1058 New Era.
153 years before the birth of Geralt of Rivia.
Kaer Morhen.
Fortress of the Old Sea.
A year and a half later.
Merinelteratsin, also known as Merlin.
It’s very hard to keep track of exact time when there’s no calendar, and the seasons in this area don’t change so clearly.
Autumn can easily be mistaken for late summer.
And spring, accordingly, for early summer.
Nevertheless, in about a year and a half, I had grown even more, continuing to fill my insatiable stomach and adding more fuel for the body’s growth.
That same body, which, thanks to the black dragon genes, was growing at a furious rate.
Back then, during the memorable fight with the pack of slyzards, I was the size of a fat African elephant, but now…
I could safely be enrolled in the cetacean squad.
Still small for now, but…
Mountain goats were frankly too small to satisfy me, and I had to hunt longer.
After one such hunt, I felt like taking a walk in my elven form, and trouble wasn’t long in coming.
Werewolves had appeared in the area.
Red-eyed, bloodthirsty, and clearly feral.
I quickly spotted them with my sharp vision, which was the same even in my humanoid-elven form.
They sometimes deliberately showed their pitch-black hides, clearly herding me to the place they wanted, into a trap.
They didn’t even try to start a dialogue, like in the canon.
Unthinking creatures, wanting to feast on the flesh of a sentient being.
Cannibals, considering the fact that they were humans turned into wolves.
I don’t feel sorry for such creatures at all.
How can you feel sorry for unthinking beasts?..
…Well then, doggies…
Let’s play cat and mouse.
Only the cat here is me, huge and scaly, but pretending to be a mouse.
* * *
“Ooooh, I’m so scared…
I’m such a weak little elf…” I openly mocked my pursuers, pretending to tremble as I was supposedly cornered.
No, an elf or a human really wouldn’t have escaped from here, with a forest full of werewolves in front of you and a high, sheer cliff behind you.
But me…
Eh…
Too bad they don’t even understand human language.
Stupid beasts.
Look at them crawling out of the forest, actively drooling…
I abruptly stopped my antics, grinning with all my teeth.
At that moment, the werewolves stopped, sensing something was wrong.
But it was too late.
I transformed into my true dragon form.
Immediately standing, on all four paws.
Just in case, I immediately stretched my neck and head high up — thus leaving no chance for them to reach my vulnerable spots.
And at the same time, I fully spread my impressive wings, making myself visually larger and more dangerous.
And I just couldn’t resist the next action, heh-heh-heh…
Clamping my mouth shut tightly, I took in as much air as possible through my large nostrils, causing my neck to even swell slightly, and…
Let out a deafening roar with all the power of my giant lungs.
“GROOOOAAAH!”
My throat immediately felt a bit scratchy, but I achieved the desired effect completely.
The nearest trees in the forest literally began to bend backward from the power of the sound erupting from my maw, and the pack of werewolves started whining pitifully, no longer showing even the slightest desire to charge at me.
“Kha-kha…” I coughed when the roar ended.
The werewolves immediately tucked their tails and bolted.
Or rather, they tried to bolt.
Because I took a new breath, focused on my inner flame…
And released a stream of dazzling orange flame with blue sparks.
With difficulty, I then began to move my head horizontally, sweeping the flamethrower across the entire wolf pack.
And no, I still felt no pangs of conscience about killing those creatures.
None at all.
Like I’d twisted a chicken’s neck in a village.
Not much pleasure, but no urge to vomit either.
Strange, strange…
Soon the flame ran out, and I emitted a series of roaring sounds with clear satisfaction:
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning!..”
I watched the burning beasts that had chosen the wrong opponent for a while, but then decided to return to Kaer Morhen.
Changing the position of my wings, I made a sharp flap with them, simultaneously making a jump with all four paws.
Almost putting out the spreading fire with that action, I still lifted my multi-ton body into the air.
And I didn’t even suspect then that I had just destroyed one of the most terrible scourges for the nearby dwarf settlements of the Blue Mountains…
* * *
A little later.
My flight was interrupted by the appearance of a new dot in the sky, which quickly took the shape of my mother, still a third larger than me.
But that wouldn’t last long, because purebred golden dragons are generally not large creatures, unlike me with my black dragon genes.
“Mom?” A series of roars escaped my throat.
Flapping my wings again, I turned my long neck and head toward her.
“You can hunt later,” she rumbled in the same dragon tongue, her entire neck with rows of sharp fin-spines twitching reflexively.
“It’s time to start your socialization…
Because it’s a disgrace to my wings that your first interlocutor and acquaintance was some elf girl!”
“Other dragons?” I obeyed, changing my flight direction, and asked with interest.
“Exactly,” my mother confirmed, flapping her large wings.
“I’m not asking you to find friends among them, but at least you’ll have a social circle…” She snorted loudly, scaring away the nearest flock of birds.
“More worthy.
You can’t just talk to elves all the time…”
“You don’t mean…” I tilted my head slightly, flapping my wings again.
“You want to introduce me to peers, or something?”
