Dragon Goddess’s chosen

10 minutes later

 

Stamina depleted, use Mana to sustain rage?

 

‘Yes…’ I confirmed as I dismissed the message and shrugged off the aches of fatigue across my back, shoulders and chest. I glanced ahead to get Rei's attention and warn her about the message, only to spot her effortlessly pull off another corkscrew into a near-vertical climb that made her drop back to just above me like some Top Gun maneuver. It was kind of cute how she had been pulling off stunts like this since the ship left our sight miles ago. “You don't have to show off for me, you know.”

“What? I-I'm not sure what you a-are talking about…” she stammered, obviously caught. 

“Of course,” I laughed and turned my head to look up at her while trying to ignore the three hundred or so feet of empty air below me. “It is really impressive though, I don't think I can move like that.”

“...” She shyly looked away,  “Maybe you should try some, you mastered flight quickly-”

“I wouldn't call this mastery…” Becoming more aware of what I was doing made me falter and wobble a bit. “Anyways… I am running on just mana now, I shouldn't try anything big…” 

“... we should hurry and find what we're looking for then…” the dragoness sighed then dropped down next to me, brushing one of her front wings against mine again. “We should speed up, it will let us cover more distance.”

“This is already the fastest I've gone since coming to this world,” I pointed out. “And I don't know how fast that will burn up my mana…”

“You were going much faster chasing those coastal horrors. Speeding up slightly won't strain you as much as that.” she countered with a slightly playful tone. 

“I… wasn't paying attention how fast I was going then…”

“Use my wind, it should take less effort than on your own.” With that, she pushed ahead and drifted over to directly in front of me. I could feel the pressure in front of me lessen almost immediately and made it easier to speed up enough to keep behind her.

 

With her in front, we were moving at a good clip based on the terrain passing below us and to the slight left. It was much the same as before, minimal beaches and high rocky cliff faces. From this higher viewpoint, though, I could see expanses of green fields of tall grass broken up by patches of pine trees and further inland, a forest of the same kind of trees. After a couple minutes, Rei spotted something first and suddenly dove down a couple hundred feet to below the cliff line. Her sudden action led me to spot it too, a hidden lagoon with a beach that had a gentle slope dotted with tents up to the height of the rest of the land on the other side where there were a few wooden structures and bare fields. In the lagoon itself, a pair of galleons made of a dark, almost black wood were anchored, hinting at a way in through the cliffs surrounding the seaside portion of cliffs shielding this calm bit of water. 

Figuring Rei knew better than me, I followed her down before I could take very long to examine the settlement. She skimmed close to the waves and pulled away from the shore at first then she whipped back around straight back at the cliffs, with me struggling to pull off as tight of turns as her. I spotted the way into the lagoon by water as I followed her sharp climb up to the clifftops, a sea arch angled in such a way that a passing ship couldn't see how expansive the body of water on the other side was.

“Could've just landed in that town,” I sighed as I touched down on the tall grass of the cliff behind the other dragoness. 

“Get down!” She hissed urgently, dropping low like a panther in the grass and started stalking over towards the lagoon side of the cliff

“What?”

“Just get down!” She repeated and I hesitantly complied then followed along behind her. When we finally got to the edge she settled down on the ground and explained herself while watching the settlement. “You forget that these forms aren't accepted by the scaleless normally…”

“Sneaking around won't help us be accepted either…” I pointed out, slipping back into the same language. She sighed and gently nuzzled me, initiating contact for once.

“It lets us see how much of a threat they are… you've been harmed enough today… just watch first, then we go down…”

‘... so you're worried about me… that's sweet…' I thought with a sigh as I turned my attention back to the scene in front of us. Now that I was still and not trying to keep myself airborne, it was easier to observe the village. It was certainly very, very new, the vast majority of the structures were just beige-colored tents on the slope and a quarter of the wooden structures that were there looked like they were in progress. At the bottom of the slope to the beach, a barricade and gate made of logs was erected, a sparse stream of figures traveling between there and the ships, hauling what looked like wood back towards the settlement. 

I was surprised at how much detail I could pick up when I focused on those figures at our distance. Most of them looked human-sized but unlike humans they had thin tails and there were a few with red, grey and dark purple skin tones while the others had normal expected colors for a human. There were also a few without tails that towered over the rest with blue or red skin only.

“Haven't seen people like that yet…” I noted quietly. “What about you?”  

“On the beach? No. I think the ones above are Kenku? Maybe…” Rei murmured. 

