The dragon's harem

Skinning the bison wasn’t easy, but Arad managed to do it thanks to his size, strength, and skill. By now, the maid who taught him how to skin games should’ve died already of old age in Yog’s world, but her teachings were engraved into his hands, showing him the basics and allowing him to skin even the largest and weirdest of monsters.

Her teachings had helped him a lot, and he could only hope that she had lived a long, happy, and fulfilling life.

Thanks to her teachings, they now have a fresh, large hide to sleep on and even a bit of meat for dinner. But sadly, killing and skinning the bison had cost them precious time, and now they had to hurry and cross the frozen bay and reach the forest long before sunset.

They did need to find or make a shelter after all. So after wrapping the hide into a massive roll and stacking it up on the sledge behind Haru with the meat on top, they were about to start moving.

But before they could leave, Haru insisted that she must heal Arad’s ankle. Even if he had snapped it back into place now, there is no telling if it’ll start hurting again later. So it won’t hurt to cast a healing spell on it, especially since he has to drag even more weight now, including her.

The sledge was already heavy enough with everything in it and her, but now with the added hide and meat, it must’ve at least tripled in weight from when they left the shed.

Haru knew she wasn’t too heavy, but plump… that doesn’t count into her weight.

She quickly healed Arad’s ankle, noticing that he wasn’t just hurt, but had almost torn one of the ligaments off. It must’ve been hurting like hell, but… he didn’t say anything and was about to drag the sledge in that state.

She glared at Arad. “It’s hurting, right? Could’ve said something.”

Arad looked at his foot, then shrugged. “They always hurt after a hit. I’ll quite down in an hour or two.”

Haru sighed. “If you were a dragon, probably. As a human, forget it. If anything hurts, tell me. I don’t care if it’s a bug bite or a stab wound, just tell me.” Arad was indeed like a wild animal, even if he was badly injured, in pain, or near death, he wouldn’t ever show it. Not because he doesn’t want to look weak, but because he is used to most wounds healing themselves if he ignores them long enough.

And so, they started moving through the snow. Looking back after half an hour, they could see a bunch of wolves surrounding the bison’s corpse they had left, and there was even a massive white bear that showed up to fight for it.

Strangely, there was no herd in sight. Arad almost expected ten more bison to show up to save their buddy. His plan was to just blast them with a spell from afar and let the horrors of the deep sea eat them.

It would’ve been an amazing sight, and Arad wanted to see what those monsters looked like because he was almost certain they would need to fight one eventually. So, a whole herd of bison looked like decent bait.

“Gojo, don’t bison travel in herds?” Arad turned back, and Gojo looked at the bison’s hide.

“This one is a young bull. I bet he left the herd looking to make his own pack. You can tell by the soft coat and vibrant red stripes.” He started walking beside the sledge and inspected the hide even further. “Yeah, it looks to be the case. He probably wanted to kill and eat us to grow stronger and prepare for the mating fights in early spring.”

Haru smiled. “He was out of luck to cross us… or cross you, is what I should say.” If Arad wasn’t here, they would’ve chosen to flee instead of risk the fight.

“He wasn’t out of luck. He was stupid.” Arad shrugged. “He charged straight forward, which was dumb. If he took it a bit slowly and carefully, even I wouldn’t be able to kill him.”

Arad was right. If this bison were aggressive and fought like a buffalo or a regular bull, Arad would’ve lost.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Arad.” Gojo walked past the sledge and patted Arad on the shoulder. “Those bulls usually spot each other from afar, then charge at each other and butt heads. The one who dies is the loser, and the winner gets all the females of the herd.”

Liliana looked at them. “So the dumb bull with the thickest skull of them all survives.”

Gojo had a large smirk on his face. “With how big you are, and that black coat. I’m certain he thought you were another bull and charged at us instead of being hungry.”

Arad chuckled, “Doesn’t that make this bull even dumber?” But he then remembered that not all monsters enjoy a decent level of intelligence. Most of them only live based on recognizing shapes and lights. In his experience, weaker monsters are dumber than animals by a lot; only the stronger and ancient monsters could develop a level of intelligence.

And… Arad was somewhat certain that butting heads wasn’t helping those monsters with their intellect.

After another hour of pushing through the heavy snow, they finally reached the shore, which didn’t look that much different than the frozen bay. The only way they could tell was thanks to Gojo not sensing any horrors swimming beneath them with magic.

Liliana looked at the sky, covering her eyes. “We’re like… an hour away from sunset.” She turned toward Arad. “What could we do?”

