1058 New Era.
153 years before the birth of Geralt of Rivia.
West of the Dragon Mountains.
A year and a half later.
Merinelteratsin, also known as Merlin.
Dragons are powerful beings.
No deaths among them could dispute that undeniable fact.
Huge armored bodies, fangs and claws that could rip even armored knights apart, flight, deadly breath…
The ability to absorb magic from the surroundings and, as a result, accelerated regeneration, impressive endurance, monstrous resistance to magic, thanks to which sorcerers hadn’t exterminated them yet…
So why did one of those sorceresses make my tail bristle?..
I thought I’d ended up at the top of the food chain — a golden dragon, a metamorphmagus.
“Did you really not attack me out of fear?” the sorceress asked in confusion, shifting her gaze to her fingers…
Allowing me to breathe out at the same time.
Yes, dangerous beautiful woman!
You scare the shit out of me!
But that doesn’t mean I didn’t actually hit you because of fear.
It was just a calculation based on observation and the power of your sorcery.
Something tells me dragon fire would be a bit useless here, yes…
“No…” I first said in dragon tongue, and was about to repeat it with telepathy…
When it felt like a hammer hit me in the head the moment I tried to use it.
“Don’t you dare.” The magician’s blue eyes flashed dangerously.
“Speak like that.
I understand your language.”
“That’s impossible!” Keltullis exclaimed from a large snowdrift, finally untangling herself from her companion and fixing her gaze on the visitor.
“You can learn the Nordling language, can’t you?
So that you can understand it?” the unknown woman said, half-stating.
“Then I can learn your growls so that I can understand them.”
“Impossible,” Vortigern rasped after her, glaring at the sorceress with particular malice.
“We would have known if someone could…”
“One dragoness tried to kill me…
Once.
Once,” the silver-haired woman echoed, not moving from her spot.
“And in exchange for her life, she…
Let’s say…
I talked to her.
And I’m sure she kept silent about her shame until the end of her days.”
“Logical,” I finally joined the conversation, drawing the attention of all three.
“So what…” I shifted from foot to foot and continued in a very, very cautious tone: “Have we wandered onto your territory?..”
“Ah, this obsession with territory…
In this, you’re no different from humans at all.
They also try to grab as much empty land as possible…” She shook her head, and this time her tone was so…
So warning that even my smaller companions didn’t dare to interrupt with objections.
“But no, you’re wrong, golden dragon.
This is not my territory…
Think for yourself.
Your kin attacked me first.”
“Right,” I snorted in displeasure at my own forgetfulness due to the impressions I’d received, and turned my head toward Vortigern, who was not at all ashamed of this fact.
“Do you need his apology?..”
“An apology for what would have killed an ordinary human on the spot?” the sorceress said with dripping irony.
“Yes, his head as an apology would have suited me…
If I were demanding them.
These apologies…
I’m not that touchy.” And just as our white one breathed a sigh of relief, the silver-haired woman waved her hand.
And…
In place of the white dragon stood an albino rooster.
“And how am I supposed to explain this to my mother?..” I sighed with feigned sadness, resignedly placing my paw over my muzzle and covering my eyes with it.
“The spell will wear off quickly.
You dragons are undeservedly resistant to magical effects…” the sorceress smiled slightly, taking a few steps toward me.
How I didn’t jump like a cat — I had no idea!..
“I consider our conflict resolved.
You think so too, don’t you…
I don’t know your name, golden dragon.”
“Merinelteratsin…” I growled a series of roars, but immediately remembered that the sorceress was also human.
“For short, Merlin.”
“Yes, the latter name suits you better…
Many don’t attach much importance to names.
Ignoramuses.
Yours feels…
Wisdom.
Yes.
Wisdom and a certain directness at the same time.
An interesting combination, Merlin, I’ll tell you that,” the sorceress said.
I might have even accepted this unusual praise…
If her voice hadn’t remained as emotionless and cold as before.
“Though, it’s not surprising. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Goldens have always been unique among their kind, mutants that aren’t feared but admired…
An interesting natural phenomenon…
But nothing more.
So our conversation ends here.
Take your younger kin and fly away.”
After these words, the albino rooster turned back into a dragon.
