The carriages kept moving through the night as the jungle was too dangerous to camp in safely, the drivers alternated while Arad and Merlin allegedly spent the night awake, in reality, he remained awake and she went to sleep. Out of everyone here, he alone didn't need much sleep.
Thanks to everyone being sleeping and relaxed, Arad had managed to thinly spread his aura around the caravan and scare most of the predators, the remaining fools ended up as his late- night snack.
The caravan reached Matilda's village the next day, the place was called the Iron Snake Lake due to the countless rivers pouring their iron-rich water into their lake. Everywhere were the rivers turned, beast people gathered to collect iron sand to forge their weapons with.
As the caravan approached the village's gate, the tigers blocked their path and roared, "Outsiders! State your names!" The largest of tigers jumped forward, thrusting his long steel spear into the ground.
"Gorarin, it's me, calm down." Zara rode forward with his horse, "I've come back."
"That was quick... and who are all of those?" He pointed at the caravan, "Matilda's classmates, they are here on a learning trip or something...the carriages were provided by the human's princess Isdis, she's here on diplomatic business."
Gorarin looked at the carriages, "Human politics, I don't like that. But they're fine, it's not for us to kick them out, it's the lions' job."
"You're right." Zara turned around and waved his hand, "Go in! But you'll have to camp in your carriages for the night."
"How is Matilda? It's been a while; did she make any friends over there? Unlike here." Gorarin tapped Zara's shoulder.
"It's a bit complicated, she did make a lot of friends, and one of them is something else." He scratched his head, "You must..." As Zara was talking, he noticed Gorarin's face paling and twisting.
Gorarin pointed spear forward and yelled, "Who are you!?" He roared at the top of his lungs the moment he saw Arad walk out of the carriage, glaring straight at him.
Arad giggled, "Who am I?" He started slowly walking toward it until he reached the spear's head. None of the students had yet walked out of the carriages. "I'm the one to ask that. If we're already allowed inside." Arad kept walking, pushing the spear with his chest until it snapped.
Arad glared down at Gorarin, "What are those bowmen doing all around the caravan? Do you expect me to let everyone out under bow points?"
"Gorarin? There are snipers around?" Zara cried, "Tell them to stand down, you don't want to fight him."
"I've already sent them the message, they are several hundred meters away. It'll take a while." Gorarin glared at Arad, "Who are you?"
"Aron, the caravan's guard." Arad replied with a smile.
"He's Aron, this is the one I told you about among Matilda's friends, the special one." Zara tapped Arad's shoulder, "He strangled a damned death jaw with his bare hands." He laughed. He didn't understand a word of what Zara was saying due to his brain refusing to believe a word of what Zara said. Gorarin waved his hand, "The snipers should be down by now, get into the village if you're happy. We'll talk later."
The students slowly walked out of the carriages to stretch and looked around, unlike the jungle, this place was actually guarded by beast people, mainly tigers but they could spot some lion traders and wolf people drinking in what looked like an outdoor tavern.
"You're the second humans that went by in the past year." Gorarin smiled, "Your kind are a rare sight here, is it the same for beast people in your land."
"Yeah... you rarely see our kind there." Matilda was the one to reply, she was walking with Arad, Selina, Mira, and Tina behind Arad who carried Serin and was followed by Ignis. The tigers seemed to try their best to ignore the red wyrmling.
"Matilda's close friends would be staying at my house, for the rest, we don't have any place to house them so they'll camp anywhere that's empty." Zara looked at Gorarin, "Is that okay?"
"Why ask me? Talk to the chieftain, I doubt he'll mind, but it's best to in from him first." Gorarin smiled.
"You said another human came..." Arad looked at Gorarin, "Do you know who he was?"
"Never asked his name, came in one day, traded some beasts that he hunted, and disappeared into the forest. He had one peculiar-smelling woman, stank like a wet dog." Gorarin laughed, "Compared to her, you guys smell nice, except you, and that little one." He pointed at Arad and Ignis.
"She smells of pumice and sulfur...burned. You on the other hand don't smell at all, strange." Gorarin pointed at Arad and Matilda nodded, "He's right, you rarely smell."
Arad looked at his arms, "Ah! I forget it..." With a single wave of his hand, he pulled a ceramic jar filled with oil reeking of pine.
"What's that?!" Matilda, Zara, and Gorarin closed their noses as the smell was too strong.