“Above?” I glanced up to the top of the cliff above the beach and sure enough, there were a pair of grey-feathered avian humanoids overlooking the others with their wings wrapped around their bodies.

“I've only talked with a couple but those do not seem… right…”

“None of them look armored though, and I can't see any weapons… we can try going down, land away from the ones on the beach…?” 

“Possibly… I don't like this though…” she shifted uncomfortably next to me. 

“Let's see if they're willing to talk to us at least…” I stretched like a cat waking up from a nap, arms out in front of me while raising my back half and wings spread above me, to get my body ready to fly again and stood up.

“Wait, do-” she tried to stop me but the sound of a horn rang out from the other side. I looked back over there to see one of the avian figures now standing, a conical horn raised to their beak just as the noise rang out again. The figures below dropped what they were doing and rushed towards the gate of their village. “... I see why Kat is frustrated with you sometimes…”

“... sorry,” I sighed and she got up as well.

“Too late now, we will try your way, but we fly away if they try to attack.” She nudged me with her snout “Understand…?”

“Yes.”

“Good, you lead…” I gave a nod and took a step to the ledge. Nerves from before briefly came back from seeing the hundred foot drop but I was able to quickly swallow them to take the plunge. I didn't want to seem threatening so I led the way down to a spot on the beach far from the gate and not cutting anyone from it.

“Running from us like we're monsters… still not used to this...” I grumbled to Rei as she landed next to me.

“It is what Scaleless see us as that usually,” she shrugged, unbothered, and cautiously looked at the cliffs above us. I let out another sigh and sat in the sand as I watched the stragglers reach the gate. There, I caught a few more features that I missed at our previous distance: they had horns, some short and jutting forward and others longer and curving back over their hair, and their tails ended in spade tips.

“Wait… these are tieflings…” I quickly cast my gaze towards their ships, having not looked too closely at them. Both had stone armor at the front that was dark enough to blend in somewhat with the wood and was clearly for use as a ram. One had scorch marks and ballistae bolts marring the hull as battle damage. Weirdly enough, though, they also looked like they were in the process of being cannibalized for parts. "Rei, the ships…”

“What about them? And use our language, they will likely not know it…”

“I think these are the demons Adrian asked us to look out for…” I hissed. As if to prove my point, the snap of a chain drawing taut and the boom of a single dog bark drew my attention back to the gate.

There, a huge black dog, the size of the tempest wolf I fought, was at the limits of the chain around its neck. It resembled a Great Dane, long, square-jawed head, cropped ears, hanging jowls, and a tall, somewhat lean but muscular body. Its eyes glowed a fiery red and its chest lit up orange, showing an x-ray of its ribs through its skin and fur with every breath it took. 

The chain led back to the clawed gauntlet of a woman calmly trailing behind it. She was clad in black, stone-like partial plate mail with a symbol of a tree carved on the breastplate and grey leather armoring the gaps in plate on her upper arms, stomach and sides with obvious signs of having been repaired. There was no question if she was a demon or not, her legs below the armored battle-skirt at her waist ended in cloven hooves, a pinkish spade-tipped tail flicked behind her, and a pair of Loki-like crimson horns extended out from the closed helm that hid her face.

“Dragons! No… No tribute to… give,” She called out in broken draconic while approaching, carefully picking out words as she hefted the black greatsword in the hand she wasn't using to hold back the dog to her shoulder. She stopped about seventy feet away or so, her dog at about fifty, both well out of melee range.

“Tribute…?” I asked, watching as the two avian ‘demons’ flew down to either side of the knight. They talked urgently to her in a language that sounded a little harsh and aggressive, like an Eastern European language mixed with Parseltongue from Harry Potter.

“Not uncommon for our kind to ask for in our territory…” Rei explained.

“Of course, no wonder other races don't trust us…”

I sighed and shifted my weight a bit. “Would Common be easier for you? It doesn't sound like you know draconic well?”

“Much easier,” the knight replied flatly, her voice much more confident and almost sultry sounding even with the reverberation caused by her helm. “We don't want trouble but we do not have anything to give for a tribute.”

“We… don't want a tribute…?” Her hands visibly tightened around her sword and the chain. The dog sensed that tension as well and its face scrunched up into a snarl.

“I will have you know, I'll do whatever I have to in order to protect my people…”

“Hey, hey! I don't want trouble either!” I said quickly, pulling up Threat analysis in my panic.

