A week passed quickly.
The deeper Evelyn and Darrien traveled into the Forsaken Lands, the more they came to understand just how barren the region truly was.
The emptiness was almost unimaginable.
They could travel more than a hundred miles without seeing a single living creature.
Most of what they encountered was stone.
Sand.
And bones.
Many of those skeletons lay buried beneath the yellow sand, only to be exposed whenever the wind shifted the dunes.
Judging by the skulls, some had belonged to humanoids while others came from animals.
There were signs of weathering on the bones, but little evidence that predators had killed them.
Evelyn guessed most had died from thirst or exposure.
The Forsaken Lands suffered from extreme temperature swings between day and night, and water was painfully scarce.
After picking up a few bones that looked like they had belonged to some kind of cattle and giving them to Darrien to chew on, the two dragons continued deeper into the wasteland.
They were still searching for somewhere suitable to live.
Dragons could adapt to most environments.
Some of the more extreme species, such as red dragons, could even sleep inside magma.
Still, if a comfortable home was available, who would willingly choose to live in a miserable desert?
Fortunately, that night, Evelyn and Darrien found an oasis.
Unfortunately...
There were fires burning inside it.
That meant intelligent creatures had already claimed the place.
Not that Evelyn found that surprising.
The Forsaken Lands were so barren that most living creatures had little choice but to gather around whatever oases and water sources they could find.
Using the darkness as cover, Evelyn and Darrien flew above the oasis.
They wanted to see exactly who lived there before making a move.
If the inhabitants were too strong, they would have to take their time and figure out a way to seize the oasis later.
If they were weak...
Then the dragons would simply take it.
This world was cruel.
Evelyn had understood the law of the strong preying on the weak a long time ago.
She didn’t see anything inherently wrong with it.
Kindness only mattered if you were alive enough to practice it.
If someone insisted on being kind even when they could barely keep themselves alive, that kindness would eventually get them killed.
Besides...
Evelyn was an evil dragon now.
With eyesight comparable to an Eagle-Eye Spell, the two young dragons quickly identified the owners of the oasis.
They were an extremely weak group of humanoids.
More specifically, they were kobolds.
Small doglike humanoids with upright bodies and humanlike arms and legs, most of them barely over three feet tall.
Kobolds had one especially notable trait.
They worshiped dragons with almost fanatical devotion.
Generation after generation, they insisted that they were descendants of dragons and that draconic blood flowed through their veins.
Nearly every kobold dreamed of becoming the servant of a True Dragon.
That old belief was not completely baseless.
On very rare occasions, a fortunate kobold could awaken the faint trace of draconic blood hidden within its body.
Those individuals rose far above ordinary kobolds and became spellcasters capable of wielding fragments of innate draconic magic.
They were known as Dragonblood Sorcerers.
Once Evelyn and Darrien confirmed that the settlement was weak and populated by creatures that already revered dragons, they stopped bothering with stealth.
The two dragons folded their wings and dove from the sky like falling meteors.
BOOM!
Evelyn crashed into the center of the tribal square.
Dust erupted around her.
The kobolds seemed to have been holding some kind of bonfire celebration.
A large number of them were gathered in the square.
The moment the impact echoed through the oasis, every kobold stopped what they were doing and turned toward the sound.
As the dust cleared, they stared in terror at two enormous creatures covered in black scales.
One of them slowly swept her golden eyes across the crowd.
Then Draconic Presence rolled outward.
The overwhelming pressure crushed any thought of escape.
“Waaah! Waaah!”
A kobold infant in the arms of a female kobold burst into tears.
The mother panicked, unsure what to do.
Then the enormous black dragon glanced at the child.
The crying stopped immediately.
That fear was buried deep within the kobolds’ blood.
It was both terror and reverence.
The instinctive suppression of a lesser bloodline before a superior one.
After surveying the crowd, Evelyn spread her black wings.
Her cold Draconic words rolled across the square beneath an even heavier wave of pressure.