“Why should we…” Vortigern, enraged to the limit, immediately tried to yap, but…
He was instantly cut off by my menacing roar, accompanied by its telepathic equivalent.
“Because, Vortigern!” I roared again, and apparently, finally realizing the difference in our sizes, the white dragon fell silent.
“I apologize for this spectacle, mistress…”
“Morgana,” the sorceress introduced herself laconically.
“Yes, Mistress Morgana.
We will not disturb you further.” I shifted my gaze to the pair of companions.
“I.
Am.
Clear.
Understood?”
Judging by their silence — it was agreement, and they had no objections.
God, who did I have to play Indiana Jones with…
Moving away so that the wind from my wings wouldn’t hit the sorceress, I sharply took off into the air, setting an example for the pair.
Which, fortunately, they followed.
Apparently, they didn’t want to test the further effects of magical lightning on their scales, yeah.
“We’re fleeing in disgrace!” the white one hissed, glaring at me with anger as soon as we flew away.
“From a biped!”
“Tell that to those of our kin that they’ve killed, you idiot!” I roared quite loudly, finally letting the accumulated emotions and outright fear out.
Right onto the perfect candidate for it.
“That sorceress would have eaten us and not even choked!
Didn’t they tell you at home, you unhatched egg, what the bipeds do with our innards, our blood, and our tail?
And let me remind you, they eat the last one!
They eat it, you stupid pile of snow with frozen brains!..
Gro-o-o-oa-a-a!” For good measure, I roared at him so loudly that I scared away all the birds for kilometers around.
Oh, all gods of the Continent, what an idiot he was…
Going up against that beautiful dangerous woman, which was the best description for her?
A prideful idiot.
A long silence hung in the air.
But our staring contest was interrupted by Keltullis.
“…I thought you were one of those lazy quiet ones who sleep for hundreds of years in the farthest corners of our world…
I admit.
I was wrong,” the red one confessed, glancing at me with far more respect and interest.
No, lady.
I’m exclusively into those dragonesses who can turn into elves or human women.
Or various sorceresses, for that matter…
“I really didn’t need to shout all that.
I could have done without it…
If someone…” I began to slowly pull myself together.
“Fine.” I exhaled air through my nostrils.
“What’s done is done.
But I’m not getting into any more adventures like this with you.
Death, you could say, only tickled the tips of our tails this time, and we shouldn’t test its patience anymore.
Especially in the person of that powerful sorceress.”
All the way back, I thought about whether it was some kind of fateful coincidence that I’d shortened my name to that of one mythical great wizard…
And then, in the world of the Witcher, a world full of prophecies and fateful meetings, there just happened to be a sorceress with an equally telling name from the very same Arthuriana?..
I’d have to comb through the elves for prophecies.
You never know…
* * *
Back in Kaer Morhen, I immediately got a reprimand from my mother — because I hadn’t told her about the incident right away.
But I’d reasonably assumed that my companions’ pride wouldn’t let them talk about a shameful defeat, and it was better if I didn’t bring it up…
In front of everyone.
So I only told Vivien, and only after we’d flown away.
Even so, my mother accepted my arguments and decided it wasn’t worth picking a fight with the biggest dragons of our generation after me — the spread of a few decades was insignificant.
So my scaly hide was unharmed, and I wasn’t grounded — the one thing she could actually use to influence me.
“Since you’ve already started getting into dangerous things and running into trouble, you need someone to protect you from it.
At least until you’re fully grown…” my mother said after all the debriefing.
“Well, that elf woman hasn’t been let in here by Father yet…
At least, I haven’t seen her come back.” I snorted, still not lifting my head from my forepaws stretched out in front of me.
“Or…
Wait.
Who are you even talking about?..”
“Guess.” Vivien bared all her giant teeth, looking down at me.
“Well, it’s clearly not you deciding to play mother hen…” Ignoring the displeased glare from the dragoness, I kept thinking.
No idea.”
“Since you’re so thick-headed, I’ll say it straight.” She spoke, and her tone changed so much that I even stood up to my full height.
“Every male needs his own female, and sometimes she’s the one who can protect the father of her future eggs from various troubles.”
“Was that something along the lines of females being smarter than males?” I grumbled, twitching my entire tail.
“Dragonesses really are smarter than dragons.
