I spread my wings and soared above the forest. The villages were becoming fewer and farther between, but I was still finding a solitary peasant or lumberjack, to give them the fright of their life when my shadow loomed over them. Honestly, I was not doing it on purpose, I swear!
In these parts, most large flying creatures were feared predators. Not just the rare wyverns that occasionally ventured into this area, but also a species of flying lizards with an impressive wingspan of up to five meters. Known as quetzas, these creatures would perch atop towering trees or high vantage points, then leap and glide towards their unsuspecting prey. While their diet primarily consisted of sheep, deer, pigs, or rabbits, humans were not safe from becoming a potential meal.
We'd rented two coaches for the journey to my domain. Our destination was an inn situated not far from the fort, or whatever that supposed fortification was, and from there, I planned to inspect the estate. We'd made some inquiries through the merchant guild, and it was confirmed that the roads were clear. However, I was informed to expect additional small taxes that could be levied for passage, especially around the domain. Nothing too significant, but it could amount to 1 silver per person for merchants and 1 copper for peasants.
Eight of my new followers were in the first coach, with Durham riding his horse at the front of the procession. In the second coach were my friends and I, with Lynx trotting alongside when Tina wasn't riding or when I wasn't flying. When I took to the skies, Lynx would usually follow me, ready to provide protection if I needed it.
The coach ride from Ahetia took four days, including a portal at the beginning that shortened the journey by more than one hundred kilometers. It cost me two gold for the two coaches and fifty silver for Lynx and Durham's horse, but it was worth the expense.
Durham, a paladin, was the one of the last persons I recruited that fateful evening. Things had started off well with Moran, and then I managed to recruit a couple of his friends. As soon as I posted the flag, even more people came to join our ranks. In the end, my little troop consisted of carefully selected nine people - four women and five men.
There was Loretta, a brunette warrior with a solid build. She was a soldier whose contract had just ended the day before. An archer named Dozha had dark, almost black hair with subtle brown undertones. She was slender and airy. The third girl, Laona, was a passable mage but not top tier, while the fourth, Hexera, was a skilled sorcerer.
The boys were all close combat fighters: two warriors, Dohum and Krassem; a rogue named Tenessar with black hair and darker skin; and Durham, a paladin.
Loretta and Tenessar were Moran's friends. Some of the others were acquaintances, while the rest were just random people who happened to be there.
They all had levels between thirty and forty, which was high for mercenaries but relatively low for what I had planned. The only exceptions were Moran at level fifty-one and Durham at level forty-nine, who were a class higher. However, the chances of finding more recruits with similar levels were practically null.
I couldn't find a dedicated healer. Durham could only perform minimal, superficial healing and provide a paladin bonus, but that was it. Well, I had Ju for healing, but it's always good to have a healer you can send on missions, and I wasn't planning to send Ju anywhere. There had been a priest who volunteered, but once I used truth rays on him... well, it's good that he left five minutes later. Let's just leave it at that.
The 'truth rays' spell ended my recruiting campaign. It confirmed my theory about White Flower being with me, as I had gained access to her mana. My level, spells, and memories had nothing to do with her. I didn't cast the spell using her mind or knowledge, but her mana. The problem was that not all spells and types of mana were compatible. Many of Flo's spells were specialized applications of her unique mana, which she called 'white'. When I cast 'truth rays', I did my best to use her mana, as the spell was designed for it, and I obviously succeeded since the priest spoke freely about things he probably didn't intend to confess.
However, there seemed to be a 'small problem' with this procedure. Just letting her mana circulate in my veins to cast the spell made me drunk by the minute. It didn't matter that I tried to clean it up afterwards. Once that mana had seeped into my veins, I started to wobble and lose my vision. My head felt heavy, and I had to rest it on my hand. At least I had the presence of mind to call off the recruiting session, but after that, I blacked out.
Next morning, I was woken up much too early for my liking, even though the two suns were high in the sky. My new recruits had gathered in front of the door to receive the promised advance money for their preparations. When I checked my purse, I realized I had more than one gold less, which would translate to at least two hundred skoals. I wondered what we all drank?
Fighting a horrible headache, I learned that Moran, Tenessar, and Loretta were the ones who had accompanied me home the previous night. They wanted to make sure I arrived in one piece. Meeting Loretta's eyes, I realized she must have been suffering from a headache as much as I was. Ju had the presence of mind to give us a hangover drink while we struggled to discuss more details about the planned travel.
