If she did not take immediate action, she would end up just like her mother back then.
Greystone City was originally a border territory of the Kingdom of Halen, tasked with monitoring the Blackthorn Forest and trading with other nations.
Now that the city was destroyed, news would inevitably reach the royal capital within a few days.
What followed would be an official state-level dragon-hunting legion, stronger mages and knights, as well as siege machinery specifically designed to deal with dragons.
The location of the lair in the Blackthorn Forest had already been exposed; staying here meant certain death.
Seria stowed away the Dragon God statue and the altar, put the three wyrmlings into the carrying bag prepared beforehand, and departed from the Blackthorn Forest.
...
The Kingdom of Noland and the Kingdom of Halen—where Greystone City belonged—were neighboring nations, sharing a border and keeping each other in check.
Friction along the border between the two countries was constant, and information did not circulate easily.
On the northern border of the Kingdom of Noland lay a settlement of magical beasts: the Whispering Forest.
The level of magical beasts throughout the forest was relatively low, with almost no high-tier magical beasts capable of threatening a young red dragon. The environment was stable, with little competition.
It was suitable for the three red wyrmlings to grow and develop, and of course, even more suitable for the dragon mother to undergo her draconic slumber and advance in rank.
More importantly, in nearby Emberfire City, the adventurers were weak, merchant caravans rarely crossed the border, and the local kingdom nobility had fallen into decline, leaving virtually no effective oversight.
It was a true lawless territory.
Naturally, it was also a place where she had temporarily stayed while fleeing for her life in the past.
The dragon mother spread her wings, magical sparkles flickering across her body from time to time, enveloping even the bag holding the three wyrmlings in her claws.
She flew at full speed toward the Whispering Forest on the border of the Kingdom of Noland.
At night, the wyrmlings inside the bag fell into a slumber. Kael also did his best to curl up at the bottom of the bag, avoiding any starlight falling upon him.
Back at the witch's cottage, he had already learned from Elise about the special reaction his body had when exposed to starlight.
Kael curled his draconic body downward as much as possible, yet whenever the dragon mother shifted her flight trajectory, the filtering starlight still fell upon him.
"Huh?"
As if understanding the little red dragon's current predicament, the stars in the sky shone down, but his dragon scales did not glow, nor did any starry patterns appear.
Kael relaxed completely.
During the journey over the past few days, he had also learned the names of his mother and the two wyrmlings.
As for the way Carlos looked at him, it no longer held the domineering arrogance from their first meeting, but rather fear—mixed, of course, with reluctance.
Such was the nature of red dragons; a single lesson could only buy temporary submission.
If Kael wanted to train up a good younger brother—or rather, a good older brother—he would still need to spend a lot of time in the future.
For an entire week, the dragon mother took no rest, crossing national borders and traversing mountains, rivers, forests, and lakes before finally reaching the heart of the Whispering Forest—an extinct volcano that had been dormant for thousands of years.
The mountain was desolate and lifeless, long devoid of heat waves from eruptions, leaving only hard, thick basalt cliff walls on its surface.
At the foot of the mountain lay a vast stretch of low bushes, surrounded by dense forest.
The surrounding magical beasts were low-tier, and almost no adventurers were willing to come here, making it an excellently concealed location.
The dragon mother brought the three little ones halfway up the mountain, where there was a natural karst cave she had lived in during her young dragon stage.
The cave was deep and spacious, well-ventilated and dry, with a small patch of bushes covering the entrance—making it more than suitable as a new dragon nest.
However, the cave seemed to already have an owner now.
A rustling sound echoed from inside the cave, coming closer and closer.
A mutated magical beast nearly four meters long—a molten-tusk boar, a Third-Tier magical beast—charged out of the karst cave.
Judging by the panic and fear on the boar's face, it had clearly sensed the dragon mother's dragon fear and wanted to flee its territory.
Terrified out of its wits by the red dragon mother's dragon fear, the magical beast bypassed the red dragon family in front and bolted toward the other side of the cave.
