Chapter Text

In another life she had ruled the earth. The Destroyer, they’d called her. With a single breath she could level a village. With a swing of her tail she could take down a mountain.

Of course, that type of power could not avoid making enemies. And so, where she could not be overpowered, The Destroyer was outwitted – the humans used her own greed to lure her into a cavern and seal her away inside a mountain. That was where she eventually perished, starving and alone. Pathetic.

A great many years of nothingness followed her death. Like a long, dreamless sleep she passed the next few centuries, unaware of all that transpired around her, including the loss of her territory to another dragon. The world evolved and changed around her as she was slowly reduced to bones, and then to dust. Slowly the fearful world crawled out from beneath the shadow of The Destroyer.

At first her soul was furious. But as the eons dragged by even that flame slowly burned out, leaving nothing but a cold, hollow emptiness behind.

With no other options she eventually resigned herself to her fate, becoming little more than an extension of the mountain that entombed her. This resignation lasted for eons more. In that span she lost most of her sentient self completely.

Then, one day, she was a child again.

Summoned by a she-dragon into the body of a human infant, The Destroyer suddenly found herself utterly helpless and at the mercy of the creature who had brought her forth. Upon reconnecting with the living world some of her old anger was reignited – but it was just as quickly soothed by the dragoness cradling her, breathing weak fire over the infant’s body to both warm it and toughen its skin like dragon hide.

It was the first time The Destroyer had ever been shown something akin to love.

The dragoness named her Hana. Or maybe that was the name of the child she had stolen for the ritual. Either way, that was her name from then on – though she was still fond of referring to herself as The Destroyer. After all, she still held immense power, so much that her essence alone transformed the human body it occupied and converted it into a body of her own desires. The body of a dragon.

The one who had summoned her called herself Satya. She was a strange woman, and an even stranger dragon. She preferred talking to pillaging and philosophizing to hunting. She didn’t even hoard all that much. Hana wasn’t surprised when she found out Satya had never had any sort of mate. She couldn’t imagine any dragon wanting to mate with someone so strange.

As she grew and matured Hana developed an interest in mating, though the dragons that passed through Satya’s territory did not interest her. They were weak little things, unfit for the lowliest of dragons, never mind Hana the Destroyer.

Satya, in keeping with her weirdness, had a thing for humans. Hana could not understand it – humans were, at best, not-very-tasty snacks. She had seen a few humans in passing that she would maybe consider if not for her pride – but she was a very proud dragon.

Unfortunately, mating instincts were a thing, and Hana developed those as well. During those times she could not stand to be around anyone, and so would undertake frequent long journeys to towns and villages in distant lands, keeping her distance from any and all other dragons.

One of those journeys landed her outside a village full of small houses. All were reinforced with patchwork scrap metal and guarded by a pathetic scrap fence. Hana laughed as she pushed the shoddy fence right over with a paw. “Hellooo humans!” she called as she conjured up some fire in her flame sac. “Hope you have nice things for me to add to my collection!”

Apparently the putrid little monkeys had already scattered, leaving the streets empty. “Okay, so it’s a surprise, then.” She raised her long, serrated tail. “I wonder what’s in here!”

With a single swing of her tail she took down the first building she encountered. Slashed through the middle, it caved in on itself and crumbled into a pile of rubble. Hana fanned away the dust with her wings and then began digging through the debris. All she could find were a few pieces of simple, what looked to be homemade furniture. Nothing else. “Boring!” She torched the whole mess without a second thought.

The second house she destroyed was equally barren. “Seriously? This town sucks!”

The third building she came across was small but heavily reinforced, a telltale sign that it contained something of value. “Is this where you keep everything interesting in this dump?” She prowled and sniffed around it. Its walls were too thick for any scents to permeate them. “This better not be as disappointing as the first two.” She swung her tail at it. Her scales struck the metal wall with a clang and bounced right off. “Ow!” Hana yanked her tail back and nursed it in her mouth.

The building was still standing.

“Okay then.” She spat her tail out and reared back on her hind legs. “Try this!”

She unleashed a blast of fire from her mouth, completely engulfing the tiny building. When the smoke cleared she giggled triumphantly, waiting to behold her prizes.

