《Lindwyrm》


 Prologue- An Active Night

    Most humanoids know better than to enter the Draco Forest. As one of the few remaining ¡®wild zones¡¯ known for their untamed wildlife and habitats, it was naturally a place most sapients tended to avoid. Doubly so, when this particular wild zone was the home of many of the diverse types of dragons there were.


    However, this particular night saw a lot more humanoid activity than it had in nearly a thousand years! The forest almost teemed with silent figures in cloaks, seemingly hiding in every shadow. For tonight was an event that rarely happened at any point in history¡­ it was the dragon¡¯s spawning time!


    While originally, dragons were known to spawn from an extreme excess of stale mana, the rise in the many different humanoids'' populations had caused most of the world¡¯s mana to be nearly constantly on the move. Nowadays, most areas of the world would at best have enough stale mana to form a dungeon core. Only in ¡®wild zones,¡¯ the places where the magical ley lines converged, could a new dragon possibly be formed.


    To preserve their species, most dragons had decided to mate and produce offspring as nature¡¯s law intended. Through these many meetings and new need for species proximity, a semi-society was born. Though more of a tribal type than the ¡°civilized societies¡± as the humanoids now called them, the dragons had learn when and how to best sire the next generation. This way of life included that eggs without enough of a mana presence would be abandoned in favor of those with more mana, ensuring that the dragons¡¯ species would stay strong. Abandoned dragon eggs were exactly what the hiding figures were after.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    ¡°Come-on you worthless sacks of meat!¡± Hissed a particularly regal postured cloaked figure. ¡°I want those eggs in our possession the moment the dragons leave with their stronger ones. If I hear one more dwarf brag about how they have the most lesser-spawn wyrms I¡¯m punting them all the way back to their filthy mountain holes and blaming you for it!¡± That caused some of the cloaked figures to quietly chuckle.


    Suddenly, they all froze when a roar was heard to the east. The whole forest seemed to instantly come to life as more and more roars were heard throughout the forest. The nearby cloaked figures huddled closely in the darkest parts of the shadows as hulking masses of scales, rage, and death slithered or stomped by.


    ¡°Those demonkin idiots got greedy and alerted the whole forest!¡± The regal cloaked figure raged. ¡°Whatever, the dragons will be moving out a bit earlier now. Hans, John, tell squads 1 through 14 to be prepared to move the second the big lizards take their prized eggs away.¡±


    ¡°Sir,¡± the cloaked form of John said, ¡°squad 13 was too close to the demonkin group¡­ assumedly wiped out.¡± The commanding officer glared down at John. ¡°Once again the humans lose people to the demonkins¡¯ greedy ploys.¡± The commander murmured to himself in rage.


    Many lives were lost that night, yet many more eggs were secured and spirited away by the dispicable eggnapers. Deep in a particular bog however, one abandoned egg remained undiscovered. A light brown egg that blended in perfectly with the muck that surrounded it as it sunk fully out of sight.

 Chapter 1- The Difficulties of Childbirth

    ~~~


    At first, there were only brief flashes of emotions; joy¡­ interest¡­ expectations...


    These feelings persisted until something tried to connect with it¡­ and failed. There was an immediate change to the emotions being received. Sadness¡­ disappointment¡­ and the most confusing and painful one, regret.


    It couldn¡¯t understand why it was hated. It was just an egg. Suddenly, images were pushed into its mind. It was a dragon, its form hazy and non descript. It stood all alone in a forest clearing, dark eyes gleamed out from the trees at the strange dragon, clear floating boxes appearing in front of the eyes as they seemed to look between the boxes and the dragon. The dragon didn¡¯t have any floating boxes. The boxes in front of the eyes disappeared as the eyes stared at the dragon again, but this time with emotion. Some seemed to sneer, others looked with disgust, some even seemed to hate this strange lone dragon. The shadows of the trees started to stretch, capturing more and more of the clearing in shadow, the eyes moved closer with them! Getting closer and closer until-


    The mind-image snapped off and some final words were given. The first and last the egg¡¯s parents would ever tell it: ¡°Goodbye, systemless.¡±


    The egg didn¡¯t understand! It didn¡¯t yet know what words were, nor what a system was! Yet instead of an understanding parent, it was pushed from the nest. It rolled out of the shallow cave and began to bounce dangerously down the mountainside. As it helplessly rolled it bounced off of tree roots and rocks, crashing straight through bushes as it somehow continued to pick up speed until suddenly, it bounced off a root and smashed into a boulder! Pain filled the egg as a crack formed on its top, the energy of the uncontrolled descent now using the rebound to send the cracked egg skyward! It spun end-over-end in the air as it arced far up and then back downward in a beautiful parabola arc before splashing deep into a muddy bog with a loud *Splurp!*


    Pain continued to envelope the egg and it felt its energy begin to drain away into the swamp. It realized, in a panic, that its egg fluids were leaking out from the crack! In an act of pure desperation and a show of draconic willpower, it shoved its half-formed tail into the crack, plugging it. Yet, while it had saved its life by doing this, its almost goopy, half-developed tail-tip was now exposed to the air, mud, and germs of the swamp. Unimaginable pain coursed through the tail-tip as it continued to be unreadily exposed to the world. Unable to do anything else, the half-formed embryo drifted off once again to unconsciousness, now alone and in great pain.


    As the egg slept in the warm, life-filled mud of the swamp, the tail-tip swelled, then hardened from early exposure, the outer layer quickly becoming rigid and dead, while the inside of the tail-tip did its best to fight off the germs, infections, and parasites that tried to feed and multiply under the nearly defenseless egg¡¯s shell. Still, dragon blood is a powerful thing, and an unborn dragon¡¯s embryo is an object of limitless potential. Instead of fighting against the germs and infections, it adapted to them. Letting them mutate parts of its flesh as long as there could be symbiosis. Anything that didn¡¯t accept symbiosis found itself quickly overrun by the egg¡¯s new parasitic hosts. And so the egg¡¯s yet-hatched occupant continued to fight off death and develop, alone under the mud of the bog.


    One year later, a particularly eventful night occurred. The egg was momentarily roused from its long slumber as the entire forest shook with the rage of its kind. The warm mud around the egg rippled from the vibrations, pulling the egg a little deeper into its warm embrace. The egg could tell it would be time to hatch soon. It had lost some initial muscle development and power with the leaked egg fluid. It didn¡¯t notice that though. It was still just an egg, all it had was the determination to successfully hatch. And just like that, it fell back asleep.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    ~~~


    It awoke with a start. It was time, no longer was it the egg, now it was its prisoner and it wanted out. There was very little room as it tried to struggle and shift, coils upon coils and tightly packed scales flexed and squirmed, trying to weaken its container until it pushed at the tail-tip and a crack quickly re-formed along the edges. The old wound of the egg, once its doom, would now be its salvation. It used its hardened tail to push out a little before pulling back in, slamming it back into place hard enough for the crack to quickly spread. It did it again, once, twice, before the top of the egg shattered around it all at once. Yet, instead of being greeted by its first rays of sunlight, thick swamp mud poured into the egg! It quickly started pushing up through the mud, desperate to escape its surrogate mother¡¯s deadly embrace! It continued to squirm its way up, up, up, through the seemingly endless mud. Its new need of air becoming more and more urgent!


    Just as its senses started to blur and it started losing strength, it managed to claw its way to the surface, pulling itself into the light of its first day! It opened its little jaws and began sucking in desperate breaths of much needed air. It slithered and sloughed its full body out of the muddy bog and onto slightly more solid land, the indent of its form quickly replaced by mud with a wet, sucking, *Thwupp* noise. Set free upon the world at last, it let out a mighty draconic roar!


    ¡­


    Unfortunately, its troubling circumstances while being an egg made its triumphant roar sound more like a sickly, rasping squeak.


    It didn¡¯t mind, it was distracted by something much more important. The difficult hatching had left it with a horrific hunger that already gnawed at its virgin stomach. Base instincts had it flicking its tongue in and out of its draconic snout, tasting for the smell of prey in the air.


    The pungent smell of decay filled its senses, making it sneeze. While this was a swamp and such things were probably to be expected, somehow the hatchling knew that whatever had died, did so not too long ago. The rot smelled fresh.


    It followed the scent around the edges of the bog until it happened upon it.


    In an open aired gap between the swamp and the dense forest was the massive carrion of¡­ something. Not much remained of the beast. The head was missing, the withered, decaying flesh barely clinging onto bits of a ribcage clearly smashed and torn open by some great beast. Deep claw marks were visibly scored across much of the carrion, indicating that something powerful had ripped this creature to shreds.


    Thankfully, a dragon didn¡¯t care about such things. A properly raised dragon would slay any that even suggested it could eat the rotten remains of another predator¡¯s meal. But the hatchling had been abandoned, its knowledge currently barely above that of a common beast¡¯s. It had some inherited knowledge like all lizards did, but it didn¡¯t know how to use such knowledge yet.


    It slithered up to the carrion, the hatchling¡¯s body barely as thick as one of the thing¡¯s ribs, and started to tear into the remaining flesh. The taste was just as foul as the smell, and it could tell that there were many insect eggs already implanted into the flesh thanks to the many small popping sounds the flesh made as it was chewed, but lacking the experience of a proper meal, it assumed that was just how food tasted. It continued to consume the fetid flesh until the bones had been truly picked clean. Then it gnawed on those too. It hadn¡¯t yet had the strength to crack these bones however, so it eventually gave up and slithered away, now looking for water or shelter.


    It continued to move along the edges of swamp and the forest, using the many tall, prickly, weeds as a cover against other possible predators in case any happened to be around. It hadn¡¯t seen any tracks around the carrion after all, as if the thing had just dropped from the sky.


    It searched for a spot where the swamp possibly connected with a cleaner body of water. It was desperate to quench its thirst by now, yet it instinctively knew its stomach would hurt if it drank the dirty sludge that was more mud and rot than water. The area was mostly an impressively immense bog to be honest. Yet, it did have some sparse patches of weeds and the occasional large, bog-wood tree, the plant life probably being fed by whatever dumb beast didn¡¯t notice the danger and drowned in the near liquid earth.


    It continued on, constantly on high alert for any signs of other creatures, yet all it saw were various insects, their constant buzzing almost deafening to its ears. Eventually, it happened upon what it had been searching for. A small creek fed into the swamp, likely one of countless others, but it was the cleaner water the hatchling had been searching for.


    ~~~

 Chapter 2- A Moment of Reflection and the Consequences of a Name

    Chapter 2


    It slithered through the creek with a bit of difficulty. Its two thin limbs were seemingly still too weak to hold its front body up. So it had to just hold its breath and slide through the creek to clean itself of the muck it had been covered in since hatching. It drank deep on the way through, cleaning its palette of the tangy taste of rotten flesh.


    Once on the other side of the creek it decided to look itself over for the first time. It looked back at its serpentine body, expecting its scales to now gleam, only to find they had a dull sheen, more disappointing was that they were a mix of light brown and beige. Instead of the flamboyant colors that it somehow knew most dragons to be, it had seemingly taken after its surrogate swamp-mother, it would be easily camouflaged if it laid in the muck.


    The hatchling was hatched about as thick as its distant boa constrictor cousins, but strangely it was twice the length! If it coiled its entire body it almost looked like a large mound of mud! Its midsection was bloated from its meal and as it looked its body over, there were multiple large splotches with more of a brown-white color along its sides, as if the spots were dead. It worriedly gave the flesh a testing lick and sighed in relief as it felt the spot getting licked.


    The end of its malformed tail was especially strange. Exposed too early to the air, the exposed flesh had seemingly died and hardened. It was now a conical spike, ending at a strangely swollen lump at the base of the spike. It brushed its hands over the lump, but it didn¡¯t hurt or even feel uncomfortable, so the hatchling dismissed it for now, assuming that it was fine for now.


    Curious, it tested the edge of the spike by trying to scrape the sharp looking point along the bark of a nearby tree. It left a very satisfying groove in the bark.


    It then took a closer look at its two limbs. The arms were worryingly thin, as if they could easily snap if gotten ahold of, and at the end were two comparatively oversized draconic hands, each finger tipped with dagger-like claws. After staring for a bit though, it could tell that its hands were actually only a little big for its body, it was the thin arms that made them look really weird. It experimentally tried crushing things in its grip. Any wood was reduced to sawdust in its strong grip, but it could only crack rocks at best, not having the strength to fully crush them.


    Slither back to the creek it peaked its head over the water to get a look at its face. It¡¯s draconic, strangely more wyrm-like visage stared back at it. It had a rather sharp looking face, its eyes were a shockingly bright shade of green. Its cheeks looked a little hollow, as if underfed, and the brown scales had the slightest tinge of green to them, as if it was sick, but if it overlooked those things, it thought it looked decently handsome.


    As it gazed upon its reflection, the hatchling suddenly felt the need for a name. A tingling that seemed to come from its inherited knowledge. It looked up and glanced around before remembering there was no one to give it one. Its pride demanded that it be named! If none would give it one, then it would do so itself! Its draconic pride demanded nothing less! So it looked around for inspiration.


    ...


    There really wasn¡¯t much of interest around here.


    ¡­


    Its eyes eventually fell on an old decaying tree at the edge of the swamp. Worms poked in and out of various holes all along the fallen tree''s skin.


    Wormwood? No, it felt close, but that wasn¡¯t right. After all, it was a dragon! Specifically, the hatchling was pretty sure it was some kind of lindworm. But its limbs were too weak to hold its front half off the ground like it knew it should be able to. It moved more like a wyrm¡­ yes, a kind of wyrm¡­


    Its eyes sparkled with inspiration as the words slowly formed in its dulled mind. It raspily croaked out with joy,


    ¡°My¡­ name¡­ Wyrmwood!¡±


    It was actually akin to baby talk, but the intent was enough for the always monitoring system to pick up. Wrymwood felt a strange dull buzzing in the back of its mind, but ignored the strange sensation, basking in the pleasant feeling of having a name.


    ~~~


    Elsewhere


    As the hatchling named itself, many places across the world were magically notified of the change. Dragons were the apex predators, it stood to reason that all the big figures in the world kept an eye on dragon society. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Each kingdom had a special scroll, supposedly developed and spread by a past hero, to keep track of all the named dragons. It specifically only did so for the named dragons, as the majority of dragons in the world were abandoned or wild ones that simply would never get a true name.


    The ones picked up by other kingdoms were magically written in a different scroll. But that explanation can wait till later.


    The special scroll magically wrote a list of all the named dragons officially named by a dragon. The act of doing so was only possible if it was a true hatchling that was raised by the dragons. It was theorized a hatchling could name itself, but if it needed to do so it was an abandoned one, and not a single abandoned egg had been missed for generations of dragons¡­ that¡¯s hundreds of years! It just wasn¡¯t feasible to the wider world.


    So, as a king of one of the human kingdoms was looking over the list of new named dragons with his court. Routinely marking down ones that had been added or removed since the last time the list was checked, it came as quite the surprise when a new name flashed into existence at the bottom of the scroll!


    ¡°Wyrmwood?¡± The king confusedly read aloud. The name was already strange for a dragon¡¯s true name. Stranger still, for the human court, was that it had no last name.


    ¡°An outcast?¡± One of the king''s advisers theorized. The court wizard shook her head.


    ¡°If it was outcast, it would have already been on the list. Those just have their last names removed. Remember Mejek?¡±


    The whole court winced at the name. The vile drake had been using its specialized overabundant magic to experiment on various sapients. When the dragon society had learned of this they had stripped him of his last name and exiled him from all dragon lands. Revenge of the humanoids had come swiftly after that.


    ¡°Might I suggest we look further into this with a scroll of truth?¡± The court wizard suggested.


    Both the king and the head of finance wince again at that. A scroll of truth was quite costly, worth nearly a province in gold. But its effects were worth it. With just the full system name of anyone or anything in the world, the system would tell all it knew of the subject. It could only be used once, but every great king made sure they always had at least one on hand, in case they needed information on a powerful enemy of the kingdom. The court wizard seemed to know that the king had been hiding a spare.


    Many of the court were abuzz with arguments on if such an oddity was even worth such a scroll¡¯s use. The king let them squabble for a while before raising a hand to silence them, they immediately quieted.


    ¡°¡­We will decide this with a vote.¡± He announced.


    It was close, at 24-26 but it was decided that they would use the scroll so that the nation could sleep peacefully tonight.


