Chapter 15

The world shimmered with an ethereal light from the countless spells that were intertwining themselves around me. To my rear, an army of demons and monsters stood at my beck and call awaiting their leader-the god they worshiped above all others-to give them the order.

In front of me, an opposing army just as large as my own, filled with rank after rank of humans. And at the head of this force, sat astride a magnificent beast of legend, sat their commander. His golden hair glinted in the sunlight, his armor dazzled and blinded those who looked at it and his sword positively glowed from the sheer force of the magical aura it exerted.

Yes, this man was my enemy. He was a Hero.

Our armies clamored for the fight, each desperate to wipe out the opposing force and fulfill the wishes of their beloved leaders. The human commander and I stared at one another’s forces for a moment, each of us wondering how best to be rid of the evil menace before us.

Then we locked eyes.

“Attack!” we shouted in unison causing our armies, now completely lusted for blood, to scream out their approval and rush forward madly. Though even their crazed dash could not hope to match the speed of the great leaders who were already nearly upon each other.

To my right, my beloved wife and mate ran alongside me. To my left, my most trusted servant and adviser. Together we met the hero, who rode the mythical Alicorn with his companion, head on. Just a moment longer and this war would end!

“Now die!” we shouted in unison, clashing-

I jerked awake. For a moment I sat there, bleary eyed and confused, still convinced that I was in the middle of some epic battle. But then I felt Merry’s soft embrace next to me and I remembered where I was. The two of us were resting in a cave near the eastern edge of the Great Forest.

My heart was racing, but after seeing my companion sleeping so soundly I was able to slowly calm down. Inside my head I could still see the magic choked battlefield, but I was able to convince myself that it had just been a dream.

“But it felt so real…” I thought, contradicting myself and becoming worried all over again.

Merilyn, perhaps sensing my unrest, suddenly flicked her eyes open and gave me a sleepy, yet questioning look.

“Is everything alright, my dear Illumi?”

“Yes…yes, I believe it is, my dear Merry.”

She craned her head forward and gave me a lick on the cheek, and said “Then why does your heart say otherwise? If there is something troubling you please don’t try to bottle it up, my love.”

I grimaced, and eventually I wound up relenting to her and recounting the events of my dream. To my surprise, she took everything I said quite seriously, even going so far as to ask me in detail the faces of those around me.

“Hmm…perhaps It could have been a premonition?” she ventured

“Like a prophecy? I thought that was a clerical power, wouldn’t it be impossible for a dragon to have prophetic dreams?”

“Ordinarily yes, but you are a Demon Prince and that sort of thing tends to throw logic to the wind…”

She had a point. There was really no telling what strange abilities I would gain as I grew into my power. At least not until I could find some new way to acquire information.

“Still though…” she said, suddenly looking extremely serious.

I snapped my attention back to her, expecting her to have something dire to tell me.

“To think you would dream of me as your mate. How shameless of you, revealing your intentions so readily to my frail maidens heart.” as she said this, her tone went from serious to teasing.

I harrumphed and shot hot air out of my nose “As if my intentions weren’t clear already! You ought to know, they are your intentions as well!” I said in mock outrage, pouncing on her.

The two of us wrestled for a while until I allowed her to flip me over on my back and pin me to the ground.

“I win!” she said triumphantly, leaning over and licking me again.

“So you have. Now come, the sun is nearly risen and we still have some ground to cover.”

Though I said this, Merry didn’t seem to have any desire to let me up just yet and, admittedly, I was perfectly content to wait until she had had her fill.

…

It was midday by the time the two of us left the cave. We were met outside by rays of sunshine piercing through the dense forest canopy. The sounds of nature could be heard all around us as songbirds sang, rodents chittered and nearby a creek gurgled and chuckled it’s way along the forest floor. It was a perfectly picturesque day for the two of us to stroll through the forest, casually picking off any prey foolish enough to come near a pair of dragons.

Our destination was the eastern border of the Great Forest, where the Kingdom of Langrace was located. Although I would have preferred it if the two of us could go somewhere with little in the way of people, that was unfortunately impossible. The Great Forest grew in the approximation of a diamond, and at each of it’s four points sat a Great Kingdom. To the north, Estora where I was born. To the east-Langrace where our Master Carmen lost her mate and her nest. To the west, the Demon Kingdom Taros where the demon race prospered. Finally, to the south where the Holy Popedom of the 17 Divine Pillars reigned. At the center of it all, right in the middle of the Great forest, was the Dragon Stronghold

With all of that in mind, there was left a simple question- why go to a kingdom that we already knew was hostile towards dragons? The answer was simple. Dragons, to put it bluntly, weren’t welcome anywhere. Estora and Langrace regarded us as pests or, in the worst case, calamities. The Holy Popedom believed us to be the spawn of one particular Dark God, and classified us as heretical creatures. And then there was the demon kingdom, which was probably the most dangerous of the four kingdoms for dragons. Peculiarly, the Demon Princes were not necessarily members of the demon race- Anyone from a human to an intelligent magical beast could become a Demon Prince. The demon race worshiped the Dark Gods instead of the 17 Pillars, and as such were branded as demons by the followers of the 17 Pillars, which in this case referred to the other three Kingdoms bordering the forest.

