Wyvern were little smarter than dogs, but when it came to a drake, they could be as intelligent as a human. This one had felt the death throes of the dragon, but rather than run to the dragon-like the rest to testing their luck, he had asked himself why the dragon would be dying now. It ultimately concluded that the dragon must be using its death as a distraction. Rather than bet its life on a battle where the rewards were unknown, it decided to wait at the most obvious exit for a nonflier on the pteau, hoping to catch whatever prey was worth the dragon’s life, only hoping it was worth it.

  Regretfully, this drake just happened to be right, and we found ourselves facing an enemy that we were ill-prepared to fight. A small army of twenty soldiers might have had a chance of defeating the drake as long as half of them gave their lives, but for the three of us, fighting was nearly impossible. Even the dragon was only the size of a wyvern. The drake towered over him like a cat looking down at a mouse.

  “You don’t want to do this,” I found myself saying the cliché line that even I would look down on.

  The drake’s eyes snapped to me, tilting its head.

  “I don’t?” Its voice held scorn. “Why?”

  “I’m the future king of a country.” I decided since I was willing to talk, my best choice was to try to stretch the time and hope for an opportunity. “I can make you extremely wealthy.”

  As I spoke, the dragon had lowered his head and was reeling back like a frightened kitten. The girls were holding him, trying to calm him down and keep him from shing out. The drake only seemed amused, as if it had the entire situation in its hand at that moment.

  “What do you know of wealth, devil?” It asked. “You live in those bsted nds to the south.”

  “No! I’m the human prince. I may look like a devil, but I actually will be king of the human realm shortly.”

  The drake gave me a sidelong look. “How could I care about any wealth you offered compared to the wealth right before me.”

  It turned back to the dragon, its eyes taking on a hungry look to them. The dragon took another step back, baring its fangs, but it still looked like a puppy compared to the creature before it.

  “Is that how narrow-minded drakes are?” I spoke somewhat despondently. “And I thought your species was intelligent.”

  The drake whipped back to me, a tinge of anger filling its expression. “What did you say, Devil? Don’t forget, I’m the one who figured out the dragon’s pn!”

  “True… it was clever of you to reach this far,” I spoke, scratching my chin thoughtfully. “However, at the end of it, what reward do you wish to obtain? Eating a baby dragon? How many benefits can that truly gain you?”

  “The mana within that dragon will strengthen me!” The drake responded defensively. “I will become stronger than the other drakes, being able to rule them all! I will be king of this pteau!”

  “Is that what you think?” I asked incredulously. “How many other drakes are going to be tasting dragon meat tonight. That ancient dragon has far more magic than this little one. You have indeed avoided taking a risk, but even some wyvern will taste more meat than you.”

  “Hehehe… nice try.” The drake showed its teeth in what looked to me like a grin. “This is a baby dragon. It’s the entirety of the dragon. Its value cannot be determined in pure weight! I will have every organ and every part! That will assuredly be superior to anything that the others find.”

  “Assuredly… hmm…” I looked away, appearing unconvinced.

  It narrowed its eyes. “What are you implying?”

  “Every part of a dragon is a treasure,” I responded. “Yet, most of those parts are undeveloped. You’d just be wasting the chicken to get the egg. It makes no sense to me.”

  It was clear my talk was making the dragon uncomfortable as it was shifting its feet, looking like it was on the verge of fleeing. Thankfully, Mother trusted in me and used her charms to keep it settled.

  “What are you suggesting?” The drake asked hesitantly.

  “While it's true, the parts of a dragon are priceless and useful, few drakes could truly take advantage of most of these parts. That’s why you’d presume to eat it all.” I expined, noticing the drake was listening to me curiously before taking a breath. “Possibly the most powerful aspect of a dragon is its domination. In a mere 100 years, this dragon could easily rule of all of the pteau.”

  “This is all the more reason why it must die. As long as it is allowed to live, it is a danger to all drakes.”

  “Do you think if this dragon lives and survives, it will become a danger to me…” I looked at my Mother, whose breasts were being nestled by the dragon. “To her?”

  My voice almost broke there. He was on the verge of being eaten, and he still took the moment to perve on my Mother! I cleared my throat.

  “Of course not… you are assisting the dragon in its survival.”

  I lifted my hand. “Exactly! We are the ones who fought to protect the dragon! Do you hear those screams in the distance? That is every drake and wyvern who has chosen to make an enemy of a dragon. Many will die, and the few that live may experience some small gains. They may become the most powerful drake in their area, but there will be many drakes. If two drakes ever decide to work together, they would be able to pull down a third drake.”

