Chapter 7

The first thing I had to do was physically rehabilitate the female back to the level where she could move around on her own. We started by getting her used to standing under her own weight again and by the end of the first week that she was able to walk while leaning on me. By the second she could walk unsupported. And by the end of the first month she was able to walk the full five hundred by five hundred meter perimeter of the food court. She seemed quite proud of herself after doing that and as a reward I allowed her to sleep cuddled up next to me that night.

After that I tried to take her outside. At the time I had thought it a good way to further train her body by making her go up and down hills, or maneuver between trees and uneven terrain. But as soon as we neared the Castle exit she suddenly stopped dead, turned around and ran- or rather quickly walked back toward the food court. It took several hours of comforting her to get her to so much as stand up.

Of course I tried to get her to go out again, but every time we neared the doorway she would run away, and I would have to comfort her again.

“This is getting us nowhere” I thought

For the life of me I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. She wouldn’t talk, she wouldn’t stray more than a few feet from me, and now she refused to go outside? Of course I wasn’t angry at her, but if I couldn’t figure out what ailed her mind then I wouldn’t be able to help her.

At first I had been content to let her open up to me at her own speed, but it was quickly becoming clear that she would stay quiet forever if I let her. So, a little over a month after I started taking care of her, I decided to sit her down and try to make her talk.

“First things first, I need to know if she even can talk.” I thought, as the two of us sat in our corner of the food court, munching on a fire salamander. She was licking the blood from her claws when I growled at her to get her attention. Her electric blue eyes met mine, and I could tell I had her full attention.

“Up until now I was content to wait for you to become comfortable enough to talk to me. But now I realize- you never had any intention of talking did you?”

She shook her head and looked down at the ground, like a child being scolded.

Pressing on, I said “You don’t need to look so contrite, I’m not going to yell. But I do want you to start talking with me. It doesn’t have to be a full blown conversation right away, for now how about I just ask you some questions? You can just nod yes or shake your head no, for now.”

This was the first thing I wanted to verify. Did she actually know how to talk, and was she willing to heal from whatever was afflicting her.

To my delight she nodded her head, meaning she did understand the language we were speaking well enough to know words like “contrite” and “conversation”

“Then for my first question, can you use telepathy?”

She nodded her head.

“Would you be willing to use it to talk?”

She shook her head.

Damn. I didn’t think it would be that easy, but it was still a let down. Oh well, no point in dwelling on it.

“Do you have a name?”

She nodded her head.

“Can you spell it?”

She shook her head.

I sighed. This was going to be a loooong journey we had ahead of us. For the rest of that evening I kept asking her questions of increasing complexity, but I always made sure to phrase it in a way that ended with a yes or a no. From this I was able to garner a good deal of information about the female.

She had lived in this place for her whole life, but had never known who her parents were. She was 17 years old, slightly older than me yet she was only three quarters my size. Until recently other dragons had fed her, but they suddenly stopped. When she’d tried to get some food herself she was attacked, and since she was the weakest dragon in here there was no one that she could wrestle food away from.

All of this was about what I had expected but at the end of the evening, after I had asked her dozens of questions I suddenly got an idea in my head. An idea that I didn’t like, but that made all too much sense.

“Tell me, have you ever left this castle?”

She shook her head.

Now a piece of the puzzle had fallen into place, and it gave me a lot of clues about her past. I would have to sort them out in my own time though, as we had been doing this for so long that both of our eyes were getting heavy.

“One final question then…would you like to know my name?”

Her eyes snapped open and she nodded vigorously.

“I am called Illumen.”

For the first time since I had started taking care of her she looked genuinely happy. It pleased me to see her like that and it gave me an idea for how to get her outside, and possibly an idea of how to get her to talk. Maybe she just needed some motivation…

The next day I had her walk with me to the entrance hall, just as I had done several times before. And just like before she became more and more skittish the closer we got to the castle exit. Just before we got to the point where she had ran away last time I stopped.

“I won’t make you take another step from here.”

Her expression went from worried to confused.

“But if you do I’ll tell you what my favorite color is.”

