Chapter 11: Violence

  Revenge!

  I was a little pissed off at first, but when I nded on the old dy's windowsill again, I saw her feeding her cute bck cat just like before. Nothing particurly strange or special happening. From what I could tell, Lanna was still just… Living her life as usual. Nothing changed. She probably didn’t even remember me anymore.

  Tricks!

  Maybe it was a trick. But I don’t know. It could be one of the mushrooms in the pot roast that had a weird effect on me. Not necessarily something she did on purpose. Could also be one of her seasonings. Or just some Devilish bullshit she has no control over in the first pce.

  Silence her! We need to make sure no one knows we exist!

  My other half was logical and calm sometimes, but other times she was more like an impulsive lunatic that I had to avoid giving into or I would’ve probably murdered someone in my st life. Everyone has that though. The voice in their head telling them to walk into traffic, punch some stranger in the face, take a shit on the sidewalk, piss on the kitchen floor, eat 40 cookies… Most people resist it, but some people can’t. The ones that can’t are the crazy cunts you see on the news or on the internet.

  “Maou~!” The cat cried and looked in my direction, those sapphire blue eyes were gorgeous… And terrifying! Yeah, fuck this shit. I got the fuck out of there before any other creepy or crazy shit happened to me.

  Danger!

  “Okay, I need to avoid letting my social starvation get the better of me again.”

  I fpped my wings and flew away from that little hut in the middle of the woods, heading towards the western mountains. From the way Lanna expined shit, I figure that the mountains are actually more like a contested region and not under the sole ownership of the Eastern Empire of ‘Purebloods’.

  Now, for some more context. Assuming this is based on Voracity or any story I wrote with a simir premise, then way back when, there was this crazy parasitic apocalypse. The Purebloods were basically the kinda lucky fucks that would never or almost never got sick. Under normal circumstances, assuming they weren’t killed, they could live to be over a hundred pretty easily. Even if they smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol daily and did other unhealthy shit, they might still make it to 100+. I based the concept off of real-life humans that actually did live to insane ages and stayed pretty fucking healthy up until they died of natural or unnatural causes.

  A lot of the infected were basically zombies or super zombies. Truly terrifying shit. I mean, it involves an Old God of Terror after all. Plus a New Goddess of Joy? Though she’s also a crazy cunt. Billions were infected, but with all the nukes flying around, nuclear power pnts melting down, mutating pnts and animals… The world was fucked in the ass. Not just humanity, but all life on the pnet was devastated and transformed in various ways.

  As for how or why everything could possibly look so mundane now? Because of the ‘Queens’. The parasites or combination of parasites and hosts that were able to manipute genes to potentially create all kinds of crazy monsters like dragons and kaiju, or Elves, Orcs and other fantasy/furry races. There was a long war between Queens where they would either consume, destroy or assimite each other. It could’ve taken hundreds to thousands of years before the Purebloods took over.

  I need to do more investigation though. If this is where I think it is, then there should still be some evidence of way back when it used to be the United States. The issue is that Voracity takes pce within a Multiverse, so I might have just entered a simir world where the protagonists didn’t exist and maybe even the Queens didn’t exist at all. Maybe the Purebloods created some sort of biological weapons and technologies that were able to completely exterminate the aberrations? Either way, I don’t have enough information. And asking humans is too dangerous.

  Smoke.

  “That’s kinda normal.” I was used to the scent of burning firewood even in my st life. It was annoying and irritating to my sinuses, but it wasn’t too arming. In fifteen years, I only had houses near mine burn down a few times… Uh, I guess that’s a lot, but my point is that it was a familiar smell. Much stronger and more pungent than just a bonfire or firepce burning.

  “Huh.” I looked over towards a small vilge in the valley between several mountains. It smelled like firepces, but also like a bonfire.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaah~!” I shrill scream carried on the wind and echoed throughout the valley as I got closer! I narrowed my eyes and felt my balls ache, literally. It didn’t take much time to realize what I was seeing. The houses were intact, it’s not like they were getting raided or some shit. No… The vilgers were gathered together in the middle of the town square and watching the excitement or participating. Someone was tied to a big wooden stake and the unlucky fucker was getting burned alive. It sounded like a little girl screaming her lungs out. Of course it did.

  “Motherfucker.” I’ve seen a lot of fucked up shit, on the internet mostly. There’s a difference between watching a video or the news though.

  Humans are so pathetic.

