The dragon felt the sudden explosion of the taste of gunpowder inside his mouth. He could feel his insides shaking from the sudden impact. He felt as if his entire being was being shaken violently until not even he could hold out.The dragon"s giant body slammed down onto the earth, causing winds to flare against Felicia again. This time, it was accompanied with smoke causing her to cough a bit.
Once the smoke cleared and everything had calmed down, Felicia was struck with the realization that she had just incapacitated a dragon. She knew she didn"t kill it purely based on feeling. A bit unreliable? Yes, but this is Felicia we"re talking about.
"Well..."
She looked around her surroundings. The ground had cracked even further, some of the nearby (if you could call it that) greenery had flown off somewhere and she had made a mess of what is essentially her friends" front yard.
"f.u.c.k."
With nothing better to do, Felicia sat atop the dragon"s motionless body. She knew it wasn"t dead but she was currently at a loss. She had no idea what she should do from this point forward.
"...So?"
"Do I eat it or something?"
Now, she didn"t want to but curiosity was a being that had tight reins over her and her family. Dragon meat could be tasty and nothing like she would have ever had before. But on the other hand, Val was a friend.
A very, very, cheerful friend.
She couldn"t possibly stand to face his normally cheerful face be dimmed with sorrow at the horrific act of her eating his fellow kind.
And if she did that, she could already feel Cole"s disappointed, cold stare freezing the entirety of her body. But something was nagging her at the back of her head that the both of them would be miraculously fine with it.
〔WARNING: Incoming Object Identified 〕
"Oh." Felicia thought to herself. It was the exact warning she had received when the dragon below her had been flying her way.
Is it their dad? If she knocks him out, will their grandpa come out next? And after that, it would be their great ancestor? And lastly the one true Dragon? She hoped that wouldn"t be the case since the last time she checked she wasn"t in the〈Huaxia Zone〉.
But thinking a bit more on the matter, it was probably Val. And if so? Hooray! If not? Well, not yay. She could just teleport back home to avoid the consequences.
Unfortunately, she found out that she still had a conscience.
"Strange, I thought that I threw that away years ago..."
"Wait, what am I thinking? I"m not Cole who has stuff that he won"t talk about."
"He should talk about them more though. Get some weights off of his chest and shoulders. My brain is getting sidetracked. This is why I shouldn"t stay idle."
"Ah, f.u.c.k. f.u.c.k. f.u.c.k."
Just as she was about to go into a trainwreck of random thoughts and eventually enter depression parade, the newcomer had arrived!
And would you know it, it was Val, Lala and Braith!
"Oh, Felicia! What are you doing here?"
"Felicia! I"m sorry, I should"ve found a way to tell you that we would"ve been out today for a bit."
"Oh, it"s Miss Felicia. Wait, does that mean that Eva is here too?"
Val was as happy-go-lucky as ever, Lala remained composed like how she usually was when not in the presence of any of the main cast. And Braith started frantically looking to see if Eva was there or not.
Felicia, obviously feeling very confused by their reaction, didn"t know what to say. Where were the tears and screams of DISAPPOINTMENT and UTTER SADNESS?!
"Okay, why aren"t you guys berating me for the fact that I have clearly done something to this dragon? One of your own kind, the same as your husband"s own kind, and the half of your own kind!"
She pointed her finger at the respective subject but Lala only made the comment that pointing was rude and that you shouldn"t do it.
"I mean, Dragons are cannibals."
"Wait, wut?"
"I mean, most Dragons are born in very harsh conditions so they actually lay a lot of eggs and once everyone all hatches and there is not enough food, we start eating each other. Boosts our strength and mana too. Dragon meat has a lot of nice properties just so you know. Another reason behind hunts, if the Dragon hadn"t already tried taking over a kingdom or two."
"So... You guys are like tadpoles?"
"Somewhat."
Val had played the thing off very casually to which Felicia could only shrug in response. But that still left the question of what will they do with the unconscious dragon? Cook him? Release him back into the wild?
"So, what are we going to do with this guy? He came here wanting to challenge you and stuff."
"Did he say that he would challenge me to a duel?"
"No, only that he challenges Valerion von Blitzkrieg. Why? Does that matter?"
"Yeah, it does. If he said duel then that means he could only accept whatever fate befell him once it was done."
Basically, they couldn"t eat Sir Dragon.
Which was quite unfortunate, Val was planning on making something nice for dinner that day and was saddened that he didn"t get to use some premium meat. It looked like that he would have to settle for a chimaera or a gryphon instead.
He exchanged a few more words with Felicia before he headed inside the cave with Braith to sort out their groceries.
While Val did that, Lala waltzed over to Sir Dragon and started inspecting his scales. Seeing this, Felicia hopped down to see if she could be of a.s.sistance.
"What are you doing?"
"Observing its scales. I might be able to find out where he"s from and then you can teleport him back home."
"How the f.u.c.k do you determine someone"s home location by looking at their scales?"
It could be mana residue or something, maybe there was a pattern that came about when living in a certain area for too long if you were a dragon. Felicia didn"t know, what did you think she was? A secret dragon expert?
It"s not like there were any books with extensive information on them either since it was the〈Fantasia Zone〉they were talking about here. The only thing that gets recorded are wars, some legends, a few bard tales, and maybe other stuff but that was the general gist of it.
"Let"s see, a few are discoloured. Probably due to his scales rubbing on some Sheilworth, most can be commonly found in the northern swamps."
"There"s a lot of game there as well so it"s no wonder that there"s a bit of dirt stuck on his claws. They"re still sharp however which means that he lives in the Erelian swamps."
"The trees there are renowned for their toughness and are used a lot by the common wildlife to sharpen their claws, fangs and etc."
Felicia had immediately taken back her previous statement and was now in awe of Lala"s knowledge. Maybe she should borrow a few books from her. She could read them, Eva would like them, and Cole probably would too.
"Okay, Felicia~ May you please teleport our friend here to the Erelian swamps?"
"Sure thing!"
Although she said that, mere seconds later, Felicia had one important question to ask Lala.
"...Uh, about that. Lala, do you have the exact coordinates?"
Lala merely raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar word.
"Uh... Do you have a map? And then can you point out the Erelian swamps?"
Lala widened her eyes as if she suddenly realized what Felicia was getting at. She put a hand to her chin for a bit and seemed to be in deep thought about something.
"It is about... 352, 487 Kilometers north from here, as for the height, it doesn"t matter. Just make sure it is sufficiently high enough so that he may wake up and fly himself to safety."
"..."
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Fast forward to the present, and Cole found himself and Eva in Val"s cave. There was a heavenly smell wafting from the kitchen but Cole focused on the more pressing matters at hand.
"This is not home."
"Oh, Cole! How nice of you to be able to come!"
"Ah, Eva!"
Lala was the one who noticed Cole and his obvious confusion. Braith followed quickly after since he saw his friend. Eva seemed to have stirred awake from either the smell or sound and looked equally confused as well.
"Lala, where"s Felicia?"
At the mention of Felicia"s name, Lala let out a sigh and sent a quick glance towards the kitchen. Cole set Eva down to let her play with Braith and started taking steps towards the kitchen.
The scene inside looked like it came straight out of a movie.
There was fire was forming into a mountain of flames that threatened to scorch the heavens. Slices of fruit and vegetables flying in the sky and yet somehow still landing perfectly on a plate or the cutting board. There were sparks cutting through the air between the two rivals.
But the weirdest part of it all was...
There were j.a.panese characters mysteriously floating in the air.
"...What the f.u.c.k?"