The Adventures of Rose Hood

“I thought you said we were numbered at 9?”

“Did I say dragons? No, we are at 10 dragons, but in terms of siblings we are 9.”

“Tricky.”

“What’s she like?”

Thalia had a sad smile.

“I guess I could still be an aunty.”

“Thalia, listen I’m sure you could use your skill again, maybe even find a mate here.”

“Maybe.”

“At least there’s hope.”

We all nodded. Dragons were so close to extinction that our father and mother were the last. Even as battle hungry as they were, they hid for 1000 years, trying to raise many dragons. The fact that one of us now had offspring meant we had hope.

“How old is she?”

“She’s almost 10 now.”

“That’s so cool, I want to meet her.”

“I’m sure she’ll challenge you to a duel.”

“Way too young.”

“Hah, you’re probably the only one who’d say that.”

“I guess.”

From birth I had to fight to survive, in a nest is far more dangerous than you’d imagine. From the get-go, I had to spar Ravi, the strongest of us. I lost and was almost killed. I had to hunt my own food and build shaky alliances. My other siblings took to the lifestyle and would likely put their children through the same training.

“When I nest, my kids will live kind lives.”

“You are an odd dragon.”

We shared a laugh.

“But, no I did let her have a year to get her bearings before I started training. My wife was shocked.”

“I’d imagine.”

“What’s the kid’s aspect?”

“Necrosis if you’ll believe it. The polar opposite of me.”

“Huh, so she’s strong.”

“Yep.”

Necrosis, or death magic, was forbidden in many nations, but as it was a draconic aspect, there wasn’t much the elves could do, especially after Elren explained that disallowing a dragon to use their aspect was like stopping them from breathing.

“She focuses on killing, not revival, but we’ve found that if we mix our aspects, we can fully revive the dead.”

“Incredible.”

“Yep, anyway we should head in now.”

A guard stood at the gate.

“Your majesty, who are these people.”

“My siblings, I’ve invited them to stay for a bit.”

“Yes, sir!”

The gates opened and we went inside.

“Daddy!”

A small girl ran at Elren with a wide grin, but all 3 of us noticed the attack.

“She is young.”

“And inexperienced.”

Elren grabbed his daughter’s arm and flipped her, making the knife fall and bounce off of her neck.

“If that were enchanted, you’d be dead. Be more careful and hide your stance better. A surprise attack will never work otherwise.”

“I get it.”

“I’ll never understand a dragon’s form of raising a child. Who are these?”

An elven woman stepped out. She was beautiful.

“Love, these are my sisters, Thalia and Rose.”

“Ah, more fools going around naming dragons?”

“I guess.”

“I actually named myself.”

Thalia spoke up. I was kind of surprised. Naming a dragon takes a lot of mana usually, but a dragon naming themself would take almost all of their mana.

“Well, who named you, little one.”

“Sir Royce of Selethon.”

“A Kingsguard? Did he know you were a dragon?”

“Yes, he did.”

“Wow, he must have trusted you a lot.”

“Actually, he didn’t know that naming a dragon was different from naming others.”

“Ah... so he’s an idiot.”

“Ignorance isn’t idiocy El.”

Me and Thalia smirked.

“El?”

“Doe, please call me Elren or my siblings will mock me.”

“Then call me Doleaira.”

That’s a mouthful.

“Dolorea”

“No, Doleaira, Doe-lee-air-a.”

“Complicated.”

“Yes, my parents have odd naming senses.”

“Is the kid Eldo, or Renaira.”

“That second one is actually good, but no, her name is Alice.”

Thalia looked shocked.

“She’s named that young?”

Elren shrugged.

“Doe insisted, said that it was odd that I wasn’t going to name my own daughter.”

“He never explained why dragons do that.”

I spoke diplomatically,

“Dragons do it for a few reasons, the first is so your attention to details is better. For example, I am an arcane dragon, but I am red like Thalia. With names, they wouldn’t need to have many descriptors to tell us apart, but as we didn’t have names they had to determine what minute differences to call us for based on appearance. Elren, for example, called me cat, as my human form was a catkin, instead of the typical elf or human, while he called Thalia, Crimson, because her scales were slightly darker than mine.”

She started nodding as she understood a bit.

“We also do it as a symbol of strength, once the young one either matures through combat or defeats their father and mother, they will be named.”

“So, it’s essentially to show strength if you actually have a name.”

“Yes, think of it as being admitted to a famous battle school, you need to complete a challenge only using what you know of the style of fighting they teach. Being named greatly increases the dragon’s strength, so we do it so we know we are worthy of even having names. Dragons see it as names are a privilege.”

She suddenly has a question.

“Is it also dragon tradition to tell a 1-year-old, on her birthday mind you, that she is not to be treated as a princess anymore, needs to hunt for her own food, and gain a reputation as powerful?”

Thalia turned to Elren in shock. Doleaira smiled until Thalia said something she didn’t expect.

“Man, you spoiled her.”

“What?”

“You waited a full year to do that? I’d at max give them a week.”

“I told you I gave her a year to get her bearing already.”

“I thought you were exaggerating. A full year of lazing? That's how you get a weak dragon.”

Doleaira was confounded. She looked at me.

“I’m with you on this one.”

“That’s cause you’re young.”

Both siblings reached the same conclusion at the same time.

“Hey!”

They snickered, then my niece went up and said,

“Daddy, this lady is the one that won the tournament.”

“You won? I thought a dragonslayer won the capital tournament.”

“I used my aspect, and they thought I killed a dragon to get it.”

“Ah, that makes sense.”

“Are you my aunty?”

“Yes, I am, as hard it is to believe for me that Greeny got a mate.”

“Hey, Elren, not Greeny!”

Doleaira covered a laugh,

“Greeny?”

“He was the only green one.”

“Ah.”

“Aunty, I wanna fight you.”

“You’re too adorable to fight.”

“You’re not that much older, I’ll beat you.”

“Maybe. I’m pretty sure I’d die of cute before your magic.”

“Hah, cuteness is my secondary weapon.”

“It is?”

Thalia and Elren looked confused and Doleaira looked hopeful.

“Yeah, I look cute and then when they least expect it, I rip out their spleen and eat it!”

Doleaira sighed as Thalia and Elren cheered. Great, another battle junky.

“Do you use cuteness in the same way?”

“No, I use it to lose suspicion.”

“Ah.”

She was nodding, maybe she understo-

“Then you rip off their legs.”

“No-”

“That makes sense.”

“No, I don’t like killing.”

“Ah...”

My niece looked at me with curiosity.

“How many kills.”

“5.”

“Lame.”

“What do you mean lame?!”

“I already have over 100 kills.”

“Ah...”

My niece was no longer interested in me and went over to Thalia.

“I have over 99900.”

“I like this aunt.”

Nooo. My adorable niece is too far gone. Her mother was annoyed and looked at me.

“I understand you need 100000 lives to mature, but why not do it peacefully and wait 1000 years.”

“Dragons are battle junkies regularly. We fight since birth and therefore, with the exception of me, we fight to age.”

She nodded a tired nod as a man rushed in.

“Sire!”

Elren immediately went serious.

“What is it?”

“There is a wolfkin, he wants to speak to you.”

“Does he have a name?”

“Yes, it’s Sir Royce of Selethon.”