actual dragon stalking its prey.


    What inane thoughts you have, you dumb girl. You¡¯re going to die, eaten alive by baby dragons, what matters that one is strange and terrifying? A voice in my mind says and it speaks truth. It doesn¡¯t matter, I cannot do anything with my pitiful reserves. So I sit. I see as the criminal tries to get up to run off, I can see the barbarian beast¡¯s hair raise as it prepares to growl and bite to fight off the babies, I can see the boy and the old woman close their eyes, the woman hugging him as they both know they are powerless to stop this. I am about to close them too and whisper a final prayer for a better afterlife, when I see one of the young ones jump at me, but then a blue blur hits it away.


    I live a moment longer. I see the largest of them all open its mouth and spit fire all around, making a whole wall of it. The fire continues to linger, despite the massive amount of water and nature that should snuff it out, it instead burns and scorches even the freshest grass. I look at it, my chest feeling warm as the ash in my core is turned to embers by the sight of the flames, but I am not allowed to lose myself in the feeling. That same young dragon roars and I am overcome by true fear.


    My limbs are stiff, every bit of my body hardening as if pretending to be a statue would make it less likely to kill me. This was one of the many innate magics of the dragons, the ability to terrify anything weaker than themselves. It is the roar they make when one threatens to steal their hoard, something that usually results in a dead thief. This time it only results in four humans and a wildling collapsing to the ground, while three baby dragons crawl backwards.


    The only one unaffected by this mighty roar is The Mistress of Tranquil Waters herself. She narrows her multitude of eyes, then stretches down its massive snout and huffs at her child.


    She is answered by another powerful roar.


    The moment is tense and I hear sobs, though I don¡¯t know who is crying¡­ it might be me. But the moment passes. The mistress lets out a low rumble and flies into the skies as I see the bigger child collapsing and panting. I turn to look at the others, everyone is too confused to even say anything.


    A minute of silence later, with only one attempt of a baby coming close which is thwarted by our unlikely protector snapping at it, and the monster herself comes back dropping a small pack of five flesh and bone wolves They look terrified and while the young dragons make short work of them, one runs away and tries to jump at us, probably mad from fear. The barbarian, despite being rendered powerless by her bindings, steps forward and tackles the beast, just as the older dragon joins in and rips off the head of the monster with a sickening squelch.


    it then starts digging through the beast¡¯s chest, taking out its core and devouring it. it even goes to take them out of the other wolves¡­ no wonder it¡¯s so big, it¡¯s been stealing all the cores for itself.


    My head snaps to the mistress as I hear her voice.


    An impossible rune floats above her head, one of the most complex things I have ever seen. I feel a headache growing as her rumbles and groans are turned to words.


    ¡°My eldest boy has found you endearing, somehow. You shall live a while longer as pets. Behave, for the second his flight of fancy ends and he gets bored of your pathetic selves, you will once more be food for my children. Make your peace so you at least have a dignified end when it comes.¡±


    I breathe out a sigh of relief and collapse once more, tears returning to me.


    I will live another day¡­

 Chapter 11: How to Train Your Human

    After defying my mother and the sudden wolf hunt, my mind was invaded by a beautiful and powerful feminine voice that echoed in my head.


    ¡°My eldest boy has found you endearing, somehow. You shall live a while longer as pets. Behave, for the second his flight of fancy ends and he gets bored of your pathetic selves, you will once more be food for my children. Make your peace so you at least have a dignified end when it comes.¡±


    I am left slack-jawed. Mother speaks! No, no she always spoke, but that mind-bending rune above her head is making me understand. It¡¯s not just one rune, really, the meshwork is the most complex I have seen, with multiple smaller runes being used to prop up the central one. It is a universal translator, or rather, a rune that sends what you mean to other beings¡¯ brains for them to put everything in order, or else I don¡¯t know how there would already be a spell to translate into english. Actually I am confused as to why I am hearing it in english instead of my native tongue, but then I realize that I¡¯ve been thinking mostly in english for the past 10-ish years so it¡¯s not too out of the ordinary.


    Well, good news, acting like a kid seeing a puppy on the street and begging their parents to take it home worked. Well, less begging and more screaming ¡°Mine! Mine!¡± like a seagull, but the point stands. The humans(?) are alive and will keep being alive a while longer. Now I just need to make sure I don¡¯t get hungry around them because fuck do they smell so good¡­ Even after a meal like that my instincts still tell me to grab a nibble and I do not know if I will be able to keep my mind straight forever.


    I sigh and curl up between the humans and my siblings, making sure the latter don¡¯t get any funny ideas. I do steal a glance at the beastwoman as she walks over and sits down in the open wooden cage. She doesn¡¯t seem to talk much with the others but she did just tackle an actual mutant wolf despite being tied up, which I have to admit is impressive.


    I do not get the chance to observe anything else or even to rest much as mother decides to take us back already.


    <hr>


    Now in the cave, with an extra influx of humans, I find myself wondering what I got myself into. Mother brought them close to our room, but then spoke her short incantation, flashed a rune that glows a steady brown and the very earth shook as a whole room was created in the side of the tunnel. In here she covered the floor and wall with smooth wood, grew soft beds of moss and grass and even brought in one of the sun lamps from the main hallway. One thing to note is that the door was just there for show. It was made up of hanging vines, so you just had to push through a bit. It wasn¡¯t there to keep them in or us out¡­ Maybe she doesn¡¯t imagine them trying to run away? Well, I guess one of them is missing a leg, another is old and encumbered by literal wood, two of them are already chained up and the last one is just a girl with an arm almost burnt off and just enough mana in her entire body to contend with my lungs.


    Guess they''re not particularly threatening or dangerous like this. And even if they manage to run off, they''d still be in mother''s territory. I doubt any of them can outrun her, or hide from all those eyes.


    As I see them settling in, I think about how I could be training my dragon breath some more, I could be training to use the runic magic that seems to bend the world to one''s will, I could do so many fun things¡­ but now I have people to be worried about and I am pretty sure that their survival is up to me. So while my siblings go towards our hoard, I go into the new room. Instantly I see five sets of eyes... well, four sets and an extra, fixate on me. Aside from the granny and the beast woman, everyone backs away into the farthest wall. Makes sense they''d be scared.


    The old woman is my first target, and while for a second I was tempted to claim what would no doubt be the largest core I have ever seen, I throw that thought away and just focus on the branches growing out of her. It reminds me of the unlucky guy who got infested with tree seeds and had branches growing out of his body¡­ Painful and gruesome thing. She doesn¡¯t seem to be in pain though, just sitting with her eyes closed as I sniff around. Her arms and legs look strong for her 80 year old look, so I guess she might be from a sort of rural town or village, having worked the fields and kept to a healthy life? She¡¯s wearing a simple white dress, just like the fire girl, though this one got ruined by the sharp wood.


    Maybe from the same place? A cultural thing? I take a look around and notice that these people are probably from a wide range of monetary backgrounds. The boy is wearing rugged pants and a loose shirt that look more like an old sack with cut off holes than actual clothes, the beast woman is wearing something similar but much too tight for her frame, making me think her clothes might break any second, but then there¡¯s the cuffed lady that is wearing a rather beautiful, if simple dress. Sure it seems stained by¡­ fermented fruits? Wine? Yeah she¡¯s high class. Or, was, before being dragon food. Really curious about that story.


    Right, where was I? I think I have terrorized the old woman enough. She looks calm, but I can see the shaking of fingers that wasn¡¯t there before, so I move on to the rest. The beast woman is calm as she stares at me, so I stare right back. She looks like a chimera between a fantasy amazonian and a large feline, so I decide to go by cat logic and just slowly blink at her. Not challenging you, just trying to be friendly.


    She doesn¡¯t seem interested, or maybe doesn¡¯t get what I¡¯m trying to do, and continues staring. I take a cautious step closer and sniff in her general direction¡­ Yep. She has blood, bone, flesh and predator¡­ or maybe just animal? whatever, that¡¯s a very new and complex affinity, one that, despite eating a bunch of animals, I haven¡¯t seen. So an animal might not be able to get animal affinity? Or is it less of an affinity and more of a condition, curse or even feature of her bloodline? I¡¯ll need to ask when I manage to imitate that translation spell¡­ so maybe a few years? Hope I can keep them alive that long. I don¡¯t know how long mother will have patience with my whims¡­ Seeing that she didn''t move to attack me despite having the chance, I rub my head into her, hoping that goes through, then move on.


    Next one is the flame girl, who seems at least a bit less scared since I didn''t hurt anyone yet. Her arm is a mess¡­ She pulls it close to herself at first, but I keep moving closer regardless so I get to inspect it. Honestly, going by anatomy, I don¡¯t know where she has her muscles. This arm looks worse than any case of anorexia I have ever seen¡­ Like she burnt everything in it for fuel. How it got this bad I don¡¯t know, but the fact that her fingers end in claws instead of nails is certainly intriguing. She looks into my eyes. I see fear and worry. Sorry.


    I move on, feeling pressure on my chest. The boy tries to pull back, but seeing as there¡¯s nowhere to go, he ends up going slack. I sniff around and he¡¯s in the worst condition by far. I can see and feel his ribs as I poke his chest, his arm and leg look like they got chopped, messily, but at least they are healed already. Probably been like this for a year or two. His arm is missing up to the shoulder, including missing a bit of said shoulder, but the leg is only gone below the knee, so I guess he could get a prosthesis if anyone knew how to make a good one. Won¡¯t be running any marathons but he might be able to walk more normally some day. Really, unlike the previous three, he doesn¡¯t look to have been changed by magic. No patches of ice, no random frostbite, sure the air around him is a bit colder and his one good eye is a vibrant icy blue, but even then he seems like a normal, but unlucky kid.


    That is weird... what is the condition? It''s not mana amount, since looking to the side at the rich lady I can see she wasn''t changed either. She has green eyes, which might be from the poison, but really? That''s it? She is the second best in mana amount and in mana type count, so how come she''s the least changed? I move in closer, eager to inspect and see if there''s some kind of hidden thing, like poisoned blood or her shadow dancing by itself, but I don''t get to check any of that.


    She kicks me in the head.


    She thrashes as I approach and plants a foot into the side of my head making me back away.


    I am angry.


    I hear the humans talking in loud whispers between each other, but I do not bother looking at them. I am angry. I saved her life and she dares to hit me? This pathetic girl who only breathes because I decided so dares to hurt me when I have been nothing but kind?!


    I open my mouth and the voices are silenced.


    I have a few choices, now that I got lungs big enough to hold in reserve more than enough mana for a breath attack, I have been saving different elements just so I wouldn¡¯t get too used to fire. A gale of wind rushes over her, leaving her even more disheveled than she already was. My eyes lock with hers and I can only see fear which snaps me out of it.


    That was dangerous. I was a moment¡¯s notice away from breathing out flames or chomping down on her leg and letting lightning run through her body. I was about to kill a woman for being terrified. She was probably kidnapped, tied down with heavy, magical handcuffs, taken to be food for a dragon¡¯s babies, only to now find herself locked up and at the whims of one of said babies.


    She is terrified and I was about to kill her for it. It feels like I am cursed. I understood the greed, as riches were literally quantifiable power in this world. I understood the gluttony that drove me to hunt down anything in front of me as I am a quickly growing apex predator with insane mutations being the norm in my aging. But why the pride? I was insulted when Red Tail tried to stand up to me and almost fought him for it, I was annoyed when the big rabbit looked at his herd in the middle of fighting me, I was angry when a terrified woman lashed out against me, her captor.


    Every fiber of my being is telling me that the best thing I could do is kill them and devour them. The mana that twists them so easily would be a great boon to my growth, put to proper use¡­ My instincts want me to consume anything that can help me become stronger.


    I am being overwhelmed.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    I leave the room, running off towards the nest, then I curl up into myself and pull back from reality. I am in my library and I let out a sigh as the whispers are silenced. I put on some classical orchestra, I need to think and anything more alert would probably send me awake.


    My current problem is that I have a hard time controlling my urges, like somebody with a bad case of intrusive thoughts. My siblings, despite supposedly being more ¡°dragon¡± than me, are doing just fine. Why? It takes a while, or maybe it doesn¡¯t, but I find an answer. Their instincts were fooled, or rather, overwritten by a different instinct. My siblings have their own little hoards, just some crystals of their preferred types and some coins that they like to munch on. When I look around for crystals to use for my training, I instinctively pull away from theirs, and even if I look at a claimed mana crystal, I tend to feel very bad just thinking about taking it.


    It¡¯s the same thing now, they look at the humans like tasty food, but their brother already claimed them, successfully, and it feels wrong to try and get a nibble while ignoring that. So how do I do that to myself? I claimed them¡­ but are they really mine? Well, yeah, from everyone¡¯s point of view. However there¡¯s a reason why, despite being the strongest around, I never bothered claiming stuff as mine, and it¡¯s not just because there¡¯s enough here of everything for all of us. All the things we have are, actually, mother¡¯s hoard. She just shared it with us. If she wanted stuff back we wouldn¡¯t be able to say no, so really all we have is hers.


    Including the humans. Yeah, just got to think like that. Mother let me use her hoard, but it is still hers. Not food, just borrowed things. I can feel my nonexistent self¡¯s skin crawling at the thought of calling humans ¡°things¡± but I need my dragon brain to get it. So I go out, still keeping music running in the back of my mind so I remain grounded.


    I am just a dragon borrowing some else¡¯s stuff, they¡¯re not mine to use as I wish, even if mother said so. They¡¯re her hoard. Not mine. Her hoard. Not mine.


    I continue this for minutes, until I start slurring my thoughts, and then open my eyes and go back to their room, looking in through the vines at them sitting in the glorified cage, whispering to each other. They look tasty, smell tasty, but eating them is wrong.


    Exactly what I wanted, but it still feels bad that the only way to stop thinking about eating them is to think that they¡¯re mother¡¯s property¡­ ugh, going to fix that when I start getting the hang of my emotions.


    For now I have to let out a sigh and get up, I think I notice something troubling. I hear a low rumble and notice the boy clutching his stomach. It makes sense, he already looked malnourished, and I doubt mother thought about feeding them. Their cage also only has grass and leaves, nothing edible.


    Also, they don¡¯t have water. Yikes, mother¡¯s a neglectful owner¡­ Is she hoping that if she lets them die I will stop caring about them and just eat them? I can see that being the case¡­ Damn she¡¯s such a bad mother¡­


    They need food, but it¡¯s not like I got something they can eat around here. However there is something I can do¡­ I rush back to the nest and start digging through the pile, looking for something useful. There are quite a few miscellaneous items here, items that I completely ignored until now because they weren¡¯t needed or cool enough to be of note. Like an ornate¡­ bowl? Basin? It kind of looks like a basin for a baby¡¯s baptism, not going to lie, and it¡¯s made of a lot of silver. I wrap my tails around most of it and start dragging it with me. I also pick up a golden goblet, sadly the only "cup" around here and a small gem for each of their elements, minus the beast aspect. Might as well give good gifts since I am their host.


    I think for a moment about going to collect water and fruits for them, but then realize that I cannot do any of that myself. Sure, I am more dexterous than my siblings, but more dexterous than a funky crocodile is not exactly a good metric.


    As I drag the huge bowl over to their room, I realize that they knew I was coming. Guess dragging metal on stone floor isn''t exactly stealthy. Despite their worried glances, probably afraid that I came to get revenge for the attack, I start handing, or rather tailing out the gifts. Each gets their own gems, the cat woman looking the most confused as she stares at the three crystals on her lap. The others, aside from the boy that is barely keeping awake, have absolutely stunned looks. The young girl says something quickly as I see her hold the gem to her chest, mist from it slowly seeping through her body, into what I can only assume is her core. The boy just grabs his with his one working hand, but the cuffed woman seems angry suddenly and throws her gems away, then starts sobbing.


    Yikes, really a lot of emotions in that one. Ironic that the fiery one isn''t the fiery one, huh.


    Right, need help, ignore the weird tantrum. I turn to the old woman, probably the most reasonable of the people here, and see her placing the gem on one of the branches coming out of her, which slowly wraps around it, keeping it up. She smiles and I am happy for that moment, then I go closer and bite her dress softly. She looks surprised, and I think I see the fire girl point her burnt arm holding the fire gem towards me, looking terrified. However things calm down as I just pull on the dress. The old woman laughs, then seeing that I am not stopping she looks confused.


    Guess that doesn''t cut it. I let go and go over to the basin, taking out the goblet. I am holding it in my mouth like one would a shot glass and I mimic downing it. I do this a few times, then spit it back in the basin and turn to her. Once I start tugging on her dress again she realizes and gets up slowly. There''s a few words exchanged, but it all sounds like gibberish, so I just wait for her to come with. She even picks up the basin, which is helpful since I didn''t want to drag it all the way.


    After a bit of walking, I realize that she is absurdly slow... So I poke her with a tail, then point with both of them to my back. She is confused until I splay my wings on the ground and point my back towards her. It won''t be too comfortable for her, but it will be faster. She reluctantly gets on and I am glad to see that she weighs next to nothing. Well, not really, it will get me tired a bit faster, but it''s like running with a couple 5l bottles of water. Not exactly a workout. I wrap my tails to keep her steady, use my wings for support too, and then start jogging.


    <hr>


    Thankfully it only takes us a bit longer than it would take me on a light jog, so we are soon right out into the hallway. She marvels at the sight, displaying almost a childish wonder at the green hallway. The mural of mother is also drawing quite a bit of attention, which makes me have to slap the ground so she''d notice the work ahead. She eventually does and I go over, pushing vines and roots out of the way so the trickle of water would be visible. I see the woman frown as she looks at it, then at the basin. Yeah, same here granny. It''ll take a while to fill and it doesn''t even taste that great.


    She comes closer and she seems to think for a moment, then reaches her answer. Magic.


    It¡¯s different from mother. For one, she speaks long phrases, like a proper incantation unlike mother''s which is a couple of syllables and the world bends to her whim. She also doesn¡¯t create a glowing 3D rune, instead, her palms have two large 2D runes shine on them and her arms have smaller runes appear. I see the vines around start to sway and slowly, painfully slowly, water starts dripping down. I look up and small cuts have opened on a lot of vines, causing them to drip down the water they just pulled. I also notice that they started running the trickle of water dry. Huh, using nature mana to move water, smart!


    If not for the fact that it was a pathetically slow thing! Even her control over plants is so slow... and she is channeling this spell. I see the colorless fog she exudes and I find myself bored. It''s like a slightly open faucet. Sure, mana is coming out, but at such a small rate that it''s no wonder the plants take minutes to react. Why is she limiting herself so much? She has many times my mana, yet only uses as little as possible.. is she trying to keep it in case she needs it? I guess... but with how fast mana recovers from the air I don''t understand why she would.


    Regardless, this is filling up the basin so I can''t complain. I guess I can practice my own magic while she does that. Sadly, despite being shown multiple runes by mother already, I don''t think I can use any of them. For one, I do not have perfect memory of the complex meshes she used, and even if I did I do not have enough mana in me of either type to be useful.


    I have been skimping on earth and only used enough nature to keep my lingering flames... oh well. I do have a bit of water mana though, but I have yet to see mother''s water rune, if she has one. I try and imagine what a water rune would be like, but I genuinely can''t. Makes sense, it is a complex thing and winging it would be like trying to guess a complex theorem in physics. Guess I can try to not even think of the rune and just go by feel? There are two lines of water after all, and the granny is only using one. I go to the free trickle and start to imagine the water in it flowing upwards, defying gravity. Now that I think about it, this shouldn''t be that hard. Defying gravity? That''s easy, since gravity is the weakest fundamental force. To lift up a liter of water I would only need a bit above 9.8 Newtons of force, so say 10. That means 10 Joules of energy. That should be within my means considering I could make powerful light and flames.


    I feel it move. I just needed to frame it right and there it is, the whole trickle of water flows upwards starting from right in front of me. I am constantly burning through my water mana though, and I did not think to prepare for this, so I have to be swift. I gather up as much water as I can into a ball, then when I start feeling tired I order it to move to the basin. I see blue light coming from above me and notice that the old lady stopped channeling her spell, instead just gazing at me. Is she surprised that I moved the water? Well, I am a bit surprised too, I needed to just convince myself I am more than able to do it in order to, well, do it..


    Well, regardless, it seems our combined efforts resulted in an almost full basin of water that should at least last them for a day. Hopefully... If they ration it at least.


    Next is the fruit issue, and this one I leave entirely to the old woman. I point at the fruits and she slowly, painfully slowly, makes the vines hang lower and lower until they are in reach and she can grab them. Well, whatever, we''re not exactly against the clock. As I leave her to collect fruits, I turn to a personal bounty. A bug, crawling about on the vine wall. I focus on whatever air mana I still have and really concentrate it down, trying to picture an air canon rather than a gale of air or a loud screech. It fails, sadly, the air dissipating before reaching it, but at least it shook the vine a bit. I capitalize on that and let out a roar, causing the bug to get startled and fall on its back. Same type of tough bug with a faint earthly scent. Must have a tiny core in there, not even worth eating at this point. but hey, humans need meat protein as much as they need fruits and vegies, so I hope they will appreciate it. I bite down on the bug, killing it instantly, then trot over to the woman. She has plenty of large fruits now, but stares at my bug strangely. Does she want it? Ah, no, guess it''s gross seeing a squished bug larger than your hand. understandable.


    Well, with our bounty we start walking back. She placed the fruits on my back and is now walking next to me, carrying the large water basin. This will take a while.


    <hr>


    The walk back took almost four times longer than the walk to the hallway. This was painful, but I couldn''t very well rush the woman carrying water while already probably having bad joints. At least everyone seems grateful, if a bit stressed as we come in. They eagerly take turns drinking with the goblet, with the beast girl ignoring it completely since her actual hands are tied up unlike the rich woman, and deciding to just plant her face in and drink like that. Really fitting the beast woman aesthetic, ey? Well things stop for a moment when I drop down the squished bug and step away from it. The young girl and the assassin woman look downright disgusted, but the beast lady really gets the need for protein and dives into it, eating it raw.


    Well, everyone else just focuses on the fruits, with the boy almost devouring half of them from how hungry he was. The granny also helped the beast woman eat a couple fruits so she didn''t need to eat off the floor, which is nice.


    Guess this might not be such a bad thing after all!

 Chapter 12: Abandonment Issues

    I wake up, stretch, get all charged up on mana of different types, and then follow my siblings as it seems they¡¯re going to meet mother halfway this time. Well, it makes no sense to have her walk all the way here now that we got used to the schedule and my siblings are also fast enough to save time, so we trot down the tunnel and find mother lowering her head towards a small bush that wasn¡¯t there yesterday. As I get closer I notice that it is not a bush, but rather ripped up vines thrown to cover something¡­


    I am hit by a stench that at first confuses me, then makes me realize that I forgot something about humans. They need bathrooms. And it seems they improvised one here. Huh, guess mother also forgot they do that.


    Now, you ask, how did I forget about a basic human need? Because, it seems, dragons don¡¯t have it. I could not tell you why but in my¡­ three-ish months of life, I still have not yet felt the call of nature. My siblings are the same. What the hell is my stomach? I¡¯ve been eating meat, fruit, bones, even god damned crystals from strange magic organs, yet I have not needed to do anything to get rid of the waste. Is that it? Is there just no waste? Does my stomach somehow turn every little thing I eat into nutrients and then my cells use 100% of the nutrients to power my growth? No toxins that need expelling? No heavy metals that I should be worried about considering my diet of wolves?


    To be fair I don¡¯t need water either (I only remembered it exists when I saw it). I don¡¯t really need anything aside from fresh food and some gold to lay on, everything else is extra¡­ Dragons are weird. Ah, speaking of humans, after mother makes the waste disappear by making the earth literally eat it, giving me another glimpse at the earth rune, she looked over at the humans through the vines that pulled themselves away. She looks at the silver basin, which now laid almost empty, then with a combination of runes seemed to give them an expansion, a bathroom. Also, with some earth rumbling, she opened a hole in the wall, from which water started trickling. Well, guess that¡¯s much more efficient.


    She put the fear of god in them, but it seems she decided to offer basic creature comfort. Just as I wonder what she¡¯ll do about food, I see multiple green bulbs growing from the wooden walls, which then turned yellowish, then became large, ripe fruits. So, food is assured also, but they can¡¯t survive with just fruits. I will need to save up meat from today¡¯s hunt for them. That¡¯s a bit of an annoyance, but what can ya do? Leaving them to die just because it¡¯s easier would be a quick way to become an apathetic, murderous beast.


    Mother reaches down to grab us, but this time I don¡¯t let her pull me in all the way. I make sure to struggle just enough so my head is stuck outside of her tendrilly embrace, so I can see where we¡¯re going. I¡¯ve kind of forgotten to explore more since every day was just waking up, having a couple hours to train, then going out to fight for food, only to get back and sleep. At least now I can see exactly how far away this lake is. The walk is pretty short, what, with mother having a strangely good speed for her mass, and once we are out under the suns I see her spread her wings. She has eyes on the underside, huh, never noticed.


    We reach a decent altitude in a matter of moments, an acceleration that should mess with us but we barely feel it¡­ Ah, the tentacles are dampening the hit, smart. Well, regardless, I am stunned by the view. Shades of green paint the land, with many rivers being visible spreading like roots all over the place. They all seem to originate from the large hill below which our cave exists, so maybe that¡¯s why mother made our nest there. Regardless I look all around but quickly realize a saddening fact.


    My eyes are worse than in my past life, at least for far away distances. It makes sense since they¡¯re the classic ¡°low to the ground predator¡± eyes, but even then I had hoped that magic would help them be a bit better. Well, I mean, they are better at close to medium distances¡­ I will need to get new eyes¡­ I should probably focus on that during my naps. After all, I have the design of a bunch of animal eyes saved up in my library.


    Ah, there¡¯s the lake¡­ Yeah that¡¯s at least an hour of running. Wings are a bit of a cheat code, after all. Now, let¡¯s see, why aren¡¯t we slowing down? We pass the lake and I begin to worry. Did mother get mad at me for picking up the humans after all? I let out a squeak, but I am soon reminded that we are, in fact, moving at absurd speeds in the air. I take a moment to wonder why I am not being hit by the wind, but then I notice a faint mist shimmering, which makes me realize that mother has a spell going. it¡¯s how she¡¯s moving so fast, in fact. Like that guy who was ice skating at over 100 km/h thanks to having a shield in front of him, absorbing the drag. Cool to see that the dragons here are really smart with their magic!


    Now, let¡¯s see, where- we are going down. The trees part and mother touches down, letting go of us on the ground, then spreads her wings and takes off without us. Even the trees go back to their upright forms and cover the sky, letting only a bit of light through. My siblings squeak and jump up after mother, but she¡¯s gone. Fuck. Did she abandon us? So randomly? There¡¯s no way dragons abandon their young at a few months old, even if they¡¯re not the social type!


    Is this like a test? The proverbial kicking out of the nest, but not banishing? Is the idea to find our way home? No, she¡¯d at least have us walk over to have even a chance.. As I continue thinking to myself, I notice Red Tail spreading his wings, running forward and flapping them to try and get some lift. He fails, sadly, as neither of us has functional wings yet. They¡¯ve certainly grown but I feel it will take time for any of us to learn to fly.


    For now, I focus on my senses. I already know the rough direction we should go in, but I know that a straight path tends to bend when you don¡¯t have a good reference point, so I expect us to get lost if we don¡¯t catch a useful scent. My siblings seem mostly confused with the situation. Crown is sniffing at the air, RT is climbing a tree to try and see where mother went and Spots is¡­ nibbling a rock? Ah, no, he wanted what was under it, a few bugs he catches with his tongue. Actual bugs, no mana infused mutants.


    Now that I think about it, the mana around is very faint, to the point where it might be a problem. I look around and I can only see the mana clinging to me and my siblings, everything else looks barren. It isn¡¯t, of course, as looking very closely lets me notice a very faint distortion, but that just tells me that this forest has absurdly lower levels of mana compared to even the tunnel. I will have to be careful about that¡­


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    I make a rumbling sound towards my siblings, to draw attention, then started walking towards home. Might as well try and get back. It would really suck if this is really how long we¡¯re being raised for, especially since mother has yet to teach us anything herself¡­ Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do, and right now I gotta keep myself and my siblings alive. I worry about the humans for a bit, but I really cannot afford to even think about that with my life being on the line. I have to get back home¡­


    <hr>


    Captain¡¯s log, third entry: We¡¯ve been at this for an hour and I think my siblings aren¡¯t appreciating the walk in nature. I¡¯m not either, if I am being honest. For some reason this has been really exhausting¡­ Even continuously training my breath attack wasn¡¯t this bad! Seriously this is just walking, I¡¯ve been more, for longer, without getting tired before. It might be the stress of looking everywhere, keeping my ears open, noticing every little thing¡­ Yeah the mental exhaustion might be it.


    A sound startles me and I go flat to the ground, as do my siblings. I turn to my right and force my eyes to see as well as they can, but it doesn¡¯t work. The forest is too dense to actually see stuff, so I start moving towards the sound slowly. Once I get to a bush, I raise my head above it, only to be startled by what I saw. Deer. I am pretty hungry¡­ and it seems that the wind is in our favor as it is blowing from the side, not giving either of us a specific advantage in detection.


    I am pretty hungry, so I should probably catch this one, but how do I tell my siblings about my plan? I wish mother would teach us how to speak already. Well, I improvise, tapping RT and Spots with my tails, then pointing to the side, where the wind is moving towards, and make an arcing motion with it, then bring it back. They look at each other, then start moving as I showed them. Huh, they¡¯re pretty good at least. To be fair, flanking prey was their first instinct, this time we just needed a larger flank.


    I then turn to Crown and point to the side. She is confused for a moment so I just emphasize my pointing a bit more. Once in position, we wait. I know I could just spook them in the other two¡¯s direction, but honestly I trust myself to catch it more than I trust the other two. Especially with it being able to run between trees. I wait for their patience to run out, and then I see the deer raising its head as it leaps my way, the sound of crackling fire behind it.


    Perfect. I wait for it to be close enough, then as it jumps I leap at its throat. It tries for half a second to throw me off, but I clamp down tighter and its neck breaks. Easy meal. I start digging in its chest as my siblings come close, however I am disappointed. The core is barely there. It¡¯s shriveled up and doesn¡¯t seem to have any rock in it, likely a result of the low mana environment¡­ Wait, if that¡¯s the case, where does mother even find the mutants? Oh well, meat is meat, even if it doesn¡¯t have the heavenly taste of mana.


    <hr>


    After feasting we continued our walk and I am really starting to get exhausted. I checked on the mana reserves in my lungs, since I have a sort of instinctual feel for roughly how much is in there, and it¡¯s been shrinking despite me not using a breath yet. This kind of confirms it, we¡¯re a bit mana dependent. Our bodies are better than they should biologically be, but we consume mana to keep that up. I scratch an arrow in a tree trunk, to make sure I don¡¯t forget the direction we need to go in, then curl up.


    My siblings take the break in stride, having started panting a while back. So, we get tired faster without abundant mana. Guess that¡¯s why we literally live on a mountain of gold and gemstones. At least we can still keep going, though we¡¯ll need to find a source of mana soon since I don¡¯t know how long my siblings can last.


    After a few minutes of rest, we get up and continue on. I have to say, nature here is a bit boring. There¡¯s grass, there¡¯s moss, there¡¯s all sorts of herbs with their own smells, but there¡¯s nothing I couldn¡¯t see back home. Really this is just a classic forest. No fancy fantasy one with 3 meter tall carnivorous plants or blue trees.


    I shake my head and keep on. We need to get home¡­


    I catch a scent, and my body freezes. The wind just changed, it was blowing from in front of us, but now it¡¯s coming from behind. And it¡¯s taking with it the scent of wolf and meat. I turn around and let out a deep roar. My siblings follow my lead and roar in every direction. Nothing happens. Eventually the scent fades and I let out a sigh. Right, a forest like this would have predators. Guess we entered their territory at some point, I didn¡¯t bother sniffing every tree though so I wouldn¡¯t know.


    We¡¯ll have to be careful from here on out. A fight might be dangerous when we¡¯re so tired already, even if we have magic on our side. That¡¯s why we have to keep on moving so we leave their territory and they stop thinking about the small pack of lizards marching through.


    <hr>


    Half an hour later, it seems my siblings got bored. They started straying further away, turning rocks, clawing trees, just overall playing like kids should. Even trying to talk to them doesn¡¯t help, they¡¯re just too bored to care about what their big brother is trying to make them do, so I have no choice but to sit here. I wish I could train with the runic magic, but I can¡¯t be wasting all my mana in a situation like this. So I scavenge some food. Bugs and worms are disgusting to look at, but they do taste good after all.


    While I do that though, Spots seems to stray away from vision, going through a few bushes towards something. I pay him no mind until I hear a pig squeal, followed by a dragon squeal. Oh god. I turn to where he went and see a flash of rainbow light, which lets me know he got hit. I rush over and see it, a boar, puffing and preparing to charge the downed Spots. I let out a roar, but it doesn¡¯t seem to have any effect as the boar hits him head on. A second flash, this time weaker, and I see his scales going almost greyscale.


    That¡¯s bad. I rush over to attack the beast, but it runs away for a bit, only to turn around and prepare another charge. Problem, I can¡¯t shrug off a charge, even from a normal boar, but I can¡¯t dodge because a very exhausted Spots is behind me. So I go for intimidation again, even knowing how strong a boar¡¯s mental fortitude is.


    I spread my wings , make my tails tremble, then spew fire in front of me as the boar starts charging. It slows down and turns to run as fire covers its fur, but it takes too long to stop, giving me the time to jump on it and start biting. Sadly the burning pig rams me into a tree and runs off, making me miss the kill for the first time. My scales are a bit busted up, causing me to sigh as I turn to Spots.


    Crown and RT came too, poking and sniffing him. He''s exhausted his mana on that defense. I have yet to figure out how to do it, but my best bet is that they¡¯re using the mana in their cells to redistribute or even push back against any form of damage. Useful, but costly. And here we don¡¯t have a good source of mana to recharge.


    Survival has just become even more difficult¡­

 Chapter 13: Hard Carry

    Spots is, sadly, not getting up. He¡¯s awake, or at least alive going by the one eye he is lazily opening and closing, moving it around just a bit. Its distant, unfocused, poor thing looks half dead despite having no wounds¡­ And the reason he looks half dead is the fact that I can¡¯t see the fog-like mana clinging to him. It¡¯s even less than in the grass around. That, in itself, is going to be a problem. I don¡¯t know what happens if we run out of mana, but if he¡¯s any indication, it¡¯s like the end stages of thirst and hunger at the same time. Too weak to even be conscious. Guess that¡¯s why we needed relatively little food and literally no water for the early parts of our life, mana was doing all the work. Even later on it might help, since I have yet to see an animal that would be big enough for mother to not starve.


    I notice RT trying to poke him awake, progressively getting more aggressive in his attempts, but he isn¡¯t getting any results. Crown, on the other hand, bites one of his legs but ends up drawing blood. She gets startled and pulls away. I understand why she¡¯s surprised, after all we¡¯ve been nipping, clawing, tackling, even wacking each other without getting hurt once. He¡¯s not only exhausted, his body is frailer than ever. It¡¯s like he¡¯s half a step from death, and that¡¯s just because of what? A couple headbuts from an oversized pig?


    Well, no, I am letting my worries cloud my mind. He took two goring hits from a boar without even a bit of gore, meaning, he exchanged mana to protect against deadly strikes. Wolves are the closest animal to our current size and shape, even though I have bigger legs and I am overall larger, my siblings are about the common size of a mutt, and even I am not that much bigger than a wolf. So a wolf for comparison it is. If a boar and a wolf came face to face, the wolf would need to run. It¡¯s that simple. A single tusk hit and the canine is done, even if not dead it would be crippled for life.


    From what I see, Spots will be fine with just a nap in a mana heavy environment, or after consuming something rich in mana. Which, in itself, is absurd. Imagine being able to shrug off one or two deadly strikes every day, maybe more if you eat well? That¡¯s more than most people have to deal with in decades. But being put in this condition, in this place? Spots would be dead without us. Let¡¯s see, what should I-


    My instincts tell me to eat him. I frown, then give myself a slap and wrap my tails around him. My bad for ever thinking base instincts are good for making decisions¡­ I can¡¯t lift him on my back sadly, and even if I could I wouldn¡¯t be able to hold him there. My tails are not strong in that way, sadly, so I just drag him slowly. He¡¯s bleeding a bit from the wound Crown made, but there¡¯s not much I can do about that. I don¡¯t see any plants that I know could help with clogging the blood or disinfecting the wound. Ah, no I do know one thing that I can do, but I am worried. His wound is going to get infected if we leave it open, especially since I doubt his immune system is unaffected by him being so weak. The problem is that I don¡¯t know how to control my output.


    As I drag him, slowly, I think about how magic works for the nth time. My ¡°breath¡± is my simplest and most versatile ¡°spell¡± so far. However, it is also very fixed in what it does. I can use any element or combination of elements that I want, provided I have the mana for it, but the result is always the same. I make a strong phenomenon happen through my mouth. Is it lightning dancing around my teeth? Air frosting over? A god damn flamethrower setting rocks on fire? Whatever it is, it happens and it is always meant to, in some way, hurt something by using up a lot of mana at once. It¡¯s a ¡°throw shit forward and see what happens¡± kind of magic.


    The other magic I¡¯ve been using, like the light rune and whatever I did that made water float? They¡¯re different in that regard. They don¡¯t demand my mana, like the flashbang breath does. When I use that, it takes as much mana as it can and releases it in one moment. The light rune and water magic were both streams of mana being used to cause a continuous effect. They weren¡¯t trying to explode, but rather be orderly. Which is why, if I want to burn his wound to stop the bleeding and to make sure he doesn¡¯t get infected, I would need something that isn¡¯t a breath attack.


    I¡¯ll leave that thought for later. Right now I need to keep going, but I am getting tired quickly. Thankfully, by moving slowly I am not suffering from having my tails busy carrying him instead of helping me balance. On the other hand though, they are getting sore. They¡¯re not meant to drag behind a whole person, or even half of one, so it is quickly becoming a problem. I wish my siblings would help but they are too dumb to do this sort of thing without hurting him, especially with their lacking dexterity, so I persevere.


    I try to focus on everything around us. I try to listen for anything useful or dangerous, I try to catch a scent that might lead us home, I even taste a few plants on the way to try and see if they have any kind of mana concentration. They didn¡¯t, of course, but it was worth the try.


    My body is trying to keep me calm, but I feel my mind clawing at that stoicism. Spots is a strong breeze away from death, my other siblings are getting hungry and tense, starting to get halfway through their mana reserves if my eyes aren¡¯t wrong, and I am the only one with even a semblance of an idea of where to go, yet I have to make sure they don¡¯t wander off randomly, like Spots did. If another one gets hurt¡­


    A sigh gets stuck in my throat as I hear a rustling sound, followed by growls. The wolves are back. I let go of Spots and roar, my siblings turning to the nearest wolf to keep it at bay. It¡¯s not a big pack, thankfully. I number about six in total, two are still juvenile, but they¡¯re not defenseless cubs. They¡¯ll get involved. I look at each of them and notice immediately who is the leader. It¡¯s the only one with some mana¡­ not a lot, but it might have migrated here to a less dangerous hunting ground to be a big fish in a small pond.


    That¡¯s a problem though¡­ It might not be a hulking brute, or filled with bone spikes, but those teeth are longer and sharper than they have any right to be and he¡¯s even a bit taller than me, though still agile. Overall, just an improved wolf rather than something so changed it might as well be a different animal.


    We¡¯re outnumbered though¡­ RT and Crown need to each take an adult and a young one, and I¡¯ll still be stuck with the two biggest and baddest ones. And that¡¯s without taking into account the wounded kid behind me¡­ I need the others to keep formation, but they look like they might leap away to chase a kill.


    Alright, I need to focus. I didn¡¯t want to waste mana, but I need that wolf dead. It¡¯ll probably scare the others and it might even be enough to kickstart Spots, so I start focusing my mana. I¡¯m not the only one, as I see the enhanced wolf approach me with mana flowing around its body, circling me, trying to draw my attention as its mate tries to take my flank.


    This sort of thing tends to work on animals, and might even work on my siblings, but I am prepared. I turn towards the big guy, just as its mate leaps at me, thinking it found an opening. It¡¯s not, of course. It¡¯s a tailwhip. A double one, just to be sure. I hear the yelp and see the big guy turning towards its mate for a moment, just as I leap at it.


    It doesn¡¯t come at me, instead it backs away, growling and howling. The whole pack does, but they are just out of range, not away. Even the one I knocked down recovered and is now limping away, jumping for speed on the limbs that didn¡¯t get hit. I think I used up a bit of mana on that strike. Annoying. At least it crippled one of them, but the others seem fine. RT scared a few with a bit of fire, but even that won¡¯t last.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    This is the time for regrets, because unlike before, these wolves can just back off, wait, then attack us again before we can recover. At the lake every animal was cornered. They had no escape, so they just fought, yet even with that desperation they always felt weak and slow. Hell, even the more enhanced wolves seemed to be slower than this guy and that doesn¡¯t seem to track. Were they so afraid they were worse than they should be? Was mother¡¯s presence such a distraction that we had an easy time beating creatures we had no right fighting? Might be.


    Which just means that even these guys can be dangerous to us. Especially without the ability to recover mana. I turn to the side and see my siblings being restless, squeaking, growling, hissing, doing anything to try and calm themselves while keeping the wolves away. I don¡¯t know what to do. If I step off to try and kill one of them, another would sneak in and grab Spots. Even then I don¡¯t know if I can run fast enough to grab any of them before they run off.


    I didn¡¯t want to use a breath, as it¡¯s costly, but I think I don¡¯t have a choice. I growl to draw attention, there¡¯s three of them looking straight at me as I move just a bit closer to the big wolf. I need just a second¡­ there. I open my mouth fully and a flashbang erupts, startling and blinding the three wolves. I don¡¯t have time to wait, I jump for the throat, but I am met by two other wolves attacking my side. I make the very bad decision of ignoring them, letting them bite into one tail and wing, but I still manage to lunge at the big one, sinking my fangs into its throat, while waving my tail around to try and scare off my attackers.


    The wolf I bite struggles, clawing at me, trying to bite back, but it is choking with its own blood. meanwhile my siblings seem to have abandoned Spot completely and came to help me, as I stop feeling my limbs being bitten. I tear away, ripping a chunk of flesh and look around. four managed to escape, scared off by my siblings, probably. They also looked a bit bloodied, but overall they wouldn¡¯t come back. We¡¯re too expensive a meal. Meanwhile, the enhanced wolf is bleeding out, unable to even get back up anymore, while his mate, still half blinded and deafened, with a leg out of commission, is just growling and biting roughly in my siblings¡¯ direction.


    We got two of them and only I sustained some wounds. That¡¯s fine with me. I do however flinch as I turn to look at my body, realizing the damage I took. Good thing my sense of pain is a bit dampened or I would be crying right now¡­ My wing is broken, I¡¯m actually missing the tip of it, including a bit of bone. That¡¯s nasty¡­ My tail is doing better at least, only a bit of blood and bruising. Still.. I don¡¯t think I can carry Spots anymore like this..


    I hear a gurgled howl and see as the other wolf is finally dead. Good, I need them to focus on that corpse while I use this one¡­ I bite into the now dead mutant and drag it over to Spots, ripping away at its chest to get the core out. Spots opened his eyes, smelling the blood, and made a weak sound while opening and closing his mouth. Alright buddy, here¡­ chomp down on this if you can.


    I put the core in his mouth and he starts crushing it, drinking the blood, then gulps it down. I wait a while and it takes about five minutes for him to start crawling towards the rest of the body, eating greedily. Good. At least he¡¯s recovering. My siblings on the other hand made short work of the other wolf, and start inching closer to this body, but I snap at them. I need Spots to be able and walk by himself, or we won¡¯t get anywhere.


    It takes about five more minutes, but he does manage to eat the whole thing by himself. Yeah, actually low mana is basically starving squared, good to know. He still has Crown¡¯s bite on him, but it at least closed by now, unlike my wounds, so it won¡¯t be a problem. We can continue our walk.


    <hr>


    I lost track of time. I can¡¯t even put on a song to calm down because I need to be alert and focused, and it¡¯s starting to really take its toll. Still we do manage to find something good, after all this almost aimless wandering. We found water! Sure we don¡¯t need to drink, but that¡¯s the thing, this isn¡¯t just water, it¡¯s water that smells like water! And nature! It¡¯s mother¡¯s river.


    I rush towards it, as do my siblings, and we find a small oasis. Wild growing grass, plenty of flowers of all sorts and a river with a fair bit of mana in it. It¡¯s not like the lake, but it still is more mana than even that wolf. We go towards it and after taking a few mouthfuls I am starting to feel my mana recovering. The only downside about this is that it¡¯s mostly water and nature, two kind of useless elements for any of my purposes. Still it is better than no mana, so I will take it.


    We can finally sit down and relax a bit. We can also follow the river to get back home, so it¡¯s all the better. We¡¯re close, even if we still have a ways to go, we¡¯re getting close to being done! As I rest and look in the water I can only sigh and smile. Today was a nightmare, but we pushed through. Honestly I am impressed Red Tail and Crown were so capable when it came to holding their ground, even in that situation. Now, just gotta follow this river up¡­ and a bear comes out of the woods, towards the water. It¡¯s a large brown bear¡­ Not just large, but massive. It has teeth jutting out of its mouth, it tilts trees just by brushing against them and it is looking straight at Spots. He can¡¯t run at full speed right now¡­ and even if he could, the bear is probably faster still.


    Time slows but it doesn¡¯t matter, there¡¯s nothing I can do. I have a lightning bite in me, but that¡¯s all I got. This thing is bigger than anything I ever dealt with and I doubt I can kill it in one attack. Even if I could, Spots is away from me, resting on the grass, not at the bank of the river. I can¡¯t do anything, he¡¯s going to die and I am powerless to stop it, instead I am just seeing it in slow motion.


    I think about closing my eyes, to not see my brother die. I think about running with the others, so we could escape Spot''s fate¡­ But I am frozen in place. I take all the water mana I devoured and push it forward. My body is as fast as it is, but magic may be as fast as I make it, so I push all my anger and terror, all the affection I have for my siblings, be it biological or just from the fact that they are cute buggers. I focus everything I have into just stopping this being that is about to rip my brother in two.


    I let out an involuntary cry as time speeds back up, but I see the bear stopping. It¡¯s understandable that it did, of course. After all, wouldn''t you stop and stare if the river decided to get up and turn into the shape of a dragon¡¯s claw? The beast runs as the claw swings at the ground it was just standing on, then turns back into water and splashes the ground. There¡¯s even fishes struggling to jump back into the river.


    That wasn¡¯t me, though, as much as I wish it was. I turn my head to the sky and see mother¡¯s form approaching swiftly. She lands and says something, while having that strange smile of hers. My siblings rush towards her, excited. They don¡¯t understand what she did, not really. They just know that away from mother life is hard, not that mother put them in that position intentionally. They don¡¯t understand, and they¡¯re happier for it.


    But I understand.


    So as mother turns her head towards me, I approach, and instead of rubbing against her leg, I bite. It¡¯s harder than rock, harder than metal, it hurts me more than it hurts her, but I still bite. I even let out an electric shock, though it also does nothing. She looks confused but I am angry and continue clawing and biting her. My vision becomes blurry.


    I didn¡¯t know I have tear ducts


    Unlike my happy siblings I end up crying, half from anger, half from fear. We could have died. So many times we could have died. She heals me, but does it really matter? This monster keeps putting us in harms way¡­ and for what? What did this teach us? That being away from the nest leads to us starving to death over the course of less than a day? Is that the lesson? Is the lesson that we shouldn¡¯t get cocky about getting used to hunting terrified, cornered animals mother picked out of some mana infused hell?


    I take a deep breath and calm down as she picks me up. It doesn¡¯t matter, ultimately. I am used to having horrible family members that would flay you alive for some coins. This time it just happens to be my mother. I just need to become independent as soon as possible. I need to learn all the powers of my body and of this new world, and then I need to get away from here.

 Chapter 14: To Violence Or Not To Violence?

    Mother is evil. That is simply a fact of life it seems. She may have been watching, or maybe she really just wanted to see if we can survive until she comes back, but either way, she is evil.


    We are back in the cave and I am feeling numb. All my anger, frustration and fear drained away during the flight. Mother is evil, but in the end the lessons were important and will serve me well in the future. Also I realized that I have underutilized my growth too much. I was a bit afraid of modifying myself as I grew, but because of that my form remained somewhat normal, which, as a dragon, is completely unacceptable. I need to paint a picture in my mind. No, I need a whole model to focus on so I make sure to abuse the way this body functions to the fullest.


    My tails need to be stronger, my wings need to grow so I can finally start flying, maybe they could double as extra arms if I can grow a few fingers and my muscles grow and modify a bit¡­ I need to also change the bone structure somewhat, but it is possible and I have plenty of examples saved up. My eyes as well need to go past what I have. Slit eyes work for better depth perception and detail in short ranges, but I need big boy eyes for long distances now that I am no longer the size of a fat squirrel, or however big I may have been as a baby.


    I also need to train my magic and mana capacity. I need better magic for moments where just using a breath attack isn¡¯t enough, and I also need enough mana to survive more than a day outside. Trying to continue hunting for mana cores like I am playing a survival mission looking for life support is just not sustainable. It would become problematic quickly if being a dragon means I¡¯m forced to exist mostly around high mana. Mother spends most of her time in her lake, so maybe that¡¯s just the nature of dragons. But then how would we leave the nest? Maybe there¡¯s pockets of mana out there and you just need to have the reserves to reach them.


    You know, when I woke up as a dragon I didn¡¯t imagine I would be dependent on magic crystals¡­ But I guess if there were no limits to power then the entire world would be dominated by dragons. Unless it is, in fact, dominated by them already. She did just round up humans in a day, so who knows?


    I try to shake away the inane thoughts and focus on something more important, like actually training for this. I have no idea how to increase the amount of mana my body can hold. So far I have only been using my lungs to hold in mana, since my breathing is my fastest method of gathering it, but I know every cell in my body can hold on to some amount of mana. Now, how do I force it to spread around in my body so I can gather up more of it?


    Well, the simple answer is that I don¡¯t need to force it. My body has been doing that since forever. That¡¯s how my siblings have been able to repel deadly blows and how I was able to use that acid attack against that rabbit during my first fight. My breath attacks so far have been mostly used to confuse or debilitate, with only the electric attack being able to secure kills, but even that is just me biting something to death. The only long range attack that actually killed something was my desperate acid attack that held a combination of all the mana my body was able to hold at that time. I was debilitated just like Spots, though I recovered faster because of the high mana density in the air and the core I ate right after.


    However, despite the fact that gathering mana is natural and intrinsic to my body, to my very cells, it¡¯s not enough. The passive, organic and innate mechanism that spreads mana throughout my body is bad. Really one should never rely solely on a natural process. The body, at least the human body from my old world, is a horrible little thing that will devour your muscles the second it thinks it can get away with it. It¡¯s a dumb shit that will tell you you are burning, freezing and got zapped by lightning just because you hit your elbow at a weird angle. It¡¯s a dumb fucking thing that barely knows what your guts are even supposed to do and where they should be, and when it thinks you¡¯re hurt but has no idea where, it just throws the feeling of pain straight into the maze of intestines and guesses that those shifty things are hiding something.


    Alright, breathe, rant over. Still, below all my very justified anger at cruel facts of biology is a point I am trying to make to myself. I need to do what my body does, but better. I need to not only feed a bit of mana to my cells, but rather, I need to pack them with as much mana as they can hold so I don¡¯t dry out like today. Half the reserves in my lungs went straight to my body to take the place of whatever mana my cells consumed, meaning that I was on a pretty tight timer since I had to use multiple breath attacks. If not for that river I may have ended up dropping, and I doubt my siblings could help.


    So, what is the best way of fixing mana from the air to your body? Well, why not steal a page out of one of the stranger types of fantasy stories out there? Cultivation! Chinese, Korean, whatever source it is, it doesn¡¯t matter. The concept is always the same. You breathe in a special way and cycle the life energy you get from your surroundings through your body, to clean it of impurities and empower yourself into divinity, or something like that. Some stories are more grounded than others at least. My best bet is to take this idea and apply it to myself.


    Of course I can only use the very essence of the idea, since anything more advanced than ¡°breathe and try to move the magic juice in your body¡± is bollocks. Especially with the way magic in this world seems to be tied very closely to biology as is evident because of the hyper mutation that affects every living thing touched by mana that I have seen so far. Even the ones less changed, like the rabbits that were just a bit bigger or the boy with his blue eye.


    Let¡¯s see, I am sitting in the nest, right on top of our pile of riches that gathers mana without a care. I breathe, not as a human, but as a dragon, the air flowing in and out in a continuous cycle rather than in the wavy motion that mammals are forced to use. This efficiency is what let the dinosaurs become enormous and what lets the birds fly so freely. Now, unlike a cultivation story, I don¡¯t have meridians and pressure points and whatnots, or at least I don¡¯t think I do. But I do know what I have, and what my body has been using to do this process automatically. Mana gets fixated on my lungs, just like oxygen, and a small portion of it is taken to the rest of my body. All I need to do to improve this process is force more of my mana to enter my circulatory system.


    So, much like I do when I use a breath attack, or when I created the light rune, I took the mana I am breathing in but then ordered it to move deeper. I could not visualize it perfectly, as despite having the diagrams of a lot of different animals, I didn¡¯t know exactly how the insides of a dragon looked, so instead I took it by feeling. I don¡¯t know how my lungs look, but I know I have lungs. I don¡¯t know how my heart looks, but I know I have one. I know I have veins, I know I have warm blood, I know I have muscles and bones and trillions of cells all ready to be used as organic batteries. I also must have a core here somewhere that should hold on to a lot more mana than any other part of me, but I have a hard time pinpointing it with just vague feeling alone.


    I sit here, on the pile of gold and focus on the faint fog. It becomes more defined as I concentrate on it, but I can feel my brain start burning. I feel the energy, chaotic as it is, with all the flavors combining into a single one that just feels like power. I do not require a particular type of mana, I need all of it, any of it, I need as much strength as possible and I need it tightly packed.


    I think there is a good reason why mother isn¡¯t keeping us at her lake, under her direct protection and why she made such a diverse spread of mana types in our nest. If we were to be soaked in water and nature mana, we¡¯d be basically forced into growing into water and nature dragons. From me and my brothers¡¯ having red scales I can only assume our father was a red scaled dragon, probably with a fire affinity at least. It¡¯s why fire came so naturally to my siblings but they have yet to use anything else despite trying. Nature and water are both more complicated, but I expect any of them figuring out how to use their breath to spray mist very soon.


    So, mother doesn¡¯t want us to have to follow her affinity, and I don¡¯t know if I want to start focusing on an element right now when I have so little knowledge about how this whole thing actually works. Plus if I am to become a dragon stuck on a few affinities I would rather have something better than fire or water. That¡¯s just too basic and cliche! I wonder if there is ¡°space¡± mana or something of that sort? Being a dragon that can manipulate space itself would certainly be more useful and much cooler than just burning stuff.


    There is another thing to take into consideration. I already know that mana changes the body, but there¡¯s some changes that are good and some that are straight up problematic. Let¡¯s take mother. She¡¯s green and blue, from her affinities, and has tendrils that look like vines from afar but they are clearly made of meat and scales when you are close.


    Then there¡¯s the old lady, also with nature affinity. Her hair is gray, tending towards white and her eyes are mostly black, with only a few spots of dark green pigment sprinkled through. However she wasn¡¯t changed to look like she was a tree, but rather she became half tree. The bark on her body was literal wood, not just a mimicry. So, why did that happen?


    Mother has so much more mana than her that it is a joke to even compare them and the way the old lady used her magic was vastly different, but is that it? Or did she end up like that because of the way she gathered mana? Is it just because she¡¯s human?


    Whichever might be the answer, I know that if I gather a lot of different types of mana, I won¡¯t be changed one way or the other. After all, if you pull something in all directions you won¡¯t expect to move it. And hey, if I manage to figure out how to manipulate a lot of different elements I might end up having a better time than trying to figure out how to do everything with just one or two types of magic. While the old woman using vines to pull on the water and make it fill the basin was witty and impressive, it was a patchwork, slow solution. I managed to gather more water, faster, by manipulating water in a half baked way. I want to at least have a good foundation in everything before switching to a specialty, just like how mother shaped earth despite it not being part of her affinities.


    Alright, back to my bootleg cultivation. It¡¯s been a few tens of minutes of me being stuck in my mind, while having the cycle of breathing in mana, pushing it into my veins, then pushing it into whatever cells my erythrocytes reach, going on repeat. I don¡¯t feel different, sadly, but I do notice a change. It¡¯s like the change between prismatic red and prismatic legacy, but it is there. The fog around my body is just a sliver denser. It doesn¡¯t radiate further but it feels like it¡¯s more packed together. However I don¡¯t feel that this mana is at my beck and call, like the one in my lungs. It would take great effort to rip it from my cells, so maybe this is a bad way to go about increasing my capacity? But at the same time, this might still be a good buffer for my bodily needs if I am ever away from the nest again. The mana that my body uses is probably taken first from within the cells and then from my lungs, so if I have my body full, I won¡¯t have to worry as much.


    It might even help me with my own strength. I felt myself lose mana from just pulling Spots with my tails, and later from hitting the wolf hard enough to break its leg. That was me using mana innately to empower myself, so maybe my body is stronger while it is juiced up. I¡¯ll test that later. Right now I need to continue this¡­ Let¡¯s put on a memory of a clock in the background to get some measurements on this.


    <hr>


    Six god damned hours. I sat here, for six hours, just doing nothing but imagining mana flowing through my body. I focused so hard on it that I am now wrapped in an almost opaque blanket of white-ish mist. It¡¯s like a second skin. I had to fight against my own metabolism to manage this, but I did it. I filled up completely on raw mana. How do I know I am full? It hurt. Once I tried to fit any more, I was hit by pain, bloating, nausea, headaches, literally the entire clown car of basic ¡°this be bad¡± symptoms.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Huh, this reminds of when I felt like I was intoxicated with water when I drank a few gulps¡­ just earlier at the river I drank a whole lot more than normal and I felt fine¡­ What if it wasn¡¯t water intoxication, but rather water mana intoxication? I was already pretty full on normal mana, so when I tried to fit in the very concentrated mana in the lake I just got the sickness instantly¡­


    Mana sickness, great. So I can¡¯t just gulp down an ocean of mana and be fine for a few years¡­ I need something different then. I already know the maximum capacity of my lungs, I know the maximum capacity of my body, I even know how to somewhat use the mana in my body to follow my will, even if I can¡¯t yet focus all of it into causing phenomena aside from using my breath and mimicking the runes. Well, there¡¯s the water movement, but I think that was me actually making up a spell of my own. It was costly and inefficient, because I didn¡¯t know what words to say. Or even how to talk. But it was magic that I could do¡­


    Alright, enough sulking on my own, time to go find a teacher. Mother is at her lake, probably, and I am still not quite over her throwing us at the wolves, quite literally at that, so I am going for objectively worse but still somewhat useful teacher(s): the humans. Or should I call them ¡°the women¡± instead? After all, I don¡¯t think the boy will be able to do much for me. Oh well, it¡¯s worth the try. I grab another ice, fire, nature, blood and bone crystal, of course one of each, and go towards their room.


    Now, we don¡¯t understand each other, they are always on edge around me, and they are objectively worse at using magic compared to mother, but they must have their own way of growing stronger, so I need to see how they gather mana and how they use it. The problem is getting them to show me.


    As I reach their room and peek my head in, I see¡­ a scene. They freeze in the act and we just stare at each other. They¡¯re washing the beast woman, I think. She was not happy about it, having worn a scowl until I came in. Let¡¯s see, they¡¯re using the water from their trickle fountain, as well as a mixture of fruit and leaves to act as soap. Inventive. I take a deep breath and try my best to not focus on the mana, instead getting their actual scents and the entire room smells of fruit. They even washed their clothes in a similar fashion, probably while I was in the woods.


    I sigh and drop the crystals. Why didn''t I bring any for the assassin lady? Well she threw the last ones against a wall (didn¡¯t shatter them, they¡¯re much tougher than you¡¯d think). I figure she doesn¡¯t feel like using them. Now, let¡¯s see if I can get them to stop looking so strangely to one another. Why did they just freeze up like this?


    Ah shit, I just realized¡­ While I can¡¯t see anything from the way they are positioned right now, the feline woman should be properly naked¡­ Well her shirt is just rolled up over her head, since her hands are still tied together, but otherwise naked. For a fraction of a second the idea to just ignore that and walk in pops in my head, but I immediately swat it away. That¡¯s a bad thought. Really bad. I can just imagine the title already: ¡°I reincarnated as a dragon in another world so I can now be a pervert without consequences!¡±. That alone makes me retch at even having the intrusive thought.


    I turn around and plop down, my tails still peeking through the vines to show that I do want to come in, but that I will wait for them to be done. It takes a while for them to start moving, but soon I feel a quick tap on the tip of my blue tail. I turn around and go in, finding them sitting down, spread around the room. I do notice that they took their respective gems, the old lady adding another decoration to her branches, the girl holding them both in her scorched arm, the beast woman¡­ she just piled them to the side. Not planning on using them, I guess? The boy is also not doing much with his. He at least is holding them on his lap, but he looks like he¡¯s on the verge of crying. That¡¯s a lot to unpack and I am a busy dragon that¡¯s very bad with emotions I cannot find the rationale for. Poison gal? Still sulking. Wait, no, nevermind, she¡¯s just sitting there, but her entire demeanor changed?


    Right, probably rich. Is she trying to put on a noble front now that she got her rage out of her system? Probably. She¡¯s not touching her gems, but she does eye me with obvious curiosity. I really don¡¯t know what to think of her.


    Ah, I am dumb. No wonder the beast woman and the assassin aren¡¯t using the crystals I brought. They can¡¯t. ¡°Uh, tree lady makes shiny runes appear on her body when she does magic, I wonder what¡¯s up with the shackles that have literal runes written in gold on them?¡± Dumb, dumb man. Well, another reason why mother was fine with them being here. They not only can¡¯t use their arms right, they are also unable to use magic. I can see the fog dispersing as it gets close to the cuffs, and at least the woman¡¯s skin around them is starting to look at least a bit sickly compared to her otherwise fair complexion.


    The beast woman also looks weaker, not visibly, just my instincts tell me she¡¯s weaker than before. That might be a problem. I don¡¯t know if people here are dependent on mana like me¡­ Should I try and break the chains? No, that¡¯s dumb. They disperse mana that gets close, no reason mine would be unaffected. And I know for sure getting any mana displaced will feel horrible and like a part of me is slowly dying, so no chance I am trying that yet.


    Plus I am scared. What if the beast woman rips my head off as revenge against my mother? What if the noble woman poisons me and my siblings then uses her shadow affinity to run away. They¡¯d have at least half a right to do that, if not for me they would have been eaten by my siblings, but even if it would be right it is not something I can allow.


    Alright, heavy thoughts aside I try and look at the two actively using the crystals¡­ Why are they not breathing in the air around them? I focus my eyes on the fire girl and I can see the mist around her two mana crystals, but I don¡¯t see her focusing on drawing it all in. She spins them around in her hand¡­ I am surprised she has enough energy to do that considering how burnt up it is. Still, she¡¯s not breathing in the mana, but rather absorbing a very faint amount through her skin? Well, I think I did do that, especially as a child, but even so I am surprised she is using the far less functional method.


    Should I show her? I turn to the side and see granny just sitting there, with her eyes closed, almost meditating. She¡¯s doing it in a much better way, even if she isn¡¯t actively breathing mana. Her branches seem to direct quite a bit of it into her body, so maybe those growths aren¡¯t completely bad. Hmm, is that why the younger girl is using her burnt hand? Because it was changed by mana and it might transfer it much easier?


    Not as efficient as I would like, but I guess this is a starting point. Use parts that were changed by mana to get more mana faster. My entire body was changed by mana, though, so not exactly useful. But I guess I now know that I can absorb mana directly from my skin instead of focusing so much on my lungs. That should help, maybe.


    Let¡¯s see if I can try to get her to breathe in the air around the fire crystals. That¡¯s where the real mana¡¯s at after all. Let¡¯s see¡­ I approach her and she stops spinning them. She looks a bit worried, but at least she¡¯s not terrified as I reach my snout towards her charred hand. I take in a deep, audible breath, and then turn my head to the side and breathe out harmless sparks. The boy gets startled and the noblewoman speaks a rough word that I am 90% sure is a curse, but the fire girl is not afraid. Instead she looks excited.


    She grabs the crystals tighter, then puts them to her chest. I see the mana no longer directed towards the arm, but rather straight to her chest and I realize what is happening. Her core. It¡¯s going to her core. Now that I focus on it I can see that everyone has denser mana around their chest as opposed to having an even spread like me and my siblings. Then is their entire method reliant on that organ? They''re not trying to improve their bodies to go along with their magic? Or is it that they can''t...


    I continue looking at the girl while thinking to myself. I see her stick her hand out, then speak long sentences in whispers. Whenever mother says her syllables before creating a rune and using magic, I can hear the power in each short sound. Here I almost don¡¯t get that. Instead I get little jolts at very specific sounds, as if everything else is worthless filler. Still, an effect happens. Her charred arm gets a few runes written in red on it, then I see a blob of mana mist pushing through it, through the crystals, then as it gets fully out of her body I see a shower of sparks appear.


    I have to admit, despite being able to do it so much faster, her version is prettier. I look at the wooden floor below us, and while it is mostly unharmed since it is made by mother¡¯s magic, it now sports little scorch marks in the rough shape of a butterfly. She smiles as she looks at me being fixated on the sudden drawing. Guess I had that look, huh¡­ How could I not? I¡¯ve been thinking of ways to improve the strength of my magic that I almost forgot why I love magic.


