After defying my mother and the sudden wolf hunt, my mind was invaded by a beautiful and powerful feminine voice that echoed in my head.
“My eldest boy has found you endearing, somehow. You shall live a while longer as pets. Behave, for the second his flight of fancy ends and he gets bored of your pathetic selves, you will once more be food for my children. Make your peace so you at least have a dignified end when it comes.”
I am left slack-jawed. Mother speaks! No, no she always spoke, but that mind-bending rune above her head is making me understand. It’s not just one rune, really, the meshwork is the most complex I have seen, with multiple smaller runes being used to prop up the central one. It is a universal translator, or rather, a rune that sends what you mean to other beings’ brains for them to put everything in order, or else I don’t know how there would already be a spell to translate into english. Actually I am confused as to why I am hearing it in english instead of my native tongue, but then I realize that I’ve been thinking mostly in english for the past 10-ish years so it’s not too out of the ordinary.
Well, good news, acting like a kid seeing a puppy on the street and begging their parents to take it home worked. Well, less begging and more screaming “Mine! Mine!” like a seagull, but the point stands. The humans(?) are alive and will keep being alive a while longer. Now I just need to make sure I don’t get hungry around them because fuck do they smell so good… Even after a meal like that my instincts still tell me to grab a nibble and I do not know if I will be able to keep my mind straight forever.
I sigh and curl up between the humans and my siblings, making sure the latter don’t get any funny ideas. I do steal a glance at the beastwoman as she walks over and sits down in the open wooden cage. She doesn’t seem to talk much with the others but she did just tackle an actual mutant wolf despite being tied up, which I have to admit is impressive.
I do not get the chance to observe anything else or even to rest much as mother decides to take us back already.
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Now in the cave, with an extra influx of humans, I find myself wondering what I got myself into. Mother brought them close to our room, but then spoke her short incantation, flashed a rune that glows a steady brown and the very earth shook as a whole room was created in the side of the tunnel. In here she covered the floor and wall with smooth wood, grew soft beds of moss and grass and even brought in one of the sun lamps from the main hallway. One thing to note is that the door was just there for show. It was made up of hanging vines, so you just had to push through a bit. It wasn’t there to keep them in or us out… Maybe she doesn’t imagine them trying to run away? Well, I guess one of them is missing a leg, another is old and encumbered by literal wood, two of them are already chained up and the last one is just a girl with an arm almost burnt off and just enough mana in her entire body to contend with my lungs.
Guess they're not particularly threatening or dangerous like this. And even if they manage to run off, they'd still be in mother's territory. I doubt any of them can outrun her, or hide from all those eyes.
As I see them settling in, I think about how I could be training my dragon breath some more, I could be training to use the runic magic that seems to bend the world to one's will, I could do so many fun things… but now I have people to be worried about and I am pretty sure that their survival is up to me. So while my siblings go towards our hoard, I go into the new room. Instantly I see five sets of eyes... well, four sets and an extra, fixate on me. Aside from the granny and the beast woman, everyone backs away into the farthest wall. Makes sense they'd be scared.
The old woman is my first target, and while for a second I was tempted to claim what would no doubt be the largest core I have ever seen, I throw that thought away and just focus on the branches growing out of her. It reminds me of the unlucky guy who got infested with tree seeds and had branches growing out of his body… Painful and gruesome thing. She doesn’t seem to be in pain though, just sitting with her eyes closed as I sniff around. Her arms and legs look strong for her 80 year old look, so I guess she might be from a sort of rural town or village, having worked the fields and kept to a healthy life? She’s wearing a simple white dress, just like the fire girl, though this one got ruined by the sharp wood.
Maybe from the same place? A cultural thing? I take a look around and notice that these people are probably from a wide range of monetary backgrounds. The boy is wearing rugged pants and a loose shirt that look more like an old sack with cut off holes than actual clothes, the beast woman is wearing something similar but much too tight for her frame, making me think her clothes might break any second, but then there’s the cuffed lady that is wearing a rather beautiful, if simple dress. Sure it seems stained by… fermented fruits? Wine? Yeah she’s high class. Or, was, before being dragon food. Really curious about that story.
Right, where was I? I think I have terrorized the old woman enough. She looks calm, but I can see the shaking of fingers that wasn’t there before, so I move on to the rest. The beast woman is calm as she stares at me, so I stare right back. She looks like a chimera between a fantasy amazonian and a large feline, so I decide to go by cat logic and just slowly blink at her. Not challenging you, just trying to be friendly.
