A young girl was standing in the entrance of what one could call a ranch, she had a proud smile on her face.
"Finally!" She said, hands in the air "Finally is the day!"
A low grow could be heard from behind her, but she only rolled her eyes.
"Oh stop that!" She scolded "I'm sure everything will be fine!"
Another growl, one similar to a mockery tone.
"Yeah yeah keep laughing, I'll prove you wrong!"
She turned, her smile wild.
"Let's see how long 'till then!"
But as she started to walk, a loud roar echoed through the place, making her grimace.
"Shit"
***
He woke up to face a wooden ceiling.
He was a bit confused for a second.
'That's not my ceiling' He thought.
But then it clicked.
The events from before he passed out passed through your head like lightning, making him sit up a bit too fast.
He was sent to investigate a suspicious archipelago and crater that had been discovered close to the continent, but his ship was caught up in a storm and he was shipwrecked.
His last memory was passing out while drowning, but now he is in a house?
"Oh! So you're awake!"
He jumped in surprise, turning his head to the source of the voice.
It was a girl, seventeen at best, her brown hair was a bit lower than the shoulder, she wore blacksmith clothes, a pair of goggles on her head, an earring in the left ear with a blue stone, an utility belt on que waist, she had tan skin and had a wide smile on her face as she approached him with a basin of water.
"You gave us a scare back there!" She said with a laugh "My heart nearly came to my mouth when one the kids started to scream about a corpse in the beach"
He felt embarrassed with the statement.
He supposed that would be the first reaction when someone found a person unconscious on the beach.
"I apologize" He said "I was caught in a storm and my ship broke"
She grimaced and he just smiled helplessly.
"But why were you in these parts of the sea?" She asked.
That made him hesitate a little.
It wasn't a secret that there was a new archipelago, it was on the news before he left.
But still…
The girl seemed to notice his hesitation.
"You don't need to tell me" She said "Just so you know, I do know that there's a city close to the Edge that might help you find your way if you are lost"
He hesitated once again, two questions forming in his head.
"Not wanting to be rude" He said "But… where am I? And who are you?"
There was a pause, the girl was frozen in place, eyes wide open and face bright red.
"I'm really sorry" She said "I'm so used to everyone knowing both my name and what is this place that I've forgot to introduce myself"
He nodded, he couldn't blame someone for that, by the way she talked, he assumed that this was a small town in the countryside.
He visited many of these in his years as a Hunter, many Rifts can be formed in places with less people.
He watched as the girl put the basin on the nightstand beside the bed where he could see his phone, his wand and his magic bag.
"My name is Stella" She said "And you are in the Dragon Edge, my precious ranch and home! And you? What's your name?"
A ranch?
Close to the beach?
How strange.
But he said nothing.
She said it was her's, but it might belong to her parents.
"I'm Duncan Ignatius" He said with a chuckle "And Dragon Edge? That's an interesting name, what do you raise here?"
Dragons weren't exactly a good source for names since they usually are enemies.
Unless it's a dragon tamed by a Dragon Tamer and a few more exceptions, they are better.
But when a place has Dragon in their names it means something related to them, like a restaurant called Dragon feast that he used to visit, or a hotel called Dragon Lair that he stayed once, or his own guild, Dragon's Pride.
But a ranch called Dragon Edge?
That 's new.
He saw the girl smile with pride at that.
"The boys keep saying that it's dumb" She said "But I know it's a good name! I mean, what better name for an archipelago full of dragons?"
Duncan stayed in silence for a moment, blank mind while staring at the girl.
"An what full of what?"
He was expecting the girl to start laughing, to point at a camera and say it was a joke, that his reaction was priceless and all that stupidity.
But she stared at him dead in the eyes as she said something unbelievable.
"And that's not even the start! There are even more living in the crater, some of them just prefer a more darker environment and don't want to wait night time to move around, the ones in the archipelago now are the ones that like sunlight, but they all usually come and go, so I can't guarantee how many are at the archipelago right now, but you'll definitely see a Terrible Terror if you leave the house, they're everywhere, just like stray cats"
Duncan was frozen in place, trying to process the absurdity of this sentence.
"Y-You say that… this place has dragons?"
Dragons are creatures difficult to deal with, they are prideful, arrogant and greedy, like many humans are, but they have the strength needed to have such a personality.
They are so prideful that a Dragon Tamer, in most cases, needs to steal an egg to be able to tame a dragon, as it is nearly impossible for an adult dragon to let itself be tamed willingly.
But now he probably was on the archipelago, the one he was sent to investigate, and this young girl said it was full of dragons?
What kind of nonsense was that!?
"Yeah" She said "You were rescued by male Seashoker and brought here by a female Crimson Goregutter, she was a mess when she carried you to me, thought you were dead, she is probably outside waiting to see if you're ok, Melchior had to scold her before she tried to squeeze her way in"
He didn't recognize the species, even though he knew plenty of them, but the name did not seem to match the scenario the girl just described.
A creature with Goregutter in the name didn't sound like it could act like that.
He was about to ask if the girl was messing with him when a loud, monstrous, howl echoed, making Duncan cringed as the wooden window trampled too.
The girl just rolled her eyes at this, walking to the window.
"W-Wait!"
He got up, hand snatching his wand from the bedside table, but it was already too late, the girl had opened the window, where he saw a gigantic eye.
"Enough!" The girl said "I told you he's fine!"
Another howl, a lower one this time that was interrupted by the girl.
"No buts!" She said "If I say he's fine, he's fine! Seriously, where is Melchior?"
Duncan heard a growl that sounded more like a laugh than a growl coming from the door, it was completely different from the howl.
"Come on Mel!" The girl said annoyedly "Help me out here!"
There was another growl from the door and, to Duncan's dismay, it opened.
It was a lizard, much smaller than he expected, it was of a beautiful white color, wings closed in its back, its scaled head and gorgeous blue gleam and it had pretty blue eyes.
The first thing he could think when he saw that was how it looked like a giant white cat, not similar in anything with the dragons he had seen before.
It was elegant and gracious, moving surprisingly quite for its size.
But, more importantly.
It had a saddle.
A white one.
It makes its way to the window, making the colosso out there whine, it lets a low grow out before another whine comes from the colosso and it leaves.
The girl snorted at it before turning to Duncan.
"That was the Crimson Goregutter that brought you" She said "She wanted to see your condition"
The girl smiled shyly as the white dragon sitted by her side, her hand running through its scaled as she scratched under its chin, making it visibly content.
He must have stared too much since the girl started to introduce the dragon.
"This is Melchior, one of my personal dragons, he's a Light Fury, he's not the alpha, but most dragons here obey him"
Said dragon stood proud where he was sitting, Duncan could swear he saw a smirk in its face.
"Anyway" The girl said "Answering your question from before, I do raise sheeps, goats, chicken and yaks, but I mainly raise dragons here in the Edge"