 

4 Targets 

 2 Vrock(?) 

1 Hellhound 

1 ???? Paladin (Unconfirmed)

 

Highest threat: ???? Paladin

 

Comparison analysis of ???? Paladin to Alex Steele.

 

Strength: Moderately lower

Dexterity: Equivalent

Durability: Significantly lower 

Arcane Magic: Significantly lower 

Divine Magic: Moderately Higher 

Nature Magic: Significantly Higher

 

Conclusion: Possible significant threat due to other combatants present, sustained injury and current time in Rage. Recommended that User end combat swiftly to minimize threat.

 

“Says the first dragon I've seen that was armed for battle,” she pointed out. 

“Huh?” My head tilted on its own in my confusion. I glanced down at myself, immediately spotting the poleax head still on my tail, that I had curled around in front of me where I was sitting without a second thought. In my momentary distraction, I heard movement in her direction and looked up to see about a dozen armed tiefling men and women and a couple of the larger humanoids take up positions behind her.

 

2 Oni(?)

15 Demons (Mortal-borne)(Known as Tiefling to User)

Added to potential combat scenario, user potentially at risk.

 

“If we meant harm, we would just have razed your village. Not wait for you to arm yourselves and meet us away from your homes,” Rei growled. A tiefling man approached the Paladin and spoke to her in a hushed tone in their language. He was the only one of this group of reinforcements that was actually armored and wielding a longsword instead of a spear like the others or a studded club like the Oni.

“So, you do not want a tribute, and don't want to harm us. What do you want?” He addressed us.

“We… ran into a couple monsters at sea… hunting them actually… the ship our friends are on got damaged in the fight…” I answered, raising a wing and foreleg on the same side to show the injury on my stomach better. That got the entire group whispering to each other in both excitement and worry.

“These monsters, what did they look like?” The paladin questioned.

“Black, blubbery skin, not as long as me but heavier, honestly a killer whale with legs.”

“Squid scar on its side?”

“One of them had something like that.”

“...Urbi.” She said and one of the hellhound's ears swiveled towards her. She repeated the word then added another one and it relaxed right away and happily moved to sit at her side. “We have nothing to offer, the lumber we do have is needed for construction.”

“What about just a spot to stop and repair? This bit of water is calm… we weren't told anything about needing wood… were we?” I glanced at Rei.

“Kat did not mention it,” she confirmed. The paladin turned and spoke with the tiefling man in their language more. She got a bit of an irritated tone while motioning to us after a brief exchange, his voice remained calm and even throughout.

“How many are on your ship?” The paladin finally asked.

“Um…” I searched my mind, trying to account for all of the crew along with our party. “ About eighteen, probably a few less…”

“Probably?” the tiefling pressed.

“I don't know how many died in the fight. At least one person is injured as far as I know.” The tiefling looked at his apparent co-leader and they started another discussion.

“I can't believe this is working…” Rei mumbled. “The stories of barbarians being violent have to be incorrect…”

“I just rather not fight people if I don't have to.” I shrugged.

“You may bring your people here,” the paladin finally announced.

“Thank you, we re-” I started to say but she interrupted.

“But we want some assurances that we aren't being tricked, only one of you goes.”

“Probably should be you…” I sighed to Rei after some thought.

“You are actually considering this?” She yelped back, popping up and circling around in front of me. “What if they're trying to trick us?”

“There's a chance… but if we try to act in good faith, maybe offer the fish that were caught, this will work out…? If things go wrong I'll break out if I have to and go inland and hide”

“Or I stay and you go back to the others…?” She offered.

“I… don't know if I can re-find them” I admitted, “You're better at flying, probably a lot faster without me, and… I'm not sure how much time I have left like this… I'll be exhausted if I turn back and if I'm over the ocean by myself…”

“You would drown… Fine, we do this, but I am telling Kat that this was your stupid plan.”

“I'll… have to live with that.” I laughed and nuzzled her, making her get a little flustered, before peeking around her at the armored woman. “I will stay, she'll go back and get the others.”

“Zormir will-” she started to reply as she motioned towards the tiefling but he interrupted her in their language. Another back and forth started between them, consisting of lots of hand motions and ‘Zormir’ even tapping the symbol on her breastplate before waving his hand to Rei and me. The paladin sounded annoyed and pointed up at the village in her response but he just calmly shook his head. “Nevermind. I will take you to a spot in the village where you will stay so that no one gets any ideas. As long as you don't pose a threat, I won't have to restrain you.”

“I don't like this, it sounds like you will be a prisoner.” Rei hissed.

