Ves jolted awake in a cold sweat. Gasping for air, as a feeling of dread washed over her. She could feel Nell felt the same.

  “What was that?” she whimpered out.

  ‘I would say a dream, but it felt too real…’ Nell said her own fear was evident in her voice.

  “Dream, that was a nightmare…” Ves responded in a whisper.

  Unable to fall back asleep, they went out for some fresh air. It was cool and crisp with the morning dew still blanketing the ground. They sat down to try to calm themselves, but the shaking wouldn’t stop. They kept glancing up into the sky, expecting something. While the details of the dream quickly faded from their waking minds, the sense of loss did not.

  “Ves, Nell?, What are you doing up here this early?”

  They looked up to see Ryuko waving at them. As soon as she saw their face, she rushed over. “What’s wrong? You're drenched in sweat and shaking.”

  They didn’t want to speak, but felt they had to say something, seeing the worry-stricken look on Ryuko’s face, “We had a dream, a bad one.”

  Not asking anymore, Ryuko simply sat next to them and pulled them into a gentle hug. As soon as she embraced them, they buried their face in her chest and began to weep. They could feel a hole in their heart, a deep sense of loss and mourning, but they knew not who it was for. It took a while before they stopped. Exhausted, they drifted to sleep as Ryuko carefully laid them down to rest, their head in her lap.

  Ves later awoke as the early day sun reached her eyes. Opening them only to see Ryuko’s sleeping face looming above.

  “Finally awake, I see,” Ves turned to see Senotraxia in her human form sitting nearby in the grass. Ves tried to get up, only for the dragon to beckon that she lie back down.

  “We are in no hurry, and I personally don’t mind the excuse to let my scales bask in the sun.”

  “But you don’t currently have any scales?”

  Senotraxia laughed, “It’s a figure of speech. I heard that child has been comforting you all morning, but no one seems to know why.”

  “We had a bad dream that’s all,” Ves replied.

  “I doubt a simple nightmare would have that effect on you two after all you have already lived through,” Senotraxia said as she turned to look at them, “There is more to it, isn’t there?”

  “It felt real, like a memory. Both of us saw it.”

  “Will you tell me what it was about?” the dragon asked.

  “We honestly can’t recall the details anymore. But the emotions that came with it refuse to leave. So what brings you here? I assumed you would be away longer, as it sounded like you were pretty busy.” Ves asked.

  “I am, but that’s in part why I am here. There is something important I need to speak with you about. Both you and Nell.” Senotraxia said she turned to give them her full attention.

  Ves gulped and asked, “What is it?”

  Senotraxia shook her head, “It may be best to have this conversation in a more private setting, despite how comfy you look using that child’s lap as a pillow. I heard she was just returning from her shift on late-night guard duty when she stumbled upon you. She must be exhausted.”

  Ves blushed with embarrassed guilt. “We hadn’t even realized…”

  Senotraxia sat up and brushed the grass off her clothing, “Why don’t you take her to her bed and wash up. Afterwards, meet up with myself and Setsu, as well as one other I need to introduce to you. Then I will explain.”

  Ves had to admit the sight of her carrying Ryuko was a bit comical. Ryuko was notably taller and more muscular than Ves. Ves was strong and likely weighed more than Ryuko, but she didn’t look it. Even Senotraxia chuckled at the sight.

  Still, she eventually put Ryuko to bed and arrived at the impromptu meeting room.

  “Is this the child?” a man Ves didn’t know asked.

  “Child?” Ves asked, slightly annoyed.

  “Please take no offense. It’s a bad habit of ours to see shorter-lived races as children, dragons, pride, and all that.” Senotraxia explained with a wave of the hand.

  “But yes, Taythes, these are the ones I spoke of, Ves and Nell. Ves and Nell, this is Taythes. He may seem to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder, but he is my most trusted aide.”

  “More like the only one that can keep up with your antics. Your plan is insane, you know that, right? The bleakness of our situation is the only reason any of us are humoring you.” Taythes said with a sigh.

  “Humoring me, are you?” Senotraxia asked with an aggressive smile.

  “Yes, humoring you. If it had been anyone else, they would have been called a fool and challenged to a fight for rule on the spot. But we have enough respect for you to at least see how things play out. So that is my role in this, to represent the rest of the major dragons in our flight,” Taythes replied.

  “I think you mean the others all know they can’t beat me,” Senotraxia said with a prideful tone.

  “May I ask… what is the plan?” Ves managed to ask.

  Taythe's eyes went wide and snapped to Senotraxia, giving her a pointed look, “Sen…”.

  “What, I didn’t want to bring it up until I ran it by you and the others first.”

  “She is the key part of your plan! A plan would change your lives forever. She is the FIRST person you should have spoken to!” Taythes shouted at his Queen.