Suddenly, a blast of dragon breath erupted from the dragon mother's mouth, and the frantically fleeing beast instantly went still.
Setting the carrying bag on the ground, the dragon mother walked up to the cave entrance and unleashed another blast of dragon breath several times more powerful, burning away all the debris inside the karst cave before proceeding deep into its interior alone.
Before the three little ones could get their bearings, a majestic draconic voice echoed from inside the cave:
"I am going into a long slumber this time. Do not disturb me."
Arriving at the middle section of the karst cave, the dragon mother finished chanting a Draconic spell, causing a massive boulder to materialize out of thin air, completely sealing off the passage behind her.
The pitch-black environment did not affect a red dragon's vision.
The dragon mother then placed gold coins and several beautiful crystals onto the open space ahead, casting warning magic over the treasure.
Once finished, she arrived at the deepest part of the cave and chanted another long, convoluted Draconic spell.
A vast swath of rock ahead melted like snow, forming a space large enough for her slumber.
Stepping inside, she retrieved the altar and the Dragon God statue, solemnly placing them in the center of the open area, followed by gemstones, magic crystals, and a thick layer of gold coins covering the ground.
Lying upon the layer of gold coins before the altar, she lowered her crimson eyelids, the dragon scales across her body slowly losing their lustre as she officially entered a deep sleep.
Behind her, a stone wall formed at the entrance to this space, embedded with various illusion, concealment, protection, and warning spells, looking no different from the surrounding cave walls.
Such preparations were something Seria had repeated several times in her dragon life.
Recently, Seria had been preparing for her advancement, hunting high-tier magical beasts outside one after another, followed by burning down a city and embarking on a long-distance trek, leaving her body thoroughly exhausted.
She urgently needed this slumber to soothe her pushed-to-the-limit body while breaking through her shackles to step into the Ninth-Tier.
...
Outside the cave, Kael was already sitting before the carcass of the magical boar, tearing into and chewing on the cooked—and even somewhat charred—meat.
Lying on the ground beside him was Carlos, who had tried to snatch the food from him only to get beaten into submission once more.
Just moments ago, as the red wyrmlings outside looked at the massive carcass of the molten-tusk boar, days of starvation caused their instinct to fight over food to explode instantly.
Carlos, having starved for nearly ten days, was the most agitated. He lunged at the beast carcass first, baring his claws and fangs in an attempt to claim the whole boar for himself, rudely driving away the timid Nora nearby, and even letting out a provocative growl at Kael:
"This is mine! The food of the future great Red Dragon Emperor Carlos! Don't you dare fight me for it!"
Looking at this brother of his who never learned his lesson, Kael naturally wasn't about to indulge him.
With a flick of his draconic tail, he whipped the starved, weak wyrmling off the beast carcass.
Following up with a pounce, a claw swipe, and a headbutt, poor Carlos was already sprawled on the ground, seeing stars.
Kael stood firmly beside the beast carcass, lowering his head to eat.
Yet just as his fangs were about to tear open the pork, his experience as a human from his past life brought a sudden surge of clarity to his mind.
This time, the dragon mother had said she would sleep for a long time, meaning that for an extended period ahead, there would be no dragon to watch over them and no dragon to feed them.
Surviving on this extinct volcano hereafter would depend entirely on these few wyrmlings for safety and hunting.
Even though he possessed a robust physique and a certain amount of combat prowess, he was still just a single dragon after all.
Hunting in the mountains and forests, defending against magical beasts, and keeping watch for danger in the future would all require the strength of other dragons.
Looking at his siblings again, they were already starved down to skin and bones.
As weaklings, sticking together was naturally the best approach.
With his mind made up, Kael suppressed his red dragon eating instincts.
Using his sharp dragon claws and fangs, he tore apart the massive body of the molten-tusk boar, dividing it into three portions.
He kept the largest portion, comprising half the meat, for himself to satisfy his appetite.
As for the remaining two portions of roughly equal size, he used his dragon claw to gently push the first portion toward Nora, who was cowering and trembling on the side.
Rate on N.U.