“Agreed… be quick, ok? The sooner you get to them the sooner we can be done with this…” I sighed. “I guess we have to be ok with that, it might be a bit before they get here, we were traveling a lot faster than them.”

“That should be fine. We are going nowhere soon.” The knight turned, said something to the armed group behind her, and they all started to return to the gates, or back up to the cliffs in the case of the Vrocks. Her co-leader whispered something to her on his way back and she just shook her head with one hand going to her hip.

“Please be careful…” Rei distracted me with a whisper of her own.

“I will, as much as I can…” I gave her a comforting nuzzle that she shyly returned. Afterwards, she took off straight up into the air, blasting sand in all directions, and rushed back the way we came at a much higher speed than what she was doing while flying with me. 

“So… I'm stuck with you now…” I mused, glancing at my ‘host’. She was kneeling down next to her dog while petting it 

“Appears that way.” She replied flatly, removing the chain from her pet. The effect was immediate on the canine, its eyes lost the intimidating glow and it popped back up to its feet with its little stub of a tail wiggling. It was cute, if you ignored the ominous glowing still present in its chest. 

‘Might as well learn about this place and her while I'm here…’ I thought to myself as I cautiously watched the dog wander to me without a care. “Well since I'm going to be here for a bit, you can call me Alex so you're not just calling me ‘dragon’.”

“...” I felt a pressure at the back of my mind for a brief moment, like from Kat's Message, and my attention snapped up to the demon. “I am Vellia…” she tilted her head a bit. “That is a very human name for your kind.”

‘Is that you messing with my head…?’ “It's what I go-” a hot, wet nose jabbing into the very edge of where my belly plates met my scales made me yelp and jump up to my feet. The Hellhound looked up at me for a moment, tongue lolling out from its mouth, before returning to giving me the customary doggie TSA investigation.

“Urbi!” the paladin called and the hellhound stopped to look at her and barked once. “Sorry, she never met a dragon before… she's curious.”

“It's… it's fine I know how dogs are…” I had to stop myself from admitting I had dogs before since I knew that would just sound odd for a dragon. I laid down to prevent the nosy animal from getting her snout at my stomach again, wincing as the sand made my injuries sting.

“Don't get comfortable, I need to take you up to the village.” She pointed out, stabbing her sword into the sand. She then reached up and grabbed the faceplate and visor of her helm and pulled them away with red arcs of electricity reaching out from the edges to the rest of the armor piece but broke once they were far enough away. She had a pretty face, weirdly familiar in a way I couldn't figure out, striking gold eyes, and pale-pinkish skin that matched the tail flicking behind her.

‘Certainly explains how she can put that on with those horns…’ I thought as she moved the faceplate up and let it ‘magnet’ to the top of the helm just behind said horns. “Just waiting on you, don't want to cause a scene by going ahead of you…”

“You already caused a scene with that alarm. Now, up, I'll show you to where you will be waiting. Possibly give you treatment there as well…”

‘And talk to you on the way up…figure out what you're doing here for Adrian,’ I stretched and got up once again. “After you.”

---

“You… picked an interesting time to try to start a new village,” I observed as Vellia led me up the path between groups of tents strategically arranged around fire pits on the other side of the gate. “Winter isn't that far away…” 

“We are aware” The paladin sighed, petting her hellhound as she walked.  I grew more worried as I noticed a group of young tiefling children, the oldest looking like they were only ten or so, starting up some sort of game with a small leather ball at the top of the slope. 

“There's kids here…”

“Yes… most of us have families,” She looked back at me, almost studying me. 

“You think you can be ready for winter in time…? These tents might not be enough, it's already getting colder at night, especially for kids…”

“We've been prioritizing families with young children with the housing we’ve gotten to so far. You sound concerned there, dr- Alex… ”

“... what of it?"

“Just odd for your kind to care for non-dragons from what I heard about you. And yet you are asking for help for some ‘friends' on a ship and-” Something small hit my left ‘hand’ and made me look away from her and down at it.

‘Oh, the ball.’ I observed immediately. It bounced off my ‘hand’ and continued on its path down the slope but I quickly stopped it with my tail. A tiny, surprised squeak ahead followed by panicked words in the demon language that I could only take as attempts at apologies made me look back up. One of the boys of the tiefling group had chased the ball down until he got to about fifteen feet away from me. 

“Common, Kyvir,” the paladin said simply, still watching carefully.  

“Sorry, dragon! We didn't mean to hit you!” He repeated himself.

