Chapter 24

Nigel Skyclaw

I am Nigel Skyclaw the next head of the Skyclaw wind dragon family in the dragon tribe. A lot of the dragon tribes can be very formal and follow etiquette very closely even amongst themselves. Our family is much more close to each other because we drop formalities with each other. We are only formal when interacting with another family. I am happy about this because it has allowed me to spoil and play with my younger siblings as much as I want without restraint. My little brother has always followed me and grew up trying to be just like me and our father. My little sister was very special. She was born as a rare storm dragon and because of that, she attracted a lot of attention.

Other families would normally have prearranged marriages for the children from the day they were born, but we did not follow this custom. We would always marry for love in our family so when all the families came to our house to try and tie Saras to them we had to refuse all of them. These families new our policies but had still kept pestering us. Eventually, we had to allow those families children to interact with Saras. We thought maybe she will actually find someone she likes this way. Instead of playing and having fun with the other children Saras would actually act cold to them so we realized Saras seems to have a very good intuition towards people. She would instead love to play with her brothers Drew and I. We got along so great with our little sister that we couldn't help but to spoil her and constantly play with her whenever she wanted. We still had obligations to allow the other families children to interact with Saras but she did not respond to any of them. Even when she gave them the cold shoulder they had assumed this was her personality so they did not give up on their marriage ideas. We decided that the best thing to do was to just ignore their advances and let them believe what ever they want.

We spent years following the same pattern of days. Saras would see some of the boys that believed they had her heart and then she would come and train with us before playing. She had amazing abilities because she was a rare variant, but she just enjoyed playing around most of the time. She already had incredible strength but she was too young and naive. I remember all those time she would become upset and the valley would be covered in a storm until we managed to calm her down using various means. Sometimes we would simply coax her with words, sometimes we would even trick her with sweets, and sometimes we would actually have to make her pass out. We only had to revert to these extremes whenever she was truly upset and a very powerful storm was raging.

Eventually, the time had come for Saras to go on her journey to experience the other races and cultures. I remember when I went on my journey and I enjoyed all the experiences and I was able to bring back souvenirs for everyone in my family. I didn't stay away for very long because I didn't actually socialize much with others as to avoid attachment. It did get lonely sometimes but overall it wasn't that hard considering it is just a small portion of my life. My parents had actually wanted to keep Saras home instead of sending her on the journey. We were all actually surprised at how excited Saras seemed about going on this journey so we sent her on her way for her journey.

She went on her journey to start her journey and we all continued with our own lives while we waited for her return. We knew how excited she was to go and explore the world so we expected her to be gone for a long time. That is why we were surprised that she had returned in just one year. Saras returned injured and with some weird girl that had dragon scales and she had black features. We were all shocked and worried as she told us her story. We didn't tell Saras but after her story we sent out some dragons to investigate this and if there's any group or even Kingdom responsible for hurting her we are already planning on destroying them. Saras was completely focused on the girl named Eva after she returned. She was completely obsessed with making sure Eva was all right. Even when the girl attacked our parents and her, Saras kept defending her and making sure she wasn't harmed. When Saras wasn't around I even told my parents we should put that girl down, but the denied it. Over time we noticed that the only time we saw Saras now was at small intervals of when the girl was apparently sleeping. Saras just kept on going back every single day to take care of the girl and then coming back to tell us about what she talked about today with Eva and then she would go to sleep herself. I noticed that overtime Saras told us about her day that Eva didn't actually say anything to Saras. It seems as though she just sitting in her cell most of the time while also doing some simple workouts. We couldn't understand why Saras wanted to keep taking care of this girl and when we offered to have someone else do it Saras denied our offer immediately saying she doesn't trust others.

We had some of our people actually go to the girl's kingdom to look her up and we learned that she had runaway a year ago from her kingdom. She apparently wasn't very popular among her own people. They all believed she was either a mana mutant of some other kind of monster. She had runaway after a duel with her brother that she won before banishing her brothers master. She was missing for six months before she fought Saras. She was brought here and now it has been six months that we've had her locked up and she hasn't said a single word since the first day. We found out that her family is still looking for her and apparently they have intensified their search since they found the sight of Saras and Eva’s battle. We still haven't decided to contact her kingdom yet about us having her.