Instead she beheld the glowing-orange walls of the building, still wholly undisturbed. “What?!” Hana stamped her feet in frustration. “Oh come on!”

The building had a conical, pointed roof, so there was no way she could simply land on it and crush it. She tried charging into it horns-first, but that only led to a short-term headache as her skull smacked off the wall.

There were other destructible buildings around, but now this was a personal challenge to Hana. “No human building can best me. That’s why they call me The Destroyer!” She rammed her side into it, her moves growing progressively sloppier each time. Again she did no damage.

“This is stupid! Whoever built this thing is stupid!” She whomped it repeatedly with her tail. “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”

“You do know there’s a door, right?”

Hana whipped around. Before her stood an armored human female, tall and imposing by human standards, with long chestnut hair tied back to expose a soft face with gentle, rounded features. In one hand she wielded a giant shield, in the other some sort of weapon that wasn’t a sword – it almost more closely resembled a giant hammer. She held the shield out in front of her, but did not seem particularly intimidated by Hana’s presence.

Few humans had ever dared speak to Hana, much less mock her. “I have no use for your pathetic human doors,” Hana spat.

“Oh, okay. Well then by all means go on trying to knock those walls down. I actually am curious if you’ll make any progress with it.”

“You won’t live to see it when I do.” She lunged at the woman, her massive jaws wide open. The woman raised her shield. A mysterious blue energy radiated out from it. Hana bounced off the reflective barrier, instantly bruising her snout.

“Hey!” Hana turned away and rubbed her nose with one paw. “That hurt!”

“I didn’t make you charge me.” The girl shrugged. “But you’re really giving my test village a workout. So thanks for that.”

“’Test village’?” Hana craned her long neck and looked around. “What does that mean?”

“I’m testing out materials that are dragon-resistant. So far it looks like I’ve found a couple.” She nodded to her shield, then to the building that had foiled Hana. “But I’d appreciate it if you attacked the rest of the village, too. I need to know what works and what doesn’t.”

“Huh??” Hana struck a paw down into the dirt. “I don’t destroy things because humans want me to!” She belched out another stream of fire. The girl deflected that just as easily as Hana’s attempt to eat her. “What the heck! Die!” Hana slashed at her. This time the girl swung her weapon outward. Its blunt end popped open to expose a thick chain that wrapped right around Hana’s foreleg.

With ease the girl pulled Hana forward. With one leg tied up Hana tripped and stumbled. Her chin hit the dirt road, kicking up a sea of dust.

“Oww,” Hana whined.

“Trust me, that hurts a lot less than being eaten or charred alive.” To Hana’s surprise, the girl came over and began unwrapping the chain from Hana’s leg. “I won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt me. I’m not a dragon slayer by profession.”

Hana yanked her paw away. “I don’t need your help, human.”

The girl settled her hands on her hips. “Oh yeah? This chain is wrapped pretty tight.”

With a sneer, Hana shed her draconic form. Shrinking down to just slightly larger than an average human girl, smaller even than the human beside her, Hana basked momentarily in the shock of the human before shrugging her chains off with ease.

The girl withdrew her weapon and fed the chain back inside of it. Her eyes flicked up and down Hana’s new form. “I didn’t know dragons could do that.”

Hana grinned. “We can do a lot of cool things.”

“But can you use a door? That’s the real question here.”

“Obviously I can use a door. I just don’t want to.”

“You don’t want all the cool stuff I’ve stored inside that building?”

Hana hesitated. The girl must have seen the sparkle of greed in her eyes, for she smiled and said, “You didn’t think I left it empty, did you?”

Hana was at the door in seconds. She had never used one before, but if humans could use it then surely it couldn’t be too difficult. Right?

There was a metal bulb stuck to the edge of the door. Hana grabbed it and pulled on it. Nothing happened.

“Need help?” the girl called from behind her.

“Never.” She crouched and bit down on the door bulb. It still did not yield. In frustration she whipped her head back and forth. To her surprise, the door popped open.

Hana hopped up. “See? Easy. Now give me all of that–”

The second she stepped inside the door slammed behind her. Something clicked, and then a heavy dragging sound accompanied a thump against the outside of it.