Everybody from my 'home group', especially the boys, seemed to be up to date with many funny happenings, and I finally understood that my friend, Lynx, had followed me all the time and seemed to have had a very amusing evening.
Now, who would believe me that the cause was some unfortunate mana mixture?
Well, here we were, almost reaching our destination, and I was still trying to avoid talking to anybody. The memory of me acting like a drunkard that night was still too fresh in my mind. I couldn't mingle with them and look them in the eye, as I had the impression that their smiles had a double meaning, and each burst of laughter made me question if they were laughing at me. So, I preferred to find something to keep myself busy.
That's how I went again to 'inspect' the forest around. Usually, Lynx was shadowing me, but when I wanted solitude, he was kind enough not to disturb me. Maybe he regretted making fun of me? No, scratch that, he had too much fun recalling when I wanted to enter the wrong villa, confusing it with a bus station, or when I wanted to pay for a train ticket, using a plank for an interactive terminal, or when I...
I transformed into a lynx and went for a fast run.
Feeling the power in my muscles and the speed at which I was running had a reassuring, elating effect on me. It almost made me drunk in a different way, and since it seemed that wide swaths of the forest were completely wild and untamed, that cheered my inner lynx even more.
I let the feelings soothe my mind, so it took some time before I decided to turn back and meet the coaches. "They must be close to the destination, if they haven't arrived already," I thought to myself.
Indeed, when I caught sight of the coaches, I also saw some stone towers in the distance. They were probably the towers of the property. If that was the case, the property was really big. It seemed to be something like a castle, but I was still too far away to distinguish many details, and the main building was hidden behind trees.
As I ran towards the coaches at a light trot, I thought again about my 'dragon in the decaying ring' problem. All our problems seem to eventually find a solution, but not this one. Just yesterday, Alice had reminded me of it. There were some mountains far away in the North that were supposed to host at least one dragon. Should we try to go there?
Or should we involve some mages in trying to move Sid outside of the ring? But one doesn't levitate a dragon with just a couple of mages; we needed a small army. Could they even do that? Levitating a book or an apple seemed to be a great feat for a mage. And what would happen with Sid after that with so many people who would know about him?
What about trying more people for the dragon transformation spell? But who? Should I have talked with Nebesko about it? Of course, if Alice was not dragon material, my demoted self could not be either, but what about me in my lynx form?
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
As soon as I had that thought, I stopped running. Could I even say the spell in lynx form? I tried to think about it, and it seemed possible. That was great, so why not try it?
I started the spell, and it seemed to be working, but it was draining a lot of mana. By now, I was getting used to these mana-intensive spells—what really mattered was maintaining focus and feeding the spell the required energy until it activated.
I stopped moving to concentrate fully on the spell, my eyes on the coaches as they approached a bridge. Three small black figures were blocking the way. At first, I dismissed them, my thoughts entirely absorbed in the spell. But something was off about those figures. It looked like they had green overalls under their armor.
As I focused more closely, I could hardly believe what I was seeing with my lynx eyes: orcs!
“Dammit!” I thought, “My friends are being attacked by orcs, and here I am, strolling through the forest! And Lynx is probably somewhere behind me. Oh, fuck!”
The two carriages came to a halt. I broke into a run towards them, just in time to see Alice stepping out of her carriage and approaching the orcs. Not far off, there were more of them—maybe a dozen, sitting and watching.
What did that mean? Were they challenging the strongest among them to a one-on-one fight? That was possible with orcs, especially this close to the wororc tribes, who often engaged in such rites. I had faith in Alice’s abilities, but would these brutes actually fight fair?
Or was this just a negotiation, with the larger group waiting on the sidelines, ready to attack if things didn’t go their way?
As these thoughts raced through my mind, I realized my concentration on the spell was wavering, right when it was on the brink of completion. I had to decide quickly what to do with it. Should I discard it? That might cause a backlash since it was nearly finished. Instead, I decided to let it run. “A dragon? That might actually be perfect for dealing with these orcs!”
A wave of dark magic engulfed me, momentarily blinding me. When my vision cleared, I was a galloping dragon. But in that split second of blindness, I failed to avoid a tree, crashing through it and sending splinters flying like a train barreling through a glasshouse.
All eyes turned to me. I was still about a hundred meters away, and to my relief, there was no fighting yet. Alice had just turned back toward the carriage when she looked up at me.
A horn blared, and to my surprise, the orc group snapped into action with remarkable speed and discipline. They quickly armed themselves and came running.
