Thornicus widened his eyes as he heard this, and with great excitement and anticipation, he waited outside, almost unable to wait for what he was about to see. That was why she came to the cave. Like the smaller dragons that were there, she was looking for a warm, dry place where she could lay and hatch her eggs. And since the cave was now vacant, it served as the best spot for her to do so. Thornicus feared she still thought of him as a Dragon Slayer, wanting to kill her little whelps to boost his power, but from the way she spoke to him, it implied she wanted him to see them, just not now. Her personality seemed to have changed in the short while since they spoke. It was as if this moment of reproducing had delighted out a soft spot on her, one he wished was permanent. As he stared into the distant horizon, looking in the direction where his home, he knew his people would soon be on their way, and he would somehow have to defend Nala and whelps from them, his

“Because I love you”, she replied to him. Thornicus stood still, puzzled. That was not the type of answer he was expecting. “What?”, he asked. Faora's face reddened all of a sudden, instantly trying to hide her embarrassment with false composure. “There you go, now that I've told you, what are you going to do about it?”, she asked. “Will you kick me out or what?” Thornicus sighed as he looked back at the dragon behind him, no longer glaring at Faora. “Are you hearing this, Nala?”, he asked her. “You seem perplexed by whatever she just told you”, Nala replied to him. “Yet you also seem happy. Should I take that as a good indication that she bears no threat to either you or my offspring?” “Well, you could say that”, Thornicus said to her while combing his fingers through his hair. “What did I do to get myself into such a weird situation?”, he asked himself while letting out a long sigh. “Yo

“I was a dragon slayer”, Thornicus said. “But not anymore. I have discovered my true purpose. Nala can testify to that.” “Is that so?”, asked the man. “Forgive my manners. My name is Perseus.” “Forget manners”, the last man said, walking forward to face Thornicus. “How do we know he's truly one of us? He can say Nala testifies on his behalf, but that could only be because she is instinctively bonded with him until the day he dies. So of course, she would want to defend him by all means necessary. She can't help it. We, however, can at least try to be sure about it. This young man still has the powers and abilities of a dragon slayer. With the amount of energy I'm sensing from him now, I'm sure he could take all five dragons and last for a while against them. I don't think he can be trusted.” Jenna rolled her eyes. “Come on, you three”, she said to them. “Especially you, Cassius. I could tell that right from when you saw him

“You will know what it is like when you see it”, Cassius replied. “By my current impression of you, I know you wouldn't want to go anymore if he told you what it was like.” Thornicus rolled his eyes, not wanting to start a pointless debate with Cassius over such a trivial topic. “Alright, I think this does it for this meeting”, Cassius said. “Wait!”, called Perseus. “What about the Slayers? We haven't talked about them yet, have we?” Cassius turned to Perseus. “They have their hands full with the minor dragons that have populated this region. It seems this mating season the males have come to stay, as most of them haven't left even after copulating several times. Let the minor dragons keep the Slayers distracted in the meantime.” “But don't you think it would be best if we get out there to fight them instead of waiting for them to kill another one of our own?”, asked Perseus. Cassius arched a brow. “

*The next decade in a nutshell* Life at Frostfall was far from an easy one, especially with no other option on the horizon for Thornicus and Faora. Well, it's not that they had no other option, but rather, they had grown so fond of the village that they never really considered getting out of there to look for a more ideal place to live in. So by mere procrastination, days became weeks, weeks became months, and before they knew it, they had become fully settled in the village. In the first quarter of the first year was when they decided to make things formal with their union. With Nala standing in as Thornicus's mother and Daphne representing Faora's next of kin, they formally got married. About two months later was when Daphne had her first child, a spunky baby girl they named Maria White. Then seven months later was when Faora and Thornicus welcomed their first child, a cool-headed baby boy they named Gabriel Thornicus. It wa