A minute before something hit Hebanyac in the eye, he fidgeted, pulled out a gnat, and casually glanced to the western horizon and in that greyness and darkness he noticed a white spot of gigantic size, around which lightning bolts danced. He adjusted the magnification on his binoculars and saw a new dragon, about three times the size of the first. White fur streaked its neck, back, tail, and chin, and chest, inside of the wings, and jaws were glowing bright blue. The flaps of its wings left the forest in splinters and ruin. To his right and left flew three wyverns each.

“Wow, look, there are guests flying in,” Hebanyac said with a smile on his face.

Mercyaa took the eyepiece of his binoculars away from the battle and looked west.

“Fucking devils. There’s another one! They can’t see it. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

The deputy wrote five messages to Lettarongan, hoping that he would pay attention to the warning. The military commander did, but ignored it. Mercyaa, bewildered and gritting his teeth, wrote to the officer of attack squads.

***

The vacuum ended five seconds later. Air appeared inside again.

“Officer, what are you waiting for?” Lettarongan asked. “Our mana is enough for one more time.”

“There’s a pack of wyverns flying toward us from the west, and a dragon several times that size.”

The trapped monster whimpered and moved. The Top Secret wizards shackled it with a spell of the earth element. Lettarongan squeezed the shaft of his spear with all his might and looked menacingly at Ghoton, ordering him to act.

“No. We won’t kill it.”

“We got it, officer! What the fuck?”

“The emergence of the new dragons finally brought clarity to my mind.”

Lettarongan prepared to attack, but Jack and Dora stopped him and said, “Look, we’ve got time, and we’re going to die, anyway.” The trapped dragon bowed its head in anticipation of its own fate. It no longer had the strength to resist. The burgundy blood gushed from its wounds, its legs were unresponsive, and the mana that supported the fire once raging in its chest was barely enough to mount another attack.

Ghoton turned to the Top Secret magicians and said:

“If you run now, you will save your life.”

“Do you realize who you are letting go!” shouted Lettarongan, and turned to his comrades and continued. “He’s mad!”

The mages stood their ground and looked at the officer of attack squads.

“We’re with you to the end,” they said. “Say what’s on your mind.”

Not a single person ran away.

“From the beginning, the dragon came to us to negotiate, not to fight. But we were afraid, we started a war, and now we handle what is happening. Latludious played on our greed. He wanted us to attack and made all the high officers think the enemy was coming to them. Nevertheless, what if that’s not true, and the dragon isn’t evil? Maybe it’s a member of a common race that inhabits Thalack? They saw us - the aliens on the plane and decided to talk. Think about it, the dragon didn’t attack first, all this time he was defending itself. It spoke to me through telepathy and when I responded, it stopped attacking.”

The magicians nodded, for they remembered the moment well.

“So those bastards from the western fortress ruined everything!” someone shouted.

The others snarled and got angry.

“Calm down. They didn’t know that, and neither do we. There’s a flock of its kind flying toward us now. If we kill the dragon in front of them, they’ll think we’re an army of rabid assassins who can’t be reasonably expected to negotiate. The dragon wanted to give me the staff - it was its gift. When two civilizations don’t understand each other, they speak the language of gifts.”

“If we don’t kill it, can you guarantee it won’t recover and fly in for revenge?”

“We wounded it, but we didn’t kill it. From a purely human point of view, I can understand its anger. However, it’s wise. Look at how it fought. Not only has it adapted to our strategies, but it countered them. It doesn’t want this battle. Only it can’t tell us because we speak different languages.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“But what can we offer the dragon?”

“Our apology and our life.”

The dragon struggled to move its neck and stared at Ghoton with one eye and murmured. Lettarongan paid attention.

“But why did the arrival of the dragons change anything?” Jack asked.

“I believe it is a small individual, an impulsive child who flew ahead of the locomotive. If the race is intelligent and had been attacked previously, it would’ve been foolish to fly in alone to negotiate. Had they all come at once, would we have attacked? I don’t think so. Then the story might have turned differently. Everyone made one huge mistake here.”

Lettarongan watched the dragon’s movements, heard its piteous voice, clenched its teeth, and turned to the west. The reinforcements were closer and scarier than he had expected. The military commander looked at the officer of attack squads, a young lad who had listened to his heart, his inner voice.

“He’s right,” Lettarongan said through gritted teeth and bowed his head. “It’s hard to say, but I can see the meaning in his words. This is a genuine leader. A man who has just realized the power of pity and compassion. All this time, the thought of winning, of killing, has been swirling in my head. I thought that was the only right outcome of today’s war. But maybe I’m wrong, and there’s more to it than that. Something that is hidden from our eyes... We are a living organism, a dragon is no exception, it feels pain just like us, feels emotions. I wasn’t paying attention to it, though I should have.”

