The General continued his speech. "We've defeated one of our oldest enemies. An enemy that, in the past, threatened our very existence. We've inflicted damaging defeats on them many times before, but they've always hit back at us just as hard. No matter how many we killed, there always seemed to be more to come. Many of us have questioned whether they could ever be truly defeated, and they'd be forgiven for thinking that.
But today we've proved how wrong those doubters were. The Greens are utterly destroyed and our whole nation is celebrating our great victory. Many would question why we're even meeting like this; surely this is a time to sit back and relax, to go home and celebrate with our families. Just as they were wrong to question whether we could crush the Greens, they are wrong in this matter too.
We have two more major enemies, who are waiting for us to make a mistake, to become weak, so that they may attack and destroy us. Do not make the mistake of thinking that because we are strong today that we are assured of being strong tomorrow. Weakness can creep in overnight, and then our ruin would quickly follow, as it has done for the Greens.
So, comrades, we look to you for building on this success and striving for our next great victory: defeating the Red Dragons. Our oldest and greatest enemy. This is the time. The signs are there; weakness is setting in, although little do they know it. Within a generation, we will be strong enough, and they will be weak enough, for us to destroy them.
Now, to achieve this, a few changes will be required. I know a lot of you have been expecting me to announce my retirement, having achieved that what I set out to achieve, but I do not believe that any of my generals are capable of assuming my role, nor will they ever be. Therefore, my first announcement is the immediate retirement of all of my generals. They have served me well, and have led you to a great victory, but now they deserve their rest. Expect to see their faces among the most senior of our civilian ministers."
This announcement was met with audible gasps, coming as a complete surprise to the audience. The generals were on the whole, well respected, if not universally liked, and it was assumed that his successor would be chosen from their ranks. A number of them were probably due for retirement, but not all of them, and there were several who would have been expected to serve for a number of years yet.
"Naturally, your first question is who will fill their positions, and I expect the more astute among you will have realised that there are six colonels among you, and eight Division Commanders. Correction, there are now seven generals and seven colonels. Congratulations on your promotions!"
The room erupted into rapturous cheers and applause, and looking around the room, Zygar realised that not a single one of them expected this. He wondered who had been promoted from Division Commander straight to General, until he glanced at General Amok, who nodded at him with a smile.
"Thank you, thank you," Amok continued. "I can see that you all welcome that announcement. Moving on; we will need a change in direction now, and you are the ones to lead that. This will have to be a period of peace while we regrow; a time to reflect on how we fought the Greens and what we can learn from it and how we can best fight the Reds. I will welcome ideas from all of you. Starting today, we will be planning for the next great campaign."
"General, may I speak?"
Everyone turned to Zygar in surprise. Amok hadn't indicated that he had finished speaking, but if he was irritated at all, he didn't show it.
"Commander Zygar—or rather General Zygar—please speak your mind."
"Thank you, General. I whole heartedly believe that we can destroy the Red Dragons, and within the timescale that you speak of. But I think we need to employ some different methods, some of which I have already been investigating. I don't believe that any of you are familiar with my new programme."
"Which one, General Zygar?" asked Colonel Xanot. "I understand you have several?"
"Very true. But one is of particular interest. In addition to leading the captive breeding program, which continues to be a great success—"
"We will judge that when we see these so-called Purple soldiers fight. At the moment they're just children," General Pushak noted.
"Quite. But they will form an essential part of our force; the part that we send in first and that will bear the heaviest losses. The country will stomach losing them more easily than their own children."
"We've heard this before, Zygar," Amok interrupted. "Please, tell us about your new programme."
"Thank you, General. Yes, in addition to capturing red, green and brown females, I've also taken a number of their men captive—the reds and browns that is. We've left no Greens alive."
"Men? Whatever for? Their offspring won't be Blue Dragons," General Pushak pointed out.
"No, they won't. But their loyalty will be to their adopted nation. They will be brought up by Blue parents. When they are old enough, they will be sent back to their home countries as spies. We will fight the next war armed with real knowledge."
"Will they cooperate?" Pushak asked doubtfully. "These captives, are they actually breeding?"
"That has been surprisingly easy. We left them in isolation, sharing a cell with no interaction from any of us. Trapped together, you would be surprised how quickly they bonded. I personally caught a couple who took part in the disastrous attack on Issa town, and although we've had them less than two months, we already suspect that the female is pregnant."
There were gasps in the room and a few laughs. "Shameless, aren't they? Don't they have any sense of duty?" one of the colonels asked.
Zygar smiled smugly. "It's as if they forget where they are. I think they actually think we've forgotten about them. With this couple, that's our fifth potential spy."
"But Zygar, it will be years before any of these spies will be any use," General Pushak pointed out.
