The other Elders gasped in Unison.
"Malcor! No!" One of them shouted. "She is fragile! She will not survive!"
"If she carries the Dragon Heir," Malcor said, his voice smooth, "then the Heir will protect her. The blood of the King cannot be burned. If she were a fraud... she will turn to ash."
Zarek stiffened behind her, his eyes going red from the thought of Roxy turning to ash.
"Malcor, I will kill you," he roared.
"Let him speak," Roxy said, though her stomach did a little flip. That didn't sound good. "What is this trial?"
Malcor pointed a clawed finger toward the back of the cavern, where Roxy could hear boiling lava in the distance. Her heart shuddered, and she regretted running her mouth immediately.
She basically was in this mess because she wanted to survive.
Now, she was the one who jumped into another fire immediately she was given breathing space.
Psst, System. What am I to do in this situation? What are they talking about?
"The Dragon's Breath," Malcor said softly. "The vent of the Earth-Core. A true Dragon Mother can walk through the scord floor and emerge unscathed, protected by the child within. One that didn't possess this would be scorched, planted to the very floor."
Roxy looked towards the back of the Cavern again, a loud hissing sound drifting into her ears. It hissed like a kettle, spewing steam that was definitely hot enough to melt skin.
[Notification: Host possesses 'Pregnancy Protection' (Passive Health Regen). However, extreme elemental damage may override regeneration speed. Probability of 'Boiling Alive': 40%.]
Forty percent? Those are shit odds.
But she looked at Malcor's smug face. She looked at Zarek, who was vibrating with the need to rip Malcor apart if she wasn't holding him back. Then, at the Elders, who were watching her with doubt.
If she backed down now, she might also not live.
If she did this... She was gaining their trust.
She smirked, hiding the way her hands were shaking. "Is that all?" Roxy scoffed. "A little steam? I use hotter water in my shower."
She stepped toward Malcor, getting right in his face.
Stop talking, Roxy, you don't know what you are saying! Stop provoking the lizard face.
"Set it up, lizard breath. But when I walk out of there, you're going to be the one bowing the lowest."
Zarek suddenly pulled me behind him, gripping Malcor by the throat.
"Zarek, stop!" Roxy shouted, grabbing Zarek's arm with both hands. Zarek shivered but only tightened his hold on Malcor, who kicked and flailed around, struggling for breath.
He might be an Elder, but in front of the Dragon King, he was nothing.
"You dare?" He snarled, ignoring Roxy.
"You demand I toss the mother of my heir into the trial of purity when she was not of dragon blod?" Zarek's voice was quiet but had a lethal edge to it. "To satisfy your pride?"
Roxy gulped.
Malkor was not giving up, he argued. "To satisfy the tribe's honor!" his bravery faltering under the sheer pressure of Zarek's killing intent.
"Honor?" Zarek chuckled, "My word is honor! I felt the life within her. I claimed her. If you question her, you question."
He technically didn't claim her, she was one doing all the claiming.
Zarek raised his other hand as if he was about to end Malcor's pathetic life but Roxy who loathed blood quickly stepped in and tightened her hold on his arm.
"He threatened you," Zarek snarled, turning to her with a cross look. "He dies."
"He's an idiot, Z, not a physical threat," Roxy snapped, digging her heels into the ground. "And if you splatter his brains on the floor, I am the one who has to smell it. My stomach is already doing flips, and dragon guts are not going to help."
And I meant it, I would not be seeing blood and intestines on the floors.
Zarek look down at her. He huffed, after seeing the determination and defiance in her eyes. This female was vastly different from the ones he knew.
"There will be no Trial," Zarek declared, turning his cold gaze back to the Elders. "Because I forbid it. Any dragon who suggests harming a hair on her head will be fed to the beasts. Am I clear?"
The Elders, including Malcor, all shivered dropping their heads to the floor. "Clear, my King."
Roxy let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Good. Because 'boiling alive' was not on my bingo card for today.
She stepped around Zarek, smoothing down her tiger-skin dress. She wasn't done. She marched right up to Malcor, who was still kneeling but looking terrified.
"Okay, lizard breath," Roxy said, crossing her arms. "Now that we've established that nobody is getting cooked today, let's talk facts. I get that you wanted your daughter, Lyra, to be Queen."
Malcor looked up, his eyes filled with hatred that didn't phase Roxy one bit, "Lyra is strong. She is a Dragon. She has waited for the King for fifty years to wake."
I don't see where that concerns me.
"And yet," Roxy looked around the Elders, "Zarek has been awake for centuries before his last nap. Why didn't he mate with her then? Or anyone else?"
The silence that followed was heavy and uncomfortable as they all lowered their head.
Zarek voice drifted from behind her, "They were scared for their daughters."
Roxy turned to him, suddenly intrigued. "Explain. Why is your species dying out?"
One of the Elders spoke up. "We dragon males have problem controlling our strength. While we are able to mate with our females, it's hard for them to conceive because they are too weak for the seeds to make a child, making some die or be bedridden."
Roxy's brow jumped. It seemed more serious than she thought.
Then how does she getting pregnant with the Dragon King's baby, change this issue in the Dragon tribe?
She expected the system to say something but it was awefully quiet.
"And?" Roxy pressed.
"The female must be strong enough to be able to conceive our child," Zarek finished, his voice grim. "We have tried mating with other species. Wolves. Tigers. Even the strongest females of the lower clans."
He breathed. "Their body can't handle the strain. The pregnancy begins and within weeks, it consumes them. They fall sick, while some die."
Roxy felt a chill run down her spine.
She pressed a hand against her stomach protectively, as she gulped.
"Surely Lyra is strong enough?" Roxy looked back at Malcor expectantly.
Malcor flinched, looking away. "We... we believed so. But the las three females who attempted to get pregnant, they didn't survive the first trimester. The strain was too great. We stopped trying to save their lives."
Roxy frowned not liking one bit, about what she was hearing.
But she took some deep breaths in and out to calm her raging self. Now she understood why the System brought her here, the animals just had the ability to shift, they had animal brains.
Selfish. She as a human was weak, she shouldn't be able to survive Zarek if literal dragon woman couldn't.
Unless...
"Show me your females," Roxy demanded.