Chapter 4 - 3: You Don’t Want Your Mother to Find Out, Do You?
David then remembered the terrifying habits of Red Dragons.
More precisely, for the long-lived Chromatic Dragons, breeding offspring was a losing proposition. Blue Dragons were an exception; due to their gregarious nature and communal rearing, they gained considerable returns. However, other Chromatic Dragons generally lacked any instinct to nurture their young.
Even with the binding oath to Tiamat, the Mother of Evil Dragons, most Evil Dragons would only raise their hatchlings to adolescence before finding an excuse to drive them from the nest. The entire process was markedly perfunctory. As long as the hatchling’s vital signs remained stable, that was considered sufficient.
This forced many hatchlings to learn to fend for themselves from a young age, often risking their lives to do so. Some Evil Dragons, when truly desperate from starvation, would even resort to eating dirt.
This was why the mortality rate of Chromatic Dragons was ridiculously high. However, those who managed to survive to maturity were, without exception, infamous tyrants who dominated their territories.
These were still the more disciplined adult and ancient dragons who had learned some measure of restraint. Younger mother dragons who casually abandoned their eggs under any pretext were far more common.
In such a situation... what? The Dragon Eggs were stolen? Is there such a stroke of luck?!
That was the genuine reaction of most Chromatic Dragons.
It was similar to how cats become confused by kittens bearing an unfamiliar scent. But unlike cats, which, limited by their intelligence, rely primarily on scent to identify their own offspring, for Evil Dragons, the thought process was different. Heh, you’ve already left my nest. Who knows if you’ve been swapped out? What if you’re a spy sent by the Metal Dragons? Even if our sovereign Tiamat herself were here, how could you prove you’re my offspring, hmm? And since you’re not my offspring, why should I continue to fulfill the obligation of raising you?
It was precisely because of this appalling habit of Evil Dragons that generations of Dragon Egg thieves had passed down a valuable lesson learned through blood and tears: Steal all the Dragon Eggs you want, but never touch the treasure!
That was a challenge reserved only for Dragon Slayers. It was rumored that some particularly paranoid and idle mother dragons would even place traceable arcane sigils on every single Gold Coin in their hoard. Anyone daring to steal a dragon’s treasure should be prepared to be hunted for centuries.