My baby daughter is a dragon

It was as though every window faced east, the light of the dragon's flames coming from all directions. Dozens of winged monsters of all sizes and colors hurled their fury and fire at the city of sand and sun. Powerful roars echoed in every direction, as if the storms themselves were conversing. The cold night of Pellegrin was no more. The beautiful starry sky was replaced by a dense cloud of smoke.

Chaos reigned almost immediately after the attack began. The people of Pellegrin had no plan or organization to face such a threat. Some locked themselves inside their stone houses to hide from the flames, others tried to run towards the river. The apprentice soldiers tried to guide the civilians as the warrior Frey had taught them, but the structures offered little protection. There was nowhere to escape.

Queen Clessa, or rather, Caramin, the red prince, was awakened by the light of the first attack when a mischievous child opened the door to her chamber. She awoke startled and felt the presences she had always feared. They were not trying to hide; they were daring her. If they had reached the city, countless of her own dragons must have already been slaughtered. This was not supposed to make her feel sad or angry, perhaps it was the influence of the body she inhabited during the day, but a fury burned within her as if her own fire had turned against her. She decided there was no time to flee like a queen. If she was going to help her two peoples, humans and dragons, she had to act.

She shook herself to stretch her wings and leaped through the stone roof like a fish leaping out of water. She flapped her wings to stay aloft, rising higher and higher despite her colossal size. She roared, calling to all her dragons hidden in human bodies.

In the sky, there were nearly twenty dragons attacking each neighborhood of the vast city. Caramin had twelve hidden among the population, and she hoped that some of those patrolling outside the city would come to her aid. They had to; it had been her absolute order.

High above the city, they were already waiting for her. In an unprecedented event, the Green and Black princes had joined forces to attack. Caramin would say that dragons do not make alliances, but she remembered that she herself had sought the help of humans and the Blue prince. That girl, Eri, was on her side, or something like that. She roared to make herself known.

The ceiling was caving in. The guards had stopped chasing Eri and were now running out of the palace. Where was Koro? She headed quickly towards the entrance to the throne room, ignoring the roars she heard. The words were aggressive and threatening, but Koro came first. That’s what Father had always taught her: the helpless before the enemy.

As she watched from a distance as the guards transformed into dragons, she found her friend safe by the door, crying on the floor, looking at the spot where the queen had recently rested.

“Eri!” As soon as he saw her, Koro clung to her. “Let’s go, I’m so scared. What’s happening?”

Eri was scared too. The roars of so many monsters made her little hands tremble. She wanted her mom and dad to come help, but she knew that at that moment, she was the strongest, and it was her responsibility to get Koro home safely. She clenched her fist, trying to stop the trembling, and put on her best smile, the one that made even Mrs. Mera react.

“Come on, Koro, don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” As she spoke, she helped him to his feet. They looked in the direction they had come from when they heard the sound of hooves on stone, barely audible over the sounds of battle. Peony had come to find them on her own. Confused but grateful, the little ones mounted the small mare to try to find help again. Koro went behind, clinging to the dragon princess’s back. Eri, just in case, slung the sheath of her dagger from her belt. She couldn’t have more problems than she was sure awaited her when she got home.

Peony ran swiftly between the columns until they reached the outside. She continued swiftly along the riverbank. The dragons fought each other in the sky. Many houses were on fire, even though most were made of stone. People were fleeing in all directions like chickens chased by foxes. Suddenly, the noise of the people and the dragons’ wings was drowned out by an explosion. The first dragon had fallen.

“Eri, what’s happening? This is a nightmare.” Koro had always been the brave one, the one who faced the older kids, the one who pushed her into adventure. Eri still remembered when they snuck into the palace dungeons to see which lord was the ugliest. Koro always stepped forward to yell at those who said mean things to her. Her heart ached to see him cry.

“Everything is fine, Koro, everything is fine.” She didn’t know if she believed it, but every time she said it, he hugged her tighter. His voice sounded like he wasn’t crying anymore.

In a few minutes, they found themselves face to face with a rider in a red cloak. Eri and Peony were reunited with their mothers. Eri’s mom sounded more worried than angry, which was saying a lot.

“Eri!” she shouted from Moonlight. “What do you think you’re doing? We have to get your friend to safety. We need your help with the city.” Mom always tried to keep Eri from going into battle. Apparently, this was going to be a very special occasion.

Something on Peony’s forehead began to glow.

Meraxes could only watch the disaster unfold without intervening. She alone could defeat several smaller dragons at once, but her oath, inscribed on her ankle, trapped her in this fragile body until her mistress gave her permission. Where had she gone? The young lady was becoming more and more disobedient every day, but that filled the dragon mistress with pride, however inconvenient it might be. A dragon should never submit to the weaker, as humans did with their absurd rules and laws.

She had gotten out of bed to look for Eri as soon as she saw the first flame. The complex had gardens full of palm trees and fruit trees that were now fodder for the flames. She felt ashamed to fear fire as she ran through the courtyards and corridors, shouting the pure name that her mistress claimed as her own, although her real name in the human language would be something like “Sky.” She wondered if the king or that old dragon who had cared for her for five years had named her. Meraxes was like that, in moments of greatest danger, her young lady and her safety were the only things on her mind. Her hands were already burned and the nightgown she was wearing was reduced to rags, yet she didn't think of herself even once.