  “It's also a huge gamble and incredibly impactful to the future of our flight. It’s not an idea I could bring up on the spur of the moment. I needed to run it by you and the others first. It would have been incredibly awkward to propose the idea to Ves and Nell only to retract it.”

  As the two dragons argued, Ves awkwardly raised her hand to try to get a word in. Even in their human forms, dragons gave off a natural aura of authority, making it hard for anyone else to speak in their presence.

  Seeing this was going nowhere, though, Nell decided to step in and raised her voice, “Would someone please explain what this plan is and how it involves myself and Ves?”

  Both dragons stopped and blankly looked towards Nell. Setsu’s eyes were wide, and Nell could feel Ves having a mild panic attack at her actions. To most mortals, dragons were almost akin to gods. Anyone with a hint of self-preservation would never raise their voice to one. But Nell had no such perspective and was simply annoyed at the two dragons talking like Ves and herself were not even there.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Senotraxia was the first to recover, “My apologies about that. I admit it was rude of me to not explain, but I did it for good reasons.”

  “You realize you are still not explaining, correct?” Nell said, not even trying to hide her annoyance in her voice. Setsu started to try and get Nell to stop talking in a panic before a loud laugh shook the room.

  “I like this one. Even among our fellow dragons, there is almost no one aside myself who would speak to you like that.”

  “You realize you also shouldn’t speak to me like that, correct Taythes? I am your Queen. Also, stop calling me Sen, we aren’t hatchlings anymore.” Senotraxia said the last part was more of a whisper.

  Ves switched back into control, “I am so confused…”

  “Sen, I mean Senotraxia here is not only our queen but as I mentioned, highly respected. Add on that her parents have ascended to become literal gods, and even most dragons treat her like a revered figure. So, as her advisor and someone who has been by her side since we were whelps, I see it as my responsibility to bring her back down now and then.

  Back to business, though, while I do think Senotraxia should have explained things to you first. Now that we are here, I would like to see the results of your efforts to explore your abilities. Depending on what we see, things could change. So I ask you to be patient a little longer, and all will be explained.”

  “Umm, we made a knife out of the same stuff as our claw. Ryuko seems to like it.”

  “Potentially useful for the future, but not all that relevant to our current problems. What else?”

  “We could introduce you to Bu and the drones.”

  As to not scare the villagers, Ves led the dragons and Setsu to their hidden cave. The lazy bear had taken a shine to the place, often sleeping in the pool. While out at the moment, it made for a good meeting spot.

  “What is this place…” Taythes gasped.

  “Yes, it is rather unnerving in here,” Senotraxia added.

  “Not sure what you mean, it’s just a cave. We set up our home down here to avoid scaring people.”

  “This place is rather beautiful. What’s causing that gentle glow?” Setsu asked.

  “It’s sort of like a mold or moss we started to grow down here. It sprouts into these soft and fluffy ends that glow.”

  “Where did you find it?” Senotraxia asked.

  “Umm, us. We created the pool down here, and it started growing out from the edges. It’s sort of part of us. Or at least that’s how it feels.”

  “Well, that would explain a few things,” Taythes commented with a pensive look.

  “What do you mean?” Ves asked.

  “Just like you said, it's part of you. We can feel that. It’s like being in the belly of a beast. The cave itself feels alive.”

  “What is this pool for? I can feel your presence from within, like the things growing on the walls, but much stronger,” Senotraxia asked.

  “It’s what we used to make the knife I mentioned. We can control the creatures inside to merge and take any shape we want. We also heal much faster if submerged.”

  “Can you make new creatures like the void-sent?” Senotraxia asked.

  “Yep,” Ves answered as the tapping of many little feet scampered out of the shadows. They were just like the drones they made before, only with slight changes from lessons learned. Currently, around twenty of the creatures were lined up next to Ves’s feet.

  All eyes were locked on the drones as Ves continued, “They aren’t good for much so far, but these were just a test to see if we could and what it felt like to control so many bodies at once.”

  “They obey you?” Taythes asked. Senotraxia said nothing, instead just walked forward and poked one of the creatures with her fingers. Setsu still seemed stunned.

  “Yes, but not sure if obey is the right word. They are us; they are not some separate form of life. So yes, you could say they obey us, but it would be the same as saying your leg obeys your brain.”

  “These are incredible,” Senotraxia said as she picked one up. “How many can you control and at what range?”

  “At first, we were worried it would only be one. With one of us staying in control of our real body. As we practiced, though it started to become second nature, largely handled subconsciously. Sort of like how you don’t need to think about breathing. You just do. When we hit twenty, we started to feel a mild strain. I think we could double the number. After that, though I’m not sure.”