  “They really are.” I dove down and held my breath. I closed my eyes as soon as I entered the fmes, because they kinda burned. Not that badly though, but it was definitely irritating. My cws grabbed at the ropes and it was actually pretty easy to tear them apart.

  *Crackle~!* The fires were super loud when you were surrounded by them!

  “Aaaaaaaaah~! Mommy~! Mommy~! Please! Save me~!” The little girl was screaming so fucking loud too. Even though I cut her down, that just made the severely burned child get hurt worse. She fell onto the logs and twigs, then rolled down a hill into the river that ran by the side of the vilge.

  “Shit! The ropes tore!” A tall and nky woman screamed anxiously.

  Then a short and stocky man shouted, “Quick! Don’t let the Witch escape!”

  “She can’t escape!” There was a man with a crossbow who was aiming at the drowning child from the top of the hill by the crackling fmes. It… Really pissed me off.

  We should exterminate them all.

  I looked around briefly. Men, women, children, some of them furious and bloodthirsty, others looked terrified and genuinely afraid of what might happen if that ‘Witch’ survived. I didn’t know the story.

  “Aaah~! What the-ughk~!” The man with the crossbow stared at me with those pretty green eyes and I almost felt guilty. He was actually really handsome. Shaved, feminine face, long blonde hair, fairly muscur body… He could’ve been a movie star or a model easily enough. At least a porn star. Unfortunately, he was just some random trash mob to me. The muscles and skin on his neck were so fragile that they couldn’t even stop a burning twig I used as a spear with my little hands.

  I fpped my wings and kicked down at the crossbow, knocking it onto the ground and out of his shaking hands. He quickly tried to pull the stick from his neck, but the moment he did… Well, that just accelerated his death. Everyone knows that you should put pressure on a wound like that and even keep the object puncturing the flesh in pce to avoid excessive blood loss.

  Witnesses! We need to kill them all!

  “Help~! Help~! Mommy~!” The little girl was screaming for her mother while desperately trying to swim to shore, but the river was surprisingly rapid.

  “Robbie! No~! My baby!” That tall and nky woman from before started screaming her lungs out now. Rushing over to her… Son? I don’t know. The dude I killed. He wasn’t dead yet, but…

  *Fp-fp~!* I stopped thinking so much and dove down towards the little Witch that was getting carried downstream. I saw her grab a rock with her burned fingers, but she slipped and kept moving. I plopped down into the water and swam around her rapidly, but I couldn’t really figure out how to use my tiny body to get her out of the water.

  Aside from that, I could see how fucked up her lower body was already. She had pale or reddish flesh above the waist, but below it was covered in third degree burns. Not quite into the muscles and bones or bckened, but still really fucked without medical treatment.

  I could breathe underwater, but I was pretty sure she couldn’t. Thankfully she was actually a surprisingly good swimmer. Even with her lower body barely functioning, she still made it onto the rocky shore and dragged herself up onto the grass. The chilly wind and the freezing cold water were terrible on me, so I can’t imagine how horrible it must’ve felt for the poor girl with third degree burns. Even if she was numb below the waist, her upper body was still retively intact. Only scraped and bruised in a lot of pces… Her face was also recently battered and swollen. She couldn’t even open her eyes because of how badly she was beaten, probably from the vilgers or maybe one specific vilger.

  “Mommy… Mommy… Please… Mommy…” The little kid kept calling for her mother as she crawled towards the woods.

  “I wanted to help, but what the fuck could I really do? Put her out of her misery? It’s way easier to kill someone than to save them. It’s not some enlightening statement. It’s basically just common sense.

  “I’m here. Mommy’s here.” I spoke in a high pitch voice, though I sounded more like a little boy or girl than a woman.

  “Mommy… It hurts… It hurts so much, please… Mommy, make it go away…” She looked up towards me as I stood on my hind legs.

  I could see her yellowish irises and noticed the orange feathers in her dyed blue hair… Was it really dyed blue though? Is that why she was considered a Witch?

  “It’s okay… Everything’s gonna be okay.” I reached out and pced my wet cw on her scarred forehead, “Ow!” Then I went flying off to the side! It felt like I got hit by a giant stick!

  “Mommy!” The little girl shouted excitedly and I saw her getting picked up into the arms of a big, beefy, muscur woman… Then I nded in the water.