    The reason I was so excited about magic is not just the power it can afford, but the fact that it allows will to be made manifest. I have more art in my brain than master painters could make in a hundred lives. I have more songs, theater pieces and movies than a whole college of bards could create in its entire history. I have beautiful sculptures memorized down to the last detail and I am sitting here, pondering how to get bigger muscles and make a bigger boom.


    In my past life I wasn¡¯t an artsy person, my body simply didn''t do well with anything requiring dexterity, doctors said I was simply born with nerve damage, however that works. My voice was also just plain bad, but I enjoyed all forms of art greatly. Maybe I should use at least a bit of my new life to show beauty to the world¡­ Maybe I should think about what I can do other than fight. I wonder if there''s a rune for sound... If there is, then just like the light rune I could modify it and start making any sound I need. I could use it to pour out the songs I have memorized... I need to learn more runes. I need to have something better than fighting...


    Hell I don''t even need to limit myself to art! I watched every episode of "How it''s made", I know theoretical physics, biology, chemistry and I can turn everything I know into reality if I work towards it. Magic, at least so far, seems more than able to do what I need in order to make something nice.


    The stunt mother pulled forced my brain into survival mode, but I know how quickly I will end up burning myself up if I get stuck like that. I need to be better, to do something good, something great¡­ I need to enjoy this gift or else I will hate it just like I hated my last life.


    I let out a heavy sigh, then approach her again. That was a nice break, a nice moment to reflect, but I do still need to understand them more and the way they use magic. Even after listening to it there¡¯s so many unfamiliar sounds that I have a hard time even remembering what she said. It¡¯s a language with a lot of consonants, very different from any of the languages I learned in my life, so I need a point of reference for something that I can mimic.


    I again sniff at the crystals, then push her hand upwards with my snout. She is confused and holds her hand to her chest, but that¡¯s not what I want. I reach again and push it upwards more. She gets the hint and puts them to her nose, then breathes in, but she keeps her confused expression. I understand why that is.


    She did not breathe In the mana. No, rather the fog ignored her entirely. When I breathe close to it, the entire fog gets directed towards me, but when she did it remained stationary, completely undisturbed. I thought mana was bound to the air somehow, but I think that is completely wrong. I think mana is its own thing and only loosely interacts with the matter around. My body interacts with it almost completely, as just moving my hand next to it makes it move like fog should, but humans can only pull in a bit of it towards their cores, they can only really interact with mana by using their core or whatever body part is already modified... I should have realized that mana and air aren''t necessarily corelated when we weren''t hit by wind just for being close to the gold.


    That complicates things, mostly because this means I can probably not use anything that the humans are doing. Our biology is absurdly different, they need constant water and food, their flesh interacts weirdly with mana, their bodies are inefficient and about as bad as I remember them from my past. I also can¡¯t use chants like they do, my voicebox is still stuck on squeaks and roars, I can¡¯t exactly use runes either if I don¡¯t have the rune memorized and the pattern of the mana inside remembered fully¡­and I don¡¯t know if I can even use the runes the humans have showing up on their body as they seem a lot more automatic and out of control compared to what mother does. They don''t modify the runes after all, but they seem more like a prelude to something happening.


    I think I need to first improve my body some more and then hope I can steal some secrets from mother¡­ The next time I see her draw a rune I will forcibly remember it. After all, my very last memory before being a dragon is me forcibly recording the experience of a disembodied voice laughing at me before I fell into this world, into a permanent memory in the shape of a book. It¡¯ll hurt like a bitch, but it¡¯s clear that I need to do this if I want to have any hope of using proper magic before mother''s tests throw me into an early grave.

 Chapter 15: Cultural Exchange

    Despite my disappointment, I would be lying if I said that this was a waste of time. Two very important things were slapped in my face, and despite how different they are, I would say they both are just as valuable. On one side I got a rough idea of how humans use magic and how it differs from dragon magic. I think they can only influence mana with their cores, as such they pull in mana directly into it, then shoot it out to cause an effect. I do something similar yet different with the way I used magic. Unlike them I could move mana with my entire being so I pulled mana into my lungs, exhaled a particular type, and got to shaping it with will alone. Similar yet different.


    The second, and equally important thing? I need to do fun stuff with magic, not just practical stuff. That is exactly why I leave the human room and go straight to collecting light crystals. It takes a few minutes to have five shiny crystals gathered up, causing the lighting in the cave to be a bit wonky. Sorry everyone, but I need to figure this rune out before I can move on to something else.


    I breathe in the mana¡­ and fail to pull any of it in. Why? My entire body is pumped full of magic already. Never thought this would be a problem, but it seems it is. Thankfully, unpacking is always easier than packing, so I manage to force a chunk of mana to escape, freeing up some space in my lungs.


    Once again I begin by gathering up mana, then I breathe it out as I imagine it moving to form the shape of the rune. The light rune is the least complex one I have seen so far, really it''s a few oval shapes connected together at weird angles. However, something is quite obvious as I stare at the way the mana mist flows. It¡¯s a single loop. A closed circuit that moves mana in a particular way, pulling in similar mana from nearby, while expelling some of the active one by causing light. Basically, the motion itself is what causes light. If I think about pushing the mana faster just a little bit I can get better brightness, while if I make one loop longer, I get a hue more towards red. I start fiddling with the size and speed of every little thing, seeing how it changes it, manipulating the rune both mentally and physically, with a claw.


    It takes me a long time to realize that I stopped being the one giving it mana. The excess mana of the other crystals was enough to feed this one, despite my constant changing of the thing. Good to know¡­ Ah, well, now that I think about it, it did feel like mother¡¯s use of the nature rune wasn¡¯t exactly a use of her own mana. It was like she was telling all of mana to act a certain way. Actually, that makes me think¡­ her rune wasn¡¯t making trees appear right on top of it, but rather it was twisting stuff at a distance.


    So, speed affects brightness, size affects hue¡­ What happens if I mess with alignment? After all, it is a 3D shape. I do just that and find that the rune itself is no longer emitting light, only as much as mother¡¯s rune was, making its shape visible. Instead the light it should create was now a few centimeters to the right. I think I just found the offset button. Huh, this is a lot more intuitive than I expected¡­


    A flash of the rune that translated words across any language passes through my mind.


    I shudder as I imagine what it must be like to try and get the correct settings for that abomination. In a way it feels like I am right back in highschool, learning how to print out ¡°Hello World!¡± while looking at videos of people making entire games from scratch in a notepad. I was already planning on abusing my¡­ soul memory? Sure, let¡¯s call it that. I was already planning to abuse my soul memory to learn runes much faster than I have any right to do, despite the momentary pain I will no doubt feel, but even then I think the amount of experimentation needed before I can be sure I understand one of these things is going to be insane.


    Regardless though, I go right back to my rune. So far I did my best to modify things while still keeping its rough shape. The offset is pushing it a bit, but still it functions. So what happens if I try to radically change things around, like undoing one of the loops? It breaks. The entire rune broke. I bring it back and try to change the alignment radically. It breaks again. Really the farthest it lets me move the light from me is halfway across the room, which isn¡¯t really a lot. I focus on making a light at the edge of my range, then I make it shift through each hue of light I can make, until it stops. The rune itself remains visible in front of me, so it didn¡¯t break, but I am now making light that my eyes cannot detect¡­. Let¡¯s see, it was shifting towards purpl- ULTRAVIOLETS!


    I rip the rune and I close and open my eyes repeatedly. Thankfully I wasn¡¯t looking directly at the ball of light I was conjuring, since it was uncomfortable to look at, so I didn¡¯t get hit badly by the invisible light. So, I can exceed the limit of my eyes when it comes to the hue of light. How far does that go? I don¡¯t know. It might be the entire electromagnetic spectrum, but I doubt that, so it is more likely that I can go anywhere within the full spectrum of light itself, so between infrared and ultraviolet. Still dangerous, but it¡¯s better to not have to deal with actual radiation from the single simplest rune around.


    After calming down from the realization that I can end up messing with really dangerous things if I try to modify runes without a plan, I decide to go back to the basic form of the rune. Just normal white light. I look at it for a while, until I am certain that it really just functions because of the movement. And yea, it does. Even during the offset, the energy for the light comes from within the loop, it just travels basically instantaneously to the point it is aimed for, like a car taking a tight turn and falling off course, and it creates the effect there.


    So what would happen if I make this exact rune from air mana instead? I actually try that. I do the exact shape but next to three air crystals. Nothing happens. I am visualizing the rune, I am actively moving the mana around in that shape, but it doesn¡¯t click like the light rune does. When I make the light rune it feels like I am creating a path that the mana wants to follow and so it does even with no further input, but if I change that path too much it suddenly gets pissy and stops.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I am guessing that air mana and light mana like different paths. So, then, is my only option here to guess what the air mana¡¯s preferred shape is? No, that¡¯s stupid. There must be a rule here, but this is the only thing I know how to make¡­


    Wait, that girl made magic without moving mana in a shape like this, so then are the runes that appear on their body something similar? I didn¡¯t look closely enough, but I think the mana moved, at least partially, through them, and that¡¯s how the effect was formed. But while this rune makes the effect continuously and kind of dictates it, the 2D version is more like giving directions to a clump of mana? That feels right. So then is that why her magic is slower and weaker than it should be? One makes mana do what it likes but in a controlled manner, while the other forces mana to do something? Or maybe I am wrong, and it is the other way around. Argh, I wish we¡¯d be able to speak already so I could ask someone! Anyone!


    I sigh and look at the air mana crystals. I wanted to start working on manipulating sound next since it is also a wave function of sorts, but it might take a long while¡­


    I return the crystals, thinking about what I can do next. I look around the place and notice that my siblings are asleep. That gives me pause. I am not tired at all, not even a little bit, yet they¡¯re snoozing away like it¡¯s midnight¡­ Weird.


    I decided to leave quietly, after getting a rather strange feeling in my gut. I visit the human room and the light around is now dim, more like moonlight than actual sunlight. I frown, or at least I think I do. They are all sleeping¡­ no, wrong, I see the faintly glowing left eye of the beast woman. She woke up and is staring at me curiously. Is it actually night? Might be. Hmm, I take a step in and see her rising upright. She was sleeping a second ago but seems to have no problem with waking up, no grogginess to slow her down. Guess she¡¯s a lot more like a cat than I thought.


    Hmm¡­ Eh, why not. It¡¯s night, I am not tired, and she¡¯s awake, so I might as well lead her out. Staying in here can¡¯t be good for her health even if there¡¯s fresh plants all around, and I imagine mother will come and mess up any plan I try to make. So to hell with it, time for a relaxing walk in the night. I approach, quietly, and gently bite her bindings, pulling a bit. She tilts her head, but after the following tug she gets up and follows me. She¡¯s quiet for how huge she is. her legs and feet are human still, yet she makes no sound as she steps, and after we get a bit away from the room, she manages to keep pace with me despite the fact that I am trotting and she¡¯s just power walking.


    So, despite her inability to manipulate mana, she¡¯s clearly superhuman. Might be a benefit of using a lot of meat, bone and blood mana, the effects are lingering. Well, thanks to that we exit the entire cave in about 15 minutes, and we are graced by a half lit behemoth. I was hoping for a starry night, but I realize my mistake now. After all it is light pollution that makes seeing the stars hard. What better source of pollution than a giant mirror? It is a white moon, just like the one back home, but it doesn¡¯t seem to be the only one. There¡¯s a very small black moon orbiting the white one. It is a shiny kind of black, one that is clearly visible like someone¡¯s shining a lantern on a piece of obsidian. The other moon visible around is a red one that seems more in line with my old one in size, meaning it might also be pretty damn big. Yeah, tides here must suck.


    I hear a voice. Despite being so large, I haven¡¯t heard the beast woman speak. Really she didn¡¯t speak with any of the others, merely made a few grunts once or twice. And there might also have been a snarl when she body slammed that one wolf. Despite all of that, however, I hear her speak, in a voice much softer than I imagined she¡¯d have. She has a sad expression, unlike the stoic look she kept until now, and she speaks as she looks up at the moons, specifically the white one, actually.


    She quiets down and looks down at me after a bit. She shows a faint frown, then schools her expression back into neutrality. One thing I did manage to notice, during her speech, is that her language is different. More vowels, more pleasant sounds, really a couple words sounded familiar¡­ Huh, she¡¯s from really far away, no wonder no one is talking to her. I should have been able to tell  by the fact that she looks naturally more mediterranean, while everyone else looks central european.


    Oh gods, is it racism? It might be¡­ Damn now I have to worry about inter-human relationships and culture clashes and I feel like I want to scream my brain into silence.


    I rub against her leg and then sit down, looking at the stars. She blinks and does the same. My mind is loud and it¡¯s getting harder to quiet it down by just remembering music or focusing on sparkly stuff. I need something new.


    I hum.


    I am bad at it, my voice is raspy and crackly, my hum is uneven, I am not used to making such sounds, but slowly I adapt. I manage to fall into a tune I did not expect. I¡¯m not exactly the patriotic kind, but I guess the song of my country¡¯s union is a bit catchy. A bit lively, but not too much, just enough to feel merry in an otherwise quiet night. I am joined by a second hum. It is a bit uncertain and off tune, but she slowly gets the rhythm and we end up singing it three times over.


    That feels nice. I turn to her and she looks at me with nothing but pure curiosity. I blink, and then I hear her start to sing. Actually sing. She taps a foot against the ground, making just a bit of sound so I can get the rhythm, but most of the work comes from her voice. It¡¯s simple, but powerful. It is rough, yet beautiful. I feel my tails sway to the rhythm. It is a war song, a music dedicated to courage and glory. I can feel the missing drums, then I can hear them. She stops singing. I stop too and turn to where she¡¯s looking.


    It¡¯s a rune.


    A rune I have never seen before.


    A rune that, with a bit of push from me, makes the sound of a drum. She starts singing again and I join her with the drums. I listen to the song and look for missing parts. No, ¡°look¡± is the wrong word. I feel for the missing parts, and I add them. I imagine an uneven chorus accentuating the last word of each verse and it feels right. I imagine the sound of different drums, the sound of horns and they all fit nicely. I imagine the people moving and I follow, spinning and hopping all around the majestic vocalist that looks like a ragged warrior.


    It all culminates in a hundred howls and I feel my strength leaving me.


    My mana ran out.


    I was filled with mana of all kinds, but somehow I am dry. I wonder why and then see it as five different runes float above my head, each slightly different from the others. Each apparently sucking in any mana they could to function. each draining me of hours of tightly packed energy.


    But it doesn¡¯t matter. The runes break and I am just laughing, or rather squeaking, as I roll in the grass. I look and I see the beast woman wiping her tears as she laughs to herself.


    Yeah, this was worth it.

 Chapter 16: Bedroom DJ

    I wake up. It takes me longer to come to terms with that fact than it takes me to actually sleep. Looking around I find myself in the nest instead of out in front of the cave. For all that she is strong, I doubt the beast woman dragged me here with her hands bound and her magic dissipating. Mother¡­ that¡¯s the best guess I have. Mother came and brought me in.


    My blood runs cold. I rush towards the human room while trying to run through my mind. She was out of the cave, with me, but out. Mother could have used that as an excuse to kill her. The degree of callousness she showed towards life really points to that being the case and I fear¡­


    I reach the room, panting, and I look inside. I startle them all, but thankfully, they¡¯re all here. I look towards the beast woman and I see her eyes becoming just a bit gentler. She says¡­ something, though neither I nor the others can understand what. Still I move closer and bump my head into her, which she reciprocates. That feels nice, and despite the weird looks I am sure I am getting, I stay like this a bit longer. I do, however, need to leave. Well, less of a ¡°need¡± need, and more of a ¡°I should try and make the music rune again before I forget how it looked¡± kind of need.


    One more quick run back and I am ready to start gathering crystals. We do have quite a few air ones, but they¡¯re not exactly too abundant so it takes a bit of time just to gather a sizeable pile, but once I do I make quick work of filling up on it. The hard part comes with making the rune. I remember it, clearly, yet I fail to form it in my first try. Unlike the light rune, which is entirely made of round bits and ellipses, this rune had more jagged ends, straight lines, harsh angles¡­ And for some reason the mana did not like being put in that shape.


    Why? I managed to make a small tribal orchestra with five of these, while fueling them with outstandingly bad mana for what it should do¡­ Ah, damnit. I see¡­ this rune feels wrong, the magic trying to run through it feels wrong, because I used the wrong type of mana when I made it. Or rather, it manifested by itself into the wrong type of mana because I didn¡¯t have what it needed. I try and tweak it, removing a jagged line, adding in a loop, then removing two, but however much I try to fix it, I can¡¯t get the air mana to listen.


    So, I am doing something wrong. Clearly. How do I fix it? I can try and just use all types of mana like I used before, but I shake that thought right off. the problem with that idea is that I have no idea what percentages of mana I had. It¡¯s like throwing plants in a pot and hoping soup comes out. Sometimes it¡¯ll work, but sometimes you¡¯ll just make poison. Instead of trying to guess how the messed up version of the rune functions, I should probably make the not messed up version, but the air mana doesn¡¯t like any form resembling this rune. My foundation is wrong¡­


    I try the rune again. I force the air mana into that shape, and even as it tries to diverge into something else, I don¡¯t let it. I force it to run despite it being wrong, hoping against hope that it will do something other than dissipate.


    I run out of mana. Nothing changed. It just wants to blow up and somehow consumes itself just from moving in this wrong pattern. Alright, new guess, try and keep it moving, but follow it if it tries to flow a different way, just don¡¯t let it blow up.


    It blows up.


    Not literally, but you get the point. I try again, and it dissipates again. I try a third time and just barely manage to make see it turn a zig zag into two right angles, before it goes away again. This time I form the rune with the right angles. Progress is slow, but it is progress.


    It takes me five refills before I manage to set up a formation that the mana likes flowing in. New problem, it does nothing. I look at it, and despite air mana flowing eagerly through the complex thing, nothing happens. I wonder if I messed something up, when finally I notice something in the middle of it. It¡¯s not a sound or a song, it¡¯s something different¡­ It looks like a clump of mana, the same semi-transparent fog, but as I take in a deep breath and pull the small bit of mana out of the rune and into my lungs, I can hear chimes. I see black for a moment, but in that darkness I can hear a million different sounds. Skittering of insect legs, drops of water falling into tranquil puddles, a chime, a voice, a rumbling, a log falling.


    This is sound mana and it is beautiful.


    I am pulled back to reality and see the rune has kept functioning while I was hallucinating. I see that the clump in the middle has grown larger, I was spacing out for a while, but I also see that the mana in the rune proper is running out. Was the air mana consumed to make¡­ sound mana? A more refined form? Wait, was I forcing the air mana to act like sound mana? Is that why it was so costly to just shout louder?


    Huh, good to know for the future, mana is diverse and I might be able to make something do what it¡¯s not supposed to, at a cost. More information for my back pocket.


    Right now though, I look at this rune and think. The mana I put in is much more than the mana that resides at its center right now, meaning that the conversion isn¡¯t that good¡­ Well, if I think of it like refining something more basic into something specialized, then it makes sense to lose some of it. A good part of air mana is, well, air. Wind, storm, atmospheric pressure. Sound mana would lose all that in order to focus on the finer detail of sound.


    Now, what happens if I take all this converted mana and move it through the rune? I do just that, pulling out the air mana while pushing in sound and the results are mixed. I hear a rough screech, thankfully not a loud one, and I can feel the mana not being exactly thrilled. I start listening to its will as it tries to change the flow ever so slightly and end up with a shape pretty close to the rune I started with, but also different. The sound has also changed, now more like somebody is holding down a key on a piano.


    I start shifting the rune¡¯s shape slightly and it acts similar to the light rune, but different. Now speed is, literally, speed, the size of the rune itself influences how loud it is, the angle of the rune changes where the sound comes from and so on and so forth. I try to play around with it a bit, going through different sounds, but I end up out of sound mana quickly.


    I have to memorize these¡­ and I do. Turns out, if instead of memorizing my entire experience, I just memorize a shape, I can use my library without having the mother of all headaches. It is still an annoyance, and I can feel my brain getting hot just from copying down two shapes, but I manage to do it and I can look at the 3d reenactment of the runes inside my own mind with perfect clarity. I do need to take a break after this though, because I do feel a headache creeping in and I don¡¯t want to deal with that quite yet.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    So, let¡¯s recap while my brain cools down. I need sound mana to make actual music, makes sense, air was literally just making my voice louder. I need a rune in order to shift air into sound, since we do not have sound mana crystals around, then I need a different rune to manipulate it. Theoretically I could combine the two, if I had a bit better control. Make the air to sound rune, then send the flow into the music rune.


    Wait, do I not have enough control for that? I mean, I used five of them at once, accidentally. I should be able to at least make two at once. I try just that, but fail almost instantly. It¡¯s like patting your head and rubbing your belly, all while jumping on one leg. It¡¯s a kind of multi-tasking I am just not used to yet¡­ I try to make two air to sound runes, and I am pleasantly surprised at being able to do it. I try a third and I falter slightly. Huh, so 3 of a kind is my limit. Understandable, I can work with that. At least this speeds up the process greatly. Putting the runes on top of the pile of air crystals also helps with fueling it without taking all the mana from me. Soon enough I have a big enough cloud that I need to breathe it in, or risk losing it. The gold around not only draws in mana from outside, it also draws in mana from around, meaning that if I am not careful, my carefully crafted mana supply will be mixed with everything else and become unrecognizable.


    Thankfully my lungs are big and I manage to pull in most of the mana, with what¡¯s left being used to kickstart the music rune. I did say I wanted to figure out how to use magic for fun, not just for fighting, and this is my first project: figure out how to make every sound possible in order to make the songs in my head real. I am not going to be able to play a piano or a violin with my draconic body, so I might as well use magic to bring Earth music to this world.


    Alright, this will probably take a while¡­


    <hr>


    Did I ever tell you I am an absolute moron?


    Because I am.


    Oh, just try and make every single sound in the world, what could possibly go wrong???? Well, I¡¯ll tell you what. EVERYTHING. Does anyone even know how many sounds exist in the world? How many notes? Because it isn¡¯t just DO RE MI, that¡¯s for sure. I played every note that a grand piano can do, then a violin, then a guitar¡­ simple stuff, really. Once I figured out how to get the correct lingering sound for when you play the note longer, I was good. I even managed to figure out 8-bit sounds and the like, from analog to digital, I managed, after about 12 hours, to make every single sound and repeat them until I managed to memorize the patterns.


    And then I remembered about cords, taking another day just to learn how to use a single rune to make multiple sounds at once.


    And then came in voice.


    It has been days.


    I even had to go back to fighting mutant animals by the lake. I have been able to make it easier on myself by running whatever voice I wanted to mimic in my head, but even then I had to stop each half a second, each half a sound, because anything more complex would make the rune falter and collapse, but I managed to slowly play entire songs¡­ 3 minutes of music, played over 30 hours. Greaaaat progress.


    I decide, rightfully so, that my plan is stupid and stop sometime along the fifth continuous day. Rather than try and learn every single sound possible, I decide to just mark down all the important sounds and figure it out from there. I have no idea how I managed to do this the first time around¡­


    So, making voices is basically impossible. Every time I try I end up with something akin to a very bad AI rendition of a person. There¡¯s gaps, and no matter how much I strain to imagine, remember or think my way through the shape of the rune, it never changes fast enough to smoothly move in to the next moment. Too many settings need to be tweaked at a millimetric level in order to make it work perfectly, and I do not have the magical dexterity for it.


    What I do have, however, is a million other songs that do not have voice. Or I can just try and make the instrumental, ignoring the words of songs entirely. Actually I test that out with one of the simpler songs I remember, at least instrumental-wise. Drum drum clap. Drum drum clap. Drum drum cl- I fall off beat, the change not being fast enough. I decide to instead make two different ones, one for the drum, one for the clap. I try again and this time it works. I stay away from the guitar solo, because I certainly can¡¯t make that work if I can barely time the change between a drum and a clap¡­ Yeah, I can keep this going as long as I have mana.


    I change to something just a tad more complex and from a whole different genre. I only try the first 8 seconds of it on loop, but after a minute of figuring out exactly what rune to shift into what and when, I manage the beginning of the one eyed skeleton¡¯s theme.


    I smile to myself. Of course this is painfully slow, but it is magic. I can make snippets of music into reality. It¡¯s a small step, but I did it!


    I am spent¡­ Also, I think I focused so much on this that I forgot everything else¡­Oops. I should probably not do that, at least while people are kind of relying on me. I decide to finally visit the humans again, but what I see is kind of worrying. While they are mostly fine, I notice that the beast woman is much thinner than before. Oh damn, she¡¯s been eating only fruits. Those things, while filled with sugars and the like, have basically no protein. And she¡¯s a wall of muscles, and at least half feline¡­ can she even digest fruits as well as everyone else? She ate the bug raw that one time and had no issues¡­ what if she¡¯s an obligate carnivore and was stuck on a sugary diet because she had no other option.


    I told myself I would bring them some meat, but after the forest trip and my time focused on music, I just forgot. She looks at me, and I see her expression of pain. I can even hear her guts churning¡­ She¡¯s hungry and there¡¯s no meat around.


    I returned recently from a hunt, so it will take at least until tomorrow. I doubt there¡¯s any actual animals close to the cave, but it doesn¡¯t matter. I know that at least some big, juicy bugs dare to approach, to feast on the huge fruits. I rush to try and find at least one of them and I am met by two. Well, they are two big bugs that look roughly like beetles. Though while one of them has the earth affinity I am used to, the other has¡­ chitin? It feels like bone, but not really, so I am guessing it¡¯s chitin. Huh, I should have expected they also come in variations. Oh well, one of them I kill easily as it is scuttling on the ground, but the other is a bit more annoying as it is the chitin one, not nearly as tough, but not nearly as heavy, and it is climbing the vines. I cannot just shake it off since it has a good grip and no huge weight holding it down, so I instead throw rocks at it until it falls. It¡¯s easier to pierce with my teeth than the rock one, so at least there¡¯s that.


    I carry both of them back, my mouth just barely fitting them, which lets me run much easier than if I carried them in my tails. Once I reach their room, I am met like before by barely hidden disgust from most people, but at least the feline woman is appreciative as she dives straight into them, eating them from the underside until only the shell remains. She doesn¡¯t look satiated, which makes sense from how big she is, but at least this should help make the wait bearable. She closes her eyes and makes a chuffing sound towards me. I reply by creating the sound rune and somewhat poorly mimicking her. She looks surprised, which is a bit funny, though the most surprising thing is that I see the old woman casting a spell, making runes appear on her face as she looks at me with barely disguised terror. I tilt my head, unsure of why she is so scared.


    I look at her a bit, then decide to leave. guess they really did not like the dead bugs¡­ hope they like mutant wolf or boar¡­

 Interlude 2: The Fool, The Vengeful And The Dragon

    The music stops. Slowly all heads turn towards one particular person. Pairs of eyes, complex amalgams and even eyeless gazes all focus on one being, one young woman with hair like ripe hay, eyes like a clear spring and skin dark like a rich, wet soil. Her expression was one of horror as she watched a faint shimmer fade and fall. The eyes turned to look at the speck, looking on just until it faded fully, having reached the grand marble bellow. For a moment no one spoke.


    That moment was short lived.


    ¡°HOW?!¡± Screamed a voice like the drums of war, echoing in the now silent festive hall. ¡°HOW COULD YOU DROP IT?!¡±


    The entire room began speaking at once, shaken away from their collective shock. Beings of all shapes and sizes began talking with their nearest fellows. There were accusations, insults, even simple jokes, all of those were aimed directly at the young woman. Meanwhile, the woman was on the verge of tears.


    ¡°I-I¡­ It hurt me¡­¡± Her voice was barely a whisper, yet everyone heard it.


    ¡°Impossible!¡± One exclaimed.


    ¡°It was just a soul! One that barely survived the Great Nothing!¡± Another shouted.


    More and more voice accusations came, until one grander than most silenced them with a single tap of a fork against their gilded cup.


    ¡°Inside voices. We might lack walls, but still, it is quite rude to shout.¡± That alone calmed almost everyone. The one with voice like drums was the only one to still glare at the young woman who caused all this chaos. ¡°Ahem. Rirshka? Dear. Could you please tell us how you ended up dropping a soul that made the trip across the Great Nothing by itself?¡±


    For all its kind tone, the voice made Rirshka tremble and look down. ¡°I.. I don¡¯t¡­¡± She stopped, took a deep breath, then thought back to it all.


    She had found it before the banquet. A lone, tiny sphere of power engraved with golden words that held so much knowledge it took her minutes to read even a single symbol. She took it, laughing to herself at her great discovery and brought it in to show everyone. Some congratulated her, some cursed under their breath, though it was Rahena, her sister, that was most excited¡­ Right until she felt the soul vibrate, heat up and zap her like a small ball of lightning. It had hurt her. Nothing had hurt her in millenia. Looking down at her fingers, she still had a mark like a burnt fingertip and looking towards her sister she can only see anger.


    She managed to collect herself enough to state all of this, and yet she was still met with people not even believing her. Even the one above most seemed a bit unsure about her explanation. That was until someone else spoke for the first time since this whole party started. Someone who just about never talked.


    ¡°It was whole.¡± Heads turned, gasps of surprise were barely hidden. ¡°It was a soul that remained whole despite its trip. It wasn¡¯t protected by one of us, and yet it survived. It was not even dormant, it was awake, aware, and it perceived you..¡± A gnarled, twisted thing that resembled a finger points towards Rirshka. ¡°..as a threat. It fought back, just as a pure soul does.¡±


    ¡°Souls don¡¯t fight, Harvester.¡± Scoffed a being of brilliant, golden light.


    ¡°False souls like the ones you make, don¡¯t. True souls? Souls born from the True God¡¯s gardens, not cobbled together from a spit of divine essence and mana? Those can fight. Those remember all. Why else do you think we call upon them to be our divine champions? Ah, but you have yet to call one, yes, that is why you do not know how dangerous they are¡­¡±


    At that the one that silenced them before seemed to realize. It realized that the soul that escaped and fell upon the world is not just one of a champion¡­


    ¡°Rirshka¡­¡± It spoke, slowly, a second voice seeming to overlap with the first. ¡°Did you, or did you not turn it into your chosen before you dropped it. Did you, or did you not lock away its knowledge?¡±


    Rirshka, Goddess of Fertility and Harvest, turned pale as the whitest marble as she slowly shook her head. This was it. Not only had she ruined her chance at a free champion to spread her name ever farther, to be her and her sister¡¯s tool to gain even more standing and mold their land in their vision.


    She has unleashed something grander than any god of this world can make¡­ And now she will be shattered for her carelessness.


    ¡°Well, it shouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem.¡± The Harvester, not a god of harvest, but THE Harvester, spoke. ¡°After all, it fell in that barren rock you call a continent.¡± He laughed and shook the thing that might be mistaken for a hand if one were to not look too closely. ¡°There¡¯s barely any mana to make whatever knowledge it has reality, and the chance that it fell into the flesh of a high enough infant noble is next to nothing, It¡¯ll end up a peasant, waste away with wishes of grandeur and fall right back into your hand, it will just take a century at most! Unless it ends up born as a beast and loses its mind entirely, you¡¯ll have your champion.¡±


    Slowly the atmosphere becomes lighter. Gods joke at the expense of that fallen soul, for it was unlucky enough to slip into the spot in the world with the least ambient mana. For what, indeed, were the chances that it would end up in a situation where it has access to magic when so very few even start on the path in that backwater continent?


    Only the one above most seemed unsettled, and it made that known only to Rirshka.


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    ¡°While The Harvester speaks true and I cannot simply order you, I do still recommend sending an oracle to your faithful to keep an eye out for unusual kids or magical beasts. There¡¯s a reason we wipe away most proper knowledge of the world champions come from.¡±


    Of course the Goddess nodded her head, then kept it low. After all, how could she defy a deity so much grander than herself? How could she defy the red sun that was here before grains even rose from the earth?


    <hr>


    A knock on the door startles the Duke awake. He barely shakes his head and looks down at the book he was reading. A book he found absolutely repulsive, partly because of the content, but partly because of how much he expended in order to be able to read it, only for it to be absolutely worthless.


    Such useless details¡­ pink scaled grucarms become fertile every half month and end their pregnancies three days earlier than their brown scaled brethren. Somehow the author managed to figure this out, yet couldn¡¯t even describe what a grucarm even looks like! Pink scales, brown scales, it could be a small lizard, or a distant cousin of the cursed dragons for all this book knows!


    He sighs as a second knock echoes through the study.


    I should order a door from harder wood, or maybe one padded with soft pillows so people wouldn¡¯t be able to disturb me anymore. No, I know I can¡¯t hide away from the news of the world¡­


    ¡°Come in.¡± he said, while clearing his throat and putting the book away. Damn thing required a whole group of scribes to work continuously for a month to translate, yet it was so ultimately useless.


    ¡°Your grace, Arc¡­..Duke Arkros Varkrm. I am company captain Reus, ready to report.¡± A soldier came in, no, a captain, as he said. The mark on his chest said as much. Still, not someone that often brings news. The fact that he reminded the Duke of his demotion did not make him any more endearing.


    ¡°Make this quick, I have duties to attend to.¡± A single spark coming from the tap of his finger against the wooden desk is enough to make the man stutter and speak quickly.


    ¡°Y-yes! A traveling merchant came into the city, looking for slaves, specifically eastern slaves from the tribes!¡± Before he could continue, he was interrupted.


    ¡°And why, pray tell, are you bothering me with the shopping list of a passing merchant?! Has my standing fallen so low that you would come to me to report a mundane purchase?!¡± By this point the sparks became yellow flames that danced over Arkros'' hand, from one ring to another, the red crystals shining with power.


    ¡°N-no Sir! It is not about the purchase, it is about why the purchase is needed! It¡¯s a merchant from Tranquil River! The Mistress came and demanded a sacrifice so suddenly, and she claimed that their prepared sacrifice wasn''t up to par, so they had to give up their eastern slave!¡±


    One could hear the mana shift in the coming silence.


    The Mistress of Tranquil Waters. One of those cursed beasts that came in, took a chunk of the empire¡¯s border for herself, rebuffed the attempt of the local lord at pushing her away, and remained there for the past few centuries.


    That same cursed beast that brought about the Duke''s fall.


    The abomination that still holds his family¡¯s treasured sword somewhere in her endless hoard.


    ¡°When was the last time she took tribute.¡± His voice was steeled just enough to not let his full anger seep through, but by the pale face of the captain, it was clear the Duke wasn''t holding back as much as he hoped.


    ¡°Ah, ten years ago¡­ Sir.¡± He turns around, looking out of the window at the sprawling town below the castle.


    ¡°And she usually does so every 30 to 50 years, yes? What changed?¡± The man nods, something the Duke see in the faint reflection. He knows he can¡¯t keep the hate from showing in his expression, so he does not turn around.


    The man thinks for a moment, then a moment longer, then shakes his head. ¡°I am not certain, Your Grace.¡±


    Finally, Duke Arkros Varkrm, once Archduke of the empire, fails to keep the inferno in. He turns around and flames spread all around. Thankfully his library was made to resist this much heat. The man, however? He barely escaped becoming a corpse.


    ¡°THEN FIND OUT! Send the word, I want every possible explanation written down, studied and tested. That monster has remained the same for longer than most nobles have been alive and I want to know what could have possibly changed!¡±


    I want to know if I can finally make that husk of an emperor to move out the army against that pest and eradicate it once and for all.


    Of course he does not say the second part out loud, despite every soldier and servant knowing it true.


    After all, I won¡¯t be able to reclaim my family¡¯s standing until I have that creature¡¯s head mounted on the highest tower of my home.


    <hr>


    There is nothing left to burn. There is nothing left to scorch.


    Once there was a village. Once there were people. Or maybe they weren¡¯t a village, just a group of similarly shaped animals. What was really the difference? What made one more valuable than the other?


    Neither was a Dragon after all. Neither was the peak of creation. Neither deserved to be given any consideration. For what good were a million ants when a sole Dragon can build more, destroy faster, travel farther and turn the very world into its plaything?


    Anything the other meat things can do, a Dragon does better, so why would they be allowed to claim land that a Dragon could use?


    Why would they be allowed to use this crystal when The Outstretched Thunderous Scorching Hand can use it for higher purposes?


    His long tail digs deep furrows into the earth as his arms tap around, trying to find it. His three tongues flick into the air, tasting the mana, following the current.


    He found it. So he digs. Or rather, he swims through the ground that gives way to his heat. His arms rip open a wound in the stone as he passes through, right until he finds the last bastion of the little¡­ What are these things anyways? Goats? Cave goats? He could go for some mutton¡­


    Instead of scorching these last few alive, he extinguishes his flames. They look startled, but still they channel the large crystal¡¯s power. This one¡¯s alive, an elemental will be born from it a few centuries from now¡­ Oh well. It is not like those uptight things deserve to exist either. They have the absolute power that Dragons have, yet they are so boring they never do anything with it¡­ Ah, where was he? Right, he was hungry.


    A man, a woman, a child, a spear, a few more, whatever was left, whatever wasn¡¯t already scorched or destroyed by lightning, all that had remained from his first rampage now found itself in the stomach of the dragon, melting away into mana. For what were these things if not tiny sacks of mana waiting to be consumed?


    Now that there weren¡¯t bugs crawling on his prize, he took the living crystal and spread his wings. His heat might melt away stone, but a crystal this big was not even touched by his flames, instead consuming them for power.


    He was now flying through the clouds, fire and lightning heralding his approach. As he carried the large, living, earth mana crystal, he wondered¡­


    Maybe it was time to visit The Mistress of Tranquil Waters.

 Chapter 17: Free To Enjoy Some BBQ

    It is the following day and I feel refreshed. I managed to sleep well, by which I mean I spent my time in the library slowly marking down all the useful patterns of the sound rune. I had to take things slow, else I¡¯d risk being startled awake by the ensuing headache that messing with my treasure trove of knowledge causes me, but I still managed. Now I get to practice just a bit more before I hear mother coming. I am still wary in case she tries to take us someplace else again, but so far she¡¯s been good.


    A short flight later and we are at the lake, where two ragged looking boars with bone spikes growing out of their skulls look just about ready to bolt. I notice mother submerging herself, only her head still out, like she usually does to let the animals calm down just a bit, then I prepare for the fight. I need to claim at least one of them, so I go ahead of my siblings. My target turns, squeals, and charges. I know boars are some crazy things, ready to kill themselves if only to make sure their aggressor is dead too. Thankfully I am not a simple aggressor.


    I¡¯ve been overthinking things when I tried to mimic my sibling¡¯s defense. It was the one thing I wasn¡¯t able to do while they could. Sure my toughness was improved by mana naturally and a bit of it was lost with each hit, but I wasn¡¯t ever able to take a deadly hit and just ignore it. Bunnies, wolves, even deer would be able to hurt me, mildly, and I wouldn¡¯t be able to use that block ability.


    But I was dumb about it. My siblings aren¡¯t geniuses, they¡¯re slightly smarter animals at this point in time. They are led mainly by instinct, which means I should be able to do this instinctually. That¡¯s still not exactly enough to make sense of it by myself. However I realized, just about when Spots got so drained that he was incredibly easy to wound, that the mana used for the rebuke is from within the scales and body, rather than from the lungs. So, it is mana that cannot really be controlled in the first place.


    Which is why I am charging headfirst into a deadly situation without being afraid. Spots survived two goring attacks without a care. I can more than survive one now that I figured out how to overcharge my body with mana. I know the block will happen, because this is my mana and it¡¯s job is to empower and protect me. So as I let the beast hit my side, I look with glee as a rainbow of energy explodes from my body. Note to self, have enough mana in you and instead of just stopping a beast, you¡¯ll end up hurting it.


    It was like the boar hit a wall of solid steel, the bones and tusks growing out of its face exploded into splinters and its face became bloody. Of course, it still stood. Boars are just built different after all, but this one¡¯s too stunned to move as I bite it¡¯s face and let lightning melt its brain. The other boar squeals and tries to run at me but my siblings leap at it and slowly kill it, bite by bite, flame by flame.


    Really, I was merciful compared to them. Unlike them I don¡¯t start eating, instead I sit on the corpse, spreading my body to cover most of it, then just sit like that, eyeing them to make sure they don¡¯t try to sneak it. Already they will half respect my right to it since I took the beast down alone, but they might still try to get a bite if they are not full. I know I am feeling plenty hungry right now, but it is a fake feeling. it¡¯s not the hunger of a living being, it is the hunger of a gluttonous creature. I ate yesterday, I can survive much longer than this without food.


    This continues for a while, until mother cranes her large neck and pokes me with her snout, reminding me how small I still am. She seems¡­ I don¡¯t know? Curious? Worried? Annoyed at me and my antics? Either might be possible but it¡¯s not like I care much. I am a difficult child and she¡¯ll just have to live with that.


    My siblings finish their meal, drink a bit of water from mother¡¯s lake, then play a bit before falling asleep. I am of course still guarding the boar. Mother decides to collect them and when she gets to me I make sure to dig my claws in, making her lift the boar too. Huh, didn¡¯t think I have this much strength in just my limbs¡­ Ah, right, mana. Still got a lot more than my siblings packed in my cells. She shakes a bit, then noticing that I am still holding unto the thing for dear life, lets out a raspy sigh and takes off.


    Once back on the pile of gold, now with a huge boar as a plushy, mother leaves and I begin my very slow walk. I am biting into the boar¡¯s face, dragging it on the cave floor all the way to the humans. It is painfully slow, but I worry that I will end up ruining the carcass if I move too fast, or I might even injure myself if I am not strong enough, so I decide to err on the side of caution.


    Once I finally reach them, I am met by sounds of surprise, or at least that¡¯s my best guess. Most of them are too stunned to react properly, but at least the beast woman is pretty quick to enjoy a boon, so she approaches and starts biting into it. I realize quickly that she¡¯s having trouble however, as it seems the fur and skin of the beast is a bit to hard for her fangs. Either she¡¯s severely weakened or the animal was tougher than I thought. I remember that she¡¯s the main reason why I decided to bring in extra meat, so I help her by ripping its chest, through the hardened rib cage and all the way to the core. I take it out and drop it in front of the woman who instantly devours it. Well, there¡¯s clearly crystals in there but I am guessing she can eat them all the same. Maybe they¡¯re useful even for people that don¡¯t have a whole furnace in their gut.


    I turn to look at the others but they seem¡­ not happy? The girl with the burnt arm steps forward, tries, with great effort, to rip a strip of meat way, and when she managed to get a small chunk out, she uses her magic to set it on fire? Ah shit, cooking, I forgot humans do that. To be fair the beast woman had absolutely no problem eating flesh raw, but the others might not have her constitution¡­ Also they can¡¯t just rip the tough flesh from a mutant¡­ Alright, time to do the opposite of a dumpster dive and try to find simple tools in a pile of riches.


    I leave, after licking myself clean of blood since I don¡¯t want to make too much of a mess, then I start looking around through the miscellaneous items we have. So, need at least a good knife and a grill. Or maybe some skewers? Bah, whatever, just something to hold the meat so it can cook even partially.


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    Sadly for me, there¡¯s only one sharp thing in the entirety of our hoard: the fancy sword. It¡¯s clearly magical in some way, since it has runes inscribed in gold on it, and it is sharp enough to easily cut through my scales (I couldn¡¯t help but try it), so it should work. Thankfully, as I drag it with my tails, I realize it is quite.. well, not light, but it isn¡¯t heavy. I was half afraid that weapons in this world would follow the fantasy trope of putting a slab of lead into a long, sharp shape, and calling it a weapon.


    So, a bit unwieldy and overkill for a kitchen knife, but at least it will function. As for the grill? I got nothing. Most of what we have is coins, with a few random valuable items strewn about. Sadly nobody decided to make a grill, a pan, or even skewers out of gold or silver, so they¡¯re not here. Plan B then. I go through the tunnel and stop just enough to drop the sword with them. Of course I hear gasps, but I don¡¯t sit around to look at their surprised faces, I got some wood to collect. I run all the way out of the cave and straight into the woods close to the entrance. I don¡¯t even need to look far to find some fallen branches, which I quickly toss to my tails, which I curl up to form a sort of basket.


    A few dry branches later, and even a couple live ones that are just close enough to the ground for me to rip off, and I am running back. As I get close to the human room, I hear mother landing at the entrance.


    What? Why? She doesn¡¯t just come twice in a single day, not normally. So why?


    I get my answer as I pass through the vines and see the beast woman and assassin lady out of their cuffs. Huh. They don¡¯t look shattered, they look cut¡­ You know, I should have realized that a magic sword can cut through magic chains. My bad. Currently the one with the sword is the beast woman, who is just cutting up the meat? No trying to escape, no threatening to attack my siblings with it, just cutting up meat from the boar.


    She turns to me and makes that chuffing sound, which I repeat back, almost by instinct, with the sound rune that forms and disperses in moments. Alright, I¡¯m getting better at that. Well, while mother stomps her way in, I drop the sticks and see her get the idea, as she starts sharpening the tougher looking branches. The old lady seems to have made a firepit by arranging rocks in the middle of the room, and the girl is now going through the drier bits of wood, probably to try and find the ones best used for a fire.


    The beast woman is the first to pick up on the fact that mother is approaching¡­ but that¡¯s still slower than I expected. Guess I just knew even before I actually heard her¡­ Oh well, mother reaches us swiftly and peeks her many eyes into the room. She¡¯s not happy. She reached for me, making very uncomfortable eye contact as I was being lifted into the air, then she put me down and pushed me towards the nest. As I turn around she lets out a strong breath which peppers me with droplets of cold water.


    I lay flat and look at her. She looks back. We keep eye contact until she seems to give up. She then sighs, turns to look at the humans and her communication rune forms into existence. This is worse than those ¡°4d¡± shape simulations. There¡¯s so many intricate parts, so many that shine in different colors, and even in different shades. I focus so much on trying to print it into my memory that I realize it vanishes and I didn¡¯t hear what was said. Even with all this concentration I was barely able to memorize a quarter of it and I feel blood dripping down my nose. Mother turns to me in surprise and starts healing me, though it seems to just barely calm down the pain, rather than make everything better. Can somehow fix broken bones, can¡¯t fix a headache, magic is weird.


    Well, this time I can¡¯t fight it, mother takes me back and I don¡¯t really have the strength to fight back. Damn¡­I  didn¡¯t even manage to check if the others are alright..


    Whatever¡­ Too tired to think. I close my eyes and I am gone, once more stuck in my library, looking at the incomplete rune. I mean, hey, I managed to draw at least this much. Considering I am trying to make a mental drawing of what¡¯s effectively an ever shifting, mind breaking,  advanced geometrical simulation, run entirely on magic, I should be happy that I managed this in the few minutes I was allowed to look at it, but it still feels kind of bad to only have a fragment of such a useful tool.


    Then again, looking at it now, I realize that there¡¯s too many different mana types in this, and the form it needs to take and the way it has to flow¡­ I don¡¯t think I have the ability to make this thing even if I knew it in its entirety. Yeah, all the more reason to hurry up and grow, huh.


    I open my eyes, as suddenly as ever, and stretch after a rather long sleep. That¡¯s weird¡­ it feels like I was away longer than normal, by a decent margin. Did I sleep away days? Possibly. I should¡¯ve kept up the careful use of the memorization power I have. This is the kind of harm I get from just a minute or two of intense use, I can imagine it¡¯ll only be worse if I were to try to use it for longer.


    I shake my head, and focus on filling myself with mana, for the day ahead. After about two hours, I feel decently full, but not bloated, and start looking around. Most items are where they¡¯re supposed to, the mirror shows that my scales are glossy like they were recently polished, and my siblings are play fighting more intensely than ever. I decide to go look at how the humans are doing and I find them better than ever. The young girl is speaking with the poisonous woman about¡­ something? Is she getting magic lessons? It looks like she¡¯s being much more careful with her fire, so maybe? The beast woman is positively thriving though. She seems just a bit bulkier, her spots of fur a lot more glossy, and even the bone and tooth spikes seem to be shinier and sharper. Guessing she fixed them up with a bit of the mana she had. Ah, she¡¯s now actually using the crystals, as is the poison woman.


    I am met with strained smiles, but my focus isn¡¯t exactly on the people now. There¡¯s still a few bones left of the boar, which I think the beast woman is using either for her magic, or as food, but I do not see the sword. It wasn¡¯t in our piles either¡­ Did mother take it away? Well, it was a weapon mainly meant for humans, that can cut through anti-magic chains and especially dragon scales. Nasty thing, now that I think about it¡­


    She did leave behind an ornate dagger though, which I am guessing was used by everyone to cut up the meat. I can also see some lightly charred skewers made of wood. So at least they weren¡¯t forced back into those chains and they still got to eat¡­ Mother¡¯s being awfully kind.


    Ah, there she comes. She picks me up on the way, and then takes my siblings. We fly, and fly¡­ and fly even further¡­


    Mother, that¡¯s not the lake. Oh damn¡­ She¡¯s going even further away than when she dropped us off at the forest. Ah rolling plains and hills. Exactly what the doctor prescribed¡­


    Mother, why do you have to drop the ball the second I start liking you?

 Chapter 18: Make School Fun Again!

    Well this flight is at least interesting. My eyes are slightly better than before (that¡¯s faster than I expected), so I get to see a tad more detail, though I still can¡¯t make out much more than what kind of trees we¡¯re going above. I look with a growing pit in my stomach as we pass by the lake, above the forest, yet it doesn¡¯t seem like mother is planning on stopping. We instead keep on going over the sea of green, making me sigh. Who knows what she has planned this time around? Another life or death situation?


    It takes a few minutes but something draws my attention. In the distance, the tall trees end abruptly, making way for hills and fields. There I notice a rather large thing¡­ an unnatural thing. Once again, my eyes suck at such distances, and we are starting to drift away from that place, but for a moment I manage to notice exactly what it is.


    An actual town, a place where people live. A place where humans live¡­ and maybe where mother got everyone from¡­ I look at it, somewhat taken by the beauty. Large fields painted different colors are mainly arrayed around the river which passes straight through the heart of the town. If I strain even more I think I can see the many large bridges built over it, connecting the two sides. I also notice that the bigger houses with the largest courtyards are closer to the river and things get smaller and simpler the farther out you go. Guessing mother¡¯s river is pretty important for them, probably because of the mana infused in it.


    The place is also a lot more protected than I am used to seeing, as there¡¯s a wall surrounding it. If only I could see a bit more detail I¡¯d probably notice people or something, but instead I am forced to turn as it gets too blurry for me to see anything anymore. My eyes burn from the strain, so that¡¯s mildly annoying.


    Let¡¯s see¡­ where exactly are you taking us..?


    <hr>


    Gods this took forever. We went over the forest to¡­ another forest. Or maybe it¡¯s just a deeper part of the same one. The trees are larger, probably older, definitively weirder, and I start actually seeing mana, or at least I think I do. We eventually start going down and I notice a clearing with a giant pillar in the middle of it.


    We land and as mother puts us down I look at the tall pillar of rainbow crystal, with swirls of color, patterns that turn to chaos, even its form is strange as its base looks like cubes, similar to pyrite formations, yet as you move up it turns into different shapes, straight lines, I think I even see a few crystal flowers at the very top of it. It seems to have no clear pattern, no clear look... It also looks like someone took it and impaled it into the ground, making it share its mana with the world around, since it looks so out of place. The plants surrounding the pillar are absolutely strange, taking in absurd shapes, sizes, and even colors. I see one of them having rainbow leaves, yet somehow still living.


    Finally I decide that I need to see what kind of mana this thing has.. I take in a deep breath and I feel everything, but a different shade of everything.


    Back in the cave, the mana mostly smelled like ¡°everything and nothing with a pinch of dirt¡±, and in that case it felt like everything was neutralizing everything else. Here, it is different. It is like everything is exciting everything else, nothing managing to cancel other things, and as a result I am assaulted by an explosion of stimuli that might just fry my brain. I see everything. From the deepest seas to the tallest mountains, molten rives, thick, toxic mists, I see the stars and the moons, I see all forms of rocks and crystals, I see beasts so diverse I cannot even name them all and I see¡­ nothing.


    I am back and I forgot. I saw a lot but I forgot most of it, my brain simply couldn¡¯t memorize it all. I look on at my siblings and they have a similarly confused reaction, looking a bit drunk as they waddle around, Spots even hits his head on a plant as he seems to forget how to see.


    Dangerous thing¡­


    Now, why did mother bring us here? I turn to her and I see her waiting to have everyone¡¯s attention. When she does, by rumbling to make the others look at her, she starts weaving the mana. I see the mist as it separates from the crystal, is split apart until only a sliver remains, then she uses that to make a light rune. It is fully functional and she even turns it into a rainbow gradient. Alright, that¡¯s nice, but what¡¯s with¡­ She then weaves a second rune and makes the two occupy the same space. They seem to combine in a way, the mana moving between the two, and suddenly the source of light turns into a spotlight.


    Huh¡­ When I was messing with the light rune I kept trying to find a way to make it go into a certain direction, it seems all I needed was to add a completely different rune to the mix¡­ Great. At least it is a simple thing instead of some complex abomination.


    I do not get to properly memorize it, as mother breaks it apart and instead makes a rune I have not seen her use before. It makes a floating flame. She adds another rune to it, it becomes a flamethrower that just barely doesn¡¯t reach the vegetation. She makes a few other examples but none slow enough for me to properly memorize any of the runes¡­


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    Alright, I get her point. She¡¯s not using her own mana for these runes, she¡¯s using the mana from the crystal. That means that the crystal has just about every mana you can think of, and it¡¯s a giant pillar, meaning it has a lot of it. I actually look on at my siblings as they try to mimic her. They did try to make light runes and the like when I was playing with the concept, but they failed, which makes sense since it wasn¡¯t an easy thing to accomplish. However, it seems that seeing it done at a larger scale, but a much more competent dragon, gave them some insight or something of the sort since it takes them a couple minutes to just make a light rune.


    Huh. Guess I¡¯m a shit teacher, even though I didn¡¯t even try to teach them. Either way, I get to work. I can feel the mass of chaotic mana just wanting to do something, anything, and I first try to separate light mana, then air mana, and finally sound mana. Turns out it does, in fact, have sound mana, so I use that for the rune. The other mana types try to butt in and mess a bit with the sound I do make, somehow distorting it just by existing, yet I am somewhat able to make things work.


    Actually¡­


    A bad, bad thought pops up in my mind. Technically I could try the weird version of the sound rune and see what happens, right? I mean it was made from a weird mix of mana, so maybe this thing will let me use it?


    I try it. I weave the mana and make the rune again, this time using all sorts of mana, with no filtering. It¡­ seems to work? It¡¯s a lot more unstable than before, and it does absolutely nothing, but it is there and it is shining.


    I try to mess around with its appearance, but it refuses.


    Wha?


    The mana straight up refuses to move and I am confused. I made it work, and I can stop it, but I cannot mess with the shape of it? Plus, it isn¡¯t making sounds, despite last time doing a whole melody that I didn¡¯t even know beforehand¡­ Alright you weird little bugger, how do you work..?


    I think back to when I had used it, and all I can remember is feeling what should be and making it manifest. Right now there¡¯s no song happening, but if it¡¯s just based on what feels right to my mind, shouldn¡¯t I be able to play a song outright if I focus?


    I try just that, first thinking about just using any song that comes to mind, but with mother here I decide to go for something else. I use the beast woman¡¯s voice. I remember her singing, even though I didn¡¯t understand it, it was too beautiful to forget, so I think back to it. Suddenly I feel like somebody splattered rainbow paint all over my eyes because the world looks wrong as I hear her singing, accompanied by the whole chorus that I made last time. My siblings startle for a moment then turn to me, but I can¡¯t move. I didn¡¯t want to make the whole song, only her singing, but the rune plays regardless. It takes a few minutes for it to end and for me to be able and move again¡­


    That was¡­ weird¡­.


    <hr>


    After a few hours (actually it was most of the day, but it only felt like a few hours) where we played around with runes, mother decided to bring us back home, skipping the meal entirely. Guess no fighting today¡­ Honestly it¡¯s better like that. I still have to arrange my thoughts about this song rune¡­


    So I got two versions, one that functions in a very mechanized manner, where I need to try hard to even make the simplest beat function, and another that just rips songs straight out of my mind, but requires a very specific kind of mana that our nest doesn¡¯t imitate. I tried to make it again when we got here, but it wouldn¡¯t even keep its shape¡­ it was like that combination of mana types was a mana type in and of itself¡­ I wish I could try more but I am certain I am already stretching the limit of what seems feasible for a child, so I will just shut up and let it be for when I can go there by myself.


    For now I need to try and learn more at a somewhat normal rate. Genius but not ¡°why does he know things nobody taught him¡± kind of genius. I wanted at first to be more normal, but now I realize that trying to ¡°lay low¡± while being a god damned dragon is a stupid idea in the first place.


    <hr>


    It is the following day and mother picks us up again, takes us to the Chaos Pillar (might as well give it a cool name) and showcases the earth rune, using it to move around a tiny stone. This time she actually lets us see it long enough for me to memorize it and all its absurd complexity, and I get to work putting it in practice. I manage to get it first, of course, but my siblings are no slouches and they start throwing pebbles around with their minds without care. One thing I notice is that their rocks are wobbly, and I think their aim is off. When I try to lift one, at first it doesn¡¯t work at all, but the second I apply even a bit of my many years of physics into the visualization, the mana just does as it is told. This rune is strange, since it doesn¡¯t seem to make something, like how the sound rune make sound, and trying to influence the rune itself is borderline impossible, but thinking about moving the rock and how to move it, will make the rune shift appropriately to follow my thoughts.


    <hr>


    A few hours of just moving bigger and bigger rocks and mother gives us a meal, finally. She took off for a moment, but then came back with a few mutated animals wrapped in vines. Now that I think about it, this might be where she gets them¡­ interesting.


    Either way, we eat and then swiftly leave, with mother refusing to pick me up until I ate at least half of a deer, and then she got the other half to bring back, knowing exactly where I was planning to take it.


    <hr>


    Next day, same deal. Turns out we¡¯re starting dragon school, and apparently magic comes before we even learn how to talk. Ain¡¯t that wild? One thing I do notice however is that mother isn¡¯t using her words this time around. Up until now she¡¯s been using words that literally shake the world, yet for these she just makes them. Interesting¡­ Also, we''re still on the earth rune, but mother does show me the fire rune after seeing how quickly I grasped moving stones around. Never thought I¡¯d actually be eager about going to school again, but I am loving this! Two runes are already added to my repertoire, and more are on the way!


    I do wonder why mother brings us here instead of just doing all this in the cave... Oh well, she probably knows better.

 Chapter 19: Dragons Are Shitty Ambush Predators (Kid Ones At Least)

    Branches and leaves creak, wind rushes by and the scent of living meat fills the air. It¡¯s easy, you know? It took a bit to figure out all the inputs and what they mean, but now it¡¯s oh so easy to follow my nose. I leap, spread my wings, then collapse them again as I sink my claws into bark, leaving deep cuts in it, the wood groaning under my weight ever so slightly, but it holds strong still.


    It¡¯s been a few months, I think, and it seems that autumn exists here. Basically any tree not close to a pocket of magic is already naked, no evergreen to see anywhere around despite the small mountain our cave is in. Ah, I am losing focus.


    I jump again and again, scaring away crows while trying to get into position. I get to a good spot and hunker down, my head aimed down as I hug the old tree I am currently on. My tails, now fully split, wrap around it for extra grip. I still have some time, so I make sure to not stand out too much with my bright blue scales. I close my eyes and with difficulty I speak, pushing out earth mana infused air.


    ¡°Terobe-¡±


    I fail, getting a coughing fit instead, as I thought I would. My body still trembles from speaking a single word in draconic (seriously, what else should I call the magic dragon language?) and while it helps me with doing the basic magic even quicker than I could before, it is a pain in the ass when trying to use it for more complex things. Mother has been teaching us both magic and words, but it seems that just speaking consumes mana because of the way language works. As I said before, mother¡¯s chants are basically only three syllables long, and it turns out it¡¯s not because of the spell chants themselves, but because words are absurdly broad in dragon tongue. There¡¯s a word for fire, which is used for any sort of flame and even any form of heat or warming up. Then there¡¯s a word for nature¡­ which is used for any plant life. So wood that is burning would be nature fire, ¡°warm leaves¡± would be, nature fire and setting fire to a tree would be¡­ no, idiot, it would be fire nature. Just kidding, the order doesn¡¯t even matter. It¡¯s stupid and nobody would understand anything, right? But after learning the words I was able to understand what mother means when she uses them. That¡¯s the magic.


    It costs a decent chunk of mana, and takes some decent control whenever I use one of these words because apparently dragons just speak in .rar archives, to the point where even body language can be translated magically. Ah, right, back to the spell. It collapsed because I failed, so I try to build it up instead.


    ¡°Ter.¡±


    The rune of earth manifests in front of me, a simple thing, really, especially now that I understand where complexity comes from. Next I weave a second, different rune. Just like mother turned a light source into a beam of light, I turn the rune that lets me move chunks of earth around into something much more wieldy and fluid. From below me I see pieces of dirt rise towards me, then spread thinner and thinner until I am left with a layer that just about fits me. I move it to stick to me, and while a bit of it falls as I dispel the rune, most of it remains and I am now a magical chameleon sticking to a tree.


    It only takes a minute before the stampede reaches me. I look through my sharp eyes in the distance, between the branches, and I see the dust rise and the deer running for their lives, spooked by a predator. Spots is good at that, scaring them in such a way that they all run as far away from him as possible. I look on to the sides and I see my siblings, RT and Crown, as they run by and pick off prey from the sides. No babies to slow them down means that they only catch three, one each with a well landed bite and another from Crown¡¯s liberal use of a boulder. What use is running at 60 km/h when you end up faced with a sudden huge rock at head level?


    My prey however isn¡¯t the mothers or the young ones. Leading the rush is one of two bucks, and I want him because unlike the other this one is pretty damn magical. I can see the earth mana that gave him rocky antlers and a hardened, deep brown coat, move to the front to create a perfect path for them to run. No tripping hazards, no blockages. The rest of the herd is mundane but he¡¯s one of the stronger mutants around, and a perfect meal for me.


    He gets close, directed here by my siblings, and I leap. By the time he notices me it is too late, I am already directly above him, falling with my jaws open. I cannot stop his charge with my weight alone, sadly enough, since I am decently sure the giant with huge rock horns is heavier than me, but the bite to the back of its neck as I fall on its spine is enough to make it lose its stride. He ends up running into a tree and collapsing, throwing both of us to the ground, as the rest of the herd rushes by, going around us.


    I groan and get up, shaking my head and spitting out tooth fragments. I can feel a deep lack of them, but no pain. It¡¯s like sharks, really, the way I will just grow them back even if mother doesn¡¯t heal us. Though she does speed things along so I hope she will fix them. Looking over at the buck, as he tries to get up, I notice a few of my teeth stuck in his skin and fur. Damn thing was so thick it kept them.


    I try to jump at its throat again, but I am met by a swipe of his horns, which hit my scales and explode me backwards. Things are strong, and sharp, they might actually do me in if they puncture my head or even my lungs. And considering that my body¡¯s 30% lungs, I will need to handle that. I take a few deep breaths, then gather my remaining earth mana. I can¡¯t make a strong enough spell quickly enough with this, earth mana is notoriously slow compared to others, but I can do a breath attack.


    Even with these months of learning I have yet to learn something stronger than what I get by just using a proper breath attack, so as the buck rushes me, sharp horns aimed straight at my body, I let it all out.


    For half a second nothing comes out. No cloud of dust, no rain of sharp stones, and the buck is just about ready to impale me, then the breath hits him.


    Those giant weapons of death, that sign of power and superiority that the beast boasted¡­ they¡¯re gone. The stone cracks, then explodes into pebbles, the force sending the beast back on its side. Below the stone there were still the normal horns, which were also injured. I see blood on them, their frailty being a direct cause of the stone protection the beast got used to. I see it let out a horrible, loud yell, and the pebbles start trembling, rolling towards it. Not its first case of vulnerability, it knows how to fix it, but I won¡¯t let it. With the leftover earth mana in the air I weave another simple earth rune, my word echoing between the woods.


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    ¡°TER.¡±


    And the pebbles stop approaching, just shaking as we struggle for control. Before me stands a beast that has controlled earth for years, climbing to a position of power that no other buck around can even challenge. But I¡¯m a dragon, and this world is unfair as shit if you¡¯re not one. While the animal is stuck trying its hardest to pull, I can still move while the rune does most of the hard work with keeping the rocks still. By the time it gives up I am already leaping at its neck, letting electricity flow between my jaws until it hits its body.


    The male keeps struggling still, despite taking voltages that outright killed mutant boars and wolves. It hits me hard with its hooves, it even gets a good stomp on me, but I don¡¯t even need my mana to repel those hits, I need to focus everything in killing it, so I drop the now useless earth rune and instead focus on my breath attack. I gather a more complex combination and visualize what I want it to do, but the buck manages to shake me off with a stomp so strong it forces my innate protection to activate. I roll on the ground as ice, fire and air mana moves through my lungs, towards that important part that shapes my breath attacks.


    We are alone. The other deers escaped, my siblings are too far away, enjoying their meals, and I am standing here, facing a once mighty beast that¡¯s now ragged and bloody, with twitching muscles that would make it impossible to escape at this stage. My vision solidifies as the beast gathers stones on its horns again. They don¡¯t take that sleek, almost sculptured aesthetic they had before, instead they look exactly like a vaguely horn-like pile of stones should be. They won¡¯t hold more than an attack, but it might be enough to hurt me. I won¡¯t let it.


    It charges me and I let out my breath, cold air rushing forward, covering the animal in a layer of frost that just barely slows it down, but just behind the cold is air so hot its already expanding its surroundings, but as it touches the frost on the buck, it doesn¡¯t melt it or warm it up¡­ it explodes straight into steam. The creatures shrieks and almost hits me as it crashes, but I manage to jump to the side, getting extra propulsion from my wings.