She doesn’t seem interested, or maybe doesn’t get what I’m trying to do, and continues staring. I take a cautious step closer and sniff in her general direction… Yep. She has blood, bone, flesh and predator… or maybe just animal? whatever, that’s a very new and complex affinity, one that, despite eating a bunch of animals, I haven’t seen. So an animal might not be able to get animal affinity? Or is it less of an affinity and more of a condition, curse or even feature of her bloodline? I’ll need to ask when I manage to imitate that translation spell… so maybe a few years? Hope I can keep them alive that long. I don’t know how long mother will have patience with my whims… Seeing that she didn't move to attack me despite having the chance, I rub my head into her, hoping that goes through, then move on.
Next one is the flame girl, who seems at least a bit less scared since I didn't hurt anyone yet. Her arm is a mess… She pulls it close to herself at first, but I keep moving closer regardless so I get to inspect it. Honestly, going by anatomy, I don’t know where she has her muscles. This arm looks worse than any case of anorexia I have ever seen… Like she burnt everything in it for fuel. How it got this bad I don’t know, but the fact that her fingers end in claws instead of nails is certainly intriguing. She looks into my eyes. I see fear and worry. Sorry.
I move on, feeling pressure on my chest. The boy tries to pull back, but seeing as there’s nowhere to go, he ends up going slack. I sniff around and he’s in the worst condition by far. I can see and feel his ribs as I poke his chest, his arm and leg look like they got chopped, messily, but at least they are healed already. Probably been like this for a year or two. His arm is missing up to the shoulder, including missing a bit of said shoulder, but the leg is only gone below the knee, so I guess he could get a prosthesis if anyone knew how to make a good one. Won’t be running any marathons but he might be able to walk more normally some day. Really, unlike the previous three, he doesn’t look to have been changed by magic. No patches of ice, no random frostbite, sure the air around him is a bit colder and his one good eye is a vibrant icy blue, but even then he seems like a normal, but unlucky kid.
That is weird... what is the condition? It's not mana amount, since looking to the side at the rich lady I can see she wasn't changed either. She has green eyes, which might be from the poison, but really? That's it? She is the second best in mana amount and in mana type count, so how come she's the least changed? I move in closer, eager to inspect and see if there's some kind of hidden thing, like poisoned blood or her shadow dancing by itself, but I don't get to check any of that.
She kicks me in the head.
She thrashes as I approach and plants a foot into the side of my head making me back away.
I am angry.
I hear the humans talking in loud whispers between each other, but I do not bother looking at them. I am angry. I saved her life and she dares to hit me? This pathetic girl who only breathes because I decided so dares to hurt me when I have been nothing but kind?!
I open my mouth and the voices are silenced.
I have a few choices, now that I got lungs big enough to hold in reserve more than enough mana for a breath attack, I have been saving different elements just so I wouldn’t get too used to fire. A gale of wind rushes over her, leaving her even more disheveled than she already was. My eyes lock with hers and I can only see fear which snaps me out of it.
That was dangerous. I was a moment’s notice away from breathing out flames or chomping down on her leg and letting lightning run through her body. I was about to kill a woman for being terrified. She was probably kidnapped, tied down with heavy, magical handcuffs, taken to be food for a dragon’s babies, only to now find herself locked up and at the whims of one of said babies.
She is terrified and I was about to kill her for it. It feels like I am cursed. I understood the greed, as riches were literally quantifiable power in this world. I understood the gluttony that drove me to hunt down anything in front of me as I am a quickly growing apex predator with insane mutations being the norm in my aging. But why the pride? I was insulted when Red Tail tried to stand up to me and almost fought him for it, I was annoyed when the big rabbit looked at his herd in the middle of fighting me, I was angry when a terrified woman lashed out against me, her captor.
Every fiber of my being is telling me that the best thing I could do is kill them and devour them. The mana that twists them so easily would be a great boon to my growth, put to proper use… My instincts want me to consume anything that can help me become stronger.
I am being overwhelmed.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
I leave the room, running off towards the nest, then I curl up into myself and pull back from reality. I am in my library and I let out a sigh as the whispers are silenced. I put on some classical orchestra, I need to think and anything more alert would probably send me awake.
My current problem is that I have a hard time controlling my urges, like somebody with a bad case of intrusive thoughts. My siblings, despite supposedly being more “dragon” than me, are doing just fine. Why? It takes a while, or maybe it doesn’t, but I find an answer. Their instincts were fooled, or rather, overwritten by a different instinct. My siblings have their own little hoards, just some crystals of their preferred types and some coins that they like to munch on. When I look around for crystals to use for my training, I instinctively pull away from theirs, and even if I look at a claimed mana crystal, I tend to feel very bad just thinking about taking it.
It’s the same thing now, they look at the humans like tasty food, but their brother already claimed them, successfully, and it feels wrong to try and get a nibble while ignoring that. So how do I do that to myself? I claimed them… but are they really mine? Well, yeah, from everyone’s point of view. However there’s a reason why, despite being the strongest around, I never bothered claiming stuff as mine, and it’s not just because there’s enough here of everything for all of us. All the things we have are, actually, mother’s hoard. She just shared it with us. If she wanted stuff back we wouldn’t be able to say no, so really all we have is hers.
