“Good morning, darling. Fancy seeing you at my diner so early,” Savirei greeted the big bull blacksmith with an added smile.

“Hi. Is Rockin around?” Alragus didn’t beat around the bush, revealing the reason behind his visit.

“Oh, my. And here I thought you came here because of my food. I suppose I still have ways to go as a cook,” Savirei sighed in a sad manner, but she was simply putting on an act.

“Ah, sorry. I will have something to eat,” Alragus said, looking around for a table to sit at.

“Oh, please forgive me, Alragus. I just felt like being cheeky with you,” Savirei said, feeling slightly bad about her act earlier.

“It’s ok. I’m still hungry,” but Alragus didn’t mind. “I’ll sit over there. The usual, please.”

“Ok. I’ll be right back,” Savirei smiled before going to the kitchen and coming back in a short while with Alragus’ food. “Going back to your question, I haven’t seen Rockin for the past four days I’m afraid.” Savirei told him.

“Right,” Alragus grunted thoughtfully, not that he was upset or anything.

“Is something the matter, Alragus?” Savirei wanted to know.

“Not really. I was just wondering where I could post a quest. I need some crafting materials,” Alragus explained the reason.

“Ah, I see. Yes, that is something we need figuring out going forward. I was thinking I need to restock on some Lesser Trent Wood as well,” Savirei admitted before adding. “Let’s hope he will come back soon.”

“Humph,” Alragus simply snorted before turning his attention to his food.

“Well, I’ll leave you to enjoy your food, dear,” Savirei said, leaving him be.

Right about the same time the door to the diner opened, forcing Savirei to turn towards it to see who was about to enter it. It wasn’t Rockin unfortunately, but it still made Savirei gasp in surprise upon seeing who the two people were.

“Oh, my. Now that’s someone I did not expect to receive,” Savirei exclaimed in surprise.

“Huh?” Alragus turned to see who it was, becoming curious himself after hearing Savirei’s remark. “Dragonkins?”

The two men who entered Savirei’s diner were of pure red dragonkin race and were as big as the bull blacksmith himself, if not bigger. The men resembled lizardmen, but did not look exactly the same. They had multiple horns on their heads for one, with two of their horns being bigger and longer than the rest, and their faces looked to be flatter, and had some human features too. They had muscular bodies and were wearing quite the impressive armor as well, but no shoes. Their hands and feet resembled lizard’s or dragon’s paws, especially feet, and they had tails too, which were about thirty feet in length.

“Welcome to my humble diner. My name is Savirei. Would you like a table?” Savirei greeted the guests politely.

“A diner? Looks more like a barn for animals to feed,” one of the dragonkin’s retorted.

“Tch… what is this stench? Can’t be the smell of the food here, can it?” The other dragonkin added with a scoff.

“Oh my. Now that’s a little rude, wouldn’t you say?” Savirei tried to be polite about it.

“And why would I care?” The first dragonkin scoffed at her in a threatening manner.

“Someone’s a little grumpy, I see,” Savirei smiled, more so to try and smoothen the situation than being genuine about her smile.

“Tch… whatever,” the second dragonkin clicked his tongue, looking around before turning to face Savirei again. “We’re looking for a half breed red dragonkin woman. Seen her?”

“A red dragonkin woman? Here? In a barn full of animals? Probably not,” Savirei told him, her jabs being very much intentional.

“Hey, watch your tongue, woman!” The first dragonkin raised his voice, glaring at her intently.

- ‘Smash!’ – The moment the man raised his voice, the sound of plates falling and breaking was heard on the other end of the diner, forcing people to turn to see what just happened.

“Huh?” Savirei turned to see what happened herself only to see Lilfira, her new hire, stand next to a small pile of broken plates on the floor while covering her mouth with both hands, her face being as pale as a snow, her body shaking.

“She’s here after all. You lied to us, wench!” The first dragonkin cursed, making a step forward and slapping Savirei on the face with his hand in an outward motion.

“Aah!” Savirei fell on the floor, shock being written all over her face.

“Get her,” the first dragonkin ordered.

“Right away,” the second one said before walking forward.

“Humph,” – ‘Smack!’ – but was met by a punch in the face from Alragus before he was able to make his third step.

“Bhah,” the dragonkin flinched. However, as strong as Alragus’ punch was, Alragus wasn’t able to knock the dragonkin off his feet. “Huh? You dare stand in my way. Ghaah!” – ‘Bam!’ – The dragonkin punched Alragus back and he was fast too, because Alragus just barely managed to raise his hands to block. Worse yet, the dragonkin’s punch was really strong, because it pushed Alragus a few steps back. “Oh? You managed to stay on your feet?” The dragonkin somewhat smirked.

