The Ice dragon's Mistake

Chapter 7-Hungry

Winter didn’t expect the emotions that came spiralling inside him the moment he was facing Riley again. Those images that seems to be slightly fading in his mind reignited almost immediately, becoming strangely more vivid. He found himself remembering it all and for a minute he was swayed, maybe it was okay but with a little head shake he got himself back on track although, he didn’t turn out as easy as he thought it would.

Not only has the little dragon been stabilised inside her, it was already evolving, his adherence annoys him but any less than that he wouldn’t consider him his offspring. His defence pissed him off and he almost used force but one look at Riley’s face and he caves.

While the little one can protect himself at that stage, it’s still not strong enough to protect his mother, which means he could easily snap Riley’s neck and he’ll die with her but after Riley was knocked out by the energy that exploded out of her which instantly drained her stamina, he put his hands over her neck and tried to wring her fragile neck right there but strangely, he couldn’t go on with it. Winter ended up bringing Riley back home with her and not just any home, it was his hometown, Dragonhive.

Dragonhive is a domain inhabited by his kind and free from human influence and interference. He also happened to be the cousin of the queen that ruled the place. While Dragonhive might be home for the dragons, it doesn’t necessarily mean there wasn’t any human. Humans contracted to serve a dragon has the liberty of sharing their magic but at the price of being faithful to them, dragon contracted humans serve as servants to the dragons and lived in their domain.

Winter shocked his servants when he returned home with an unconscious human in his arms but his friend was even more shocked when he arrived at his place after receiving a message from him explaining his situation.

Winter wanted the child gone without having to hurt the human carrying it but it wasn’t as easy as he thought it’ll be because the magic he had tried to use in removing the child was absorbed instead and resulted in the child’s growth, they were still trying to figure out a solution when Riley woke up and now they have to explain the situation to her so as to have her cooperate.

“So…you’re saying? I’m carrying a dragon’s egg and you both are dragons” Riley asked them wearing a perplexed look for a minute. “That’s ridiculous…are you trying to make fun of me right now-

“Seeing is believing, is what you humans say right…wanna do the honours buddy?” Terran turned to Winter who sighed and flexed his wings making Riley gawk in horror.

“And I like that shirt” Winter grumbled staring down at the ripped pieces of his favourite shirt on the floor.

“What…is this?” Riley trembled in fear.

“Riley…hey, look at me” Terran reached for her hands, taking them in his before softly massaging the inside of her palms whilst Winter retracted his dragon wings. “We are not gonna hurt you…we have a non-aggression pact with the humans, we can’t kill a human without reason and we have no reason to hurt you but right now, we really need to get rid of the baby you’re carrying, it’s not only dangerous for us, but it also endangers you as well” Riley strangely found herself relaxing to Terran’s soothing voice. At the same time, Winter continues to pay close attention to them.

“We won’t hurt you, I promise, we just need you to cooperate with us for a while, once that child’s gone, we’re gonna release you immediately and you can go back to your old life, it’ll be like non of this never happens” Terran assured her with a smile but Riley was hesitant, Winter could feel it, the fear oozing off her in waves, but despite that, she nodded to their request and Terran smiled in satisfaction.

“Okay then…it looks like the baby inside you is already stable, it’ll be hard to get it out since it already formed a defence system around itself and Winter because of his recklessness ended up aiding the growth of the hatchling rather than stopping it-

“What?” Riley asked in shock.

“You see…when Winter tried to kill the baby by force while at your place, it absorbed some of his magic while repelling him at the same time, dragons like Winter are very powerful you see, and that’s why you suddenly have a bump and if we don’t do something to stop it quick or it’ll continue to grow, we dragons have incredible growth rate” Terran explained and Riley brows furrowed.

“But…how…how did this happen?-

“Oh,” Terran turned to Winter with a taunting smile on his face. “Winter, why don’t you tell her, explain to her how you’d stupidly share your life essence-

“What’s there to explain…we had s*x, she got pregnant” Winter cut in sharply.

“You…you should have used protection!” Riley retorted with a frown.

