Cain felt better after taking a bath, the hot water seemed to soothe his sore limbs. He slowly walked to the dining hall for launch. “Dinner will be ready soon, please enjoy this in the meantime.” Elise placed a salad plate on the table.
“Do I eat with my hands?” Cain looked at the empty table.
“Don’t you always do that? I’m going to get a steaming hot loaf of bread from the oven for you right now.” Elise looked at him with a menacing smile.
“I might lack noble ethics and things, but I do have a taste for bread. Do you think you can get that bread to my standards?” Cain rested his chin on his hands and apprised Elise.
“I’m not the one baking it, look in the kitchen.” Elise pointed at the kitchen. Cain’s eyes opened wide, non-other than the goddess of bread was there.
“Grandma Mabel!” Cain rushed toward the kitchen to grab the bread right off the oven.
…
“Are we there yet?” Hati asked Selena with a worried face.
“No-nya!” Selena replied with a smile as they walked through the forest.
“We sure are there by now?” Hati asked again. “(Sister, can you shut up for five minutes)” Skoll called her out.
“What’s your problem? We’ve been walking all morning, we were supposed to be hunting by now!” Hati growled, the trip was slowly getting on her nerves.
“I said it before-nya. A female who can’t hunt won’t be able to enter the pride-nya.” Selena seemed overly excited. Out of Cain’s four wives, she was the only one who Hati and Skoll could as for advice.
“What are we hunting anyway?” Hati asked with a worried look.
“Something big and strong, preferably edible or rare-nya. I know Cain likes Basilisk eyes-nya!” Selena said with a happy face.
“Eugh, does he eat them?” Hati cringed.
“Don’t know-nya, he kept them in jars and then made liquid from them-nya!”
Hati almost threw up imagining Cain drinking basilisk eyes juice. But after a few seconds, it made sense in her head. Cain was a monster who sealed a whole dragon. It wouldn’t be strange if had a thing or two that was uncommon.
“So are we going for basilisks?” Hati asked. “(That shouldn’t be the only option. Without a mage, we can’t hope to counter their petrification)” Skoll added up.
“As long as it’s big Cain will like it-nya.” Selena suddenly transformed into her jaguar form and climbed a tree. Hati immediately jumped after her with a worried look.
“What is it?” Hati was a bit confused.
“It’s faint-gaw, but that smell-gaw!” Selena’s eyes widened as she focused on the distance. When Hati looked, the monster seemed like a big crocodile but it has long legs. Unlike Selena who only caught the smell, Hati knew what the monster was. A drake, the horrid child of a wyvern and a giant alligator.
“We can easily kill that thing, they are weaker than they look!” Hati extended her claws but Selena stopped her.
“He has a faint smell of a dragon-gaw!” Selena growled, she could catch the unique smell of sulfur and pumice.
“(Could it be a salamander? I thought they looked red)” Hati said confused at the creature in front of them.
“Should we attack it?” Hati asked.
“If I learned one thing from Cain-nya, it’s to not mess with anything that has a dragon in its name-nya.” Selena was serious, but she still considered if they could win.
“Let’s give it a try-nya. Cain will be beyond pleased if we caught it-nya!” Selena jumped from the tree and started prowling around the monster.
Hati also turned into her Fenrir form and followed her, “Keep your tails down-nya.” Selena slapped Hati’s face with her tail.
“We keep getting closer but the clap of your tails keeps alerting it.” Hati’s tails were too big and fluffy but strong. They made a leathery sound when rubbing against each other.
GRAW!? The Monster turned toward them and opened its mouth. They were detected. As if instantly after spotting them, the monster stood on its hind legs and opened its jaws hissing. CRACKLE! With a small spark, a burst of flames emerged toward Selena and Hati.
They both ran away and evaded the burst of flames like it was nothing but then noticed something. The monster has disappeared.
“It’s still here-gaw!” Selena growled.
CRACK! She suddenly felt something bite her tail and fly high up with her. The monster had wings hidden under its scally back and was able to camouflage like lizards.
Selena tried to use her strength and her tail to lift her body up enough to stroke his head but the monster smacked her face with his tail.
After reaching a decent height with her, the monster dropped Selena down.
When Hati looked up, she realized what this monster might be. A young red dragon, those things camouflage themselves as Drakes or salamander to avoid rare monster hunters.
Selena’s words rang in her head, anything with the word dragon attached to its name was dangerous.
Selena managed to catch a tree branch and hang it there with her arms. She was lucky she didn’t hit the ground directly. And then a blast of flames hit the tree. If she was there, the young dragon was going to set the tree ablaze.
“You little monster. Get down here!” Hati grabbed a stone and threw it at the dragon. That was no joke with her high strength. Yet the dragon’s body swiftly weaved around and dodged her attack.
The young dragon opened its jaw and breathed fire at her instead, He wasn’t stupid enough to land. He knew they were stronger than him and decoded to keep his aerial advantage.
Hati quickly dodged the flames and grabbed another stone, “Take this!” She missed again.
“That won’t do-gaw, dragons are smart-gaw!” Selena jumped from the tree with some of her fur burned.
“That what you suggest doing?” Hati yelled. In her mind, their only ranged option was stoning.
“Be just as reasonable as them-GAW!” Selena looked around and survived the tree, how the young dragons were attacking and she took her lunging stance.
The moment she saw him crank his head back to breathe fire, Selena dashed ahead and grabbed into a tree with her claws. Thud! Thud! She climbed up and then with all her might, she jumped as high as she could.
GAWGAWGWAAAA! Selena roared as her teeth pierced the young dragon’s tail.
The confused dragon breathes fire directly at her but was then surprised by her not flinching. She instead used her claws to hold into his torso and bit his snout directly. She wasn’t holding back, tearing him apart was her goal.
The two of them quickly fell to the ground. Hati rushed to help Selena but found the fight over, Selena’s body had some severe burns but the dragon was moving no more. The front part of his head was chewed down and his chest was gouged open.
Hati gulped down, this might be the reason Cain refused her immediately. Even if Selena was technically weaker than her, in practice she was stronger.
“Are you all right?” Hati asked.
“Cain will like this-nya, it tastes great!” Said Selena as she took a bite of the dragon’s neck.