It’s always been that way, and it always will be.” The words were delivered with absolute confidence, earning another snort from me.
Yeah, right…
“So, even though I didn’t want to do this ahead of time, especially meeting that idiot…
Circumstances force it.”
“But I behaved perfectly adequately when I met that human sorceress…” I flinched at my mother’s hints.
“More adequately than that red dragoness, even…”
“You were there, and that’s what matters.
If you’d had someone smarter with you at that moment, they would have talked you out of flying to a place where you had to rely on the mercy of a two-legged witch!”
She said it, and that was that.
The way she was glaring with those huge eyes…
“Well, suppose…” I really couldn’t argue with that phrasing.
“So who do you want to foist on me?..”
“From a half-breed of a gold and the mother of a gold, a pureblood gold will be born — that’s one of the facts that kept our species from dying out completely.” Vivien launched into an explanation, settling her multi-ton body more comfortably.
“So you and she were bound from the moment I realized I’d hatched a dragon, not a dragoness.”
“Married me off without me…” I muttered a common Earth phrase, unable to help myself.
I mean, seriously!
Just like that, and it turns out I already have a mate.
We’re not some kind of aristocrats, for heaven’s sake…
Just huge, fire-breathing, flying reptiles…
“Ha!” My mother snorted dismissively, pressing the ground harder under her considerable weight…
Or should I say tonnage?
Heh-heh…
“Listen to the elves less.
They have some kind of nonsense going on in the mating department.
Some ridiculous traditions and all that…
All you’ll need to do is give her an egg, and after that you’re completely free.”
“Uh…” I kind of froze.
It’s one thing to know that dragons are completely irresponsible fathers, but hearing it about yourself…
That’s something else.
“Suppose…
But you still want us to meet before that time?”
“Yes, while she hasn’t yet reached the age for laying an egg, it will be good for you to be together.
Two dragons are more dangerous than one, and besides, she’ll keep you from doing stupid things.” My mother’s voice was brimming with confidence again.
“Eh-heh…” Realizing I wasn’t going to wriggle out of this joy, I didn’t start making a fuss like some idiot.
I just clarified: “Well, who is she?”
“The daughter of some idiot…
Ahem, an acquaintance of mine, Villentretenmerth.
Her name is Nitaramulines.” My mother announced, making my right eye twitch and the tip of my tail stand on end.
Villentretenmerth…
That’s…
That’s Borch Three Jackdaws…
The dragon witcher…
Lover of dark-skinned ladies…
And all that…
Holy shit.
“You’ve mentioned him before…” I replied in a slightly stunned tone, blinking slowly.
“Yes.
And even though I can’t stand him, I also can’t deny that his daughter turned out smarter than her father.” Vivien said with a toothy grin.
“Besides, there’s no other gold female to be found around here anyway.
We’d have to fly across the ocean, and that comes with a whole set of difficulties.”
“What kind?” I asked, almost on autopilot, gradually regaining my composure.
“Giant leviathans that can swallow even an adult dragon in one bite mid-jump.” She began with a slight smirk, which was even visible on her dragon face.
“Flocks of anti-magic birds whose sharp, sawing beaks can block metamorphism, ancient temples, other relics of the Conjunction of the Spheres…
It’s easier to list what isn’t there.
The two-legged don’t even realize how lucky their ancestors were to cross those waters and get here…
Though it would have been better if the leviathans had eaten them after all.”
“Okay…” I replied, mentally gauging the truth of my mother’s words.
Well, there have always been huge creatures in the oceans, so yeah, the existence of such beings in fantasy is possible.
“Exactly.
But that’s not what we’re talking about now…
Rest.
Soon we’ll fly to Villentretenmerth, and you need to look like the most energetic dragon possible, not a tired wreck that no dragoness would look at.” And without saying goodbye, my mother launched straight from the spot, soaring high into the air and rapidly disappearing on her own dragon business, which I still knew nothing about.
Damn.
Didn’t even get a chance to ask why the father, not the mother, was looking after her cub, as is usually the case.
Oh well…
Rest it is.
Settling more comfortably on the grass by the ruins, I put my head back on my forepaws and started to fall asleep.
The flight back had been only slightly less difficult than the flight there.