If you walk the streets of the capital of the Holy Empire, it is said that sooner rather than later, that is, depending on your level of tolerance of course, you would most probably come to realize how much you hate the place. People that carry their lives here, have the most ridiculous misunderstanding, you see. They believe the royal palace to be the wealthiest and the most beautiful in the whole world and the Holy Empire as a country to be the very center of known universe. Which is a rather embarrassing exaggeration, to say the least. The Holy Chosen, as they like to call themselves, genuinely believe that the sun that goes around, shine only on their heads, and keep in the dark everyone else. In their eyes, any other nation or country is far beneath them. Truth be told, the main palace of current emperor is indeed mostly built out of rare materials and its inner walls gives off a brilliance of gold and gems. Years upon years of constant upgrades done by every new emperor that decided he can make it look better, added some kind of new flavor, making the Palace a very peculiar type beauty. Suffice to say, It is a far cry from being the first place on Aranna in terms of true beauty and splendor.

But for the greedy eyes of nobles and commoners in the capital, they would never agree to these news and just like there is a first place, there is also a second. Not far from the opulence of the royal palace, there is a contender fighting for the second spot. The Sunlight Manor. It is a large castle located at the edge of the city. Its wealth and prosperity overflows from its denizens and especially the owner herself. Eyewitnesses could swear that the very walls are covered with pure gold and even toilet pots for servants are adorned with expensive gems. Visiting nobles silently scowl at the countess with their hidden jealousy, but non dare to say anything against her. There, of course, is a reason for it. In the shadowy alleys, in dark workings of underworld dealings, it is rumored that only death awaits for those who seek her harm. In the past ten years, many lesser nobles tried to end house Vrostch good fortune, but one is yet to succeed and stay alive. What many may not know, the countess is a formidable witch. Her dabbling in dark arts gave her an advantage over her peers and guaranteed great wealth, knowledge and strength. As powerful as she came to be, she grew one embarrassing weakness. The object of that weakness, will soon come to be the center of a heated debate and countless number of headaches.

Young butler Norton entered countess private chambers and gave a perfect ninety degree bow in the direction of the bed. After few seconds of hasty shuffles, from under the covers, a disheveled hair and a face full of freckles popped up.

"What!"

"My lady, Prince Veron and Princess Marianna with their entourage came and seek an unofficial meeting. They insist its urgent."

For a moment it looked like the soft and velvet singsong voice of butler Norton failed to reach countess ears as she had a dumbfounded look on her face.

"What?"

"My lady, Prince Veron and Prin..." Norton Made a swift step to the side continuing his ninty degree bow and avoiding a dangerously thrown pillow, that almost smacked him of his feat.

"Alright, alright I heard it the first time. Did they say what this is all about? The bal is in three days, is it regarding the participants? I've already sent them invitations."

"No my lady, they only said that time is of the essence."

It only took few seconds for the woman on the grand bed that could accommodate several people at once to restart her thought process and get a hung of the situation.

"Fine. If it's unofficial then instead of an audience chamber bring them to the guest room."

"I beg your forgiveness my lady, but they have over twenty people, mostly royal knights, judging from the atmosphere I would suggest the strategy room instead."

The countess brows went all up almost reaching the line of her white hair. Her dark eyes fully woke up and when the brows returned to their original position, her aura became menacing.

"Norton, get them there, and activate all of castles defenses. Turn anti-spy spells in that room too. I'll get to the strategy room in thirty minutes." Receiving his lady's orders Norton gave another bow and retreated, having been replaced by a dozen of maids.

The countess had a lot to think about. While her garments were being changed and her body being bathed by magic tools she pondered if she crossed some kind of line making the emperor having enough of her playing around. But she couldn't think of anything. She was always very careful not to touch or harm anything or anyone belonging to the royals.

Having her head full of questions and hastily calculated new plans in case of her unexpected downfall, she made her way down to the strategy room located in the war tower near the training grounds on the far east side of the castle. She made sure to be adorned with light military garment to show respect and readiness to her visitors, but to not look too intimidating. Marching through a long stone corridor with her old advisor behind her left and both first and second husband behind her right, she was making a steady long steps while showing confidence. At the end of the long passage a guard bowed down and then opened the double door for his lady to enter the war hall.

The moment she entered, there was a soft pop and next to the already waiting royal children and their entourage, two new people appeared out of thin air.

