My baby daughter is a dragon

"Bestenar, my armor!"

Frey urged the young squire, to whom he was delegating more responsibilities each day and, therefore, more trust. The boy had started out clumsy and reluctant, but had become reliable and efficient as he'd noticed that Eri was annoyed when Frey praised him. Runa had no siblings, but she had lived long enough to understand the nature of their relationship.

In less than a minute, Frey was armed and ready. His armor was barely a light steel breastplate, greaves, and gauntlets; he didn't even wear chain mail. Dragonslayers needed the best balance between weight and protection, especially in moments like this.

"Eri!" Frey's firm order was met with the swift reaction of the little girl who bathed her father in her orange fire, granting him additional strength. Bestenar had already prepared Jumper for the knight to mount with a leap. He galloped past Runa who waited to do the same.

"Take care of Eri!" he shouted at the brat. "If anything happens to her, I'll hold you responsible." And so they rose on the pegasus, in search of the dragon. They had to scare it away or eliminate it before it attacked the caravan. They had been traveling with the ambassadors of Pellegrin for a week. They had seen it flying nearby that morning, unsure if it posed a threat, on the advice of Lady Mera, Eri had used her dragon voice to speak to it from a distance, but the response had been a bravado.

Runa rode behind her husband this time, holding him while imbuing him with magical power. Soon it was enough for his enchanted greatsword to materialize in his hand. They reached the winged monster flying a few hundred meters away, ready to attack. Jumper was adapting to Frey very quickly, moving as he did, it seemed like he was jumping on a floor of air when he dodged the flames of an intense red that the dragon launched at them. It was a beast of whitish blue scales, with a slender figure and long curved horns similar to those of bulls. It wasn't particularly large, but it proved agile and ferocious in the sky. Avoiding the attacks with sudden flaps and launching treacherous bites that Frey either avoided or deflected with his imposing sword.

Runa gave Frey even more magic until his sword shone as if it alone reflected all the sunlight, extending its reach. Frey adopted the unicorn pose and Jumper seemed to merge with him, flew in a straight line towards the dragon, avoiding its flames with sudden jumps to the sides without losing direction, the beast avoided the attack at the last second, diving and rising again to be behind them. Ready for his own attack.

Runa was ready. She wouldn't have been able to gather clouds to launch a lightning bolt, but when the dragon attacked their rearguard, she unbalanced it with a rain of ice arrows. Some even managed to wound it through its hard scales, the howl of pain gave them time to turn around and for Frey to adopt the hippogriff pose. Once again Jumper knew how to follow him and flew describing a curve that gave impetus to the side blow that impacted the monster's shoulder with only the tip, but it was enough to disable its right wing.

The beast roared, screamed, struggled and launched flames in all directions, but it was useless, it ended up falling in a spiral until it crashed into the trees of the small forest next to which they had camped.

Runa looked at the ground expecting to see the explosion, instead, her mixed eyes saw Lady Mera on the back of Moonlight, closely followed by Eri riding her young mare Peony. They were going straight to where the dragon had fallen. She got Frey's attention so they could intercept them.

"Miss, don't be afraid to spur your mount, hurry, or you won't arrive intime," Meraxes knew they couldn't waste the opportunity, when the war had reached them, they would need allies, if the dragon was still alive, her lady could subdue it, if not, she had already made the oath and could change to her true body if she needed to protect her. She was impressed by Eri's mount, the little mare had stopped growing but was almost as fast as adult horses. She let herself be guided by the girl as if she were as experienced as her parents. She followed her just a few meters behind.

The fallen dragon had a terrible gash in its shoulder from which smoky blood was gushing, threatening to ignite the forest. The dragon women dismounted so Eri could consume the beast's fire and Meraxes could try to reason with it.

"I've seen you before, minion of the red prince, you are young, you are afraid of your master. Is he sending you to look for my lady?"

The dragon roared its answer.

"<>"

"My mistress, the blue-scaled dragon princess, has taken your power and made it her own."

Eri roared, she knew the dragons understood her if she spoke, but she considered it polite to speak to them in their own language. What a special girl the miss was.

"<>" Eri was afraid of dragons, Meraxes knew.

Before the dragon could respond, the pegasus with Runa and her annoying husband had landed.

"Lady Mera, what are you doing? You shouldn't put Eri in danger like this," the half-elf always became irrational in any situation that put the miss or her husband at any level of danger, if it got worse, none of them could cut their nails again.

"Calm down, Runa," she replied almost without looking at her, her eyes always on the dying dragon, "in the worst case we have saved the forest from burning when this one refuses to submit and dies." Meraxes didn't care much, but she had to say something.

The dragon's roar was transparent, it was afraid. Although he continued his bravado. Of course he was a young dragon. He tried to get up, to attack, but he had broken half his bones and wouldn't regenerate without his fire. He was at the mercy of his princess.

"<>."

"<>."

Frey and Runa had stood between their daughter and the dragon, waiting, but it would make it difficult for her to see her as her lady. Meraxes decided to take the floor.