“It's ok, I understand, It only rolled into me,” I corrected before twisting the end of my tail to gently flick the ball over to him by using the side of the ax blade like a foosball piece. I wasn't quite as accurate as I hoped, leading to Vellia catching it instead.

 A slight smile crossed her face as she kneeled down by the boy and removed her helm. I was shocked to find that she had pure white hair… and triangular canid ears with fur to match, giving me an even more familiar feeling about her. I was left staring as she had a brief exchange with the boy in their language, handing the ball over in the process. Even Kyvir seemed surprised about the ears, but more amused than anything as she let him touch them. Interestingly, at some point of their conversation, she brought a finger in front of her lips in the universal ‘keep quiet’ signal with a grin and a slight head tilt in my direction, the boy was hardly containing a laugh as he nodded eagerly. Afterwards, he gave Urbi a few pets then ran back off to his group.

“Gentle with children too,” the paladin mused as she stood back up, helm tucked under her arm, and started leading the way again “You were trying not to scare him. You have children yourself?”

“... not yet… just something I know I have to be careful about…” I sighed.

“You care enough to take that precaution.”

“I get it, I don't line up with what you thought dragons are like…” We passed by a cooking area at the summit of the slope with multiple cauldrons of what smelled like a stew of some sort of stew cooking, some older kids helping the adults there. They all looked tired, as did others milling about with other tasks for the village. ‘Lack of military or real guards, communal meals, housing is mostly tents, are they refugees or something?’ “You know… you don't match what I expect for ‘demons’ either.”

“...” Her tail flicked in an irritated fashion as she visibly tensed. “So you have heard rumors about our kind as well…”

“Honestly not a lot,” I admitted. “But people seem to just be generally afraid of you.”

“We have much to learn of each other then, don't we?” 

“Don’t take what you learn about me for other dragons, I know I'm weird, Saerei thinks so too” I joked softly and it seemed to have the intended effect of making her relax slightly.

“I take it, that's the name of the other one you were with…” she chuckled as she paused at an intersection of the lightly worn path we were following, looking towards a structure that looked like a barn where I heard horse-like braying echoing from. Thankfully she decided against it and led me down the other path. “Let's get that wound treated. We would be poor hosts to let that fester.”

“My party's cleric took care of most of it, only hurts when it's touched or I push myself…”

“Your party… you're an adventurer…?”

‘Maybe shouldn't have let that much info slip… need to get some from her…’ I sighed, glancing over the few other structures and people we passed. It was still mostly tieflings, a couple more of the bigger humanoids, even a couple kids that looked like them playing with another group of tiefling children “I am…”

“Interesting…” she mumbled and brought me to a storage building. “I will still treat you. Are you aware of something siphoning your mana away?”

“Wait, what?” I froze, staring at her. ‘How the fuck can you tell that? Do you have Inspect too???’

“Your mana has been diminishing ever since I met you out at the shore.” She said simply as she studied my face. “It doesn't look like you are casting a spell either.”

“I'm not.”

“That is what I thought.” She looked me over. “Curse maybe… not wearing anything… your weapon, could that be the cause?”

“It doesn't take mana unless I activate the enchantment and it was checked for curses before I started using it.”

“So it is magical…” she said thoughtfully.

‘Shit… let something else slip out, need to not be so open with her… not without having Kat nearby to check the future...’

“Anyways,” she continued, stepping closer to me. “I need to touch to be able to help you, so may I?”

“...” I hesitated for a brief moment then cautiously decided to trust her for now and sit down. I raised one of my arms to give her access to my stomach. We may be cordial right now but I wasn't going to risk baring my stomach in any way that I couldn't react right away. “Go ahead.” 

She gave a polite smile, stabbed her sword into the grass, then bent down under my arm and I soon felt her rough gauntlets touch near the claw wound. Instead of a spell, I heard what sounded like a prayer, of which I caught a single word out of what she said: Circaea, the name of the Goddess of Life. I could feel the same numbing sensation as Cure wounds, but it wasn't as perfect as the spell and I still felt some stinging. As she stitched me together, I decided to prod her for some information myself.

 “So you can tell something is taking my mana but not that this is magical, why's that?” I asked, bringing my tail around to emphasize my weapon.

“I feed on mana myself, I have a sense for how much someone has,” She said simply as if it was the most sane thing. She then gave Urbi an order and the hound trotted off into the building with a bark.

“... you… feed on mana…” my instincts were starting to ring alarm bells of the potential threat this woman was. If she could do that, she could just eat the rest of what I had and force me back to normal.

