Chapter 4

After reeza leaves, Roger sends the repair drone he made into the cabin that Reeza was in to clean up the mess. After cleaning the interior, roger checks the scouting drones to see what they found. "Oh, what's this?" he says as he notices an elven city from one of the drone feedbacks that the elves are trying to destroy one of his drones.

"Oka,y drones return to base and get repaired," roger orders as he starts to harvest the nearby trees for biomass for crafting purposes, "okay, I'm going to head to the mountains and continue to try to set up a base."

Meanwhile, Reeza and her brothers arrive before their mother and quickly bow before the dragon. "You have returned my daughter, and II see you brought me something, hmmm.…." Reza nods and brings the metal plate to her mother. "This is one of the eggshell fragments; I brought it as a gift." Reeza's mother picks up the metal with her left claw and examines the metal "well-done daughter, this is sky metal I have been seeking; I've seen it before in my grandfather's treasure hoard" the dragon reaches out and carefully pats Reeza on the head "you may see your father as promised, afterword your father and I shall hopefully produce another daughter… "

After talking with her mother, Reeza heads into the deeper parts of the cave finding her father in his cell, painting a picture. "Father, I have returned!" she says reaching into the prison cell for a hug from her elven father. "Oh reeza, you have returned.." he says, putting down his paintbrush to walk over and give Reeza a hug

Reeza's tail starts slapping the cave floor from pure happiness "so you must have done something huge if your mother had let you come and see me." her father says sitting down next to the ice bars. "Im surprised she let you see me after you tried to break me out of here five years ago."

Reeza responds, "I fought a metal beas; II even managed to steal one of its egg fragments and gave it to mother. Also, I was young and stupid when I tried to free you…. Im just not happy mother considers you a part of her treasure hoard." her father pats her head and hugs her tighter, then speaks "there, there it is okay as long you are okay, after all your my favorite daughter" Reeza tail once again sways happily "I'm your only daughter!... errr might be …. Mom said she may come to you so she can lay another clutch…" her father blinks and sweats a bit as the scene ends.

Meanwhile, at the elven city, the drone starts to make its way back when suddenly an arrow charged with lighting magic strikes it knocking it out of the sky. "You metal bird dare to attack the village while I was away?" the female elf from earlier says as she puts the drone remains into her magic bag "princess princess princess Zetra!" a male elf calls out running up to her.

"What is it Gildo? I am busy and must see the grand elder and show him what I have found," Zetra says coldly, brushing him to the side and making her way past many houses made out of trees. "Also, Gildor has a servant prep a hot bath for me at my home.. Im going to need to relax after discovering these new threats". As Zetra finished issuing the order, they arrived at the only concrete building in the city.

The building has many gems on the outside wall, and the sunlight reflects many colors on the ground. At the center, a giant obelisk pokes out with many carvings engraved on it. When zetra approaches the front of the building. the stone begins to glow and pulls apart, revealing an entrance. Zetra walks in leaving her butler Gildor behind.

As she walks down the corridor the walls close behind her leaving her in darkness. Soon the hallway started to light up due to special mushrooms from the ceiling. Zetra walks for ten minutes through winding passages until she reaches a metallic disk sitting on the floor in a large room. "Grand elder, I have come to speak to you and the elders of the pas; pleasee teleport me to the vault Ath tarkhal."

Afterspeaking out loud Zetra steps on the teleportation disk and is teleported further underground. Zetra arrives in a hallway made of wood and gol. Thickk mana can be felt in the air as she walks to the source of the mana.

Zetra arrives at a large room made of metal and oak-colored wood. In the center of the room, an ancient-looking elf sits next to him is five metal pillars. At the center of each metal pillar is a carving set in gold of a single elf holding a gem and a name.

"Ah, the Ice princess of the royal line what brings you here to seek out the advice of the elders?"

The old elf asks as Zetra slowly approaches and drops the drone and metal panel before the elder. "I have come to ask about these things, this one here is from an eggshell that carried a metal beast and this one is the remains of a beast that flew into the city causing trouble. Both of these came from metal that acts alive… what is it?"

