Chapter 163: Hunger, Heroes, and Household Panic
Safe to say, it was a rather awkward meal.
How was he even supposed to eat when everyone kept staring at him the whole time?
When they said they’d make food, apparently, it was all for him. And while he didn’t mind it at first, because his hunger was just that bad.
It became noticeable after his third plate of food.
All those stares were specifically glued to his neck and face, and every time he swallowed, Kael would make a face. Riley couldn’t help but ask if he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.
Like, you know, swallowing? Or maybe breathing?
"Uh, is something wrong?" he finally asked, setting down his fork before he actually choked from the tension.
For a few seconds, no one spoke. Then, surprisingly, the smallest one at the table, the baby dragon, stood up on his stubby legs with an air of authority that shouldn’t have belonged to someone that round and tiny.
Orien puffed out his little chest, slapped his tiny hands on the table, and declared solemnly, "Auntie!"
Riley nearly inhaled his drink. "Who—who is your Auntie?!" he sputtered, coughing and pointing at himself in disbelief.
Orien ignored him completely.
With the gravitas of a dragon elder trapped in a toddler’s body, he peered up at Riley, his tiny claws gripping the edge of the table for balance.
"Auntie," he said again, voice serious, "why didn’t you wake up until a week later?"
"...Huh? A week? Me?" Riley blinked rapidly, his fork halfway to his mouth, confusion washing over his face.
Everyone at the table nodded gravely. Even Kael gave the faintest incline of his head, which somehow made it worse.
Riley froze, his appetite momentarily forgotten. Slowly, he looked down at himself.
...Wait.
Since when was he wearing silk pajamas?
He tugged at the soft fabric, frowning. These weren’t his. Since when did he even have the luxury of sleep?
"Son," his mother’s voice broke through his disbelief. "The dragon lord has been tending to you since we only found out a few days ago."
Her voice wavered between relief and worry, and when Riley finally looked at her, he saw lines on her face that hadn’t been there before. It hit him like a blow to the chest—how much she must’ve worried.
He looked down, guilt bubbling up. He hadn’t meant for things to get this bad. He really hadn’t. Although, now that he could see how it affected everyone, he would never be able to admit that he had actually been prepared to die at one point.
Before he could form a reply, Liam’s small, trembling voice filled the silence.
"Brother," the boy whispered, clutching the edge of the table, "what happened to you? You wouldn’t wake up for so long... that... that..."
Orien, who had been quietly fuming beside him, decided to help by making everything worse.
"That if you hadn’t woken up today, Auntie, Uncle would’ve taken out Silvara tomorrow."
"!!!"
The clatter of utensils rang through the hall as Riley shot up in shock, eyes wide.
"What?!" he gasped.
"Taken out Silvara?! What do you mean by ’taken out Silvara’?!"
He whipped around, seeking an explanation, only to find Kael—the one person who could clarify this—sitting there with his arms crossed like some unbothered monument.
The dragon lord, in all his infuriating calmness, looked away.
Now he actually looks away?!
"Orien!" Riley demanded, turning back to the baby dragon, who flinched only slightly but puffed out his cheeks stubbornly. "What do you mean by that?!"
Just what had he missed while he was unconscious?!
"Wait—wait!" Riley’s voice climbed an octave as a much more horrifying thought struck him. "More than that, what happened to the children?!"
The question hung in the air for a heartbeat before Orien’s tiny form went rigid. The baby dragon’s tail flicked sharply, and to Riley’s surprise, a low growl rumbled from his throat.
Riley blinked, startled.
"???"
Uhm... That... was not the reaction he expected.
But how could the baby dragon not react like that?
The moment Riley asked about the children, Orien’s tail thumped against the floor with a sound that echoed across the room. His little claws dug into the edge of his cushion, his wings twitching with agitation as memories swirled behind those molten eyes.
Because, really, who wouldn’t remember that day?
One moment, he and Liam had been playing quietly in the courtyard, building towers out of glowing stones and arguing over whose tower was taller. Next, the entire atmosphere froze.