General Amok responded to this point. "It will be, but it will be years before we will need them. I'm putting a halt on all raids for the foreseeable future. As I explained, we will need to regrow first. The war cost us almost a third of our population. If our neighbours knew how weak we are they'd invade tomorrow. However, due to my foresight and policy of refusing to allow young females to fight in the war, virtually none of the losses were women of child bearing age. I know many of you opposed the move at the time to ban them from combat, but the idea has now shown its merit. We can not only regain our former strength within a generation, we will be much stronger. We share our neighbour's poor fertility, and our doctors are still unable to explain why we are unable to have more children, but unlike the case with previous conflicts we will not take forever to recover, and I forecast within twenty years our population would be fifty percent bigger than before the war. Large enough to fight the Reds and destroy them."
"How can that be? We have the women, but not the men," Colonel Xanot pointed out. "There aren't enough husbands for them all."
The General smiled and looked at them all. "Yes, that will be the second announcement I will be making. And one I expect most of you will like. Everyone who achieves the rank of captain will be authorised to take two wives. Our losses were heaviest in the junior ranks, so there are a disproportionate number of captains, as well as more senior officers. This move is essential if we are to replace our losses, and we have a larger territory now, so we will need to grow."
The officers gasped at this information, surprised at this revolutionary announcement. "But, General, that's been illegal for over a thousand years," Pushak objected.
"Yes, yes, I know. It will be a temporary measure. Once we are back to full strength we will be large enough to crush the reds, and still recover quickly. By the time your grandchildren are born, I believe we could have turned the whole map blue. Then we will begin a golden age of peace."
"When will you be making this announcement, sir?" one of the new Colonels asked.
The General laughed. "Keen to get started, Colonel?"
The Colonel started to mutter a denial, but the General cut him off.
"No, no; don't even think of apologising. I want you to openly support this measure. There will be some who oppose it, so the more among the senior ranks who take advantage of it, the better. I know a few if you don't even have one wife yet. See that you change that, and soon. If take up is poor, I may allow commanders to take three wives. I'll announce this in one month. Oh, and General Zygar. I want monthly reports on your young spies. Dismissed!"
Chapter 28: Start of new term
"Hi, Crystal," Jenna said brightly as her cousin entered the classroom. "When did you get back?"
"Last night," Crystal replied, sitting down next to her. "We landed just before sunset. Mother was getting anxious that we wouldn't make it in time and kept on about how she should have carried me instead of letting me fly the whole way, but she was fussing over nothing. What about you?"
"The day before. I went to your house to see if you were back, but your maid said you hadn't arrived yet. I was a bit bored."
"No Arthur?" Crystal knew she hadn't been Jenna's first choice.
Jenna shrugged. "He was out all day. I hope he's not going off me. I would have thought he'd have visited as soon as I got back."
"I see Daisy left for school without him," Crystal commented, glancing over at where Daisy was sat chatting enthusiastically to John.
"Yes, I see that hasn't ended yet. I would have thought she would be bored of him by now. Look at her. Sickening, isn't she? She's hanging on every word he says."
"No worse than you with Arthur," Crystal countered. "Besides, I think it's nice. She seems much happier now. She always looked a little uncomfortable last term, as if she didn't feel like she fitted in."
"I only pretend to be interested in what Arthur says," Jenna argued. "I'm not listening to him half of the time. That silly girl is actually enthralled by every dull word that weirdo says. He'd send me to sleep in seconds. So, tell me, what did you do over the holidays? Did anything interesting happen?"
"We spent almost all of it in the country, at our other house. The weather was perfect, much warmer than it should be, and we did a lot of walking and swimming and picnics with my parents."
"Sounds very exciting," Jenna said drolly.
"Don't be like that. It was nice. You should come sometime; it's been ages since you've visited us there. I bet Arthur would love it."
Jenna brightened. "That is a good idea. Much better than camping again!" She frowned. "We'd have to invite him though. Arthur means Daisy, and Daisy means John. She won't allow us to exclude him this time. Do you think you could you stand it?"
Crystal laughed. "I told you, I've agreed to have tuition from him. I'll have to get used to standing him."
"Yes, although I still can't understand why you've agreed to that. I know you feel like you owe him, but this is taking it too far. Why Daisy allows it I don't know. Well, I do; it's because she's simple."
"Oh, leave her alone; here comes your Arthur."
Arthur and Seth had just walked into the classroom and sat down on the desks in front of them. Jenna was immediately transformed, smiling brightly and fluttering her eyes at Arthur.
"Good holiday, Crystal?" Seth asked.
"Lovely, thanks Seth," Crystal replied. "We spent it in the countryside to the east of the southern principality. My parents have a house there."
"Crystal was just telling me about it," Jenna gushed enthusiastically. "It sounds lovely. We could all go there for a weekend sometime. A change from camping."
Arthur shrugged. "Might be good fun, I guess. I'll talk to Daisy about it."
"Sit down, class," Professor Silver said loudly as he entered the room. Crystal and Seth quickly returned to their own desks. "I have a few announcements to make. Firstly, your new timetable is up on the notice board. A number of existing lessons have been rearranged, so you will be having history and flying this afternoon. You'll notice that ground combat has been added to your curriculum."