Her confusion turned to surprise, which was then replaced by an expression of deliberation. She was actually considering facing her fear for such a trivial fact about me.

It was a childish strategy to use, but her dependence on me made my life story something valuable that I could trade with. All she had to do was take a few steps forward, and another piece of her desired treasure would be hers.

After a moment of silence she gave me a frightened look, but nodded her head.

I allowed her to move a little closer, and then started walking. She followed suit, not wanting to lag behind. My goal was to get us as far as the entryway to the castle.

“My favorite color is Blue. Water, fire, the sky, it’s all blue. Blue was also the color of my best friends eyes…”

Her eyes were inquiring, she wanted me to keep going.

“Ah sorry, I wasn’t talking about you. I’d like to think that we are friends, but the one I was talking about was a human. The human who named me, to be precise. He also taught me how to speak the humans tongue…it’s because of him that I…”

It suddenly became very hard for me to keep talking. The more I spoke about Rickurd, the more my heart hurt. The female's attention was focused solely on me though, and I knew that if I stopped now we wouldn’t reach the goal I had set for us today.

“..It’s because of him that I learned telepathy. Before we met I had never spoken to anyone. I was alone in the Forlorn Forest for years because…because…”

My heart was pounding, remembering the soldiers who tortured my siblings to death. I could feel my whole body tense up like a winding coil. If I kept going I was bound to snap.

I was breathing heavily, trying to push myself into continuing, but it was too much to bear! There was too much evil in my past and too much hatred and resentment in my heart to stay calm! I wanted to fight something! I needed to kill something! I needed to-

Then, suddenly, I felt a warm feeling next to me.

The female, unbeknownst to me, had noticed that something was off. She’d had her eyes on me the entire time and had seen my expression go from normal to dark. When I’d started hyperventilating and tensing up she immediately recognized what was happening, likely because it had happened to her so many times, and did to me what I did to comfort her.

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She placed her head next to mine and held my body with her forelegs. After a few minutes I calmed down and was successfully able to repress my memories, though now a feeling of shame was hovering over me. I was the one who was supposed to be healing her, not the other way around.

Only now did I realize that she may not be the only one in need of help…

She patted me on the shoulder, grabbing my attention.

“Thank you, I’m alright now.”

She looked pleased at that

“By the way, I’m quite impressed with you.”

She blushed and fluttered her eyelids at me, thinking that I meant that I was impressed with how she calmed me down.

I smiled and said “Look how far you made it today.”

The females’ expression became quizzical, not understanding what I meant. Then she took in her surroundings and realized that the two of us were standing just outside the doors of the castle.

The sun was at its zenith in the sky, bathing the two of us in warm light. Around us the trees rustled in the breeze and one could hear the sound of a creek flowing a short distance away. The female was stone still, taking in the sights and sounds and smells around her that she had never experienced before.

Then her body started to shake. Before she could take off running I put my forelegs around her neck and pulled her toward me, holding tightly both so that she couldn’t run away, and so she would feel safe in my arms.

Terero was sunbathing in the same spot that he had been in when I first arrived. One of his eyes was open and staring at the two of us.

“Aren’t you two a bit young for that sort of thing?” he asked, chuckling to himself

“Shut it, gargoyle” I said grumpily. The female already had enough problems with anxiety, I saw no need to make her worry about that.

The female's shakes were subsiding and her breathing was slowing down. If she was able to remain calm out here, then maybe rehabilitating her wouldn’t be as hard as I’d worried.

Slowly but surely she lifted her head out of my embrace and allowed her eyes to explore the exterior of the castle. She was squinting, probably because she’d never been exposed to this much sunlight.

“Do you know what those are?” I said, pointing to the ring of tall oaks’ around us.

She shook her head.

“Those are trees. A lot of trees together make a forest, which is what surrounds this castle. There’s forest for miles and miles in every direction. And do you hear that sound? That’s a stream, where water flows down from a river or a lake. And those? Those are squirrels…”

And so , I told her about everything she had never seen that existed outside of the castle. From the different types of trees, to which rocks felt the best to rub your scales up against, to the best kinds of spots to sunbathe in, I told her as much as I could in one afternoon. After all, who knows if I would be able to get her back out here.

