Chapter VII - History of the Dragons

Anastasia was having fun roaming through the halls. Both her and Sam were taking a leisurely pace, enjoying the scenery. Sure they had a whole quest thing on the line, but why rush it? The guards seemed fully appreciative of the two. Anastasia had seen many guards bow their heads towards them. It made her feel important, proud. She thought back to how little she’d had that in her life.

She’s always been meek and mousy. No one ever really gave her too much stick in high school, but she wasn’t exactly the most popular individual. Her time was spent with her sister and her online friends. She remembered the sheer amount of fantasy games she’d played recently. She skipped around happily at the thought that now she would basically be living inside one. Those were always her escape, her happy place. Coming home from a long, monotonous day of school to a blissful existence in her rpg’s was amazing.

She also thought back to how that extended into her past times for her in person friends. Both her, Sam, and Jenny all started a Dungeons and Dragons campaign about two years ago. They’d gone on epic quests and fought fantastic battles. In retrospect, she should have realized more about herself. Her characters in dnd and her rpg games were always women. Sam too. She looked over at the small little person.

Their cat ears twitched on top of their head. They were so cute. Their hands were so soft and the little tail just added to the ensemble. So adorable! Sam was pretty and Anastasia couldn’t take her eyes off of her for a second.

“Hey, Sam?” The cat-person turned and looked at her inquisitively.

“Hm?”

“I just thought of something. You always made female characters just like me, but yours were always buff, androgynous, or absolutely adorable. How the hell did we not even question each other?” Anastasia giggled out. The act felt foreign coming from her lips, but the joy was apparent. She was enjoying herself, something she couldn’t really say for other recent times.

Sam snorted. “I mean, hindsight is 20/20. I kinda thought I was a legit trans girl until last night.”

“What do you mean by ‘legit?’”

“Oh, I don’t know. Like you’ve got it all figured out. You know you’re a girl now. You recognized those dysphoric feelings and can say you conquered them. I don’t really understand what dysphoria’s like. I just enjoy myself for a little bit, accept my situation, then kinda wish it was different. I don’t feel like I absolutely need to change like my life depended on it.”

Anastasia face palmed. “Gosh, you’re almost as dense as me. That sounds like dysphoria just duller. You know you don’t need dysphoria to be trans right? And any gender stuff falls under that umbrella?” Anastasia shook her head, laughing, “Now don’t ask me why I know so much about trans stuff when we didn’t even have close trans friends. I was cis at the time! I swear!”

Sam giggled, the soft sweet lilt coming from their tiny figure. “I’ll try to keep that in mind then. Ooh!” Their eyes seemed to brighten in happiness. “Mizzon took me to see the sorceress today. She gave me this,” they pulled out what just looked to be a rock to Anastasia.

“Oh, cool!” Anastasia grimaced, trying to support her friend and their sudden enjoyment of rocks. “It's, uh, it's a rock! Nice!”

Sam knitted their brows, unsure if she was joking. “It’s more than a rock you know? It helps change my appearance!” They were waving it around happily, shaking their hands. They leaned in towards Anastasia who was grinning. “I’ll show you when we get to Jenny’s. Race ya!” They then took off towards the direction of the room.

Anastasia was standing there shocked for a second. She didn’t fully get the rock thing, but if it worked and made Sam happy then she was happy for them. Looking at Sam’s figure gaining a considerable lead, Anastasia finally realized she was in a race! She had to catch up! No letting Sam just win. That would be blasphemous!

***

Jenny had been up for a while now. She’d gone about her daily rituals and was doing some general studying on Dragons. The book was laid open on her desk and she was slipping continuously on her hand, struggling to stay focused. One second she would be reading about the intricacies of Dragon Kind and their descendents, the next she’d be thinking about a certain dragon kind’s heat that she’d like to feel between her legs again.