Countess Vrostch was prepared to some extent for who she might meet excluding the royal son and daughter, but those two new visitors put her into a state of shock. When she saw who popped in and nonchalantly sat on a grand sofa, she instantaneously broke eye contact. Her eyes kissed the floor and her knee soon followed. If the visit was official she would have to give the royals a proper welcome. Countess thought it wouldn't be needed now, but she grossly misunderstood who really came. Her true visitor, wasn't the prince or the princess.

"You may stand up. It's not an official visit, so treat us as you would others." That was of course impossible. Still, she had little to no choice but to obey.

"Yes, you can treat us as you will for now. I'm Nazar and this hag here with boobs taking most of her brain is Vos. Veron, my dear, please follow with the introduction."

Nazar made a seductive gesture in Verons direction and tried to send him an alluring smile, but unfortunately for her, he quickly avoided any eye contact. Vos on the other hand winked at him, while trying to catch his eyes with her cleavage, but her struggles were also left unanswered. His strained smile and visible cold sweat dripping from his royal brows gave him a look of a frightened rabbit.

"Yes, you already know me and my sister Marianna from our debiut a year ago." After introducing himself and his sister, Veron gestured with his hand to a burly man reaching two meters in height and to two others next to him that had a very serious expression. "On the left is the current captain of the Holy Order, commander Morthel and two privates that will explain the situation later on. Private Bork and Private Caraan."

Both privates lowered their heads and then saluted. Morthel however made a full greeting.

"It is an honor to meet the venerated countess of house Vrostch. Your reputation is widely known and respected within the Holy Order." His voice, a slow and deep rumble, a truly manly voice that brought about an atmosphere of a calm mountain.

"Next, the person on my right is called Valerie and she is a chosen of the goddess Nazar. She will also explain later on why she is here together with her mistress. There, on her lap you can see Sir Quick, The Brick, who will I hope, provide pivotal information. He joined us few minutes ago so even we don't know what information he gathered, but goddess Vos deemed you indispensable in our future proceedings so we believe you ought to hear his report too."

Two gods, one demigod, a chosen, royal children, captain of the Holy Order. The countess started to have chills down her spine. Whatever plan they have, she was dead the moment of slightest insubordination or failure. During her whole life she gathered an incredible amount of power, but compared to the individuals in the room, she could as well have gathered nothing at all. She was also curious why Valerie was in a state of a practical mummy. Almost fully covered in bandages. That was odd since healing magic progressed vastly in last forty years and you could heal most injuries within days, except for lost limbs. Not to mention most chosen had incredible endurance thanks to the blessings of their gods.

"Machial, show yourself." A man with a dark hood and a black cloak stepped out of the shadows. Countess did not even notice him before and she was a master of the dark arts specialized in manipulating darkness. The revelation that she failed to notice him terrified her. It was clear that he had to be an incredibly skilled assassin. "He is a commander of the special unit of seekers. Around ten days ago, Machials unit caught two spies that tried to gather information in a town called Onaboron. Two cat kin. A girl and a boy. The girl was taken for questioning and the boy, has been given to the local magistrate for processing. later on he was sold to one of the noble houses. I believe you know whose."

Countess back covered with cold sweat. She now understood what they came here for. But one boy could hardly be a reason for such a grant party to come and question her.

"The boys name is Bambom. I bought him legally, so if it's needed I can bring you papers with the magistrate seal." Countess was always very careful and obeyed requests from her superiors. But the thing is, that the boy is not going to be surrendered without a fight. No matter who it is, a god or a prince. Countess was determined not to give up her beloved body pillow to anyone. "Prince Veron, may I ask why you are looking for him?"

"You'll understand soon enough. Bring him here."

Hesitant but with little choice, countess turned to her first husband and gestured with her head for him to go. A moment later he was already on his way. In his place several servants came in with delicious looking food and drinks. Both goddesses shamelessly jumped on the snacks leaving the rest to ponder if they even should grab a bite at all. Once the room was clear of servants, Morthel addressed one of his subordinates.

"Bork, we will start with you. In order to rope the countess in on what is happening, we need to tell her ladyship what transpired up until now."

"Yes, commander. Your ladyship it all started..."

Countess Vrostch listened carefully, her eyes becoming more and more round with each word private said. When Valeries turn came, she started with her story detailing her fight with intruders and her subsequent defeat. In the middle of her tale, countess unconsciously reached for whiskey stashed in a secret compartment under the war table. The prince must have understood how she felt and didn't say a thing. That's because he himself fainted when he heard the news for the first time. What really brought proverbial nail to the coffin was the information on where the intruders where headed and a possibly why. There was no mistake, as the answers were provided due to the skill granted to the chosen by her goddess, at least until they were rendered useless. The intruders where clearly looking for the boy. For whatever reason, knowingly or not, the boy held the whole empire in a checkmate.