“Humph. You better leave or else,” Alragus snorted.

“Or else what?” The same dragonkin retorted, looking to be overly confident and not hiding it.

“The hell are you doing starting a fight in here?!” Some other patron jumped up from his seat.

“How dare you hurt our lovely Savirei! You asshole!” Another man came forward.

“You damn lizards need to be taught a lesson!” The third one joined in.

“Lizards?! I’ll cut your head off, human!” The second dragonkin growled at him.

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“Hold it, Bregerthak,” but the first dragonkin stopped him.

“What? What are you saying, Nirongeth? These lesser breeds need to be taught a lesson,” Bregerthak retorted.

“We’re leaving,” Nirongeth said, turning to go.

“Leaving? But…” Bregerthak grunted.

“Yes,” Nirongeth cut him off, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Gh… Fine, but what about the half-breed?” Bregerthak asked, still not willing to move from his spot.

“We know where she is now. We need to report to the Chief,” was all Nirongeth said before walking out of the diner.

“Tch…” Bregerthak clicked his tongue before turning to the crowd, but he was looking only at one person among them. “We’ll come back for you, half-breed.” He added, walking out of the diner after that.

“Are you ok?” Alragus asked Savirei.

“I’ll be fine,” she smiled, but it was evident she was shaken by what just happened.

“I’m… sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” Lilfira started apologizing after coming closer, her eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry for causing you trouble. I… I will leave right away.”

“You will certainly not, sweetheart,” Savirei said with a smile on her face, but she was very serious about it.

“Huh? But…” Lilfira didn’t know what to say.

“What do you think will happen the moment you will step out of my diner, hmm?” Savirei asked, tilting her head to the side.

“But… but I’ve already caused you trouble and if I stay…” Lilfira was trying to argue.

“Why don’t we take a deep breath and calm down first? Everyone, so sorry for the unsightly scene that just happened and thank you very much for your support. As a thanks, drinks are on the house,” Savirei spoke to the people who were present.

“Don’t mention it, Savirei,” one of the patrons said.

“Yeah. We won’t let anyone bully you, Savirei,” another one added.

“Ah, you are so sweet,” Savirei said, touching her cheek with one hand before turning to Lilfira again. “Please dear, why don’t you take a break from work and sit down to relax for a moment? I’ll come over as soon as I sort this mess out.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I… I will help,” Lilfira offered.

“Please, I insist,” but Savirei made it clear she wouldn’t let her.

“Ah, yes, ma’am,” Lilfira took the hint.

“I’ll be right back,” Savirei added before going to clean up the broken plates. It took her only a short while to clean everything up before coming to where Lilfira was sitting. “Here you go, my dear.” Savirei placed two mugs with the drinks on the table, one for Lilfira and one for herself.

“I’m so sorry for what happened, Savirei. You were kind enough to hire me and yet I caused you so much trouble,” Lilfira was apologizing like no tomorrow again.

“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. I was expecting something of the sort to happen sooner or later,” Savirei said, sounding like she knew it in advance.

“What? You knew that the dragonkin were after me?” Lilfira exclaimed, surprise being written all over her face.

“Well, I wouldn’t say I knew what would happen specifically, but having someone of a dragonkin race ask to work at my diner gave me a hint there had to be a very serious reason behind it,” Savirei told her.

“I… I’m really sorry,” Lilfira said, lowering her head and still feeling guilty about what happened.

“Enough apologizing already. Besides, I’m not angry or anything, and before you repeat yourself again, you are more than welcome to stay and work here,” Savirei reassured her.

“Really? T… thank you,” Lilfira finally smiled.

“However, it would make it so much easier if I knew what to expect going forward. Do you mind telling me why those men were after you, dear?” Savirei wanted to know.

“I… ok,” Lilfira agreed, lowering her head down before exhaling deeply. “You see, I am… the Raging Flames Tribe’s current Chief’s unwanted child.”

“Red Dragonkin chief’s child?” Savirei’s eyebrows shot up.

“Ah, yes. Well, essentially Raging Flames is a clan’s name and the dragonkin refer to their clan’s leader as their Chief,” Lilfira explained.

“Yes, well. Thank you for explaining that,” Savirei said, but her previous reaction could’ve meant she was simply shocked to learn Lilfira was of a such high status. “But… why would you say you are an unwanted child?”