    It¡¯s silent. Only heavy breathing and the faint wind still make sound. I approach it, watching its chest rise and fall slower with each passing second. I won. A part of me wants me to just start enjoying my meal, but I first go over to its head, holding a large stone in my tails, and with a simple twirl I bring down the sledgehammer, splattering its head and putting it out of its misery.


    I let out a sigh and then dig into my meal, going for the best part first, the core. After cutting through the meaty part with my claw, I see decently large brown crystals covered in blood and viscera. After cleaning them with my tongue I see just how nice they really are. I came to learn, after studying a few larger cores, why I don¡¯t get the urge to eat the gems from mother¡¯s hoard like I do with these.


    Simply put? These are alive. There¡¯s a spark in them, something¡­ different. I take a tiny bite of the crystal and I let myself delve into my senses. A steady path of dirt, packed together tightly after being beaten into submission by a thousand hooves. I feel the weight of horns that could impale and crush any threat, the very mark of pride that comes from the strength of stone.


    I am back to normal, and I nod to myself as I continue my meal. Yes this is the kind of mana you don¡¯t get from those simple cut gems. There¡¯s a uniqueness to mana, just like how mother¡¯s mana invokes the sight of the overgrown lake, the calmest place I can imagine, while actually being just nature and water mana, this is the same. Apparently every being has a slightly different taste to their mana, and that alone makes it more special. It holds knowledge and power, and by devouring this crystal I get just a bit more of an idea, a bit more control of whatever I absorbed.


    It¡¯s a marginal improvement, but it is an improvement worthy of having dragon kids kill their own prey after a few months of life. The more you wait from killing to eating it, the more of this identity vanishes and the crystals grown in the core become bland again.


    <hr>


    I walk back to mother¡¯s lake, one of the spots that still has greenery and flowers like we¡¯re mid spring, and I lay down in front of our half asleep mother, opening my mouth. She notices the poor state of my teeth and immediately heals me. I can¡¯t use her healing spell yet, but I at least have it memorized after seeing it so many times. Really, I managed to get a good amount of runes for my library, but so many of them feel like trying to do a headstand while threading a needle and playing a piano with my feet.


    Well, so long as mother doesn¡¯t kick us out soon, it¡¯ll be fine. While I learned how to glide (and wasn¡¯t that a fun few hundred faceplants), my siblings are still landlocked, so I fear that when they get to learn proper flying, we¡¯ll be kicked out. After all this time I have yet to see mother being too.. motherly, really. She makes sure we are healed but has stopped providing us easy meals for a while now, making us learn how to actually hunt. At least she has the decency to let us return to high mana concentration places as we please, and she made sure we understand the lay of the land before sending us out, but still¡­


    I sigh and wait for her to take us back to the cave. Sadly I wasn¡¯t able to get more food for the others than one leg of the buck. Its meat was filled with enough mana to recover what I had lost, and then some, so I needed to eat my fill at the time. It should still help, at least a bit¡­


    No, I¡¯ll need to hunt again in the evening. It¡¯s fine, really, after all a great hunter is on my side. Whatever agreement mother came to with the now released women let them keep their freedom, but not leave the cave, at least if I¡¯m not around. If I am there they can go anywhere I accompany them to. It took them a while to make me realize that, but yeah, I¡¯m basically their handler now, despite being months old. Great parenting there, mother, great parenting.


    Regardless of poor choices, that gave me an edge when it came to adapting to hunting. After all the beas- Ayrah.. Her name¡¯s Ayrah and I should stop thinking of her as the beast woman after she went through all that effort to get me to understand her name. She¡¯s a great huntress and while she couldn¡¯t talk logistics, just by mimicking her I¡¯ve been able to handle hunts pretty well, despite having lived in cities most of my human life.


    <hr>


    After the short flight I am once more in the cave, walking with the deer leg in my mouth towards the human room. I enter and I see the grim faces. Really, they seem to have gotten rather close, despite the frictions that existed at first. The young girl and Ayrah take the leg, the girl giving me a grateful bow like she has been doing since I started bringing them meat. While they¡¯re doing that I see what was once a noble assisting the old lady in caring for the child.


    He¡¯s dying.


    I think I saw the old woman pleading with mother once to heal the boy. Mother activated her rune only to say ¡°NO.¡± and that was that. Even after I made sad cries and nudged him she seemed unmoved.


    It makes sense. She¡¯s probably annoyed they¡¯ve been alive for months when they were supposed to be food. Now what was supposed to be a fresh core of ice is so muted that there¡¯s barely a reason to consider it as a meal.


    The boy is sick and will die. There¡¯s no two ways about it.


    It¡¯s sad that they¡¯re wasting their time and energy on a lost cause like this¡­

 Chapter 20: An Apple Wont Solve That

    The suns were hidden by the foliage, really only the small yellow one was still peeking through. That won¡¯t last, it will soon be dark, and if patterns serve, tonight only the red moon will even be up in the sky, probably half lit for most of it. Perfect for predators with good low light sight. Looking at Ayrah and the way her beastly eye shone, it was clear she¡¯ll make do. She might lack binocular vision in the dark, but even one eye is better than none.


    And despite the fact that I have been pointedly pushing my development in a particular way, my eyes are still able to handle low light environments. I freeze as she stops, and then mimic the way she steps slowly over the dead leaves. Without even looking down she somehow knows which are soft and which are crunchy, so I make sure to mimic her steps. I notice quickly what drew her attention. There¡¯s blood in the air, and following its direction I manage to see a fox. There¡¯s a rabbit in its mouth, freshly caught, and it seems to look around a bit, before dashing away towards a safer spot.


    It didn¡¯t see us, neither did Ayrah see it. How did I? I¡¯ve been keeping the image of an eagle¡¯s eye, down to a very vivid anatomical model, and as my body developed it moved towards the ideal of having these sort of eyes. I even lost my slit pupil, while all my siblings still have theirs.


    What I didn¡¯t expect when I did this change was the fact that I won¡¯t get the downsides of these eyes. I can still see in the dark, my pupil just naturally being able to dilate until my eyes are almost fully black, and I seem to have a lot more black white receptors than normal, as well as the reflective layer.


    She shifts to follow my gaze, narrows her eyes, then looks back at me. I just walk in a different direction, not showing interest in the fox. Thankfully she has started trusting my judgment when something is too far for her to properly assess, so we move on. A normal rabbit won¡¯t be enough, and the fox has barely any meat on it. Plus, it¡¯s cute. Well, really all animals that aren¡¯t mutated into abominations are cute, but some are more food than others.


    Where was I? Right, eyes¡­ I seem to have managed to nail the absurd detail and distance that eagles can see to, but I failed, so far, in modifying the visible spectrum. In my defense, I have no idea how this whole thing works. I just kept thinking about the blueprint and most of what I wanted worked. However instead of getting the fourth cone type, I got something possibly even better: mana has color! It¡¯s the same one as the respective crystals, but very washed out. Still it helps me differentiate what mana is around, and what creatures like the buck from before are weaving my way.


    Speaking of, we are interrupted by the echoing, unmistakable scream of a deer. They''re still getting it on¡­ well, blessed be the mating season, because they¡¯re extremely hard to find and even harder to catch when they¡¯re being sneaky. With a good target found, we start following the sound. This is when Ayrah really shows off her skills. My nose and ears are keen but they¡¯re lagging behind compared to my new eyes. She doesn¡¯t have that problem. Unlike me it seems she needs to keep up a spell to get more bestial, but it does turn her into a scary hunter that casually moves crouched to the ground, yet keeping up with me and even taking the lead.


    We reach our prey and the bloodshed begins. Really I barely get to do anything. Before they even manage to break into a sprint Ayrah gets two of them, one by clawing its head off and the other by sinking her teeth in and taking a bite. A male and a female, more than enough meat for a few days, really.  I could get a third but it might spoil before they can eat it, and these ones barely have any mana of their own. It¡¯d be a waste to get them, so I let them go.


    Now, reeking of blood, we take on the walk back to the cave. At least nothing seems to approach us, too scared I¡¯m guessing. I turn my head to the side and hear her speaking to me. She¡¯s been doing this a lot lately. I barely managed to learn a few simple words, mostly from her pointing at something and repeatedly making the same sounds, but I guess it helps her in a way. She gets that I am smarter than an infant has any right to be, but I guess she might think of me as a witty dog. I know I would if I was in her position. She smiles at me, then gazes silently at the moon above.


    I also look up, seeing the stars through the barren branches. They are still oh so beautiful¡­ Eyes that can see all that detail and a world free of light pollution, with only a red half-moon reflecting any meaningful amount of light into our eyes. My eyes dilate and I take in all of it, the brightly dotted sky, the shining clouds of stardust¡­ It is so beautiful and so alien. No constellations fit what I remember. A completely foreign world, a completely foreign sky¡­ Even the markings on the moons are different.


    I miss the old sky a bit¡­ But I move on.


    Ayrah doesn¡¯t. She stops for a bit, wiping her tears, a few quiet sobs following. She¡¯s much more emotional than you¡¯d think from her appearance or demeanor¡­ She¡¯s also been getting worse since the kid got sick. Before it felt like she was thinking about something far in the past, and that was what caused her tears¡­ but now? I am sure that now she¡¯s afraid she¡¯ll get back and see the boy dead.


    I bump her leg with my head and she turns to me, giving me some head rubs. She¡¯s spreading blood on me and I¡¯ll need to wash my scales later, but it feels nice. I let out some happy chirps and she starts walking again, laughing though with a bit of sadness in her tone.


    Can¡¯t expect more than that.


    <hr>


    We are back in the cave, with her and the young woman processing the carcasses. The boy is already worse off¡­ Whatever nature magic the old lady knows, it cannot help him. I think¡­ Is she using some kind of regeneration? Could be¡­ You know, considering how much mana she poured into him you¡¯d think he¡¯d be stabil-


    Oh¡­


    Fuck¡­ No wonder she¡¯s failing despite running herself ragged.


    I approach the boy, surprising the two that were caring for him. His eye is unfocused. He reaches over and pats me, despite being too afraid to even look my way most of the time. With a sigh I push closer, my head pressed against his chest. I can feel the cold, but he¡¯s lower on mana than ever. That¡¯s what tripped me up before. You¡¯d expect a fever, but no, people at risk or with a weak immune system tend to have different symptoms¡­ The raspy breath, the constant cough, the sweating despite being almost freezing to the touch, the confusion, the nausea, everything¡­ the boy¡¯s got pneumonia and I think the old lady has been pumping him full of ¡°regenerate¡± magic. Which might also affect his disease. She¡¯s been speeding up his sickness¡­.


    Damn. He¡¯ll die without treatment and nobody here seems to catch the issue. Hell, even if they knew it¡¯s not like there¡¯s any medicine. I also have no idea if his is from bacteria or viruses or whatnot, and even if I knew there¡¯s no such medicine around. Even if I were to try and obtain antibiotics naturally it would take so much time and resources to set it all up that the boy would be long dead.


    I step back, shaking my head and turning around. The boy reaches over with his one good arm and grabs my tail, then says something. I don¡¯t understand but everyone around me seems to feel even more heartache¡­ I¡­ I am sorry kid, I don¡¯t know what to do, I don¡¯t know how to help you. I wonder for a moment if just killing him now might be a mercy¡­ but I doubt that¡¯d go well with the others.


    I should leave. Let them have their meal in peace. And I do just that by pulling myself free of his weak grasp, walking with my head down towards the entrance. At least I do until I hear sobs again. Ayrah looks at me, and I look back. She knows. She understands that I do not think he¡¯ll survive¡­ This is the one time I dislike the fact that she can read body language.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Turning around I find a sort of macabre amusement at the fact that instead of being sad like her, the others are shocked. must be the first time she broke down with them, huh. Sorry¡­


    She comes and hugs me. I don¡¯t object. Fire girl, with the help of the poison woman, soon continue butchering the carcasses. They¡¯ll skin them, drain their blood, then cut them bit by bit and roast it or make it into a stew in the ornate basin.


    It¡¯s hard to not think about it.


    The kid will die, not even having the chance to live¡­ but this is a more primitive world. It¡¯s common, in the end, for most kids to die young around these times.


    That thought doesn¡¯t make it better.


    Eventually I am free, and I just walk away.


    Sadly, my mind isn¡¯t tired enough to be silent, so it thinks. The boy is suffering from an infection or something of the sort. His body is too weak to fight back, his mana has somehow been draining, the old woman¡¯s magic may have helped the infection¡­ were their magics fighting? Nature and ice, not a good combination, but would that weaken him? How would I even help if I could?


    Antibiotics¡­ is there a way to magic them up? No. There are so many versions and with such complex formations that even if I were to be able and individually control their foundational elements I would have a hard time getting the correct shape. Making them practically? Somehow even harder. Especially with the dexterity of a lizard. Fire? It would warm him up at least¡­ but he could just die from temperature shock if his body is so used to the cold¡­ Is there anything I can even do? Is there even a reason I should care?


    I walk around our room, my siblings fast asleep by now. Riches, trinkets, gems¡­ none of these help. No, why should I even help? I already did so much¡­ I saved them from death, hunted for them, do I need to do even more?


    I let out a squeak, laughing at myself. I helped these people more than I helped just about anyone in my past life¡­ Well, aside from a couple cases, but this is really more than I ever did¡­ is it bad to just relax and let the death pass? It¡¯s just a human¡­


    Plus, I¡¯m not a doctor. Knowing me, even if I managed to make the right medicine, it would end up as poison¡­ Isn¡¯t that a saying? ¡°The dose makes the poison¡±...


    Poison, huh¡­


    If regeneration heals bacteria or viruses¡­ Wouldn¡¯t a poison hurt or kill them?


    For a moment I have a bright smile with just a bit too many teeth. Poison, but that only affects a particular type of organism. That would work, that is literally what antibiotics are, but my cheer was quickly crushed.


    I don¡¯t know the poison rune.


    Even if I did, unlike sound, light or even fire, I cannot test if I tweaked the poison to the right settings, even if I knew the right runes.


    So, back to uselessness. I blink and I find my vision blurry. Am I crying? Over this? Now? I have only cried once in my new life, and the second time I do is because I find myself on the brink of saving a life, only to realize I am useless¡­


    Pathetic.


    Why do I even care this much? All that boy did for me was pat my head while he was delirious.


    But she cried over him.


    That thought makes me pause. It feels like my own, yet just a bit too distant. It¡¯s true though¡­ I don¡¯t really care for the boy more than the fact that he¡¯s innocent in all this¡­ But I care for Ayrah. She¡¯s the only one that actually tried to spend time with me. And she cried for him.


    I curse and think harder. Alright, I know enough to be able and imagine something, but I have no clue how to make it real with the way magic works. Is there any shortcut? Anything I can abuse?


    Yes, there is. There is one magic I have been able to use without having the practical magical knowledge to make it work. The modified music rune. The basic one gives me control over anything, the modified one gives me little forceful control, but it gives me something better. It rips the process from my mind! It takes whatever song I am thinking of and reproduces it. it even did that from a different mind, with Ayrah¡¯s battle song!


    I don¡¯t even really need the rune¡­ I don¡¯t even need a rune!


    I rush away from the nest. I kick up a dust cloud as I exit back into the outside world¡­ then stop.


    What are you going to do? I ask myself.


    Are you going to rush off in the rough direction of the obelisk? Are you going to ignore the many beasts on the way there, especially the mutants that live in the forest around that pillar of rainbow crystal?


    I make a good point. It is dangerous, and I will likely lose my path. It¡¯s dark and I have only gone there flying¡­ it¡¯s also farther away than anything I have traveled towards¡­


    I return, dejected. I eat a fruit on the way back, then visit the humans again. They are draining the animals, which they hanged by some sturdy vines. Ingenious. The old woman is resting. I think she exhausted herself trying to heal the boy.


    I look on at the poisonous woman, and I think that maybe, just maybe she could do what I can¡¯t¡­ but no. She may have an affinity with the magic, and more mana than most others, but I doubt she has understanding of what she¡¯d need to make. If germ theory was a thing, they¡¯d know what the boy has.


    The boy opens his eye and smiles at me. He¡¯s far gone¡­ he won¡¯t make it through the night. Ayrah notices that too because she comes to me and she.. begs? She begs. She begs for his life. She didn¡¯t beg for her own life when mother stood in front of them, telling them to die. But she begs me.


    I can¡¯t say no.


    He¡¯ll die soon. If I don¡¯t do anything, he will die. If I do something and fuck up, he will die¡­ This is¡­ not really the trolley problem, but in a way it is. Do nothing and someone may die, or do something and now you are directly responsible if that person dies.


    Fuck she has some powerful pleading eyes¡­ Fine.


    I go over and take the poison crystals. Good thing I brought a second pair once she got untied. One might not have been enough. I sit there, clutching the gems to my nose, breathing in poison mana. I think that confuses people, but I stop focusing on them.


    I need to think, no, I need to feel this. This sort of magic that uses mixes of mana¡­ it feels different from the normal kind.  It takes into account my emotions, I think. I was taken over by emotion when I spontaneously made the music rune, after all. Which is why I try hard to focus. I don¡¯t want a strong poison, I want a targeted one. I want it to kill the tiniest organisms around, I want it to absolutely decimate them without hurting any of the boy¡¯s cells. This isn¡¯t an attack, this isn¡¯t harm, this is healing.


    This is poison¡¯s version of healing, so I need it to be safe¡­ I need the kid to make it through¡­ He¡¯s just a child in a horrible situation and he deserves to make it through one more night¡­ Ayrah deserves to have someone she seemingly cares about, survive one more night.


    One more night.


    And hopefully another after.


    That is what I need, I need a spell that will give this boy one more night¡­ So why is nothing coming out? No rune, no nothing. Not even the simple ones are appearing¡­ it¡¯s just nothing. I blink away tears and keep focusing on the mana. I need it to be more lively, more chaotic. I need each fragment of it to understand. I want to save this boy, I need help to save the boy, so give me something¡­ anything!


    My eyes shot open. I feel it. I got it. Deep in my chest I get the feeling, the understanding, I know what I need to do but I am afraid. Will they understand? Probably not. Am I even doing this right? Probably not¡­ Am I really going to entrust my instincts with this¡­ those instincts that tell me to use my best weapon in order to heal?


    I open my mouth and a rainbow tinted cloud follows my exhale, shooting towards the boy, who inevitably breathes it in. Alarms ring out. The old woman shouts angrily, the one that knows poison tries and fails to dispel the cloud, the girl has fire dancing on her fingertips, unsure of what to do, but the one to actually make a move is Ayrah, who roars and shuts everyone up. I look at her and she has a hardened expression.


    She is afraid. She trusts me but doesn¡¯t know if it is right. The noble woman says something in a pointed tone, probably mentioning that this is poison I am using.


    But it doesn¡¯t matter, it¡¯s too late. The boy had enough deep breaths of it to take in most of the cloud. Now it¡¯s time to wait.


    Pity I couldn¡¯t. My entire mana reserves were gone and I was already in my library¡­ Guess all I need to do is wake up in order to see if I succeeded or I killed a boy¡­


    I am afraid.

 Interlude 3: Mistakes Of The Mother

    It was the beginning¡­ It all started going wrong from the very beginning¡­


    Two dragons stood atop a mountainous peak, the entire landscape ravaged and permanently branded by their power. Collapsed at their feet was a roughly humanoid figure, or at least its upper half.


    It matched their size, but it was not flesh. It was a corpse only in name, for the glow it exuded, the many unnatural phenomena it caused by merely existing marked this thing as little more than a vaguely willed disaster that mimics nature. A clump of chaotic mana turned living storm, before the dragons came.


    And now it lays dead, ready to disperse into nothing. But that is not what the monsters wanted.


    A moment of affection upon a dissolving carcass of mana, a desecration of the world¡¯s will.


    And life followed. A hundred eggs were laid upon it, as the dissipating entity was grabbed and molded by flaming hands into something new.


    A hundred eggs, wrapped in a cocoon of tamed mana, once a cataclysm, now merely an incubator.


    Mistakes were made, of course, for one¡¯s first brood is the harshest. Some eggs broke the moment mana started flowing into them, others crystalized in a flash, yet that is the mistake of the mana. Only one was a mistake of the mother, not of her control or knowledge, but of her very body.


    She scratched one, her second egg, one of the few with the highest chances of bearing life, causing its fluids to leak through the perfect cut, its shell turning weak and the mana around it flowing freely through the opening.


    She mourned that one. They both did, but they understood that loss was inevitable.


    This was her first brood and the storm they found was far more chaotic than they hoped for. Few would make it, but this one had a good chance and she alone is to blame for its death.


    They carried the cocoon of dense mana away, to her very own abandoned temple, a crude thing made at an age where the cries and praises of ants swayed her grand self, yet now it lay as merely a reminder of her mistakes and her passing youth.


    A crude passage was enough, just so they could pass through, sparsely decorated with some light for their young ones, when they will eventually come to be able and walk through.


    Then he had to leave. Their young ones would need diversity in their riches and they each only had what they were most comfortable with, something that would hurt their children¡¯s growth.


    And so The Mistress of Tranquil Waters stayed guard of her clutch while The Outstretched Thunderous Scorching Hand left to pillage and plunder. He did return, first after only 10 days, second after a great moon, third after 3 great moons¡­ then soon before the remaining eggs hatched.


    By the end of the ordeal, once the cocoon itself was devoured by her children, The Mistress looked at only four eggs.


    Half of the eggs were overtaken by the chaotic mana, turning into crystals of splattered colors that put rainbows to shame. Those she took away, far too dangerous to leave around her children as they grow up, but useful enough in creating worthy food for the future. The terrifying dems molded together far too easily and beautifully for her liking, but that was the nature of Chaos. It fit well with itself.


    A quarter of her eggs simply died. Crushed by the weight of mana, exploding from gathering too much, or being rotten and stillborn as a result of their failed fertilization.


    Then remained the rest, which remained whole, took in mana and lived, yet clearly failed at absorbing its will. They each had a half finished pattern of vibrant colors, denoting the grandiose tasks they would strive for had they managed to become true dragons.


    But they didn¡¯t.


    So instead of finishing their marking, the rest of their eggs laid a plain gray.


    She did not have the heart to squash the bugs and spare them their fate.


    She did not inherit her own mother¡¯s cruelty.


    Instead those eggs were scattered by her mate on far away peaks to survive on their own, so that they may either die early by nature¡¯s will, or grow and become beast-minded wyverns that will draw attention away from herself.


    At least like that they would be useful.


    Then remained her last four¡­ tentatively four.


    She had three perfect eggs. One bore markings of a ruler, one of a destroyer and one of an explorer. They were all beautiful, children both herself and her mate would be proud of. One like herself, one like him and one unlike either! Oh how great that was¡­


    And then there was the last, or rather, the second. She did not expect it to survive, yet here it was. It did not turn to crystal, it did not remain stained by the monotone gray, yet it also bore no markings. Aside from a reminder of the slice she caused upon the shell, it was simply filled with colors with no rhyme or reason, shapes and no shapes, almost seeming to have a unity yet having none.


    Chaos.


    She kept it still, as an apology for her fault she gave it the chance to still exist. Even if it were to never live, she would keep it until it were to rot by itself. If she were to be honest, for a moment, with herself? That is the fate she expected. That is also not the fate she got to witness.


    <hr>


    It was dark and she was tired. The nest was ready, the softest and warmest furs being neatly placed over the small pile of various riches, all selected from hers and her mate¡¯s hoards, as well as a result of her partner¡¯s hunts. She will slowly grow the pile once they are born, so that they may adapt to mana¡¯s strain slowly and not end up poisoned by its power.


    She expected the eggs to hatch somewhere in the coming weeks, though even the next great moon was a possibility. She was ready to fall into sleep¡¯s embrace when one of her eyes startled her awake. It was one of her smaller eyes, the one she sacrificed in order to be able and keep watch over her eggs even as she recovered in her lake. A rune lit up inside her eye and she looked through the many enchantments she placed in and around the nest.


    An egg was hatching.


    It was early! Too early! And she wasn¡¯t there for it!


    She heard it squeak and struggle, as its siblings were still in their eggs. They should all hatch soon one after the other¡­ yet it stood alone in its nest after exploding with great speed from its egg.


    She watched it collapse and awaken over and over, trying to test its surroundings yet not being able to do anything as it was still a newborn. It took her time to reach her cave, but when she did she noticed that it stilled. She walked, trying not to scare her child, which took more self control than she¡¯d expect. Once she reached the nest, her eyes turned to her kid.


    ¡°A boy¡­ a beautiful baby boy! You lived and became a beautiful baby boy!¡±


    Before she could calm herself she craned her head over and gave her child an affectionate lick, relief hitting her like a waterfall.


    Her child lived, despite her faults, and he stood as her firstborn despite being her second laid. She studies him with pride, then her dragonheart trembles. His tail has its tip split in two. Her eyes tear up, realizing that the harm she did remained still. He still lacks a mark for what he is to become,


    I have no guidance for what path to lead him towards. He may still have a damaged dragonheart, or may even be unable to use magic at all depending how grievous the wound I dealt is.


    Was the tip of his tail truly the only damage she caused? Or¡­


    No, she needed to think in the present. She needed to think in the now. And in the now¡­ Her boy was alive and well! And¡­


    ¡°You took the wound I gave you¡­ and turned it into something unique.¡±


    She then looked back at her own many tails and smiled to herself.


    ¡°You may yet take after me¡­¡±


    However as she spoke, she realized that her child was in deep sleep, tired from being born so early. She made sure to move the eggs close together so they can all share warmth and scent, then left, fearing that she may hurt them by staying too long.


    <hr>


    The coming days confused her greatly. She was glad that the early birth served to signal her other children to come out, but then weirdness began. While all others did what they should, namely absorbing mana while their bodies were brought to the point of activity, her firstborn seemed to throw the whole concept down the well and instead started being active every moment he could, at detriment to his growth.


    At first it was cute, when she found him sleeping with a chewed up coin, but it quickly became problematic. Instead of sitting still and piling up mana, he was spending it to move despite his body not being ready for it, leading to suddenly collapsing. Realizing this she decided to bring in a meal the next time he awoke.


    She found him playing with a few coins and a water crystal, already fascinated by mana it seemed. That put her at ease at least, but the interaction that followed didn¡¯t. He looked scared. She tries to soothe him, but it seems he does not fully respond to her words or feelings, the magic of speech washing off of the boy, its strength too great for a hatchling to be able and break down into information. Her other children however are squeaking for the flesh, hungry as they are finally awake for the first time since they hatched, so she let them enjoy it while she reached down to calm her firstborn.


    It seemed a simple embrace was all he needed as he stops being so tense and afraid, instead focusing on the already stripped carcass. He eats it all and soon she puts all of her kids to sleep, taking the time to clean up the mess before leaving.


    It then takes days for them to be awake again, but this time it is good for them to be so. They still need mostly rest but a bit of interaction with the world and with each other would help them grow wits quickly. She is surprised to see that while her children played together a bit, her firstborn is quickly bored of playfighting and instead starts organizing resources. He takes one of each type that he can find and makes a small hoard! Already? Hoarding should be happening after they learn to harness mana¡­ How strange!


    She observed and watched him with shock as he hit himself, then started inspecting the metals and crystals. She can¡¯t help but laugh as he makes the mistake all kids do, taking in too much mana, too quickly. He¡¯s overwhelmed by the feeling of it, yet he still does it with the next.


    Then he reaches a death mana crystal.


    She curses inwardly and is prepared to use all her mana if needed to separate the boy from it, but he seems to be smart enough to back away after a small whiff. She sighs, glad that he did not take a deep breath again. Death mana is needed to help them break down food, but it is still a hazard for a child.


    She decides to stop peeking through when she sees her boy start spreading the crystals back where he got them from, apparently scared by the death mana. Interesting that he would know to spread them instead of keeping them clumped¡­ how interesting¡­


    Still she could relax¡­


    For a bit.


    It was the first day awake after his first meal and the boy walked out. That''s moons away! The nest is supposed to keep them interested for entire grand moons, yet her boy was somehow already bored of all the various human objects she left to captivate their attention and stimulate their minds into not wandering off, yet here she was, watching through her enchantment as her child reached the main hall of her decayed temple.


    Thankfully every important place warned her when something big enough moved through, so she was able to notice and take flight. She either way needed to bring in more food, might as well stop her wandering child too.


    What she didn¡¯t expect to find when she reached her boy was him feasting on a fresh kill.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    He killed a mana-touched fruit beetle, one with affinity to earth which should make it a rather tough foe. No, her boy was smart and turned it over, devouring its underbelly as the creature was still alive¡­ yes, good instincts and a good mind. She was so proud of him as she walked him back to the nest.


    There her children feasted on the carnivorous deer, though she noticed that her smart boy took an interest in the beast¡¯s fleshy core, devouring it whole. Truly it seemed her kid had an uncanny affinity with magic, even for a dragon!


    That fact proved true each time she brought in a new meal. The boy behaved and no longer tried to escape, instead focusing on stealing all the cores from the food she brought, even bringing multiple carcasses didn¡¯t make him focus on one!


    It was no surprise then, that with each sleep he began changing more and more compared to her other kids.


    <hr>


    She was most surprised to see him take on a more lithe form instead of gaining bulk like basically all dragons do.


    She will have to make sure he is not already being influenced by particular mana types¡­ Air tended to make for frail and speedy dragons, her brother had been one before he was snuffed out for his weakness by lesser folk. She did not want her boy to end up having an air affinity. Flight was a tool, not a mode of life.


    She shook her head. A moon and a bit passed since her kids were born, no way her boy already had an affinity. She should focus more on other things¡­ like the fact that soon enough they¡¯ll start using mana. Certainly it would take them another moon to refine their instinctual and impulsive breaths into something mighty and useable, like a flame, frost or whatever other breath might fit them most. She expected fire, if she was being honest. Water was always a touch harder to make use of compared to flame, and her mate had a strong enough affinity, to the point where her boys all had some splatter of red on them.


    ¡­


    Why were they already using a proper fire breath?


    She had barely come to personally check on them and see if she should start bringing anything special, but instead she sees all of her kids breathing out puffs of flame. Actual flame. She doesn¡¯t get it.


    How?


    They are too young to form an affinity, even with the help from having a fire-attuned dragon as a father, they should at best be able to make sparks! That would make them geniuses! Instead here they are, breathing in the mana coming off of fire crystals and turning it into proper flames¡­ no, imitations of a proper flame. They all have the same shape and color, as if they¡¯re emulating something they saw, instead of refining their own sparks into actual fire. However nothing around here could even burn, so why?


    Her question was answered soon after. When she eagerly looked at her eldest, expecting to see his flames too, she instead saw him take in a mix of mana. A mix! A deliberate mix! Fire, air, nature¡­ air? She feared for a moment, was he actually getting an air affinity? No¡­ that would be¡­ she couldn¡¯t let that happen but surely this wouldn¡¯t be air that he uses, right?


    It wasn¡¯t air.


    It was fire unlike his siblings¡¯. They all were copying a single flame, using what they saw with their little eyes to nudge mana into becoming fire.


    He was doing something different. The fire was different, in color, in shape, much more different in size, and most importantly, it lingered! Fire that lingered on stone. He used properties of mana to empower fire. Fire that is fueled by nature, with its shape and size controlled by air.


    She embraced her little geniuses and took them away.


    <hr>


    Her lake, her place of rest, a place so seeped with her mana that she could not keep the children with her for too long. Thankfully she had already made it much deeper, the mana having a hard time escaping the water and as such being more harmless to her hatchlings.


    Why bring them here? To do what her mother did when they had formed their first proper elemental breaths.


    Firstly she let them burn some mana on play, as they had done such a good job learning so much sooner, then she turned her lake into an arena, bringing in a small group of mana-touched rabbits for them to hunt.


    She remembers her own first hunt, having just started to breathe out puffs of steam. She and her siblings hunted down a mana-touched rodent, a rat of some kind? Possibly. No rats were around, however, so she made do with the next best rodent, and remembering that the first time she made a proper damaging breath she and her siblings took on a whole mouse hoard, she guessed that five of them would be a good starting point as these were bigger.


    Her kids skipped steps so quickly! What took her and her own a few moons, took them barely one! She was so excited right up until her girl was kicked in the head.


    How? She should be much faster than that. Much tougher too. Her other children fared little better and she began to panic inwardly. Were it not for the nature of her affinity, she might have let through her worries. Her children were getting damaged, and badly! They even had to use their scales¡¯ last resort just to handle hits from rodents!


    And her mightiest child wasn¡¯t hunting! He had frozen stiff from the moment his siblings began stalking forward, looking split between backing off or plunging into the mass of fat, long-eared rats!


    Why? What was happening? Her and her siblings only got hit, and even that could not barely even be called a hit, when they had their first hunt against the¡­ one¡­ weak¡­ rat¡­ oh.


    Oh no.


    She was so eager to help her children, so eager to bring them in line with her past experience, that she failed them. She had learned how to not overextend after fighting many times against a few weak enemies¡­ she had learned when and how to attack, what killed the swiftest¡­ after many failures.


    She put them face to face with enemies capable of killing them, in their first hunt.


    And she couldn¡¯t even interfere! She remembers being saved by her mother once in one such hunt, when she made a grave mistake, and even now that moment still haunts her. It would ruin them to have their very first hunt become a failure.


    So she watches.


    Her eldest, having seen the plight of his siblings, showcased a true dragon roar and took the greatest threat away to fight alone. He took great wounds, but he did not use his protection. No, he took the hurt and still killed the beast by using a sound breath attack! No¡­ Air! Air and light combined to blind and deafen an enemy.. such a complex attack! Her boy needed entire minutes to make a water breath, yet made a combination of unrelated elements at a moment¡¯s notice.


    As he kills the animal, she inspects her child¡¯s body and notices something bad. He damaged his breath-shaper, the organ having strained so badly that the muscles within tore themselves to form the complex shape required for this feat. That and his many fractures, including to the bone in his front leg¡­


    She looked over at the situation and noticed that it wasn¡¯t good, her other children yet lived, but they would die without help¡­


    My daughter is going to die. I see her, helpless, about to have her throat ripped by a rodent, but I can¡¯t interfere. I can¡¯t have her life be plagued by this¡­ death is better than spending centuries doing anything to atone for a failure such as this¡­ The Great Lords know I suffered to be able and stand here after that moment¡­ No¡­ even so¡­ I can¡¯t just have my girl die..


    She almost uses her mana to crush the beast, but doesn¡¯t get to.


    Something much greater happens.


    Her boy uses a breath attack, despite his ruined organ, that makes her tremble. It¡¯s Chaos mana. The beast melts and freezes and burns and it is destroyed so thoroughly that the very ground it stands on will need to be purified.


    Chaos mana¡­ a little bit of everything that does not neutralize itself, for instead of fire touching water and extinguishing itself, both fire and water are wrapped in a thin layer of all that is painful and intangible, a layer of regret, of pain, of fear and worry, of anger and desperation.


    Dragons are born of it, as are the mana-touched abominations that most lessers call ¡°monsters¡±, and many other beings that are seen as dangerous. That thin layer of all the emotions that hurt is what makes even fearful grazers into great killers.


    Her child used it. Well, using a bit of chaos magic is expected of dragons. The outburst of magic that saved the life of her young ones is the one form of chaos magic that all dragons know, but to be able and shape chaos into something useful is a feat few can boast. It had a will of its own and it would do things without rhyme or reason. Frozen flames, shattered water, anything was possible when chaos truly reigned, and one needed a strong will, great knowledge and the right emotions to make it obey¡­ or an affinity.


    Yet here he was, a boy little older than a grand moon, already using a chaos attack molded by a damaged breath-shaper. By all accounts he lacked all requirements¡­ unless the fact that he was directly exposed to the unfiltered chaos mana of the dead storm caused him to form an affinity for it¡­


    He ruined his throat doing it, but he still managed the unthinkable. And despite being supposed to collapse from the absolute lack of mana in his body, her child just ate a rabbit¡¯s core and got up to the last enemy, killing it despite being half-dead himself.


    She quickly healed her children, hating herself for causing this because of her eagerness.


    She was glad her children did not hold it against her, and entrusted her enough for a second hunt.


    From here on she makes sure to ignore her childhood, making the hunts gradually more difficult despite her children breezing through them. She will let them make their mistakes now, or not make any mistakes and take the easy meal, it doesn¡¯t matter. She won¡¯t risk them dying on her.


    <hr>


    And that stayed true until she realized it was time to give them a chance to start working towards an affinity of their liking. Her eldest kept hoarding the cores, which led to his explosive growth, yet they still reached the point where their magic needed to catch up with their bodies. He was still the only one to use diverse breath attacks, meaning she needed to nudge the others into listening to mana¡¯s whispers.


    That¡¯s why she gathered those improvised witches from her towns, hoping the diverse options would give her kids a chance to catch up with the eldest, and that one of them might resonate with him enough to not let him become solely a chaos dragon, for any being attuned only to chaos ended up mad.


    Imagine her surprise when the boy that so far has been a living construct of magical innovation and beastly murder decides to skip up on the easy elemental meal, and even forces his siblings into stopping.


    He defies me.


    For the first time ever, he stands against me and claims them as a hoard, not as a meal.


    And I have no choice but to comply.


    Maybe he was fascinated for a moment and would soon grow bored and eat them, it wasn¡¯t great that he would get all of them, certainly wasn¡¯t her plan, but he looked ready to fight for the right to own them, and she didn¡¯t have the heart to do so.


    She did have the heart to teach him why he should just eat them, however. But that came only after seeing him get attacked by one of the humans, yet still work to bring them food and even water. The fact that he managed to make water move, for a moment, without even using a rune or speech is what nailed in the fact that her children could handle the lesson.


    Her and her siblings did this only after 8 moons, after becoming sloppy from having such easy fights. Her children were still not making glaring mistakes, but this is a good lesson nonetheless.


    Or so she thought. Multiple times she thought about going in to help, but felt it would dilute the teaching if she did. She watched her eldest carry his weakened sibling, handle the wolves, he even brought them all the way to the river¡­ They were actually going to make it home in a couple days if they kept up pace, but then the strongest mana-touched beast in the normal forest came and was prepared to slay them. At least it had the common sense to flee when she interfered.


    What she did not expect was the absolute rage and fear the eldest had. He attacked her with what little energy he still had.


    He understands¡­ The others are happy that I am here to protect them, but he is angry that I left them here in the first place. He understands that I am the cause, a connection his siblings will only make years later.


    Magically gifted enough to already be using multiple different breath attacks and even to use proper spells, without words of power. Strong enough to protect his siblings and smart enough to understand what I did.


    It was then that she realized her child was a terrifying sort of genius, the kind that redefines magic, the kind that could make an empire by himself¡­ the kind that could one day become a Great Lord. Yet here he was, a child, dependent on her, protective of his siblings and the few lessers she brought, lashing out at her out of fear and desperation that no child should be even able to feel.


    She cried for a few days after, unable to even face him, though she kept an eye on him regardless, seeing things she had not expected.


    He spent hours manually taking in mana. Of course, that¡¯s how he used magic, he moved the mana itself to mimic what he saw, using only mind to create magic. And even after filling himself with mixed mana, he still wanted to learn more. He observed the humans, then trained by himself, first using the simplest form of light and reaching all the limits possible. Intensity, color, distance, he did it all. Then tried to make a whole new rune from nothing! Just guesses, and thankfully he failed.


    The Mistress doubted her heart could handle her child inventing magic just by listening to mana¡¯s whispers when he was little over two moons old.


    Of course, her heart did not handle it when she saw him do exactly that a while later.


    A rune formed. She watched as the rune formed and sang a song he had no reason knowing.


    And that lead to him discovering conversion runes, and a rune that exclusively made sounds.


    He made so many sounds she could hardly imagine the limits of his talent. He even made sounds that she only heard from instruments, and sounds she never heard before. He mimicked words using a rune he built instinctively¡­ He was an enigma. So talented, so smart, so affectionate¡­ But also strangely stupid in an amusing way.


    He almost gave himself mana poisoning multiple times, he endangered himself to protect his siblings, he even ended up collapsing and bleeding from studying her communication spell using his fledgeling manasight¡­


    He needed guidance to become the great being he has the potential to be.


    <hr>


    A grand moon. That¡¯s all it took for him to baffle her again.


    Taking it from the more understandable beginning, she has come to learn that he has absurd strengths and strange weaknesses. He quickly picked up moving earth, water, ice, even plants. He did not, however, pick up conjuring. Even now he is unable to create a visible pebble even if he uses all the mana he has, which she doesn¡¯t really understand.


    At least it seemed like he did not pick up on the fact that his siblings have managed to form rocks with their mana once she taught them how, mostly because he was busy learning how to control earth like it was air, and air like it was earth. She still doesn¡¯t understand all of the things he managed to do with barely any teaching, but she is glad she did all of this.


    Plus, he even stayed mostly away from chaos magic, only using that strange spell that invents songs.


    Or at least he did until that damned human child got sick. This was a great opportunity, in a way. Maybe the inevitable death of the boy would teach her son that lessers are frail, short lived things that are really not worth his tears. She did not even need to betray her son, she couldn¡¯t heal him.


    She knew what the problem was, of course. This was a sickness caused by those tiny semi-living things that infest weak lessers. Just like that young hag, her own magic would do nothing but make things worse, as it would heal the cause while healing the sick, accelerating the process.


    The normal way to deal with those is to give them mana poisoning and kill them, it¡¯s why dragons don¡¯t ever need to worry about them, but if she tried to be the one to do it, the boy would die anyways.


    She was ready to be there and help her son understand the death of his pet, when she suddenly watched the resigned hatchling try something. The tears of that eastern beast girl, the very one that helped him create that chaos spell! Her tears moved him and now he dashed all over, even seemed about ready to rush out at night for reasons unknown. The human kid would die in a few days at the latest, what could he possibly think to try and heal him?


    Chaos, of course. Chaos was undoubtedly her son¡¯s affinity. Something he gained because of her blunder. Something that he just used to make a miracle.


    He killed the cause of the sickness, using poison that harmed only the half-living things. The old woman¡¯s healing now worked, no longer helping the disease¡­


    That boy would live.


    Her son would be enamored with these lessers a while longer, sadly¡­ Ah, how is she going to explain this to her mate¡­

 Chapter 21: It Aint Well Just Cuz It Ends Well

    I sit in a chair, books floating by me. I think I enjoy this place, no hormones pulling on my emotions, no instincts making a sweater out of my thought pattern¡­ Just me. Or rather just the collection of what I once was, layed out as a neat, cozy place. Even I am as I was. I look at my hand and I see it all at once. Small, big, soft, coarse, I see gashes and wounds and I see scars and I see pristine skin and I see bright red flesh. I see the bone below, how it grew, how it was shaped, how it broke that one time and left my finger crooked for a few years until I managed to scrounge up enough money from odd jobs to have it fixed.


    I like being able to admire this without my heart pumping in my ear, without the imminent threat of an innocent child turning into a corpse in the quiet of the night. I like being able to exist without having to watch an abominable animal, twisted and malformed by esoteric energies, as it barrels straight into my siblings, ready to devour them. I like being able to sit still without the urge to consume the first thing that moves in my line of sight.


    I am stalling.


    I understand I am stalling, but I need to come to terms with how little control I have over myself and this is the one place where nothing else can influence me.


    I was resigned to the fact that the boy would die. I had come to terms with it, did my own silent mourning, and I was ready to have to dig a hole to bury him before my siblings could ravage his corpse. Instead a few teary eyes were enough to make me go mad with thoughts and options. I used whatever random assortment of mana was in my body, coupled with a heavy dose of poison and just hoped it would work.


    His death could very well be on my hands at this very moment. I don¡¯t even know if it was the human me or the dragon me that caused the 180 turn. And not only that, but I also put myself in danger by using up every last drop of mana in my body! What happens if the next time someone is in danger like this we are out in the wild, away from any good mana sources and I get hit with this urge to play hero? Sometimes I can just keep cruising and sometimes I am reminded that I am a ticking bomb of indecision and weird instincts and thought processes.


    The table in front of me cracks and I blink, after which it fixes itself. Frustration. My image of this place can change¡­ Good to keep in mind. And I will keep it in mind for later, because right now I need to leave.  I need to see what happened.


    ¡­


    I feel heavy and tired. Since waking up in this world this is the first time I felt so spent. Even when I was going in and out of consciousness, I was at least fine physically. Now I am exhausted, weak and can barely open my eyes. I try and get up, but so much weight is pulling me down that it is wasted effort.


    After I manage to open my eyes and turn my head to figure out why I am so weak, I realize the problem, or at least half of it. I am currently being used as a hug buddy/ living pillow by both the boy and Ayrah. Now, the boy weighs close to nothing and Ayrah, despite being a mountain of muscle, shouldn¡¯t be this heavy. I can easily drag around a whole deer, I should be able to lift half her body weight without issues.


    The real reason I am so weak is that I have barely any mana in me currently. It seems the humans at least did a good thing and piled their gems close to my snout, but that alone is simply not enough. I sit on an actual pile of riches and gems, these few things are a drop in the bucket. My scales are almost a lifeless gray with just a bit of hue denoting what their real color should be, meaning I am running on the least amount of power possible, which can very well lead to me collapsing randomly.


    The mana density difference between the nest and here is so big that I doubt I can ever fully recover, so I need to gather energy. I do so by manipulating any nearby mana, ordering it to move closer so I can absorb it. Strange thing to note, I  think I am absorbing mana from the humans too¡­ Not from their core, but rather the bit of mana that radiates off of them. It¡¯s less than what my own body lets out, but it is still an amount that they simply lose.


    I notice movement and see the old woman as she walks into my view, bringing one of the fruits and a piece of cooked meat. Realizing that those are probably for me, I open my mouth, which she answers with a raspy laugh before putting the meal in. Consuming it is a quick affair, but I am miffed. Cooked meat tastes slightly worse than raw. That just feels wrong¡­ but it isn¡¯t. Then again, I should have realized this when I realized that my stomach is actually an incinerator. There¡¯s no waste, no need for particular bacteria to break down particular proteins and compounds¡­ whatever acid my stomach has, it lacks normal chemistry, since a piece of meat and a pebble are equally digestible.


    Either way, the meal, coupled with some active absorption of mana, results in me being able to shake off the sleeping people, or rather the no longer asleep people. The kid almost looks healthier than he was before coming here¡­ Fuck, I¡¯m glad he¡¯s alive¡­ I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t kill him¡­ He seems equally happy as he laughs after rubbing his eyes, then throws himself at me, giving me a one-armed hug. I haven¡¯t seen him this happy before. It is nice.


    I still receive some uncertain stares, especially after the kid¡¯s outburst, but I don¡¯t think the humans are scared of me anymore. Guess I¡¯m now just like a big, very smart dog in their eyes. Can do a lot of good but still not fully sure how I¡¯d react to certain actions. Understandable and something I can work with. I press my snout against the boy¡¯s face, then puff out a bit of air and he releases me as he laughs and says something.


    Yeah, they still have full conversations I can¡¯t understand. Ayrah specifically tried to teach me her language, and that¡¯s the only reason I understand a few words. But if I don''t have someone to teach me, I have no way to understand the language even with my brain working overtime to absorb their words. Ah, my brain, my newfound youthful brain that acts like a sponge¡­ Man will I miss this when I age. I think. Dragons might actually be able to regenerate their brains and with the size they would reach¡­ Actually with how mother mutated and was able to heal any problems we had, it would be strange to not think that dragons can recover their brains.. Good to keep in mind..


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Where was I? Ah right, people are talking and I feel like I don¡¯t belong. I also feel like I should go back to napping. My mana¡¯s burning just from me moving around, so I need to keep things brief. The boy reaches a hand to pat me and I lean in, letting him do so for a bit, then pull away. It feels a bit awkward to leave without saying anything but I don¡¯t know how to say goodbye, so I just walk away. Can¡¯t even run without fearing that I will spend a bit too much and collapse. I don¡¯t understand how shutting off completely is part of dragon DNA, but it is and I need to work around it.


    Honestly, the more I think about it, the less dragons seem to make sense. Can casually control supernatural energies just by looking at it being done, and that¡¯s before even seeing the sun. All it took to go from wiggling worms to fire-breathing killers was some binge eating. Hell, we learned magic before learning to run!


    We have powerful bodies, with capabilities that surpass physics to the point where a tail swipe is enough to absolutely shatter another animal¡¯s bones without even injuring us, yet we can eat absolutely anything and leave behind no waste as if we''re scavengers. Apex predators that can hunt in basically any environment, we can mutate our bodies to absurd capabilities, we¡¯re entirely sapient, we must live a long time since mother has a whole overgrown tunnel dedicated to herself¡­ a tunnel I completely forgot to actually explore in the other direction¡­ huh¡­


    Not the point! The point is that we have literally every survival plan and strategy crammed into our very nature and it¡¯s starting to show problems.


    So many unknowns, so many dangers, so many thoughts!


    I didn¡¯t make it to the nest. I fell. I am not sleeping yet, but I can hardly move and I just feel so overwhelmed¡­ I saved a kid. I should be happy, but instead I sit here almost tearing up because I didn¡¯t succeed through hard work, I succeeded through luck and unreliable instinct. I remember being dumb enough to think that luck was a skill, but it isn¡¯t. Luck is hardly something to base my life on, something to rely on, it is simply something that may be useful sometimes.


    And now it was useful. And next time, instead of a medicinal poison, I might end up creating a mini-nuke.


    I need more. I need to know more, to be better, to no longer collapse every time I try something new. I failed to exceed my limit last I tried to forcibly increase my mana capacity, and since then I grew and so did it. But it didn¡¯t grow from my usage of magic, it grew from my body being bigger, so I did not get better at packing it in, I just have more space.


    I need to actually train harder. I need to strain my muscles until they break, train my magic until I can control giant boulders and needles of stone with the same precision. I need to guzzle down so much mana that I force my capacity to expand. I need to better understand the inner workings of mana. I need to be better so I don''t have to rely on luck again and fear a bad roll.


    I need a better long term plan and I won¡¯t find it on the floor. I¡¯ll find it in my mind.


    As I nudge mana towards me, trying to recover, I make a checklist. It is simple, so far, but it is better than nothing. I need to really understand the benefits of this body, so I need to start using it more. It can be fighting my siblings, hunting, or just hitting trees, I just need to do something so I understand my limits and how to better use what I have naturally. I have some knowledge of biomechanics and general physics that can give me some ideas based on how my body performs, at least better idea than ¡°bite if you can, slap with tail to back away¡±.


    Next I need to do a lot more with magic. speech, runes, mana control, mana capacity. These are the four concepts I gathered are important. Speech and runes are self evident and their training is mostly about the mind. Mana control and capacity is where it¡¯s at. For control I need to force myself into manipulating more. It could be bigger, heavier, more in number, different elements at once, it doesn¡¯t matter, it just needs to be more. After that I can work on making it fine control instead of just aimless manipulation. As for capacity¡­ I have no idea. I can fill up every cell in my body just fine, but after that mana just refuses.


    I¡¯ll need to force it some way. I will need an idea for that¡­


    In the meantime, I get up, having gotten a bit of energy back, then pushed myself forward.


    It took a couple more minutes to be greeted by my siblings. I get sniffed, a lot, probably because I fully slept somewhere foreign for the first time, and then they leave. They¡¯re thankfully just a bit curious, showing complete disregard for the humans. Honestly? It is better this way. Much easier to focus without having to fear how their interactions shape my siblings¡¯ perception of things.


    I shake my head and go straight for the pile. It is quicker than before. Despite having a bit more capacity thanks to my size, I can fill up to the brim in only¡­ roughly 4 hours. Which is a great improvement all things considered. Once full the rules are still the same. can¡¯t really take the power out unless I use a weird spell, or if my body uses it on its own.


    I can also pack up my lungs with as much mana as I physically can. Doesn¡¯t change anything. I tilt my head and push further. More mana through my nose, more mana through my skin, eventually, somewhere, mana should compress enough that I get a natural, better way to pack it up, to at least use as reference. Hopefully. Or I might be sitting here doing all of nothing for an hour¡­


    ¡­


    I did all of nothing for an hour.


    Great.


    I realize my mistake. Technically, yes, you should be able to compress mana to a degree. The difference in density between the human room and our nest makes that plenty clear. However after you achieve saturation you need a lot more strength than my mind has, so I need to think bigger. What way, other than trying to do it by hand, is there to compress mana?


    Well the only logical thing that pops in my mind is using an even higher density of mana than my body has. After all, the more mana I gather, the more it radiates to fill the emptiness around. And if it does that in this situation, it should also do it if I just expose my body to absurd densities. Mother probably has more than enough for what I want, but there might be a reason why she doesn¡¯t just use that more often for training. It might kill me.


    Alright, if she¡¯s a bust¡­ Well there¡¯s her lake. Her lake filled with gems at the bottom, with mana rising up, filled with mana. Guess I know what I will do once mother gets here to take us outside.


    This will be either the worst thing I ever plan for, or the best.

 Chapter 22: And Suddenly: Chaos

    It¡¯s the worst. It¡¯s always the worst. Why do I ever expect to have good ideas? I¡¯m a dumb  guy with a dumb lizard kid brain. ¡°Oh just go into a place with a lot of mana and see what happens¡± gods be damned moron!


    How did all this start? Glad you asked because going through my insane actions is a great way to not think about what is currently happening to me!


    <hr>


    After realizing that I can¡¯t mess with my mana capacity yet, I spent the rest of the day alternating between play fighting with my siblings and rehearsing the magic mother taught us. So far she went through the basic four: earth, fire, water and air, adding in light too since it was the first thing she showed the others, then went for more complex things: electricity, ice and nature. That¡¯s as far as she went when it came to elements. One thing to note however is that the entire meaning of ¡°electricity¡± revolved around lightning. Concepts like electrons weren¡¯t passed through, meaning she probably has no idea about them. I wonder if that would make my electric magic better than hers¡­ Or maybe worse?


    Oh well, inane thoughts aside, she focused the rest of her time teaching modifiers. I think that¡¯s the best way to put them: modifiers. There¡¯s the base elemental runes that define what I control, then there¡¯s the modifiers that change how that control is focused. For example the rune that she used to turn the light source into a beam of light? Movement, motion, direction, all those ideas are packed into a single nifty word and sign. It also works with sound¡­ somehow. The entire propagation of the sound is aimed in one direction, which is weird since depending on where the rune is I don¡¯t hear the sound until it makes the trip back, half as strong if not even less. It also works with other energy-based elements like fire, electricity and a particular brand of ice that only uses its heat stealing rather solid ice.


    She also taught what I consider as the ¡°I¡¯m you but better¡± modifier. It means control, domination, it¡¯s a demand that mana OBEY, which is funny since it sounds close to ¡°obe¡±, but put through the draconic filter of deep, rough, crunchy sounds. It improves control, by a lot. It also somehow makes the magic a lot more efficient, like the matter isn¡¯t fighting back as much. Sadly I have yet to use it in a slightly tense situation, I could only make it work when I was perfectly calm, it¡¯s why it failed me earlier.


    There¡¯s also the even better version that combines this modifier with a subject. Because dragons of course have the word ¡°Individual¡± which is used for any particular thing. Like saying Individual Earth ends up meaning any particular piece of stone you are thinking about. In the context of the spell however, Individual is supposed to mean ¡°me¡± so it ends up like ¡°Earth (as a whole) obey me (and only me)¡± which straight up robs people in an area from using that element. Interestingly she used this spell for nature and water, but nothing else, maybe you need to be really good for it? Ah, I shouldn¡¯t forget that there¡¯s a fourth word there too, a word that mother has been trying to make me understand but I failed so far, because it seems to not refer to a type of mana or a concept she can readily show. She only used it for those two spells and no other time.


    Either way, those are the most widely useful modifiers, but she gave us a few more. There¡¯s one that sacrifices strength in order to get control of a wider area or a larger amount of things. It¡¯s like mass cure wounds, compared to cure wounds, you know? But instead of making it a more costly spell, it makes it a weaker one. Now if you combine obey and mass? That¡¯d be enough to move a small mountain, especially if you have mother¡¯s mana reserves. Trust me, she did, but with trees instead of stone. She kind of loves showing off.


    Where was I? Ah yes, the opposite of mass: overwhelm, overkill, imbuing a waterfall into a waterskin, or at least that¡¯s the image the word gives me when mother says it. It¡¯s basically focusing so much on one thing that it eats up all the mana you have. Greater Fireball, basically¡­. I swear if these spells are somehow copyrighted¡­ Meh, I¡¯d love to see lawyers coming at me over in a whole different world for copyright infringement, that¡¯d be funny.


    Anyways, that¡¯s basically all mother taught us. Elements, how to control them better, how to give a path to something that usually does its own thing, how to spread our control and how to tighten it.


    Those are also the only words we know, which doesn¡¯t help us hold great conversations.


    Also, I am the only one that grasped all the words. My siblings got all the elemental words, eventually, but the modifiers were a bit above their capacity of understanding.


    I also heard them speak and it sounds wrong. Even when they nail the sound itself, they mess up in meaning, or rather their meanings are flawed. Earth means dirt and stone and nothing else. Nature means grass and trees and leaves, but they don¡¯t differentiate flowers or really differentiate between any species of plants. Fire is super muddled too, they get that it¡¯s very warm, and that it kills things, but they don¡¯t put in the meaning of being burnt or of energy or of anything more than superficial, visual things.


    Lightning is their worst offense. They mean, specifically, mother¡¯s lightning strike and mine. Since we were the only ones to make such a thing happen, and mine was pitifully small since I didn¡¯t manage to pile up the mana for it at the time.


    Basically they only pack in whatever they have seen and because of that their words fail. It doesn¡¯t help their spellcasting and even when they try to talk it ends up being almost unintelligible. Though, I came to realize as I think this, it may be more weird from mother¡¯s point of view that I just understand so much about the world already¡­ Meh, I already failed spectacularly to be normal when I was weeks ahead of my siblings in rune understanding.


    I do wonder why mother didn¡¯t teach us any of the conversion runes¡­ those would be useful¡­ Oh well.


    Mother has arrived. Just in time, I was taking a break after running out of mana in my lungs, so this is perfect. I take in as much mana as I can and make sure to saturate my body, then pick up the pace towards her with my siblings. Once together I climb up on her back and secure my claws in the ridges of her scales. it¡¯s been a bit since she stopped carrying us, or at least since she stopped carrying everyone aside from Spots who seems to be a bit of a mama¡¯s boy.


    Oh well, let the kid enjoy his time, the more time passes without our father, or really, without any sort of other dragon coming by, the more I am sure that dragons are solitary. Once we are considered young adults, whatever that might mean in dragon years, we will be kicked out to survive on our own. Makes sense, really. We need to hoard an absurd amount of resources, it¡¯s expected that we would have to spread apart in order to be able and harvest all we require.


    Hell, we might need to be nomads, like male lions without a pride, until we find a spot we can claim and until we are strong enough to keep it safe.


    I doubt that the human settlements in mother¡¯s territory would have been alright with a dragon ruling over them if said dragon was me-sized¡­


    Wait, ruling over others? Do I even want to do that? I mean, I¡¯ve fantasized about being the boss once or twice, or about being rich instead of struggling with fitting in food and tuition in my finances¡­ But do I really want that or is this dragon weirdness¡­


    I let out a frustrated scream that thankfully gets muted by the rushing wind that mother displaces. I notice something that was hard to see before, she has a complex form of the air rune formed in her crown, that might be how she flies so fast despite her size. Also might be how she flies at all.


    I sigh and stretch my body as she lands at the lake. My siblings already rush out to start hunting, but I don¡¯t follow them. I instead go to the lake, under the watch of mother, and start drinking in water. I instantly get hit with the feeling of being bloated and gag, spilling the water back out. Alright, plan one failed. I shake my head and then take a cautious step into the water, then another, and soon enough I am in¡­ and floating. My wings are spread out, increasing my surface massively and apparently working against my weight.


    I don¡¯t know how heavy I am, but going by my size, the scaled skin and the lack of fat? Very. I¡¯m heavier than a normal human at least. Still, I don¡¯t want to just float. I am a bit worried that mother will interfere, especially since she¡¯s keeping a few eyes on me, but the second I see her turn to focus in the distance, probably seeing one of the others in the middle of a fight, I dip in.


    Water instincts are working, somehow. My wings are tucked, my nose is plugged and my third eyelid is keeping the water out. My slightly longer neck and tails are causing me to move like a snake while also paddling with my legs. I am basically a meaner crocodile right now.  A crocodile with wings. Idea stands. Either way I can feel the air in my lungs continuing to move, cycling between my multiple air sacks, despite nothing new coming in. This should help aerate my blood for a while longer than normal.


    It¡¯s been a few tens of seconds, I think, since I started swimming downwards and I am at least getting the feeling of mana pressing on me. It¡¯s the inverse square law all over again. Mana is exponentially growing in strength the closest I get to its source, the gems and metals¡­ It¡¯s heavy. I am starting to sink without meaning to. This is a normal lake, I went swimming in something bigger than this and the pressure shouldn¡¯t start pulling me in already.


    I can¡¯t move my left back leg. Something is wrong. I feel myself being squeezed, not my mana, myself. It¡¯s pressure, strong pressure, and suddenly I see mana flowing in. That¡¯s what I wanted but it¡¯s doing it in a way I didn¡¯t want. I let out an involuntary scream, losing precious air. I think some water flows into my lungs, I feel my body burning cold.


    I hear snapping. Looking to the side my right wing extended outwards and grew. The tips aren¡¯t normal, they¡¯re a deeper blue, and not from the water shifting colors around. It feels wrong, my body feels wrong. I cough again and algae comes out. Fully grown algae that I don¡¯t think I inhaled. I start feeling something pushing out of my chest right as a large thing wraps around my body and pulls me out in moments.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Back on the surface, laying on wet grass, instincts take over and I cough out the water, then a different instinct makes me expel the extra water mana by shooting a weak waterbreath. Once recovering I hear my mother speaking fast, lots of mentions of water come bearing images of the depths and how strong the mana was. I think I get images of her making the lake deeper particularly to protect us from the strength of the mana.


    Right¡­ It was strong¡­ and it was forcing itself into my body but had no room¡­ I thought it¡¯d make room in the cells, but it didn¡¯t. It made new cells instead. I look at my right wing, spread out, and compare it with my left one. Yep, much bigger. Not double, but bigger still. I try to get up and end up falling back down. My back left leg is longer. I also feel something new¡­ a new limb was starting to sprout from my chest. It¡¯s literally just a soft bone with some musculature right now, not even a proper ending, and it¡¯s about 10 cm long, so not even a proper limb.


    Damnit¡­ I messed it up bad¡­ I thought dragons don¡¯t get mutations like humans do, and in a way we don¡¯t, but our growth is tied with our mana. So what happens when you force in mana? You don¡¯t get more efficient packing, you get expedited growth, but since it comes in a forced manner, it¡¯s targeted in a few places that are more easy to mutate and shape. Like lightning, it spreads in a few different directions until it finds an easy path and it takes that one straight down.


    I manage to get up, ignoring the fact that I now have a neural connection to the beginning of a limb, and do my best to get acclimated to the weight shift. It¡¯s awful. I drift a lot to my right, even with my tails working extra for counterbalance. I sigh and sit back down, annoyed at myself. Well, I can still do some mana training even with my body messed up for now, so I do just that and start gathering the water mana in the air into a rune, forming a spinning circle. I add in the ¡°obey¡± modifier, which helps me up its speed.


    I am calm despite massively hampering my physical capability¡­ I wonder why? I should be angry or despair at the fact that I am a freak, but even with my extra tail I felt like I am a bit ahead of the curve. Maybe this will end up the same¡­ Fuck, but that¡¯s still not normal. No matter how you view it, going from traumatic injury to acceptance so quickly is not normal.


    Ignore the fact that I very quickly accepted being cut in two, at that point I was already dead, no point despairing or struggling. Right now however I am a kid, I should be terrified about being wrong for life, but it feels like this is a small mistake like pricking your finger on a needle, or falling down and getting scraped, rather than a permanent brand of shame.


    Ah, my body will probably grow to compensate rather than continue growing at the same rate. That makes sense. This body is way too unnatural, having so many different strategies available, being able to manipulate mana so easily, it¡¯s no wonder it would also have fail safes against mana oversaturation in case of a mistake like this.


    I look at my mother and see that she is still somewhat panicky. I would expect the same calm I feel to be felt by her. She¡¯s been awfully calm about us being almost dead every other day, so what gives? Meh, doesn¡¯t matter to me, back to spinny disk. Why spinny disk? I want to see if I can get water to be fast enough to start cutting stuff. So far the answer is no, but less because of speed and more because upon hitting something the water just bursts.


    I need even better control, huh.


    I don¡¯t get to try more. Mother picks me up and takes off. She¡¯s actually rushing this time. I see just about everything zoom by, no time to take in the scenery, we¡¯re like an arrow let loose towards the chaos pillar. The second we reach it she even pushes me right up against it, and I am just confused. This isn¡¯t for a lesson, she doesn¡¯t start doing anything. I just see her sit by the side while looking intently at me.


    I breathe in and feel a weird calm as the energy of everything fills my lungs. Yeah, no single type of mana feels as well as this abominable combination of every little concept. I continue absorbing it while burning out the rest of the mana I had. The other mana was a mix, but this is like mixing the perfect ratio of everything, so it just feels like it¡¯ll be more useful. An hour passes and I saturate my body with it. This mana, despite having its own mind when used, seems to want to cling to me, so I accept it.


    But then something happens. I draw in more of it. That feels wrong. The saturation here is not so absurd, even if I am hugging the pillar¡­ It is more than the cave but not nearly as strong as the lake, so what gives? Ah, my body is wrong, in the back of my mind I keep thinking that it is wrong.


    My scales are wrong, my proportions are wrong, I need a fix and this mana wants to fix me. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s a good idea to let it shape me, but it will probably be better than staying as I am, so I close my eyes and retreat partially into my library. I pull out my biological blueprint, something I made from observations and feelings. I don¡¯t have vessels or the correct placement of my organs, but I have my outer appearance and a rough idea of the kind of modifications that would help me greatly.


