Even though the rest of Northshield was covered in snow, Dragon's Forest was still lush and green. The entire area was full of hot-springs. This made the heat unbearable during summer, but allowed flora to flourish during winter.

This meant that tracking Monster Beasts was a lot more difficult here than in the snow covered forest. Finding his first dragon-blood Monster Beast took several hours. The creature Wolf managed to track down was a deer.

Deer were generally just as timid as they were beautiful. This deer, however, was not beautiful. It was covered in brown fur, randomly mixed with patches of fine red scales. Its eyes were yellow and had vertical pupils, while its horns seemed much sharper and more wicked than a regular deer’s.

As for the timid nature of its ancestors… Well, the critter appeared enraged. Like it wanted to murder Wolf in the most painful way possible for disturbing its chow.

As soon as it saw Wolf, the monster dug at the ground with its front hoof, then charged. The hooves thumping on the soft forest floor echoed like a rhythmic beating of a war-drum. With a snort, the deer bent its head to impale the impudent manling. As he watched the rapidly approaching antlers, Wolf couldn’t help but think that they looked like a thorny hedge.

Unlike any other sane person, the boy watched the scene with interest. He even thought it was ridiculous. The stag’s horns really looked like a rose flower made of thorny petals. It could pierce enemies in a wide area, but did little to protect the buck’s skull. Even the longest of the horns only gave the Monster Beast an extra meter of reach.

Wolf immediately noticed this, his mouth twisting in a mocking grin out of habit he didn’t know he had. His arm plus the length of the sword he wielded were over a meter and a half when added together.

Archibald observed from the side. To his horror, his son didn’t move to dodge. He outstretched his arm, holding the replica of the Lonely Eagle’s sword. The crazy boy wanted to let the deer impale itself on the sword!

“Son!” Archibald shouted in panic, but he was too late.

*Crack!*

The deer smacked its head against the sword’s tip. The blade pierced through the hide, cracking the bone, then sinking some twenty centimeters into the Monster Beast’s head. Finally it got stuck, mashing up the deer’s brain matter. The beast had committed a spectacular suicide.

As for Wolf, he flew through the air before the bushes swallowed him with loud rustling of leaves and snapping of branches. Ignoring the beast’s death throes, Archibald ran towards the shrubs Wolf had cannonballed into. The boy’s frightened cries made the big man bite the inside of his cheek in agitation.

I hope he’s not badly hurt! Archibald thought in panic, leaping into the thicket.

He immediately saw his son. Wolf was lying in a bush, laughing loudly with his eyes open wide in a wowed expression. His long hair and the shiny new robe were a mess. Twigs and leaves were sticking out of them. Wolf’s robe was covered in tears and blood was oozing out of countless scratches.

“You…” Archibald didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the scene.

What he thought were Wolf’s wails were actually his screams of laughter! He had an urge to spank the brat silly! It’s obviously been way too long since the boy had had a decent beating.

Seeing his father’s worried and angry expression, Wolf stopped laughing and turned solemn.

“Sorry father. There’s no need to worry. Everything is fine. I just... did something stupid.”

*Sigh* Archibald took a deep breath after sighing.

“Yes, yes you did. What were you thinking?!” He wanted to scold the boy, but seeing that Wolf already knew his wrongs, there was no point to it… save maybe to vent his frustration.

“Well, at first I wanted to dodge and sever the stag’s head. But, with the way those horns were shaped, it was impossible to make a maneuver like that. Then, I realized that its horns were like loose bushes with plenty of openings. And…" As Wolf neared the end of his explanation his voice grew weaker and weaker. "Since the deer had much shorter reach than me, I thought I could just let it impale itself. I just didn’t expect… I’d be sent flying in the process…”.

“And why didn’t you use Inferno Ray to kill it? Mages kill enemies from afar, they don’t… go into melee with… deer.” Not that anyone else goes into melee with deer…

“Several reasons. There’s hardly any difference between attacking a charging deer and a rock with magical spells. Magic should be used sparingly. What if I run out of spells and we need them later?”

What do you mean hitting a charging deer is as difficult as hitting a rock? Archibald thought with an awkward face.

He wanted to say something, but Wolf kept on talking without giving him a chance.

“Using magic takes much more time than swinging a sword. Not to mention it’s much more error prone. I’m not saying magic is bad, but hunting should be done with weapons, rather than spells.” Wolf spoke seriously, pressing the fact that magic wasn’t suited for the task.

Archibald couldn’t argue with that. What Wolf said made sense, but there was one huge problem with his son’s logic.

“But a sword isn’t a weapon used for hunting either.”

“Well, it is used for slaying Monster Beasts. Besides, I don’t know how to use other weapons.” Wolf said frankly.

Archibald wanted to argue that magic was also used in slaying Monster Beasts, but gave up on the idea. It was his job to be an adult here, not to squabble with the boy. Instead he changed the subject.

“All right, fine… Not using magic was justified. Then, what went wrong?” Hearing the question, Wolf frowned and started thinking.