“Not without that,” Vivien confirmed impassively.
“There are enough hatchlings your age in the Dragon Mountains to the north…
We need to remind them that goldens haven’t died out yet.
That we’re still thriving…” She bared her teeth, revealing fangs that could surely snap armored soldiers like pieces of bread.
“And impress the others.”
“I thought we always lived separately…” I recalled, casually catching the cries of flocks of birds hastily scattering in all directions as our massive bodies approached.
“That’s true,” the dragoness agreed.
“We don’t need to band together in big groups like humans, build cities and kingdoms…
We don’t try to compensate for our small size and weakness with numbers.
But we haven’t stopped communicating and showing ourselves from time to time.”
“Am I some kind of treasure hoard for you to show off?” I snorted in displeasure, twitching my snout.
“Well…” The golden dragoness’s eye filled with barely perceptible slyness as she looked over my golden scales.
“You look like one.”
“So do you,” I muttered before I could think about my answer.
The punishment for that came instantly — a swift lunge in my direction, and then a stinging slap landed on my head, delivered by the dragoness’s front paw, forcing my head to dip down.
“You’ve gotten way too cheeky, you overgrown egg…” My mother threw out with notes of displeasure, while I tried to blink away the brief moment of disorientation.
My mother’s paw was strong, strong…
When I finally fully came to my senses, I found that my parent had already flown a bit further ahead.
So I had to chase her the entire way to the Dragon Mountains, located to the north and west, which were, who would have thought, at the very, very north of the Continent.
Several notable human castles flashed below, but the journey was quite long and actively drained all my strength.
So I wasn’t going to descend and look at the humans.
Especially since what was there to see in those humans?
I’d seen enough of them in my past life, had my fill, you know.
Minutes of flight turned into hours, and fatigue kept washing over my body.
Then, after several hours had passed, quite large owners of scales of various colors began to appear on the now visible mountain passes…
Gray, brown, white, a red one took off into the air…
And that one looked like a black one…
Flying further behind Vivien, I quickly reached the final point of our flight — a more or less flat surface among these countless northern mountains…
I don’t remember what such parts of mountains are called — ledges or something…
In any case, I could land here normally.
But besides us, other dragons began to gather in this place…
Several dozen of various sizes and colors had already settled there before us, but after our landing, new guests began to appear from behind the mountains.
Finally lowering my body onto a thin layer of snow, I let my poor wings rest.
They were, of course, incredibly resilient, but they still got tired.
“This is where we’ve been gathering since the Conjunction of the Spheres…
So remember the whole way here.
For now…
Let’s go.
Let’s greet my acquaintances,” my mother waved her paw at me, moving confidently toward a trio of dragons settled nearby.
“That’s not, by any chance…” I asked, puzzled, staring at the dark brown, almost black scales of the largest guest here.
“No, it’s not him,” Vivien understood me halfway, twitching her wing.
So, that wasn’t my dad in this life…
And good.
I didn’t need a touching family reunion here.
The trio of dragons, of course, noticed our approach and almost synchronously turned their snouts, which differed greatly in shape from each other.
“Vivinissalenis…
I see you’ve decided to show up after all,” the black-and-brown dragon breathed out, lifting his enormous muzzle — one capable of swallowing a grown man in a single gulp.
“Less venom in your speech, Alabastaror.
You spit enough of it in place of real flame,” my mother snorted dismissively, twitching her long tail in displeasure.
“How petty, old friend,” he replied, and judging by my mother’s growl, I wasn’t the only one who caught the jab about their size difference.
“Plenty!
It’s merely a statement of fact, old friend,” Vivien bared her teeth, twisting the words again to imply that Alabastaror’s size was proof of his gluttony and excess weight.
Plumpness, yes.
“Mom, did you pick that black one’s brother, and that’s why you’re hissing at each other like snakes?” I couldn’t hold my tongue again.
And the silence that followed was so deep that a more modest sentient in my place would have shamefully dropped their gaze.
But I was a bit bolder and cheekier, yes.
“How do you know that, little one?” The black dragon’s next words made my first eye twitch.
“Your mother wouldn’t have told you…”
“Oh, Heavens!” I lifted my head, staring into the endless blue sky.
“Seriously?”
Judging by how my mother’s paw started itching, and how fascinated she became by that phenomenon, while the black dragon suddenly took an interest in the tip of his own tail…
Well, well, Santa Barbara, honest word…
Though, if you think about it…
It’s not surprising.
There are too few dragons for their relationships not to resemble one big Village.
“Son…
One more word and you’ll go for a flight off the cliff.
To clear your mind,” Vivien finally came to her senses, baring her teeth threateningly.
To which I put on an innocent and modest expression — so skillfully that they didn’t even want to hit me.
After glaring at me a bit longer, the elder dragons returned to their own conversation, which finally shifted from bickering to something more constructive.
Discussing rumors about other dragons’ children, the actions of insolent humans whose settlements were creeping closer and closer to their mountains — and how those humans were starting to build mines, digging for jewels.
