The dragon's harem

“I never expected Aella actually to allow this. You know?” Ganta looked at Arad as she leaned on a tree. “Been her friend for just mere months, told her to clear my chest and move past it. Never really expected I’d end up running after another woman’s husband.”

She pushed herself away from the tree and looked at him. “But here we are. She dug through my background, found where I came from, and even managed to contact my family.” She approached Arad. “People call us by many names, but we’d prefer to be called the silver ones.”

She was a tall woman who stood at almost two meters in height, a giantess among her peers, but in front of Arad, she looked far too short, standing at two-thirds of his height.

“Short story, we hunt and eat dragons. But we aren’t some powerful heroes or warriors. We merely target the younger dragons. We rarely hunt an adult, let alone someone stronger.”

She looked at Arad with a passive face, showing a mix of hope and hopelessness in a strange twist of emotions.

“Nothing I say would change that fact, and I’m not good with words either to make you understand.” She glanced at him. “We hunt and eat your kids, plain and simple. Now, you can either eradicate us or keep me as a hostage to control us. I’m chieftain’s daughter, might be worth something.” She sighed. “Damn it, Aella. Delivered me right to the dragon’s jaws.”

She looked at Arad with a smile. “No, it was my fault. I didn’t expect her husband, the large and gentle, doll-loving, big baby with an even bigger heart, to be a massive, horrifying void dragon, an emperor of a nation, and one with enough power to blow the whole world to ash.”

The smile on her face quickly faded away, “I only hope you pick the second choice. Let them live.” She leaned on another tree, “Wasn’t their fault, it is what we are, nature’s way of limiting the number of dragons.”

Arad listened silently for a while as that was what Aella asked him to do. She said to keep quiet for a while and listen to what Ganta has to say. She was smart and would take any attempt at deflecting her expectations, and see it as a threat.

If he tried to convince Ganta that she was wrong, she’d think he was trying to deceive her and pick up arms to fight. When her kind fights, it’s always to the death.

Arad reached to his arm, and by using two claws, he ripped one of his scalls off. It was as small as a spec of dust. But seconds after the scale left his body, it returned to its normal size, becoming a coin-sized black shard of obsidian void.

“This is for you.” He extended his hand forward, and Ganta looked at the scale with a sore face and a bitter smile. Then she picked the scale up.

“I’m glad it’s the second. I didn’t expect to get a scale, expected shackles, maybe a collar?”

Arad shook his head, “First, I got a third option. I’ve dealt with devils and demons. You can’t be worse than them. I know that the world can’t have fifty dragons rampaging all over the planes trying to claim one plot of land only to end up burning several cities to the ground.” He leaned on a tree and faced Ganta.

“Asked Alcott, you know him, the Dragon Slayer and mediator.” Arad smiled, “Man vouched for your kind, claimed that without wolves. We’d be overrun with deer. The bears would grow bigger and stronger, even bolder.” He pushed himself away from the tree with one hand. “I don’t know what will happen if your kind happened to vanish, and I’m not looking forward to finding out.”

“What? You’re just going to let us off? Like that?”

Arad pointed with his head aside, “Follow me. Monster not gonna hunt itself.”

As he started walking, each of his steps covering several meters, Ganta was forced to keep up with him. It wasn’t a problem for her, but she was clearly putting an effort to walk as fast as he did.

Ganta looked at him with a confused face. “Monster? That was just a cover-up, nothing more.” Her expression quickly changed into a frown when Arad didn’t reply for a second too long.

“Two brown dragons, earth dragons as some might call them, had disappeared recently around their parts. Both males, so they should’ve been quite aggressive and territorial. I can’t believe they died without a fight, we should’ve at least felt an earthquake or two.” He looked back at Ganta.

“Something took them down, silently like a ghost. And we’re going to catch it.”

Ganta who listened to him in silence for a while gasped. “Wait? Are you serious? Are we going to chase a thing that killed two dragons without as much as allowing them to make a noise? Dragons would never die like that, not even when facing the gods.”

“A Mad Shadow Drakaina, and a powerful one at that. If my guess is right, she is our monster.” Arad stopped walking and looked at the shadows of the trees. “Two things can silence a dragon, my void, and the ancient shadows of the Shadow Realm.”

“What’s the Shadow Realm?”

“A reflection of our world, an exact copy but of shadows, where a dark sun casts rays of darkness and where objects and peoples have light instead of shadows following them around.” Arad looked back at her, “One thing to keep in mind. People and their shadows- they might not think the same, they won’t have the same ideals and morals.”

“You don’t sound like you’re about to sacrifice me to her, so why bring me here? Why not bring anyone else?” Ganta knew that she wouldn’t like his answer, but wanted to hear it nonetheless.

“I want you to eat her scale. In case I can’t calm her down or she runs away, I need someone to take her place in the future.” Arad looked back at her, “I have a butler called Sebas. He is just like you.” He smiled, “He said the young ones are healthy and can endure exotic powers. He is too old to be eating the scales of rare dragons. He knew it when he ate my scale and ended up in bed for a while.”