~ 23 ~

The Cheat Code to Instant and Infinite Wealth

"Blah! Blah!" I spat the words out as my tongue dragged across the ground, sliding away from the woman chasing it. The wet collection of rocks and dust underneath was nothing to have my tongue encrusted in permanent gold. “Sthap twasing myah twunge!”

Astria lunged forward with the intent to hug my tongue. "Stop looking at me like an idiot!"

“Buh yu arh ha anwidiot.”

"And you won't be able to speak again!"

Finally, I was able to pull my tongue upward, forcing Astria to jump in place, swiping luminous hands after my hanging tongue. Wiping it with my claws of collected filth, I retracted it into my maw. Once there, I got used to its horrible taste—then played defence again by using my words.

"Listen. I'm sorry. I just had a better hunch than you—it's nothing beyond that." I scooted backward so I could lay forward, covering the flooring in a great bridge of dragon. I rested my muzzle before the princess, who stood at the height of my lips. "Now, can we please talk about how you're able to consume dragons? And if I have anything to fucking worry about?"

The princess glared at me for a second and, without warning, she struck my chin with a, thankfully, not glowing fist. I narrowed my eyes in confusion. She crossed her arms and looked away. "I needed to get that out of my system. I knew it wouldn't have hurt you."

"Still rude."

Astria looked back to stick out her tongue.

"Careful." I raised a weighty claw, wiggling my sharp appendages. "Or I might go chasing after your tongue, this time."

"You wouldn't risk ruining something so valuable," Astria chuckled, opening a single eye to me. "You might as well show me your tongue again, dragon-boy."

"See! Now that's the problem with magical princesses." I arched my eyebrows. "They say they want to test tongues, but really, they're just trying to turn yours to gold and sell it on the open market."

"If it were your tongue?" Astria followed up. "I'd keep it as an ornament for my home. Let it wrap a few times around the dining hall walls like exquisite decor. Or slice off the tip to keep as a bedroom statue."

Baited. "Oh? So you want the tip of my tongue for the bedroom, huh?"

"D-Dah! F-Fuck!" Her hands burned like the sun as she pummelled after me. "You asshole! W-What good would a golden tongue be to me anyway—tah, fuck!"

I raised my jaw out of reach. She leapt after it, swinging her arms, but burning herself out quickly. The magic ceased from her arm, and she stumbled back on her next landing. Panting, she bent forward, resting her hands on her knees, looking up at me. "I'll... get you for that... d-don't you... forget it."

I settled my chin against the ground, feeling a gust of wind travel from the impact. "Now you're giving me something to look forward to. But, on a more serious note, the ability to consume dragons? Were you always able to do that?"

Astria squinted an eye upon catching her breath. "You kiddin'? Do you really think I would have let myself be grabbed, caged, and eaten if I could do that last one back to him? I had no idea I could do something like that. Nobody even told me my magic could do much more than the basics."

I blinked. "Then how did you know to absorb As'gar?"

Astria thought about it. Her fingers snapped. "After he was dead! I know you were nervous about how you had taken his life... but something else was calling me to him. Once I got close enough to him, I felt the magic in my hand—and heard it speak in my head."

I thought back to the wedding when magic had been used against me, recalling everything around that. "It's like you already knew how to do it, right? Like you'd already done it before?"

"Y-Yeah..." Astria caught on quickly. "You're thinking about the wedding, right? You absorbed psychic energy and channelled it perfectly into a spell. Dragons are resistant to magic—but most can't cast it. Not only that, but it takes nearly a whole childhood for someone magically gifted to even begin casting spells."

Astria held up a hand, faintly empowering it in a glow... though it faded quickly. "And that's after you've failed to cast an unimaginable amount of times." Her hand dropped as she looked at me. "This isn't right. None of this should be happening. You and I aren't anything special, right?"

That question roused a deeper one from inside of me.

"You thought you were the only dragon like this?"

My eyes fell.