As I understood it, that was precisely why the people of the surrounding lands hadn’t been burned or melted with acid yet — dragons weren’t fools, and they’d decided to profit from the humans, using them to gather gems for their lairs.
Did I feel sorry for my former fellow beings?
Not particularly.
Because you need to use your head before climbing a mountain range filled with dozens and hundreds of fire-breathing reptiles, yes.
And if it were for survival or something similar, fine — but for despicable gold?
Well, they brought it on themselves.
I wouldn’t like it either if some strangers broke into my house and started stealing expensive things.
The gold and silver, along with diamonds, that humans mined in the Dragon Mountains — those were exactly expensive things.
…I was pulled from my lazy eavesdropping on the elders’ conversation and my attempt to understand what my current kin were all about by some trifle.
Or rather, a real trifle.
The other dragon hatchlings, who were abundant here.
They practically lived in these mountains, so it was no trouble for them to fly here with their parents or on their own.
I, on the other hand, had to flap my wings all the way from the Blue Mountains, even if only from their northern part.
The little one had clearly heard, or simply knew, that I was also a hatchling, and so approached me boldly, staring at my golden scales.
The hatchlings’ sizes ranged from a large dog to about two-thirds of my own size.
Hmm…
I suppose I could already be proud of being the fattest, that is, the biggest lizard here?..
In any case, the first one who tried to touch my scales, gleaming in the winter sun, I gently pressed into the snow with my chin, simply placing my paw on its head.
I wasn’t worried about any damage — dragons are unimaginably resilient beings.
What would kill a human, a fire-breathing reptile wouldn’t even flinch at — practically the only way to put down a dragon is to strike it in the eye and reach the parts of the brain that don’t regenerate.
And even then, in human form, we could survive with a hole in our chest.*
* — yes, that’s canon.
“Hey!” hissed a voice from under my paw, but I just tiredly and lazily lowered my head toward the dragonet and snorted.
Which made all the little one’s words freeze in its mouth, which was quite small compared to my size.
Only its ti-ny eyes glared angrily.
Snorting once more and releasing the captured daredevil, I let it jump back, giving it a final lash on the rear with the tip of my tail — so it wouldn’t try that again.
After that, any attempts to touch me suddenly became a far too dangerous and unappealing venture for the little ones.
“Is he really our age?” one of the dragonets asked when they thought I couldn’t hear them.
But with size, a dragon’s hearing also grew, so their whispers were no secret to me…
And they weren’t particularly interesting either, since after the flight I was seriously tired and trying not to fall asleep on the spot.
A strange analogy came to mind — a huge, exhausted cat surrounded by a bunch of rambunctious kittens.
That’s what a tired dragon mind does to you.
“Definitely.
I was already here when his mother didn’t even have eggs yet…” the red dragoness, who was about two-thirds my size, twitched her wing in displeasure.
“You’re the eldest of us all, Keltullis…” another dragon, the size of a horse, said in shock, shifting his gaze from the dragoness to me.
Her name seemed familiar…
It was definitely from the canon events, but…
I couldn’t remember from where exactly.
And I was too lazy to strain my brain — I was tired, and that was that.
“His father must be a black…
Or a red…
After all, our kind is the second largest among all…” the dragoness named Keltullis said, and without knowing it, hit the bull’s-eye on the first try.
The rest of the little ones hurried to agree with the eldest, still glaring in my direction.
And me…
How I wanted to just lie down and snore sweetly, but no, then my mom would smack me on the head for that.
So I endured and tried to look like a majestic pile of gold.
But the dragon children didn’t last long — soon they forgot about chatting and discussing my wonderful self, and started playing with each other like…
Like some kittens.
At least, that resemblance was becoming more and more obvious to me as they started pouncing on each other, and one of their main attack methods was quick strikes with their front paws on their rivals’ heads, heh.
Keltullis and I watched all this fooling around with the wise look of grown-up teenagers…
Well, she watched, while I had already almost completely closed my eyes, gradually sinking into sleep.
The main thing in such a situation was not to accidentally fall into the lethargic kind, which even teenage dragons were capable of.
During that state, all life processes slowed down, and without food, a dragon could sleep not just through a winter, like some bears, but for several centuries.
And realizing I couldn’t hold out any longer, I touched my mother’s mind with telepathy, conveying my words:
“I’m about to fall asleep.
That’s not a problem, is it?”
“Can’t you hold on a bit longer?” Vivien replied with displeasure.
“Nope.
Either I lie down and sleep now, or I fall over sideways…
And still sleep,” I telepathed again, transmitting a light and insanely tired smirk.
“Fine.
But even in your sleep, you’d better look majestic!” my mom finished our dialogue.
Oh, come on, with my size, even lying on my back I’d look majestic and terrifying…
But let’s not unnecessarily unnerve the surrounding dragons with that sight.
Slowly lowering my head onto the snow, I tucked my paws and slightly spread my wings, wrapping them around my sides.
My long tail also involuntarily curled around my body.
Finally, I could get some sleep…