A Demon and a Dragon

by Virlyce

  A Demon and a Dragon

  by Virlyce

  © 2019, Virlyce

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact:

  virlyce@gmail.com

  Visit the author’s website at www.virlyce.com.

  This book is dedicated to Ms. Thoms, my creative writing teacher.

  1

  “Chief, are the preparations ready?” A young man with tanned skin tapped on the flap of a leather tent with the butt of his wooden spear. He waited a few moments before pressing his ear against the flap. “Chief?”

  There was a faint grunt, followed by a gruff voice. “It’s almost done. Come in and help me apply the finishing touches.”

  The young man rested his spear against the tent before lifting the flap. An old man with a grizzled beard stood over a young girl, who looked to be about seven years old. She was wearing an outfit made of animal carcasses. Bones provided the frame of the dress for the animal meat to rest upon, and sinew tied it all together. The old man had a brush in one hand and a jar of sauce in the other. He smeared the sauce on the back of the girl’s outfit before raising his head, nodding at the young man.

  “What do you need me to do?” the young man asked, looking around the tent. It was bloody, and animal hides littered the ground.

  “Rub some salt and ground peppercorn into the outfit. Dragons love salt and pepper.”

  The little girl made a face as the young man approached her, holding two jars of spices. “I hate peppercorn.” She turned her head to face the chief. “Uncle, are you going to cook me?”

  “Stop wriggling,” the chief said as his brush almost slipped. “Uncle’s not going to cook you. Today’s the day of offering; you’ll get to see your parents again. Don’t you want to see your parents again, little one?”

  “But Aunt said my parents went to sleep and will never wake up again because of the bear,” the little girl said. “Did Aunt lie to me? Or are you lying to me? I don’t like being lied to, Uncle.”

  The young man grimaced as he finished adding salt and pepper to the girl’s outfit. “Chief…, do we have to do this?”

  “It’s necessary,” the chief said, his face unchanging. “With the taxes from the empire increasing and the recent drought, an offering’s the only way to ensure our tribe’s survival.”

  The young man sighed as he tousled the girl’s hair, sprinkling it with bits of salt. He shook his head and helped the chief pack away the cooking tools before exiting the tent, equipping his spear. “If only the empress weren’t such a devil, things would be different.”

  “Don’t say things like that,” the chief said as he led the girl outside the tent. A bug flew up to her, but the chief swatted it with a palm filled with fire, incinerating the poor insect. “If you’re mistaken for a rebel, those devils will come after the whole tribe.”

  “Where are we going?” the little girl asked, her gaze switching between the two adults. “Are we going to a feast? I like feasts.”

  “Yes, we’re going to a feast,” the chief said, smiling at the little girl as he grabbed her hand. He raised his head towards the sky, staring at the peaks of the mountains that protruded beyond the trees. A few winged creatures could be seen in the air above them. The chief’s face hardened as his hand tightened around the girl’s.

  ***

  Sera yawned, causing wind to whistle through the cave. She smacked her lips a few times as she climbed to her feet. Her head swiveled around before stopping on an indent in the ground. “Vernon?” she asked, bringing her snout down to the indent. She sniffed it before raising her head. “Where’d he go?”

  Sera frowned as she lumbered towards the exit of the cave, poking her head outside the entrance. A jet of orange flames rained down from above, striking her snout. Her eye twitched as smoke drifted off her scales, causing her nostrils to curl. She stomped out of the cave, unfurling her wings, and glared at the five dragons in the sky before letting out a roar. Four sky-blue dragons were ganging up on a golden dragon, but they stopped mid-attack as their attentions turned towards the ground. “Watch where you’re shooting your breaths!”

  “Sorry, Aunt Sera!” one of the sky-blue dragons said as she landed on a ledge overlooking the cave. “But it’s Uncle Vernon’s fault for dodging. You can’t only blame me.”

  “You little rascal,” Sera said and rolled her eyes. “I bet it was you who wanted to wrestle with your uncle this early in the morning, Alora.”

