When Lolliyant fell, it almost seemed to happen in slow motion and the gravity of what that meant hit much harder. If that other dragon, Liy, wanted to find Goliyoung then this was the only place to look. God, so many names all the sudden. If she came here to search then Oxle, Kiri, and I would be the only thing standing in the way of her bounty and I doubted she’d think twice before stomping us into the mud, but I wouldn’t give her the chance to approach us. I was the knight. I would defend my pack. 

I ran before anyone could stop me and slid to a stop just beside Lolliyant’s shoulder as Liy eyed me with a hungry smirk. 

“Stop!” I demanded.
She chuckled as she bent down to stare at me which sapped my courage before asking “And how do you think you’re going to make me? I don’t respond well to yelling, honey.”
“I-,” I paused before swallowing the confidence I once held and threw my sword into the dirt. “I’m not here to make demands,” I explained as I unbuckled the shield from my arm and let it drop before sighing what could’ve been my last breath. “I’m here to offer myself in place of Goliyoung. So just kill me!”
“Oh?” Liy asked as she dropped to her knees to lessen the strain on her legs from the prolonged standing that she must’ve been bored of. 

She was bored. In the middle of a life or death situation and bored. 

She let her smirk drop, but that cocky supiriority was still in her eyes and her voice as she said, “How noble… and stupid.”
“Stupid, maybe,” I said as I dropped to one knee and gripped the pendent on my neckless, “But human.” 

I hung my head, grit my teeth and fully prepared myself to die, but, with an act of either mercy or the simple motive of not wanting to get bloody, she decided not to crush me then and there. 

“Ya know, short stuff,” she said and knocked me on my back with a simple poke, “You remind me a lot of Dansworth, old lover.” 

I decided I shouldn’t risk saying the wrong thing and kept my mouth shut. 

“He’s out of the picture now. Anyway, I’ve been struggling with some… empty nest syndrome, but I think you could help me with that,” she casually mentioned before tacking on, “And, if not, well, then you don’t have a use to me and it’d just be easier to kill you.” 

She carelessly picked me up by the leg and raised me to her face as she stared at me with a smirk. Her eyes… that was the difference. At first glance, Lolliyant and Liy looked exactly alike, save for the snout that Lolliyant lacked, but Liy’s eyes… those were the eyes of a dragon. 

“How about it?” she asked. 

I was all for dying for a good cause, that was drilled into me when I was learning the art of swordplay, but dying for my dignity was a step too far. I swallowed my pride. 

“Fine. Let’s go,” I submitted and shot one last glance to Kiri who was being held back by Oxle before Liy took off into the night sky with me in her grasp. 

Liy laughed as she held me close to her breast before trying to make small talk that somehow felt condescending, but the fact that she was trying to be friendly eased the creeping realizations of my own mortality. It wasn’t a thing she was doing on purpose, it was more a learned subtext and tone that made me feel small. She was actually pretty transparent in her attempts to be nice. I think she was trying to woo me, but I had seen too much of her real self to fall for it… so soon, anyway. I figured I wouldn’t look this in the mouth and take the kindness at face value until I had to make a decision. 

“You know,” Liy started, “I used to be called ‘Lolliyoung’, but when the rugrats came around I had to give them pieces of my name to give them power. Worst decision of my life.”
“Aren’t you proud?” I asked and she shrugged.
“I-... I was,” she started, “But you can only be so happy for having two kids that hate you.”
“Well,” I took some pride back, “Not to be rude, but you did just try to kill both of them.”
Liy scoffed, “Dragon parenting is a whole different world than what you humans know. We have to toughen our young.”
“It didn’t sound like tough love was your goal with Goliyoung.”
Liy frowned and I didn’t think she was going to dignify me with a response, but she soon spoke back up with “That’s a can of worms there. I admit, I haven’t been the best mother to her, but I can’t help but think about Dansworth when I see her. You can imagine, it’s not easy to raise the person you lost someone too,” she explained. 

We suddenly landed in a heavily reinforced overgrowth in a redwood forest that didn’t feel too far off from Lolliyant’s cave and Liy set me down before sitting in front of me and plopping her head into her hands with a tired and defeated sigh. What she was confused me. If I wasn’t cynical about her, I could very easily believe she wasn’t a bad person. I just had to remember what she did to Lull. 

“I know,” she said suddenly and broke the silence, “It’s not the most heroic reasoning, revenge, but sometimes I can’t help myself. And I-, uh, I don’t say this a lot but… Sorry if I scared you.” She laughed, “This is why I don’t like humans like you. They make me soft. Dansworth did the same thing.”
“Really?” I asked, “I didn’t take you for the type to go after knights.”
“Knights? God no. They’re just… I don’t know. They aren’t moral. You are.”
“Thanks?”
“Yeah, it’s a compliment,” she said and knocked me into a seated position with a light flick. 

There was a charm to her that I couldn’t ignore and I started to question who was really in the wrong in this familial spat. I wasn’t a parent. I didn’t even understand what it took to raise a human child, let alone a dragon one, so I couldn’t really judge her parenting method. A question of morality hit my head, could I really forget what she did to Lolliyant in the name of cultural difference? And her thoughts on Goliyoung, what was I supposed to make of that? I’d want revenge on someone who killed someone close to me, but if they were my kid? How did that even happen? I had too many questions stemming from each corner of this convoluted family. Only one way to find out. 

“Can I ask something?” I asked and received a nod in response. “What is Goliyoung?”
Liy cringed at her name before letting a puff of air out of her nose, “An accident. And a long story. Short version is Dansworth got the idea in his head that he could save everyone and tried to cast a spell of resurrection. You know, the ones that don’t exist. He overdid himself and his heart stopped, but the next morning I was pregnant. Lolliyant was ecstatic about having a sister, I was on the fence on even having the thing and… well… I didn’t. Things get a little hazy, but I think I killed the spawn and then… I don’t remember, but Lolliyant and Goliyoung didn’t stick around long after.”
“You know… It’s not too late to change,” I risked, but received a positive half smile.
“I know… but sometimes… people need someone to hate. Makes life easier.” 

More and more, I was starting to think that real evil didn’t exist. Motive, desire, and morality all counteracted her actions. I didn’t know if I could forget what she did or not yet, but she was on the right track… Maybe I was just naive.