Dragonlord

Ep 20. Dear. Be Quiet. (4)

After their uneventful meal, the two girls had collapsed within their respective rooms. With their stomachs full and their bodies finally able to relax after the tiring night, they’d immediately fell asleep.

Serenis quizzically watched the younglings go to their rooms. It didn’t surprise her that Ilias would live in the same nest with her parents, but Raizel had caught her by surprise.

“Bruton, does Raizel live here as well?”

“For quite some time now. She does have her own nest, but…”

“But?”

“She’s been avoiding it ever since her family’s passing.”

“…I see.”

‘No wonder they seemed so close.’

While the dragonkin were by no means unfriendly amongst each other, there was still an air of respected seclusion between families. However, Ilias and Raizel seemed much too close, even considering their similarity in age – but living within the same nest would explain it all too well.

Aether worriedly looked towards the conversing dragons. While they both looked fine, she didn’t doubt for a moment that they, too, were sleep-deprived like the younglings.

“Dear, you should get some sleep too. You said you were all awake overnight. Serenis, would you like to use my room for a while as well?”

“Ah…I’m still alright, Aether. I’ll sleep at sundown.”

“I’m alright as well. I should be going anyhow.”

At the dragonlord’s sudden announcement of departure, the two turned their attention towards her.

“Already? Where to?”

“I’m simply returning to where I came from towards the south…where I should be, I suppose.”

Bruton threw the dragonlord a curious gaze upon hearing the answer.

“Where you should be…would that not be this valley, at the home of our kin?”

“No. There are things I must still see to.”

“What things, if I may ask?”

“…I plan to rid the divinities scattered throughout the star.”

“Divinities?”

Both Bruton and Aether momentarily froze at the unexpected response. It took a few more seconds for the couple to question the dragonlord’s sudden answer together.

“By divinities, do you mean the twelve deities?”

“Kill them? For what reason?”

The dragonlord’s eyes shifted downwards, losing focus as Serenis lost herself in thought.

“For what reason, you ask…”

‘I’m not too certain myself.’

Truthfully, Serenis had not a single clue who these deities were. She only knew that they existed, based on the scattered traces of the First she could feel throughout the star’s veins.

Perhaps it’s vengeance.

Perhaps it’s a desire to erase any traces of the First from this star, just like how the demonkin’s traces were erased.

Or…perhaps, it’s simply a sinner’s struggle for absolution. For the numerous deaths that still weighed heavily upon her shoulders.

“…Simply put, troubles from a distant past. Tell me, is there anything these ‘twelve deities’ have done to our kin?”

Bruton and Aether looked at each other in confusion before facing Serenis to answer her.

“Not that I know of. To be honest, I’ve only heard of their existence.”

“I could say the same. Our elders did warn us against ever seeking them, saying that there was nothing good to come of it…but living in seclusion at our valley, the advice was already accomplishing itself.”

Both Bruton and Aether were elder dragons at this point. Their lives had doubtlessly stretched for a good two centuries, if not three; the generation of elders they were speaking of, then, couldn’t have been far from the generation Serenis had left at the nests before her death.

‘Nothing good, is it.’

Were those warnings just a simple note of caution for their younglings? Or was it a result of the dragonlord’s actions in the past?

She didn’t know. She wouldn’t know, at least not until she could meet these divinities directly.

“…If elders were warning you against seeking them out…that would mean one could find them by seeking them out.”

Even though the dragonlord had confirmed the existence of these divinities, even she could not pinpoint their location scattered throughout the entire star. She still needed more information – information that she was promised by a rather peculiar crow. Or man.

‘Come to think of it, I never quite stopped to learn where that was...hm. Well, no matter. I suppose it’ll appear if I but directly fly south.’

Serenis slowly rose from her seat. As she prepared to leave, Bruton rose to his feet with her.

“My lord, if you’ll allow it, I’d be glad to…”

“Stay, Bruton.”

Serenis held her hand out authoritatively, stopping the elder dragon from following her outside.

“There’s explaining you owe to your loved one. And you’ve children to care after.”

Aether had remained silent, but her quizzical expression explained all too well how strange she found it for her husband to refer to this stranger as a lord. When Bruton finally took notice of this, he couldn’t help but feel responsible.

Bruton still remained curious himself: how the dragonlord had returned to life in the body of a human boy, what had happened in her era to warrant such actions against the divine. But he could see that it was no time to be asking such questions.

Serenis briskly turned around to leave. She was leaving right now on purpose – while the two younglings were still asleep, while Aether was here to keep Bruton at his nest.

‘It will be different this time. Never again will I live to see the First harm another kin.’

“Farewell. Do pass my gratitude to the younglings.”

Serenis opened her wings as the outside air greeted her. She was just on the verge of taking flight – when a strange, unfamiliar sensation would suddenly creep at her from the inside.

Throb!

‘Huh?’

She could feel a stabbing sensation within her insides. Serenis fell to her knees with a pained expression, gripping at her stomach.

“Serenis? Are you alright?”

Both dragons hurriedly rushed to her side as they saw the dragonlord fall to her knees. She adamantly held her hand out, wondering what the sudden pain had been.

“It’s nothing. I…”

Throb!

Another throbbing had Serenis grip tighter at her stomach. It was taking every ounce of pride to not let out a pained groan, though Aether could plainly see how much pain she was in from the dragonlord’s expression.

“Is it your stomach? There shouldn’t have been anything to upset it in the food…”

‘…Food? Food can cause pain?’

For thousands of years, Serenis scarcely ate anything at all. And for the entirety of her life, she’d lived as a dragonkin.

Thus, she had absolutely no way of knowing.

That a human – which she very much was, despite her current appearance – should not be eating raw pork.

Aether looked at Serenis’ pained expression with a sympathetic gaze. Even Raizel’s expression hadn’t seemed so hurt when her arm was still in its torn, battered state.

“…Would you like to stay a while longer?”

“…”

Serenis bit her lips. Normally, she would’ve declined; normally, her pride as a dragonlord wouldn’t even allow her to consider going back on her word before the kin. Even if that word was a simple declaration of departure.

But that was when she was a dragon, and that was when things were normal. Right now, it was neither.

And if there was one thing humans could sense far better than dragons, it was pain.

“…Please.”

Bruton awkwardly picked up the dragonlord, carrying her back inside for his wife to examine.