“Huh? Why did it close?” Hana scratched at it. It didn’t budge.

The dread realization sunk in quickly. “No! Let me outta here you stupid human!” She threw herself against the door. “Let me out!! Let me out!!”

After several minutes of scratching and shouting Hana eventually realized she was not getting out that way. Instead she started exploring the rest of the tiny building for weak spots. It was just a simple, undecorated metal room with no windows or other doors. There was certainly not any treasure.

As she paced about the room a sense of panic began to take hold within her. I could die in here. Why was she always so foolish? Had she learned nothing from the last time she let humans lure her in with promises of treasure? No amount of treasure in the world could preserve her life if she kept falling to her own greed like this.

With nothing else to do Hana regained her dragon form and started throwing herself against all four walls. She let out an earsplitting roar each time, shaking the ground with its volume. Eventually the roars dissolved into nothing but torn-up screams in her sore throat, more human than dragon. “Let me oooouuuuut! Aaaaaarghhhhh!!”

She leaped around screaming until finally she was too exhausted to move any more. Between the long flight and the repeated use of her high-energy-consuming fire breath, she was out of steam. She laid her head on her forepaws and curled up in a semicircle. Her tail beat half-heartedly against the ground. Tears pooled in her eyes as she let out a high-pitched whine. I’m gonna die again.

Then the door re-opened.

“Sorry about that,” the girl said as she strolled inside, “just didn’t want you to take off before I could–”

Hana rushed the girl, knocking her to the floor. “I thought I was gonna die in there!! What the heck!!”

The girl frowned up at her. “You were in there for like ten minutes.”

“Yeah, I know! It was torture!”

“Well if it makes you feel better, I was getting something for you.”

“Ohh no, I’m not falling for that again. What kind of moron do you think I–”

The human held up a tiny gold sculpture. Hana’s eyes instantly fixed on it.

“This is for you.” The girl set it in Hana’s outstretched paw. “It’s a cat.”

So it was. Hana brought it to her snout and gave it a sniff. Immediately a foul metallic smell greeted her nostrils. “This isn’t gold.” She chucked it at the girl, who caught it without issue.

“I never said it was. It’s brass. I make things like this in my spare time.”

“Hmph. Who cares about brass? It’s not even worth anything.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll take it back.”

“Wait, I still want it!”

The girl chuckled. “’Kay then.” She gave it back to Hana. Hana slid it in between two scale plates on her chest. “I’ll give you more stuff if you help me destroy the rest of this village.”

“Hmmm.” Hana pushed her giant face up close to the human’s much smaller one. “I guess that’s a good deal for me…what else are you gonna give me?”

“You’ll have to see for yourself.”

“Fine. I will.”

“Rwaurgh!” Hana crushed the fence dividing two buildings into crumpled metal. “All cower before Hana the Destroyer!”

“Hmm. So that alloy’s not gonna work.” The human girl wrote something down on a piece of paper.

Hana held a paw out and wiggled her claws expectantly. With a sigh the girl handed her something wrapped in shiny foil.

“Ooh, what’s this?”

“Chocolate. You ever had chocolate?”

“Had it?” She leaned in and gave it a sniff. “Oh, it’s food!” She tossed it into her mouth and chomped it into nothing. “Mmm, that’s good!”

“You’re not supposed to eat the wrapper…”

Hana licked at her claws. “The what now?”

“…Never mind. Just keep destroying.”

“I want more ‘chocolate’. That wasn’t enough to replenish my energy after all this pillaging.”

“For knocking over one measly fence?” The girl crossed her arms and clicked her tongue. Hana felt a funny twinge inside as she accidentally caught and held the girl’s gaze for a few seconds. “That’s from my private stash, you know.”

“I could just eat you and take it all.” Hana exposed both rows of her sharp, jagged fangs.

The human whapped her on the snout with her paper. Hana hissed and ducked back.

“Bad dragon. No eating people.”

“You’re awfully brave for a human,” Hana snarled.

“You’re awfully complaisant for a dragon.”

Hana narrowed her eyes. “You’re awfully…using words I don’t know to sound like a big…smart…person.”

The girl laughed at that. “I don’t even consider myself a bookie type. If you don’t know the word ‘complaisant’ then that’s on you.”

