The Princess's New Pet

Dusk shrouded the rotting deadwood and muddy pools of the Swamp of Sorrows, while the pungent stench of sulfur and humus filled the air. Onyxia spread her jet-black dragon wings, circled once at low altitude, then crashed down onto the rocky platform at the entrance to the lair. Her scales gleamed with a dark red, lava-like sheen in the last light of sunset, and her dragon eyes, like two burning suns of gold, swept over the Dragon Guards and young dragons that had gathered at the sound.

"The princess has returned!" A massive Dragon Guard dropped to one knee, his rough voice filled with awe.

The young dragons excitedly flapped their underdeveloped wings and poured out from every corner of the lair, their shrill cries rising and falling in succession. One particularly reckless Black Whelp suddenly twitched its nostrils, its vertical pupils locking onto Deren at Onyxia's side—the human was covering his mouth and nose, clearly suffering from the swamp's foul stench.

"Snack!" the whelp cried gleefully. With a kick of its hind legs, it pounced at Deren, corrosive saliva dripping from between its fangs.

Onyxia's pupils suddenly narrowed to slits.

The piercing shriek of dragon claws ripping through the air erupted without warning.

The next second, the whelp exploded into a cloud of blood midair. Chunks of flesh and bone fragments rained into the mire, hissing as they landed. Onyxia's right claw hovered before Deren, dark red dragon blood dripping from its tips and eating small pits into the ground.

The lair fell instantly silent.

"Listen carefully, you trash." Onyxia's voice was terrifyingly gentle, but her Dragon Awe bore down like something tangible, forcing every dragon creature to prostrate itself on the ground. "This human is my pet." Her tail slowly curled around Deren's waist and lifted him until he was level with her gaze. "Whoever dares touch a single hair on his head—"

Her dragon claws plunged into the rock wall, and the entire lair trembled.

"I'll tear them apart just like that."

Deren hung in midair, coiled in her tail, yet wore a calm smile. He even straightened the collar stained with dragon blood and nodded to the terrified Dragonborn below. "Good evening, gentlemen. I'm Deren, responsible for helping Her Highness the Princess handle some... special business."

An Elder Dragon Guard shakily raised his head. "P-Princess, Deathwing ordered that no humans were allowed to set foot in the nest—"

A low dragon roar rolled from deep in Onyxia's throat. The Dragon Guard's face immediately turned red, as if an invisible hand had seized him by the neck. "If Father asks, tell him I'm training a new toy." With a flick of her tail, she gently set Deren down on a protruding rock. Sparks flew as her scales scraped together. "Now clear out the Eastern Cave. There will be 'goods' delivered there from now on."

The Dragonborn hurriedly withdrew.

Onyxia gave a cold snort, transformed back into her High Elf form, and dragged Deren deeper into the lair by the collar. "Not bad, pet." Her pointed ears trembled faintly with anger. "These scum have become more and more lax while I was away. They need a proper reminder of who rules this place."

Deren allowed her to drag him along, but the smile on his lips only grew wider. After they rounded a ravine, he suddenly lowered his voice. "Did you notice? That Dragon Guard in the third row—his eyes kept darting around."

Onyxia halted. "Father's spy."

"Don't know," Deren said indifferently. "Even if he sends word back, it's no big deal. The Black Dragon Princess got tired of playing noble games and decided to change her tastes once in a while. That's hardly a major matter."

A trace of approval flashed through the Black Dragon Princess's eyes. She suddenly slammed Deren against the scorching rock wall, deliberately brushing his cheek with her dragon claws and leaving five charred marks in the stone. "Pet," she shouted, "you're still somewhat useful. Don't anger me, or I'll throw you to the young dragons and let them eat you!"

In the darkness, something like a shadow seemed to twist and stir before vanishing.

Once she was certain there were no more hidden eyes watching them, Onyxia abruptly waved a hand. A Shadow Barrier silently enveloped the entire inner nest. Dark red light flickered over the stone walls, casting half her face into light and half into shadow.

Deren was squatting on the ground, sorting through the items he had brought. The various clinks and knocks sounded especially crisp in the suddenly silent space. Without looking up, he said, "Could you add soundproofing to the barrier? I don't want to be kept awake in the middle of the night by the sound of dragon cubs gnawing on bones."

"Shut up, human." Black Flame flickered at Onyxia's fingertips, yet she did not cast the spell. Her dragon tail swept uneasily over the ground, scraping tiny sparks from the rocks.

Deren finally noticed that something was off and set down the fur sleeping bag in his hands. In the wavering firelight, he saw the Black Dragon Princess's rigid back—the Dragon Race member who had cut such an imposing figure before Prince Gallywix now had fabric at her shoulder blades tightening slightly with every breath.

"You're worried." It was not a question.

Onyxia suddenly turned around, her dragon eyes contracting into two golden lines in the darkness. "I tore a hatchling apart! Right in front of you!" Her voice carried a strange hiss. "And you can still calmly fuss with your luggage and prepare to sleep?"

Deren unhurriedly wiped the dust from his hands with a piece of velvet cloth, then suddenly chuckled. "So that's it." He walked toward her, his boots crushing a piece of charred bone left behind by some unknown creature. "You thought I'd scream and run away? Or kneel and beg the Black Dragon Princess for mercy?"

A burst of sparks flared from Onyxia's fingertips, illuminating her faintly trembling pupils. She realized the human was far too close—close enough to see the shadows cast by the scale-like patterns on her eyelids.

