The fear of being too late drove me to push harder, my wings beating in a frantic, exhausting and inefficient rhythm that only spread chaos below. Travelers scattered, carts overturned, and the peasants' cattle stampeded in all directions, fleeing from the terrifying sight overhead.
Would I make it in time? Why couldn’t I fly like Sid?
I roared in frustration and desperation, my cry sending wildlife and livestock alike bolting across the fields.
I needed Sid to help me. He could fly faster!
"Sid! Sid!" I called out in my mind, pleading for his help.
And then—I saw him.
He was lounging on a wide wooden swing, flanked by Therella and Jane, both draped in nothing more than flimsy garments, flower crowns adorning their heads. Petals drifted lazily from the sky as they laughed, sharing strawberries dipped in honey.
The sheer absurdity of the scene nearly made me crash straight into a tree. I swerved at the last second, clipping branches with my left wing.
"Hi, Mom!" Sid greeted me cheerfully, waving as if nothing were amiss.
The girls turned as well, offering their own greetings—Therella even blew me a kiss.
It took me several stunned seconds to realize what I was seeing wasn’t real. It was his dream.
But how had I ended up inside it?
My mind struggled to keep up with everything at once. On one side, the spirit tool fed me updates on the carriage’s progress—I could see the six-horse carriage thundering down the road at full speed. In reality, I was flying as fast as I could, skimming just above the treetops. And then there was Sid’s dream—where he lounged, grinning at me, utterly carefree, as if nothing in the world mattered.
"Sid! Julietta is in danger, and I can't fly as fast as you! I need your help!"
"Sure, Mom, sure!"
In the blink of an eye, he was flying beside me—except he wasn’t alone. Therella and Jane were perched comfortably on his back, as if they were on a leisurely ride. I watched as Jane casually adjusted her flowing mane and murmured something to Therella, who giggled in response.
He was still dreaming!
"You're doing it wrong, Mom!" Sid called out, laughing. "Remember what you told me when I was just a little, small dragon? You used to call me your hummingbird! But then you said that one day, I’d grow up—and I wouldn't fly like a hummingbird anymore. I'd fly like a dragon.
Because we dragons don’t flap our wings.
We fall on our prey!"
I realized with horror that I wouldn’t be able to wake him in time. It all depended on me—on my clumsy, inefficient flying.
In his dream he thought that I was his real mother. It was endearing, but it wasn’t helping. And what did he mean about falling on our prey?
He drifted closer, his face nearly touching mine.
"Don't flap your wings, Ma! Listen to me the way I listened to you back then. Look ahead. Find your prey—and let yourself fall toward it. Stop flapping your wings!"
And then, something changed.
"Let yourself fall forward! You're doing great!" he whispered.
The landscape beneath me no longer felt flat—it was as if the world had tilted, a subtle downward slope pulling me forward. My wings stretched, catching the air differently. I was accelerating, cutting through the sky without a single wingbeat.
My confused brain scrambled to make sense of what was happening, but one thing was clear—my speed was increasing. And for the first time, I wasn’t fighting against the air. I was falling through it.
"That's it, Ma! You got it! I knew it! You are my Ma! Now—faster! Faster! Let yourself fall on them prey!"
For a split second, instinct made me try to climb higher, and I nearly lost the strange momentum. But then I refocused, surrendering to the fall—and suddenly, I was accelerating again.
Falling up!
"Oh, fuck," I muttered under my breath. "Dragons bend gravity lines. That's how they fly!"
Sid was gone. Just like that. Probably back in his dream, lounging on that swing. I still heard the girls giggle again.
"Bye-bye, Mom! Good hunting!" he called.
And then—silence. Just the rush of wind as I hurtled forward, faster than ever before.
The landscape blurred beneath me, rushing by faster and faster as I steadily climbed higher into the sky.
For a brief moment, my thoughts drifted back to Sid. He was still so young—too young, I had thought, for dreams filled with girls. But clearly, that wasn’t the case. A flicker of guilt crossed my mind for having intruded on his dream, but he hadn’t seemed to mind. And in the end, it had been completely worth it.
Would he even remember any of it?
I had no time to dwell on the thought.
The ground below raced past at an intoxicating speed. Higher and higher I rose, until at last, I spotted it—the carriage, thundering across the landscape, six horses driving it forward at full gallop.
I locked my eyes onto the carriage—that was my prey. Everything else became a blur, the world dissolving into streaks of color. The only thing that remained sharp was the carriage, growing steadily larger, its six black horses in a frenzied sprint.
But then, something changed.
Their movements slowed, stretching unnaturally, as if I were watching a scene unfold in slow motion. And with sudden, gut-wrenching horror, I realized—I wasn’t going to stop in time.
With every ounce of strength, I flung my wings wide, muscles screaming in protest as I fought against my momentum. A deafening boom cracked through the air—a sonic bang catching up to me.
The coach driver turned, eyes going round with terror. He barely had a moment to react before he flung himself from the carriage.
Too late.
My right rear claw struck the coach, lifting it effortlessly into the air. The fragile structure crumpled beneath my grasp, splintering like a matchbox beneath a careless hand. I hadn’t even meant to destroy it.
Two figures tumbled from the wreckage.
A girl dressed in white—
And a second figure clad in black, like a formal tuxedo.
He never even reached the ground.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
I saw him for only a fraction of a second before instinct took over—before I snapped him from the air.
The horses were yanked into the air behind the carriage as I tumbled mid-flight, losing control. The impact when I hit the ground was brutal—trees shattered, earth caved in, and I skidded through the wreckage before coming to an abrupt, bone-jarring stop. I ended up sitting on my dragon haunches, my hind legs spread in a wide V in front of me.
And all the while, I was still chewing on that thing.