She lustfully sighed thinking about Mizzon. The strong woman had to leave early this morning to do her guard duty. Jenny couldn’t wait for her return. Being relieved from her training until both Anastasia and Sam could be worked in was annoying. She was starting to get used to the routine. The slight enjoyable monotony of it. She’d begun to see the same people and grown to like them. Without seeing them, her mind felt slightly lonely. She thought it was a weird feeling considering she just got her sister back and would like to get her family back, but she missed her new friends.

She thought of Mizzon’s best friend, Akinan. She was a rather tall and lithe Drow elf. She had piercing aquamarine eyes that shimmered like jewels, dark gray skin, and snow white hair. She was much taller than Jenny and only slightly taller than Mizzon. Akinan was a master swordswoman and excellent with a bow. She’d been teaching Jenny how to shoot since she arrived. She always looked forward to classes with her. She was so kind and thoughtful, making sure to praise and gently work with Jenny. She made her feel like there was genuine improvement. She couldn’t even hit the target to begin, but now she was nailing the outer edges consistently. Akinan said that it wouldn’t be long before Jenny was a pro!

Jenny was grinning, staring at the Dragon history book, but absorbing none of it. She was only missing her friends. A hurried knock interrupted her so-called studying. She lazily got up, her flowing day dress flowing around behind her, dancing just out of reach from the floor.

She pulled open the slightly heavy door to an exasperated Sam, who was laughing. The small cat-person sprinted past her into the room. Jenny looked at them shocked. Seconds later, Anastasia sprinted up to the door. She looked annoyed at seeing Sam in the room.

“No fair! You cheated!” Anastasia cried out. Jenny just looked back and forth between the two of them. Sam stuck out their tongue and blew a raspberry.

“Should’ve been faster then!” They said laughing. Jenny rolled her eyes.

“Get in here you buffoon,” Jenny said, pulling Anastasia inside. “While I love that you two are enjoying yourselves, what the heck?” 

“It’s Sam’s fault! They wanted to race and you know I can’t turn down a race!” Anastasia shouted.

Jenny shook her head, annoyed at the toy adults acting like children. “Whatever, is this an actual visit or just for fun?” She looked at both trying to discern an answer.

Anastasia nodded, “Definitely important. It’s about the quest.”

“Ok, then. Spill.”

Just as Anastasia was about to speak another knock, though much softer and composed, resounded throughout the room. Grumbling, Jenny moved from where she was standing and pulled the door open. A little vampire girl that Jenny had seen around the castle and a harpy woman, both servants, were standing there expectantly.

“Hi Lady Jenny! My name’s Allimik, but you can call me Alli! I’m here at the request of Ana!” The vampire girl was bouncing on her heels, looking like she wanted to run inside.

“Ana?” Jenny asked, knitting her brows trying to figure out who she meant.

“Lady Anastasia, my liege. The Lady has allowed me to refer to her as such.”

“Oh, uh, alright I guess.”

“And, I am here for Sam. My name is Norianna, my Lady.” Norianna did the weird bow thing. Jenny just looked at the two curiously, then looked behind her at both Anastasia and Jenny. She was definitely interested at this information now, more than before. She moved to the side letting the two enter.

“Ok, someone’s got to explain what the heck is so important!” Jenny said, waving her arms around in circles at the direction of the four. Three of them shrugged or just looked around waiting for someone to start. Anastasia was the one who gathered everyone essentially.

“I wanted to talk to you before we spoke to the Queen today,” Anastasia said nodding in Jenny’s direction. “Alli gave me some crucial information this morning for our quest and I feel like you could do more with it. Plus having these two here,” she gestured to Norianna and Alli, “helps our historical understanding. I didn’t want Sam’s bottom to be lonely so we made sure that Norianna came.” She said, trying to hide her grin at the last bit.

“Hey!” Sam looked shocked at their friend. How could they be betrayed like this? Their best friend!? They pulled out the Changing Stone and thought of their much larger form from earlier. The world shifted around them as they became the tallest in the room. Filling out both horizontally and vertically as their muscles became thick and strong. Their breasts shrank to form a much more firm chest and their voice deepened “Who are you calling a bottom Anastasia?”