    The court wizard was smiling happily as she got to use the rare magic scroll.


    ¡°System, Define ¡®Wyrmwood¡¯!¡± She shouted out dramatically for the court.


    There was a bright flash of light and a giant screen appeared over the king¡¯s court, displaying the words,


    One-time-use admin scroll used¡­


    Single time access to admin dictionary granted¡­


    Processing¡­


    Wyrmwood the Host


    Titles- Disconnected, Host of decay


    Stats- Unavailable; Disconnected


    Location- Draco Forest


    The entire court erupted at this. Disconnected?! The humans knew what this title meant, as one of the more populous species, they had plenty of documentation of this title. It was a strange state where one was born naturally resistant to the ways of the System.


    An individual with the ¡®Disconnected¡¯ title would never have their stats shown, however, depending on how resistant to the system they were, they wouldn¡¯t be able to access certain parts of the System! Those that were highly resistant couldn¡¯t even access their own System menu screen! What was strange about a dragon getting the title, was that the System was a highly mana-engrained entity. Any creature that passively used mana was naturally highly receptive to the System, and dragons were practically made of the stuff!


    While that was already surprising, what was worrying the court more was the second title, ¡®Host of decay.¡¯ Most knew some variant titles of ¡®decay¡¯ and they were all VERY bad news. Usually needing multiple kingdoms banding together to take down with the fallout even afterwards being devastating.


    The court wizard gulped nervously, getting a nod from the king before proclaiming,


    ¡°System, define title ¡®Host of decay¡¯!¡±


    Processing¡­


    Host of decay- a title earned by those who symbiotically host more than ¡®2¡¯ types of creatures of the ¡®decay¡¯ type.


    For more information, check the ¡®Host¡¯ Arch title.


    Some of the king¡¯s court sighed in relief. It sounded like the title meant less about it being powerful and more about it being infested. The court researcher however, looked conflicted. Noticing this, the king signaled for her to speak. She bowed to him before speaking.


    ¡°My king, while I have studied and read of many ¡®decay¡¯ type organisms and even more that just naturally use the ¡®decay¡¯ magic type. I do not know of any ¡®decay¡¯ type creature that could parasitize a host without killing them, let alone live with them symbiotically! If we could capture this Wyrm, assuming the name relates to species, then we could not only gain great fame, but by studying its body we may be able to greatly advance our medical fields!¡±


    The court healer and pharmacist both looked more interested with the conversation at this.


    The king sat on his throne with a thoughtful expression. After nearly a minute of silence, the king decreed,


    ¡°While we gain much from obtaining this beast, it is still a named dragon. We cannot know how powerful it truly is thanks to its ¡®Disconnected¡¯ title. I will not have my armies potentially slain if it proves to be too much. Set up a bounty on it, the reward for killing it and giving us the corpse will be significant, but if they can capture it, they will be given a noble title.¡±


    There was a great deal of murmured discussion as from his decree, adventurers getting a noble title?! At most those lowly people could become a knight, IF they pledged their allegiance to the kingdom alone. To straight up get a noble title, even without being given any land to rule, would be quite a large reward for any adventurer. No one complained though, their king was wise and no one would dismiss his words.


    In all the other kingdoms surrounding the Draco Forest something similar occurred. A new bounty worth a king¡¯s ransom was placed on this enigmatic Dragon. Many famous adventurer teams salivated at the rewards their nations offered them, yet none delved deep into those woods just yet. After all, it was called the Draco Forrest for a reason.


    Somewhere, deep in a complex of caves under a great mountain, two healthy, young hatchlings watched their mother read the bounty and cry.


    ~~~

 Chapter 3- First Fight with a side of Lore Drop

    Now clean and hydrated, Wyrmwood began to search for a safe place to rest. It wanted to stay relatively close to the swamp for now as there didn¡¯t seem to be many large creatures that would put up with the danger and smell. It decided to test how it moved its upper body as it slithered along. Previously, when it moved it kept its arms pressed to its sides since they looked too weak to hold its upper body up on. Now though, it considered using them to help pull it along faster, it decided wouldn¡¯t be at risk of breaking its arms if it didn¡¯t directly put pressure on them, AND it could test just how strong it actually was, while ALSO working its limbs out to help grow the muscles if more really were needed for it to use them properly!


    And so the critters on the edge of the forest watched the strange sight of a snake with arms pulling itself across the ground with spindly stick arms. Many would go on to sire kids and grandkids who would eventually tell druids of this weird sight. None of them were ever believed.


    ~~~


    As it turned out, it couldn¡¯t support its front body with its limbs, but it could just use its strong spine to lift its head up like any other wyrm or snake. The pulling also worked pretty well. It didn¡¯t help it go much faster, but did feel surprisingly fun and worked out its arm muscles. As it slithered over another large root, something landed on its back with a *wud*! Wyrmwood swiveled its head around a full one hundred eighty degrees and glared at the attacker, some kind of winged ape with the legs of a bird its fur was a strange deep green color that transitioned to feathers of the same color around its hips. The beast whooted before grinning wickedly back and began to scrape at Wyrmwood¡¯s scales with its clawed hands and taloned feet. Wyrmwood¡¯s scales held for now, but they could both tell that wouldn¡¯t be the case for long.


    Relying on its instincts for its first fight, Wyrmwood tried to inhale deeply before summoning its draconic flames. It¡¯s instincts told it that its flames were the go-to attack of any dragon. The heavy hitter and the defense all in one as a dragon¡¯s flames were magic and couldn¡¯t hurt the dragon that breathed it. The hatchling felt rather excited to breathe its first flames and see its own affinity!


    Yet just before its lungs were filled with enough air, they suddenly itched terribly, causing Wyrmwood to let out a great cough instead. A deluge of damp, warm air mixed with the slight tinge of rotten flesh washed over the winged apes body, ruffling its fur and feathers.


    The ape gave the embarrassed hatchling an unimpressed look and was about to attack its scales again, when it suddenly slumped over on Wyrmwood¡¯s back, feeling a great lethargy overwhelm its senses. It tried to get back up, to get away, but its limbs were quickly losing strength! As the ape looked down at its body, it saw countless mushrooms growing quickly out of its flesh!


    Its eyes widened in terror as more energy was drained from its body. It limply slid off of Wyrmwood¡¯s back, no longer able to even keep itself latched onto the scales. Wyrmwood watched in shocked fascination as the beast¡¯s form was quickly lost under a heap of growing mushrooms until finally it all went still. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The hatchling leaned in and cautiously sniffed the mound of mushrooms¡­


    They smelled like food.


    It shrugged and began to eat.


    ~~~


    Wyrmwood hadn¡¯t been particularly hungry yet, but its inherited knowledge whispered that wasting prey was how you starved. So it ate the little snack and kept going. It was a little concerned about what had just happened, but wouldn¡¯t think about it for now. It needed to keep vigilant until it found a proper shelter, otherwise it¡¯d probably get surprise attacked again!


    It slithered along until it finally happened upon a decent spot. There at the base of an old hollow tree, was a hole that was just big enough for it to slide into.


    The tree had been really thick, about as thick as a shed¡­ not that the hatchling could make the comparison. Inside the hollow it was obvious what had happened. The tree had been struck by lightning and then rotted from the inside instead of recovering. Wyrmwood didn¡¯t really notice any of that though. It was just happy to finally have a place to coil up and sleep in.


    Even with the large inner space, it was a tight fit with just how long the hatchling¡¯s body was. It coiled up tightly inside the hollow, until its swollen tail reached the hole and got stuck¡­


    The hole wasn¡¯t large enough for it to pull its malformed tail all the way in, but that was fine. It reminded the hatchling of when it was in the egg. Those comforting thoughts surrounded it as it drifted off to sleep.


    ~~


    The Draco Forest was in an interesting place on the continent, it took up a large space, as big as some of the great empires on the eastern continent of Carna. The continent the Draco Forest was located on, called Dochna, was the third biggest continent in the world. And most of it was Dragon territory!


    Draco Forest was the biggest area of high purity, stale mana in the world. It is said that a dragon can still naturally spawn there once every thousand years! The results of said dragon¡¯s exact race and power may vary, but that it could happen at all showed just how much more mana was there.


    This naturally meant that all the other sapient races wanted a piece of that sweet magical pie. What they found, however, was the Chantico mountain range spanning across the land and the great cliffs of Ceto banning any who would try to enter by sea.


    There were passes through the mountains, but many strong beasts tended to make those part of their territory. The mountains that weren¡¯t covered in molten rock tended to be tall and freezing, all of which still had many dangerous beasts roaming around.


    The continent was shaped somewhere between a box and a blob and from up high looked like the hoof of a horse, the countries of the sentient races making up the horseshoe, with the rest being the naturally defended Draco Forrest.


    As if all of that wasn¡¯t enough, most of the named dragons lived in or under the Chantico mountain range instead of the forest itself!


    With all that said, the resources that could be hauled out of the great forest were the best and richest in mana in the world. Any adventure that got to a high level made their way to Dochna.


    As the high leveled adventurers got their gear ready, there were many rumors and bets about where their bounty could be. While most of the countries on Dochna were speciest, (until they were forced to alliance by whatever massacred its way out of Draco Forest,) the many races of adventurers were a lot more amiable to each other since they needed to use whatever they could to survive. It was this connectivity that quickly narrowed down the area that no one had been in when they had taken all the abandoned eggs¡­


    The Buzzing Bog.


    ~~~

 Chapter 4- Exploring an old Battlefield

    ~~~


    Once Wyrmwood had learned how to awkwardly slither itself backwards, it could relatively comfortably work its way in and out of the giant hollow that it used as a base. This home wouldn¡¯t really work for long though, it knew it wouldn¡¯t fit anymore once it started to grow. The hatchling didn¡¯t really mind that fact, it was too distracted by a disturbing revelation; it couldn¡¯t breath its draconic flame.


    It knew it had a draconic flame. It could feel the muscle it was supposed to use to breath it, but to properly use it, Wyrmwood needed to take a full deep breath¡­ which it couldn¡¯t seem to do.


    As far as it could tell, nothing was hindering its lungs, Wyrmwood could breath just fine. The problem only occurred when trying to take a full, deep breath. Its lungs would feel a terrible itch and force it to cough instead of breathing its flame. And then the growth¡­


    Wherever Wyrmwood coughed would be quickly covered in fungus and mold. It grew at an alarming rate and could spread over an organism, draining the organism¡¯s energy away! It seemed to work better on smaller things. It made any critters that Wyrmwood coughed on become heaps of mutated fungal and mold snacks, but any large tree seemed to be able to fight the stuff off, looking healthier afterwards instead, also it didn¡¯t do anything to inorganic matter.


    A dragon who couldn¡¯t breath their flame was just a big reptile! Wyrmwood would never be called that! It had to think of something!¡­


    The hatchling paused from its furious munching on fungus. It stared at the piles of fresh mushrooms and mold¡­


    Perhaps¡­ it could just pretend this was its draconic breath? It only happened when Wyrmwood coughed, and Wyrmwood only coughed if it tried to take a full, deep breath¡­


    Yes. It decided, this was Wyrmwood¡¯s draconic breath. And no one would ever be any the wiser.


    ~~~


    After a few days of successful hunting, (though only of smaller critters), Wyrmwood felt comfortable enough to head deeper into the forest itself instead of sticking near the swamp. There just wasn¡¯t much food around here and those scarce critters were quickly becoming scarcer every time it went out to hunt. The deeper woods would be much more dangerous with all the bigger creatures around, but also had the potential to be much richer in game.


    Yet the deeper into the thickening forest of trees Wyrmwood went, the quieter the surroundings seemed to become, the constant buzzing of insects in the air quieting down disturbingly fast. This made Wyrmwood move very slowly, straining its senses for any indication of other creatures. All that could be heard was the rustling of the leaves overhead until the treeline suddenly met an abrupt end.


    Wyrmwood¡¯s breath caught in its throat as the biggest tree it had ever seen in its admittedly very short life dominated a massive clearing! The trunk alone was thick enough to fit five normal sized trees into it. The branches, far, far above the rest of the already tall canopy, dominated the sky of most of the clearing¡­ It was also dead.


    Not a single leaf decorated the massive branches that seemed to grasp at the sky. As if this goliath tree had breathed its metaphorical last screaming at the sky, weather in rage, or fear. That same massive trunk was covered in craters and had a massive burnt hole in the middle of it. As wyrmwood entered the clearing it began needing to slither its long body around many protruding roots that were hidden by the tall grass covering the clearing around the tree. The closer it got to the long dead goliath tree, the more obvious it was to wyrmwood¡¯s instincts that a massive battle had been fought here. As it slowly and meticulously explored the area its inherited knowledge told it that this had been a dragon¡¯s nest. The size of the tree and the aggressive looking roots were both telling factors that it must have been a heavily nature aligned dragon. Possibly a lindworm or an elemental dragon. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    As Wyrmwood finally reached the tree it inspected the craters in the trunk and the massive hole. Each crater splintered the wood around it yet in the center was the clear indentation of knuckles. Looking between the indents and its own claws, it formed a fist and held its hand up to the indent. The shape was similar, but the indent¡¯s knuckle prints were much smaller. Wyrmwood was curious what gave such a small creature so much power.


    It then inspected the scorched looking hole. It was burned to a crisp around the edges, the charred black wood crumbling in Wyrmwood¡¯s grasp even as it tried to delicately slither in. The entire thing smelled strongly of magic, the hole itself went clean through the tree, a gentle, somehow depressed feeling wind blowing gently through. The charred throughway was big enough to fit the circumference of Wrymwood¡¯s base tree inside of! The hatchling couldn¡¯t help but shudder when it imagined what kind of creature might have caused so much damage in one attack. Surely it must have been a strong being!


    Taking one last look around from the hole in the dead tree, Wyrmwood noticed something gleaming on the opposite side of the clearing from where it had entered. It approached them to find strange shiny rocks connected to sticks. Some of the rocks were long and sharp looking, while others looked like the large versions of the prickly burrs Wyrmwood had seen growing around the bog. The inherited knowledge supplied the term ¡®weapons¡¯ but Wyrmwood didn¡¯t understand what that meant. Each one of these ¡®weapons¡¯ laid on a mound of dirt. It sniffed at the mounds of dirt but didn¡¯t smell anything but fresh soil. Its curiosity sated, Wyrmwood left the silent clearing, not noticing the hidden figure that had been silently watching it since it entered the clearing.


    ~~~


    The farther Wyrmwood got from that silent clearing, the faster the normal sounds of the forest returned. Instead of just hearing the soft whistling of the wind and rustling of the leaves overhead. It lifted its head over the group of shrubs it was currently wrapped around, twiddling it fingers like a nervous child as it took in its surroundings. Wyrmwood could hear the cheerful tweeting of birds, taste the smell of delicious critters scurrying around in the underbrush, and feel the tremors of an intense battle shaking the ground somewhere in the distance to the left.


    ¡­


    Wyrmwood decided not to go that direction until it grew bigger. Turning to the right, it tasted the air for prey again, picking up the scent of its favorite meal. For the few days it spent near the bog so far, it had eaten a few different critters. Some spiky rats, a spider the size of a cat, and one strange creature that turned out to be entirely made of twigs were just a few examples, none of them big enough to be a danger for any self respecting dragons. But the one it had enjoyed the most was the lizoink.


    Lizoinks were small boar-like creatures with lizard scales growing sporadically along their body, they had a fat, juicy lizard tail that they dragged behind them as they ate the organic detritus off the forest floor. They were generally the size of a rat, and lived in small burrows with others of their kind.


    Wyrmwood hadn¡¯t actually even caught the lizoink it had found, the moment they noticed each other the lizoink¡¯s tail started wildly thrashing around as it detached from the quickly fleeing lizoink. It was enough of a distraction for the little thing to disappear, especially since the tail casted a glamor spell! Wyrmwood¡¯s focus was completely on the tail as it wiggled, twitched, and hopped like some kind of worm breakdancer, until it ran out of energy.


    Once the spell cut out, Wyrmwood finally snatched it up and ate it, the taste was good enough to make Wyrmwood let out the first draconic purr of its life. Until that point, Wyrmwood hadn¡¯t even considered that food could actually taste good. It had followed the scent of the escaped lizoink back to its burrow, but the hole was too small and deep to do anything else. It had explored the area anyway in the hopes that one would be returning home, but instead found multiple other entrances to the burrow. It was able to reason that it wouldn¡¯t be getting anymore of them here and thus slithered off elsewhere in search of other prey.


