The dragon's harem

“Simple.” Jasmine looked at Cerilla with a straight face. “I want our place back at the roots of the World Tree. The underworld had been empty for centuries now.”

In the ancient past, only elves existed. They were born directly from the World Tree’s fruits and could still multiply on their own. While the original generation seemed to have a life span comparable to humans, their descendants could live ten times longer.

They all lived in harmony beneath their great mother, the World Tree. Soon, war came, and the elves split apart by civil conflict.

The first clan, those called the traditional fools, decided to remain beside the world tree and serve it. The other two clans hated them for refusing the promise of freedom and being free from the World Tree’s rule. Those became the High Elves.

Another clan took to the woods and forests far from the World Tree’s shadow and hid themselves there, away from the mortals’ praying eyes. The Wood Elves sought freedom, but ended up caging themselves in the forests for eons and rarely poked their heads out.

The last ones were the problem; they ran underground, hid beneath the World Tree’s roots, and built their cities and kingdoms there. For centuries, it seemed that they were living in peace. Until one day, they chose fire.

The elves who’ll get called the dark elves in the future set the World Tree ablaze from its roots, trying to burn it down, burn the very thing that gave birth to them. They wanted to get rid of it, cleanse the world from its influence.

This was where the million-year blood feud between the High Elves and the Dark Elves started. One kind wanted to protect the World Tree, and the other wished for it to burn to ash.

The World Tree burned bright crimson, its heat and light painted the whole world red, and the embers scattered all over the clouds.

The High Elves panicked, trying to conjure up any great magic they could to douse the flames.

The Dark Elves reveled in their victory and tried to prevent the High Elves from saving the tree.

The Wood Elves shut themselves in their kingdoms and avoided the whole catastrophe, praying that none of the chaos would reach them.

What none of them knew was that the World Tree didn’t need saving. It didn’t need servants tending to it. The World Tree was already far too ancient to be killed by mere flames.

The flames faded in the blink of an eye, and the World Tree’s words shook the world, knocking every elf to their knees. “You who have tried to burn me, but in your own flames.”

Those who set the tree ablaze burned with their crimson fire, their skin charred and their eyes melted. That was how the Dark Elves were born and shunned by the World Tree.

From that day, they couldn’t walk in the sun for it burned their fragile, ashy skin. They could look at the sky for their eyes feared the light, and they were forced to live hiding underground, praying that the tree’s roots wouldn’t find and kill them.

Some worshiped a spider, some worshipped a woman of their kind, but most only hid in fear.

But recently, almost five thousand years ago, when Sylph took the throne as a Goddess, she managed to convince the tree to forgive the Dark Elves.

The Dark Elves were once welcomed again into the World Tree’s embrace, and they became indistinguishable from the High Elves.

But since all the lands were already owned, they ended up making a deal with a willful spirit of the wind. Zephyr granted them vast beaches and coastal paradises.

The now pale Dark Elves resigned themselves to living in coastal cities and soon got used to that life. They built castles, forts, bays, and massive warships. And on their way, they got a really, really bad tan from working under the burning sun a lot.

Now, Jasmine wanted to retrieve the abandoned lands beneath the world tree for her people to live in. In the past, that might’ve been a difficult ask, seeing that they were at war with the High Elves, but now, she might just get it.

Cerilla could see the benefit of technically locking Jasmine and her people in the basement of the High Elves, but she still didn’t know how the World Tree would react. She won’t think they want to burn her again, would she?

“Arad, what do you think?” Cerilla asked, but Arad was deep in thought. Something crawled inside his mind as he stared intensely at Jasmine.

“We don’t want to burn the world tree. I swear!” Jasmine gasped, but Arad wasn’t listening to her.

“Wait.” Arad lifted his hand. “You’re just tanned?”

Jasmine froze for a second and then burst into laughter. “Yes, all Dark Elves have pale, ashen skin, and we get tanned easily. Most people work in the sun, so you’ll find them tanned. But for me, while my work mostly remains indoors, I sunbathe a lot to get a tan. It’s a tradition by this point.”

Arad sighed, “That can’t be healthy, but who am I to talk?” He then looked at the two of them. He didn’t tell them that it was the World Tree that asked him to bring Jasmine alongside them.

The World Tree must’ve known about what Jasmine wanted to ask about. She won’t give Jasmine a lot of trouble since she needs Arad to reconnect all of her saplings across the many dead worlds, so they have a bargaining chip.

“We’re about to land, get ready.” Arad looked up. His incarnation had reached the edges of the Dark Elves’ kingdom. He will land right outside the border in the mountain, and they’ll make their way from there.

The Dark Elves should be expecting them.

Jasmine stood, stretched her arms, and looked at Dalla. “Get our things ready.”

“They are all stored in Arad’s stomach.” Dalla pointed back at the seats. “Just, don’t move and keep your feet beneath the table. Unless you want them cut off.”

Jasmine waved her hand, “Got it! Got it! My beautiful legs, I won’t want to lose them either.” She looked at the carriage walls, “Merlin should’ve thought of a safer way for this thing to shrink.”

“Speak for yourself. You don’t know how hard or easy this magic is to create.” Dalla took a seat beside Arad, and the carriage shook. It quickly grew smaller and smaller, from the size of a large room to that of a tiny, enclosed space where Arad could barely fit.

“I’m going to drive.” Arad disappeared as his incarnation outside shifted to a human form and landed in the driver’s seat. A black and golden carriage rolled across the frozen mountains, drawn by a large and mighty moose.