I dispelled the barrier above the nest.
There was a large crack in one of the eggs, and it was on the verge of breaking.
One cracking sound later, and the egg was opened!
Inside the egg was a small white dragon, the size of a lizard.
It looked completely calm, almost like it woke up from a bad dream.
Ragnar moved her head down to greet the little being. “WELCOME TO THE WORLD, FURY.”
Almost as if on-queue, the two red eggs cracked.
The tiny white dragon squealed out in excitement, as two holes appeared in the eggs.
Ragnar smiled at the two eggs. “EMBER AND AGNIS.”
The two little red dragons stepped out of their shells.
There was only one egg remaining. A white one.
It didn’t look like it was going to hatch anytime soon... It wasn’t eve-
I didn’t even finish my train of thought before the egg softly shook.
Never mind I suppose...
The egg suddenly cracked, and a tiny horn poked out of the shell. It was... Pink?
The egg suddenly burst with a flash of fire. Woah!
Where the egg once stood, there was now a angry-looking hatchling standing on two feet. What in gods-
The hatchling then immediately collapsed to the floor. Ragnar moved in closer to the little creature. “INFERNO. FITTING OF YOUR NAME...”
The three other hatchlings moved in closer to their unconscious brother, probably curious as to what happened.
Egnis, who had been silent until now, then spoke. “NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS WOULD I ASSUME WE WOULD HAVE HYBRID OFFSPRING!”
Hybrid dragons? Interesting indeed. This one was a rare hybrid between fire and wind, which is apparently a super-potent mix.
“Welcome to the family, little ones!”
The three hatchlings all looked up at me and let out a tiny ‘Meep’ sound.
“THEY THINK YOU ARE THEIR FATHER...”
Oh crap. That was not my intention at all...
I squatted down to get closer to the tiny reptiles. “I'm... I'm not your dad, guys. That’s Egnis...”
The three tilted their heads in confusion. Yeah, I guess they don’t understand words yet. Oh well. Daddy Andras it is then, I suppose...
-
Mostly for fun, I decided to transform into my true form. This might make me more... relatable, perhaps?
“YOU KNOW, WHEN YOU SAID, ‘WELCOME TO THE FAMILY’, I DIDN’T THINK YOU WERE GOING TO TAKE IT THIS SERIOUSLY.”
I looked to Egnis, and smirked. “What, don’t you enjoy my company or something? You’re making me sad right now, man...”
Egnis scuffed at my comment. “YOU KNOW THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT...”
I snickered. “I’m just messing with you. I was actually thinking about making a separate place outside my castle here for you guys to stay in, but I don’t know where it should be yet. So, hitting two birds with one stone, I can go looking for a place for you two, while flying. Both are things I love doing. You’re free to tag along If you want.”
Ragnar politely declined. She’d rather stay here looking after the newborns for now, which I respected. Egnis was on-board though.
“All right, great. Which direction should we fly in? I haven’t really explored much of hell myself, ironically, but I know west is really cold.”
“NORTH. I FLEW THERE ONCE, IT’S VERY PRETTY.”
I nodded. “Well, let’s get flying then!”
I flapped my wings downward, propelling me into the air.
When I was in the air, I looked toward north. There was thick fog today, so I couldn’t see very far.
“AFTER YOU.”
I nodded and began flying toward north.
At this point, people had become used to the huge dragons in the skies, so the people below didn’t react to my huge shadow looming over them.
“Being afraid of a dragon’s shadow is probably the smartest thing you can do... These people should learn to respect us.”
I shook my head. Perhaps another day...
-
After flying for a good 5 minutes, I started to notice that the vegetation was getting progressively lusher the farther we flew.
“I think this is a good spot. Let’s land.”
I put my wings up, creating an airbrake with them before letting myself fall to the ground. At the last moment, I extended my wings again, letting me come to a screeching halt right before I hit the ground. My feet softly landed on the grass with only a slight rumble.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“One of my more elegant landings, that.”
I looked around the area. “What do you think about a mountain around here?” I asked Egnis.