  “Well, maybe her mother can actually save her somehow?” I swam up to the surface and looked over at the little girl in the arms of the giant woman. Uh… Never mind.

  “Raaaaaaaah~!” The blue-haired woman screamed furiously as she held her daughter’s limp body in her arms, “I’m gonna fookin’ sughter every st one of ya Hillbillies!”

  “Ummm…” I watched as a big group of muscur blue haired women emerged from the woods. All of them were carrying wooden spears, bows or staves. They wore animal pelts and had blood or facepaint.

  “It’s the Harpy Coven!” I heard a man scream from above the hill and then saw the short dude get an arrow through the eye.

  “Aaaah~!”

  “Run!”

  “Don’t run! Fight!”

  It was already getting chaotic and confusing. My head was still pounding from getting hit by a giant stick and my left wing felt a little bruised…

  Hide, heal, get revenge ter.

  “Don’t kill the brats!” The grieving mother shouted as she used her staff to bludgeon a woman to death, “Virgins ain’t cheap!”

  “Hahaha~! Don’t worry Sis, I love little boys way too much for that!” One of the ‘Harpy Witches’ cackled as she stabbed a man in the chest with her spear. His leather jacket didn’t seem to offer much protection. But immediately after he was tossed away, a hatchet flew over and was embedded in the woman’s forehead!

  “In the name of the Mother, the Daughter, the Son and the Holy Goat, I cast out you foul demons!” There was an absolutely jacked gigachad priest who looked like he was almost seven feet tall. The giant bastard used a shield to block a spear that was chucked over at him, along with a few arrows. Then he threw another ax that hit a tree behind what I assume was the leader of the Harpy Coven. The woman who was probably the mother of that little girl I tried to save.

  Honestly, I don’t regret it. But I’m just starting to wonder if I should stay or go at this point?

  Never mind. I’ll stay. I need to stay. I can’t just run away like a pussy anytime something crazy happens.

  Why not?

  Because why the fuck would I run in this situation? Nobody is even paying attention to me. I’m basically in zero danger. I’m just watching a battle between a bunch of asshole vilgers who burned a child to death and a bunch of what I assume are probably mountain bandits in the form of an all-female amazonian Coven of ‘Witches’.

  At least I think they were women. I couldn’t exactly see all of them that well and some were more feminine than others, but most still looked like they were beefy barbarians. It only took a few minutes before the ten surviving Witches butchered the st few men and women that were out in the open. Then they barged into the houses and started looting. I could hear screams of children and women…

  They saw us.

  “I think they’re gonna rape or ensve the kids.” I crawled up onto the rocky shore and looked over at the little girl I tried to save. She wasn’t breathing. Just some kid with blue hair like an anime character. I pced my little cw on her head and sighed, “Well… I’ll reunite you with your Mom soon.”

  I should’ve never come here. I should’ve never gone north. I should’ve never entered the damn mountains. I don’t know why the fuck I had to put myself into this shitty position in the first pce.

  We can’t save them.

  “We can’t save anyone, but we can kill everyone.” Not that I wanted or needed to kill everyone, but…

  If we do nothing, we’ll regret it.

  “Pretty much.” I breathed out a long sigh and shivered from the cold mountain wind. Then I fpped my wings to get rid of some of the water before rising a few meters in the air… It fucking hurt so bad! I think she really broke my left wing! Maybe a rib too!

  “At the very least, she’s gonna fucking pay for that.” I fpped my wings as hard as I could under the circumstances and got some altitude! I circled above the vilge at the top of the hill. There were mangled corpses and dying, screaming humans. They didn’t finish them all off or bother trying to save their own comrades. The battle was basically over though.

  Now they were just having ‘fun’. I had a better view of the vilge now, about ten houses, with some bigger than others. Some other buildings like stables and a river-powered sawmill also had some shit going on inside. The small stone church was where the beefy Warrior Priest came from, but he was already hacked into several rge pieces by simirly strong muscle-mommies. Well, I don’t know if they were as strong, but this isn’t a game. Just because you’re huge doesn’t mean you’re gonna win in a life or death battle.

  Just like how I killed that one guy with a fucking twig. That’s just how it goes. Tools are overpowered. Though I also probably could have ripped his throat out with my cws if the stick didn’t work. That’s besides the point though.

  “No! Please! Stop~!” I heard a little boy crying out loudly, along with a baby crying even more loudly. I dove down through the open door of the church and saw the Witchy leader drawing a big-ass pentagram in the middle of the church! She put the severed nun heads on the corners around the circle, then pced the helpless baby in the middle. Some other women were digging through the organs inside the bodies of the nuns.