We had actually finally found a clue to the story that mentions a dragon giving a human a heart in the past. Apparently, the story is true and the dragon tribe at the time had been disgusted by the incident so they banished them out of the valley. Years later the dragon's family went to look for her and when they did they saw that she had a nice family growing and had human offspring with incredible magic capabilities. The only problem was that the dragon and the human had unstable feelings for each other. They seemed like they couldn't bare to be separated from each other. Apparently, at the time they said that they are connected with each other and share everything without even speaking. They didn't go into details in the records that we had, but there was a note saying this situation should definitely be avoided in the future.

This piece of news had us all worried about what will become of Saras. She has already been very obsessed with taking care of Eva so we worried if it will become more intense feeling for her. While we were worrying Zane mentioned that both the human and dragon had both changed while Eva seems to completely disregard Saras. We decided that we need to speak with Eva without Saras alone so after a lot of persuading Saras agreed to take a day off from taking care of the girl. She agreed but not without making us promise not to bully Eva. I did feel a little hurt that Saras assumed we would be mean to the girl when all we wanted to do was ask some questions.

So with mother watching Saras Zane, Drew and I make our way towards the prison. We arrive at the heavily fortified gate at the bottom of a cliff. There are only two guards watching the entrance, but currently, we have only one prisoner here so its pretty much enough. We go inside and make our way to the only occupied cell. Inside the cell its dark with only candlelight from outside the cell to illuminate our surroundings. Inside the cell we see one girl sitting cross-legged with her hands folded in her lap. Her entire body is covered in chains that are attached to the back of the cell. The entire cell is so quite that you can even hear the slight breeze that flows through the cell. The atmosphere changes when the girl opens her eyes and stares at us expressionlessly. Her eyes are like a black void as she stares at us and I cant help, but feel uncomfortable. Before I felt a little guilty about locking up such a young girl with so much chains, but now that I look into her eyes I feel as if she can easily kill me.

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“Miss Lemuria we wanted to ask you some questions so I hope you will answer. We wanted to know if your feelings for Saras has changed in any way.” Zane starts things off by going straight to the point. Eva has been analyzing us for a while now but shows no signs of responding. “Miss Lemuria you seem much calmer than six months ago. Before your temper seemed to be very unstable now you seem different so you must have a better understanding of your own emotions. So please tell us what you feel about Saras.” Her eyes momentarily widened when we mentioned the time she's been here before she looked slightly away to ponder before looking back at us without responding.

“Tell me how you feel about Seras! We need to know because it's important.” I decide to try and intimidate her, but her expression doesn't change. So I decided to tell her why. I start to explain to her the story of the past dragon and human. She has various reactions though out the story, but every action is very slight making it so I can barely read her. We had wanted her to calm down before, but it seems she has a whole new kind of calm. I finish the story and she stands up before walking forward with the chains rattling the whole time.

“Hatred. I feel nothing but hatred for her and the rest of you.” Eva's voice is hoarse from not speaking for so long and her face is completely blank as she answers my question, but I can see the hatred in her eyes. “Do you expect me to just suddenly start to feel anything else for the one who had killed me? She then cursed me while you locked me up.” She lifts up her arm and this is the first time I have personally seen her black scales that match her other features. “I don't care what she feels for me or what any of you think. I feel only hatred burning inside me.” She then walks to the back corner of her cell to sit back down. She closes her eyes to signal that she is done answering our questions.

I don't think we would be able to persuade her to speak anymore so I lead us out of the prison. I don't think she was lying at all either. Either Eva and Saras are different from the human and dragon in the past and Saras truly wants to help Eva or for some reason, only Saras is being affected by giving her heart away to Eva. For now, the only thing we can do is keep observing Sarasand make sure her behavior doesn't become more out of control. I think it would also be fine to send someone to inform the Lemuria Kingdom of this. I will have to wait to ask the council first though.

“Brother, did you bully Eva?” While we were flying back home we were intercepted by Saras. She's actually in her true form even though she usually stays in her humanoid for lately. “You better have been nice to her. I can tell if you weren’t.”

“How can you tell? That girl shows no reaction to things and she only spoke a few words.” I don't want to tell her that those few words were about her hatred for Saras and the rest of us.

“Eh, when I'm with her I just know. So if she's in the worst mood later ill blame you. She's already usually upset anyway.” Saras

“Why is she usually upset? If she's upset you don't have to constantly take care of her if she's being mean to you.”

