Phantasia: The Princess Knight

A small stone house on the outside of the inner ring of the village, Alicia and her group sat on the floor inside on pillows made of demonic beast hide and feathers. "You might find it strange that we use our own kind to make things right?" 

"Just a little but I can see why you would. I am guessing you use the hide from a special kind of demonic beast?" Alicia asked.

"Yeah, there is a demonic beast that can not ever cultivate past rank two called a Gragnar. These Gragnar are strange since they routinely shed their hide once a year. It is a strange sight since it is quite a bloody mess. The feathers are from bird demonic beasts who have molted. So we do not kill our own kind to gain these resources. For tools and other objects, we only gather those off of the deceased, who have died either by being killed by a human or another reason. The young ones often fight and kill each other for food as well which we will find skeletal remains everyone once and a while. Unfortunately, this does not look good on our kind... " Tia explained.

"Humans do the same, they will do horrible things just because they can. So do not look down on yourself because of this. It is basically the law of nature." Alicia tried to bring up the mood a bit. Tia smiled and sat down. 

"You asked about a dragon on the mountain peak. Since Loeri here has already sensed it there is no reason to lie. There is indeed a dragon on the peak of this mountain. Not just one but an entire group of dragons. They are the reason why we demons are able to live here on this mountain so peacefully. We had come into an agreement with their dragons that as long as we guard the path and try to deter visitors who mean harm they will help protect us and let us live here peacefully." Tia did not want to talk about these things outside because the contract between the dragons and the demons was supposed to be a secret. Only the elders of this demon village were supposed to know about this contract. But Tia had found out about it by accident when she was on an errand to send some items over to one of the elders. But since Loeri had already sensed that a dragon was here she had no reason to keep this information from them.

"I see... I wonder if my parents are here..." Loeri said words started off loud but slowly became soft towards the end of her sentence. Alicia could tell by Loeri's tone of voice that she was a bit nervous about meeting her parents if they were indeed there.

"Loeri, if they are, you can finally tell them how you truly feel after all these years. I will be by your side the entire time." Alicia tried to give Loeri a bit of assurance that should not need to go through anything alone. 

"Mmm… Thank you, Alicia." Loeri said with a forced smile.

"Tia, is there anything special we need to know about the dragons?" Alicia asked.

"As far as I know they are pretty secluded and rarely come down the mountain. We are also not allowed to go to the top of the mountain. There had been a few demons who could not contain their curiosity and went to investigate but they never returned. The only information I know is what I have just said." Tia answered.

With little to no information at all, Alicia could only check it out for herself. "Then we will go take a look. I will stop in on my way back to visit you." Alicia said as she got up. Everyone else following suit.

Tia looked at Alicia nervously. She bit her lower lip and scrunched her brow. "I will come with you. I also want to know more about the dragons." 

Alicia smiled and nodded her head. She knew Tia was strong and would add nicely to their fighting force. "Alright then let's all go together then."

The misty path filled their eyes as they climbed higher up the mountain. Although Alicia and the rest could fly she did not dare to do so at this time. She knew dragons in their dragon form could also fly and would have more of an advantage in the sky. She wasn't so much as to be worried about herself but everyone else. What was strange was that the higher the climbed the hotter it got. Normally it would get colder instead of hotter. Alicia could only guess the strangeness in the temperature was the dragons doing. Alicia was actually quite excited to meet other dragons as well. 

"Halt who goes there?" A voice thundered across the sky. Alicia and her group paused their steps and looked up into the sky. A red and yellow scaled dragon flapped its wings as it hovered overhead. "Oh, a rare sight this is. A demon and a human traveling together? Well too bad I will be the only one to see such a sight. I have to follow orders. Those who are not of the dragon clan will die!"

"Wait!" Loeri suddenly shouted, stepping out from behind Alicia. "I am of the dragon clan and these people are my friends."

"Huh? You think you are of the dragon clan when you have actually made a contract with a human? Do you not know dragon law? Any dragon who contracts a human is no longer part of our clan! Look at you! You can't even turn into your dragon form. You nothing more than a disgusting halfbreed! Just looking at you makes me sick! I will kill you first so that my eyes won't be dirtied any long..." The prideful drawings words were suddenly interrupted as Alicia shouted out.

"Take back what you just said!"

***

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