  “Work together with another drake? Only mates would ever do such a thing!”

  “So, it can happen,” I suggested. “Even the most powerful drake could be taken down by a couple looking for a better nesting spot.”

  The drake shook its head, clearly displeased by what it heard. “Hurry up and make your point! I’m growing tired of this.”

  “If you attack us, we will fight back. At best, you eat the dragon. Maybe, you get a little stronger. In the fight, maybe we wound you, maybe you get out scot-free. Your awareness will be minuscule! However, if you step aside, this little dragon will remember it. When he becomes king of this pteau, who do you think will be his number one? With the backing of an immortal dragon, you would be the undisputed champion of the pteau. You may not be the greatest creature alive, but you will be the greatest drake.”

  “You expect me to believe such a thing?” It demanded with a roar.

  “Why would we deceive you?” I shot back. “You’ve done nothing to us at the moment but stop us and talk. It’s the choices you make that decide the future. You have the opportunity now to be smart. You can bet on this dragon, and obtain untold glory in the future… or you can get meager awards that will ultimately change nothing. What will you choose?”

  “Choose… hmmm…” The drake seemed to be taking my words seriously.

  I had mostly been speaking randomly as I tried to think of a way out. I was able to come up with a competent argument, but whether it was able to convince the drake or not would depend entirely on it. I didn’t like to leave anything up to chance, let alone the actions of a giant lizard.

  “Lucille, now!”

  “Ah… y-yes!”

  She lifted her palm, and at that moment a lightning bolt struck down on the drake. I had signaled to her to prepare the spell and using the dragon to shield her actions, she appeared at that moment to unch a surprise attack. I wasn’t worried about the mana being detected by other drakes. There was already a drake there, and the mana in the area was still messed up thanks to the dragon’s dying at the battle behind us.

  I leaped forward, pulling the bde Masamune from my back. I quickly ran the bde across my arm, cutting it and spilling my blood across the bde. I had heard that Masamune could influence those that it cut. The more powerful the mind, the less effect the bde would have. On the dragon it was useless, but perhaps the bde would work on the drake. If I added the strength of my blood, maybe there was a chance I could influence it greater.

  I leaped forward and then brought my bde down in the underbelly of the drake. It wasn’t a killing move. My only desire was to draw blood. The lightning should stun it for a few moments, and with that time I would cut. That was the intention, but the drake twisted and my bde only scraped along with its scales. A moment ter, the back of a hand swatted me and I felt myself flying back.

  “Raaawwr!” The dragon had used the distraction to run to the back of the drake and then jump on him, Mother no longer able to hold it back.

  The drake let out a howl of fury. I turned to Lucille with a bit of panic. “Again!”

  “Ahhhh!” Lucille open her arms and let out a cry like she was in pain.

  She must have put everything into her first strike, and now she was trying at another that she wasn’t ready to perform. I realized my only chance was to attack while she attacked. We’d have to simultaneously strike the drake. I raced forward as mana built behind me, using my will to increase my speed. While this was happening, the drake had reached behind itself and grabbed the little dragon, throwing him to where he smmed into the ground a distance away.

  Another lightning bolt struck the drake, and I reached my target. The drake swung its tail, knocking Lucille away savagely, and when it reached out and grabbed me with its cwed hand. With all of my might, I stabbed the bde into its hand, just managing to give it a slight cut. It ignored the cut, lifting me into the air.

  “Foolish devil! I won’t be maniputed by your tricks!” It growled.

  “Wait! Just listen… listen to me!” I shouted as it lifted me in the air, looking like it was about to throw me into its mouth.

  I gripped the sword. If I stabbed the sword into its throat before it could bite down, I might still have a chance. It opened its mouth, and I prepared myself. Mother had run to the dragon, while Lucille was on the ground, unable to get up.

  “Time to die.” It howled.

  Just as I began to slide out of its hands with its open mouth directly under me, it suddenly closed its mouth and looked at me in horror. I could feel the hair on my arms rise and suddenly a beam of light shot down from the sky in front of me. I closed my eyes as the intense light shot down upon the drake. Perhaps the strangest thing was how silent it was. I could feel the mana radiating from it, but a moment ter I was falling.

  I struck the ground still in the cws of the drake. When the light faded and I was finally able to open my eyes again, I found myself wrapped in the cws of a disembodied hand. The drake itself was nowhere in sight. Rather, there was a pile of bckened ash in front of me, and that was the only thing that remained of the drake we had desperately been fighting.