“Submit or die.”
Silence followed.
Several seconds passed.
Evelyn was beginning to lose patience and seriously considering whether the kobolds might make an acceptable late-night meal when...
“Great True Dragon! Great True Dragon!”
An elderly kobold with a hunched back pushed his way through the crowd, leaning heavily on a wooden staff.
He shakily approached until he stood only a few feet in front of Evelyn.
Then he released his staff.
Thud.
The old kobold dropped to his knees and lowered his head almost to the ground.
He didn’t dare meet the enormous creature’s golden eyes.
That seemed to break the spell over the others.
One after another, the remaining kobolds knelt.
“Great True Dragon... we submit...”
The old kobold’s teeth chattered.
His words came out unevenly, as though he were desperately trying to suppress some intense emotion.
“Good.”
Evelyn raised her head.
“You’ve made a wise choice.”
“Then, beneath the eyes of the gods, you will enter a Master-Servant Pact with me.”
The old kobold slowly looked up.
What appeared on his face wasn’t fear.
It was overwhelming excitement.
Even the wrinkles covering his aged face seemed to loosen.
To most races, becoming a dragon’s vassal would have meant enslavement.
It meant surrendering their independence and becoming subordinate to a more powerful being.
For the Ironfang Tribe, however, things were very different.
Partly because kobolds naturally worshiped dragons.
But more importantly...
Because life here was brutal.
The Forsaken Lands were anything but peaceful.
If anything, they were chaotic.
Oases and water sources were the greatest treasures in the region.
The Ironfang Tribe wasn’t particularly strong.
For years, its members had lived in constant fear that another tribe would attack.
If they lost and were captured, they would become slaves.
They would be forced to do the hardest labor.
And when food became scarce...
They might even become emergency rations.
Now they had become the vassals of a dragon.
With such a powerful protector behind them, they no longer needed to spend every day fearing annihilation.
And if one of them gained the dragon’s favor and was granted even a single drop of dragon blood...
They might awaken as a Dragonblood Kobold.
For a kobold, that would be an honor their descendants would boast about for generations.
No wonder the old kobold was excited.
Thump!
He slammed his forehead against the ground again.
“I, Bartholomew Constantine Vanderwold, and every kobold of the Ironfang Tribe...”
“We shall become the sharpest spear in your claw and the strongest shield before you.”
“We will clear every obstacle from your path!”
Evelyn frowned.
“Bartho-what?”
“Great One, my name is Bartholomew Constantine Vanderwold.”
The old kobold raised his head and repeated it carefully.
“Too long. I’m not remembering all that.”
Evelyn scratched at one ear.
“From now on, you’re Buck.”
Thump!
The old kobold slammed his forehead against the ground yet again.
A tiny bead of blood appeared on his brow.
He didn’t seem to care.
When he lifted his head, he struggled to contain his joy and shouted with absolute reverence,
“Thank you for granting me a name, Great One!”
Buck stood.
Under the envious gazes of the other kobolds, he raised his voice.
“Continue the celebration! Prepare our finest food for the Great One!”
Heh. So the Draconic Inheritance wasn’t exaggerating.
Kobolds are even more obsessed with dragons than I expected.
Evelyn turned, intending to call Darrien over.
Then she stopped.
Her brother was currently struggling to pull his head out of the ground.
Apparently, he had landed headfirst.
No wonder he hadn’t made a sound this entire time.
Evelyn covered her face with one claw.
“Next time we leave home, don’t tell anyone you’re a black dragon.”
“Just say you’re a white dragon who spent too long in the sun.”
“Black dragons have a reputation to maintain.”
Pop!
Darrien finally yanked his head out of the dirt.
He dropped onto his rear, looking dazed.
After shaking mud from his head and smacking one ear until a clump of dirt fell out, he tilted his head toward Evelyn.
“Evelyn, were you saying something to me?”
Evelyn turned away as though she had never seen this dragon in her life.
“I said you looked very impressive.”