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I Said No Human Sacrifices, Dammit! 12
🕑 Added 2025-08-07 04:37:10 +0000 UTCEverything was in as much order as it could possibly be. Our preparations were as thorough as they could've been, or at least I think they are anyway.
Honestly I've not been too hands on with regards to the preparations beyond just giving directions here and there. Not to brag, but I've been better as a manager than I thought, since we did manage to complete everything, as far as I can remember anyway, in time.
I awakened just in time, right before one of my guards was coming to attempt to wake me up, and I raised to my full height just in time for her to see me. Her reaction reminded me that I spend a lot of time laying down, she gasped in shock as I spread my wings and stretched my tail, looking up at the bright blue-
Oh hell no.
The darkness of a sunless day greeted me. It was storming, even. There was no way I'd allow the harvest festival to be ruined by a sudden freak storm that decided to rain on our parade, metaphorically because we weren't really having a parade, but literally because it was actually raining.
I made sure to not blast off too hard, I actually jumped using my feet rather than beating my wings, the Draconic Guard below me was still knocked flat on her ass, but at least she wasn't hurt, as soon as I felt I had enough distance from the ground I burst into motion, my wings beating hard, then I opened them fully as I reached my destination.
Getting to the thick blanket of clouds covering the area only took a couple moments. Next thing was to assess the situation. Now, I've learned from the past. You can't just blast away a storm, no matter how many times I've seen it happen in fictional stories.
I guess that made sense, if it really was that easy to break up a storm, they wouldn't be so terrifying for humanity.
However, this time, I'm a little bit more aware of the situation, and I'm not so keen on making it worse. I've gained a lot more understanding of my powers and abilities since the time I messed up, and now, I can exert my will on the world a lot more efficiently.
...
So I could just...
"OI! YOU STUPID ASS WEATHER! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"
I...
I can't believe that just fucking worked. The storm starts to dissipate beginning from directly under me, the clouds being parted as a sphere of clear skies with its center roughly on my head pushes the bad weather away and leaves only the brilliant and radiant sun shining down on the soggy Argentum and more importantly, on the festival grounds set up outside the walls of the town.
Well. If that was the crisis, a town destroying storm, consider that solved!
I think... should I care if I sent it elsewhere? Well, whatever, wherever it goes and wherever it pours down its collected water and energy, it'll be a lot more spread and a lot less problematic, surely that means at worst it'll just be heavy rain and not a destructive flood or dangerous thunderstorm.
Yep, that's definitely what's gonna happen so I should cast it out of my mind and instead focus on more important things.
I breathed out a sigh of relief, secure in my job well done, and then drifted back down, slowing my descent as I approached the large circular plaza set up for me to peruse the festival and enjoy the festivities alongside all of my people.
As I landed and pointedly ignored the worshipful cries and words of praise from the people, I prepared to call for Aqua to be brought to the plaza, when my eyes caught her.
Luckily, her form was still much bigger than the people around her, even as she led a procession of people she stood out, being head, shoulders and chest above even the tallest of the foreigners she was leading around.
Excellent.
They were coming into the place just in time to watch me land, and-
Half of them passed out, at least three people soiled their clothes, and a dude in a toga straight up pooped himself.
I looked over the visitors to the festival. There was a guy in thick robes with golden decorations, with skin so dark it was nearly black, leading a procession of men and women wearing clothes that, quite frankly, looked like exotic dancer getups, baggy semi-transparent pants for the women, loincloths for the men, tiny vests and chestbands for all. Almost all of them, men and women alike, were bald, though some of the men had thin ponytails hanging from the top of their heads. They all wore light colors.
The next group that caught my notice was lighter skinned, tanned for sure but nowhere near close to the first group. All the men but the leader wore leather skirts, the leader of the group was the aforementioned togapooper, no women in their group. They had short swords belted to their waist, they were probably more of a military commission then. They wore a lot of dark red and brown.
The final group, which had the bulk of the people who passed out, was a group of folks wearing the skins of animals on their heads like cowls and capes, all of them were shirtless, men and women alike, and the women wore wraps around their crotches while the men wore thicker loincloths. Their style was dominated by bright greens.
They were the inverse of Aqua's people, the men were huge musclebound hulks, while the women were thin and waify. They were pale and all had bright hair, mostly redheads with the odd blond, with thick braided beards on the men's faces and long braided hair for the women.
Three different groups of foreigners.
"Aqua who are these people?" I asked. "They look foreign."
"They are foreign," she said. "This is Catherder," she said, gesturing at the man in the gold and white robes. "He and his people have traveled from the South Eastern Big Huge Unlivable Desert," there was no way that was its name, must be a literal translation, "to visit us on this auspicious occasion."
Trembling a little, the leader of the group, the man with skin so dark it was nearly black, raised his hands above his head forming the shape of a triangle with his fingers and his thumbs and then bent forward at the waist. "O Great Silver Sky Serpent, we are from the Floodplain of the Lifegiver, travelers from afar, seeking to find and spread riches!"
"And this is Secondson, leader of this troop from the Landlocked Ocean Empire," well that was a very lame name. "He and his people are warriors exploring from a distant land."