"Submit to my lady, you will only have to follow us from afar, warn us with a roar if another dragon approaches. It's clear to me that the prince didn't send you, you're just a kid looking for impossible glory," while the dragon nodded, exhausted from blood loss and overwhelmed by pain, Meraxes turned to the humans, "This dragon has never devoured a human, nor do I think he wants to, but he can be a good lookout, you saw that he is fast for his age."

Runa and Frey objected strongly, their trust in dragons was not as firm as the past months had made them believe, they were sure they felt calm with her because of the silver ankle bracelet that trapped her in her human body. Although some days she had a different impression, and she allowed herself to dream. The discussion stalled, the dragon would soon die from its wounds.

Eri stepped forward, removing her parents from the middle with her extraordinary strength and ran towards what was almost a lifeless body. Ignoring the voices of her parents and Meraxes herself, she infused it with the spark of her own fire, wrapped in a torrent of blue and orange flames, she was using all her power in the hope of saving it.

The wounds closed, the fire reignited inside the young beast, when the flames around it went out, it still looked weak, its newly ignited fire was running out again regenerating its broken bones. But Meraxes estimated that if he slept in that clearing for a few days he would be fine. The dragon finally collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Eri approached closer to caress his snout with her tender little hands. As if she was incapable of resentment. Although Meraxes knew from how she interacted with the spoiled brat, that she did know it.

Although it took almost another hour of intense discussion, Meraxes was able to convince the princess to leave the dragon there. The other one would do what she said. So, with the matter settled, they left again.

In a sense, Cerrem was little more than a port in the easternmost part of the kingdom of Artemia, even as a port the city of Artemia was much larger, but embarking from there would have meant going half way around the continent to reach the coasts of Pellegrin and then crossing the desert. From Cerrem they could follow the straits to the south of Druhunn and disembark near the capital, or in the best case follow the Nehil River to the city itself. Whoever didn't want to take a boat had to go around the mountains and it would be maybe two or three more weeks of journey.

However, Frey found the city beautiful, almost all the buildings were one-story, painted white or light colors, spread out along the bay as if they were the beach itself, there was only one palace in the center for the Duke who ruled the region although nothing spectacular. Every few meters there were small docks for fishermen. The port itself occupied the outer part of the peninsula that faced the open sea. It seemed as if the city itself had taken the necessary shape to keep its people prosperous and safe. Without mountains or large castles, it was of little interest to dragons, although that was something they only knew recently.

Ambassador Jamdar called his son Oregdor, Frey would never have guessed they were father and son, not because they didn't look alike, but at first glance they would be said to be close in age. Just a few incipient gray hairs at Jamdar's temples betrayed him as the elder of the two.

"Son, go ahead with the captain, surely at this time her ship will be in the city, offer her gold and if she refuses, offer her salt, and if she refuses, offer her blood." Frey knew the expression, he had learned it from them during the trip, it was a way of telling him to get the lowest possible price but not to let them say no. Apparently many Pellegrin expressions were like that.

For the trip they had brought more people than expected, but on such a long journey, Pankoro's cart was not enough, his wife had brought another and of course their little son who always accompanied Eri, Bestenar had protested but in the end he had come, it was strange, he always had complaints, but this time he hadn't wanted to explain his objection. Frey was accompanied by two other masters of arms from the order and Runa had proposed to bring one of the mages who best understood the soul enchantments developed in Meyrin. The old Genwil. Fortunately being an elf, being old did not mean being fragile. Although he wasn't exactly an athletic or overly active man. Frey wished he was at least...

"Hey you stretched out prince," there he was, the old mage Genwil, master of Runa and the king Alistor himself, "I heard from General Jimmer that you get drunk on Cormin lager, that's pathetic man! In this city they have a liquor made from various fruits that would knock out the dragon king. Come on, come with me to the tavern," his breath already smelled of alcohol and wild berries, he was so drunk that he seemed to have forgotten that it was the third time he had rejected him and that he had already drunk the Troc, that's what it was called, until he was satisfied. Although the mention of Jimmer was new.

"Of course, come with me master," Frey told him while letting him lean on his shoulder, "let's go to the tavern," in the end, he took him to the inn where they would spend the night, because whatever happened with Oregdor, the ships always used to leave with the morning tide. He left him in his bed and went to look for his family, who had gone out to find Eri something to do.

They found them a little later on a beach where Eri was having fun flying as high as she could before dropping into the water, apparently a natural evolution of her old hobbies. A little later Oregdor approached them to tell them that the captain would visit them at the inn that night to discuss the itinerary, probably, if all went well, they would leave in the morning.

The family took advantage of a few hours of sun to frolic on the beach of Cerrem, Frey didn't know what to feel when after building a modest castle with the sand, Eri jumped on it, breaking it to pieces and laughing mischievously.

"A dragon at last," he thought amused.

When the sun left a violet sky as it disappeared behind them, they returned to the inn. Apparently, the captain, a tall woman with long blond hair dressed in the clothes of a sailor, was already there, waiting for them to arrive. Frey recognized her, turned to Runa and could see how both women looked at each other with infinite disdain.

"You!" they shouted at each other in unison.