“Thank you for trusting me with that task. Glynnis and I needed some girl time together.”

Kaen smiled and kissed Ava on her neck as he rested his hands on her stomach.

Leaning her head against his chest, Ava kissed his cheek and smiled. “Dagan was excited to see me, and the dwarves seem to be making amazing progress in getting their land in order again. They hope to have a winter crop ready before next month hits.”

Sighing, Kaen began to hum gently and slowly swing his hips as if they were dancing.

“You’re not listening to me… you and I both know nothing is going to happen anytime soon.”

“I wasn’t planning on that,” Kaen replied, kissing her once more before turning her around and holding her in a more formal dancing pose. He brought her close and smiled. “Can’t a husband just want to dance with his wife because he missed her and not want to jump in bed?”

Ava frowned and looked at Pammon, who lounged with Glynnis in the cave.

“Huh… Pammon says you really aren’t thinking that.”

Laughing, Kaen did a quick little twirl with her and brought her back to him. “No, I honestly missed you. Pammon and I figured out how much our family means to us, and I wanted to ensure that I was spending time with you. I don’t want you worried that I care more about the coming battle than the woman I married.”

Ava cocked an eyebrow before shaking her head and shifting so she could lean her head against his chest. “I’m not sure who you’ve been talking to, but you owe them a dinner. You'll never get in trouble if you keep talking like this.”

Kaen rested his head against hers, and they danced to the tune that he hummed for a while.

“This is amazing!” Frederick declared as he sported the tunic and pants the dwarves had made him from the scales. “Though it is already a little tight in some spots… perhaps we should stop cutting trees and hauling rocks.”

Kaen groaned and shook his head. “No, we’ll fire out a fix, but I wanted to ensure those fit. Now take them off and get dressed. It’s time for round two.”

Phillip mimicked Kaen, groaning as he began to walk toward the stairs that would take him to the cave he and Foros shared. “We’re screwed,” Phillip muttered. “Remember what I said.”

Frederick sighed and moved to the area to change. “Be gentle, please,” he begged playfully. “I don’t want to get hurt again.”

Laughing, Kaen waved as he moved to take the stairs to the ground where Pammon was waiting. “Just remember you both wanted to be a dragon rider. It comes with all this.”

Kaen smiled at the guards and students as they stood on the field after a day off.

“You all look well rested. Anyone here not ready for today’s fun?”

Some groans and chuckles came, but no one raised their hand. Everyone wanted a spot to learn and grow. The guards required a sign-up list because of how successfully it had been received.

“Alright, now comes for round two of my training, and today is going to suck for the dragon riders and their squads.”

Groans came from the students as they began to wonder what Kaen had in mind.

“Guards, I need your best. Don’t give in. This is where we really make them suffer.”

The guards gave a few cheers and jokes, but it was easy to see in their eyes that everyone wanted to grow and would do their best against each other.

“Alright, here is what is about to happen. Each dragon rider and their squad will face fifty guards alone.”

A few whispers and some things were said between a few people, but most looked at Kaen like he was half drunk.

“The only way we progress is after the dragon rider survives and defeats the leader of the guards and all the support troops. After that, we will add ten more. We are done here once the dragon rider can defeat all one hundred troops and the leader.”

Nobody said a word after Kaen stopped talking, but there were many side glances and looks of concern.

“Not to doubt you, sir,” one guard called out, “but can that really be done?”

Kaen smiled and nodded.

You’re so evil! You paid that man to ask that question!

And you know why…

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Pammon began to thrum, and everyone looked past Kaen at the massive bronze dragon laughing near the tower.

“That is a perfect question that will only be answered by demonstrating that truth! All of the guards and Hess will face me.”

Hess groaned and let out a curse as he spat on the ground. A few guards turned and looked at him. “Get yer weapons, boys, and let's get set up. We’re about to get our arses kicked in a spectacular way.”

Kaen smiled, moved to where Phillip was, and held out both hands. “May I borrow your swords, please?”

Sighing, Phillip gave them as he shook his head. “You’re going to show off…”

“No, I’m going to prove a point you and Frederick must figure out. You’re stronger and faster, but you don’t trust yourself. Only Hess can actually do anything to you both. You will easily accomplish this task once you realize that and learn how to deal with that problem.”

Kaen moved to the section where the two boys usually started and waited as Hess got his group together.

The guards started to form a tight circle with Hess in the middle. One hundred men surrounded their leader, and Kaen could see that none of them looked excited about what they imagined might come.

“Whenever you're ready!” Kaen shouted.

“Let’s do this!”