“Simply because I was not meant to be born. You probably know that dragonkins look down on many other races and they especially abhor the half-breeds of their own kind. For dragonkin to have a child with someone other than their own race is a humiliation worse than death. That’s why my mother was raising me in secret or else she would’ve been killed the moment my father would’ve found out about it,” Lilfira revealed more information, telling the story in a way as if she was speaking about any other neutral topic.

“Hold on there a moment, dear. Isn’t that a little unfair from your father’s point of view? Being a proud race is one thing, but taking responsibility as a man is a completely different thing,” Savirei stated, sounding and looking upset.

“I understand why you would think that, but it wasn’t like my father wanted to be with my mother in the first place. You see, my mother used to work at a brothel and that’s where she had met my father. It wasn’t love or anything. She was simply doing her job. Even after she became pregnant, she didn’t know what to expect. But once I was born, she instantly knew who the father was, since she had my father as her only dragonkin client ever,” Lilfira added to her story.

“Oh my. I must admit, I am a little taken aback by how calm you are talking about it, dear,” Savirei was sincerely surprised about it.

“It’s nothing, really. My mother is the one who had it really difficult while trying to raise me or probably even before that. She was always truthful and honest with me, and the things I had to go through growing up pales in comparison to all the suffering that my mother had to endure while raising me,” Lilfira said, sadness entering her face. “Besides, I have no reason to lie to you or anyone else for that matter.”

“Thank you for being so honest with me, Lilfira. However, it is hard to believe your own father wants to kill you,” Savirei wasn’t willing to accept that part.

“Maybe so, but it is not so hard to believe for me. I may be calling him my father, but I have no kind feeling for him, not that I hate him either. My only wish was for my mother and I to live a peaceful life, but it doesn’t look like it will be happening. Not for me at least. Therefor, I want to ask a big favor of you, Savirei,” Lilfira smiled, yet her eyes were full of tears.

“What it is, dear?” Savirei smiled back at her.

“Would you mind taking care of my mother?” Lilfira asked.

“What are you saying?” Savirei asked, squinting her eyes.

“My mother is getting old and her health is declining too. You and your sister were kind enough to offer us work, and I could finally see my mother sleep peacefully in so many years. I want her to live the rest of her life happily,” Lilfira said.

“Absolutely not,” Savirei told her with a wide smile on her face.

“Huh? What?” Lilfira didn’t expect for her to say that.

“Let me guess, you are either planning to run away by yourself or worse, planning to sacrifice your life for your mother’s sake? A little selfish and cruel if I may say so,” Savirei said.

“But…” Lilfira wanted to say something, but she was in too much shock to learn Savirei had her figured out.

“Listen, dear, do you think your mother would be happy knowing her daughter had thrown her life away after what she’d gone through to raise you up?” Savirei asked point blank.

“Huh? My… mother…” Lilfira started become teary again. “But… but what can I do? I am not strong enough to protect my mother and if I stay here, I will cause more trouble for you.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t worry about that, my dear. Besides, I might be able to offer a solution that could protect you and your mother from harm,” Savirei said with a smile.

“A solution? What… kind of solution?” Lilfira asked, feeling both curious and puzzled.

“Well, you could join a clan yourself which would offer you a clan’s protection. I am certain that as a leader of his own clan, your father wouldn’t be so reckless as to try and take you by force or else he would have to face the consequences of ‘attacking’ a member of another clan,” Savirei explained what she had in mind.

“But… who would let someone like me join their clan? Most clans wouldn’t want to take me in and not only because I am only level one, and have no fighting experience, but because I am a half-breed dragonkin. Taking someone like me in is basically making an enemy of any other dragonkin clan. Besides, the Raging Flames Tribe that my father is the Chief of is a strong and well-known clan. I doubt any clan would want to risk their reputation or safety of their other members by allowing me to join,” Lilfira offered a lot of valid if not frightful reasons why she thought that.

“I believe I know one clan that would be willing to take that kind of risk,” Savirei said, a sly smile entering her lips.

“Really?” Lilfira asked, gasping in disbelief.

“Yes,” Savirei said, her eyes smiling cheekily.

“But are you sure about it, Savirei? What if the clan’s leader wouldn’t want me to join his clan?” Lilfira still had doubts about it.

“Oh, but I think it is quite the opposite. I believe he will be very happy to have you… join his clan,” Savirei said, making a seemingly innocent pause before finishing her sentence.