As I stood at the bottom of the stone stairway, waiting with Asher to meet the king, standing still became a challenge as the discomfort of the clothes he picked for me became apparent. The brown frilly dress he thought looked good was itching my skin like crazy. I couldn't wait to take it off as soon as the job was done. My mind kept wandering off to a blue dress that I had my eyes on, but Asher didn't agree with my choice, so I didn't take it. Looking back, I realized that letting him choose my outfit was a mistake.I kept telling myself that once this job was done, I could always go and buy as many dresses as I wanted. Blue, brown, red, yellow, or pink, it didn't matter. However, standing there waiting for the king, there was a feeling of unease that lingered in the air that I couldn't shake off, which had nothing to do with the dress.We had been waiting for what seemed like an eternity, but it couldn't have been more than an hour, and I could see that Asher was getting restless.

As the King and Asher stood before the portrait of the late Adalier Padillia, the previous king, the atmosphere was thick with unspoken tension. The King's voice quivered as he struggled to find the right words, his mind clouded with a sense of unease. He had a question burning within him, one that he knew he had to ask, but he didn't know how to go about it. "You... um, you two are not related by blood, are you?" The words finally escaped the King's lips, the question hanging heavily in the air. Asher responded with a joking tone, trying to lighten the mood. "What gave you that idea? No, Papia is not my daughter by blood, but I love her just as if she were." The words sounded convincing, but the King felt a twinge of sadness as if in his heart he knew that it was a lie. In Papia's mind, she was cursing Asher, so convincingly lying to the king that just for a moment, she even believed what he was saying, having to remind herself again that he was lying through his teeth. Trying to

Papia's eyes widened in fear as she watched Asher approach the dragon. "What on earth would he want to confront a dragon for?!" she thought to herself. "Get the hell out of here before that monster eats you!" But Asher seemed undaunted by the creature's size and ferocity.Papia continued to cower, keeping a safe distance from the dragon."Come on, girl," Asher thought, already noticing the hiding girl, "you live in a fantasy world like this and you still think dragons, of all creatures, are mindless monstrous beasts who’ll just eat you? Jeez, you still got a lot to learn about how these things work."Asher seemed to be quite knowledgeable about dragons, though. He wanted to remind Papia that in many works of fantasy, fiction in general where they appear, dragons are often depicted as the most intelligent creatures around."Proud, sometimes arrogant, and the primary source of scalie smut out there," he remarked to himself in his mind.Despite this knowledge, Asher wasn't taking any cha

Deep within the southern farmlands of the grand kingdom of Kathe, close to the bustling city of Wellden, there existed a quaint little farm owned by a couple named Jacob and Zilpah. These two individuals were not your typical townsfolk.They were childhood friends who grew up in the same small village on the outskirts of the town of Charlo. They spent their youth playing together in the fields and learning the ways of the land from their families, who also were farmers. As they grew older, Jacob and Zilpah started to see each other in a different light, and eventually, they fell in love.Years went by, and they stayed together through thick and thin, facing the hardships of farming and battling against droughts and pests, but they always managed to pull through with their unwavering dedication and love for one another. They watched as their crops grew tall and their livestock flourished, and they knew that they had built a life together that was worth more than any riches or fame.A f

I awoke in pitch black, lying on something which I couldn’t really describe, but it was neither soft nor very hard. This wasn't my childhood bed. That much was apparent; in which I had slept in the night before, instead I found myself in what I thought was sand. It's wet too, ugh. From the feeling I got, I think I was also wearing my usual equipment, a sort of armor made of leather. It was a pretty low tier, but I thought it looked pretty cool. Why was I wearing it? I went to bed in my pajamas and now that I am here. I’m suddenly wearing it. Of course, this place could have been anywhere I could have thought of. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but no matter how long I seemed to wait, they never did. But even though it was too dark to see anything, it wasn't too dark to hear anything. There were many people present wherever this was. Talking, shouting, screaming their heads off, moving about, and running. From the muffled sound of bare feet to the iron clang of a