    Now it clearly smelled one out in the open nearby! Wyrmwood couldn¡¯t help salivating a little as it tried its best to be as quiet as possible as it slithered in the direction it had smelled its favored prey. Once it had spotted the little thing, it was snuffling around in a pile of leaves. Wyrmwood slowly reached out with its draconic digits and- *snap!* Wyrmwood pulled its hand away just barely quick enough to not get bitten as from under the pile of leaves the massive fanged head of a Venus Dryad emerged!


    ~~~

 Chapter 5- Sidney on Someone else’s Turf

    ~~~


    Elsewhere in Draco Forest-


    Sidney braced as the leaf lizard swarm slammed into his kite shield once again. He hated this place.


    ¡°Ella, cast that stupid spell already!¡± He roared in frustration as the constant tide of small lizards, designed to look like and camouflage in the fallen leaves, started to push him back.


    Sidney hated that there were so many obstructions to wherever he tried to take his party of adventures in these blasted woods.


    A distinct crack of thunder rang out as Ella the mage cast a lightning spell that hit part of the staggered swarm before instantly fanning out and connecting all the nearby monsters with arcs of electricity. It also connected with his shield but he had insulated the back of his massive shield for this very purpose.


    He hated that his party had goaded him into taking on this quest. He didn¡¯t even want to be a noble! And that was only even a factor if they got the one-in-a-million chance to catch this blasted ¡°wyrm¡± before anyone else found it! There just wasn¡¯t enough of a chance of success for them to reasonably risk a journey this deep into the world¡¯s most dangerous forest!


    Braid the iron fisted monk laughed heartily as the last of the swarm was cooked in their own scales.


    ¡°Good work there Ella!¡± Braid¡¯s naturally booming voice rang out. ¡°It¡¯s always a relief to have someone on the party who can deal with the swarming type of monsters! Front and heavy fighters like me just don¡¯t really have the moves to take them down without getting swarmed!¡±


    The dainty looking Ella blushed at Braid¡¯s compliment even as the last member of their party groaned. The rather rotund cleric of the party, Saintess Bethany, chided Braid as the party got to work collecting some of the fried lizards for food later, they were a rather filling meal if seasoned a little.


    ¡°I understand that you two are officially engaged for marriage and all, but as I¡¯ve told you before; keep the flirting to a minimum while we¡¯re doing a quest. Lord knows you could use the practice in restraint.¡±


    Braid looked properly chastised, yet in the silence of their surroundings they all heard Ella mutter, ¡°you¡¯re one to talk about restraint.¡±


    Saintess Bethany, for all her hard work and dedication to the ways of her faith, had an equally enormous sweet tooth. As they finished collecting the lead lizards and began moving again, Bethany took the chance to defend herself.


    ¡°Just because I happen to enjoy sweets a bit too much doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t restrain myself! I¡¯ll have you know that I only eat sweets once a day, now!¡±


    ¡°That mindset is probably why you haven¡¯t been able to learn any top ranked spells.¡± Ella grumbled.


    Bethany¡¯s eyes narrowed into accusatory slits as she said her next words, ¡°and you would be able to use stronger spells by now if you studied magic with the same intensity you study Braid¡¯s abbs.¡±


    Braid let out a knowing chuckle as Ella flushed a deep red of embarrassment. She was about to talk back again when Sidney finally stepped in.


    ¡°Enough.¡± Those words held such an authority that they all stopped to look at him. ¡°You¡¯ve already dragged me all the way out here on this unnecessarily dangerous mission.¡± There was a burning fire of the rage that he was holding back in the inflection of his voice. ¡°So at least while we are exploring the most dangerous forest in the world, can you please not argue?¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    What Sidney hated most of all was how single he was. He hadn¡¯t been able to keep a girlfriend for more than a month before they would dump him. The last one doing so right before they had left town. None of them ever even told him why! It was just one day they¡¯d be all smiles, and the next they were already seeing another man! And here half his darn adventurer team was, flaunting that they were happily engaged and deeply in love!


    ¡°You know,¡± Ella stated, changing the subject. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that even Eltnon is out searching for this creature.¡±


    Braid scoffed, ¡°the dragon whisperer?¡±


    ¡°Yeah! Rumor has it that he was able to steal and hatch two different dragons, but they are both female, so he wants to have a male as well.¡±


    Braid lets out his signature booming laugh at that. Even Sidney has to chuckle at the absurdity of it. ¡°What does that fool think dragons are? Horses? If he really thinks sticking a male and female dragon in the same place is enough to-¡°


    Sidney cuts himself off as they entered a small clearing covered in grass, they watch warily as all the grass immediately stopped swaying upon their arrival before the ground gave a shuddering heave and all the grass in the clearing coalesced into one being.


    ¡°Fuck, it¡¯s a dryad!¡± He cursed, immediately regretting it as he received a system notification that he had lost a level for swearing.


    Turf Dryad


    HP 60/60


    MP 300/300


    This dryad¡¯s form was that of an eyeless wolf-kin, looking like it had healthy green grass in place of fur. A trick that would fool only those who didn¡¯t know what a dryad was.


    Dryads were actually born from the fusing of a powerful Druid¡¯s spirit and their favorite plant. This only occurred after the Druid¡¯s death and if the Druid was especially in tune with nature. Carrying with it parts of the Druid¡¯s knowledge in life, dryads were known to be sapient monsters, able to be reasoned with¡­ depending on the plant. More naturally hostile plants tended to become much more hostile as dryads, devouring all organic life in the area in the worst cases.


    Sidney kept a wary eye on the turf dryad as it seemed to study the human party in turn. When it spoke first, its soft voices seeming to be made of the wind whistling through a field of grass, Sidney¡¯s whole party tensed slightly.


    ¡°Fwho-what is a party of humans doing here?¡± Its voice seemed to whisper directly into each of their ears.


    Saintess Bethany stepped forward first, to answer, ¡°We humbly greet you, avatar of nature.¡± She started, giving the monster a polite bow. ¡°We were tasked to find a specific monster and were searching for it when we accidentally happened upon your grove.¡±


    The eyeless, wolf-kin shaped dryad seemed to ponder Bethany¡¯s words. A long tongue, made up of the interconnecting roots of turf grass, slid from its mouth to lick along its muzzle in a considering gesture.


    ¡°Describe this creature, that I may direct you its way if I can.¡± It finally said. ¡°Your presence here disturbs the balance and we¡¯d much prefer your kind leave this place as swiftly as possible.¡±


    Bethany looked back to Sidney, who was clearly considering the offer. It wasn¡¯t a bad deal per say, but one thing stuck out that worried him. ¡°What did you mean by ¡®we¡¯?¡±


    The turf dryad let out a hum as it considered answering. ¡°¡­ My sisters and I communicate through the forest roots.¡± Was all she would say.


    Sidney considered that as well as he decided his party¡¯s next course of action. ¡°Well this could be the best chance we get for a clue to the beast¡¯s location. We¡¯ll just have to play it extra carefully, in case this is a trap.¡± He reasoned to himself. He gave the Saintess a nearly imperceptible nod.


    ¡°We seek a dragon. Likely to be a recently hatched wyrm. Its name should be Wyrmwood.¡±


    ¡°A dragon? The only dragon I¡¯ve seen in these woods since your kind swarmed this place is an old quetzalcoatl by they name of Mayflare.¡±


    The all party members seemed to slump a little at the news. They didn¡¯t know who this ¡®Mayflare¡¯ dragon was, but it clearly wasn¡¯t the creature they were searching for.


    ¡°Well, thank you for your time, we¡¯ll silently take our-¡°


    ¡°Ah.¡± The dryad interrupted Bethany¡¯s parting words.


    ¡°One of my sisters to the west has just stated they¡¯ve met a dragon hatchling. Though its form confuses them.¡±


    The party¡¯s intent instantly sharpened at those words. ¡°Could you describe it? Its title notes that it¡¯s supposedly a ¡®host of decay¡¯, so it having a mutated form wouldn¡¯t be remiss!¡±


    At the drop of the title name, the turf dryad recoiled as if slapped. ¡°You seek the kin of the bog mother? Away with you! I won¡¯t be dragged into this!¡±


    Sidney¡¯s party was surprised by the dryad¡¯s reaction. ¡°Please!¡± Bethany pleaded, ¡°can¡¯t you tell us anything about it?!¡±


    ¡°Speak to the bog mother if you are so desperate for permission.¡± The dryad said as its form started to fall apart, once again becoming a small clearing of soft grass. ¡°You know where she resides, ask for her and she will answer,


    as.


    has..


    Always¡­


    Been¡­.¡±


    And with that, the presence of the dryad was completely gone, leaving the party standing there to discuss what they should do next.


    ~~~

 Chapter 6- Wyrmwood meets a Plant Lady

    ~~~


    Wyrmwood gazed up at the Venus dryad¡¯s towering form. It had been mostly buried underground when Wyrmwood happened upon it, but now it had pulled itself fully out, revealing a Venus Flytrap head with a long flowing body of roots and tubers. It¡¯s less humanoid form would have told any adventurers present that it was old, almost an elder dryad. Even when Wyrmwood reared up its front half, it only reached about half the Venus dryad¡¯s size!


    ¡°A hatchling?¡± The dryad asked herself, her uncharacteristically mature feminine voice punctuated by the snapping of her wide mouth as she spoke. ¡°What are you doing here, all alone?¡± She snapped curiously.


    Wyrmwood figured the plant creature was trying to communicate, but didn¡¯t understand the noises. Did this giant monster want something from it? Its eyes narrowed in suspicion and it started to try to look bigger as the same blue box as the ones in Wyrmwood¡¯s first dream appeared in front of the Venus dryad!


    ¡­As it turned out, Wyrmwood¡¯s tail end was long enough that when it coiled up its tail under it, it just barely reached the height of the dryad¡¯s head.


    ¡°My, oh my,¡± the dryad suddenly spoke again, making Wyrmwood stiffen, preparing to either try to defend or flee. ¡°You¡¯re certainly an interesting one.¡± She snapped curiously at the strange Lindworm.


    ¡°If you had just been a reject those pesky humanoids had missed when they were trouncing around these woods, I¡¯d have just considered you a surprise snack.¡± She mused, her tone holding enough malice for the not understanding Wyrmwood to hiss warningly back at her. Yet, she just continued on, like Wyrmwood wasn¡¯t a threat to her at all.


    ¡°But since you have the ¡°host of decay¡± title, in these woods that can only mean you are to be considered kin of the bog mother.¡± She circled around Wyrmwood slowly, observing him from every angle.


    ¡°Well, I can certainly see a few places some of your ¡®guests¡¯ are.¡± She leaned in, her massive plant maw grinning with pure predatory power as it easily dwarfed Wyrmwood¡¯s own head. ¡°Tell me, how is that old hag doing anyway?¡±


    Still not sure what the dryad was saying, it took the leaning in as a threat, it took a deep breath in and spewed out its draconic flames¡­ it coughed in her face.


    Yet, instead of recoiling, or even being upset, the dryad took its own deep breath! ¡°Oh my, such lovely spores!¡± She complimented, her entire form seeming to ripple before small clusters of healthy looking moss and mushrooms sprouted along her roots. ¡°This will surely help me grow even stronger! Thanks for the gift, little one.¡±


    Wyrmwood had no idea what just happened, but the Venus dryad seemed pleased and had pulled its head back in the end, so things were probably fine, right? It kind of just wanted to leave now. It couldn¡¯t understand anything the dryad was trying to say, but it seemed like she wouldn¡¯t attack it. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Well, a gift from the kin of the bog mother deserves a gift in return, doesn¡¯t it?¡± She mused to herself, still talking. ¡°Here, little hatchling, take one of my seeds.¡± She said, one of her root-tentacles extending to give it a bulbous looking object. Wyrmwood hesitated, before slowly reaching out for the proffered object. Contrary to its looks, the thing it had been given was rather small in the palm of Wyrmwood¡¯s grasp, making Wyrmwood instinctively hold it gently as it held it up, examining it curiously.


    ¡°Do with my seedling what you will, it could be a quick power boost if eaten, or a strong ally if grown, I care not for your decision of its fate, I will grow more.¡± She said with a magnanimous wave of a root-tentacle.


    As Wyrmwood glanced between the seedling and the dryad that gave it, it found itself wondering if the creature actually thought it understood her words or just if she just liked hearing her own snappy voice. Without anything to really stop it, Wyrmwood decided to just leave. Turning to slither away with the seedling tucked gently away in its clawed fist.


    ¡°Leaving already? Without even saying a single word?!¡± The dryad huffed, sounding rather offended now. ¡°I get that a lot of your kind likes to be the ¡®strong silent¡¯ types, but seriously! You could have at least-¡° Her words slow as her mind suddenly pointed out that the humanoids had only swarmed the forest looking for abandoned dragon eggs a few months ago. She looked the leaving dragon over again and then realized that its body was unnaturally much longer, compared to the average Lindworm¡¯s. Finally, putting two and two together, she let out a small embarrassed, ¡°oh.¡±


    It was still too young to understand words. She had just assumed it was old enough based on its overall body size.


    ~~~


    Wyrmwood decided to look for a new temporary base. It was tired from its exploration and the meeting with that plant creature. Also, it wanted to further study the thing it had been given. It could practically feel the strong pulses of nature mana the object exuded from in its grasp. It slithered around the area, purposely giving any nearby animal scents a wide berth as it looked for a good spot to rest. It eventually found one, a large fallen tree with plenty of large, exposed roots and soft, upturned dirt to hide in. Taking the time to dig around and half bury itself, it did its best to blend in with the roots as it settled in for a good sleep. The seedling nestled protectively next to its reverse scale.


    Yet as Wyrmwood slept, the seedling reacted to the dragon¡¯s body¡¯s receptive nature. Tiny sprouts growing out and slowly digging in under the reverse scale. Anything else even getting near that one weekspot of every dragon would get the natural reaction of a dragon¡¯s wrath. But the heavily invasive mutations Wyrmwood went through before even hatching had made it able to sleep through anything.


    That would be a problem as it continued to grow. Enemy¡¯s wouldn¡¯t wait for it to wake before slaying it.


    The seedling pulses with power as it gained access to the purest lifeblood of the dragon, its roots anchoring in Wyrmwood¡¯s veins and exchanging nutrients through blood and sap strengthening it as it began acting like a heart, its form growing incredibly tough bark over the dragon¡¯s one true weak spot. Something else in the dragon¡¯s body noticed the change and gave it some of the spores from Wyrmwood¡¯s lungs. Causing soft moss to cover the outside of the bark, making it look almost like a patch of fur on Wyrmwood¡¯s chest, the only spot on its otherwise fully scaled body. Finally, the growth stopped, the seedling understanding that any more would harm its host more than help it.


    For now, it would protect its host¡¯s weak spot and provide the host a small amount of passive energy through photosynthesis. As the host grew it may be allowed to draw on more of the dragon¡¯s blood, strengthening its bark further and letting it grow with Wyrmwood. It curiously reached out through the veins and organs of Wyrmwood¡¯s body to find the other entity that had helped it, yet its attempts were ignored.


    It did indeed find others within the dragon, but the one that had helped it seemed to return to dormancy, the spores in Wyrmwood¡¯s lungs only cared for growth, and while it thought something might reside in the dragon¡¯s flesh, it felt too alien to try contacting.


    Wyrmwood, meanwhile, dreamed that it was being swarmed by vengeful critters. It was not a restful sleep.

 Chapter 7- Sidney Works with his Demons… for a few Minutes

    ~~~


    Elsewhere in the Draco forest-


    Sidney had the displeasure of meeting another party already search around the Buzzing Bog. This place was bad enough already with the aforementioned buzzing of insects constantly droning in the background. He was sure if it wasn¡¯t for the insect repellent enchantments on their gear, they¡¯d already be covered in bites.


    To make matters worse, the other adventurer party was composed of demons. Sidney was no speciest, but the humans and the demons hadn¡¯t gotten along since times immemorial. Some continents saw the two factions at war constantly in one form or another, but with the constant threat of the powerful beasts in the Draco woods, all humanoids had learned it was best to play nice while on Dochna. The humans and demons ¡®played nice¡¯ by mostly not being near the other, every human and demon country was separated by at least one other race''s country. Mostly beast folk or fey-kind.


