The Empress

Dahlia Drakon was hailed as the most beautiful child when she was born.

She was hailed as the most beautiful girl as she grew, and most beautiful princess when she came of age.

However, she never felt the advantages of that beauty till now.

Her mother was the least favoured wife of her father, the Emperor.

As such, she and her brother Visor felt the wrath of the harem, and faced ridicule of the women in the harem day after day.

When Valhalla perished a thousand years ago, the only dragons in the world were left on volcanoes of the sunrise sea, collectively known as wall of smoke nowadays.

Her family had been exiled to praha city, which is considered remote even among the remote.

They were exiled here, like trash.

Their great Drakon family was thrown away, like trash.

In time, the arrogant fools on Valhalla received their comeuppance in the form of fiery rain, which turned all of Valhalla into a sea of magma. The fires of which are raging even till today, unable to be put down by ever so powerful time.

Now, those men were burned into nothing, while their family ruled the entire east, which even the arrogant dragon lords failed to conquer.

The first conqueror started his conquest from Praha to the east, uniting the entire eastern land.

The empire is divided into city states, with Praha holding almost all the lands around it under direct supervision of the emperor.

The mirror city in the east is famous for its glass, trade, and beautiful fabrics.

Bhorash, the ghost city in the north, is famous for its ruins, witchcraft, weapons and shaved warrior monks.

The southern city of Qatar is famous for being the only place still capable of crafting sorcerer's steel, it's future predicting oracles, and the beautiful architecture. It is said the wealth of a slave in Qatar is greater than the entire holdings of a nobleman elsewhere.

The western city of Valkyrie is famous for hosting most blood related descendants of dragon lords, and the most abundance compared to any other city in the world.

How her father, the Mad Emperor made a mess of things to such an extent, even the ever so servile lords of Valkyrie joined in a rebellion against her father.

Her brother Rykor crushed one rebel lord after another, and brought peace to the kingdom, while her father fucked and tortured one lord's daughter after another, drunk with victories, which he claimed in the name of her brother.

Then, he left for the conquest of the Thousand kingdoms, which had been the dream of the Drakon family for a thousand years by now.

Like every other drakon lord, in the end, her brother won the battle, but lost the war.

Dahlia was born on the day her brother perished, and just for that reason, she has become the darling of her mad father.

Her father was vain as well as greedy. Rykor was universally praised for his handsomeness, intelligence and impeccable nobleness.

As Rykor's prominence increased, so did his father's jealousy towards Rykor.

Some say, her father deliberately sent Rykor to the thousand kingdoms, hoping the cursed land, as her father called the continent, would kill him in the end.

And he celebrated the day when it did.

Fifteen years have passed, and her father pretended no problems existed during his reign.

Rykor's deeds have won them an uneasy peace, till her ever more paranoid and mad father decided to set fire to himself one fine day, in his bid to become the greatest dragon lord of the century.

The Drakon family has been decreasing in prominence for the last hundred years after their dragons died out. Her father acquired a dragon egg of mysterious origin, and decided to wake it using a dark ritual from shadowland.

He brought all his children and concubines with him to his enclosed palace. Her brother, mother, sister-in-law and aegon were spared as her father deemed them unworthy.

However, she, as her father's most favourite daughter, couldn't be missed.

Thus, the palace was set on fire, and everyone within the enclosed walls burned to death, save Dahlia.

She awoke among ashes and smoke, and a dragon egg which has turned from ugly brown to golden glow of the sun.

It was only then did she understand.

She was special. Unlike her mad father or her wimpy brother, she was a dragon.

She is fire made flesh, and she could command any dragon in the world, as long as she wished to.

However, there are no dragons to be had in Praha.

The fall of the king was announced, and with it, the independence statements of all the city lords.

Her brother spouted nonsense about killing them with thousands of armies, and never ending wealth.

However, the truth is their family is dirt poor, there are no armies to be had.

Thus, when the wild tribes of grassy plains visited, her brother presented her to the warlord of plains, hoping to acquire an army.

The warlords were subjects of the empire, but the control of the empire over grasslands is nominal.

They were easy to conquer on dragon back, impossible to keep through any means.

However, they are the nearest land to both valhalla and shadow land.

The east is marred with city states with fertile land around the river banks, and then vast grassy plains that connected the entire land like the sea connected the world.

She is the only person in the world who could subdue a dragon, and the horse lords of plains were the only people who can bear the journey towards the ever raging fires of valhalla.

Thus, she married the horse lord.

She rode him like a stallion, and enjoyed doing so.

They made love under stars, love in front of a bonfire while all of his subordinates were watching.

Dahlia attended the trial by fire, a trip horse lords made regularly towards Syr, the southernmost tip of the south land. It is said horse lords came to the east crossing through Syr, and the ashrain of syr forced them to do so.

While her husband kept the symbolic vigil of three days in Syr, Dahlia crossed over to Valhalla in a canoe. She found three small dragons, just hatched from a clutch. She fed them her own rations, as she brought them back.

She hunted fish for them, starved herself, so the dragons could be kept alive as she brought them back to the tribe.

She was gone for a fortnight, her husband was anxiously waiting for her when she returned.

She appeased him by promising his clan would have dragons when the dragons grow up.

From then on, her conquest began.

The dragons grew from the size of small lizards to the size of cats, and learned how to breathe fire.

Her husband joked with her, saying perhaps their children will need no toy horses, for they would have dragons.

Dahlia smiled mysteriously.

Her dragons grew to the size of wolves, and learned to hunt deer all by themselves.

When her husband brought her a deer's head, they brought her a lion's head.

Soon, the dragon's grew to the size of lions, and their first test at battle began.

With the dragons, there is no greater lord of the plains than their tribe.

As the dragon's size grew, so did her husband's uneasiness.

He strayed, and she scolded.

Only, when he raised his hand to teach her a lesson, Dahlia stared back at him even more menacingly...

A dragon loomed behind her menacingly, and her most powerful husband who could slay a hundred warriors in a single battle, faltered.

For he knew, he would burn before that hand even reached halfway through its intended path.

That night, Dahlia took the pretty boy her husband hated with all his strength to her bed.

A king may take a thousand mistresses, but a queen is supposed to be pure.

A commotion unlike anything arose the next day within the camp.

The pretty boy was slain by her husband, the warlord.

He came with his entire entourage to her tent, and dragged her out in front of everyone.

"You slut ! " he called her.

Dahlia only sneered back at him.

" I am a slut ? why? I only did what you did, and after you have strayed." Dahlia told him.

" You are a queen. Everything you are belongs to me. You are nothing but my property." he sneered at her.

"Hmm.. What about the dragons ? " Dahlia asked him.

" They will learn to obey, just like you when they taste my whip." her husband told her.

"Well then. Let's see." Dahlia said nonplussed.

While her husband raged, the men and women around him felt uneasy.

There is something very strange about how unafraid Dahlia is, despite being tied to a post atop a scaffold.

The servants raised their whips, to strike at her.

Two dragons descended from the sky. The next moment dragon breath struck the servants on either side of her, and set the wooden scaffolding on fire.

"Stop" her husband, the horselord kept screaming but the dragons did not stop.

"Stop." Dahlia uttered lazily, as she walked down from the fires, not a single hair on her body burnt.

The next moment, the dragons stopped.

" You can burn, or you can lick my feet." She told her husband.

Needless to say, her feet were licked clean.

From that day onwards, Dahlia drakon bowed to no one, and the empire was unified once more.