Including the humans. Yeah, just got to think like that. Mother let me use her hoard, but it is still hers. Not food, just borrowed things. I can feel my nonexistent self’s skin crawling at the thought of calling humans “things” but I need my dragon brain to get it. So I go out, still keeping music running in the back of my mind so I remain grounded.
I am just a dragon borrowing some else’s stuff, they’re not mine to use as I wish, even if mother said so. They’re her hoard. Not mine. Her hoard. Not mine.
I continue this for minutes, until I start slurring my thoughts, and then open my eyes and go back to their room, looking in through the vines at them sitting in the glorified cage, whispering to each other. They look tasty, smell tasty, but eating them is wrong.
Exactly what I wanted, but it still feels bad that the only way to stop thinking about eating them is to think that they’re mother’s property… ugh, going to fix that when I start getting the hang of my emotions.
For now I have to let out a sigh and get up, I think I notice something troubling. I hear a low rumble and notice the boy clutching his stomach. It makes sense, he already looked malnourished, and I doubt mother thought about feeding them. Their cage also only has grass and leaves, nothing edible.
Also, they don’t have water. Yikes, mother’s a neglectful owner… Is she hoping that if she lets them die I will stop caring about them and just eat them? I can see that being the case… Damn she’s such a bad mother…
They need food, but it’s not like I got something they can eat around here. However there is something I can do… I rush back to the nest and start digging through the pile, looking for something useful. There are quite a few miscellaneous items here, items that I completely ignored until now because they weren’t needed or cool enough to be of note. Like an ornate… bowl? Basin? It kind of looks like a basin for a baby’s baptism, not going to lie, and it’s made of a lot of silver. I wrap my tails around most of it and start dragging it with me. I also pick up a golden goblet, sadly the only "cup" around here and a small gem for each of their elements, minus the beast aspect. Might as well give good gifts since I am their host.
I think for a moment about going to collect water and fruits for them, but then realize that I cannot do any of that myself. Sure, I am more dexterous than my siblings, but more dexterous than a funky crocodile is not exactly a good metric.
As I drag the huge bowl over to their room, I realize that they knew I was coming. Guess dragging metal on stone floor isn't exactly stealthy. Despite their worried glances, probably afraid that I came to get revenge for the attack, I start handing, or rather tailing out the gifts. Each gets their own gems, the cat woman looking the most confused as she stares at the three crystals on her lap. The others, aside from the boy that is barely keeping awake, have absolutely stunned looks. The young girl says something quickly as I see her hold the gem to her chest, mist from it slowly seeping through her body, into what I can only assume is her core. The boy just grabs his with his one working hand, but the cuffed woman seems angry suddenly and throws her gems away, then starts sobbing.
Yikes, really a lot of emotions in that one. Ironic that the fiery one isn't the fiery one, huh.
Right, need help, ignore the weird tantrum. I turn to the old woman, probably the most reasonable of the people here, and see her placing the gem on one of the branches coming out of her, which slowly wraps around it, keeping it up. She smiles and I am happy for that moment, then I go closer and bite her dress softly. She looks surprised, and I think I see the fire girl point her burnt arm holding the fire gem towards me, looking terrified. However things calm down as I just pull on the dress. The old woman laughs, then seeing that I am not stopping she looks confused.
Guess that doesn't cut it. I let go and go over to the basin, taking out the goblet. I am holding it in my mouth like one would a shot glass and I mimic downing it. I do this a few times, then spit it back in the basin and turn to her. Once I start tugging on her dress again she realizes and gets up slowly. There's a few words exchanged, but it all sounds like gibberish, so I just wait for her to come with. She even picks up the basin, which is helpful since I didn't want to drag it all the way.
After a bit of walking, I realize that she is absurdly slow... So I poke her with a tail, then point with both of them to my back. She is confused until I splay my wings on the ground and point my back towards her. It won't be too comfortable for her, but it will be faster. She reluctantly gets on and I am glad to see that she weighs next to nothing. Well, not really, it will get me tired a bit faster, but it's like running with a couple 5l bottles of water. Not exactly a workout. I wrap my tails to keep her steady, use my wings for support too, and then start jogging.
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Thankfully it only takes us a bit longer than it would take me on a light jog, so we are soon right out into the hallway. She marvels at the sight, displaying almost a childish wonder at the green hallway. The mural of mother is also drawing quite a bit of attention, which makes me have to slap the ground so she'd notice the work ahead. She eventually does and I go over, pushing vines and roots out of the way so the trickle of water would be visible. I see the woman frown as she looks at it, then at the basin. Yeah, same here granny. It'll take a while to fill and it doesn't even taste that great.