"Saluted be your greatness, Silver One!" the togapooper called, pulling his sword from its sheath and raising it. For a moment, I wondered if I would have to squash him and then go burn down his entire civilization because he decided it would be a great idea to attack me, but no, he just threw a salute with his weapon raised and a hand over his head. "By the will of our Emperor we march!"
Finally, Aqua turned to the musclebound redhead with multiple braids. "And this is Bighunter, from the Northern Coldwater Warriors," she explained. Despite his great size, she was still bigger than him by a large margin, he was only big for a human after all.
With a great big whoop, the pale man smacked an open hand to his chest. "Greetings Mighty Silver One, we of the north have heard of your great power and strength and came to witness it ourselves!"
Neat. "Okay. This is Argentum and so am I," I explained. "I dislike pointless time wasting so I'll be clear and short. Respect my laws, respect my people. This is not a request."
They all seemed to very pointedly understand what I was about, they were still trembling as I dismissed them. "You may enjoy the rest of your stay as long as you like as long as you follow our rules," Aqua said, gesturing for some of her own people, directing them to take over the duties of guiding the foreigners around the festival.
I also noticed there were some of my own guards disguised in regular clothes walking around, happy to see that my people aren't so silly as to leave the foreigners unattended.
Once that was dealt with, Aqua turned back to me. "The festival hasn't begun in full swing," she spoke, gesturing at how everything was still being set up, "but certainly it would be best to have our date today, when you won't cause a commotion with the bulk of visitors."
"We're going to have lots of visitors?" I asked. I hadn't really been too hands on so I wasn't really sure.
"All the neighboring villages should make themselves present, we'll have the entire population that swears by your name more or less and all the traveling peddlers and their caravans and companies, should be at least ten thousand humans and two thousand heads of cattle, as well as many tons of goods and crops... after the festivities everyone will be busy processing and preparing for the cold seasons."
"I see..."
That made sense. I guess we're actually pretty large after all... It was nice to see that in the time I've been sleeping, the humans have been hard at work. Is this how people with ant farms feel? Just one day you go to sleep, wake up and suddenly the little hole in the ground has turned into a great and massive labyrinth.
As I sat down, putting most of my weight on my rear, curling my tail around my hind legs, I began to follow Aqua with my neck, bringing my head closer to hers as she began to walk around the circular plaza, moving to the nearest set up stall, a closed wood box that I've no doubt would open up.
"The designs, as you can see, were completed to your specifications. The hinge that you showed the humans has been successfully recreated," she said, reaching for the edge of the box, the outer front edge had a hinge made out of bronze.
We didn't have a lot of iron, not just yet at least.
"Excellent... Now that I think about it, these three groups of people," the thought was gnawing at me, "you were leading them around yourself... So they must be important."
"They are," she explained, turning to me and raising an arm, resting her palm on the tip of my snout, between my nostrils. "We've not yet managed to find anything even resembling an iron mine in this territory, as you requested, but each of them has found the minerals we seek. So far, we're working on buying it without alerting them of its true value."
I hummed. Of course, for those who didn't know how to work it, the ore wasn't as useful as it'd be for me and my people. Well, of course in the worst case scenario, I could just dig into the ground myself until I find a vein.
Dragons sometimes live in caves right? I mean it sounds fucking terrible considering I have wings, but, I'm sure I could manage it.
Wait... holes... holes... digging around... huge tunnels, I think I'm about to remember what it was that I forgot, before going to sleep, I remember now, I forgot about-
Aqua used her grip on my snout to jump up and sit astride my face, hands supporting her weight, leaning forward, her large breasts swinging as she interrupted and derailed my train of thought.
"There's not much to see," she said, firmly planting her hands on me and then swinging her legs behind and up, doing a frontflip and launching herself over my brow, clearing the ridge that covered and armored my eye sockets, and then past the crown formed by my horns, twisting so she sat right on top of my head in between them, cross legged.
I hummed in thought and raised my head, clearing even the tallest buildings the humans had created with ease. I can see that they've even raised buildings up to three stories tall. I've not taught them much of architecture, on the basis that I don't know much about architecture, but they've surpassed what I would've been able to teach based on their own creativity alone.
"They credit what you've taught them of mathematics and language," Aqua corrected me.
"They do..?" I muttered. "I only taught them the basics and the most universal concepts. Mathematics is just the means for humans to understand the world, their brains comprehend things better if it's numbers or easily digested concepts."
I... was the same as them, after all. Once upon a time. Maybe I still am, a little bit. I've never been the most adept at math but, I've learned just enough to understand just how much it can simplify the world. Everything has a mathematical formula to explain it.
Everything.
"But if they're doing better, good for them. I only intended for them to be able to calculate parabolas to figure out how to make actually usable catapults and maybe a trebuchet or two if we can manage it. Trebuchets are cool."
"What's a trebuchet?" Aqua asked.
"It's basically a stick mounted on other sticks made to launch large and heavy projectiles over a long distance," I explained. "Large ones could knock down gates or walls and deal heavy damage to fortifications."
