In the noble district of the Windyfields castle city there is an incredible piece of architecture that belonged to a certain Leopold Greydeer, the marquis who oversees the region and holds the duty of the Alvares kingdom's first line of defense against their eastern rivals.
The mansion was surrounded by a vast garden and a high fence. At the front gate two guards stood, welcoming the guest in the carriage that just arrived.
The gate closed following the sound of hooves hammering the stone road as they pull the fancy vehicle behind them.
The trip through the greenery seemed longer than it should take, and the young girl inside started to lose her patience. However, she wasn't someone who would let nervousness show in their actions; she had her father's name to consider as well.
A number of maids and butlers were awaiting her arrival; they bowed their heads as she walked between them and stopped in front of a man whose white beard spoke of his age. "Lady Lionheart, my master is expecting you," said the head butler.
"Is the news I heard really true?"
"Yes, my lady. Apparently, he woke up in a prison cell at the guards' headquarters."
"And? Do you have an idea about the cause of his death?"
"I think you should hear the whole story from the man himself."
The old butler turned around and led the way as Anne followed shortly behind him. She didn't have the luxury of looking at the many beautiful paintings hanging on both sides of the hallway as the matter at hand had taken all her attention.
On the way to the office, they passed by a maid pushing a wheeled table, she stopped to bow for them then went back to her work.
"Our guest was a little hungry when he arrived, you see." said the butler "I always believed eternals don't have a need for food."
"They don't, but they still feel hunger."
Arriving at the office the man asked Anne to wait as he informs the marquis of her arrival, a few seconds later he opened the door and gestured for her to enter.
"Lady Lionheart, allow me to welcome you in my humble house once more. It's always a pleasure to have you here"
"The pleasure is mine, Marquis Greydeer" bowing her head slightly she followed "I wished this visit to be on a more joyous occasion, but it seems we are in dire times right now."
"Dire times they are my lady."
If Anne had to describe Marquis Leopold in one word, it would be fat. The man is almost perfectly round, he didn't have much in height nor in looks. But appearance mattered little. Her father warned her on many occasions to keep her guard up when dealing with him.
The round man got up from his well-made chair and walked to the window at his usual slow pace. "It seems our initial predictions about the enemy were all wrong, the situation has become several times worse than what we first foresaw."
The man was calm, but his voice had such a weight in it indicating how sever the situation is.
"You are late" said a voice behind her.
"Sieg… what happened?"
"What happened is that you were right. I went there unprepared, got eaten then died about…" he looked at his hand for a moment before saying, "six times, at least."
He walked in and made himself at home, sitting down and taking an apple from the basket on the table.
"Do you know the worst part about it? That random prison guard! even though I told him we would never meet again... what a humiliation..."
Instead of feeling the shock and fear like everyone else, nostalgia was all that was in Anne's mind. It's been so long since the last time she saw him like this. In this form.
When Sieg fell prey to the monster and died he woke up again in the same prison cell he slept in the night before, though his body wasn't the same as before.
He had shrunk to about half his previous size and looked several years younger than he was before, like an average thirteen year old boy.
In the first place, it is impossible to guess an eternal's age by the way they look. One day Sieg decided to change his form to an older one. Anne was just happy to see this younger version of him once again after all these years.
"I want to hug him!" she thought but chose to restrain herself. Anne looked older than Sieg when he is in this form, not only that but several inches taller.
It's one of the reasons he no longer uses this form. The girl he raised by his own hands looking down on him from up there didn't stand well with him.
"It seems you found something else… other than the wyvern," Anemone said.
"Nah, there were no wyverns in the first place." Sieg bit into the apple taking his time chewing, "What attacked the merchants was a baby dragon"
Blood drained from Anne's face, "a baby… dragon!?"
"It is our fault for relying on the information provided by such a little child." The round man made his way to the table then used a small bell placed there. "We should have considered his inability to see the difference between a young dragon and a wyvern, especially in a state of panic."
"Gray scales, large jaw and a short thick tail. What the kid forgot to tell you was that the monster had two front legs," said Sieg biting into the red apple again.
Before he continued, a second door to the left opened and a maid came in bringing a tray with several cups and a tea pot.
Marquis Leopold offered Anne a seat as the maid served them the steaming hot brew then bowed before leaving the room.
"Wyverns don't have front legs, they have wings. Just like giant chickens."
"I remember reading about it in a book once." Anne took a sip from her cup. "So? I trust you were able to identify the attacker?"
"Nope, I didn't find any babies." He sighed. "What I found were the parents."
Siegfried explained to the two what happened in that cave. What attacked him was what biologists call a rorock, a species of dragon able to survive for centuries feeding on nothing but rocks.
They have a turtle- like form with a rock-covered shell, are exceedingly good at digging, their wings are small making it hard for them to fly for too long, and last but not least, they can spit molten rocks.
"You could probably guess where its name comes from." By the end of his explanation Sieg had already devoured three apples. "It takes years for their shell to develop so when they're first born, they retain a form close to that of a typical wyvern."
Anne put her cup down. Two dragons and their kids; the situation really is way worse than they imagined.
She took a deep breath to calm her thoughts then asked, "You said they could survive eating rocks; why did they attack those people then?"
"When it comes to choosing between meat and vegetables, most people would choose meat," Sieg simply said before biting another apple.
'He really likes apples', Anne thought to herself.