We were approaching the pontiff's castle but we stopped. Tania had fought and defeated George and she had dragon senses... So did we...

"I'm sure that if we approach by darkness or physically, we'll be spotted and Tiamat could sense me and warn Tania..."

"Say, Oriharukon, your network of little birds... what are they saying?"

Oriharukon would concentrate and try to see through the eyes of the little creatures.

We stayed like this for a long time, hidden in cracks.

Oriharukon: "They don't know who it is but I see that the magician is with Tania in her base and Marise is with the mantat and her master in Tania's base.

There's no one in the castle, except normal humans."

Me: "I'll do a magical survey, measure the levels of the guards and if there are any stronger ones, I'll know." (Appraise)

I think the way is clear...

Marc: Wait, we're dealing with Zergian technology... Even I wouldn't be able to detect their alarm system, and they put one in, that's for sure. Invisible alarms are the most terrible.

Kraa: "You're getting paranoid"

Marc: "Imagine if they had a mini drone with lasers or worse, a special poison or mechanical poison?"

We have to watch the comings and goings and also use our dragon powers. Create a diversion, for example...

Me: "But the mages will immediately see the magical disturbance and we will be discovered!"

Marc: "Not if it's an artifact... then he looked at Karrrin..."

Your mermaid trident... you can set off storms, can't you?

Karrrine: "Yes, and of course... "

Me: "Fine!... while Karrrine is doing the diversion, Mark will go as a human to serve the meal and or clean the straw by pretending to be a servant. Will that be okay? Marc?? you remember and you still have the ring, right? Charm and invisibility spells are okay?"

POV Marc...

Snow had taken refuge in the darkness.

Karrrine was with Oriharukon to activate her trident.

Kraaa and Oriharukon were watching and were ready to save me just in case.

I then activated the ring and convulsed in pain, the transformation....I had forgotten the pain....ARRRGh!

I fainted but Kraaa woke me up and practiced first aid on me to ease my pain.

I was naked... naked as a dragon...hehehe...

I picked up my clothes and Kraaa smiled when he saw my attributes.

"Marc, you know, I can transform myself too... I told you a long time ago... I never showed you my human body...".

I smiled at her, she made me laugh a lot, she was a nice dragon.

"Marc, when you come back, don't change back right away, I would like to try something..."

I was red...

I kissed her on her muzzle...

"I love you Kraaa... take care of yourself..."

"You too, Marc... be careful..."

I took a stick to help me with the standing posture and from the forest, I followed the path and I crossed fields and, very slowly, I got used to the bipedal posture...

I wanted to jump and spread my wings to get there quickly but it was a very bad idea.

I continued on my way and wolves surrounded a young couple with a child. He was twirling his sword and the girl was wrapping her bow. Prey on the ground whose blood had attracted wolves.

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When they arrived on the spot, the birds and the forest became silent.

The fifteen or so wolves raised their heads all at the same time and the four attacking wolves stopped dead in their tracks, staring at me.

A cry came out of their throats and they ran away crying.

The young man, dressed in a cape with a suede hat and a sort of light green pyjama, a large belt with a shoulder strap to insert his sword in his back and a piece of leather studded to his arm. He must have been a young hunter.

They turned their heads and saw me. All dressed in black leather, like a warlord, a shirt with a round collar and flowers and a lavaliere, a kind of ancestor of the tie. These were the only clothes I had, in fact they were Romeo's theater clothes. I wasn't going to walk around in jeans, a t-shirt and sunglasses or a collar and tie in the Middle Ages.

Yes, we're not in the Middle Ages anymore, but it's the same thing. Everything is the same as in the 7th century except that the magic is stronger.

"Thank you traveler, without you we would have died... Thank you too", says his companion.

I approached and looked closely at these humans. It had been a long time since I had spoken with them as a man.

Contrary to hibernation and age, I had the appearance of a young man in his twenties. In my opinion I would be 20 years old forever...but the ring allowed me to take the appearance of whoever I wanted, even a child. I had long black hair and eyes with golden pupils. My ears were slightly pointed and my musculature was, how shall I say, that of a martial arts master. Flexibility, strength and speed. Not that of a bodybuilder.