"You dragons always treat violence as a calling card," Deren said without concern. "But it's effective. It's also the quickest lesson. People can't teach people, but events teach people in an instant. I feel very safe right now."

"So?" She heard the shameful hesitation in her own voice.

Deren suddenly reached out, his fingertips brushing through her hanging black hair. The outrageously bold action made the Black Dragon Princess's blood freeze—by all rights, she should have burned that insolent hand to charcoal, but some unnamed feeling left her rooted in place.

"So I think your lair is decorated with excellent taste." The human's fingers eventually came to rest on a glowing crystal embedded in the wall. "Using high-purity Energy Crystals as wall lamps? Far more extravagant than the nobles of Stormwind City."

Onyxia's dragon tail lashed out, smashing off a corner of a stone bench. "I wasn't asking for decorating advice!"

"What you really want to ask is—" Deren suddenly leaned closer, so close that his breath brushed the scales on her pointed ear, "'Will this human think I'm an uncivilized beast?'"

The light in Onyxia's eyes dimmed for an instant. She realized her claws had already closed around the human's throat, yet the steady beat of his pulse only irritated her further.

"Do you know?" Deren even had the leisure to adjust the Company Badge pinned to his collar. "Civilized or savage doesn't matter. What matters is where you stand. If you're on my side, that's the greatest kindness there is." He suddenly took Onyxia's wrist and guided her hand toward the items he had taken from the Space Bag. "Look at all this luggage. I've already prepared to make this my new home. Your home is my home too."

The Black Dragon Princess's fingertips unconsciously stroked the human's personal belongings. She suddenly realized this was the first time a human had dared to actively guide her claws to touch something—instead of trembling and avoiding them.

"I've seen many things in Apocalypse, far beyond what you can imagine. But from that night in King's Valley onward, our fates have been bound tightly together." Deren released her hand, took half a step back, and spread his arms. "We either live together or die together. Though naturally, I hope we'll be the pair still smiling at the end."

Onyxia's dragon eyes widened slightly. She suddenly recalled that night, when Deren had coaxed and tricked her into reaching a mutual-aid agreement beneath the witness of a Bronze Dragon. Though there were now signs of success on the horizon, the unknown fate ahead still brought anxiety and fear.

".Sweet talk." At last, she gave a cold snort. As she turned, her black robe billowed like night mist. But Deren keenly noticed the tip of her tail lifting and swaying faintly, as though she were a little pleased with herself.

A knowing smile appeared on Deren's face as well.

Morning light slanted through the entrance of the lair, turning the floating dust into flecks of gold. When Onyxia opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Deren sitting with his back to her on a protruding rock, laboriously gnawing on a piece of black bread—it was as hard as slate, and every bite produced a tooth-aching crunch.

She frowned, suddenly realizing that her lair did not even have a proper dining table, much less food suitable for a human stomach. Deren could only eat the food and water he carried with him.

"You're eating that?" Her voice still held the husky quality of waking up, and the guttural tone of her dragon blood was heavier than usual.

Deren turned around, breadcrumbs still clinging to the corner of his mouth. He casually wiped them away with the back of his hand and smiled. "It's much better than the bark in Westfall. At least it doesn't have sand mixed in. After living well for a while in Treasure Bay, I didn't expect I'd have to worry about wilderness survival again."

Onyxia's tail curled unconsciously. She remembered the human farms she had seen while flying over Elwynn Forest centuries ago—the skeletal farmers kneeling in scorched earth and digging for grass roots had not looked much more dignified than her Dragonborn slaves.

"I could have servants go to Theramore and buy—"

"No need." Deren broke off a small piece of bread and ground it into crumbs between his fingertips. "You know, back in Westfall, three refugee children and I survived in the wilderness together. But one of them was torn to pieces by Gnolls and became their main meal. Another accidentally ate a poisonous plant and died. Only the third child and I survived by chewing bark."

He casually sprinkled the crumbs into the fire, sending up a string of tiny flames. "So being able to eat my fill at every meal now is already a gain."

The lair suddenly fell eerily silent. Onyxia realized that her claws had sunk deep into the rock wall—she had clearly witnessed countless bloodier scenes, yet images of the child Deren struggling humbly to survive in the wilderness kept flashing through her mind. For some reason, it irritated her.

"Such melodrama." She abruptly rose to her feet, her black robes billowing like dark clouds. "Tonight, I'll have the trash outside gather some fresh fruit and send it into the lair—those stupid Dragonkin need to eat fruit regularly anyway."

Deren blinked. "Is that an order, Your Highness?"

"It's a notice." Onyxia's pointed ears reddened slightly. "After all, a 'pet' that faints from hunger won't be able to mix fertilizer properly."

As the Black Dragon Princess strode toward the cave entrance, the tip of her tail quietly brushed over the dark bread in Deren's hand. A precise flash of the Fireball Spell scorched across it, and that rock-hard food suddenly became warm from the inside out, if only slightly more edible.

Deren looked at his suddenly "upgraded" breakfast, then at Onyxia's deliberately indifferent back, and suddenly laughed out loud. He deliberately muttered loudly enough for her to hear, "Dragon-breath toast... You'd definitely make a fortune opening a breakfast shop with skills like that."

The fire on the ground suddenly surged three feet high, casting a red glow over someone's smug face.