The dragon's harem

One of Hati’s daughters stared at her, lowered the bottle down, and growled. “Mother, behave yourself.”

Hati shifted, looked at her with a smile, and the air around them vibrated, the chimes rang, and the liquor in the bottle rippled. “Am I not?”

“Of course you aren’t! Besides, that letter in his hand is signed by Queen Isdis. It’s official business, so get it together.”

“Huh, shouldn’t Astrid and Frida be dealing with that?” Hati sighed, and her daughters looked more exhausted than disappointed. “Of course not! You are still the queen; in fact, you’ll never step down from the throne as you are eternal.”

Hati, unlike all residents of the universe, was a true immortal being. She doesn’t age, cannot die, cannot cease to exist, and cannot change. Her power would always remain the same, and her future, as well as possible reflection across fate, were all but written in stone.

Eternity was a subpart of Stillness, the power that keeps everything still, unchanging, and forever the same. The only way for her rule to change is if she yielded her shard to one of her daughters, but that wouldn’t happen any time soon.

“Very well, I shall tend to him myself.” A voice similar to that of Hati boomed from the ground. Behind Arad, a woman who was the spitting image of Hati stood, looking at him with a smug smile.

“You are… Skoll. Last time we met was… when I first came here.” As Arad smiled, Skoll shrugged. “No, it was when I had to fix the mess you’ve done to Hati’s world when your now wife, called Lunara, dropped the moon.” She moved and then threw a glance at Linda.

“Look, each time I see you, you’ve got a new woman by your side.”

Linda glared right back at Skoll, “Arad, this one has three times the power of an Elder Earth dragon. Be careful. She can literally flip the entire continent on us.”

Hati and Skoll were twins, but unlike all others. Both mastered martial arts, sword fighting, and earth magic, but they weren’t the same. Hati was better at sword fighting than earth magic, and Skoll was the opposite, being better at earth magic.

But when Arad looked at them, he noticed something scary. Hati and Skoll’s souls were connected by something that resembled an umbilical cord, turning them into what should’ve been a single person.

“Now, that isn’t nice. Why would I do that?” Skoll smiled, reached toward Linda with her long and sharp red nails, then conjured a precious stone, a citrine that was the size of an apple. “Here, a gift.”

Linda reached forward, grabbed the gem, and smiled. “Well, isn’t this a tainted quartz. What is the meaning of handing someone a dirty flower?”

“There is no meaning behind it; citrine is a precious gem either way. Call it tainted quartz or not, time drakaina.” Skoll now opened her other palm, showing Linda a crystalline quartz as transparent as the air itself.

“Arad, this little puppy here is trying show off her dominance over earth magic, would you mind calling Gaia? She’ll whip her back to shape.” Linda reached forward and grabbed both the quartz and citrine.

“Gaia is busy.” Arad sighed, “And so am I. Can we get the lumber done with?” He gave the sealed letter to her, and Skoll gave it a quick read. “I see, but this is quite a lot of wood.” She smiled, “Can’t your lovely little plant fairy grow it back there?”

“Don’t pretend as if you don’t know. If we use magic to keep growing trees over and over in the same spot, that land is bound to run out of nutrients and wither away.” He crossed his arms, “And the capital is built on Loci’s back, so I’m not hurting her.”

“Are you really worried about an ancient ooze? She’ll live and adapt to anything you throw at her. But alas, you’re not here for that, but for lumber.” She turned around, and signaled with her finger for him to follow.

Since the entire Beastlands was just one massive jungle filled to the brim with massive and deadly monsters, for Arad to get his lumber, he had to cut it on his own. Behind Hati’s house was the first of the forests that Arad could source his lumber from, and it was called the Ancient Woods.

Arad didn’t even enter, and he could already see a massive Tallneck lumbering in the distance, and each of its steps sent a faint ripple in the ground. This brachiosaurus-like monster looked like an ancient relic, being so massive that it towered over trees and made them look like grass. Its neck was so massive and thick, but the scary part was that it could breathe fire.

No castle walls could stop this monster, but luckily, Arad had hunted one before, and he knew that with his size and power, they were just moving slabs of meat, delicious and juicy flesh. He could hunt it on his own, let Linda do it, or call someone to take care of it while he cuts the trees.

Arad lifted his massive arm, and from it, darkness flowed out. A second later, a tall cat-woman emerged, stretched her arms with a moan, then looked at him with a curious gaze. Matilda had finally returned to her homeland.

“Arad! I was just getting bored. What’s going on?” She looked around, then her ears twitched. “Ah, the ancient woods?”

Arad smiled, then pointed at the Tallneck. “Can you hunt that thing?”

As her eyes followed his finger, she finally saw the massive, one-hundred-meter-tall monster looming over the forest like an ancient statue of ripped muscles, steel scales, and primal indifference to the small ants that walked on the forest’s ground.

“That is, a bit too big for me.” She looked at Arad, “I’m a black tiger, not a dragon.”

He smiled. “But you’ve got void blood in you. I’m sure you can manage. Besides, I’ll be nearby to save you if anything goes wrong. Just give it a try.”

As Arad started cutting the trees down and throwing them into his stomach by the dozen, Matilda looked at the massive Tallneck. She wasn’t sure how to tackle this massive prey. In the past, she saw Arad take one down, but the difference in physical strength between them was utterly massive.

But as they say, the bigger the tree, the easier it’ll fall. This monster was too massive for her fangs and claws to do anything, and the mobility provided by her void blood won’t help much in that regard, so she only had one option left. She wasn’t called a shieldmaiden for nothing after all.

Matilda went back to Arad to retrieve her shield and sword, and soon returned to her place, now armed enough to tackle this massive prey. The plan she brewed was simple, but dangerous and hard to pull off. She needs to make her way between the Tallneck’s legs and cut its tendons. With how massive the monster is, one fall should be enough to shatter its bones and kill it.

This plan only works because, unlike dragons and other massive monsters, Tallnecks were closer to animals than to mystical beasts, which was a bit weird. They were titanic in size, breathed fire, and lived for ages, yet the large and stumpy legs signaled that their bones weren’t dense enough to support their weight with ease.

“What if she breathed fire and set the forest ablaze? Nah, Arad would deal with that.” Matilda smiled as she lowered herself to all four and prowled the bushes, trying to approach the beast undetected.