  “Shit, at least one of these bitches was a slut!” The leader compined when her creepy fucking ritual didn’t seem to do anything. She looked over at the whiny choir boy who was chained up onto a cross, “Tell me, Brat! Which one of these cunts was the whore?!”

  “Waaaah~!” The boy just cried hysterically and didn’t give her any useful information.

  “That’s fine. We should have enough kids in the town for a repcement. Always so damn hard to find adult virgins now days.” The muscur woman groaned and stood up, cracking her blood-stained neck. Well, most of her body was bloodstained now. Most of it wasn’t hers, but she was definitely injured and bleeding in several pces.

  I nded on a wooden beam up above them and breathed heavily. I was starting to have second-thoughts.

  More Devils and Gods…

  I mean, they’re crazy witches in the mountains, sughtering vilges and using them as sacrifices. Why the fuck am I trying to fight them again? What if killing them curses me or some shit? At the very least, it’ll draw the attention of whatever monster they worship and offer sacrifices to… Especially because I think I know the name of that monster and what SHE represents.

  “Waaaah~!” The crying baby and the screams, ughs and shouting from outside were echoing in my head. I felt guilty. Why the fuck should I feel guilty though? I didn’t cause this. I didn’t ‘do’ this. I tried to save a random little girl from some random assholes and then…

  “Huh?” The woman had sharp reflexes. She turned really quickly when I fell down towards the back of her neck. I gouged out her pretty yellow eyes with my hands and kicked off her face with my hind legs! She roared, “Foook~! Shite! Me eyes~!”

  I have no clue why she kinda had an irish-ish accent, but this was thousands of years in the future of a parallel world so it wasn’t that weird I guess?

  “It’s a fuckin’ bat!” One of the women screamed as I fpped my wings and flew back up towards the darkness near the ceiling! It was bright outside and dimly lit inside the church, so I really did have a huge advantage.

  “Raaaaaaagh~!” The eyeless woman screamed as she looked in my direction, then she picked up the baby and chucked it at me like a weapon!

  “What the fuck?!” I could’ve easily avoided it, obviously, but then the baby would 100% die. So I tried to grab the child with my arms and legs wrapped around its torso. Seriously, I was only a foot long lizard from head to the tip of my tail… It was super hard to catch a normal-sized human baby! My cws dug into flesh no matter how hard I tried to avoid hurting the kid. The girl screamed and wailed even louder as I fpped my wings, trying to keep from nding too hard on the wooden pew.

  “Wait, that ain’t no bat!” One of the bloody women shouted excitedly, “That’s a fuckin’ dragon!”

  “Dragon?! Bullshit!” The other one retorted, “A dragon cock is bigger than that little lizard!”

  “Dragon?!” The eyeless woman shouted excitedly, “Hahahaha~! Yes, a dragon! The ritual must’ve worked! We summoned a fookin’ dragon! Thank you Goddess for this torturous blessing!”

  *Rumble~!* The whole church suddenly shook as I gred at the three women, one of them bleeding profusely from her empty eye sockets.

  “Roaaaaaaaar~!” A deafening noise shook the whole fucking building! Along with loud fpping!

  “Holy fuck!” I couldn’t help shouting, but my childish voice was way quieter than all the screaming and crying!

  “Shite!” The eyeless woman shouted first, then the other two girls were clearly terrified! They weren’t afraid of me, but of the massive beast that was loudly fpping its wings above the goddamn vilge!

  Escape!

  I looked at the crying baby girl and sighed, “Sorry Kid.” The baby’s blue eyes followed me as I darted over to the shattered window nearby as fast as I could possibly fly! The moment I was outside, I looked up and saw the monster above me… It was enormous. Gigantic red wings for ‘arms’, a long and orange lizard-like scaly body, a long gray beard that dangled from the chin… Well, thankfully it wasn’t looking down at me.

  “Quickly! Save the Faithful from these fowl Heretics!” A knight in shiny silvery armor charged into the vilge on horseback, followed by a group of soldiers that were much less ‘geared’, but still just as imposing. There were dozens of them, vastly outnumbering the Witches in the vilge…

  “Not my problem. None of my fucking business. I don’t care.” Or at least I told myself that as I flew the fuck away from the pce. What would happen to the survivors of the vilge, the children? I don’t know. Would they really be saved? I don’t wanna know.