Anastasia’s playful joking turned around on her quickly. She just stared up at her friend. She probably sat at a cool 5’8 now, but Sam was upwards of 6’3 and much stronger. Not only that but her friend was adorable before, now the Grimalkin was a force and absolutely hot. Their face was much more angular and devoid of physical softness. Their soft eyes still looked back at Anastasia, gloating but still kind.

“Ooh, honey, when could you do this? Oh, this will be fun later,” Noriana cooed, walking over to Sam and putting her hand on their chest.

“Woah! You’re an in-between!? Awesome!” Alli screeched, jumping around.

“I see Mizzon got you that appointment with the Sorceress then?” Jenny giggled slightly seeing Anastasia get the karma she deserved. Sam nodded their head.

“Keep talking about me bottoming and I might just have to show you why it’s fun,” Sam smirked looking directly at Anastasia with fire in their eyes. Anastasia gulped, slightly scared, but also thrilled at the concept.

“Um, uh,” she glanced toward Sam then looked back at Jenny, “anyways, uh, where was I? Oh! Um, yeah, uh history!” Anastasia blathered, trying to catch her cool. “Yeah, so uh,” she glanced back at the fiercely hot Sam, “uh, uh–”

“Distracted hun?” Sam laughed.

“Ok,” Anastasia blew out air from her mouth trying to calm herself down. No lust, no lust! Bad body! Focus! She thought. “Alright,” she looked calmer now, “let me start at the beginning. Alli came to help me today and I thought she was a human at first glance. I asked her if she was, she explained she was a vampire, then mentioned there used to be humans in this world, but that was back when the dragons still roamed.” Everyone, but Norianna and Alli looked surprised by this.

“Wait, there were humans here?” Sam asked, looking towards Norianna.

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“Well, yeah, but that was a really long time ago. Plus, from all the history written down, they were extraordinarily weak. They lived in small villages and often turned on their allies making them grow even weaker. It’s no surprise they went extinct really.”

The three non-natives just looked shocked. Even Anastasia, who’d already heard this slightly. “Well, Alli mentioned that there was a war between the humans and the elves that involved dragons.” Anastasia said. Alli was nodding along verifying this.

“Well yeah. Everyone knows about that. It’s partially the reason Dragon kind went extinct. Dragon’s quite liked humans and were one of their fiercest allies. Humans had a unique pack bonding trait that would allow them to bond with almost anything, sentient or not. Dragons loved to collect special things as a form of gift giving. Humans had a lot of sentimental things because of that trait making them excellent trade partners.” Norianna spoke like this was common knowledge. She was slightly confused at the sheer surprise and intrigue written on the others' faces. “Why do you all look like that? Did they not have Dragons where you were from, you seem to know of them?”

Anastasia shook her head. “No, we didn’t have any kind of magic. It was all make believe where we were from.”

“Hm. Odd.” Norianna stated.

“Please continue. This could help us find the Dragons we need if we know more about them.” Sam said.

“Dragons you need? Sorry to burst your bubble, but they don’t exist anymore.” Norianna said.

“That’s what Mizzon told us, but we need Frozen Dragon’s Breath for a ritual. According to Eris, we should be able to find it here.” Jenny pulled out the map, revealing it to the two. Alli raised her hand like she was a school child. Jenny just raised her eyebrow. “Yes, Alli?” She paused rolling out the map and looked at the girl.

“Who’s Eris?”

“The goddess who brought us all here.” Sam lazily answered.

“Oh,” the vampire paused, looking down for a second, “that’s so cool!” Her face shot back up and she looked excited again.

“Ok, anyway, Mizzon pointed out that this area,” Jenny pointed to the Frost Fields, “isn’t on any modern maps. She said this was likely where we needed to go. Any history you two know?” Alli raised her hand again and Jenny just pointed towards her, signaling her to speak.

