115 Shadow Dragons’ Shame

Yulong was not surprised her four youngest did not detect that the magic they had felt earlier was from a silver dragon, out of all her hatchlings only Xinglong had been gifted with a strong silver dragon heritage.

As a result of Xinglong silver dragon heritage, a considerable portion of his magic had been inaccessible, now with his side of his nature being awakened Xinglong would finally be able to access his full potential.

Laolong gazed at his four younger wyrmlings seriously.

"What I am about to say, must not leave this room," he said gravely.

Observing how serious their father was, the four young dragons nodded their heads in agreement.

"Of course Father," Huifu said.

"Yes Father," Hulong said at the same time, the two young sisters giving their father their verbal agreement as well.

Hearing his four children's agreement, Laolong smiled faintly.

"Good. The magic you felt earlier was the powerful magic of a silver dragon," Laolong said direct and to the point.

"A silver queen dragon to be more precise."

"What!" Yinglong gasped, while Xingteng yelped out.

The two brothers just stared at their father with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Out of anything that their father could have said, this was the one thing they hadn't expected. A silver queen, the two brothers, turned their heads slowly to look at their grandfather, checking his expressions to see if their father was joking.

"S..s—ilver queen," Huifu spluttered.

Lanhuo seeing his grandchildren's look, just nodded his head, his eyes twinkling with delight.

While Huifu and Hulong knew the old man liked to play a good prank on them every now and then, when it came to something like this, he would never dare to joke about silver dragons. Just mentioning silver dragons was enough to set the old man off. It was his landmine, a sore spot that no one dared prod.

"By the gods!" Hulong cried out.

"How?" Huifu asked.

"We not sure," Xinglong answered Huifu question.

The four young dragons just sat there in dead silence, coming to terms with the bombshell just dropped.

Xingteng was the first to recover her wits.

"We have to find her," she beseeched.

Yulong smiled gently at her daughter, Xingteng had always been the more sensitive one out of all her hatchings, so Yulong was not surprised that she was the first one to realize the danger that the silver dragon was in.

"That is why we have called the four of you here," Yulong said.

"The four of you with Xinglong will leave shortly to track her down, your sole duty from now onwards will be to act as her protection detail. The five of you will be her primary quintet," stated Lanhuo.

The four looked at their grandfather, shocked at his statement. Huifu and Hulong then turned to look at their parents for confirmation. Seeing their father nodding his agreement, they were taken aback.

While they were not too surprised that they were given this task, what really surprised them was their parents allowing the two girls to accompany them. Up until now, their parents are been very protective over the girls, never allowing them to leave the Dragon Domain.

"Father, wouldn't it be more appropriate if two other shadow dragons guards were assigned, rather than the girls?" Hulong asked.

"Hey!" Yinglong shouted.

"Yinglong, I am not disparaging your skills, you are a fine warrior, but we are talking about leaving the Dragon Domain, and who knows what the hell we might face."

"No, Hulong the girls must accompany you three, this is what we shadow dragons were created for, and when the silver queens' ruled our family was always part of their inner circle, you five will once again take up that mantle, and you will restore our family's honor," Lanhuo stated firmly.

"Grandfather, from young you always told us that the peril we are facing now is due to the death of the silver dragons, but you never told us why," Huifu said.

Lanhuo jerked his head back slightly, his eyes widening. They were right, he hadn't spent much time with the four younger dragons while they were growing up. Xinglong was always going to inherit the throne, with his strong silver dragon inheritance, he had been a natural choice. It was due to this reason, Xinglong had been told many of the secrets and history of the shadow dragons.

Laolong looked at his father, his looked conveying are you going to tell them, or should I.

Nodding once to Laolong, Lanhuo shook his giant body to settle himself into a more comfortable position.

"Silver dragons were always the bedrock of our dragon society, as you learned when you were young us dragons were created by Ala, we are her children. But the silver dragons were her first, they were granted many gifts by the great guardian spirit.

Silver dragons were the link between us and Ala, and through them, they tied all the different sects together as one. You know that each of the sects has their own common path, that they use to communicate telepathically with each other?"

