Beatrice frowned as she stood on the deck, the sailers and crew kept their distance from her, wary of the dragon perching on their ship. I sense you my friend, she thought as she gazed out to sea. Dragons had domains, hers was mountains and volcanos, fire was her element. The dragon she sensed was an old man from the water element, their domain was the vast sea.

  I'd like to go visit my friend but, I can not leave Skarlet, that child needs supervision. She could at anytime become the cataclysm that sends the world back into a destructive war fought on every shore and aisle. I need to make sure she stays on a path towards a good outcome. Besides, Griax has his grubby hands on her, I'll need to be extra careful with that snake.

  Beatrice paused her thoughts as she noticed something in the distance, ships were approaching fast, they flew a flag of warning. It was black and adorned with bones in a familiar pattern.

  "Pirates!!" A voice called out, Beatrice glanced behind her as the crew began to scramble around. Cody stepped out of the captains quarters and approached her.

  "Beatrice, can you watch over Skarlet and Amber." Cody asked, his hand already on his hilt.

  "Has the girl not awoken yet, hmph, I may have to involve myself in her delima this once." Beatrice snorted as she got up. "We shall meet in Gulress take Skarlet's sword I will find you through it." After that Beatrice got up and left.

  Cody watched her go as he turned towards the approaching ship. Not long after she left he heard the flap of wings and turned to see Beatrice flying away.

  "Wait! That's what you meant, hell your gonna just leave. Damn!" Cody shouted as he pointed his sword at them. Though he sighed moments later before bringing his sword back into a proper stance.

  The ship rocked as the first ship closed the distance and came to a stop.

  "Anyone who can't fight, get inside!" Cody called and, moments later realized he was alone on the deck. He let out another sigh as a volley of ropes with hooks launched through the air and landed on the deck. Cody stepped forward and started slashing through the ropes, but there were just too many as the ships were pulled closer together more ropes were shot to replace those that he'd cut and soon enough he had enemies on the deck.

  "Just one guy, damn this'll be easy." The men were dressed in very rag tag cloth and leather gear. A decent bit of beads and chains adorned their clothes, they looked like some coastal tribe wearing some animal skins and beads. There were six of them, though they honestly broke Cody's vision of a pirate, none of them were wearing an eye patch, no hooks for hands and no cutlasses.

  The weapons they wielded were quite simple really, two spears, a guy with just a Scimitar, a guy with a normal long sword and a small circle shield, and lastly a man wielding two swords

  Cody slid one foot back, letting a breath in and slip out. Firming his stance as he held his sword one handed in front of him. His off hand floating in a readied position, the men looked at him with ridicule before the shieldman, swordman, and one of the spearmen rushed him.

  The spear came first, with a flick of his sword and a step to the side he managed to catch the shaft of the spear with his hand before practically tossing himself forward he brought his foot up and smashed it into the face of the Spearman. The sound of a spear clattering to the ground didn't even have time to happen before Cody was spinning bringing his sword up horizontally he blocked an attack The swordsman coming at him.

  Without even missing a beat he kicked forward and hooked the Man's legs before yanking them out from under him. As the man hit the ground Cody flips his sword around and stabbed him in the neck, then stepped over him bring his sword back up firming his stance once again his hand floated ready behind his sword.

  The reason he reset his stance is because he was now facing two spearmen the man wielding a scimitar and the dual wielding man both stepped forward as well.

  "Come on guys don't you think this is a little unfair? You're not scared of little old me huh. I'm just one guy right. Come on who's ready to die?" Cody taunted them and it worked. The two spearmen leaped forward with a thrust, Cody couldn't sidestep this and he know that but he didn't have to. Instead he jumped, landing with his feet on the Spears he bounced immediately pushing himself back into the air again and this time towards the two wielders and away from the other two swordsman putting the Spearman Spears in between him and them.

  "Thanks for the break guys, I was worried for a moment I'd have to fight four of you at once." Cody's momentum took him within range and with a sweep of his sword he slashed one of the spearmen before landing with a roll. There was a clattering sound as the Spearman dropped his spear and ripped a dagger from his coat and leaped at the rolling hero. Cody sighed with disappointment, I was hoping I didn't have to use any magic during this fight. With that thought he suddenly cast a burst of light magic. Blinding his opponent he finished his roll stood up and spun using the momentum he sliced the man's head off.

  Ending it with a cool pose. "Yes, heros must be at least a bit flamboyant especially when capable." Cody was still taunting them, in all honesty he was kind of annoyed that his companions had dipped on him. Even knowing that he would see them again at the Port of Gulress it was still annoying. So he was letting off some steam on these pirates.