“YES, THAT MIGHT BE GOOD. MAKE IT DECENTLY TALL.”
I nodded. All right, a mountain here... A cave in the cliffside there...
I mentally thought about the outline of the mountain in my mind. Hmm. It should definitely be big enough to fit four of me, at the least. Dragons don’t ever grow to the size of a dragon like me, but there are going to be a lot of them in here after all.
I suppose when crowding becomes an issue, the younglings will have already left home though...
Eh, no matter. I’ll still make it spacious either way.
“all right, I think I have an idea of how it should look. You’re free to follow me on the flight back home if you want?”
Egis shook his head. “NO, I WOULD PREFER TO STAY HERE FOR NOW, ACTUALLY. I’LL SEE YOU IN A FEW, RIGHT?”
“Right.”
I took to the skies once more.
-
Arriving back home at my castle, I shot the ball of energy out of my chest and shrunk down to my larger human form.
Okay, time for business. I opened the front door to the castle and took a look at the creation cube. It was practically begging me to touch it.
After releasing some power so that I'd fit, I sat down in the chair. I stretched my arms out to touch the cube, and just like before, a tentacle appeared from it which grabbed my hand.
I immediately fell unconscious, before waking up in my builder form.
Ah, the feeling of lightness... It’s always so exciting. I looked down at my hands. The power to change anything and everything.
Thrilling.
I shot hellfire out of my palms, quickly picking up speed.
In a frictionless body like this, any force I applied would never be reduced. If I put a little effort into it, I could probably breach the sound barrier pretty easily. Surpass the speed of light too for that matter.
Perhaps another day. Today, I have a mountain to build.
Without even realizing, I had breached the sound barrier. I didn’t hear it, because I was travelling away from the sonic boom when it happened. I did see a weird ball of air form behind me though, and I stopped accelerating. It was that easy, huh.
After almost no time at all, I flew past where Egnis was standing. I didn’t even realize I did, because I was going so fast. I turned around and exerted a ton of hellfire to stop my movement. It worked, thankfully, and I came to a complete halt after 10 seconds or so.
Now I need to backtrack, I guess...
This time I won’t go as fast.
-
“AH, THERE YOU ARE. IT’S HARD TO MAKE OUT YOUR SILHOUETTE...”
As with Luca, Egnis sounded like he was underwater when he talked to me. “Yeah, I know. The builder form is just quirky like that, I suppose...”
“I SEE. WELL, I DON’T, BUT YOU GET WHAT I’M SAYING.”
Heh.
I shot some hellfire so I could reach the floor with my hands. I took a piece of it into my palm and transformed it into stone.
“So, we agree this is where the mountain should be, right?”
“YES.”
All right, fair enough. I set the clump back into its place, and the floor outlined the would-be base of the mountain.
I cracked my knuckles. Let’s get to work then.
The process of creating new matter in this form is more or less the same as laying bricks. You just place some stone, grab a new piece, and go onward like that.
The stones are huge though, so it probably won’t take long. Also, it’s nothing like bricklaying because you don’t grab new pieces. It’s all just one steady stream of matter, if that makes any sense.
Within two minutes of putting stones down, the gigantic mountain was done. Excellent.
To make the cave, I put my hands together in a picture-frame position, outlining the edges of the cave. Then I hit the rock casually, and the entire wall sank inward. When the movement was over, it had formed a nice, natural-looking cave in its place. It even had stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
“Tada!”
As a little finishing touch, I added a comfortable nest in the corner of the cave. It wasn’t like your usual primitive dragon’s nest though; this one was made entirely by a mound of comfy matrasses and blankets.
I could hear Egnis’ muffled flapping behind me, and he landed on-top of me. In my builder body, I simply passed through him though. Yuck... the insides of a dragon’s leg were not something I thought I'd ever see...
“OH! I’M SO SORRY, I DIDN’T SEE YOU!”
Egnis moved his leg. Ah, perfect. I can see freely again.
“OH? YOU’RE... COMPLETELY FINE.”
“Yup.” I popped the p.
“We should tell your family about this.”
