Arnold and Louise were terrified and crying for their mom. They had hidden in the dining halls on the kitchen level and no one was there. Everyone was looking for them outside but it was a nightmare for them.

They had just seen a white monster, the one that had swallowed their mother, chasing them home. Their terrified father walking with a cane and 3 colorful raptors chasing them.

Vermithrax, Vermillion and Glacias were enraged and excited... The prey ran away and they lost face in front of their father who scolded them for the first time in their lives!!! They were going to pay and they were going to be eaten! they thought in their dinosaur brains. That's why Enka had warned to keep the humans and dragons apart, but I thought and Kate thought that we would manage and they would have fun together... that they would play.

But how wrong we were... It was a game of hunting to the death... The dragons wanted to devour their human brothers... They were like hunting dogs, like a pack. Real wild dragons. They were more like dinosaurs than thinking beings.

I had a bad feeling, especially since the rain had just fallen.

I called Darkia who had more or less recovered and was supposed to arrive at the house in one day maximum.

Darkia immediately had a bad feeling like me and she ran off into the darkness to join me.

"Hans! "

She looked at me and saw the carnage at the house.

"Hans! " then she cast a size reduction spell on me and I was the size of a raptor too, but it allowed me to run and go into the human sized structures.

She sniffed the darkness and shouted, "That way...to the kitchens!"

Meanwhile, the humans had barricaded themselves in the stainless steel furniture as a bunker and the 3 companions sniffed the trail

"This way, Glacias! I can smell their urine!!.they are not far away.!"

They entered the complex through the sewer drain and lifted a metal plate into the main hallway.

Vermithrax: There is no one here. The kobolds won't find us...

Vermillion: "But if we get them... do we bring them back to mom or dad?"

Glacias: "Dad will be proud of our capture! We'll break their legs and drag them in front of dad and when he's proud of us, we'll eat them!"

Vermithrax: "Good idea. And we'll give the leftovers to mom! She too has had lessons in hunting from the Carnos! She will be proud of us!"

Vermillion: "What if they have weapons?"

Vermithrax: "Have you seen our teeth? And then Aunt Waspy showed me how to make a shield! I did it yesterday!"

The smelly trail from the dining hall indicated a door to the kitchens and the 3 dragonets hated anything humanoid. A perverse trauma from their imprisonment and torture in the Ummite ice.

Vermillion opened the door, pressing his front paw like a hand and pushed.

Arnold and Louise were trapped. The other door was locked and the only escape route was through the door where the three dragonets were.

Outside, the elves and the wasps could be heard searching for the escapees.

Arnold whispered to his sister. We have to hold on as long as we can...with tears streaming down our faces.

The three dragons sniffed the ground, the scent of spices and grease drips mingling with that of the two little runaways.

discreetly, they entered a fridge, hoping to survive.

Then Glacias turned his head: GROAAAR (There they are!)

Then came the impact

Then came the impact. The door shattered and the dragoness was very, very hurt, plates, cutlery and knives fell on her neck, lacerating and cutting the membranes of her wings.

She had hit the reflection of the stainless steel door, thinking it was Louise.

But she was in front of it and they rushed to the exit, the 3 dragonnets inside.

They closed the door and pulled the handle closed.

Arnold held the door shut, "Louise, call for help!" but Vermithrax's paw cut through the metal like scissors and the next thing he knew, his other paw was through the torn door and his talons were lacerating Arnold's shoulder and down his arm.

He screamed in pain, the wound very deep, and ran down the dark and unfortunately dead-end hallway, the other two doors being closed.

He was stinking of blood and the 3 enraged dragonets were blocking any exit.

The two in front, Vermithrax and Vermilion, took up the whole width of the corridor, closed by Glacias who was hobbling a bit.

Cornered in the back, Arnold fell backwards into the corner, holding out his right arm, the other hanging down, and unusable. "Please!!! Please don't eat me... DADDY!!! Help! HAAns!"

Vermillion and The Red Dragoness looked at each other with a smile... a smile full of teeth and they opened their mouths showing a throat big enough to swallow the poor kid whole, finally severing him in two.

"Ihhh!" He closed his eyes, waiting for the deadly bite but a black shadow appeared, revealing a huge dragon head full of teeth that opened its mouth towards the dragonets.

They were running straight into Darkia's mouth...

They dropped to avoid slipping and skated, but the 3 meter long talons crushed them to the ground.

The rest was just shadow.

The shadows were attacking.

But Darkia did not raise her paw to the dragonets, but cast a sleep spell, "See you in a few moments...rascals."

Then she turned to Arnold who was bleeding to death.

He passed out as much from trauma as from Darkia's nightmare vision.

She immediately took him into the darkness and he found himself in the medical wing of the Bucéphalus.

"Hurry professor!"

Professor Dubuisson placed the boy on a surgical table and oxygen was administered to him, then Kobolds launched first aid to limit the bleeding and gain precious seconds.

The robotic arm began to stitch up the severed tissue, nerves and tendons, and grafts were placed where the flesh was dilated.

"I'm afraid he's going to have a scar from this... it's half his body!"