  Was that big-ass golden dragon with red wings actually a male or a female? It has a beard, but does that mean anything to dragons?

  Unknown.

  See, that’s the kinda shit I was more interested in learning about. Dragons… There are other dragons besides me and I saw one! Well, it was more like a Wyvern, but you get the point.

  We need to silence them.

  I ignored my inner paranoia and anxiety, focusing on escaping instead. My back hurt really bad and I had a massive migraine. I was cold and still a little wet. No, was that blood instead of water? Oh yeah, I ripped a girl’s eyeballs out and cwed a baby that was covered in the blood of a bunch of nuns…

  “Ugh…” I didn’t wanna think about it anymore. There was no point. What were they gonna do? Even if they knew I existed, it didn’t matter. Were they gonna hunt down a tiny little bck dragon in the mountains?

  Especially if I go into the territory of those other fuckers. The Western Cns. The Witch Coven was probably like mountain bandits… Right? Or were they one of the ‘Cns’? I don’t know whether the Cns are huge or tiny, maybe both. I don’t know anything really.

  “Except that I need to stop letting my curiosity get the best of me.” My desperation to be needed, wanted or validated by people was getting the best of me. Just because I’m a dragon, doesn’t mean I’m some kinda Deity. I’m just a dude in the body of a tiny flying lizard.

  I know that. I know it, but I still crave something more than that. Why can’t I just be happy with my new life and live freely? I can fly for fuck’s sake! Why don’t I go south? I always wanted to go to Florida again… Maybe Texas…

  “Okay. I don’t give a fuck about the pces, aside from the weather.” I only care about the people I know there. That’s it. I need them. If I can make someone else happy, then I can feel happy too. It’s… Normal, right? That’s how most people are… I think.

  Maybe everyone I know is just really Autistic, so I feel more normal compared to them?

  “I guess I don’t know anyone anymore.” That was the problem. I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t have any friends, not even a single family member. I’ve never been this alone before. I’ve never felt so empty and worthless before, which is saying a lot. Because I’ve feel pretty fucking worthless and numb in my st life.

  We are not Worthless! We are the most important! Nothing else matters!

  “Uh huh, sure.” I breathed out a long sigh as I soared through the air. I could see the birds from pretty far away, so they couldn’t ambush me as easily anymore. I avoided them, but I wasn’t afraid. If they attacked, I could have a nice meal. I haven't really eaten much since the other day, huh?

  We must feed.

  “I’m also pretty tired…” I dove down towards a random tree on the side of a random mountain. I nded gently near the base and looked around casually. There were mushrooms on the bark, some bugs crawling around, a squirrel looking at me in horror… I ignored them all. Instead, I focused on the small, childlike human skill that was just casually ying there next to the tree trunk. A big chunk was broken on the side from blunt force trauma. Don't take a CSI to figure that shit out.

  “I should just stop.” It felt like my heart was going to explode, my body was aching so badly that the throbbing in my head was hard to notice anymore… “I just need to rest and recover.”

  Eat first. Recover faster.

  “Eat what though?” I looked around and saw the squirrel that was still there. It was frozen in fear, but it’s a squirrel. If I moved, it would either run away or attack. It was prey and I was a predator.

  Kill it.

  “I’m good.” I sighed and turned away, listening to the chittering as the giant bastard scrambled back up the tree. I say giant, because compared to my own body size, it was actually a lot rger and heavier. That didn’t really matter though, did it? Size… I’m always so obsessed with size.

  If I was rger, I could’ve done more. But I also would’ve been a bigger target and maybe they would’ve noticed me, captured me… Who the fuck knows?

  “I’m actually safer at the moment because of my small size.” I walked down a slope and reached a clear stream. The water was cold, but I felt uncomfortable with so much blood on my scales. Not to mention the dangers of having that scent on me. Other animals would be attracted. Predators like foxes, wolves and cats would attack me in my sleep. Assuming I could even sleep with the amount of pain and discomfort I’m feeling.

  Guilt. Anger. Annoyance. Loneliness.

  “Yeah, basically.” I sighed and then dove into the water. It didn’t matter where the water took me. Actually, the temperature wasn’t as frigid as I expected. Maybe the air outside is actually colder than the temperature of the water?

