Haku, king of all dragons

In a closed and limited ecosystem like the Thul Oasis, resources were extremely limited. Consequently, just like on the islands, even in this case the animals couldn't grow beyond a certain size. Tens of thousands of years of adaptations had created a vegetation capable of withstanding the torrid conditions of the desert and of growing fairly rapidly, consequently animals such as the kori, barely two meters tall and therefore not considered enormous by Ramat standards, they had been able to reach their size. But as far as predators were concerned, none of them could be too big: in that closed place, it was more convenient to be smaller and more efficient, so that a single prey could provide food for days or even weeks and there was never the risk of running out of resources. of food available. After all, if too many prey died, even the predators wouldn't last long. This had meant that only small carnivorous animals existed in the Thul Oasis, which if compared with their counterparts that existed in the rest of the continent would have been ridiculous, but which in that environment had exactly the characteristics necessary to survive.

In the thick of the forest, a swanvalley moved slowly through the vegetation, blending into it as best it could. It was the most efficient predator in the whole oasis and its greenish body allowed it to reach its prey without being noticed. One of the further consequences of living in a closed and isolated ecosystem was the total absence of sociality: the swanvalley hunted totally alone, and the only moments in which it tolerated the presence of other members of its species was when it came time to reproduce. Otherwise, it preferred to have no contact. Hunting in packs could be useful to increase the chances of success, but it also meant sharing the prey with others: even if this in a large and resource-rich environment wasn't a problem, in a place like the Thul Oasis it was unacceptable. Each predator had its own business, and the swanvalley was no exception.

The swanvalley had recently detected a new set of sounds and smells in a specific corner of its territory, indicating the presence of a large number of possible prey. Initially it had preferred to avoid approaching, since no predator liked to hunt something it didn't know, since there was always the possibility of becoming the hunted; but the swanvalley hadn't had the good fortune to catch any prey for a few days, so he decided to at least have a look. Following the source of the sounds and smells, it had ended up finding itself in front of a big cave, outside of which there were a large number of strange bipedal animals, very small, and which didn't seem to have particular defenses. The swanvalley had been watching them for a while, making sure they really weren't dangerous, and apparently they were. It then approached to the edge of the vegetation, waiting for the right moment to attack. That creatures were clearly silly and inexperienced, playing in such an exposed area… or maybe not.

Just as the swanvalley was about to attack, it clearly heard a deep snort and its survival instinct kicked in; whereupon, a loud rumbling filled the air nearby. The swanvalley sought the forehead of the sound and shuddered: what it had originally thought was a large rock had opened its eyes, revealing that it was a gigantic animal at least ten meters long, perhaps even twelve, and was staring at it. Never in its life had the swanvalley seen such a large creature, but it was still intelligent enough to understand that if it wanted to, it could tear it to pieces without any effort; compared to the enormous body of that strange beast, the swanvalley was scarcely a gnat. The predator withdrew, retreating several meters, and the mysterious creature lowered its head and closed its eyes in satisfaction. It clearly didn't care for the swanvalley: it just wanted it to get away from those little bipedal animals. Perhaps they were its offspring… although it was strange since they were so different.

But the swanvalley wasn't about to go back empty-handed. It didn't want to face the huge creature, because it was sure to die; but it could have caught one of those little bipedal animals. If one of them got far enough away from their monstrous guardian, it could run and grab it and then flee. In its experience, large animals weren't very fast: the biggest beasts it had in mind were the kori, which were quite slow, and that guardian was definitely bigger than a kori, so it too should have been very slow. All it had to do was wait for the right opportunity.

It waited, and finally the event it was waiting for occurred: one of the small animals, a creature similar to a bipedal lizard with green scales, moved away from the rest of the group to retrieve a sphere-shaped object with which it and the others were playing. The swanvalley wasted no time: it immediately snapped and ran at full speed out of its hiding place, opening its mouth to grab its prey. The small animals let out what sounded like a shrill scream and the one it was aiming froze in fear. Better this way, it would have been easier to catch it…

But the swanvalley never reached its target: midway a gigantic shadow barred its way, forcing it to stop. It was an instant before the swanvalley realized that what had come between it and its prey was the same monstrous creature that had warned it earlier. How had it moved so fast!? The swanvalley didn't have time to ask many questions: the creature opened its jaws and roared, showing sharp teeth that surely could have torn apart a stone without effort. The swanvalley didn't think twice and ran away, this time without looking back.

The creature let out a deep snort, looking in the direction where the swanvalley had fled. Then it turned to the one it had just saved. "I already told you not to leave without warning!"