Arad pushed his whole hand in the jaw and waved it around him. What oil had stuck to his hand suddenly disappeared and he started to faintly smell like pine trees. He had applied that across his entire draconic body, which made it almost unnoticeable.
"I sensed magic...and where did all of that oil go?" Gorarin scratched his head, "Peculiar, this is what you mean, Zara."
"See? He's one odd cub." Zara giggled.
"I don't know why, but I usually don't smell like anything." Arad stored the jar, "I do need to use some perfumes."
"That isn't a perfume, it's just pine..." Gorarin waved his hand to fan the smell, "Too strong for us tigers. But better than nothing, it's extremely weird to us if you don't smell like anything. Imagine an invisible man, creepy, right?"
Quickly after that they reached Zara's house, "I'll leave you alone from here, we'll talk later when you all have settled down." Gorarin left and Zara waved to him.
"Let's go inside." He reached toward the door to knock, but a shadow immediately lunged out of the window, latching onto Matilda's head, "Sister! You're back!" It was Matilda's little
Matilda cried as her sister's claws dug into her head, "Let me...breath..."
Arad grabbed the little sister by the shirt and lifted her up like a tiny kitten, "Sister? This one?" He shook her a bit.
"Ahhh..." Matilda rubbed the back of her head, she was already bleeding a bit. "She's still too young to know how to use her claw...her name is Sara."
Sara looked between Arad and Matilda several times and quickly bit his hand like a feral cat, as he dropped her, she ran back home screaming, "Sister brought a mate! Sister brought a mate,
"You little!" Matilda growled, rushing after her.
Mira approached Arad, "She bit you and you dropped her, did you get hurt?"
"No...I let her go. If she bites me, she must've wanted me to put her down." He showed Mira his hand, not a single scratch.
Zara looked back at everyone with a tired face, "Those two were always . Sara used to make fun of Matilda for not finding a mate, but she cried a lot when she left to study abroad... She just didn't want to be separated from her sister."
Matilda's mother opened the door and looked at the window, "Ara...did she get inside through there?" She looked at Zara with closed eyes, "Who are the guests?" She smiled, "Is that the one Sara referred to as Matilda's mate?"
"Wait...calm down...he isn't her mate...she didn't find anyone..." Zara seemed to start panicking the moment he saw her smile.
"But...he's quite the interesting one." She dried her hands on a small towel she had hanging
by the door and opened one eye, her purple glowing eyes stared straight at Arad, "He's a big
In the blink of an eye, Arad felt a sharp pain in his stomach, and when he blinked, he was already flying over the jungle. He growled and glared to the side, seeing Matilda's mother flying after him. "What is another of your kind doing here?" she asked with a passive face, clenching a fist engulfed in black lightning. "By Maharaja's name, I've sworn to skin your kind if they dared come back to haunt my family."
Arad gasped as he immediately shifted into his half-dragon form. That woman was dangerous, and the magic he was sensing from her, he wasn't mistaken. Void magic, "You
aren't a dragon, are you?"
"I'm a black tiger, just like my daughter that you know...you could say...we've got the same blood." She jumped in the air and flew at him, punching him again with her black lightning. As the smoke cleared, Arad caught her fist, "A sorceress, void dragon bloodline..." Arad grabbed her by the wrist, "Sadly I'm not..." He threw her to the ground...
CRACK! She landed on her legs, shattering the ground.
BAM! Arad landed behind her, his muscles expanding as the ground beneath his feet shattered. He clenched a fist, "...a fake one." He threw a punch at her face, and she could see
the whole dragon inside him.
Arad stopped his fist right before hitting her, sending her flying back just from the sheer
Using her claws, she grabbed a tree and stopped, staring at him, "A half-dragon...no, a true dragon. You weren't serious one bit." She sighed.
Arad stood, sucking his wings back into his back, "I'm not even using a tenth of my power normally, don't punch me like that, it hurts." He walked toward her, "Unlike Matilda, you
seem to know about your own bloodline."
"My grandfather's father was a void dragon...it's been almost a century since he disappeared." She looked at Arad, "Why did another void dragon come to us?" "Not a particular reason, I just happened to be studying with your daughter..." Arad scratched
his head, "AH, keep this a secret, it'll cause a lot of trouble."
She giggled, "Is that you're worried about? Don't worry..."