Torin the dragon rider (TOME 12 of the TIAMAT'S WARS SERIE)

Sufferings

Mom wanted me to get stronger, especially the wings, and she knew why.

She herself being a female, she had a good feel for the problems that were to come and as an excellent mother, she had foresight.

"Torin... your mana is filling you up and it hurts your heart, doesn't it?"

"Yes, Mom... My arrow still hurts."

"Mmmm. I see...you'll break down and you won't be able to hold all that mana.... you have to get it out without exhausting yourself..."

I was crying and I could feel my head, my teeth with this huge forked tongue... This burnt taste and this smell of sulfur...

I wasn't ready, I couldn't accept myself... not like this, not like that... It was unfair, brutal and violent.

All my dreams, hopes, dashed and when I looked at my friends... I wanted to kiss them, to hug them and make hugs but I was too stupid or too slow and I ruined everything...

Mom, who saw me blushing and crying and also staring very briefly at the female attributes, came to find me.

She knew.

She was anything but stupid.

"Mom!!!"

"Torin... I feel like you regret it but if it's sexual, it's arrow damage.

The effects were devastating. It stopped you from loving, from falling in love, but it also took away your draconic nature, your dragon-like way of thinking, your motherly love, your powers and your mana reserve but it also destroyed your life expectancy, your eternity. You were going to die and I had to act. In time, I'm sure we'll find a solution to your problems.

Lord British, he may have known the answer. Your daddy told me about a spell that would allow you to temporarily take on a human appearance, at least to be able to have offspring with humans. Unfortunately, I don't know this spell and your daddy took the secret with him to his grave."

Mom had a way of cheering me up every time.

I can't imagine my situation without her or my two friends.

It's a horrible ordeal but alone it's a thousand times worse.

Rubix was thinking and sad.

"Rubix? What are you thinking about?"

"I never knew mom... or dad... .... I'm jealous of you... a little..."

"You know what? We're going to free our fellow creatures from the salt mine and we're going to look for the lost dragons or those hidden in the dungeons..."

Immediately, her face lit up and a smile up to her ears emerged.

Valtrax: "Very good idea...I feel your mana going down..."

So off we went north, towards the dungeons sealed by Amon.

After half a day,

humans whipped dragons that refused to move. None of them moved.

We approached and they became frightened.

Rubix, her magic axes in her paws, charged in.

Magic missiles and spinning axes were hurled at the mahouts and "healers" who did everything but heal.

Next to the dragons, slaves and criminals were chained up.

There were hundreds of them.

Wagons full of salt waited to be transported to the boats that would distribute the goods to the four corners of the kingdom.