She comes closer and she seems to think for a moment, then reaches her answer. Magic.
It’s different from mother. For one, she speaks long phrases, like a proper incantation unlike mother's which is a couple of syllables and the world bends to her whim. She also doesn’t create a glowing 3D rune, instead, her palms have two large 2D runes shine on them and her arms have smaller runes appear. I see the vines around start to sway and slowly, painfully slowly, water starts dripping down. I look up and small cuts have opened on a lot of vines, causing them to drip down the water they just pulled. I also notice that they started running the trickle of water dry. Huh, using nature mana to move water, smart!
If not for the fact that it was a pathetically slow thing! Even her control over plants is so slow... and she is channeling this spell. I see the colorless fog she exudes and I find myself bored. It's like a slightly open faucet. Sure, mana is coming out, but at such a small rate that it's no wonder the plants take minutes to react. Why is she limiting herself so much? She has many times my mana, yet only uses as little as possible.. is she trying to keep it in case she needs it? I guess... but with how fast mana recovers from the air I don't understand why she would.
Regardless, this is filling up the basin so I can't complain. I guess I can practice my own magic while she does that. Sadly, despite being shown multiple runes by mother already, I don't think I can use any of them. For one, I do not have perfect memory of the complex meshes she used, and even if I did I do not have enough mana in me of either type to be useful.
I have been skimping on earth and only used enough nature to keep my lingering flames... oh well. I do have a bit of water mana though, but I have yet to see mother's water rune, if she has one. I try and imagine what a water rune would be like, but I genuinely can't. Makes sense, it is a complex thing and winging it would be like trying to guess a complex theorem in physics. Guess I can try to not even think of the rune and just go by feel? There are two lines of water after all, and the granny is only using one. I go to the free trickle and start to imagine the water in it flowing upwards, defying gravity. Now that I think about it, this shouldn't be that hard. Defying gravity? That's easy, since gravity is the weakest fundamental force. To lift up a liter of water I would only need a bit above 9.8 Newtons of force, so say 10. That means 10 Joules of energy. That should be within my means considering I could make powerful light and flames.
I feel it move. I just needed to frame it right and there it is, the whole trickle of water flows upwards starting from right in front of me. I am constantly burning through my water mana though, and I did not think to prepare for this, so I have to be swift. I gather up as much water as I can into a ball, then when I start feeling tired I order it to move to the basin. I see blue light coming from above me and notice that the old lady stopped channeling her spell, instead just gazing at me. Is she surprised that I moved the water? Well, I am a bit surprised too, I needed to just convince myself I am more than able to do it in order to, well, do it..
Well, regardless, it seems our combined efforts resulted in an almost full basin of water that should at least last them for a day. Hopefully... If they ration it at least.
Next is the fruit issue, and this one I leave entirely to the old woman. I point at the fruits and she slowly, painfully slowly, makes the vines hang lower and lower until they are in reach and she can grab them. Well, whatever, we're not exactly against the clock. As I leave her to collect fruits, I turn to a personal bounty. A bug, crawling about on the vine wall. I focus on whatever air mana I still have and really concentrate it down, trying to picture an air canon rather than a gale of air or a loud screech. It fails, sadly, the air dissipating before reaching it, but at least it shook the vine a bit. I capitalize on that and let out a roar, causing the bug to get startled and fall on its back. Same type of tough bug with a faint earthly scent. Must have a tiny core in there, not even worth eating at this point. but hey, humans need meat protein as much as they need fruits and vegies, so I hope they will appreciate it. I bite down on the bug, killing it instantly, then trot over to the woman. She has plenty of large fruits now, but stares at my bug strangely. Does she want it? Ah, no, guess it's gross seeing a squished bug larger than your hand. understandable.
Well, with our bounty we start walking back. She placed the fruits on my back and is now walking next to me, carrying the large water basin. This will take a while.
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The walk back took almost four times longer than the walk to the hallway. This was painful, but I couldn't very well rush the woman carrying water while already probably having bad joints. At least everyone seems grateful, if a bit stressed as we come in. They eagerly take turns drinking with the goblet, with the beast girl ignoring it completely since her actual hands are tied up unlike the rich woman, and deciding to just plant her face in and drink like that. Really fitting the beast woman aesthetic, ey? Well things stop for a moment when I drop down the squished bug and step away from it. The young girl and the assassin woman look downright disgusted, but the beast lady really gets the need for protein and dives into it, eating it raw.
Well, everyone else just focuses on the fruits, with the boy almost devouring half of them from how hungry he was. The granny also helped the beast woman eat a couple fruits so she didn't need to eat off the floor, which is nice.
Guess this might not be such a bad thing after all!