Arad looked down. “First, confirm we’re on land.” He walked a bit further in and started digging the snow down with a wooden shovel they brought from Death and Life’s house. After just a few seconds, he reached the gravel of the beach.

He climbed out of the hole and looked at everyone. “There is gravel, we’re on the beach. We should probably move a bit deeper inland to be safe.”

As per his advice, they kept walking into the land a while longer, then finally settled down. They should start working on their shelter situation, but Arad and Gojo wanted to see something first.

Gojo approached Arad and jumped into his arms, quickly climbing to stand over his shoulder and gaze upon the bay. Sadly, Arad was the tallest object anywhere near them, so Gojo had to use him as a perch.

“What are you two doing?” Liliana asked, and Haru paled behind her, gasping and falling on the sledge. Just seeing the Seer trembling in fear, Liliana knew those two were up to no good.

But before she could stop them, Gojo swung his arm with a large smile. “Let’s get it flare!” He threw a tiny ball of compressed flames, which flew above the bay like a firework, and then fell right where the bear was eating the bison.

The fireball exploded in a flash of magic. It didn’t harm the bear, only startled it.

A second passed, then two, then three, then the bay quaked, and cracks started spreading across its massive expanse in the blink of an eye. Massive, hundred-meter-long tentacles burst into the sky, and a massive, ugly squid beak burst from the ice right beneath the bear, swallowing it whole alongside the bison’s corpse.

“That’s a nice Kraken!” Arad smiled, “Looks edible enough.” He had hunted such monsters in the sea before for food. Granted, he was a dragon at that time, not a mere human.

“Yeah… but that’s one big bastard. How old do you think it is? A century, a bit more.” They watched as the Kraken retreated back into the lightless depths of the sea.

“Depends. If he lived in the sea, then probably like that. If Yog made him, then just days.” Arad helped Gojo land safely on the snow, then the two looked back, and found the two girls terrified on the ground.

“What…what are you two fools doing?” Liliana cried, and Haru took a deep and hoarse breath behind her. “That was… too much magic, a huge monster!”

Arad and Gojo looked at each other, then smiled. “Well, we might need to kill soon, so we wanted to see what the horror looked like.” Gojo approached Liliana to calm her down, and then looked at Arad. “What now?”

He smiled. “Well, I’ll collect wood, and Gojo will build us something nice. Can we count on you?” He looked to the side. Gojo was already getting ready.

“What do you want? A stone or dirt house? I recommend a stone one.” He asked, but in reality didn’t need an answer. He would be going to build two stone shelters anyway because that would be easier, simpler, and sturdier.

Besides that, he wanted some privacy with Liliana, and knowing himself well, he knew that Arad would also appreciate some privacy with Haru. He knew nothing about Arad’s wives, but he knew his brother well and knew he must be large. It didn’t matter how strong or quiet Haru looked, he was sure she would be louder than a bunny, so he was also about to splurge and soundproof both shelters.

“Whatever the chef recommends. As long as it’s dry, warm, and safe enough, I’ll sleep in a hellhole if need be.” Arad reached into the sledge and pulled an axe.

He was going to leave the shelter to his brother. Arad was certain that Gojo could build something better than him with magic. He also trusted that he would make something more tasteful than he could.

Arad’s wives and maids gossip more than old hags, so he knew a bit too much about a lot of people, and from one of his maids, Arad heard a rumor that Liliana is a bit of a foul-mouth in bed. He could guess they learned it from Gojo’s maids when he came to visit, but wasn’t sure.

Gojo smiled. “What about her? She is your wife, right? Would you let her sleep in a hell hole?” Gojo’s question might’ve looked like a joke, but he wanted to poke Arad and Haru for more details that he could use to build the houses.

Arad looked back at Haru. “She was already living in hell. Why would she complain?” Arad knew that Haru won’t complain unless he pokes her, so he did, giving her a reason to voice a complaint as a joke.

Haru giggled. “Come on, I’m fragile and delicate. I lived in a fancy hell hole.” She reached down and touched the snow. “I would prefer a hot place to a cold one.”

Haru had lived in the temple of treachery in the ninth layer of hell, and that was a damn hot place, embarrassing the hottest of deserts in the mortal world. The average temperature ranged from 90C to 180C, a heat strong enough to kill any human and boil water. In comparison, temperature here was rapidly reaching -20C to -30C, frigid cold.

With that, Gojo decided to make Arad’s shelter a bit more insulated to keep it warmer.