After a couple of moments he couldn’t come up with anything that went wrong. He was safe and sound, the Monster Beast was dead. As far as Wolf was concerned he had a perfect score, minus some scratches and bruises. Eventually the boy shook his head.

“Don’t confront people bigger than you head on. That goes double for Monster Beasts. The difference in your weight will put you at a great disadvantage. Bigger opponents are generally less dexterous, but more powerful. But you shouldn’t take that for granted, it might not always be the case. So don’t let your guard down because of generalizations.” Archibald gave a warning with a straight face, right after making a generalization.

Archibald and Wolf chatted while processing the deer. Archibald took the antlers, the creature’s strange hide and some choice pieces of meat. Draconic meat was expensive, but when the bloodline was this thin it was hardly any different from regular deer meat. So Archibald only took a couple of choice pieces that would make for a good stew, roast or jerky. As for the rest, he left it for the wild animals. About half an hour later Wolf started tracking once again, trying to find more game.

Over the course of the next two days every beast, down to the smallest insect, had a trace of draconic heritage. At first Wolf thought that his father was exaggerating when he said everything had some trace amount of dragon bloodline, but faced with the facts Wolf realized that dragons really did mate with anything and everything.

As for draconic animals he fought, Wolf couldn’t believe how diverse they were. He encountered foxes, badgers, oversized lizards, horned snakes and even one grumpy groundhog that tried to bite Wolf’s shin before Wolf sent it flying with a kick.

“Dad, was that scaled critter that tried biting my leg just now a draconic groundhog?”

“Seemed like it.” Archibald replied with an amused smile.

The annoyed way in which Wolf sent the creature flying really was comical. As the big man was talking, something made rustling noises in the bushes, heading their way.

“It looks like it’s back for round t…” The big man wanted to poke fun at his boy, but then gasped at the sight before him.

A startled bright red pheasant had jumped out of the bushes. The bird was ugly, just like everything else in this forest. Seeing two strange unknown lifeforms it froze up for a moment. Archibald and Wolf were just as surprised by the fact that this wasn’t the grumpy groundhog.

A moment later, Archibald gathered his wits. “Wolf take it down! Aim for the head with a Magic Dart right now!”

Wolf was startled, but immediately started chanting. Hearing the loud noises, the pheasant flapped its wings to fly away. Before it got out of sight, five glowing darts struck its head exploding it to pieces.

Wolf was stunned stupid. Based on his father’s reaction, he thought this was some kind of a powerful Monster Beast. Surprisingly, the darts killed it in such an overbearing way that he kind of felt sorry for it. He shot his father with a confused look, but Archibald ignored him completely. He was too busy dashing towards the dead bird.

“Crimson Draconic Pheasant! We ran into a Crimson Draconic Pheasant!” Wolf could barely understand his father’s words from how much the man was salivating.

“What’s a Crimson Draconic Pheasant?” Wolf asked, but his father was busy snatching and examining the bird’s carcass.

“This is the second tastiest bird in our empire. That bird is the reason I came on an expedition here years ago. The tastiest bird in the empire is long extinct, the legendary Golden Draconic Pheasant. So even though this one nominally holds the second place, in reality it’s the tastiest fowl you can eat in this day and age. I haven’t eaten anything this good in ages.” Wolf couldn’t believe his eyes. His always serious academic of a father was now acting like a giddy child.

Dad really has changed since we came back. Did he really miss the human lands that much? If so, why did he go so far up north, right next to the elven border?

He seems to be hiding something… but I shouldn’t pry for now. He’ll tell me when he’s ready.

Archibald did a happy jig as he plucked the pheasant’s feathers. “Hoho! We’ll be eating well tonight! Let’s leave this area and fall back someplace safer. I’ll even take out my stove.”

Stove? Wolf frowned in confusion, but didn’t say anything.

His unasked question was answered about an hour later, after Archibald and Wolf went back to the snow-covered outermost fringes of this danger zone.

The big man actually took out a large black stove from his Ring of Holding. The stove was made out of solid metal and had a large oven, a firebox as well as a two meter tall chimney. It didn’t look one bit magical. Looking at the stove Archibald grinned widely.

“It’s been years since I ran into something worth using this beauty. Son, you chop up some firewood while I prepare this fine bird.” Archibald already started working even before Wolf agreed.

“Um, sure.” Wolf mumbled with some confusion as he watched his father producing an assortment of jars and small bottles. With a bit of hesitation Wolf cleared his throat.

“Dad, could you wait until I’m done with the firewood?”

“Sure thing. I’ve already plucked this beauty, but I’ve got to clean it up. By the time I’m done you should be done with the firewood and then we can prepare dinner together. I was thinking about stuffing the bird and then oven roasting it…”

“How about this, while you chop wood I’ll talk loudly about what I’m doing. I’ll mostly be cleaning the bird, stuffing it and preparing it for roasting, but if you want I can provide commentary. How does that sound?” It sounded great.

Wolf got to chopping while his father spoke about removing entrails.

Archibald's lessons:

People living further away from the borders of their respective empires don’t care about their neighbors. Races different from their own are as good as myths and don’t influence their daily lives. Maybe that’s for the best, considering they live thousands of kilometers away.