East Blue, east of Warship Island.
The newly surfaced Lost Island.
Seeing the largest Millennium Dragon, who seemed to be the leader, let out a long, satisfied roar to the sky after finishing his business with several female dragons.
Moya brought Apis over, ready to have a friendly chat with the Millennium Dragons.
"Mr. Millennium Dragon, I'm Apis, and this is my captain, Moya. Hello."
"Hmm? Short-lived two-legged bugs, how do you know the language of the Dragon Race?"
The leader of the Millennium Dragons was puzzled. These two-legged bugs had spread across the entire world in just one or two thousand years.
He had heard from his elders that these two-legged bugs had also created countless weapons and produced countless powerful individuals, who slaughtered one another. The worst had been the great war among the two-legged bugs eight or nine hundred years ago.
They had destroyed countless islands and affected the habitats of countless races.
This had made those races dislike the greedy, cruel two-legged bugs.
But wary of humanity's strength, many races chose to live far away from humans.
"Our captain says the information about the Lost Island may have been exposed to the World Government, the most powerful organization in the human world today.
"So our captain wants to invite you to establish a new breeding ground. He's already found a Sky Island on the Grand Line.
"It's very safe. Unlike the Lost Island, it won't surface at regular intervals, so it won't disrupt the Millennium Dragons' communication. And it'll keep elderly Millennium Dragons from dying far from home because they can't find their way back."
Apis didn't want what had happened to Master Dragon to happen again: a Millennium Dragon growing so old he was near death, yet still waiting for the Lost Island to surface.
"Impossible. We've lived this way for countless years. Why would we change our traditions because of you humans?"
The leader of the Millennium Dragons wasn't afraid of human threats.
With tears in her eyes, Apis told the leader of Master Dragon's story.
The leader of the Millennium Dragons fell silent.
The Lost Island's emergence protected dragon eggs and dragon remains, but it also meant that injured or aging Millennium Dragons might not live long enough to see it surface.
In the end, they couldn't rest in their homeland or return to their roots. They might have to die far from home.
The Lost Island surfaced about once every two hundred years. Every Millennium Dragon was born on the island, and after two hundred years of gestation there, the egg would hatch, and the newborn could fly.
Two hundred years later, they could fly back to the Lost Island for the first time to breed.
Two hundred years was a long time for humans. Everyone who had seen a Millennium Dragon would be dead by then, and after another hundred years of passing the story along, the Millennium Dragons had become a legend on Warship Island.
It wasn't that no other male and female Millennium Dragons had bred elsewhere.
But without the Lost Island's unique substances to incubate their eggs for two hundred years, the hatchlings born elsewhere had defects. They could live for only a few decades at most, never reaching adulthood at two hundred years old.
Perhaps elderly Millennium Dragons insisted on returning to the Lost Island to die because it was their way of repaying the island.
So the Millennium Dragons couldn't abandon the Lost Island. It was their destiny.
The leader of the Millennium Dragons explained all this to Moya and the others.
Moya was a little disappointed. As expected, a unique island environment had given rise to a unique race.
Every gift of life came with a price, one that fate had already marked in secret.
Every gain came with a loss. The scales of fate never tipped in only one direction.
The Millennium Dragons' thousand-year lifespans were already bound to the fate of the Lost Island.
This also meant their population couldn't keep growing. It could only remain at a certain level.
"Then let us help you find a new habitat. You can come back here when the time comes, and we'll protect you."
Moya thought it over and made what he considered a perfectly reasonable suggestion.
"Why would we need your protection? You're a short-lived two-legged bug too. The Lost Island will stay above water for one day. Once the females have laid their eggs and the eggs from two hundred years ago have hatched, we'll take the little dragons and fly away. The Lost Island will sink, and it won't surface again for another two hundred years. By then, you two-legged bugs will all be long dead."
The leader of the Millennium Dragons gave Moya a shrewd, knowing look, and his words left Moya speechless.
Should he just give up, or fight them instead?
"Then where are you going to live now? I can find a Sky Island on the Grand Line for you to use as a habitat. Wouldn't that be good?
"We could also help train the young dragons so they can grow into powerful adults faster."
Moya still hadn't given up.
"Kid, you're still too young. The area between the two Calm Belts is what you call the Grand Line. It's very unfriendly to flying races.
"The unpredictable weather takes a heavy toll on flying creatures, so we'd rather live in the Calm Belt or the Four Blues.
"We only cross the Grand Line when we migrate. And the two-legged bugs there are powerful—and even more brutal."
The kind-hearted leader of the Millennium Dragons patiently answered Moya's questions. What a good fellow.
"But after hearing what you did for the elderly Millennium Dragon, I know you aren't bad people. I'd like to entrust some of the little dragons to your care."
"What?"
A sudden turn of events had opened up a new path. Moya was a little surprised.
At that moment, the leader of the Millennium Dragons sank into his memories, his face filled with sorrow.
"Do you know why only thirty or forty Millennium Dragons flew back this time?"
"Did something happen?"
"Something did. Do you remember? More than twenty years ago, our race was migrating in the second half of the Grand Line.
"A human king who could communicate with all things summoned countless violent winds, torrential rains, and towering waves in a tremendous fury. Countless races answered his call.
"Even the super-giant Sea Kings churned the seas, causing the weather to change drastically.
"In that war between two-legged bugs, endless Conqueror's Haki and storms swept away more than half of our companions, killing them for no reason."
After he spoke, the leader of the Millennium Dragons suddenly began to weep. How helpless it had been, watching his companions die, with no choice but to flee with those who remained.
Could it have been the Battle of Edd War between Pirate King Roger and Golden Lion Shiki?
"So, of the more than forty eggs laid two hundred years ago, even if each of us cared for one hatchling, that would already be the limit for us. Things are difficult enough as it is, especially since migrating is dangerous.
"So I'll entrust the remaining little dragons to your care."
Moya didn't refuse. Things had worked out in this unexpected way, even though just moments ago he'd been thinking of fighting the Millennium Dragons and taking some of their eggs.
And so, as time passed,
the hatchlings began to emerge one after another, starting at noon.
Just like Daenerys's dragons in Game of Thrones, the Millennium Dragon hatchlings were born with all their feathers. Once their feathers dried, they already knew how to fly.
The twenty-three female dragons had laid this generation's twenty-three eggs. After that disaster, the Millennium Dragon population had become heavily female.
That was why the leader of the Millennium Dragons could have several females.
The leader of the Millennium Dragons was practical, too. He picked the strongest hatchlings to take with him, leaving the ten weaker ones in Moya's care.
Before the eyes of the Millennium Dragons and the Moya Adventure Group, the Lost Island slowly sank beneath the waves with its newly laid eggs. It was another turn in the Millennium Dragons' cycle.
After the hatchlings had a big meal provided by the Moya Adventure Group, everyone exchanged looks of mutual understanding.
Watching the Millennium Dragon group disappear into the distance, Moya couldn't help feeling wistful.
Then he looked at Apis and the others playing with the Millennium Dragon hatchlings.
"Everyone, set sail for the Grand Line!!!!"
"Ah~~"
Before you continue