I turned my palm into solid matter and touched Egnis’ leg. To save time, I was going to teleport us both back home.
“THANK YOU, BUT I COULD HAVE FLOWN MYSELF...”
“God, nothing I ever do is good enough for you, is it? *mumble*”
I crossed my arms and pouted before floating away like an upset baby.
When I reached the arena, I immediately transferred my conscience back to my Demon self.
“U-ucle adra!”
I heard the voice of a tiny dragon ring out in the room. To my surprise, one of the kids had climbed upon my arm and looked very upset. It was Ember, the fire dragon.
“H-huh? What’s wrong?”
The little red dragon drooped its face. “You no aswer...”
I let out a smile. “I was... sleeping! Oh, you little rapscallion, had to wake me up like that!”
I tickled the little dragon.
“Ahaha, stobb!” It said, trying to get out of the tickle attack.
-
I left the castle with Ember in my arms. The poor thing fell asleep from exhaustion... [https://em-content.zobj.net/thumbs/240/apple/354/face-holding-back-tears_1f979.png]
I was greeted by Egnis and Ragnar. The two were standing in the courtyard discussing.
“A HOME, JUST FOR US? YOU’RE TOO KIND, ANDRAS.” Ragnar said.
“Oh you... It was the least I could do.” I cradled the tiny reptile in my arms. “They are learning English very fast. Are they prodigies, or do you dragons just naturally learn language that quick?”
Ragnar smiled. “ONLY EMBER. THE REST CAN’T SAY ANYTHING BESIDES ‘MEEP’ YET.”
Aww...
“Well, should we get going? I’m sure you would like to see your new home.”
Ragnar nodded. “WOULD YOU BE SO KIND AS TO TRANSPORT US THERE?”
I raised an eyebrows. Normally they hate being teleported. Hm. It might be because we have the kids with us.
“Sure. Just hold all the kids, and they will come with us.”
I held an arm on Ragnar and Egnis.
I focused on where the mountain was and teleported there.
“And here we are. Your very own mountain.”
Dragon faces are not very expressive, but the best way to describe how her face looked is jaw-on-the-floor.
“GOD, IS ALL THIS OURS?” She looked at me with her shocked expression.
“Well, yeah. I only want the best for my nieces and nephews after all.”
Egnis laughed. “DID ONE OF THE KIDS CALL YOU THAT?”
I reciprocated the laugh. “Yeah. Ember did.”
I looked toward the nest. The young ones had managed to walk there all on their own.
“I hope you two won’t be too uncomfortable sleeping on the rock... I didn’t think about making the nest big enough to fit you two too.”
The two dragons only laughed at this notice. “WE’RE USED TO SLEEPING ON MOUNTAINS. REMEMBER WHERE YOU FOUND US.”
Oh right, heh. “Well, I'll definitely remember to visit often. If you two ever need anything, just call me, okay?”
The two nodded. “OF COURSE!”
Ember had apparently woken up, and waved to me from the nest. “baba ucle adras!”
I smiled at the little dragon. “Baba, Ember.”
I teleported to my castle.
-
To my surprise, someone was standing at the front door. It was Olaf the Demon mayor.
“Olaf? Are you done with your assignment already?”
Olaf jumped at my words. “Jesus! I thought you were inside the castle! You almost gave me a heart attack...”
Oop. My bad. “Uh, sorry about that. Anyway, as I was saying. Are the demons done with their tasks?”
Olaf nodded in agreement. “Yes. All the settlements in the living world are now under demon control.”
Perfect. “Now we’re only waiting on adrian to finish his assignment, and we can move onto phase three.”
This is all coming together just as I had hoped...
“Well, you can just go back to demon village for now. We can’t really do much besides wait for Adrian to report for the time being.”
Olaf nodded. “Should I give the demons any orders, or are they just to stand by for now?”
Hmm. “Well, do remind them to accept mercenary groups carrying my symbol. That step is crucial for the plan.”
Olaf nodded and began walking toward the courtyard gates. “I’ll see you around, then!”
All right... I think it’s time I head to bed.
A new day awaits tomorrow.