Book 2: Chapter 5 (1/2)
A gaggle of silver dragons lounged about a spacious cavern. They were deep underground, yet if they looked up, they could see the stars and moon above their heads. But to any passerby above ground, they wouldn’t find anything amiss about the earth they walked on. Not like anyone passed through the frostlands anyway.
Lulu, the smallest silver dragon, rolled onto her back and splayed her limbs. She blinked at the stars before exhaling out a breath of pure white light. “Leila said she’s bringing her mate home soon, right?” No one responded, so she lifted her head and peered around the cavern. Her two older brothers were playing a game of golem chess that Leila had taught them the last time she came to visit. Her mother was sleeping in the largest patch of moonlight, absorbing it for sustenance. Her father was digging a hole in the ground, but she wasn’t sure why. “Anyone?”
Her father looked up. “Mm. She said sometime this year,” he said as he planted a green ball into the hole. He swept the dirt back into the hole with his tail and squinted at the patch of dirt. “Now let’s see if that tree will really grow or not…”
“Don’t you need to water trees…?” Lulu asked and tilted her head. Leila had brought them a gift, saying it was a seed for a Tree of Knowledge.
Her father shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “Leila said to just plant it in the ground and occasionally pee on it.”
“Then why’d you plant it in the living room…?” Lulu asked and sighed. She shook her head. It didn’t matter—her father would probably forget about it within the next few hours anyways. “So … since Leila found a mate, doesn’t that mean I can leave the nest to find one now?”
Her father snorted. “We still haven’t approved of her choice yet,” he said and thumped his tail against the ground. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“But he’s someone chosen by Leila,” Lulu said and pursed her lips. “Of course you’ll approve. Do you think she’d choose someone who didn’t fit your standards?”
Her father craned his neck and puffed his chest out as he sat back on his haunches. “There is no race of dragons nobler than us holy dragons. Leila said she found her mate in the central continent. I’ve never heard of any holy dragons operating in that area,” he said and wrinkled his nose. “If anything, the only one of note there is Nova, the great dragon of pestilence. And of course, the Tainted One, Gri—”
Lulu’s mother’s ears perked up. Her eyes snapped open as she bared her teeth while climbing to her feet. “Did someone say Nova?” she asked as her head swiveled around, glaring at the dragons in the cavern.
“Kondra, dear,” Lulu’s father said and cleared his throat. “I was just discussing the dragons on the central continent with Lulu. You know how they’re—”
“Crass and rude?” Kondra asked before snorting. “Barbarians, the lot of them.” Her gaze softened as she glanced at Lulu. “You know what the dragons there did when the inhabitants of the northern continent fled there and arrived on their lands? They fought and oppressed them instead of working together like civilized dragons. Unbelievable.”
Lulu sighed. This wasn’t the first time she heard her mother rant about the central continent’s dragons. Maybe that’s why Leila fled there all those years ago? Everyone knew the forbidden fruits tasted the sweetest. “Then what kind of standards would you hold Leila’s mate to?”
Kondra wrinkled her snout. “Leila seems to care for him a lot, so I won’t reject him outright. But at the very least, he has to have the dignity of a proper dragon. He can’t be one of those who targets the weak for fun,” she said and rubbed her chin. “Preferably, he should be oriented closer to light magic than dark magic. He should obtain his sustenance from mana rather than hunting. He should be generous with blessings rather than greedy for tributes. He should be aloof from two-legged affairs, and if not aloof, he should at least not be on bad terms with any sentient race.”
Lulu nodded. Her sister’s mate should fit those requirements easily; otherwise, there’d be no way she’d bring him back home to meet their parents. Once her sister left behind an egg for her parents to take care of, they wouldn’t have time to bother her and she’d be free to leave the nest. Of course, she could always try to gain a rite of passage by confronting her mother, but she didn’t think she could fight against her mother’s meteor like Leila did.
***
Carl snacked on the leviathan’s flesh as he debated on what story to tell the two ocean crossers. Perhaps a legend about people similar to them would suffice. He glanced around, but the other fishmen were too intoxicated and joyous for him to interrupt. Besides, other than a few elders in the tribe, he knew the most about the legends. He sidled over to Vur and poured himself a cup of alcohol before pouring some for Vur and Tafel.