Spells detonated inside my mouth, artifacts cracked and exploded, but I didn’t stop. I ground it down relentlessly, my jaws crushing through metal, cloth, and flesh alike until it was nothing more than paste.
The rest of the carriage and the horses had crashed down against my belly. The poor creatures were either dead or dying, their bodies twisted and broken from the wreck. There was no saving them. So, without hesitation, I swallowed the last remnants of my first meal and turned to the horses, biting into them quickly—to end their suffering.
Julietta was on the ground, sitting about fifty, maybe a hundred meters away. Blood stained her white clothes, but she was alive.
The coach driver didn’t move. Either I had stepped on him, or he hadn’t survived the fall.
"Why did it take you so long?! Why?!" Julietta's voice cracked with emotion as she screamed at me, tears streaming down her face.
She was healing herself as she spoke, trembling, bewildered.
And I? I just kept chewing. I did not knew what to say.
She staggered closer in her tattered, bloodstained clothes, still struggling to keep her balance as she poured magic into healing herself. Laughter and sobs mixed together in her voice as she turned, baring her neck and back for me to see.
"Look! It's gone! The damn thing is gone!" she cried.
For a moment, I didn’t understand. But then it hit me.
The black diamond artifact—the one embedded into her spine between her shoulder blades—was no longer there.
I must have chewed through the controlling ring. So that was the sharp pain earlier! For a second, I had worried I’d cracked one of my teeth.
"I'm free! I'm finally free!" Julietta screamed, then whispered it again, almost in disbelief. "Free... free... free... free!"
And then—she started to dance.
As I tore into the next mangled horse, I watched her. What a difference from the last time I had seen her dance—when I had forced her to perform under duress.
Now, she moved with pure joy, spinning with a radiant, untamed grace. Magic sparked and flared around her, a furious symphony of flashing spells illuminating the area.
After several minutes, she finally stopped dancing and came closer, her breathing uneven, her body still trembling with emotion.
"Why did it take you so long? I was so afraid!" she repeated, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"I thought you were leaving me," I finally admitted.
She snorted, giving me a sideways look. "I don’t speak dragon." Then, without hesitation, she reached out and tried to hug my left foot.
I shifted into my human form so I could respond properly—only to immediately start retching.
Something was stuck in my throat. I gagged and coughed, reaching inside and pulling out—more harness straps. Far more than should have possibly fit inside me. I spat them out, flinging the partially chewed remains aside.
"That’s gross," she said flatly, turning her head away with absolutely no sympathy for my suffering.
I finally managed to rasp out, "I thought you were leaving me…" between coughs and attempts to clear my throat.
Her eyes widened in surprise, round as moons.
"Why would I do that?" she asked, genuine confusion in her voice.
I sighed.
"Because I feared that I can't give you what you're looking for," I admitted.
Her eyes searched mine, looking for something—answers, maybe, or the truth I hadn't fully voiced yet.
"Even when I was human, I was pretty fucked up," I continued, trying to put my tangled thoughts into words. "My love interests were just... muscled idiots. I don’t think I ever truly loved anyone. And now? Now I’m a demon. I don’t think demons can love. Not really. Demons can use and abuse, can have sex and have fun, but that’s not love. So what could I offer you?
"I could keep you, cherish you, like a precious diamond in my collection… but is that love?"
Julietta chuckled softly. Then, to my surprise, she knelt in front of me, breath still uneven, her chest rising and falling with the remnants of exhaustion and emotion.
"You silly little demon," she murmured, pulling my face to her chest.
I should have pulled away. I didn’t.
Instead, I found myself still, my ear pressed against her, listening to the frantic rhythm of her heartbeat. The warmth of her body. The steady, real presence of her. It felt... strangely comfortable.
"Love takes many forms," she continued, her voice soft but certain. "I know for a fact that you love Alice. That you love your friends from Earth. It’s a kind of love—friendship mixed with something maternal. And friendship? That’s love too.
"I know for a fact that you love Sid."
"I know for a fact that you love Lynx."
She tightened her arms around me.
"So don’t tell me you can’t love."
She sat on my legs, her weight grounding me as she cupped my horns in her palms, tilting my head so I couldn’t look away. She must be the only living being on this planet I would tolerate grabbing my horns like this—and she was absolutely abusing it. Contrary to what most would assume, my horns were highly sensitive.
She chuckled, then took a torn shred of her dress and wiped away the snot and tears streaking my face.
"And I know that, in your twisted ways, you love me too!" she said, her voice filled with certainty.
I tilted my head, giving her a sideways glance.
"Twisted ways?" I echoed, blinking.
"Yeah," she sighed dramatically. "You just let me fall a dozen meters while you were busy with your lunch! Is that how you handle your princess?" She punctuated her words by pressing a finger firmly against my chest.
I shrugged, utterly unimpressed.
"Falling from that height was nothing for a healer of your level," I said flatly. "Meanwhile, I had to make sure your would-be new master didn’t survive—despite your frantic attempts to heal him. Why didn’t you cast
She gasped, genuinely taken aback.
"I... I didn’t think of it..."
I rolled my eyes. Typical.
She shrugged, then, with a playful smile, added, "Doesn’t matter. You owe me a new dress to replace this one—it’s ruined. And by the next time we’re in town, you’ll buy me a couple!"
I rolled my eyes again. One dress had already turned into a couple.
Then she leaned in and pressed a tender kiss to my left cheek.
"Thank you for saving me. Would you bring me back home now?"
I froze.
She had said home.
And that one word hit me harder than anything else.
She was free now—no longer bound, no longer shackled by that cursed artifact. And yet, despite everything, she still called that castle home.
Of all the things she had ever said to me, that was one of the sweetest.
Actually, she had said so many sweet things in the past few minutes that my head was spinning.