“You… talk?” Queen Moorhen gasps along with her siblings and other dragons present.

  There was a scavenger on this dragon’s back! And it just used words!

  This wasn’t even like they trained it how to talk. It clearly responded in context!

  “Of course I talk! Why wouldn’t I?!” It shrieks even louder, pointing its tiny stick and string at her.

  Moorhen reeled, not necessarily because of what that meant on a larger scale, but because of how much more likely it was that her kingdom was doomed.

  She had a pretty good idea of how that MudWing group managed to instigate this now.

  Depending on what she did now, all of Pyrrhia might be thrown into an even worse war.

  “We had no idea you were all intelligent.”

  She wanted to add that they shouldn’t be throwing all MudWings in with them, but she couldn’t find a way to say it without antagonizing them.

  It also felt wrong to say it when she too might have done something regrettable if she’d seen one before now.

  Moorhen could somewhat deduce that the scavenger must be able to do some kind of damage, but she really didn’t want the dragon it was on top of to get angrier.

  She wasn’t sure if any dragon could look at another with as much hate as that. And the wounds on his body that barely started healing didn’t make it look any better.

  It was the dragon beside that one that actually did the talking—other than the scavenger…

  “How can you not know?! What about their art? Or their cities? Making tools should be enough!” The neck-striped dragon pushed with a clear agitation.

  “I-I don’t know what to say. That’s just how we’ve lived; that’s how every dragon lives.” Moorhen panicked for something to say.

  It was immensely embarrassing trying to make an excuse for the entire continent on the spot.

  There was nothing that would work as an excuse when everything made so much more sense just by changing a single thing.

  These dragons seemed to know nothing at all, and she could just assume the noises the rest of them were making had to be some kind of scavenger language. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if the scorching somehow came up right now.

  She was definitely faster on the uptake than her siblings, but there was no time to let them catch up.

  “We will surrender. But only on one condition.” She bluffed pathetically.

  There was nothing they could do but make their takeover troublesome, and the snorting huff from the neck-striped dragon showed it.

  “And what do you think you have any right to demand of us?” The dragon grumbled.

  “Spare the dragons that caused this. They didn’t know what they did.” Moorhen could at least say she tried to save them.

  They could already be long dead and it wouldn’t be surprising.

  “They murdered hundreds! Why would we let them off-” The dragon hissed sharply, before being forced to stop by the other.

  “I’m not supposed to make such a decision on my own.” He growled in a chastised tone, “You’ll have to wait to receive the obvious answer.”

  Lightweaver stared at the royal palace in front of him.

  This was it. The greatest heist.

  And he was going to do it far before his wretched brother could.

  He wasn’t taking it back to the Shadowclaws, either. This would be his accomplishment, and only his.

  The guards at the entrance weren’t lazy, and he was going to just walk right through the front door.

  He took cover behind a wall and focused until his appearance changed completely.

  By the time he reached the guards, he was simply let in with a greeting.

  Neither noticed the shimmering blur around the dragon they just let in.

  Lightweaver chuckled to himself and inwardly mocked all the dragons out there that didn’t even realize they had powers like this.

  Everything was planned, he just needed to get to the treasury and clean it out!

  No one so much as questioned him on the way, leading to his exhilarating view of arranged treasure.

  He wasted no time in filling as many bags as possible before strolling out.

  On the way back to the entrance, he even passed the emperor himself!

  But the bags were perfectly invisible, and his disguise was crystal clear.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Lightweaver could even go as far as to say this was his record for disguising himself without artifacts.

  “Who are you?!” The emperor questions.

  ‘What? How does he know?!’ Lightweaver thinks in a panic and tries to introduce himself as the identity he assumed.

  “Don’t bother pretending. I have all the servants in this palace memorized, and I just passed the dragon you’re pretending to be.” He insists. “I don’t know how you’re doing it, but I know you’re a fake.”

  Lightweaver knew the trick was over. He tried to think of anything but nothing good was coming to mind.

  The emperor was quite small. Small enough that he would probably need both arms to carry a human.

  It shouldn’t be hard to force his way out, but there would definitely be guards and others waiting to stop him.

  “You know the punishment for this. But I’ll give you a chance.” Emperor Stormlight said.

  Lightweaver was surprised and worried what this ‘chance’ could entail.

  “What does that mean?”