“Well it’s not like I went to dragon school. You humans are the ones wasting all your time learning words.”

The girl collected herself, but was still smiling. After a moment’s pause she nodded, as if deciding something to herself, and said, “I like you, Hana.”

“Eh?” Hana’s tail swished. “You shouldn’t like me. Humans are supposed to fear me.”

“You haven’t given me any reason to be afraid of you.”

Hana coiled her tail around the human and lifted her into the air. Bringing her in close to her face she said, “No?”

The girl reached out and petted her snout.

“Gah!” Hana dropped her. “Don’t touch me with your grimy monkey hands!” Beating her tail against the ground in irritation, she sauntered off. “That’s it. I’m leaving.”

“Okay. Bye.”

Hana lifted her chin and snooted. With a dramatic flash of her wings she kicked up a spray of dirt and took off into the air.

The last she heard of the human was her calling out “I’ll be here tomorrow!”

“And then she touched my snout and said she liked me!”

Satya’s giant tongue bathed Hana’s scales, clearing the dirt from them. Hana lay curled up against her, relaying the tale with dramatic flares of her forepaws.

“You did not eat her?” In her dragon form Satya’s voice was deep and resonant. It vibrated through Hana’s body with every word.

“I was gonna, but…”

Satya licked her cheek. “Has the mighty Destroyer perhaps developed a soft spot?”

“No.”

“Really? Seems like it.” She pulled Hana in under her massive paws and kissed the top of her head. “You know, Hana, humans as a whole are not bad. You really should have some friends your age.”

“And my species.”

“You are technically a human. Have you forgotten that?”

“I’m not human. I’m a millennia-old dragon king reincarnated into the body of a human infant.”

“And what a cute little dragon-king-reincarnated-into-the-body-of-a-human-infant you were.”

Something scratched across the rocky floor deep inside the cavern. Moments later Fareeha emerged from a tunnel on all fours, with all five of her and Satya’s dragonlings clinging to her back.

“It’s the Dragon Express! Woo woo!” Fareeha crawled right past Hana and Satya, her attention entirely on the scaly little tots clinging to her armor. “Uh-oh,” she said suddenly, “there’s something on the tracks! A-buhbuhbuhbuhbuh!” She shook violently from side to side. The dragonlings squealed and hung on to her as she bucked and flung them about on her back.

“You look like a moron,” Hana said.

“I’ve long since come to terms with that.” Fareeha grabbed one of the kids off her back. “Hot potato!” She threw the dragonling at Hana. Hana caught the little monstrosity in her mouth, then tossed them up in the air. The baby giggled and squealed as Satya caught them with her tail.

Hana still didn’t like Fareeha hanging around all the time. Even after a year and a half she still wasn’t used to having to share Satya. Her human heart regarded her as a mother figure; one that, although she would never admit to it, she loved dearly. Her dragon spirit, on the contrary, regarded her as a potential mate who was not to be shared. The two feelings were so confusing and contradictory that Hana usually just opted to bury them both.

“Hana met a human girl who liked her,” Satya said.

Fareeha paused her kiddie ride. “Oh yeah?” She looked to Hana, obviously expecting her to elaborate. Hana just shrugged. “You didn’t eat her?”

“She gave me stuff,” Hana mumbled.

“Huh?”

“I said she gave me stuff. Some food, and this.” She pulled the tiny brass cat sculpture from between her scales and set it down on the cavern floor.

“Is that a little cat?” Fareeha crawled over and examined it. “That’s cute!”

“What was her name, anyway?” Satya began combing through Hana’s tangles of hair. Hana had barely realized she had shifted into her human form. “You did not mention it.”

“I didn’t ask for it.”

“You didn’t even get her name?” Fareeha said.

“Who cares what her name was? It’s not like I’m ever gonna see her again.”

“Never again?” Satya joined in. “Really?”

“Really.” Hana pulled away from the both of them. “I’m going to sleep.” She curled up at the far end of the cave, facing the wall. “Goodnight.”

“Night.” Fareeha handed some of the kids off to Satya, who began grooming them instead of Hana.

Hana squeezed her eyes shut and uselessly willed sleep to come.

There were days she missed being a heartless tyrant.