No Longer Freedom

1. The Midnight Pearl.

Tord's POV

"I'm going to check the traps!" I announced to my best guards, Paul and Patryk. They nodded and wrote down the time when I left with an old piece of coal. It has been 3 years since I started the black-market with them. The business is going without problems and the money is running. What I have heard from my spies, the law that I created in Stardies has been canceled and abandoned because they were afraid of loopholes. Jokes on them, that only increased the demand for dragon products, and that's when I stepped in with my allies. Me and my little crew of exiled people are hunting down dragons and making weapons, armors and other products of them, then we sell them to other gangs or people in the Kingdoms. However, I won't usually do the business personally, It would be a huge risk. You can't always tell if the person wants to buy our products or if they are working for the royalty, if I would get caught my plan would fuck up badly, so I prefer working and leading my Kingdom Of The Lost Ones, aka KOTLO, from the shadows.

I sighed and looked at my dark Kingdom over my shoulder while I walked deeper in the forest. These rocks covered by moss and huge spruces filled with cones have been protecting our realm from people that are not wanted near us. Nobody with at least a little bit of common sense would take the risk to come so far in the forest. KOTLO is standing almost straight next to a steep rock ledge which guarantees that we are on the edge of our continent. Nobody will accidentally find this place.

"I fear no evil, the shadow is mine and so is the valley. Edd... You put me in the darkness, so darkness I become." I smirked and turned my way to the traps. I knew that I would have a long walk ahead but that was already a routine to me. I usually check the traps every other day so the potential catch would be tired when I arrive. It will be way easier to kill and carry to the KOTLO when the prey is thirsty, hungry and tired of fighting but sometimes I just have to kill the dragon then and there. Some of them really are true fighters. Hydra dragons are one of the most aggressive ones I have ever caught. They have multiple heads, usually 3 to 5 and they all are starving. Hydra's every head has their own stomach which makes them 3 to 5 times more aggressive and dangerous then others. Coatys are just difficult because they have no legs. They are just flying snakes with colorful feathery wings. "Slippery lissome snakes." I mumbled my thoughts. I have started naming different species of dragons so it's easier to sell them to others. If I don't know anything about them and study them, how could I be a credible seller? I chuckled at the image of me selling products without knowing anything about those lizards. "How funny~"

When I arrived at the first trap there was nothing. "Damn it..." I whispered and started checking if the trap was broken, but it was not. "Weird." I mumbled and chanced the bite. It was a huge piece of pork meat. We usually hunt down wild boards for our own source of food but we use the pieces that we humans won't eat as a bait for the dragons.

I stood up and walked towards the second trap which was near a little lake. Lake's water was bright turquoise which allowed me to see the colorful fishes. Some of them were hiding in the alga and others were swimming around trying to find food and just survive. Just like me back then. No money, no food, no parents that would take care of me. Afraid of the future. Just like most of the children that lost their parents after the tragedy, that took place 20 years ago. I remember how Edd got his crown a few days after that because his parents died too and he was the only child that their parents had. Edd was only 8 years old when that happened so most of the Knights took care of him and helped him lead and take responsibility for his people. He was a child. He understood how scared most of the abandoned kids were. How lonely and hopeless I was. Begging for food from church when the lucky brats have already knocked the doors of the few houses that remained intact. The thought of a young me begging for food with starving eyes caused me to feel shame but at the same time I was sorry, sorry? For what? That odd feeling made me sick of my stomach.