From time to time she would start to freak out again, and whenever that happened I would restrain her until she relaxed. Thankfully, she never put up much of a fight.

It wasn’t until the sun had dropped low over the horizon that I stood up and pulled her back inside the castle. Of course, Terero had to get a final word in.

“Looks like you’ve given yourself quite the task with that one, blue brat. You’d have an easier time defeating the Emperor than you would fixing such a broken thing..”

The female, who had been fine up to this point, was now looking away from Terero, shame coloring her features.

“I told you to shut it, Gargoyle. I will fix her and I will get my answers out of that old dragon, even if it means winning them in a fight..”

“Ha! You couldn’t beat me in a fight, let alone Reyzo.”

“…For now.” was all I could say.

He was right of course. For all of my powers and abilities, I was still barely more than a hatchling. It was frustrating, but all I could do was wait until I got older.

The female became noticeably more chipper as we reentered the building, practically skipping through the entrance hall. Today had been a big day for her, and she was quite pleased with herself.

But as she got to the wide open doorway to the food court a trio of dragons who were standing nearby talking suddenly rushed at her. The largest, a 15 meter long male, grabbed her up in his massive claws, holding her like a human holds a doll.

“Well now, looky at what I found…” he said, shaking the female at me

For a moment I just stared at the dragon, dumbstruck. I almost convinced myself that he was just playing a prank, as surely no one would be foolish enough to try and extort me of all dragons. Not after seeing what I did to the web toes and that fat dragon, and yet his expression was one of gloating triumph.

My temper was rising again.

“If you don’t want to die, put her down and leave this place. The next time I see you, I will kill you.” I said, deadly quiet. I had no desire to play whatever game these fools had thought up, not while they threatened my ward.

“Heh, I’d bet you would, wouldn’t you. But I’d be careful if I were you, one wrong move and I might accidentally squeeze her little head off or-”

“No you won’t.” I said.

“What are you-”

“No you won’t. If you so much as put a scratch on her, I’ll descale you alive and cook you in hellfire.” I said, malice tainting my every word “You have no leverage, you have no collateral, all you have is the choice to stay here, and die now, or run away and die the next time we cross paths.”

The dragon trio were stunned. They were all low ranked dragons, none of whom were anywhere close to my strength, which is why they came at me as a trio.

“Whoever put them up to this is a fool…” I thought

Just when it looked like the three of them would cut and run, a set of shadows loomed over the three foolish dragons. They turned around to see what was behind them and were met by another trio of dragons whom I was already familiar with.

The water twins, and the great fat horned dragon.

“What’re you-” the dragon holding the female hissed.

SLAM. The fatty smashed his massive foreleg into the fools head, causing him to drop the female. The water twins were likewise crushing the remaining two dragons. I sprinted forward and caught the now sobbing female on my back.

“Ha! Serves them pissants right!” shouted the fatty. He looked over at me with a grin, clearly expecting praise.

“What are you fools doing?”

“Oy, come on lad, is that any way to talk to the bloke who just saved your lass?”

“I had the situation under control.”

“Aw, come on, don’t be like that!” said one of the water twins

“Yeah, we’re just trying to help!” said the other

“Why would you three want to help me? I would have burned you alive if I was having a bad day when we fought.”

It was the fatty who answered “That’s right, you proper trounced us. Thing is, dragons like us respect the strong and mate, you’ve got strong in spades. Names Pears, by the by.” he said, casually dropping his fat body onto the now unconscious dragon he had been fighting.

“I’m Akawa!” and “I’m Laek!” said the twins

Of course, I wasn’t listening anymore. The female was still sobbing her eyes out, clutching me like a babe does their mother. We had made so much progress in one day, not only did she spend the entire evening outside, but she came away from it feeling good. And now all of that progress might have been ruined because of these three idiots and whoever convinced them to threaten us...

“I’ll be back in just a moment,” I said, tearing myself from her grip. “You three, move.” I said to Akawa, Laek, and Piers

After they did I approached the attackers, all of whom were coming back into consciousness. I waited a few moments more for the three of them to get their wits about them. They looked at me, then at the three dragons who had assisted me, and then at the female, fully taking in the situation.

