Beneath the Red Dragon

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Dragon Nest Canyon

Akzhi is not lazy; instead, he is more diligent than the average Five-Color Dragon.

In contrast, a certain mother dragon that spends her days sleeping after eating and watching the young ones fight is like a thief crying ”stop thief.” This mother dragon is lazier than her kin who indulge in enjoyment, comparable to a sloth in the forest.

Since following Carlette to this mountain range and establishing a nest, there hasn’t been much time to find suitable beloved, and most Giant Dragons choose to have beloved after reaching maturity.

After establishing the nest, Carlette wholeheartedly focused on incubating the dragon eggs and sleeping, leaving the hunting tasks to Akzhi.

Akzhi not only has to manage Carlette’s diet but also the diet of the juvenile dragons.

He needs to regularly patrol the Dragon Nest’s territory, confirm the boundaries of the Dragon Nest Territory, and maintain the dragon group’s original territory, as now all juvenile dragons in the dragon group are born, and it’s only a matter of time before the dragon group’s expansion.

The original territory was only within a hundred miles around this mountain range, but it won’t be able to sustain the growing dragon group with the juvenile dragons’ growth since each dragon’s growth requires a massive amount of food.

Even he is just a young dragon about to enter the adolescent stage, and he is well aware of how much territory is needed to sustain the ever-growing dragon group.

Akzhi can be described as a model of diligence among the Five-Colored Evil Dragons; he needs to patrol the territory daily. If his abilities, close to those of a young Blue Dragon, can solve the issues, he will expand the territory accordingly.

If not, he will make markings and warn the juvenile dragons. When the juvenile dragons in the dragon group mature, they can break through here.

Akzhi has no intention of calling Carlette, not because he fears the dragon group leader’s power and punishment.

It’s because, as a licking dragon, he doesn’t want Carlette to feel that small obstacles block him and that he needs to seek assistance; he doesn’t want to lose this dragon.

So, he brought this group of juvenile dragons to a canyon formed between his nest and Carlette’s nest and then quickly left to continue his hard-working journey.

This canyon is not entirely disconnected from the mountain range; the cliff near the north, close to the grassland, has a thick layer of rock wall connected, like a naturally conjoined arch bridge.

The southern canyon close to the forest is completely disconnected, forming a gateway to enter and exit the canyon. A stream flows out from the pond formed by the canyon’s sinking and exits through the gateway.

The canyon may be narrow for an adult Giant Dragon, but it’s spacious enough for this group of juvenile dragons.

At least it’s much better than the Blue Dragon leader Carlette’s cave, allowing the juvenile dragons to romp without worrying about waking the sleeping Great Dragon.

The lush green environment clearly satisfies the dragon group, and the juvenile dragons scatter, starting to chisel nests on the canyon walls.

They choose the softer stone areas to claw, and the hard and sharp dragon claws make it easy to excavate the stone.

The Blue Dragon likes to bury himself in the ground, so the Blue Dragons, skilled at digging, choose to excavate their nests at the base of the cliff, advancing much faster than the other juvenile dragons.

The Black Dragon, who prefers water, originally wanted to settle in the canyon’s pond, but this pond is the future water source for the juvenile dragons.

If a Black Dragon settles in the water, it will pollute the water, causing the clear pond water to become turbid and foul-smelling, eventually turning into poison water.

So the Black Dragon was scolded by the others using Dragon Language, feeling quite dirty. He had to reluctantly learn from the Blue Dragon and become neighbors with them.

Antajena, resembling a Green Emerald Dragon, and like her Green Dragon kin, enjoys fostering trees in the forest and nesting among the trees’ giant canopies.

But now, as a juvenile dragon, she doesn’t have the strength to nest alone, so she chose to dig a nest on the high cliffs with Kleyna.

As for the White Dragon, let’s leave that aside for now.

Karon chose a nest at the base of the cliff opposite the Blue Dragon, but he doesn’t like being buried in the soil, so he could only honestly dig into the rock wall bit by bit.

He plans to put some effort into it; after all, it’s his first nest in his dragon life, and his own home must be crafted well to be comfortable.

First, he needs to excavate a passage to enter and exit the nest, and the rock, already quite soft, feels like weak tofu under his hard and sharp claws.

Karon’s formidable strength, combined with the Giant Dragon’s unparalleled energy, quickly bored through the rock wall, creating a ten-meter-long passage that he could barely squeeze through. Then, he began to widen and heighten the passage so he could easily enter and exit the nest.

The second step was to dig out two passages a few meters long, left and right, and then in these two interconnecting passages, he excavated a ten-meter corridor parallel to the entrance passage straight into the mountain’s belly.

He then widened the corridor’s corners into elliptical shapes to avoid getting stuck entering and exiting later. The next step focuses on the nest’s main point, his resting place.

