I quickly summoned a golden pot, took out some ingredients, and decided to cook a stew using the meat we had saved inside my inventory, plus some veggies grown inside my Divine Realm.
At the same time as the food was cooking, Emerald started to explain a bit of what had happened so far. Apparently, he was indeed a Wind Dragon, coming from the faraway lands of Alfheim, where the Wind Dragons still are in large groups.
Alf, the Progenitor Mother of Wind Dragons is still alive as well, governing the Floating Island of Evercloud, where only Wind Dragons could access… Emerald was an extrovert little Wind Dragon that loved mischief and getting into all sorts of troubles.
He eventually made all his siblings mad one day when his games ended breaking one of their mother's largest and most beautiful statues… They were so mad that even when his mother tried to defend him from the rage of his siblings, they ended threatening him of exiling him from their tribe.
However, their mother, who was very benevolent, instead, gave Emerald a small task, something he had to do before coming back, which she believed would help him harden his personality and grow stronger on a journey around the world.
"S-So she told me that I needed to help people." He sighed. "And as proof that I've helped people, she asked me to bring to her three souvenirs, from three different tribes of people. I-I haven't gotten any yet…"
"So how did you even break your wings?!" I asked. "Also how come you came all the way here from Alfheim thinking you'll be fine?" I facepalmed. "Your family is quite carefree, huh? Like the wind I guess."
"Ugh, don't blame it on my family, I was stupid…" Cried Emerald. "I broke mom's statue… It is a fitting punishment. And I broke my wings a month ago when I clash landed on this continent… I was on my way to Vanaheim instead but ended getting in here."
"Did someone broke your wings, Emerald?" Benladra asked. "I tried but your wings can't be healed normally… it feels like they're cursed or something…"
"T-They are cursed…" Emerald sighed. "I ended messing around with someone I found in the skies, a completely pitch-black scaled dragon. I thought I could talk to him because he was a dragon, but he roared angrily at me, calling me a weakling, and then he slashed my wings with his huge claws! And I fell off here…"
"A black scaled dragon you said?" I wondered. "Do you know anything more about him?"
"N-No… but he was really angry." Emerald said. "He was moving towards Svartalfheim, the home of Dark Dragons and a tribe of Earth Dragons… I've never meet such a rude punk before!"
"I see…" I wondered. "I'll have to ask my father if he recognizes any aggressive Dark Dragon, he might be someone dangerous if he just attacked another dragon without even talking with them."
"Y-Your father?" Wondered Emerald. "Wait, are you actually a dragon?!"
"Ugh." I facepalmed, quickly transforming into one. I tried to be as small as possible, growing only up to thirty meters, barely below the forest canopy. "Is this enough proof, little guy?"
"WAAAHHH!" Emerald cried in horror and shock. "H-HUGE…! YOU'RE HUGE! A-And those scales… silver and blue! A Frost Dragon! So cool! I've never seen one of those before!"
Benladra and Kate also turned into dragons, making the little Emerald even more surprised.
"N-No way! A Holy Dragon?! And… Metal Dragon? Is it a variant of an Earth Dragon?" He wondered. "A-Anyways! I can't believe I finally see nice dragons for once!"
Emerald, once more, quickly started crying.
"I'm so happy and glad, so relieved! Sniff… I thought I was done for, for real!" He continued crying so much it made me feel even more bad.
"Stop crying so much…" I sighed. "I guess you've gone through a lot." I patted his shoulders.
"Y-Yeah…" Emerald cried. "Ugh, when is the food ready? I'm starving…"
"It's almost ready, don't be impatient, brat!" I gave him a karate chop in the head, he got all cocky out of nowhere!
"Ouch! S-Sorry…" He cried. "Sniff…"
"So how exactly these lizardmen hate you?" Wondered Yuki. "Ah, you two know about them?"
"That we are lizardmen doesn't mean we know every single other lizardmen out there!" Kraxka said, feeling slightly offended.
"But we do know what they were. That was a rather varied group, there were Swamp Lizardmen, those with appearances of Crocodiles. Then there were the Lowland Lizardmen, the thinner and smaller ones. Then the Mountain Lizardmen, with hard shells, and lastly… those weren't lizardmen, they were frogmen, a different type of tribe." Larzak explained. "Hmm… It is interesting how they were all cooperating together, I suppose that to survive in this harsh continent, they had to combine their strengths. Even if different."
"That's quite nice, but that they're chasing around a poor dragon… It only makes me think of them as assholes." Ruby crossed her legs as she was eating a red-colored Blood Cookie, I had made, which were a quick way for her to get carbohydrates and proteins combined with blood.
"But why are they chasing you?" Asked Rakasha, looking at the jungle surrounding us, we were sitting over a log around the golden pot that was boiling the stew. "I heard something about a disease, and their provisions having been eaten… Is that true?"
"N-Not at all!" Emerald cried, closing his eyes, and covering his face in fear at Rakasha's old and angry face. "Please don't kill me!"
"Hah… Nobody is going to kill you, brat." Rakasha sighed. "For a dragon you sure are a crybaby, calm down and relax. You're Rank 9, aren't you? How come you're so fearful of everything?"
"G-Guh…" Emerald cleaned his tears again. "I just am…! And I barely know how to fight… That black dragon beat the living feather out of me too! What can I even do? Ugh… sniff…"
"Did you had to be so intimidating, uncle?" Ruby asked angrily.
"O-Okay, sorry…" Rakasha facepalmed. "Anyways…?"
"I-I only ate a bit of their provisions that night, I only ate… a few beans and veggies! But I didn't ate half of it! No, the one that did it was that other thing! The Horror of the Jungle!" Emerald desperately said. "And that thing is also the one that spread the disease! I-I saw it! But nobody believed me…"
"If you saw it why you didn't just killed it?!" I asked. "You're Rank 9!"
"Eeep!" Emerald suddenly ran away, hiding behind a tree. "I-I couldn't! I-I was too scared… It was intimidating and big, and I couldn't even make up its shape! Because of that when I tried to describe it to them, they didn't believe me, and when I told them that it came from their beloved ruins, they called me a bastard!"
"This is getting more fishy as we speak." I wondered. "Those Ruins… Do you know what they are, Emerald? And this Horror, is this the first time you've seen it?"
"I don't know about the ruins, a-and yeah, it was the first time…" The Wind Dragon timidly crawled back to us. "I-Is the food ready?"
"Almost there…" I said. "Were these people… helping you before?"
"They took me in when they found me wounded and almost dead… They healed me and feed me, and called me a Sacred Beast, but now they hate me…" Sighed Emerald.
"I see…" I nodded. "Alright then, we'll have to pay them a visit once we're done eating."
"EEEH?! But they're going to kill me!"
He's really a chicken both in appearance and attitude, huh?
