Bello knocked on the door of Sarah's apartment. "Good morning John...what do you want with me so early this morning.?"

"I want to talk to Raven.

"Come in, there's coffee and croissants. "

"Already? Yes, the Kobolds are nice, they came to drop off breakfast. They are lovely creatures. They love compliments."

Bello: "But we don't know much about them, where they come from or their history..."

"I think they don't know themselves..."

"Yes... it's intriguing."

The night before....

The officers were gathered in the great hall and then Hans entered, followed by Kate, helped by a cane. and Star introduced King Cranedur.

He was sitting on a mobile throne, supported by 4 strong warriors and escort.

He bowed to the stained glass effigy of Hydra and then to Professor Reinhardt and then took the Chancellor's hand and kissed the top of her outstretched palm. and into her hand.

"You are very beautiful for a human..."

Sarah blushed at the compliment.

The king spoke in English without a translator and immediately everything was easier.

The officials regrouped and Sarah was seated between Kate and Cranedur, and across from them Hans and Bello.

Every time Hans spoke, everyone fell silent, and Sarah felt the dwarf trembling with fear.

He was terrified that one word, one word could irritate or disappoint the hydra camouflaged as a human in front of him.

Hans smiled at him. But he thought of the big teeth... He had a demigod sitting at his table and the humans were not aware of it... But he also admired the humans as gods because Hans had their appearance. He had never taken the appearance of a dwarf, an elf or a fairy...

Me: "I love banquets. We discuss but we learn so many things and especially we can taste the delicacies prepared by our Kobolds friends.

They literally jumped on the spot... Their master had congratulated them...

It is also true that I adored them and that I was already happy that our children had playmates. The kobolds were ideal for that. Playing with their master's projekt was a rare favor, but also the little ones learned a lot this way. And Kobolds knew more than anything else in the world how not to get bitten by a young dragonet.

Just like babies, they tasted the world around them, by curiosity but also by instinct.

Putting human children with a baby dragon was the worst idea.

Tasting a hand, an arm...no more hand...no more arm.... and it wasn't out of malice...they didn't realize it..yet. They were babies.

And when they were hungry, they grunted instead of cried.... The only good thing about instinct was not to eat each other. But that could happen if they were starving or made hungry on purpose by malicious parents...

The main discussion turned around the relics and objects that the dwarves had found during their excavations and they didn't know what they were for. Although Kate helped them a lot, the objects were countless and in various states. Kate had no technical knowledge and therefore was unable to tell what tools and electronics were used for...

The king Cranedur, without thinking, congratulated Kate again... and she answered him as foolishly: "Thank you Majesty... you don't know how happy I am. I hope they won't grow up too fast...I have so much to teach them..."

Cranedur smiled and then fell silent when he saw my white face... He lowered his eyes like a child who is about to be scolded.

I cleared my throat and tried to catch the inevitable...

I stood up and took a cup of wine.

"My friends...I have happy news to share with you. We have three children who have just been born. Our children...."

Sarah looked at Bello...and whispered in his ear, "Kate wasn't pregnant but she doesn't look good...would she have given birth???"

Bello, also whispering: "I don't know more than you do"

"As I was saying, our 3 eggs have hatched and they are the first dragons the earth has seen in millennia. I would like to congratulate Kate for her dedication as a mother and also to the Kobold people who have supported us since day one..."

And with a snap of the fingers, on the screen, we could see 3 little dragons, one red, one white and one pink...

"It is traditional to name them when their sex is determined with certainty."

Everyone clapped and I sat back down.

The conversation revolved around Kate but no one dared to ask her about it. Anything and everything was told but the elf officer's words were spinning in Bello's head.

"When you serve as food for the dragons...."

And the dragons... they were there...

And Kate.

Then Bello said: "Lady Kate... if I may ask, how did you become the mother of dragons?

She looked at me...then cried for a moment...then swallowed her tears, determined.

"These are my children..."

Bello: "But you are human..."

The answer was terrible.

"Not anymore..." and she looked at me with a look of reproach but also of gratitude...

Bello gasped...

Kate: "Cryonics... gamma rays....corruption.... our flesh was tortured instead of dying. The suffering....Baking and rebaking in a regeneration tube.... Hans and I...lost much of our humanity..."

Bello laid his hand on Kate. "I understand, forgive me."

It was a shock and Kate stood up, tired..and exhausted. I took her against me. Her transformation was painful. She wanted to stay but couldn't... not in this form.

