Orion stared up from the foot of the mountain.


    ''The Dragon''s Den should be straight up.''


    There was no signs of the dragons at all. The place they chose to burrow was a deep hole into the mountain, perfect to hide themselves from prying eyes.


    In fact, most of the people living on Triazils never even knew were the dragons lived. Only the Apostles roughly knew that they were in the Talviera Mountain Range, and only Kelvin knew exactly were they lived.


    The other ones who knew, were of course Orion, and Amelia.


    ''I want to surprise them. Just going in will be too boring, isn''t. Let''s see what the dragons can do against someone like me.''


    Orion stepped forward and began to run on the slope, before jumping. He warped further up, on a rock that would help him jump further up. This action was repeated until he arrived near the entrance of their nest.


    ''Ormrdivin. As usual, the two dragons at the entrance are guarding it perfectly.''


    With a big smile on his face, Orion began to think of multiple ways to test the dragons.


    ''Just jumping in front of them would be useless. The moment they notice it is me, there guard will lower and the surprise will be lessened.''


    ''I need to stay hidden from they''re sight until I reach either Monolavir, or Ruminona.''


    ''Oh! I haven''t trained my hunting instincts in a while, let''s just do that at the same time!''


    Training. Half of Orion''s life.


    Looking around for any opening, there was no way to find one from where he was. He didn''t knew if there was dragon''s down the entrance that would instantly see him either.


    So, he warped in the air, right in front of the guarding dragons.


    ''Calm Analysis.''


    In a split second, Orion scanned the hole.


    ''Nothing.''


    He warped passed the guards.


    "!"


    "Did you see that? There was something right there!"


    "I didn''t, what did you see?"


    The guards began to discuss about the sighting of a human, but that would be impossible for that to happen, with them not noticing, so they gave up and returned to their post.


    ''Close call.''


    Orion hid himself in the darkness, in places hard to see even for dragons.


    ''The way to those two is... this way, if I remember correctly.''


    With extreme carefulness, and attention to his surrounding, Orion made his way inside the nest.


    ''!''


    He stopped in his tracks when he heard the flapping of wings approaching him.


    *Snort*


    The dragon flew past him without noticing his presence.


    ''Once inside, the defenses are lacking. Look at me making my way through the nest casually. Is this how the thief made it in the past? Wait, no, the dragons were asleep at that time.''


    The dragons rarely moved inside the nest. There was only a couple of dragons that did, and those were the guards, and the hungry.


    They were a lazy faction, not because they wanted to, but because their size forced a lot of energy to be wasted, leading to most of their time being for sleeping.


    Not long after, he arrived inside a room that emitted subtle light from its roof and its walls.


    ''I''ve arrived.''


    Orion stepped inside Monolavir and Ruminona''s cave, their nest.


    "Hmm?"


    A massive blue dragon opened its eyes wide, and lifted his neck high after feeling a presence that wasn''t suppose to be there.


    *Snort*


    The green dragon next to him also opened its eyes, but remained her head laying on the floor.


    In the blue dragon''s breath, little snowflakes instantly changed to droplets of water and fell to the ground.


    "I can imagine two beings being able to enter without alerting the whole nest. Thiefs, and Orion."


    "My instincts are telling me that it is Orion. Am I wrong?"


    A little silence fell in the room, until he stopped hiding.


    "No, you are right. Hi, Monolavir, and Ruminona."


    He moved away from the entrance, and waved at them.


    "I should have known that hiding from you two was impossible."


    "Was there a reason for such hiding? You know that the dragons would have received you correctly at the entrance."


    "No reason particularly. I just wanted to surprise you, and see how your defenses held against me."


    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Monolavir kept his gaze on Orion the whole time.


    "I can''t say that we aren''t surprised to see you, but I need to ask. Why are you here? Is it about the little fairies you''ve sent to us? If so-"


    "No, of course not. I have to thank you for receiving us. Do you mind if I call everyone?"


    "Eh?"


    A weird noise came out of the dragon''s mouth, to which Ruminona laughed at discreetly.


    "O-Of course, but how?"


    "Don''t worry, I''ll explain it to you in a moment."


    Orion placed his hand in front of him, and a portal opened.


    Amelia, Karteira, Dramia, and Drania all stepped out of it. After that, the portal closed behind.


    "Amelia!"


    Ruminona instantly lifted her head when she saw her.


    "Hi."


    She smiled at the green dragon, and waved at both of them.


    "Even the little fairies. I trusted their words, but now that I have proof of their link with you, I am relieved to have treated them fairly."


    Monolavir expulsed cold air from his lungs in sign of relief.


    Ruminona noticed another being next to Amelia, someone she didn''t knew.


    "Who is this... fairy, I believe?"


    Karteira, who had no way to understand the dragons, only heard growls from them, and fell a little scared.


    "Yes, she is a companion that Amelia and I made after dealing with the fairy realm. This is Karteira."


    "Oh! The fairy girl that these two spoke about. Of course."


    Without hesitation, Ruminona shared Karteira the ''Dragon''s Tongue'' ability for her to understand.


    ''Warm.''


    Was what Karteira felt, before she heard the voice of an older man echoed in her head.


    "Tell me Orion, why did you came to the dragon''s nest? Is there something you want from us?"


    To the dragons, a few months was almost nothing in their life. The time between Orion''s first appearance and now was insignificant to them.


    "In fact, yes. There is three matters I have to discuss with you two."


    "Three. That is a lot."


    Orion nodded, and continued.


    "The first is a quick one. But first, I need to explain a few things to you."


    A sphere of void formed in his hand.


    "That''s!"


    "Orion, what is this?"


    Both dragons opened their eyes wide.


    "What do you think it is?"


