Ikenga studied the small star-born beings more carefully now. He could feel it, the tension in their energy signatures. They pulsed like hearts beating out of rhythm, threatening to either implode or flare violently.
"And you can sustain them?" he asked.
"For now," Maul said. "But they are adapting slowly to my realm"
As if in response, one of the small figures lifted its head. Its eyes twin pinpricks of condensed light t Ikenga’s across the vast expanse. A ripple of star-energy flickered outward, cautious but not hostile.
Ikenga felt it brush against his awareness.
A greeting. He chuckled softly.
"You always were the patient one," Ikenga said. "I would have tested their limits already."
"I know," Maul replied dryly.
The snow shifted gently around them, parting as several ice elentals approached in silent guardianship of their lord. Above, the auroras brightened, streaks of violet and blue dancing across the firmant like celestial scars.
Ikenga folded his arms, gaze thoughtful now rather than teasing.
"A realm of ice... harboring fragnts of dying stars," he mused. "Cold preserving fire. There is poetry in that."
Maul said nothing, but the faintest tremor passed through the snow a subtle acknowledgnt.
After a mont, Ikenga placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. The contact sent a brief clash of heat and frost into the air, steam rising before vanishing instantly.
"If they destabilize," Ikenga said quietly, "call , beside you need to raise them well, I have a few ideas which if it works will have you in the graces of your aunt and uncle including "
Maul nodded once.
"And Father?"
"Yes?"
"Brother did not bully you."
Ikenga’s expression shifted back to theatrical offense. "Traitor." For the first ti, a quiet laugh escaped Maul.
A single footstep, light yet impossibly heavy with restrained power, reached Ikenga’s senses reminding him of soone.
He turned.
Across the snow-laden plain, a woman approached, each step asured, elegant. The frost did not cling to her; it parted. The aurora above seed to dim slightly in acknowledgnt of her presence.
Ikenga leaned slightly toward his son and whispered, low enough that only Maul could hear:
"Did I co at the wrong ti?"
Maul rolled his eyes, long-suffering and entirely unsurprised.
The woman stopped before them and offered a graceful bow, one hand resting lightly over her heart.
"Your Grace," she greeted.
This was Athyst, the female dragon Maul took as hims wife. Ikenga inclined his head in return, warmth flickering in his gaze.
"I was just asking Maul if I arrived at a poor mont," he said lightly. "I would hate to intrude upon the precious little ti you both have"
Athyst’s lips curved into a knowing smile.
"No, Your Grace. Earlier, my husband and I received word from his brother that you would be paying a visit soon."
Ikenga blinked, then laughed, the sound rolling through the frozen expanse.
"Ikem has spoiled my grand entrance," he said, mock offense lacing his voice. "I had every intention of arriving dramatically. Perhaps through a tear in the sky. Or a pillar of fla. Sothing morable."
"You are morable without theatrics," Athyst replied smoothly.
Maul snorted.
Ikenga sighed theatrically before lifting the remaining two of the four ornate boxes he carried. The containers were carved from dark volcanic stone, faint heat escaping from the seams. Even here, in a realm of eternal frost, they radiated restrained warmth.
"These are for you," Ikenga said, handing them to Athyst.
She accepted them with both hands, the three of them began walking toward Maul’s dwelling.
The sa scene that had once unfolded in Ikem’s realm played out again but this ti was a bit different.
There was no booming laughter shaking the rafters, no sharp jests thrown like spears to test pride and wit. Instead, the atmosphere was softer.
Maul sat slightly apart from them, as he often did. He was never one for speeches so Ikenga and Athyst were those mostly speaking while he listened.
At first, it was simple recounting, Ikenga narrating his journey with Keles. The roads they had taken, the dangers, fun. But the conversation began to change once Ikenga understood that Athyst listened not rely as a wife, nor as a daughter-in-law offering courtesy.
But as a dragon, a true one.
With her inherited mories, it was almost like she has lived and seen what Ikenga saw so the conversation went deeper than it should have but Maul didn’t mind any sight of this.