  “You will use this magic of yours to aid our war, and I won’t send you to a dungeon.” He added coercively. “You’ll make more by enlisting than being a lowly thief with that power.”

  Lightweaver could easily evade searches with his ability, but sooner or later he would eventually get tired and slip.

  He had to grit his fangs and agree to it. This could even be a way out of the Shadowclaws, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted out.

  Misty had no idea what to do.

  She had all day to wonder if she should have insisted on going home regardless of the dangers.

  This island was just crazy.

  There was a dragon in every direction that could take her head off.

  Not even the human children showed any sympathy at all, they just laughed at her for being scared of their teacher.

  Being laughed at by children was enough to hold it in. Misty couldn’t throw that much dignity away.

  ‘How could they not be crazy to sit in front of this giant all day without imagining getting flattened?’ Misty pondered, not even willing to touch how readily they annoy the smaller dragons.

  That every dragon here actually talked made it feel stupid to tremble or wince.

  But she knew how stupid it would be to actually answer any of their questions.

  She wasn’t dumb enough not to realize the stories of her nightmarish world needed to stay out of this paradise.

  It was something she never thought she would be thinking, but the small dragons here were growing up to be good dragons. Something no one outside of this island thinks exist.

  She stayed put in the corner all day until the students started leaving.

  Then she was left all alone with this giant teacher.

  “Come with me. I’m responsible for you, so I can’t just leave you here alone.” She ushered and held out a talon towards her.

  Misty tried to go around to climb on the dragon’s back herself and still had to be caught and lifted up after falling down.

  This was different from riding the smaller dragon that had stripes on the sides of its neck. This one was so much bigger and made the world feel unstable.

  She tried to avoid the crushing gazes of the other dragons passing by, but still wanted to see the huge structures.

  Misty wasn’t sure what sound to make when she finally got to see inside one of them.

  It was like a house for a giant—because it was for a giant.

  She immediately wanted to slide down and explore everything now that there was only one dragon to tower over her.

  And she tried, but she just got caught again.

  “You act like one of those reckless little kids that want to run around and get stepped on. Just like another one I know.”

  Misty attempted sliding out, but even a gentle pressure was inescapable.

  “I want to see what a dragon’s house is like!”

  “Maybe after I feed you.”

  Misty wasn’t even thinking about how much danger she could be in anymore.

  She was starting to feel a dash of irritation.

  ‘Why am I still being carried around and talked to like a baby?!’

  She was going to actually work up the courage to complain about it as she was lightly placed on a giant countertop, but something smelling really good shut it down.

  The dragon was sizzling a chunk of meat bigger than her body over a metal pan.

  “Do you have a name too?”

  Misty tried to ask because it was going to be awkward to remember her as just ‘big somewhat scary teacher dragon’.

  She didn’t get any response over the loud sizzling and didn’t feel like asking it over and over.

  When the meat finally hushed, Misty saw the frightening snout tilt over at her instead.

  “Of course, you can call me Libereste if you want.” Libereste answered and cut off a tiny piece of well-done meat with a comically large knife.

  Misty thought it was funny to see dragons using tools. She didn’t even notice until this moment that Libereste had completely blunt claws.

  She focused on enjoying what she got to hopefully not have to see the terrifying sight of the dragon devouring the rest.

  It worked, thankfully.

  All Misty could do was look at the dragon for a way down.

  When she got snatched up again that’s what she thought was happening.

  But instead she got dropped on something soft and immediately recognizable.

  “What? I’m not tired! Aren’t you going to give me a tour or something?!” She protested as if she wasn’t talking back to a giant dragon.

  “I am tired. Just get down and run around until you are too.” Libereste snorts, “There’s nothing for you to find in here.”

  Misty looked down to see that it indeed wasn’t too high for her to get down and back up again.

  But she didn’t think there wouldn’t be anything worth seeing in a house this big. Just the novelty of everything being huge was brand new.

  …

  The dragon was right. There was absolutely nothing worth exploring once the novelty of looking at giant furnishings wore off.

  She acted like a child exploring everything for the first time only to find nothing. It was no wonder she was being treated like some baby.

  She was even more clueless here than the actual children.

  When she finally navigated her way back she was happy the dragon was too busy snoring to brag about it.

  Then she wondered how she would get any sleep.

  ‘I’ll figure it out. Somehow.’