  I hurriedly shoved open the cws of the drake no longer attacked to any muscles and then stumbled out onto the broken dead earth of the pteau. The pilr of light was gone, but overhead was a hole in the clouds as if God himself had sent down a strike to protect me. Did the dragon realize we were in trouble and send a strike from such a distance? Maybe it had been that useless God. Had he thrown me assistance realizing I was about to die?

  The most reasonable answer was that Lucille had done it, but when I looked at her, she was staring off into the distance. Her expression slowly turned from exhaustion to horror. While the drake had appeared, she had been afraid, but retively calm. To see her become so completely panicked, caused my spine to tingle. I followed her eyesight to the source of the problem, and that’s when I saw something at the edge of the pteau. The sun was starting to set, and it made it difficult to see anything but the silhouette. It was some kind of winged creature with a humanoid form. It had long butterfly-like wings that fpped slowly, keeping it about thirty meters in the air.

  I suddenly started to get an ominous feeling, and I immediately suspected that the true source of that pilr of light had been this creature.

  “What is it?” I asked, taking a step back.

  “Sh-she’s come…” Lucille whispered, her body shaking.

  The creature moved suddenly, nding on the ground with an audible thud, then it began to move forward. It remained just off the ground, floating toward us like some kind of ghost. I raised my bde, feeling some kind of intense pressure from it. I had the feeling that its eyes were on me, and if I had felt like food under the eyes of the drake, it was many times worse with this being.

  Lucille seemed to snap out of it, forcing herself up to her feet. She began to limp almost desperately. She got in front of me and began moving toward the creature with her hands up.

  “Stop! You need to stop!” Lucille decred. “You can’t come any closer!”

  Lucille activated some kind of magic, creating a magical barrier in front of her. It glowed with golden light. The thing reached the light and then waved, causing it to shatter. Lucille grunted like she had taken a blow. As my eyes adjusted and it grew nearer, I began to see the silhouette of a woman. She had a beautiful figure, slim and long. She wore all white, and her face was covered in a veil that only showed her eyes.

  “Please… turn back…” Lucille spoke almost like all hope had been lost. “Mother…”

  The woman casually waved with the back of her hand, and Lucille went flying to the side, rolling several times. I couldn’t help but lift my bde and take a step back. This action seemed to be noticed by the woman. She cocked her head, her eyes staring at me with an intensity that felt deadly. Then she suddenly leaped forward. Her cwed hand reached out for me. She seemed to be aiming for my throat. Her speed was fast, and I had to admit I froze.

  “No!” Just before she reached me, someone leaped in front of her.

  Her hand ended up closing around Mother’s neck instead. She stopped, grabbing Mother and then lifting her by the neck in the air. A gnce to the side saw the dragon had its head lowered submissively, completely in fear. He hadn’t hesitated to leap on the back of a drake, but he was afraid of this woman.

  “You… have failed!” A voice came out from her form.

  The voice was my mother's, but the tones and inflections were so different that there was no confusing them. Mother’s voice was calm and gentle, like spring. This woman’s voice was like a violin string wound so tightly it was about to snap.

  “Please… mistress…” Mother just managed to get out through a croaky voice as her face turned red.

  Speaking seemed to only anger the other woman more. Realizing that I had no choice, I did the only thing I could. I attacked the woman with my bde, swinging a wide arc to avoid killing her. She didn’t block the attack at all. Where my bde should have hit, her body shimmered and the bde passed through as if it was cutting through the air. The attack threw me off bance, causing me to stumble.

  “You!” The woman’s eyes locked on me.

  “Don’t harm her!” I snarled, turning to face her defiantly.

  She stared at me for another moment, the expression on her face revealing nothing. For the first time, I was able to get a good look at her. She did look like my mother, except where my mother had a human body, hers didn’t appear human. Her ears were longer and came to points, and she had wings on her back. I knew their species were called fairies, but I had yet to see any wings. Were they something only certain fairies possessed, or did they hide them?

  Her body was very slim, her chest small, her legs long. Was the mother given rge breasts to function in producing milk? I didn’t know. She was every bit as beautiful but in a terrifying way.

  “I gave this thing as a toy for a boy.” Her voice came out shaky as if she was holding back intense emotions. “It is time for you to become a man.”

  “You don’t have the right!”

  “I have every right!” Her wings spread out as she pulled Mother into her grasp. “I am your mother!”

  I lunged at her again, but she suddenly erupted into the air. Mother was still in her grasp as she flew up, violent wing beats threw dust into the air. The pressure threw me back to the ground. As I stared up, the faery queen flew off with my Mother in her arms. She moved impossibly fast, and by the time I was back to my feet, she was a distant speck in the horizon.

  My mother… had stolen my mother!

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