If you want to read ahead by 15+ chapters from her you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
https://www.patreon.com/Yggdrasil_Loki
-----------
Harry looked at her, surprised by her sudden, insightful warning, and then he smiled, a genuine, appreciative smile. "I will take your advice to heart, Merri," he told her.
At that exact moment, a loud, guttural roar was heard from close by. Merri tensed instantly, whipping out her bow and having an arrow drawn and knocked in the blink of an eye. Her head tilted back, her keen, hunter's eyes scanning the sky for the source of the sound.
"Calm down," Harry said, his voice reassuring. "They are nothing to be concerned about. Here, come with me." Harry said, as he walked away from the center of the city and towards a large, open area he had designated as the "dragon area."
Merri followed him, though she seemed much more tense, much more cautious, than she had been before. It wasn't long before they approached what, from a distance, just looked like a series of large, moving snow piles. As they got closer, however, it became clear that they were, in fact, the five massive White Dragons Harry was currently using as his city's guards.
"Oh… my… gods…" Merri said, her voice a soft, awestruck whisper as she gazed at the magnificent, powerful creatures.
"No need to be afraid," Harry explained, "as you can see. They just start to… roughhouse a little, when they get bored."
Merri just gazed at the dragons, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and wonder. "How…" she whispered, unable to finish the question.
"I told you I was the best, did I not?" Harry said, a teasing note in his voice. "It was your own choice not to believe me."
"And you just… you just keep them, like… like pets?" she asked, her voice incredulous.
"No, not at all," Harry explained. "They roam around a lot, hunt for themselves. They act more as… guardians, for my city, as I do not, at present, have any settlers, or any army of my own to defend it. Not that I expect to be attacked anytime soon, of course, but it's always better to be safe than sorry."
"But… how did you even find all of them?"
"It was easy enough, once I learned how to properly track them down," Harry explained with a shrug. "They're not nearly as rare as most people think they are. They're just much, much better at hiding than their more common, more brutish dragon brethren in the south."
Merri said nothing, just continued to look on at the five, magnificent dragons, who seemed to be completely ignoring them, despite their close proximity. There was a long, comfortable silence between them, and then, suddenly, Merri burst into loud, unrestrained, almost hysterical laughter. Harry was so startled by the sudden, unexpected response that he actually jumped, and so were the dragons, as they all, as one, stopped their roughhousing and were now staring at the strange, half-elven woman who had, apparently, just gone completely and utterly insane.
Merri had completely fallen to the ground, she was laughing so hard, clutching her stomach as peals of unrestrained, joyous laughter echoed throughout the otherwise silent, snowy clearing. Harry just continued to watch her with a mixture of amusement and growing concern. After several long minutes, she finally managed to stop, her laughter subsiding into breathless giggles. Harry watched as she climbed back to her feet, wiping tears from her eyes, and then stared at him, with a continued, undeniable mirth shining on her own. Harry squinted at her, a small, confused smile on his own face.
"You're a weird one, aren't you?" Harry asked, the question almost rhetorical.
She just grinned in response, a wide, bright, almost feral grin. "I should be saying that to you," she said, her voice still a little breathless from laughing. "You! You have built an entire, magnificent city up here, in the middle of nowhere! A city that looks to be some kind of… of weird, impossible paradise, hidden away in the harsh, unforgiving north, like a brilliant, flawless diamond sitting in a pile of dirty, black coal. Not only that," she continued, gesturing wildly towards the five, now very confused-looking White Dragons, "but you have damned dragons as guard dogs for this impossible city you have made in the middle of this frozen wasteland! And to top it all off, you claim you don't care who joins in on this new paradise you call a city, that you just want people to have a safe place of peace, a place to call home! Do you not see how unbelievably, absurdly funny all of this is? This is one of those things that is just too good to be true, and yet… and yet, here it is! It's real!" Merri said, as she started to laugh again, though she managed to keep herself upright this time, her shoulders shaking with amusement.
Harry looked at her as he thought over what she had said. Was he… was he wrong, to be making a kingdom under such false pretenses? It's not like he wasn't going to do his absolute best to make a true paradise kingdom for all of his future citizens, regardless of their race or their past. He was. But he was also doing so in the hopes of getting something, something very specific, in return. Their loyalty. Their strength.
Perhaps, he thought, he should try to look at it in a different way. What if he did make this perfect kingdom, but the army he eventually raised chose not to follow his orders, chose not to fight the battles he wanted them to fight, for Ciri? What if they decried his actions, saw him as a manipulative tyrant, and turned on him? Would he regret it then? Would he regret creating an entire kingdom where everyone was supposed to be accepted as equals, only to have them reject his own, personal cause?
No, he decided, with a sudden, firm resolve. Even if it didn't work out exactly the way he hoped it would, he would still feel a deep, abiding pride in accomplishing something that no one else had ever even been able to attempt, let alone accomplish.
Well, maybe that wasn't exactly true. Zerrikania, he knew, was a pretty liberal and accepting nation, for the most part. But it wasn't perfect, and it certainly had its own, deeply ingrained problems, mainly the dirty, underhanded, and often bloody politics that constantly took place between its various, competing lords and ladies.
----------
If you want to read ahead by 15+ chapters from her you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
https://www.patreon.com/Yggdrasil_Loki