The Celestial Way

Chapter 16.2 - Changing Ways

She could have soared in this manner for hours, but her hunger reminded her about the task at hand, and she quickly descended to the base of the mountain.

Glawlrhain was already there. The training master was looking northward, where the mountainside was sliced into a sheer cliff with a big cleft at its center. Large, lizard-like animals were pouring out from the cleft, rushing into the open tundra. The creatures were six-legged, with a leathery, grey-brownish hide. Their snouts were short and blunt, and their thick heads were crowned with a pair of straight horns. The herd was twelve in total, running more or less in a haphazard manner, as if its members have not been outside for a long time.

"What are they?" Veralla asked enthusiastically as she touched the ground. A second later, Stamat also landed.

"They're called whemoko," Glawlrhain said. "They are the prey you will hunt today."

"Prey? H-hunt?" She was again unsure what the training master meant. "But how I am going to hunt them? And what am I supposed to eat?"

Glawlrhain turned his head to look at her. His amber eyes had a predatory glint which made Veralla flinch. "You will eat them, young one."

She felt as if an icy claw slashed her insides. "W-w-what?" she stammered.

"Use the anti-grav harness to chase a prey of your choice," the training master continued. "Take it down with the skills I taught you. Then eat."

"But I have to kill to do so! This cannot be right!" she shouted, staring at Glawlrhain, yet his expression remained implacable. "It cannot be right!" she repeated, turning to look at Stamat, but the human Knight gazed stoically at the horizon.

She furiously stood upright, her wings unfurled wide. "I will not kill in order to eat! It is wrong to hurt or kill, no matter the reason!"

"To kill without reason is reprehensible, true," Glawlrhain said, his slit-pupiled eyes unblinking. "Even when there is a strong justification for doing so, it's still an ignoble way of resolving a problem. Yet sometimes, no matter how vile an action is, it must be carried out to prevent an even greater tragedy from arising."

"A-are you saying I must kill in order to e-eat?" Veralla asked, her voice shaking in disbelief.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"But why!"

"All young dragons require a period of extremely energy-rich nutrition in order for them to grow to their full potential. Your case is even more dire in this regard than usual, since you still haven't developed your innate draconic capabilities."

"But I must not kill to gather energy! I could consume something else! Fusion fuel, for example!"

Glawlrhain shook his head, his snout-tendrils swirling gently. "Dragon biology isn't concerned with the merely physical when it comes to consumption. We're much more focused on the resonance quality of food, rather than its raw matter-to-energy ratio. And living beings possess one of the most purest resonances in the universe. They resonate with life."

"Surely I can simply compensate the lack of resonance with a greater quantity of lower-level energy!" Veralla declared. "It is just a matter of quantum zero-point equilibrium, like Tehalix taught me!"

"I see you progress well in your education," Glawlrhain hrrr–ed with approval. "However, you can't simply trade quality for quantity. It may permanently stunt your growth. No, you must consume life if you are to mature properly. It may be a crude and cruel method, but it's the most efficient way of getting necessary nutrition."

"If killing and eating others is the best way to obtain required food, then why I was fed with raw meat for so long?" Veralla asked, folding her foreclaws.