The knight was galloping at full speed. His horse was almost flying. He wore the insignia of the empire, but also that of a dragon hunter. Behind him was a whole garrison. He was part of the vanguard. His immediate superior was General Thullius.

He was the relief of the imperial outpost in Estemarche.

"As long as Rikke is alive. Pity she did not fall into the clutches of the dragon."

He shouted, "I'll slay the first dragon I see."

On the way, some merchants told him they saw a wounded dragon full of poison.

"Where?"

"Three miles down by the river."

He yelled for 10 of his best hunters to come with him and they ran into Profondeville. Down by the river.

He galloped all the way to the creature's location.

Then he saw what he was looking for, a dragon standing still, licking its wounds on the riverbank.

Then the creature turned around and charged at the group of soldiers.

Its head, deformed, its wings in tatters, traces of a previous battle accused it of every possible crime.

Its drooling mouth and muzzle showed that it was probably rabid. His eyes were red, very red and made him look even more terrifying.

The second hunter said to the knight." Beware, he has rabies."

The dragon was lying in wait and when he was within range of the knight, he lunged. The knight took his sword and thrust it into its scabbard. The dragon had knocked it down and had his paws on either side of the man on the ground.

The other soldiers came running but it was too late, the dragon would roar and spit out his venom or fire but instead he hugged the man and screamed:

"Papaaaaaaaaaaaa!" and as a breath of fresh air, the man was kissed, hugged and renamed with nasal mucus from the poor creature's tears.

"Fuchur? What are you doing here?"

Out of control, he babbled:

"Mommy, they killed mommy. We have to save her. She's gone. Help me, please. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm hurt. I'm hurt. Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy. Help, help!, mommy. I want my mommy. Aaaaahh, I've got Paiiiin. The dragons are bad, aaaaaaah, daddy."

Valiant was trying to calm his child down.

"That's all, come on! That's all. It's all gonna be all right. Breathe, breathe, breathe! "

He beckoned to his men that it would be all right and the tension subsided and one man handed a towel to Vaillant who used it to bring his grief-stricken son up.

His second arrived and said, to obliterate the first dragon, it's done ! Vaillant looked at him reproachfully: "His mother and I were brought up together and he is my nephew but we consider ourselves father and son and later he will enter the guard with me but he is still a child! He looks like a dragon but inside he is 100% human. He is like us, he is afraid of monsters and dragons! There's no one nicer than him! He saves birds, frogs and even small cats. He eats like me on a plate and does what he can with his clawed hands. I won't allow anyone to hurt him or insult him. Besides, all the girls in the village are after him!"

The hunter fell from the sky!

Excuse me, commander!

Then Vaillant finished wiping his scaly kid and gave him some water to drink to get him back.

"Come on, tell me what happened!"

Fuchur fought in his head to rearrange his thoughts and the scene was grotesque as a dragon stared into the void, tears flowing and then put his forehead in the knight's groin to whimper.

T TTT they have Vermitrhaxa! She was captured by metal-cut spiders throwing lightning bolts. She was dragged to the ruins of the labyrinth. Ignar, it's him! He's everywhere! He's gonna get me! He' s gonna get me!, I'm scared!"

"Come on, calm down, big boy!"

"Nah, I'm little, too little and they're so big, as big as mountains, I'm scared, daddy!"

"So Ignar has captured Vermi?"

"Yeeeaaahhhhhh, she's hanging from hooks!, he showed her on a light in a stone! And he laughed and laughed and laughed at us... He's really mean, dad, be careful and his armour, it's terrible!"

I stepped on a trap and a prickly thing ripped my wings and tore my leg off. Then it pulled up and it hurt even worse, it cut into it... you could see my bone.

I cried and screamed. It hurt like hell, I've never been in so much pain. They tried to heal me and Mum took me back to camp and then the branding iron. It was really red and I cried and screamed and they burnt me with the branding iron. They're bad people.

You won't put a branding iron on me, you promise????"

"Fuchur, fuchur, they stopped the blood with the branding iron. You'd have bled to death if they hadn't done that! They couldn't have cured you. By the time the priests arrived... they had no choice!"

"But it hurt! It hurt very, very much!"

"And afterwards?"

"I fell asleep in pain and then I woke up with a huge BOOM and everything was burning and broken all around me. Mom was exhausted and then Ignar and his awful girlfriend came and they burned everything and killed everyone."

"Was Rikke there?", anxious.

"No, she stayed at the labyrinth with Falkor and Auberone."

"Ah, at least she's not dead."

"Then the evil dragon bit mummy who was holding me in the mouth and and Ignar with his terrible axe broke mummy's mouth, She couldn't keep her mouth shut and then he hit me very hard or threw lightning but mummy threw me in the river and I floated down here.

The bad guys, I don't know if they killed mum or took her prisoner but I'm afraid for her.

We have to save her, Daddy!"

Meanwhile, Ignar, very proud of his catch, returned to the Black Manor with his accomplice...

"Say, Ignar, can't we have a threesome with her? I've got some drugs that work!"

"No, the master comes first! And if I'm alive, it's because I put the master first! And he'll do anything to protect his faithful servant. Take me as an example!

"Oh, it's all right! It's not funny."

"It will be if I think it will be! End of story!

Ignar went down into the dungeon and locked Aqua in a room under rock with very strong barbed iron bars whose edges were sharp as shards of glass.

He left a healing potion, a towel and threw 2 bales of straw in the middle of the room.

"To sleep! Enjoy them, for the next few nights may be very busy."

Aqua moaned and was covered with scratches everywhere.

Meanwhile, in the labyrinth, our friends had finished the last spider and disarmed the sadistic trap.