The Ballad Of A Semi-Benevolent Dragon

Chapter 6: The Princess And The Tree

Doomwing stared at the princess. She was gawping at him like a fool. "You have twenty minutes to secure a flight-capable mount and pack whatever supplies you wish to bring to my territory."

"Twenty minutes?" Antaria blurted. "But... but I need time to prepare! I have to think about what supplies to bring, which members of staff should accompany me, and..."

Doomwing smiled and leaned forward until his massive jaws were only a few feet from her face. "You are wasting time, princess, and you won't be needing any members of staff."

"I... I won't?"

"The blood of Elerion the Valiant flows through your veins. It might have thinned over the years, but I'm hoping you're not completely useless. I intend to train you as I trained him." Doomwing pulled his head back and chuckled. "Your ancestor was quite possibly the greatest human to ever live, and he still barely survived my training. Honestly, I think it was a combination of power, determination, and sheer, bloody-minded spite that saw him through it. The first thing he did after his initial training was complete was try to stab me. It failed, but it was good to know his spirit hadn't broken."

Antaria's mouth opened and closed, and then she turned and ran from the hall, presumably to pack and find her mount. Doomwing turned his attention back to Enarion. The new king fidgeted and looked very much like he would rather be anywhere else but there. Doomwing could have simply spoken, but he wanted to know how long Enarion would last before cracking. To the man's credit, he managed to last twenty seconds before he could no longer hold himself back.

"Have I done something wrong, dragon emperor?"

"No." Doomwing settled back onto his haunches. A slab of scorched masonry tumbled loose from the broken remains of the roof, and he batted it aside. "I want to know more about the financial state of this kingdom. How does it make money? Where are its taxes invested? What needs to be improved for it to make more money? You have until the princess returns, so be concise."

Enarion took a deep breath. "It's like this..."

What followed was a surprisingly informative summary of the kingdom's financial situation. Apparently, the kingdom had originally made most of its money by selling fish drawn from the lake nearby. That lake was full of magic, probably because Doomwing had used his own power to create it and had chosen to situate over several intersecting magical currents. As a result of that magic, the fish in the lake were larger, tastier, and more nutritious than could be found elsewhere. The difference wasn't much in Doomwing's eyes, but humans were far less powerful than dragons. Even small differences could be very important to them.

Water from the lake had also been used to water nearby fields, and the crops there were similarly boosted by the lake's properties. Of course, those fields had eventually been superseded by the fields under the dryad's influence, right up until some idiot had tried to use magic they couldn't properly control or understand to boost the crop yields even further. They'd failed, and the kingdom's breadbasket was now a dust bowl where only weeds could survive.

Nevertheless, the kingdom's early kings had done a good job of defending its territory and securing important trade routes. The kingdom had access to several ports to the south, along with a number of trade routes to the west. They also made a fair bit of money transporting and then selling the extra crops that were produced in Doomwing's territory, which would explain why the previous king had been eager to seize those villages. There were also half a dozen productive mines scattered throughout the kingdom's territory that produced reasonable quantities of iron, copper, silver, and gold.

However, the true source of the kingdom's wealth lay in the wise investments that Enarion had made over the past few decades. He had used the kingdom's treasury to invest in various merchant companies, mercenary groups, and guilds. He hadn't always picked the right ones, but he had been diligent in doing his research. As a result, he had won more often than he'd lost, and the kingdom had made substantial quantities of money while acquiring influence that stretched beyond its borders. That had probably fuelled the previous king's ambition too.

Enarion's plan was to modernise the kingdom's financial system, turning it into a place where it was easy to own and operate a business, thereby attracting more merchants, mercenaries, and guilds. It was a strategy that Doomwing had seen several times in the past. The merchant kings of the Fourth Age had used it to become the richest people in the world, save for dragons like himself, with their extensive economic links to other countries making it almost impossible for anyone to attack them. Until millions of undead had shown up.

Zombies didn't much care for coin.

"You have done well with what resources you have," Doomwing said. Enarion practically collapsed in relief. "I will watch your performance closely. If you continue to do well, I may even give you some of my funds to invest."

"You honour me, dragon emperor!" Enarion stammered. "I will do my best."

Good. The man seemed to understand what it meant for a dragon to entrust their gold to someone else for investment purposes.

Antaria hurried back into the hall. "I... I'm back!" She was panting heavily. A winged unicorn trotted along beside her, and the stallion's saddlebags were already full. "Am... am I late?"

"No. You are roughly twenty seconds early." Doomwing's lips curled. "And of course you have a winged unicorn."

"What's wrong with a winged unicorn?" Antaria asked. The stallion at her side nodded his head and flared his wings in a threat display. Doomwing rolled his eyes and matched the gesture. The sudden rush of wind would have sent them all flying if he hadn't used his magic to hold them in place.

"Unicorns are uppity, judgemental jerks," Doomwing said. "Who spend far too much time worrying about the virginity of other people."

Antaria's face went a brilliant shade of red. Her dark hair was a sharp contrast to the golden blond that Elerion had sported, but her violet eyes were much the same. "What?"

"You don't know? A unicorn will only allow a virgin to ride it."

"..." Antaria's eye twitched. "I was under the impression that they would only allow those pure of heart to ride them."

"No. Pureness of heart has absolutely nothing to do with it."

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"But... but how do they even know if you're a virgin?" Antaria asked. Her gaze went to her stallion who very deliberately looked away.

