The Dragon's Flame Queen ✔

✔LX - Last Gift

Irwin bowed as his anger evaporated and sadness carved his face as he started, "Goradhill. The village had been very peaceful and had no other villages or races in an alliance. Because we thought, it would be better if we stayed low after Goblins made everyone think that we had no tactics other than looting. Of course, it had killed many of our brothers, children and families. But it was enough in the forest for just a few villagers to lay hidden. Nobody knew about us and we never went to the nearest places for loot."

Irwin looked at Demian, "Until one day, a dragon came. A deep blue reptile, eyes of a dangerous predator. Large enough that one swap of wings broke all of our houses." Irwin's green palms twitched, "We went to defend but it was futile. Before we could save ourselves, his fire burnt everyone. Nothing was left."

Hair on Irwin's skin stood straight as he remembered the scenes flashing before his eyes. He lost his entire family. He wanted to die as well but he swore he would take revenge.

"I went away somehow stumbling on the little life I had left. Could not eat for days and the humans wouldn't want to give even their wasted food. They wanted to kill me and one day when I was on the brink of death, I met a person."

Irwin tilted his head, "A wizard."

Demian's eyes narrowed down on him as Irwin began, "I didn't get his name but he gave a spell. A spell that would make me a human. But with a cost."

"What cost?" Alonzo asked.

"I would have to fulfill my one true desire."

"Desire?" Demian asked, somehow this felt off. He could tell Irwin wasn't lying but everything seemed very unusual and very connected.

"After surviving the tortures and the torments, I had restored a grudge against the dragons and the humans. I wanted nothing more than to watch them suffer the way I had." Irwin's face twisted as anger devoured him, "I wanted to find the dragon who killed my village and I found him."

He added with a hiss, "It was Former Lord Heartstone."

Alonzo's eyes popped out of his sockets.

"How did you find him?" Demian seemed to be unaffected by the sudden revelation as he asked.

"The large reptile had three claw marks on his right eye and he had it the same way in his human form." Irwin continued, "I wanted to kill him there but I knew I had no power against him so I formed a plan and approached him as a young man who wanted to serve the dragons. He took me under his wings and I came here."

"But the Former Lord died of an incurable disease," Alonzo said and Irwin laughed but it was somehow to mock himself.

"Very unfortunate for me as after I came to get a revenge on him, he was already dying." He added, "but I became his right hand man in no time and while on his deathbed, he wanted me to kill him, to free him from his pain."

Irwin remembered the old Heartstone gave him a knife. He felt his anger rushing in his hands like a flood yet that would be not enough. Because killing him would free him from this pain and he heard him crying, begging him to end his life but he didn't.

"I didn't kill him," Irwin said. He recalled he had laughed at him and told him that he was from Goradhill. The face of the former Lord was worth watching. It calmed him but it wasn't enough. The old Lord was shocked but he didn't tell anyone about a goblin living under him. Instead he endured the pain. He never told anyone again to end his life. He died a painful death.

"If I had killed him he would not feel the torment that I had endured and he died."

"Has it calmed your heart?" Demian asked.

Irwin shook his head, "Never. So I planned the next best thing. I would make the whole Rockdelia, the city he had loved, turn into ruins. And just in time, Felis came."

Demian had been listening with utter concentration but there was an unsettling feeling stirred in his stomach that he failed to decipher. Irwin had been played by his vengeance and all he had done that led to Rockdelia's doom. Demian was impressed at how the goblin had accomplished that many things in just two decades. If he had fallen into great hands, he could have reached somewhere good but it seemed, his hatred won this time.

It was no doubt, Irwin misled Lord Heartstone and the way wizards appeared here somehow justified Irwin's connections. He had betrayed the Dragon nation and done illegal works to corrupt it.

"Where is this Felis person?" Demian asked as Irwin looked at him, it seemed he was troubled to remember.

"I don't know. Felis had never come after he told us to give him slaves."

"Felis is a wizard. But what would he gain from taking slaves? Money?"

"I don't think he is a wizard."

Demian's forehead ceased, "What do you mean?"

"Honestly speaking, I have no knowledge of that guy. But I had never felt what I felt with the wizards. The scent, the traces, everything is different in his case." Irwin informed.

"Is he a human?"

"I don't know but he never seemed so weak to me. The life energy I felt within him was very dark unlike what a human can handle."

Demian was troubled. What was he then? If not a wizard or a human. He was certain, he wasn't a dragon.

"Where would we find these wizards then?" Alonzo asked from beside him.

Irwin looked at them as a smile made its way on his face which made Demian a bit irritated. He seemed to have overcome his fear of death and he likely wouldn't tell them.

"Why should I tell you when I know, I am going to get a death penalty?" He asked, there was no desire to live in his eyes but it was a mischief that confirmed he would enjoy it more than death to let them suffer blindly.

Demian knew it would come to this and he said, "To atone for your sin to the former Lord Rockdelia."

Irwin's face paled as he looked at him with wide eyes and laughed, "What? I hated that man. Why would I atone for the sins when all I wanted was to take revenge?"

"After knowing that you were a survivor from Goradhill, the former Lord Heartstone didn't tell anyone about you nor did he asked anyone to end his life." Demian said, "I've heard from Master Valentine that after the incident in Goradhill, the former Lord Heartstone resigned from his position from the army general and went into isolation in his chamber for years."

Demian's eyes grew hard, "No one knew what had happened until before his death when he wrote a letter to my father."

Demian looked into his eyes and could feel the shocked expression of Irwin which stated he knew exactly what was in the letter. "The letter read, ' I've been waiting for my doom and the deity has granted my wish.' "

Irwin's lips quivered as he bit his lips to stop the tremble as Demian continued, "We all thought he was talking about his incurable disease. But it wasn't."

Irwin broke into cry as his agonizing weeping echoed through the walls of the dungeon. Somehow he knew in his heart that the Lord of Rockdelia didn't ask anyone to free him from pain because secretly he wanted to atone for his sins. He knew the Lord could have made his knights to send him to the dungeons but he didn't.

Demian said, "He atoned for his sins and didn't let you or anyone free himself from his suffering because if you had killed him, your hands would have been painted with his blood and the chain of hatred would live on. So, by dying from the suffering, he only wanted you to live a life free of your hatred."

Irwin sniffed as tears poured down from his eyes. He knew it. He knew everything but lived in denial. He could not understand the restlessness he felt even after his death. He still felt something was wrong but could not decipher what it was. He had thought it as his revenge but he knew he had grown to love Rockdelia. He had grown to love the former Lord and he didn't want that but hearing it from the Prince of Dragons made him realise he was such a fool.

Demian finished, "That was his last gift to you."