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MHD Chapter 137: In the Intimacy of Molting
🕑 Added 2025-08-23 17:48:20 +0000 UTCJust as Logan was happily envisioning the future, a rush of wind pressure swept over him. He didn’t even need to look up—he already knew Aki had returned.
After more than ten years side by side, their familiarity had reached the point where even the flow of air stirred by beating wings was enough to tell whether it came from the other.
But today… the sound of Aki’s wingbeats was a little heavy. Was she in a bad mood?
Logan lifted his head toward her, and sure enough—it was just as he thought.
Aki looked restless. After landing, she even clawed twice at the ground, leaving long gouges behind.
She shook her body as though her back felt unbearably uncomfortable.
When she noticed Logan already home, watching her from within the nest, her agitation turned instantly into delight. She trotted over, rubbed her cheek against his, let out a low rumble, and then turned around to show him her back.
Alright, Logan finally understood why she had been in such a foul mood when she returned.
She was shedding her scales.
As mentioned before, female Fire Wyverns, when resources were scarce and there was nothing pressing, would choose to retain their scales rather than replace them frequently.
But Aki had never lacked food since she was young, and her extraordinary talent had allowed her to develop far faster than her peers. For her, the cycle of scale renewal was common—sometimes two or even three times a year.
Of course, it wasn’t a full replacement each time. Such consumption was beyond what most wyverns could withstand.
This time, however, after spending so long in the Wildspire Waste, where food was scarce and she had grown accustomed to the searing heat near the ley line tributary, Aki had delayed her molt despite wanting to shed earlier.
Now, the scales she was trying to replace were the coarse, hardened ones along her back. Whether it was because it had been too long since the last molt or because her life energy these days had grown too abundant, several back scales stubbornly refused to come off.
That itchy, irritating discomfort left Aki deeply uneasy.
So the moment she saw Logan return, she rushed over at once, asking him in her own way to help pull those scales free.
Helping replace the scales on the back was something Logan was already well-accustomed to.
When a Fire Wyvern shed its scales, the most troublesome part was always the ones on its back. Back scales were not only the thickest and hardest under normal conditions, but their structure also differed from scales on other parts of the body. They were much larger, and the joints between them were far less flexible.
A Fire Wyvern’s molting process involved first growing new scales beneath the old ones. Later, through movement or rubbing against objects, the old scales would be shed. That was why people sometimes saw Fire Wyverns scratching themselves against trees as though relieving an itch, leaving behind a few old, discarded scales in the process.
Logan and Aki were both particularly fastidious Fire Wyverns. So whenever they encountered scales that were difficult to shed on their own and out of reach, they would always help each other.
As for why they didn’t let the Grimalkynes help—
When the back scales were being replaced, the new ones were extremely soft and fragile. At that stage, even the slightest sharp edge could tear through the tender scales and wound the flesh beneath.
That was why, during molting, no one but the Fire Wyvern itself and its closest partner would ever be allowed near.
Aki obediently folded her wings and lay down flat. Logan climbed onto her back to inspect, and quickly spotted two old scales along her spine that had grown misaligned.
He gripped the protruding edge of one scale with his jaws and began to rock it gently from side to side in a steady rhythm, like pulling a loose tooth from a child’s mouth. The trick was to find the right angle, gradually increasing the force, until the other adapted—and then, with one decisive tug, remove it.
This was the right way to handle molting. If you tried to rip the scales out by brute force, it was easy to damage the new ones underneath, not to mention cause unnecessary pain.
“Mm~”
“!!”
Logan froze. He didn’t know why, but hearing Aki’s low, perfectly normal whimper gave him an odd surge of excitement. For a moment, he forgot what he was doing.
Perhaps because Logan paused too long—and because the lodged scale was truly uncomfortable—Aki swung her tail in irritation and gave him a firm tap.
The thump against his wing snapped Logan back to his senses. Shoving aside the unhealthy thoughts clouding his mind, he pressed on with his task.