The elder slowly reaches out and the drone slowly hovers over to him. "Oh, I have seen drawings of this in the archives. This is not good…. These things work like scrying… what they see the master that made these can also see and control them like puppets.." the elder gets up and walks up to a pillar taking its gem. "So you saying these are the beast's spies?" Zetra asks as she sits down.

"Machine not beast…. Im going to have to awaken grand master Orin he was my master's master from the time when we could walk among the stars." the elder places the gem into the ground at the center of the pillars among the runes. "Awaken I thought the masters all died due to age?" Zetra says watching closely, the elder looks at her and then speaks "then your in for a show princess"

After a long, while manna from the surroundings pours into the gem causing the gem to glow. From the pillars, light beams shoot into the gem, and slowly a magic image of a male elf appears in the light. "Test test….why awaken my soul gem... Is there an emergency?" Orin's voice comes out from the light.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The elder immediately bows before Orin and speaks "oh master of my master Orin, we fear a new threat has come from the sky." Zetra also walks up and bows speaking up "I do not mean to be rude but I would like to introduce myself im princess Zetra of the household golden birch." Orin's hologram turns to face her and speaks "ah it seems the admiral's bloodline still exists, I do not find you to be rude princess" Orin turns and faces the elder "do you have a corpse or drawing of the machine."

The elder snaps his fingers causing the drone and metal plate to hover over the center of the room, soon Zetra speaks to Orin "I was out hunting and gathering medical herbs when I heard a roar from the sky. It was a fallen star and it impacted the ground far away so I went to investigate the crash site. On my way there I saw this… machine... Circle above me and fly the direction I came from.." a single light beam comes down from the ceiling revealing a large crystal, the beam scans the objects. Zetra pauses to let Orin speak. "So it did not attack you… the scans a spot on the drone where a weapon could be attached. After scanning the panel here this seems to be from a reentry pod, it is used for entering a planet… what did you see at the crash site.."

Zetra nods and speaks toward Orin "when I arrived I saw a metal beast eating the reentry shells… I quickly ran up to a shell piece and shove it into the magic bag I use. After running away I heard the beast cry out… then a few minutes later the drone appeared"

Orin waits and then speaks up "from what I gathered from your story, this seems to be an advanced vessel, it may be dwarven or human-based…. Im going to need more information… you there!" Orin points to the elder "do the fungoids still live on this planet?" the elder bows and then speaks up "um yes they do they still live in the tunnels and a few of them are servants and pets.." ah then excellent send one of them as a sacrificial pawn, that lowly race can be of use to us after the hassle of denying us refuge here and causing damage to the ship.."

Zetra listens to them speak not liking how they speak of the fungoid… one of her caretakers was a fungoid they served many generations of their life span to cheer her up, Zetra speaks up to change the subject. "Um, Orin what is a human?.... And what is a dwarf?"

Orin looks at the elder "why does she not know about the dwarfs…. I can understand not telling her about the humans... So a dwarf is a creature half our size, But they are stronger than us… they drink, shout, and have no table manners… they even hold grudges that last hundred thousand years! But you do not need to worry they were wiped out long ago right before the downfall happen…"

The image of Orin starts flickering as the ambient mana in the air is used up "it seems my time is up take care my distant descendants … electric attacks work greatly against machines!" Orin shouts as the image fades leaving the elder and zetra alone.

Three days later

Roger makes it to the mountain setting up ore scanners and making work bots to clear up the land so a farm can be set up. "A lot has happened these past 2 days that dragon fold keeps following me but never bothers to come inside….. Today if they show up im going to get them to wear the translator!"

Reeza has been watching roger for the past few days at first she thought it was a dumb beast but soon she realizes it is intelligent. "The beast seems to be going to one of the mountains like it has a goal… every time I approach it stops and opens its doors as if inviting me… "Reeza thinks to herself as she eats some friend meat missing the food she had three days ago. "Okay if it is intelligent then I can tame it or make a deal with it…. Mother did give me persimmon to start making my own nest…maybe I can have a mobile nest"

Roger receives exp points from the clearing of the land and soon levels up. [System: congrats on reaching level two you can upgrade your size, defense, or attack and factor out put]

"Im going to think on this…. Wait a moment she's back!" roger thinks to himself when suddenly one of his cameras sees Reeza.

