Gently flapping her wings with a gust of hot air, Zaleria flew toward Alice and the rest. Even though they knew she was calm, it was still scary seeing that rampaging monster coming their way. Everything happened too fast that Alice didn’t have enough time to look at Zaleria, the dragon’s body was built differently from all living beings.
As she hovered above them, her body burst into flames. From the crimson light, she dropped into her human body. THUD! She didn’t hit the earth gently but instead caused a shockwave.
Alice gulped as she saw the grass turns to ach under Zaleria’s feet. Facing her felt like standing in front of a massive fire, just her touch could burn.
“Who are you-gaw?” SHAAAAA! SHAAAAA! Selena stood to face Zaleria.
“Stop, you can’t face her!” Alice shouted as she knew what Cain felt before when he said that fighting a dragon was stupid.
Zaleria looked at them with curious eyes, her gaze seemed that of both care and pity. Slowly extending her hand toward Selena’s head as if reaching to her face.
“GAW!” Selena leaped immediately biting her, Zaleria seemed unfazed as not a single drop of blood was spilled. Alice could notice Zaleria’s heat turning down rapidly, ‘Is she getting exhausted or doing it on purpose?’ She wondered as she cast [Holy Healing] on both Cain and Sofia to get them up quickly.
Selena was biting Zaleria’s hand with all her might. Her hands gripped tightly to Zaleria’s forearm and her legs kicked her in the torso. It wasn’t a joke as every kick and scratch helped the full power of her 19 strength. At some point, Selena’s whole body was dangling from Zaleria’s arm.
“There, there. Calm down!” Zaleria started petting Selena on the head as if she was playing with an angry kitten. Alice’s eyes opened wide as she saw Selena slowly calm down.
“Good girl.” Alice looked At Zaleria scratching Selena’s neck. “What did you do to her?” Alice screamed as she saw Selena start purring like a cat.
Zaleria slowly left Selena and walked toward Alice. “Are you jealous? I will pet you as well.” Zaleria’s voice was oddly soothing and sweet. Alice could feel her worries fade away for a moment before biting her lips.
“What did you do to us?” Alice growled with a faint burst of cursed magic.
Zaleria looked surprised for a moment, her face quickly shifted to a smile. “A wise one? I just used my charm to try and calm you down.”
Alice looked at her wondering what she meant. The thought quickly came to her mind about what Cain said about Sofia’s high charisma charm. The satiation started to make more sense in her head if by any chance this woman in front of her had a high charisma. Then a terrifying idea flashed in front of her eyes, she who had 18 wisdom almost fell to Zaleria’s charm.
“Was it charisma? How high are you?” Alice wondered. She wasn’t awaiting an answer but it was her thoughts slipping out.
“Last I checked it was 23, a bit dangerous for humans I guess,” Zaleria replied scratching her head. 23 charisma was a crazy number. Alice remembered how Cain acted with Sofia’s 17 charisma, in front of Zaleria he would not be able to speak.
“What’s her name?” Zaleria asked looking at the unconscious Sofia. It was just then that Alice felt how similar they are, “I can smell my blood on her.” Zaleria’s words seem strange. For a dragon to talk like that, it seemed surreal.
“Sofia Lawrence, do you know her by any chance?” Alice didn’t realize it but Zaleria’s charm had already calmed her, under normal circumstances, she would never reply.
“Lawrence…was it…Ahh, I remember that farm.” Zaleria’s eyes clicked as she remembered the old days.
“You’re absurd you know, Can you stop using charm on them?” Cain said as he slowly opened his eyes. Alice’s eyes flashed as she looked at him, “Don’t talk much, you’re still bleeding!” She cried.
“Sorry but don’t argue with me now, just this time stay silent and listen!” Cain said, Alice silently looked at him and nodded. She didn’t know what he was thinking or what he wanted, but it was better to let him handle things from now.
“You’re not falling for my charm, sister was right to be interested in you!” Zaleria smiled as she tried to reach with her hand to his hair.
“It’s a long story. I’m exhausted so listen well.” As she heard his words, she pulled her hand back, her eyes scanning Cain and realizing that he was more than badly injured. Broken limbs, bleeding, internal injuries, necrosis, Mana deficiency, and more.
“I will teach you how to inscribe witch tattoos and tell you about Morena’s mist, in exchange for you to stay with us!” Cain hardly managed to speak but as soon as Zaleria heard his words she shook him violently, “Hold, you know about her mist? Speak, where did you learn of that?” Sadly her words fell on deaf ears as he was already knocked out.
…
Later that day, Cain slowly opened his eyes feeling a horrible pain all over his body. As he looked up he saw black and white clothing, his head was resting on something soft.
“Master, are awake?” Gracie asked as she combed his hair with her finger. Cain was sleeping with his head on her lap, “What do I seem to you?” He replied.
“Awake.” She replied, quickly trying to prevent him from standing up. “We’re in the carriage master. Please rest more.” Her words were calm but her hand that pushed him down from the neck wasn’t.
The fact that Gracie was able to overpower him meant he probably wouldn’t be able to stand, his body was severely damaged right in the middle of recovering. “Where the rest?” He asked with a worried face.
“Sleeping, they were badly injured and exhausted as well. Lady Alice just fell asleep a couple of minutes ago!” With her words Cain felt relieved they are safe, he then turned his attention to the other presence in the carriage that was staring at him.
“So you’re coming with us?” Cain asked Zaleria who was facing Gracie.
“Of course, I would human. You seem to know of things I don’t. In addition, I’m quite interested in the girl over there.” She said looking toward Sofia, “I smell my blood on her, so I want to hear her story!”
Cain realized that he as well didn’t know much about Sofia’s past or her family. Zaleria seemed to have been a dragon and he is just realizing she resembles Sofia.
“Are you her mom or something?” Cain asked as a joke but Zaleria answered with a serious face, “I don’t think so, I only mothered a human child about half a century ago. I’m sure that was a male, I don’t think I will mistake that.”
As Cain seemed interested and she didn’t mind talking about the past, Zaleria started telling an old story.
About a century ago, she who was about to become an ancient dragon was flying around hunting for food. The process of transforming into an ancient was a decade-long hibernation and she needed to get food.
When a dragon is going up an age stage. (Wyrmling=Young=Adult=Ancient= Wyrm= Greatwyrm) They have to hibernate to give their body time to evolve, and with that, they can grow stronger.
The trickery part is that the memories of the few years before hibernating are usually lost. Just as a human can’t remember the last seconds before he falls asleep, dragons can’t recollect those years well.
Zaleria did remember bearing a human child just before hibernating, she can’t remember who was the father but she remember that she left the child at a nearby farm before going to hibernation. The farm belonged to the Lawrence family. “I don’t remember the name, I just remembered that the farm was on the mountain foot and when I checked after waking up I found the abandoned farm with a sign saying, Lawrence. A assume the farm got abandoned before I woke up, and I never managed to find the child.” Zaleria said, a faint hint of sadness appearing clearly on her face.
“Did you name it? They shouldn’t be able to change the given name.” Cain asked as he changed his postuer. Gracie’s thighs were softer than he could’ve expected.
“I did name it Harvey… It was a boy and I’m sure, I never heard of a human child living over a century and changing its gender.” Zaleria said and Cain sighed.
“Sofia couldn’t be your child, she might be a descendant of his. It’s better to describe you as her great-grandma.” Cain laughed as he got a headache. Sofia being the grandchild of the witch who enslaved him in the past was more than he could handle.
All they need to do was to wait for Sofia to wake up and hear her story, Cain hoped she wouldn’t mind sharing her past as it was a subject that she never brought up.