What had he meant? In terms of being a magical dragon, or packed with a supernatural ability? No... not from the way As'gar spoke. It was as if he knew that I wasn't originally a dragon—and he talked like he hadn't been either. But how could that have been? Was he from my world... or another?

Did As'gar, if he was transported, arrive here at the same time as me? Doubtful. It sounded like he had at least a year under his scaly belt. I'd only been here for a few months. If souls from other worlds were being planted into dragons—or others—in this world, then it was done so far apart.

But how far apart? Has this always been happening since the dawn of time? And what's causing it to happen? Will you find others not originally from here? And how many more will show up?

The princess looked at me, respecting my silence, but expecting an answer by the end of it.

Things are already crazy, so can I risk telling her?

My heart said no.

Hold off for now. Give yourself more time to see and experience this world. Now that you have it set that you're going to live beyond your cave, you're bound to come upon greater clues to the mystery of this place. Once the time feels right, let her know.

But she'll be upset that I held it back.

Only because you needed to figure out more before including her in the great confusion.

Astria will take that for lack of trust.

If you had greater trust, in either her or yourself, then your heart would not bear its current doubt. You have faith that a greater bond will develop between the two of you. Trust in that for now and, once that bond has happened, it should be strong enough for you to confess everything—even this present mistake.

I sighed.

Seems like I'm always forced to agree with myself.

"There has to be someone, or something, that knows more than we do," I said, pretending like I'd been working out a plan during that time. "Someone with greater magical prowess, or a historian with the possible knowledge of when such happened before. Maybe there's even a prophecy or something."

Astria closed an eye. "I'm not sure about that last part."

I shook my head, rubbing my chin against the ground, the sound rumbling into the air. "You don't have to. But back at the castle... you think you have any books on this? Anyone that would know anything?"

Astria shook her head and brought her hands to her hips. "No. Our library is pretty bare. And father... closed off most connections to his outside relationships. The closest answer we would get, maybe, would be the Ancasters."

"That's not a risk we're taking." I felt my eyes burn a little from the statement. "We don't know what trickery or bullshit up their sleeves. All it takes is for a surprise spell to turn you into that dragon over there. Wherever the answer is, it has to be safe to get, and clueless about our identities."

She nodded and shuffled backward. "Sounds like a good objective to have. But, no matter what, we have to warn my family about what's coming. Maybe, if it looks dire, we'll help them out."

"You think your father will let you?"

"He'll no longer have a choice."

"Think your people will let me help?"

Her lips pushed upward in thought. "If you bring enough goodies, maybe."

I rose to the light swipes of dust from underneath me. I turned from the doll-sized human to the hoard of the previous dragon. I chuckled at the irony of that. Dragons have hoards to bait greedy humans. But ever since all dragons started doing it, we began comparing hoards, and then it became a testament to the strength of how giant one dragon's hoard was.

I shook my head. I guess greed gets to us all. Treasures were useless to us before, and that's why we could collect them easily. But ever since, because of that, it became a show of a dragon's power—we became greedy about how big we could make our piles.

I thought about it some more.

Something may not have affected you before. But, with a change or a new meaning, you could be easily swayed to that same thing. But how will that become applied to me? What is the moral of the story I'm trying to glean from this?

And then I realized that I had been thinking too much, and my head burned for all the wrong reasons.

Okay. One last question for my remaining brainpower.

To my left was a spread of wealth, coins and golden cups, the usual treasures. To the right, however, was the array of weaponry. Swords and axes. Clubs and hammers. Bows. Arrows. Some dandy-looking staffs and staves and wands.

If I were to see the dragon that kidnapped my princess, what would I rather see? Treasures that could possibly make my kingdom rich? Or weapons that could better outfit us all? Or would they see the treasure as a bribe, and the weapons as a threat of war?

Then all brainpower vanished.

Ah, fuck it.

I scooped my arms into both piles, letting torrents pour from my arms, becoming satisfied with what I cradled. Turning to the princess, I stood with hills of treasure and weapons, smiling sheepishly. Then I laid the tip of my tail on the ground before her.

"Better climb on," I said. "We've got a bit of a flight ahead."