“I cannot recover it naturally like the others.” Her voice started to get an amused tone. “Did that worry you, dragon? You just tensed.”

“I…” I searched for words to try to be polite still, I didn't want to risk angering her, with how sharp the claws of her gauntlets were, but my own claws were just above her as well.

“If it helps, My people volunteer small portions of their own mana to me, I don't need yours.” 

“I still know you're able to do it.” She pulled away from me, apparently finished.

“You would have to agree to it in some way for me to take it.” 

“... I will have to take your word for that…” 

“Up to you to believe me or not.” Urbi came trotting back out from the building at this point, with something in her mouth. Vellia smiled and gave her pets as she retrieved it, the smile momentarily disappearing when it plopped wetly into her hand: a softball-sized round glass bottle filled with a blue liquid. 

“What's that?” I questioned as she wiped off the neck and mouth of the bottle with a rag from a pouch on her side.

“Mana recovery potion, our alchemist wizard made it from local herbs. Took some effort convincing some of the others to use it, one of the ingredients looks like another plant that made some of our people very sick”

“Oh… um what was it… Azahr blooms? I had a gathering quest early on to collect those, they look like deadly nightshade. Wait, if you have mana potions why do you need to feed on people?” 

“Doesn't work on me. Wizard says it works on the body's natural ability to recover it. I have none.” She shrugged and uncorked the bottle before offering it to me. “You're big but only take half for now. Mana burn is not fun if you overdo it.”

“Wait… You’re giving it to me?” I hesitantly glanced at the half a village around us and the somewhat disheveled residents. “I'm sure you're in more need of keeping things like that than I need it.”

“You rejecting it makes me more sure of this choice.” she said simply with another smile. 

“You already healed me, and you hardly know me, I could still be a threat to you.”

“You could. But I see this as tending to you as well and I have my own rules to follow that includes being kind and helping others. Just take it.” I sighed and  glanced down at my tail, thinking of using it first to grab the bottle but all of the dexterity I was used to it having was restricted by the poleaxe. I ended up resorting to grabbing the neck of the bottle in my teeth and tilting my head back for a couple seconds to down about half of the potion.

 

Increased Mana regeneration status acquired (4 hours)

 

Stamina is now projected to recover before Mana is exhausted.

 

‘Oh! I'm going to be able to stay in ra-’

 

Warning, extending rage with this method will require extensive rest upon conclusion.

 

‘There's the drawback…’ I gave another sigh and set the bottle down on my palm. The paladin immediately helped re-cork it before taking it. “Thanks… still didn't have to, though… I can see you are having it rough…”

“It's busy, not quite rough yet.” 

“It will be when winter comes… I have to ask why didn't you all wait until spring?” She looked away at the rest of the village as she visibly sought comfort by petting Urbi.

“We didn't have a choice. It was either now or wait for death.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I'm not going to speak of it here. Aside from your arrival and those sea monsters harassing us, we are finally getting some hope and I don't want to remind them of our troubles back home…” she motioned for me to follow again. “This way… I need to get a project to work on while I watch you.

‘Great… I soured the mood, going to be hard to get info from her… maybe I can try something…’  “I do have some experience working with metal… if you want I can help with making some tools or tool heads…”

“I won't turn down help if you're offering.” She replied, grabbing her sword and already walking away. “But if that is what you're experienced in, I have an idea of what we can work on.”

‘Yep, definitely upset, there's something sore about where they came from.’

 

---

1 hour later

Vellia put me to work repairing the plows they were using to break up the ground they planned on using as fields in the spring in the barn I saw earlier. I didn't have access to an anvil but I was resistant enough to heat to bring the metal to glowing with concentrated blasts of my fire and use my claws and strength to make crude repairs. At the same time, she tended to the fiery-manned, black-coated draft horses stabled there. They weren't fond of my presence but she kept them calm while she was with them. We kept talking as we worked, prodding for information on each other but I couldn't get more about what they were running from. She was more than happy to answer about demonkind (I had to act like I didn't know what the others were called) as long as I gave little bits of what I knew about dragons without letting on that I did not know a lot. My strategic questions did lead me to further and further believe that they were just people, even the Hellborne that she called the non-tieflings, and weren't all the evil-aligned fiends I was used to from tabletops. I also noticed that she got progressively less formal sounding as she opened back up.

“And what about you…? I hope this isn't rude but…” I said as I watched another one of my patches on a horse-drawn plow cool down. “Your ears and hooves… none of the others have beastfolk features like them… Was one of your parents an Inugami?”