When she came out, she exploded into a dragon in a spray of light and walked with heavy steps back to our lair, but the thought of the little ones gave her the energy to continue.

But her heavy steps were felt a little by the humans... Something "heavy" was moving away.

I returned to my guests and promised to show them my base and introduce them to Kabal.

Back to breakfast...

Raven was walking down the stairs to her room

"Maman????Mamaan? What is John doing here?"

Sarah: "We have important things to discuss... for our safety..."

Raven wanted to talk but Monty was coming down later.

Bello": I see you two didn't waste any time!"

As they ate the croissants, the captain's electronic bracelet projected a holographic image of the village and the positions on the map indicating the other gnome villages.

He straightened up, hands on the back of his neck and pushing the chair backwards.

"For now, we're safe. The techs haven't spotted any bugs or a remote network. However, L'América's computer...indicates intense thermal activity to the north, at the forbidden zone."

Sarah: "For the moment we are taking advantage of the relative security of the camp and its defense system. and our priority is to launch the harvest and to establish our economic and food independence. The professor has saved us decades of hardship..."

Bello: "Yes, but before, we were the only "tenants" of this planet and now we have elves, fairies, dwarfs, kobolds, monsters ... and now dragons...

And these last ones are undermining... They will be smart, stronger than us "

Sarah : "You see evil everywhere..."

"Yes, maybe, but it takes bad guys like me to do the dirty work. They play with death and make them come back as Kobold... And Cranedur...I can smell fear...he was terrified...."

Raven: "Stop digging the cup with your spoon, you'll put a hole in the table."

Monty let out a big yawn in the dining room overlooking the kitchen... "John is right... Waspy is hiding a lot of things.... Everyone here is lying..."

John Bello : "For once we agree".

Monty : "Let's go visit the elves and find out why they are fighting..."

Bello: "It's dangerous...we have to see what military capabilities we have first. All the ammunition of the America and the Europa were stolen by Yuri...and for the moment...we can only rely on STAR"

Sarah: "Yes, I remember the project. It was cancelled because the AI was unstable at the time and became like the Skynet monster in the Terminator movie... By the way, Star and the robots are terminators..."

Bello: "Worse... they can fly....and we don't know how many of them there are and we don't know their subordination to Hans... Imagine that they revolt..."

Raven: "But at least because of them we are here...we must not forget that..."

Ding dong..

Everyone froze, seeing no one at the window of the door.

John went slowly and opened the door...to see Waspy and 2 kobolds...

Waspy : "Hello everybody!!!!"

Sarah : "Hello Waspy.... Hello Kobolds! Thanks for the croissants!"

They gave each other a high five that made everyone smile.

The little fairy entered with the two Kobolds holding her hand.

"You want to come and play with us? We fairies love to play with our friends but we also know how to protect ourselves from our enemies.

The two Kobolds jumped up and down and called Monty and Raven.

Waspy: "I know a safe beach and I have magic to defend you if you are attacked..."

Bello noticed his beretta on his belt and the small daggers on the Kobolds' belts, but the Kobolds were not wearing any clothes... Just their dragon scales...

Sarah looked at Bello like (watch them from a distance), "I think this is a good time to go relax. But I want you to be home by sunset and be careful."

Then she looked at Waspy: "Watch over our two kids..."

Waspy, excited, blurted out without realizing it, her wings flapping...

"Humans are precious to Master Carn. Hey. Professor Hans..."

All five of them left the village, where a troop carrier was waiting for them.

Waspy : "It is beautiful, isn't it my toy!!!! You can climb on it and it obeys very well. To the left... Right...forward, backward... It's fun, isn't it???"

Raven was shocked...how could a military tank be considered a game...?

"Say, Waspy.... Do you have others like this???"

Waspy: "Yesiii, lots of them... and they go vroom vroom....but they are constipated...certien make black smoke with their butt and it stings in the throat.."

"And why is it a toy??? " asked Monty..

"Oh... it breaks quickly... we have to be careful not to crush it but it goes everywhere... We can even go through the Gnome Mushrooms....and make a lot of holes in it... but what I like the most is that it floats and we can swim around and make Kabal mad. He doesn't like jokes and always goes to complain to the dragon....But he likes me... and I often eat with him....but Kate, I'm jealous of her....but she's very nice. The dwarves love her...especially the princess and her maid Betty.

In the last battle...she was badly wounded but she repulsed the best elf soldiers...but I'm not allowed to tell you...well...I don't know..."

But I love Hans but he scares me now and I was jealous and bored.... finally you are here, and I have a lot of things to show you...."