"Will John be teaching that as well, sir?" Seth asked.
"No, Bragon; he won't, and don't interrupt. Secondly, there is a history trip planned for the end of term. We will be going to Oldcastle for a whole week. It's a compulsory trip, so everyone will be going. We will give you more details as we get nearer to the time, but you should let your parents know now."
"Is this something new, sir?" Daisy asked. "No one has mentioned it before."
"Yes, it's a new trip. The headmaster would like you to experience what you're taught, to see the places you read about. There will be a fee of course, but I don't know the details yet."
"What about the poorer students among us?" Daniel asked with mock sympathy. "I'd hate to think they'd miss out just because they couldn't afford to come."
"Compulsory trip, Thorne; please don't make me repeat myself. As for affordability, that's really not my concern and I doubt that'll be an issue for most of you."
John said nothing but burned red at the snide comments. Daisy glared at Daniel, furious with him, and was about to respond but was silenced by a look from John.
"Why didn't you let me say anything?" she asked him as she walked with him, Seth and Crystal to their next class. "You shouldn't have to put up with comments like that. I know he's rude about me behind my back, but he wouldn't dare say anything to my face. He's from the West, remember? He wouldn't dare publicly insult me to my face. It would get back to his father very quickly, who would have to apologise to my grandfather."
"It would get back to your parents that you had defended me," John argued. "It wouldn't take them too long to work out why. But seriously, Daisy, Thorne doesn't bother me any more. And Silver won't last past the end of the year, so I don't care about him either."
"How do you know that?" Crystal asked. "Did the Headmaster tell you?"
John shrugged evasively, coming to a halt outside the tower. "I have to leave you here, I'm afraid. I'm no longer taking history."
Daisy frowned, looking a little surprised. "But it's compulsory; everyone takes it. Why aren't you taking it? You're still coming on the school trip, aren't you?"
John nodded. "It's a mutual agreement. The Professor hates me, I think he's worse than useless, and everyone else concerned thinks history lessons for someone who has read most of the books in the military library are a misuse of my time. The Keeper and the Headmaster discussed it, and they want me to spend my time reviewing our course books and helping to propose some changes for next year."
"Wow," Seth said with a chuckle. "Any chance you can get the rest of us out of the lesson too?"
"Doesn't the Professor mind?" Crystal asked. "I mean, isn't that his job?"
John shook his head. "He's not staying next year. I'm not sure whether that's his idea or the headmaster's, but this will be his last year. He made some complaints about me to the headmaster and made the mistake of giving some specific examples of how I had questioned his authority on a topic. This came back to haunt him, as it highlighted a number of things that he had got very wrong. I can't say the headmaster was too impressed."
"Oh, well done!" Daisy said. "What things had he got wrong? Can you tell us?"
"Sure, I can tell you sometime, but not now or you'll be late. I don't want you getting in trouble due to me. I'll see you at flying lessons."
"This is my favourite part!" Crystal snapped out of her daydream and saw Daisy standing next to her in the changing room.
"Sorry, Daisy, what were you saying?"
"This is my favourite part about being a dragon. Transforming! I used to be really shy about my body, but it's different when I change into a dragon. We're all the same then, aren't we?"
Crystal quickly looked away in embarrassment as Daisy shed her clothes, her inhibitions appearing to have vanished completely. Crystal replied while looking away. "But we're not all the same are we? I know we don't look that different, but I can recognize everyone I know when they're a dragon without having to think about it."
"You're right," Daisy agreed. "But I would have never believed it before. I could never te
ll even my mother and father apart when they were dragons. But now, it's so easy."
"I could recognise my mother by her screech alone," Crystal replied. "Somehow it sounded just like 'Crystal!'"
Daisy giggled. "Were you very naughty as a child then?"
"I suppose so. Not as bad as Jenna though. I expect you were very well behaved."
Crystal caught a glimpse of Daisy nodding. "I was too scared to misbehave. I used to cry if mother or father shouted at me. They didn't do it very often though. Arthur would often take the blame for me if I had done something wrong, and Gerald would always stand up for me. I used to cry even more when Arthur was punished for something I did though so I ended up always doing my best not to misbehave. I expect I must sound like I was a very dull child. Come on, shall we transform? I love watching the scales form."
Crystal turned to see Daisy standing completely naked in front of her and looked away again. She couldn't help thinking to herself that she wouldn't feel so self-conscious either if she had Daisy's figure. Daisy transformed quite quickly, and screeched excitedly as soon as she was finished. She gave a last look at Crystal, urging her to follow, before rushing through the doors to the outside. Left alone in the changing room, Crystal removed her own clothes and began her transformation.
Welcome students, John began, his voice sounding warmly in everyone's minds as they gathered around him, all one-hundred-and-twenty-four young dragons, sat patiently waiting for the lesson to start. This term, we will be moving onto learning some basic aerial combat. We will begin with the use of fire.
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