Some time later.
“…And Enid had to get involved in all this too,” Simlas shook his head as he walked with me down one of the palace corridors.
“We…
Didn’t keep an eye on her.
We didn’t keep an eye on everything,” I twitched my cheek in slight irritation, feeling some guilt for what had happened.
After all, I considered myself a good friend of hers, if not a friend.
I got too carried away with magic during these two years, and spent too much time with the golden dragoness, not the elf…
And after that, some random guys manage to collect harems and give everyone their attention?
Ha!
In short…
The elf Elder’s daughter simply got bored again, since she had already studied the magical material we were learning long ago…
And as a teacher, her father was much, much better.
So Enid quickly succumbed to the very persuasive speeches of her old friend, Aelirenn, who was quite an aggressive supporter of armed confrontation with humans.
Frankly, there were indeed a whole host of reasons why the local elves might dislike humans, but…
The calls of this Aelirenn, who had already been dubbed the White Rose of Shaerrawedd…
Or simply the White Rose, were too radical.
And what was the result?
Francesca, aka Enid, turned out to be dissatisfied that regarding the conflict with humans, I took her father’s side, not hers and her nationalist friend’s.
“Hmm.
There she goes again,” the fair-haired elf stopped, clearly hearing loud words at the main entrance to the palace, and walked towards one of its balconies, which overlooked this main entrance.
Without thinking long, I followed.
Only to soon see a crowd of elves, in front of whom, on a raised platform, stood and spoke an elven girl.
“Enough truces…” the very White Rose was practically shouting, gesturing emotionally and attracting attention in every way.
“Enough bowing our heads!
This is our land, our cities.
We need to take them back, and push the humans back to where they came from, into the sea!”
The deafening roar of the youth testified better than any words to the support for such radicalism among the younger generations of elves — and also among those who had the most chance of continuing their lineage.
After all, the older an elf gets, the less chance they have of having children…
And therefore the current situation was a monstrous problem, and it was developing much faster than was customary among a long-lived people.
Faster than the old Elders, who remembered a completely different pace of life, could comprehend.
“Fools,” aep Dabair commented briefly on what was happening.
“It’s not for me to say, after all, I’m also quite young, but…” I shrugged, hiding my hands behind my back.
“They are young and hot-headed.
They see your caution as cowardice.”
“Then they are doubly fools,” the Knowing One said coldly, placing his hand on the balcony balustrade.
“If even such a young representative of another race, who has been here only two years, understands this, while they…
Born and raised here — do not, then it is stupidity and nothing more.
We should have been stricter with them, yes, stricter…”
“Enid probably wouldn’t have listened to you anyway…
And I frankly doubt it on my own account,” I snorted in irritation as the White Rose cast a triumphant glance towards our little balcony.
“I allowed her too much because of the mother she lost in childhood.
Too much,” Simlas clenched his hand into a fist with effort, reminding me more and more of the movie Thranduil.
He was also a very good man, who was simply unlucky with an idealistic child.
“Nevertheless, all is not lost,” I noted, glaring at Francesca down below with frank disappointment.
Yes, my elven acquaintance now constantly trailed after our radical, involuntarily convincing the people, due to her origin, that the Elders supported them in some way.
And catching a slightly interested look from the platinum blonde, I continued: “You are a carrier of the Elder Blood.”
“So?
My gift is too weak.
My genetic line is lost — Enid did not inherit it.
I cannot defeat the humans, only embitter them further,” aep Dabair shook his head in resignation.
“You don’t need victory,” I replied to him with a slight grin, shaking my head in a mirroring gesture.
“You need defeat.
You predicted that you would lose.
And you are right.
You must be right.
This will force the young to listen to you in the future.
The main thing is that there is someone to listen.”
“Defeat…
But salvation,” the Knowing One drawled thoughtfully, quickly grasping my idea.
“To teach the youth a lesson, but save them.
That…
Could work.
But I cannot manage it alone.” The pale blue eyes of the Elder of the Aen Seidhe stared at me with a silent question.
“Well, among dragons there is a saying that the initiator himself suffers from his own initiative…” I chuckled cheerfully, cracking my slightly stiff neck.
“Neither I nor Nimue will fight directly.
We have no need for that, you understand yourselves.
However, our flame and our magic can cover the retreat of the survivors after the inevitable defeat.
Those who manage to escape will become wiser, and your people will have a chance to survive in at least some decent form.”
“Defeat…
Yes. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
My predictions do not lie,” the white-haired man slowly closed his eyelids.
“It seems we will still have to limit our freedom.
Build walls and fortresses…
For the first time,” the elf exhaled barely perceptibly.
“But everything happens for the first time.