    ¡°Well, well, well! What do we have here?¡± The demoness leader asked with a sneer, the other members of her party chuckling behind her. ¡°A bunch of lost humans looking for the prize in OUR search area.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a bloody forest!¡± Saintess Bethany snapped at the demoness, ¡°we can search anywhere we want! Nobody owns it!!¡±


    Sidney felt a headache coming on, the buzzing in the background almost turning to ringing.


    As a woman of the church, Saintess Bethany was much more¡­ disapproving of the demons. Most did worship the Fallen One after all. Sidney personally figured that didn¡¯t matter much. Just as the humans had cults of humans that worshipped the Fallen One, there were also demon cults that worshipped God. With that in mind, she shouldn¡¯t be so immediately hostile with possible other members of her faith.


    As the party leader, Sidney put a calming hand on Bethany¡¯s shoulder and moved her behind him with a glare.


    ¡°Apologies, good demonfolk.¡± He started, trying to sound neutral. ¡°We have received information to speak to someone supposedly living around here.¡±


    ¡°Someone living in the Buzzing Bog? You humans really are as foolish as they say!¡± The demoness giggled confrontationally.


    ¡°Yes, well, if you don¡¯t believe me, then please just be on your way.¡± He ground out through grit teeth.


    ¡°No. While I don¡¯t believe your stupid little tall tale, I do believe you actually know something.¡± She replied with a smug expression. ¡°Reveal it to us or be on YOUR way!¡±


    Sidney was honestly considering just smacking the stupid horned woman when he realized what was actually going on.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Ugh, calm down guys. Her class is provoker.¡± Sidney groaned.


    Provokers were the demon version of the human defender class. The difference being that they focused more on distraction than defense. Provokers were especially annoying to deal with because they could use their enemies¡¯ anger to hit them with status effects.


    ¡°Well now, it looks like at least one of you actually does have some form of brain in their hornless head.¡±


    Sidney took a deep breath, it was a bad idea since they were still in a bog. He coughed and sputtered as the foul air invaded deep into his lunges. The demon adventurer party, of course, laughed at him.


    ¡°Oh, never mind!¡± The demoness tittered.


    He really hated this place.


    ¡°Look just shut your face hole for a minute and we¡¯ll see if our information was really a false lead!¡± Sidney fumed. ¡°You¡¯ll just have to promise that if we get any good info out of it, you¡¯ll give up a head start of an hour or two.¡±


    ¡°Um, Sidney? I really don¡¯t think-¡° Ella started to nervously mumble before being cut off by the demoness.


    ¡°Oho? Don¡¯t humans have the saying, ¡®only the very brave or very foolish make deals with demons¡¯?¡± One of her entourage let out a snort when she added, ¡°Well, we already know which of those you are though.¡±


    ¡°Shut,¡± Sidney simply said. His voice had enough clearly restrained rage that the demoness felt a happy little shiver go through her spine.


    The two parties exchanged glances with their own party members and the others¡¯.


    ¡°Fine.¡± The demoness spoke. ¡°You¡¯ll get a half an hour head start if the information is good.¡±


    ¡°But-¡° Ella tried to complain, but Braid stopped her, giving her a comforting pat on the head.


    ¡°It¡¯ll have to do. Sidney looks angry enough to throw a tavern at them already.¡± Braid gives her a sympathetic grin before comically adding, ¡°I told you he should have been a barbarian.¡± Giving him a wink that Sidney just scoffed at. Thankfully, the joke had the effect Braid had hoped for, as the feeling of tension eased a little.


    Sidney cleared his throat as he looked towards the deeper section of liquid earth, where nothing could seem to live without slipping under.


    ¡°BOG MOTHER!!! ARE YOU HERE?!? WE WERE TOLD TO SPEAK WITH YOU BY A TURF DRYAD!!!¡± Sidney yelled into the swamp. At the term ¡®bog mother¡¯ the constant buzzing of insects immediately when silent and the demons stiffened like they¡¯d been turned to stone.


    ¡°The ¡®person¡¯ living here you were talking about was a bog mother?¡± The demoness squeaked, her uncharacteristic fear making the human party feel like they might have just bitten off more than they could chew. Sidney¡¯s voice, strangely, didn¡¯t stop echoing around the bog, as if caught in a loop.


    ¡°You bloody fool!¡± She hissed at him, still not moving an inch. ¡° A bog mother doesn¡¯t live in the swamp, they are the-¡°


    ¡°Yes, yes, I hear ya.¡± Everyone present looked in the direction of the new voice. In a spot where no life larger than a grub had survived, now stood a mud hut. Grumbling could be heard from inside the hut, along with something that sounded like the ruffling of bedsheets and the squelching of mud at the same time.


    Soon, what could only be described as a hag came out of the mud hut. She was covered in enough mud that it was impossible to tell her exact appearance aside from being a humanoid. Her clothes, once a beautiful dress made of the finest material, were tattered and worn, barely hiding her important areas.


    ¡°Who¡¯re you and whaddya want?¡± She huffed at them. Her voice like that of an old woman gargling slime.


    The demons dropped to their knees, bowing in apparent fear and respect. ¡°Great bog mother, we humbly apologize for disturbing you, it was the humans that-¡°


    ¡°Then I obviously wasn¡¯t talking to you. Go on an get!¡± She waved the demons away dismissively. ¡°Go on, shoo! Off with ya!¡± The demon party turned and quickly fled once the hag start throwing foul smelling mud balls at them. She cackled at them fleeing before turning to the now trepid group of humans. ¡°So? Why are ya here?¡±


    Sidney gulped before stepping forward. Hags we¡¯re beings of myth. The personification of a place slowly turning to suit darker forces. Depending on how long she¡¯d been here, she might soon turn into a full on witch of the woods!


    As the hag smiled at them all too knowingly, Sidney could already tell that this was going to go very poorly for him after all. He hated this forest.

 Chapter 8- A Loss can Sometimes be its own Win

    ~~~


    Wyrmwood woke up with a heavy feeling on its chest. Unburying itself from the torso up¡­ that is, somewhere slightly below its stick figure looking arms but above what might start to count as tail, it bent its head down and to the side to look at the area. Wyrmwood was alarmed to find it had grown fur on its chest! The ¡®fur¡¯ was a subdued green color that matched its dull brown scales quite well.


    It reached a claw up and gently poked the area, finding it to actually be some kind of hard wood. Wyrmwood panicked a little, was it turning into wood?! It didn¡¯t want to be a tree though! It was still learning how to be a dragon! Its massive length was pulled fully out of the ground as it writhed in worry.


    Thanks to the nightmare it had and its current panic, it had forgotten entirely about the seedling. As the long coils of the dragon¡¯s tail flopped and slithered around nervously, being very noticeable, Wyrmwood learned something very important. Dragons weren¡¯t the only apex predators in this forest.


    A piercing cry was all the warning Wyrmwood got before something crashed into the clearing with a resounding BOOM!


    Right in front of Wyrmwood was the nemesis of all dragons in the world. Its large, feathered wings stretched magnificently behind it before folding to properly press against its lion body. Its entire form radiating predatory menace as its avian head glared down at the hatchling before it, its lion tail swished behind it in agitation.


    Wyrmwood immediately started thinking of how to escape as the giant gryphon looked balefully down at it. This thing was even bigger than the Venus Dryad! Its eyes made Wyrmwood shiver, seemingly scanning over its long coils as if considering how to best gut the hatchling.


    Wyrmwood gave its best menacing hiss, posturing to try and make itself look as big as possible. The gryphon almost looked amused as it suddenly slashed out with its front talons, scoring 3 deep cuts along Wyrmwood¡¯s side.


    It was the first true injury Wyrmwood had felt since hatching. It started to roar in surprise and fear when its lungs forced it into a coughing fit, the spores billowing out thick enough that they almost seemed like a solid mass! Yet the gryphon just unfurled its massive wings and beat them a few times, instantly blowing the cloud away.


    Once it had its breathing back in control, Wyrmwood tried to swing its sharp pointed tail tip around to slash at the gryphon while the rest of its body started to flee, it realized a weakness it had as its tail was long enough that slithering away would take a few seconds for its tail end to follow its body. Seconds that the gryphon wasn¡¯t keen on giving it.


    The gryphon reared back with a screech, dodging the clumsy slash, it then grabbed Wyrmwood by the midsection and took off, pulling the now also screeching dragon into the air. It rose just above the treeline, flying at speed before letting Wyrmwood go.


    Wyrmwood was tossed by the gryphon diagonally and slammed into a tree, its long form wrapping around the trunk from sheer inertia. Wyrmwood gagged as it felt what was probably its broken ribs poking painfully against its stomach. It felt dazed and everything hurt. It started to feebly try crawling away, its will to live stronger than any pain it currently felt.


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    It could hear the gryphon almost languidly screech again as it circled overhead. The bird was toying with it! Despite being part bird, it still had a cat¡¯s nature. Wyrmwood looked up to see the beast diving at it again, to the wounded hatchling it looked like death incarnate.


    Yet, instead of smashing down onto Wyrmwood, ending its life, it got only about half-way there before there was an explosion of feathers! There were roars as feathers did indeed drift down, falling on and around Wyrmwood like rain. It tried to focus on what had saved it, but its vision kept getting more and more blurry until it simply fainted from the pain, its battered body needing to shut down to heal such extensive damage properly.


    ~~~


    Wyrmwood woke with a start, bolting upright and hissing as threatening as it could at its surroundings.


    ¡°Oh ho ho, glad to see you¡¯re up kid!¡± An unfamiliar voice rang out.


    Wyrmwood took the time to examine its surroundings, it was in a cave of some kind.


    Stalactites hung from the top of the cave far above, dripping some kind of healing mineral water down on Wyrmwood¡¯s still aching form. It notices it had been laid in a shallow pool of the stuff. Its ribs no longer feel broken at least. As Wyrmwood checks itself over the voice speaks once again.


    ¡°Aye, yeh be fine now, lil¡¯ biter.¡± The voice seemed to let out a few huffs of amusement, ¡°I tell you what, it was quite the surprise to hear old FloofMane squawken up a storm about ¡®insolent lizards.¡¯ The thing was tossen yeh about like yeh were an old pigskin!¡± The voice guffawed.


    Wyrmwood finally noticed who was talking as some bioluminescent cave moss began emitting stronger light, better illuminating the cave¡¯s dark interior. With its coils wrapped around the edges of the shallow pool Wyrmwood was warily resting in, the behemoth sized Quetzalcoatl moved its head better into view, its dulled rainbow plumage poofing out before flattening again in bemusement.


    ¡°So? Who¡¯d I have the pleasure of saven? Name¡¯s Mayflare by the way.¡±


    Wyrmwood hesitantly tried to mimic the much larger dragon, chirping and squawking in obvious incomprehension. It¡¯s naturally sickly voice sounding like a dying bird¡¯s wheeze more than an actual attempt at speech. Mayflare¡¯s main poofed out again, this time in surprise.


    ¡°Not a kid, but a babe?! Where¡¯s yer parents, little one?¡± When the little tike didn¡¯t respond, Mayflare just gave up and used appraisal on it. ¡°Oh, systemless aye?¡±


    Wyrmwood didn¡¯t know what to make of this much bigger dragon, but was relatively sure he wouldn¡¯t harm it. Wyrmwood just gave up and coiled in on itself, hoping the Quetzalcoatl would either leave or at least do more than just make noises at it. Though, now that it considered it, it recognized that the noises did sound similar to the ones that plant creature was making. Wyrmwood started to get the tiniest inkling that the noises were supposed to actually mean something.


    ¡°Fah,¡± Mayflare suddenly scoffed, sounding surprisingly angry and putting Wyrmwood on alert once again. ¡°Back in my day, being systemless was something to be celebrated! Sure the risks were higher and death was much more common, but at least we could still proudly say that some of us were born free!¡±


    The large dragon seemed to be raving mad!


    ¡­


    Wyrmwood wondered if it could somehow tunnel its way out of the encircling coils.


    ¡°How could they have forgotten where they came from?! Did they think our noble lineage would stay that weak from birth?! This blasted system is nothing but fancy chains to bind us to the humanoids¡¯ ¡®rules¡¯!!!¡±


    Wyrmwood was testing the bottom of the cave pool¡¯s floor for digable spots. This large dragon was loud and rather scary.


    As the old dragon huffed and puffed from exertion, coming down from his rant he noticed the strangely shaped hatchling had started burying itself in cave mud, blending in surprisingly well.


    ¡°Ahem, sorry about that lil¡¯ tike.¡± He said abashedly. ¡°While I didn¡¯t mean to go off like that, I couldn¡¯t help but notice yer sorry predicament.¡± Using his heavy tail feathers like a broom, he gently wiped away the mud Wyrmwood was trying to hide in. ¡°I just so happen to be a lonely old codger though, and you lil¡¯ one¡­¡± He smiled down warmly at Wyrmwood¡¯s now curious expression. ¡°Looks like a great project to spend time on.¡±


    Wyrmwood panicked, its arms flailing as Mayflare gently picked it up with his teeth. Holding Wyrmwood sideways, from just above its midsection. He chuckled fondly as the hatchling instinctively coiled around his head and snout as best it could.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get going then,¡± Mayflare said as his whole body began to float a few inches off the muddy cave floor. The feathers all along his body rippled rhythmically as he kept him properly afloat. ¡°I have much I can teach yeh, and have learned over the years that time is always shorter than we think.¡± And with that he slither/floated deeper down the tunnel, Wyrmwood still panicking as the strange dragon carried it off to who knew where.


    ~~~

 Chapter 9- Lessons and Trials

    ~~~


    Over the next few days, Mayflare did indeed teach Wyrmwood many new things. First of which was language. The garbling cries it kept hearing others emit did turn out to be a form of communication. It was rigorously taught the basics of draconic and a bit of common.


    It was very stressful for Wyrmwood, but thankfully dragons were all geniuses and could learn new things quickly when they applied themselves. Most dragons were also lazy, though, so they would never learn more than they felt necessary, unless it was something they were passionate about.


    Second was gender. Mayflare assured it that it wouldn¡¯t really matter for its own gender for a VERY long time, but was useful in telling others apart. Thus Wyrmwood learned that it was, in fact, male. It- He didn¡¯t really care much, but took Mayflare¡¯s word about it being important eventually.


    The old quetzalcoatl had been eagerly dragging him from cave to cave. Showing off his stuff while also explaining what each thing was called. It was apparent that Mayflare was an organized hoarder. One cave had been full of gold and other precious metals, another was full of fancy quilts, he even had one cave dedicated to an art gallery of random humanoids! It was all a bit much, but he did learn much about proper hoard keeping, the names of many races, and to not be a ¡°jack-of-all-trades¡± as Mayflare called himself. It was alarming just how much stuff the elderly dragon had collected over the years.


    ¡°Safe?¡± Wyrmwood asked.


    Mayflare just guffawed, ¡°This place is deep in the Draco Forrest! Near the center even! Humanoids know not to come near here.¡±


    What Wyrmwood decided was the most important lesson, however, was a new means of attack.


    Using his long sinuous form, Mayflare would twist and swirl his body, generating force and momentum until, with a wicked snap, he¡¯d whip his tail in front of him! When he demonstrated by performing the move on a large boulder, the boulder split in twain.


    It was harder for Wyrmwood to try because of both his extra long tail and the fact he didn¡¯t float in the air like quetzalcoatls did. After long experimentation and moral support from Mayflare, (that he didn¡¯t need or ask for), he thought he¡¯d figured out a way. Slithering in front of his own boulder, Wyrmwood started by doing a hop with his upper body. This created a vertical bend in his coils that he used his muscles to push further back along his length. As the bend traveled back towards the end of his tail it seemed to pick up speed and power, practically without his help now!


    There was a blinding flash and what sounded like the peal of thunder! Wyrmwood hissed and tried to flee in surprise, but Mayflare grabbed him while guffawing uproariously. In front of them, where Wyrmwood¡¯s practice boulder had been, was now a slightly smoking pile of small rocks and pebbles.


    ¡°Well done, lil tike!¡± Mayflare continued to laugh, ¡°that there tail strike was truly impressive, but seeing yeh scare yerself with yer own attack!¡±


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    Wyrmwood glared at him as he began chortling uproariously once more. He didn¡¯t like the feeling of being laughed at. To distract himself, Wyrmwood examined his tail where he¡¯d struck the rock.


