CHAPTER 4: PEP TALK
Quick Author's Note: I forget to mention this but Maul is voiced by Jeremy Irons. Look up his over the top performance in Dungeons & Dragons for more reference.
Maul was pretty furious with his daughter to say the least after she had missed out on the ceremony he had put together the previous night,he had gone through all the trouble of gathering the entire herd of Fire Breathers only for the very one it was about to not even show up. Maul was laying down on what appeared to be a natural throne made out of various rocks while Marie timidly stood in front of it. Crystal was present as well and looked more disappointed than anything compared to her furious mate.
"Marie you are continuously testing my patience with this behavior of yours!" angrily lamented Maul as he stood up and paced around his throne before Marie meekly tried to explain herself "But Dad I-" only for her father to interrupt "You always go off when I tell you not to,you've repeatedly disrespected me behind my back and now when I've put together a ceremony for you in front of the entire herd,you can't even be bothered to show up! It's like I'm the father of a rock!"
Crystal could only roll her eyes and give a sigh of disappointment while tears started to form in Marie's eyes to which Maul started to slightly lighten up as he calmly continued "Oh Marie can't you understand? I'm not going to be around forever,we're not gonna be around forever and the herd will need a strong leader once I'm gone. I'm doing this so you can be that leader,and if we ever find our way back to the surface that you will be the one to take the Great Valley."
It was that last sentence that caused Marie to perk up and grunt as she snapped back "But what if I don't wanna take the Great Valley? That's all you ever talk about,if we ever get out of here I just wanna be free and explore the world. Besides what if there's already herds living there? I don't wanna have to take their home away."
Crystal then turned her head away and grew a small smile on her face that Maul couldn't see while the latter gritted his teeth and whispered to himself "So Mother's been seeing you more huh?" before continuing much louder and abrasive "That's no way for my daughter to live and you know it! We could have the whole world in the grasp of our paws and you would instead explore and what? Try to make friends? Well guess what,as long as you're a fire breather,no other herd will want anything to do with you,let alone their hatchlings!"
"Maul!" gasped Crystal in shock of his words followed by Marie crying in retaliation "Daddy!" only for Maul to shout in a booming voice that shook the walls and caused red and orange flames to pour from his mouth and snout "SILENCE!!!! THIS TALK IS OVER AND I AM NEVER TO HEAR OF THIS NONSENSE EVER AGAIN! NOW GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!"
Marie couldn't even bring herself to say anything back as tears started pouring from her eyes while she flew off,leaving only Maul and Crystal behind as the latter angrily scolded "That was very uncalled for Maul." only for the former to scoff and disagree "What? She needs to learn,what do you think I was too hard on her?"
"Oh you figured that much? I thought that was an Earthshake at first before I heard your voice and eased up." another voice suddenly joined in from up ahead as the two of them turned over to see a much older Fire Breather flying their way,she had dark green skin and scales formed on her back and had a generally snarky attitude oozing off of her everywhere.
"Hello Mother,I was just getting to you." greeted Maul with a resentful sneer on his face before his mother quietly asked Crystal "Hello there dearie,is my dumb rock of a son treating you good?" resulting in Crystal letting out a few chuckles before Maul cleared his throat and stated "Mother you've been seeing my daughter more have you?"
"More or less." Maul's mother nonchalantly retorted before continuing more firmly and serious "Hey now don't go snapping at me,she was the one who kept on coming to me after all. Heck if you talked to more of the herd you'd see that they're more like Marie than you'd think." only for Maul to groan in response "Well it doesn't matter what the rest of the herd thinks,I'm still the leader and the strongest one down here. Fear is what keeps them in check and if I tell them we're taking the Great Valley,then they will follow me regardless of how they feel. That's the kind of leader my daughter needs to be."
"Well I will agree with you on one thing,one way or another we need to get out of here. We've been down here too long." sighed Crystal in an attempt to find some common ground with Maul before his mother added "Yeah you're right on that honey." to which Maul groaned before quietly telling himself "We need to get back to the surface,and we will be ready."