  ~

  Beatrice soared through the air for a short while before wrapping herself in magic energy radiating heat. It wasn't full on fire magic more just a barrier of fire mana. And then she curled up like a seagull trying to fish, and pierced the waves.

  Skarlet lay unconscious on Beatrice's back, Amber however was fully conscious and lay semi-protectively over top of Skarlet. Her bodily reactions showed a bit of concern and fear but her face not once showed even tad of emotion. For the most part it was just the way she was using her body to protect Skarlet, and the way her tail was spiked up.

  Surprisingly, for a creature of land and Air, Beatrice was a good swimmer. Before long, what slowly became visible amid the dark blue waters, was a cave. Beatrice could sense her kind in that cave, the water dragon. An elder dragon of the pillar element of water.

  Beatrice pushed into the cave and felt resistance, it was a magical barrier on the entrance of this cave and it was pushing outwards. But with a little effort she managed to push through and fell with a "plat" sound on the cave floor.

  Beatrice snorted in annoyance as she realized that the barrier had been keeping out the water. Meaning when she pushed through it, gravity acted upon her and she fell to the cave floor. Ungrateful, undignified, truly an embarrassing appearance. She shook herself to rid the embarrassment tickling her scales and gently removed her passengers before transforming into her human form. Though the form she took was not of the mature woman that she had shown to her companions but instead a young child similar in age to Amber.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "Grandpa! I know you're here come out before I warm the place up!" Beatrice shouted, her tone and mannerisms were more childish. Like a child rushing over to their grandparents house because they knew they would be spoiled.

  "Beatrice, dear is that you. Oh my has your hibernating already finished?" A deep voice echoed out as a large figure appeared from deeper in the cave.

  "Hmph hmph, yes I'm a proper adult now, hmph hmph!" Beatrice snorted passionately and with a bit of pride as she pushed out her non-existent chest.

  "Well well, our little ember has grown into a flame, Alice would be proud." The elder dragon smiled, a mist covered him for a moment as his words leaked out, and out from the mist walked in elderly man with white hair and a long beard.

  "I'm glad to see you dear, and you've brought com-" the elder dragon froze as his eyes landed on Skarlet. "My, is it that time again, dear you have chosen a hard path I see. You remember what we taught you? I don't think it's a good idea for you to go down this path." He seemed a bit weary as he approached the young dragon.

  "Hmph, don't you worry grandpa, everything's going just fine. I'll stop it, make sure it never happens again. . . What happened to Mom" Beatrice struggled to finish her sentence, in reality she didn't actually know what happened to her mother. It wasn't hard to speculate though, she knew at the time of her hibernation that her mother and a lot of other dragons were in a direct confrontation with the Demon Lord. Upon waking up and finding that her mother was gone rational conclusion is that she died in battle.

  "Haa, yes you would want something like that my little ember. And there will be no talking you out of it, I know that much at least." The elder dragon patted her on the head and she couldn't hold back her smile.

  "Yes hmph yes hmph, I will not be stopped. Oh I am sorry for showing up unannounced. But you're the first scent of dragon that I've come across since I woke up. And a familiar scent at that, I wanted to talk with you for a bit before continuing my journey. Makes me happy to see that you are still here." Beatrice's tone became a bit more mature and her eyes became a bit distant as she thought about the future.

  "What about the other dragons, I assume at the very least the pillars have been maintained." Getting down to business Beatrice spoke an important question that she had been ignoring until recently.

  "Of course, a lot of dragon blood stained the waters and land in order to protect those pillars. . . Though I am worried, I'm quite old and will not live much longer. Soon I'll become one with the sea. But I think I lived this long to see you and give you what remains of the elder dragons." The older dragon spoke wistfully almost distant, reminiscent of a very old turtle, from a certain movie about a panda, moments before he disappeared to the wind.

  "Wait Grandpa shouldn't you have much longer to live. Sure you're old but you should have at least a couple hundred years left." Beatrice seemed alarmed and confused as she tried to figure out what he meant.

  "Yes I should, but the price for survival is my lifespan. The dragons who had offspring to continue the pillars went to fight the demons all those who did not have offspring fled and disappeared. This was not easy it's not like we weren't pursued. And I was almost captured, in order to preserve the world order I had to shave off my own life force to escape. Beatrice you know what happens when a dragon dies naturally right?" The older dragon spoke roughly, touching his chin and tipping his head as he brought back those old memories. He seemed a bit pained as he recalled them.