    The cone at the end of his tail was also steaming slightly. More alarming, however, was that the strike had formed a small fracture line on it! Even with how hard it was, the full bodied tail whip generated too much power for the cone of dead and hardened dragon flesh to handle.


    He picked up his tail end and showed it off to Mayflare.


    ¡°Hurt?¡± He asked


    Mayflare finally stopped laughing and looked at it.


    ¡°Nay, lil one. It¡¯s cracked all right, but it shouldn¡¯t be anything too dangerous.¡± Mayflare¡¯s feathers ruffled along his body as he considered. ¡°Though, it¡¯d probably be best to not do that again unless it¡¯s a last resort. Yer body seems to generate more power with that move than intended.¡±


    Mayflare pat Wyrmwood¡¯s head before taking him to another part of the caverns.


    ~~~


    Sidney blocked the bowly-poly as it slammed into his kite shield with enough force to put a dent in it while pushing him back. After stress filled negotiations with the hag, he had compromised to do some of her trials if she told them the information they wanted upon completion. This first trial was dealing with a bowly poly infestation.


    Imagine a roly-poly the size of a cannon ball. Now imagine its carapace is almost as hard as orichalcum. Finally, imagine there¡¯s about 20 of them attacking you at once.


    This was only the first of three trials he and his party were given and they were already struggling big time. Sidney had them all focusing on defense and evasion, with Ella using her magical prowess to cook them one at a time. Magic was the one known weakness of bowly-polies.


    He cried out in pain as one of them managed to bounce off his armored legs, breaking it and denting the metal to painfully keep pushing on it. These things would bounce off trees, rocks, and even each other in mid-air to make themselves harder to track. They also had the nasty habit of going for the legs first, bowling you over, hence their name.


    Bethany quickly cast ¡®full heal¡¯ on Sidney¡¯s leg, time seeming to reverse on it as the damage to both his leg and his armor seemingly being unwritten from the timeline.


    ¡°Son of a biscuit, I hate these things! That¡¯s the fifth time they¡¯ve managed to do that! Ella, there¡¯s only about five more, hurry it up!!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going as fast as I can, but I need to wait for them to stop moving first! I can¡¯t hit them hard enough when they¡¯re moving!¡± She squeaked back anxiously.


    Braid was using a skill called ¡®graceful counter¡¯ to grab the one coming towards him or Ella and then use its own inertia to spin himself full circle and chuck it back the way it came. Using the move so much, however, used up a lot of his concentration and he was visibly tiring.


    Sidney growled as he realised they weren¡¯t going to win at this rate.


    ¡°Change of plans!¡± He roared sharply, ¡°Bethany, stop healing and shield me, Ella, use your strongest spell right in front of me, Braid, keep protecting Ella just in case!¡±


    The other members quickly followed Sidney¡¯s orders, all of them being quite experienced in battle.


    ¡°Come at me, you oversized grapes! I squash your kind under my heel for fun!¡± Sidney shouted out, using his taunt skill.


    All five of the remaining bowly-polies instantly changed the angle of their bounces. Two of them bounced off Sidney¡¯s shield painfully hard. The other two bounced off a shield of faith Saintess Bethany conjured just in time, as the sky darkened and a massive bolt of lightning arced down, enveloping the shielded Sidney and all the bowly-polies around him.


    The final one was heading right for Ella from her blindspot, only to be stopped by two muscular hands, somehow just barely managing to catch it with bare hands! With a determined shout of effort, he turned and lobbed it too into the still striking lightning bolt in an impressive shot-put toss!


    The lightning continued for an entire minute before Ella finally ran fully out of magic, collapsing upon the spell¡¯s completion.


    Sidney stood there,panting heavily. Around him, where the lightning had struck, were lichtenberg figures all around. Etched into the ground, trees, and even rocks from the amount of sheer power that ran through the area with that magical act.


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ ¡®gasp¡¯¡­ one¡­ ¡®pant.¡¯¡±


    Sidney was really not looking forward to the other two tasks.


    ~~~

 Ch 10- Training and Trials

    ~~~


    ¡°Alright, Scamp-.¡± Mayflare started.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ Wyrmwood!¡± Wyrmwood interrupted. He¡¯d been getting better at speaking and could already speak more than one word. It was actually pretty impressive for a dragon, given how young he was.


    ¡°Of course ya are, ya lil hoard of gold.¡±


    Wyrmwood huffed and pouted like the irritated hatchling he was. This adult dragon seemed to be constantly teasing him!


    ¡°As I was saying, ya whippersnapper.¡± Mayflare started once again. ¡°The two main enemies of dragons in this world are the gryphons and the unicorns.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Gryphons want to be the lords of the sky, they can¡¯t do that with us around. As for the unicorns?¡± He leans in close to whisper conspiratorially. ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone I said this, but I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯re all specist against us.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Wyrmwood asked once again.


    ¡°Because they always side with the humanoid heroes! Even when they don¡¯t actually get anything out of it!¡± He roars. ¡°That dark lord had offered me a hoard¡¯s worth of magical tomes! A hoard¡¯s worth!! Any true dragon would have taken that deal! But nooo, Fae Dancer just had to tell that stupid elf hero how to sneak past me while my guard was down! No magic books for a failure of a guard! I told her about that weakness in confidence , dagnabbit!¡±


    ¡°Who Fae Dancer?¡±


    ¡°My mortal enemy now.¡± Mayflare growled. ¡°Just remember that while they call themselves pacifists, the unicorns are generally against us in every encounter.¡±


    ~~~


    For two more days, Mayflare taught Wyrmwood various things. He seemed to especially enjoy making the hatchling hunt things for him while he just watched.


    It wasn¡¯t easy, Wyrmwood was told to hunt things that were at about his skill level. Which was hard to figure out without a system window! Overall the experience just taught Wyrmwood that things were generally huntable if they tried to flee, and an actual danger if they approached him instead.


    Three times he had to be saved by Mayflare when he was pounded into the dirt by creatures he couldn¡¯t yet compete with. First clay dolls battered him, their forms indistinct yet powerful enough to shatter bones. Wyrmwood laid in the healing pool for the rest of that day. Then he had been saved when the same gryphon from before made a go for him again. Finally, he had to be saved when he accidentally slithered right into a pygmy thornet hive. Pygmy thornets were a magical race of intelligent plant thorns. They had bodies that looked like tiny pokey ents mixed with wasps and they were an absolute scourge on anything that found its way into their territory.


    Mayflare actually had to torch the whole area just to get them to back off for a bit. He didn¡¯t seem annoyed or even disappointed with Wyrmwood, which was relieving, but he was aghast at just how many times Wyrmwood seemed to unknowingly start to slither in the direction of danger. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°Yer like a magnet for the few things out here that can still kill a dragon.¡± He chuckled. ¡°Why the last time I met a dragon so directionally inept must have been Gia, the nature wyrm, one hundred and thirteen years ago. The lass had wandered right into a herd of fluffergish if you can believe it!¡±


    Fluffergish were strange mammalian monsters that looked similar to bison with fish shaped heads. They look very fluffy, but if you startle one their hair straightens and hardens to be tough as steel! Many predators have impaled themselves on the strange herbivores¡¯ quill-like hair.


    ¡°She¡¯d gotten herself sliced to ribbons by the time I¡¯d scared ''em off. Thankfully, her regeneration was especially strong for her kind. She was right as rain by the next day, so sent her on her way.¡± Mayflare sighed fondly as he did lazy loops in the air.


    ¡°I imagine she¡¯s had a clutch or two since then, provided she hasn¡¯t wandered off the edge of the world, that is!¡± He guffawed loudly.


    Wyrmwood didn¡¯t care about whoever this Gia was. He just wanted to stop getting attacked wherever he went.


    ¡°Hide better?¡± He asked Mayflare.


    ¡°Oh? Hide huh, I could teach ya a bit of magic that might¡¯d help with that. Look here¡­¡±


    ~~~


    ¡°...And that''s three.¡± Sidney says as he lays in the muddy earth, completely exhausted. ¡°You have no idea just how tired I feel right now.¡±


    Their second ¡®request¡¯ from the hag was to catch a troglomite. Troglomites are large, apish mites. They are solitary hunters and, according to the hag, quite useful if one wanted to keep the glk`sphr away. Glk¡¯sphr are an ultra-rare, high-level evolution of slimes. All that is known about them by the humanoid races is that they are hypothesized to be made entirely of highly concentrated primordial mana, and thus, are supremely dangerous. Even more than true dragons and their peers!


    Sydney has no idea why the hag would worry about an entity that has only been recorded to have been spotted thrice in history, but the implications that she not only worries about it, but also knows how to deal with it, do make him a little nervous. That being said, catching the troglomite ended up going surprisingly smoothly. The hag had been generous enough to give them a direction to look in, and once they located one sleeping high up in a tree, they had been able to set up a trap surrounding it before it even awakened.


    The problem was with the third task. They had been told to mediate between two tribes of greblins. Greblins were a horrendous mixed breed of goblins and gremlins. They were known to have the worst traits of both races. Short, ugly, and cracked out of their minds by nature, to the sapient races it was a commonly known fact that a good greblin was a dead greblin. Even the two races that had spawned them absolutely despised them!


    Sidney couldn¡¯t help but ask the hag why they couldn¡¯t just waltz in and just destroy both tribes. She then told them a long story of how, long ago, when this bog had been a lake, she was the beautiful and wise lady of the lake. She had ruled the lake fairly, creating many bonds with the inhabitants of the forest. This included an ancient pact of protection with a certain tribe of gremlins and a certain tribe of goblins. Not caring to hear another long-winded story from some powerful old fogey, Sidney mostly stopped paying attention at around that point. Something, something, disaster, something, something, lake drying up, blah, blah, promiscuity from both tribes. And now here they were, two tribes of greblins watched over by a bog mother who didn¡¯t care much for the descendants of perverts, who were in turn the descendants of two actually decent tribes of goblins and gremlins.


    When Sidney¡¯s party found the two tribes, no one was surprised that they were both mad at the other for various love scandals. The whole situation being explained through gestures was especially unpleasant for the humans as the greblins seemed to tend to go into excruciating detail on how their tribes wrongfully ¡°intermingled.¡± By the time the ugly little greblin chiefs had pointed out and explained the fiftieth shade of grey scar tissue on the other¡¯s body, they had all lost their lunch at least once. After a short break for some fresh air, Saintess Bethany suggested to the two chiefs that if both their tribes had been intimate for so long, they could just merge into one tribe now.


    The ensuing arguments and discussions took days of the adventurers needing to puke from the gestures made even in argument and days more of pulling their hair out from stress and frustration as they thwarted the constant yet sporadic attempts of the greblins to prank them in ways that greatly varied from just silly to horrifically lethal, with no warning in between. By the time the tribes had come to an agreement and finalized the merging, they had sent the tired and disheveled adventurer party back to the bog mother with a thank you letter and a live explosive hidden on Ella¡¯s person.


    Briad had thankfully found and disposed of the explosive in time when he and his betrothed were off ¡°taking a break¡± together.


    With the final task done and the letter to prove it, it was finally time for the hag to tell them what she knew about the quarry the party was supposed to be hunting. Sidney couldn¡¯t wait to be back on the trail again.


    ~~~

 Ch 11- Preparations and Unintended Consequences

    ~~~


    Contrary to what Mayflare had hypothesized. He had been surprised to find that Wyrmwood¡¯s two strongest affinities were earth and water. The only other affinity he had was to a weaker degree than those: nature. When he told Wyrmwood this, it, of course, just confused him. Which reminded Mayflare once again that Wyrmwood didn¡¯t know about his own titles.


    Wyrmwood on the other hand, was just happy about the spell progress he had made. He had already been good at hiding. His body¡¯s coloration worked wonders as natural camouflage despite his size. But after Mayflare taught him the ¡®blend¡¯ spell, he was basically invisible¡­ for a few minutes.


    While powerful in hiding his presence, the spell was actually quite high tiered. It basically guzzled his concentration and mana!


    ¡°Mana, ya see, is the fifth dimension to our world.¡± Mayflare had said in one of his lectures. ¡°After the first three dimensions of direction, it tends ta¡¯ get more and more esoteric. Also, as an interesting side note, I once read an old theory that each dimension can only imagine up to one level up. My grandfather¡¯s grandmother was said to have arrived on this world from one that was in the seventh dimension! She had, supposedly, always complained how cramped and stifling it was here.¡±


    Mayflare seemed to either mull over his own words, or get lost in memories¡­ again. He did that a lot, yet when Wyrmwood once asked why, Mayflare started grumbling about ¡°leaving ¡®old foggies¡¯ to reminisce in peace.¡± So Wyrmwood figured it probably just had something to do with age.


    ¡°What was I saying?¡± He asked when his eyes finally focused back on Wyrmwood. ¡°Ah, yes, mana. Ye don¡¯t have too much of it now, but yer reserves will grow as you do. Why, by the time yer fully grown ye perbly can have it going fer-ever! Though, as a proper dragon ye¡¯ll likely be strong enough ta¡¯ not need ta¡¯ hide by then.¡±


    ¡°Danger everywhere! Want hide forever.¡± Wyrmwood¡¯s much smaller, (compared to Mayflare), form croaked.


    ¡°Ai, most hatchlings feel like that for a while. It¡¯s just a natural part of yer instincts. Now then, let¡¯s get ya out there, huntin¡¯ again. I get da gut feeling that we don¡¯t got much time left together, and my gut¡¯s almost never wrong.¡±


    ~~~


    A giant dire mosquito buzzed out of the bog mother¡¯s mud hut as she watched the adventurers leave. Despite being the size of a wolf, its wings somehow still made that high pitched whine its smaller cousins were known for, though the whine was much more intense.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you actually told them everything.¡± It buzzed at the hag with a similarly high-pitched voice.


    ¡°You seemed to like the thing once it had properly crawled out of your bog.¡±


    The bog mother scoffed at that.


    ¡°You¡¯ve mistaken me for my younger, much kinder self once again. Just cause I like someone doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t honor a deal! Those tasks I¡¯d sent them on would have been an absolute pain in my aged a-¡­ butt, to deal with if I¡¯d have had to do them. The fact that they both didn¡¯t run and actually survived each one means fighting them woulda been more trouble than it¡¯d be worth anyway.¡± She waved dismissively at the big bloodsucker. Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°So you did like the little guy.¡± The bug buzzed knowingly.


    ¡°Bah, of course I liked the little hatchling! I not only incubated him, but some of my bog¡¯s mud got mixed into his egg fluids! By all rights, magical or otherwise, he¡¯s my kin.¡± She huffed. ¡°But I ain¡¯t taking chances when I¡¯ve only got a year left to be chained to this drying up bog! Once I¡¯m a witch, I won¡¯t only be young again; I¡¯ll be free! With you as my familiar of course. I¡¯m allergic to cats.¡±


    ¡°Glad to be reminded that my own position isn¡¯t in jeopardy.¡± Its wings whined jokingly. ¡°But what do you think will happen if they actually find him? He¡¯s just a hatchling, I don¡¯t see him being able to fend off seasoned veterans.¡±


    The bog mother cackled darkly at that.


    ¡°Let them try, if the worst comes to pass; he did take his sister with him.¡±


    ~~~


    Despite his hatred for the Draco Forest, Sidney was actually rather glad to be back in it instead of the hag¡¯s domain. That slimy bog mud kept getting under his armor somehow, and it was really uncomfortable and gross.


    Thankfully, their prey had wandered past a decent stream on its way out, so they stopped to take turns washing themselves off.


    The trail was days old by now, but since they knew that they were at least on the right path they diligently kept at it. Despite her detailed explanation of where it went, the hag hadn¡¯t given much description of this ¡°Wyrmwood¡± that they were searching for, but they had spent a decent amount of time discussing the topic of species when they noticed that the supposed wyrm was leaving behind distinct claw marks. Wyrmwood were basically dragon headed snakes, they didn¡¯t have limbs so they didn¡¯t have claws. They realized they weren¡¯t hunting a wyrm.


    That didn¡¯t change much though. They all agreed that much, at least, by the time they entered a dead silent clearing with a giant withered and battered tree in the center.


    ¡°Wow.¡± Ella quietly breathed as she looked way up at the dead limbs of the tree. They looked uncomfortably like skeletal hands reaching out to grasp the sky. A gloomy aura seemed to permeate the silent clearing, as if this place could never recover what it had lost.