“Oh you're finally asking about them? I was wondering when you'd notice,” she laughed, putting down the brush she was using to lean on the gate of the stall she was in. “I'm pure Hellborne, no ancestors from this plane at all.”

“So… you just happen to have them like Inugami…?”

“Oh I wouldn't say that either.” 

“Huh?”

“This isn't how I normally look, except for the hooves and horns, those are natural,” she gave a friendly smile.

“You're… a shape-shifter…?”

“Of the sorts, yes. My kind is called a couple different things, changeling devils, succubi, incu…” she happily explained but my heart sank a bit at this realization and I must have made a face with how she trailed off, “You… recognized that name, didn't you?”

“I did…” I admitted, still panicking a bit. ‘Shit… she could have charmed me or something… not good…’

 

No charm attempts on user have been detected.

 

‘If one worked would it even be detected?’

 

User unlikely to check for charm attempts if charmed.

 

“What have you heard?"

“Um…” I hesitated to try to figure out the right words but failed to come up with anything decent. “Something along the lines of … sex demons that eat souls or lifeforce…”

“I hate how humans started that." Her face fell and her tail flicked rapidly behind her like an angry cat. “I had hoped since you did not know much about demons, you hadn't heard those rumors. l told you, we feed on mana!”

“I remember…” I mumbled as I busied myself with checking the plow over for any more repairs it needed.

“The sex demon part is even worse! Only some of us do that for our side of the agreement! Most of us do other things in exchange or it's just given to us by people we trust!”

‘Definitely passionate about this… she really hates that ‘rumor’... maybe redirect the conversation a little ’ “So…um you said this isn't how you normally look… why did you pick this?”

“H-huh?” she faltered a bit and a guilty look crossed her face, “Oh this is all from you.”

“From me…?” I couldn't really press too much, one of her ears swiveled towards the door and Urbi's head popped up from where she was laying to look in the same direction. A moment later, the armored tiefling from earlier, Zormir, came through, calmly addressing Vellia first, while motioning towards me.

“Because it wasn't necessary. And I've decided, she's a guest now,” She replied in common and his eyebrows furrowed a bit, a crack in his calm demeanor.

“Dragon, your… friend has returned, with the ship. She's demanding to see you before the ship comes to the shore,” he said to me.

“Oh, that's good, glad they made it here fine,” I sighed with a stretch before getting up and making a move towards the door.

“Vellia, you go with her. This is your mess, make sure you keep this controlled.” I paused and looked back at them. 

‘He had to mean for me to understand that, or he would've just used their language…”

“Have a little faith in me.” She replied as she exited the horse stall. She gave a quick order and Urbi was immediately on her feet next to her master. “Alex, let's go greet your friends.”

“Alex?”

“The dragon’s name, Zormir.” She walked past me with Urbi and exited the barn first, grabbing her sword as she passed it. I hesitantly followed after her, leaving the tiefling in there alone with the horses, and waited for us to be several paces away with the door closed before speaking up again.

“... did you two switch stances about me?”

“No. He wanted to turn you away earlier too. Blames me and my Oath for taking this risk.”

“Oh… I was not reading that situation right earlier… I thought it was the other way around with how you both sounded,” I admitted. 

“I do get more passionate than him…” she sighed as she led me back down towards the gate with Urbi happily trotting ahead. I could  see the same group of ‘militia’ from before waiting at the bottom of the slope. “Don't think ill of him… he wants what's best for everyone and I know I am still taking a chance with you. Please do not prove him right.”

“I don't plan to.” I answered honestly, ‘Still curious about what you mean by this form came from me… but you were admitting that you were a shape-shifter yourself … Agh, why does this world have to be confusing…’

 

“You go ahead, I need to speak to my men for a moment.” she said as we neared the bottom after the short, nearly silent walk.

“Wouldn't Zormir be mad that you let me out of his sight?” I asked, even though I kept walking.

“I won't be far behind you, and I meant what I said, you're a guest.” I nodded a little and didn't even bother opening the gate, instead opting to leap over with the assistance of a couple flaps of my wings. On the other side, I spotted the ship anchored in the center of the lagoon, sitting a concerning amount lower in the water than I last saw it, a small rowboat was nearing the beach with Kat and Max inside, and Rei was pacing right where we landed earlier.

“Alex!” The dragoness chirped with relief in her voice as she bounded over to me. She nuzzled me without any hesitation as soon as I was within reach of her and quickly went about checking me over. “Did they harm you at all?”