  Alora raised her brow and smirked as she crouched down and pulled her head back so that only the tip of her snout was peeking out from over the ledge. “And I bet you wrestled with Uncle last night when the full moon was—ah! Murder! Uncle Vernon, help! Aunt Sera’s trying to murder me!”

  “Now, now,” Vernon said as he alighted onto the ledge. “You shouldn’t tease your aunt like that.” He reached forward with one paw to pry Sera’s claws off of Alora’s tail, but one glare from his mate made him lift his outstretched paw and scratch his cheek instead. He cleared his throat as he looked off to the side.

  “Have you no morals?” Alora asked as she struggled to stay on the ledge, her front claws digging into the stone, slowly creeping backwards as Sera continued to pull. Alora’s eyes brimmed with tears as she met Vernon’s gaze. “Someone’s about to die in front of you, but you’re—ack!”

  Vernon cleared his throat again as Alora disappeared over the edge and into the cave. The three dragons flying above him stared at him with accusation in their eyes. One of them opened its mouth and asked, “You’re not going to help her, Uncle Vernon?”

  Vernon peered into the cave and was met with wailing sounds. He blinked a few times before turning away. “Oh, would you look at that,” he said, pointing at the base of the mountain. “Looks like there’s people.”

  “Ugh,” one of the dragons said as it wrinkled its snout, “it’s them again.” The dragon tucked its wings and dove towards the ground, heading towards the three people—one of them wearing a dress made of meat.

  “Them again?” Vernon asked, tilting his head. “Humans bother you regularly?”

  “Once a year or so,” a dragon said as it landed on the ledge next to Vernon. “They come up and offer sacrifices, asking for things like rain or a good crop yield.”

  “Sacrifices?”

  The dragon pointed at the base of the mountain, and Vernon squinted his eyes as he followed its claw. “You see that? Those kinds of sacrifices,” the sky-blue dragon said. The dragon that had gone down to confront the humans rose onto its hind legs. With a lunging motion, its mouth covered the girl dressed in meat, and she disappeared as the dragon drew its head back. The remaining humans dropped to their knees and knocked their foreheads against the ground as the dragon flew back up. “At first, they offered us healthy men, but we told them that humans tasted disgusting. So instead of offering us cows or something, they dressed themselves in cow meat and repeated their first offer. Of course, we didn’t accept and told them humans tasted disgusting.” The sky-blue dragon sighed as it sat up straight. “Somehow, they misinterpreted our words and came back with young women as sacrifices instead. Grandma was getting annoyed at that point, so she just gave them what they asked for to get them to leave us alone, and ever since then, those humans bother us with sacrifices until we give them what they want.”

  “They, uh, don’t fear you?” Vernon asked, raising his brows. If someone woke him from his nap once a year, he’d probably burn the village down to get them to stop.

  “They fear us,” the dragon said and bobbed its head up and down, “but they respect us more.” It sidled over to make space for the returning dragon. “What d
id they want this time?”

  The dragon that had gone down to the base of the mountain opened its mouth and dropped a shivering ball of crying meat onto the ground. “Blech. Too much salt and pepper.” The dragon scraped its tongue with its claw a few times before wiping a glob of saliva into the earth. “They asked for the usual: more rain, more crops, more babies. Apparently, a war’s brewing or something and the empire raised their taxes again.”

  “Ah?” Vernon craned his neck to the side and squinted off in the distance. “That aura feels like Vur.”

  “What is it, Uncle Vernon?” Alora asked as she was dragged out of the cave by Sera, who was holding onto her tail. “Aunt Sera suddenly stopped punishing me.”

  “It seems like our son’s here,” Vernon said with a chuckle. “Right?”

  “That’s right,” Sera said, releasing Alora and flying into the air. “You four better get ready to welcome your cousin.”

  “Our cousin?” Alora asked as she crawled up the ledge. “Oh, a ball of meat—lunchtime already? Wait, why’s it crying?”

  ***

  “It’s great that you’re comfortable with being a dragon and all,” Alice said, her face pale as she clung onto Vur’s scaly head, “but is it really a good idea to fly into a dragon roost unannounced? You said your parents were here, but unless you have nine parents, there’s an extra seven dragons down there that you don’t know.”

