novelraw Chapter 91
Chapter 91
The three dragons ate together, and by the time half of one Ridgebolt Bird was gone, Aiden stopped. He was mostly full, which was enough. He lifted his head and looked at his companions.
Azure was still eating, but her pace had slowed considerably. Bianca, on the other hand, was still tearing into the meat as if she hadn't eaten in a year. Aiden's gaze drifted down to their bellies. Bianca's was already starting to look round, and Azure's wasn't far behind.
“Alright, that's enough,” Aiden announced.
Azure dutifully stopped eating. Bianca, however, seemed not to have heard him at all, lowering her head for another bite.
Aiden's long, sinuous tail snaked out, wrapping around her snout and physically pulling her head back.
Chomp, chomp.
She bit down on empty air. Her head was forced to turn, and her eyes met Aiden's still, red pupils. The struggling immediately ceased. Her wide white eyes filled with a look of pure obedience as she sat down meekly on the ground.
She's only this well-behaved when her belly is full, he thought. He turned his head to address them both.
“You two, with me.”
With that, he pushed himself up and began lumbering toward the edge of the nest. Azure, without hesitation, rose and followed. Bianca glanced at the leftover meat, then at the gently swinging tip of Aiden's tail. A faint, stinging heat from her earlier punishment reminded her of its power. She tucked her neck in, put her claws to the ground, and scurried to catch up. She did not want another taste of that tail.
Aiden stopped at the edge of the nest and glanced back. Good, they're both following.
With a powerful push of his hind legs, he leaped from the nest. His red wings caught the air, arresting his fall and carrying him upwards.
Whoosh… Whoosh…
The white and blue forms followed him into the sky.
The flight back was uneventful, aside from the ceaseless commentary from a certain foolish dragon.
“Aiden. look at all the meat running down there!”
“That boar is so big!”
“Down there, is that a Mossling? It's huge, aow!”
Amidst Bianca's excited clamor, they finally arrived back at the massive nest. Aiden landed smoothly, his red wings slowly folding. A moment later, a white and a blue dragon landed on either side of him.
He looked at Azure. From the moment she had landed, her blue, slitted pupils had been fixed on the clutch of purple eggs, and they hadn't moved.
“Azure, you will transport these eggs back to the lair.” He paused, then added a stern warning. “And remember: no eating them on the way.”
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Azure blinked slowly, then gave a slight nod. She had no objection to the arrangement. Aiden had single-handedly dealt with two Ridgebolt Birds; her task of simply carrying the spoils was, by comparison, a simple enough task.
As the blue dragon started toward the eggs, Bianca instinctively took a step to help. But before she could take a second step, her body froze. She turned her head, her shining eyes filled with confusion as she looked at Aiden, who was holding her tail.
“Aow?”
Aiden slowly released her cool, white tail, his maw splitting into a draconic smile. “You don't need to worry about the eggs, Bianca. Tell me, do you want some gold coins?”
Gold coins!
A brilliant light shone in Bianca's eyes. Her white head bobbed up and down enthusiastically. “Yes! I want them, Aiden!”
Azure, who was now holding an egg under each of her forelegs, paused with her wings half-spread, her gaze shifting to the conversation.
Aiden stood up to his full height and rubbed his claws together in a distinctly human-like gesture of anticipation. He pointed a red claw toward the rotting piles of bones at the edge of the nest.
“Look over there. What do you see?”
Bianca followed his claw. Her eyes landed on the heap of… remains? She tilted her head, her white eyes full of puzzlement. “Remains, aow?”
Aow? What a strange verbal tic, Aiden thought. It's cute, I suppose, but no matter. It's time to be persuasive.
Watching Aiden rub his claws together, Azure's pupils narrowed. For a moment, he looked… sleazy, a word I once heard humans use. He's about to fool the idiot again.
Aiden's gaze was fixed on the white dragon's head. The fool, for her part, had no idea what was coming.
His draconic smile widened. “No, no. Look closer. Look at all the different kinds of remains, Bianca-aow.”
At his prompting, her white eyes carefully examined the piles. “There are beastmen, humanoids, lizardmen… and magic beasts, aow! There are so many kinds!”
“Mhm, very many,” Aiden said, rubbing his claws together. “Now, Bianca-aow, think. Why would humanoids and beastmen be all the way out here in the forest?”
Bianca tilted her head the other way. “I don't know, aow?”
Alright, that was my mistake. I overestimated the fool.
“Bianca-aow, listen,” he said patiently. “The only humanoids and beastmen who would come this deep into the forest are merchants and adventurers. Now, think carefully… what do merchants and adventurers always have with them?”
The light in her shining white eyes was practically incandescent. “Gold coins!” she shouted.
His smile became genuine. Finally, she understands. Guiding a fool is exhausting work.
“That's right, that's right! And don't you want gold coins?” “I do, aow!” the childish, girlish voice replied, full of energy.
“Then here is your chance!” he declared dramatically. “There must be gold in those piles of remains. Go on, Bianca! It's all yours!”
“AOW!”
With a single, joyous cry, Bianca pounced on the heaps of rotting skeletons, her white tail wagging with pure delight as she began to dig.
Azure, who had listened to the entire exchange, was momentarily stunned. She glanced at Aiden's back. He must have some green dragon blood in him, she thought. Only those conniving tricksters are this manipulative.
Her gaze shifted to the white figure happily digging through the gruesome remains, and a flicker of pity entered her otherwise placid eyes. You naive, foolish dragon. The simple creature didn't even consider that even if she found any gold, it certainly wouldn't belong to her in the end. What a sleazy, contemptible red dragon.
She shook her head, spread her blue wings, and with a powerful downstroke, lifted off, leaving the canopy behind as she flew toward the lair.
Hearing the rush of wind, Aiden glanced at the departing blue figure. He had felt Azure's judgmental stare, but he didn't care.
“Aiden-aow! Aren't you going to help dig?” Bianca called out, her voice muffled by the bone pile.
“No, no, you go ahead! I have other things to do,” he replied, spreading his own wings. “Just remember to wash up in the river before you come back to the lair!”
“Okay, aow!” came the cheerful reply from the depths of the bones.
Perhaps because she was in such a good mood, her chipper, girlish voice was brimming with boundless energy.