"Innate magic, if you can believe it, not unlike how hydras can regenerate." Doomwing scoffed. "Yes, you might be thinking, what sort of stupid innate magic is that, but the gods of the First Age could be very capricious. I should know. I met the Mother and Father of Unicorns. Both of them were pretentious, judgemental, and utterly hypocritical. Neither would let anyone ride on them unless they were a virgin, but they had no qualms about breeding like rabbits."

Antaria covered her face with her hands. "I can't believe I'm only just learning this now..."

"Blame your unicorn. He could have told you."

"What? Unicorns can talk?" Antaria grabbed the reins of her unicorn and glared into his eyes. "Is that true?"

"They can't physically talk, but they can use magic to communicate their thoughts although it's possible that your unicorn simply doesn't know how."

"I did find him when he was very young," Antaria replied. "His parents were eaten by a dragon -"

"Probably because they taunted the dragon for being a virgin or for being promiscuous. They're judgemental enough to hate both and stupid enough to think they can outrun a dragon in the air."

Antaria had the gumption to scowl at him, which was actually quite refreshing even if she wasn't nearly as good at trying to kill him with her eyes as Elerion had been. That fool had actually paid a gorgon very handsomely to see if she could teach him to use his eyes to attack people. "It was awful. He couldn't have been very old at all. I begged my father to let me keep him, and he's been with me ever since." She paused. "Wait... my maid and his stablehand both used to be able to ride him, but last week..."

"They weren't able to ride him anymore?" Doomwing chortled. "It seems that your maid and that stablehand are closer than you might think." Doomwing almost smiled. Ah. This was actually quite fun. It reminded him of the time Marcus had played a prank on Elerion by switching his usual horse out with a unicorn hidden beneath an illusion, only for the young man to ride the the unicorn without skipping a beat. The look on his face when he'd found out had been almost as funny as the look on his face when Marcus had dragged him off to a brothel. "Anyway, your unicorn will do for now, but be careful."

"Of what?"

"There will be a lot of travelling to be done in the future. You have not earned the privilege of riding on my back, so you will need your winged unicorn to carry you. Do not do anything that might jeopardise that."

Antaria made a choking sound. "I... I would never!"

"You do plan on having children someday, I imagine. Find a different mount before then."

Doomwing took to the air. "Enarion, I will be providing you with a means of contacting me soon. Do your best and know that I will be watching." He turned to Antaria. "Follow me. We have a tree to pick up."

"A tree?" Antaria squawked. "What! Slow down!" She urged her unicorn on. "Come on, Swiftstride, we have to go faster!" The unicorn grumbled and did his best to keep up, but Doomwing was no mere hatchling. There was nothing in the world except another primordial dragon who could match him in the air even if he had no intention of flying at full speed. "Wait!"

"Unicorns," Doomwing muttered. "As slow in the air as they are on the ground." He gestured, and magic washed over Swiftstride. "There. That should give you the speed to keep pace and the stamina to stay in the air for the rest of the journey."

"What kind of magic was that?" Antaria shouted as she and her unicorn fell into formation beside him.

"Two spells of the seventh-order. I could probably have gotten away with using spells of the fifth-order, but humans can't fly. It would be a hassle if you fell to your death before you had a chance to serve me."

"Uh... thanks?" Antaria pressed herself against her mount, the wind rushing past threatening to pull her hair out the bun she'd tied it into. "What's this about a tree?"

Daphne had expected the dragon to return. Dragons were many things, but they were not oath breakers. However, she had not expected him to return with a princess.

"Please, tell me you didn't kidnap the princess," Daphne said.

"Would she be riding on her own mount if I had kidnapped her? No. I merely gave her an ultimatum, and she chose to comply."

"That's the same thing as kidnapping!" Daphne cried. She sighed. "Never mind. How were you planning on transporting me?"

"I could simply use my claws to dig you out of the ground and carry you."

"Please, don't. And please don't forget that you're going to be bringing my friends along with me." The various animals who relied on her to survive had all gathered in her branches. "You said you'd protect them too."

"In that case, my magic will have to do." Doomwing lifted one claw. "Make sure that all of your friends are with you and that you have nothing else you wish to bring."

Daphne did a quick check. Yep. All of the animals were there. Strangely enough, they seemed more eager than scared. They must have realised that the blight that had ruined the once fertile fields was slowly but surely closing in. "I'm ready."

"Good."

The dragon's magic stirred, and a sphere of power surrounded her. It was large enough to completely encompass not only her tree but a decent chunk of the courtyard as well. The sphere rose up into the air, and Daphne tried to keep her expression calm as Doomwing began to fly east, the sphere floating along beside him. She managed to stay calm right up until she made the mistake of looking down. She'd never flown before, so to see how high they were and how fast they were going as the ground blurred past beneath them...

"Ah!" Daphne screamed. "Ah!"

"Stop screaming!" Doomwing growled. "You're completely safe."

And then the sphere began to spin around, twirling in circles around him and then doing loops in the sky. Somehow, despite the insane way the sphere moved, her tree remain perfectly at ease, as if they were still on the ground. Rather than comforting her, her animal friends were instead shouting encouragement and asking if the dragon could do other tricks.

"See? You're completely safe."

"Ah!"

Not far away, the princess could only wince and shake her head. "And I thought I had it bad..."

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