This heated loud conversation was sothing of a rarity in his realm so he welcod it and more.
Being the sensible woman she was, she knew when the conversation had reached a threshold it should not cross in her presence.
So words were ant to pass only between father and son. She rose gracefully, the faint shimr of draconic aura rippling like heat above her skin.
"I believe," she said lightly, though her eyes were knowing, "that I have spoken enough for one evening."
She inclined her head to Ikenga, then to Maul. "Do not let silence harden into distance." It was a reminder, then she excused herself.
Silence settled between them once she was gone.
Ikenga looked at Maul, who sat across from him, composed as always.
"When was your last hunt since you ascended to godhood?" Ikenga asked.
The question was simple but Maul’s expression shifted, lancholy touched his features briefly before he shook his head.
"My realm isn’t exactly a place to hunt," he said calmly. "And I no longer have access to the mortal world since my ascension."
Ikenga watched him for a mont, then he smiled as he stood up.
Space folded.
A portal tore open before them, beyond it lay heat-hazed air, towering forests, distant mountains beneath a golden sky.
"Just like old tis," Ikenga said, before the words fully settled, his figure blurred.
Where he once stood, a massive black wolf now remained. Its fur was deep midnight. Without hesitation, the wolf glanced once at Maul then leapt through the portal.
Maul stayed still for a heartbeat, then another. A smile, small but genuine, crossed his face.
His father had not forgotten.
Without hesitation, Maul’s form shifted. Ice-like energy rippled outward as his body expanded and reshaped into a great white wolf fur like fresh snow, eyes pale.
He plunged into the portal as it closed behind him. He landed in warmth.
The scent hit first. Earth. Pine. Wild water. Prey. Maul lifted his head slowly, drinking it in.
This realm, his childhood. Only now it stretched wider than mory. Forests denser. Mountains higher. The sky broader with new addition.
Across the clearing stood Ikenga in his own wolf form "Just as usual," Ikenga said, his voice just as deep. "We hunt. No spells. No dominion. No godhood."
He raised his head and howled. The sound tore through the forest,
a challenge to the creatures in his realm.
The realm answered.
From distant valleys ca the roar of sothing massive. From the treetops, wingbeats thundered. Deep beneath the earth, sothing stirred and shifted.
Predators, very old ones.
Maul felt it. The responses vibrated through his bones and sothing in him, sothing long silent beneath responsibility and stillness awoke.
He threw his head back and howled. His voice cut through the air colder, sharper, but no less fierce and held more provocation in it.
The forest reacted instantly as the creatures in it answered.
Ikenga moved first, breaking into a powerful run across the plains. Maul followed without hesitation. Their strides were effortless, instinct guiding them as it once had.
No words were needed. Branches snapped beneath their speed. Grass bent in their wake. The thrill of pursuit sharpened their senses.
Ahead, sothing large moved through the trees.
Ikenga glanced once at Maul, that was enough.
They split naturally, circling. A shadow crossed overhead.
Maul glanced up just as a massive horned drake dove from the sky, scales like ironwood, breath smoking with primal heat.
Ikenga veered left as maul veered right.
No command given as they split the beast’s focus in perfect.
The drake roared mid-dive, banking sharply toward Maul, it was a mistake.
Maul planted one paw into the earth and pushed. The ground fractured beneath the force as he launched upward. He t the drake mid-air, his body slamming into its flank.
A shockwave burst outward on impact, flattening grass in a wide ring and snapping smaller trees clean at their trunks. The drake was knocked off balance, its wing clipping the forest canopy as it crashed through branches and bark in a violent tumble.
Before it could recover, Ikenga was there.
He surged from the forest floor like a streak of black lightning, jaws locking around the drake’s thick neck scales. His bite did not pierce through flesh imdiately; instead, it clamped down with crushing force, dragging the creature sideways and pinning its head to the ground.
The drake thrashed, claws gouging trenches into the soil.
Maul landed heavily, snow-like fur stark against the scorched patches of earth where the drake’s breath had struck. He moved without hesitation, placing one massive paw down on the creature’s wing joint.
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