JAWS (TOME 9 of the TIAMAT'S WARS SERIE)

A new Journey

After so humming the land and jungles, no wyverns in sight. Nothing, and those in the forbidden forest were uninteresting.

I couldn't fantasize about it, it disgusted me, and there were dirty, stinking creatures...

It was like arriving, instead of a cave or a well-kept ruin, in a poorly maintained stable. Just by the smell alone, I would turn around before I even saw them. Imagining the hygiene... Ugh... Gross.

Against all odds, Blue and Ruby followed us.

Then I'd get to a big forest and by a lake and look at my reflection.

What a Monster I'd become...

All those dead because of me. Then the water had ripples masking my reflection. Those were my tears. But my youth, despite everything, protected me. I was still a dragon child, even from another brood, I was a young beast. And my human memories were a memory, an intuition. Like a dream that one remembers but whole sections were missing and it was the situation I was facing that brought back my memories as I went along.

Like a rifle... If I didn't see it, not everything related to it necessarily clicked, but an image, a piece and the news came.

That's why I can look at myself in the puddle, why my dragon self prevails over my human self.

To see a dragon crying over itself... I was thinking about my wife... What has become of her? She's been dust for centuries... millennia. There was nothing left of my house, not a brick. Not a trace. A thick jungle covered everything.

Then the pretty Malika came to the water's edge, leaning against my forearm on the ground.

"Uncle, you're like a father to me... You've looked after me more than my real father, always busy with his business."

Then she pressed her cheek and her ear against me.

"If I could marry you..."

I wanted to caress her hair but it was like receiving a caress from an excavator... with every gesture I had to use a thousand and one precautions so as not to hurt those I cared about.

I took a big sigh.

"We've come to the end of this journey... ...we're gonna turn around to rest and see what happens next."

I wanted to call Skynet, but MkIII called me.

"Commander Sarge, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, sir.

I've got my sphere of consciousness around me and I'm all right. I'm not hallucinating and my body is in good shape," I said humorously.

But it's like trying to make a tin can laugh.

No one is around, nor is Malika playing with my little brother.

You can talk"

"Well, I see you're still on duty despite your new species.

The satellite is said to have spotted life forms similar to yours on the old continent, in China, Russia and England, by cross-referencing testimonies and legends from the archives of the former empire. We haven't yet mapped the world with existing satellites. Traces of life near silos are likely and you should be wary.

The NATO base near London should be reactivated and then reactivated and taken over by the dead hand of Moscow. Strong radiation emanates from unstable nuclear fuels and robots are affected."

"I understand... I'm going to chase the dragon in London in that case."

"Always combine business with pleasure, commander.