    Let¡¯s see, firstly I need to even out my limbs, while making sure I keep my agility. I fix up my size and proportions, in relation to both my grown limb and my wings, then focus on the nub. I wish I could make it go away¡­ but it feels like that won¡¯t happen. A vague instinct tells me the only path is ¡°more¡±. Be it bigger or more limbs, I won¡¯t get less, so I decide to just get two. I may be able to shift their position later in life, as I did with my legs, so for now I focus on making small, but usable hands. I imagine a pair of them, link them with tendons and ligaments to my larger ribs, giving them a better range of motion, but focusing on dexterity and keeping them small, capable of folding like my wings to my chest so they don¡¯t interfere in normal activity. I do add in some sharp claws, but flatter at the base and with wider fingers, so I can hold stuff but also claw away at things. Four fingers should be enough, humanity¡¯s five is kind of overkill.


    The blueprint is done and I feel drowsy.


    My eyes close before I can see if mother is still around.


    <hr>


    I open my eyes, a day likely passed, mother is still here, I close my eyes.


    <hr>


    I open my eyes, mother is still here I close them.


    That¡¯s annoying. I was thinking of adding in actual different biology, like a gland for venom or something of that sort, but if I entered a loop of waking up and instantly falling asleep just from fixing my mistake, I think only bad things would happen if I go any wilder for now, so I keep focusing on this image of myself while feeling my consciousness ping ponging between my body and my library.


    <hr>


    It¡¯s been five days. I am still not done. I get enough time to notice a second nub growing and my body elongation slightly. I didn¡¯t think of growing out my back spines, but it seems this decision was made by the mana, so it¡¯s happening.


    I continue focusing on my image of myself and let it all flow past me.


    <hr>


    It¡¯s been two weeks or so.


    It seems the mana made some more changes. I¡¯m no longer just blue. My scales shine now, and they do so mostly towards tints of blue, but there¡¯s a few other colors mixed in based on the angle of the light. Pretty, but strange.


    Also, only once was mother not there when I woke up and I stayed awake longer, feeling that I was in danger, but fell asleep the second I heard her wings. How much longer?


    <hr>


    Answer: two days. Two more days and I opened my eyes for good. My body was saturated in the chaotic mana but I felt my proportions were back to normal. My wings were also large enough that I got some lift as I flapped them¡­ I might soon be able to fly, if only mother teaches me the flight spell.


    Mother isn¡¯t around. It makes sense, she has the kids to think about and care for¡­ Hmm, what do I do until she comes here? I don¡¯t think I can handle the walk home so I will have to wait, but I have a whole source of very strange mana for myself. And I have a body I need to test¡­


    Something I saw the old woman do once, while casting her healing magic, was a hand movement that seemed to weave mana into an approximation of a 3d rune. I wonder, then, what happens if I do the same? I weave the chaos music rune and find it much easier using my brand new pair of hands. Really it feels like I have had them since forever and it seems they can touch mana just fine. Now while keeping focus on this rune, I decide to add in the rune that gives power. Suddenly the trees shake and the ground rumbles as a very, very loud concert of Queens starts playing. Not a song, a whole concert, with the voices of the audience being mixed in. It¡¯s almost like I am there despite it being a recording I watched once when I was bored.


    I stop it quickly, slapping at it until all sound stops. As cool as it is to be able to create a whole concert, I am now hearing a high pitched and annoying sound, but really I should have expected that.


    Now, what else can I use this mana for? I mean, I didn¡¯t really do anything with it aside from pulling in particular parts in order to mimic mother¡­ but what would happen if I used the chaos version of the fire rune? If there¡¯s one for sound there must be one for fire¡­ and one for all the other elements, simple or complex.


    The question then becomes, how dangerous would they be? I mean, you¡¯d think that the sound version is harmless¡­ until you realize that instead of following the directions given by mana manipulation, it follows whatever¡¯s in your, or someone else¡¯s mind. It literally reads people¡¯s minds to pull out songs. I don¡¯t even know what mind mana might look like, yet I am using it because of this one spell. What if fire gets combined with electricity or radiation and goes out of control? What if chaos water also explodes? I want to try it out, but I am also afraid because I have just finished fixing a fuckup, which took away two and some weeks out of my life¡­ What happens if I give myself cancer because I mess with this?


    Yeah let¡¯s not. I will wait until mother teaches me more words so we can have a proper conversation and figure out exactly what¡¯s up with chaos mana.


    Or at least I would if not for the strange whispers. I breathe in the mana and instead of getting flashes of everything everywhere, I get soft whispers telling me inane things. The problem is that they are inane things that I don¡¯t know, but understand. The temperature is 17.43 ¡ãC, common for continental temperate autumn, especially towards the evening. There are about 2 030 597 blades of grass within this clearing, there used to be more until we started hanging out and trampling them underfoot. Wild animals don¡¯t ever get this close, they get mana sickness if they do. Nature can be snappy and sharp and somewhat poisonous under the right situation, it only takes a few nudges to turn a normal rose into something that can kill 50 adult human men with a single sting.


    I shake my head and I pull back. That¡¯s not what I expected¡­ I decide to test something and I pull on one particular mana type, I filter out the fire from the chaos and make a small bubble of it, pushing away the chaotic mix. Once formed, I breathe in the flame mana and focus all of my senses on it. Oh how joyous it is that it starts whispering about heat and warmth and how big of a fire I would make if I were to rip off a tree, let it dry in the sun, and then set it aflame with a simple spark. Good news, chaos mana isn¡¯t giving me ominous whispers, all of mana is! Ain¡¯t that something. I take a nap and suddenly magic starts speaking.


    You know what? Maybe I rushed things a bit too much, maybe I don¡¯t need to immediately learn all there is to learn about magic, maybe I should just take a nap and fix my gods be damned mind because if I remember correctly, this is starting to feel  like early onset schizophrenia and I doubt psychologists and psychiatrists exist in this world.


    ¡­.


    Not even five minutes of peace¡­ I hear powerful thunder in the distance, like a massive storm is approaching. I raise my head and I hear an unnerving whisper ¡°18.22¡ãC¡± followed immediately by ¡°19.1¡ãC¡±. It was getting warmer, but why? My answer came in the form of a plane-sized thing, covered in flames and followed by a storm of red lightning, which began descending straight towards where mother¡¯s lake was.


    Did I sleep long enough for the end of the world to start?

 Chapter 23: I Need To Make It

    So the world is ending. Pretty cool. Been around for a few months and I already get to see the apocalypse¡­ Ain¡¯t that fun?


    Jokes aside, I can only blankly stare at the smoldering comet passing above my head. Bright red lightning flashes ominously, powerful thunder shakes my body to the point where I can feel it in my soft tissues. It¡¯s even worse than the impromptu concert from earlier. Moments later I am hit by a sudden shower and instinctively spread out my wings. Cool, birb instincts, exactly what I needed on top of my already cluttered mind.


    After observing the light show once more I have to assert: that¡¯s gotta be magic. Red lightning happens naturally, but not here, not so low, unless physics work in a very different manner, which they really don¡¯t as far as I¡¯ve noticed in my short life. Well, then again the fire literally cannot be natural in the first place, unless this is a meteor, which it probably isn¡¯t or we¡¯d all be dead.


    I shake my head and look around. If this thing was shooting straight for mother, then there¡¯s no way she¡¯ll have time to come after me. I can feel my stomach burning however, and that¡¯s problematic. The way my stomach works, at least as far as I can guess, is by turning anything I eat into energy that my body uses directly. I guessed it would be mana, which sounds like the peak of magical bioengineering, but if I had been right then I would not need to eat ever, at least while my magic capacity was lesser than the ambient mana.


    However, reality is different. I am hungry. My body is packed tightly with every mana type possible, yet it¡¯s not enough for my body. Something in my metabolism demands flesh and I cannot defy it.


    There¡¯s a powerful storm, an explosion in the distance, yet I cannot think. I feel my mind being grasped and pulled back. The future doesn¡¯t matter. The past doesn¡¯t matter. Study? Understanding? None of that matters. Higher functions are secondary to the primary directive of all living beings: Consume. The entirety of nature is a chain of consumption and I am at the very top, a greedy beast that needs to absorb organic matter and mana in order to survive another day.


    My eyes shoot up. High above the treetops I see birds flying chaotically, some even hitting one another and falling into branches. My ears, despite tingling from the many thunders they have endured, notice trampling and growling, screams of many different beasts, even those I have yet to see. It¡¯s a stampede. Mother has been flying over this forest often, but she is soft. Even when landing she doesn¡¯t shake the ground as badly as she could. This thing is different. It might also be a dragon, I can scarcely imagine anything else coming down like a cataclysm.


    This one isn¡¯t soft however. It isn¡¯t mindful of this place, maybe because it doesn¡¯t own the place¡­ Instincts tell me to not mess with another¡¯s property, does this mean that the flaming dragon is an attacker? It might not care about messing with mother¡¯s domain if its goal is to hurt her in the first place.


    That might be bad¡­ What if my siblings are around for the fight? What if they don¡¯t understand that they must run?


    I have half a mind to satiate my hunger with some grass and leaves and then try to run home, but that wouldn¡¯t work. I don¡¯t know how dragon fights work, but in nature most battles are swift. It¡¯d take me hours to get back on foot.


    I flap my wings, but the answer is still ¡°no¡±. I either have yet to fully grasp the biomechanics of flying as a dragon, I need to grow my wings even larger, or the flight magic mother uses is a requirement to fly in the first place. Whatever might be the cause, I wouldn¡¯t be able to get home in a timely manner¡­ Unless¡­ Argh, can¡¯t think. My stomach doesn¡¯t growl but it does burn, causing me to follow the sounds of stampede. I genuinely cannot focus while the engine demands food and I won¡¯t be playing a cow in the middle of an apocalyptic storm.


    I lower my body closer to the ground, which makes me at least a bit smaller than the average bush and abnormal grass, so I stalk forward like I learnt while hearing two mighty roars in the distance. Yep, dragon on dragon violence, not what I wanted after napping half a month.


    It takes me about two minutes to see the first living creature around, and two seconds to see it get trampled by an absurdly fast not-deer. I felt a mental slap as I watched the bipedal deer stomp the bright blue squirrel into a red paste. To add insult to injury, the corpse isn¡¯t even edible because the blood started bubbling and turned into flaming acid.


    Alright, I¡¯m close to the source of absurdity, the plants are weird by whatever animal made it this close are worse.


    Nice.


    I continue on, past the flaming acid, this time much more focused. I might need to stop something as it flees, after all. Ah, and that¡¯s exactly what I¡¯ll be doing it seems. I hear footsteps, quiet enough to not be hooves, coming towards me. Hunkering down I prepare to jump at the throat of whatever might attack me, but I realize that it¡¯s not just one thing. A giant dark furred thing jumps over me before I can even register it. It¡¯s so fast that I can¡¯t even see it, but I know that it is running from something. I focus on what might something larger than myself and so swift be afraid of, and I am confused for half a second.


    Skidding to a stop is a rat¡­ sort of a rat¡­ It has the body plan, it is also round yet had decent speed, and it is just a bit shorter than myself. It also has a metallic gray coat that shines like actual metal and its head is upside down for some strange reason. Its eyes are still on the upper part though, making it look like they¡¯re embedded straight in the lower (upper?) jaw. It opens its mouth and deformed, oversized flat teeth are spread all over. It growls at me like a damn wolf, then swings its tail around, a tail that has sparse, large metallic spikes grown on it.


    Metallic porcupine rat. Great. Also those teeth look sharp¡­ Damn, no wonder the big ass thing ran away. Defensive offense¡­ Not great for anyone.


    Before I can decide on a course of action, the beast makes the choice for me by jumping into a roll and hitting down with its tail. I push myself back, but the spikes on its tail suddenly spread outwards, gaining enough length to scrape my head, leaving an open gash. Why? How? I should be able to block that¡­ was I too focused on evading to repel it? I see it follow up with another tail attack, aiming at my side, and I respond by putting my mana into repelling.


    It doesn¡¯t work. Or rather it works, the explosion pushes it away with enough force to make it back off for a moment, but I am bleeding. It didn¡¯t puncture deeply, but it punctured. How does that make sense? Goring attacks from charging boars did not make it through, and that was when we were much younger! But this thing can just hurt me despite by defense?


    Hungry¡­


    Is that it? No.. Why? Why am I asking? Because I might get surprised like this in the future. But I am fighting now. I need to win this before it punctures deeper, before I take a lethal wound. But how, I can¡¯t bite this thing¡­


    It runs at me, ready to do another spin attack¡­ It¡¯s metallic, it might be a conductive metal. I try to harness a lightning attack but it fails. I need to scoop the lightning out of the mix, but while that is an easy task out in the open and while peacefully training, I am not exactly in a situation close to that. I need to pull lightning from the mix in my lungs without having it bind right back into the chaos, and then I also need to make it into a rune. I don¡¯t have time for that. I do however need to do something, so I pull on something I did before.


    I, without any sort of glamor, spit out the contents of my stomach coupled with most of the mana in my lung, resulting in  a cone of droplets, each one looking like sunlight reflected on gasoline, an off-rainbow of cold tints. The creature continues barrelling towards me for a moment longer, but its tail doesn¡¯t strike. It falls off. The monster screeches in abject pain as the steel that once protected it melts away, letting its vulnerable skin feel the chemical burn.


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I know i don¡¯t have a lot of time, I start eating it alive. Whatever made its metal armor so dangerous was nullified, the mana in the beast growing so chaotic it is doing all of nothing right now. It falls to my teeth without problem and I half eat, half slurp the pile of mushy rat.


    Disgusting. It actually tastes bad. Must be the acid¡­ It doesn¡¯t seem to hurt me, but it is foul. Still I can feel my hunger going away and a trickle of metallic mana flowing around in my body. Its core was thankfully intact and I was able to learn what the deal was. This whole rat¡¯s identity was piercing. It maxed out the offense of its spiky armor, making even the mightiest beast around vulnerable to its sting, even if only to a lesser degree.


    No predator wants to get hurt, especially if healing might just misshape you badly, so I understand how it survived this long and this far into the forest.


    Regardless of all that, I lived and can think, but I am still bleeding. Not good. I don¡¯t know how to manipulate meat or blood yet, so I lick my wounds as best as I can, then blow softly on them. Once more, praised be the lips. It takes a bit, but the bleeding stops and I start moving. It might open again, but my body is hardy enough to handle it so long as I am not heavily hurt.


    Problem is, what can be my next move? I run back to the pillar, the only safe-ish spot in the chaos, and draw as much air mana from it as I can, then climb up the tallest tree around.


    I like this tree, it¡¯s a very funny tree. While every other plant around looks like the typical temperate european forest, without any sort of conifers, this singular tree is both a fir, and an upside down one at that. It is a permanently green reverse cone, with the thinnest part of it at the base and the widest at the tip. I am not even talking about just the branches, its trunk is also thinner down low. It exists solely to spite reality and I love it for that.


    Where was I? Right, roars in the distance, mother¡¯s still fighting. I climb my way up, with ease and without swaying the tree somehow, and once up on the platform of branches, I look in the distance. They took to the sky. There¡¯s a giant fire around where her lake should be, there¡¯s a whole ass ashen scar probably from when the thing touched down, and I have no idea what to do from here.


    I see the beast, the monster, I see the¡­ dragon?


    What the hell is that thing???


    Alright, I understood, mother got some extra appendages to support her weight and to be more dexterous¡­ but what the fuck did that thing do to turn out like that?


    My eyes shouldn¡¯t be able to properly see that far, but the damn thing is so big I can¡¯t not see what makes it so unique. Firstly, only a pair of wings, but they¡¯re double mother¡¯s in length. The dragon is also many times longer than her, and at least at the upper part it is wider too. It looks like a hooded up cobra¡­ no, a flatworm with a ringworm tail? I see it open its mouth and oh my fucking god the thing has arms for lips. Those are straight up large, muscular arms, but not the left/right kind of hand, but a sort of between? Has about 12 of those and each one has 6 fingers. Yes, they¡¯re big enough that I can see the number of fingers, why is something like that allowed to exist?


    The flat part seems to be its head¡­ and maybe most of its body actually. Its mouth is as wide as it is, and opens like a whale shark¡¯s. I think I see its horns¡­ weird that it has them. They¡¯re spirals pointed backwards, so not used for thrusting either. About 8 of those¡­ Can¡¯t see its number of eyes but I do not expect a normal count.


    I see the golden yellows mix with bright reds and vivid oranges, patterns of flames and lightning running down its scales. Mother spews out a column of water which is flash boiled into steam by a massive cone of golden flames accompanied by flashes of red lightning.


    Yeah, that thing is a monster that can only be called a dragon because my instincts demand me to call it as such. I see lightning gathering above while a clawed hand rises from below. The serpentine tail is grasped and dragged down low while lightning hits mother directly, causing her to flash like a third sun for a moment before revealing her untouched form.


    Flames rise on the body of the titanic worm dragon, starting to scorch the wood away, but words that shake the forest cause the raindrops to stop a moment, then shoot straight for the flaming serpent the next. Its flames die down and it seems to struggle with boiling the prison, but it is being reduced.


    I need to fly home. I can only hope mother was able to take my siblings back home, where they¡¯d be safe from the battle of the titans¡­ I need¡­ I need to make sure they¡¯re safe. The humans too. I doubt they¡¯d survive if bits and pieces of debris fell into the cave and started to  burn away all the plants.


    I spread my wings and feel the winds of the dragon¡¯s clash pushing against the organic sails. It feels freeing in a way¡­ Free¡­ Free like a bird. Free to fly somewhere else, away from this danger¡­ But I am not a bird. I am a dragon. And I need to fly into danger for the sake of protecting that which I claimed as mine. Those are my siblings, and my humans. They might all be mother¡¯s in truth, but they are mine to care for¡­ and to care for¡­


    I focus and let out the wind mana that I gathered, weaving first the rune of air, then adding in control. It must obey me, because I don¡¯t need strong air, or a wide spread control of air, I need dexterity, and even though I may be in a dangerous, chaotic situation, I need utmost focus for this one goal. My wings are spread out, I beat them down, I feel my legs pushing against the branches, and I fly. I am used to this part, I¡¯ve been gliding for a couple weeks before the nap, so I know how to control myself in the air, but the second I try another beat of the wings I fall. So I don¡¯t beat them again.


    I use the air rune to do most of the work. I need more pressure under my wing than I need above it, I need the force of the air to push me upwards to balance out my fall, so I focus on doing just that. My limbs are pressed tightly against my body, my tails are spread out straight, swaying every so often to steer one way or another, a sort of innate gyroscope keeping me in control despite this being my first flight.


    I breathe continuously and use the air in bursts. If I continuously keep it up I won¡¯t make it home¡­ I won¡¯t make it home¡­


    I didn¡¯t make it home. I died without making it home¡­ But even if I made it home it was an empty thing.


    I like my home, my new home, it is warm and cozy, it is lively and fun, despite lacking all those fun little things that made my past self waste time¡­ this place feels more like home than that place ever did, despite being here for so little time. I don¡¯t want to lose it¡­


    My eyes drift to mother and I see her biting one of the dragon¡¯s arms, pulling down and making both of them crash into the forest below.


    ¡°Please win.¡± I spoke, poorly, to no one in particular.


    <hr>


    Once again I didn¡¯t make it home. I ended up crash landing into some leafless trees, breaking off many branches and getting a couple new bruises, but I am close enough to home.


    Turns out flying magically is absurdly fast. Sure it took me like 10 times the amount of time it took mother and I ended up not only using up all the mana in my lungs, but also a decent chunk of the mana in my wings to beat them faster than I normally should be able to. Still, it was damn worth it. I am close. Problem, mother and her enemy have been slowly approaching the nest in their tussle. At first they were going randomly, fighting on the ground and in the air, pulling each other low and using elements to eviscerate the beautiful forest. Hell, getting closer I was able to see that the flaming dragon is creating lava from dirt, so that¡¯s going to absolutely wreck the ecosystem.


    No matter, we¡¯ll survive, right now I just need to make it home and I am damn close¡­


    I know where I am, I know where I need to go, I know how fast I need to run, but damn if they¡¯re not just a bit faster.


    I burn mana, my limbs lighting up from its rapid use, rainbow, heatless flames and sparks being left in my wake.


    I need to make it.


    The forest is dry and dying as it is autumn, so the fire is fast.


    I need to make it.


    The two keep dragging each other to the ground, but they¡¯re gaining distance.


    I need to make it.


    The heat has reached me, a few fires are starting ahead of me from smoldering debris.


    I need to make it.


    The serpent, an explosion pushing mother backwards. I see her large head through the burning branches, I see it fall just a bit away.


    I see the serpent dragon, a hundred times more gruesome and terrifying up close than it was from a distance, as it slithers forward, its glowing form making visible the way it used those massive arms to pull itself forward.


    I need to make it.


    It reaches the entrance and raises its body. It opens its mouth.


    I need to make it.


    It roars like thunder.


    I made it.

 Interlude 4.1: There Were Humans In This Story

    The early days were the worst, understandably. After just barely surviving because of the whims of a hatchling, wolf-sized as he might be, every single second, every moment was a new torturous flavor for the young woman that was torn from her family. It was like she had died yet it was taking her body a while longer to properly accept it. It was like when her hand was scorched to the bone after she overused her magic.


    Ah, that day. Such a stupid day. She wished it could have been a good story of protecting the town from some runaway monster of the woods, but no. She was young and angry. She did not take her mother¡¯s teachings of finesse, understanding and politeness, did not listen to her when she said that a good girl should be kind and obedient, and got angry from being teased by the chief¡¯s girl, Tanja.


    My skin just started to darken and she said I would be charcoal before long¡­ She was right, in a way, yet I still hated her. But then she said what really set me off: that maybe my mother did it with a southerner and I was just starting to show my true ¡°colors¡±... That¡¯s when I got mad and the fire in me lit up.


    She had just wanted to scare her, after all the one thing she had over the others, despite her useless element, was that she could use simple magic without words. In truth all she could do at the time was to create bursts of sparks. And yet, despite that, she knew that she could scare her if she threw all her core¡¯s worth of sparks at her.


    She did not know how dangerous it was to use her whole core without giving proper shape to the spell. Nobody else did anything like that, and as such no one knew what could happen.


    For half a second she laughed, hearing the high pitched scream Tanja let out, but then her own shout joined in. The mana was shaped just by the vague idea of scaring the girl, and magic did as magic does. It terrified. All the mana that didn¡¯t get to reach the end of her fingertips and become outward sparks, instead sparked within. Her flesh bursted and bubbled and-


    ¡°Edith! Edith, girl, your hand! Control yourself!¡± It was spoken with urgency by a raspy voice she became all too familiar with.


    She was suddenly in the present, hit by an improvised switch which will certainly leave a mark later on her good arm. She yelped from the pain and went to hold her other hand over the reddening line, only to notice her clawed hand was on fire. That stopped her for a good few seconds before she pulled in the mana, letting the fire smother itself. Her hand was fine. There was nothing left to burn after all. She turned to the old woman who was holding a fresh, thin branch she had just hit the young girl with.


    ¡°S-sorry miss Yvonne¡­ I was remembering bad things.¡± Edith spoke quietly, shame evident in her expression. Maybe if the cards were stacked differently she would have been a talented sorceress, with how easily flames answered to her mere emotions, but she wasn¡¯t a sorceress. She was just a witch with a bad temper and little control over her own mana¡­ No, not even that, she was merely a child¡¯s pet. Yet that situation helped her grow her core so much faster than it ever would have back in her town. A weird situation all around.


    ¡°None of that ¡°miss¡° stuff, I told you to call me grandma Yv already! You¡¯re little older than my nephew! And I told you to leave your woes behind. You cannot bud if you keep airing out embers of that which burnt you before. Some may tell you to harness your anger, I say you do better to smother it and build a strong hearth before you start setting sparks again, so the fire won¡¯t burn what¡¯s left of you.¡± She spoke all too seriously, but her voice held no anger or sting. She was trying to help and teach, but they are vastly different and there¡¯s only so much one¡¯s experience can help another.


    She simply nodded, apologizing quietly once more, then went back to peeling and cutting the strange orange fruit that only The Mistress could grow. It had become the base of their meals, well, the fruit, the vines and the leaves that grew all over the place. The latter were only mildly edible, but they were greens and boiled in a stew they weren¡¯t too bad. There¡¯s only so much sweet someone can eat. And to everyone¡¯s despair it¡¯s been almost two weeks since their last serving of meat, and more than two weeks since they last saw their young savior.


    And isn¡¯t that weird? She asked herself as she chopped up the fruits. Thinking of that strange dragon child as a savior, but there¡¯s really nothing else I can describe him as. We were going to be eaten and he saved us from that. When we started wondering about food and water he came with a solution. After spending many days eating only fruits he brought meat for us. I was worried he¡¯d only bring bugs¡­ But he brought actual meat. He even broke open the carcass for us and brought us a sword and firewood. The fact that the two chained women broke out thanks to that very sword the kid brought so we could cut a Bone Boar was a whole different thing.


    She laughed a bit, thinking of that time. She had thought the beast woman and the noble scary, but they both turned out to be a lot more kind than she¡¯d expected. The beast woman, barbarian in act as she may be, brought a lot of food from her hunts with the dragon and handled all the butchering herself to great efficiency, leaving the rest of us to only cook the meal. As for Lady Meredith Glessher, she was an odd but respectful woman.


    She had been a sorceress before being imprisoned, learning proper spellwork from a book her father, apparently a merchant of great renown, had given her. It was sad that their elements did not have much in common. The woman could make shadows dance and poison things with a touch, nothing like her flames.


    Despite it all she had learnt from both her and granny Yvonne how to better use her magic. An old witch and a noble sorceress, more chances she wouldn¡¯t have had without the dragon taking her. Aside from the fact that she will probably not leave this place alive, this whole situation was quite good for her.


    Now if only that hatchling would come back¡­ For a week now she has noticed the siblings of the witty one looking at them differently, more like food. Maybe because he wasn¡¯t around they¡¯ll try their luck. Looking around she knew that the three dragons would devour them even if they gave it their all to fight back. Months ago they were fighting mana afflicted wolves like one would kill rats with a broom. Maybe Meredith would be able to run away with her darkness, maybe that barbarian woman would be able to escape with her beastly speed, but a fight they¡¯d lose.


    Her eyes turned to the boy, Alek, youngest of them all and who just barely survived a horrible sickness, also with the help of the dragon, right before he vanished. She just hopes they¡¯ll manage to hold on until that kind dragon comes back.


    Thunder echoes through the cave, startling her into cutting her palm.


    Since when were storms this bad so early into the cold season?


    <hr>


    Ever since taking on the role of sacrifice the world has gone mad. She understood it, in a way. Dragons were gods among men and beasts. Even the emperor of legends, if it somehow was as is described, would be little more than an annoyance to a grown dragon. Magic was the plaything of these monsters, the world was their property and the accomplishment and dedication of an entire lineage of witches is a toy for a dragon child.


    Even more so for the child that saved them. She was not as naive as the girl or boy, both so impressed by that animal¡­ but she had to admit it behaved strangely human-like at times. The way it used tools, the way it studied them so closely, the way it apparently started learning the barbarian¡¯s tongue and used magic to speak back¡­


    She knew that despite all that, despite all it did, that beast was still a dragon in the truest sense. It learned magic by copying them, learned how to hunt, learned music, learned so many things that it would have probably needed years to properly observe from afar, just by keeping them close.


    She remembers when the thing, after bribing them all with mana crystals fit for each and every one of them, learned to fill itself with mana. She remembers the sight of it when she bore the eye of mana. It looked like a star, compared to its siblings¡­ A terrifying thing that grew grander by the day. And whether they wanted to or not, they would end up helping it become a menace down the line much worse than The Mistress ever was.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    She sighs, after calming down the girl. Her days are numbered¡­ Every moment she feels herself withering, and the pressure of protecting and teaching the kids, while living under the claw of beasts, is starting to stomp out whatever good the mana of this place did to her.


    Bah, I did come here because I was dying either way¡­ What use is lamenting that my death is slow and stressful?


    Indeed there was no point, so she pushed the thought aside and focused on her work. She had to do her best with this soup, fearing what might happen if that monstrous woman gets any hungrier. She saw how she craved flesh, how she looked at the others every so often, with that crazed, yellow eye¡­ A shiver ran down her barky back and she stirred the brew ever so slightly faster.


    She hated being so dependent on a child and she hated how others started believing a monster of chaos to be benevolent, but she had to admit his presence kept them safe and it could do things nobody else could¡­ like heal the boy. What happens if the kid dies¡­ will The Mistress just stomp them all down in anger? Maybe. Or maybe they¡¯ll go back to being food.


    Regardless she had to do what she could with the time she had. Otherwise-


    Thunder.


    Thunder was never quite so loud before. She noticed everyone getting scared, especially the boy who started tearing up. She sighs, far too on edge from all this uncertainty, then goes right back to cooking. Storm or no storm, it had nothing to do with them. Or at least it didn¡¯t until two powerful roars echoed and shook the earth.


    A dragon.


    A second dragon.


    And it was fighting The Mistress.


    <hr>


    Pain. More often than not, her days have been pain. Taken from her clan, beaten down into obedience, chained with wicked iron that sickened and banished her guardian spirit, leaving Her gifts to rot despite a still living body. She cried until she had no more tears, then worked until they could beat her no longer. She survived. Eating rotten bread and leftovers, often even having to steal from livestock or to catch whatever bug or tiny animal came too close, yet she survived.


    She worked the fields until her fur was soaked and her skin was burnt. She obeyed and pretended to be afraid of the disgustingly weak men, so taken by grandeur because they wear cloth and steel and have a bit of mana running through their cold veins. A swipe of her claws would crumple all their armor and pride, but not when her gifts are bound so tight.


    And that was the truth, for from the moment she was taken to the moment she reached this cursed den, she was not able to take a single life. Yet here things became different.


    She had no reason to protect the wicked slavers, yet women and children were the only things behind her, so she fought. Especially after seeing a Godling of Flesh protecting them. The mother said as such in the end, using her divine power to speak even her very own tongue with ease. The elder boy, the grandest of his clutch, decided their life was spent better than as food, so now they were his. He had the might, true might, that afforded him that right.


    And so she lived, prisoner still, but now to someone noble, someone rightful, someone she could understand being entrapped by. And this one was kind. Child as he may be, he was Godling and his innate wisdom showed. Bringing food, including a graced bug that might have been troublesome to kill with how thick that shell was. He brought water so that our thirst may be quenched, and while she did not wholly understand the language of the slavers, she understood that he used his divine power to move that water. So young, yet already able to mold the world to his will.


    A true Godling.


    Yet also something else. The mother Godling was the perfect example of what one normally is. The power in her voice, stronger than her chief¡¯s, deeper in wisdom than the shaman¡¯s, so much grace and might in a beast she will never comprehend¡­ A beast so distant and grand¡­


    Yet her child was closer to a mortal than one might expect, especially for one so young and naive to the world at large. He left with her, at night when others rested and spent a moment just gazing at the starlit sky.


    ¡°Oh Harisar, with your glorious, cold glow, mirror of the world, I beg that my kin is safe and they too watch your beauty from the freedom of the fields and hills, away from the slavers and their tainted touch.¡±


    She cried. It had been too long and she was not one to dwell underground. The mere sight of the sky, of the great moon they all watched with love and awe¡­


    She missed home¡­ but she remembered that the Godling was with her, and if she showed how weak she truly was, it might decide she¡¯s not worth feeding, so she calms her expression, back to her strong self, to the one that survived captivity.


    And then he sang. It was¡­ amusing in a way. It was bad. The boy¡¯s voice is made for roars and squeaks, but he hummed to the best of his ability. And while the sound was not that great, the tone, rhythm, the melody! Everything else was great. It was a song of power, of glory, a song of closeness, of bonds¡­


    And so they sang together. It took a bit to learn, but she did, and she enjoyed it. Then when things quieted down, it was her turn. She sang the song of the hunt. The song of survival, the one that her clan sang before going out looking for a worthy feast, the one they only finished after everyone returned and before they got to butchering.


    It was the song that pumped their blood and that mourned their losses, the song of their life.


    And then she heard a drum.


    Godling magic, the shapes that ruled the world, the seemingly simple things that mortals never could quite imitate.


    And it was a drum, a drum made of treated deerskin wrapped around a wide tube of hardwood, something the slavers don¡¯t make.


    And she continued the song. More drums joined in, carved horns of great beasts, even voices¡­ no, not any voices, her family. Her fathers and mothers, her siblings, her children¡­ She could hear the drunk chieftain, slurring his words, she could hear them all, like they were there¡­


    And then the song ended, with a happy mourning, and she looked at the collapsed, laughing form of a Godling, a divine being wearing flesh, a friend¡­ a new, young, beloved friend that would hear her crying, truly crying.


    After that time passed, but eventually, as she was in pain from hunger, her friend returned with a bounty greater than she¡¯d expect. A boar with the essence of bones, a tough beast¡­ too tough for even herself.. yet he broke it open for her. Ah how she feasted¡­ And then he brought a dangerous artifact of the slavers¡­


    After he left, no doubt thinking that he sword would be used by them to cut open the carcass, she watched the woman with the foul scent of poisons reach for it and slam down her bindings into it, slicing them cleanly as well as their evil curse that restrains any blessing one may have.


    She saw that dangerous glint in her eyes, and knew she¡¯d try to run, now freed from the bindings, but a Godling would not take kindly to their mercy being trampled, and it might reflect poorly on her friend, so she roared as she freed herself, then grasped the blade and pointed it at the highborn slaver.


    She looked terrified, and did not move.


    So Ayrah got to cutting the boar. She did not know what her Godling friend was thinking, or what he was doing, but he brought the sword after seeing her struggle to bite into the animal, just like he brought the meat after seeing her starve, so she used it for what he most likely wanted her to use it for.


    And when he returned with wood for a fire it was clear that he knew the others would not be able to handle raw meat, slavers having a notoriously weak stomach. Wise indeed, little Godling, he was a wise one indeed. Her actions were also proven wise when the mother Godling returned, threatening torturous death if any of them even think about escaping her domain. She did however affirm that her friend could take them wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and only then would we be allowed to move from this room. She made sure to show her reverence.


    I will not betray him.


    Yet now he is nowhere to be found. After their many hunts and the time she spent teaching him words, after she begged him and he saved the boy that reminded her too much of her youngest brother, she now sits in pain from hunger, not having seen her friend at least pass by the hall. She was worried. It had been more than two weeks and she had yet to see him return from his last leave. His siblings came and went, explored and smelled of more power each day, yet he never returned¡­


    But she was still alive, as were the slavers, so he must have been alive still.


    He was the wisest of his siblings, strongest too¡­ There was no reason to believe he would fall to something they would not.


    So she held out hope.


    As the storm began she held out hope.


    As the roars echoed deep in their cave, she held out hope.


    As the young Godlings ran past their room, she held out hope¡­


    And as everyone abandoned the stew and followed them , she held out hope.


    Oh Muur, dearest guardian spirit¡­ I beg you to help me hold out hope¡­

 Interlude 4.2: Casual Trauma And Calm Disagreements

    The fall to rock bottom. That is truly the best way to describe Meredith Glessher¡¯s life. She had started out as the firstborn daughter of the man who owned commerce within The Mistress of Tranquil Waters¡¯ lands. Her family dates back to the early days of the draconic conquest; somehow her ancestor gained enough favor that the beast allowed him and him alone to leave and return as needed, taking only a small tithe in exchange. Then later his kin received the same blessing, as did any who worked under the now rich man. From a simple farmer with a scrapped together carriage to a titleless noble with enough influence to be on par with town lords¡­


    And then she was married off. It was expected. She could not properly inherit the business, that was for her younger brother, but that is the point where things started going wrong. At first it all seemed fine, her husband was the firstborn son of a baron, and not just any baron, but Lord Fastulfr Cyneburg, ruler of the only fortified town around these parts, save for Tranquil River. While only a small part of the Dragon¡¯s magical water reached this town, it was an outskirts fortress before she came in, and it maintained a relatively high military prowess since they never dared attack the conqueror.


    The town remained as a relatively rich one, using the military infrastructure to focus on hunting the witchbeasts created by the influx of mana, thus getting rare goods on a daily basis and becoming good trade partners with the Glesshers. Her husband was the leader of one of the hunting groups, a decently strong sorcerer, as is any noble worth their name, and he was at least charming and respectful enough to not have her dread his company. It was a pity he could not keep up in terms of wit, but a smart, charming and powerful man is rarer than a flower made of solid gold, or so her mother used to say.


    And then the poor sod got trampled by a bear. Or a very large wolf, accounts are inconsistent. This sadly happened two years after she became Meredith Cyneburg, and many lays into their marriage, so she suddenly became a used widow that had little value to bring for a second husband. Law dictates that the unwed man closest in blood to her deceased husband would be the one to take her, and the only unwed one from that family was a somewhat distant cousin, without title. Her husband¡¯s cousin, the Lord¡¯s brother¡¯s bastard son. He was not only a bastard, but a failure too, one who knew not how to hunt, work a trade, or even wield magic comparable to a peasant witch.


    He was also an alcoholic gambler that only survived because his father was too weak to cut him loose.


    She did all she could to live in this new situation, still receiving some gifts from her father whenever he came by, but both she and her father knew that her future was bleak. Alcohol made her second husband angry, and anger made him violent. She could not even read with him around, for if he saw a book he would take it, sell it for cheap booze, and then beat her for ¡°daring to think she¡¯s too smart for him¡±. All she treasured was hidden under their bed, where he never looked since he left the cleaning of the house to her.


    At least until he did look.


    And he took everything, even things that were priceless.


    Meredith shudders, looking at the strangely apt flame witch as she accidentally sets herself aflame. It was a weird thing, being surrounded by all these wretched people¡­


    Then again, she was a wretched thing too, now.


    Where was she? That night¡­ yes, that night.


    She got angry. Admittedly, not her best moment. She threw an empty bottle at his head, screaming about the necklace he took¡­ her mother¡¯s heirloom¡­ but he did not like that and did not care for her wails. He was inept, but he was still of noble blood, so the bottle did little more than shatter on the thin barrier of stone he had made above his head. Then he gave her her worst beating yet.


    So there she lay, broken, bloodied, splayed out on the floor while feeling nothing but pain¡­ And that vile man went back to his bottle, mumbling words she did not care for.


    He was drinking some aged spirit of some kind¡­


    He was drinking poison. Just not strong enough of a poison. So she made it strong enough. She did not even need to say a spell, just willed forward the idea that he wasn¡¯t drinking some backwater brandy, but rather pure alcohol. She could see it, the way the bottle bubbled, the way the stink got so sharp it started hurting her open wounds, but the drunkard did not notice, too lost in the drink. And then he dropped.


    Only in the morning did someone come to find his body and her bloodied self. She was healed and then asked about who did this. She tried to frame it as the fool drinking himself into the grave after beating her, and it might have worked if not for the priest. Witty bastard¡­ knew the drink was touched by mana¡­ And noticed that she had changed.


    She frowns as the storm becomes stronger and louder. It draws her back and she looks down at her reflection in the stew, piercing green eyes staring back at her. She hated seeing that glow they held, the telltale sign of losing a piece of herself.. The sign of¡­


    She was branded a witch by that priest. The guards stripped off any standing she might have kept despite it all, and threw her in a cold prison, chained with nullifying cuffs and prepared to be executed for murder.


    Only for the damned dragon to come in, demanding tribute, and for her to be thrown in its cage. She tried, damned be all, she tried. She did all she could to escape, but it led nowhere. She realizes now that she did not even try to escape with the goal of actually escaping, she had just hoped that the dragon would kill her swiftly instead of whatever torture it had prepared¡­


    And torture it would have been. Eaten alive by the dragon¡¯s spawn¡­ not a fate any would envy. But she wasn¡¯t eaten. She was turned into a pet. A pet for a winged lizard, barely a few months old if the legends are true of how fast these things grow. Worse yet, she became dependent on its wit. Food, water, tools, commodities¡­ That hatchling brought them all, and if he did not think of something, they would suffer the lack of it. They lived over a month on one set of clothes after all because of that.


    It was a strange being. Sometimes it would come multiple times in a day, sometimes it would forget about them for days on end¡­ They made do. And wasn¡¯t that even more humiliating? She had to work together with witches, slaves, and half a child in order to survive. This, she thought, was her lowest point.


    She thought things couldn''t get any worse than this¡­ And for a time she was right, since things got slightly better. She freed herself with that enchanted sword, but then that eastern slave stopped her from escaping. No, she was right. The dragon knew the second they got rid of the bindings, she would have followed and trampled her if she tried running. And even so, things still got better as they could now leave their jail every so often. The food also became better and better since the beast went out to hunt with the young dragon.


    And then the boy, the child, that weak little thing that had just barely enough mana to be even considered a witch¡­ He got sick. And that hag couldn¡¯t do anything. She knows, of course, of diseases that could resist healing magic. She also knew that they were more often than not deadly. She tried as much as she could to help, having gotten too used to being surrounded by people that would normally be lesser than her¡­ But she could just watch the poor boy wither.


    Until the dragon came and used her own element to fix him. The months old dragon knew her own art better than she did. She¡¯s been thinking about it ever since, about that cloud, about the intricate way the poison acted, about the fact that it somehow enabled healing magic to cure the boy¡­


    That dragon showed her that her decades of training, of following that one old book to the letter, even when things got harsh¡­ were worthless. An animalic infant was better than herself. And one who didn¡¯t even seem to have a particular inclination to poisons¡­ He just did that because he could.


    That was her actual lowest point. Seeing that a child that knew nothing more than a cave and a forest knew more about her own inborn talent than she ever did.


    It stung even worse when that bright eyed girl tried to learn from her, only to be unable to guide her properly¡­ She barely understood her own powers despite wasting so much time on them, how could she help someone so different..?


    The roaring became deafening, pulling Meredith out of her own head once more. She looked as people started leaving the room, following the sounds of destruction. A deep fear grasped her heart. A child was more skillful than herself¡­ More powerful too¡­ Then what would two adult dragons truly be like?


    It seemed, as they got to the exit of the tunnel, that they would all see the power of these beasts.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    <hr>


    Alek was bored. He was happy to be just bored, it was better than being bored, hungry and sick,  but he was still bored. He didn¡¯t get to do much here, there were too many adults and they were too  busy to play most of the time. It wasn¡¯t all bad, though! Granny would tell him stories at night, the scary cat lady helped him with eating, lady Dith sometimes made shadow puppets to go along with granny¡¯s stories, and big sis Edith kept him company when everyone else was busy and he really needed it¡­


    But he could still not do much of anything here¡­ He couldn¡¯t help with food, he was just too clumsy with only one arm. He couldn¡¯t play since there was nothing to play with, and even if there was, there was nobody else he could play with most of the time. At least he still had the gift from that nice dragon. A few large shiny crystals, the most beautiful things he had ever seen, and something that helped him make his parents proud. After all, after the accident, they told him that he gets to learn magic and that he has to work hard to be the best witch around!


    He was worried when the big dragon came in and took him, he thought he would die¡­ and the dragon saying he was supposed to didn¡¯t help his fear¡­ but he¡¯s been living better than he did back home. He does miss his brother¡­ he was the only one that always played with him after all. Maybe when the nice dragon comes back he will ask him!


    It has been a while¡­ Is the nice dragon alright?


    He would love to ask that, but nobody here knew. He knows that the cat lady liked the nice dragon a lot, and she¡¯s been very tense, so maybe she is worried too?


    A cold pain stabs his chest. It has been a while since it did that. He wonders, then, did the nice dragon get hurt because he saved him? He was weak and slow when he left¡­ Did the dragon get hurt because of him¡­ like his brother did so often?


    He can feel tears coming, but he manages to stop them from flowing.


    Mommy doesn¡¯t like crybabies¡­ He thinks to himself, the cold spreading a bit further. He needed to be strong or else his parents would be mad, so he couldn¡¯t cry even if he was terrified that someone else got hurt because he is so useless. That is why he holds the first crystal the nice dragon gave him, doing as Edith told him, pulling in the cold so that he¡¯d be a strong witch and no longer having people hurting because of him.


    Then he loses focus and drops the stone. A rough storm started a while ago¡­ but now it¡¯s scary how much the thunder roars. Roars¡­ Looking at the women that have been taking care of him for over a month now, his eyes widen. They¡¯re scared. This isn¡¯t a normal storm¡­ adults are never scared of them no matter how scary they are¡­


    So when they got up, he reached for the cat lady, and with her help he made it all the way to the exit of the cave¡­


    And it was dragons.


    Fire and lightning, torrents of water and plants, everything crashed in the skies and thunder boomed with each clash¡­


    And then they fell to the ground, a huge snake dragon fighting the big scary dragon that took him¡­. They were fighting and the snake was winning¡­


    And it won.


    And it got to them.


    And in that moment he thought, for who knows how many times now, that he died.


    <hr>


    ¡°I HAVE RETURNED!¡±


    Screamed the heavens as a living cataclysm fell upon the earth. The Mistress of Tranquil Waters raised her head, eyes focusing on the flaming arrow as it hit her side, pulling her out of her lake and dragging her all the way to the treeline. The clearing ignited as scorching heat emanated from her mate. She could see his prideful smile and the way he was expecting her affection, he maybe even expected for her to swoon over him and ask about his exploits in the past moons, about all the riches he found and what sort of treasure he hides in his false stomach at this moment.


    Instead he received a flurry of tails over the face, throwing him off, leveling trees into ash. The Outstretched Thunderous Scorching Hand looked baffled at the welcome, narrowed the many small eyes dotting its mouth and even spread open the eyes in the palms of his many hands, trying to see if something ailed his beloved. She answered in a rough, cold tone that made him realize she was serious.


    ¡°You are late. Very. Very. Late.¡±


    His smile faded, turning to worry. He tried to think back to his last visit and slowly realized that he was, in fact, quite late. He shifted his long body, curling into himself, his heat lessening as he tried to find the words. He spoke in a more quiet voice, putting only intent and no power into his speech.


    ¡°I¡­ may have lost track of the days¡­ I wanted to find a nice present for when the children hatch! It took a while to find a nice crystal for them, but I did! A big pillar of stone mana crystal, the heart of a developing elemental! it should help them toughen out when they arrive!¡±


    He seemed hopeful that his reasoning was sufficient to calm down his mate, he even spat out the large crystal, hoping it would be valuable enough for her to consider forgiveness, yet all he saw was a building rage as she roared out, water being ripped from the plants and the air and turned into torrent aimed squarely at the serpentine dragon. A flash of light dispersed the attack, pushing it back and destroying the spellwork. As he shook his head and looked over at her, a chill stopped him from speaking out.


    ¡°When they arrive? FOUR MOONS HAVE COME AND GONE SINCE THEY HATCHED!¡±


    Now that was a slap that actually hurt. He blinked and became mortified. He was late late. However a different feeling dispelled the cold fear, a burning desire to meet the younglings. His children, however many may have survived to the end, were now alive and have been living well for entire moons. How big could they be? The excitement was clear in his tone.


    ¡°The children are here!? Where are they? How many? Do they hunt yet? Are they nice and big?! I MUST SEE THEM!¡±


    Seeing the male turn to fly up into the sky only angered The Mistress more, causing her to grab her mate by the tail, biting hard on it and wrapping her tendrils around it for better grip, then she pulled hard and brought him down. She roared and he roared back, now more concerned with seeing his offspring than with solving this dispute.


    ¡°OH NO YOU WILL NOT!¡± Screamed The Mistress as The Outstretched Hand lit up his body and slipped away from the grasp, taking to the air. She gathered water and shot forth a crystal clear pillar of water, slowing down her partner. ¡°YOU DO NOT GET TO CRASH INTO MY FOREST AFTER MISSING THEIR BIRTH ONLY TO RUSH OFF AND SEE THEM, ESPECIALLY WHILE SETTING EVERYTHING AFLAME! THEY ARE STILL YOUNG AND YOU WILL BURN THEM!¡±


    He protested, but not in words. Instead he let loose flames and lightning. He would not delay meeting his children any more than he already did, or at least that was the plan. However no matter what he tried, his mate was insistent on stopping him. He narrowed his many eyes at her as they both flew in the sky. There was something she wasn¡¯t telling him.


    ¡°I know how to control my aura! I will cool off my flame, but I want to see them now!¡± He shouted as he saw her reaching for the forest below.


    ¡°You impatient little¡­¡±


    And so the fight devolved. Tooth and claw, flame and water, lightning and nature, a chaotic clash that killed countless creatures and destroyed entire habitats.


    ¡°It¡¯ll take me weeks to fix this forest!¡± Roared The Mistress as she sent him crashing down into a desolate ashland.


    ¡°Why are you hiding them from me!?¡± Roared The Outstretched Hand as he grasped her body and threw her to the side.


    The battle raged, leading so high into the sky it may have been seen by the nearby towns and villages, then so deep into the ground that a new lake may soon form. It was an even fight, one that devolved into simple shouts and combat. When words failed, a stronger claw prevailed.


    It took close to an hour for a change to be made. The Mistress was tiring, for while she has been resting well in her nest, The Outstretched Hand was cheating, holding a good chunk of his hoard within himself. Finally, at a crucial moment, after rolling through the now muddy ashland, he managed to throw her farther away than normal, and he knew where to go. He went to the nest his mate no doubt made by herself after he last left.


    ¡°NO!¡± The Mistress Shouted as she was getting back up, but she faltered, feeling her scales dry after the onslaught. ¡°Do not harm them!¡±


    The Outstretched Thunderous Scorching Hand was confused by that, for why would he ever harm his own offspring? He thought that they may have been slow in growth, so he made sure to extinguish his flames, his aura alone should not be enough to hurt even infants. However he came to learn what she had meant quite quickly.


    ¡°Back to your old habits? Keeping pests as pets?¡± He spat out the words, sending all his loathing for the tiny things that should be nothing but food for his children¡­ Yet there they were. A hideous group of mismatched, misshapen humans, collapsed, terrified, sitting right next to three beautiful hatchlings. One was the spitting image of his mate, one reminded him of his youth, and the other was simply different. A little bit of him, a little bit of her, a little bit of common dragon traits. They seemed to just be starting to develop in their own unique ways and shapes, maybe they will soon be forming their first affinity.


    Still, anger bubbled, seeing his children having to live so close to food without being able to eat. He was just about to scorch the damnable things when a powerful dragon roar stopped him. It came not from his mate, but rather from a fourth child that came from somewhere else. His rows of eyes focused on his form¡­ and he was confused to know that this one was also his offspring.


    Larger, stronger, with wings that might just be enough for flight and a roar of possession that tickled his instincts ever so slightly from the might behind it. He opened arms and mouth, revealing many more hidden eyes of all kinds, using them to study this one in as much detail as possible.


    This was his child, same age as the others yet much more grown.


    He was tired, spent, The Hand could see just how much mana this boy held recently, yet his body was now mostly empty. He wasn¡¯t in the nest, he rushed home from somewhere else¡­


    Most importantly however, it was not his mate who kept the pets. It was his son.


    That he might need to rectify.

 Chapter 24: Guilt Is Scarcely Logical

    Ohshitohfuckwtfisthisthing?!


    My mind is running at full speed while my body is frozen into the scared cat pose. Arched back, tails wrapped around me, one wing slapping at the ground in front of me while I can only let out low growls and roars that claim ownership of these people, my eyes trailing upwards at the imposing figure.


    No, not a figure, this is pure nightmare fuel. There¡¯s quite a difference between seeing a giant flaming snake from almost an hour¡¯s flight away, and seeing it towering over you. Time is moving painfully slowly, probably from me overdosing on fear, so I can see each and every grotesque detail of this being.


    It looks like its head and torso are one singular piece, a pretty wide and long but flat oval, with those wings and many arms, but up close it was worse. For one, it had a lot of eyes. I lost count when it came to how many small, beady, black eyes dotted around its mouth, almost like a circle of sensory organs. As it stretches out its clawed hands, I see a slit opening in each palm and eyes pop out. Each one different in shape, color and even in size, though they are all bigger than the beady ones, and there is a rough symmetry to their placement.


    It opens its mouth, suddenly seeming to be 3 times larger from just how much that thing can move. The teeth are strange, like an angler fish¡¯s with no serrated or flat ones, so maybe this one is more specialized in what it eats¡­ or maybe it is so strong it doesn¡¯t care. It does however have less rows than mother, only 2, but with the rows being so much longer it might still have more overall teeth.


    Oh, joy, I can see the meaty bits inside shifting¡­ Why? That¡¯s an eye. An. EYE. Why? Why would you need an eye in the middle of your mouth? No, it¡¯s not in the middle. It moved into the middle but it came from somewhere above. It is large and the pupil is shaped like an eight pointed star. It tightens and every single eye this thing has is suddenly focused only on me, from every angle it has. It moved swiftly, even for my slowed perception it moved so quick I couldn¡¯t see it.


    It blinks with its entire mouth, then goes back to observing me. Are we trading looks? I guess we are. No, wait, it¡¯s looking at me¡­ but it¡¯s also looking at my mana. My ability to perceive mana has improved with time and with my growth. If logic tracks, this thing should be able to perceive it much better than I do, maybe even see every single cell in my body by what and how much mana it holds. Speaking of mana¡­.


    A storm. It is a vicious, unending storm which aims to grab hold of all that it sees. I can see landscapes of all kinds, I see villages, I see the dark clouds reaching down from the sky and flooding them with flames and lightning. I see migratory destruction with an unending appetite.


    If I was still a human this would be the moment when I¡¯d be puking. At least if the sounds behind me are any indication. However I am not wholly human. Just a terrified human in a draconic body.


    The thing in front of me is a terror, a true mythological dragon that destroys and plunders anything it so desires.


    This thing is also my father.


    I knew from the second I could feel the scent of its.. his mana, from the moment I looked into those eyes up close, but I am still terrified. Mother, for all her attempts to murder us, has always been restrained and calm. Even when dealing with the humans she embodied the picture her mana paints. Tranquility, a serene scenery that doesn¡¯t care about what animals might pass through, for it will remain as it always was.


    The living storm in front of me is not like that. The mana doesn¡¯t cling to his body, he actively pushes it away, as if to showcase the might he possesses. The air itself is hot, despite there being no flame nearby. It takes me a painfully long second to look back, and what I see is terrifying. Ayrah is standing over the kid, guarding him from the heat, but I can see her fur letting out smoke. The old woman also looks like she¡¯ll be set on fire in a couple seconds, with the poison woman holding onto her so she doesn¡¯t collapse entirely. The scorched girl is the only one still able to stand, but she¡¯s frozen in fear.


    My siblings, on the other hand, seem to be oblivious to the standoff between me and my apparent gene donor. They grew a bit since I last saw them¡­ and it seems they noticed I grew a lot. They¡¯re jumping from me to him and back, sniffing, booping, but Satan¡¯s tapeworm continues to be fixated on me, and I am doing my best to not move from under his scrutiny.


    Until he shifts one hand towards the humans and a wave of mana pushes outwards. Animals were evading the highest concentration, my body rapidly mutated from being close to dense mana¡­ This monster¡­ He¡¯s trying to kill them with mana! Mother, this would be a good time to show up¡­ No, of course she won¡¯t.


    What can I even do? I try to wield the absurd amount of fire mana around us, I try pushing it away, I try forming it into a ball, I even try to just make it shiver, but it fails. It fails entirely and I do not know what to do about it. This is fire mana, but not really. It¡¯s electric mana, but not really. This is HIS mana, and it won¡¯t listen to someone that¡¯s not him.


    I wish I had time to study the understanding and concepts floating in the air, the ideas this old dragon formed, but I need to keep him from torching the people¡­ But what can I do? A huge dragon that literally flooded the tunnel with his mana, to the point where even the plants started combusting, against me.


    I am tired.


    I am exhausted.


    My mana¡¯s at the level where I can just barely function¡­ I don¡¯t know if I even got one breath attack left in me¡­ What am I supposed to do? How¡­ How can I make him stop¡­ What could make him focus on something else..


    A stupid idea just barely materializes in my brain and I have no choice but to execute it. I feel for the mana throughout my body, I make sure I have enough to pull this off, then I jump into action. Literally. I go from scaredy cat to jumping and flapping my wings like my life depends on it. My flight, without active use of air mana, is shit. I start stalling out quickly, but I do not actually want to fly. I just wanted to reach the eye that was so fixated on the humans.


    This dragon did not care for the rule of hoard. I claimed them as mine with my roars, yet he wanted to kill them regardless. In cases like this, instinct demands that I take a violent stand, even against an overwhelming enemy. So I do just that. The eye that before looked down at the humans had a fraction of a second to focus on me, then, seeing my claw wind up, it closed.


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    Scales, the ultimate defense. Not because they are hard, but because of this innate magical ability all dragons have. The thing that made the hour long fight between father and mother result in father standing here without even a scratch or a bruise. Even the thin scaled eyelids would absolutely protect that eye from a strong attack.


    But I do not have a strong attack planned. I don¡¯t have the resources, size, age, understanding, I do not have anything that would add up to enough power. So I cheat. There is a reason I¡¯ve gotten a taste for specialized mana cores, and it¡¯s not just the actual taste. The buck I ate held the understanding of using earth for steady footing, and to turn the mass of stone into an unstoppable force through charging. Basically the understanding of being blunt with earth mana.


    The rat from before however had a more tricky thing. It was related to metal, but not innately metal-aligned. It was more of a general idea slapped on top of metal because it was better at it than anything else that rat had access to. ¡°Defenses can be pierced by sharp, stabby things¡± squeaked the core that I devoured. And it did. It ignored my defense even while triggering it. I don¡¯t need it to do too much, I just need to make him bleed for harming that which is mine.


    So I swipe. My claws are sharper than the needles of that beast. They are empowered by esoteric mana I have no true understanding over. Yet despite it all, I grimace as I feel my strength draining yet see no mark on the enormous hand.


    I fall.


    I see the beast pointing his eyes at his palm, then I see the activation of its defense for a moment.


    Hah¡­


    So weak¡­ Even though I evaded the defense I still couldn¡¯t harm him¡­


    Sorry¡­


    <hr>


    I open my eyes and I see that the nest got a renovation. I get up, stretch, look around at all the new shinies that I am certain weren¡¯t here before, then I start sniffing the air. My siblings aren¡¯t here¡­ Mother was here a while ago, as was father¡­.


    WAIT!


    I frantically run out of the nest room, following the path. My mana reserves are decent, though my cells aren¡¯t packed. Still, I am able to run faster than before, and I very swiftly find my way to the human room. I look inside¡­.


    It¡¯s empty.


    I see the basin filled with green water, standing surrounded by ashes and charred wood, as well as some half cut fruits that started oxidizing. I blink away tears and run out again.


    It takes a few minutes, but I get to the entrance, noticing that the plants around it are either mostly destroyed or just plain dry, turned a brittle yellow. There¡¯s no bodies. I sniff around¡­ Blood. I look at a small splatter¡­ blood. Human blood. It¡¯s not Ayrah¡¯s¡­ It has traces of fire mana in it, and not father¡¯s flavor of flaming storm, but a more general fire¡­


    That girl¡¯s blood¡­


    My tears are gone already. I try to feel sad, but I can¡¯t feel any sadder. They likely died, then got eaten by my siblings. I try to cry more, but I can¡¯t. I try to shout, but I just let out a shaky hiss. I try to rage, and that I succeed. My new hands clench and I feel the stone around me cracking.


    He killed them. Innocent, kind... He killed them regardless. I feel something in me vibrating, something that resonates with my wrath. I feel the trace amounts of chaos mana still left in my body, migrating towards my center, towards my heart. I feel it pumping stronger. I rush out of the cave, trying to hold onto that feeling, but instead I freeze.


    Right, the fire.


    The forest is¡­ well, not gone, not fully, but it certainly looks worse.


    It is autumn, fully autumn by now. No greenery in sight, just slowly drying trees, which made the job of the fire much easier. Now, in front of me, there¡¯s a forest of white ash and dark charcoal. I see the bare earth with no rusty leaves dotting it. I see no moss or lichen¡­ It¡¯s all gone. And so is my rage.


    How can I be angry at something that shapes the world? How could my anger survive being pointed at a nuke? I just sigh, trying to gather my thoughts enough to form a spell. I don¡¯t have a lot of air mana, but I should be able to take a short flight, so I take to the air and look down at the desolation. I cannot quantify the destruction. My mind fails to recognize just how much was lost because of this battle between my parents. It will probably take a few decades of active restoration, or even more, for the forest to go back to how it was. Or who knows, mother might just fix it with a snap, she does that sometimes.


    Speaking of, I think I see her, but not where I expected to. She¡¯s not at her lake, but rather upstream. I try to focus my vision, empowering it ever so slightly with mana, and I notice smaller figures below her.


    Many smaller figures. Or at least more than 3, which was manny. Did somebody survive? Are they planning on eating them regardless and just hiding the fact that they survived?


    Anger ignites once more and I rush there¡­ or at least I start doing so as mother¡¯s head points towards me. She then takes flight and comes over my way, outspeeding me by a lot, and plucking me out of the air with her tentacles. I struggle, of course, clawing at her, throwing a tantrum while hoping she¡¯ll release me so I can go to the others¡­


    But instead she takes me there. As she finally lets go, I look around and see a sight that is both horrifying and the best thing I could hope for. They¡¯re alive. All of them. They are also bearing scars on the level of the fire girl¡¯s. Pure charcoal skin, tight to the bone. They all lack clothes and instead seem to be bathing in the water to wash away the pain, if their expressions are any indication.


    I look at the boy and I can literally see the place where his old shirt melted together with the left side of his chest. His eye doesn''t raise from the water. I see Ayrah, furless, having her arm somehow even more hideously malformed than before, but she¡¯s still stoic. She glances at me, nods, then goes back to carefully washing her painfully raw looking arm. The poison lady has half her face completely disfigured, her one good eye looking at me with a sort of hatred that I cannot help but accept. The old woman actually fared better than I expected, noticeably missing some branches, but lacking any real burn mark¡­ hen I remember the poison woman protecting her, and the fire girl standing in front¡­ She looks like she cried a lot.


    Speaking of the flame girl¡­ She¡¯s bad. Not only did the scorch grow all the way to her face, burning away the right side of her lips permanently, but it seems to have developed all the way from her sternum to her arm. Despite looking like two face, I can only see sadness in her eyes. They¡¯re all¡­ They''re surviving.


    I also see that my siblings are as clueless as always. They¡¯re around too, playing, throwing little balls of fire and water at one another, which harmlessly deflect away when they hit. Are they recreating mother¡¯s battle? Maybe. Speaking of¡­ I wonder where father is. And what happened¡­ He seemed intent on watching them slowly die, yet the humans are still alive, mother and my siblings are right here, and there¡¯s no enormous worm snake thing to be seen.


    I throw one last look at the humans and I feel pain, shame and sorrow welling up in my chest. This is the result of weakness on my part. There must have been a way to stop him before they got hurt, maybe if I wouldn¡¯t have crippled myself into a coma I would have been here from the beginning, able to hide them somewhere so they would be safe¡­


    Errare humanum est, but I am a dragon and lives are in my hand. I need to find a way to fix this¡­ and to be prepared in case father returns.


    I can''t fail them again.

 Chapter 25: Dream...

    It did not take long to see father again. A week after the whole chaos, a storm formed as he flew through the skies, but it was subdued compared to before and he did not fall like a meteor, rather he landed with a certain grace then slithered up and around mother. Some weird act of affection if I were to I guess.


    Thankfully the humans are all inside now, and we are at mother¡¯s lake, which was somehow unaffected by the destruction and by autumn, instead seeming like an oasis in the middle of a recent forest fire¡­ which it actually was. Look, I used to write code, not novels. Regardless of my poor vocabulary, I found this scene sickeningly normal.


    That giant, terrifying thing, was currently hugging his mate while giving pretty gentle rubs and pokes to my siblings with his absurdly large hands. As he tried to do the same with me I simply smacked his hand away with my tails and I roared in anger. I don¡¯t know if he understood, but I pushed the rough idea of ¡°You broke my things and I hate you for it!¡± into my tone, hoping the bit of mana that left my lungs would give the beast enough insight, despite my lacking language skills.


    Man, imagine sucking at every language you know. That¡¯s rough, me. That¡¯s rough.


    Regardless of my bored inner monologue, I continue observing the situation. They are talking, quite a lot in fact. Mother rarely talks, but I now realize that it is because she doesn¡¯t have anyone to talk to. She seems to be a bit of a chatterbox when someone can reply. Sadly, despite the liberal use of draconic, I can¡¯t understand anything, and isn¡¯t that a weird fact of this language?


    It relies on mana to transmit information, but it also relies on association. I associate the word mother speaks to the mana in the rune that appears as she speaks, or to the effect of the modifier. That is how I learned the language so far. Once I realized ¡°Ter¡± means earth and anything that has to do with earth, I was able to throw all those links together and form my own understanding. So now as she says ¡°Ter¡± I can see in my mind the particular rock type she means to convey. This means that if I don¡¯t individually figure out what something means, I cannot understand it, in spite of the mana at work.


    Simplified, I¡¯d say that draconic speech is a strong form of suggestion. And as such it is entirely worthless to sit here and try to guess what they are trying to say. Thankfully body language is somehow more understandable. From the way they keep nodding our way, pointing up and down, sometimes getting just a bit snappy (literally), I think they are trying to figure out how to parent us. This is probably the time when they would be trying to pull us in different directions, so we¡¯d emulate one or the other. Honestly? I doubt either of their lives really suits me. Mother just sits in her lake 90% of the time doing nothing, which while appealing compared to my old life of 18 hour shifts for pocket change, would become boring fast, and father is just a straight up horrifying slaughterer. I don¡¯t really think I¡¯ll have good role models out here.


    With a sigh I step away, only to be tackled by both RT and Spots. Guess they decided to make up for my bigger size by doing a 2v1. I shake them off, then square up. I have to teach them that I am still the big guy around, even after being missing for a bit.


