Gaelia, in her dragon form, is scouting the border of the dragon kingdom and the neighboring countries. From her vision, she can see a great forest and several openings between them. At the corner of her vision, her personal UI magic is activated and has a note page opened. Her thoughts and observations are automatically written down along with images recorded from what she sees. On her UI, a blinking notification appears. The contact appears to be an operator from the dragon roost. She answers and a screen appears. The screen shows a yellow bee person. She seems to be very upright and proper.

“This is Ordell Village. Dragon Guardian Gaelia, is it all clear out there?”

With a routine answer she says,

“All clear with nothing to report.”

The operator seems to be occupied with something, most likely recording information down, before speaking again.

“Alright, thanks. Dragon Guardian Captain Gokin has requested that you return to the village.”

“Gokin? Did he say why?”

“The Guardian Captain was notified of an incident happening in another village and has been asked to deal with it instead of coming back after his assignment. He asks you to return home to watch over the village.”

“Alright I’ll head back.”

The operator, seemingly done with her duty, relaxes her upright behavior before saying,

“Say happy birthday to your son for me, Dragon Guardian.”

“I will, thanks operator. Will you not attend the birthday party?”

“I wish I could, but my queen has requested that we strengthen our operations with the addition of the new hive.”

“I see.”

“But I’ll see the young dragon later at the embassy and gift him a bouquet made from our specialty flowers. I grew it myself.”

“Are you sure you can give that out?”

“Yeah my queen has allowed us to gift these flowers if it is for a dragon.”

“Oh… surely your specialty flowers should be kept more for yourself?”

The operator chuckles.

“It’s okay Gaelia. The flowers are very pretty and we are grateful that the dragon roost has accepted our people to the village. We felt very welcomed when the hive came here from the outer lands. This is just a simple gift for our gratitude.”

Gaelia felt guilty. She wasn’t a part of the Dragon Guardians when the hive appeared.

“I know that you weren’t here at that time, but still we appreciate you doing your job and keeping the village safe everyday.”

Changing emotions, Gaelia felt really happy. She didn’t really know how to handle gratitude.

“You’re welcome then.”

“Yep. Village Ordell out.”

With that the screen blinks out.

Gaelia sighs. She was happy she could return home now. Her heart felt incredibly filled and light. She could return in time to reach her son’s birthday. Perhaps Gokin had thought about that and recalled her, though if that’s the case then she wouldn’t be sent out. In any case, she was returning. Rolling through her contact list, she quickly finds Noriko and calls her. With some chimes, Noriko answers. In the background she could see and hear other people.

“Hi Gaelia, are you checking on the birthday party? Want to see Aldrich?”

“No, I’m coming back to the village.”

“Oh… really?! That’s great. I thought you weren’t coming back until tonight at the earliest.”

“Nope, I got recalled.”

“Great, Aldrich would be ecstatic to hear this. I really thought you wouldn’t be able to teach him how to fly.”

“Me too, but I got really lucky. I’ll be there soon. Tell him to meet at the hills by the dragon roost.”

“Got it.”

With that Noriko’s screen blinks out. Happy with the situation she soared with joy and speed back home.

Halfway to the village, Gaelia sees something strange. Usually she simply sees plains, forests, swamps, lakes, the usual landscape, but in the distance lights flickered in the evening light. She’s confused. Civilization wouldn’t be so far out here, or at least to the degree of lights present. Sure, some wild groups of wild hives or a nomadic group could be out here, but Ordell Village should be the closest beacon of civilization and is the frontier. She quickly casts an enhancement spell on herself to increase her senses. She hears bells and sees a horror she never wished to happen.

A massive human army was approaching the direction of her village. Trolls, large orges, siege engines, and wyvern riders also follow along with the army. She was shocked, how did this happen? How did the army get so close? She didn’t see anything on her way out. Nothing was off. Scrolling through her contacts, she attempts to contact the village operator. There’s no answer. She pulls up multiple calls instead, contacting anyone in the village. All have no answer. As she approached closer, she felt something strange, like something was being drained from her. Then it dawned on her. The human army was using an anti-magic artifact or something similar.

In the distance she could see the defensive walls designed to defend against such an attack by the humans. Zooming in she could see a small garrison of soldiers on the walls mobilizing. She felt some relief as the wall would hold them for a bit before she witnessed a large explosion, crushing through the wall. As the walls fell, a contingent of human cavalrymen immediately went through. All she could do now was hope that her son and Noriko would be okay as she made her descent as fast as she could.