A crisp snap rang out, and the old scale came free, intact.
Beneath it, the new scale, still curled in on itself, was suddenly freed from its restraint. Semi-transparent at first, it quickly spread open, hardened as it touched the air, and shifted from a pale shade into vivid green.
At such close range, Logan could clearly see the transformation. The once metallic sheen dulled as the hardening completed, the new scale taking on a deep emerald hue instead.
The newborn scale was sleek and smooth, gleaming enticingly under the light.
Logan compared Aki’s new scale to his own, finally able to judge her current stage of transformation.
Roughly thirty-five percent—slightly lower than his own, but not by much.
That, too, was natural. After all, Aki had entered the Tempered stage five years before him and had been steadily advancing ever since.
Calculating the time, with ten years of transformation progress already reaching thirty-five percent, wouldn’t that mean in thirty years it could reach one hundred percent? Even if the process of metamorphosis wouldn’t go that smoothly in reality—after all, breakthroughs of life’s limits were rare—Logan wasn’t so naïve as to be that optimistic.
At most, it would just take a few more years.
If that were the case, then according to the timeline of the Research Commission, Aki would complete her transformation right around the period of the Fifth Fleet. In that case, the Golden Rathian of the golden-silver couple that the protagonist, the “Sapphire Star,” encountered in the Elder’s Recess—who had seized Nergigante’s nest—wouldn’t that have been Aki?
The moment this thought surfaced, Logan immediately dismissed it.
That golden-silver pair hadn’t claimed Nergigante’s nest just to flaunt their affection. Their age had simply come, and it was time to produce the next generation. That was why they had chosen the Elder’s Recess to build a nest.
If Aki had only just completed her transformation during that period, not to mention how difficult it would have been to find her, the very fact that the couple had to seek out a place of immense energy to breed—like the Elder Dragons did—made it clear just how vast the energy expenditure of reproduction must have been.
It was something a Golden Rathian who had only just completed metamorphosis could never have endured.
With her eyes closed, Aki sensed that Logan had once again gone still, leaving another scale unpulled. Growing restless, she let out a low growl.
That soft, plaintive sound carried a hint of grievance, as if accusing Logan of not giving her the attention she deserved.
There was no denying it—ever since Logan’s strength and size had surpassed hers, this Fire Wyvern, who had always been warm, mature, and steady, the one who silently stayed at her side and could always be relied upon, had begun to show moments of unexpected playfulness.
This shift—from once being the weaker one to now standing as the stronger—combined with Aki’s occasional hints of softness, had Logan utterly captivated. His already restless heart stirred with a new surge of heat.
He stretched out his tail and tapped hers lightly.
When Aki, still feigning a little sulk, curled her tail back, Logan’s chest burned hotter. He lowered his jaws to gently grip another scale, while his tail kept moving, twining again and again around hers.
Their tails chased and tangled, like some playful game neither of them tired of.
Before long, with the final back scale pulled free, Aki stopped pouting. She let Logan’s tail coil around her own, lying quietly on the ground, occasionally leaning over to nuzzle against his cheek.
The bond between a pair of Fire Wyverns was simple—when they loved, it was for life.
Even if the male Fire Wyverns of the New World had gone from purehearted boys to faithless “scoundrels,” this instinct carved into their very genes still remained. It was only the cruel demands of reproduction that forced them into such choices.
After all, in the New World, the ratio of male to female Fire Wyverns had reached the absurd level of one to nine.
Even among the more than twenty hatchlings born in the past two years, only three had been male!
Whether it was because Aki was strong-willed and a little jealous, or because Logan himself held more conservative views, it was hard to say.
But even now, with such feelings already stirring in his heart, Logan still could not summon the slightest interest in any female Fire Wyvern other than Aki.
Take that Pink Rathian, for instance. Her cherry blossom coloration was indeed beautiful to behold—but for Logan, it roused nothing beyond simple admiration. It was only Aki who could awaken in him such impulses and imaginings.