  I could feel some spots. Cuts that burned, missing scales… I was hit by a stick pretty damn hard. Hope that cunt dies. I should’ve killed her myself, but ripping her eyeballs out was probably worse than death. Especially if she gets captured instead of killed.

  “Fuck.” I thought about the little girl that burned to death again. If they have one child, what about the rest? Probably more people in that ‘Coven’ than just those few dozen that came to attack. Probably weaker women, maybe even men, children, babies… After the religious zealots torture, rape and murder the Witches, they’ll find out where their hideout is and do the same to the rest.

  They wouldn’t torture and rape the kids or babies?

  “Pft-hahaha~!” I shook my head, looking over at a human skeleton that was buried in soot at the bottom of the river. Then I saw some other animal bones, including a femur that was so huge I thought it was actually a fallen tree…

  “This is reality.” I breathed out of my mouth and created bubbles, “Reality isn’t some censored bullshit. In reality, things happen that are so bad, just talking about them will get you in trouble. Just mentioning certain subjects will get you banned and ostracized. In reality, horrible shit happens to children all the time. Every single day. Every single moment. And nobody is allowed to talk about it, even though we’ve all fucking experienced it in one way or another.”

  We’ve all been children before.

  “What the fuck is wrong with me?” I swam towards the surface and emerged with a spsh, then fpped my wet and sore wings! I flew up into the air as high and as fast as I still could! Then I flew back towards the vilge from a really high altitude. Okay, not ‘that’ high, but high enough that I would only look like a tiny bird at most.

  The orange and red wyvern was still there. Busy munching on the corpses of the massacred vilgers and ignoring the living humans for the most part. There was a woman on its back. Long bck hair, pale skin, wearing a fancy white cloak with a golden tiara on her head. I squinted a bit and could see her facial features. She was pretty for sure. Dark eyes, somewhat Asian, but it was hard to tell for sure. Could also be Russian? Are Russians counted as Asians? Does Russia even exist in this world?

  The soldiers were all men. At least from what I could tell. Most of them wore thick clothes and some armor. A lot of leather or hides, hoods and helmets… The majority wielded spears, but there were also people with swords. The bowmen… Uh, I saw a bunch of them were dead already. With the church and other buildings barricaded, the women inside managed to shoot arrows out and kill quite a few people. One of the houses was burning and the fire started spreading to the surroundings. I could hear people screaming inside. Though it was hard to tell because the noises were echoing a lot.

  So chaotic. I thought that they’d win, maybe… Save the kids, or something, but I didn’t think it would drag on so long or be so dramatic. I don’t know, you’d think that dozens of people against a dozen would be an easy fight. Especially with the leader being blinded by me.

  I noticed that the horses the soldiers rode in on were mostly unharmed and kept out of the battles. After all, they broke down the doors of the buildings and were fighting inside at this point. Horses wouldn’t have been too useful. Maybe the dragon could’ve wrecked the houses to kill the people inside, but it didn’t seem too interested in doing anything other than gorging itself.

  I calmed down a lot. There were no demons or devils. And unless I was trying to attack them directly, humans wouldn’t go out of their way to attack me. They probably wouldn’t even notice me if I didn’t stupidly try to save some kids and babies.

  “Fucking A.” I breathed a long sigh and dove down towards the vilge again. This time I nded on the roof of the church, which was a rge stone building and retively safe-looking. The roof was sloped, just like the other houses. With a big-ass white cross on the front, simir to a lot of Christian churches I’d seen. Maybe more of a chapel? I don’t know what the distinction is exactly.

  “Sunny! Bad boy! Stop eating those filthy peasants!” The umm, ‘elegant’ voice of that beautiful dragonrider drew my attention immediately, “We have plenty of virgin sacrifices at home! Why do you always eat these disgusting things whenever we go anywhere?!”

  “Yep, this definitely seems like a character that I’d write.” I snickered and shook my head. Then I focused on the pitch-bck eyes of the giant monster she was riding. The Wyvern’s orange scales and red feathers made it super bright, an easy target really. But it might also be to attract a mate. A lot of animals forgo camoufge for the sake of looking pretty. It’s not just a human thing. Peacocks are the most obvious example.

  Poisonous.

  “That’s true.” I nodded. Frogs and some other animals use bright colors to warn predators that they’re dangerous and to stay away. So other animals are careful to avoid bright things like that. As far as hunting prey goes, being obnoxiously huge and red/orange doesn’t really have that many advantages. On the other hand, if they’re more like vultures, then it doesn’t really matter whether they’re bright and shiny. Their prey is already dead by the time they get to it anyway.