“Trust me…even if he had done that, it wouldn’t have-

“Stop it Terran, that’s enough. It’s my fault, I was careless but the deed is already done” Winter’s tone was cold as usual. “We can’t cry over spilt milk now” He added apathetically.

“I hate to admit it but he’s right, we have to do all we can to remove the child from you before he grows any more powerful” Terran concluded and Riley nodded. “You must be feeling pretty shocked, so…we’ll leave you to get some rest okay?” Terran said gently before turning and walking towards the door Winter was about to leave too but Riley’s voice had him stopping dead in his tracks.

“That night…why…why did you choose me? You could have easily chosen anyone…it could have been any other girl, why me?” Riley sounded confused. Winter couldn’t comprehend the meaning behind her question but he was a very honest person.

“I don’t know…I just couldn’t take my eyes off you the moment I saw you and before I knew it I was kissing you but I don’t mean to bring to drag you into any of this” Winter explained trying his best to sound as gentle as he could before he finally left the room and close the door behind him.

“She’s brave” Terran suddenly declared the moment he walked out of the room. “Any normal woman would be freaking out by now, they’d probably be bawling their eyes out right now thinking they're doomed or something.

“She is scared though-

“Yeah…I can feel that too but the fact that she’s not falling apart about this makes a big difference” Terran stated.

“Yeah…it’s probably one of the things that attracted me to her” Winter admitted and Terran sighed.

“What are you gonna do now?” Terran asked and Winter sighed.

“He has an affinity to my magic, he’ll only draw my power if I tried using it against it. I need someone with opposite power, someone with destructive power enough to kill it” Winter explained.

“Calida-

“No, there’s no way in hell I’ll call her to something like this but you haven’t tried either-

“It won’t work. He’s completely made with water…he’ll only deflect my power” Terran shook his head.

“We won’t know until we try, once the human’s well rested-

“She has as name y’know. It’s Riley” Terran reminded and Winter shook his head.

“Once Riley is well rested, we’ll start tomorrow. I want this thing done with already” Winter insisted walking down the long hallway that led away from Riley’s room. His home in Dragonhive is practically a fortress, he used to be a renowned lord before time changed after all.

“A little advice if you may…during the course of trying to get rid of the egg, you can’t get all chummy with Riley ever, intimate contact with each other will accelerate the egg growth and without your energy, its growth would be stunted, we have to try all means after all-

“What makes you think I wanna get all chummy with that human again?” Winter smirked.

“Just a feeling I guess” Terran answered before they arrived at the landing and eventually down the stairs. His words strangely had a hint of mischief to them.

“What if we starve the human too…it’s still an egg, it can survive without food” Winter suggested and Terran replied after an abrupt turn to face him.

“No! You’ll kill Riley that way. In fact, you have to feed her as much as she wants or she’ll end up dying if she can’t hold up to the absorption rate of the egg. The moment the mother lacks food…it’ll start feeding off her vitality and you know what’ll happen after that, she will be as good as dead. It’s no different than killing her right now” Terran disputed and Winter sighed.

“Okay, I’ll feed her” Winter answered before they both arrived at the end of the stairs.

“In worst case scenario and our plan to get rid of it while still in the womb doesn’t work, we just have to have Riley birth it and we’d get rid of it while in the shell-

“It’s dangerous, Riley might not survive it. It’s a ice dragon we’re talking about, it’ll freeze her from the inside” Winter didn’t like that plan at all for reasons he didn’t understand.

“As I said…it’s the worst-case scenario…and we’ll do what it takes to keep her alive” Terran made clear and Winter sighed.

“Okay-

“Take care of her okay? I’ll come check on her tomorrow” Terran promised before leaving through his front door. Terran had just locked the door behind him when Winter heard a thud upstairs, and he found himself rushing straight to Riley’s room because he was certain it came from there.

“What happened?” He asked in concern after seeing Riley on the floor while clutching her stomach.

“Sorry but…I’m really hungry” Riley said in embarrassment, her face flushed with colour as she confessed.

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