Dragons learn from an elf for the first time, and elves will learn from humans to build walls and defenses…
Ha.”
“Time is not static.
First we ruled.
Then those races that came before the elves.
Then you, then humans…
And then an even stronger race will come to replace humans,” I shrugged, and although the hint that humans were stronger than elves didn’t please Simlas, he was too smart and experienced to outright deny it.
“There were no students from the dragon clan in my predictions,” aep Dabair said sedately, turning and heading away from the balcony.
“The lines of time are changing, and although the fact of defeat in my visions is immutable, it is within our power to mitigate its consequences.
I hope my knowledge is sufficient payment for you to help save the young fools, golden dragon.”
“I don’t throw away potential allies.
And your daughter, for what it’s worth, is my friend, through whom I got to know the wider world…” I replied with a shrug, moving after him.
“The main thing is that the elves remember who helped them in their hour of need…”
* * *
Some time later, Nimue and I, in our true dragon forms, flew high in the sky, trying to replicate magic in this form.
One thing is a human-elf form; there, thanks to my race and excellent teacher, everything worked out perfectly and there was no need to change anything, especially since the local Thranduil said so.
But a dragon…
Here, predictable problems arose.
You can’t pronounce spells in Elder Speech with a dragon’s tongue.
You can’t make proper finger gestures with dragon claws.
All of this needed to be adapted from a humanoid to a huge lizard like me, which still hadn’t stopped growing and acquiring scaled armor.
But I’m not so brilliant as to do something fundamental.
That would take decades, centuries of research, tests, and comparisons, and it would also be desirable to have another dragon as a test subject-trainee…
In short, for now, I’m left with attempts to do only the bare minimum, which could at least slightly strengthen me in the war between humans and elves.
“Hsss…” I exhaled hot air from my nostrils.
I had to do this sometimes, because after a long period of not using dragon fire, something in my chest would heat up and demand release.
One of hundreds of interesting but unstudied features of the dragon organism.
After all, dragons hadn’t yet thought of dissecting the corpses of their kin and studying their structure.
It was taboo, even stricter than cannibalism of kin.
Those who committed the latter were despised and would never be helped, while any mad researchers were simply killed on the spot.
And all because of Nelzerionisar the Cursed, an ancient dragon experimenter who, even before the Conjunction of the Spheres, caused a complete bacchanalia among dragons.
He was stopped by the legendary golden dragon, Zerrikanterment, but many dragons died in that battle.
Our numbers still haven’t recovered from that battle, which took place over the Dragon Mountains, where even today you can find thousands of dragon corpses…
Most of which appeared after that battle.
…But all this is just an interesting lesson in dragon history — Kaer Morhen finally came into view.
Changing the position of my tail and wings, Nimue and I dove down almost identically, carefully landing near the ancient ruins of the elven fortress.
A moment, and a head appears from the broken arch, followed by the neck of my mother-dragoness, who was still somewhat larger than me.
Although the difference was no longer so significant.
“Why have you come?” I was greeted without a hello, but I wasn’t offended.
After all, I’d spent two years studying magic and had hardly visited.
She has the right to be offended…
“Sorry I haven’t been around for a long time…” I bowed my head slightly, acknowledging my fault.
For proud dragons, this was difficult; for me, it was simple.
But my mother didn’t know the latter, so soon the look in her golden eyes softened slightly.
“Suppose so…
That doesn’t negate my question,” Vivien said, tilting her elongated dragon head slightly, shifting her gaze to Nimue as well.
“As you know, Nimue and I are amusing ourselves with the bipeds, the elves…” I said, using exactly that phrasing.
So as not to unnecessarily stir up my mother’s dragon pride and to mention obedience to her command.
“And I had a question…
So I flew over to ask if limited metamorphism is possible?
Just to change the color of my scales?
And anticipating your question!” I said very quickly, before my mother’s indignant muzzle could open its mouth.
“It’s for our safety!
So the bipeds think they’re being terrorized by other dragons, not the majestic goldens!”
“I wouldn’t want those bipeds constantly chasing us.
After all, their clothes and metal get stuck in your teeth,” Nimue supported me, in a very peculiar way, but still.
“Hsss…” the dragoness exhaled similarly hot air from her nostrils, but her level of indignation decreased.
“If that’s the case…
Suppose so…” She closed both eyes for a moment.
“Although I’m not too keen on a noble golden changing his scales, even temporarily…
But for the survival of our golden clan, I can allow such a thing, provided you don’t abuse it.”
“I won’t,” I gave my consent almost instantly, honestly meeting the gaze of her eyes, which were the size of a large SUV’s wheel.
“But let the bipeds think we are just a legend.