  Setsu casually walked over and gently touched one of the drones as well. Only for Ves to turn back to Senotraxia with a start. The dragon was giving her a mischievous grin as she tickled the drone’s belly.

  “So you can feel what they feel as well?” the dragon chuckled as she gently set the drone back down.

  “Yes, for better or worse, I mean, they are us. An eagle attacked the first one. At least we were spared being eaten alive when the bird spat us out. As to your question on the range, we haven’t found one yet.”

  “Are there other forms you can create, perhaps something larger?” Taythes asked as he stroked his chin.

  “We can, these were just a test. Nell plans to break them back down, then we can try to make something more useful. We want to start with something that can help out around here.”

  “Break them down?” Taythes asked.

  “Correct, we can break them back down in the pool. The organic material will be stored as more growth around the pool until we create something new.”

  “I’m starting to see why the northern kingdoms had so much trouble against the void sent. If you managed to do this in a little over a week, I can only imagine what you could do given time,” Taythes mused.

  “True, but this is also exactly what we're hoping. Ves and Nell, my dears, I dare say you have exceeded our expectations,” Senotraxia spoke as she smiled at them as if eyeing a new curiosity.

  “Ah, thank you?” Ves wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable with where all this was going. It was quickly growing clear that they were considering using her and Nell as a weapon. Still, Ves knew they needed powerful backers to survive in this world, and dragons were just about as powerful as it got.

  “Did you want to meet Bu?”

  “Ah, you mentioned that name before. Who is Bu?” Taythes asked.

  “He is a dire bear we captured and made part of our hive. And here he is now.”

  All eyes turned towards the tunnel that led to the cave’s entrance as the faint echo of footsteps could be heard drawing near, until from the shadows emerged the lazy bear. Ves could see a bead of sweat roll down Setsu’s face as her legs began to wobble. Taythes simply stared at the bear, but she could see him clench his fists. Senotraxia, on the other hand, just smiled with excitement.

  “You say he is a dire bear? Dire bears don’t get that big.” Taythes asked, and Ves had to agree. Bu had taken to body modifications like a fish to water. He was now around the same size as the horned bear she had fought before. Likely not as strong as the monster bear was, but no less intimidating.

  “Yeah, he has gotten a bit bigger. Lazy as he can be, the old bear has happily taken to Nell modifying his body. His presence alone has started to work as a deterrent to beasts drawing near the camp.”

  “You made him into this?” Senotraxia asked.

  “We did, with the pool. We can mold flesh in there just as easily as Xeeta molded the stone to create this cave. We killed a horned bear a while back, which made a great template for making Bu stronger.”

  “Could you do this to anyone?”

  Ves shook her head, “No, we need a connection. Bu was made part of our hive. If anyone aside from ourselves or Bu set foot in the pool, they would be treated as food and stripped to the bone in moments.”

  “Are you controlling him?” Taythes asked.

  “We can but choose not to. What we did to him already feels uncomfortably close to branding. So he still has his own mind, and despite him being an animal, we want to respect that. He follows us out of respect for our strength and as thanks for healing up some old wounds that left him lame.”

  “How well can you communicate?” Senotraxia asked.

  “Pretty well, he has gotten smarter and understands some words, but with our connection, we can communicate with pure thought.”

  “Hmm, you say it still has its own mind. Could you stop it if it went rogue? As it sounds like at the end of the day it’s still a wild animal,” Taythes commented, looking worried.

  “We aren’t too worried about that. I would say he is as smart as a well-trained dog now. If the worst did come to pass, we could stop him. To us, he is no different than the drones when it comes to control.”

  “So you could take control? Move the bear as if it were your own?” Senotraxia asked.

  “Again, we really don’t want to do that… but, yes. Yes, we could.”

  Senotraxia turned to Taythes, “What do you think?”

  “As I said before, I would be lying if I didn’t mention I find all this unnerving. But I know that’s not the answer you want. In terms of pure strength, the improvements she made to the bear are incredible. While it wouldn’t be a threat to an adult dragon, it could certainly harm an adolescent. If she could make and command a small army of beasts like this, we may be able to turn the tide of the fight with the undead. Add on what we saw with the drones. Their potential is honestly frightening so long as she can scale them up in size.”

  “I was thinking the same. And if they have all this to show after hardly a week, I can’t imagine what they could do given more time and resources.”

  “So, do you agree to my plan? That it isn’t as far-fetched as you and the others think?” she asked him.

  “I can see the potential. But there are a lot of unknowns and risks that come with it.”

  “Can someone please tell me what this plan is?” Ves asked.

  “I will, but only if Taythes agrees we should go forward,” Senotraxia smirked.

  “Figures you would put this on me. Please give me a little time to get some fresh air and sort my thoughts.”