The guards began to move toward Kaen, jogging slightly so that none tripped in the formation they held.

Kaen glanced at Pammon, who was shaking his head.

Don’t kill anyone… that would not go well.

Please, you and I both know I will barely hit anyone.

Pammon groaned as Kaen dashed forward, becoming a blur on the field.

A few groans and a lot of moaning were the only sounds coming from the guards as Hess spat on the ground.

“You did that intentionally, whittling them all until it was just me so you could make me look old and slow.”

“Please,” Kaen replied as he winked at Hess. “I would never make you look how you are. Besides, it was a lesson, and I think I thought it well.”

Turning to where Phillip and Frederick were still standing, Kaen headed to them to return the swords he had borrowed.

“Learn from what I did. I got faith in you two.”

This is going to be fun to watch every day. Are you sure you don’t mind if I’m not here?

Scratching Pammon’s neck as his dragon stood near the tower, Kaen smiled.

Go. I don’t mind walking into town, and it’s good for their morale. Besides, you and your family need each other also.

I take back a few of the things I said about you being evil. Perhaps you're just slightly chaotic with a side of good sprinkled in.

Groaning, Kaen patted Pammon’s neck.

Tell your family I said hi and that I’m not mean. Perhaps one day, they’ll believe me.

Thrumming, Pammon turned and was in the air a few seconds later, sending up a cloud of dust across the field.

Kaen smiled as he saw Pammon fly away and then turned his attention back to the spectacle about to start.

“Alright, protectors of Hess, listen up!” Kaen shouted. Once everyone was watching, he found himself grinning, knowing what was about to take place in this next round. “Every guard alive gets a free drink on me! If Hess lives, then it doesn’t matter how many of you die. I’ll buy drinks for you all!”

A massive cheer erupted from Hess’s side, and Kaen put his hands against the tower's edge, leaning against it as he prepared for the carnage.

You’re really going to miss this next fight.

Yet I’m watching even as I go.

The horn sounded, and Kaen and Pammon laughed as Frederick and his squad prepared for the rushing horde.

“Why do I feel you are intentionally trying to ruin us?” Phillip asked as Frederick and Kaen walked with him back to town. “Every day, I have a glimmer of hope, and then you squash it like a bug under your thumb.”

Frederick started laughing, and Kaen smiled as Phillip groaned.

“You want me to answer what you already have heard again? I don’t mind repeating myself,” Kaen replied as he gave Phillip a playful punch to the arm.

“No, I know it… I’m just thinking I was an idiot all those years ago when we found you on the street. We should have known to run away after we smelled you, but alas, we did not.”

“Damn, we were stupid kids,” Frederick chimed in.

After a minute of walking in silence, Phillip turned to Kaen and replaced his smile with a serious expression. “When the battle does come, do you believe we’ll be on the ground?”

Kaen took a moment to take a deep breath and slowly let it out as he considered the thing he had discussed with Pammon at least one hundred times now.

“You’re stronger on the ground than in the air. Both of you aren’t bad with a bow, but the truth is if you lead those armies, they will follow you, and when you can do what I’m training you for, the monsters you face will flee.”

“Kind of like in the mountain?” Frederick asked.

Shaking his head from side to side for a moment, Kaen finally nodded. “I don’t think they wanted to risk it anymore. They were trapped, and they saw what I had done to their wall breaker or siege, whatever ogre they called them. The real question is, what would you do if you faced me on the battlefield?”

Both boys looked at each other, their eyebrows almost touching their hair as they shook their heads.

“I’d like to say run, but I know that wouldn’t matter much.”

“Exactly,” Kaen replied. When you stand on that battlefield wearing a full set of black dragon-scale armor and start killing everything you fight, what is going to happen to the morale of those people and orcs? In order for that to be possible, you need to learn how to make that happen. That is what we are learning.”

Both boys said nothing for a few, absorbing what Kaen had just said.

As they were about to enter the town, Frederick started to laugh, and the other two looked to see what was so funny.

“I forgot to do what I promised I would,” Frederick said. “Eltina told me she was going to cut your tongue out the next time she saw you. Something about ruining her life and making it impossible to keep anything in stock.”

Kaen started to chuckle and then began to laugh. “I’m so in trouble… Hess is walking in there tonight with one hundred guards, and each of them is going to get a drink from me. I don’t think I can ever return there.”

All three started to laugh and forgot about the stress that had been trying to keep them down.

Tomorrow would have its own problems, but for tonight, Kaen knew he was about to get destroyed by a short, dwarven woman who ran a bar.