The dragon's harem

Mira looked at the carriage’s ceiling, a deep sight escaping her lips. “It’s like playing with a machine that could explode at any second…” She slowly turned and looked at Isdis, “Any mistake, and it’ll blow in your face.”

“For me, I would say it feels like entrusting my life to someone I can’t trust. If a random soldier came and told me the road was safe, I’d find it hard to go without my sword.” Isdis sat beside her.

“If Merlin failed with her magic, Arad could end up dead, crippled, or sealed beside Zephyr for all eternity.” Mira scratched her head, “And if Arad failed to drag Zephyr out in time, Merlin could end up turning into a deformed monster based on her magic.”

“It doesn’t help that neither had tried that magic before.” Isdis reached with her hand beneath the seats and pulled a cold water bottle, “Arad was just studying the spatial magic, and Merlin is winging it out in her labyrinth.”

Lyla looked at Mira, “You told me before, it’s trust. Right.”

“Yeah. If any of them felt uncomfortable, that could lead to mistakes.” Mira lifted both her hands as closed fists, “When they are working alone, they can get to 100% of their potential. But if they are working together without trust, the fear of the other messing things up would drop their potential a lot.”

“But…” Roberta took the water bottle from Isdis, “This is not water, it’s white wine. Merlin hides it there to cool it a bit.” She sighed, “She’s a drunkard, and Arad needs to trust her.”

Isdis sniffed the bottle, and it was indeed white wine.

“But if they trust each other, they could achieve the impossible.” Mira leaned back on the seats, “That’s why they need to build trust before attempting to free Zephyr. It’s sad that Aella isn’t here, but having her around would just increase the stress on Arad.”

“She might get emotional about Zephyr, staying home is better.” Isdis finally found the water bottle, “Arad and Merlin would fight before attempting to free Zephyr. That so they can show each other what they are capable of.” She giggled, “I’ve seen how Arad intends to fight her…” She clenched her fists with a large smile on her face… “That form is something else, why can’t he wear those clothes each day.”

Mira looked at her, “Eris and Merida also like it a lot, especially Merida.” Mira looked at her mother, “It’s not that great, too much gold.”

“Is it just his clothes?” Lyla asked.

“Well, he wore this weird white robe that wrapped around one shoulder, leaving the other exposed, and added a ton of jewelry that was cursed by Doma. Not to forget that her pink and black tattoos spread across his whole body…that look is too weird for him.” Mira sighed, “But I guess, some find it nice, and he’s able to leverage curses a lot thanks to all those enchantments.”

“Mira, Merlin isn’t that easy to defeat either. Did you see her truth?” Isdis shook her head, “Doma called her the witch goddess of the labyrinth. There is a reason why Arad is going full curses to fight her.”

“Betty explained it to us.” Mira clenched a fist, “Just how omnipotent Merlin is when fighting inside her labyrinth. She’s basically a goddess ruling her own domain. Remember the mess her labyrinth caused at Alina; it was still Merlin’s magic that robbed Arad of all his draconic power. He’s going full curses so she can’t do that to him.”

“Divine beings like Jordan might be able to resist her dominion inside the labyrinth, but to mortal…she might as well be a goddess in there.” Isdis looked at the confused Lyla and Roberta, “Nina beat her though…”

“Don’t tell me last time when…” Lyla blinked twice.

“Yeah, when you came to our house and found Nina and Merlin not getting along, it was right after Merlin tested her labyrinth with Nina. Apparently, Nina’s magic reflection works even against Merlin’s labyrinth. In the fraction of a second that took Merlin to realize that Nina wasn’t affected it was already too late.” Isdis waved her hand, leaning back.

“Nina instantly kicked Merlin in the guts as the fight started, knocking her out. She didn’t eat bread for a week.” Mira said with a worried face. “And Arad like that. He always talks about how powerful Nina is, she’s like a controlled Merida, times ten.”

“That would be…” As Roberta was about to speak, the carriage started moving. “I guess Arad finished the monster.”

