I woke up between Tiamat's neck and foreleg and began to inspect the wounds.
She had almost been cut in two, and I put my paw on her chest and began to pray to the Lord.
All of a sudden, spiritual strength came over me and I felt as if I were really in a Christic world, My world, but not quite.
It was as if this world were a mirror of my own, or mine back in the past, or reset to zero, without the G-men (creatures from another dimension who have created a paradox by modifying their past and thus causing their destruction in the future. To counter the loop and prevent it from crushing them and making them disappear, they invaded other worlds in other dimensions to halt their demise. Probably, divine intervention would have made them disappear, or they would simply have disappeared on t.heir own, the loop having caught up with them naturally, or they would have succeeded in destroying their loop... Only God knows, and I really don't want to see the gray-haired man who looks like an American salesman for a big arms company again...
Mom was lost and half her soul was already gone, along with her madness. All that remained was a beast protecting its offspring, terrorized and struggling not to die. She was just a piece of the dragoness. She was terrorized and feared death above all else
It brought tears to my eyes to see such a proud, powerful being reduced to a stump of flesh clinging to life.
I felt a part of her being pulled towards the abyss where the nameless Hydra awaited her.
She knew she'd end up in a crystal dome of eternal ice until the end of time - the final fate of the Tiamats.
Even I couldn't escape it - well, maybe if I was reincarnated here, with my Dragon Paladin powers, I could escape it and remain at peace.
No, I didn't want it to end like this.
I took another can of military rations and wondered how it had got here?
If I looked carefully, there were also bits of shell lying around.
There must have been terrible fighting and nuclear forces in action...
Especially to put Tiamat in such a state.
Then I started laying my hands (paws) on his belly, to strengthen his ribs and help him breathe.
A golden light then passed from my paws to Tiamat's belly, who woke up with a groan.
"Ahhhh!"
The restored flesh ached like ants in a limb without blood circulation. Life was pain!
Muscles had regained shape but no more than my body volume.
So maybe I'd bought Tiamat a few more days.
Unless I needed more days to recover and his time wasn't too short.
Tiamat "Daathr, my child... I don't deserve your help. I have taken so much from you. Save your powers for your brothers and sisters."
"No. Mommy... I don't want you to fall... You'll freeze!!.."
"I've failed... I used my powers selfishly..."
Me: "No... I'll help you build the Temple of Chaos! I'll grow up fast!"
Tiamat: "You have your God, Daatrh, and the Idol is an insult."
But his powers work on you! Look! You've got muscles too! He'll heal you!..."
Tiamat shook his head. "The hydra already has my other half. It's because she's amused to see us like this that she hasn't pulled me into her abyss all at once..."
Me: "But if God help us, let me help you... I'm a Paladin!...you can rebuild everything and we can baptize you!..I can Baptize you!"
The dragoness laughed a little but stopped in a grimace of pain.
"Daathrr...do what you want...but don't waste your time with me..I've done my time and behind me there's only destruction and misery..I've been ruthless, evil, cruel and found pleasure in the suffering of others. If I told you I didn't regret anything, I'd be lying to you."
"So, Mom, let me save you! Let me heal you!"
Tiamat "Would you be willing to sacrifice your brothers and sisters? Let me swallow them?"
I bowed my head, defeated.
"Daathr, my body, with magic I can restore it entirely but my soul is torn and distended between this world and Fayrune where an ice pedestal awaits me for eternal slumber. I've used up all my lives and the Hydra has lost patience..."
Tiamat let a tear fall from her still-valid eye.
"No! I'll find a solution! I must reactivate my Devourer!"
Tiamat : "That's enough! You'll draw them in! Run away with your family and live happily hidden away.
Me: "What have you done? What happened?"
But Tiamat had fallen asleep again, exhausted.
I knew then that she really was dying. She was clinging to life, not for herself, but for us...
And, looking at myself, I was like her, a Tiamat, and my brothers and sisters were to be my other heads.
Meanwhile, in Seville 2025...
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
A TV presenter was commenting on the live news.
"Yes, today, in May, is the Festival of Flowers, and every young girl of wedding or engagement age is getting ready to go out in their most beautiful traditional dresses.
This year will also be exceptional, as we get to see our heroine Emilie on parade. Although she is an Abomination, she has always kept a human heart and has never betrayed herself.
Accompanied by the royal family, she is about to be ennobled and will also take part in the festivities, as she too has the right to start a family.
In the background were dancers in the street and floral floats on which platforms had been erected.
The presenter's voice was muffled by the castanets and stamping of feet, followed by the rhythmic applause of the overexcited crowd.
On TV, we could see a half-human red dragon heading towards the royal couple. A jubilant crowd threw flowers and wreaths towards the dragoness.
Signs read "Emilie, je t'aime" ("Emilie, I love you").
"Emilie, marry me!"
"I'm a beautiful dragon too"
But she was unperturbed, and to her right, an old man helped her stay in a bipedal position by supporting her right arm.
He was Professor Chardon, an eminent biologist and mentor to the dragoness.
She owed him everything.
Her freedom, her family, her studies and her profession as an anthropological biologist.
The list of her exploits included her exemplary conduct as a student and her exploits in New Guinea, the capture of the dragon lizard, the eradication of the weredragons, the rescue of her little dragon brother and sister, the redemption of her mother and her imprisonment in a psychiatric and rehabilitation center.