The one who had grabbed up the female tried to speak “Listen, we-”

“Silence.” I said, activating

-A Skill granted to those who have eaten a Gorgon

Two immortals and one slain, take vengeance upon the so called heroes who stole her from you!

-The user gains the ability to paralyze small creatures at the cost of mana

-(Unlocked at Lv.3) The user gains the ability to paralyze large creatures at the cost of significantly more mana. Cost increases exponentially with the size of the opponent.

-Locked-

-Locked-

All three of the larger dragons were restrained, completely unable to move or use their skills. I felt my mana slowly deplete as I restrained the three large dragons.

“I’m going to play a little game with you three. It’s quite a fun one you see, I used to play it all the time whenever I happened upon some humans…”

Their expressions became noticeably lighter when they heard that.

“Here are the rules, I’m going to ask you some questions and whoever gives me the most interesting answers gets to move on to the next round. The one who gives the least interesting answer…dies.”

Their expressions became contorted with fear. As they ought to have been.

Behind me Piers, Akawa and Laek were gazing with interest at me, clearly enjoying the show I was putting on. I was a little surprised that they weren’t phased when I said I would kill these three. The female was trying to get past Piers so she could grab onto me again, but he was gently holding her back.

I was warming up to Piers quickly.

Turning my attention back to the trio, I said “Now then, first question. What are your names?”

The three of them looked at one another, clearly confused. Behind me akawa said “Uhh, is that really the first question? Shouldn’t he be asking, you know, who sent them, or why they attacked him?”

“Oy” Piers said to Akawa

“What?”

“Shut it!”

I liked Piers.

“M-My name is Scrapp” said the rather thin, timid looking dragon on the left.

“I am called Everet.” said the sturdy looking dragon on the right

“I’m Bronn” said the fire dragon between them

I burned Everet until there was nothing left but his shadow in the castle stone.

“Holy smoke, he really did it!” said Laek

“WHY?!” shouted Bronn

“His name was the least interesting out of the three of you. Did you not hear me when I told you the rules of this game?”

“S-So you’re really going to kill us!?” screamed Scrapp

“Probably. If you stop being interesting. Next question, Who sent you to attack us?”

Scrapp answered first again “I-I-It was Eise! He said he wanted us to scare you out of the castle, and promised to let us eat alongside the Noble Dragons if we succeeded!”

I nodded my head and said “Mmhmm, just as I expected.”

Scrapp smiled, happy because he had given the right answer.

Then I burned him alive too.

“But you said-!”

“I said the one who gives the most interesting answer gets to live. I already guessed everything your friend said, and there’s nothing interesting about being told the answer to a question you already know.”

“You…!”

“So…” I said, stepping on Bronn's head and putting my own right up to his eyes “You had better have something interesting to tell me.”

For a moment Bronn's eyes were filled with nothing but anger, he had been beaten in every way, he had thrown his life into my claws and now he was about to die and he knew it. And then…

He started crying. There it was, that’s what I had been waiting for.

“Eise said…that we had to make sure to get your female to leave with you. He said that she could be dangerous to him in the future…we didn’t think it was that important…everybody here knows that she's the weakest dragon…so please, please don’t…I want to live.”

“Well now, you’ve told me something very, very interesting, Bronn. So congratulations, you win the game. As a reward, I’ll lend you back your life. Take it and leave this place.”

I deactivated my Gorgon's Eye and started walking toward the Food Court, motioning for Piers to let the female go. She rushed back to my side and all but dragged me into her embrace.

“Ah, and you three” I said, turning my head back towards Piers, Akawa and Laek “…thanks.”

“No problem, guv. If you ever need a sparring partner, I’m your dragon.” chuckled Piers

“Any time! Hey, maybe you could teach me that move you used to stop my Leviathan Gaze!” chimed Akawa

“Ha! You’re a real softy for that female, huh? If you wanna pay me back, gimme some food!” shouted Laek

Piers and Akawa stared at Laek, with Akawa remarking “You really know how to ruin the mood, huh brother?”