It was a very long night.

"KABAL!!! where is she? "

"She is in front of the village gate, in drag..."

DAMN!!! that's all we needed!!!

"Call the dwarves and ask them to talk to her, have her turn back!"

With a snap of my fingers, I was outside as a dragon. The storm was rumbling and it was raining hard.

But then I got a ringing in my head... ENKA was calling me.

GRR.. KATE!!!

The rage was building and especially for my little ones!

I went to a dark corner, under an unlit archway and the next thing I knew I was in mother's palm...

She saw my sadness and understood everything I was feeling.

"Son. You know that I am also the guardian of time and I can see the present, the past and the future... I haven't told you anything but the inevitable is happening and will happen again..."

"Mamaaann? Kate!!!"

Enka: "I know...it's hard...but Kate is a human in a dragon's body...You've been a dragon for 3000 years in flesh and soul now. And I know you do the dirty work..."

"Can't we go back?"

"Yes...but it will always be the same thing over and over again...and it will be worse every time.."

"And... the little ones...??"

"I'll take care of them... they'll follow their instincts and come to you naturally. and then you're their father and you don't have to hide that.."

"I understand... and Kate?? what about her...?"

"I can't tell you but she has chosen the path of trial and she will have to face the consequences of her actions..."

"That's hard, mom...

"Don't worry, Son, you don't know it but you are loved by more people than you think! And I also have someone to introduce to you but at the right time, after the crisis...when you have calmed down... She is like you and has also suffered martyrdom, suffered from humans and eaten her enemies...But most of all, she inspires fear and terror.Yet she has a heart and friends too."

"But I love Kate..."

"I know, my little prince..,but don't forget, she is closer to you than you think..."

"!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The next moment I was still on the porch and the drama intensified.

I was all turned around...

Kate and Waspy had turned all my plans upside down... our paradise was crumbling...

I was a sad hydra... And, without realizing it, I had arrived in front of a new gnome village.

The purple gnomes had barricaded and fortified their village but... facing my 50 meters high...

I had a rage to explode.

Mana was building up in my chest and a transforming sound began to be heard. Then, all of a sudden, thunder and lightning fell on me, and each of the heads threw a lightning bolt on each house in the shape of a mushroom, all over the ramparts that were, for me, only a step.

Bricks and thatched roofs exploded and burst into flames, and in a second the whole village was an inferno.

No one was running in the streets.

I had "one-shot" an entire village. There was nothing left... not a single brick standing....

Then I continued straight on, ransacking, pulverizing everything in my path. A carnage.

During this time, it was the alert.

On the main screen, we could see 3 giant Kobolds holding 3 dragons, and a white dragon of 25 meters.

They were not moving...

Bello looked at the monitor and zoomed in.

"But what is this monster? How big!"

He took his phone.

"Sarah... You're not going to believe this, but there are giant Kobolds and a white dragon in front of the entrance. Are the kids safe?"

Waspy looked at the screen, close to Bello.

"Ah.. It's Kate... we have to let her in..."

Bello: "Kate????"

Mondeville turned to stare at Bello and Waspy..

"Kate??? "

Sarah: "don't shoot.."

But there was no answer so Sarah ran and when she got to the top of the front door, all out of breath, she jumped over the wall and luckily Kate saw Sarah fall, and with her wing broke the chancellor's fall.

Sarah spread her arms and put herself between the drag and the firing turret...

"Don't shoot... don't shoot..."

Waspy followed on the screen and dropped a comment...

"Anyway, the bullets will bounce off her scales... none of your weapons are capable of hurting her..."

The little ones were crying and soaked from the pouring rain and Kate had her beautiful white scale dress soiled with mud.

Sara turned around "Kate??? why ???? Why did you come here????"

"Asylum!!! I ask for asylum!!!"

Sara took the snout of the dragoness in her arms, the human guards were terrified.

Bello arrived from a jeep and jumped to get Sara out of the monster's clutches.

But the creature was crying...and still had its veil of mouth....decorative jewels on its scales and gold rings surrounding its tail. This was no wild beast.

Sarah: "Ah, John... get the door.... They can't stay like that in the rain..."

"BUT.. Did you see the size?"

Sarah: "That's Kate...Hans' wife... "

it clicked.

They went to the main hall and Kate entered the temple of the hydra with the 3 little ones and the kobolds.

Other kobolds servants, well the few that remained to serve and trade rushed to the service of the lost dragoness.

After long minutes of wiping and cleaning with a hose, the dragoness was finally able to recover.

Mondeville knew there was no point in keeping a monster of this size, so he lit a good cigar and arrived near Bello and the chancellor in a room in the conference hall, out of Kate's reach.

"Chancellor, I'd like an explanation.... You know the dragoness and you knew that Kate, who looked human, was a dragoness?"

Chancellor: "Yes, General... but everything went so fast...I didn't even have time to warn you... Anyway, the truth has come out and it's better this way..."

Mondeville: "So, if I understand, we have a couple of humans, well, human-looking dragons who saved our lives, allied with the dwarves and hoping to have human allies too...?"

Chancellor: "These are shortcuts that show another reality. They are the only two humans to have survived here... and they had to dragonify themselves to survive... Kate didn't ask for anything that happened to her but it was professor hans who handled everything. I think Kate is still 'human' but hans is a real dragon..."

Mondeville: "What does she want?"

"Why don't we go ask her? "Bello suggested.

The trio walked down the steps and across the main square and into the temple.

To their astonishment, a giant Kobold was standing guard. He looked like a carnosaur and his stature was imposing.

The teeth of the upper jaw protruded like scissors on the lower jaw and humans would have no chance against such a monster.

But fortunately, it was an old dwarf, who greeted them in English.

Mondeville stopped: "What do you call?"

"Cranefer, my general... I was in the vanguard at the palace of Cranedur when I fell.

The general greeted him as he entered, reassured that he was not a savage...a dialogue was possible.

Then he saw the dragoness surrounded by makeshift sheets that the kobolds used to dry her tears.

Small female Kobold voices could be heard reassuring and consoling while the little ones ran after the other bigger Kobolds to play but as soon as they saw the humans they stopped and stared at them like tasty rabbits...

The giant Kobolds held them on a leash and they didn't even realize that they had a giant muzzle on. They were the size and look of real little raptors

"GRAHHH"

Sara took a chair and sat down next to the reclining dragoness. She took up a quarter of the large nave, the chairs and furniture pushed to the sides or stored in the storeroom.

Kate: "I'm scared.... Hans, he is going to punish me! Sarah, sorry but I am so scared...."

Wapsy entered in her turn but the dragoness growled.

"Waspy... are you proud? Go to your "Hans" and pray that he doesn't eat you back! Go away!! and stay away from my little ones!!!"

Wapsy ran away screaming and crying, joining Raven and Monty.

Sarah: "Kate??? explain to me... And why are you in drag?"

"It's painful, to stay as a human... I don't know, I almost can't... forgive me... I wish I had stayed like you...."

"Why did you run away?...did he hurt you?...?"

"No... but he is crazy!!! He makes war but he devours the elves! He devours the gnomes... Little fairies like Wapsy... Women, children, ... He is an ogre... a monster...

I saw his reserves.... full of elves prisoners and a room of carnage where he devours them. Worse, the robots reduce them in pieces, in juice and transform them into prepared meals.... It's disgusting, disgusting... I saw young elves stuffed alive with gnome blood juice... I threw up...

I loved Hans... but he is a monster now... We have to stop him at all costs.....!