That won’t stop us from existing, and they will admire us as a great myth.”
“Hmm…
Did the elves teach you such expressions?” the multi-ton winged reptile inquired, moving her head a little closer, almost touching her snout to mine.
“I learned a lot by observing them. Get faster updates on g.com.
And although not everything is useful for a dragon, our golden clan has a unique situation,” I mentioned, almost in plain text, our extremely small numbers, which, besides Nimue and me, only mother and Borch could increase.
At such a hint, my mother snorted in displeasure, but didn’t argue.
“…So be it.
Yes…
Metamorphism of the scales is possible.
But it will be even more difficult than turning into a biped,” the dragoness closed her eyes again.
“It will take a lot of time, by the standards of bipeds.”
I involuntarily wagged my tail with joy, though I quickly suppressed this dragon gesture.
“Which ones exactly?
The ones we turn into, or the ones who flooded the plains not so long ago?” Nimue clarified, stepping back with me and allowing Vivien to come out of the ruins.
“What difference does it make…” my mother waved us off.
“In any case, you’ll have to endure a long time.
Even the pure-blood factor doesn’t help much here, because one thing is a complete transformation of the body into something else, even if radically different, but here — a change of your true body…”
And then my mother launched into explanations, which Nimue and I, like good youth, began to listen to attentively, no matter how tautological that might sound out loud.
* * *
About a year later.
Well…
It was difficult and even somewhat humiliating.
Well, what else could you call moments when multi-ton machines of death like Nimue and myself rub our backs against rocks like cats because we’re itchy?
Mistakes in changing the color of our scales, horns, wings, and everything else weren’t exactly painful, just…
We really wanted to scratch!
Like, really, really badly!
And if some human had wandered in on us during those moments, he’d have laughed out loud…
Right before being incinerated by a double stream of flame from two enraged dragons who, despite everything, remain armored machines of death…
Ah, how good it is to be an armored machine of death, and also an air force at the same time…
“Finally, we got it right…” Nimue breathed out in relief, after she’d transformed into her red version for the fifth time in a row without any flaws.
Maman had been testing us on that very thoroughly.
“I want to erase this year from my memory…” I muttered, currently in the form of a black dragon.
I’d decided not to overthink the color choice and went with the most intimidating one.
We’re going to be scaring people, after all.
“And here I thought you two were demoted,” Vivien growled discontentedly, also standing nearby.
“You wanted to play at being those…
little animals from the East yourselves…
What are they called…”
“Chameleons,” I suggested, flicking my tail.
“Yes, those.
So stop whining and turn back into gold ones.
It makes me sick just seeing dragons of other colors here,” she snorted irritably, blowing hot air from her nostrils.
That kind of thing would make human skin blister or burn…
or whatever happens after contact with something like that.
“No problem…” I closed my eyes and concentrated, feeling a light wave of ticklishness pass through my body as the black scales and everything else turned gold.
Alas, this process can only be done on the ground and in peace.
We can’t mimic our surroundings like those same chameleons.
Though Nimue, as a pureblood, could probably try…
But I, on the other hand, have size on my side!
I could go right now and dismantle castles for building materials and kidnap princesses!
“Anyway, you should drop these amusements.
You won’t find much gold among the elves…
With the little bipeds, it’s easy.
Or with humans, as a last resort,” Maman grumbled discontentedly, now smaller than me.
“And you’re wasting your time on nonsense.”
“I disagree with you there,” Nimue spoke up in my defense, causing a surprised expression on Mother’s face.
A mother who thought the dragoness would always support another dragoness, heh-heh.
“Our training in sorcery is not an amusement.
Potentially, though somewhat distantly, it could give us an advantage over sorcerers, one of whom managed to defeat two dragons, as your son told us.”
“Did you fill her head with more nonsense about the power of bipeds again?” Maman snorted displeasedly, glaring menacingly with her golden eye.
“Nevertheless, a fact remains a fact,” I twitched my tail reflexively.
“While most bipeds are individually weaker than us, rare, exceptional individuals can fight and even defeat us.
Otherwise, dragons would only die from other dragons, and that’s not the case.”
“Haaah…
I shouldn’t have let you associate with elves, it’s my own fault…” She covered her eyes with a clawed paw.
“Fine.
Since two dragons, including you, Nimue, think so…” I definitely saw reproach in Vivien’s gaze.
“I’ll give your amusements a chance.
But I expect results, otherwise I’ll burn those elves to shield you from foolishness…” And without saying goodbye, Maman abruptly launched herself into the air, flying north.
Nimue and I exchanged glances and nodded to each other in unison.
We both wanted to surprise an adult dragoness.
So…
It was time to get back to magical training, before the human-elf war began.