I used to be good like this in Darkia's arms and under her wings, letting myself brood...

"Say, Darkia? Are you awake? "

"Yes, for a moment already... did you know you snore?"

"Well, we're dragons, it's normal..."

"No, you snore very loudly! "

"Ah, it must be my broken nose..."

Ouch, I've got my everywhere when I move, everything's scarred or almost scarred but we're bruised. The only thing that's good, is that my mana reserves are full.

Then, BANG in my head, what a brouhaha!

All the dragons are trying to talk to me at the same time! "We've been trying to find out how you are for a month, Vermi," Auberone said to me. By the way, what are you waiting for?

NOTICE TO PASSENGERS, PLEASE ASSEMBLE ON THE BRIDGE, AN INSPECTION WILL BE MADE OF THE ARTEMIS FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. WE SUSPECT STOWAWAYS OR ANIMAL TRAFFICKING. WE'RE ARRIVING AT THE SPACIOPORT AND A SHUTTLE OF INSPECTORS WILL COME AND SEARCH THE CABINS BEFORE DISEMBARKING.

The message is repeated over and over again.

"Well, as far as I can see, we're gonna have to take the plunge, but I'd prefer to beam us up to the Vulcanus, which is my ship now with Peter as master. We'll rest here and heal."

"But, Zmei?"

"Look, Darkia, we're alive and you know as well as I do that humans are terrible. We're nothing compared to them. We're getting by with a little magic, but have you seen the samurai? Suppose they make a dozen like that one! We're finished! And if we run away, they'll find us!

Do you want to end up like the master's dragon doggie? Or do you want to end up like a hunting lion and have your head hung on a wall?"

Yeeeaaahhh Yesiiinnn cried Darkia! "We're finished. It's not our era anymore! it's only a matter of time, we're going to disappear one after the other and end up in a breeding center or a slaughterhouse the day someone wants dragon steak.... aRRRRRRRRRRRRhg ARHHH ARHHHHHHHH"

"SHHHT, you're going to bring them here!! Calm down Darkia !

Get in the circle, we'll teleport to the Vulcanus! And when you meet Peter World, you shut up and let me do the talking for you! You do as I say and you'll be fine!

I may have a plan, but it's gonna take courage. World's crazy, but you know what? This is our world. Well, we're gonna build it ourselves! A world of our own and ours and ours alone!"

"World Yutani, what do you think they're doing?"

"They're putting air into space?"

"They're making colonies! Why not a colony of dragons?????"

"Ehhh EEEEh???"

Well, they're coming, we've got to go now!

I started to meditate and I felt the portal on the Vulcanus, not far from the Artemis, it shouldn't be too taxing, we could even heal ourselves a bit...

Abracadabra! Short teleportation throw and the circle activates and at the last moment, I blow to set fire to the technical void and leave no trace.

An alert is triggered and auto-extinguishing systems are activated. The passengers already on the bridge had to evacuate but their disembarkation was accelerated by necessity.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZAp! My ears were ringing, but we were all 8 on board the Vulcanus and the World AI welcomed us !

"Always surprising, queen of dragons! Eva or Vermithraxa?"

"Hello master" I lay on my stomach and pushed Darkia's head down like this: "Shh do exactly as I say, one click of your fingers and we're all dead'.

I ripped off a grimace of pain when I wanted to put one leg down. I was scarred but far from healed.

"Thank you master for healing us, we now owe you twice your life again."

"But you saved us, you eliminated my opponents cleanly and managed to convince Kim to fund us and not kill him in the final fight and you even brought me some precious raptor friends."

"But you took a lot of risks and saw how you're set up?? What are you going to do when you're maimed like that? I have high ambitions for you!"

Also, I'm a little disappointed! All the dragons that are sold are now in breeding farms and some will return to a semi-wild life and some will participate in the ecology of new colonies but your companions that stayed behind are causing problems, they protest, complain all the time, and, in the end, are starting to cost a lot!"

Their latest find is that some are throwing themselves against cliffs and deliberately hurting themselves in an attempt to commit suicide. Others don't move and let themselves die and some have started to bury themselves to hibernate.

Only the young people at school are behaving well.

"Shit," I thought, "the worst has happened.

When I passed on the images of the battle with the samurai, the dragons lost their pride and purpose, they saw themselves as a worthless bat or big lizard that could be squashed like an insect.

"Master, I believe the dragons are suffering a suicidal burnout!

We are thinking beings! Like you humans and you androids suffer humiliation and racial discrimination.

We have watched our parents, brothers, sisters, and children die and slaughtered to the last man.

They can't take it anymore! They are tired of the pressure.

They still had hope with our powerful bodies for a better life but when they came here, fear consumed us. Fear mines and kills little by little. It is horrible.

It's like falling to dust, but alive, we stiffen, we don't talk, we don't laugh, we don't live, it's just survival.

We lose the pleasure of flying, of singing, of being happy, and in the end we hate life and envy the dead.

Artemis really disgusted us. When we learned that we were organizing a raptor hunt, it hurt us immensely, but when we heard about Darkia, that they had killed her husband and were taking him on a dragon hunt, we all felt very sad.

Seeing the level of civilization of the humans, their numbers and the technology they have at their disposal terrorized us, and then the Samurai, that knightly monster, stronger than a dragon, piloted like the armor of a single knight. That finished us off.

We are nothing! Perhaps the first generation of future dragon-skin bags, boots or shoes, raised like crocodiles and having lost what made us unique, our pride and love of the world and freedom. Everything was taken from us.

We want to die and be done with it !

We all decided that we would climb into space and from there, we would throw ourselves into the fire of the sun that we venerate every morning. So we'll be one with it."

Peter sat down by his piano and began to play a sad piece.

"I know you are bruised, my friends. I hope we're still friends. I'm really sorry to see you like this. This is much deeper and more serious than I thought.

It's actually beyond the scope of life or World Corp. Even if you were free to go anywhere on the planet, the problem remains the same. You are nothing, your breath is useless here, your shape is a handicap and your size too

I feel that I have done everything I can to help you integrate and give you a chance to grow. Your species must adapt and evolve! Those who do not evolve must die.

Perhaps that is so? Your fate is set, or at least close to it, as I see it.

You can't force someone who wants to die to keep on living."

He ended on a false note ♫

"Master, we want to work! They all want to do something, not wait in a park... Let us work for you, be part of the World team. Preparing colonies. We don't want to leave you!"

World: "so I need you to be the director and represent me on the board. You'll have to thwart attacks on me and the board. "Calm" the competition and protect my daughter, but she has the Samurai with her and I don't think you're on good terms with him."

I'm going to neo Luna, the moon base where my research facility is located.

You will load the new Terraformer and take the defective prototype aboard. Try to make it work with your secret arts. If you can make it work, make another one and this one will be for you.

Feel free to colonize space, but keep in mind that World is not a charitable society."

"Thank you, counselor."

"Last thing, take care of your presentation, and if transformation isn't possible, use your double android."

She's coming in now.

If you want to take the dragons, now is the time to make a decision, as my patient has limits."

This was all done via video. Cause we were still banged up.

So we decided to create a council and a nomadic tribe.