    It¡¯s good to be able and just play, you know? It makes thinking about bad things hard.


    Still it is not a long term solution. It seems father is content to leave the humans alone. Whether it was from attacking him or from some other cause, he is now completely ignoring them¡­ and I am making sure they are not in his line of sight. However I still have four injured women and a kid that just barely survived pneumonia a couple weeks ago only to now have a good chunk of his torso burned, so I think it is time to learn what to do when wounds are involved. The old woman did her best to try and fix the burns, but all she managed to do was to push them into that bubbling stage early. Her method of healing will leave behind marks, and I need to somehow make up for my failings.


    My first thought was to use more mundane methods like plants. That same thought gets thrown out the window because the only plant life around is made up of grass and a few trees that don¡¯t seem to ever change unless mother molds them, and even so I doubt I¡¯d have something like aloe anywhere near even in spring. My next option would be magic, but I genuinely cannot figure out the spell mother used those few times we got hurt. It¡¯s complex, and aside from it being mostly nature attuned, I have no insight on it. How does that even work anyways? Nature seems to affect plants in particular, so how come that heals meaty beings?


    Regardless, with that being a bust, I can only go with option 3: learn flesh magic somehow. This one is dangerous, but also the most likely to work. Flesh, bone and blood, the three mana types that seem to be quite common in animals, and that are directly linked to the body. Theoretically I could heal any wound and quite a few diseases if I just know how to tell the body to fix itself, while using the mana to speed up the process.


    The reason this is dangerous is that I would be literally manipulating the body of whatever I am targeting. One mistake and a mild wound becomes a severed nerve. What happens if I grow bone instead of flesh? What happens if I try to fix something and the humans in this world have their organs in a completely different configuration? I mean, most of the animals I ate seemed to be pretty normal on the inside, with the exception of having cores crammed in there, but I still need to be careful. There¡¯s a reason doctors require a hundred scans and tests before they decide to do a single surgery.


    Sooo, bad either way. Healing is an absurdly hard thing to¡­ Who would have guessed?


    A fourth option would be granny¡¯s way. Sure it sucked at dealing with infections, and it can¡¯t seem to fix the marks, but she knew some kind of catch-all healing spell and I already know that I can hold and mold more mana than her, making the spell more powerful. If magic is able to take the wheel once I give it enough nonspecific instructions on how to do stuff, I might be able to use it to fix the scarring. Sadly there are problems with this, like how risky letting magic do too much guesswork is.


    There is also the fact that human magic and dragon magic are entirely different things. Sure, all things point to dragon magic being superior, but the fact that I can tweak the effect of a spell by millimetrically shifting the shape of a rune means that dragon magic is reliant on knowledge, even more so than the human one. Say mother is 100 or 200 years old, that means she¡¯s already much older than the granny. She also only really needs a bit of food and some mana to live. She doesn¡¯t need to care about shelter or paying taxes or working the fields from morning to dawn so she¡¯d be able to survive winter¡­ So what is left to do with all her time? She can practice magic and learn how to use it with such precision and power that she can reshape the land to her whims or heal her month old children perfectly after they got beaten up by rabbits.


    Basically, I might be fucked if I need to practice centuries to understand how to handle magic well enough for my needs.


    I am¡­ exhausted¡­


    Spots is biting and pulling on my left tail while RT is struggling under me, but the weight of things hits me too hard for me to be able and pretend that things are fine. I am not fine. I¡¯ve been struggling with my mind being a lot more callous than my old one would be, mostly from the strong instincts telling me that humans are not equals I should care about. I¡­ cowardly accepted some of those thoughts, put distance between me and them. ¡°The humans¡± I say, as if I already accepted that I am something different. I have criticized their magic, their frailty, their many needs¡­ I put myself above them because it¡¯s easier to not feel their loss like that.


    It¡¯s easier to accept their treatment if I squash my empathy.


    But that wall was as thin as paper, because this is not me and never was. I had accepted loss, yet a single teary eyed look was enough to move me, to remind me just how wrong I am and how much I hate this type of thinking. This acceptance of cruelty as part of life. I never wanted to become something like this¡­ so here I sit, looking down at my reflection in the lake, ignoring the nudges from my siblings, and I try to understand who I am.


    I am a dragon. My body, my aptitudes, my instincts, everything points to me being a dragon. I look at the hands I grew just by imagining them while sleeping. I look at the sheen of my scales, I look at what I am and my only answer is ¡°Dragon¡±.


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    I look at what I was. A guy, living above the poverty line, but not by much, trying so hard to find passion in living while seeing worse and worse things happen every day. I try to look a bit deeper, but I am met with a door, a rotten, hideous thing that bars my way. Memories I did not want to remember, stuck here, away from all the useful things.


    I look at what I want to do. Ever since I realized my situation and the possibilities of my future, I started thinking of things I want to do. I wanted music, something I loved but sucked at in my past, and I got it in a way. I wanted to protect the people that showed up, despite all my dragon parts telling me to eat them, so I grew stronger, I learnt faster, I did all I could to become mother¡¯s favorite so that their treatment would remain fair. I wanted to enjoy this world and explore it, understand the mechanisms of this alien place, so I stretched my wings and figured flight on my own, I also improved my eyes for this very reason¡­ And finally, I wanted to be something better than what I was.


    I lay my head on my front legs, unintentionally letting out a sad squeak as I looked at my reflection, the surface of the water being disturbed as mother sank in and came close to me, her large head offering shade. Yet I don¡¯t look up. Instead I focus on my thoughts.


    Despite my entire life¡¯s worth of memories being here, accessible at the speed of thought, there is a very clear line between the past and the present. There is a sort of filter keeping all these memories in my library, so unless I am specifically looking for a memory from my human life, I will not be getting them while thinking of things. Or at least, most of the time that is true.


    There have been cases so far. Strong emotions, stressful situations and even when something happening was just far too familiar to the past, a memory would pierce that wall and slap itself straight into my brain. Thankfully I have been able to manage it, and I didn¡¯t let my past poison my present¡­ but maybe I need a little bit of the poison. I need to remember who I once was so that I will be able and think straight for once. No more doing stupid shit like throwing myself into a mana filled lake to try and get a real life powerboost, no more attempting to force stronger spells into existence without me having any idea of the result, no more using chaos or some other half baked whim just because I don¡¯t have another easy solution at hand.


    So I open that rotting door, raise up a dusty, old newspaper and I start reading. ¡°12 year old girl found headle-¡± I am hit by pain, but not really. I am simply experiencing the memory. I am experiencing the way my chest tightened as I saw that news in gory detail. I turn the page and I feel the disgust and the fear my 9 year old self felt after seeing a video that had no business being on the internet.


    This is what I should be feeling. A death is a tragedy. I do not know what sort of lives these people lived, maybe some of the women were criminals, maybe they were living saints, I cannot judge. Yet the one thing I can do is say that their death would be a tragedy. Admittedly a silent one, for I would be the sole witness, but it would still be a tragedy.


    I remember videos, documentaries. Crimes committed by the powerful, later glorified for the ¡°good¡± they did by exploiting others to raise their own station and feed their own greed. I remember the good humanity can do, thousands of people working to protect endangered species, people inventing all sorts of marvels just to improve life, I remember my reaction to each and every thing. This is how I was, this is what I should be, yet my new self has changed drastically.


    Something pops in my mind, not from this horrible room, but from the library. A simple thing, from an amusing place of origin.


    ¡°¡­ not of what you are, but what you want to be.¡± says a memory that makes me nod. Indeed, I am a dragon. But I do not want to be what is more than likely expected of me. Mother, father, they are both conquerors. Sure, one took over while the other just scorched anything that he wanted to scorch, but the idea remains. They are the kind to take without care, living by the law of strength.


    I want to be a better me. I want to live following my own dreams and desires, but not in a way that disregards anyone else. I want to be a me that actually makes a difference. A me that doesn¡¯t have to be stuck there, watching things unfold, slowly rotting away until I am out of tears to cry. I want to be someone that suffers no impotence in the face of tragedy.


    So I go back to reality and make a silent promise to myself. It might be naive, it might be an unachievable dream, but I need a target that I can focus on, a tangible goal to keep in mind so I don¡¯t lose myself into the life of learning and playing expected of a child. I will take them home. I will have to find out where ¡°home¡± is, but I will take them all to their respective homes. Or leave them somewhere safe at least. Now that I think about it, they were given to a dragon as sacrifice, so maybe their homes would not be the safest place.


    Regardless, I have a goal. A goal that triumphs over my old fantasies and stupid daydreams. This is people¡¯s lives and I will help them get as far as possible from monsters like mother and father.


    Fleshcrafting it is.


    I get up and I run away. My parents, although clearly looking at me departing, seem to take the hint and leave me be. Time to do some nonverbal communication.


    <hr>


    I return, an hour later, with what I have been looking for. Flight has helped me greatly with finding prey, since I already had bird eyes prepared, all I needed was the bird¡¯s eye view to become a true hawk. I found one of the animals that mother has been using as prey for us in the early days. Just a normal rabbit with a tinge of every body type mana.


    I trotted up to mother, dropped the animal, and as she turned to look at me inquisitively I started moving three strands of mana. Bone, blood, flesh, making pretty ribbons of slightly colored mist. To mother¡¯s eyes, however, it was clear what sort of mana I was moving, but she didn¡¯t seem happy. She raised her foot and trampled it, leaving behind only a paste.


    Alright, that¡¯s¡­ not what I expected. I frown and look up, but she turned her head away.


    Well shit, either she has no idea what the rune for any of these mana types is, or flesh magic is somehow taboo. Or¡­ using flesh magic might be absolutely deadly for a dumb baby dragon¡­ Ahh, I remember my attempt at a bone breath attack, which rattled my teeth and gave me that awful feeling of being to a dentist.


    This is a bust, I should have realized this is one of those mana types mother doesn¡¯t teach since it could be harmful, like death magic¡­ There¡¯s a reason she went from showing off those elements to me to showing off modifiers and then nothing else.


    I pace around for a bit, then decide to make her understand my goal. I lift my leg and I bite. It doesn¡¯t go through at first, but I know exactly why. Your body is supposed to stop you from harming yourself, but it is not an absolute thing. I take a deep breath and I bite hard. I have enough experience to not be stopped by something as weak as self preservation.


    I start bleeding, as I forcibly stopped my repelling protection from activating. Suddenly all heads around turn to me. Right, fine nose, the one sense I had that was absurdly overdeveloped even as a kid. My siblings are confused and seem to look around for what might have caused this, while mother just looks at me, frozen. Father seems to come in and looks at me with all his eyes¡­ shit that guy is always going to be creepy¡­ Regardless, mother activates her rune and I focus on it. It has nature at its base¡­ wait, no, it doesn¡¯t! Or does it? It¡¯s weird. Ah, there¡¯s a different mana type! That¡¯s how she¡¯s been healing everything, nature seems to be a subset of a different mana type, and that one is taking center stage while nature is used to actually mold the effect and empower the modifiers, and boy are those a lot of modifiers.


    She heals me quickly and seems to keep investigating me, I need to get at least a few more looks to be sure¡­ I may have studied and recorded a bunch of her spells, but this one I have seen rarely. Once we got the hang of it, we stopped getting hurt, so it has been a while since she last used this spell.I manage to remember a bit, but I can¡¯t figure out the mana type without her showing it off once more, so I bite my arm as she looks at me, and i point it towards her. She snaps at the air in front of me, but I don¡¯t move.


    Come on you lizard elephant thing, you could have healed them 600000 seconds ago and you didn¡¯t, so show me how I can heal them instead.


    She activates it, and I sniff as best as I can while focusing on the rune in the middle of the formation, the one thing colored differently. I feel it¡­ and I remember this scent¡­ Life. The very concept of something which lives, a mana type that presumably encompasses anything organic, and maybe things that live without being natural.


    And, while failing to memorize all the runes, I managed to catch the most important one. I breathe in, but I do not have the mana type around, not in good amount. So I study my surroundings and start gathering any random strand of life that I find. Mana around here has been a bit more chaotic, probably as a result of someone spitting out fire and lighting and destruction, or probably from the fight, yet regardless of it all, it helps me out. More mana from the things in the lake made it out, and more mana types are available.


    It takes me another hour, and it looks like everyone is preparing to go back home, yet I stop them. I make the life rune. In its simplest form, with barely enough mana to power it for moments, yet the results are clear. I have the very concept of life in my palm. Mother roars, which surprises me and causes me to shift the shape of the rune slightly.


    The grass within 4 meters of the rune turns to dust, while my body lights up like a christmas tree.


    The rune vanishes and I look around me, eyes wide.


    Huh¡­ I think¡­ I think I just moved the life of everything close to the rune a bit to the side.


    And I think my innate protection is the only thing that kept me from dying right there¡­.


    So much for no more dumb moves.

 Chapter 26: Never Enough

    Well, I am grounded. Actually, no, grounded is the complete opposite of my current state. I was unceremoniously put in air jail for my crime of fucking with the very concept of life. Mother smacked me with a tentacle just hard enough to exhaust my body without putting me into a coma, which really hurt by the way, then tied me up with an absurd amount of vines and left me hanging from a tree.


    This sucks. I lock myself up in my brain enough, I don¡¯t need more self reflection time!


    ...


    Or maybe I do¡­


    I literally just hurt myself twice then almost killed myself¡­ while trying to learn how to heal¡­ I think I tipped over from being ¡°a strangely smart kid¡± to being the baby that is running around with a blowtorch. Sadly, messing up like this was bound to happen. There¡¯s just so much I do not know and so much I can¡¯t just guess or apply my past knowledge to. When I saw life and death mana existing in this world I expected life to be all about healing and death all about killing¡­ But that¡¯s a very game-like thought process in a very ungame-like world.


    Regardless, I am now stuck, unable to even really struggle, while my siblings are being given a ride back to the nest. They¡¯re not going to keep me like this forever, right? Wait, this is the first time mother would punish any of us¡­ how harsh is she going to be? Thinking about the life and death battles me and my siblings went through because of her¡­ yeah I might get to see the afterlife again so soon¡­


    Or¡­ maybe not. I¡¯ve been slowly recovering my reserves thanks to how rich the mana around this is, so I am able to stand upright when mother brings me down, returning from probably taking my siblings to play a bit in the cave before sleeping. While I expect her to hit me again, she instead summons a very tiny version of the life rune¡­ by her standards I mean. It¡¯s still bigger than the version I made. I take a step back and I see how she rips the life out of a patch of grass, then throws it right back¡­ but it doesn''t get fixed. Not really. The blackened blades of grass try to stand upright, but something took hold already, the concept of death, and just throwing the same energy back where it belonged doesn¡¯t seem to fix things, it just makes them pretend to be alive for a bit.


    I watch as she then uses nature to quickly regrow the patch, and this time she focuses her magic on a single blade. She adds in the rune for control and seems to take out a very small flow of life, the grass looking sickly, but not dying. When she pushes it back, I can see as the grass seems to fix itself, but the weakness remains¡­ and then she makes a combination. So far mother has not shown us how to combine elements, probably because it might lead me and my siblings to do something stupid like rending the life of everything around, including ourselves, level of stupid, but here she is doing just that. She merges life with nature, making the life rune sort of feed into the nature one, but without using a conversion rune. It¡¯s like it was meant to be, like both of them had little nooks for this specific goal and now they just fit together. Regardless, I see the blade becoming perfectly healthy, no patch of yellow, no little crease, it doesn¡¯t even obey gravity anymore, standing upright despite being a very flat and thin thing.


    As mother dispells her rune, I approach the blade. It¡¯s perfect¡­ and it still smells of vitality. It smells of something living as best as it can, as if it refuses to allow things like disease or decay to even exist around it. It smells¡­ And I ate it. You know, I should expect ¡°life¡± infused into something to be a delicacy¡­ which is a bit cheaty when you got a mother that just oozes the thing somehow¡­


    Actually, how? Seriously, how can she do all this? Mother¡¯s affinities are clearly water, nature and something else¡­ not life, not earth, something weird, but not something that she¡¯s using right now, so how can she do all this? I mean, yeah, there was some life mana coming from below, a result of some magic rocks she has stashed away under the glittering crystals and metals, but even so¡­ She can use air, earth, fire, basically anything kind of mana she needed she could use. Is this what happens when you have enough room, or just an effect of growing that I do not yet know about?


    Ughhh¡­ I hate being unable to properly talk. There¡¯s only so much that guessing is good for¡­ Man, is there really nothing I can do..? Hmm¡­ Alright, mother, you convinced me that life magic is not a good idea right now¡­ But what can I do?


    I hate being powerless. I hate seeing people struggling and suffering and having to turn my head¡­ Magic is supposed to be the fix for that, to let me do something! Anything! Yet here I am, standing before a powerhouse, being shown that I could do so much more, yet I can¡¯t. Not because of some injustice, not because I was unlucky and wasn¡¯t born with sufficient talent, a healthy body, or in a family that can afford to help me reach my goals¡­ because I was born in the best position, body and place for all of that.


    I am just not good enough.


    I have every advantage under the sun¡­ But I am just not good enough.


    So I breathe in, then I breathe out, and finally I let loose a frustrated cry. I bite the air, I claw the ground, I let loose flames to burn the grass, and finally I just curl up.


    Because there is nothing I can blame for my inability to help. There¡¯s nothing I can hate for being forced into the position of a bystander again. I am just not good enough to help, so I will not.


    <hr>


    It¡¯s morning and I hate it. After mother brought me to the nest, I quickly fell asleep and woke right back. My emotions have already dulled, but instead of a pathetic tantrum I am just loathing my inability to fix things. Now I don¡¯t have delusions of grandeur and I don¡¯t think I am some kind of hero¡­ but I wanted to be able and at least stop bad things from happening where I can see them. Not in a ¡°brush it under the rug¡± way either, just stopping them altogether wherever I can.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Yet I sit and watch through the vines as the people inside go about their day. The old woman¡¯s healing is¡­ It¡¯s basically faster regeneration. It just speeds up whatever natural processes are already in place, it¡¯s not exactly a cure all like I thought, just a helping hand. The downside is that the scarring will remain, and their flesh is now soft, weak, and clearly painful from the way they wince every so often, but they went quickly past the worst part of the burns.


    They¡­ They will live. They will eventually get used to it all, though they may be shunned if they ever make it back to society¡­ The poison woman specifically will have it rough. She was decently beautiful by past me¡¯s standards, so she took a massive hit by society standards by having half her face melted. Then again, she came here in cuffs, so maybe her social life was already burnt down¡­


    Yeah, no, not even macabre comedy can fix this roiling, cold disgust in my chest. It quite literally feels like a cancerous growth is squeezing down my heart¡­ Even my mana is looking weird. Whenever I don¡¯t control it, mana escapes me like the soft plume of smoke after you snuff out a candle. Right now, however, I can see it fluttering and escaping in bursts, like something is pulling and ripping at its very fabric.


    Right, most of my basic manipulation of mana has been purely mental¡­ Makes sense.


    A sound brings me back and I look up at Ayrah who just spawned in front of me¡­ or maybe I was trying so hard to pull away from the scene in front of me that I ignored her coming close. Whichever works.


    Honestly, she¡¯s doing better. Previously the beastly arm, basically all of her fur and hair, and even her back were burnt, making her look¡­ yeah¡­ regardless I now see her being mostly healed. Her fur is very short, but there¡¯s only a few patches where it refuses to grow, so she¡¯s looking pretty alright. She¡¯s also rocking the short hair. It seems to grow back fast so she will soon be right back to normal, just with more scar tissue. Huh, is it the animalic mana that does this? Might be. I am surprised she still has any since we don¡¯t have a crystal that fits it, but I guess she produces her own mana.


    Anyways, it¡¯s weird that she just walked up to me, she¡¯s been ignoring me the entire week¡­ ah, she¡¯s reaching for my head¡­ I guess a hit after messing up so much wouldn¡¯t be undeserved. I close my eyes and wait for it, despite the protest building up in my gut. I deserve this for being so irresponsible.


    But she doesn¡¯t hit me. She¡¯s brushing my cheek¡­ ah, I was crying. Not full on crying, my eyes weren¡¯t even fully watery, but tears were running regardless. There¡¯s very few ways to look any more pathetic than this¡­ Rock bottom, nice seeing you again, old friend.


    As I open my eyes I see her worried face. You know, for someone who looks objectively scary, she¡¯s a very gentle woman. I nuzzle into her hand, which seems to make her at least a bit happier. A moment later my head snaps to the sound of something big landing and starting to come closer. That didn¡¯t sound like mother. I bare my teeth at the tunnel, then roar. It stops father for a moment, but then he seems to continue on his way towards us.


    Ayrah looks surprised, confused and a tad bit fearful for a moment, then her ears seem to pick up on the far away sound and she rushes back inside the room. Hopefully she¡¯ll take everyone into a corner¡­


    Father is faster than mother, terrifyingly so. It takes him a minute and a bit to get to me, after which he seems to peek an eye into the room next to me, but I growl at him. He focuses his attention on me, then behind me. My siblings come, all eager to leave. They seem to have accepted him as a parental figure, probably because of the instinct that tells us who he is, but still it is strange to see how quickly strangers become close. He reaches down and picks us up, then goes on his way rushing through the tunnel like a subway.


    Once outside he takes us up¡­ and up¡­ and up¡­


    NO!


    No fucking way he is trying to teach us flight like this¡­ We are way above the height needed for easy flight, to the point where I got hit by the change of pressure. My siblings are all very confused since they never got this high either¡­ And he let us go.


    I spread my wings and I am pretty much fine. Really, I am not worried about myself, I can literally fly for a bit, so gliding down should be no issue. My siblings on the other hand¡­ They¡¯re a mixed bag.


    As I said, we seem to have reached the age where differences start appearing and our parents can start molding us to resemble them. RT actually has a pretty good wing span and his wings are a lot rounder than mine, acting like decent parachutes. Crown¡¯s wingspan is pretty small, and she seems to be going way too fast forward and her directional control is bad, but at least she¡¯s not falling.


    Spots is falling however. He let out a cry as he started tumbling down the second he was let go. His wings are a mixed bag. They are rounder, kinda like RT, but they are tiny like Crown. I turn to see father¡¯s reaction¡­ and he goes down and catches Spots, doing his best to soothe him.


    Huh.


    I expected him to be like ¡°only the strong shall survive¡± or something, kind of like the way mother just watched us get our assess kicked so many times¡­ man do I wish I had a normal family for once in my lives.


    Anyways, the rest of this situation was quite enjoyable. I was able to get a good view at the world, even better than while on mother¡¯s back, because I could just sit in one place as long as I wanted. Speaking of, I see her actually out of her lake, seemingly working on restoring the forest while we glide above. Guess she isn¡¯t all lazy.


    Ah, I also see something I didn¡¯t see before. There¡¯s a village some¡­ a lot away. It¡¯d probably take me half a day to get there flying, so yeah, pretty damn far. Still, it is a small village in the middle of the forest. There¡¯s some paths I think, parts where the trees are less dense, probably their way to walk towards the rest of civilization. I can¡¯t imagine anyone decided to just start colonizing dragon land, so it might be an old recluse village, with people¡­ in the middle of nowhere surrounded by thick woods¡­ where I could, say, sneak in and observe an actual fantasy society¡­


    My plights, worries, fears, they all melt away. Or rather they are thrown to the side. I know they will come back, they always do. They like to hit when I am weakest, yet for now the brightness of curiosity makes it impossible for me to not be excited about the prospect of seeing people just existing in this world. The few glances I got at that one town at the edge of the forest was far from enough. What sort of culture do they have? Architecture? Is it a feudal style village? Is it a nice place or a shithole? Do they have better agriculture thanks to magic? Stranger livestock?


    Do they¡­


    Are they missing someone?


    Did they sacrifice someone?


    ¡­


    Whose home is that?


    ¡­


    Can I help them go back?

 Chapter 27: Stressful Destressing

    It¡¯s the dead of night. I have not slept until now because I might as well be careful about my first time getting close to other humans, as I wouldn¡¯t want them to see me. Also because mother might pay a little less care at this time, since she got used to my nightly hunts with Ayrah. Still she did check up on me that one time I left without the giant woman, so maybe I¡¯ll need her¡­ Hmm¡­ Oh, actually that might be better! Even if she doesn¡¯t talk much, she does know how to talk, and she¡¯s much more likely to paint a better picture to the others than I would since I don¡¯t even know how to paint.


    Also, unlike any of the others, Ayrah is hardy, fast, stealthy and can actually see in the dark like me. Basically perfect for a night of stalking. Problem though, the place is far away and I don¡¯t think I can carry her. My flight is barely enough for myself, adding on her weight might be too much.


    It would also take the entire night¡­ Hmm¡­


    Alright, I might need a new plan. And a second mind to help me figure it out.


    With all that said, I run over to the room and I nudge Ayrah awake. We blink at each other, then quietly walk out and start going towards the exit. She is mostly healed so I think she¡¯d be fine to actually hunt, but that¡¯s not what I want to do. I bring her out and start walking away towards the village, then as we come to a patch of barren ground I start drawing. Having dexterous tails comes in clutch once again since it lets me draw at a better scale than my tiny hands would, and at decent speeds compared to using my front legs.


    She looks a bit confused at first, but my 3 year old style house drawings make her realize what I am trying to say. I draw stick figures, then an arrow pointing towards the rough direction of the town. She seems thoughtful, then points at it and then points in a totally different direction. Ah, that¡¯s where the bigger town at the edge of the forest is. Is she trying to say that that¡¯s where she¡¯s from?


    Guess someone else lives in the village I saw.


    Regardless, I nod, but make sure to mimic with my hands that the one she¡¯s pointing out is very big, while the one I am pointing out is small. She is thoughtful, then draws two circles almost touching with a circle of straight lines coming out of them. Ah, guess that¡¯s the basic ¡°sun¡± drawing around here. She follows this up by drawing a horizontal line and then draws a semicircle and a halfway done one above it, which might just mean that it would take her a day and a half to get there.


    How much is that? Hmm¡­ Well I saw where the town is, and it is pretty close all things considered. If I draw a few mental triangles¡­ It should be close to two hours flying if I rush like I did before, four if I take my time and rest. So this town is even farther away¡­ That does remind me that I could probably make it in three hours if I somehow get the mana to keep flying the entire way¡­


    I think for a moment, then point to it, then spread my wings and draw a bit over an eight of a circle, then point at the town in the distance and expand the semicircle a bit more.


    She nods, then goes back to the cave. I tilt my head and rush after her, confused. She turns to me and simply says ¡°no animal¡±, or at least I think that¡¯s what that means. She did call everything we hunted so far ¡°haytan¡± so I guess that either means animal or prey, and a raspy ¡°hig¡± was what she said when something bad happened like one of us tripping or that one time a boar that had hid its scent and itself with mud charged us after we had just hunted some rabbits, so it likely means something negative.


    Guess the ecosystem¡¯s still out of whack. That might become a problem¡­ Or maybe not. I can hunt farther away and just drag things home if nothing will show up nearby. Regardless, we go back and Ayrah lays down to sleep. I should probably do the same¡­ I will need to plan well for this excursion¡­


    For now my attempts at learning magic medicine are put on an indefinite hiatus, so flight training it is! Who knows, I might find some better healer through the human towns, a healer that could actually help them with their issues¡­


    <hr>


    Post sleep clarity hit. That¡¯s a pipe dream at best. The old woman seems to be the classic good witch in any fantasy story. She has nature mana which somehow fixes bodies, is very damn old, and her mana reserves are still somehow bigger than mine. If not for the fact that she uses it so slowly and has a weak flow, I think she¡¯d be able to do some of the absurdities mother can.


    All that to say, unless I go to the big town, and even there there might not be a better healer, I am unlikely to find a solution for their burn marks. And at this point I think I have nothing I can do about them. They healed well, so despite their scarring, they won¡¯t have adverse health effects¡­


    Moving on to the other problem, the thing I might be able to do something about: Flight.


    Truth be told, my flight method was developed from desperation, my weeks of gliding experience as well as my limited knowledge of aerodynamics. Putting it another way, I brute forced what was probably supposed to be the result of weeks or even months of training. Sure, it works in a pinch, but I need a better method, what I was meant to use instead of what I ended up making. That¡¯s where my parents come in, hopefully. Father already took us gliding, even doing his best to teach Spots, the only one of us who couldn¡¯t just glide, how to do so. My hope is that he will teach us a bit about flight soon since I already showed that I can handle it.


    He seems to be more in tune with that aspect of dragon life than mother. Sure she flies, but she stays still a lot longer. Father, on the other hand, is constantly flying up and down, even doing short hops in between bursts of his weird crawly slithering movement. He also flies without using a rune, somehow. Sure his wings are massive and his body plan is way more aerodynamic than mother¡¯s, but even so I am surprised he can just do that. The largest flying animal from my world was the quetzalcoatlus, a pterosaur that could have a wingspan as long as 16 meters if not more, and weigh upwards to a quarter ton, a mighty, towering beast that would put the fear of God in humans¡­


    Father is larger, heavier, and built like a true horror¡­ There is some trickery at play, but some trickery I need to see firsthand. Something that I am unfortunately unlikely to get since mother just dropped by and left us some corpses. They don¡¯t have the smell of uniqueness, so I leave them fully to my siblings. Am I hungry? Not really. So instead I gather as much air mana as I can, then leave the nest.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    By the time I reach the main hallway, the tunnel that is so beautiful and overgrown, the tunnel that I have never followed fully despite meaning to, that a thought crosses my mind. A thought that has been chipping away at my mind until it gained a voice of its own. I spent the whole week stressing endlessly, no wonder it all comes crashing down.


    What are you doing?


    I am going to learn how to fly properly.


    Why?


    Because I need it to be better in order to visit that village!


    And why are you so focused on that village?


    Because¡­ because¡­


    You seem deadset to do something, yet you don¡¯t know?


    I wanted to do a lot of things, but they failed so I am going for a different thing now. The village.


    And why did they fail?


    Because I am not good enough.


    And you think that you are good enough for something else?


    I need to try...


    Why?


    I can¡¯t do nothing.


    Why?


    Because time is precious! If I sit still I am just wasting it. I need to do something, push towards something, accomplish something¡­


    Why?


    Because¡­


    Because?


    Wasting time is what made me struggle so much before¡­ Had I tried harder, done more with my head start instead of riding the wave until it crashed¡­


    You think it would have mattered?


    I know it would have.


    You think you wouldn¡¯t have struggled?


    EXACTLY!


    But wouldn¡¯t you be constantly struggling if you want to not waste any time?


    ¡­


    Wouldn¡¯t it be a life of constant hardship if all you do is aim to get something out of every single day of your life? Are you going to live each and every day balancing profit and investment? Are you going to live like some martial hermit, training by your lonesome because it is more efficient than to involve yourself with people?


    I already wasted quite a few days just relaxing¡­


    A few days out of months of life. How much time have you spent playing, truly playing. How much time have you spent actually enjoying the company of the people you feel so much shame towards. How much have you enjoyed being in a great body and how much time have you cursed it because instead of being met with the endless nothing you stand here, having to strive, suffer, learn, fight, survive all over again?


    I hit the floor in frustration. This is worse than I remember. Which means that this is worse than it should be. I''ve had these sorts of disagreements with myself, but they were never quite as vivid as now¡­ I might end up digging a circle into the ground from the way I¡¯ve been pacing this entire time¡­ I shake my head and return to my thoughts.


    I hate you.


    I know. So let¡¯s try it again. Why are you trying to run?


    I can¡¯t stay here.


    Why. Be honest this time.


    I¡­ am scared.


    Of?


    I don¡¯t know what to do with the humans! I don¡¯t know how to go back in there! Every other time I had free time I would just pop in and observe them going about their day, or I would try and learn from whatever they¡¯re doing, like the basket the granny made for Ayrah to collect some plants on one of our hunting trips, or I would watch them play with their magic¡­ And now I can¡¯t even sit outside for long because of the guilt.


    Why do you feel guilty?


    Because I wasn¡¯t there. I came in late and if I hadn¡¯t, I would have been able to hide them somewhere or¡­ or keep him away somehow¡­


    Or it wouldn¡¯t have mattered.


    Or it wouldn¡¯t have mattered¡­


    I sigh and continue on, outside of the cave.


    I won¡¯t search for father or mother, I won¡¯t try to make them teach me, I won¡¯t sneak off to some random village, I won¡¯t try some bullshit idea that zaps into my mind, I won¡¯t do anything new.


    Instead I take flight, leisurely float my way towards a patch that wasn¡¯t touched by the flames, and dive down on top of a pair of rabbits, catching one in my mouth and another in my tails, which I simply strangle to death. I take flight again, noting that the dangling pieces of meat do actually make flight harder and I need to focus more on staying straight, but I do manage to make it home, if a bit winded by the ordeal.


    I go up to the human room, enter, and see Ayrah talking to the others in their language. I can tell from her pauses and tone that she is pretty bad at it, but they seem to understand. I see the flame girl being a bit excited, then sad about something. Ayrah turns to me and then points¡­ towards where the town is. Roughly. Huh, guess they were talking about that¡­ Is that the fire girl¡¯s home then? Good to know¡­ Pity I can¡¯t take her back without angering mother¡­ At least for now.


    I drop the rabbits next to Ayrah, then summon a couple runes, namely the air to sound one and the sound one.


    I point towards Ayrah and manipulate the runes, speaking out.


    ¡°A-yyrah.¡±


    Control was still rough, but better than before. Soon enough I will be able to chain words without having this weird slowness blocking me. Regardless, I take the step that I have been too much of a coward to take. Ayrah made me learn her name, the others ignored that aspect, and I, thinking about how likely I was to see them all die sooner or later, let it be so. Death of something nameless is always easier. But I don¡¯t want that. No more protecting myself¡­ No more thinking I am some hero that will save everyone I see¡­ I wish I could, and someday I will be able to crush any form of unjust violence I see, but for now I need to let myself have a childhood.


    I failed the first time around, I might as well have a redo.


    The flame- Edith. Edith showed me beautiful magic and reminded me to not focus all of my study on power, but rather try to also learn something fun or beautiful. Now I am realizing that I need to do it for my life as a whole¡­


    So I will learn their names, I will play and learn, I will teach and protect, I will befriend¡­


    And I will get rid of this stupid wall that keeps building itself up between me and everyone else.


    So what if I have a few more years of life than most? It¡¯s all just memories, nothing tangible. Nothing that deserves to make me isolate myself from everyone at the first mistake.


    To that end, time to teach these people some games! Should probably start with tic tac toe, that¡¯s the first thing that comes to mind when we don¡¯t even have proper board pieces.

 Chapter 28: Playing And Being Played

    After managing to showcase the rules of the game, It took me embarrassingly long to realize that playing in the dirt outside the room isn¡¯t exactly an easy or fun task for human fingers. That is why I ended up gathering some roughly sameish pebbles, scratching X¡¯s and O¡¯s on them, then carved a board on the wooden floor inside the room. And thus I became the creator of the first board game! (probably not, board games are older than the medieval era after all).


    However, tic tac toe is not something that can entertain people forever, even if it helped most of them think less of their new scars, bringing a few smiles from the younger folk. It¡¯s also a solved game and I know every single possible variation of the board¡­ That is why I decided to make more. Got a bunch of pebbles, burnt half of them, made a checkerboard and taught them checkers. I thought for a bit about making chess too, but that is a bit beyond my sculpting capabilities. Also way beyond the kind of mind I should possess. I think I saw mother peek in at us when she was passing through, bringing food. I kinda gave up appearing normal, but making a game with pieces shaped like towers and horses when I have yet to see any¡­ yeah¡­


    Endpoint, games were the best idea I¡¯ve had in a while! Especially since I finally managed to let go of some rather overwhelming built up stress about my rate of progress. I wanted so many new things¡­ I wanted explosive learning, I wanted to live up to being a prodigy, I wanted to know everything there was to know about something as esoteric as magic! And now I am here, relaxing on my back while watching the kiddo, Alek, completely demolish Ayrah in checkers. This is nice.


    Also my time was not exactly wasted, since father started teaching us how to fly the day after I made checkers¡­ somewhat. Mostly he¡¯s been teaching my siblings how to beat their wings. Why did he not teach me? Because I already know well enough apparently. Truthfully, I have copied the movements from my memories of birds and bats, choosing the ones with wings most similar to my own, then adding a bit of correction using my knowledge of aerodynamics and biology. This results in me just flapping my wings a bit, showing I can get some lift if I jump, then curling up and observing the others.


    Guess there¡¯s no advanced course for this. Still, I do learn something after all is said and done. He does use magic to fly, but I don¡¯t see a rune. When he flies he exudes the tiniest bit of wind mana, so it¡¯s likely he uses it to compensate since his biology shouldn''t actually allow flight, but I don¡¯t know how he does it. Well, whatever the answer may be, I will learn it eventually.


    Days pass pretty fast when you¡¯re not stressing about every second after all.


    All in all, another week came and left before something more interesting happened. Father pulled me aside and showed me how he cast his spell without having a rune flying near him. I knew that eye inside of him was weird, turns out it¡¯s meant to hold in runes! Well, maybe also meant to do a bunch of other things, but what he¡¯s been doing the entire time is form a pretty complex rune inside of his eye, which was well within his body. I have no clue how he managed to keep it in however. There¡¯s a bit of a double edge to every single cell in my body reacting to mana. I can brush away a formed rune with one of my claws, dissipating it. This also means that it is next to impossible to form a rune inside my body, as even the tiniest twitch would shift it and break it.


    The eye might be the answer, a space filled with fluid meant to not interact with mana, walled in by cells that do interact. It would keep the rune firmly fixated and properly fed since he wouldn¡¯t need to breathe out a cloud of air mana whenever the rune was running low on fuel.


    As interesting as his absurd biology might be, the most interesting part for me is the rune itself. I managed to get a pretty good look at it since he was keeping it intentionally visible for me. It¡¯s not too complex to understand, like mother¡¯s communication rune, but it does bear a very strange few properties. I can recognize ¡°wind¡± and ¡°control¡±, as well as two other separate runes that were layered over. Now, one of them is some kind of wind based modifier, but the other rune is the thing that really messes with my brain. It¡¯s lightning. It¡¯s not the lightning rune, but it is a rune that uses lightning mana, combined with 3 wind based runes.


    I have yet to properly figure out rune combinations with different elements. Sure I managed to use nature mana as fuel, or air mana to gather more flammable air and improve any fire I try to form, but I¡¯ve only done that with my breath attack or with a separate rune. Layering different elements together tends to break stuff, the only exception so far being the ¡°wind to sound¡± rune being slapped on top of the normal sound rune, but I wouldn¡¯t really call them different elements since they¡¯re both a result of air moving.


    Bottom line, I need to figure out what the runes he uses do. I summon the wind rune, layer on the control one, then strain as I try to somehow shape the flow of mana into the third rune. I fail, of course. Using three modifiers, while possible, is always hard. Using a modifier without having a vision of what it is meant to do? Now that¡¯s impossible. I know that this should help me fly somehow, but I don¡¯t know the ¡°how¡±. Is it controlling the wind around me better? Does it lighten me up? Speed me forward? No clue because the damn thing is so inconspicuous that I can¡¯t see the difference. Even when using it by itself it does nothing¡­ which is probably just me being bad, but hey, at least I now have something to practice.


    I think I have a skewed sense of what magic study is like. So far I have been able to look at something and almost perfectly replicate it. The only thing I still suck at is conjuring stuff like mother does, since I have so little mana. However everything else has been easy, with repetition only leading to improving my speed of forming the runes and my minute control of their results. Plainly put, I already knew how to use most basic magic, no second tries needed.


    This might take me a while¡­


    <hr>


    I wish I could just make something like Catan¡­ Oh well. After another week of playing checkers, I made a Go set, trained my earth rune control by shaping pebbles into spheres, basically creating marbles to play with (sadly only Alek took to them) and managed to figure out how to make chess without making it weird. After figuring out how to reshape stone, I made disks and simply carved a drawing on top of them that described their movement.


    It took me half a day to make sure everyone understood the rules, but I managed and now I was off to see them figure it out. After a while though, someone unexpected came and nudged me. Meredith used the pieces to build something akin to a cube¡­ Dice? Did she want dice? Well, dice games were some of the earliest games ever conceived, so it made sense she¡¯d be more familiar with that than what I am making.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Actually that¡¯s a great idea! I can make backgammon with that. Now that¡¯s a blast to the past and the perfect motivation to finish them almost immediately. With this everyone has more than enough ways to pass the time, whenever they¡¯re not dealing with their basic needs or doing their strange meditative training, or whatever it is they¡¯re doing with their mana crystals.


    <hr>


    The forest was healed just in time for the first snow. Turns out it¡¯s winter already, or at least very close to it. That¡¯s¡­ odd I think. If this planet follows my old one in seasons somehow, then we were born around early summer, so I am somewhere between five and six months old. I think the exponential growth has finally calmed down, or rather has already calmed down since I am still half a year old! A human baby would literally barely move around by now, yet I¡¯m the top predator around if you ignore mother. Life¡¯s weird.


    Speaking of growth, my body changes yet again, even if in minute ways. My new hands, for example, have been developing to be better in every way, resulting in me being able to actually carry around heavier stuff with them. I can also shape most basic and single modifier runes either by speech or with my hands in under half a second. My mana capacity also grew a bit to match my slightly better size, though it is still negligible.


    Really the best part of these past few weeks has been the fact that I cracked magic, at least a bit more. I finally get what exactly father was doing with his rune, even after he left a while back to who knows where, I kept trying and cracked it. Two important things I had to note, firstly, the meaning of that one wind rune turned out to be ¡°movement¡±. It refers to any form of movement, just like direction refers to any form of direction, path or orientation of something. Which makes the spell look something like ¡°Controlled movement through air¡±.


    As for the lightning rune? That was a whole dictionary shoved into one simple shape. Or rather a multitude of similar shapes that are all spoken the same. It literally means ¡°Like¡±, though more appropriate would be ¡°X like Y¡±, with X being the idea you give and Y being the element you use. I say the rune has a lot of similar shapes because based on what idea you give it, it will end up looking a slight bit differently, though thankfully I don¡¯t seem to need to shape it myself.


    Yeah this one¡¯s just a cheat code. I can basically use any idea that is even remotely connected to an element, though the closer it is the more powerful the result. Fast like lightning? Absurd speed boost, though it is a mana hog. Hard like stone? Turned a tiny flower I made into a DIY lego piece. Yes, it actually hurt when I stepped on it. Fluid like water? Mud. I uh¡­ I controlled mud. The earth wasn¡¯t mud when I started though, it just acted like mud despite being dry. A lot of weird spells can be made with this, though for now, I made the complete flying rune all of twice.


    Both times I crashed. I can fly fast, very, very fast, but I run out of lightning mana after a couple minutes. My first attempt was a 70-20 air to lightning spread, my second was a 30-60, with 10% being other types. End result each time? Crash. I either consume the lightning too fast, or I have lightning but I run out of air. Both end in me falling since the whole rune implodes and I don¡¯t have time to shape it back.


    Yeah I need better mana reserves for this¡­ Good news is that I can fly from home to mother¡¯s lake in these minutes. I think I am already faster than her, but I have the endurance of a cheetah¡­ Well, all in due time. Right now I have a whole new slew of combinations to try out carefully and humans to care for.


    Right, humans, people, new occasional conversation partners. I started learning the language, while also getting better at Ayrah¡¯s language. My brain is a literal sponge and I am pretty sure that I will eventually figure out most words, but for now I am limited to only a few that I can make reliably with my sound rune. They have also been healing well. Sure there¡¯s still some scar tissue, but Ayrah looks the same as always, Edith simply seems to have her mutation advanced, with literally zero normal scars. Yvone doesn¡¯t even have warped skin left as a thin layer of wood crawled over and helped her truly recover. Alek already had a tinier wound than most and he¡¯s young enough that he¡¯s recovering well enough.


    It¡¯s really just Meredith that still has a large wound, but she found her own way of dealing with it. Her elements are darkness and poison, the latter being useless when it came to fixing scars, but the former was simply the absence of light. One day she managed to form a continuous spell that placed an unnatural shadow over her face. It¡¯s pretty impressive, but it¡¯s clearly just a coping mechanism that might become unhealthy¡­


    A pity I really can¡¯t help with this. Mother has been very keen to not teach us any overtly dangerous magic. Dangerous, of course, meaning something that could directly affect our bodies, bypassing our natural protections. I was lucky I was so stressed back when I used the life rune, because if not for my fight or flight state, I would have died. Turns out that the defense isn¡¯t absolute. It took weeks of testing and I finally figured out why I couldn¡¯t use it at first, but I could later: feeling of danger. I needed to register something as dangerous, and wouldn¡¯t you know it, despite my instincts telling me that a rabbit is dangerous, I didn¡¯t believe that I would have my bone cracked by one kicking me.


    Haven¡¯t made that mistake since, but if I were to use magic without realizing that it could be dangerous, I might be vulnerable to any backlash. Which sucks, but is an understandable limit to what is basically a second chance at life every time I get hit badly.


    I stretch, yawning as I feel my mind being tired. It took a while but I think my brain finally figured out how to feel exhaustion. Took it long enough. Or it might just be from all my attempts at different spells¡­ Whatever the reason, I just want to get back to the nest and relax in the pile of gold. That is why I walk through the ornate hallway, into the side tunnel that leads home¡­ then take a step back and look on further.


    Why have I not checked out the other end of the hallway yet? Sure, every time I thought of it, a crisis came soon after¡­ but I had days after. Once or twice? That¡¯s the normal amount of ADHD coming in to mess up my day. But I had so many chances, so many times of passing right by it, looking at it¡­ and nothing? Something is odd.


    I ignore my slightly tired brain, instead taking a step towards the other end of the hallway.


    A few steps later I reach the gold pile and curl up.


    A few seconds later I get up, blink, then run out of the nest and back to the hallway.


    Once there I try to go forward, keeping my eyes peeled, focusing on my ever improving mana sense to see if some supernatural fuckery is afoot. I see it, for a moment, for a split second before the mana reached me¡­ and I was on my back, almost asleep in the nest. It¡¯s mother¡¯s mana, a single part of her whole, but it is her mana. The mana type I did not understand¡­ the type that was so complex I could not figure it no matter how much I tried¡­


    Mind mana. Mother has mind powers and she apparently wants that hallway to not be accessed¡­ That¡¯s worrying. Well, actually it might not be. Parents usually have stuff locked up out of reach of their children, but children rarely can reshape any sort of box to get what¡¯s inside, so making the door a literal cognitive hazard might just be the draconic version of a locked door. Still, I thought I was just losing myself in other stuff, but she''s been messing with my mind? Well, it was good while it lasted, but I think I want to be a bit of a menace again. Mother has something locked up and my inner child is eager to find out what!


    Now¡­ how does one bypass brainwashing?

 Interlude 5: Theres More Of Them?!

    Months have passed since that horrible mistake she had made. The taunting, reprimands and especially the jokes continued, though less than in that first day. Most divines went about their days, following their own interests, but she was still in the sights of many. Even though she had fumbled it hard, there was still a very potent soul with no chains somewhere in her piece of the world. Certainly it was not only hers, but there were only four other proper gods focused only on this piece of land, one of which was her sister.


    ¡°ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING!?¡± Thundered her sister. Rirshka loved her sister most of the time. Sadly, since her failure with that strange soul, Rahena has been particularly angry¡­ All the time. She could only let out a heavy sigh as the armored woman scorched the marble table they were sitting around, leaving deep cracks in it. Lightning danced erratically, agitated by Rahena¡¯s wrath.


    ¡°DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND? With a champion of our own we could¡¯ve already united the humans! First on this continent, then in a year we would have gathered most human civilizations under our mantle! Do you even understand how easy it would¡¯ve been to take over from other lessers with a free champion? MOST GODS TAKE MILLENIA BEFORE BEING ABLE TO AFFORD THE COSTS TO BRING ONE OVER! AND WE HAD ONE FALL IN OUR HANDS! The eastern beastly spirits? The Obsidian Titan? That flaming bastard and his cohort? None of them could deny our claim if we had a proper champion at our beck and call. None of them could stand a chance with how our power would soar¡­ AND YOU HAD TO DROP IT!¡±


    It has been like that since the first day. Coming in, throwing a tantrum, leaving, then coming back a few hours after. At least she got two week breaks every so often, when the empire would war with the eastern barbarians, or the nearby kingdoms, or the independent lords, or all at once.


    Still, she wished her sister would just stop. She has enough reminders about her blunder. Ceaselessly she scratches at the meaningless words burnt into her fingertips. She had erased her hand and reformed it, yet still the burns remained. She was branded by her failure, by the wrath and spite of the soul she mocked to amuse those opportunistic rats called gods. She didn¡¯t know how or if she would ever be able to rid herself of these scars¡­ these painful reminders that hurt deeper than anything her sister uttered.


    She lets her sister¡¯s speech and the pain from her fingers melt into the background, instead looking through her priests. After they had failed to feel a disturbance in their newborn followers, no soul having been pushed out or destroyed to make room for this new one, she had given the order to seek any child born on that particular day and to investigate them, whether within her borders or away from them. Sadly only her highest priests could even perceive souls, meaning that she had about six worshippers that needed to investigate thousands of people scattered throughout the land. Simply put, it was impossible. That is why she had ordered the lesser clergy to investigate in a more mundane way. Swift growth, unexplained affinity for magic, reactions to words that people of this world would not even understand. Anything to just narrow down the numbers¡­ and even that was unlikely to give results.


    Her sister left in a huff, once again resulting in Rirshka being alone. Once again she would break down. Once again she would piece herself back up and continue searching. She had her sister and the red sun looking over her shoulder every so often, each time becoming more and more aggravated by her continued failure to find this mortal. By now she had resigned herself to what The Harvester said. She¡­ well, they would get that soul eventually, especially if it fell within the empire¡¯s borders. But that meant enduring this treatment for upwards of a century if she was unlucky


    There was also the chance it was in any of the kingdoms she was not a patron of. Or that it would slip her grasp again if she wasn¡¯t watchful. Fields have already died before being ripened because she was so focused on finding it¡­ who knows how many more people she¡¯ll have to fail. How much more will she need to answer for.


    She broke down again.


    Thankfully, something drew her attention. It was one of her many priests, this one from a monastery in one of the larger cities of her kingdom, one under a fallen archduke. She wondered why she felt drawn to such an annoyance? After all, this meeting was because the duke failed to aid her priests in their task, instead seeming to dedicate all his resources to some absurd investigations of the piece of land his grandfather had lost a few centuries ago.


    ¡°¡­ I simply do not understand how you could value a hunch above a divine mission! You would do well, at least in your final hour, to earn the favor of the gods! Your name is crumbling and instead of aiding our benefactors you waste everything on your personal vendetta!?¡±


    As she thought, it would be infuriating. She knew that the highest nobles of the humans think they are above the chosen of the gods, sometimes even higher than the gods themselves, which often is met with some very satisfying smiting, even if it is only the smiting of a terrain or of important people to said noble. They could not afford to waste such power, even if they had over inflated egos.


    She was just about ready to turn her attention elsewhere when someone entered, completely ignoring her priest, instead giving a report to the duke.


    ¡°Your Grace! New information came in. A good part of her forest burnt down after a strange storm arrived a month ago. The passing merchant said that they could hear the roars despite being so far away that they could barely see the smoke. Also, they said that the skies shone with red lightning. It¡¯s believed that she fought with a foreign dragon. Apparently odd storms like that one have happened before, but never with so much destruction following.¡±


    She was almost ready to waste her energy on that insolent soldier, but what he spoke of seemed distressing. It was a large blow when the empire suddenly lost land to the dragon, but they never could quite pull their might to deal with it. There were many fronts where they had conflicts and many nobles would keep their men close so as to not be attacked by rivals. All in all, the kingdom was as fractured as sand and there was little she could do about that. Her sister had yet to demand of them to remove the abomination, so it must mean they simply cannot afford to.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Still, it seemed the annoyance might still bring information. She leaned in and listened, hoping that this will at least be enough to distract her from her inner turmoil.


    <hr>


    Duke Arkros Varkrm looked in annoyance at the priest as the buffoon kept pestering him despite making the most moronic of demands. He had no time to play the games of gods when a threat was at the border¡­ at his border. It was always like this, however. They all called him mad for keeping to a grudge¡­ but it was his grudge to bear! His grandfather slain, his father slaughtered¡­ The only reason he himself still lived was that he left the battle sooner than most would. He lost many men because of that, but still he lived and as long as he did, the beast would end up dead. None other dared fight the monster to reconquer the lost land, so they had no right to judge him.


    Had that half-dead emperor listened to him even once and used his army together with the duke¡¯s troops, they¡¯d be parading a dragon¡¯s corpse for half a century now. Instead he had to let it defile his lands. Once the news of the storms came, the duke could feel that they were close to an answer. So despite the damnable priest still being around, he walked off to a room he had repurposed specifically to organize all the reports and results of investigations. Currently there were seven different scholars doing just that as they entered.


    ¡°My lord! You have one of the best information webs in the continent! With your aid our task would be complete in a matter of months instead of decades! You must see reason!¡±


    Of course, that the impertinent zealot was still around in spite of it all. He would have had him escorted out if not for his own zealotry about receiving a proper answer. He shouted commands and the men immediately started taking out relevant scrolls and tablets, taking out only the most important of informations. The priest was red faced, but at least had the sense to be silent now.


    ¡°Tell me everything we have.¡±


    A young man, at least by scholarly standards as he was merely 38 and in the service of a duke, cleared his throat as he showed testimonies from the few that regularly travel outside of The Mistress¡¯ domain.


    ¡°Yes, your Grace. The mistress has been behaving strangely for a while now. The early tribute wasn¡¯t all. She was actually missing entirely for almost a year, but people didn¡¯t realize it until she returned. Once she did, she has been seen flying almost daily, which once again is strange for her more stagnant personality. The number of stray witchbeasts in her territory has also increased dramatically, while growing in strength, but we do not know how that relates to her break.¡±


    A graying man stepped forward, parsing through a neat stack of letters. The priest was almost unable to be silent as he saw the seal imprinted into each and every sheet of paper. He would only think of how wasteful the duke was being, hiring such people.


    ¡°The wizards that were able to enter her land all reported the same. The ambient mana was rising. It was all focused into the deeper parts that they could not even approach, but it was clear that something was happening. Three different wizards attempted to use whisps to see into the deeper parts, but they were all snuffed out before even getting close. The Mistress erased two of them, while the third was destroyed by something that used to be a bear. No further attempts have been made out of fear of discovery. The strange thing is that the mistress has never been this attentive before.¡±


    The duke nodded, thinking back to that time before he marched for her head. He had hired wizards then too, and they managed to slip their whisps as far in as her lake, before she even took notice. Her being this alert must mean that there¡¯s something she wants to protect. His eyes drifted over to the last person that had something to say as he tried to piece everything together.


    ¡°Storms of red lightning have been seen in different parts of the continent, but most notably there was a case over in the Aiuvar Kingdom during the mistress¡¯ absence. Many oracles predicted a disastrous mana storm forming in that area, a storm that inevitably never appeared. We sent mercenaries to investigate, and although most information was washed by weather, they did find a destroyed mountain peak, as well as many footprints that fit The Mistress. They are recent enough, at most two years having past, though most likely The Mistress and the lightning dragon both went to the Aiuvar Kingdom and destroyed that storm.¡±


    The duke froze, as did almost every scholar. Only the priest and youngest of the learned men were unaware of the insinuations.


    This¡­ thought the duke, his lips parting into a smile that would brand him mad if only he were a lesser man. This he cannot ignore. I¡¯ll bring down the weight of The Empire on that wench¡¯s neck and turn her skin into my personal flag¡­


    ¡°Organize all the findings and make sure that anything related to this is taken note of. Prepare to present everything to the court. Also, send a letter to the emperor. We have to talk.¡±


    <hr>


    Rirshka felt herself wilting and trembling, her entire form collapsing, reshaping, collapsing again. This was the worst case scenario. If what these people spoke was true, then there was a chance, a rather good one, that the pristine soul she lost was not in some newborn peasant, away from any power to change anything about the world¡­ it may have fallen into a clutch of dragon eggs¡­ It would meet no resistance¡­ No wonder they couldn¡¯t feel where it was!


    She pulled on her power, her divinity, her influence, and manifested a fragment of herself at the edge of the duke¡¯s land, right before the part claimed by the dragoness. It would be a pain, but she needed to verify this. She needed to know¡­ So she pushed on. Every second in this twisted domain, especially during winter, meant her mana would burn just to allow her sight. It was a strange limitation, to be both weaker and stronger than the monster, yet it was a limitation she had to obey.


    Regardless of the pains, she got close to the forest where that thing lived, yet she couldn¡¯t approach further. A roar alerted her of the dragon taking flight, which lead her to slip by through the plants, leaving behind whisps to distract, while she pushed on further. The loud explosion behind her was enough to tell her that time was running out.


    She feared that this whole thing would be for naught, that she had burnt so much mana just to be repelled by the dragon, yet a simple sight was enough to vindicate her. Two young dragons were flying, in the sky, curious about what was happening. She could hear more beating wings, more infant abominations, more-


    Her fragment died. A tenth of her power, simply gone. She paled and gave a new command to her priesthood, no, to her archbishop himself. It was time to rid the land of that dragon and her clutch. Even if the soul did not take over a dragon, just having more of those abominations around would be a threat. It was time to cull them and her sister would have to agree.

 Chapter 29: Stuck In Sidequests

    Alright mother, I get it, I should have stopped at attempt number 133. In my defense, spite is a powerful motivator. Of course, I am joking, because joking is the only thing that is keeping me level headed as I face the bear shaped abomination in front of me. It swings its paw and three trees simply fall over after most of their base was obliterated. I really hate mother sometimes, even if this is mostly the consequence of my hubris¡­


    Let¡¯s rewind a bit¡­ I do have some time dilation on my side after all, nifty thing that it is, and I am going to abuse it as best I can.


    Turns out that the mind fuckery she has protecting the rest of the tunnel doesn¡¯t just try to send people to sleep. It did that for the first week of attempts, but then it changed track. It made me focus on other things. Really focus on them. This was an extremely effective method because it turned any of my errant thoughts into obsessions, thus most of my time was lost focusing on the next thing the spell threw in my face.


    My siblings were all nice and cozy in the cave, hibernating away when winter came in full, and there I was running through the snow, figuring out how to handle the cold despite lacking fur, then using the chance to try out as much ice magic as my frozen lungs could hold. Fire mana spread throughout my body to keep me warm and ice mana in my lungs, now that was a feeling that I felt and I hope not to feel anytime soon. It was like chewing hot peppers and a whole mint patch at once. Ugh¡­


    Regardless, once I managed to remember about the tunnel, I went back, only to be sent out thinking of a whole host of other things. For example, the second reason for my siblings¡¯ slumber, meat, is hard to come by. Most animals are either hidden somewhere, or went into full on migration. And that is how I learned how to catch fish as a dragon, using my tails and sometimes water magic. Really, most of my meals, and by extension the meals that the humans got to eat, came from mother¡¯s river, which is the only body of still liquid water around.


    It is not warm, mind you. It is just liquid water. I tried jumping in it in my first attempt to catch some fish, but instead ended up almost going into thermal shock. It was just water way below the freezing point, which refused to freeze. The reason for it was somewhat simple: water mana. Even before the river reaches mother¡¯s lake, it was filled to the brim with water mana that seems to have this passive effect of turning any snow or ice that gets close into water, while not changing the temperature. Apparently mana just does that if you have enough of it floating around aimlessly.


    At first I thought mana would be inactive without someone to interact with it, but it seems its mere presence tends to shift the laws of reality a little bit. I should add that other rivers are frozen, so it¡¯s not a matter of atmospheric pressure, it is really just that magic acts weird.


    I am literally smacked back into the present, an outburst of color, though mostly red, pushes the monster back, giving me some breathing room. Sadly, it is not enough breathing room. I form a spell I¡¯ve recently discovered, a gambit really, but I need something to distract it. Ice and fire mana weave together, forming their respective runes in roughly the same space. They start fighting, rebelling against each other, but I manage to calm them both as I introduce the movement rune between them. Yeah, it turns out that the rune father used to specialize his wind magic for flying can be used to modify the behavior of certain things.


    Fire and ice are two sides of the same coin. One raises the temperature of stuff, the other lowers it. Of course they have their more traditional uses too, moving ice and flames around, but they share temperature as a target. The main reason I don¡¯t use that part of them too much is its overall efficient use of energy. It takes a lot to warm things up with just fire, and while cooling is a bit easier, it tapers off just as easily if the outside is not already cold. Also, despite both doing the same thing, I failed to use fire to make stuff cold or vice versa. It¡¯s like the water mana, it breaks reality and somewhat ignores laws of physics in inconsistent ways. They¡¯re the same thing but not really so they don¡¯t do the same thing.


    However, if you mix them and use movement as the foundation? Suddenly it¡¯s not about warming or cooling, but moving heat itself. That is why the beast¡¯s left front paw freezes as the snow around it melts. Now that¡¯s got to hurt you, you bast-


    It roars in defiance and I can feel its mana pushing against the spell, forcing my rune to collapse by way of raw power. Well, it is a very efficient but kind of weak spell if I¡¯m being honest. It¡¯s gradual and can be messed with like that. Its paw is already being fixed by some innate application of blood and flesh mana, pretty smart for a raging animal.


    Well, I am kind of screwed.


    Before I can react I am sent flying again, this time taking the blow as I don¡¯t want my mana to run too low. It turns out to be a stupid mistake because my head is swimming. I¡¯m so dizzy I can¡¯t focus on the fight, instead images of my past few weeks pile up together.


    Right¡­ there was more that happened¡­ After all, each time I managed to focus back on the tunnel, it sent me away, a new idea being put at the very center of my thoughts. It made me refine my flight even more, learn how to properly sculpt using a mix of mana and carving with my claws, I even figured out how to play quite a few songs using my normal sound runes and how to have a few runes affect particular elements, the chemistry kind of elements not the magic ones.


    I get up, panting, my body warming up to the point of forming steam around me, then roar while forming two separate ice runes, one that mixed with wind to blow all the snow around into the bear¡¯s face, another to form icicles from nearby snow and ice, then direct them straight to its eyes. It doesn¡¯t work, because ice is a weak ass material when you don¡¯t have a person sized piece of densely packed ice.


    I should have prepared better elements for this fight¡­ I probably would have done that too if not for the mind magic.


    Right, this fight¡­ my most recent obsession¡­ Honestly, halfway through my attempts at exploring the tunnel I started abusing this mind magic bullshit. It could, after all, do one thing I couldn¡¯t do by myself. It forced me into a state of temporary hyperfocus, of productive obsession. In a way it made me harness the one half-useful thing my adhd riddled brain has going for it. Normally it would be problematic as I¡¯d forget to eat or drink or overall take care of myself and my responsibilities, but guess what, I only partially need food and all other needs are straight up moot. Being a dragon is nice sometimes.


    Anyways, problem with using RNG brainwashing to be productive: it sometimes decides to fuck you over. My newest obsession was the terror I felt when the bear thing appeared. That monster that almost flattened Spots. That thing that has been terrorizing my every moment in the past few days. I don¡¯t have nightmares since I don¡¯t dream, but I do still get flashbacks whenever I close my eyes, that is why I am here, in the middle of nowhere, fighting a monster I am not properly equipped to take down.


    I should be able to. By all logical thought this thing is less magical and tricky than quite a few of the creatures I have hunted down with ease before. It just has blood, flesh and bone, with the only active use I can see being to fill out wounds of any sort, everything else being just a result of this thing being a meaty tank.


    Flames lick its fur, frost threatens its exposed flesh, claws try their best to cleave through the thick skin, but I can¡¯t do anything to this thing. It hits me once, my defenses protect me, but it¡¯s not enough. I forcefully stopped all of my mana from being sent to the protection, because I knew I would become a free meal the moment I run out, so I end up having an open gash on my flank, while being pushed away and repelling the beast for a moment longer.


    I am in pain.


    I must run.


    My wings spread open and I am out of the thing¡¯s reach in a single beat. It roars in wild fury, even picking up a boulder from nearby to try and throw it, but nature didn¡¯t make bears into range specialists, so it barely sends it a few meters up before having it fall next to him. This isn¡¯t over. I will have a few more intrusive flashbacks until I recover¡­


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    I hate mind magic¡­


    <hr>


    I am back in the tunnel, the warmth of the strange place bringing me comfort. I look at my wound and it is pretty nasty. Worse than most of the harm I¡¯ve received so far in this life, but I am handling it pretty well since I¡¯m no longer tiny. I make my way to the human room and plop down. I hear a bit of panicking, a few orders being thrown about by the old lady, but ultimately I find my wound being washed and patched up. I don¡¯t twitch or anything, despite the pain. Turns out dragons aren¡¯t super reactive, at least compared to most animals I know. I am conscious of severe pain, but I do not shy away from it. I do not jump to retract myself from every negative stimuli¡­ Well, I am a tough beast with passive magical armor, it makes quite a bit of sense that I would be more adept at handling harm without fearing deadly crippling.


    I let my mind wander, simply laying there, listening to them talk, while the old woman does her incantation. It¡¯s nice to understand people again.


    ¡°..Big¡­animal¡­ mark/symbol/wound¡­Is/are¡­good?¡±


    Yeah, I still need to practice a bit more. I only understand a fifth of the words they use and the sentence structure¡¯s messing with my brain. Plus some words mean different things based on the context and I have to guess the context¡­ Still, I did figure this language out surprisingly easy once I put my mind to it. Hell, I learned everyone else¡¯s language better than Ayrah¡¯s, despite her actually trying to teach me. That¡¯s just the difference between training it and hearing it being spoken casually. It¡¯s basically impossible not to pick up a language that¡¯s spoken daily in your house, and despite how not house-shaped this place is, it is my home.


