The dragon's harem

The Yeti reached forward and touched Arad’s forehead with his finger, quickly taking a step back with a terrified face. What did he just touch? Bare skin?!

He started shaking for a second, then froze in place, staring at Arad with a puzzled face. It was bare skin indeed, this one in front of him, he didn’t have fur…

After taking several long seconds to think, the Yeti burst laughing and started rolling on the wet ground. He laughed and laughed even more, holding his stomach and swinging his legs around, shattering several stalagmites.

As the Yeti laughed his stomach out, Arad and Gojo were confused, and they looked at each other in silence for a second, each thinking about an explanation for the monster’s strange behavior.

“You let him touch you.”

Gojo asked with a worried face. He expected Arad to twist the Yeti’s arm, then punch him in the face, but Arad did the unthinkable, or didn’t do anything to be exact, and just stood there, letting the Yeti touch his forehead.

Arad shrugged. He knew enough about combat to distinguish between a threatening act and a curious one. Mira would kill him if he kept attacking anything that dared move. She had yelled at him about it once, so he won’t make the same mistake.

“He wasn’t attacking. You can tell from his eyes and how he moved. When he saw me, he was both appalled and horrified; now, he’s just amused.” Arad could figure out what the Yeti was feeling, but not understand why.

Gojo lifted an eyebrow. “You can understand him?” He was less savvy about body language and fighting than Arad. In his case, he didn’t determine whether an opponent is dangerous or not based on their behavior, but based on his thoughts about them.

To Gojo, it didn’t matter if a man didn’t attack him. As long as he thinks the man is a thug, he’ll attack first, even if the man in question is fast asleep. To him now, the Yeti is a monster, and all monsters are dangerous to their camp, so he has to kill them all.

Arad smiled. “No way, I lost that power with my draconic powers. But I can still tell their emotions. What else do you think laughing would mean?”

Arad was right, and the more they watched the Yeti, the more they thought this monster might not be a threat. Of course, that didn’t mean Arad and Gojo would drop their guards.

This Yeti was still a monster, and even if it looked friendly now, it could go crazy later and start attacking. In fact, Arad knew that the Yeti would never go crazy; he would just start acting like a Yeti.

Arad then took a deep breath. “He probably thinks… I’m another Yeti. Thanks to my size.”

The Yeti was humanoid in shape, as tall as Arad, and even just as muscular, which left one difference between the two: one was covered in white fur, and one wasn’t.

He approached the Yeti and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hoi! Calm down. What’s up with you?”

Arad knew words won’t reach the Yeti’s brain, but what else could he do? Say “GOHO?” How would he know that wasn’t some kind of slur? He might just trigger the Yeti, so he decided to just speak normally and let nature do its thing.

Gojo was a bit against playing any longer with this monster and wanted to finish it off just to be safe, but Arad had another idea, and he wanted to find out what the Yeti’s deal was.

To any other man, this Yeti would look like a giant monster, but to Arad, it looked just like another man his size, and if he wanted to fight, Arad was confident in his ability to put the monster in its place.

The Yeti could barely stop laughing, then he looked at Arad once more, quickly jumping in and wrapping his arms around him. It happened too fast that even Gojo didn’t have time to cast a spell.

In the end, Arad was caught in the Yeti’s bear hug, and if Gojo wanted to use anything powerful enough to harm the monster, he would harm Arad as well.

At that moment, Arad knew the fight was on. Whatever plagued the beast’s brain earlier had faded, and now it wanted to fight. He got ready to face a bite to the face and was about to push the Yeti away when he realized that the monster wasn’t using his full strength.

The hug was gentle, not forceful.

The Yeti wasn’t even looking at Arad. He instead was looking deep into the cave, and he then howled. “GOHO! GOHO!”

“Can you let me go?” Arad stared at the Yeti, and the monster looked back at him, a strange emotion roiling in his bestial eyes. He looked around and spotted the ceiling above dripping water on them.

“HO!” The Yeti finally moved, but he didn’t release his hug; instead, he prompted Arad to move with him and got them both to a dry spot beside the wall.

“Gojo. I think something is wrong with this one.” Arad pointed at the Yeti, and his brother smiled.

The Yeti looked at Arad’s head and then patted the water from his shoulders and hair.

“I think I understand what he thinks.” Gojo approached. “He thinks you’re another Yeti, one without fur. He’s afraid you’ll die of cold, so he’s trying to keep you warm and dry.”

Gojo then smiled. “I bet he was laughing at your funny look earlier. To him, you’re a weird freak without fur.”

As Gojo spoke, the Yeti turned his head and finally spotted him. He was so occupied by Arad that he didn’t even spot the short human behind him.

The Yeti’s face twisted once more, and this time into a horrified visage. His arm flew like a flash, and he dragged Gojo into their hug.

Arad growled. “I think he thinks you’re a Yeti too, a small one, but I’m sure your white hair matches their fur better than my black hair.”

Gojo growled as well, unable to withstand the Yeti’s horrid musky smell. The Yeti smelled like a wet dog that stayed in the rain too much.

“I’m too small to be a Yeti.” Gojo growled, but he knew the Yeti could be thinking he was just a younger and smaller Yeti.

In this world, the Yetis were the only creatures who walked on two legs and looked humanoid in the area, and monsters here didn’t travel that far, or even saw another human before. So, for all that the Yeti knew, Arad and Gojo were just weird Yetis that he found.

Soon, another howl returned from the depths of the cave, and the Yeti flinched, letting go of Arad and Gojo for a second as he stood and looked into the darkness.

He was about to run away, but then stopped and looked back at Arad and Gojo. He took a step toward them, but then heard another howl and turned to the darkness, distressed.

Arad frowned. “That howl didn’t sound nice at all. Deep, grunt, and pained…” He tapped the Yeti on the shoulder and pointed into the darkness.

The Yeti seemed to understand something and bolted away, letting Arad and Gojo follow him deeper into the cave.