“So yer’ saying that scary guy over there is actually that scary dragon? Just when I thought things were getting simple again.” Arga’s finger remained curled in the air, pointed at the crimson dragon—man— just as confused as the rest of us.

His crimson hair was quite well-groomed and barely hung past his ears. He walked over to Alice but even in his human form, he still managed to loom over her.

I was ready to rush over there, to protect her. I grabbed my Chakram from its straps and took one step forward before—

“Alright then. I can’t force you to go if you’re not ready, we can talk about it.” Every fragment of scary red aura had vanished in a blink.

I was a little thrown off by that reply but it looked like everything worked itself out—she wasn’t going anywhere just yet.

His voice had shifted into a gentle resounding sound, it was quite gentle on the ears. A massive change from the deep ominous one he had moments before.

A huge weight of relief passed off of me and I let out a satisfying sigh. Arga must have been just as on the edge as I was because I could feel her sigh hit the back of my neck shortly after mine left me.

The hairs hanging on the back of my neck straightened and a chill followed down my spine. “Eek—what are you doing so close to me?!”

“Sorry about that, ha-ha-ha~”

Arga and I were so absorbed in our conversation that we didn’t notice the stares on us until shortly after. Not only Alice but the two dragons standing beside her—one just a little taller than me—and another over fifteen times my size and with glistening, blue wings.

Their stares hit hard, so much so that Arga and I both stood up straight in a nervous reaction. Alice gave a cute pout from seeing us and aimed it at her brothers like a weapon. She threw her fists into the air and waved them about in a childish manner while screaming at them.

It was a side of her that I hadn’t seen before, one I didn’t know existed until that moment. She looked comfortable around them, it was clear that they were the part of her she had been missing up to that point. Seeing her stand her ground was such a shock for me, but then I got to see her yell at people way scarier than anyone I’d ever met before.

My shoulders relaxed slightly seeing her and a small grin overtook my expression. I couldn't help it after seeing her like that—like she deserved to be.

Happy.

“Don’t scare them like that brother! Those are my friends, they’ve never seen other dragons before, so be nice!”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The crimson dragon's cold stare softened as he focused on Alice. “Of course, I’ll try and be a little easier on the humans.”

Her face lit up hearing him say that, it was clear that she was quite close with him. He looked willing to give her the world at a moment's notice. Not that I doubt he could. She looked just as crazy about him, his response alone brought out such a cute smile—I was envious!

I had been trying to bring out that smile again for so long and he managed to do it with a simple reply. I was happy they found each other again, truly I was, but it still stung.

Her innocent expression shifted over to the blue dragon sitting beside them. She stared at him a little longer and her sparkling eyes turned into a pouting expression that made him flinch.

The dragon tried to resist her but it was no use, the cuteness overload was too much even for a dragon like him.

He turned his head in all sorts of angles as if the cuteness had spread throughout his body like a poison. He tried to stray from its effects and resist but it clearly had its grasp on him, he was close to breaking.

Even so, he stayed determined to resist her and enough to make someone else irritated.

A red mist surrounded the trio of dragons and a pair of gleaming eyes focused towards him, cutting through the red mist.

“Zephier!” The crimson dragon’s voice cracked the ground.

Fissures travelled under his feet and split the hard dirt beneath them slightly, which caused an eerie and loud cracking sound to fill the area around us. Each ominous crack hit against the walls of the Hollow and grew louder with every return until that single sound became a nightmarish cacophony of menacing noises.

The younger dragon finally submitted and let out a defiant yell. “Alright fine…I’ll leave the humans be. You don’t have to get all ground cracking on me…”

His voice cut through the fissures and cleared the mist along with it.

The blue scales on his body began to erupt with wild blue flames beneath each scale until his entire body was engulfed. Just as the crimson dragon did before him, his body centred inside a large rotating flame that shrunk to human size.

As the flames halted and countless blue embers were released into the air, a figure remained at its core.

The blue dragon—or Zephier—was probably the most bizarre one of the group.

His hair had the same ocean blue colour that his scales did but it looked nothing like Alice or their crimson brother. Much like the rest of his appearance, it had a wild flare to it. Every inch of his hair stood out with spikes and hung down to his lower back in a loose manner. His top half was completely bare, he emerged from the flames shirtless.

What looked to be a similar article of clothing as theirs, was wrapped around his waist like some sort of baggy belt. His pants were tied at the ankles and were the only other article of clothing he wore.

This brother stood out quite a bit from his siblings but he seemed the most ‘draconic’ out of the three by human standards. Alice and her crimson brother seemed odd to us, as they changed their appearance so drastically when shifting into human forms. This brother seemed to fit the bill a bit more than them, maybe to their standards, he was the odd one.

“What’s up with that bod…?”

Arga’s jaw dropped as she set her eyes on Zephier’s insanely toned upper body. It looked like something carved from stone by a master smith—I hate to admit it but I was insanely jealous.

It was the type of body I had always dreamed of having. Six—no—eight abs?! Even his chest was crazy, he had a skinnier build like I did but was still insanely muscular. It was as if each of the muscles in his body were fighting amongst each other for domination over the entire arm.

Was that the body of a dragon…?!

“Life’s not fair.”