Darkia raged. "I arrived 10 seconds too late and she started crying and on her knees begging for Enka's forgiveness.."

Then she went back into the shadows to pick up the 3 predators and arrived at the house.

It was carnage and Darkia cast a spell of REPARO...and everything fell back into place, as if nothing had happened, except for Sarah's bloodstain.

I ran over to see the sedated kids and looked at Darkia.

Then I jumped on her neck. "Thank you... I don't know how to thank you..."

Bello arrived with Louise who was screaming for her brother and she was taken to the infirmary next to Sarah and Waspy.

The alert was stopped and no one was able to sleep peacefully that night.

Louise: "We have to save Arnold!

Sarah: "Arnold is safe...but he was injured and we are treating him for now."

Louise: "But where is my brother?

Waspy, like an idiot: "There, in the stars... if you look closely, it's blinking and it's Darkia's ship..."

Louis burst into tears... "They ate it!!!! it's in the stars... Arnoooold!!! "

Darkia reverted to her human form and ran to the infirmary to see if everything was okay.

Kate arrived and hugged her little ones.

And I turned (in my human-sized mini dragon form): "Kate, we have a problem. Arnold is seriously injured. If Darkia hadn't intervened, Arnold would be dead or dragged to pieces here.

Kate broke down in grief and I understood her despair...

"You'll have to practice your human illusion. "

"I don't have enough strength or mana..Hans.. but I try you know.."

"I understand..." then I took from a drawer a runic necklace with mana laden stones.

"Maybe this will help you..." and I put the necklace around his neck.

I also took a necklace with a more modest chain.

Kate: "What are we going to do with them? It's terrible what they did...and neither Arnold nor Louise will ever be able to accept them."

"Yet, we will have to... What are we going to do with your next brood...or Darkia's?"

Kate: "We're not going to file their teeth and talons!!!"

"It's no use, they will hate us more.. Then...shit!!! Darkia! "

"Kate, watch them and hold them tight if they wake up, I'm going to find Darkia!!!"

Arriving at the infirmary, Darkia was in human! What a relief!

But Louise seeing me as a mini dragon, about the same size as my dragonets screamed and shouted.

"PAPAAA!!! help!"

And, the best thing I could do was to lie on the floor.

Bello held the little one in his arms and Darkia covered her with kisses and said, "Don't be afraid..they are not all bad."

"But...but. uncle Bello...it's a dragon!"

Bello: "I know, honey... but it's an accident. look at him... he's lying down for you to pet!"

"But.. but he has big teeth.. I'm afraid... and the same one in white... he ate mom! they are monsters!"

Bello turned around so that Louise could not see me.

I was crushed with sadness. I didn't deserve this! Why? What a curse was hitting me again.

The shock was so hard that I wanted to die and embrace eternal sleep.

Nothing mattered anymore.

Darkia sensed through our subtle connection that something was wrong.

"Hans? Hans?"

I was frozen, lost, frozen, and my mind had somehow stopped working.

Darkia threw herself on her knees against me and took my limp head against her lap...

"HANS!!! Answer me!!!"

But my eyes froze... I was stunned...

Louise heard her daddy's name and lifted her head from Bello's chest.

Sara threw herself at me to help Darkia lift my head.

"Hans!!! answer us!!!"

Then she turned her head towards Bello and for a moment met Louise's terrified but curious gaze.

Darkia looked at Bello.

"Hans....he is broken..since his fight..against Tyrant.."

Louise looked up... "Daddy killed Tyrant..!"

Darkia took Louise's hand "Listen, darling...you see the dragon on the ground.. That's Hans... your daddy..."

"That's not possible... daddy is a human... not a lizard!"

Bello: "Your daddy walks with a cane, because he is a dragon and he has a hard time walking upright like you.. He stays human with you because he loves you.

He fought with his claws and teeth against the sword of Tyrant... and he is wounded!"

Louise: "Is he going to die like Mommy?"

Sarah: "Your mom is fine..."

"You're lying! I saw her disappear into the dragon! she swallowed her!

Then Waspy took Louise by the hand.

"Louise, look... "

She lifted her dress and Louise saw that Waspy's behind was that of a wasp.

"I'm a fairy...wasp! but also a mantis and a dragon like your mommy and daddy!"

Louise hid her head. "Liar!!! you all lie!!!"

Sarah: "You're tired."

"No! I want my daddy!! I want my mommy and I don't want to see the dragons anymore!!"

Darkia took my head and kissed me in front of the children.

"I love dragons, Louise, I'm a dragoness too, and I saved Arnold.

Then she turned to me.

"Come on, Hans... They need you... they don't hate you... they just don't know. They're just kids.."

Then I started to sob and they helped me up. I took the mana stone but Darkia closed her hand on my paw... "I will help you, sweetheart. I have more experience with trauma kids than you do!"

Then, a flash and I was the Human Hans.

Louis: "Daddy? Is that you daddy? Are you the lizard with the big teeth?"

I stroked his cheek to wipe away a tear.

"Yes, sweetie...I'm also a dragon..."

Louise:"!!!!!!!"