Ch. 69: The Drakelands

"To explain the current situation, we've gotta start with a little bit of history." He said. "The Drakelands themselves have always existed. They're a series of tunnels that spread across a good portion of the continent. They actually go under the ocean a ways, if you know where to look. Like the Griffin Mountains, they're home to a large concentration of magical beasts, not just Drakes. Arachne, dragons, gnomes, honestly it's easier to name magical beasts that don't exist in the Drakelands... It's a madhouse of terrifyingly powerful monsters, all vying for control of the caverns deep below. But they've all got one thing in common. The caverns are their protection." Doma explained.

"Protection?" Adrian asked.

"Think about it for a moment, Adrian. If you go underground, then collapse the entrance to the cave behind you, it'll take an impressive amount of time and dedication to dig the tunnel back out. If you collapse one with a bend in it, anyone trying to follow you..." Rosy explained.

"They'll get absolutely lost." Adrian realized.

"You're right. These caves are a great way to lose anyone trying to hunt you down. That's why they became the home of us Drakes."

"So the Drakes migrated to the caves from somewhere else?" Adrian asked.

Doma simply shrugged. "Nobody knows. That's not recorded history. I just know that we were migrants, living crudely in the deepest parts of the cave network, at constant war with the other chimeras vying for territory. The gnomes dug the tunnels. The Arachne laid traps, preying on the gnomes for sustenance, while we fought desperately with our natural armor and advanced martial arts techniques for centuries in a delicate balance that allowed our race only war. We lived in holes in the rock, only coming out to fight and die.

Then, our first king brought the dragons into the fray. He travelled to the most remote depths of the continent and tamed the rare beasts, one at a time. When he made it back, he finally turned the tables on the Arachne. Burning their webs, he chased them deep into the Drakelands, giving our civilization time to grow and adapt. Finally, the war was finished. That was the start of our recorded history, several thousand years ago." Doma told us, "Recently, the Shadowborn King has been attempting to storm the Drake-controlled areas of the Drakelands, so we've needed to collapse various cities in order to ensure that he doesn't find the heart of our civilization. Essentially, we've needed to cut off pieces of our civilization in order to keep the core intact, retreating deeper and deeper into the Drakelands every time."

"And that's why they aren't letting me in, right?" Rosy asked.

"Close. That's why the Arachne are acting up again. The fights are shaking the Drakelands to their core. It's getting bad, Princess. Really bad." Doma explained.

"Alright, then wouldn't it be for the best if they ended my father's rule? Because they'd be able to get their borderlands back and suppress the Arachne?" Rosy wondered.

"You're right, but it's gotta be more complicated than that. They want us to prove that we can deal with the Shadowborn King by dealing with the Arachne first, right? Based on past experiences, they're not gonna let us into their main city before that, huh?" Adrian conjectured.

"You're not wrong. They're going to send a contingent of dragons with us. If we can use those dragons to capture the Arachne queen, then you'll be allowed into the heartland." Doma explained.

"Capture? Not kill?" Rosy asked.

"You can if you want to, but I made the deal on the assumption that you'd be reluctant to kill the mother of an entire species. Since the Arachne have such a low population, they likely won't survive if the current queen is killed." Doma explained. Rosy bit her lip.

"Alright. Adrian and I will capture the queen, and then we'll talk about them joining the Resistance." She decided after a moment.

"There won't be a talk about it. You deal with the Arachne queen, and they'll provide the resistance with soldiers and secret passages to hide out in. That's the deal that I set up." Doma told Adrian and Rosy, standing up. Storytime was apparently over. "Thank you, gryphons. Us drakes will take it from here." He told the gryphons that had escorted them. They nodded and immediately flew off, having gotten the rest necessary for the flight back to Gryvus while the duo had been speaking to Doma. For them, it wasn't much of a flight, anyway.

As it turns out, the undergrowth that Doma had appeared from when they'd originally run into him wasn't just undergrowth, but a cave. Doma showed them into the cave, then down a maze of passages until they found a metal door built into the rock. 

Opening it, they were immediately greeted by a blast of flame, forcing Rosy to push Adrian aside and out of the way on reflex before he was burnt.

"Huh?!" Adrian yelped, hitting the ground with Rosy's body covering him.

"Draco, bad boy!" Doma scolded.

"What the? Doma, what just tried to fry Adrian?" Rosy asked, rolling off of Adrian before pulling herself back to her feet.

"I already told you, the King of Drakelands loaned us a couple dragons. That's Draco. He's got the most energy, but he can be a little testy." Doma explained, patting the dragon on the head to calm him down. 

"So, this thing is our ticket into the Arachne dens?" Rosy muttered questioningly, looking at the dragon skeptically.

"Have you ever seen an Arachne?" Doma asked.

"No. I've never seen a dragon before either, though. What are they like?" Rosy asked, leaning on the door.

Doma sighed, "Come in and we'll make a plan." 

As it turned out, the metal door was the entrance to a safehouse that had been created away from inhabited portions of the Drakelands. As a part of Doma's agreement with the Drake's king, they'd been loaned the use of the safehouse, as well as a small contingent of a dozen or so trained Drakes, and five fire-breathing dragons.