Numerous Egyptian guests from the poorer neighborhoods had also come to the party.
His aunt was also there, but Luc was the big absentee.
The public throne on a platform in the main square was surrounded by thousands of people, and the military surrounded and guarded the place.
The dragoness clapped herself in a quadrupedal position before the king, who was holding a sword.
He lowered the sword to the dragoness' neck, hesitating for a moment to eradicate perhaps the last member of this cursed lineage, but he owed her his life and she was beloved by the populace. She was also the last living member of the order of Dragon Slayers. Their origins date back to the High Middle Ages. And surprisingly, the last member was a dragon himself.
King of Spain: "Emilie, for your courage and your heart, which has never ceased to be human, I make you a knight of Spain, and exceptionally, for your exploits in saving not only our kingdom but the whole world from an unprecedented threat, I give you the exclusive title of Marquise of Spain. Then came another king, the King of Belgium, who had accompanied the royal family through its ordeals.
Belgian King: "Emilie... I and the Belgian people are proud of you and your exploits. As my cousin said, stay as you are and I'm sure you'll find happiness".
I, too, appoint you a knight of the Order of Leopold (Exorcists), but as I am only King of the Belgians and not of Belgium, I can only give you the status of knight, the other titles of nobility being merely figurative.
I also give you this ring, which you will give to your fiancé, and this wreath of flowers, because you too have the right to happiness like everyone else".
Emilie wept with emotion
"Thank you, thank you Majesties! Thank you!"
Without raising her head, she descended the steps of the temporary dais and joined her family and friends in a reserved place, resuming her dragon size. She was proud of who she was and no longer had to hide.
The crowd threw her flowers and wreaths and shouted in chorus
"Emilie! Emilie!"
Then, on TV, the presenter gave a close-up of a red dragon with an emotional scarlet head, covered in thousands of flowers.
The music and fanfares started up again as the stage was pushed by floats and a show was about to follow
A bit like the Dodo festival in Mons, barricades kept the jubilant crowd at bay and men dressed in dummy soldier gear held a balloon of Emillie, while others arrived with a balloon of a larger dragon, a giant representing Tiamat with its 5 heads.
In the 2 corners of the square, the protagonists whistled at each other.
In Tiamat's corner, there were guillotines, and figures paraded in front of them, throwing cabbages to represent the severed heads. They were red cabbages. There was a pile of them. They would later be distributed among the crowd.
At the far ends of the square, churros in the shape of 5-headed dragons were sold and eaten deliciously, as if to exorcise the evil that had been done.
Then a sort of soccer match took place, with a luminous ball with fireworks shooting out from the far ends.
It looked like a plutonium bomb.
The humans in Emilie's camp shot at the humans carrying Tiamat.
The latter retaliated, but when the bullet hit Emilie's, it straightened them out one by one.
Tiamat's remained on the ground, and after an hour they were underfoot.
Then Emilie's giant blew flames onto the sphere, which flew onto Tiamat and, in a spray of fireworks, shattered and disappeared in the flames and sparks, followed by cheers from the crowd and the party resumed with Emilie's balloon dancing by its bearers in the middle of the overexcited crowd...
Then an official spoke, and the presenter zoomed in on the official, who confirmed that this party would continue for years to come, and would become part of tradition so that future generations would not forget.
The king smiled and muttered into his beard. "Many generations from now... it will still be there... let's hope it doesn't change..."
His queen shook the king's hand "Don't be pessimistic... Look at the 2 dragonets, how nice they are.."
The king turned his head slightly so as not to attract the attention of journalists and croniclers.
"You quickly forget that they were cannibals and tried to eat her. And they'd better not have even a thought of trying to bite a human, even to play..."
"Stop it, they tasted it and they were also victims of the witch, of their grandmother Tiamat.."
"That's what scares me... they're nice, will probably get married one day and what if they have a hard blow? War, famine. How will they react? If they taste blood again?"
"Darling, men are crueler and more violent than these human animals."
"You're probably right. I'm lucky to have a queen like you."
Then the presenter turned to the imposing red dragon still covered in flowers and asked.
"Emilie, in the end, since you knew the Tiamat Hydra so well, do you know why she was so mean and cruel? Especially with you?"
The dragoness paused.
"Tiamat was above all also an overprotective mother and above all very very old to an unimaginable degree. She's seen centuries go by, and worlds and hells too, but... I think the evil she did was a kind of... of love perverted by dementia and madness.
She wasn't human to begin with, but that doesn't excuse her, she didn't share our values. Yet she loved us in a way and was obsessed with finding a child, a chimera, who probably existed only in her head or one of her heads, with the disastrous consequences that madness can bring. With her powers and knowledge, it was a miracle we managed at all. It's only because she was crazy that we were able to defeat her, otherwise we wouldn't have stood a chance.
You may not realize it, but Tiamat is a goddess! Primordial but a goddess for our world. I didn't defeat her! It's you, humanity, who are the real hero."
The crowd cheered the dragoness even more.
Then, after a few quiet minutes, the presenter asked a final question
"Now that all this is behind you. You're a dragoness, how do you feel?"
Emilie: "I feel even more human, even more than anything!"