“My mom said that the human demons used to live in the far North East of the world. Dragons were their trade partners and allies, plus they liked the mountains. It would make sense for the map to point towards the mountains. Humans had clan-like nations with several leaders, making them barbaric in comparison to the rest of the world who were united under four different Queens at the time. The elves lived in one nation, the vampires in another, the dragons had their own, and all other demon kind rallied behind the succubi.”

Norianna nodded along and spoke up. “She’s right. It's basically ancient history now, but those four nations used to co-exist, while the humans were scattered under hundreds of leaders, in a constant fight for power. Their short life spans made it relatively impossible for them to keep up with the constant leaders in power for the other demons.”

“Dragons still supported them though, and fiercely too. They loved collecting things with sentimental value that were given to them. That’s essentially how their economy worked. The more emotional value an object held, the more it was worth. Their courts were always massive and quite beautiful according to legend.” She paused to let everyone take in the information.

“Well what happened? Alli mentioned a war,” Anastasia was enraptured by the tale and wanted to know everything.

“Humans got greedy,” Norianna said it like it was a fact. “They took advantage of their symbiotic relationship with the Dragons. Some groups apparently felt like the Elves were encroaching on their lands and went to the Frost Dragons for help. They began to give them more and more sentimental objects to get them to help. Having secured the help they needed, they’d largely ignored the other largest race of Dragons, Fire. The Frost Dragons ransack elven lands, freezing crops and killing thousands in the name of the Humans.”

“Absolutely, furious, the Elven Queen reached out to the Fire Dragons who were distraught at the massacre the Frost Dragons inflicted. There was supposedly an internal power struggle between the Frost and Fire Dragons with Frost Dragons barely succeeding. The Elves gave over some immense artifacts that had thousands of years of sentiment behind them. Making them worth a large fortune for the Fire Dragons. The Fire Dragons fought with the Elves, while the Frost Dragons fought with the Humans.”

“Being much more coordinated and adept at warfare, the Elves soundly beat back the Humans from their lands, planning to end the conflict at that. The Fire Dragons were attempting to return to their lands, but were intercepted by bands of roaming human armies. After being attacked, they set forth a large force to raze down their villages. The Frost Dragons sought to maintain their fierce alliance with humans and went to defend them. The sheer size of their conflict destroyed all that was left of Humans. Villages burned, any semblance of government snuffed out, everything gone.”

“The Dragons continued to fight. It turned into an all out civil war. The Dragon Queen was struck down by Fire Dragons in a coup attempt, then they were beaten back. The sickening blood war continued for eons until there were only a few Dragons left. The Dragon reproduction process was long and each of these Dragons passed that phase in their life long ago. Centuries passed until finally the Dragons died out. It's a tragic tale.”

“Oh my god, that’s awful,” Sam looked down at their hands as if they had something to do with it. They may be Grimalkin now, but they felt like they were still human. Anastasia and Jenny had a similar grimace on their faces.

“It’s a harrowing tale indeed, but it led to the unification of all demons under one Queen to insure that no extinction can ever happen again. Sure there’s rebellions and power shifts, but the aim was to eliminate blood feuds and, so far, it’s worked.”

“I guess that’s one good outcome,” Jenny said, shivering slightly at the thought of extinction.

“I’m glad we understand more, but what does that mean for this quest then? Eris wants us to get Frozen Dragon’s Breath. That has to mean that there’s still a Dragon out there.” Anastasia pierced the silence with her words. Norianna looked at her.

“I suppose so, but how do you plan to reach that area? Most of the North East was effectively destroyed because of the Dragon Wars. No one ever explores there and returns. The farther you get from the Queendom, the more struggles you will face. Everything is available here and everyone is accepting of all demons. The farther you go, the older sentiment still has roots.”

“What do you mean by older sentiment?” Sam asked.

