Chapter 33

Guaranteed  chapter of the released. also there probably won’t be another chapter this week, due to paska.I hope everyone enjoys their own celebration.  this chapter has me hit the 50000 word mark, (small celebration, and… done) I want to thank rouge and mejinzs for their proofreading support. there will be a post soon with some information about the future.

now without further ado, Chapter 33 – changes

———————————Fafnir POV————————

“Daddy.” Azazel said as she tried to rouse me, a common occurrence these past few months.

“Yes, Azazel?” I murmured half awake.

“Time to get up” she said as she tried to lift my snout.

“It’s too early; wake me up in an hour.” I replied as I started to drift back to sleep

“You said that before, and Aunt Atheros should be back today, we got to be ready.” She responded a few coins clanked against the stone floor as she struggled.

“Fine, but he has only been gone for a few months” I said as I open my eyes, and froze. “Azazel, what is that?”

“What is what?” she asked

I poked a bluish patch of skin on her throat.“That!”

She examined the patch of skin, touching it carefully.

“Maybe it’s my scales!” she squealed .

“Maybe, let’s go see your big sister Lilith.” I said as I got up. We walked to the back part of my lair where we found the nephilim writing in her cavern.

“Hey Lilith, I want you to look at something for me.” I said as we entered.

“What?” she sighed as she turned around. She froze as looked at the little demoness, “What happened?”

“My scales are comin in.” she said with a large grin, “feel them, they feel like daddy’s.”

Lilith shot me a confused look before inspecting the blue patch. “They are scales.” She confirmed.

“Is this normal?” I asked the nephilim, though I was pretty sure of the answer.

“Are demon lords normally raised by a dragon who also happens to be the human hero?” she quipped.

“True, well… not much I can do then.” I replied as I picked up the demoness with my tail, and placed her on my back.

“Are we gonna play outside daddy?” she asked are she latched onto my neck.

“Yes, but we aren’t going far today, as we’re waiting for uncle Atheros.” I replied as we made our way to the entrance.

“It’s aunt Atheros, uncle Therin said, ‘You can’t have two uncles’ so Aunt Atheros has to be the aunt.’” She declared.

“Oh, ok” I chuckled as we reached the lair’s ledge.

“Still beautiful” I thought to myself as I looked over the sea of green.

“I’m holding tight daddy.” Azazel said as she gripped my neck.

I jumped off the cliff and glided towards the clearing that I created. I landed softly on the ground leaving a good sized footprint in the soft soil. Azazel quickly jumped off my neck stumbling a bit as she landed.

“Do you think we will see elves today?” she asked, “They looked so silly running away last time.”

“I don’t think we’ll see any today, so why don’t we go play in the pond?” I said as I headed toward the small pond that was right inside the forest.

“Yes! Can you throw me in now?” she asked with a wide smile across her face.

“Not until you show you can swim without holding on to me.” I reminded.

“I am older now, so I can do it.” she declared.

“Azazel, a week doesn’t change much.” I replied.

“I have scales like daddy now, so I should be fine.” she insisted.

“We’ll see we get in the water.” I chuckled

Several hours passed as we waited for the human scout under the warm sun. She kept insisting that she was ready to be thrown in but changed her mind after the first toss, where I had to jump in after her and drag her to shore. We were laying in the midday sun when I caught a whiff of an odd smell. I flicked my tongue trying to get a better understanding of this strange scent, but could not identify it.

“Azazel,” I said, waking up the sleeping demoness.

“What?” she mumbled as she rubbed her eyes.

“Come on, I think unc… aunt Atheros is here.” I said as I picked her up and placed her on my back.

I followed the strange scent deeper into the forest and I noticed several humans trudging through the underbrush.

“Do you really think that dang lizard is around here?” One of the men complained as he hacked through a bush.

“No, I think that traitor was lying, trying to say that some demon scum was no threat.” Another replied “We’ll solve this problem for the king.”

I quickly backtracked toward the clearing.

“Where is aunt Atheros?” the demoness questioned.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”  I replied, hiding my anger from the little demoness. “We are going back home and I am going to have big sister Lilith look over you while I look for him.”

“But I want to go too!” she wined.

“You can’t go as you haven’t eaten lunch yet.” I said, “ I will be back soon.”

I launched into the air from the clearing and landed on the cliff ledge.

“Lilith,” I called as I walked through the entrance.

“What?” she replied from the back of the cave.

“I want you to watch Azazel and feed her lunch. I am going to search for Atheros.” I replied, as I placed the demoness on the stone floor.

“Be good for big sis, I will be back soon.” I said as I carefully patted her head with my fore claw.

“Ok”, she replied.  She gave my fore leg a big hug and then ran to the kitchen.

I walked out of the cave and launched myself into the sky. I landed in my clearing and headed to where I last saw the group of humans. I quickly found the noisy humans as they stumbled through the underbrush, attempting to create their own path through.

“What morsels do I have here?” I said as I appeared behind the loud group, causing them all to jump a little.

“We are solider of the human army and we were sent here under orders of King Vitur to… escort the human hero back to the capital.” he declared in a loud voice.

“Then where is sir Atheros?” I asked staring at the pompous human.

“Other… matters, made it so he could not return, though he sent us to escort him in his stead.” he replied.

“Prove it.” I challenged.

“I am a knight of the king, I need not prove anything.”

“I don’t know that, for all I know you could be some bandits that killed my human.” I growled as some mana ominously Dripped from my mouth.“Show me any proof, or else…”

“You dare talk to a knight of the king in that way!” The man shouted, “I knew that this Beast was no hero.”

“Thank you, now I can say you provoked me, and no one will question your deaths.”  I said with a wide grin, “By the way, I love my demoness daughter and you aren’t going to hurt her.” Their faces bleached at my words. I chuckled as i walked towards the doomed men, thinking of the horrors they would endure as I ”corrected” their way of thinking.

————————————————————————

 

as always, me and rouge are mostly human, mejins is starting to come around, let us know if we missed anything and let me know what you think in the comments.