Lettarongan was silent for a few seconds, and then he looked at Ghoton and continued:

“It is not good to kill those who want peace. We act like mad animals, attacking everything we don’t understand. I believe you, young officer. War is always a defeat for both sides. Give the order.”

“Everyone but me and the military commander must leave the magic dome and escape. I don’t know what awaits us next, but you will play your part.”

All the players did so and ran to the western fortress. The shackles restraining the dragon were gone. Ghoton and Lettarongan stood in front of the dragon’s head. So tiny in comparison, and so powerful. They bent down on one knee.

***

“Did they decide not to kill it? Have they gone completely mad?” Hebanyac asked in horror and got up. “I’m going to put some sense into their stupid heads.”

“Halt, you moron! We have our mission!”

“Ugh! I’m sick of it. So much experience wasted! And from the skin later make armor... Give me a couple of minutes; I’ll raise your level by a factor of five.”

“No.”

“I’ll not look at it,” said Hebanyac, and resentfully sat back down and saw the fire in the fortress of Varnasosto dying out under the torrential downpour. There he also saw a man dressed as a healer, who walked over to the concrete core next to the cannon and shoved it into the barrel.

“What is he doing?”

“Who?”

Hebanyac pointed toward the fortress. Mercyaa and Rdrag pointed their binoculars in that direction.

“Does he want to shoot?”

“Well, at least somebody’s got their head on straight.”

“I don’t recognize that healer,” Rdrag said.

“You mean you know them all by face?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying!”

***

The dragon rose and said something to Ghoton and Lettarongan in an exhale. They did not move. A pack of kin would arrive at the battle site in a minute.

“What do you think will happen to us?” The military commander asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe we will be killed.”

“Are you afraid of death?”

“I would like to say that not anymore, but imagining how much I would miss in the next two days... So, the answer is yes, I’m afraid.”

Ghoton’s chest tightened, his breath caught. He stared at the scorched grass beneath his feet, felt drops of sweat roll down his cheek. The rain continued to pour down like a bucket.

Unexpectedly, Ghoton heard a growing screech and knew immediately what was about to happen. He got up and prepared to rescue the dragon, but not in time. The fire-breathing creature rose and kicked the concrete projectile with its tail with the last of its strength and howled in anger and collapsed without strength.

Both superior officers widened their eyes in consternation and swore.

***

“Gee!” Hebanyac laughed and turned the eyepiece of his binoculars with Rdrag to the fortress. The healer was gone.

“Did anyone look at his nickname?”

“You’re the first one who should have!”

“I looked, but I forgot...” replied Rdrag. “What kind of fucked up day is this?”

“You’ve been working for three hours and then you slept for a day and now you’re acting all pouty. What the fuck?”

“Fuck you, kid.”

“Who are you calling a kid?”

“Stop!” Mercyaa yelled, almost tearing up his throat. “Stop... Wait. What a…”

“What a… what?”

“The cannonball! It’s coming right at...”

No sooner had the deputy finished his sentence than the projectile flew two yards above the entrance of the dungeon and buried the tunnel’s entrance under a pile of rocks. The force of the impact made all three of them stagger, and then they saw a couple of small pebbles roll past them.

“Bad sign,” said Mercyaa.

There was a terrible rumbling sound. They turned apprehensively to look at the mountainside and saw the rockfall brought on them by the shock wave. Rdrag erected a protective dome at the last moment, and they were all trapped under the debris of the rocks and boulders.

***

Ghoton and Lettarongan staggered back, unsure of what to do now. Six wyverns, relatively small, with red skin and fiery golden eyes, rounded the High Officers and hissed. The white dragon landed last. It was as tall as half of Orodrim Eoul’s mountains. It flapped its enormous wings at the wounded congenator, and it hissed and bit at its neck as if scolding them for their imprudence.

Ghoton smiled and laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“That I was right.”

The mages from Top Secret, along with Jack and Dora and a few other players, reached the western fortress and climbed the walls. From there, they saw the white dragon incinerating the two high officers with lightning, then turn toward them and roar so loudly that the mountains shuddered and the fortress walls vibrated. Glass shattered in the houses.

“What power!” Jack shouted, trying not to fall off the wall with the strong wind.

Dora heard a voice in his head and replied, “Forgive us, O Great Dragon. We were wrong and ready to pay for our insolence and bloodthirst.” He never knew if the dragon understood him or not. Yet the pack soared into the sky and disappeared behind the clouds and never appeared in those places again.