    ¡°Careful.¡± Saintess Bethany whispered to them all in a serious tone. ¡°This place has been cursed. It¡¯s still taking hold, but whatever it is, it¡¯s powerful.¡±


    Sidney growled in annoyance once he spotted the graves on the other side of the clearing. ¡°I heard about this place. Some idiots jump in to grab an egg too early. They didn¡¯t make it out and the enraged parent dragons had to be taken down before they rampaged across the whole forest.¡±


    ¡°So many graves.¡± Ella exclaimed sadly.


    As they passed by the enormous dead tree the back of Sidney¡¯s hair stood up and instinct took over just in time to put his shield in the way of a strike, the blow so powerful that it launched him five feet back!


    Braid rushed to cover the two girls and Ella screamed at what she saw. A near deafening, sorrowful howl echoed back as the massive, thought to be dead tree shuddered in its spot.


    ¡°T-they murdered a nature elemental dragon in its own nest?!¡± Bethany shook in rage and fear. ¡°Curse those fools! They¡¯ve created a rotting ent!¡±


    Ents were trees that gained sentience and enough magic to move around.


    Rotten ents were trees that had withered, yet still somehow collected enough animosity and magic to re-animate themselves. The dangerous part was that they had an affinity with nature and undeath. Opposite affinities in the same entity tended to have drastic consequences.


    An enormous tree that had died and then fed on the death and animosity of a dragon failing to defend their eggs? Potentially cataclysmic for the continent, if the dragons didn¡¯t take care of it.


    Sidney pulled himself up as the adrenaline kicked in.


    ¡°Ella, Beth! Start running! Braid, go with them and protect them while I distract this thing! I can only take a few more hits like that!¡±


    Braid nodded to Sidney with respect before hoisting Ella and Bethany up onto his muscular shoulders like two sacks of rice. The girls protested as Braid started dashing out of the clearing, they could only watch as an oily looking, rotten vine burst from the ground and bashed into Sidney¡¯s shield, throwing him to the ground once again. That was their last sight of the giant horrific monster and their brave leader as Braid sped away through the trees, back in the direction of civilization.


    Sidney grunted and got up once again, sparing a single glance in the direction of his fleeing party before refocusing on the massive rotten ent currently heaving and pulling itself out of the earth. A black, tar like liquid dripped and oozed out of the burnt, hollow hole in the trunk before spontaneously catching fire, the hole now belching and wailing a constant turquoise blaze. The massive flames seemed to snap and scream like hundreds of people having their bones broken. Deep in the turquoise blaze of the hollow trunk, Sidney thought he could just barely make out some figure, but it was too hard to tell.


    Sidney noticed numbly that the barren branches really did grasp madly at the sky as this monstrosity finally pulled itself free from the earth. He could only hope he gave his party¡­ his friend, enough time to get away and warn everyone.


    ¡°I hate this forest.¡± He said once again as he prepared to take the next blow.


    ~~~

 Ch 12- Murphy Must be Watching

    ~~~


    Wyrmwood pulled his upper body out of the way once again as the bowvine launched another massive splinter at him.


    When he had asked Mayflare about it before initiating the hunt, Mayflare had laughed before saying that it was a relatively weak foe, as long as you didn¡¯t underestimate it by thinking it was a cow.


    When Wyrmwood asked what a cow was, Mayflare just guffawed again before saying that he¡¯d be fine to figure the bowvine¡¯s weakness out on his own. So here he was, repeatedly dodging and throwing himself out of the way as the ¡°relatively weak¡± bowvine launched splinters at him that were nearly the size of his head!


    At first approach it just looked like a strange leafless tree covered in hanging vines, but once it noticed you, (Wyrmwood had yet to figure out how it did so), the vines quickly began to move, reaching out around itself and pulling up shoots and sprouts that were growing around it before nocking it into taut vines already wrapped around branches and firing whatever they had grabbed at their target. Right now, that target was Wyrmwood.


    He ducked as a bamboo shoot narrowly missed his head, digging deeply into a tree far behind him. As far as Wyrmwood could tell, it was more plant than monster, also it really was weak from a physical standpoint. He had been able to swipe at it a single time before needing to run back for cover and the plant had torn rather easily when faced with his claws.


    While his burgeoning intellect told him he could just keep baiting it before ducking behind cover until it was out of its makeshift ammo, his draconic pride demanded he could beat it with a feat of endurance or agility. It was an interesting dilemma that he¡¯d find two options that warred with each other inside him. If he could just-


    Suddenly, the forest shook with a howl that sounded like what could only be described as the wrath of nature itself! The bowvine instantly went limp at the noise, assumedly trying to play dead as Mayflare seemed to materialize beside Wyrmwood!


    ¡°Curses, I¡¯d forgotten to do my patrols of that part of the forest for quite a while.¡± Instead of the tenseness that Wyrmwood thought was necessary in this situation, Mayflare looked more irritated. ¡°Lemme think, what was over yonder recently?¡±


    Mayflare tapped his feathered chin with a claw as he pondered. ¡°Hatching season was a bit ago¡­ the big tree was over there, right? Or was that two seasons before this? I¡¯m pretty sure I remember that pretty lass Ferndew had been bragging to the other soon to be mothers about it¡­¡±


    As the distant howling and rumbling only seemed to intensify, Wyrmwood decided it was probably best to help with his own knowledge.


    ¡°I¡­ saw it!¡± He croaked out. ¡°Big tree!¡±


    ¡°Oho! That¡¯s excellent lad! Tell me, did ye see Ferndew¡¯s nest there?¡± Mayflare asked nonchalantly as he did lazy loops in the air. ¡°I¡¯d warned er that that leaving the thing would turn it into a big ol ''timburn! Wonder what coulda upset it though.¡±


    ¡°No nest!¡± Wyrmwood chirped.


    ¡°Huh, then what else coulda ma-¡°


    ¡°Detoyed!¡­ Tree dead! D-destoyed?¡± Wyrmwood had trouble remembering the correct pronunciation of that word. Despite his best efforts Wyrmwood was still learning the draconic language.


    Upon hearing the hatchling¡¯s words though, Mayflare tensed before focusing on Wyrmwood with uncharacteristic intensity.


    ¡°It was destroyed? Are ye sure lad? The tree had absolutely no life left in it?¡±


    Instead of directly answering, Wyrmwood flexed his weak nature affinity. Strengthening his connection to the plants around him so that he could more easily tell their condition. He had learned from Mayflare that one could do this for a time with their affinities to give themself an advantage in certain situations. Strengthening his water affinity had helped him more easily control it, while his strengthened earth affinity had given him the general knowledge of any stone he touched.


    ¡°¡­Get back to the cave lad. There be trouble afoot and ye aren¡¯t ready to face it just yet.¡±


    Instead of arguing, the timid Wyrmwood nodded before slithering quickly away, back in the direction of the cave that he and Mayflare use.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°Good lad.¡± Mayflare said before shooting up into the air to get a better look.


    To the south, the woods had been seemingly set ablaze with a haunting turquoise flame. An emergency quest appeared for him now that he knew about the situation.


    Warning! Emergency Quest Activated!


    -Defeat the Newborn World Boss:


    In¡¯Fern¡¯Al the Massive Rotted Timburn


    ¡°Darned humanoids.¡± Mayflare quietly cursed to himself as he began to fly towards the center of the roaring flames at great speed. This whole situation reeked of them.


    ~~~


    If Sidney was being honest, he was impressed with himself that he had made it this long.


    His massive shield now barely protected him thanks to all the dent and pits in it. Sidney didn¡¯t like that he could now sympathize with the stones people kicked down the road. He braced once again as a thick root slammed into his shield, angling upward slightly so that it got deflected instead of stopped, also he had learned that doing it this way was only a little crushing, he had feared doing this against such powerful blows might squish him outright.


    The main things he had to watch out for were-


    He ran and jumped to the side, barely dodging a screaming goat of turquoise flame that spewed from the blazing hole of In¡¯Fern¡¯Al!


    -that and the willow-wisps that seemed to be attracted by the ominous flames.


    The forest spirits weren¡¯t necessarily harmful, but they tended to cast illusions on anything that was too close. And like Sidney said, they were everywhere right now.


    Seemingly realizing that it still hadn¡¯t been able to squash this infuriating humanoid, the rotted timburn turned to the graves of adventurers instead and cast some kind of spell on them. Sidney watched in growing horror as burning undead burst from the ground, screaming for the pain and death of the living. There were zombies, skeletons, a living armor or two and even a dullahan! Yet worst of all was when with a particularly loud crackle of its flames, In¡¯Fern¡¯Al¡¯s spell expanded once more, nearly covering the clearing in its enormity as it seemed to start to awaken something that should have passed on from this world.


    Warning: World Boss In¡¯Fern¡¯Al is attempting to raise potential World Boss Fern¡¯Ace the Phantom Mother.


    New Emergency Mission: Stop the spell before the summoning is complete


    Completion: A unique skill or armor


    Failure: There is a high likelihood that they will work compatibly together in some form, creating an apocalyptic level threat


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯ve got to be kidding me.¡± Sidney groaned. He was just one man! What did the system really think he could do?!


    Suddenly there was a massive *BOOM* as something struck the branches of the rotted timburn with enough force to shatter many of them, causing chunks of splinters of wood filled with black oozing tar-like sap to rain from the sky all over the clearing, including onto Sidney.


    ¡°What the-¡°


    A roar sounding somewhere between a dragon and a bird of prey bellowed out overhead as Sidney saw a large quetzalcoatl fly forward from above the flames and dive at In¡¯Fern¡¯Al, breaking off chunks of wood with large magic spells or the snapping of its tail.


    ¡°Guess I¡¯ll take on the undead. I might just make it through this after all.¡± Sidney mused as he turned his back on the clashing titans and focused on the approaching hoard of undead.


    ~~~


    Elsewhere in the forest, Wyrmwood was frantically slithering in the direction of the cave. In the hatchling¡¯s panic, he had forgotten to use cover and camouflage to his advantage. This turned out to be a big mistake as screech of rage came from above him, giving only a few seconds to dodge as a massive body slammed into where he would have been if he had simply kept going.


    The gryphon was back once more. And as they locked eyes, Wyrmwood realized that they both knew that Mayflare wouldn¡¯t be here to protect him this time.


    Wyrmwood immediately did a little hop with his front half, preparing his strongest move as he could instinctually tell he¡¯d only get one chance.


    The gryphon approached slowly, dragging out its imagined victory as its mane floofed up and its hackles raised in pure rage and aggression towards the perceived youngling of its hated enemy.


    Just before the gryphon reached the hatchling, the arc in Wyrmwood¡¯s coils reached the end of his tail and the crack of thunder rang out as blood sprayed over the surroundings! The gryphon lay there, a massive bleeding gash across its back that had one of its wings hanging by a thread, blood covering its fur as it dripped down its back from the wound.


    Yet, to Wyrmwood¡¯s dismay, the gryphon lived. It stirred, getting its wobbly legs back under it. Wyrmwood checked his tail quickly and found that the spike now had a second crack going across it, nearly perpendicular to the first. He couldn¡¯t afford to try that again. Coiling up, he desperately sprang at his weakened foe, hoping he¡¯d be able to end the gryphon once and for all!


    Yet instead, he felt a sudden disconnect with his bottom half. A strange gust of wind carried him right over the gryphon where he landed in a heap in a pool of strangely rusty mud.


    Wyrmwood didn¡¯t understand what had happened. He looked back over to the gryphon who was now looking at him triumphantly. What was that snake beside it? Why did it look like¡­ He turned his gaze back to look at his body, only to find he was missing his lower half! In his desire for victory, Wyrmwood had forgotten that the gryphon was smart enough to use magic! Fear and terror filled the hatchling, as he passed out from blood loss, the pooling liquid creating rusty mud as it mixed with the earth under him.


    ~~~

 Ch 13- All Hail the Queen!

    ~~~


    Veronica had always known she would be a queen one day. She spent her first few years of life in the warm embrace of her Mother¡¯s Bog. Asleep, yet learning so many things through the dreams she was given.


    She knew that she was born as a ruler. Her dreams showed her the possible futures as the apex of this place, simulated based on knowledge from the distant past. She would cocoon and then re-emerge as the one to lead her mother¡¯s bog in her stead. The mother had lived there since time immemorial.


    It had once been a beautiful lake, clear water shimmering like the sun reflected on shattered glass. Veronica was glad it had nearly dried up, the bog was the perfect environment for her and her future spawn.


    They had planned it so that once the bog mother was free, Veronica would emerge to take her place as the ruler of the fetid mud.


    Yet, a year before her rise to queendom, something new had entered her little world. Having seemingly fallen from the sky, Veronica was startled awake for the first time in her life as something big and ovular splashed into the mud just next to her!


    She had half a mind to crush this upstart, this¡­ egg? As Veronica circled the egg, she noticed it was cracked and leaking its egg fluid. When she curiously tasted it¡­ it was intoxicating. The flavor was deep and rich, the amounts of nutrients packed in were enough to feed a starved man for a month. She had to have more!


    So she wiggled her fat grubby body over to the crack, finding it had been covered up by the upstart¡¯s still-squishy tail tip. It mattered not, if this creature was to live in what would surely soon be her swamp, then it could be her host as she fed on its life force. She dug in through the squishy, fetal flesh of the tail, not eating it mind you, for although she was a monster, she was also a queen and wouldn¡¯t eat the¡­ dragon, yes¡­ this was a dragon egg. The dragon¡¯s flesh before it even hatched.


    She would, however, become a symbiont for this creature as long as it could feed her this delicious ambrosia. She came to rest inside the dragon¡¯s tail-flesh, just past the exposed tip. From there she helped the dragon fetus work around, overcome, and even further mutualize with the other invading life forms.


    By the time she was done and the yet unhatched dragon would live, she was very tired, but also better fed than she had ever been before. She drifted off to hibernation once more as the bog mother quietly whispered to Veronica that this creature was now a kin of the bog.


    ~~~


    The dreams had stopped recently. Veronica was pretty sure it was because of the dragon officially hatching and crawling free from the deep life-packed mud that had always been her home. It was both exhilarating and terrifying to know that she was technically out in the open world for the first time in her life. Though truthfully, she was safely tucked into the hatchling¡¯s tail flesh.


    Veronica had various ways of knowing where the hatchling was and what it was doing, but the easiest and nicest way for her was by supping on more of the hatchling¡¯s blood. She could tell that she was becoming even stronger than the bog mother had planned for her to be, the nature of dragon blood, as well as it¡¯s complimentary affinities matching her own, strengthening her into a mighty grub!


    Soon, she would cocoon in the safety of this dragon¡¯s tail and emerge victoriously as a true queen! Not in a way that would permanently harm her new kin, of course.


    She was nervous when the hatchling began to head deeper into the forest, dragging its tail, and by extension the lump she made while within its flesh, behind its long sinuous form.


    She was happy that this ¡°Wyrmwood¡± had named itself as one aligned with the swamp, yet why did it keep moving farther away from her original home?! She was going to have a very hard time getting back at this rate! If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The quiet clearing was interesting, with how it gave off such ominous mana signatures.


    The dryad was terrifying! She could instantly tell it naturally fed on her kind!


    The gryphon, though, infuriated her. The mana it gave off spoke of pompousness, unending pride in its species, and a hatred for all lizard-kind! She could feel it, the gryphon wanted to be a king, nay a tyrant! It wanted to dominate and mock all others! Such a perversion of the qualities her mother had shown a ruler to need was unforgivable!


    Yet, she could not yet act on her anger, for she was not yet a queen herself. The feathered dragon, ¡®Mayflare¡¯ he called himself, was quite charming to Veronica. She liked his dialect and his caring nature. He had even saved her and her kin from that awful gryphon! More than once! There was only one problem.


    That dreadful tail whipping motion he taught Wyrmwood. She had felt her kin¡¯s energy and mana collecting and building like a tidal wave as it approached her and the tail tip. Seconds later, she was dizzily trying to make sense why her head hurt so much!


    Mayflare had basically taught her kin to bludgeon her, a future queen, upon their enemies! It was shameful! The first dark spot of shame in her life!


    Yet, she let it slide for her kin¡¯s sake. Wyrmwood was still just a hatchling and didn¡¯t know any better. She was pretty sure that he hadn¡¯t even realized that his tail was swollen because she was living inside it!