“Yeah, he needs to eat before the fight. That’s his pre-fight meal, like how Zephyr started bulking up before Vlad’s fight. He’s taking the fight seriously.” Mira looked out the window with a worried face, “He needs to trust Merlin’s strength.”

“He trusts Nina, he trusts Alva of all people.” Isdis burst laughing, “He’ll trust Merlin, they only need to fight once.”

“You say that…” Mira looked at her with a sad face, “Aren’t we two left behind? Eris, Merida, Aella, and even them…they could fight Arad, while we couldn’t.”

Isdis looked at Lyla, “Mother Lyla…your daughter seems to be a bit worried about the future of her relation with her husband, care to share some tips?”

“Isdis!” Mira cried.

“Yeah, I got a few.” Lyla giggled, “Arad reminds me of your father…” She looked at Mira, “While being an angry soldier with a lot of energy, he loves to cuddle down and chill out at home.”

“I only remember him sleeping on the couch, or on your lap.” Mira titled her head.

“You don’t know what your father’s nickname was, do you?” Lyla giggled, “The hundred- man slayer, the head slasher, and some called him the honey badger. He was a vicious fighter… a terrifying man on the battlefield.”

“Did you see him fight before?” Mira looked at her mother, this was the first time she heard about her father in years.

“We got attacked by bandits once when we were traveling between the cities with my goods.” Lyla looked down with a faint smile, “We were alone and got surrounded by fifty armed robbers, that’s what I counted, but there was more.”

“You survived that fight…” Mira gasped, unlike Arad, her father was a human, a regular man.

“I saw him slash five people in a single swing from his great sword. I had to pull nine bolts from his back and three arrows from his chest after the fight. I even used the threads I kept in the carriage to sew his open wounds shut. But…he killed them, all the robbers.”

“He was a powerful man…How did he die? I didn’t hear of such a soldier; he might’ve become a commander with that strength.” Isdis looked at Lyla.

“While calm with me, he suffered a lot from anger issues which didn’t allow him to become a leader. He remained a frontliner until he died, and I only received his army badge.” Lyla pulled the steel necklace she was wearing, [Rotgar Belethor: Heavy Cavalry]

“I’ll check with the kingdom’s general and find out what happened.” Isdis looked closer at the badge, “Silver badge, he served for over ten years. Is there anything about him that I might use? Like when asking soldiers and generals about him, as sad as it might be, they might not remember the name.”

“He was short and had some dwarven blood in him. Stout with long and silky brown hair, and he always carried a guitar with him and used to love playing with it. It calms him down, but he was quite bad.” Lyla giggled, remembering how Rotgar used to start playing the guitar, only for the neighbors to come as him to stop, at which he’d start a fight.

“Dwarven blood, no wonder Mira came to be such a magnificent craftswoman.” Isdis looked

at her.

“I’m not short.” Mira giggled as she saw Isdis eyeing her.

“Don’t exhaust yourself, it’s already been ten years at least. I doubt you’ll find anything on him.” Lyla smiled, with a hint of sadness. “I would’ve loved for Arad to have met him; I’ve got

a feeling that those two might get along.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll do my best and find anything about him.” Isdis said with a proud face,

puffing her chest.

After almost an hour, the caravan finally reached the lions’ village and it stopped outside. The massive gate opened and a large lion walked out, flailing his majestic mane. “ZARA! hunter of the tigers. I expected to see you here bringing your daughter to Zank, not a human princess.” Zara walked forward with a stern face. “Lion King Serba. It’s been a year since we’ve last met, you old bastard.” The two stared at each other for a second and burst laughing, “You’ve grown fatter!” Zara laughed his guts out, “Are your wives feeding you like stuffing a turkey?” “I’m eating good.” Serba looked at Zara with a grin, “On the other hand, you seem to have gained a bit more muscles. Isn’t your wife working you a bit too much?”

“Come on, you can’t blame me. She’s scary.” Zara and Serba shook hands and looked back at the caravan, “Let them in. The queen should come see them later this day. Don’t delay, or I’ll pluck your tails off!” Serba growled at the other lions.