With Valeries story coming to a close, countess took a large swing and directly drank from the bottle. Her whole house became a target of a person suspected to be a dragon and an outer god who could deal with one of the strongest chosen on this continent like she's some brat, not to mention the charmed forest lady of an unprecedented renown. That is already a force that could flatten whole countries. To add more to her problems it is confirmed that they have two artifacts. One of unknown power but strong enough to ruin a city with only one swing.

"It is still not confirmed why the boy is so important for the outer god for him to go to such lengths to chase after. I hope he could provide us some information. Sir Quick could you please follow with your report?"

"Squeak!"

Little rodent that was until now polishing one of his broadswords, stored it back into his dimensional pocket, jumped down from Valeries lap and run up to the war table. He then made a big jump and placed himself at the center, in between various delicacies. After a second he took some empty plates and bowls creating a small pyramid and then jumped again at its top meeting most of the people in the room on their eye level.

"Squeak!!" His story began dramatically as he was swinging his little paws here and there. Unfortunately, his heated tale was met with a rather poor reception as only two goddesses were actually able to understand him. Thankfully, Vos picked up the mantle and started to translate. She sat on the edge of the table in a seductive manner. She took Sir quick from his pedestal and placed him on her long tail. It coiled around the table but most of the eyes observing them, apart from princes, were focused on another part of her body.

"Bitch." Unperturbed by her colleagues comment Vos started to translate while Sir Quick narrated his thrilling encounter.

***

"When I entered Onaboron, I picked up on the scent of my pray almost immediately. My heightened senses of smell and piercing vision of a hawk found traces the intruder left the moment I entered the city square. I met with an unbelievable destruction. Hundreds of houses left without roofs, gouges of upturned earth and smoldering carts everywhere. The very heart of the city, magistrate built as one of the most sturdy buildings in the whole country and the artistic symbol of the holy order of the crescent moon, was no more. Swept from the face of the earth. Nothing was left of it, only a gaping hole. It was truly a mortifying sight."

Sir Quick made a long pause. He jumped up back on the makeshift pyramid and continued on. "Squeak!"

"I knew that they couldn't have escaped far. From rumors and eyewitness to the very master of the green tower, I learned from them what transpired. The Archmage Abaron himself seething with anger, swore a gory revenge on the being that humiliated his tower. The mages even helped with privates teleportation to the capital, something they wouldn't normally do." Sir Quick, gestured towards Bork and Caraan. He swiftly took a nut from somewhere and after a crack and few seconds of munching, he carried on. "I listened to the peoples rumors while hiding in shadows. Many spoke of a giant snake that the enemy flew off on towards forests to the north. That aligned with what Abaron said. At that point I became wary. But, as I was about to travel in pursuit, I came upon my old acquaintance. And thank to my mistress in all of her glory for that encounter, for what I learned from him, saved my life." Vos made a chuckle and fed her chosen with more nuts.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"My friend is an old rat that survived in the slams for a long time. What he told me, was that what flew away with the outer god on its back, was not a snake. In his younger days, he once had a close call with a dragon. He remembered the scent as he was running away with all the strength in his paws. Stealing a single coin almost ended him being fried to a crisp back then. When we were speaking, he was all trembling while holding on to his whiskers. In his words, the fear he felt then was the same as he felt now. It made me sure that the enemy flew away on a true dragon. I could no longer simply challenge them to a fight. Lady Valery might not have known this and look at her current state. As strong as she is, even she can't face a dragon alone." Valery grunted something about knowing and winning her fight but was shushed by Nazar.

"Let him finish, I want to hear the details of that dragon. One that has no qualms changing to a humanoid form or taking passengers on its back is either completely mad or unquestioningly devoted. She might be a hidden daughter of the basilisk dragon Gunnar slain three hundred years ago, but still this is highly unlikely."

"I determined that my only chance, is to confront the outer god directly, without his companions. Dragons can't be charmed, but that doesn't mean they can't succumb to manipulation, especially by a cunning mind. So, I could try to free forest lady Malay from the spell or persuade the dragon. But, I knew nothing about the dragon or the spell, so I decided to go after the source. That however, was harder than I originally thought."

Sir Quick quickly scanned the room. Making sure that everyone was listening.