    ~~~


    And it all led up to this moment. Her kin lay severed in half, creating blessed mud with his own blood. The tyrant cawing mockingly at him as her kin, her brother, laid there unconscious and bleeding out.


    She couldn¡¯t let it end like this, she couldn¡¯t let him die like this! There was only one choice available. One way to save both him and herself. Yet it was a heavy one.


    If Veronica truly bonded with the dragon¡¯s flesh¡­ she could give them a fighting chance. Her mastery of her kin¡¯s inner workings, that is, the other entities living symbiotically within Wyrmwood, would let her work miracles.


    However, she would lose the chance to ever be autonomous again. Her physical form would become one with Wyrmwood and they would be two minds in one body.


    She hesitated for just a moment¡­


    Before beginning the bonding. She was a queen. And a true queen did not abandon their precious kin!


    ~~~


    The gryphon smugly stood over the detestable lizard. Even though it was but a hatchling, it had proven surprisingly deadly. That single tail strike had heavily injured it. But it wouldn¡¯t let its, far more noble, life end here! Like the first bird to wake in the morn, it had beaten this worm! Wyrm?


    The gryphon scoffed, there was hardly a difference, wasn¡¯t there. They would soon both be what this magnificent one feasted on!


    ..!


    The gryphon quickly turned its head! It had seen movement. Yet, it was just the worm¡¯s lower half, seemingly twitching. The gryphon idly wondered if both halves could survive and regrow like an actual worm. Not that it would give them the chance!


    It flung a wind cutter spell at the twitching tail, when the tail suddenly avoided it?! The gryphon watched in shock as two fuzzy antennae grew from the tail, just behind that dangerously hard cone at the end! Said cone had cracked all the way across, for the second time when it had struck the gryphon, creating a +-shaped crack.


    That crack now opened up to reveal a hidden maw! The underside of the hard shell was lined with hundreds of small, grub-like, tendrils that constantly squirmed! It would have been appetizing to the gryphon if it wasn¡¯t so shocked.


    The once-hidden maw let out a breathy, buzzing hiss. It sounded like a snake had swallowed a bunch of mosquitoes. The gryphon fully turned to its new target.


    Whatever this thing was it was-


    With a twitch of an antenna, the thing lunged! As it chomped down just under the gryphon¡¯s beak, the gryphon felt a long proboscis stab into it! It shrieked in outrage and tried to shake the wyrm¡¯s weird bottom half off by stomping around and clawing at it, yet the thing¡¯s inner grub-like tendrils dug into the gryphon¡¯s flesh helping hold it firm!


    The gryphon was starting to lose strength fast, it could feel this thing sucking its blood out! It was truly desperate! It angled its neck towards the nearest tree and ran at it, intent on slamming this threat into paste! It was confident it would kill this thing and feast on the hatchling¡¯s flesh to re-invigorate itself. Then it would be strong enough to finally kill that feathered lizard! It would rule this forest! Nothing could sto-


    *SNAP*


    ~~~


    Veronica had retracted her proboscis and detached as the gryphon ran at the tree trunk, rather astonished when it didn¡¯t seem to notice and continued running full speed while angling its neck at the trunk.


    Her fluffy antenna twitched at the loud snap that sounded out as the bird-brain broke its own neck. It was kind of funny, but she didn¡¯t have time to care right now. Both of Wyrmwood¡¯s halves were still bleeding out right now!


    She aligned her side of the midsection stump with his and pressed them together. It hurt like nothing else, the pain making her mind go nearly full white, yet she needed to stay conscious for the process to work. She commanded the flesh knit back together, and the discolored spots along their body suddenly moved and converged on the cut!


    The dragon flesh along that area felt like it was boiling, and there was a sizzling sensation as the two halves reconnected.


    When it was finally done, Veronica was exhausted, yet satisfied. Her antennae protrusions retracted back into their tail¡¯s flesh, to keep the delicate appendages safe, as she too fell unconscious, dreaming of the day when they would surely rule the world, together.


    ~~~

 Ch 14- Sidney Fights A World Boss!

    ~~~


    Okay, so, Sidney might have been a bit optimistic before.


    *KLONG*


    He winced as his already heavily dented and battered shield managed to just barely deflect another blow from the dullahan.


    Sidney had known that, as a ¡®defender¡¯ he hadn¡¯t really had any actual chance of beating all these higher ranking undead alone. But he had thought back-up would have arrived by now! With a world boss¡¯s appearance it should have been announced to all the adventurers nearby! He¡¯d eat his own shield before he believed anyone dumb enough to be in these woods would run from a world boss! He¡¯d even sent his party ahead to gather the-


    *SKREEEK*


    The dullahan used its massive broadsword almost like a club. Each powerful strike denting or cutting into Sidney¡¯s beloved shield more with each successive strike.


    A dullahan was known to materialize upon the spot of death where someone beyond anger had died. Some say it was God making a joke about someone literally ¡®losing their head.¡¯


    Based on how it occasionally turned towards a banshee being protected by some decidedly male zombies¡­ it wasn¡¯t hard for Sidney to piece together why this particular dullahan came to be.


    Heck, Sidney might even wager that one of those zombies showing off for her might have been what had killed them! Just another example why Sidney thought falling in love was stupid.


    Another gout of sickly turquoise flames flared over Sidney¡¯s head as the rotting timburn seemingly tried to burn the quetzalcoatl from the sky. Yet the feathered dragon was too fast! It whipped and moved through the sky like a living whip, able to continuously dodge while knocking branches off with thunderous strikes!


    Despite that it clearly still wasn¡¯t enough. The timburn had hundreds of branches that unwaveringly reached for the quetzalcoatl, not to mention the inferno still blazing within its trunk!


    Just as things started to feel desperate once again, an arrow impacted the dullahan¡¯s arm hard enough for its next strike to miss Sidney altogether, slamming the massive sword into the ground next to Sidney hard enough to crater it.


    ¡°Hey!¡± A gravelly voice bellowed as a figure stepped out into the clearing. It was a massive bear-kin standing at what must have been 8ft tall, decked in heavy armor and holding¡­ a rapier? Well that was unexpected. ¡°Did you really think you could start the party without us?!¡±


    The roar of the dead was met with an equally impressive cry as the edge of the clearing seemed to explode with adventures, like an ant nest had been kicked! Sidney couldn¡¯t help but take a knee in exhausted relief as he was ignored in favor of these new attackers.


    The adventurers had formed ranks as many that came to this forest were well experienced with working as a sudden army when things like this happened. The appearance of raid bosses was decently common in this world, so a world boss was just a step up from that¡­ or so they figured.


    A row of shields blocked the first wave of undead, the ¡®defenders¡¯ resolutely pushing back the horde. Behind them, the ¡®attackers¡¯ had been handed spears that they now thrust out through the gaps that the ¡®defenders¡¯ made for them. Above them were the flying races that did battle with the flying undead, swooping and swerving around each other as they danced between the willow-wisps. Next was the ¡®supporters¡¯ casting healing, buffs, and debuffs. And finally, behind them, was the ¡®rangers¡¯ casting spells, shooting arrows, throwing stones, one of them had somehow even created an entire catapult on the spot that they were having help with to launch bigger things!


    ¡­Which of course meant Sidney was actually in the line of fire! He deflected a poorly(?) aimed arrow that would have gone right through his eye.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    He must look like quite the sight if they had mistaken him for one of the undead! This probably sounded stupid if he said it aloud, but Sidney decided he¡¯d have a better chance taking on the single world boss behind him than the army of adventurers that thought he was an undead.


    Keeping an eye out for more projectiles, he turned and tiredly headed toward the bigger fight.


    The massive magic circle in the sky continued to draw in a disturbing amount of magic power as it readied to cast. Thankfully, that and the quetzalcoatl it was fighting, was enough to distract In¡¯Fern¡¯Al from the fact that Sidney had begun to climb up it.


    As an adventurer, Sidney knew that a timburn¡¯s weakness was the core in its trunk. If you had some way to put out the fire, or otherwise reach the core, you could do massive damage to it.


    The charred wood was surprisingly sturdy. Enough for Sidney to climb up without his handholds crumbling under his weight. He was quickly learning that it was freakishly difficult to climb a living organism, especially as it thrashed and moved in battle! Each blow the feathered dragon dealt made the whole tree shudder, threatening to dislodge him and send him plummeting down the already considerable distance he had climbed.


    Yet, it wasn¡¯t for naught, as the raging inferno of the hole through its trunk was now directly above him. He¡¯d had to tie his shield to his back awkwardly, so that it would catch any of the burning sap that dripped from the hole. Despite his high level and many defense buffs, he had to take a moment to prepare himself for what came next, there was no getting around the fact that this was going to hurt¡­ a lot.


    ¡­


    With a sigh, he pulled himself up, into the inferno. Everything immediately hurt so much more. Every spot he had been scraped, battered, bruised, or cut was now subject directly to necrotic flames.


    It wasn¡¯t even just that, as he pushed deeper into the through-hole, he could only hear what sounded like the screams of the dead. Each crackle sounded like a bone being crushed, each sizzle, like someone¡¯s skin being boiled. Sidney couldn¡¯t help but wonder for a moment if he had instantly died and was now trapped in the flames of hell.


    With monumental effort, he powered through the pain and the screams of the blaze, until finally, he found what he sought. A massive hunk of what looked like black, hardened resin. This world boss¡¯s core.


    Sidney raised his shield, using the sharp bottom edge as a spade, and with a shout rivaling the deathly blaze around him, plunged it into the core, shattering it.


    In that instant, time seemed to stop. Sidney could only watch the still world around him in startle fear. Sap, hung in midair, frozen in time, the fire around him unmoving. It was in this terrifying stillness, that a figure stepped out of the core!


    This creature was like nothing Sidney had ever seen! It was terrifying in how mundane it appeared, especially considering its current surroundings!! To put it simply, it was a fern in a business suit. Roots stuck out of well dressed black pants, hands of unknown material were hidden inside dapper, unblemished white gloves, and in place of a head, three healthy fern leaves stuck out from the neck hole, each randomly higher or lower from each other.


    Not being able to do anything else, Sidney remembered to actually try looking at this thing¡¯s status.


    Mr. Fern


    ;)


    What the heck is this thing?! Sidney panicked, still unable to speak or move as the being reached him!


    It lifted up its gloved hand before-


    Patting him on the back?


    ¡°Good job! You did great!¡±


    Its voice sounded young and noble, giving off an air of authority comparable to a prince in their teens.


    ¡°I was really impressed with your drive to push through it all!¡±


    Mr. Fern finally stopped patting Sidney on the back and stood in front of him again, giving Sidney a deep bow.


    ¡°Congratulations on completing level one! I hope to see you again!¡±


    And with that the being turned and walked into the unmoving flames on the other side of the shattered core and out of view.


    Level one? What did that me-


    Sidney woke up to find Saintess Bethany shaking him.


    ¡°Sidney! Sidney!! Don¡¯t you dare die on me! Wake up you angry oaf!!!¡±


    Sidney could only let out a groan of pain, but that was enough to let Bethany know he wasn¡¯t dead yet.


    ¡°Oh, thank heavens! I say you get launched from the timburn when its trunk exploded! That was you right?! How are you not dead?!?!¡±


    Too tired and in pain to answer, Sidney instead looked at the notification going off in his face.


    World boss In¡¯ Fern¡¯ Al defeated.


    Spell neutralized before completion.


    Assigning rewards:


    Unique skill ¡°Undying Will¡± acquired


    ¡°Undying Will¡±


    As long as your resolution holds, you will not die in battle.


    HP locks to a minimum of 1 while in combat.


    Titles unlocked: True Defender, Player in a Bigger Game


    True Defender: You have defended the world from a World Boss as someone of the ¡®Defender¡¯ class.


    Player in a Bigger Game: This was not an accident. Something is coming. Follow the clues, find allies, and beat Its game.


    Sidney let out one more frustrated groan before passing out.


    ~~~

 Part Two: Ch 15- ‘New Friends’

    ~~~


    Wyrmwood woke up feeling absolutely awful. Before even opening his eyes he couldn¡¯t help but let out a groan. His midsection was killing him! It felt like he was being ripped in-


    He jolted awake as his last memories came back to him, quickly checking both himself and his surroundings. The good news was that he was whole again¡­ somehow. The bad news was that he seemed to be trapped in a container made up of unnaturally hard rock. Wyrmwood was relatively certain that Mayflare called these things ¡®cages.¡¯ Something the humanoids loved to stick others in.


    It was mostly solid rock¡­er, metal, it was called metal. It was mostly solid metal, with the exception of some raised slits that let in some decent light and fresh air. There was actually enough room in the cage to adjust his position, if he wanted to, and still have a bit of room leftover. The corners of this cage were rounded, presumably to make sure Wyrmwood was a little more comfortable (?), and, more concerningly, there were no obvious gaps anywhere that might indicate which wall was the way out. While he looked he did find two holes in the roof though. Both of which, of course, were too small to even think of escaping through.


    As much as Wyrmwood wanted to immediately break free from this cage. He didn¡¯t think he had the strength for it. He felt awful, weak, and his midsection was still killing him! When he looked at the spot he saw a giant scar circling the spot. With that area now lacking his scales he could even see that everything around the scar was either raw or bruised looking.


    His cage jolted suddenly, causing him to let out a hiss of pain. He looked through the slits on the wall to hopefully get an idea of what was happening outside.


    To his surprise, not only was his cage on the move, he could also see that wherever they were was significantly less wooded. The trees were getting sparse and shorter and were continuing to be more and more so as the cage continued to move!


    As he watched, an armored centaur rode up into view with a hooded figure on its back, though judging by the unhidden paws Wyrmwood decided it was safe to assume it was also a beastkin. The hooded figure seemed to notice his gaze through the cage slits as a feminine ¡°He¡¯s up!¡± was shouted right after.


    Wyrmwood could hear a commotion outside, yet he still couldn¡¯t really see anyone else and they didn¡¯t slow down for now.


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    ¡°Who?¡± He hissed at the cloaked figure and the centaur she was riding. ¡°Where?¡±


    ¡°Wow, speech capable, are you?¡± She then pulled off her cloak head, revealing the proud visage of a lioness. Her stoic eyes and the way she held herself made Wyrmwood¡¯s draconic instincts tell him she was ¡®regal¡¯ and thus worth his time.


    ¡°I am Princess Fluffy Mittens Scratchalot and you, Lindworm, are my captive.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Wyrmwood asked curiously.


    ¡°Though you¡¯re different from other lindworms, the fact that you are a dragon denotes that you can still wield great power. It is every nations desire to-¡±


    ¡°Princess,¡± The centaur interrupts her. ¡°It''s in our best interests to not give captives our nation¡¯s secrets. Especially not when said captive is an intelligent dragon.¡±


    The lioness rolls her eyes, a gesture unseeable to the centaur she is riding on the back of.


    ¡°Yes, Philip, I know. But as this dragon will eventually be a part of our kingdom¡¯s forces, it''s important that it knows who holds the carrot and stick.¡±


    The armored centaur Philip sighs tiredly in the same way that Mayflare had when having to repeat something to Wyrmwood for the tenth time. ¡°Princess, You¡¯ve been warned multiple times that that phrase is derogatory to our herbivorous citizens. Scout Jackie is nearby and you know how good her hearing is, do you really wish to be scolded again?¡±


    Wyrmwood watches with growing annoyance as a shudder goes through Princess Fluffy. ¡°You are quite right once again Sir Philip, Scout Jackie is-¡±


    Annoyed at being ignored for the first time in his admittedly short life, Wyrmwood cuts in. ¡°You... want¡­ me fight?¡± Wyrmwood had to speak slowly and haltingly. The beastkin language wasn¡¯t hard to understand since an appreciable amount of the growls and hisses overlapped with the draconic language. It was, however, difficult for Wyrmwood to properly pronounce the many different squeaks that were also included. His naturally raspy throat made such squeaks a proverbial, and occasionally literal, pain in the neck.


    ¡°Yes, but not until you¡¯ve properly grown of course.¡± The Princess immediately answers back. ¡°In a decade perhaps, you will be expected to repay our service with your own.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because all the nations-¡±


    ¡°Princess!¡± The centaur once again cuts her off.


    Sighing, the Princess turns to focus her attention forward now, facing wherever direction it is that they are heading.


