Page 68 of That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human
Sparks crackled down Kohara’s spine.“I will not break her!”she hissed. With a snort, she released her death grip on the animal, who fled into the surrounding fauna.
I sighed, already tired of dealing with her antics.
The dragoness shifted on her feet. Then looked up at the mountain where Cherry was still climbing.“It’s not a real challenge if you just let her up there,”she whined. Kohara lowered her massive head like a dog denied a bone. Her tail swished behind her as she took on a sweeter tone.“Just let me chase her a little. Please?”
A harmless suggestion from anyone else. But I knew my sister better than that. As expected, when she glanced up at my wife again, her pupils dilated with predatory excitement.
“Cherry needs to do this on her own.”
“She’s not even walking, she’s just eating berries.”
“What?” I turned around to see Cherry slumped against a rock, stuffing her face. “Less snacking, more walking!” I shouted.
Cherry screamed her discontent, but kept moving.
“See?”Kohara said with a laugh.“I bet I could make her run.”
“The answer is no. Go play with one of your men and leave my wife alone.”
“But I’m bored of them! I wanna play with Sna—Cherry,”she whined. Her body shook as she tried to rein in her excitement, and I did my best not to kick her ass off the island. Kohara was a few years older than Fallon. Yet from what I’d seen, the shadow dragon was leagues better at controlling his instincts. I’d hoped that she’d gain a bit of maturity in my absence, but that clearly wasn’t the case. Perhaps we coddled her too much. She was the baby of the family after all.
“Cherry is a human. They are incredibly fragile creatures.”
She snorted.“You didn’t see her face-off against me in your hoard.”
“What?”
“Nothing,”she said quickly.“But listen, I’ve never even been to one of the floating isles before. I know you and our brothers all took the challenge, but I never got to. I grew up hearing stories of the trials you faced together. That’s something I’ll never get with them gone. Mother and father are dead, which means Cherry is the only sister I’m ever going to get. Let me be a part of this.”
My chest ached at her words. The only world Kohara had ever known was behind the oppressive walls of Volsog. At the very least, I had memories of the time before to look back on fondly. Taking the floating isle challenge was one of the best times of my life.
I gazed up at the mountaintop, where I’d left my mark over 600 years prior. Lockjaw the Fierce ruled over the isle as its lord. My brother Lo, being the little shit that he was, alerted him to my approach and teamed up to stop me. Lockjaw nearly took my head off in our battle, yet the pride I felt when I won his challenge was indescribable. So much so that I used to dream of becoming strong enough to take over an isle as its lord.
Now Lockjaw and Lo were dead. As were the lords of every other isle. Kohara would never get the chance to know what that was like.
“I can’t risk you hurting my wife.”
“Dante—”
I held up a hand to silence her. “However, this isn’t the only isle, and knowing Cherry, she’ll never be satisfied until she reaches each one. If you can show me that you’ve learned restraint, I’ll let you come up with a trial of your own another time.”
Her eyes glowed with excitement.
“However, I suggest you worry about your own challenge.”
“What?”
I grinned, letting my lightning crackle around my feet. “Did you think I’d take it easy on you just because you’re my sister?”
With a wide smile, Kohara turned to leave, then paused just before taking off.“Can I at least finally meet those pirates you’ve been traveling with?”
My shoulders tensed. “No.”
She snorted.“You never let me play with your things.”
“Because you break them!” I snarled.
She had the decency to lower her head. But not enough to let it go.“What about that blond werewolf at the castle?”Her eyes took on that feral glint as she gazed off.“He looked fast.”