"Oh."
She didn't sound impressed.
"Humans really do need a lot of work and effort to mimic a fraction of our power, huh?" she spoke, sounding almost wistful.
"I mean, yes," I guess I could grab a ninety kilogram rock and just... chuck it. Wonder if I can pitch a fastball. "But it's the fact that they can even approach that tiny sliver of our power that makes them wonderful."
She slid down my face and along my snout, landing on her feet and stepping in front of the stall again, placing a hand against its doors. "I suppose their creativity is to be lauded," she admitted. "Last time we went on a date, I was the one doing the explanations. You know more about humans than I do, so, why don't you tell me about them?"
Pulling back just a little, I exhaled through both my nostrils, making sure not to let my breath weapon out. "Well, of course!" I said. "Though, you've had your humans as servants far longer than I, haven't you?"
"I have. But before I came here and you forced me into this form," she said, gesturing at herself, and I cringed inside knowing that I had basically locked her into humanoid form when we fought.
But before I could voice an apology she cut me off.
"Ever since I came here, I've had a lot more time to speak with the humans who call themselves my tribe," she spoke, "they are... even worse than I thought they were. Heads of muscle each of them," she spoke, "but, they do learn I admit."
"Right. Humans are like that. Even brute beasts and wandering birds will not make the same mistake repeatedly as they do," I said, "but that's what makes them special. They can be the very worst and the very best, even the same individual can change so much as to be unrecognizable, in the time it takes me to just nap!"
"I... suppose," she admitted. "That can be impressive in its own way. I suppose that their weakness and strength are linked, are they not?"
"Yes," I said. "Humans are interesting, aren't they?" I asked. As an outside observer, all of it became closer to a drama to me.
Their struggles were no longer my struggles. Their problems were no longer my problems. I'd become something else, something bigger, something more powerful, that no longer was bound by the same rules as they were.
I suppose in a way it's not too different from owning a pet, and having to look after it. Like a particularly well intended but stubborn and clumsy puppy. An entire litter of puppies. Thousands of puppies. Except some of them were assholes.
Aqua then walked around and checked out the other set up stalls, waiting for their owners to arrive to open them up. "They've made all sorts of trinkets. Accessories meant for hair, for wrists and ankles, for necks and waists... From foreign trade and with help from visitors, they've learned new crafts..."
She stopped near one of the bigger stalls, this one had multiple segments.
"Can you explain why humans seem to enjoy eating food that's literally poisonous and burns their mouths?" she asked.
"... are you really asking? You, who are addicted to Strananas?" I asked, tilting my head slightly.
"I am not addicted," she countered. "I can stop eating them whenever I want," she huffed, crossing her arms and turning around, facing away from me. "I will not stand for this defamation of character!"
"Sure you can," I said, amused at her reaction. If I had to guess, the stall she was in front of would open up to turn into a restaurant of some sort, there was enough space in front of it to set up an eating area. I wonder if they had set up food around the area I'd be at specifically for me.
Well they better. I'll need something to eat while I wait for something to inevitably go wrong.
Aqua continued showing the stalls to me deep into the night. It was hard for me to walk around, but I was large enough that I could follow her with just my neck and stand above most of the town. She asked many questions about everything that was set up for the festival, even as the sun started to come up over the horizon, she continued asking many things.
She knew much about humans, but she didn't really know about people, I noticed.
"I see... so that's why humans play those sorts of games, maybe it is not a bad idea to teach whelps of cooperation in a safe manner like that," she agreed as I explained the purpose of the tug of war station that was being set up wherein the northern warriors would try their might against the Water Tribe.
The food stalls were being crewed and the cooking began, way before the first day even began.
Soon we returned to the central plaza, and as we prepared to begin the day in full and properly, and I wondered if I'd have to get serious and actually play the role dealt to me... but luckily, my premonition came true as I expected it to, and things started to go to shit when a massive sinkhole opened up and swallowed several stalls, though thankfully as the sinkhole began to open people fled the area.
A plucky young boy even saved the old granny whose stall was devoured by the sinkhole first, good thing too, that granny's stuff smelled incredible. Too bad about the weird creatures she had roasted by impaling them on sticks though.
But hey, at least I finally remembered what it was that was bothering me that I forgot, as a gigantic hugely fat worm burst from the ground, towering high into the sky.
When I say huge, I mean, just the part of it that stuck out of the ground was longer than I was from the tip of my snout to the end of my tail, and it was massively wide as well. In full, I suppose it had to be bigger than I was. It had no eyes, the end opened to rows of spinning teeth like natural chainsaws, and as it turned to face me, I knew it was filled with nothing but anger, hatred and the rage of a beast seeking revenge.
Aqua pointed at it. "Isn't that the Worm Monster that was eating the crops?" she asked, turning to me.
"Yyyyep," I was forced to admit. "I guess I gotta kill it now."
"Does this count as an incident that will get in the way of our mating?" Aqua asked.
"... maybe?" I asked.
She turned to it, hands clenched, and despite the damage it had caused, as anger rolled off of Aqua's form in waves of power, I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the worm.
