After a few days, I returned to Cove and to my surprise, our farm had been rebuilt and a huge barn had been added.

I had a home!

But... In Britannia, they built me a small palace, in fact like the square house in Nice.

A palace with one big room where I could rest and drink and sleep. An annex on the side for my friends to come and rest, and especially a quiet corner where the dragons couldn't flirt with me.

But I wanted to marry Rubix and Saphie officially but the temptation to do the dragons was terrible and mom knew. And she was casting spells over and over again.

I stuttered when I was excited and my cheeks were all red but dragons have like a beard on their neck, made of skin and it would turn black! It was physiological! I couldn't hide it and I was ashamed, embarrassed and really unhappy about it.

The king smiled and the magi smiled too when they greeted me and I came to the city to take refuge rather than to rest.

But behind all these smiles, it was only a façade.

In fact, Gamblin and Lord British were putting on a brave face against all odds.

The last villain... well... it was me! But if I didn't know it, I was lying to myself.

For a year, everything went well, the parties, the rebuilding, the harvests, but the portals that were supposed to send Shamino and Shepard back never opened until the day Shepard himself arrived! taken over by fate and by the quests.

The gods who controlled the portals, in fact Selene, had sent a hero again.

Of course, we crossed paths...

And... he didn't have the heart to hurt me. I was nevertheless loved by a good part of the population, I healed again, again and again as long as I could and even Shepard, wounded came to find me in my temple to recover fingers torn off by an ettin, a two-headed ogre.

Then Lord British decided to organize an official marriage and concubinage ceremony and to restore Exodus to his dignity.

I was proud, and mother too.

All were invited but all Brittania too....The dragons invited themselves and it was the carnage... well not of blood nor of wounds but the human portions were swallowed in some seconds and they had to disperse while avoiding to be trampled.

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The party ended as it began: In chaos.

My two wives climbed on my back and I returned to the secret cabin where I could see them both alone.

But that was the end of it and I wanted to start a family!

But it doesn't work like that for dragons and even less for giants.

Sometimes they waited for decades to reach a compatible size, even centuries.

But that was unfair. Saphie would have died of old age before I put my paw on the humanization spell.

Reduction was also dangerous in the sense of reducing my intellects and making me a small (big) wild beast...

But in the corridors of the Castle, Lord British was circling and circling in front of Gamblin and Shamino, and Shepard. IO and Dupre were there too.

"Torin is nice and ... Unfortunately he's also a deity or a quasi-divine dragon.

He's stuck, unhappy, and... thankfully it's him and not someone else or we'd all be dead. But did you see... He's a knight too but he can't control anything... An army of dragons capable of exterminating our entire race... Another army crawling under our feet. Luckily he had the enlightenment to send them into the underworld. Although there are resources, they are hardly exploitable now and they keep all these monsters quiet. Finally, we can walk freely in Britannia, except for the wolves, bears, some ogres and trolls and some brigands and former nobles on the run." Explained his Majesty.

Gamblin: "We know all that, but what is your point?"

"Sad to say, Selene is right. Torin must go. I don't want to and I don't think anyone here wants to kill him, on the contrary, we all owe him."

Gamblin: "The problem is that he is born and alive. He is not invoked or come from a portal. He's here at home just like you and me. And that's a big difference. The Ankh blinks because he is good and is not evil even though he is called the Dragon God of Destruction. We can't use a banishment spell. He was born here and so were his parents. And that's the problem."

Io stood up. "Are you people crazy? Torin is like a son to me!"

Gamblin wanted to say the same, but the fact that he had abandoned me during the mock trial, that bad memory reappeared.

"He should go to the underworld," Shepard offered.

Gamblin: "No, the problem is lava and earthquakes. We don't know what, but a tragedy or destabilizing event could awaken her powers and cause a cataclysm. Imagine that Valtrax is killed by an adventurer or a crazy or ill-intentioned dragon hunter or one of his 2 wives".

Dupre : "Master Gamblin, with sweet words you put the nails on his coffin. I have nothing more to do here, I have the impression to hear Blackthorne sometimes. Farewell!"

Iolo also stood up and Shamino did the same

"Excuse me your majesty but if you want to do any harm to Torin, you will find us in your way..."

Lord British: "Wait! Don't become resistance fighters again, that's too stupid! I know that Mondain had a spell to turn powerful creatures into humans to make them infiltrate. So by returning to a normal life, we might be able to seal some of his powers for his sake but also ours!"

The three men returned to the table, protesting, "One more criticism of Torin and we'll leave!"

The message had the advantage of being clear.

So the hero's quest was no longer to kill the dragon but to humanize and seal it.

Of course, I knew nothing of what was being plotted;

All I knew, from Ragul and Mom, was that the adventurers were looking for the famous scrolls.

But Shepard was sharpening his sacred blade. Her leader was not Lord British as everyone believed, but Selene herself.

In the light of the full moon, he sometimes spoke with a vague form of a woman or a spirit floating over the water of a pond or fountain.

He explained the situation to the goddess and she too felt a twinge of sadness.

"I will find another solution for Torin. If I am responsible for his death, I will be fallen by Destiny and I will be worth no more than Minox or Mondain," the taste still bitter from Exodus's death repenting and mourning his unjust death, his family separated and the fact that he could never once hold his son in his paws.

Then, looking at Shepard, she smiled. Yes...I have an idea...thinking of the hot potato game that must not be dropped...