Seeing his four grandchildren nod in confirmation. "Have you ever wonder why we shadow dragons don't have a common path like the rest of the sects?" Lanhuo asked.

"It is not because we are half-breeds?" Yinglong asked in a small voice.

"Yinglong!" Yulong hissed, "how the hell did you come up with that? And how many times have I told you not to call us that."

"It's what all my classmates used to say," Yinglong muttered rebelliously.

Seeing Yulong was about to lose her temper, Lanhuo just shook his head at her gently, his eyes telling her to leave it.

"Firstly young lady, we are not and have never been half-breeds. The silver queens' bestowed us with great gifts, to ensure the protection of the dragon race," he stated firmly.

"Yeah b—"

"Let me finish," Lanhuo interrupted.

"Silver queens like the other sect queens have multiple mates, she only chooses the most powerful dragons to mate with. Not only do these males have to fight each other, but they have to be strong enough to make her willing enough to submit."

"Is that not too brutal?" Xingteng asked timidly.

Xingteng had seen a few mating flights in her life, dragons weren't shy about matings, and all dragons mated in the air. When a female dragon came into heat, she would always take to the skies, and it was up to her mate to catch up to her and entice her in the air to allow them to mate.

It was a beautiful sight to behold, as the two dragons danced through the skies — the male performing the most intricate moves to convince her that he was the best candidate for her hatchlings.

It was the one time that female dragons were extremely dangerous. If the male wasn't careful he would end seriously injured or even killed in extreme cases.

Dragonesses, when they came into their full power, were larger and stronger than their male counterparts. Unfortunately, they look longer than males to reach their full potential.

Yulong eyes softened thinking back her maiden mating flight. As a shadow dragon Yulong had been raised to be a warrior, just like the females from ancient times. When she took to the skies it had taken Laolong nearly three days to seduce and convince her that he was strong enough to be the father of her hatchlings.

Chuckling softly to herself, she remembered he hadn't gotten off lightly either. He had been covered in scratches from her talons as she had fought with him, the wildness in her soul had ruled her during her mating heat, it wouldn't allow a dragon weaker than her to be the father of her hatchlings.

Yulong was convinced that is the main reason all her eggs had hatched. Unlike the female dragons today, who had been suppressed so severely since the day they were hatched. Her mating dance had been just like her ancient ancestors. Not like the tepid choreographed dance that female dragon performed today. Hers had been wild, hot, and passionate.

"Xingteng, a silver queen at the height of her power, it the most powerful dragon, do you really think that just any male could even get near her if she didn't allow it?" Lanhuo asked.

Xingteng just shook her head, too timid to argue. Yulong seeing how intimidated her daughter was, frowned. While she loved the gentleness of Xingteng, she hasn't realized that her daughter had become so fainthearted over the years she and Laolong had been traveling.

Just as well she will be leaving soon with her siblings, Yulong thought. This mission will toughen her up. Yulong also made a note to speak to Yinglong privately to find out what had happened to Xingteng to have changed her so much. Xingteng had never been a firebrand like her sister, but she also had never been this timorous before either.

"Grandfather, what I have never understood — if silver queens were so powerful then how did that black dragon capture Queen Xueteng?" Huifu asked.

Lanhuo flinched at the question, dropping his head to his chest, his shoulders hunching.

"When Queen Mulong [2], Queen Xueteng's mother disappeared, Queen Xueteng was still a fledgling [3]. With the humans and some of the other races banding together, we had lost many of our kind to the race wars.Shadow dragons at that time had become arrogant and prideful, we had forgotten our primary function as guardians to our queen. When the elders of the other sects approached our ancestors to take over the raising of the young queen, we ignored the pleas of our queen and handed her over to them."

Lanhuo smiled bitterly.

"One would have thought having lost Queen Xueteng's mother our sect would have felt shame at their failure as guardians, but our ancestors denied any wrongdoing, they were more interested in gaining power. So to gain favor with those corrupt elders, they handed over the defenseless queen."

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Notes

[1] Xueteng- Snow Flying Dragon. The last silver queen

[2] Mulong – Mother Dragon. Xueteng's mother

[3] Fledgling – teenage dragon.