  Mutation. Artificial monsters…

  “That’s another possibility.” I sighed dramatically, “If this is really Voracity, then the dragons and any other mythological creatures would be created through genetic manipution, not natural evolution.”

  “Someone shut that fucking baby up!” That dragonrider suddenly screamed and the beast underneath her fancy saddle twitched. The Wyvern snorted and looked up at the church, then gred up at me specifically…

  Danger!

  It felt like my heart was going to explode! I expected the fucker to breathe fire on me or some shit, but it just snorted and went back to devouring the tasty human corpses below its massive frame. It didn’t care whether they were wearing armor. The chainmail and leather was easily torn apart and spit out, before the mangled bodies were once again mulched up in that gigantic mouth.

  Danger!

  I darted forward off the edge of the roof! Fpping my wings as hard as I could, I barely avoided the arrow! No, I guess it was a fucking crossbow bolt!

  “Careful, Your Majesty!” There was a man shouting from the roof of a house not far from where the woman was sitting. After all, her mount was basically two storeys high, so she was pretty damn high in the air!

  “Huh?” When the woman looked up at me, those dark eyes widened in shock, “Quickly! Catch it! Catch it quickly!” When a few of the other men in fancy leather armor started aiming their bows at me, she screamed, “Safely! You must capture the beast without harming it! If it dies, Sunny will eat your wives for breakfast tomorrow!”

  “Fuck my life!” I dodged a net and a few arrows or bolts that looked like they were covered in tar! Someone threw a fucking bo at me!

  Why the fuck did I come back here again?!

  Inside!

  “Shit!” I got hit in the left wing by a sticky arrow that weighed me down! Then tried to dive inside the window I broke out of earlier, but something tight wrapped around my left foot! Then I started getting yanked down with the familiar sound of… Well, a fishing rod? Some motherfucker actually used a fishing rod to catch me?!

  “Yes! Yes! That’s it! Capture him carefully!” That woman was blushing and cpping her hands excitedly like a happy child! Practically drooling as she watched the fisherman, until she suddenly looked horrified, “No! Damn it! No! Get back here! Capture them! Don’t let them get away with my baby! It’s mine!”

  I looked up at my captor and noticed it was a dude with a porn stash. Umm, nothing particurly special about him to be honest. Brown eyes, dark hair, tan skin… There was literally nothing more impressive than the creepy mustache.

  Needless to say, the guy seemed pretty stressed out as he carried me through the mountain woods. The fishing rod was left behind and he didn’t bother firing arrows back at the angry soldiers or royal guards that were chasing us. I guess they were royal guards? They didn’t wear metal armor, but their outfits definitely looked fancy enough to be better than the regur foot soldiers that were fighting and dying inside those houses and the church back in the vilge.

  Escape!

  It would actually be really easy to escape. I mean, the dude was holding me against his chest and running through the woods. If I wanted to, I could easily have torn his face off and run away. My wings were bruised even worse not and I felt like shit, but I can scamper around on the ground and in the trees like a squirrel. There would be no fucking way for humans to find or catch me after that.

  Not unless they had hunting dogs.

  Which they didn’t by the way. That would’ve been annoying, but also not that big of a deal. Just kill the poor puppies and escape again. It’s really just… Curiosity. I was fucking curious, okay?

  What was this shit? Some kinda plot? Some kinda pn? How could they possibly have known about me ahead of time? Or maybe this was just something that happened often? After all, this is the border between two conflicting nations and it’s totally possible that there are tons of wild dragons or other valuable creatures living and breeding around here.

  It’s been proven time and time again throughout the ages, but… Exotic animals are more valuable than human lives. It’s fucked up, but still the truth.

  Curiosity will get us killed. We need to escape. Our freedom and safety are more important than plot!

  I’m not creating danger for myself for plot, okay?!

  I’m just kinda curious where this bullshit is gonna lead. If I die, I die. Wouldn’t be the first time.

  We will not die again!

  “Don’t worry, Baby. Prince Henry is gonna take great care of you! We just need to make it to the safehouse and give the signal to pick us up!”

  See! Plot! I knew it was some kinda bullshit between two branches of the Royal Family or something!

  We should still escape.

  Probably.

  Author's Note: Happy Valentine's Day! And Happy Birthday to me lmao.