Teramon was sitting next to her sister, who was lying under a mushroom with her eyes closed. Or rather, what lay there was the shapeless body of an avatar that was no longer hidden by the invisibility rune. Teramon waited for almost ten minutes, then finally the body stirred and resumed the appearance of Tikka, who opened her eyes and stood up. "I'm done. Thanks for covering me"
"Don't thank me. You covered for me just now after all" Teramon replied. She and Tikka had thought of using hibernation as a means of remaining constantly connected with their avatars, but then they had preferred to use the classic method to be more prepared in the event that, as Haku had suspected, the arachnes tried to attack the oasis in their absence; even if it was highly unlikely you never knew. However, this meant that the two of them needed to periodically return to their bodies to feed, so they had used that moment when they could be alone to do so. Teramon had gone first and Tikka had kept an eye on his avatar, making sure no one was noticing and that there were no hungry predators nearby, and then the roles had reversed and it was Tikka's turn to go eat dinner. Both had eaten larger portions than usual, so they could go longer without needing to feed. "Come on, let's go back to the others. They'll be worried, we've been gone for over half an hour"
"I think it would be wiser to actually do what we said, which is to explore the surroundings and make sure there are no dangers" Tikka said back. "The others can wait. Our brothers know we're in no danger and won't be worried… and if you'll allow me I only care about their opinion, so who cares what anyone else thinks. I'd rather be sure neither Rhaegal nor Darbi will run the risk of being attacked tonight rather than avoid worrying a group of newcomers"
Teramon sighed. Her sister was grumpy as always, but this time even more so than usual. "Sister, aren't you exaggerating? I understand being cautious, but you seem to be getting paranoid right now. I mean... you spent almost an hour checking our avatars' disguise for flaws and even convinced me to impress our scent on them. Even Haku, who as you well know is the living embodiment of excessive paranoia, was perplexed by your decisions. I know you want everything to be okay, I want it too, but maybe you should slow down a bit..."
Tikka let out an irritated snort. She couldn't understand how her sister could be so calm. Paranoid? How stupid! She was just making sure her two brothers were safe, and to do that she had to prepare for the worst. This time she and Teramon would be alone, not supported by everyone else; they had to make sure everything went right, she had to make sure everything went right. Because if something went wrong Haku and Rhaegal could have been hurt… or worse. She had already risked losing both too many times in her short life, she had no intention of repeating the experience again. "According to that arachne we'll arrive in a few days. I don't think it's a problem if I keep my guard up for a few days. They'll rest me when that arachne has shown us that..."
"Uff! Arethar, his name is Arethar" Teramon reminded her. "I know you're not exactly the most sociable of the family, but at least try to remember his name"
"I remember his name" Tikka replied. "But he's not here anyway, so I can call him whatever I want. What's the matter?"
"That isn't polite? Imagine if he called you 'that dragon'..." Teramon answered.
"So pretty much how everyone does it? I don't know if you've noticed but that's what newcomers call us even though we've been living with them for months now. Besides, since when do we care about education? We eat people, do you forget it? I don't remember politely asking my victims for permission to eat them" Tikka said.
Teramon rolled her eyes. It was true, they still ate a lot of ogre and fey and human meat too, and even dragon meat in a way…but she figured that was no excuse not to treat other people kindly. In short, the concept of morality and empathy was somewhat complicated for dragons, but… well, it didn't matter at the moment, since she knew that her sister would pretend not to hear any of her arguments. Apparently stubbornness was a trait of their family.
Suddenly there was a soft sound of footsteps behind them, and both dragonesses turned to attack position, expecting to face a predator, but luckily a voice stopped any aggressive intent: "Hey, calm down! It's us!" Misune exclaimed coming out from behind some mushrooms, followed by Efren who was visibly pale. Evidently the murderous intent of the two dragonesses alone had been enough to awe him, and he was amazed at how the half-elf had managed to remain calm. "We just wanted to let me know that dinner is ready... if you'd like to join us, of course"
Tikka and Teramon let out a deep grunt of frustration. It was really annoying not having their dragon senses, because in that case they would have known about the presence of the two newcomers much in advance and would not have been so tense. Sadly, the avatars' senses, while designed to be good, couldn't hold a candle to their own. And that was really annoying. "Well, thanks for warning us. Anyway, we've already eaten... we found an annoying animal and devoured it" Teramon answered; even if their avatars could technically eat, since they had a digestive system, they couldn't expel the swallowed food unless they opened their bellies and therefore it was better to avoid weighing themselves down unnecessarily.