"I am not particularly good at discerning ether so I had to ask animals for help. I followed them to a cave, deep in the forest several hours north to Onaboron. But what I saw there, made my blood run cold."

"Brave Sir Quick. Tell us, what did you see there?" Nazar asked ending with audible whisper. She sat on the table next to Vos making sure to step on her long tail in the process. Receiving a fast elbow blow to the ribs in return.

"Goblins." He said the word slowly. Deliberately trying to build up the dread, but not making any real impact.

"What? Just goblins? There are always goblins in forests."

"Not to mention they aren't particularly strong."

Both the prince and commander Morthel voiced their disappointment. That didn't deterred the rodent from carrying on with a grieving tone.

"Hundreds of them. Walking side by side. Forming groups of five or ten. Creating teams, hunting together. Setting traps and tents, gurgling to each other and issuing commands, cooking soups..."

"Oh crap."

"Oh crap indeed, Princess Marianne." When soup was mentioned, all people gathered except the princess held their breath. Sir quick succeeding in his dramatic confirmation, lowered his little head and closed his eyes. For a second there, he held on to the atmosphere and slowly opened his eyes locking them with everyone in the room. He looked menacingly having his eyes covered with a large portion of his brows.

"With my stealth abilities I managed to sneak close enough. There at the entrance to the cave, the outer god named Ian, has given a name to ten goblins and that's not even all of it."

"Ian? Isn't that a typical butlers name?"

"Shut up Bork, don't interrupt."

"Ekhem, as I was saying, it's not all. Thanks to the magical device I was given by Lord Nam, I managed to overhear the dragons name too. She is called Tatsu and I also know why she is helping him. It turns out, they are lovers. The dragon is helping him out of her free will."

"I see, so there is no point in trying to reason with her. The difficulty has risen tremendously. But I have never heard of that name before and there aren't many dragons to begin with."

"I agree. Morthel is right. It's no longer a case of summoning an outer to fight an evil outer god. We need a far grater force to challenge both the dragon and her master at the same time. It's a vital information." Veron hid his face in his hands. Unfortunately he was about to be given another piece of unnerving intel.

"There is more. All those goblins are led by a named one called Goblon. He fell under the orders of the outer god. I believe he was already evolved when given a name."

"Oh for heavens sake, are you telling me, there could be an army of goblins from all around the country on march to siege the capital right now?" Veron stood up with his fists clenched.

"It needs time to gather an army, moreover if this is an organized force of goblins. And they are as much in a hurry as we are. It is quite obvious that this outer god is of the cunning type. The worst possible kind. Previous ones were just after blood or simply wanted to destroy everything. It was easy to guess what they were after if all they did was massacre people, demand sacrifices or simply wanting to become a ruling tyrant of some small country. This time, it's different. We do not really know what his goal is, why he took a simple cat kin of no significant importance and is after it's sibling. There is a ploy here that is completely unknown to us. We should assume he knows, that we know, what he is after, namely the cat. If he is smart and it looks like he is, then he must know that if he goes in and attack the capital with goblin army or a dragon, he won't find him. The boy is our bargaining chip. And the best place to look for him, would be..."

"...at my bal."

Countess finished Nazars long conclusion. The goddess, nodded. It was indeed true. Since the bal was going to happen in few days, there would be no time to gather great forces. They needed to move swiftly or risk Bambom to disappear forever.

"Squeak."

"Sorry my dear." Vos took the little squirrel and placed him back on her lap. "There is one last thing I should inform you off. I came to the conclusion I should interfere as the chosen of my goddess..." Sir Quick carried with his speech, but had to stop for a second as Vos nonchalantly picked him up and given him a little smooch on the cheek. She then placed him in the middle of her, more than impressive cleavage, preventing any forms of escape. Her confusing action could be strange if not for a little wink she shot in the direction of Verons unimpressed face.

"You think you're so smart, you snake. Hitting two birds with one stone. No ones going to be jealous, you know?" With a quick hand trick, Nazar took The rodent out of his prison and placed him against her own rather meager assets, making the same wink in the same direction, only to meet with the same reception.

Prince Veron Is a very handsome man as well as the man of stature. Unfortunately for both goddesses, his preferences were already set somewhere else entirely.

"Squeak."

Vos narrowed her eyes and picked Sir quick again back on to her lap as he continued on with his story.