    "Don''t take me for a fool, I know that this is a new element. What I want to know is how you have your hands on something so improbable."


    "That''s quite the story."


    He smiled, beginning his explanation.


    ...


    "The void element, created by merging the light and dark element. It would be naturally impossible to force something like this to happen."


    "But here he his, with a new element. Now I understand how he managed to get past the guards."


    The dragons nodded their giant heads in unison.


    "And your request concerns that element isn''t it?"


    It was Orion''s turn to nod.


    "This element creates portals to a different space than Triazils, almost like a realm. I want to place a portal in the nest, to facilitate the access. Climbing the mountain every time is great and all, but only I can do that."


    ''Maybe Karteira too. The sisters can fly, so they don''t count.''


    "If it is just that, of course. We will give you a place to put it down later."


    This wasn''t a problem for the dragons. They trusted Orion and Amelia.


    "The second, and third matter as linked together somehow. So I''ll start by the most troublesome one."


    "Troublesome? For who?"


    "For everyone."


    The silence was deafening. Dragon''s hated troublesome matters.


    "I''ll listen to you at least."


    "Right. I have someone waiting on the other side of this portal, someone that I requested personally to accompany me to see you two."


    "For what reason?"


    "To try and make peace between humans and dragons."


    Monolavir, and even Ruminona''s gaze changed. It became wilder, less friendly.


    "By respect toward you, I will contain my emotions. But in which way do you think that we will accept another human to step inside our nest? We did not forgive the humans for their heinous acts against us yet."


    "And this is what this man is trying to do. You don''t have to give him the ability to understand you, you don''t have to move an inch, nor give an answer immediately. This man is trying his best to make this world a little better."


    ''Or so I think. Kamala said that she trusted him, that he moved only to make everything better around.''


    "I agreed, because this man is protecting the lamia faction as much as he can, which is the third matter I had to discuss with you."


    "But I want this man to explain everything himself, I want him to make your view change on the humans, because a hybrid like me cannot interfere in any other ways."


    "Hybrid... I don''t like this term."


    Monolavir''s eyes twitched, and his gaze returned to a friendly one.


    "I understand. I will listen to that human."


    "Mono?!"


    "Rumi, it was a specific human that targeted us in the past. I remember the terrorized face of every human I saw that day. Believe me, none of them understood what a dragon was."


    "I don''t want to do it either, but if Orion''s desire is to build a bridge between our factions, so be it. We''ve already built one with the fairies, why not with a portion of the human faction."


    Orion noticed it.


    ''He already now that not all of the humans are on the same side. So he believes that that human side is also on mine, which will help Ruminona make a decision.''


    Strong wind came from Ruminona''s mouth.


    "Alright, I will also listen to this human. But if this one is lacking respect toward us, I want him gone. The ones who killed my children are unforgivable."


    Orion opened the portal again, and entered it. A moment later, he came out with a man in tow.


    "This is Florian Delur. I''ll tell you frankly, he bears the title of Apostle, but is technically a traitor to them. He killed another Apostle in front of me."


    Florian turned his head straight at Orion, because this introduction was clearly unnecessary.


    What he didn''t know was, this short introduction already made a few things clear for the dragons.


    "I- I am called Florian Delur. I rule over the cities of Albriar, and Lahro."


    -


    "Florian, they agreed to at least hear what you have to say."


    "You really made it happen. I thought it would be impossible."


    Orion explained to him that all he had to do was to speak. That he had to expect an answer at a later date.


    "Of course. If I can at apologize to them, it is a big win for the human faction."


    With trembling hands, Florian grabbed his glasses and wiped them off, before placing them back on his nose.


    ''I have to prepare myself. I chose to accept his proposition, the least I can do is be determined to make my point understood to the other party. It is time to put everything I know on the line.''


    -


    Under the gaze of both dragons, a single human, one who already experienced the fear of being attacked by the dragons, was standing in front of them.


    To say that he wasn''t scared would be the biggest lie ever told, but this was too late to have regrets.


    Florian arranged his necktie, removed his glasses and carefully folded them before putting them inside his breast pocket.


    "First of all, I would like to apologize for our past behavior."


    Florian bent his upper body forward, expressing his apology with the most honesty possible.


    "I also want to apologize for having injured you, the Azur Dragon, when defending my city."


    *Snort*


    Orion decided to act as the middle-man in case the dragons decided to speak.


    "He said, ''Oh? Is that so?''"


    Florian straightened his body, and thanked Orion with a warm gaze, before looking at the imposing blue dragon.


    "Yes, we only managed to break a scale off of you body at the time, just to defend a city. I know it was our fault for having stolen precious eggs from you, and I know that is inexcusable in your eyes. My duty was to defend as many lives as possible, and yours to find the thief."


    "This incident was a major eye opener for me. I was young at the time, and it took everything I had to not die at your attacks. But it made me realize what I was living for."


    Once again, Orion spoke.


    "He said, "I do remember you. Since you''ve showed your determination to protect the city behind you, and the fact that my eggs weren''t near that city, there was no need for me to ravage it."


    "That valiance is rare, and I have seen only two humans defend their city, until they I let them go. You, and the man accompanying you."


    Florian eyes opened.


    ''Valiant? Me? At the time, it was my duty as an Apostle. I learned that protecting my people was the most important after that incident. How could I-''


    "I will accept that apology. In my rage, I also made a few mistakes, and that is one of them. But, I will not accept the apology about the thief."


    ''I guessed as much.''


    Smiling sarcastically, he already knew that it wasn''t going to be easy.


    ''Then, I can only ask about the lamia, and try to make them understand that we''re trying to break the cycle of hate between factions.''


    He lifted his head, and stared right into Monolavir''s eyes.


    Under the intense pressure, Florian pushed further, not for himself, but for the world.