“She means ambivalence and hatred towards other demon kind. The Elves and Vampires used to be weak allies, more akin to stab each other in the back than anything. The Humans and Dragons were their own, but the Succubi had conquered the South East fairly easily. They asked little of other demon kind and were greatly accepting of all. Other demons were forced out of the Elven and Vampire lands and sought refuge. It made this Queendom lovely, but after the destruction of two demons, the Succubi decided that a tragedy similar could never happen again,” Alli spoke up.

“So demons used to hate each other then?” Anastasia asked.

“Well, yeah, some did. A lot didn’t at least those living in the Succubi land. The Succubi Queen Estroth organized a peaceful integration of the remaining three Queendoms. For thousands of years, there were three constant Queens of Dracodosi, but it eventually dwindled down to one. It depends on who wins the tournament of three held every thousand years. The Succubi have won ever since its invention.”

“Tournament of three?” Sam asked.

“Oh! I know this one!” Jenny perked up. “It’s how the Queen is determined. A chosen succubus, a vampire, and an elf all enter into a tournament of trials, picked by the current Queen. There are five trials and three favor each species while the last two are decided by a council. The demon with the most trial successes becomes queen. So far, the Succubi have completed all five, while the other contestants have both only ever completed four.” Jenny beamed at being able to recite history.

“So it's been rigged since the Succubi won it?” Anastasia asked nonchalantly. Both Alli and Norianna looked shocked.

“My lady!? You should never say such a thing. The queens chosen thus far have been elegant and regal winners, seeking only to better Dracodosi. Any more heresy and you might as well curse the Queen to her face!” Norianna seemed distraught.

“Eh, whatever, I guess I won’t say anything about it,” Anastasia shrugged and decided to keep her opinions on that topic to herself from now on.

“You said that some demon kind still hold some old values right, Alli?” Sam asked. The small girl nodded her head. “So, I’m assuming, the farther we leave the Queen’s direct influence the less kind people will be to demon kind that aren’t like them?”

“Well, mainly Vampires and Elves. The other demon kind mimic humans in their small spread out numbers, but Succubi, Vampires, and Elves congregate closely with extremely long life spans. Considering you’re Grimalkin, you’d probably be left alone if you were traveling by yourself. But because you two,” she said pointing towards Jenny and Anastasia, “are Succubi, we’d likely face discrimination should we enter a Vampire or Elven land.”

“Wait a second, we?” Anastasia asked, raising her eyebrow speculatively.

“Yeah, we!” Alli said, bouncing up and down. “If you’re going to find Dragons, I want in! And I’m your assigned hand! I have to go where you go!”

“She is right my Lady,” Norianna spoke up then glanced towards Sam. “As your hands, we have to attend to you. This does mean we’d require royal transport and a grace from the Queen.”

“Ughhh! At least we know what we’re getting but this is starting to sound difficult,” Anastasia grumbled. Her thoughts were spiraling. She just wanted her family back but now it was turning into a sort of epic journey. Why can’t the Dragons just casually exist! She thought. Tears began to form in her eyes as she looked down. Her face contorted into a frown. Jenny walked over to her slowly turning sister and rubbed her back.

“Hey, hun? It’s gonna be okay and once we get this, mom and dad will be here!” Jenny tried to comfort her. Anastasia looked up and smiled slightly. There was still evidence of pain, but it looked a little duller, more mellow.

Anastasia tried to get a hold of herself. Jenny’s presence was having the desired calming effect.

“Alright, alright. I think I’ll be okay,” she said sniffling. “Where’s Mizzon?”

“Oh, she’s at her guard duty,” Jenny said, glancing towards the window to look at the sun. “Judging by the sun, she should be done soon. Why?” Anastasia grinned at Jenny then glanced around at each of the demons in the room.

“Ladies,” Anastasia paused for a second then looked dead at Sam, “and Sam, I think it’s time we go meet with the Queen and get this quest started!” She shouted it and pumped her fist in the air, trying to get everyone excited.