What were these fools thinking? Did they really plan to fight a dragon? Their discipline and determination were impressive, especially considering that, in the face of a dragon, their remaining lives expectancy could be measured in seconds, not minutes.
I sent out an identification pulse as I was close enough, an <
"Well, maybe my instincts will kick in. Worst case, I’ll just chew them up like a lynx," I thought.
I slowed my trot, confused by what I was seeing. Were they forming a defensive line in front of the coaches? Yes, they were! A wall of black, towering shields bristling with spear tips pointed straight at me. A few casters and two bowmen took their positions behind the shield wall.
Then I saw Alice stepping down from one of the coaches, with Ju close behind her. Both moved to take their place behind the shields as the coaches started to pull away. Were they trying to remove the weaker ones from the fight? I was stunned to see Tenessar and Durham leap from the other coach and run to join the orcs.
I slowed down even more. What was going on? Had they decided to join forces against the bigger threat—me?
I tried to explain myself.
"Alice! It's me!" I yelled, but what came out of my mouth was something else entirely—a furious, terrifying bark that seemed to shake the very air. I watched as they all recoiled, even the level ninety-one orc. I must have put too much mana into the yell, wanting them to hear me, but it clearly didn’t work the same way as when I was human. Several of them dropped to their knees, including a couple of orcs and Durham, who needed Tenessar’s help to stay upright, though his own knees were wobbling too.
I stopped, realizing I needed to be more careful. I tried again, this time attempting to vocalize the words more gently.
"Oh, come on, it's me."
But the sounds that emerged were just more strange, guttural roars. Maybe they were friendlier roars? At least they weren’t retreating this time. But then, suddenly, a portal opened up.
Before I could process what the portal was, a massive shadow shot out of it. It moved so quickly that it was barely more than a blur, but when I looked up into the sky, I saw it clearly—a dragon.
"How can it fly so fast?" I wondered. It didn’t flap its wings; it moved like a jet, like a black arrow cutting the sky.
"Mama! Mama! Mama!" I heard the yells in my mind, while my ears picked up more dragon roars. When I noticed Alice staring at her ring in confusion, it clicked.
"Sid?" I thought, and he heard me. I knew he did, even though he didn’t reply right away. I could feel his joy at hearing my voice.
"Yes, Mama, it’s me!" he answered.
It was heartbreaking to hear him confuse me with his mama, especially when I remembered that intense conversation in the grotto with him and Flo. I knew it was better to tell the truth, even if it might disappoint him at first.
"I'm not your mama, Sid. I'm Lores," I said gently.
"You're not Mama?" he exclaimed.
The despair in his voice was so overwhelming that it pained my dragon heart. He landed in front of me, scrutinizing me closely.
"But... but... I'm as close as White Flower to you!" I tried to lift his spirits.
"You look so much like Mama," he sighed, his voice filled with longing.
"You called White Flower 'aunt.' I'm like White Flower!" I said, trying to cheer him up.
I racked my brain, recalling what I’d learned recently about dragons, what little did people know about them. They are said to live in small, matriarchal communities until they mature, which could take hundreds of years.
Sid wasn’t even a decade old yet. I swallowed hard, trying to view him through this lens.
“Yes, but she wasn’t a dragon…” he explained, then quickly added, “Can I call you Mama?”
I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was his dragon way of asking if he could stay with me, under my protection. I almost said a resounding NO, but then, I was a dragon now, a female dragon, and my dragon instincts were influencing my thoughts. Besides, who would be hurt if Sid called me "Mama" in his mind?
“Sure,” I answered.
“Mama?” he half-questioned as he moved to huddle under my giant wing.
I sighed, raising my massive shoulders as I let Sid nestle in. My eyes met Lynx's, who simply shrugged in response.
On the bridge, Hordius, the level ninety-one orc lieutenant, turned to his captain, Drackar, who had just arrived with a small company to reinforce their group against the dragon threat.
“What did I just see?” Hordius asked in Orcish, his voice low and tense.
Drackar’s gaze flicked from the two dragons to Alice, the elf, and the two humans, then back again. “Maybe our guests will offer an explanation,” he replied. “But for now, sound... no, no trumpets—don’t provoke them. Send a courier to the castle and place the garrison on high alert. Pull our boys back towards the castle, but keep within reach. The coaches are secure, and there’s no sense in aggravating the dragons. I’ll walk back with the humans and the elf to the inn. Tell Wortar to meet me there with a couple of guards, horses ready.”
“Aye, captain!” Hordius responded, quickly moving to carry out the orders.