The mountain inhabitant
We eventually arrive at the foot of the mountain. Comparatively it seems to be on the small side and there seems to be a well traveled path leading up to it.
Rayla stops the wagon, “Alright everyone, before we continue I just wanted to say that no matter what happens at the top of this mountain you oki will always be my little brother and you Sher Aka and John I will always consider the best friends I ever had.”
John, slightly embarrassed, scratches the back of his head, “Don’t be so melodramatic. Even if Thoma Ahad wants to stay here that won’t mean we’ll leave ya’ll. This is a nice town, I’m sure we can stay here for a few years if you decide to stay.”
Sher Aka adds, “This is a very big country, even if we have to leave for some quests from time to time that won’t mean we would leave you forever.”
Rayla wipes away a tear before continuing, “Thank you everyone. Uhum, John please tell us the prophecy again so we can make sure we do everything right.”
“Alright, so…We have the meat so we need to travel to the top of the mountain with peaceful intentions and offer the meat to the ‘inhabitant’ of that place. After that Thoma Ahad’s wish will come true.”
Ane asks, “Sher Aka how would you interpret this?”
“Hmm, I’d say we should probably go to the top of the mountain without our weapons at the ready and no matter what the ‘inhabitant’ is like be cordial and offer the meat.”
“Alright…Let’s do that then. Let’s put our weapons in the wagon for now and no matter what we find, be cordial.”
Sher Aka adds, “I’ll take the reins then, you stay with Thoma Ahad.”
Sher Aka and John then go on the coach seat while Rayla and I cuddle in the wagon. About three hours later, Sher Aka yells back to us, “We’re about to reach the top!”
Both Rayla and I look outside as we round the last bend and laying in the middle of molten snow we see a crimson red dragon the size of a very large horse. It has a black and red cloth wrapped around one of its legs and its wings look hurt.
Rayla suddenly gets giddy, “No way! It’s an actual Dragon!” before looking at me concerned and saying, “Wait, why is it a Dragon? Sher Aka stop the wagon!”
“Allright!”
We stop about fifty meters away from the Dragon as it slowly raises its head, stares us down with fiery red eyes and bellows in a deep, monstrous yet feminine voice, “Leave! This is my domain!”
Rayla then jumps out of the wagon and yells, “We come in peace! We brought you loads of meat!”
It narrows its eyes, “You brought me meat?”
“Yep! Eight whole pigs!”
It raises an eyebrow and says, “Fine, you may present your offering. My sense of smell is impeccable. If I find any poison in it, I will burn you all to a crisp.”
“Okay everyone, let’s form groups of two to carry these over, John and Sher Aka you start with this pig and we’ll get this one.”
Looking a bit panicked, he whispers under his breath, “Are you sure about this Rayla? That’s a fucking Dragon.”
“Yeah, as long as we stay cordial we should be fine. They may look like this but they are people, they can even shape shift into more human forms.”
“Yeah but aren’t some Dragons classified as monsters?”
“Yes, but only if they start to try conquering places. This one doesn’t seem like it's doing that." Proudly putting her hands on her hips, she adds, "Trust me I’m kind of a Dragon nerd.”
“Alright…If you say so.”
Sher Aka and John then bring out the first pig and the Dragon somewhat cautiously approaches it and sniffs it before taking a huge chunk out of it in one bite, “You don’t need to wait for me to finish, continue unloading.”
Rayla and I take that as our queue and carry over the next pig and place it right next to the other pig.
The Dragon sniffs it, “This seems fine as w-sniff.”
Seemingly sniffing very much, it moves its face over to us and sniffs me as well. Its pupils then narrow and I feel a sudden pull as the Dragon wraps its tail around me and quickly drags me away behind it. It then positions itself in an intimidating way and its neck starts to glow as if it's about to breathe fire, “Are you slavers!?”
