another chapter done, i want to thank rouge and mejinzs for their proofreading and suggestions. just to let you all know i posted this on my blog last night

so without further ado – Chapter 31

——— Nephilim’s POV ————

“I have made peace with my god.” I said, as I murmured another prayer to my goddess.

“Good for you, I give it about a week though.” The dragon said as he stared at me.

“What, you aren’t going to eat me?” I asked suspicious of the large beast.

“Probably not. Out of curiosity, what gender are you?” the dragon asked “I have been trying to figure it out since I noticed the battle.”

“Excuse me?” I asked, stunned by the absurd incongruity of the question.

“You know, are you a boy or a girl? I really can’t tell.” The dragon said, “Hell, you could tell the truth and I wouldn’t necessarily believe you.”

“I am obviously a woman!” I shouted angry at the giant lizard’s audacity.

“Nice, that might make things easier for what I have in mind.” The dragon chuckled

“You wouldn’t dare.” I said putting a bit of venom in my voice, “I will kill myself before you have your way with me.”

“Well, your mind went to the gutter rather quickly,” The dragon laughed, “unless you’d kill yourself over housework.”

“Wait, housework?” I inquired as I tried to comprehend what the dragon was saying.

“You aren’t very quick on the uptake here are you.” the dragon stated. “Let me make this clear, I want you to help around my lair with things like cleaning and a little a bit of child care. No, it is not a baby dragon.”

“You want me for house work?” I asked trying to determine if the dragon was lying.

“Yes, housework. My claws aren’t conducive to things like housework and child rearing.” The dragon replied showing me his front claws. “So why not get someone else to do it?”

“You saved the life of a praetorian… so that you can have someone to do house work for you?” I asked dumbfounded.

The dragon perked up at my words, “Did you say Praetorian?” the dragon questioned.

“Yes I did.” I replied a bit confused.

“Hold on.” the dragon said, “Say that again in about a minute.”

I heard him mutter something to himself and I repeated myself. The dragon burst out laughing and started to speak in a guttural language.

He muttered again before saying “That is rich; I never expected the romans to get around.”

“Who are the romans?” I asked a bit confused.

“It matters not,” the dragon replied, “follow me.”

“What’s to stop me from running?” I asked testing the waters.

“I would say your word, but I don’t know if it means anything to you.” The dragon contemplated, “So instead, if you run I will wipe out everything you know and love.”

“Yo…you wou…wouldn’t,” I stuttered, fear gripping me as I remembered the elf.

“I have eaten people for lesser reasons” the dragon stated, “let’s get going, I want you to meet everyone else, but don’t worry I think you will enjoy it, eventually.”

——————————-Fafnir Pov———————————–

“People really are gullible in this world.” I thought to myself as we flew towards my lair. “I wonder what everyone will think of my new pe… companion.”

We neared the cave and I dropped the corpse of a deer like creature that I picked up one the way back, literally snatching the beast and carrying it off into the sky. I landed with soft thud. I heard the familiar squeal of Azazel as she ran to come see me, but stopped as she noticed the gray skinned leather clad woman that landed next to me, apparent deciding it was safe came over and latched onto my leg.

“Fafnir, why in the dark god’s name did you bring one of those… THINGS home.” Therin shouted.

“What do you have against my new p… I mean housekeeper.” I said hoping everyone will overlook that little slip up.

“The Nephilim have been at war with the elves for years, claiming it was commanded of them by their ‘god,’” Therin spat.

“Well then you might want to talk to your guards when you head back,” I replied, “also you might want to inform them of who I am. On an unrelated note I think there is a new captain position open in the city guard.”

“Did you kill some of the city guards, again?” Therin sighed.

“I will neither confirm nor deny your statement, but if I did it was in self-defense, I gave them a chance to run.” I replied

He took a deep breath before saying, “If the Nephilim is going to be living here then you need to perform the slave ritual.”

“Why would I enslave her?” I questioned.

“Because she would not be able to leave this cave without being attacked if she did not have the slave tattoo around her neck,” Therin responded, “and if you picked her up to replace Atheros until he comes back, if he even comes back, you need to have her be able to go into the city.”

“He’ll come back, they just want a bit more detailed in person report,” I replied, “but I see your point, though I don’t think the ritual will work remember how I got rid of yours?”

I looked at the Nephilim as she stared at me her face turning pale.

“Well maybe I can fake it or something” I replied as I tried to figure out a way of avoiding outright slavery. Then I remember something from earth. “Do they have tattoos here?”

“Only a slave or criminals have tattoos.” Therin replied his face lit up as he realised where I was going with this.

“I wonder, could I do something like that with magic?” I asked the elf.

“I don’t know” he replied, “I never was into that side of magic.”

I gathered a bit of mana into my claw and while concentrating I was able to draw a solid blue line across the hide of the deer.

“Ready to get a magical tattoo?” I asked the scared Nephilim.

“If it must be done,” she resigned.

I gathered mana once again into my claw and as I touched the skin of the Nephilim something strange happened. Mana started to flow along the skin of the girl creating a spider web of lines moving across her throat. After a second the magic lines solidified as a snake wrapping around her neck biting its own tail.

“The hell was that?” Therin asked.

“That is a cool looking tattoo.” I said impressed with the look, “Do you think it will work for what we have in mind?”

“Most magical tattoos do not glow, but I guess it will be fine.” Therin replied.

“Good enough for me,” I said as I looked at the woman, “the elf is called Therin; he still has a few years left in my service. The human, who is probably in his room, is Atheros; he is supposedly my guardian. The small demoness gnawing on my spines is Azazel; my daughter.”

“Nice to meet all of you,” she said, “my name is Lilith, ex-praetorian of the Nephilim legions. Not that it matters anymore.”

“Cheer up,” Therin said, “the dragon isn’t that bad, unless someone angers him, then you better run.”

“By the way, why were you sneaking around?” I asked as I dragged the deer to the kitchen.

“We were sent to find the human hero and attempt to recruit or dispose of him.”

I burst out into laughter. “Your mission was doomed to fail from the beginning. Weren’t you given any information on the hero?” I asked trying to contain my laughter.

“Not much, my commander only told us where the hero was, we figured it should not be hard to find a human in elven lands.” she replied.

“I have good news for you, you have found the hero.” I squeezed out.

“Your guardian is the hero?” her eyes lit up as she asked.

“No, the dragon is the human hero.” Therin said failing to contain his laughter.

“You’re kidding.” she stated.

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as always me and rouge are mostly human, still working on mejinzs, let us know if we missed anything, also let me know what you think.