“No thanks. You can keep wearing them.”
Evelyn waved a claw dismissively.
Then she walked over to the deep pit she had dug earlier and retrieved the final Spatial Gem.
Under Darrien’s pained stare, she took a single gold coin out of it.
Then she popped the gem into her mouth.
If the two of them were going to stick together from now on, they would inevitably face all kinds of danger side by side.
It would be safer to make things official under the witness of the gods.
Following the instructions recorded in the Draconic Inheritance, Evelyn began tracing a pattern into the ground with one claw.
Line by line, the divine emblem of Tiamat, the Dragon Queen and Mother of Chromatic Dragons, gradually took shape.
Evelyn looked at the gold coin in her claw.
After a moment of thought, she bit down hard and snapped it in half.
One half went into her mouth.
The other was placed at the center of Tiamat’s emblem.
Evelyn glanced at Darrien, who had already put the women’s clothing back on his head.
She drew a deep breath.
Then, with unusual seriousness, she began feeding Magical Energy into the emblem.
“Tiamat above.”
“On the Material Plane of Aersk, the black dragons Evelyn Astra Blackthorne and Darrien Gregor Blackthorne request your witness.”
Perhaps Tiamat knew the nature of her own chromatic dragons far too well.
Even though the offering was only half a gold coin, the Dragon Queen still responded to the ritual.
Of course, it was also possible that this was simply some kind of divine automated response.
Quite a few gods used such things.
Otherwise, they would never have enough time to answer every prayer, oath, and ritual personally.
The magical emblem began glowing.
Evelyn immediately pulled Darrien to her side and continued.
“From this day forward, we shall watch over one another, advance and retreat together, and share both danger and hardship...”
By the time Evelyn finished reciting the contract, which ran well over a thousand words, she let out a long breath.
The divine emblem on the ground had stopped glowing.
The half gold coin was gone as well.
The pact was complete.
It would remain in effect until the moment both dragons reached adulthood.
Until then, Darrien was required to follow Evelyn’s lead, and neither side could deliberately act against the other’s interests.
Breaking the pact would invite divine punishment.
“Let’s go.”
Evelyn spread her wings and rose into the air first.
“Oh! Right, right!”
Darrien hurried after her.
At the moment, staying close to his powerful and brilliant sister was one of the few things that gave him any sense of security.
“So where are we building our new lair?”
High above the forest, Evelyn answered without looking back.
“The Forsaken Lands.”
...
The night passed quickly.
Darkness gradually began to fade.
Evelyn watched the crescent moon sink toward the edge of the world.
When she turned her head, the first light of dawn was already rising behind her.
Green slowly returned to the forest beneath them.
A new day had arrived.
“Goodbye, Blackbriar Forest.”
Evelyn beat her wings.
Without looking back, she and Darrien disappeared beyond the horizon.
The only thing left behind was a single white stocking.
It drifted lazily through the wind...
And eventually caught on the topmost branches of a towering tree.
...
Following the direction opposite the sunrise, Evelyn and Darrien flew for two days and two nights before finally reaching the border between Blackbriar Forest and the Forsaken Lands.
A violent river known as the Sanjero River ran between the two regions, forming a natural boundary.
Dense herds of animals crowded both banks to drink.
Now and then, enormous magical beasts surfaced from the river itself.
None of them looked weak.
Evelyn and Darrien wisely climbed higher into the sky.
Better not to attract attention.
If one of those creatures leaped out of the water and dragged them down, the countless predators hiding beneath the surface would tear them apart in moments.
The two dragons soon crossed the several-hundred-yard-wide river and reached the opposite bank.
Compared with the lush vitality of Blackbriar Forest, Evelyn’s first impression of the Forsaken Lands was simple.
Barren.
Yellow sand.
Rocky wasteland.
Huge slabs of bare stone exposed beneath the sun.
The river was the only thing separating the two regions, yet the temperature differed by well over twenty degrees.
Evelyn glanced up at the blazing sun.
It had to be over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
Dragons possessed excellent resistance to both heat and cold.
Still, black dragons naturally preferred damp environments like swamps.
This dry climate felt strangely wrong.
It was like ordering a hot dog and finding no dog in it.
Or shepherd’s pie without a shepherd.
Technically, nothing was wrong.
But something still felt missing.
The farther they traveled into the Forsaken Lands, the more intense the heat became.
By nightfall, however, the temperature dropped sharply.
It fell almost all the way to freezing.
Inside a cave that still held some warmth from the day, Darrien pulled his neck in.
“This place is ridiculous. Burning hot one minute, freezing the next.”
Then he tugged the last pair of panties farther down over his head.
That way, his entire dragon face stayed warmer.
“Why do you think it’s called the Forsaken Lands?”
Evelyn lay near the cave entrance, staring up at an unfamiliar sky filled with stars.
“This place became the exile ground of the orcs after they lost the War of the Gods. The extreme climate is part of their punishment.”
“I still don’t understand why those green-skinned idiots decided to go to war with the gods.”
Darrien’s muffled voice came through the panties.
“Even when dragons ruled the continent, we never thought trying to kill the gods was a good idea.”
“Maybe they had nothing better to do?”
“Maybe.”
Evelyn shook her head and turned around.
She settled down beside Darrien.
“Get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll keep looking around and find somewhere suitable to settle.”
...
The Forsaken Lands.
Beside a modest lake, an old orc and a young orc sat together on a large stone.
The younger one gazed at the stars.
“Grandpa, why did our ancestors go to war against the gods?”
“If they hadn’t done that, wouldn’t our lives be easier now?”
The old orc didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he took a slow draw from his handmade pipe.
His clouded eyes stared at the stars reflected across the lake.
“Foolish child.”
His voice was rough and weathered, yet unusually firm.
“Our ancestors did it so our people would no longer be oppressed... or enslaved by the gods.”
The young orc turned toward him.
“Then... did they fail?”
“No.”
The old orc took another draw.
He slowly exhaled a stream of pale smoke and looked toward the night sky through it.
Only the brightest stars could still be seen beyond the drifting haze.
Those were where the gods’ Divine Realms lay.
Something in the old orc’s cloudy eyes seemed to clear.
“They succeeded.”