Unlike the followers of the 17, the demon race did not enjoy any direct divine blessings from their gods. There were no demon clerics, for example. But in exchange for their lack of divine power, each member of the demon race was born with a far greater capacity for magic and skill learning than a human was. And one particular way to learn powerful skills was to slay powerful monsters.

Hence, dragons were practically a natural resource that could be farmed for their powers. Some enterprising demons were even known to capture dragons and force them to mate, just so they could have a fresh supply of newborns to grind easy skills from.

So that option was off the table for us. As for Estora, well…Estora was filled with too many bad memories for me and the thought of going back left a sour taste in my mouth. The Popedom was home to ten of the known Saints, as well as a multitude of Heroes and renowned warriors who had sworn their allegiance to the country. Going there was tantamount to suicide.

Langrace, in contrast, did not have a single Saint to speak of and only three heroes lived in the capital. Apparently the Saint who had lived there when Master was attacked had defected to the Popedom long ago.

Basically, if the two of us were going to be forced to live near humans then it was better to live where we knew the humans were weakest. We weren’t going to set up our nest in Langrace, instead we would settle just outside of it where we would be far away from both the dragons and the humans.

“Although if we could fly I would just as soon the two of us leave this continent.” I mused. Unfortunately, neither of us would gain that power for a few more years. When we did we would be able to couple as well.

Merilyn must have been thinking something along the same lines as I was, because she suddenly sidled up to me and said “How large do you think we should build our nest anyway? It won’t need to be very large right away, but in a few years…” she furrowed her brow, contemplating.

I chuckled at her and said “You worry too much, if the nest is too small I will just make it bigger. I’m more worried about location. Preferably, I’d like it somewhere high up where I can see attackers coming.”

"But what If someone falls off…”

“I would catch you, of course.”

“I wasn’t talking about me, silly.”

The two of us continued to banter like that back and forth for the rest of that evening. Despite our late start and leisurely pace we made good progress today. By my estimation we would only need to travel another couple of days to reach the edge of the forest. From there we would backtrack until we were a safe distance from the Great Forest-Langrace tree line and construct our precious new home together.

Three days later the two of us happened upon a man made path. It didn’t extend very deep into the forest and we only had to follow it for a mile before reaching the end of the line.

“Langrace.” I said, stepping aside so Merry could get her fill.

Up until now she had never seen such vast, empty land and to her it was astonishing to see nothing but grass and the occasional patch of woods or crop field for miles upon miles. For a moment I wondered if Merry would run back into the woods as she had when I tried to get her to leave the castle. But instead-

“This is…amazing! I never knew- no, how could I have known? It’s just, it never hit me until now but…but the world is so vast.” as she said all of this tears began to well up in her eyes. “Up until now…up until now I’ve always wondered, could this all have been a dream? For years I wished for someone- anyone to come and save me from that castle. And then you came to me, my beloved Illumi, and fulfilled every childish fantasy I’d made up for myself. Yet still in the back of my mind I feared that one day I would wake up to find myself back in that little corner, starving and alone. But this…! This is not something that my broken mind could have conjured up on it’s own. Illumi, in this wide open expanse, where no wall or barrier can keep me closed in…can I truly be free?”

She was gazing at me with eyes, so full of hope and wonder, and I longed so desperately to tell her yes.

But I could not lie to her.

“Freedom…for us is not such an easy thing. This beauty is inhabited by humans, and they protect their domain jealousy. If I could, I would give you the world my Merry, but as things stand it would just be too dangerous. One day we will be strong enough to do as we please without their interference, but until then we have to stay hidden.”

I felt like a coward, but I couldn’t even muster the willpower to apologize to her. There was simply nothing I could do at the moment to surpass the monster that was humanity. But to my surprise, Merilyn didn’t seem to be sad. Rather, she held an extremely pensive look. I thought she was going to argue with me, and I already had several counter arguments prepared, but instead she told me something that I had never expected to hear a dragon say.

“Illumi, I want to see a human village for myself.”