  “Oh, it’ll be fine,” Mr. Skelly said, slapping Alice on the back. “You worry too much; what’s the worst thing that could happen? We’ll all die and come back to life thanks to the mistress. There’s no issue.”

  “That’s a big issue!” Alice and Tafel said at the same time. They glared at Mr. Skelly before exchanging glances with each other.

  Tafel sighed and placed one hand on Alice’s shoulder. “If you want to leave a will behind, I’ll be sure to bring it to your parents.”

  Alice narrowed her eyes at Tafel. “If I’m dying, you’re dying too. Don’t think about teleporting away by yourself.”

  “H-hey,” Tafel said as she took a step back. “I made vows with Vur to accompany him to death, not with you. You have Mr. Skelly for that.”

  Alice placed her hands on her hips. The rushing wind caused her and Tafel’s hair to flutter. “Call him Nate.”

  “But I’ve been calling him Mr. Skelly for years; it’d be awkward to change that now,” Tafel said and scratched her head. She smiled at the grinning skeleton. “Besides, he doesn’t mind, right?”

  “No, of course not,” Mr. Skelly said, shaking his skull. “I’ve been addressed through so many names and titles that I’ll even respond to an incorrect name as long as it’s spoken in my direction.”

  “Oh?” Vur asked, his eyes rolling up to look at the people standing on his head. “What kind of names and titles do you have? I want more names and titles too. How do you get them?” Vur’s wings paused mid-flap, causing him to plummet a few feet. “Wait, Alice has titles too like berserk librarian and griffin-cub lover.”

  “When did I become a griffin-cub lover!?”

  “Probably from the day you were born,” Tafel said and nodded at Alice before turning her attention onto the skeleton. “I’m curious too. What titles do you have?”

  Mr. Skelly’s cheekbones flushed pink as he looked down and scratched the back of his skull. “It’s embarrassing to brag about myself like this,” he said, “like I’m tooting my own horn.” He straightened his back and puffed out his sternum, the blush disappearing from his bones. “But if you insist! I used to be called hero, the first explorer, the savior, the conqueror, the defender, the most handsome, the greatest, captain, commander, general, leader, devilish rogue, best in bed, sneakiest—”

  Alice pushed Mr. Skelly off Vur’s head mid-speech, her face flushed. Tafel blinked and peered over the edge of Vur’s scales. Her horns glowed silver as she waved her hand and created a portal in midair, catching Mr. Skelly before he could shatter against the ground, and repositioned him next to Alice. “You know that’d count as attempted murder if he were still alive, right?” Tafel asked.

  “He’s dead,” Alice said with a snort. “Your point is moot.”

  “No, I was just saying, if he were alive—”

  “But he’s not.”

  Tafel’s forehead scrunched up as she sighed. “You know, sometimes, you’re more unreasonable than Vur.”

  Alice shook her head. “Impossible.”

  “Why am I unreasonable?” Vur asked. His eyes lit up as a flying figure approached him, and he flapped his wings harder, cutting through the air while wiggling his torso like a fish before Tafel could respond. “Ma!”

  The approaching dragon halted in midair, her head tilting to the side. “…Vur? Is that you?”

  “My scales and wings grew out!” Vur said as he tackled his mother and hugged her. “How do I look? Aren’t I handsome? Are you surprised? You said it’d take a long time for me to grow them out, but Stella helped me speed it up.”

  Sera blinked twice at the dragon in her embrace. Vur was almost as large as her. Even a real dragon wouldn’t grow that fast! Her eyes flickered, her gaze settling onto Tafel. Though she didn’t open her mouth, Sera’s question was easily transmitted to the demon through some unknown bond that people around Vur seemed to share.

  Tafel’s knees trembled a little, but she pinched her thigh to make them stop. “A fairy polymorphed him, and he learned how to polymorph himself into a dragon.”

  Sera looked down to meet Vur’s eyes and patted his back with her paw. “You look great, very handsome. I raised a really good son, didn’t I?”

  Tafel’s eye twitched. That’s not the conclusion you should draw!