    I feel a faint relief as the magic from the old woman spreads into the wound, starting to do¡­ something? Her healing is worse than mothers, but drop for drop it might be more efficient than hers. The reason for that seems simple enough too, my body¡¯s just regenerating naturally, but faster. about 90% of the energy comes from me, with the 10% she expends being used to force my cells into rapidly consuming my energy to grow and divide. My wound literally heats up and I can feel the itches of growing flesh and skin. It¡¯s uncomfortable, but seeing and feeling it at work helps me get a little bit closer to figuring out my own brand of healing¡­


    Damn that bear¡­ I need to prepare and get rid of it. My mind keeps thinking back to that monster every few minutes and I can¡¯t handle another night of not sleeping because I can¡¯t close my eyes long enough to actually fall asleep. I need a surefire way to kill it next time. Bears are on the more intelligent side of animals, especially brown ones, which makes them even more dangerous. If this guy¡¯s anything like the ones from back home, he will figure out a weakness in my fighting and slap me into an early grave. So far I¡¯ve been winning fights and hunts just by being overwhelming, but that is not available against this guy.


    Life magic? Might work, super volatile tho and I don¡¯t want to use a hail mary that already got me turned into a pinata before. I could try to drop a big rock on it, but at the same time the bear is smart and strong, stronger than me at least. I could attempt to use a spear¡­ yeah no, that¡¯s even stupider. Sure, the tactic for a human would be to attempt and pierce a bear with a spear, using the bear¡¯s weight against it to get it embedded deep.


    But that is a human strategy used against a normal bear. I am doubtful about my current frame being fit for it. I am even more doubtful that any normal spear would do anything to a thing that literally erases trees if it gets mildly annoyed. There¡¯s a reason you need an elephant riffle to kill an elephant, and that bear is more elephant than bear.


    I am suddenly self conscious. I am sitting here, on my side, looking annoyed into empty space, while there¡¯s people looking worried about me, and I think Ayrah¡¯s doing her best attempt at dragon baby bonding by carefully scratching the ridges between my scales, getting rid of some grime that stuck to me from rolling in half frozen mud. My human self would be horrified, embarrassed and probably strangle me for this, but I give her a light lick on the cheek in thanks. It just¡­ feels right¡­ I guess¡­


    I swear I will end up strangling whomever invented mind altering magic. Since I realized it exists I¡¯ve been triple guessing everything I do¡­ Even more than normal, I mean.


    Darkness.


    Oh, I collapsed. Forgot I tend to do that whenever I am exhausted¡­ It has been a while since the last time I did it, after all. Oh well, a nap would probably help.


    <hr>


    I fly through the heavy snow, my third eyelid acting like an aviator¡¯s goggles, letting me still get a good view despite everything. The wind is harsh and swift, I can¡¯t catch the smell of anything, but when your prey is a huge mutant, it is not too hard to figure out where it went. I follow the trail of broken trees, mangled remains and just overall destruction. The bear doesn¡¯t go in the area around the chaos pillar, but it does visit its outermost parts every so often. That is where I find it, actually. I watch as it runs after a pack of armored wolves.


    Mutant animals don¡¯t behave like animals. That much is clear. The bear is in a state of constant bloodlust, hunting far more than it should, battling in spite of pain and malformations. I see it break its leg from pushing itself against the ground too hard, but the limb just sets itself and keeps functioning the next second. Well, guess I might as well draw its attention.


    I don¡¯t care to save the wolves, I might have at some point in the past, but my current self killed too many of them to even see them as anything but food. Still, I need it to be focused on me if I am to kill the damn thing, and I won¡¯t be able to do that if it keeps running after the canines.


    I get my chance right after it kills another of the bone-plated wolves, splattering its upper half. My wings press against my body and I dive, swiftly grabbing the meat with my hands and feet, then fly circles around the bear. It stops and turns to me, roaring loudly enough that it makes me deviate in my path a bit, but I don¡¯t fall. Good, it hates me. I fly away, and i can hear it thundering behind me. I don¡¯t rise above the trees, which forces me to dodge tree trunks and branches, though I do still have to fly through a few, having them break from my size and speed.


    The bear looks like it might stop chasing, but it doesn¡¯t matter, we got where we needed to. I crash down, rolling through the snow as I lose the piece of meat I was carrying. I get up, but I limp, just barely dragging myself away. The beast sees me. Despite the distance I can just feel the savage delight it feels as it rushes mindlessly at me. With the sheer momentum it has, it could probably run through me if I let it. It gets close, oh so close, I almost jump away as fear creeps in, but before it can crash into me, it simply crashes down. The snow it steps on falls, a massive hole in the ground making itself known. The beast? It has some fifty thick spears made of living wood jutting through it. Most of them simply got crushed, but something so fast can only have so many armor plates hidden through, or it would become a turtle.


    I look down and I see it, struggling, but slowly fixing itself, taking in the wood as part of itself, uncaring of the pain it likely causes. It tries to climb up, but the beast is wet and its footing is unsteady from all the gold coins sprinkled through. I look into those monstrous eyes, and beyond the bloodthirsty beast I see myself. My calm, dismissive, bored expression as I look down at this vile thing that sought to eat me.


    Killing has become easy. Oh so easy it is that I maintain my calm as I form lightning, most of my mana being spent to put down the monster. A huge hole, mana saturated water, gold, some fifty open wounds and a lungful of lightning. That is what is necessary to put down this beast, yet it nonetheless died.


    It feels hollow. This wasn¡¯t a victory, this was just a menial hunt.


    I spend most of the day ferrying back to the nest the gold coins I took and then I drag the body of the beast. At least the humans seem happy for some ungodly reason. Bear meat stinks¡­ Then again, they may know how to handle it. Also, the fur seems like it would help them with warmth. The cave¡¯s nice but it can be chilly in the mornings.


    ¡°Great hunt! Great hunter!¡± whispers Ayrah to me, almost in passing. Well, guess I am a good hunter. I am still a bit miffed that something so terrifying was so easy to kill with a boring trap, but that just makes me wonder if I became an adrenaline junky. I manage to shake off the thought and I decide not to mess with mind magic anymore, but before all that I want to eat the beast¡¯s core. It was basic and had less mana than many other creatures, but it was still a tough foe and there¡¯s no reason to miss out on something useful. I do hear something strange as I dig into its chest, while the others prepare to butcher it.


    ¡°Heart eater! Heart eater!¡± I hear Alek giggle innocently, his tone being halfway to screaming in excitement. I turn and see Edith laughing with him, speaking in a calmer tone.


    ¡°Heart eater¡­ good name!¡± That gives me pause. That reminds me that I don¡¯t actually have a name in this world. Man, it¡¯ll be weird to be addressed as something different suddenly. I wonder if I could find a way to make them use my old name¡­


    My eyes dull.


    My blood freezes.


    My body drops.


    I look. I read. I check every ¡°book¡±, every memory, every little moment of my life. I check everything twice over and I am forced to go back to reality as Ayrah shakes me awake. She looks worried.


    Of course she is, I suddenly dropped and started crying.


    But then again, how could I not cry when my entire being is asking a simple, horrifying question?


    What was my name?

 Chapter 30: Welcomed Distractions

    All of the memories related to my name are gone. It¡¯s like somebody took some scissors to a film and then patched it back together, adding some blurr to attempt a seamless skip of any moment when I heard it, said it or looked at it written down. That¡¯s terrifying. I can remember the exact number of creases my shirt had during my first day of highschool and yet I cannot remember my name. I thought I had a perfect memory but what if I am missing a lot more, yet I don¡¯t remember what I don¡¯t remember so I can¡¯t notice all the missing parts?


    Panic was threatening to take me at the notion that somehow, something so interwoven with my identity was just gone. And yet I wasn¡¯t alone, in a dark room, stuck with my thoughts. I was surrounded by worried faces. Well, about three worried faces, but still, that was much more than ever before. It is what it is. I can¡¯t solve something I don¡¯t even know the cause of. Better to move on and keep this in the back of my mind. My perfect memory isn¡¯t perfect. Well boo-fucking-hoo, I¡¯ve managed to get by with much worse.


    I decide to shake my head, stretch my body, and then go back to looking for the core. Reactions are mixed, I hear some worried whispers and them talking about some sickness, but I decide to ignore it all and instead focus on whatever gem this thing was hiding. If it was even hiding anything special. Once I reach it and tear into it, I get the distinct feeling of hunger. It was a simple thing, so mundane that it couldn¡¯t even compare to the ideas inside the other, more magical animals I¡¯ve eaten. It simply held the idea that eating something will give you more of it¡­ or at least I think that¡¯s what the ominous whispers mean. I¡¯m guessing that this is why the bear was just so huge and powerful. Every bit of muscle it ate, every bone it crunched, all of it went to build its body into an unstoppable, starving, killing machine. Until I zapped it to death.


    The idea goes down into a deep part of my body, the mana having a strong enough flavor to not lose its particularity as I absorb it. It is a sad thing that I only get fragments of what these animals acquired in their lives. I only get¡­


    Ah, they¡¯re still worried. I think for a bit on what¡¯s the best way to calm the spirits, then decide that going out to get some sun and play in the snow might not be a bad idea. They¡¯re all wearing mismatched clothing made out of fur held together by dried and hardened vines, so they¡¯re pretty equipped for winter, even a harsher one. The fact that three of them have some innate resistance to the cold also helps. Granny Yvonne stays behind, as does Meredith. The former is old and has wood growing out of her, makes sense why she¡¯s not left this room since the cold came. As for the latter? She¡¯s healed, but it seems her scar still causes discomfort pretty often. It¡¯d probably suck to be hit by frost.


    Either way, I manage to drag out my three¡­ friends? I guess that fits somewhat. I drag them out into the snow, Alek getting a ride from Ayrah and Edith getting a ride from me, since I was a bit too excited to wait on normal human speed. Alek¡¯s the happiest about this, somehow able to tightly pack up snow with a single hand, and then throwing it much faster than I¡¯d expect from a scrawny, one armed, sitting kid. Right, ice magic in humans is weird. He¡¯s young but he¡¯s been accumulating mana pretty quickly. He¡¯s almost at triple the pool he was before and that didn¡¯t come with any strange mutations so far, aside from being a small source of cold air and his skin turning even paler.


    Alright, I compare him to miss scorched demon, grandma dryad and the amazonian catgirl, obviously it seems small¡­ Ah, my brains just burning with needless thoughts, so I bury it in the snow, then roll on my back and try my best at making a snow angel with my current body. It might have ended up better if I didn¡¯t ruin half of it by getting up. Guess that¡¯s one benefit humans have. Still, it¡¯s big, and that¡¯s a win in itself.


    You know what? I should see if they know how to make a proper snowman.


    <hr>


    Winter is nice. I ended up building a makeshift sled with Ayrah¡¯s help, with which I pulled the younger ones along. Turns out that Edith, despite her more sinister look and the fact that I¡¯m 90% sure she¡¯s an adult, is still very much a kid at heart, so she loves sledding at a decently high speed.


    Sadly, the sled survived all of two days before it hit a rock wrong and broke apart. Regardless, it was fun! I¡¯m having fun! I get to be a kid again, without murder or cannibalistic tendencies or a giant eldritch dragon breathing down my spine! I get to just relax and enjoy the place. I¡¯ve been building a small army of snowmen with details made of dead wood and strips of frozen fur for clothing, I¡¯ve thrown snowballs using my magic, as my hands are still lacking in that aspect, hell, I¡¯ve even done some flight acrobatics to just enjoy myself.


    I love winter!


    <hr>


    If things continue at this rate, winter might just vanish in the blink of an eye. We¡¯re already in its last few weeks, if the year is still the same as back on earth, as my observations so far indicate.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Regardless of that fact, though, I am currently doing something mildly important. Mother hasn¡¯t been doing much during the winter, but that doesn¡¯t mean she¡¯s been hibernating. I don¡¯t know what she¡¯s been doing, but every so often I¡¯d see her fly about, or focus on me if I ever passed by her somehow still green oasis, sometimes she even went down the tunnel. I still couldn¡¯t follow her, as I had tried only to lose a few days to making multiple ice statues of everyone I have seen in this world. Weird fixation, but alright.


    Regardless of all that, I once again find myself in front of her, and she¡¯s been teaching me some very important things, including how to properly use the life rune that I haphazardly guessed. It¡¯s somehow different from both energy and matter runes. I need more focus to keep one simple life rune under control than it takes to control a spell formed from three runes. Still, with so much focus I am actually able to simply feel the mana as it clings to things that should be alive. If only my senses were a bit better, I think I could feel the cells in each organism!


    Either way, this is an interesting step¡­ maybe she¡¯ll teach me about any of the other organic mana types. That would certainly be useful, far more than the many ways I¡¯ve learned to damage something with magic.


    As I focus on my magic, I suddenly lose the rune as my focus is drawn by the large boulder of snow that was thrown straight at my head, knocking me a few meters away by sheer momentum. Thank whatever made dragons for giving them such sturdy necks. I look around for the cause, but soon realize the obvious. Mother¡­ threw a snowball at me? I look at her tendrils as they smooth down a ball bigger than my head, and I retaliate by using my hands to form snowballs and magic to launch them up, most of them missing by getting too far from me.


    She laughs and I am surprised. She¡¯s just.. having fun. Huh. That actually surprised me. If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d think she¡¯s a pretty normal mother. Watches from afar as I play with my ¡®friends¡±, teaches me important things, plays with me¡­ Sad that she¡¯s a tyrannical overlord that has probably eaten humans before¡­ She might have been nice if not for that¡­ or for the many attempts on my life, really it¡¯s easy to sober up whenever my instincts make me mushy for her, though it is annoying when it keeps happening.


    Seems she wants to play some more¡­ alright, let¡¯s see how you handle a proper snowball fight!


    <hr>


    Would you look at that¡­ Train, experiment, play, hunt, rinse and repeat¡­ As always, a bit of routine and time starts flying. But, like all times, routine breaks.


    Winter is ending. Greenery is already sprouting here, the trees are budding leaves and flowers, and the temperature is actually nice enough that I only need a bit of fire mana to move around. My siblings have started being more active, and that alone is enough to make me realize that I have somehow been lagging behind. All of my siblings changed in one way or another, most specifically they are all almost as big as me. I don¡¯t understand how them napping brought as much of a boon as my constant training, but that¡¯s dragons for you.


    Regardless of the biomechanisms that go into all this, I find myself leading them out into the last few days of snow. Mother has yet to come take us anywhere, so I just hover around them as they figure out their new proportions during their hunts. Boars, rabbits, nothing really escapes. Anything that is dumb enough to be out and about, is taken and devoured.


    Barely after the snow properly melts does mother come by to lead us somewhere¡­.


    Are you fucking kidding me?


    She leads us to the hallway that¡¯s protected by her mind magic¡­ Of course, with her here, the spell doesn¡¯t trigger and we just get to see the rest of the place¡­ without having to struggle at all, just¡­ just had to wait. No, I will not scream, as much as I want to.


    The place is simply beautiful. Once we make the bend, the place becomes even wider and with even more artwork. Not only art of Mother, but art of a few other dragons. The murals are overgrown and cracked, so most of them aren¡¯t visible, But I see one that looks like a sort of huge sea serpent, wrapped around what could only be an island. I see another that looks like someone saw a brachiosaurus and decided that its mouth needed to extend all the way down to the base of its neck, among many other horrifying things about this particular one. There is another that looks¡­ weird? That one looks much grander than many other pieces, but its composition is all wrong. It has the rough shape of a rather classic dragon, but it is made entirely out of clear gems that might actually just be glass,, with some kind of humanoid being put in front of it all.


    There¡¯s a few others, but I can barely see pieces as we walk past. The place was also decorated with human sized furniture¡­ looked a lot like a church if I was being honest. Strange place.


    Following that there is more tunnel, which leads to a door, which she opens with some use of mana. When I finally see what was hidden that made her so guarded¡­ yeah, makes sense. this place had a proper dragon hoard. Actually, no, this place was absurdly magical from all points of view. There was the pile of gold and cut gems that put to shame the nest¡¯s resources as well as mother¡¯s entire water, but that wasn¡¯t all. Multiple pieces of fancy weapons and armor, I can even see that sword mother took a while back. Next there was a pile of books and scrolls, as well as what could only be actual magical potions.


    Really, all, these things would have affected me more if it wasn¡¯t for the giant pillars of magical crystal. There¡¯s fire, water, earth, nature and even metal. I stare at it all, a weird hunger setting in my chest. My siblings start milling, trying to find something. I, on the other hand, am not looking for anything. I am instead looking at the giant water rock in the middle of the room. I also see the beam of water shooting upwards¡­ that explains why the water in mother¡¯s river is so full of water mana¡­ damn.


    Now¡­ what are we supposed to do here?

 Chapter 31: Blind Overachiever

    I stare at the water as it rises in a perfect laminar flow. It is not created by the large pillar of vibrant blue, but rather the pillar makes water from underground rise from below the mountain and over its shimmering form, saturating it with mana as a side effect, or rather it is by design, before finally sending it off towards the surface. It is interesting that the mana from the gold pile doesn¡¯t also go towards the water, instead it seems to seep into the walls of the room, moving in patterns, feeding into something.


    I am thankful for my eyes continuously becoming better. I can see the mana clinging to the pieces of armor and the weaponry, even to some of the books and trinkets strewn about. Enchanted items, clearly. I even stumbled across the mirror shield¡­ which apparently mother took sometime ago. I didn''t even notice, but then again, I didn¡¯t spend much time in the nest. This does give me pause however. I changed. My reflection in running water is nowhere near as clear as this mirror, which shows vibrant swirling colors which have taken over the outer rim of my irises, doing minute shifts at the speed of a crawl. Interesting.


    My horns have also grown properly, or rather improperly. There¡¯s no pattern or symmetry, they just grew. At least I don¡¯t see any of them curling to pierce my own skull, that¡¯d be a very shitty thing to deal with. Where was I? Ah yes, magic items that I have no clue how to use. Nice. Also books and scrolls I probably can¡¯t read. Doubly nice. This place is a treasure trove, a pity then that I can¡¯t use any of it. I understand why she kept it protected. but why bring us¡­ Are those ghosts?!


    My body whirls around and I see red mist flowing into itself from the fire crystal pillar, taking on a more solid looking form and lashing out with gnarly, false limbs. RT pulled back from the first clawing, then jumped in and bit down, devouring a chunk of mana and causing the fog to audibly screech and fight harder. All of my siblings are doing something similar. Spots is battling earth fog while Crown takes to water. I wonder for a moment what caused all this¡­ but then I realize why they were so fixated on the pillars before.


    I stop tuning out the voices and I hear them far more clearly. The pillars are positively shouting senseless things about their respective domains, but they are also speaking.. no, they are feeling rage and making us know. Curses flow through my mind as I realize that these pillars are not dead. This isn¡¯t like the gemstones, empty of self but full of power and snippets of the world. These things have power but also some sort of identity, like the crystals of a freshly killed beast. They don¡¯t seem to hold any absurd ideas like ¡°Trample a path¡± or ¡°Sharp things pierce¡±, but they feel different from normal mana. I listen closely as the red crystal beckons Red Tail closer in one breath, while cursing his very existence the next. That seems to work as I actually see RT jump at the thing, ever the trailblazer that he is. He bites into the actual crystal, ripping out a chunk, sending the mana into even more of a rage, but a part of the mana actually struggles against the whole, attacking the rest of the mana to protect RT.


    I do not understand it. I turn to look at mother, but she just lays down next to the pile of gold, her head resting on the metal. Am I supposed to be doing this too? I guess I should. I approach the metal mana pillar, tilt my head at the confusing and sudden silence, then get closer and take a bite out of it. Mana revolts. Metal needles materialize in my mouth, making me spit the chunk. I claw at my tongue, bleeding on the ornate floor, but the needles have vanished already. The mana doesn¡¯t form into a cloud. There''s nothing I can fight to weaken the crystal. My siblings seem to be weakening the real, physical retaliations by eating the fog, but the metal seems happy to stay put and silent. I go to the nature one, snap at it, try to taunt it, but only the normal amount of mana oozes out. I try biting it and the result is the same as the metal one, instant, powerful retaliation. It defies me.


    I step away from everything, annoyed at the pain, lessened as it may be. Alright, the pillars are defective. I go to the fire pillar and RT goes from 0 to 100 by jumping at me with his absurd weight and size, knocking me away and growling with pure, greedy anger as a tendril swipes at his back. Alright, going to an occupied pillar is rude, got it.


    I walk over to mother and sit in front of her, seeing a few of her eyes turn to me. I wish I could ask her ¡°What the hell am I supposed to do?¡± but I don¡¯t know any of the words for that. Instead I simply tug at her and point with my small hands towards them. She cranes her head and squeezes me with her tendrils. Soothing. Is she trying to console me for failing? Failing what? Why? What the hell did I mess up along the way that I am failing a step everyone else is taking?


    This should be instinctual, yet there is only silence. No pull, no feeling like I am doing something wrong by not participating¡­ Are my instincts broken? Or am I just not meant to do this? Is it because I didn¡¯t hibernate? They caught up to me, meaning my growth is much slower. Things are going sideways and I do not know what I can even do, so I simply sit and watch them.


    It is strange, they should be unsteady since their bodies changed so much while they slept, but it seems that they are even better than they were last time we hunted together. They are aware of spacing, dodging powerful swipes, fighting back against magic with their own spells, every little trick they had used against animals is put on display in this trial. And they¡¯re all competent. It takes twenty minutes of continuous fighting for the first signs of weariness to appear. Spots is tired, and Crown isn¡¯t far behind. RT is hanging on, but only because he stopped attacking and instead he is just biting at the tendrils of solid mana that try to swipe at him.


    There¡¯s a change in them, but it is minute. I can see bits of the unique mana they were just fighting against sticking to them. Even as they retreat, the mana decided to keep clinging on, not dispersing, not being absorbed, just being on them. There¡¯s shifts in their scales. I can already see a few of Spots¡¯ spots turning brown, Crown¡¯s blue shifts into a gradient, Red Tail¡¯s scarlet scales take over even more of his body to the point where I should call him Half Red instead. And I sit here, looking at my bluish scales with their sheen like an oil spill, unchanged ever since my weeks of sleeping by the chaos pillar.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    I turn to leave now that my siblings are done with this strange thing. They seem properly tired, but still they keep their heads high, a glimmer of excitement in their eyes. A glimmer that simply makes me know that their minds have changed in such a short time. They learn quickly, they are eager to attempt anything they see¡­ no wonder then that they seem to have some understanding of the world after a mere few months.


    By comparison I am inadequate.


    Again.


    I shake away those thoughts, simply looking again at the grandiose artworks engraved in the walls on the way out. The details are absurd, and despite her talent, I doubt mother has the delicate touch needed to make something like this. Unless she used magic. Which she likely did. Hmm¡­ Oh well, who knows why she has a weird temple inside of a mountain¡­


    Man¡­ I am still a bit angry at her wasting months of my time trying to keep me away from something she was planning on throwing me into anyways. And now that I am here I just learn that I am unable to do whatever they¡¯re doing. My bout of jealousy makes me focus more on what changed about my siblings, and then I notice something that hadn¡¯t happened before. RT¡¯s claws are making small sparks with each step. Similarly I can hear Spots¡¯ steps being heavier, firmer, grasping the ground like he hadn¡¯t before. Crown, on the other hand, seems to be a big more agile than before, more energetic, rushing a bit and slipping between us, only to stop so we can catch up. I feel her brushing past me, letting out a happy thrill as she speaks of what she saw with a single word.


    She speaks of harsh rapids and calm lakes, of life that enjoys the safety of the water, yet dies nonetheless to that which should have protected it. She speaks of cruelty and beauty, of the eagerness to devour more and know more of what this crystal knows.


    My eyes are wide as I look into hers, a strange fear being reflected in those beautiful blue pools. Last we spoke she could barely tell me about which pebble was her favorite, yet now she speaks of complex concepts with a fluidity better than mine. She saw so much from such a small fight against some ghostly apparition living in a rock.


    I fell behind.


    A few minutes and I was left in the dust.


    How unfair.


    <hr>


    My siblings are famished. At least that¡¯s the only thing I can think about as I see Crown absolutely devouring an entire tree while Spots is digging in the ground, having found some kind of burrow. RT¡¯s gone. He has been gone from the second we came into the sun. It feels kind of sad, being left behind like this. I have months on them¡­ Months of time in which I trained and practiced and¡­ they manage to overtake me by simply sleeping and then biting the air.


    I spread my wings and take to the sky, swiftly leaving the two behind. This is the extent of my work. Once more the nagging feeling comes back. I could have done more if I didn¡¯t play around with the humans. If I had just focused on power instead of doing stupid things like the heat transfer spell. If I had pushed myself to exhaustion instead of being conceited¡­


    But if I can¡¯t be conceited now, as an infant, then when? Or were my weeks of sleep as my body developed the only time I had to be a child? Am I already an adult somehow? Doubtful, yet not impossible¡­


    I let out a frustrated roar and dive down, ripping out the nape of a doe¡¯s neck. It falls on the fresh grass, staining it red. Other nearby prey bolts away, but I don''t give chase. I didn¡¯t even need this one¡­ but its flesh does calm my mind.


    The only thing I can gather from what I have watched is that my siblings are cheating. Well, we are all cheating by the very nature of what we are, but they are cheating more. Those pillars have identity. They host mana with will and memories, something that doesn¡¯t reek of some revelation, but rather of experience and flavor that one would need to live for decades in order to obtain. They are eating it, and thus, they are earning years of experience in minutes of fighting. What¡¯s worse, the mana is acting like it is bipolar, both pulling in and pushing away. It wants to be taken, but also hates that we are taking it.


    I do not understand this world, and I doubt I will at this rate, but I guess I have to make peace with the fact that there¡¯s some things my siblings have figured out that I just don¡¯t. RT was the first to use his breath, despite me being better at it. I have a trove of information and imagery, but that is worthless if they can catch up by eating some rocks¡­ Especially when they¡¯re doing it faster than I did with the prey I hunted.


    I shake myself off, looking down at the few shreds of what was once an animal. I can only look away, annoyed at how easily I became jaded to butchering living beings. I should probably vent out my frustration on stone instead of doing  this every time I feel wrong¡­


    Oh well, too late to undo this, so I take flight again. I can feel the tingle of the electric mana as I speed up, dashing a distance once took me close to an hour in just a measly 10 minutes. Of course I find myself on the empty side when I land, but it doesn¡¯t matter. I am where I am meant to be.


    I came here without thinking, but there really is no better spot for me to try and catch up to them, now is there? Sure, they may have their fires and waters and whatever else those shiny rocks might show them, but I have something better.


    You are better¡­ right? It is embarrassing but I haven¡¯t actually thought about it. Isn¡¯t this thing worse than all the others? It gives out very little from each element compared to what I saw the others do, and so far it hasn¡¯t created magical effects actively. It might be a dead crystal¡­ oh well, at least I can keep improving my spells. If they win out in power I will have finesse.


    My heart is squeezed by a cold grip. There¡¯s nothing there, but I still feel it. That fear of failure. Maybe one day of pushing myself wouldn¡¯t hurt¡­


    <hr>


    I don¡¯t know when, but the suns are almost past the horizon. Mother actually comes to pick me up as I have lost track of time. Strange. I am not really tired, but I follow her anyways, which leads to me stepping into the tunnel, only to find Spots devouring fruits while his gut roars for him. Poor guy¡¯s still hungry? Man he should¡¯ve just gone out for some meat if it was this bad.


    Mother picks him up, ignoring his protests, which just makes him give up and go soft. Once inside we find Crown grumbling as she nibbles, no, eats a gold coin, while RT smells of fresh rabbit, but is clearly unsatisfied. Months of sleep would do that, I guess. Still, mother tells us to sleep, and so we do.


    Just before letting the darkness take me I hope that I can catch up to my siblings soon. The pillar acted nothing like theirs, so if tomorrow I am rejected again I might end up being truly left behind¡­


    I hope I can figure this out.

 Chapter 32: Teaching Love To Murder Machines

    I find myself waking up in a pile of bodies. I don¡¯t know how, but despite all of my siblings going down different paths in their magic, and their personalities slowly reflecting that, they¡¯re all still absolute cuddlebugs. I am on my back, with my wings pinned by my siblings. Can¡¯t move, can¡¯t roll away, so I just reach over towards Spots¡¯ head and start giving him scratches. Some squirming ensues and suddenly all my siblings are awake, grooming each other, playfully nipping and nudging like children. Very scaly children.


    They are absolutely adorable. They are also changing scents, which is mildly worrying. Up until now we¡¯ve all had our own unique yet mundane smell, meant to help us distinguish each other better, but we also had the scent of mixed mana. I smell a bit more like chaos since I keep going to the pillar to train, but they smell like flame, earth and water respectively, despite not going daily to the pillars. They can waste their entire pool playing or hunting, yet they recover mostly their own element than the mix, despite doing nothing to ensure that, like I do. It¡¯s like they started filtering it innately.


    Their understanding has also grown. They speak of things we don¡¯t yet have words for, using their body, gestures and witty ways of interpreting the few words we do know. I¡¯ve listened in on the whispers of their mana every now and then, and it became clear just how their minds advance so fast. The whispers are constant, directed and focused. This mana doesn¡¯t speak of the math, physics or chemistry behind their effects, but it does speak of just about anything else. The way it feels to lay on a warm rock, how exciting it is to explore the depths of the ocean, the riches one may find if they go deep down enough, anything even remotely related to their element is whispered in their ears, filling up that sponge-like brain children have.


    Man¡­ chaos sucks in this aspect. It says only random, useless stuff, that¡¯s why I tuned it out in the first place. What is ¡°angry red man¡±, ¡°sparky spear¡± and ¡°wheat hunts¡± even supposed to mean? Normal mana is also plenty useless. Sure it talks a bit about things related to it, but doesn¡¯t really impart anything vivid, if that makes any sense. The living mana makes you feel like you¡¯re there, like you understand, while dead mana just tells and occasionally gives some hallucinations.


    I can¡¯t help but sulk at being unable to get a powerful specialization, but there is little I can do. Despite the time passing, none of the remaining pillars react to me, so it must mean that either I need to wait for mother to find a different kind, or I need to figure things out for myself. It would be a problem if I am stuck without an affinity or an identity. Or at least I think that it would be. Mother¡­ how should I say this, she has so much mana that she actively forces it to stay inside, and the way beasts grow crystals in their core¡­ I think that a properly attuned core eventually means getting free mana and not having to fear becoming a very frail living rock out in the wilds.


    I am pushed from my own head by apparently becoming the target of all my siblings, the little killing machines knocking me back down and nibbling me all over in spite of my struggles. I laugh and forget my envy, remembering my own talents, even though I know they will catch up on those too eventually. They are impressive, adorable¡­ And I fear that at some point they will become horrible creatures¡­ I can¡¯t even blame them, not really. All the voices¡­ all the instincts¡­ everything is designed to make them think of life as cheap. Hell, it¡¯s worked on me. I¡¯ve eaten wolves and bears, animals I know are smart, and I had quite a few close calls with the humans. It¡¯s obvious that if they don¡¯t learn differently, they will see people and whatever other sapients exist in this world as food.


    And that revelation is what begins my days of doing what I can to get them to like people. Basically, I¡¯m like a cat trying to bring other cats to humans, but I am larger than the humans and the humans have nothing to keep them safe and¡­ I have my work cut out for me.


    <hr>


    Over the weeks that pass I hold to my goal, despite the difficulty. When they aren¡¯t training their magic, hunting, or just being lazy, squishy things, I take them with me to play. Understandably, the humans aren¡¯t eager to interact with my siblings, especially considering the look they have in those reptilian eyes, but my siblings, children that they are, see the board games and instantly flock to see what we¡¯re doing. I do my best to explain without words, pointing at the designs on the chess pieces, showing how I move them, and even playing a match against Ayrah for demonstration. As I lose, not really putting in my all, they go from statues that barely inched their heads side to side, to a full blown gallery at a tournament, losing their minds over the game, and at least one of them might be eager to beat me at something since they have yet to beat me in a fight.


    I show them marbles, thinking games, running games, hiding games, everything they can do that can include the humans, and the second I see one of them going even a bit hard or getting frustrated I nudge them into not making a ¡°mistake¡±. It takes a while, but slowly some kind of rapport is built. Weeks pass and they seek out people to play. A month passes and they eat together. We are approaching summer and they start to nibble and lick the humans as if they were soft, scaleless dragons.


    Really it was as much a struggle for the humans as it was for the dragons. Of course, it was Alek that made the biggest push, namely giving Red Tail his very first pat. The dragon has since spent many nights curling up to get pats and scratches from the boy, who never seems to get sick of doing it. Crown had been bribed by the vines the old lady makes when she¡¯s bored, and Spots was really just interested the entire time, but even as we approached our birthday (or at least my estimation of it) he had yet to get too close to anyone.


    It was¡­ surprisingly easy. Mother did not push back any as I worked this out, really she even gave us words that helped me make things easier, like a word for relations and links, which even included ¡°family¡± and ¡°friends¡± under its umbrella. She taught us how to say friend when I was trying to teach them friendship¡­ is that¡­ intentional? Probably not. Don¡¯t read too much into it, you moron called ¡°me¡±.


    ¡­


    Why did I not try this earlier? Would it have worked if my siblings had simpler minds? Would it have been better or worse? Each day I feel like I understand myself less¡­ Like my mind splits itself apart without my knowledge or will. I fear for what happens next time I lose track of myself¡­ After all, I spent so much energy in this that I¡¯ve been somewhat stagnant in my own training¡­ improving at a rate that can¡¯t keep up with the raw power I¡¯ve seen from them¡­


    At least they are stagnating too, and not just because of the time spent playing. The inner parts of the pillars are tougher, more defined and take a long battle to even chip. They are also shaped strangely and uniquely, showing the pattern that the crystal follows as it grows. Much like pyrite is cubes within cubes, so are these gems, taking on strange shapes similar to their runes, looking almost polished after all the devouring my siblings have done. At least there seems to be a bottleneck that is keeping them from really taking it all in¡­ I may actually start doing whatever they¡¯re doing by the time they figure out how to continue¡­ hopefully.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    <hr>


    I look up at the sky, tilting my head, narrowing my eyes, eventually realizing that I can indeed see the gap between the suns lessening. At least compared to my memory from the first time I saw them, they drifted a bit closer, but not enough to overlap quite yet. At this pace¡­ it might take a few years before they cross, with the yellow aiming to stand in front of its larger brother. I wonder what that¡¯ll be like¡­


    My thoughts are interrupted by quiet footsteps. I look back to see Edith walking out of the cave, alone, just barely managing to take the steps needed to reach me, before curling into a ball next to my basking rock. She narrows her eyes, probably from the strong light, which makes me deploy my organic umbrella over her, tilting my head. I do not understand why she¡¯s here, she isn¡¯t usually the proactive type, only waiting for me to come before following along.


    Yet here she is, looking exhausted yet not tired, lifeless eyes staring at the dirt in front of her as she draws something with her long, frail, charred index finger. Amusingly enough it is similar to my own drawings¡­ just as rushed, just as bad, just as easy to understand regardless. It is her home and two figures that are probably her family. That¡­ Ah, she¡¯s homesick. My birthday is coming sometime in the next couple months, meaning she¡¯s been here for close to a year. Away from family, away from everything really.


    Poor girl.


    Wait, I know where her home is, I remember with certainty, the town I saw that day was certainly hers. I just need to take her there¡­ Maybe mother would be mad if I left her there, I am still unsure about that, so I can only offer her a small reunion, not a full ticket home, but it should raise her spirits. My mind freezes, as I realize¡­ didn¡¯t I promise¡­


    ¡°Useless/Thoughts!/March!/Thoughts??/Jumbled, very/Burn, burn/Coming!/Feed earth. Eat Earth.¡±


    I scream and snap at the mana coming off of me. This is why I keep these whispers silent, there¡¯s nothing useful here¡­


    ¡°S-sorry¡­¡± I hear a weak cry. Edith looks at me in shock, as if remembering that I am a monster. My pupils narrow, I can feel my focus being reduced to only her face, her expression, a painful nail driven through my heart. I snapped at her¡­ No, it looks like I did, which is just as bad.


    I let out a sigh, reaching in, slowly, to nuzzle against her cheek, which she accepts, but far more cautiously than before. I promised to myself that I¡¯ll get them home, and yet I forgot all about her little town. This is not normal. I can remember the exact position of the suns months ago, but not something so important¡­ My mind is wrong. I don¡¯t know what happened but something¡¯s messing with my mind. It might be mother? Maybe her spell lingers¡­ It may have messed with my brain enough to forget¡­ Did I promise before or after I lost months on that? It¡¯s all so frustrating!


    And there¡¯s nothing I can do, so I accept it and move on. In this case moving on looks like me going into the cave and changing out my mana. Edith looks disheartened as I leave, but it doesn¡¯t matter. She will be happy soon enough. It takes hours to charge fully on air and electric mana, but it is enough that I should easily last the trip to the town, and then I can sit out in the woods for an hour to charge back up enough to make it back home, at least if I take the gems with me, which I obviously do.


    I go over to the human room, carrying a decent quantity of crystals in my mouth and arms, taking them to the half bag half basket Old Yvonne made. It takes borrowing a bit of the mana coming off of her to make the thing just a bit tougher, so it holds the crystals without breaking. Once that is done, I hold it in my mouth and pull Edith to follow, shaking my head at anyone that tries to come with. I take the girl ousted, and with little warning, I take off and grab a hold of her with my six available limbs, holding her tight in spite of her momentary struggle.


    ¡°Please don¡¯t! Little Hearteater, I am sorry! I didn''t mean to annoy you¡­ Please, please don¡¯t do this!¡± Ah you poor girl, thinking such scary thoughts after just silently begging to see home again¡­ Also, really, how did that name take? Why did they name me before mother has!? I don¡¯t know what sort of weird traditions dragons have, but it feels pretty weird for your thinking kid to still not have a name, especially now that all of us are thinking, not just my abnormal self.


    Edith goes quiet about a minute into the flight, seeming to let her limbs free against the wind. Huh, she¡¯s enjoying it. I guess she realized I¡¯m not about to drop her. I just hope it lasts, but I know it won¡¯t. My wings flap quickly, electricity courses through my veins, the green sea rushes below me. My mind blanks as I feel like I am on the highway. I am startled awake who knows how much time later by the town becoming visible.


    ¡°Home¡­ Mama¡­ Papa!¡± I follow her gaze and I see¡­ a simple house, much like the others. This village¡­ it really isn¡¯t a town at this size¡­ is very poor. Still, they have farm animals, a field of grain over on a particularly flat hill and multiple gardens all over. I landed a while away, not eager to be seen, but I still made sure we were close to her apparent home.


    I feel sluggish once on the ground, my legs having fallen asleep holding Edith, but it seems that hers are still very much awake. Please don¡¯t make me run after you¡­ You¡¯re making me run. Damnit¡­ I walk after her, keeping my eyes open. There¡¯s a pit growing in my stomach¡­ a while back I was eager to see how the people here live, but I really don¡¯t want them to see me around. That could turn into panic quickly.


    Edith, girl¡­ Please don¡¯t mess things up¡­ I¡¯m a tired dragon and you¡¯re a beacon for mother¡¯s unwanted attention¡­ I see her figure a bit further ahead, just at the treeline. Good, she¡¯s waiting¡­ and waiting¡­ and waiting¡­ I reach her and look up, confused about the freeze. She is in pain. I see a terror in her eyes that I haven¡¯t seen since the time she was meant to be food. I wonder what could scare her so¡­


    I see a beautiful woman carrying some old wooden bucket filled with water over to a gathering of birds. Ducks and chicken roam freely and swarm her as she pours the water into a large flat bowl for them. I wonder why the fear, then I see the woman turning around, a baby in her supposedly free arm. A baby she is rocking gently while wearing a most precious smile.


    I also see a man, thin but toned, with reddened skin from staying out in the sun. He laughs as he hugs her from behind, just barely keeping his muddy hands away from her. They look happy. They also look a bit like Edith. And yet Edith looks horrified still. She looks at her hand, then back at the happy couple¡­ and she walks away. Not even towards the town, just back where we came from. Why would-


    The baby is young. Very young. My head turns towards it and I see¡­ yeah, I am certain. At most a couple months old, probably younger¡­ meaning¡­ there¡¯s a good chance they had it after she was taken.


    They replaced her.


    I wish I could hug her, or take her away, but I think she needs space at the moment. I almost give it to her, but I find my body moving on its own, spreading its wings and grabbing her, ignoring her screams.


    Really, they are easy to ignore, considering that hers aren¡¯t more thunderous than a storm. They also don¡¯t bear the order to rush back home. Mother¡¯s angry and I fear it might be my fault¡­

 Interlude 6: Wrath Begets Wrath

    As her archbishop enters the great hall, Rirshka looks on in disgust at the humans and their bickering. It is a pitiful sight, seeing what is supposed to be her empire¡¯s greatest minds having such disagreements over something that should be as natural as breathing. Thankfully despite being unfashionably late, her divine tool had enough of a presence, together with Rahena¡¯s own representative, to quiet down the shouts into murmuring protests.


    ¡°Dragging us all into your petty squabble¡­¡± spoke a robustly built, absurdly tall man, his finger annoyingly chipping away at the marble table with each persistent tap. ¡°Your family has tried six times to kill that dreg and failed each and every attempt. It is a miracle you are even allowed to show your face at this table after leading twenty thousand souls to their doom.¡±


    Flames licked the ornate marble black as equally annoying taps were returned by the wrathful, dishonored duke. That only seemed to draw amusement out of the lithe man that spoke in two voices. ¡°Oh please do tell why should we even bother? I truly don¡¯t wish to spend the next fifty years scrambling to replace my peasants after that beast gorges itself rotund. You and your incompetent family have done plenty.¡±


    Rahena was not famous for her patience, as such her bishop tapped the table and put a stop to the rising tensions, golden lightning coiling and jumping over the stone, biting any who still flashed their mana. The aged man then cleared his throat and spoke out, in a voice so calm it did not fit the greatest worshiper of the storm that was Rirshka¡¯s sister. ¡°As you should know, this is not merely a vendetta. The dragoness has become a danger that even the gods took note of.¡±


    Taking the offered aid, the flaming duke raised from his seat, presenting the findings of his many spies. ¡°She has children. Increased witchbeast activity and strength, infant wyverns attacking livestock or being sighted hunting in the wilderness, sprinkled all over the empire, sudden tribute and finally, most compelling of all, our benevolent patron of harvests saw fit to use her miracles to show her priesthood the existence of these hatchlings.¡± At that, Rirshka¡¯s beloved priest offered a curt nod, not being much of a talker in spite of his position.


    It seemed that the confirmation of the infant dragons took the amusement away from the dukes. Arkros may have an unhealthy obsession with the beast, but here it was a pleasant tool.


    ¡°That is why we must act now.¡± Arkros spoke in a commanding tone. ¡°Failures though they may be, we know enough about this dragon that we can end her if only I wasn¡¯t forced to fight using only mercenaries and peasants. We need to form a unified army to subjugate the creature, one armed with proper soldiers, not meatbags for her to feast on.¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­ But you see, taking away important men from my lands would put me in quite the danger. There are news of the Berkels gathering troops and weapons close to the borders of my vassals. I cannot in good conscience ignore it¡­¡± The two voiced man spoke, not hiding at all the shrewdness of his voice.


    ¡°The barbarians are persistent as ever. A warband raided a town two days ago and another hit the reinforcements that were sent to handle the first. I have my hands full handling those savages.¡± Dismissed the small giant, not even attempting to use a better excuse.


    ¡°The war with the south is still¡­¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a war in the south? I¡¯ve handled the northwest for so long and you started¡­¡±


    It was all devolving, the other nobles present finally being courageous enough to draw attention once it became clear that things would not get violent between the stronger men around. She could feel the bubbling rage of her sister, so she reached for her hand, which only served to make her lash out, though not exactly towards Rirshka.


    ¡°Insignificant ants! using their little battles as pretext¡­ I am war! I tell them where and when to fight and they win! How dare they shy away when I command them!?¡± Rirhka watched the chaos in disgust, but spoke in the soft tone that was expected of her.


    ¡°Sister, that is their nature. Small things in their small worlds¡­ It matters not because, in the end¡­¡± she did not say more as their faithful rose and spoke in a booming tone, or at least Rahena¡¯s did.


    ¡°Silence! This is no matter of fighting between men, the gods did not merely deign to tell us of the danger, the twin goddesses demand the immediate extermination of the beasts! The monsters will cause untold harm to our land, we mus-¡± A tired voice. A quiet thing. A whisper of the wind coming from a husk that barely clings to life. The most infuriating mortal cut through the speech in a very simple manner.


    ¡°No.¡± Asserted the Emperor. ¡°No army will be sent.¡± The shock was evident on most people¡¯s faces, aside from the despised duke himself and the seemingly young man with mismatched eyes standing next to the Emperor. ¡°Calm your sharp tongue. The Goddesses spoke, but the men die. I will not have another tragedy happen because of that dragon.¡± Almost like the decision was already made, the frail elder rose from his throne, aided by his son, obviously preparing to leave this meeting.


    ¡°I understood it.¡± Arkros spat out, flames dancing across his hair and beard. ¡°When you turned a blind eye to my grandfather being killed by her and his sword was taken, I understood why you did nothing. When my father was murdered as he tried to reclaim our land¡­ Your land! I understood why you sent nothing. It was up to us alone to fix our broken honor. Even when I lead the charge, dooming simple men to fighting that monster after years of trying to get even a single one of your weapons to assist in the hunt, I understood.¡±You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°Duke Varkrm, this is a dangerous thing you¡¯re doing, considering your standing.¡± Spoke not the Emperor, but rather his son, frowning at the unsightly display. Yet the duke ignored it.


    ¡°Yet this? Now? When the goddesses will it, when multiple beasts just like that wretched cur are growing on the land of this empire and they will go out and hunt our people, bring death and destruction to even more of our territory¡­ You do not want your legacy to be one of brash decisions and dead men, that I understood! And yet all you¡¯re doing is heading towards the inevitable legacy of a man that stood by as monsters that will bring terror for centuries grew right under his nose! The man that defied the gods and cursed our empire for a hundred generations of suffering!¡±


    The Emperor turned his tired eyes towards the man and suddenly cuts appeared over his face, but he did not move. He was resolute, and so the Emperor relented. Rirshka smiled at the duke¡¯s wit, hitting the old bag of bones where it hurt most. He had already allowed the monster to claim his land without opposition, if he allowed anything more than that¡­


    ¡°I will not send the imperial army.¡± Immediately Rirshka¡¯s face fell, as did the duke¡¯s. If they didn¡¯t have the help of¡­ ¡°But I will offer you five of my best masters, two squads of wyvern riders and a royal decree to gather any available and battle ready user of magic to your cause. You will be leading from the front, this time. If you return after abandoning your men this time, however¡­ Varkrm will be no longer.¡±


    That finally ended the meeting. The sisters were bitter over the outright denial of their will, but they knew that in the end they would be the ones truly leading the empire once all was said and done.


    <hr>


    Arkros watched over his army, not with any sort of excitement over the coming slaughter, but with anger over the husk¡¯s stubbornness. Sending so few of his tools¡­ so little risk to himself as he put everything in the duke¡¯s hands¡­ he hated that ancient thing, for in his eyes there was little difference between the emperor and the dragoness. Sure, one aged much more gracefully than the other, yet still¡­


    ¡°Prepare! We are approaching the border between our land and the dragon¡¯s! Wizards, in front! Handle the beast¡¯s traps and protections! Priests, stay close to the men and keep them protected! I want the levies and soldiers prepared! We will camp before properly going in. This may be our last moment of peace, so be ready for the death of the dragon!¡± His officers riled up the men, or at least most of them. He could see how terrified the levies were, peasants would always be peasants, but they were needed. He could not send only proper fighters against this monster, after all. Not considering what is needed to bring her down¡­


    Still, the plans were set. The goddess of thunder and war was blessing them, priests of the twin goddesses ensured that everyone that mattered was prepared for what was to come. In the meantime, he went to check on the wild cards, the things that he had never had under his control, despite his age. He watched as the knights wearing armor usually only reserved for high nobility kept close to the lesser draconic monsters they controlled, keeping them low to the ground so as not to give away their approach. Next he looked at the ¡°masters¡± and the things they controlled. They were few in number¡­ but the dragoness would never expect to face such things.


    ¡°Finally¡­ Finally a good chance at taking your head¡­¡± Rage boiled, but he did not let it take over. Instead he went to the hurriedly raised tent where he will spend the night. Before going in to rest, he looked at the wizards as they carefully unmade a strange, perpetual spell that hurt to look at with his mana sight. ¡°Bring in the light of gods to this land once more¡­ or something of that sort.¡± He was too tired to think of the proper words. After all, he cared little for the gods. All he wanted was to finally kill the monster, and if the gods taking over this piece of land will help with that, then so be it.


    <hr>


    The Mistress of Tranquil Waters is restless. Her eldest took one of his pets on a flight, but that wasn¡¯t it. Her children have been growing steadily, developing well, but still something was wrong. Her eldest had improved so much in such a short time, spurred by his siblings attaining their affinity, yet he was not tempted to use more chaos magic in spite of training exclusively around that pillar.


    What could possibly be going so very wrong that her instincts still make her worry? She listens to the hum of her mana, but it says nothing new. She extends her senses to the life around herself, yet there is nothing special. She takes to the skies and watches her child as he flies oh so swiftly towards a small town¡­ Is that it? Is it his naivety? It could be. He spread his affection to the others, setting in stone that she can¡¯t get rid of the animals.


    She growled in frustration. Her instincts were so very rarely wrong, so she delved into them, trying to understand where this unease came from. A deep breath, a pulse of mana, a response she did not expect. In a moment her eyes narrowed on the small window flavored like the last pest she had to eliminate, the one from, before winter. The faint, foreign energy is enough to explain why she was uneasy. Gods were watching. Gods aren¡¯t supposed to be watching. The only ones that should be capable of such a feat are far too big to care for her¡­ So how?


    Her blood runs cold, then hot again. It is distant, oh so distant, but one of her spells was undone. It is too far to be certain of which and when, but she feels the string of mana connecting her to it being cut away and the rough direction of the new emptiness. Her flight turns from a circle meant to watch her immediate surroundings to a purposeful path towards the largest town in her territory.


    She doesn¡¯t know what to expect, not now that the damnable gods are involved, so she focuses entirely on what may be the cause¡­ but no matter how she empowers her sight, or whatever alternative she uses to sense for abnormalities, nothing appears¡­ at least until she gets to the edge of her forest.


    Mana, clumps and clumps of mana. The plains are empty yet mana gathers strangely. Spells are happening, her senses are confused, a steel arrow somehow reaches her body but it is ignored by her scales. There are men there. Many, many men. They wear cloth and metal, bear simple weapons, yet are protected from sight by mages that are already running for their lives. A small army makes itself known and the apparent soldiers seem less inclined in attacking her, yet still they try, but mostly they focus on trying to get into the forest.


    Her children¡­ They¡¯re here for her children! That is the instinct¡­ the instinct of a mother to protect her young ones from invaders.


    She pours mind into her breathshaper, channeling as a white glow envelops her, then a roar echoes over her entire territory.


    ¡°Go home!¡± she commanded. But the humans below were only partially affected by her magic, as her main targets were her children. She needed to handle these things before they could reach her young ones. She must decimate the humans.


    And so she does as the forest below comes to life.

 Sorry, No Chapter this week.

    I''ll be as straightforward as I can. I overestimated my ability to put thoughts into words.


    Mid terms, work and working in the voting committee left me with exactly 3 hours to work on the story and I simply don''t have enough to make a chapter.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I don''t want to post a rushed, half-assed thing, especially so close to the arc''s climax. So there''s the title. No chapter this week...


    Sorry.


    Need 100 more characters to post this so.... ujngfyujuttbkjess44yh8fz9x9txotstootxotxot9txotd59t9d95d95x95x59x95d59zroz95z949tx95x95z94z48z94s94z4z4z4z4z4z5z5

 Chapter 33: The Party From A Dragons Eyes

    My lungs burn, and not from mana. My muscles are pained, my body is heavy, my entire existence hurts, yet I still fly. Stopping isn¡¯t an option. Edith struggles in my grasp, I cannot blame her. Mother stopped using her mana to force her voice into reaching me, instead turning her focus to the battle. It is distant, but I can hear her roars mixing with the sound of speedy projectiles and explosives. No, not only that, I can actually see the battle if I move some mana into my eyes. These monstrous eyes that can reach farther than any animal¡¯s could, and my vantage point up here in the sky, mean that I can clearly see mother¡¯s form as she rains down death and orders the forest itself to murder anything in her sight. Trees sway, water falls from the sky in deadly torrents, overall there¡¯s only death that awaits her targets. Which are human¡­


    For some reason, humans are attacking. It¡¯s the only explanation for what I see. There¡¯s tiny flashes of light flying towards her, but they are swallowed by her vibrant breaths. There are boulders and arrows that must come from artillery pieces, yet they are all useless. Sometimes I see her angered and retaliating against something particular, but it is clear she is winning easily. She destroyed the landscape when father came for a visit. Whatever a medieval army may have, it will not be able to compete with her.


    Still, she ordered us all to run home, in spite of her dominance. I am burning my mana, I am running out, all to get home as fast as possible. I will crash before I get to the cave, there¡¯s nothing I can do about that. My plan was to stick around for a few hours, recover my mana in that time, and then make it back home at a brisk pace. Instead I am using up all my electric mana just to get that much more speed. I would have made it if I didn¡¯t have the girl in my arms, maybe, but I do have her so I will end up on the ground much sooner.


    Why did I take her? Sure, she walked away from her own, clearly needing time to process everything. But even with that considered, I took her away, back to the cave, back to imprisonment, making things that much harder on myself. Why? Was it my instinct to protect my hoard? Was it simply my desire to not lose a friend?


    I let out a gasp, I lost my rhythm, my magic fizzled out, my electric mana is gone and I have very little air still in my body, so I glide downwards at higher speeds than I¡¯d like. I cry out and when I get close to the earth, I roll to take the brunt of the fall, holding Edith tightly, protected by all my limbs. I let go to catch my breath, letting her calm herself too. I can hear her heartbeat, as I hear my own. I can smell the blood rushing through her veins¡­ adrenaline is pumping freely through my body. My head is a mess. Just a bit away from where we are, mother is slaughtering humans that for some reason decided to attack us. So much death¡­


    I let out a hissing scream, a strange frustration building up. That¡¯s wrong¡­ that¡¯s the wrong emotion. I should be horrified, scared, something! I know people are dying, I can just barely feel mother¡¯s thoughts flowing through the words she occasionally shouts with enough volume to make the leaves on trees tremble. She mocks them. She¡¯s angry that they think for a moment they can contend with her again¡­ How many times has this happened before?


    ¡°Wh-what is happening? Why¡­ So much¡­¡± Edith breaks down. She was already on the verge of tears when she saw her family being so happy without her, but the sudden rush, the sounds of a wrathful dragon, and the fall we took all led to her simply letting go and crying.


    I wish I could sit here, let her cry, but I can¡¯t. I tug her malformed arm, and despite her protests, she lays on my back, hugging my body. I run. I am already low on mana, but still I run, burning through it to give me whatever bit of distance it can. I need to get home. Mother¡¯s spell, if it even was that, has faded after my fall, but still I know that there was a good reason for her using such powerful magic and from so far away just to get me home¡­


    What if a human passes by her? What if they try to come after her treasure while she¡¯s busy. What if they meet me or my siblings¡­ I feel bile rise to my throat, but I hold it down a while longer. I just need to make it home¡­ I just need to-


    Voices.


    I hear voices. There¡¯s still five to ten minutes of full speed running between me and home, yet I hear gruff voices¡­ Male voices. I stop running. Edith opens her mouth, but I wrap one of my tails around it, silencing the girl.


    ¡°Verka! See somethin¡¯ yet? Lotsa hole here but nothin¡¯ dragon-sized so far¡­¡± He¡¯s close. And tense, despite the lax tone and rough speech. My heart quickens and I drop fully, hiding between tall grass, long fallen leaves and bushes. How? When? Mother¡¯s been fighting them for close to an hour, but still¡­


    ¡°If we needa¡¯ bigger hole we shoulda gone to Bertha!¡± Older voice, further away, looks like a search party rather than a squad. They couldn¡¯t have reached here through mother and still be so relaxed as to joke around¡­ They came from a different direction, clearly wanting something. It sounds like they¡¯re trying to find our nest, so it might just be treasure they¡¯re after. Or maybe they¡¯re here to rescue the humans¡­ no, it¡¯s unlikely that they would mount an assault so late¡­


    ¡°Ya say something ¡®bout mum¡¯s one more time and I¡¯m tellin¡¯ the cap that you hit yer big head on a rock and died like a moron.¡± Talking won¡¯t work, I just know it¡­ You don¡¯t mount enough soldiers to keep an angry dragon occupied just to talk your way into a few coins. Do I kill them? They¡¯re close. They¡¯re dangerous. I can see one¡­ the younger one. That¡¯s a human man alright, maybe 30-ish, has a spear and veritable medieval armor. It¡¯s some kind of thick, brown-ish cloth with an emblem painted on a red triangle sewed on top of it. I click my tongue, then force myself to make a quick sound spell. I don¡¯t have a lot of air mana left, but it¡¯s enough to make the roar of a bear come from a bit further away, getting them distracted and focused. They rush to stand together, 5 other men coming within tens of seconds¡­ but I am far enough away that I do not care.


    I need to get home.


    <hr>


    I am back, and somehow, Edith was silent the entire time. She didn¡¯t cry out to be saved, just quietly sobbed on my scales. I don¡¯t have time to think about how messed up this is for her. My siblings weren¡¯t by the entrance to the cave, no one was, so I made my way in deeper, only to find more emptiness. The human room? Empty. The nest? Well, not actually empty since there¡¯s still plenty of riches and trinkets¡­ but it¡¯s empty of people and severely lacking in crystals. Even the light gems are missing here, making the place look eerie. I do find a few mana gems sprinkled deeper into the pile, but someone intentionally took whichever they could see at first glance¡­


    I try to think but my mana¡¯s dangerously low. I take a deep breath, gathering some mixed mana, but it¡¯s not enough. It still takes me hours to be fully stocked up, and eve for a pit stop I will need to spend a while. I do not have a while. Humans are dangerously close and I still don¡¯t have any idea how to approach this situation, so I gulp and bite down into the pile of coins and gems. It sucks. I can do it with terrifying ease, but it still feels wrong to straight up eat gold and silver. Chewing doesn¡¯t help much with the feeling, or the texture, but I manage to swallow. My stomach isn¡¯t happy, all things considered, but I can feel mana radiating out into my body. I take another few bites and then turn away.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Edith is trembling. She¡¯s terrified. Still, she is quiet, despite no longer needing to be. She needs help, support, something warm and soft and safe, yet I am a very sharp, tough scaled, lizard. I need to find the others¡­


    I rush through the tunnel, over to the only other possible place. Mother¡¯s mind spell still lingers around here, a mild protection compared to the impenetrable wall it was before she let us in, but that is for me and my siblings. Edith sways and tries to get off me, but I force her through, which results in her calming down, at least once we¡¯re in the church-like area. My siblings turn to look at me, then back to each other. Crown cries of warm, flowing water that doesn¡¯t belong. Red Tail is angry, hissing of the scorched land and overall destruction the invaders brought. Spots grumbles of hardened rock and heavy barriers of stone. Crown is afraid because of the massive bloodshed, RT is angry and wants to go out and fight like our mother, Spots wants to fortify our position and hunker down until all is done.


    ¡°... that the dragon would sound so angry¡­ What could possibly be happening out there?¡± Yvonne¡¯s voice¡­ I see everyone else sitting in a corner, on a bench that was moved there, surrounded by a tiny pile of coins and gems. They got the hoard treatment¡­ it¡¯s better than being left behind to be fair. They are on the opposite corner of the room and just now did Ayrah notice us, probably because of Edith¡¯s sobs. Speaking of, I go towards them, letting them take the girl. Yvonne looks worried and comes to hold her as Ayrah helps her down. They try to calm her, but things get chaotic with my siblings coming right after, asking me what to do.


    Draconic sounds rough and terrifying, or at least that¡¯s what my human sensibilities say. RT stomps and demands aggression, Yvonne asks Edith what is going on out there, Alek trembles and lets out small waves of cold air, Meredith just mumbles about her death, Spots cracks the ground as he sways his tail over it, pushing forward the idea of going into the vault, but it is dismissed by Crown who doesn¡¯t know how to open it. Actually, they speak of how they tried, but failed earlier, before Spots got back as he was outside like me.


    I let out a roar that carries my frustration. It silences everyone for a few seconds, but it won¡¯t last, so I speak of being patient like a mountain. Of throwing out scraps to lure predators away from our big prey. It is absurd that merely talking in such an inconvenient way is so taxing, but I make do.


    My siblings get what they need to do, and go out of the temple. I turn to the humans and with much heavier focus than I tell everyone about what is happening in the simplest way I can imagine.


    ¡°VeRkkkaa¡­. Nothiin drag- drag gonn sizeeed¡± I cringe. My focus is slipping, my mana is violently answering to my worries and exhaustion¡­ my memory is muddled and my control is weak. Regardless, I see someone twitch in recognition. Meredith gets up and rushes over to me, grabbing my head, which surprises me. She¡¯s been¡­ well, not covert about her dislike of me and any other dragon, for which I don¡¯t fault her.


    ¡°Where did you hear that name? When did you hear that!? If a buffoon like Verka is anywhere nearby¡­¡± Her smile would terrify my past self. It is still unnerving, but at least I don¡¯t feel fear despite the sight. ¡°This might be our way out¡­¡± There¡¯s excitement in her tone, clear as day. This would be a good opportunity for her to escape. Even if they are here more to get riches than to save women, they would still probably take them, right?


    Yvonne seems to disagree as she snaps at her. ¡°Perish the thought, girl! A way out¡­ you heard what the dragon said! If we betray her trust then she will eat our towns, and there¡¯s no shortage of stories about dragons following through with threats! Even if somehow The Mistress is occupied enough to allow our escape, she will raze everything to the ground in her rage! It is far too dangerous¡­ How long do you think a few guardsmen that only ever fight animals and the occasional tief would fare against her?!¡±


    This is a perk of learning the language without speaking back much. None of them realize that I can understand everything. I imagine they think of me as a parrot. Someone that can mimic voices with magic. Regardless, I do my duty as a fly on the wall and listen to them have their verbal fight. It ends up being interrupted by Edith as she finally calms down.


    ¡°It¡¯s not¡­ It¡¯s not just men from the towns. I saw¡­ I don¡¯t know what I saw¡­ There were explosions in the distance, The Mistress was moving a lot, using a lot of magic¡­ The man that said that was close by, but not part of the fight¡­¡± She doesn¡¯t look good, but at least she¡¯s holding together. What she says, however, lights a flame in Meredith¡¯s heart.


    ¡°It¡¯s the Duke. He¡¯s been warring against her since before either of us¡­ if he¡¯s here he¡¯ll be able to at least keep her very busy¡­ We could run, maybe even beyond her territory! I heard some did that in his last campaign, escaped her land to be free citizens at last! If we stay here the only thing we¡¯ll be is food! We almost died just from one dragon having a fit! What will happen the next time?¡±


    People were looking apprehensive, but that struck a chord. Hell, I would have been convinced by that alone. Ultimately, everyone aside from Ayrah decided to try leaving now that there was a chance. I did feel something more like resignation from Yvonne¡¯s acceptance, but still it seems they had made their decision, and so did I.


    When my siblings came back, I simply told them to sit tight and that I will handle things. RT slaps his tail against the floor, launching dancing flames around. He¡¯s angry. At me, not just at the humans. He doesn¡¯t want me to burn brightest by burning alone, or at least that¡¯s how he puts it. For such a short tongue, draconic can be quite poetic through the creativity it demands of less knowledgeable speakers.


    Inane thoughts, just another tool to protect me from having to both admit that I am wrong in pushing my siblings away, and to feel the pain that they send as they think I find them weak or useless. I tell them of leaves, how frail they are, and how I want them to not break, so I have to handle things myself. They huff, they puff, but I am still the de facto leader, so they obey.


    The humans are surprised when I usher them away, as they thought I wouldn¡¯t understand their fight. Ayrah looks at me, then at Alek, then sighs and sits down on the floor, rolling a blood mana crystal in her hand. She¡¯s sad, but understands. Everyone else simply walks as I push them, talking between each other. They were talking about distracting us in some way and using that chance to run, or waiting for the search party to get close and use that as the distraction¡­ Either way, they accept the easier escape, and I try not to take it to heart that they were plotting in front of me. My draconic self isn¡¯t as forgiving, but I smother it.


    The walk is simple, but it feels bad. I am basically handing off four people and a bunch of valuable to some greedy humans that invaded our land and¡­ alright, smothering my dragon instincts is as useless as ever. I¡¯ll have to cope somehow¡­  well, whatever, I bring them to the crossroads. True to form, my siblings sprinkled coins and even a gem towards the nest. I make sign for the humans to sit, then pointed at the gold and the general direction of the nest. Hopefully they will tell them that the treasure is there, and mother¡¯s spell will stop them from even thinking of looking our way.


    Once it seems like they understand, I just sigh and walk away, back to the temple. We just have to wait there for things to blow over. I hope they manage to live a good life¡­


    I obviously don¡¯t go all the way back. I walk just enough away that their vision of me is obscured, then I hug the wall on the inner side of the bend and make my way forward again. The greenery hides me well enough, so I lay low and watch. It takes a while, a much longer while than I¡¯d expect, but finally I see movement even further away. A group of people meets the women and Alek. Meredith seems to be talking very eagerly to one of them¡­ Now that I focus this looks more like a party from a fantasy game than a group of soldiers. Five people, missmatched in attire, demeanor, appearance¡­ Two of them don¡¯t even look like they could properly fight!


    Things get weirder still. A rough looking man seems to say something that makes Meredith angry. She shouts something but it becomes unintelligible as blood gushes from her throat.


