Since they didn't want my help, I went to the tarantula enclosure and spent my time there.
The tarantula was frightened by my presence and slowed its production. I didn't bother with it.
Is this what sulking feels like?
Because I hated it.
The sun was close to setting when I finally decided to go back to the Sequoia tree. The lights were already gleaming throughout the settlement, the lamp posts warm against the early dark of winter.
When I came into view, Torra jumped toward me. I caught him. Not by the collar this time, but properly, into my arms.
"Brother Leigh, come to the dining table right now." He giggled into my shoulder.
The sound of it settled something in me that had been wound tight all afternoon. I walked to the dining area and slowed without meaning to, then stopped entirely.
The table was full.
Meat, vegetables, fruits, dishes of all kinds laid out and waiting.
"Leigh! Surprise!" Everyone said it together.
Oliver and Olivia stepped forward first and gestured to the others. Then Mikayla came toward me, Favio's teenage daughter, carrying a bundle of neatly folded fabric in her arms.
She took Torra from me and set him gently on the ground. Then she held the bundle out.
"It's only right that our masterpiece gets to be worn by the settlement's guardian."
"Go on, check it out." Favio said, looking like he was about to burst with pride.
I unfolded them slowly.
I didn't know what expression I was making. They were all watching me with wide, soft eyes.
A new shirt.
Made for me, from Tarant fabric. I unfolded the next piece.
A blanket.
Then bed sheets.
Then everything else a person might need, all made and folded and waiting.
I couldn't believe it.
They had ignored me all day and then done this.
They were unbelievable.
I opened my mouth. I wanted to say something. I wanted to thank them.
"Such trivial things. A waste of your time."
That was what came out.
I clenched my fists the moment it did and wished I had kept my mouth shut.
One laugh broke through the silence. Then another. Then the whole table was laughing.
"Leigh. Our very own Leigh." Favio's laugh was the loudest.
Our Leigh, he said.
"We may not know the reason behind your hollow and lonely eyes." Elder Elka's voice came through when the laughter settled. "But we won't force you to open up. Just let it go at your own pace."
This place.
I was already home without noticing it.
We shared a lively dinner that night. I let them serve me because they wanted to. The chatter and laughter filled the table, and I sat inside it and let it be the kind of noise it had become.
My kind of noise, now.
And then....
Days passed, and the first snowfall came to the settlement.
With winter clothes prepared beforehand, blankets and other necessities already distributed, everyone experienced their first snowfall without the fear that had always come with it before.
The crops were thoroughly preserved and supported to survive the cold.
The cold storage house was packed with meat and perishables.
The bathhouse became the most frequently visited place in the settlement, the warmth of it drawing everyone in through the long, frozen evenings.
I thought the worry would never show in their eyes again.
Wishful thinking.
The whole settlement was woken by a roar.
The snow had grown heavier over the past few days, piling almost halfway up the walls of the houses. If I hadn't fortified the structures, they would have been crumbling already.
I stepped out through my window and onto the roof.
The roar came from above. Then again, louder. Closer.
A frost dragon.
It moved through the sky in wide circles, massive enough that its shadow alone darkened the settlement. The heavy snowfall was its doing, a storm trailing in its wake wherever it went.
"Brother Leigh! I'm scared!" Torra was crying inside the house below me.
From the other houses I could hear the same. Muffled voices, people pressed together, trying to drown out the sound of the roar.
I looked straight up at it.
The dragon descended lower, circling directly above us now. Like it had found what it was looking for.
"Annoying lizard."
The mana leaving my body was enough to melt the snow at my feet without me trying. The killing intent leaked out before I could rein it in, too much of it, too fast, the anger behind it real.
Torra was still crying. I could hear all of them.
The dragon felt it. It stopped its circling and looked down at me. We held each other's gaze.
Then it opened its mouth and released a breath attack. Ice, spreading across everything it touched.
Not toward the farm.
Not if I had anything to say about it.
I drew my sword and threw it into the dragon's wing before the breath had fully formed. Then I teleported below it and caught the faling dragon before it could fall toward the crops.
"Don't you dare destroy the farm."
I grabbed the dragon in one hand and teleported us both to the active volcano at the southernmost edge of the empire I had spent my whole life serving. The peak of it, above the raging magma below.
I held it there, casually, over the edge.
"Who told you that you could come here and frighten these people?"
The dragon knew. One slip of my grip and it was over.
"Please. Forgive me." It cried. Then slowly shifted, contracting, reshaping, its form changing until what remained was a woman hanging in my grip above a pit of magma.
"Why would I?"
"I didn't mean to come here. I was slumbering for a thousand years in my nest when I was forced out. I am an ancient dragon!" She roared, which was less impressive given her current position.
"Where was your nest?"
"The northernmost part of Winterly."
"Why did you flee?"
"War. Winterly's being conquered by Branklore." She crossed her arms and pouted while dangling over molten rock, knees curled up to avoid the heat rising from below.
She was sweating heavily. She knew exactly what happened if I let go.
"War." I scoffed. "Their truce didn't even last a year. Not even a year since they killed me."
The illegitimate prince. He had been hiding, strengthening his forces, waiting for the moment the kings had relaxed into their new peace before he moved. It was a competent play, for a human.
But it was not my problem anymore. They could have their war. As long as it stayed away from the settlement, I was a dead man and intended to remain one.
"Please don't let go." She panicked as I lowered her slightly closer to the magma.
"Stop the dramatics. You're an ancient dragon. A little magma won't kill you."
I dropped her.
She activated a barrier immediately and shifted back into dragon form, then launched herself at me the moment she cleared the surface.
I stopped her claws with one finger and hit her on the head. She tumbled back down into the lava. Her screams echoed up from inside the volcano.
"I'll submit! I'll protect the place! I'll be your familiar, just save me!" She flailed, her form beginning to break down at the edges.
"Swear it by your name."
"I, the Ancient Dragon Frostina Snowbelle, swear to protect the settlement with my life!"
I pulled her out immediately and healed her on the spot. Even she looked stunned, staring at her restored hands, at skin that had been dissolving moments ago now whole again.
I teleported us both back to the settlement and dropped her in the snow.
Frostina shifted back into her human form, to avoid scaring the residents. Or she'll die instantly ny my hands if she make Torra cry again.
"Take the storm with you. You brought it. Now remove it."
The oath mark glowed on her, proof of her submission. She waved the snowstorm away without argument, letting the natural winter settle back into its normal rhythms.
Torra peeked from the window almost immediately.
"Brother Leigh!" He looked at me. Then his gaze slid sideways to the woman sitting in the snow beside me.
I buried Frostina under a fresh pile of snow without hesitation.
"Get dressed. There are children here. Have some shame."
I teleported to Torra, covered his eyes with my hand, and carried him back to his bed.
"Don't look. Your eyes will hurt."
I gentle sat Torra in the heating pad, I made for everybody when I was bored.
And the new resident? A dragon at that...
Frostina remained buried.
"He drops me into a volcano and then calls me shameless when my clothes burned off in the process." She gritted her teeth, muffled under the snow. "That man is unbelievable."
She knew, though. She couldn't even begin to fight someone like me.
She had sworn her oath. That was that.
And that's her leash.