  “Even dragon mothers act like normal mothers, huh?” Alice muttered while rubbing her chin. “I thought Vur’s mother would be a crazy, irresponsible beast considering his personality.”

  “And who’s this?” Sera asked as she lifted Alice into the air using the tips of two of her claws. “Another mate? Dragons are monogamous, Vur.”

  “Eh? But Kondra likes Grandpa Nova, but she already has a mate,” Vur said. He tugged Alice out of Sera’s grasp. “This is Alice. She’s my party’s meat shield.”

  “I’m a guardian.”

  “Wait,” Sera said, ignoring Alice. “Kondra? The holy dragon matriarch from the eastern lands? What do you mean she likes your grandpa?”

  Vur tilted his head to the side before rolling his eyes up to look at Tafel. He whispered, “Was that supposed to be a secret?”

  “I mean, no one wants anyone to find out about their affairs, right?” Tafel asked in return. “So, yeah, it probably was supposed to be a secret.”

  “Your grandmother’s going to be quite interested in hearing about this,” Sera said with a wry smile. “Let’s head down to meet her and your aunt, uncle, and cousins.”

  “Your family’s really big,” Tafel said to Vur as the two dragons flew towards the mountain where eight other dragons were waiting. “Actually, my family was larger than yours before some crazy fairy kidnapped and killed most of them.”

  “What? Which crazy fairy was that?” Stella asked as she appeared out of Vur’s back in the form of purple bubbles of light. The bubbles shone and took on different colors as they solidified into a fairy with silver hair and golden horns. “I’ll teach her a lesson for you, Tafel! No one bullies my friends.”

  “Eh….” Tafel shook her head. “Forget it; I wasn’t that close with the royal family anyway.”

  Stella pouted. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I appreciate the sentiment.”

  Stella shrugged. “Well, alright. I’ll let that sneaky fairy off for now. But she better watch her back!”

  ***

  The first thing Vernon said when Vur and Sera landed in front of him was, “See, look! I didn’t lie. He grew out his scales and wings when he got older.”

  Sera promptly smacked her mate’s snout. She smiled at her nephews and nieces who were hiding behind their grandmoth
er before shifting her gaze. “Mom, this is Vur, your grandson that I’ve been telling you about.”

  “Oh?” Sera’s mother asked, raising her brow as she brought her face closer to Vur. “You told me I shouldn’t judge him by his appearance when I first saw him. I assumed he’d have a deformity, but I don’t see anything wrong with him?” Her head swiveled and her neck craned up and around, getting a better look at Vur from all angles. “Other than a head lice problem, he’s perfectly normal and healthy.”

  “…Did she just call us lice?” Tafel asked.

  Mr. Skelly ran his fingers through Alice’s hair. “Maybe she was referring to the lice of someone on his head.”

  Alice snapped Mr. Skelly’s wrist off. “I do not have lice!”

  “She couldn’t have been talking about us, right, Deedee?” a high-pitched voice asked from somewhere within Vur’s shoulder.

  “She definitely was. You’re just as annoying as lice,” Stella’s voice said, drifting out of Vur’s chest.

  “Deedee! Your wife is being bullied by a stupid fairy! Do something.”

  A sigh echoed out of Vur’s shoulder.

  “Guys! Stop arguing so much,” Sheryl whispered, her voice barely audible as it streamed out of Vur’s neck. “We’re in the presence of dragons.”

  A tiny whine drifted out of Vur’s back from a leviathan-shaped rune. “I want to go home….”

  Vur’s grandmother turned to face Sera. “I think I spoke too soon. It seems like he’s infested with parasites.” She sighed and clicked her tongue as she lumbered towards Vur. “Don’t worry, Grandson. Grandma will take those nasty little critters out of you soon. You must’ve suffered for so long.”

  Vur blinked at his grandmother three times before sidling over to Vernon. He cupped a paw over his mouth and whispered, “Is Grandma senile?”

  Vernon whispered back, “No, and I also think it’s a little weird how there are so many things talking inside of you. They’re not in your stomach, right? You didn’t eat them? Didn’t I tell you eating things that could talk would give you a stomachache?”