Rayla, John and Sher Aka put their hands up and Sher Aka answers, “We are not. Look at us, we’re an Elf, a Half-Elf and a Beastfolk. We’d become slaves ourselves if we tried to get into that market.”
“Hmm…Then why is she with you?”
Sher Aka points at Rayla, “Do you mean Rayla? She is my friend.”
“No, not the fox. Her!”
It then pulls me forward again, its tail still wrapped tightly around me.
Rayla looks confused and then asks, “Do you mean Thoma? He’s my little brother, if you’re concerned about his smell that’s because there is a curse on him.”
“Hmm…I do smell both dark magic and fox all over her so I don’t think you’re lying but she’s not your brother. She smells just like my mother so she has to be my sister!”
Highly concerned, Rayla asks, “Did you…Did you have a sister that went missing?”
“No but I did have a younger sibling that was stolen while still in the egg. We were told they were killed before they could hatch but I see that we’ve been lied to.”
I then say, “Uhm, excuse me, can I say something too?”
The Dragon nods, “Of course sister.”
“I don’t think I am who you think I am. I only smell like this because Ifrit gave me a gift.”
The dragon cogs its head, its pupils narrowing while looking at me, “You met Ifrit?”
“Yes, a few weeks ago. I made a wish that I wanted to have a family that loves me and a place to come home to. She was also the one that told us to come here.”
“Hmm…I see. So the Spirit King herself made you my sister? That’s fine with me too.”
“Huh?”
Rayla visibly gets a bit annoyed, “Can you let my brother go now?”
“She’s not your brother.”
“Excuse me!? Bitch, that is my brother! I’m not asking anymore, let him go.”
John stares at Rayla wide eyed, “Are you fucking crazy Rayla? What happened to staying cordial!?”
The dragon narrows its eyes and walks up right in front of Rayla, “Do you think you can take me?”
“No but I can make you regret your life choices up to this point. Let him go.”
The dragon gives a toothy smile, “Well, at least you seem like you really care about her. Fine, I trust you.” The dragon lets go of me and asks me, “Do you see her as your sister?”
“Yeah, she’s my family.”
The dragon then looks at Rayla again before relaxing and laying back on the ground, “Fine, I accept that you’re also her sister.”
“Stop referring to him as ‘her’ he is obviously a guy, also I don’t think he’s a dragon, at least not fully.”
“Of course she is, foxes have good noses, don’t we smell almost the same?”
Rayla then gets close to the dragon and sniffs her, “It’s...Almost identical…”
“Told ya.”
“But even so! I have seen his junk, he is certainly male.”
“Why would it matter what genitals she has in her polymorphed form?”
“What?”
“We can freely change our sex in our polymorphed form, it ultimately doesn’t matter, see?”
The dragon then starts to shrink and turn into what looks like a fourteen to fifteen year old girl with crimson red hair, a pair of tethered wings, sharp teeth and the same red eyes as me, just slightly more human looking. She’s wearing what looks like a very elegant red and black dress, “This is my normal polymorphed form,” She then changes again and her body morphs to what looks like a teenage boy with the same features, wearing a red and black suit, “And this is what I look like as a guy”. She transforms back into a girl and says, “But I do very much prefer this form”.
Putting up her hands with an annoyed tone, ane answers, “Okay, fine, you might be able to change your sex while polymorphed but Thoma still identifies as a guy and we don’t know if he even is a full dragon or a dragon at all.”
“We can easily find out. She smells like a young dragon so this should almost always work. You see there is this spot between the shoulder blades where the roots of our wings are, if you press there all dragons under two hundred years instinctively return to their draconic form. Here I’ll show you.”
She then presses down on my back and before I can protest I’m lying on the ground unable to see anything. It feels like I’m lying with my belly down in a pile of blankets.
I can then hear Rayla’s voice scream, “What the hell did you do to him!? Where is he!?”
I feel a giant warm hand around me picking me up, “She’s right here. See? You poor thing…You’re not even a whelp you’re still a hatchling…That damn curse almost looks like an infection. They even took your wings…Don’t worry your sister is here now.”