On the other hand, my strength was insane and I had to be careful not to crush to a pulp what passed through my fingers.

The strength and vitality, combined with a dragon's health, invigorated me. The mission to save my grandson gave me back my strength from before the cataclysm. I wanted to devour the mountain and everything around it to clear the underground dungeon and get him out of there. But this situation is more delicate

"Cyril, my name is Cyril..."

"And I, Irina..."

They held out their hand to me...

I looked at my hands and I held it out to them without closing it so as not to hurt them.

They were a little surprised by the way I greeted them...

I wanted to roar with pleasure but I held back.

"Marcus... Marcus Ambrosius... I come from the west. I live alone and I come to the capital to look for work. I am a magician and a hunter too."

Cyril: "Me too, but I have just left the apprenticeship and I don't know this part of the forest very well yet and we had the misfortune to come across a pack of wolves. With these wars, they became emboldened and took over our hunting territories. With the decline of the human population in general, they are becoming bold and there are victims... They must have already tasted human blood."

Me: "I will talk to them and they will have to deal with me!!!"

Cyril and Irina looked at each other (Talking to the wolves?? he's missing a square?).

I then realized in their eyes that I had said something stupid.

Further on, Kraa, who had heard the conversation, rolled on the floor laughing and choking her cries so as not to be spotted...

"Ah, yes, I'm wise, as I told you and it's easy for me to communicate with animals"...

Cyril and Irina were amazed. Still...

Cyril: "We're just going to the castle to take our prey to the kitchens."

Me: "But don't you have to go through the guild of hunters or adventurers?"

Irina: "Exactly, yes, but for the sake of freshness, we have a mendat signed by the guild authorizing us to immediately deposit the game. We are paid by the guild, not by the castle.

Me: "I understand now. So, if I want to work in the castle, I have to join the guild?"

Irina: "Yes, that's right, you have to register first and then, depending on your rank, you can take missions. "

Cyril: "That's true, and the higher your level, the higher your reward and the more difficult the missions."

"If you want, finally, we can call you Marcus? If you want, come with us. We're going straight to the castle."

Me: "Yes, and you should hurry, because a huge storm is coming and you will have to take refuge in the castle... It will be terrible..."

Cyril":But how can you know?"

"I am wise... I speak to the animals and the migrating birds warned me..."

Obviously, they didn't believe me, but it didn't matter.

We walked like this at 3 and Cyril talked to me about life in the castle, how he had been recommended as a hunter. There were several hunters directly employed by the royal castle and training in the guardroom was necessary.

Cyril followed the training but was always employed as a substitute hunter, or to increase the amount of food to bring in view of the incessant number of guests, visitors and all the parties organized since peace returned.

I drank this information, no detail of which escaped me.

What was interesting were the rounds and the strict hours in which they took place.

It coincided with the observations of Oriharukon.

Soon, one could see the castle but at the edge of the forest other hunters had come back empty-handed and robbery as well as banditry on the main roads were second nature in these troubled times.

Suddenly the group that crossed our path turned behind our backs and one of them wanted to put a dagger around Irina's neck to hold her hostage.

"AMBUSH!"

And monstrous brambles seized the 7 bandits and, before they could say a word, were crushed between the brambles and thorns sharp as choppers and the size of a shark's fin.

Human juice was all that was left of the unfortunate ones.

"I told you I am a magician"

Irina: "Why did you kill them?"

Look at your neck... you're bleeding... a split second later and you didn't ask me the question."

Cyril looked at the clothes and the twisted daggers... "They were Highway bandits... they won't be around anymore."

we continued the way to the guardhouse and entered the castle.

There was an abnormal comings and goings and the activity consisted of training and sending rangers and scholars to scour the territory in search of dragons.

Irina: "The dragon hunt is open. Anything that has anything to do with dragons can be traded. They just want to list them and sort the dragons... We don't know what they do with them.