Chapter 1 – Let’s Walk
Arcacia was panting with exhaustion and pain. Giving birth always hurt her. It always hurt physically, mentally, and emotionally because of him. But this time, the pain was only physical.“Strength, love,” Beud, her consort, said, gently resting his head on hers to remind her that he was with her. It made her smile between the countless sighs of exhaustion, pain, and memories.She steeled her will because of Beud’s support, and with one last strong push she laid an egg. The egg was gray, fresh, still a little sticky, but hard and intact. It was covered in scales like a true armor while at the same time being a recognizable characteristic of its species.She tilted her head to see the egg beneath her. Perfect, she was relieved, finally resting. Beud’s two other heads rested against Arcacia, giving her even more comfort and relief.“Well done, Arcacia,” Visena said. “Well done, my friend.”Visena, the other and first of Beud’s two consorts, approached. A beautiful and powerful green female dragon with pure yellow eyes. He walked over to join them.“Are you okay, my dear?” Beud asked, concerned. She was more exhausted than he had expected. “What can I do?”“You’ve done everything for me,” Arcacia said wearily. “You’ve given me joy in life again.”“You’re exaggerating,” he said.“She’s not,” Visena replied. “For the first time in our lives, we can give birth to offspring we love. You didn’t just save us, Beud. You reminded us what true love is. And what beautiful lives can come from it.”For dragons like Arcacia and Visena, giving birth to offspring was a nightmare. They had been present at “Dragocide,” a massive dragon massacre led by the most violent of their own kind, Gralgor. With only size, fire, and strength, the Winged Death challenged the world, and won. When others of his own race came to participate in this immense conquest, some willingly and others forced, Gralgor showed that he shared no sympathy or affinity for anyone other than himself. Even though he was a dragon, he conquered the continent not for the dragons, but for himself. Hundreds of the winged beasts fought the Beast, but almost all were slaughtered by the claws, teeth and fury of the End of the World.The ones who survived fled, but two were captured: Arcacia and Visena. Both were tortured and abused by Gralgor to bear his offspring. Having only each other’s trust and faith in that terrible moment, they both swore to step on and destroy the eggs laid by the other, so that they would not feel the guilt of killing their own children and preventing that monster from having descendants.For years it was like this, and none of Gralgor’s offspring remained intact to hatch from the egg and breathe. The monster then decided to separate them, keeping Visena where she was, and taking Arcacia to another place. Even alone, Visena’s hatred for the monster was so great that it gave her the courage to destroy the eggs she had laid herself. After Gralgor was killed by the legendary duo Otes Abiak and his dragon Beud, Visena was found and rescued. Unlike before, she was treated with respect, affection and care, few examples of the many qualities with which Beud treated people. Shortly after, Arcacia was found in a fortress to the north, built on the base and inside the Warm Mountains. Confused and broken, she was brought to the safety of Otesis, where she was reunited with her friend and was well cared for and restored to health. Of all of them, Beud was the one who dedicated himself the most to helping them, as he was disgusted that a being of his own kind would be capable of doing something like what Gralgor did to those two.Even with all the violence, trauma and abuse suffered, Beud’s kindness and genuine goodness helped them heal from these brutal wounds. He transmitted simple security, comfort and well-being just by his presence; the kind of person who makes you sad to see him go, even knowing that he will return soon. With their bodies revitalized, and their minds healing after years of mistreatment, mainly due to Beud’s continuous support and care, Visena and Arcacia became the consorts of Otes’ dragon. And the dragon granted his two companions nothing less than the immense love that one is capable of feeling for another. The love of a family. Arcacia was a beautiful and slender young female dragon, just like Visena. But, unlike her green friend with yellow eyes, she was red with green eyes. And the more sentimental of the two. The red one laid her entire body down, with her neck wrapping around the egg she had just laid; a gentle smile formed as she rested her head on her offspring. “I’m happy for you, my friend,” Visena said, genuinely. “This is just an egg,” Arcacia replied without even opening her eyes; It was as if she wanted to start dreaming about that being that had not even been born yet. “You have already given birth to two, Visena. I saw you give birth to the second one myself, and with such ease and effortlessness. I wish I was as strong as you.”“No. You are stronger,” Visena affirms. “You were rescued two years after me. You were at the mercy of that monster’s minions. So tormented that you can barely remember your time in that fortress. Any more and your body would not have the strength to keep you alive.”Arcacia opened her eyes and raised her head slightly to look at her companion, for her words of consideration had struck her.“Visena…” she was saying, moved.“Don’t strain yourself,” Visena said. “Rest. Live. Enjoy this moment. Because you were strong enough to reach it.”“I will be here for whatever you need, my dear,” Beud said, gently bringing his three heads closer to Arcacia again.“No,” Visena interrupted him. “You will not.”Before their faces could change to one of awkward doubt, Visena continued, “Your friend, Beud, has been gone