But that wasn't entirely true. As she left the complex towards the river, she remembered all those centuries in which nothing had been more important to her than her own existence, not even in the twenty years she spent as a human had she felt this way. It was because of Eri, there was no doubt. She had to find her before the princes did. Caramin had confided in them about the nature of their powers; the black one could use his voice to inflict intense pain, while the green one could see the ether, the hidden bodies of dragons, and the spirits of the dead. She couldn't escape or hide with both of them present.

As she passed under the lintel of the exit, the body of a green dragon, small compared to her, exploded in the air. The force of the explosion knocked down the arch of the door, sending debris flying in all directions. Meraxes had no way to avoid the rain of stones and fell to the ground when a large number of them fell on top of her, trapping her legs almost to her waist. The pain was unbearable. She could feel the warm wetness of her human blood under her knees. She looked around for help, but all she could see was how lucky she had been.

She screamed with all her might, until she heard a voice, distant, familiar. Wherever she was, her mistress was calling to her, pronouncing the words in a dragon's voice and not a human's. They reached her, restoring the vain smile she shared with her former mistress Caramin on her face, as she uttered a final cry.

“I swear it!”

There was no time to count.

Every dragonslayer on the continent knew exactly how many beasts they had slain. It was a part of them, like their age or nationality. It was better than a rank or title. Frey knew that regular soldiers in wars could spend a lifetime killing hundreds of men, but a dragonslayer was lucky if they managed to kill even one. An inexperienced person would talk to the members of the order and believe that each dragonslayer killed two or three, not realizing that those were the lucky ones, the legends, the ones who were still alive. And among them, Freydelhart was in a category of his own.

Atop his pegasus, Jumper, he wielded his enormous enchanted steel greatsword, severing the wings of every dragon he managed to reach. He made deep cuts in the bellies or backs of others to let their fire escape. He was an expert in his art, the hero, nothing less, and that night he might finally lose count of his own exploits. It didn't matter, the situation was desperate, there were thousands of people in danger, and despite everything, he tried to count.

He tried not to intervene if two dragons were fighting each other. It was impossible for him to distinguish friend from foe until one tried to shoot flames at him or ram him with its wings. It was pointless, for the smaller dragons, Freydelhart and Jumper, were as unattainable as the dragon king himself. At least until now.

Frey heard a familiar roar, and soon after he could see the enormous black dragon taking flight from what was left of the complex that housed his family, reduced to rubble by the constant attacks and the explosion of a dragon that had fallen at the hands of one of the princes. Meraxes flew among the others as if she didn't notice his presence, looking all around, no doubt searching for Eri.

Frey flew alongside her, and together they made their way to where the three princes were fighting each other. Caramin was the oldest of the three, he was even bigger than the white prince had been. The black prince looked like a blot that erased the stars, his dark scales and graceful movements hid him in the night sky despite his size. The green prince flew heavily and slowly, shooting giant flames in all directions. Other dragons tried to approach, but none made a difference in the combat, they ended up overwhelmed by the wind of the wings or hit by the fire of those who were clearly the elite of the dragons.

Frey, Meraxes, and Caramin would face the greatest threat to the world, after the dragon king.

Runa was having trouble keeping up with Eri. Peony, her little mare, was in fact the unicorn the little girl had always known she was. If it was true, the importance of the dragon princess in the world was even greater than everyone had assumed. The Goddess of Peace hadn't sent her emissary to the world in thousands of years, and now that emissary was running with two small children on her back, illuminating the path with the light of her horn.

Wherever they went, people gathered to see the light, as if the fear of dragons ceased to matter. The aura they emitted was healing the wounded, but it wasn't enough. Eri had to blow her blue fire on many of them to remove the curse of the wounds inflicted by dragon claws or horns. That was the true nature of her power; she could close even cursed wounds that elven spells found so difficult. As she rode behind her daughter, Runa wondered what would have become of Pellegrin if the attack had occurred in her absence. She felt at once the proudest mother in the world and the most worried. The enemy dragons were beginning to notice them. Those in the service of Queen Clessa were protecting them, but it would only take an opportunist to corner them. Runa was running out of magical power from using her shields on Eri and Koro.

Suddenly, the little mare stopped and turned around slowly. Eri seemed to nod.

“Mommy,” she said in a nervous but unwavering voice, “please take Koro to a safe place. Peony says we're done healing people, that now we have to fight.”

“Eri,” she replied, “you mustn't endanger yourself. I'll take you both to the palace bridge, you should be safe there. I'll go find Master Genwill to help the soldiers fight.”

“I…” The little girl's face turned to look at the unicorn she was riding, “Peony says I have to do it, that Daddy is in trouble. And something strange about destiny that I don't understand, but…”

Runa was about to retort, but instead, she took Koro in her arms and passed him to her own mount. The boy was trembling, he was too scared to even get excited about discovering a unicorn.

A moment later, the vision of her little girl, who was a few months away from turning seven, shining, was simply the beginning. Eri seemed to reach into her chest and pull out what looked like the shaft of a spear, silver and gleaming. Then, she detached the horn from her mare's head and formed a beautiful silver spear with both objects. Without saying anything more, Peony galloped and ran towards the sky as if an invisible path formed in front of her. Eri spread her wings, but it was evident that it wasn't that what lifted them.

The mother of the most amazing being in the world stood there, with the little one in her arms, watching helplessly as her little girl marched to the rescue of an entire city.