The little lizardman squeezed the ball in his hand tightly. "Sorry, miss Maleficial... we lost the ball..."

The dragon sighed. "Don't worry, I'm not angry. But for your own safety, don't do it again. This place isn't a playground" she said. "Come on, let's go back to the others. And if you lose the ball again, let me know. I'll get it back for you"

"You... you won't kill that thing?" the little lizardman whispered. Evidently he had gotten quite a scare and would rather know his attacker had vanished from the world than live in fear of its return.

Maleficial shook her head. "Do you really want to see me covered in blood?" she asked, and the boy's frightened look was enough for an answer. "That animal won't come near again, I assure you. And if it does try I'll keep it away, you can rest assured. Nothing in this world will come near any of you as long as you are under my jurisdiction"

A little reassured, the little lizardman returned to the other children and resumed playing together. After making sure no one else was missing, Maleficial lay back down in her favorite spot and resumed sunbathing, constantly keeping her senses on edge to identify even the slightest threat. She hadn't lied to the boy: as long as they were in her care, no one would be able to get near them, for no one could hide from a dragon's wondrous senses.

Managing children had proved much more difficult than she and many of their siblings expected. The first day of their stay in the cave had been somewhat problematic: the children were in fact very afraid to approach the dragons and wouldn't move away from each other... or at least almost all of them: a small group, led by a tigerman girl whose name Maleficial couldn't remember, had started to explore the place as if it were a normal thing and then they had tried to talk or even play with the dragons without showing the slightest fear. Later, Darbi had confessed that he already knew that little girl, and that it was he who had taught her not to fear dragons even if indirectly, but before he did, his siblings had seriously thought that she had some mental problem. In any case, that little girl's actions had helped a lot: the other children, encouraged by her, had started approaching the dragons, and as soon as they understood that they weren't dangerous or bad their fear was instantly replaced by curiosity. That's how the younger mind worked basically: since they were still discovering the world, they wanted to understand everything new and exotic, even if it was scary. However, some children had remained aloof, probably due to the warnings of their parents who had warned them not to trust dragons, but then the will to join their peers had prevailed and a little solidarity and a few games had been enough to make forget everyone to be afraid, and so the children had quickly become accustomed to the presence of those big lizards.

Unfortunately, just because the children accepted their presence didn't mean the problems were over. Dragons could easily provide for all their basic needs (food, water, shelter), but emotionally they had several problems. Even though the dragons had tried to pass off this situation as a kind of camping, the children had felt nostalgia for their families since the first night. Unfortunately, all the dragons could do was distract them in any way, which wasn't always easy, especially when they started crying (that was really a nightmare...). The one who managed them best was Darbi: he was always inventing new ways to entertain the children, and sometimes even his sisters found it incredible how easily he was able to relate to them. It was really strange to see a ten-ton dragon, a creature at the top of the food chain, that suddenly transformed into an adorable juggler, or that with his tail he lifted children to make them imitate birds, or that he even rolled on the ground like a big dog to keep them entertained. Naturally, Darbi was the favorite of all the children, who had come to think of him as a kind of older brother in their minds, and it wasn't uncommon for them to try to climb on top of him, which of course the dragon wouldn't allow them to do for the fear of hurting them with the thorns on his back. They had so much fun with him that they even invited him to play chase with them, while instead the other dragons had never been invited because even if they weren't afraid of them anymore, the children still got scared to see those gigantic predators moving towards them at great speed, while instead for Darbi this problem didn't seem to exist.

Maleficial had to admit that his brother seemed born to do those things. He was certainly more inclined to that than others in their family: in fact, many of their sisters limited themselves to watching the children when it was their turn, keeping their distance, and Glausar and Jatara even did it by sitting on the tops of the trees in order to avoid that they touch them. But some others had instead developed their own ways of relating to them: Teramon for example used to draw on the ground with the children, while Finiar sang to them even for hours. And Maleficial had her own way of interacting with those brats, too. "Miss Maleficial" a little tigerman came to call her at one point. "We're tired of playing with balls. Can you tell us a story?"

The dragoness smiled and nodded. "All right. Come here" she said, and immediately all the children surrounded her as if they were a swarm of bees around their hive and sat down on the ground with shining eyes. Maleficial had in fact discovered that she was quite good at inventing stories, or at least stories that children could like; she had understood it almost by accident, the first time she had done it just to put one of them to sleep who couldn't sleep without her mom, and within a short time everyone had wanted to hear more stories, and they seemed to never get enough. "So... long, long time ago, in a small village lived a beautiful girl, with long blonde hair and magnificent blue eyes..."