The air itself had changed.
When Kael appeared, it was like a thunderstorm had walked into the room.
"Uncle?" Orien remembered asking, small and unsure, because the dragon lord’s face had looked... different.
Pale. Almost sick.
But his golden eyes—those had burned bright enough to make even him, a great dragon, step back.
"Riley," Kael had said, voice clipped and low, like someone trying to hold back the end of the world.
"I need help with Riley."
Orien blinked, confused. "Help with... Riley?"
The adults who had been watching the children froze in place. For a moment, no one said anything, as if their brains had to reboot. Kael Dravaryn—of all people—had just asked for help.
Worse, it was help related to Riley.
It was so absurd that even the birds outside had gone silent.
But then Kael began to speak.
He told them a bit of everything. The events in Silvara. The kidnappers. The hidden lair. And how those events seemed to connect to Orien’s own abduction, one they didn’t really talk a lot about.
Liam had gone still, his eyes wide.
"You were kidnapped?" the little sprite whispered, his voice trembling.
Orien had tried to look dignified, but his wings drooped slightly. "That was before," he muttered, trying to sound braver than he felt.
But when his uncle continued—when he said Riley had gone to confront the kidnappers—the little sprite’s face crumpled.
He had cried loudly, with big, messy tears that fell in quick succession, as though crying might somehow make his brother appear faster. And when Kael added that Riley had only woken up once before falling unconscious again, the crying only got worse.
The dragon lord hadn’t known how to handle that, because while Riley did wake up, Kael wasn’t sure how humans survived without their alleged basic needs. So, he decided to seek help from actual humans.
Riley listened now, sitting very still as the baby dragon recounted the entire thing with dramatic emphasis, wings flaring and tail tapping against the ground. He wasn’t sure why Orien was getting so worked up, but he tried to interject gently.
"Then, Lord Orien... about the children—"
He didn’t even get to finish.
"What children?!" Orien practically barked, puffing up like a furious chick trying to look intimidating. "T-they’re imps! They kept insisting you’re their hero, saying you saved them with flames!"
Riley blinked. "...What?"
"And obviously," Orien continued, stamping one foot with such force that the table trembled, "I told them they can’t be your hero because you already did that for me! They can’t just claim you like that!"
The baby dragon’s wings flapped unconsciously as he grew increasingly agitated. "But they wouldn’t stop! They said even though you were carrying something important, you still protected them! And then they cried! And cried! And cried!"
He flapped harder, the air stirring as his voice rose. "They wouldn’t stop asking for you! We hadn’t even seen you yet, and they wouldn’t quit crying about wanting to see you!"
The ground actually vibrated when his tail struck it this time.
Originally, the children would’ve been left behind, but both Liam and Orien insisted on coming because it was an emergency. With everyone gone, wouldn’t they be more susceptible to kidnapping, given that was what happened to the elven prince?
They made an important point. Therefore, with disguises and the ability to blend in—and given that there were already many children in the MBE because of the incident—it shouldn’t have been too unusual for them to be present.
With that hasty preparation, they returned to the ministry to loot the infirmary of items that could be useful to humans.
And that was how they happened upon those little brats!
Riley held up both hands cautiously as he watched the baby dragon seethe.
"I—uh—I was just doing my job. I told them they were being rescued by the MBE, and that someone else would come for them. Human limits and all."
He had thought it would calm the dragon down.
It did not.
Instead, Orien glared harder, puffing up even more. "See?! And yet they demanded to see you when we hadn’t even seen you!"
Riley’s lips twitched helplessly. He wasn’t entirely sure what kind of logic that was, but arguing with a dragon—baby or not—seemed unwise.
"So... are they alive?" he asked hopefully.
The golden dragonling huffed, crossing his tiny arms. "If you talk more about them," he snapped, "then maybe they won’t be tomorrow!"
Riley froze.
Right. Definitely not asking any more questions.