“She’s upset because she hates me. Even if she hates me I won't stop trying to make up for what I have done to her until she tells me to. Since she doesn't speak then its fine. If anything I am a little upset she talked to you and not me.” Saras seems to already completely understand that girl. She explains that she's hated as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. I really don't like my little sister acting this way. She's been loved since she was born, but now she speaks as if being hated by this girl is a good thing. The other families in the tribe have been trying to get her to like them for years, but one girl who would want nothing to do, but kill Saras has her full attention willingly. “I am going to go and give Eva a meal now brother.”

“Miss Saras please wait!” Right as my sister was about to leave some other young dragons fly to where we are. These are the usual young dragons who have been trying to court my sister for years. They all seem to believe that they're one step away from capturing her heart. The one speaking is the strongest red dragon of their generation, Vance Sunspot. He is Zane’s nephew but is completely different because he's arrogant and a typical supremacist. Apparently, his journey only lasted for one year before. He felt that all the other races were beneath dragons and should either be ruled or crushed by dragons. “Miss Saras where are you going? I've heard that you've kept a pet monster since you've returned. Instead of taking care of it yourself you should let someone else take care of it while you come spend some time with me.” Even I must admit that if it wasn't for Vance's mindset he would be a very charming person, but if the overcast that just appeared in the sky says anything its that his approach is wrong.

“Mister Sunspot I will ask that you do not speak so carelessly around me in the future. Eva is someone that is far more important to me than almost anyone else. She is someone that I have given my heart to.” I know that Saras is technically not lying but her choice of wording is definitely to mess with these boys. No one but the family heads knows that Saras literally gave her heart to Eva. These boys have completely shocked faces and some of them quickly turn to disgust and the sky is completely darkened by storm clouds.

“You love a female human enough to say this to me? They are just bugs to us so I could accept you to keep one as a pet if you like. I cant accept you disrespecting me for one of those humans. Now come with us or maybe you're little pet might get hurt when you're not looking.” Oh crap, this is bad. The sky is completely raging now. The rain has started to fall and the wind is picking up. How has Vance not noticed this? These kids should clearly understand that the reason they were told to approach Saras is that she's a powerful storm dragon.

“Vance! You are going too far. You are overstepping your bounds here. I don't know what my brother has told you, but Saras does not belong to you and you will absolutely not touch a guest of the tribe!” Zane

“I will never let anyone hurt her. She already has suffered enough because of me and now you threaten her because of me? I will protect her until she can herself. I have already taken her life so I won't let anything else be taken.” Lighting is pouring down from the sky now and the tornadoes are starting to touch down on the ground. It seems like these kids have finally started to notice that something isn't right. Saras has always been passive before. Now she seems completely intent on protecting Eva no matter what. This is the first time I've ever seen Saras actually use her storm calling consciously. She holds up a claw and lighting strikes it before she swings at the group of young dragons. They don't seem experienced in fighting at all so they don't dodge the attack. All the dragons that were struck are slightly electrocuted, but overall they seem fine besides some static on their bodies.

“What was that? You dare try to scare us away with that. My father is the red dragons family head! How dare you!” Eva doesn't respond but just points up. Everyone including myself looks up to see all the lighting in the storm collecting above us. I now realize that somehow Saras has charged these guys so all the lighting will be attracted to them. I didn't realize that Saras could be so creative with her magic. Her storms don't even use much of her mana besides initializing the storm so all this lighting will cost her almost no mana. Storm dragons seem to be a truly terrifying existence it seems.

“Saras that enough so please stop your attack and clear away the storm. I was on my way to call the heads together anyway so I will remind them that our tribe guest is not to be touched at all and if anyone does they will definitely have a dispute with our family.” Saras pauses, but the storm does slowly disperse and the static leaves their bodies. She turns around and continues to make her way to the prison as if none of this happened.

“Vance I do not approve of the way you have acted today and I will definitely discuss this with you father. As for our guest if I hear a single word about you approaching her I will have your tail. For now on stay away from Saras. Go home while we call the family heads together. Your name will definitely come up in the meeting so I hope you will properly reflect.” Zane seems to be as angry as I am about this incident. I follow him as we make our way to summon the family heads for a meeting to discuss if we should contact the Lemuria Kingdom, what to do about Eva, and to see if any other news has come from outside the valley.