    ¡°Look, we might talk later, once we are camping out for the night. Until then it''s best that you rest. We did find you unconscious and half dead after all. I¡¯m interested in hearing how a dragon hatchling killed an adult griffin.¡±


    Wyrmwood was quite surprised by that bit of news, but didn¡¯t say anything. Instead, he coiled up in his cage and tried to get some sleep. His mind kept repeating what the Princess had said at the end. ¡°I¡¯m interested in hearing how a dragon hatchling killed an adult griffin.¡±


    ¡°So am I.¡± Wyrmwood mumbled in draconic.


    ¡°It was me, stupid.¡± A shriller, yet still raspy voice answered back from his tail. The hard, cone-shaped tip of his tail moved in front of his face all on its own and opened up to reveal a wriggling maw inside, with a sharp insectile proboscis slightly poking out of the back!


    ¡°!!!¡±


    Wyrmwood did not yelp. No matter what anyone else tells you.


    ~~~

 Ch 16- Wyrmwood Has a Sister?!

    ~~~


    ¡°Hush you daft fool!¡± Wyrmwood¡¯s tail hissed at him. He was confused how she was talking to him without moving her mouth¡­ in a way to make words, that is. The inside of her mouth never seemed to fully stop wriggling in some way.


    ¡°We are of one body now, you dummy!¡± She snapped at him, both in his mind and her physical tail-mouth.


    ¡°Stop answering me before I even say anything!¡± Wyrmwood complained petulantly in his mind.


    It wasn¡¯t specifically words, he could feel ideas, images, and even emotions being passed between him and¡­ someone else.


    His tail groaned in annoyance, but at the very least stopped talking.


    ¡°Now, who are you?¡± Wyrmwood tried to start again.


    His tail rose up above him, the insectile proboscis fully extending out from the mouth well past his tail¡¯s natural cone shape, almost like a lance, as two very fluffy antennae seemed to grow right out of the tail¡¯s flesh, gently pushing his (their?) scales aside right behind the ridge where the incredibly hard tail tip met draconic scale and flesh!


    ¡°I am her royal highness, Queen Veronica of the Buzzing Bog!¡± She proclaimed regally. Her voice ringing through his head was comparable to a velociraptor being eaten by a swarm of wasps.


    ¡°At least, I was going to be.¡± She grumbled, her voice moving back down to that of a lizard and a few flies.


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    ¡°Then you had to go and get yourself killed. You¡¯re incredibly lucky that not only are you kin of the Bog, but that I also happened to be using you as a host at the time!¡±


    ¡°Kin of the Bog? Wait, you were living inside of me?!¡± Wyrmwood was greatly disturbed!


    For all of his still brief life had thought that his bulging tail end was just another strangeness about him, another deformity added to the pile he already had.


    As he fully re-examined the end of his tail, he finally noticed that the strange bulge was gone, his body now uniformly slender all the way to the end.


    ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a technicality, but you were born from the bog, so you¡¯re kin. No matter how much of a pain you¡¯ve been for me.¡± She hedged with a grumble.


    ¡°What do you mean by ¡®got yourself killed¡¯?¡± Wyrmwood asked next. ¡°I¡¯m alive now aren¡¯t I?¡± Retracting the sharp proboscis, his tail promptly smacked him on the head. ¡°OW!!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re only alive now because I basically gave you mine!¡± Veronica snapped at him in annoyance. ¡°If you had just lived long enough for my gestation to finish I would have emerged as an unstoppable queen!¡±


    ¡°Emerged?¡± Wyrmwood looked at his tail with a cautious grimace. ¡°Like, out of my flesh?¡±


    ¡°¡­ you would have survived it! ¡­probably.¡± Veronica mumbled the last part in his mind.


    There was an awkward silence in the moving cage, the only sound being that of the heavy wheels beneath turning and the ¡®clip clop¡¯ sound of the centaur outside.


    ¡°Look, I¡¯ve just regained consciousness and we appear to be trapped by humanoids and are being taken somewhere. Let¡¯s just focus on that for now, okay? I don¡¯t really know how to feel about one of my body parts suddenly speaking to me.¡± Wyrmwood tried with a feeling of growing frustration.


    In all honesty, he had been tempted more than once already to bite the source of the rude voice. Veronica clearly didn¡¯t yet understand that the position of queen meant nothing to a prideful dragon! But biting his own tail sounded both useless and embarrassing! He would not succumb to such demeaning behavior! As a dragon he was above such-


    ¡°You¡¯re not even going to thank me?!¡± Veronica whined.


    ~~~


    When the procession came to a halt, one of the guards glanced into the cage to find the strange Wyrm gnawing on the end of its tail.


    Turning to their leader they asked, ¡°are you sure this thing is intelligent, princess?


    ~~~

 Ch 17- Into the Pass

    ~~~


    It was a few days before there were any noticeable changes. The princess¡¯s guards continuously forbade her from further speaking to Wyrmwood.


    It turned out that the two holes at the top of his cage were for dispensing food and water. The food was a bit sparse, raw meat from some beast that Princess Fluffy had supposedly hunted herself. One of the few things she had been allowed to say to him was that he¡¯d get properly fed once they got back to the Beastkin capital.


    Wyrmwood was NOT looking forward to it. He and Veronica had agreed to take turns keeping watch of his, (they didn¡¯t know about Veronica), captors.


    With nothing else to do, Wyrmwood had decided it was best to rest and rebuild his strength. The bruises around his midsection had mostly gone away at this point, yet a scar remained.


    It was on the third night of him being conscious during this group''s travel that there was a noticeable change.


    The air smelled different from the forest, which made sense because there weren¡¯t any trees in sight, just long grass and brush. There were no longer as many bumps as the cage moved though, Veronica told him they had probably reached a ¡°road¡± which is supposedly a well worn animal trail meant for humanoids.


    Wyrmwood considered it pretentious that the bipeds thought they deserved their own trails to be big enough to cut through nature.


    The other change was that there was now a massive mountain range stretching out into the horizon, assumedly on both sides, though Wyrmwood couldn¡¯t be sure as he only had the one barred window.


    As their captors made camp for the night, Princess Fluffy walked up to the cage. Now that he actually looked, she was still wearing the same clothes as when he¡¯d first seen her, a regal looking thick defensive coat with durable riding pants. Wyrmwood growled at the sight of her. He wasn¡¯t going to play nice with anything that restricted him like this.


    The Princess, however, just grins at his reaction.


    ¡°Glad to see you¡¯ve still got plenty of fight in you.¡±


    ¡°What want?!¡± Wyrmwood hissed out.


    ¡°Easy there champ,¡± Fluffy laughed, ¡°I was just going to inform you that we¡¯re going to be going through the Chantico mountain range tomorrow.¡±


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    Wyrmwood was honestly a little intimidated by the pure ferocity in her grin. The flickering campfire casting flickering shadows across her lustrous golden fur.


    ¡°Things are bound to get¡­ ¡®interesting¡¯ in the pass.¡±


    ¡°Why tell?¡± Wyrmwood huffed, though it was actually more of a wheeze. ¡°I¡¯m trapped.¡±


    The Princess stared at Wyrmwood with a strange look.


    ¡°She¡¯s ¡®taking your measure.¡¯¡± Veronica whispered into his mind.


    Wyrmwood harrumphed proudly at that. ¡°I am quite long.¡±


    The impromptu staring contest was broken as Wyrmwood¡¯s tail smacked him on the head, eliciting a surprised screech from him.


    ¡°Not literally, you dolt! She¡¯s trying to figure out your personality!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t hit me!¡± He screeched out loud in outrage at the rebellious appendage before attacking it. He didn¡¯t even notice the Princess bursting into laughter as she walked back to the campfire.


    ~~~


    The mountain pass was oppressively quiet. The silence made all the sounds of his captor¡¯s procession echo off the steep cliffs on both sides of the deep ravine. The only other sound being a constant small burbling of the creek on one side of the large pass.


    The tighter spaces with seemingly nowhere to hide actually had an upside for Wyrmwood, as they had forced the Princess¡¯s entourage to huddle up as they moved. This gave Wyrmwood a chance to actually see more beastkin. He thought they were strange as they didn¡¯t look as deadly as just about anything in the Forest he was born in.


    He especially noticed that aside from the Princess, there were hardly any predators, herbivorous beastkin being the most common. They had many different clothes, likely because of their jobs and vastly different physiques. Just to list a few, there was a smaller beastkin in full heavy armor, probably a mousekin seeing as it had a long worm-like tail trailing along behind it, being carried by a large beefy looking birdkin of some kind with brown feathers and wore a much more form fitting outfit made of mostly straps and belts.


    Wyrmwood didn¡¯t know much about birds that could fly. Mayflare had said that he was distantly related to a cockatrice though. Those are birds, right?


    ¡°If we ever meet a cockatrice, I¡¯m going to figure out how to speak, just so I can tell them you thought that.¡± Veronica deadpanned in Wyrmwood¡¯s mind.


    ¡°Whatever,¡± he huffed.


    There was also a dog beastkin¡­ or was it a kobold? They had red fur, were wearing leather armor, and were keeping up by running on all fours. The Princess was still riding the armored centaur.


    Wyrmwood was passing the time observing all the beastkin that passed by his barred window as his captors traveled at speed through this ravine, when a crack and a rumble sounded out! The sudden loud noise echoed off of the walls of this quiet place like thunder before the large birdkin chirped in a surprisingly melodious female voice.


    ¡°Princess! Rocks from above!¡±


    There was shouting and Wyrmwood felt his cage swerve and nearly tip over as it dodged a danger he wasn¡¯t able to see.


    *KATHOOM*


    The cage actually bounced into the air and Wyrmwood was given a few seconds of simply floating in the air before gravity pulled him and his cage back down with a *THUMP*. Thankfully it was nowhere near as bad as when he¡¯d been thrown against that tree by the gryphon. Wyrmwood still didn¡¯t like this though and made his displeasure known with a screech from within the cage that went ignored.


    ¡°Polly and Wormtail, see if you can scout out the cause of that rockfall! Sasha and Bucky, stick close to the cage and don¡¯t let the beasts pulling the carriage go wild or get loose! Bloodmoon, run ahead and inform the scouts that we¡¯re alright but might be expecting company!¡± Princess Fluffy immediately ordered to her soldiers right after the rockfall stopped.


    Wyrmwood heard a howl as the dogkin/kobold quickly passed by his barred view, they were probably Bloodmoon. He couldn¡¯t see anything else that was going on, so it was another surprise when the Princess suddenly yelled,


    ¡°Fey attack!¡±


    ~~~

 Ch 18- Fey Attack!

    ~~~


    Princess Fluffy Mittens Scratchalot was actually having a great time!


    As the ¡°Lioness Princess¡± of the only beastkin kingdom on the continent, she didn¡¯t often get the chance to leave her kingdom¡¯s territory. The first half of the trip had been more or less what she¡¯d expected. A slow journey through the pass and into the most dangerous forest on the world. (Distant rumors say there might be an underground forest even more dangerous somewhere deep.)


    The battles had been quite thrilling at first, but one could only be excited for so long before frustration set in at not being allowed to actually fight the monsters.


    Her confidants and advisors always spouted the same things: you¡¯re too important to risk, the whole point of us being here is to protect you, please just stay out of the way for once¡­ actually she really needed to give that last one a stern talking to for his glib tongue.


    When she had chosen who to take on this expedition, she had purposefully chosen the more ¡°free thinking¡± individuals expressly so she wouldn¡¯t have this problem, what could have gone wrong?!


    Probably her father, the wolf-kin king. For all of his sternness and regal bearing, even she herself had to admit that he tried to spoil her too often.


    He once executed a poison taster for ¡°sampling too much of her birthday cake.¡± It was her birthday and he was just doing his job for goodness sake! She had actually rather liked that guy.


    Anyway, while they were scouting out the deeper forest area one of her scouts happened upon a curious scene! Not only had they found their target, an interestingly long lindworm of some kind, but it was completely unconscious, lying near a giant gryphon corpse!


    The find and capture was so easy that everyone involved suspected it was a trap the whole time! Then they got the system emergency mission notice, as well as its apparent completion almost directly after. They must have barely gotten into range right at the end of the quest, something that happened infrequently in the adventuring business. At least, that¡¯s what her advisors told her.


    The lindworm hatchling had awoken on the second day of heading back and it had spoken to her! None of the dragons they used for war or labor in her kingdom could speak as far as she knew! She was elated to learn something new! Though, its voice was¡­


    The princess couldn¡¯t help but wonder if dragons could get sick, because this dragon sounded like it was halfway in the grave. Its words were quite raspy, but also rather nasal? It could also simply be that the thing was still too young and its voice would grow with it. She simply had no way of knowing.


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    Their expedition¡¯s dragon expert had died to a pack of termutts. Creepy bug dog things with patchy fur, a big bug head, and a habit of killing things by infection from all the plant detritus the monsters¡¯ diet mostly consisted of. He had died two days after the actual attack when he came down with petroemia. A nasty sickness that quickly petrifies its host''s blood, solidifying them from the inside out like some kind of reverse-petrification spell.


    Still, he had been one of only three deaths! That would be a new record for an expedition if they could all just make it back now!


    Which is, of course, exactly when the rocks fell from somewhere high up on the ravine¡¯s sides. Two knights hadn¡¯t been able to move fast enough and had been crushed instantly as the boulders, some as large as the heavily armored carriage they had to hatchling in, smashed into the bottom of the ravine in quick yet earthquake-inducing secession.


    With her adrenaline pumping more heavily through her than ever before, she did the first thing that came to mind and dullied out orders, needing to lean rather heavily on her leadership training as she did her best to make sure her people were prepared for whatever this might be.


    She soon realized what must have happened when she noticed glittering dust slowly falling in their direction.


    ¡°Fey attack!¡± She shouted warningly to her compatriots. Those darn elves and their trickster allies would pay for this!


    ¡°Pixie dust!¡± Someone else warned.


    ¡°Don¡¯t breathe it in!¡± Another shouted the obvious.


    Pixie dust can have a variety of effects on those who happen to inhale it. A heavily psychedelic effect being the most well known. Her kingdom was constantly digging out smuggling operations that trafficked the stuff as it was also known to be rather addictive.


    Using her garment¡¯s elbow as a makeshift mask, she yelled out orders.


    ¡°Mages! Hurry up and blow this dust away already!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re trying Princess!¡± replied the lead wizard. ¡°But with the ravines'' natural geology we don¡¯t really have much wind mana to work with!¡±


    The Princess¡¯s guardian knight and steed lifted his shield just in time to deflect an arrow! *Kaink!*


    ¡°Archer from above!¡± The centaur shouted out in warning, ¡°Princess, we need to keep going and get out of this ravine as quickly as possible!¡±


    There was a cry of pain as one of the mages was struck in the shoulder with an arrow. It was all happening too suddenly and too fast for Princess Fluffy.


    ¡°Y-yes Quincy, you are quite right,¡± She agreed with her centaur knight/steed.


    ¡°FORWARD!¡± Quincy bellowed authoritatively, ¡°Focus on protecting one another! The armored carriage can take a beating, so try to use it as cover if you can! NOW GO!¡±


    And with that they were all racing through the ravine. High up on the sides of the ravine, Princess Fluffy could barely make out the figure of elves peeking over the sides of their ledges to take disturbingly accurate pot-shots at her expeditionary force as they moved past as fast as they could. Three more of her kin were downed by the rain of arrows before they saw the opening that signified the exit out of this death trap. She let out a growl of anger when she saw that the Fey had made a barricade in an attempt to close off the exit.


    Thankfully, her scouts, though obviously greatly diminished, were already halfway through taking it down. The quickly grown brambles were thankfully not very effective against the burly badger beastkin she¡¯d happened to have recruited.


    ¡°Make way!¡± She shouted to the scouts in warning. ¡°Everyone, behind the armored carriage, we¡¯re smashing straight through!¡± She silently apologized to the hatchling likely being thrown about within said carriage.


    With a mighty crash and a sound similar to cannon fire, the way was cleared all at once as the block of metal on wheels absolutely decimated the barricade made of wood, likely as hard as lesser metal!


    And just like that, they were through! They didn¡¯t even slow down yet, though. They moved fast and hard along the base of the mountains until they were safely out of the territorial greyzone that most ways into the inner continent consisted of.


    ~~~