    My life wasn¡¯t in danger, time didn¡¯t slow down. I did not have time to react to her murder.

 Chapter 34: The Battle And The Fall

    She falls to her knees, clutching her throat. I can hear the sickening gurgles of her drowning in her own blood. Meredith. A woman I would have found beautiful before my death. A poisoned rose that has always had a spark of defiance, but not in the stubborn way, more in the righteous fury way. I admired her for glaring at us ever since father burnt half her face. For never letting that anger die down. For never letting it cloud her judgement and attack us.


    She¡¯s dead. Right there. Not to an overwhelming, amoral beast like mother, but to a human that¡¯s laughing in a way that makes my stomach turn. My eyes close and when they open again I can see the mana that usually clings to the plants float down towards Yvonne, and then it rushes to the men. One of them, armored in metal, but not fully, thrusts a spear towards her, but it seems to slide out of his grasp and only graze her as it fights against him.


    All of this is happening in mere moments, they are struggling, Edith picked up Alek and is running back¡­ back towards me¡­ ¡°At least him!¡± she cries. I can hear her, because it¡¯s a plea directed to me. No, It¡¯s not her I¡¯m hearing. ¡°At. Least! Him~!¡± whispers whatever trace of chaos mana I have in me¡­ Wrong again, am I making more chaos mana? I suddenly feel a bit more of it than a second ago.


    I let out a laugh as a rune takes form in front of me. Earth, overreaching, air. Before any of the other attackers can do anything, they are assaulted by a localized dust storm. It rushes at them, blocking their vision, causing a dagger to fly out and hit one of the sun lamps, shattering the crystal and causing an unstable flame to spread out, engulfing the plants. I run forward¡­ I can¡¯t see Meredith, she¡¯s in the cloud. I can see the others however, so I stop in front of Edith, letting her jump on. Yvonne is behind¡­ Slow, so slow. The spearman from before rushes forward, lightning dancing over his body as he thrusts and sends a lightning at her, just barely missing her as she luckily trips.


    Earth, overpower, air, direction. Another rune forms, this one taking whatever¡¯s left of my air and earth mana, but it doesn¡¯t matter. A chunk of the brickwork under our feet crushes itself into a dense, head-sized projectile, then moves straight at the man at impossible speeds. The path it follows is devoid of air, after all, so it only accelerates the further it moves, at least until the rune collapses, half a second later, and it reaches its target.


    I shout out towards Yvonne, plant mana collapsing on her and lifting her up. I am lucky there¡¯s so much of it around here, forcing the plants to be evergreen despite being so unnatural. As she reaches me, I dash away, using my tails to hold everyone on my back. I don¡¯t know what my attack did, I don¡¯t know if I killed a man again, all I know is that I run, for the second time today, with all my might. I hear sobs on my back, frightened whispers, but I can¡¯t focus on them, not now. I need to keep them alive, I failed Meredith, but at least I can protect them.


    <hr>


    It takes a few minutes to make it back to the temple. Ayrah and my siblings perk up, the woman especially having shark eyes and a vicious snarl. She guessed it in one. My siblings cry out in distress when they see me fall from exhaustion, proper exhaustion. My body is breaking from being overexerted. Mana is being made in my stomach, but I still don¡¯t know how to properly heal, just overcharge a living thing, and that¡¯s not going to help me much. Plus, the current state of my mana is a joke, with all these types being slapped together, no proper plan, no preparation¡­ I am no longer a hunter, I am just a beast that tries to survive hunters.


    I shout out at Spots, speaking of messed up terrain, barriers, even spikes from the ceiling that might fall at any loud sound. He gets what I mean and gets to work using his much larger pool to make it all a reality. I also ask him to make a particularly shaped hole in the wall. We don¡¯t have time to do a lot, but at least this should raise our chances.


    Next I ask Crown to take the humans and go to the vault. She cries out that the thing is still locked, but it doesn¡¯t matter. I have seen mother open it many times, I can get it done, but I need to stay here a bit longer. Spots and RT are hardly enough to handle all five of those bastards. I hear footsteps approaching. This place sucks for a defensive spot¡­


    I tell RT to go into the indent Spots made, then tell the latter to hide behind the wooden benches, turn them into a pile of splinters if it helps, just make sure they can¡¯t see him from the get go. Ayrah is still around, she didn¡¯t follow Crown¡­ I wish I could have her fight with me, but she¡¯s wearing poorly knitted together grass and fur, with no weapon to speak off aside from her claws. I shake my head and point with one tail towards the vault. She clicks her tongue, then rushes away.


    Finally, it¡¯s just me, in the center of the temple, below the images of dragons far greater than I could ever hope to be, faint mana of all kinds flowing downwards, towards me. I am not sure what spell I can even use to handle adventurers, but I will make sure they can¡¯t follow us. Hopefully. Far in front of me, I finally see them. They¡¯re still far away, but I growl at them, crouching low. I am not alright, physically, and they know, but they are still cautious. I use the bit of earth mana that I recovered to throw a brick their way, but it falls short. The man that killed Meredith smiles as he says something to his group, it becomes unintelligible by the time it reaches my ears.


    They stop before the bad terrain starts, frowning. I use magic to throw another brick at them, but the spearman easily breaks it out of the air with his weapon. One of them that¡¯s wearing some weird cloth with gold accents instead of any armor takes out a bow and a strange looking arrow, then aims my way and shoots. I simply step to the side, clearly seeing the trajectory of the thing, but once it gets close I notice the mana dancing over the arrow. I am engulfed in flames that make me burn quite a bit of mana in order to defend myself.


    Magic archer. Spearmen with lightning. A decent swordsman. A man wearing a long robe that¡¯s clutching a strange amulet, he has yet to do anything¡­ My blood runs cold. Where¡¯s the fifth? My answer comes as the ground splits open, a scream and a clanking thud being my only notice that something happened. Invisibility? Now that¡¯s just messed up¡­ shouldn¡¯t dragons have true sight?


    I let out a nervous laughter, then see as the man wearing the robe whispers something to the amulet, then a green light spreads from him, going over all the rough terrain that Spots made, and wood just spontaneously appears there, rendering all that work useless. The remaining four slowly walk forward, aiming to rescue the guy that fell, but the second they make it past the entryway, their entire attention being focused on me, I stomp the ground, making them flinch, but it was their mistake to only think of me.


    From the invisible indent, RT pokes his head out, letting loose scorching flames. I¡¯ll be the first to admit, he¡¯s already better than me in fire. He simply runs hotter and for longer. Bigger stream, bigger flames, better fire, everything about this is his domain, just like how Spots can carve all of this terrain and still have the mana to drop the spikes from above and even throw some of his own.


    This should kill them. Flames and projectiles, guaranteed death to any squishy, murderous human. Or at least it should have been. The cleric looking man rips his necklace and points it at RT, while the spearman stabs the ground towards Spots. They both shout ¡°Twin sisters, guard your servants!¡± and a strange energy envelops them. The flames part around them, finding something more fun to burn elsewhere, while the rocks explode as lightning snakes around the bubble of light, targeting them. It vanishes a moment later and they make it to the hole, quickly extracting their knight-looking companion who points a hammer towards Spots, before my siblings¡¯ second volley, which is similarly worthless.


    What? What now? What do I do? They invalidated everything I had. The spearman also looks perfectly fine, my attack before likely did nothing to him. A cold despair fills my heart and I realize that they are strategizing. They¡¯re not even being subtle about it.


    ¡°Brown one¡¯s messing with the ground, we can¡¯t rely on Rirshka¡¯s grace to continue being our foothold. Handle that one first, I will keep the fire one busy. Ingo, guard me.¡± Says the cleric as the sadistic swordsman stands by his side, looking mildly bored.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, keeping the priest alive, most important job and all that. Why aren¡¯t you more like¡­ what was your name? Mikri? Mirko?¡± The man laughs and throws a knife at RT right after he stops his third flame breath.


    The spearman seemingly dashes forward and swings in an arc laced with electricity, causing Spots to breathe out a cloud of dust as he retreats. ¡°It¡¯s Adalwin, you horse-sniffing, skull dented, kinless bastard.¡± He thrusts and lightning hits my brother¡¯s wing, but doesn¡¯t seem to harm him through his defense.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    ¡°Less talking, more dragon slaying. Kids or not, a heart from these beasts would be enough to secure my spot as a veteran wizard!¡± I see a bit of mana flow from his fingertips to the arrow before he lets it loose, said projectile exploding into a flashbang as it reaches spots. ¡°and make you into barons or viscounts, I don¡¯t much care for the rewards of lower nobility.¡±


    The knight simply grunts as he takes a heavy step and swings a mace downward on Spots. Why are they ignoring me¡­ Ah, because I¡¯m genuinely being useless. My purpose was to be the bait and they aren¡¯t biting¡­ My siblings will die at this rate, but I don¡¯t have a strong spell, especially one that would break through that strange shield that keeps flashing in and out of existence. Mana isn¡¯t cooperating either¡­ I can¡¯t tell how that magic is being made. It¡¯s nature and lighting, but it doesn¡¯t behave properly. It doesn¡¯t even smell right¡­


    Think. I don¡¯t have time on my side, but I must think. What can I do¡­ They have some weird magic protecting them, they aren¡¯t able to land a decisive blow on any of us, but they are tiring out my siblings. The archer is using consumables like they¡¯re going out of style, the knight and the swordsman don¡¯t seem to have anything special going for them, the spearman has weird lightning going around and the priest is the one securing the shield, completely invalidating RT.


    My flaming brother is pissed, no longer playing it safe. He rushes forward, mouth open. The swordsman takes a buckler from his hip, raising it to match the mouth, while coming down with his sword. My sibling knows what he¡¯s doing though, redirecting his head to bite the man¡¯s sword hand, causing him to shout in pain as he punches my sibling away, retreating next to the priest, who raises a physical shield of wood¡­


    Why raise a physical barrier when the magical thing worked so well until now? Physical¡­ He¡¯s blocking RT from heading straight at them. The shield won¡¯t help much against a body, huh. The cleric recites what sounds like a prayer towards a certain Rirshka, but I don¡¯t care.I found the weakness. The archer twitches towards me as I run forward, but it is too late. Even when he draws his string, I am moving forward. I am going to crush the cleric¡¯s head and get rid of their protection. That should let my siblings finish the-


    The knight appears in front of me¡­ no, he is just that fast suddenly. He has a shield as large as his torso and he easily blocks my tails with it, following up with a strike of his hammer that explodes me away. I¡¯m under a tenth of my mana reserves and I don¡¯t have a relevant volume of a single particular type. I need to run. We need to run. I throw together whatever earth, air, chaos and nature mana I have, causing a storm of debris. around me. This one isn¡¯t so refined and it will break down quickly, but it will make them hunker down for a bit, at least enough to let me run.


    I shout out the retreat and my siblings obey, though RT throws down some flames that quickly overtake the shattered benches flying through the localized tornado. We run as quickly as we can and it isn¡¯t quick enough. Lightning strikes my back, making my muscles feel numb despite my defense activating. Spots lets out a pained scream, but keeps running and I can¡¯t see what happened to make him yelp like that.


    It takes us minutes to reach Crown and the humans, who look weary and worried. The vault is still closed, of course. This isn¡¯t a trick you can understand if you¡¯re not looking for it. Spots and RT can still fight, but they¡¯re tired¡­ actually, scratch the fighting part, Spots has an arrow in his thigh. No magic on this one¡­ actually, there is magic, since it pierced his defense. It has that weird aura, like the cuffs from before. It pushes magic away, and thus it pushed the protection away. Fuck, I need to worry about anti-magic weapons now?


    I shake my head and focus. I ask Crown to just make it hard for the attacks to come after us and she responds by materializing a beam of water the second she sees someone. In the meantime, I move the magic in the door around. The trick is simple, really. You need to push some of your mana in, then manipulate it to hit five particular spots, after which you push it towards the center of the door. It takes me two tries as a mundane arrow bounces off my back, breaking my concentration, but Spots quickly protects me with floating stones to stop a second arrow. The doors open and I rush in, pushing everyone too. I push as much mana as I can into the door to force it back closed, ruining its pattern, but it is not quick enough. Vines block it open and the invaders manage to squeeze in.


    My humans are panicking, but my siblings aren¡¯t. They know why we¡¯re here. The mana here is far more abundant, the half eaten pillars are right there, spreading mana every which way. There¡¯s magic tools and who knows how valuable of information just spread about. But I only care about one thing. The cleric screams his prayer, the knight lifts his shield and blood spills.


    ¡°Fuck! That¡¯s the duke¡¯s!¡± screams the archer while the knight grasps his stump and falls back in pain. The cleric focuses on him, speaking a prayer as quickly as he can and a lightning infused spear hits my body. My siblings use their breaths, the mana around joining in and becoming a painful, tangible thing, at least to the invaders.


    ¡°Horseshit! Do something wiza-¡± the swordsman spits out black blood, and falls to his knees, coughing continuously. ¡°P-poi..sn..¡± He doesn¡¯t die, but he¡¯s out. I didn¡¯t do that, my siblings didn¡¯t do that, but that helps us.


    The archer clicks his tongue and then throws multiple ornate parchments our way, the mana in the air being drawn to them. Chains of energy try to wrap around my body, but I cut them. A beam of water hits some of the armor sitting to the side. A chunk of ice is aimed at Crown, but it suddenly turns to the side. Alek is enveloped in mana and crying. Edith looks between heartbroken and enraged as she weaves flames with an incantation I never heard from her¡­ no, it¡¯s barely an incantation. She begs the flames to eat her foes and lets them decide if they feel like it. Still, it¡¯s more fire, more harm on the enemies. I try to slash again at the downed knight, but the spearman catches me a third time, this time stabbing through. I still have the mana to defend myself, but this sickening electricity forced its way through.


    I cry out, slashing violently and retreating. Spots looks bad. very, very bad. He¡¯s actively bleeding from the arrow, and it seems a few other things hit him in the meantime. RT is exhausted and Crown simply can¡¯t compete in firepower.  The spearman takes a step forward, only to be smacked away by Ayrah who is holding some fancy mace that was lying around. We can do this. Only three of them are operational, one melee, a ranger and a cleric. Their frontline should crumble if we rush- men are flooding in. Soldiers, nothing as fancy as these guys. They were elites, and these are simple footmen, but now they have a frontline. Now the cleric can safely heal his downed companions. Now we¡¯re being pushed back, now we¡¯re in danger.


    We can¡¯t run. We¡¯re cornered. More soldiers come in, one by one¡­  Everything¡¯s gone. We¡¯ll die. We¡¯ll die while mother is fighting who knows how many people. There¡¯s so much magic here, but no way¡­. out?


    I shout out to fly into the river. Or rather, the magical beam of water that becomes a river. It¡¯s big, big enough that it should fit us. My siblings don¡¯t argue. They also don¡¯t need me to tell them to grab a human as they fly. Another arrow stabs into Spot, as he flies up with Yvonne, but it doesn¡¯t stop him. I do my best to cover for him, weaving the mana around into runes to consume as little of my pitiful reserves as possible, hoping to recover even a bit more before we¡¯re out. After my siblings are finally gone, taken by the gravity defying current, it¡¯s just me, Ayrah and the invaders. They¡¯re angry. I can¡¯t think enough to translate their ramblings, but they seem keen to kill me.


    I smile as I feel the mana around bending to both mine and their will. Fleeting thing, this mana. But I don¡¯t feel bad. No, I feel so bad that I don¡¯t feel bad anymore. The lightning spearman¡­ fuck that, he¡¯s not even using lightning. It strikes me, but I know it isn¡¯t lightning. I can see it move. I can see it dance and have the same shape each and every time. That¡¯s not lightning. That¡¯s what people think lightning might be. I wish I could¡¯ve shown the bastard the real power of a lightning bolt, but alas, I will have to feel satisfied with just showing him what happens when you mix elemental magic and half-sentient pillars of mana.


    A rune, more complex than I am usually able to make forms in front of me. Ayrah shouts something. An arrow pierces my left shoulder. Dust and wind rushes forward, spreading throughout the room. Ayrah grabs me and lifts me up. Ah, I can¡¯t walk anymore, I am using too much focus. Thanks. People shout as tiny bits of metal rip through flesh and bone. I think finally I killed a few people with just that. It doesn¡¯t matter. I needed to do this.


    People scream, but a glow seems to appear, protecting them. I smile at their hubris. To think they could defend against this¡­ Water is taking me, I am floating up, losing sight of what is happening. It¡¯s too late anyways, too late for them at least. A simple fire rune forms at the very edge of my control. It¡¯s very close to the pillar of fire mana crystal, and when I am taken and away from it, it feeds off of the crystal. A flame. A spark. an explosion that feels the room. I just about managed to make it¡­ a dust explosion. My body ripples and I think something inside me breaks or gets squished, either way, I spit out blood, as I am taken by the rushing water.


    I think I passed out, as I just wake up on solid ground, everyone¡¯s here¡­ wounded, tired, but everyone¡¯s alive. I spit out some water and look on from the top of mother¡¯s little mountain. Strangely enough, I never bothered coming here before. But now? This is the best place to see mother as she flies and screams and seems to ignore the battle she was in to come to us¡­ A flock of small fliers following her, impressive magics exploding around her to no effect¡­


    And then I see her fall.


    The wings on her left side are absolutely destroyed by something too fast for me to see. It takes a few seconds between seeing it and hearing the thunk of a loosened arrow, followed by the mother¡¯s scream, followed by the loud bang of her body collapsing into the ground from so high up.


    Mother, the monster that could weave the world to her will, that destroyed an entire landscape without having a single scratch on her¡­


    That mother of mine might actually die.

 Interlude 7: Mother of War

    An arrow hits her scales. Fifty ants die. A flame stops meters away from her form. The trees crunch down on rodents like animalistic jaws. Trebuchets send stones flying towards her wings, but the wind itself beats the projectiles away. Her roars freeze the ants under herself in fear, leaving them as easy prey to be crushed under her body as she lands. This is how it¡¯s always been. Slaughtering ants, waiting for the three or so competent ones to show up so she can squash them into a gruesome paste and finally send the rest of the worthless things fleeing in despair for the next half decade or so.


    It was annoying that this time it only lasted some ten years and spare. Her own instincts were tingling with the wrongness of the attack, but for now she needed to focus. This was a new strategy, she had to admit. Usually they kept the magic capable humans of all kinds away from immediate combat, yet every so often a spell would hit her. She¡¯d try to focus on the ones chanting, but all humans around were speaking nonsense prayers or fake spells while running, so it was impossible to differentiate them like that.


    Her tails splatters blood over the field, after which she breathes out boiling mist that cooks a couple dozen humans alive. It was a tedious thing, but it had to be done. If only she could, she would use this opportunity to take more territory and push her wards forward, but it was hard to annex the faithful mortals, and it was dangerous to become too visible.


    Is this truly what I should focus on? Well, what else can I think of? My children are rushing home, so they will be safe. I will not allow any of these bipedal animals to take even five steps into the forest, so all I can do is to focus and erase the pests.


    Even so, it was much easier said than done. They were being quite witty for a bunch of lowly peasants ruled by fear. It looked like they were headless chicken, but still she needed to use something strong to catch more than four at once. This was inefficient. And to top it all off, she needed to keep a sensory spell active, otherwise they could sneak by with their invisibility. This was why she hated humans. Crafty little things made all sorts of hideous imitations of their magic, if only to reach a fragment of a dragon¡¯s glorious power.


    More corpses, more apathy. These creatures aren¡¯t even good food. These things are barely worth her attention. And yet here she is, wasting days'' worth of gathered mana on them. Hours of killing will pile up. It might take well into the night to be finally rid of their infestation.


    But for a moment her attention is drawn somewhere else. Her eye burns and she looks through her home. Her eldest came back, finally. He looks tired, his scales show he is starved for mana, but he¡¯s still clinging onto his toy. No matter. Everyone is inside, and they¡¯re taking refuge in the temple. It is better like that. They shoul-


    Her eyes widen as wrong lightning digs through her defenses, into her scales, ripping off a few from her back. Her eyes scan everything and she notices the seven men spread out but shining with the sickening leftovers of borrowed power. They can sprinkle gold on mortals to make them seem like magic users, but divinity is hard to fake, especially the divinity clinging to a mortal¡¯s body after such a strong prayer. They truly look like decent but common soldiers. They might seem formidable among these pitiful men, and certainly much braver to come to such a mission in spite of their higher positions, but what good is the bravado of serving a war goddess when you have to face the true rulers of this world? The devourers of stagnant divinities?


    Those men find themselves impaled on freshly grown wood, flowers blooming from that wasted flesh. They are desperate, if they are throwing away their faithful, but the mere fact that the gods can intervene with such ease now is enough to become a worry. She takes back to the skies, aiming for as much altitude as is feasible, then plunges. The wind she causes as she dives without a spell to manipulate the air is enough to send men flying and tumbling, drawing terrified screams from people that somehow still don¡¯t run from this.


    Ah, no, there¡¯s quite a few running, but they are killed for the act. Uncivilized filth¡­ whispers her mind as her jaws open, nature mana dancing to the whims of her breathshaper, before pouring outwards in a vibrant cloud of green particles. Dread washes over the battlefield as it is covered in color, for everyone understood their fate. Flowers, weeds, just about any form of plant matter grew from the living corpses of the humans. The lucky ones died quickly. The unlucky ones might survive for weeks, stuck as half plant statues, having to feel the bark scraping their flesh, the roots of beautiful flowers spreading throughout their brains. Yet this was the best way to clear away a chunk of the invading army.


    Annoyingly, it was far from enough. There were so many pests and with so many burrows protected by invisibility spells¡­ They were trying to exhaust her. They were hoping to have more bodies than she had mana. They were making a grave mistake if they thought this would be enough. Her river was not too far from here, and while it was hardly an oasis of mana, as most of it remained around her lake, it was enough to take some of the strain. She had options if things became troublesome, after all the beasts here were used enough to slaughter. A simple spell, even if costly because of the range, would be enough to direct all of them at the mortals, exhausting them while she could rest a while. Of course, that was something she will need to set up for¡­ maybe half a day from now.


    Her eye warmed up again, and this time she saw her oldest leading the humans away..? All but the beastly one were being taken outside of the temple. Already she saw how her children made their nest more enticing, sprinkling riches on the way towards it, after stripping it bare of the most valuable things. That was smart and tricky¡­ Well, her eldest had wits beyond his days, so although another reason to bring her pride, it was something she was not overly surprised by. She already saw him use traps and plans to kill things that were too troublesome to stomp down with might.


    Ah, how she wanted to embrace them now¡­ They almost had their affinity engraved in their hearts and could handle her presence much better than before. She would soon be able to just hold them for days on end, play with them, teach them endlessly about the greatness of the blood that flows through their veins, the birthright they hold over this world, the beauty they could find if they were to search for it, the dreams they could follow if only they did not make her mistakes.


    How much time has passed? How quickly does it move? How many wounds have slipped past her defenses for a reason or another? How much blood stains the fields? How many tried to run to her forest to hide, only to find themselves crushed by the trees or stepping on needles of grass? It is all so exhausting¡­ Foolish beings, oh how I wish they would just stop trying to retake these lands. They were neglecting them, yet the second I claimed them, endless bloodshed began.


    DANGER


    Her eyes unfocused in the middle of her forming another spell, all of her attention being ripped away by the sight of humans, capable ones, reaching her child¡¯s pets. She saw blood, death and her son violently overexerting himself to rescue the surviving ones. Of course the filth would kill their own. Who knows what pathetic, self righteous excuses they threw out before her child ruined their chance for more cruelty.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    She needed to go home. All but one of the invaders wielded magic, they would be able to reach the temple¡­ They could hurt her spawn. It was all unacceptable, so she focused back to the outside world and focused her magic into a singular spell. The winds picked up, the sky darkened and torrential rain with drops the size of fists took over, pelting the humans below until they were all bloodied and bruised, swamped by mud and overall unable to even be an annoyance anymore. All of them were dead. Or at least, all the ones that came here, because the ones that attacked her children did not come on this front. They must have snuck in through the other routes, maybe even getting the help of her towns.


    With gritted teeth she began flying back, only to hear screeching. Veils of distorted light broke apart as a flock of wyverns took to the skies, bombarding her with breath attacks and competent spells. They had inched forward when she noticed the invaders, or else she has no idea how these things got so close without her noticing. They were small, but not tiny. They trained the lessers well, but well trained beasts are still beasts. And all beasts fear dragons.


    A loud roar struck like thunder, mind mana weaving freely into the sound then slamming into the enemies. The riders wore carefully molded and engraved metals, an armor that might give to pure force before it let any sort of magic through, but she didn¡¯t care for them. Her spell was not meant for the elite of humanity, but for the shame of her kin.


    One of the flying lizards stopped just before attempting to claw at her undefended flank when the roar hit it. Its sudden hesitation, stopping in place, trying to run away before the collar around its neck reasserted itself was enough for her tails to swipe, bisecting it and its rider. Two other pairs found themselves too close when the steeds froze in momentary fear, which caused them to be impaled and sent tumbling down. A concentrated beam of water handled another handful of the creatures, but by then she took a few hits back.


    Her children were fighting. Her children were hurting. Yet here she was, failing to swat bugs from the sky. Failing to stomp down the ants. She was gathering superficial damage and exhaustion¡­ She could push through if she truly strained, but how many centuries had it been since she last gave it her all? Could she even do that anymore?


    A spear embeds itself in her side, a wyvern latches on and continuously slashes at her, magic keeps pelting her side, her eye shows a horrifying scene and finally she has enough. Her children are being pushed back by the humans and their numbers. Even the pets were fighting back¡­


    She roars and unleashes her mana in a wave around herself. For a moment the wyverns stop altogether, not even hovering or flying away. They just stop, before the laws of the world reassert themselves, pulling them to the ground. She pushes herself, using a similar spell to her mate¡¯s, causing her form to slide through the air while her pursuers just barely catch themselves. For a moment she looks back through her wards. It¡¯s¡­ only her eldest and the beast? Where could the others have gone!? She roars in desperation, but fails to pick up any more speed. This was her limit.


    She looks, and looks, and sees why her eldest remained, his spell taking form. Wind, earth¡­ and a spark granted by what remained of that unborn flame elemental. She could see that even the damnable things were more aggravated by the invaders than by her offspring. Her eldest is saved by the beast, taken to the water, rescued by being sent up to the top of her mountain. That she could reach. There she could save them.


    Her eye bleeds. Most of her wards broke because of the explosion. It will take a while to recover the complex organ, but she didn¡¯t care. Her spell weakens as she breathes a sigh of relief. They were safe and she could reach them. Once they were protected behind her, she could properly handle these worthless invaders. To think they would bring so many people, subjugated disappointments, and even send mercenaries to assassinate her children¡­


    Her eyes widen as she sees a human figure rising from the water, behind her spawn. She roars, hoping against hope that they could understand the danger. She focuses so much on getting as good a view as possible of that enemy that she doesn¡¯t notice the faint shimmering of invisibility breaking away behind her. She had eyes inside her cave and right at the edge of the forest, where she was fighting. She did not notice the men coming from the sides through the wilderness. She also did not notice the monsters they brought to do their dirty work.


    The arrow larger than a tree flies through her flesh. It is made of the darkest metal, engraved with hate and curses, built like a piece of art to reject all magic and pierce through her flesh. No human made machine could throw this so far and with such accuracy. Her eyes focus on the thing that appeared after ruining its own protection with the abominable projectile. A horned giant, its single eye bearing two pupils that turn back into one. In its oddly proportioned hand it holds the remains of a bow bigger than any artillery piece, and still it gets up from its crouched position, starting to run at her with only an actual tree as a weapon.


    The bastards and their slaves. Finally it came the time she was warned of. A century or so ago, her greatest ancestor told her in no uncertain terms that the empire would kill her if she remained weak or if she grew more visible.


    ¡°Do nothing or do everything, all else means death.¡± Those were the simple words of a being she had never even seen in its true might and shape. A being that was supposed to be family. Her own, personal, Great Lord.


    She ruined it. By having children, she did something. Yet she hadn¡¯t prepared for this. After years of peasants, of barely armed mortals, with maybe three notable mages every battle, she thought herself immortal. Yet here she lay, bloodied and bruised, missing two wings and a good chunk of her side, with a one-eyed giant she had never even seen before coming straight at her.


    She was a disgrace. She would die a disgrace that couldn¡¯t protect her children and died to a small nation on the single most mana starved continent of the world. The place where children came to play would be her grave¡­ And yet¡­ just a single powerful enemy, armed with a tree¡­ that was prey! Mana rushes at the enemy and its weapon turns into a deadly prison. The tree grows inside its flesh, wrapping around its bones and then turning into a monument of grotesque death¡­ And another giant slashes through the spell keeping it hidden, a vicious scythe just as disgusting as the arrow impales itself into her body, piercing so deep an air sack is hit. The monster dies to her tails, but she is already hurt¡­ At least she can free herself of the thing constantly denying her mana.


    She¡¯s bleeding heavily, her air stopped flowing right, her wounds were made by disgusting things that pushed all mana out of their surroundings, making it all the harder to regenerate. It might cost her most of her nature and life mana to fully heal. Regeneration hated doing more than the bare minimum after all.


    Was she going to die here? Was there another of these beasts ready to kill her? Maybe it remained hidden until her guard was down¡­ Maybe she should check? Maybe¡­ maybe she should give up. She can¡¯t reach them anymore. A human followed them, to kill them¡­ Maybe she should die for being such a useless mother to her brilliant children¡­


    But then a soft thing reached her ears. It was faint, like a whisper, but it had so much emotion in it¡­ it felt like warmth, like safety, like a love that sometimes hurts, like well of wisdom and the frustration of trying to change the flow of a river by hand. It was a single word, one that meant so much and yet, here, its most apt use would be¡­ ¡°Mom!¡±


    Her child was calling for her.


    She couldn¡¯t give up.


    That is why she raised herself and weaved a spell to fix all that was important, ignoring her wings altogether. She didn¡¯t need to fly, she needed to cut her way though the enemies, and now that she knew her death was not acceptable, she let loose her own slice of reality. All the mana around reacted, drinking in her knowledge and ideas, becoming something more like her for a while. All mana including the very sensitive thing that kept so many of her enemies hidden.


    She sees them now, the slaves that remain. No more giants are here to face her, but equally sad beings are. She sees the kin of the beastly woman, children of the elemental spirits, eyeless demons that are weeping as their mana is devoured by this dried up land. She also sees beasts, some with more mind than others, all monsters that were carefully molded into machines of war¡­ And they¡¯re standing between herself and her children.


    With a roar she begins the slaughter. After all, she still had one plan left.

 Chapter 35: Scurrying Rats

    I am running through the forest, wondering just how things got to this point. Who knows for how many hours I¡¯ve been running now, but I keep on going, ignoring the shouting behind us. I¡¯m lucky Ayrah¡¯s tough, since she¡¯s breaking all the branches that are on the way, making things easier for the other people. I crane my head to the side, looking over at Spots as he somewhat manages to keep up. We gave him Alek, since that¡¯s the lightest load, but it does seem like whatever blood he¡¯s been losing has done a number on his stamina.


    How much longer? Who knows. I don¡¯t even know where I¡¯m running, but stopping now feels like it will kill me. Seeing mother fall down and then get attacked by two nightmarish bipedal horned horse giants was terrifying enough. Being attacked from behind by the one armed knight that somehow followed us through, while we were all distracted? That got my blood pumping with pure fear, because we aren¡¯t safe anywhere. He put a gash on Ayrah and threw a broken sword at me, but she crushed his head, so I thought that was that, but then the bastard just had to drop some kind of explosive smoke signal, because people came rushing. We¡¯ve been running since and I don¡¯t know how much longer we can handle that.


    There¡¯s a movement up ahead and I brace myself for some spooked wildlife, instead I see a man walk out of some bushes, then turn white as a ghost while pointing a shaky spear my way. I dig my claws in the ground, kicking up dirt, dust and grass while slowing down. My siblings do the same, abruptly stopping in place. My heart beats quicker, Ayrah squirms on my back, mana pulses through my body, whispers fill my ears¡­


    There¡¯s a spear moving towards my face. It is weak, held by even weaker arms, but behind that terrified expression is a desire to kill. To end me. To kill all of us. A rational part of me will empathize with him later, but my current self can only be angry. They invade, kill a defenseless woman, attack barely one year old children, bring mother¡­ mom¡­ down to the grown with wicked weaponry and terrifying monsters¡­ It may not be the fault of this man, not fully, but I am in pain, my brother is bleeding out, mother is nowhere to be seen and I can¡¯t let another second tick by, so I grab the spear with my hands.


    He can¡¯t move. He struggles but even tiny as they are, my hands are stronger. I use a front paw to break the tip away, leaving the man with only a stick. He doesn¡¯t run, instead grasping for a knife at his belt. I let go of any restraints I still had and jump on him, biting through his skull. It¡¯s easier than killing the rabbit. After all, it isn¡¯t the first time I end a man, face to face. That thought leaves a bad taste in my mind, but I take off running. I have to. Can¡¯t lose any more time. I need to make it¡­ somewhere, anywhere other than here.


    Where am I going? I don¡¯t know, but I know that it will be safe if I just reach this random place I am going towards. Or is it even random? My ears are flooded by mana trying its best to be useful and yet failing to even make itself understood. All I know is danger. All I know is fear.


    Fear. Why fear? I¡¯m supposed to be some great monster, a dragon, the big bad at the end of the dungeon, not some whelp fleeing from men with sticks¡­ Another blocks my path, but he falls quickly after I spin around, slashing off his legs with the sword, then stab his chest before taking off again. I am supposed to be a killing machine, but a whole army showed up instead of a single party. Isn¡¯t this too big of a difficulty spike?


    I roar in anger, my mind trying so very hard to help me retreat from this insane reality, but all it does is make me more sluggish and even stagger, tripping over my own feet. At least that turns out to be a blessing in disguise. A giant rock flies right in front of me, ruining a tree. My head snaps to the side and I see a man wearing jewels and trinkets, who begins chanting something. I can see the mana in his body, it shines bright as it is about to become a part of reality, at least it did before Spots roared and forced it to collapse, activating inside the man¡¯s elbow and causing his arm to fly off as an explosive rock replaced it. Spots is staggering, he won¡¯t make it much further¡­ but we aren¡¯t safe yet. I am out of usable mana, so I can¡¯t even magic my way out of this¡­


    I stop, and so does everyone else. I need a moment to just think. Granny¡¯s not looking good. She¡¯s repeatedly used her magic on everyone, fixing cuts, thorn muscles and other magical wounds. Whenever she did anything to a dragon though, I could see her becoming weaker, sicker. She even spat out blood after trying to fix the wounds left behind by those arrows made from of black metal. She can¡¯t help him and he has also lost too much blood running like this, he¡¯s barely holding up because of adrenaline.


    I shake Ayrah off of me, then start scavenging around, as quickly as I could. Big sticks, vines, branches that bend just enough, even leaves and chunks of moss. I gather everything that I can and Ayrah picks up on my intent, helping. Granny also comes, using whatever bit of mana she can still drain from herself to strengthen the improvised sled and make it stick together, begging magic to help her. At least I figured out how chants work for her. She¡¯s begging for help and hoping she gets what she wants.


    I shake my head and nudge Spots to sit down on it just as an arrow flies at us. I try to swipe at it, but I miss and instead find it piercing into my wing. I can¡¯t afford to use mana for defense against things like this, so I just endure it and bite a vine, starting to drag Spots along. Ayrah got down, instead putting Alek on my back, and took another vine to help me along. Crown has the rear, using water to protect Spots from another arrow that was coming down, aimed at him, while RT takes the front, setting fire to our sides to slow down our pursuers. Mother¡¯s roars are distant and weak, whatever magic she has won¡¯t be able to reach us here. It¡¯s all on us to survive and continue running, stamina be damned.


    <hr>


    I open my eyes and I find myself on soft grass, surrounded by overgrown vegetation. We made it close, but I collapsed. Spots is barely breathing, Ayrah is a panting ball of sweat and grimy fur. I think she became a bit more animalistic at some point. RT isn¡¯t here, he¡¯s somewhere nearby killing mutated beasts, or humans, or some other nightmarish monster that was sent after us. Crown¡¯s head is constantly spinning, taking note of each and every little thing. Yvonne¡¯s hugging a tree, kneeling down. I can see it in the way they tremble, they gave out. Alek and Edith are holding each other like siblings, crying about the horrible situation they were thrown into.


    I am hungry. There¡¯s multiple corpses nearby, but my nose catches the scent of a useful one. It¡¯s charred, missing its face, but it looks like someone dragged it here, to be close. RT, no doubt. By now everyone knows my habit, but everyone else looks too tired or too scared to do something so gruesome. Focus on the body, me, focus on the body. Male, old but not over 50, dead for a while, has little mana left in his body, but is wearing trinkets and it¡¯s overwhelmingly air mana, so it will be decently useful no matter what. I dig in, ignoring the little part of me that thinks this is wrong. Honestly, I am not really feeling the revulsion I should, but the look the humans, minus Ayrah, give me is enough to substitute.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    As I finish eating the core, the jewelry and even a bit of meat, RT rushes in and shouts that the flame is dying out, or in human terms, that we¡¯re running out of time and way too many enemies are approaching. The whistling of an arrow agrees with him as it rushes towards me, only for a bit of wind to make it embed itself into a tree instead. It explodes into lingering lightning and I am right back to dragging the sled. Granny and Alek are on it with Spots, while everyone else pulls it along as fast as we can, but it¡¯s too little and too late.


    I hear the gurgle of choking on blood behind me. An arrow hit Yvonne through the throat. She¡¯s gasping for air, her mana is flailing wildly, doing something to her throat, but she can¡¯t speak out a chant so I don¡¯t know how much that can accomplish. I run faster. Edith is falling behind so she jumps on Crown¡¯s back, squeezing out whatever flame¡¯s left in her to attack the men coming after us. Yvonne isn¡¯t choking anymore but I am too afraid to look back.


    We are so close¡­ ten minutes¡­ no, five minutes and we¡¯d be there, we¡¯d be safe. We don¡¯t even get another second as something large lands next to us, ripping through trees, sending us to the ground. I blink, feeling my third eyelid protecting me from the dust and debris caused by the large draconic being in front of me. Looks like a wyvern, and my instincts fight against classifying it as a dragon, so maybe some kind of lesser thing. I don¡¯t see intelligence in its eyes, and while it has more mana than anything I¡¯ve seen before aside from my parents¡­ scratch that, one of the people on its back has more than it.


    The sled is ruined, Spots isn¡¯t moving, Yvonne is somehow alive, but has an arrow still in her throat, and people are catching up.


    ¡°There it was. To think I¡¯d find my family¡¯s sword clutched by the vile things that abominable monster spat out. Maybe seeing her weep over these corpses would make this whole horrendous campaign feel worth it. If only that sack of bones would have¡­¡± One man, 40¡¯s, well built, with an actual aura of fire mana. So many rings and bracelets, gold is even inlaid in the cloth and metal armor he wears. He has no helmet, revealing inhuman, flaming hair. No, the man himself looks barely human, at least to his sharper senses. had he been a human still, he wouldn¡¯t have noticed the way his skin had no depth or the way his eyes had fire within. This man was death, and the only option left for him now was to turn around and run.


    ¡°Why¡­ Why are you doing this¡­ what did we do to deserve this!?¡± Edith found her voice and rage, finally. She ran out of tears, and I wish I knew what expression she has, but my eyes instead only focus on granny and Spots. Spots is breathing. But he¡¯s not moving. I am going to abandon my brother¡­


    ¡°I have no need for a dragon¡¯s toy.¡± Thinking time has ended. I need to run before the flame that dances on his gems takes proper form. I need to abandon¡­ but would that even matter? That wyvern¡­ there¡¯s no running from such a monster. Is this it? Safety was so close¡­ but at this rate¡­ The powerful man, the actual rider, the monster, any of them could be our death, and they would have been if only Yvonne hadn¡¯t made a choice for herself in the face of all this.


    She is old. She has a lot of mana, not nearly enough to compare to the flaming inhuman man, but enough to do something big if she wanted to. And yet even using just a tiny fragment of her magic, for long enough, brings her to the brink of death. By the look of her eyes, she has just decided that her death was an acceptable price. And I decided that I can¡¯t save Spots, something my instincts agree on.


    The woman hobbles forward. We scatter. Well, no, my siblings scatter and run off every which way, while Ayrah carries Alek and Edith clings to my tails, ignoring the hits she takes as I don¡¯t have the time to fix her position. Half a second after we all began running, a bloodcurdling scream preludes something between groaning wood and an implosion which echoes behind us. I have only a moment to look back and gaze upon the trees bending inward, holding down the flying beast, grounding it. That is also the only moment I get to see the human shaped bush with a hole running through its chest that is Yvonne''s corpse.


    This isn¡¯t enough to properly deal with the enemies, but it might let us make it to the safe place. I ignore all the danger behind us and just lead the way. An arrow misses me, so I give in and use a dumbed down version of the flying rune to make us faster, using wind instead of electricity. It¡¯s a sprint now, no more need for energy conservation.


    Flame lashes out and follows us, setting warped trees and exotic flora aflame. We run. More people seem to appear from nowhere. We run. Things are flying above, We run.


    An obelisk painted off-rainbow, shaped like everything and nothing, exuding chaos and everything else is the only thing in our path now that we reach the center of the clearing. This is it. This is that safe place. This is the spot that my entire being was calling our salvation. The place where I learned proper magic.


    My face falls. Ayrah collapses to her knees, breathing heavily, as does Alek. Edith was already splayed out, battered and bruised by having to hang on to my tails¡­ and it was all for nothing. We are exposed and defenseless. And yet, when the first man reaches the edge of the clearing and steps inside, he instantly falls down and pukes.


    A circle forms around the edge of the clearing, people struggling to even exist there. An archer attempts a shot, but his string breaks in such a way that he loses an eye. Someone throws a javelin, and it accelerates mid fight, hitting someone on the opposite side. One man screams as his hand seems to warp, mana suddenly being very attracted to it. Something is very wrong, the pillar feels more alive than it has ever been. It¡¯s like it was sleeping before, even as it whispered to me, but now it is awake.


    The common men finally decide to take some distance, but in their stead I see the flaming man and the wyvern rider, as well as some mage-looking people. A moment later another wyvern shows up, dropping down the priests that attacked us, but not even stepping a foot closer to the pillar. Even that monster thinks something is wrong, it seems.


    There¡¯s a standoff. Ayrah, Alek and Edith are recovering, despite the pain they¡¯re clearly feeling, I am recovering mana, and the invaders seem to make a plan as more and more of the magic capable ones come. Why are they all so focused on me, I don¡¯t know, at least until I hear the inhuman man shout.


    ¡°Fine! Do your ritual. But after that I will take my sword, whether this dragon means something for your goddesses or not.¡±


    I can only blink as the words wash over me. Suddenly, I am reminded of that disembodied laughing voice, before I found myself reborn. My heart feels cold as dread washes over me. There is no world in which gods looking for me is a good thing. Especially not when I am a lone, cornered rat.

 Chapter 36: Shouldve Aimed For The Head

    ¡°Damned monster¡­¡± Grumbles out the spearman priest. I can see that my dust bomb didn¡¯t leave him unscathed. His armor got turned to scrap and he¡¯s missing his left forearm. He has some burn scars, but it seems he got healed enough to stand. Three men other than the nature priest weave together green mana while chanting their prayers, preparing for something big no doubt. ¡°... I should just dig its heart out and offer it to Lady Rahena¡­¡± I wish he would have just died there, but no, they were prepared for what I could throw at them.


    ¡°Be silent, warpriest. I will skin that thing for all its worth myself. If not for the goddesses being the only reason that sack of-¡± That inhuman thing with sparks and flame dancing around him makes me the most worried. I¡¯ve recovered enough to run again, even if I am still pretending to have collapsed, only because that thing could kill me in the blink of an eye if he really tried. I can see the mana in him. I don¡¯t usually see mana through meat or walls, the only exception being mother, and even that¡¯s a rather recent development. He¡¯s not on her level, but he is strong enough and with so much mana constantly moving through him, that I can¡¯t call him a human being.


    ¡°Your Grace, those are treasonous words when spoken around so many men. The goddess has merely asked to check each individual young dragon herself, it will not take much longer for us to call upon her.¡± My skin crawls at the simple mention of divinities, some instinctual anger flaring up and making me rumble. On one hand, I never much liked gods as anything other than funky magic people with wild stories. There were good things done in their name, but the atrocities outnumbered that a thousand times over. The mere idea that there are actual active gods here, pulling strings and toying with mortals¡­ Well, while not overly surprising, it still makes me furious. Plus, it seems my instincts disagree with their existence too.


    I turn my ears away from the invaders, knowing that they will at least not attack us until that goddess does whatever she wants¡­ I need a way out. Ayrah is holding unto a javelin she got at some point, looking ready to fight in spite of her feeling sick. She¡¯s good at looking stoic, But I can see the way her body trembles, and from the way the other two act, it¡¯s clear being in close proximity to the pillar as it runs wild is causing some form of harm. Now that I think about it, all of them have less mana than me at this point, so maybe it is like that time I sank in the lake. It¡¯s just so much that it starts forcing itself into people¡¯s bodies, making changes like it does to the flora and fauna.


    Alright, time to think. I can recover mana and even use some of the mana around to form some spells. I have some wind and chaos mana, so I could mix up a spell and see what happens¡­ No, I can¡¯t rely on chance. I can¡¯t fly out of here either. The wyverns are big and fast, plus there¡¯s so many magic users around that I don¡¯t doubt they¡¯d shoot me out of the sky, plus my wing is already wounded, so who knows if I¡¯d even take off? Killing everyone around is also a no go, even if I manage to cast a spell with the potency to do so. A handful of them would manage to pull some kind of protection, or just be too tough, and then I¡¯m dead meat.


    Can¡¯t run, can¡¯t fight, can¡¯t even keep anyone else safe so what the hell am I even doing? I have no options, to avenues, nothing that can¡­ well, I do have this sword. It cuts great, it doesn¡¯t take mana and despite the fact that I have no idea how to use it properly, my tails have been great so far. If I manage to distract and then kill the inhuman man using this¡­ could I make it out? It¡¯s risky, but after dealing with him I could weave spells and let the chaos mana take over and do its weirdness, maybe it would distract the weaker ones while I¡­ we make it out. I¡¯ll be damned if I listen to the impulse of leaving everyone else here as bait¡­


    I am surprised as a large, beastly hand approaches and rubs my head, even scratching my horns. My eyes wander over to Ayrah, confused as she talks in her tongue, whispering. ¡°I attack fire-fur. Fight long. You run.¡± I still have issues with her language, but I got the gist of it. She realized what I was thinking about and is making the decision for me. Ayrah¡¯s been pretty good at reading me, so that doesn¡¯t surprise me¡­ but I don¡¯t get it. Yvonne was sick, slow, dying. She didn¡¯t have the energy to run anymore, so I understand her sacrifice. Plus, while she didn¡¯t have much affection for me and mine, she was caring and loving to Edith and Alek, so for their sake I understood. Ayrah may also be very invested in Alek, but still, she¡¯s able bodied, fast, she could take him and run off while the men are clearly focused on me. So why not use me as bait?


    I open my mouth and make the smallest sound rune I can inside it, coupled with a transmutation rune. I am glad she taught me hunting commands first. ¡°Stay.¡± Spoke out a voice that belonged to nobody. ¡°Edith. You help.¡± I pointed my snout at the girl as she shivered, hugging Alek who was sweating like we were out in the desert. The boy cried, but all Edith could do was stare into nothingness, giving out the air of a flame that¡¯s burning without oxygen. She¡¯s angry, like me, but powerless¡­ like me.


    Ayrah gives me an inquisitive look, but then nods and goes to them. It looks like her embrace gives them a bit of comfort, but that¡¯s too little, too late. We¡¯re all going to die here if I don¡¯t make an opening¡­ but that monster is keeping his eyes on me. How can I take him by surprise¡­


    A pulse of energy radiates outwards from the pillar, knocking down, and possibly out, the soldiers that were standing closest to the clearing. My eyes snap to the crystal that caused all this and I see it. I knew it was more alive than ever before, but now? Now I understand what is happening. When my siblings attacked and devoured their own pillars, some half-living spirits came out to fight and feed them. Spirits that denied me. Spirits that this piece of gemstone did not seem to have, until now. It¡¯s only an outline, but I see something starting to form. The crystal is waking up¡­ And the inhuman man is looking straight at it.


    I do not hesitate anymore. I focus on the pillar as I slowly crawl away from it. It needs to be big, flashy, and loud. It needs to be a distraction, and what better distraction than the runes I got the most practice in. With desperation clear in my heart, I weave two different runes, using nothing but chaos mana. I weave the chaotic version of sound, coupling it with strength to ensure a strong volume, while also making the light rune and coupling it with the rune for range. The second spell is harder than the first, as I need to let the mana tell me how it wants to go, while still being light-shaped. Regardless, with a massive headache splitting my skull, the runes finish at the same time.


    The reaction is worse than the attack from the pillar. Powerful, rainbow lights appear everywhere and nowhere, with no sort of logic dictating their pattern. The sound is worse. I could have used some battle song, or something grand and powerful, but I blanked out. Too much focus went to the runes and too little to my own memories, so everyone¡¯s ears burst with the sound of hitting a stage mike against a massive speaker. Well, that is what I thought would happen, at least. I hear the sound but it is soft, yet the humans, aside from my own, are screaming. That¡¯s even better than I expected, so I take the chance and rush with all my power at the man.


    I think he screams, but I can¡¯t hear it. I see him point his palm at me, but his magic doesn¡¯t obey. He can¡¯t chant like this. In a fraction of a second I reach him, jumping up and flipping so I can slice down using my entire weight. I¡¯ll cut the bastard in two. His attack made me lose my siblings, his death is a must. I roar in anger, feeling a strange wave of relaxation as the sword digs into his flesh, drawing blood.


    Then all the momentum of the sword ceases and I fall to the dirt, still clutching the damn thing in my tails. I hear an explosion behind me and the runes I formed collapse, electricity lingering in the air. I see everyone is safe, protected by the chaotic mana, but looking worse for wear regardless.


    I hear a laugh and I am pushed back, the blade moving again. I am breathing heavily, suddenly finding myself very close to a lot of powerful people and very much unprotected by the pillar. ¡°You thought it would harm me?¡± Lips peel back a bit too much and I see a terrifying smile on the man¡¯s lips. ¡°You thought my family¡¯s sword would disobey its rightful owner?¡± Powerful laughter and an even more powerful aura of flaming mana makes me lay flat on the ground. I am dead. I am so dead. ¡°Don¡¯t bother with your ritual any longer! The damned thing is just an animal, like all the rest. I don¡¯t care anymore why those gods think the infants might be useful, I am skinning this thing. Now.¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Your Grace! Wait!¡± He does not wait. I scream powerlessly as the sword I had in my tails cuts its way free, severing them both on its way out. Tears flow out, breath quickens, pain doesn¡¯t subside. This was a critical wound, I will bleed out if I let this be. My tails were too big to lose, I need to patch myself up, I need to burn the stumps, I need to do anything other than-


    ¡°YOU FOOL.¡± The man, holding that bloody sword, turns to look at a woman made of glowing green, a translucent image that I might have found beautiful if I wasn¡¯t bleeding out. I can hear the faint whispers of chaos as they seemingly panic, talking of blood and death and skirting it. ¡°We grant you your enemy and you dare disobey my direct order?! I should have your head for your insolence. If only our best weren¡¯t busy trying to catch the ones you let escape, I might have gotten it.¡± I feel a tingle, mana is stopping my bleeding. I no longer feel the dread of death, but now I feel disgust as I stare at this sickeningly divine being having my life in the palm of its hand.


    At least the monster is gritting his teeth and pulling back. ¡°You did not grant me my enemy, the whore is still at large, while I have to sit here to keep watch of an infant. Go on then, oh great goddess, satisfy your whims so I can kill it and make that monster weep.¡± There is a tense moment and I hear whispers of what I am guessing means ¡°blasphemy¡±, but it seems the goddess is more interested in me than him. Which is bad, because I see the greed in her eyes.


    ¡°So you were here.¡± Says the woman. A second later I realize I am not translating in my mind. ¡°That annoying little soul¡­ in a dragon¡¯s body¡­ no wonder you were so slippery. And already you look like such an abomination¡­ The Red Sun might have left me to burn for the next millenia if I let you live out like this¡­ Who knows what sort of change your knowledge could bring with such a body¡­¡± The thing speaks english. I can see the confusion on everyone else¡¯s face, she is speaking so only I could understand¡­


    ¡°This would have been a great chance, but no, I can¡¯t have a dragon roaming around with an unrestrained champion¡¯s soul.¡± The woman looks down into my eyes and I see her smile beautifully, suddenly looking like a whole different entity. ¡°Hello, ^()*&$$%(). I am Rirshka, Goddess of Fertility and Harvest, she who fed ten thousand souls, the twin of life. I am the one who called on you, you beautiful soul. Yet a mistake caused me to lose you and for you to be born in such a monstrous body!¡± My years hurt as she said something that meant nothing, but then it all became better as she continued. She sounded like she was genuinely worried¡­


    ¡°Oh, you poor thing, how hard it must have been! To be so unsightly, to live like a beast, to kill and feast, to be driven by your greed and hunger, by your pride and wrath! Oh how many innocent humans you had to kill, you own, true kin, just because of this mistake¡­¡± It was¡­ a lot¡­ yes I had to fight, and live and almost die just because I was born in this body¡­ I could hear faint whispers creeping in, but her melodious voice overpowered them.


    ¡°Come now, my child. I will take away your pain and give you that beautiful, strong body you deserve. Become a hero of legend and protect the innocents in my name, and I will care for you forevermore!¡± She was close, so close despite me crawling away. Why was I backing away in the first place? She¡¯s giving me the option, the chance, the choice to be better! Not a monster, but a human. A champion backed by an empire and its gods. A hero¡­ who doesn¡¯t want to be a hero? Who doesn¡¯t want to serve something so grand and beautiful and loud why is my brain so loud-


    The strings get cut and my body collapses like a lifeless puppet. Inside my soul I sit on a comfortable chair, sipping from an imaginary tea that tastes of lavender and vanilla, then calmly speak out that she¡¯s so full of shit. She is. I haven¡¯t even killed humans since becoming a dragon, at least until she brought an army after me. My instincts were shouting how much I hated her, yet the second she spoke out I became entranced. Mind magic, it¡¯s always mind magic¡­ but no, this wasn¡¯t actually that. This messed with my emotions, but not my thoughts. She pulled out insecurities and traumas, amplified them a hundred times and then made me drown in them.


    She is threatened, no, multiple gods are threatened by the thought of me roaming free, not just as a dragon, but as a dragon with my knowledge. She mentioned ¡°unrestrained¡± and how she would take my pain away¡­ She¡¯s planning to chain me. She¡¯s planning to kill me, rip out my soul and put it in some human body, then groom me to be her hero, while possibly cutting away any memory that might make me act against her interests.


    I need help. I need to run. I need to strike back and run. If I let her rip out my soul, I could become a slave forever. Fuck being a hero, I¡¯ll be the big bad if that¡¯s the only way to be free and safe. Plus, she and hers killed people I really liked. I can¡¯t let her do all that and get what she wants.


    I can¡¯t get properly mad in here, but I do feel that I will be very violent the second I pull out. I don¡¯t know how to handle this power of hers, but I do know what I can do to throw her off. She plans to control my emotions, I just need to remain halfway here.


    And that is what I do. Like before, whenever I had to draw information from my past, I feel the part of myself that thinks with hardly any emotion, that collection of what I was, and I make sure to not stray from it.


    ¡°Come now, my beloved child. Look how tired you are. How weak you¡¯ve become. Let me take your pain and save you from breaking apart!¡± She¡¯s way too close, and she looks intangible. Just a cloud of mana in the shape of a woman¡­ Her hand is close, so close¡­ and I bite it while thinking of the chaos wrapping around my teeth. She pulls away with a scream as I devour two fingers, which expand into entire clouds of weird mana. It feels weird, but usable, if only I change it a bit with my own knowledge.


    ¡°YOU BASTARD CHILD! AGAIN YOU WOUND MY HANDS! I WILL TEAR YOU OUT AND HOLLOW YOU INTO A MINDLESS PUPPET!¡± I pour all the mana I can into a breath attack, chaotic acid shooting through her and melting a few of the fallen priests behind her, but it seemed that even her form was losing its neat appearance. If there¡¯s one thing chaos did well was infect and alter mana. She screamed as I ran away, back to the pillar.


    ¡°Kill him! I no longer need him alive. Kill him and bring me his heart! I will personally aid you with his mother, Duke Varkrm, if you kill that animal.¡± I didn¡¯t need to look behind to know both of the monsters were coming at me. I had no idea what I could do at this point, there was so much happening that I couldn¡¯t even think of a good plan. So, when in doubt, listen to the voices in your head, and the voices were saying to brace by the pillar.


    Once there, I just looked at Ayrah, who now stood hunched, body trembling, spear almost breaking in her hands, but she was ready to die on her feet. Even Edith had flame in her hand, though it paled next to the inferno that followed me. The voices weren¡¯t scared, but everyone here was. I had no idea what I could do, so I turned around, back against the pillar, looking at the monsters coming our way.


    ¡°Finally. All this theater was annoying.¡± Spoke the man as he raised his sword, cutting through the very magic in the air.


    ¡°Waste of my mercy.¡± Mumbled the goddess as she raised her hand, a powerful pressure coming down on us.


    I dearly wish I was somewhere safe instead, yet the chaotic mana was still cheerful, as if whatever was happening was useless. ¡°Wait.¡± ¡°Tremble!¡± ¡°Fly!¡± ¡°Sibling.¡± ¡°Save!!¡±, the words kept on coming, but death looked me in the eyes, and for the second time today I was spared. The sword swung towards me, the pressure kept me in place, hell, even the sky became thunderous and lightning shot at me¡­ but then the word itself shook and what aimed at me instead struck the crystal, shattering it.


    ¡°Save! Sibling.¡± Screamed mana, of all things and I saw the face of the goddess and duke fall. Behind me¡­ I looked behind me and I saw in the distance what caused the earthquake. I could see mother¡¯s mountain over the treetops¡­ Not because it became taller, but because it took to the sky. Time felt like it stopped, the obelisk of chaos being shattered, but its pieces floating upright, dense mana accumulating in between¡­ And then it took form.


    A dragon¡¯s head, then another, then tens more. Heads, some malformed, some whole, yet all linked to each other. Some had more body, some had no body, but the spirit-like amalgamation of chaotic mana was shaped like tens of dragons stitched together, all shouting a garbled mess that I understood as unaccomplished familiar affection. A lingering idea, a fragment of desire. A simple wish. To fulfill my own wish. My wish of safety.


    Reality warps around us and I black out, finally taking a proper rest.

 Arc 1 Epilogue: Aftermath Of A Broken Nest

    She could no longer walk, so her claws dug deeply into the ground, helping her pull herself forward on the muddy soil. One leg was ravaged down to the bone, another was missing, but it was exhaustion that reduced her to such a hideous joke. As she gazed around, trying to make it home, she mourned the eyes she lost, which now left her lacking the vibrancy and range of colors. She could barely differentiate between mud, grass, wood and stone. Everything blended together, especially the blood. Still, her nose was working and home was close. At least here there was enough mana to see even without her eyes.


    She kept dragging herself over the hall that she had wandered a million times over since she claimed this place as her home. She went past the many destroyed lamps she had painstakingly carved and enchanted herself. Past the utterly ruined hanging garden she adorned her walls with. Death, so much death filled her halls, replacing the life she gave to this forsaken foreigner of land.


    Death¡­ She sniffed at the air and looked down at the puddle of blood which was all that was left of that woman. Hundreds of boots imprimed their existence into the stone, from her liquid life. Of course, she simply sighed and kept on crawling, only to see more and more destruction further in. She had seen her child¡¯s attack, the explosion powered by the remains of that unborn elemental. It did more than simply burn some people or throw them about. Even in the temple, pieces of the ceiling had fallen over men, leaving their half-crushed remains thrown about.


    If only they had all been dead, she wouldn¡¯t have minded it too much. But instead of being able to get to the vault, she was blocked by little quivering men, wearing cloth and some iron, clearly having been busy brutalizing the precious artworks. their screams were drowned by her wrathful roar and half a minute later they all joined the tens of thousands of corpses she had made.


    Monsters, giant weapons that would take generations of craftsmen to properly make in this part of the world, slavers that could bend countless exotic kins to their will using hideous tools to compensate for their otherwise mediocrity¡­ they even weaponised the shame of her kin, all to bring her down.


    And they failed, because they didn¡¯t bring one more monster, one more weapon, one more danger¡­ Or maybe because they spread their forces too thin. The strongest of humans were out in the forest, running after her children. Had she met them¡­ She¡¯d take one or two with her, but she would be as good as dead, especially since she hadn¡¯t killed all the slavers. The ¡°Masters¡±... She was angered that they dared use such valiant words to describe themselves, despite being little more than living leashes.


    The angered mother roared and dusted a blockade of fallen boulders, her patience spread too thin to contain all her worries. At least she reached it. Her vault. Open and wrecked, like a storm passed through. Trinkets, instruments, scrolls and books, all destroyed. There were more corpses here, with splinters of gems peppering their mangled flesh. The mana was manifesting by itself, partly from the explosion, partly from the small amount of chaos mana that had formed.


    The woman cursed the gods for their petty interference, and then cursed again when she felt the presence of one made manifest. It wasn¡¯t like before, when she killed that small avatar, this was a lawful act that allowed her enemy to bring her power in truth. No chains were binding Rirshka anymore, which meant her children were in more danger than ever before.


    Thankfully, in spite of everything else being destroyed, the complex mechanisms below her were still functional. The mana that had been stored for so long, the power that was always waiting, exactly in case of something like this, was finally being called upon. A long string of words of power followed, the world trembling ever so slightly, the mana roiling and fighting against being made to change from its static state, but it could not ignore a dragon¡¯s will, so it obeyed.


    The earth outside cracked. Whatever poor sod decided to loiter about found himself kneeling in the mud quite quickly, the sheer power of a mountain taking flight being enough to knock anyone off their feet. The ones most unlucky were swallowed by the crater left behind, then got promptly buried underneath the earth that followed. Terror reigned as the waves of mana that held up the impossibly large floating island were pouring out and crashing against the humans below, making most of them collapse lifeless. It was a power that unearthed trees, withered life for its sin of weakness, and ruined the plans of self important goddesses.


    The last of her will was spent on a final roar, empowered only by the fragments of mana still in her heart, weak by itself, yet taken by the flood of mana and amplified to echo through the open air. A roar that called her children home¡­ Whatever children were still alive, at least.


    <hr>


    They had slept for too long, but it was needed. They knew, of course, that it was their purpose as the most unfit of them all. Sometimes the dragons forgot that, of course, that they too had a purpose, but they followed their instincts regardless, with few exceptions. They were the things nobody truly liked. Not innately. That is why they always had to work together, fulfil their roles.


    The few that became dragons had to, well, be dragons. The most unfit didn¡¯t know why being a dragon was so important, but it was the dragon¡¯s duty to be a dragon. The living failures then had to make it easier for the dragons to grow undisturbed, so they had to grow faster and ravage the lands, draw away attention from the few important ones and if they survive long enough and got lucky to find a kind one, they were to serve a dragon until they died. They pitied the living failures, for their crucial duties were often forgotten. Still they couldn¡¯t pity them too hard, since the most unfit had even more complex duties.


    Merge, grow, in spite of not being truly alive, in spite of being denied that right, they had to become bigger, accumulate their power. They had to also spread it about, make food for the successful ones, teach the thoughtless how to think. They had to also be a source of power for the little ones, making it easy for them to take away from the chaos so that they might learn. Finally, if something were to happen and an outside threat were to harm the developing dragons, they were to use their accumulated power to help, despite the fact that the most unfit would not exist any longer.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    They were a bit angry that despite having so many duties, they stumbled across a new one that they were not told about. Not that anyone particularly told them about these duties, still they liked to pretend that they were angry. What was this duty? Why, their eldest brother had a saddening talent. He was talented in the same thing as the most unfit ones, despite being fit. So then, why was that their trouble? Because the only way for that talent to truly blossom, for that heart in his chest to fully embrace and begin developing his own path, the only way for him to get a proper name was to devour a living crystal, like the other siblings. Devour it whole, take in the soul of that which had yet to be born¡­


    But how could he find such a thing? Chaos didn¡¯t have proper elementals, just wild storms that happened and unhappened. So they had to be devoured. But they had to stay alive to protect. It was a painful process to come to a conclusion, it was even more painful to watch him struggle while they were thinking of their decision.


    And then danger came, so their struggle was moot. They called for the eldest, they called for their brother, because they had to fulfil their purpose and help him and they had to do both at once. That is how they ended up protecting him from that young goddess, even if they had to cheat.


    It was nice, getting to see him properly in their true death. It was nicer still to be capable of fulfilling his wish¡­ a pity then that they didn¡¯t know how. Therein laid the problem, for they knew what they had to do but not how, so instead they latched onto his dream, his wish, his thoughts and his heart. They latched on and they saw how best to make it come true.


    The fragmented gemstone melted into nothingness, bit by bit, as their vision unfolded. The most unfit fragmented as well, splitting off while they still could, eager to save all from the death that awaited them. They heard the mother¡¯s call, and they knew they had to bring the children home safely.


    If only it was that easy.


    Three small fragments flew away, eager to find the siblings and deliver them to safety. They found their sister the furthest away, running on the bottom of the river, evading attacks from the men outside. She wouldn¡¯t have heard the shout and the mana pittered off by the time it reached these invaders, so they had to act. The water around her exploded outwards, searing through them. The last they saw, a blue blur took to the sky, following the mountain.