  "An egg." Beatrice recalled what she knew about the rebirth of dragons, cycle of the pillars that keep the world functioning.

  "Precisely originally I would have no one to protect my offspring. However, you've come at the perfect time. I also have a task to give you. You are the first to go into hibernation and therefore the first to awaken the others will not be far behind you. I would like you to go greet them. I know the spots where each of the pillars hid their children. Beatrice, will you make sure that each pillar is safe and protect the new water pillar?" The elder dragon asked, but from his voice it was more like he was bestowing a role rather than asking a favor.

  "I am honored to be given this task fresh off of my newly crowned adulthood. Yes I will check the hiding places of the hibernating pillars and verify their safety. And I would gladly protect the next water pillar." Beatrice seemed excited but she spoke respectfully and professionally as she announced her acceptance.

  "Haa, that's wonderful. I do have a request as well. The child you brought, you're an expressionless one. Can you come here I wish to get a better look at you." The elder dragon suddenly turned his eyes on Amber. She seemed to have caught his attention, as she had been asked she approached him and stood in front of him. He frowned as he stared at her, and soon turned into a smile. "Oh this is wonderful where did you find this child, interesting truly interesting. . . A dragon mage, how rare. Oh dear I'm deeply interested in how you escaped The Purge."

  "Wait what!?" Beatrice exclaimed in interest as she turned to look at Amber with a look of bewilderment.

  At that moment the sound of rustling and movement brought everyone's eyes towards a certain black cat girl as she stumbled lazily to her feet. Her eyes were blurry and sleep filled as she rubbed them before eventually coming to the realization that she was in a very odd place. Her ears and tail stood up and she glanced around warily before her eyes settled on Amber and Beatrice.

  As she recognized them she calmed down and slowly approached with a deep yawn. "What happened, how long have I been asleep?" She was so groggy and confused, though as that dissipated a new question surfaced as she reached for the sword that was always positioned on her back. It was gone.

  "The fuck? Where is my sword!" Skarlet exclaimed as she frantically glanced around.

  "I left it with Cody, we're going to meet up with him later in Gulress." Beatrice explained, Skarlet visibly frowned in response but eventually nodded as she approached them.

  "Where are we?" Skarlet asked though her eyes were occasionally bouncing off of the elder dragon she didn't seem to be able to tell what he was. But she did seem to be able to sense that he was a strong being. Her question about location may have been a disguise question to figure out who this person was. And it worked.

  "This is my cave and I am the water elder dragon, Bal." Bal explained answering practically all of Skarlet's questions

  "I see." Skarlet frowned, she approached Amber and wrapped her arms around her protectively. "So what are we talking about?" When Skarlet woke up they had been talking about something specifically regarding Amber she didn't quite catch what it is that they were saying as she was in the process of waking up but her unconscious mind and conscious mind both came to the conclusion that it was regarding Amber and quite important instantly she felt protective of the person she had chosen to take care of.

  "We were discussing this girl's future. She's a very important person." Bal explained ominously.

  ~

  Cody sighed as he sprawled out on the deck, blood splattered here and there. Discarded weapons and corpses. To his left the remaining pirate ships were fleeing, and the sailors of the ship he lay on had already come back out from hiding and were beginning to drive the ship forward once more. A couple began to clean up after the mess Cody had caused, oh it couldn't be helped after all they were attacked by pirates.

  Another sigh slipped through his lips and this one didn't escape his mind, as he recognized the idea that he was sighing a lot right now. He couldn't help but Wonder why exactly he was doing that. Though for one at the moment he was quite tired, he'd managed to fend off the pirates. When their losses became worse than their gains they retreated, luckily he didn't have to fight them to the last man. And finally got to rest.

  So he realized part of his sighs were likely to be due to his party up and leaving him, other parts were the fact that he recognized this as starting a new journey. That didn't really feel too good he didn't really desire such a thing. Adventure can only be truly enjoyable if there's not something important back home that you still need to do. . . At least that's how he felt about it. He thought it was akin to leaving the stove on and then going out and trying to enjoy a party. You wouldn't be able to stop thinking about whether your house burnt down or not.

  Sigh, fuck this world. Cody thought as he finally stood up and sheathed his sword. He spun on his heels and pushed into the Captain's quarters before collapsing face first on the couch.

  "Wake me when we reach the port." He spoke to the captain his eyes landed on the handle of Skarlet's sword and he frowned once again. It always gave him chills and even now it just didn't feel right. Something was wrong with that sword.

  With thoughts like those he fell asleep.