"I took upon myself to deal with the outer god. Facing a dragon could be out of my abilities but I hoped that I would still be a match for the invader. I sneaked upon him when he was alone in the woods but it turned out I was spotted immediately and I came to understand he was waiting for me from the very beginning. My subjugation plan was met immediately with his question if I was a challenger. I thought I had a chance at killing him so I squeaked, yes! In the next second, I understood I have never made a bigger mistake in my life than in that moment."

Sir Quick stopped fiddling with the nut in his paw. He plopped on the plate he was sitting on and barely made any sound at all. The room was silent, full of people waiting with bated breath. After a solid minute brave Sir Quick gathered his wits and continued on with a shaken squeak. "Death. I felt my own death. It crawled below my skin like angered centipedes. It's icy grip tightening on the back of my neck. My body felt like being drowned below tar and mud. Metallic taste od blood and rust filled my mouth. My soul screamed. I was stabbed to death, drowned, burned, sliced, every manner of death you think possible, I felt it. It only took few seconds, but for me... it was eternity." He put one of his paws to his heart and grimaced. "It was just a simple killing intent. The silliest part was that he wasn't even that serious with it."

A hand of the goddess with illustrious scales on it, landed on the brave rodents back. Vos didn't say anything, but this little gesture brought Sir Quick back on to his feat. "I mustered all the strength I had to overcome and with great difficulty I prevailed. " He took a deep breath and met eyes with his goddess. "He said he came from the void of stars. Introduced himself as an unholy master of evil. A malevolent being that likes to inflict pain and seeks all kind of pleasures. He already devoured his world and came to Aranna to eat it next. In his words, humans are powerless. That they are mere ants and have no power needed to stop him. He doesn't fear men and he said that no women could ever disobey him. The worst of all, is that he treats gods as... stepping stones."

"Outrages."

"That's a load of bull in my opinion."

"He is just full of himself."

"Their kind is always the same, a load of bark and no bite."

"But, I do believe we..."

"Silence."

It took only few words to bring everyone present in the room to their feet. Everyone felt taunted. Total disregard for humanity and treatment of their patrons as mere stepping stones infuriated every person in the room. Among angry voices not even the two goddesses were left without being deeply offended. But as it took few words to raise everyone from their sits, it took only one for everyone to shut up.

Nazar uttered one word filled with magic and gathered all of the focus in the room on her.

"Vos, I just had a dreadful thought. What if the outer god meant it literally when he said that no woman can disobey him." She slowly rose from her sitting position on the table and faced her colleague. "We couldn't even contact Aranna via ritual." She looked Vos in the eyes and her perfect visage, paled. " Vos, what if... " Nazar with her almost perfectly beautiful face bringing to memory depictions of Egyptian queen, paled more and more. "...what if... what if Aranna actually has a gender, Vos?" Vos's jaw dropped. That thought never occurred to her.

At that moment there was a soft knock on the door and two husbands to the Countess along with her beloved body pillow entered the room. Bambom was a young lad barely looking to be ten. He didn't hit puberty yet. He was mainly used as a body heater as Countess developed a need to sleep with young boys, albeit not in any way a romantic manner, she had her husbands for that. In this case however, you could say that her attachment to the boy grew beyond fondness due to his furry ears and overwhelmingly cute nature. To add to his general demeanor, he was currently wearing a sleepover rabbit pajama that was far to big for him. His cat ears being covered with bunny ones moved around trying to take in his new surroundings. Him being scared and shivering thanks to the atmosphere present in the room, made him a particularly juicy snack for the Countess as well as for the two goddesses or any women with an aunt status.

Both goddesses put on predatory smiles and started to take him on the lap in turns feeding the poor cat kid with all manners of sweets present on the table, completely forgetting about the main problem.

It took Veron considerable amount of time to get the issue back on track.

However, at the same time, somewhere else...

***

  The cave was particularly hot. Not like tropical hot, but like forge hot. Hot, dry air travel via shafts circulating almost whole mountain. Dwarfs inhabiting lower levels use the mountain as a one big forge and the owner of the mountain allows this, due to number of benefits.

A particularly grumpy dwarf stood with a long parchment in the middle of said cave at the very peak of the mountain. All shafts gather here, making the cave both the hottest and at the same time the windiest. He dared to take a quick glimpse at the ever growing mountain of treasures at the treasure room. The room was always visible albeit it had invisible walls. Protected by myriad of spells. The cave was so big that the room could always be spotted no matter where you stood.