If I Had Known
If I had known. If I had known then what I know now, that night would have been very different. Worse for that family. Better for me. I remember it well. Everything about our last fight reminded me of that night. The night I met the man who in just over twenty years of war would kill me and destroy what I had built for three centuries. Oh, how I remember it. Things would have been so different. So much better. It was raining that night, but I didn’t get wet. I was waiting at the door of the tiny house after knocking softly and politely. As I waited, I heard quick footsteps and murmurs, as if they were preparing or hiding something before opening the door. I didn’t care. How could I? There was nothing that this family could hide or show me that would surprise me. While I waited for their goodwill and obligation to welcome me into their miserable residence, I distracted myself with the surroundings. The house was located near a sea cliff. The waves crashed against the rocky walls continuously, without stopping. Their sound was only muffled by the rain.Everywhere I looked, except for the ocean, there were irregular fields of short grass, as if that ground were covered by a thin green carpet. Next to the house, a huge tree, whose trunk would still take years to begin to push through its walls. Its crown was even larger, umbelliform in shape, and with its monstrous size, it served as an umbrella for the house in it East side, and, at that moment, for me.I won’t lie, it was a calm land. It brought me tranquility. That’s why I chose that place for Olesis to live. I wanted the person who helped me to live in peace. It was the most I could do for a human like him, even for what he did for me. In a government like mine, gratitude cannot be confused with kindness. The footsteps inside the house slowed. They were both in the room just inside the door in front of me. They seemed to be preparing to let me in, as if they had a choice.I smiled slightly. It felt good to know that my presence had caused such desperate preparation. They were afraid of me, and I liked it. I knew I wouldn’t do them any harm, but the fact that they knew I could, even without reason, and feared me for it amused me. I couldn’t ruin that. They whispered about how they would welcome me. Poor things, if they knew how much I didn’t care. As I waited, the darkness of the night was broken by a flash of lightning that lit up the east. My peripheral vision noticed something, something that hadn’t been there the last time I’d come. I turned my head to the right, and saw it. A swing. Pretty basic, a plank hanging by two rough ropes from one of the branches of the tree. It wasn’t anything special, but it was something different, something new, something that surprised me. I liked it. I was about to start thinking about that swing, it would be the most exciting thing I would do in months, when the door opened, interrupting me.“King Maliris,” Olesis, the father of the family greeted me with a fearful smile as he held the humble door. He looked up to look into my eyes, or where he thought they were. I was hooded and the lack of light outside did not allow the human to see my face.“Hello, Olesis, my friend,” I greeted him calmly. He seemed to tremble a little at the sound of my voice. “I thought you were sleeping. I’m sorry if I woke you.”“No need to apologize,” he said with an evasive voice and look. My apologizing to him bothered him. “We just weren’t expecting your visit today.”“And no one else’s, I imagine,” I said, looking away into the house. Nothing out of the ordinary. “May I come in?”“Of course, I’m sorry,” he said as if my question had awakened him from his fear. “Please, make yourself at home. The house is yours.” That much he could be sure of.He said as he stepped out of the way, still holding the door for me to pass through.“Excuse me,” I said, entering the house with the top of my head scraping the opening.“I’m sorry, King Maliris,” Olesis said, starting to get slightly desperate. If I didn’t stop him, he would start begging on his knees.“It’s okay,” I said, calming him down. “You built your house thinking of yourself and your family, there’s nothing wrong with that. Besides, I’m just a visitor. And visitors, when invited, have no right to complain about the residence that welcomed them.”No one in that family was taller than six feet, and the doorway was almost seven feet wide. My “favorite” children had to duck to get through if they didn’t want to destroy part of the wall that their heads would pass through.I removed my hood, freeing my pointy ears to breathe outside the stifling air. Olesis, after closing the door, quickly approached.“Please let me keep your cloak, King Maliris,” he said, already pulling it away from my body.“Thank you,” I thanked him, while my long, straight orange hair hung down my back. The house was no higher than that floor. The entrance room I was in was both a living room and a kitchen. It would only take me three or four steps to go from one side to the other. Absolutely different from the palaces I lived in. On the other side of the room, which anyone could see directly upon entering the house, was a very dark hallway. There were candles on the walls of the hallway, but they didn’t light them. They limited the light in the house to the entrance hall where I was, as if that were the limit. I didn’t mind. A human