I then feel something warm and wet caress my body, it feels weird but also kind of nice.
“I-Is that lizard Thoma!? If so, stop licking him!”
“I’m just cleaning her. Feel free to come closer, it’s your first time taking a good look at her after all.”
I can feel myself being picked up by someone, they smell like Rayla, “Thoma? Is that you? Are you in there?”
I try to say yes but only a quiet high pitched squeak leaves my mouth.
Sher Aka’s voice responds, “Thoma Ahad, we can’t understand you like that. Can you please just nod or shake your head if we ask you something?”
I nod my hand.
“It looks like he understands us.”
Johns voice says, “This is fucking insane. Thoma Ahad do you feel uncomfortable?”
I shake my head.
“Can you open your eyes?”
I shake my head again and shortly after hear the dragon girl’s voice, “She’s just a hatchling, we’re all blind the first twenty years or so after hatching.”
Rayla says, “Thoma, I’m just gonna check something real quick.” I then feel myself being turned on my back. “There is nothing…Oki, I’m so sorry to say but… It looks like you really did lose your Johnson…”
I then feel myself being picked up again by warm hands, “Don’t be a pervert. Even if she was a boy there wouldn’t be anything there. We don’t develop external genitalia until puberty.”
“Don’t just snatch him away from me!”
I feel myself being picked up again by Rayla.
“She’s my sister so of course I’ll hold her!”
I then hear a slap as a different set of hands picks me up, they smell like John.
“That’s enough! Both of you! Thoma Ahad isn’t a toy to fight over! He’s probably confused and frightened right now and you bicker over who gets to hold him! You should both be ashamed.”
I feel him carefully pet me with the back of his hand, “How long is he going to stay like this? How does he turn back?”
The dragon girl answers, “Since she seems more used to the polymorphed form she will most likely return to it during her sleep.”
Sher Aka says, “We should probably go back to town then. If we go now, we’ll make it before nightfall.
The dragon girl interjects, “I can’t go down there until my wings are healed and I won’t let her go without me.”
“How long will it take for your wings to heal?”
“About another week. They were shot through by a ballista when I was on my way back home from visiting my uncle. Those idiots probably thought I was a wyvern.”
Sher Aka sighs, “Fine, so what will you do after that week?”
“I’ll fly her home of course.”
Rayla yells, “Are you crazy? That’s kidnapping!”
“Kidnapping? If anything you guys are the kidnappers!”
Sher Aka firmly, with a slightly raised voice, interrupts them, “I’m certain this is not what Thoma Ahad would want. You can ask him personally when he turns back. Look, our goal is to travel to the south anyways. We will have to go through Blaze when we do so. If you want to stay with him you can join us but we can’t let you just fly off with him. We’re adventurers and Thoma Ahad very much likes his job and traveling with us.”
The dragon girl then comes close to me and asks, “Is that true?”
I nod.
“Gaaah…Fine, I’ll walk with you then. But only after my wings are healed! Also if it ever looks like she is going to be in mortal danger then I’ll fly off with her no matter what you say.”
“Fine.”
John asks, “So we’re accepting her into our group now? We don’t even know her name…”
“My name is Scarlet.”
“Alright… My name is John, this is Sher Aka, the fox lady is Rayla and this is Thoma Ahad. Now that introductions are out of the way, do you know how to fight? We’re going to have to fight a lot for our job, can you do that?”
“Are you insulting me? Of course I can. I’m a dragon, I’m probably stronger than all of you, I can also breathe fire and I know some basic martial arts.”
“Good, we’ll sign you up for our group when we get the chance. We’ll stay here until your wings are healed then go down and take a fucking vacation we desperately need. Afterwards we go back on the road, any objections? No? Didn’t think so. Come on Thoma Ahad, let's get you warm. I'll get you a blanket from the wagon.”