The grumpy dwarf licked his parched lips and returned to his parchment. He had a very detailed report to make. Not long after, he heard a sound of flapping wings and felt vibrations throughout the cave. An enormous body landed not far away and it's weight started to make its way to where he was standing. He scrolled the parchment down and bend a knee, waiting until a very slow and deep voice reached him. It was more feminine than masculine, but since it's owner wasn't of human kind, it carried both genders parts into the mix. And it sounded quite irritated.

"Were you eyeing my shinies, again."

"I would never dream of it Lady Fie."

"Hmpth, of course you wouldn't."

Fie the Frozen Terror is one of the younger dragons. Her renown isn't yet such as her pears and she is very aware of that fact. Hence she is a very active dragon in pursuit of recognition. Her title was fully earned, however.

"Lady Fie, we managed to dig to our predecessors older tunnels. Those tunnels are protected however, and we lack strength of force and magic. I humbly ask for aid."

"You little dwarfs can never do anything yourselves. Fine, take few of my drakes and I expect more shinies from you than the last time." In front of the grumpy dwarf a little amulet in the shape of a crouched lizard hanged up in the air. The dwarf quickly pocketed the amulet and retreated while bowing and spewing superlatives in dragons direction.

Fie neither cared for nor detested dwarfs servile nature. She knew that they were acting like that only because they had little to no choice in the matter, especially the clan in Storm Peaks. She moved in on the direction of her treasures. A bath in her riches always gave her the time of the day, but something gave her a stop. She sat down looking around. The dwarf has already left, she should have been left alone, but she couldn't shake the feeling she was being observed. Knowing to trust her instincts, she cast a little search spell, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

"Show yourself little thief, or I'll not only make an ash pile out of you with my flames, but also torture you and all that are dear to you."

"Oh my, how scary. Lady Fie, the Frozen Terror of High Peaks."

Fie instantly rose up to all fours and weaved her most advanced magics, ready to strike at moments notice. Her back involuntarily bent in an arc. She looked more like an angry cat than a dragon. The voice she heard came from everywhere. There wasn't a single point on which it converged. The person it belonged to was completely hidden.

"I know who you are. A snake. A man who cares nothing for his own progeny. A defiler of his own eggs. A Fallen."

"How cruel of you my lady. I assure you am not what people calls me and I came in good faith."

Fie did not answer. She redoubled her effort in tracking the intruder even utilizing her sense of smell, but it was severely limited due to the nature of the cave.

"What if I told you, there is a traitor among dragons. One that dons a humanoid skin with a smile on it's face. What if I told you it has a human lover and carries him everywhere on it's back." The voice of the intruder was soft, gentle very calming, almost a whisper, but Fie knew better than to trust it. It was a voice of a schemer and a lier.

"What If I told you, that dragon is far younger than you my lady and that even gods recognized it as a far greater threat than even you. A prodigy at such a young age. She beats you to the punch lady Fie."

"Stop this farce, there is no dragon greater than me currently awake. I am the sole dragon of this era." The voice new perfectly well what cord to strike to make Fie angry. Her pursuit of renown was in full view for everyone to see. She was still a very young and inexperienced member of her kind.

"Oh, but it is not a lie."

In the next moment in front of Fie, a black crystal formed. It produced a transparent film the size of Fie herself. It was covered from top to bottom in a gooey slime.

"Won't you care to look lady Fie, proof, is before your eyes."

As Fie looked at the slime, it solidified, creating a solid screen. A bright light followed and many images showed on its surface. She recognized it as a very advance from of magic. A memory magic. Images brought back to life from the memory of one who held them. She saw a man riding atop a snake, no... a dragon. She was mistaken for a second, but no snake could ever posses that form. It was indeed a wingless dragon.

"She DARED!" Fie's anger rose as she saw a scene of one of her kind fighting as a mere human being. And her eyes almost bulged out of their sockets when she saw the same girl sleeping sprawled on top of a man in full armor with one of her foot on top of the man's nose. What she couldn't forgive however, was the happy face when not only the man, but a whole company of people rode on her back. This was something that humiliated Fie and her whole kind to no ends and incited her to a blind, white rage.

Fie spewed fire on the slime, melting the screen to the ground. She spread her long and slender wings as much as the cave allowed it and shot like cork from a stirred bottle. After making an impossible turn for a creature of her size, she left the cave with the momentum and speed of a fully loaded bullet train.

"Yes, yes my dear, go forth, and bring even more to me." Although the owner could not be seen, their voice could still be heard in the cave. It changed, however. No longer being soft. "More, I still need a lot more. My dear. And when I raise you, oh the fun I'll have..."