    The brother of flames was followed by a man of holy lightning. A strong being, a dangerous one. Ultimately, something that they need not kill for him, just hold off, so they did. They melted into the man, poisoning his thunder with concepts too foreign to his mind, just as their sibling took to the skies, obeying their mother.


    The sibling of stone¡­ they couldn¡¯t save him. Not fully. He was dying and he was being held captive by powerful humans. They could take him to mother and see him die, or heal him and see him chained, they did not have enough power for both and did not have decades to contemplate, so they followed their most powerful instinct. Keep him alive.


    And finally, their first target, saved last. Their sibling that was in the most dire danger. The one that, even if healed did not have energy to fly, even if taken up to mother, would only be followed by the gods, the one who just wanted to be anywhere else, anywhere safe. They took him away. His wish was, in fact, meant for everyone. Not just himself or the siblings, he had wanted the three humans to be safe too, so they did as asked and used most of their power to whisk them away, while also imprinting themselves on his heart. He will hate them for it, when he wakes up, but they had to do it, or else he might not have survived for long.


    They were almost reluctantly happy to be of use in their final moments¡­ right up until the monstrous man sliced at their spell.


    They vanished into nothingness weeping over their failure.


    <hr>


    Ayrah was dead. She had to be. She had been dead for a long time and just did not notice it, or else why would she suddenly find herself in the fields west of her home? She could even see a man with horns like an ox that she had once called ¡°boy¡± standing a few paces away, gaping at her appearance. Her eye trailed to the side, in the tall grass, and there he found a girl that seemed to have barely aged, yet changed so much more to resemble her rat¨Clike guardian. She held a sharpened stick while letting out sharp sounds of alarm, no doubt calling over every hunter from even beyond what her eyes could see.


    Her arms wrapped tighter against the small crippled boy that felt too cold to the touch. They were home. Children of her clan still lived and wandered the fields. She was whole and could feel her beloved Muur watching over her again.


    And yet she cried. She cried as she was embraced by those children that had changed so much, she cried for she was safe but the one that helped her be safe, the one that got her here, was not with her and neither was that young girl.


    <hr>


    Night had fallen. No one was really happy over what ended up happening. Well, most weren¡¯t happy, but Eadgar was plenty satisfied. Sure, lots of folks died, but him and Gunvar managed to haul out way more than they expected and ran out to hide what they got before the Mistress went back home.


    If they manage to smuggle this to a fencer, they could live like kings until they died, so that is why they split off to look for where they hid the damn things. They didn¡¯t think about the fact that they¡¯d have to find it again after being so busy hiding it well.


    ¡°Any luck, brother? They¡¯ll start asking questions if they don¡¯t see us soon!¡± In truth, Eadgar was terrified that his friend, his brother, his bestest bud would take everything for himself and run away. Gunvar was always the wittier and crueler of the two, so maybe he should have expected that from the start. Now¡­ if only he would only have to worry about his friend running with the money, and not about him silencing the only guy that knows he is running with the money.


    After all, two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.


    When he heard a splintering sound behind him, he quickly turned, knife in hand, ready to kill his brother¡­ only to see him look like he had seen a ghost, no, like he himself was one.


    ¡°Ru-¡± He did not even get to say anything as his breath seized and he collapsed, gasping and bleeding from his eyes.


    ¡°GUNVAR! I¡¯m here brother, what happened!? Breathe, man, breathe¡­ shit¡­¡± He held the man tightly as he breathed so heavily, struggling and clawing at his neck, until he felt him go limp. He laid the man down, cursing as he closed his eyes, not sure what could have killed him in such a horrible way¡­


    He got his answer when he realized that those heavy, labored breaths hadn¡¯t stopped. He didn¡¯t even get to turn as a spear poked through his throat, a burning sensation spreading from the wound and making his body freeze instead of attacking the assassin.


    His eyes trembled as he got to see her, however. The way she tried to talk but all she did was hiss, the way her throat looked like it was rotting away, the way her green eyes held only hate.


    In spite of his anger at his death, for a moment he pitied her for not following him to the afterlife.

 End of Arc Announcement

    Finally got a moment to sit here and gather my thoughts, so here we are! First arc is done, paths are diverging, the main character is aware of grander powers at play and is no longer in the relative safety of the nest.


    Meanwhile, I am eager to continue on with the story, but also aware that I have made a lot of mistakes along the way.


    It is inevitable. This is my first work and it''s been 7ish months of writing through, revising, dealing with life then coming back to write some more even when I had to pull out all nighters for the chapters to come out relatively when I promised they would. I am glad that I started this despite not ironing out all the details, because I might have never been started this if I wanted to already have 100% of the story mapped through without any sort of outside pressure (love you all) keeping me on track. The events of arc 1 were already fleshed out and planned, but still I came across roadblocks and patches where I found my writing unsatisfactory, so I plan to use the next two weeks to fully organize all the events of arc 2 before I start writing anything. I may also go back into arc 1 and change around some scenes that flopped because of my own execution.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    A final thing that I am planning on is dropping a few constraints that have made things a lot more difficult for me than I thought they would. Mainly, I will start writing other pov''s within normal chapters and leave interludes for stuff that is sideways to the story progression and things that happen far away from the main character, rather than for any sort of pov other than the main character''s.


    So, yeah, that about settles it. Thank you for your support, story is coming back after this short break, look forward to some proper exploration now that momma isn''t looking over her kid''s shoulder!

 Chapter 38: Arc II Prologue

    One of the greatest successful failures of Duke Varkrm. That is how the campaign to reclaim the lands stolen by The Mistress of Tranquil Water ended up being called. In the most technical sense, he had achieved the goal of taking back the land, however the dragoness escaped, as did three infant dragons and three witches. That alone would have been enough to make this a failed endeavor. However the costs that followed after that were much worse. Thirty thousand common men, be they levies or trained soldiers, close to two hundred magic users of all kinds, thirty wyvern riders and their rides, four masters and their many monsters.


    They were not even able to pay for the damages from the dragon¡¯s hoard, since she left with most of it. At least her lake had a lot, but it took two months just to get rid of the water and claim most of the precious things, as the mana itself was thick enough to kill peasant workers. He had to make nobles, low ranks though they might be, empty out a stubborn lake and haul out the precious materials. There were probably some things left behind, deep in the mud, but that was far beyond what he could ask without losing all the dignity that he had left.


    Finally, two things were lost that made everything so much worse. The one that the Goddesses were looking for, and his sword. He couldn¡¯t help but curse as he looked at the bladeless handle, devoid of any of its old magic. An item that survived centuries in under the whore¡¯s mistreatment¡­ gone. Completely warped and destroyed by chaos magic so thick it even made him stumble back. That spell that whisked them away, the dragon so warped, that even the kinder of the two divinities wanted dead¡­ He could only curse. He got the bare minimum of what he wanted, and his head might have still been on the chopping block if not the living infant dragon that he delivered to the Emperor.


    He had to rebuild. If nothing else, at least this should buy them years of peace. He made sure to conscript men from any surrounding areas first and foremost, so nobody nearby was strong enough to declare war on him now that his position was weak. He had to make the most of it and prepare for when that dragon would come back.


    At least this time the Emperor would not be able to stay away from it all. After all, he had ways to make sure The Mistress knew where her precious child was, once she came back looking for revenge. He was going to see her dead, one way or another. If she were to also kill that worthless sack of bones called ¡°Emperor¡± before she croaked, that would be all the better.


    <hr>


    He was burning with anxious wrath. His sister did little more than pace around and weep in confusion, his mother had yet to move from the spot they found her in and all he could do was be angry about it all. He screamed of flames eating all the land they had abandoned, of thunderstorms devouring the skies, of floods wiping away the scorched remains of the lessers that had attacked them in their own homes.


    The sister could only reply with whimpers of a rotting branch that fell and was devoured by the ground. That smothered whatever wrath he could muster. They were both angry, hungry, scared, but it seemed his sister wished to imitate their mother and simply collapse, letting the world devour her and wash away this whole experience.


    This was the kind of thing his greater brother would have probably fixed with his wit. But he had not escaped that day, likely perishing with the good lessers. Maybe his earthen brother would have been able to sit by the sister¡¯s side and slowly make her rise again, but he had not made it out either. It was only the two of them and their half-dead mother, so he had to finally think for himself and fix this himself.


    He thought for two seconds before he bit one of her horns and dragged her away, ignoring any protests, retaliating to her claws with a flat strike of his palm or tail, doing anything he could to simply bring her out. Their flying home had a bit of the ground outside still stuck to it, so they could walk under the sun and feel the air run past. A few weeks had passed and they needed to eat. They had already gone through the corpses of the lessers, with only a few drying out and becoming barely edible before they could reach them, so now they had to go back to hunting. It might clear out their minds, if nothing else.


    His sister still fought, but he did his brotherly duty and tossed her off the edge, watching her catch the strong winds and fly around more wildly then ever before. He roared of meat and she roared of bones, so he spread his wings and followed, magic from his chest wrapping around his body to give him much needed speed. A spell formed above his head, between his horns and his wings lit up in flames, making him soar like an arrow towards the ground. He saw his sister do the same but with her element, which did not make her faster but she seamlessly slipped through the strong winds, only aided by them instead of hindered.


    Below an endless field of hills stretched out and while he couldn¡¯t see as well as his greater brother could, he still had learned how to do a proper dive attack. His target was an easy one, a flock of sand-like yellow things were eating and basking. He had no concept of what the creatures might be, he had not seen any in their forest, and for good reason. The closer he got the more clear it was that they were defenseless and weak, not even touched in passing by any sort of magic. Only two things in that flock seemed more dangerous: a lesser and a malformed wolf.


    He saw the lesser look at him, then run, scaring the other animals into a mad rush. His sister was behind, she would get one of the larger animals so they could test them as a meal. He could afford to ignore them. He could afford to kill him. His dive became sharp, his aim straight for the one that looked a lot like the invaders¡­ and then he landed by him, flames burning at the grass underfoot. The man froze, the wolf next to him barking and trying to intimidate the dragon, however he was eye level with the man when he raised his head, so the little wolf was little more than an afterthought.


    He watched the man. He wondered why he hadn¡¯t just crushed him. He remembered his sibling and how careful he was with the good lessers¡­ actually, were those even good lessers? The invaders did attack the good lessers¡­ Was this one a good lesser? His body was like that of the invaders, but his second skin was like that of the good lessers, if a bit more complex and colourful. He had no shiny scales to protect him¡­ and no magic to make him dangerous. He had a stick, and a metal claw.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    He sat in front of him, head tilted, trying to figure out which it was, then he heard the sound of death and saw¡­ fear? It looked like how the invaders looked before they died, so maybe. Were these animals part of the lesser¡¯s hoard? Something so weak claiming so many things? Even his greater sibling only claimed five living things, and back then he was stronger than the lesser he is looking at right now. Lessers were strange.


    So far the man did not attack and neither did his wolf, so maybe he really wasn¡¯t an invader, just looked like them. Like the flying lizards looked and smelled a bit like dragon, but they were nothing like them. They couldn¡¯t even speak. Oh, he was getting distracted, and in his distraction he did not notice his sister coming by and nudging him.


    She spoke of thick fur that acted like scales on a few of the stronger things they had hunted together. Looking down he saw what she was talking about and frowned. So much protection on its body, but its head was perfectly easy to bite through and crush. All things have a weakness after all. Still, he wanted to deal with the problem and see how this thing tastes, so he quickly spewed his flames, making quick work of the curly fur and getting access to the quickly charring flesh.


    The lesser screamed, but he did not mind that. Lessers were vocal, that much he knew, and one that couldn¡¯t mold fire would be scared of it like any other animal. He ignored the lesser, and so did his sister, though she kept glancing over at him. He let her take her time and bit down into the body. It was meat. It was better than a wolf or a bear, but not too different from most meats. It was good. sad that its core was little more than a nudge of meat with a grain of sand in it, he had hoped that he could take over eating them now that his greater sibling was no longer around, but he¡¯d need to find worthy prey for that.


    For now they had sated their appetite, so it was time to leave, or they¡¯ll be left behind by their home. He yelped of more, and his sister agreed, taking flight and chasing after the fleeing animals, each killing and carrying one, before going as fast as they could to catch up to their floating home. They¡¯d have food for a few days, especially if they just slept through¡­ Maybe it was time to carry all their treasures to their Mother and hopefully help her wake up again.


    It was time to look forward.


    <hr>


    Chains, spikes, deep cuts, magic, obey, deep cuts, bleed, obey, blunt strike, obey, magic, obey, hunger, obey, hate, forbidden, obey, death, forbidden, obey, light, obey, les- human, obey, obey, obey, obey.


    His eyes opened and he was not something else this time around. His body was dying. His mind was weakening. His heart was pumping as hard as it could, sometimes breaking the chains, only for stronger ones to be used on him. He was alive. He was remaining alive. Whispers told him of the toughness of stone and how pressure fused it into something stronger, loose cobble and pebbles being buried and turned into proper rock. He kept trying to do just that, but he had mixed results. he was becoming tougher, but the horrible metal still made his scales fall off after a while, rotting away. Yes, rot. Something he rarely saw before was now his normal.


    His mind was not like his body, however. His body may rot but it persisted. his mind was rotting and he could do nothing to it. his mind was not stone, it wasn¡¯t rock, it could not harden like his body. So here he was, struggling weakly, eating the lifeless things that were thrown on him. He is sure at least some of this isn¡¯t meant to be food and his stomach is becoming unable to even digest it anymore. His mana is running low. He is dying.


    What happened to his siblings? Did any survive? He thought he had died, but he remained. Could any of them still be around? No. They either died or escaped, but they are nowhere near. He can¡¯t smell them on anyone, can¡¯t hear even the tiniest thing, and they are paying a lot of attention to him and only him.


    He is glad.


    He will die here, but they will persist. If only one of them died, it was a good exchange. He was glad they left him behind, for he would have done the same. He simply hopes that leaving him in the hands of such worthless enemies would not haunt them for long.


    His greater sibling would probably weep the most. He was always the most possessive despite wanting the least of their precious things. He was possessive of living things, and by how many times he had saved his life, the young dragon knew that his sibling would be devastated. He only hoped mother and the others would be there to care for his paradoxically soft brother.


    The entrance to the cramped place opened. His eyes closed as he felt the foreign thoughts invade his mind again. It was a pity that his magic wasn¡¯t letting him end his own life.


    <hr>


    The sky exploded in a deadly storm as The Outstretched Thunderous Scorching Hand circled for the fifth time around the land. Things had changed. Certainly it was close to winter by the time he had come back home, but what could he do? He had gotten lost while searching for something befitting of that clever little child that weaved so many magics so elegantly in spite of his age. Fire, water, that child clearly outstripped both himself and his mate in talent, so he needed a suitably foreign element to start out, as he foresaw the simple ones rejecting him for his much too complex thoughts, or his natural talent for chaos magic.


    That is why he was now carrying both an unborn life elemental and an unborn death elemental. Either would hopefully be complex enough and aligned with his interests enough to become his first true affinity. Of course he would love to see if he can fix his son¡¯s chaos troubles, if only he could find the damned place. He knew he was bad at directions, but this was absolutely insane. He decided to hover above the large hole in the ground, and imagined a mountain in his place. He followed the nearby empty riverbeds and found a now empty lake and terrified humans who seemed to dig through it, for what was plainly precious metals covered in mud. This was his mate¡¯s lake, her favorite lounging spot.


    No wonder everything nearby was dead and dry, sure the cold did much of that, but the land doesn¡¯t just become desolated from a bit of cold wind and fallen leaves. The land was simply reverting to its desolate, rocky state from before she arrived and changed it all to fit her taste. Now the question was, where did she go? He understood getting bored of a place like this, and he didn¡¯t doubt that she wouldn¡¯t care for a few loose coins being left behind in the mud¡­ but she should have at least left a mark, or something.


    He incinerated the scavengers in his annoyance, then took to the sky. He would need to comb the entire continent for her, but then again, that was a cheap price for that woman, and likely a deserved punishment for leaving for an entire year.


    It was time to fly and see where she moved. He was looking forward to seeing how his children have progressed in this time, so with an excited roar he shot through the sky, leaving behind a deadly fire that sealed the fate of the abandoned territory.

 Chapter 39: Build-A-Dragon, Now With Free Gremlins

    I drop a book. I don¡¯t remember for how long I was here, just that it has been a while. Usually time here goes as slow or as fast as I want, with some limits, but this time it is all completely out of my control. It has been a long enough time that I forgot multiple days¡¯ worth of work. What kind of work? Cleaning up after magic, of course.


    From orchestra to heavy metal, over to russian hip-hop and then to french house. Old, new, everything in between. I think I hear three children¡¯s lullabies playing at the same time from under a shelf, and I have to listen to all this while picking up the torn off pages of my books. That¡­ thing¡­ called Rirshka, while failing to rip off my soul, managed to scratch it and it let in some kind of magic based gremlins that have made a mess of everything.


    I brush a hand past one of the iridescent shapeless figures and it bursts into a cloud of mana while-


    <hr>


    ¡°Please, please, please! Wake up already!¡± Begged a feminine voice. The warmth of flame licked my face scales as I heard growls surrounding us. Those growls quickly turned to distant yelps and a familiar weight collapsed against me, droplets of liquid dripping down my body.


    <hr>


    -that. That happens whenever I touch one. I know I touched others, but I forgot what they showed me. Those are new memories, and not memories I have the energy to burn into my soul. At least I got the confirmation that this is my soul¡­ And that any god can come in and mess with it.


    Oh, yeah, gods. Of course there¡¯s gods. Turns out, I¡¯m not the top dog even though I am a dragon, because there¡¯s already gods that want me. At least I managed to write out those details before the mana got to make such a mess of me¡­


    ¡°Big, big! Make it big!¡± ¡°Long!¡± ¡°Shorter!¡± ¡°Sharp, more sharp!¡± ¡°Magic, lots of magic, put horns!¡± ¡°Butt horns!¡± And giggles fill the air. I look over at the particularly large and multi headed cloud that was saying that and I see the abomination they¡­ it¡­ I see what the cloud is working on. It¡¯s an abomination that might bear some resemblance to me, which makes me panic.


    I drop the ravaged book in my hands and rush over to disperse it, causing the thing they¡¯re working on to vanish too while-


    <hr>


    I am drowning. At least I think I am. My throat reflexively drinks the water, which at least doesn¡¯t taste too bad. It lacks the freshness of Mother¡¯s river and lake. It lacks mana completely. Still, it is better than nothing, my biology uses it regardless. I also smell burnt meat, approaching me, but I don¡¯t have the strength to chew, even as I feel it on my tongue. My mouth was pried open forcefully with a stick to even let it get in.


    ¡°Please eat¡­ I hear your stomach¡­ Ah¡­ gods why are you so ¡­¡± Her throat is hoarse. She sounds more tired and her hand on my scales feels more weak. ¡°You¡¯re growing too fast¡­ you need to eat¡­.¡± I do. I am in pain after all. I live off mana but food is still very much needed after a certain point. Wait, I live off mana, but I am drinking manaless water and the meat feels mundane too. I can only smell my mana and Edith¡¯s. No wonder I am starving already¡­ But I am too weak to eat¡­


    She removes the meat , but keeps my mouth open. It takes a while until I feel something new again. This time it is more soft¡­ It¡¯s still the same meat but processed. It tastes¡­ Ew. Water comes in and I drink in the chewed up meat. ¡°Please¡­ wake up¡­¡±


    <hr>


    I take a moment to process the vision. Edith is keeping me alive. I would probably cry out of happiness that there¡¯s still someone in my corner, if not for the fact that I was my mostly emotionless soul-self. A construct of unchanging memories¡­ unchanging until a god is involved.


    Fuck.


    Regardless of all that, I go right back to my own work. Books need to be fixed and put back in their place. Memories of memories need to be stashed in the questionable material box instead of being on the shelf. The holes in this space need to be patched up before they devour me and my memories¡­ how fun.


    ¡°Whoa!¡± ¡°Pretty!¡± ¡°Make pretty, make pretty!¡± I see two clouds looking at a particular book from the art section, particularly some dragon designs I saw in my past life. Motherf-


    ¡°Stop messing with my body!¡± I yell, which only makes them slither away. Another figure a bit away is looking at a completely different kind of art, namely of a humanoid dragon. It tries to mimic the shape, only to explode as it fails, causing more of a mess for me. This is annoying.. At least these guys are unable to change the content of my memories from what I¡¯ve seen.


    The goddess¡­ she is clearly the reason why I forgot my name. How do I know? Because she probably said it to address to me. She knows what it is but it got erased so thoroughly that I can¡¯t even hear it. It was the only thing from her that sounded like jumbled garbage, and she was speaking perfect english so I doubt she slipped up at that point.


    I take a moment to recover, and I forget what I have been doing until now. I look over at a hole in my reality and I see a strange continuation of the library. Actually, it looks more like a section that¡¯s just being built, but it happens to be underwater and in a spatially distorted field. Half built shelves are twisted every which way, looking more like trees, with pages spread about like fallen leaves. I can¡¯t read what is written on them, I can hardly figure out how the distortion works in the first place, but it seems like outside of my library is another one. Are those¡­ my dragon memories? Is that how this place looked before I spent however long fixing it?


    I shake my head and patch up the hole. I have the feeling that slipping in there would be deadly. Plus, I still have a lot of work to do here¡­


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    <hr>


    It takes forever and no time at all before I am finally on top of the gremlins. They have ravaged my memories looking for something and the only thing that feels like I¡¯ve done a million times is finding them looking at a messed up version of me¡­ so I don¡¯t disperse them, I think I¡¯ve done that before. I sit at the table that they made out of books, on a chair made out of the corner of a shelf, and look at their disgusting creation.


    ¡°No.¡± Is all I say and I can see either faces drop. Literally. I see a few head-like formations just drop on the ground, turn into dust, then crawl back up into their place and they start making changes again. The only good thing they did, from what I see, is form a 3D image of my entire anatomy from before me passing out. The fact that they go from that to¡­ this... means I got blasted with so much mana that I need to change drastically, like when I got my new hands.


    ¡°Need!¡± ¡°Lots of mana!¡± ¡°Affinity! Chaos Affinity!¡± ¡°Can¡¯t help sibling after this¡­ Sibling needs strong!¡± On and on they go. At least I can understand them¡­ Sibling though, that¡¯s not a word I expected. I will let my meaty brain unpack that, if I even remember it when I wake up. For now I just agree and get to work.


    Firstly, my organ makeup looks so weird. Most of my body is a huge lung, which I knew since I felt the air sacks, but I genuinely don¡¯t even have guts. My stomach is a large chamber surrounded by many glands that make the caustic fluid which melts everything down, and there¡¯s a lot of large veins carrying mana infused blood to it, so it clearly is one of my magical parts. After the stomach there¡¯s a small chamber that takes in the sludge, neutralizes the caustic part and then sends the nutrients and dissolved mana into my bloodstream, and to the rest of my body. It also seems to act as a smart liver and kidney combo, because it has blood vessels meant for toxic stuff incorporated. I don¡¯t get how that works¡­


    I can¡¯t find a core, instead I find that my heart is odd. It is very large compared to my body, has a partially crystalline texture, and seems to have a lot of chambers and individual transport cycles. My breath organ has its own pair of chambers. My horns have their own. There¡¯s also a communal chamber in the middle of the heart where almost all the blood mixes, which makes me partially panic. It¡¯s also the place where the most crystalline structures are localized and where my mana is densest, so that might be why. At least the chambers that pump the blood carrying waste from my cells to my lungs for exhaling are separated from the rest, though there seems to be a sort of valve that lets a bit of the toxic blood mix with my healthy one, which I don¡¯t understand.


    I sigh and ultimately leave that organ alone. My heart, my breath shaper, the nutrient chamber and apparently my horns are organs I do not comprehend and as such can¡¯t mess with. What I can do, however, especially now that I understand somewhat how my systems work, is add in some new stuff.


    Already the clouds worked out how to add in a lot of glands and extra weapons, I just need to give them a cohesive position that won¡¯t interfere with my ability to walk through a forest. If I was as big as Mother, I would have just bulldozed through, but I am not and I simply can¡¯t make myself unable to exist on a non flat terrain. As such I take out most of the random horns, leaving them on the head area and giving them a more contained shape, though they are still chaotic and pointed in random directions, with random growth paths.


    Next I change my tiny pair of arms into something more similar to mother¡¯s form. The back legs are fully made for leg work, but my front ones are a leg-hand mix. The claws are now connected to a venom gland that makes all the worst mixes I remember. Turns out reading about the most venomous animals around was quite helpful. Coagulation agents, anti-coagulants, venom that causes necrosis, neurotoxins¡­ With the help of the gremlins I manage to make complex glands in both of my forelegs, encased in a protective armor of fat and bone plates. It will make whatever it can based on what I eat and what mana I have available, but it will help in a pinch. It will also be a calorie hog in the end, but I need choices when I can¡¯t rely on magic.


    My body ends up staying somewhat like a lizard. My middle pair of legs is closer to my front so I could use my forelegs as arms without being unable to run. My front pair also has retractable claws now, since I need to keep them sharp and I might sometimes need gentle fingers rather than deadly ones.


    I look around while drawing the body and I notice that there¡¯s a lot less of the chaotic mana that makes these half sapient creatures. They¡¯re¡­ not dying, they¡¯re being absorbed. The more I become certain of a few changes, the more they vanish. I think they¡¯re the mana that I¡¯ve been using to sustain myself¡­


    That¡¯s a macabre thought, but I am not here to be horrified, I am here to fix my body. I am pushing too much to my meat brain, but I am simply not equipped to deal with this. I sigh, for no particular use since I don¡¯t have lungs, but habits die hard. I need a few more things¡­ I obviously need my tails to be fixed, but when I go to draw that, i realize that they were already modified and not with my input. Three tails. Great. Well, I see that the tip of each tail has a bony blade, so I modify that a bit. I make the blades single edged, so I can still grab things without hurting them, and I add in a pressurized acid gland in each tip. I just reuse whatever my stomach uses, so that I don¡¯t need to ruin my throat each time I am put in a tough spot.


    Two more big changes¡­ I know I am probably a rainbow mess by now. If the gremlins are to be believed, I somehow did what my siblings worked months to accomplish, I got my affinity for real. And of course it is chaos. Because of that I will be a lightshow to anyone nearby, so I spread tiny pigment glands throughout my body. Technically, my body was already capable of changing color based on the mana that infused my scales, this will simply make that much faster and more easy to control but it will still be magic based, I can¡¯t get away with it being full biological work. I simply don¡¯t have the skin of an octopus or cuttlefish, which would help with quickly changing color.


    The change locks in and I find myself standing face to face with a handful of the beings. They look sad but also happy¡­ and they don¡¯t even have proper faces. I don¡¯t know what to say, so I just look at the projection that is my body. It changed again. The horns are bigger, I have five eyes, a singular big one in the middle while the other ones are spread in pairs. My wings have also changed, somehow becoming a pair of arms, mimicking the way the wyverns had them.


    ¡°No more time¡­ no more control¡­¡± ¡°Good luck¡­ Sibling. Learnt much from you. Go back to you. Give back to you.¡± ¡°Fight. Kill. Need to survive¡­¡± ¡°Siblings out there. Siblings alive!¡± They vanish, one by one, until the silent one is left. ¡°She is a strong girl.¡± it says in a voice far too similar to my human mother¡¯s. ¡°Take care of her¡­ like she did with you.¡± The voice slips into something different by the end, but I got it. It mimicked my mother¡­ It needed to remind me.


    Humans ruined my somewhat peaceful life. Killed two defenseless women when they wanted help. Pillaged and ruined and¡­ Edith stayed by my side and helped me. I need to keep myself from becoming angry at all of humanity for the action of some noble and a goddess. I need to keep myself from becoming a monster.

 Chapter 40: Thanking Edith

    It takes a painful moment for my thoughts to stop being out of sync. I felt like a foreigner in my own body and then it all felt familiar again. Despite however much time I spent inside my soul, I am left only with the idea of reorganizing, patching and carving the shape of my body with the invading mana. I also have a few important moments, but they are foggy right now. My brain becomes a thunderstorm and the vague impression of my calmness is washed away by a flood of blaring alarms.


    I am starving. I¡¯ve been fed, but I eat multiple whole animals in a single day if I am hungry, and I doubt Edith managed to shove that much food down my throat. The lack of rich ambient mana must have made me even hungrier than normal in the first place, and my new body is larger and more expensive than ever, so overall I need to eat a lot and soon. I am also a bit bloated. Edith, bless her heart, gave me entirely too much water and my body dislikes that fact especially since I don¡¯t have an easy way to get rid of the excess for now.


    I have not grown too much in size, but I feel my figure matches a bull or maybe a bison in overall size, but with a lot more length and a slimmer figure. In spite of said slimness, I have a lot of flesh I had never felt before. Speaking of, my limbs, my fingers, so many new complex controls and sensory spots that need to be mapped somehow by my mind. I get up, feeling around the soft, slightly muddy ground, and stretch in order to feel everything. It takes a minute to properly figure out each part and become steady on my feet. Such a large range of motions, so many more tools at my disposal!


    The pitch darkness does help with focusing on the sensations at least, but enough stalling. I delve into the screaming of my sensory organs. My ears are more sensitive, now boasting an actual mobile earlobe that I can feel setting into multiple positions, reminiscent of a cat, despite them being slightly to the sides of my head rather than the top. My nose is improved in a less obvious way, being sharper and more capable of separating each scent present in the air. All of this is nothing compared to my eyes, though. I open them all and my body falters. I need to get used to the new inputs, new perspective, new filters, too much information¡­ I feel like I am in some biological robot rather than my body and I just blew a fuse, causing me to close them all again.


    Alright, baby steps. Upper side eyes are normal. They are almost unchanged, the only difference I can see, pun intended, is that they somehow became even better at what they did before. Put plainly, I have fully transcended biological constraints. Not by a lot, but by enough, seeing as I am at least 20% better at long range details. I close those and I open my lower side eyes, which makes everything look¡­ gorgeous. I can see colors, all the colors, every color I could ever imagine and more. There¡¯s no words for this. Not truly. Never in a million years would I be able to write down something that would allow my past self to comprehend the beauty that birds and shrimp have been gatekeeping.


    In more scientific terms, my second pair of eyes sees a slightly larger segment of the electromagnetic spectrum, likely a bit into the ultraviolet spectrum. It is nothing absurd, but I can see just a bit more light than before and I could lose myself in this sight. Even the plainest blade of grass shines in a beautiful way¡­ thankfully, my simpler eyes don¡¯t seem redundant. These new ones see more color, but they are a lot more like my human eyes when it comes to distance and detail work.


    Finally, my large, central eye makes me confused. I open it, closing the others, and I see the world like a grainy grayscale. It reminds me of a noise map for texture, or that time I spilled glitter over a patch of grass, but if I could only see the glitter. I look around and I find the range to be even worse than my UV eyes. I flick a blade of grass and the white grains lag behind, following a second after. I get closer, breathe in, and a patch of the grass vanishes from my vision, only to very slowly start appearing again, dot by dot.


    I get an idea and breathe out a puff of mana, which while looking greyscale, is now an overwhelming glowing cloud. It¡¯s like white neon in pitch darkness. I got an eye that sees mana. Once I open up all of my eyes simultaneously I can see the dark, iridescent colors of chaos mana, including a whole slew of new ones I barely understand. Even the grains from before I can see highlighted when I focus on them. I do a final test by blowing another small cloud, then going behind a tree and looking through it with all my eyes. First, I see the tree, then the mana that clings to the tree, then I see the absolutely glowing but rapidly dispersing cloud behind it, only that I see it mainly white with just the faintest tint of colors. Weird.


    This confirms multiple things. The reason I see everything other than the clouds I make as these tiny grains instead of the glowing fog I am used to is probably because this is the minimum amount of mana possible. I try to take control of the grains and weave the mana around, but it gets consumed from just moving it, so it is worthless. In spite of all that, getting a singular eye that I can actually toggle on and off, that lets me see mana is incredibly useful. Since I can also see more colors now, I should be able to differentiate types much better¡­ It seems that whatever changes mana made by itself will not be a waste, even if I¡¯d rather not have a giant, frail eyeball dead center in my head like a bullseye waiting to be shot. Obvious weak points are the death of raid bosses.


    I am forgetting something¡­ no, I am forgetting a lot. My meaty brain is overloaded enough trying to get used to all of this, so the emotional impact of all that has yet to kick in, but I am also forgetting¡­ ah, the last thing the mana clouds I affectionately called gremlins told me¡­


    Damnit, Edith¡­ She¡¯s nowhere nearby I see a bunch of things though, including a shelter made of branches tied together with tall grass and covered in leaves, which I think I wrecked when I got up, a burnt out campfire, an ugly but seemingly functional clay jug and a few sharp rocks that look like she made them herself. Color me surprised, she¡¯s actually a capable survivalist.


    Still, I have no idea how long I was asleep, but from the fragments of awareness I had, it sounded like she was struggling¡­ I can smell blood¡­ animal blood, her blood, it stains the ground in a way that basically glows to my new sight. I follow my eyes and nose, running after her freshest trail, only to hit a tree. I close my upper and middle eyes, starting to run again, but this time more carefully and with my mind keeping up with the movement. It takes a bit getting used to the six legged gallop, but it quickly becomes clear that even if I stumble I just don¡¯t fall. Extra security, weight support, and the movement is still cheap enough on my brain so long as I am not too absorbed by other things. My speed is better than before, my three tails do their jobs to balance me when I take a sharp turn, with my wings acting like hands and bracing me when I need an extra boost or to stabilize. Awake for minutes and my new body is already second nature.


    Back to the task at hand, ignoring my glee, I focus on the important parts. The blood was old, so at least I know she¡¯s not wounded currently. My only concrete trail is the scent she left behind, the footsteps in the mud and the occasional bit of oils that had yet to break down from bacteria. The fact that she doesn¡¯t exactly seem to know how to traverse stealthily, like an animal, makes my job easier at least.


    It takes about fifteen minutes for me to rush through the dense forest and uneven ground before I see her, looking over her from the top of a hill. She¡¯s hidden in some bushes, looking at the ravaged carcass of a snake. I can smell the thing from over here, so¡­ Ah, she¡¯s trying to lure a predator? Smart, but doomed to fail. No animal that would care about a small snake would want to go find whatever ravaged the thing in the first place, which is why the whole patch around her is quiet. Works with fish, but not the best with land mammals. Sure, it attracts a bit of attention, but with her smell being so obvious, nothing gets close. I think about going up to her, but then my ear focuses on a noise a few minutes away.


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    Hunger drives me and I run over, my skin darkening instinctively. There¡¯s birds all over, as well as rodents, insects, so much life but nothing drew my attention. However here we have two boars and some piglets, being harassed by a fox that is just weighing its options. That is a meal I can¡¯t refuse, so I take away its decision from it as I burst from the tree line. It is so easy now, killing animals in such savage ways. I bite into the bigger boar¡¯s head and tear it off, then welcome the sound of panicked squealing with three sharp blades being impaled into its mate¡¯s brain. The piglets, too small to have learned anything from their parents, try to run off but are unable to escape. They are too slow for me. I take this opportunity to get used to my tails even more, cleanly cutting off the heads of each of them, then pile them up next to their parents. The fox is nowhere nearby. It likely ran as fast as it could the second I popped up, but I could easily follow its smell if I wanted.


    I don¡¯t though, it had too little flesh on its bones to make it worth the chase. Instead, I delve into the meal, without blacking out. This is me. It¡¯s not just instinct, this is my own self, accustomed with slaughter and survival, ravaging the carcasses despite being here for so little time. I can only sigh once the rather bitter realization of how inhuman I¡¯ve become hits me once more in the face.


    I pull away when I am done, only the piglets and some loose pelts I licked clean of meat being left of the family. I should go back. Meat though they may be, Edith needs to eat a proper meal too, so despite still being hungry, I grab the carcasses in my front arms and give running on four limbs a try. It¡¯s awkward now, my body is a bit too long and off balance, but it is manageable. Now, I just have to find Edith again¡­ ah, I can follow my own trail thankfully¡­. and she¡¯s not here.


    I look around for her, but there¡¯s nothing¡­ oh, no, there is something. I see a sharpened stick left out in plain view. I try to sniff around, but it takes a while to catch her scent again. She seemed to be in a hurry and ran off not towards where I woke up, but directly away from where I went to kill the boars¡­ Oh damn she heard me.


    Thanking Edith is off to a rocky start.


    <hr>


    I can¡¯t die now¡­ not after all of that¡­ I can¡¯t survive dragons, an army, monsters of all kinds, noble mages, an actual Duke and a Goddess, only to die here to some wild beast!


    Edith ran because her life depended on it. She panicked and dropped her spear, not that it would do much to something that caused the entire forest to stir, but she only had so many options on hand. She dealt with wolves and foxes and a particularly angry buck so far, but if she were to face a hungry bear? Her chances were not looking great.


    Water¡­ Water! The river should be here, damn it all! Did I miss it? Did I change directions at some point? Come on girl, it all sounded far away, so the bear or whatever it was shouldn¡¯t come this way¡­ Plus, it probably ate¡­ sounded like it killed a boar, it should be fine¡­ should be fine¡­ should be-


    Her head snapped back and a giant, dark blur was running perpendicular to her path, behind her, bulldozing through everything in its path aside from the old trees. She was relieved for half a second, before the shape took a sharp turn towards her. She did not wait another second.


    ¡°I BEG YOU, BURN!¡± She screamed and her hand, now a beautiful, pristine, healed sight turned into a gruesome thing as it ignited, iridescent lines pulsing with power as strong jets of dark red flame exploded outwards. She was lucky that only one flame tongue hit her in the leg, singeing her skin a bit. The rest of her magic went all around, starting a fire that should scare the beast, which was still a better outcome than the other times she used this magic. Still, she turned and ran as quickly as she could, hoping to wash away her scent and lose the animal if it somehow followed her through the flames.


    What she hadn¡¯t expected though, was that the flames would just dim and stop. Explosive fire she had no control over, her magic infected by chaos, it all vanished. She had watched three wolves be turned to dust when she first lost control, but here it was, that same fire, being useless. The sound of water didn¡¯t make her happy one bit despite finally hitting her ear. It was too late.


    She stepped on a stone, her ankle twisted and her entire body fell and rolled down the small hill and all the way into the water. She was in pain and she had no more energy to struggle. She fell in a shallow bit of the river, laying on a bed of stones as it calmly flowed past. She closed her eyes, awaiting her death as the large figure sounded like it was getting close. When it took one step into the water, Edith made peace with her imminent death, having half a mind to try and use her fire to end it all quicker, rather than let herself be ripped limb by limb¡­ but she stopped as seconds passed and nothing happened.


    She slowly opened her eyes, only to see five vibrant ones stare back into hers. The dragon was awake and she was not going to die yet. In its hand there were three headless piglets bleeding into the water. She almost breathes a sigh of relief, tearing up as the realization that she¡¯s not dying hits her, but then a wrongness twists her stomach and she empties out whatever little she left had inside. The piglets are thrown on the shore, one of the dragon¡¯s large limbs being gently used to hold her hair up while another carefully pats her back.


    It takes a few minutes for her to fully calm down and sit on the shore. Tired eyes look at the confusing creature in front of her, then at the prey he brought. In the seconds she took her eyes away from him, he had finished gathering a large pile of fallen branches and dry grass, before surrounding them with river stones. He made a sound in her direction, pointing at it. She smiles, still exhausted, but nods, extending her once more healed hand. This prompts the dragon to move in close and sniff her hand, looking confused. She laughed humorlessly, then began chanting.


    ¡°Spark of living power, bringer of warmth and death, all consuming force of the natural world, I beg of you to grant me your gentle shine and light up this wood!¡± She felt embarrassed, having to use such a reverent chant for a tiny flame, but ever since the chaos magic happened, she was cursed. She watched as rainbow lights shone underneath her skin, then her flesh rapidly withered, spreading millimeters more towards previously healthy skin. After the spark appeared and easily started the fire, her hand rapidly turned back to normal, though she could still see the bits of flowing chaos, magic that refused to abandon her no matter what she did. Healing her only to consume more of her each time she used magic¡­


    She banished the thought, focusing instead on getting dry and preparing the meat. She took off what was left of her clothing, namely a quarter of a shirt and the small dress she made from rabbit fur and reeds. She sadly didn¡¯t have a knife on her, having dropped it together with the spear, so it would have normally taken a while for her to try and make another one.


    Nothing she saw was normal anymore. Not only had the dragon purposefully turned its back to her, but it took the piglets and started dicing them up with its tails. Curiosity got the better of her and she got up, looking over him at how it was going, only to be quite surprised. It was certainly better than what she could do with rocks. The organs were thrown out, the meat cut into rough cubes then left on the skins. It took a few minutes for it to be done, tails working in tandem while the dragon was focused only on the work.


    When done, he got up, started searching for something, then came back with a few thin but straight branches. He sharpened the tip, ran it through the fire without letting it start actually burning, then stabbed chunks of meat into it and held it above the fire. She had given up understanding how the dragon¡¯s mind worked. If it wanted to know how to cook, it knew how to cook. She was hungry enough to eat the pig meat half raw or burnt.


    Of course, it turned out that the dragon knew how to cook. She ate, smiling as she finally got a half decent meal in the month she survived alone. She looked over at him, unsure why the strange dragon refused to look at her so suddenly, then reached over and hugged him, whispering a soft ¡°Thanks¡±.


    To her surprise, the dragon¡¯s body vibrated loudly as a raspy, hissing voice spoke out. ¡°I should be the one thanking y-¡± And just as it started, it abruptly ended. She pulled away and looked in shock at the dragon. The bigger shock was that said dragon looked even more surprised than her.

 Chapter 41: Dragons Have Needs

    We sit in silence, with Edith nibbling on her skewers while being the one averting her eyes. This entire day went out of control from the moment I opened my eyes. I firstly messed up by scaring her into starting a forest fire and injuring herself to escape, because I got stuck in the darker colors like an idiot while running on leftover adrenaline from my hunt. The second mistake I made was being unprepared for the fact that she¡¯d need to dry out her clothes after finding herself submerged in a shallow river. She had no qualms about it, probably thinking of me as little more than a witty dog, but some sense of shame remains in me even though I feel nothing but worry whenever I look her way.


    She looks thin, ragged, bruised¡­ She looks like a survivor, for that is what she is. Meanwhile I sit here, plump on two whole hogs, just recently woken up from one of my longest naps. I am grateful I can at least help her with the food, because I have a big debt to pay, considering how hard she worked to keep me living¡­


    The silence is killing me, evident by the way my tails smack against the ground in an asynchronous rhythm. The fact that I can talk, using my own vocal cords instead of finely tuning magic, is a godsend. For some reason I cannot pull just sound out of the chaos mana inside me, so I need to breathe it out, take only the mana I need, then let all the other mana, which is many times the amount I use, just dissipate. Basically, I never realized the downside of chaos mana until I was no longer in a mana rich environment.


    The problem with being able to speak, though, is that I just spoke much more eloquently than I ever had using magic, and I think Edith is processing that in her own way. There¡¯s a difference between being near a parrot that¡¯s copying your words and being near a parrot that is speaking perfectly without being prompted or trained. I looked her way for I don¡¯t know how many times today, looking at the bruises she got from the fall, at the way her body shivers from the wind, the way her breathing is uneven and alert¡­ I extend a wing, covering most of her body with it. She doesn¡¯t even flinch.


    ¡°So¡­ you understand me..? I know you understood a few commands and requests, Ayrah kept gushing over you whenever we were on the topic, but I never thought you understood¡­ this much¡­¡± She does not look my way, and she takes a few breaks as she mulls over her thoughts, but at least she saves me from having to figure out an icebreaker. Ayrah¡­ is she even alive? It¡¯s not something I can focus on, so I turn to more immediate matters.


    ¡°Five people in a small room, all having nothing to do but talk¡­ It wasn¡¯t hard to learn once I decided I wanted to. I still need to guess the less used words, but it is comprehensible.¡± Finally, she turns to look at me. I meet her with only two eyes, as the others slow down my thinking too much. I am unable to figure out what the emotion behind that expression is.


    It takes minutes before she finally says something, and even then it is just a choked up ¡°Thank you. For everything¡­¡± I offer my best impression of a smile, then get up and stretch, though I keep mostly around her. I should have brought back the boar skins, but It is kind of late right now. Plus, I licked those things clean, to the point where there was barely anything left of them so I doubt they would last.


    ¡°This is.. awkward¡­ Look, I¡¯m sorry but it¡¯s been a while since I had a proper chat with anything¡­ The way I talk to my siblings is wildly different from this. These words are so constraining compared to dragon speech¡­ it feels wrong.¡± I feel my whole body shiver from that wrongness. Once again, you don¡¯t realize how good something is until you lose it. Draconic is so convenient despite its problems, and it feels like poetry from the soul. Meanwhile these words I speak feel cold and heartless¡­


    ¡°I see¡­¡± Edith looks confused, which is understandable. Try and explain sight to a blind man and you might understand my situation. ¡°I am sorry¡­¡± that gives me pause. Why is- ah, I lost my family. Mother was wounded enough that she couldn¡¯t fly by herself, but at least I think she survived since I saw our mountain just fly through the sky. Even if I think of it that way, my siblings are another thing entirely. Spots is likely dead, having bled out from his wounds. My other siblings had rough chances of making it out of that madness¡­ For all I know my mother is deathly wounded in her floating lair, while my siblings were butchered and skinned by that army.


    I somehow am still unable to process that. I took note of everything consciously, but I do not feel the loss. I do not feel the pain I should, the terror of being alone in an unfamiliar environment, with only myself and this frail, human girl to count on. It might be because this is the second time I am put in this position, or it might be because I lack that strong empathy I am used to¡­ no, that¡¯s wrong too. One more thing to unpack later.


    ¡°I am not capable of properly dealing with this in a healthy manner right now. But I thank you for your sympathy.¡± Wow, stiff much? Why am I speaking like this? Ah, I do have less words to work with, and most of my modern words don¡¯t have a translation. I don¡¯t know how to say ¡®unpacking¡¯ or anything like that¡­ My mouth is faster than my mind, that cannot be good. ¡°Regardless, I think we need to talk more about this situation¡­¡±


    Edith keeps a complicated expression during my emotionless statements, but she does at least start when prompted. ¡°I do not know where we are.¡± Well, that wasn¡¯t useful¡­ ¡°We are far enough away that the sky looks wrong though. My mom taught me about that. She said the sky becomes a bit tilted if you move north or south, and we¡¯re somewhere more northern, but that¡¯s all I can say¡­¡±


    ¡°Huh. Your mother is well traveled, then. I doubt this is something you can normally learn in a small village that a dragon oversees¡­¡± It was certainly helpful that I did not need to teach her such things. The fact that she also knew just enough to survive this long also helped immensely.


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    A silence falls on us, which reminds me that we are in some forest decently far away from home. She goes back to eating and I take the opportunity to get a good look at her, this time with my other eyes. I mix my previous mana sense with my sight and I focus in on all the fire inside her chest. She has more than before all this, and it flows wildly, lashing out at nothing before returning to her core. The next thing that draws my attention is the flow of chaos mana that is spread throughout her hand, following tiny pathways only to explode and diverge, uniting again at the tips of her fingers. It¡¯s imperfect, but it is following the flow of a rune. She has a chaos rune carved in her arm, which explains the rapid healing I noticed before. Maybe if I memorize it, I could figure out how it works¡­


    Interesting magic mutations aside, I need to do something. My body feels jittery, probably from staying stuck for¡­ ¡°How long?¡± I ask, with a bit of fear. ¡°How long did I sleep..?¡± No matter what the answer was, it meant that I had no way of getting back to anything. Not only was I far away, with no idea how to get back home, but everything was probably long done.


    ¡°A month. More or less. I was worried¡­¡± She did not need to continue. I understood. From a human perspective, sleeping for a month straight meant you were in a coma. For a dragon though¡­


    ¡°Once again, thank you for keeping me alive during that time. I was out, but I remember that you fed me and carried water specifically for me to drink. You made a whole clay pot and everything. Plus, you protected my body... I would have probably not been alive without you.¡± She laughs at that, which is a bit odd. Ah, it¡¯s the crazy kind of laugh¡­


    ¡°You saved me first, you know? Saved me from The Mistress, saved me from wolves, saved me from the soldiers, saved me when that Duke and the Goddess were looking to murder me¡­ Gods, Lady Meredith and Yvonne¡­ if not for you I would have ended the same¡­¡± She leans back and I prop her up with my body. It feels nice, in a way. She looked cold before, but her torso is very warm from her mana.


    ¡°I guess so¡­¡± I wrap my body around hers properly, letting her rest. Her eyes are closed, but she¡¯s not trying to fall asleep. ¡°It is alright to relax now. No predator nearby. And even then there¡¯s nothing in these parts stronger than a wolfpack.¡± Paradoxically, she becomes more alert at that.


    ¡°How do you know that? Mom always said dragons are great at anything they do, but still¡­¡± In a way, her implied words are right. Dragons are great at what they do but they also have time and magic on their side. I am a child still, with mana reserves lower than that duke and a few of the magic users.


    ¡°I can smell it. I got used to the scents of animals, and while there¡¯s a difference from individual to individual, all members of a species smell roughly the same.¡± She nods and closes her eyes again, seeming relieved.


    ¡°That¡¯s useful. You¡¯re like- ah, no, you¡¯re a dragon, it¡¯d be bad to compare you to an animal¡­¡± She¡¯s still tense, so I laugh it off, moving to rub the side of my head into her shoulder.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be so tense around me. I can guess what sorts of stories people tell of dragons, and I can guess that they¡¯re not too far from the truth, but despite having some innate pride issues, I don¡¯t need you to be stiff and reverent.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ alright¡­ I am just a bit¡­¡± I chuckle and nudge her with my snout, taking her by surprise.


    ¡°You¡¯re afraid I¡¯ll eat you, or something of that sort?¡± The embarrassed nod makes me laugh out loud, before taking a joking tone. ¡°Mother and father both tried to get me to eat you. It¡¯s been about a year, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be eating you now after going to so much trouble to keep you alive.¡±


    She relaxes a bit more, then gets up and goes to look at her clothes. Still damp, still ruined. I know how to sew and how to knit, but I don¡¯t have material or tools on hand, so there is not much I can do. Actually, I am wrong. Searching through my random trivia, survival section, I find a few videos and an essay on how to process animal pelts. It will take a while, but it is better than nothing. Time to be a carpenter.


    Edith looks my way once I get up, showing at least a bit of interest in why I started searching the ground again. By the time she finds the courage to question me, I am already fixing together a large frame. ¡°So¡­ what now?¡± That does give me pause. Firstly, why she¡¯s asking me that, second, what now indeed¡­


    ¡°Shelter, clothes, food, water, not in that order. There¡¯s a lot that needs to be done even if just temporarily. It¡¯s still warm, but winter out here might be deadly. The forest can provide what we need for now, but the best bet, especially for you, is to find a town.¡± Her look lets me know exactly what I expected. Any sort of settlement would meet me with pitchforks and torches. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t follow you in, don¡¯t worry. I can make it out here, but you-¡±


    I stagger. Something is wrong. I look around and see nothing out of the ordinary. I focus on my supernatural senses and find nothing. I focus my eyes, speed up my thoughts by locking myself in place, try to see any possible danger¡­ and I am tired. I¡¯ve been awake for maybe two hours total. Why would I be tired? The answer comes from inside¡­ I¡¯m running low on mana. Immediately I collapsed on the ground, curling up. I am using up mana just being awake. Speeding up my thoughts, using my new eyes, detecting mana, keeping parallel thought processes, everything is using mana. Earlier, when I was rushing through the woods, killing with incredible swiftness and might, I was using mana. My venom and acid sacks are filled up as well, my skin shifted colors, I was using up a resource that so far was limitless. But how am I going to recover that now?


    ¡°Edith, dumb question, how am I alive? Before you answer that, I need you to know a certain thing. I need a lot of mana to live. I woke up brimming with it, so where did I get it from?¡± She looks alarmed, but then just nods sadly. She knew.


    ¡°You make it. In the first few days you had a small storm around you¡­ after that it became smaller and smaller as your body changed so rapidly¡­ For the past week you kept draining it, then recovering it. My arm tingled whenever you were full.


    ¡°Alright¡­ I make mana. I guess I do it constantly¡­ Ah, my heart. The chamber that energizes my blood, that must be making mana constantly. The problem I have right now is that I make much less mana than I use. I can find food, water, I can even make a shelter myself¡­ but how do I find mana? This place is barren!¡±


    Edith takes a long pause, then looks into my eyes resolutely and speaks in a cold tone. ¡°The same way any dragon does. You find a town.¡±

 Chapter 42: You Can Speedrun The Tech Tree But Not The Feels

    Well, this is my life now. I am active for at most six hours total, though technically I could last longer, even a full ten hours if I needed to, but I would be borderline useless during that entire time or sleep for a full day after. If I try to cut something with my claws or my tail blades without consuming mana, they get dulled. The only way to move without using mana is by walking. I can¡¯t control my tails or wings correctly if I don¡¯t burn a bit of mana to feed my brain. There are so many things that I took for granted are now gone because I have the battery life of a microwaved smartphone from the late 90¡¯s.


    In the end I decide to bite the bullet and live the large predator lifestyle so I can put my energy into making sure Edith has her needs met and that we are overall safe. For all that I am suffering by being stuck in a place without ambient mana, she still has it worse by virtue of being a human stuck in the wilderness.


    I managed to set up a decently extensive tanning corner, using my tongue to clean off any bits of meat from the pelts and simply leaving them tied to frames by the river to dry under the sun. From this I managed to get an amazing crafting material that I will use until the end of our little isolation. I made her a primitive dress, which really is a glorified deer pelt tunic with a bit of frilly skirt so everything down to her knees is protected, made her some shoes, shin and arm guards out of boar, using thin strips of rabbit hide and some dried tendons braided together as ropes to keep things together. Her body was a mess from walking around barefoot and getting cut up by branches and bushes, so this should help for a while. The only problem is that they¡¯re warm clothes, but it¡¯s better than not having any and her heat resistance is amazing enough to not bother her too much.


    In parallel I made a water filter for her. I made sure she boils all the water she drinks, but before even making it into the boiling pot I built a simple filter out of a hollowed out tree trunk, using river rocks and sand, activated charcoal and whatever scraps of textiles were left of her clothes combined with some moss and grass. It¡¯s not the best, but it works well enough. It is strange how the scarcity of materials flipped completely. It¡¯s easy to make charcoal and I can use air mana to saturate it with oxygen, but getting cotton for a filter is impossible.


    Material sciences aside, the other important thing we worked on was shelter, which really was more of a fox hole I expanded and reinforced. It has multiple holes for a proper ventilation, which I carefully protected from the elements by using tiny wooden coverings. The bedding is just a collection of fur scraps put on top of dried long grass. During the night I end up being the door, turning my body to look a bit like a rock. won¡¯t fool anything that gets too close, but it¡¯s better than nothing. I am completely unbothered by the elements and I¡¯d rather her not get attacked while I am in deep sleep.


    Now for a bit of fun, in the little time I have left after making all these things I have been testing out Edith¡¯s chaos rune, and I have made some observations. Firstly, any damage she gets to her arm is healed in moments, at least after she is no longer being hurt. With her consent I carefully stabbed her arm with my tail, which she felt, but the damage vanished in three seconds after I removed the blade. I then kept the blade in and it only healed once I removed it, so no danger of healing with stuff stuck inside. Interestingly, I made a cut in a part of it, then poked my nail in a different part. It did not start healing at all until I removed my claw, so it is very particular in how it functions.


    Secondly, if she uses magic the arm reverts to what it was like before, and worse of all, the wounds I gave her appeared again, though as old markings and scars rather than as actively bleeding wounds. This isn¡¯t healing. Maybe it¡¯s based on healing, but the effect I see is that the rune splits off her arm into two states, healed and damaged, and anything that disturbs it gets thrown into the damaged pile, to be brought back whenever she uses magic. Using magic with this arm also turns the spell into something unforeseen, but strong. Gambling. It¡¯s a magical gambling arm that gets somewhat healed. She can at least still use her other arm as a medium to cast normal spells, which still reverts her state mind you, but because she is not used to it and human meat is apparently a shitty conductor for mana, her magic is incredibly weak and dare I say cranky in its behavior.


    Thirdly, the thing that I was most concerned about was her mana supply, but it seems the chaos mana somehow feeds from her flame reserves if it ever runs low. Honestly, I could mess with the spell, my siblings proved that I could easily order the mana in her body to leave her completely and break the rune or alter it in there, but I fear that she would be hit by whatever damage she accumulated or maybe something even worse could happen. For now I need to understand the rune before I ruin it. She does seem happy when she looks at her reflection, so it is at least helping her mind despite the troubles it causes.


    Now for the elephant in the leafy forest. I need to get money fast. I didn¡¯t confirm or deny if I would end up raiding whatever town we come across once we start moving, but I asked her about how money works, and while she¡¯s a kid from an isolated town whose only source of outside information was her apparently well traveled mother and the occasional trader from the bigger town by mother¡¯s river, she still knows more than me.


    Overall, it tracks with my knowledge of medieval times somewhat. Main coin¡¯s copper and silver, which means I am shafted. Gold and platinum make mana. Crystals make mana. Copper and silver don¡¯t do that. From my tests, copper just accumulates mana from the air, so it¡¯s good for stockpiling ambient mana, but not much else. At best I could try to syphon mana from well traveled coin and hope it¡¯s loaded, but that¡¯s like a vampire eating rats in the sewers, barely a stopgap and probably will make my cravings for mana worse. As for silver, it felt like it ¡°cleaned¡± the mana, whatever that means, instead of emanating it and even that is a very rough feeling that I didn¡¯t get to properly study.


    I need gold, but apparently only nobles and the biggest merchants ever see the damn thing. It makes sense, in a way. It¡¯s like steel in these times, a military resource rather than just a commodity. A pretty earring is no longer just a rainy day fund for noble ladies, but rather a source of power beyond what would make sense in the middle of a medieval battlefield, and an enabler of supernatural capabilities for the best soldiers. That Duke was positively loaded in precious metals and jewels, and that monster could have incinerated me alive if he had not been so keen on wearing my skin to taunt my mother.


    I have so much stuff to unpack¡­ I hope there¡¯s therapists in this world.


    Back to pillaging, I need to either turn to being a bandit that goes for high profile targets, which I wouldn¡¯t be too opposed to on principle, if not for the high risks, or I find a profession that pays extremely well and use Edith as a proxy. Really, that is all reliant on her not turning me in at the first chance, which I am sure would earn her a pretty penny, but then again she was almost killed the last time she just wanted to live a normal life, so I figure she¡¯s more keen to trust me than some random humans.


    Which reminds me, where even is that girl? I got lost in my work, which currently consisted of making a normal sling and a staff sling for her. One of them should fit her since she can¡¯t keep trying to fight stuff using sharp sticks and gambler¡¯s funky fire. If she dislikes these I could make her an atlatl and some javelins, though I¡¯d like to get something good for the tip like glass, or maybe some particularly good bone¡­ Ah bones, how I miss being able to digest them¡­ Two days after waking up I ended up choking them back out since my body refused to waste the energy and magic to consume them. Now at most I can lick the marrow from them¡­


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Damn, ADHD hitting me in full now. I¡¯m restless because of how little time I spend awake¡­ Very well, back to reality since I am done with the slings. New quest: find Edith. At least she¡¯s still as obvious in the way she traverses, I just need a second to catch her nearest trail since the area overall smells a lot like her now. It takes me maybe a minute to find her path, and another six to find her. She seemed to have gone through a few bushes, then came out on a wider part of the river and is now just skipping rocks and eating berries.


    ¡°I used to do this with my dad when I was younger.¡± She speaks and I startle a bit. I wasn¡¯t stalking her, but I am still more silent than my frame would indicate. Then again, our surroundings are quiet because of my slaughter of anything with a good pelt on their skin, so it wouldn¡¯t be too hard to notice me¡­ ¡°We had to stop when I showed promise for magic. Any time that I had free after that was spent locked away, trying to gather mana and learning how to use it.¡±


    I stare at her back. I, for all that I tried in the past days, do not feel particularly lonely. I am sad that basically anyone other than Edith and maybe mother are likely dead, but that sadness is muted. One person keeping me company, watching my back, occasionally talking to me, that was enough¡­


    ¡°He still reminded me every so often¡­ Sometimes he would skip a rock on a filled bucket, though mom would end up scolding him if she saw it, saying he¡¯s dirtying the water¡­¡± She turns and I see that tired sadness again. Her eyes are red from blood, not magic, but I know she has long since run out of tears. She lived in a town, she must be used to a small, tight community.


    ¡°One day¡­¡± She continues, turning to throw another rock. ¡°... I got mad. I was frustrated, bored, angry that no matter what I tried I was failing¡­ There were only two older witches, and I failed to learn from them so I ended up being pushed aside in favor of my friend and that damned Tanja¡­¡±


    ¡°I scorched my own hand, was pushed out by any teacher I could get, was ridiculed and shunned by everyone that looked my way, even if not openly¡­ but I wasn¡¯t allowed to stop either. They tried forcing me to learn any other magic since there was nothing I was good at with my fire¡­ even made me swallow a tiny crystal of nature mana¡­ I ran right after, sick of it all.¡±


    She throws another rock, this one ignites with a purple flame. I look on and I see the rock itself turn into a splatter similar to oil, that keeps burning on the surface of the water. She just sighs at this and sits down, back on a young tree. I walk forward and sit my head in her lap, letting her pat and scratch my head just to have something to vent her frustration on.


    ¡°I ran into the woods. I ran past the trails used by hunters¡­ I ran all the way until I got to that pond where dad first taught me how to skip stones¡­ and I threw every rock I saw. I just did that over and over again, for hours on end. I even threw a boulder just because I was so sick of everything¡­ And then I was tired. And then I fell asleep. And then I woke up in the middle of the night. Monsters don¡¯t often roam our way, but this time one did. It wasn¡¯t even a strong one, just a slightly smarter wolf with a small family to care for, and I was looking a lot like dinner.¡±


    I can feel my instincts try to trigger my defenses as her nails dig in the seams between my scales, but I just let her have her way. I do my best to pat her shoulder with my wing arm, but I doubt she is too focused on what I am doing.


    ¡°I poured out all the fire I had in me then I ran again. I got a scratch on my leg, but I could still run, even if I felt it burn as hard as the flame I was escaping from. I heard how the pack recovered and followed me anyways, I thought I was dead, but then dad appeared from nowhere, axe in hand, killing the monster. More men were there, throwing sticks and rocks, stabbing at the animals with pitchforks and hoes and whatever else they had on hand¡­ I cried so hard in his arms that night¡­¡±


    Her voice was trembling by now. I could hear the heart beating so swiftly in her chest. I could smell so many things that I could only describe as a fear response¡­ I can feel my eyes focusing on her expression, seeing it in all its colorful beauty¡­ And then I feel my own body going colder as she continues.


    ¡°My dad loved me, so he saved me. The villagers needed me and invested a lot in me, so they saved me, even treated me better after that just to keep me in check! You¡­ YOU saved me¡­ Why did you save me? Every time someone helped me, it made sense. Even miss Yvonne and lady Meredith, they helped me to merely pass the time and because I could help them in turn with other tasks¡­ Yes, I helped you this past month, but you saved me long before any of this, multiple times! Took care of so much without any reward in sight!  And now you¡¯ve made me clothes, shelter, weapons¡­ you bring me food you do so much and there¡¯s nothing I can do in turn!¡±


    That¡­ is a lot. And it¡¯s also a very good question. I saved her, true, but why? Because I¡¯m a human in here and killing humans is wrong? Not really, I had no issues murdering people in self defense, and I have at least a few tens of bodies to my name just from the dust explosion. Was it because I wanted to be a hero? As much as I wanted to believe that, I was given the chance to become a literal holy hero and spat at it. Was it¡­ ¡°Because I wanted to¡­ would be a cowardly thing to say, even if it is a simpler answer.¡±


    She looks into my eyes. She¡¯s desperate for something, but I don¡¯t really understand what. I get up, shaking me away from her and looking on at the calm river, taking a deeper breath than normal, tails tapping against the ground.


    ¡°I think¡­ I don¡¯t want to kill intelligent beings needlessly. The wolves often attacked me and it would be a kill or be killed situation. Sure, I hunted a few monsters that might have been highly intelligent, but even those were reduced to a survival situation, as the other would have no issue killing me for its own growth. Neither you, nor any of the others actually wanted to hurt me, when we met. I do not wish to cause needless suffering or to allow it to be caused in my vicinity. That is why I rescued you from the humans.¡±


    That was a good answer, or I think it was, but there was something more. Seems Edith is also unsatisfied with this, so maybe I should push out a bit¡­


    ¡°Additionally¡­ You were smart. You knew things and I could observe you to learn more. I learned a lot from all of you, so my effort was hardly without reward¡­ plus you have saved me in this past month just because I helped you. You look into my eyes and see a monster that could raze down a town in moments if it was the best outcome for myself. You see a beast that could kill battalions of common men. You see a thing, yet you cared for me when I was most helpless. Your mere company these past days has already done plenty to keep my mind from being devoured by fears and doubts, stuck in a storm of my own voices screaming nonsense ideas. I could have lost years stuck here if I was alone with myself. So for that I thank you and I hope you will stop letting yourself be taken by those storms as well.¡±


    I take a stone in my tail. For all that my arms are much better, my body is still not built to throw things like a human, so I must keep using my strange tail for that. I swing with my whole body and send the rock flying, skipping twice before ending up on the other side of the river, stuck in the dirt. Edith simply laughs, then gets up and taps my side a few times, which I take as a sign to move towards home.


    ¡°You talk even stranger when it is about yourself, huh. If this is what you say, I fear what your mind might actually sound like¡­ no wonder you have a chaos affinity¡­¡±


    I laugh, slapping her back with my tail, just hard enough to startle her. ¡°Such rude words from someone who was crying tearlessly mere moments ago.¡±