Reeza watches as the beast once again stops and offers to let her inside. "I have come to tame you! Be proud as…." reeza rants on not releasing roger doesn't even understand her. In the middle of the speech, a drone the size of a football comes outside holding the translator device. "What is this also one of your minions… they will be soon mine anyway so yo-" in the middle of the speech the drone toggles on the translator then tosses it at high speed onto reeza's head who suddenly tries to take it off when she hears a voice.

"Hello sorry for throwing the headset at you… I couldn't understand you so I made a translator device so we can talk" roger speaks through the device to Reeza as she blinks and looks around "wait are you the beast that hatched?" Reeza says looking at the vehicle "beast…. I prefer the term device or friend. But my name is Roger I come in peace" roger replies as the drone leaves Reeza to head back into the vehicle. "Okay roger, I am Reeza daughter of the ice dragon Morga the cruel, you shall have the honor of being my nest! Mwahahahah" reeza says while laughing and slapping her sail against the ground.

"Umm I don't know about becoming your nest part you can stay here with me, I will even give you free food and clothes. I was sent here to set up a base and make peace talks." Roger says as the football size drone returns carrying a bowl of tomato soup. "A base? Are there more of you?" Reeza asks as she takes the bowl once offered "humm peace talks? I know a few of the local dragons here won't attack if you give them tribute… the elves though are weak, and the shamble shrooms… treat you kindly if you give them dung and food…. They even get rid of scale mites for you!"

Roger thinks about what reeza said as she stuffs her face full of soup. "Shamble shrooms do they look like this?" the drone shows a hologram picture of various fungal species, after a while of looking Reeza points at one of them. "That is the one, also I would like another bowl this time similar to the one with chohab meat!" after Reeza asks for another bowl another drone arrives with a bowl of chili. "Oh, so your people call it chohab, where im from they are called cows…. Also, no wonder those shamble shrooms are helpful… they seem to be a subspecies of helper fungi…. They tend to love all races and only want to work with them in kindness… they tend to get bullied by stronger races"

"Um roger how do you know all this?" reeza asks as she quickly finishes her bowl and starts walking toward the vehicle. "Um, I only know about them because I was told by a friend" roger watches as reeza walks toward the crew cabin. "Um, I hope im not rude but do you dragons bathe?"

Reeza sniffs herself then grows angry "do you dare say that I smell?" she soon opens her mouth to breathe fire when roger quickly speaks up "no no no I just wanted to offer you a place to clean up before you rest"

"If you are offering then I shall humbly accept your offer," Reeza says out loud, the football drone flys to the bathroom door and opens it for Reeza "I can't normally see into the bathroom so this drone will help you, this panel here changes the bath you have three options shower, bathtub, and deep jacuzzi" the drone points to a glass panel, reeza looks at the options the speaks up "I can understand the shower to be like rain falling… but what is a jacuzzi?"

Roger has the drone tap the option for a deep jacuzzi and the floor and walls begin to move to rearrange everything until a deep bath tube is made able to fit 3 human size creatures in it. Reeza watches with amazement as roger speaks to her "the headset translator is not waterproof so it is best you take it off before bathing these nobs here control the temperature and these control the water jets."

Reeza touches the nob and watches as water begins to pour into the tub and begins to experiment with the temperature. "This must be magic! Im going to definitely convince you to be mine!" as she starts to take her clothes off Roger panic and orders the drone out. A small glowing light surrounds the vehicle and calms roger down as he thinks about what to do next.

While reeza bathes roger begins to fabricate some crew clothes for Reeza and adds temperature controls to make them even more comfortable for her. "I hope these work well, it has been 30 minutes since she has been bathing I hope she is ok"

Inside the bathroom, Reeza floats calmly on the water she had just turned off the jets and is relaxing "this has been the best bath in my life… if the mother finds out about this she's going to steal it from me…"