“I'm fine, Rei, you don't have to worry” I assured her. She shyly looked away and sat down.

“It would have been your fault if they did anyways…”

“Hey, Dumbass! What the hell were you thinking?” Kat yelled right as I heard splashing nearby. She had jumped out of the rowboat as soon as it beached and came storming up to me. Max was trailing behind her, adorably still wearing my necklace and Rei's cloak.“You were gone for twenty minutes and she came back to tell us you were basically captured! By demons!”

“It's fine, Kat, it turned out fine.”

“Agh, you fucking dumbass!” She slugged me in the chest, completely expected, then immediately hugged my neck, followed by Max.

“W-we’re glad that you're ok…” my boyfriend mumbled against me.

“You made us worry though! Nothing was coming back clear and I got a headache from checking so much!” Kat continued quietly “Fuck… now my hand hurts too…”

“That's what you get for punching a dragon” I joked softly as I nuzzled her

“Wait… how haven't you turned back yet? You're normally back by now.” 

“Mana potion,” I started to explain but Max stopped me as one of his ears swiveled in the direction of the gate and he took a step back to ready his staff.

“Someone is coming… a-a demon,” he said quietly, turning pale. I heard the shifting of sand in that direction as well and I glanced over as well. It was Vellia, now stopped halfway between us and the gate with only Urbi next to her. None of her men were with her but she still had her sword and Urbi was in ‘work mode’ with her eyes glowing again.

“Welcome to our little village.” The paladin announced, carefully watching Max. “As you see we didn't do anything to your friend. I even took care of her injuries.”

“I noticed,” Kat replied, pulling away from me as well. She looked the other woman up and down for a moment then visibly flinched before relaxing. “Thanks for taking care of our girlfriend, she can get a little careless with her decisions”

“Oh! Girlfriend? To… both of you?” Vellia looked shocked, then guilty again.

“She… looks kind of like you and Rei…” Max said softly. 

“Bit of you too.” Kat agreed. Confused, I did a double take between them and the paladin. They were right, she was a seamless blend of the three of them except for a few prominent features. 

“I knew there was something off about how she looked…” I grumbled. “I should have figured when you said that form was ‘all from me’.”

“...You are oblivious.” Rei sighed with a gentle nudge of her snout to my neck.

“A shape-shifter then… one that figured out what we looked like,” my girlfriend thought aloud.

“I was just talking to her about this. I'm a Changeling devil,” Vellia said quickly as her looks gradually changed. She went to a (still admittedly) pretty, freckled, farm-girl look, her hair turning black, the canid ears disappeared and were replaced by elven ones, and irises changing to crimson. “I was not sure what kind of... person Alex was at first, so I went with what her mind first thought of to trust to be safe… but I did not realize she was ‘with’ the people I saw.”

“Doesn't really help that reputation you seem to hate…” I pointed out.

“Sorry, like I said, I didn't know who they were to you…” she looked past us to the ship. “Anyways… you have seen Alex, she's safe, you should bring your ship over before it sinks. She mentioned you had someone injured on board? We can't provide materials but I can heal anyone who needs it”

“... I can signal for one of our party members to tell the captain that he can bring it over.” Kat said simply then glanced up at me. “Captain Faolàn said he might have to beach it to make the repairs, do you think you and Rei can push it back out later?”

“Um, maybe…?” I shrugged.

“If not, we might be able to arrange something,” Vellia offered.

“You're being generous…” My girlfriend mused.

“I am hoping to improve relations with people of this continent, and my friend is not too… happy to have outsiders here for too long…Maybe a trade? I heard Alex and… Saerei mention fish to each other when they were here earlier.” Kat raised an eyebrow at us as I saw a flash of magic detection around her head.

“We mentioned it in draconic. Didn't know how much she would catch if we talked to each other in it,” I explained with a shrug. 

“It's… something we'll need to talk to the captain about.” Kat sighed. At the same time, I caught onto the ketch slowly turning towards us and making its way over. “He's not happy about ‘docking’ in a demon village either.”

“I'll try talking to him about it, it sounds like there's some misunderstandings about demons…” I gently nudged Max with my nose, trying to get him to calm down. “I think Vellia here is sincere about what she says, she's giving us a chance, we should give her people a chance too.”

“I think so too,” Kat agreed confidently, confirming that random flinch earlier was just pain from using her ability. With that, Max let out a sigh and just leaned on his staff. The paladin seemed to relax as well. “So… might as well introduce ourselves while we wait for it to come over. Right?”