Karon hollowed out the stone wall behind the left and right passageways to form a large circular cave, allowing both passageways to connect to the cave.

The ten-meter thick passageway stone wall at the cave’s front became a wind-blocking screen. This setup not only provided good ventilation but also shielded the cave from outside prying eyes.

Finally, Karon utilized the earth element he controlled to compact and level the ground, then used dragon flame breath to dry the cave.

He then burned the cave’s uneven walls, which were marked with claw prints, into smooth surfaces. The molten stone and minerals mixed within flowed down as high-temperature water, forming a crystalline layer on the black-yellow hard ground.

Thus, after half a month, the little Red Dragon’s nest was finally completed. Karon curled his four limbs into a ball, lying on the ground still radiating some warmth, let out a comfortable breath, and enjoyed this moment of unique tranquility. At this moment, this place surprisingly felt like home.

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”Damn it, Camid, can you pull your damn stupid head out from your big butt and use it for once? You passed the ball to the wrong dragon; we’re on the team with Doss.”

The clever White Dragon Gomot, using what he thought were the most elegant swear words learned from Karon, scolded his always-slow-to-react brother.

He sidestepped to try his best blocking Kleyna, who was charging with the metal ball, and was inevitably knocked aside, ending up staring wide-eyed at Blue Dragon Doss, watching the little dragoness put the ball into the goal.

”Woohoo, today we won, right? I finally won once,”

The happy Green Jade Dragon Antajena cheered, turning to the Black Dragon excitedly and asked.

Poor Antajena had never won since Karon ”invented and modified” this game that mixed rugby and soccer.

Without Karon on the field as the referee, usually, whichever team the strongest little dragoness Kleyna was on would have a high chance of winning. Unfortunately, Antajena always ended up on the opposite team.

Black Dragon Rosani nodded happily, ”We’ve won; we just need to wait for Karon to announce the results.”

”Excellent, twenty-six to ten, the right-hand team wins,” announced Karon, who was squatting on the sidelines serving as the referee, clapping his claws to declare the game’s result,

”Kleyna, Antajena, and Rosani, you will have the right to eat first at dinner tonight, and the most outstanding Kleyna will receive a heart as a reward.”

Hearing the cheers and dejected voices from the Juvenile Dragons, Karon felt a bit smug. He devised this activity not just for entertainment.

On one hand, it could exhaust the Dragon cubs’ abundant energy, preventing them from causing trouble, which made managing them easier. It also trained the Juvenile Dragons’ physical coordination and reaction abilities. The originally oval rugby ball was also changed to a round shape, which could train the dexterity and strength of the dragon claws.

On the other hand, it was to train the Juvenile Dragons’ teamwork ability, strengthening their sense of group coordination for future group hunting and combat among the Dragon Group.

Of course, the most important part was that Karon always held the implicit referee role within the Dragon Group, with rewards and punishments coming from him. This reinforced the impression that Karon was the dragon who made the final decisions.

Leading the naturally unruly Dragon Group to gradually adapt to following Karon’s decisions was Karon’s way of taming the Juvenile Dragons. The subtle influence achieved this way was impossible through sheer intimidation alone.

He hoped that one day, when he possessed enough strength to confront Akzhi and Carlette, these Juvenile Dragons would instinctively obey and follow him to fight against enemies.

This was Karon’s thought; he couldn’t always remain under Carlette’s command, for he had the innate ambition of a Giant Dragon to rule over others, as well as the scheming mind of a human.

Especially after absorbing the swirl of information left in his mind, he knew he would have more talents and means in the future. That was Karon’s confidence, although he was still exploring now.

Karon unfurled his wings, flying toward the mountaintop, then landed beside Blue Dragon Akzhi, who was watching intently.

Next to the almost eleven-meter-long Akzhi, his three-meter-long form resembled a small kitten in front of a human. Karon lowered his head to show respect to the diligent Akzhi.

”An interesting game, even I want to join,”

Akhzi nodded. His experience was not less than those of the newly born Juvenile Dragons, so he did not treat the talented Red Dragon juvenile as casually as the other members, though he was still dismissive.

”With Lord Akzhi’s mighty strength, you would undoubtedly be the ultimate winner,” Karon complimented, his skill in flattery flowing naturally.

”You’ve managed the Juvenile Dragons well, saving me a lot of trouble,” Blue Dragon Akzhi said, subtly turning his head to gaze down at the Red Dragon, who, despite verbally flattering, showed no expression: ”Perhaps I should give you some rewards.”

Karon remained silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said, ”Is Lord Akzhi planning to reward me with some Gold Coins? I still don’t have any treasures of my own.”

Blue Dragon Akzhi also fell silent, then spoke after a while: ”I don’t have many Gold Coins either.” He spread his wings and flew away, accidentally hitting the mildly hopeful Karon with an open wing and sending him tumbling.