"Michalis, I am going to need you to be in charge for a short while. I will be going to the surface to get us some food," Drastructed.

  Michalis sniffled as he wiped the remaining tears from his eyes.

  "Yes, Draii," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

  Draco then turo his other two younger brothers, Nikoos and Vasileios.

  "I need you two to stay close to the entrand send down anything I find," he instructed.

  The boys nodded in uanding, their faces a mixture of fear and exhaustion.

  Dimitra stepped forward, her brow furrowed with . "What we do?" she asked.

  "I'll search the house for useful things ahem down first befetting the food. You, Cir, Eleni, and Vasiliki will deal with that," he replied.

  “Hmm, be careful Draco” Cir said.

  “I will" Draco replied. Steeling himself, Draco crawled through the tunnel he had made, emerging onto the surfabsp;

  The st of burning wood hit him immediately, and he looked towards the source to see the town and a part of the forest engulfed in fmes.

  ‘That damn bck dragon,’ Draco growled, g his fist in frustration.

  But he kneas not the time to dwell on that.

  He o focus oask at hand.

  The mid-evening light barely provided visibility as thick smoke enveloped the sky, so he had strain his seo make his way around.

  Draco soon spotted that some of the old food ste facilities on the farm were still somewhat intabsp;

  ‘If I remember correctly, Grandpa Marcus secretly stored some things there. There should be potatoes, various cuts of dried meat, and some other preserved food,’ he recalled, a glimmer in his eyes.

  'Food is sorted. Now I should probably go to the house first,' Draco thought.

  As he walked further away from the farm, Drae across a group of battle boars feasting on the corpses of other dead monsters.

  They were blog the path to his destination.

  Going around tion but he didn’t know if he would run into something worse, so he decided to deal with the easier target.

  His eyes narrowed; fear being the st thing he currently felt.

  Draco's hand transformed, the skin rippling and shifting into sharp curved cws.

  With an angry roar, he drew their attention and charged at the battle boars, his cws sshing through the air.

  Swish!! Grunt!! Squeal!!

  “Buhiiii,” the battle boars turowards the sound of Draco's roar, their beady eyes log onto the approag threat.

  With a chorus of angry squeals, they rushed to meet him, their razor-sharp tusks bared.

  Swish! Spt!

  Draco's cws ripped through the thick hide of the first boar to arrive, sending it crashing to the ground in a heap.

  The others quickly parted away from the body of their fallehren and surrounded him, their hooves pounding the earth as they charged.

  Snarl! Snort!

  Draoved quick, dang between the boars, his movements fluid and graceful, his cws shing out with precision at their ots.

  He dodged their attacks, tering with devastating blows that sent the beasts tumbling to the ground, one by one.

  Thud!!

  The battle boars, their numbers dwindling, tried to retreat, but Draco would not let them escape.

  He pursued them relentlessly; he couldn’t let them escape or they might regroup and e back with more.

  With a final, agonizing squeal, the st battle boar fell, its life extinguished by Draco's razor-sharp cws.

  Draco stood amidst the age, his breathing heavy, but his expression one of relief.

  He wasn’t worried about attrag more monsters because, the thick smell of the burning wood emanating from the burning town was strong enough to mask the smell of blood from his kills.

  Turning his attention away from the sin boars, Draade his way to the house.

  He searched the building thhly, gathering whatever supplies he could find – bs, dles, a few basic tools, spices, and some other useful items.

  Carefully, he ed the items in a makeshift sad made his way back to the tunranbsp;

  Once back at the tunrance, Draco quickly passed the supplies to Vasileios and Nikoos waiting there.

  "This should help us for a while," he said, his voice tinged with exhaustion.

  , Draco returo the battle boar carcasses and began carving e ks of edible fresh meat.

  It was better to eat the fresh meat that could go bad quicker than the preserved dried meat ie, which he khey would need for the future.

  After harvesting as much as he could get from one corpse, he took the boar meat to the entrance, passed it on and moved on to the corpse.

  When he felt that he had gathered everything, he went to the ste to grab some potatoes and some other preserved food.

  He didn’t need water since he could just use magic to gather some.

  Lastly he stopped by a tree in the field where they used to train.

  Hiddeh the tree was an iron box which tained a det stash of Valis that was being saved up for when he and his siblings decided to bee adventurers.

  His Grandpa John and Marcus had beely saving it for them.

  He heard them talk about it ohat’s why he knew about it but kept quiet.

  Looking at the box, he caressed it, reminisg about the fun times with John and Marcus, but didn’t dwell on it for long.

  He soouro the tunra was time to cook a.

  As he worked, the others watched in silent awe, their hunger evident in their eyes.

  The smell of the seared meat, potatoes, and various spices soon filled the small underground space, and the group eagerly awaited their share.

  ‘Who khat my cooking hobby would e to use now?’ Draco thought.

  Ohe food repared, Draco divided it evenly among the group, ensuring that everyone had enough to sustain them.

  "Eat up," he said, his voice soft but firm.

  "We'll need our strength for tomorrow,” he muttered.

  The group ate in sileheir focus solely oask of filling their empty stomachs.

  Draco observed them, his own fatigue evident in the slight slump of his shoulders.

  As the st morsel of his cooked food was ed, Draco turned his attention to the others.

  “Rest up noill try moving away from here tomorrow. There will likely be motacks along the way. But we maogether,” Draco said softly.

  “Where are we going?” Eleni asked curiously.

  “I doly know yet, but ahat isn’t here,” Draco replied.

  He didn’t pn on going to Orario yet, so they were going to find a temporary settlement to stay.

  As much as he dearly wanted revenge, he khat they first rength.

  After thhly making pns, training, the children grew a bit older and things somewhat settled down in Orario, would they finally move to Orario to begin their path to acquiring strength.

  Additionally, if possible, he wao find the dragon gods he met soon after his birth; there were several things he desperately wao know.