"Oh... ok" Efren said a little confused. He saw no bloodstains on the dragons and thought it strange that they had devoured prey and cleaned up so quickly. Maybe what they ate was something small and so they just caught it in their jaws and swallowed it almost whole. In fact, by now the dragons had reached thirteen meters in length, so they would have no difficulty in doing this with a human being or an animal of similar size. Though part of Efren thought there was something strangely touching about two sisters lovingly sharing their food, the thought of what that food was or what it might be made his blood run cold. "Well, then we can go back together. I mean, you've been out here for a long time... if there had been a danger you would have noticed it. There's no need for you to get tired"
"Right, I think it's a good idea. Basically you're right, we've been out too long... staying even longer would be strange, if not downright suspicious. Am I right, sister?" Teramon said looking at Tikka with a look that seemed mocking, but was actually very serious. Since she had no way of convincing her with the traditional methods, Teramon was using the opportunity offered to her by Efren and Misune to point out that continuing to be absent could make the newcomers doubt that they were doing something strange, and consequently Arethar could have been alerted, and they absolutely didn't want that.
Tikka let out an irritated snort, but her rationality made her realize that at the moment it was actually best to follow her sister's advice. "Okay. Let's go back" she said with a grumble and walking away.
"What's wrong with her?" Misune whispered to Teramon, hoping the other dragon didn't hear her. Luckily for her, Tikka's avatar's hearing wasn't sharp enough; if she had been there with her real body she would have heard her for sure.
Teramon shook her head. "She's always been a little grumpy… ever since we were babies. If things don't go the way that she wanted, she gets angry" she amswered. "Don't mind it, she will calm down. Sooner or later"
Misune wasn't sure if ignoring the problem was a good way to solve it, but after all Teramon knew her sister much better than she did, so she decided it was best to let her decide what to do without interfering. Efren also seemed to feel the same way, but he still wanted to ask her: "Was she really like that even when you were babies?"
"Oh, yes. For example, when our mother stopped bringing us enough food, she, I and Kotaru were the frailest in the family and so we were cut off from meals. Luckily there were Haku and Darbi who brought us food, but while Kotaru and I accepted the situation, Tikka instead wanted to go his own way and try to get some food on his own, with the result that he ended up hurting himself a lot" Teramon told them.
Efren swallowed lightly. "Seriously, what's wrong with you dragons..." he muttered, unable to fathom how a person could talk about such family abuse in such a natural way. Though, technically, from what Rhaegal had told him that was the norm for dragons.
"Well... technically she wasn't so wrong" Misune said trying to picture the scene. "I mean... it's normal that she didn't want to rely only on your brothers to survive. I'm not saying that what she did was right or logical, but it's understandable. After all, nobody likes to depend on others"
"What? Do you just say something like that?" Teramon exclaimed looking at her as if she had just tried to make her believe the sky was green. "But what if you newcomers base your entire society on depending on others! None of you are self-sufficient, all of you need the help of other people to survive. The soldier is unable to produce his own food and the farmer is unable to defend himself You live constantly in a relationship of continuous dependence..."
"There is a difference between cooperation and difference!" Misune stopped her. "We... newcomers, well, we live in a society where everyone cooperates. Our society is not based on one person doing nothing and everyone else serving him, which would be a dependency relationship. When Haku and Darbi helped you by bringing you food, you took it without giving anything in return and you weren't able to get anything else on your own, ergo you depended on them.We newcomers live by following cooperation instead, meaning each of us does something for someone else. only a few of us would be able to survive, but put together we can make everyone survive, and each of us works to contribute to this huge machine that is precisely society. A bit like you and your family, you too cooperate and so survive together"
"I have a billion objections to your statements" Teramon said. She had been in human society for a short time and in beastmen society for even less time, and had only been able to see ogre and fairy societies from an outside point of view, yet she had been able to notice countless subjects who did not cooperate at all and who didn't contribute to keeping the company stable, but who lived off their income by exploiting their position. Not to mention that the newcomers' society wasn't based on a perfect system where everyone had a precise role, or in any case where everyone tried to contribute in their own small way (a bit like what happened in her family), but on a chaotic system where the the only law that applied was prevarication. Politics, economics, the underworld... all systems that were based on subduing the adversary and assimilating all their resources, like an intelligent and incredibly cruel parasite. So to say that the society of newcomers was based on cooperation from her point of view was a ridiculous utopia.
"Me too" Efren said giving full reason to the dragoness. He too had often seen things he would rather not see, and he knew that cooperation was in fact the way humans, or newcomers in general, created their society... but then in this society many of them lived absolutely not with the aim of cooperating.
Seeing herself outnumbered, Misune just shrugged. "Well... anyway, I wouldn't like depending on someone else. So I understand" she said.
"Hey, you three! You wanted to come back, so don't just stand there chatting and get moving!" Tikka, who had gone at least twenty meters ahead in the meantime, called them loudly. Efren, Misune, and Teramon hurried after her.