Point of View: Cactier (only for this chapter)

The sky had brightened and the sun had started to rise. Birds started to chirp and the scavengers started to wander.

A small, innocent SandWing dragonet lay atop a mall mountain of corpses, smiling gently. The blood at died the grass red, while the dragonet sat there peacefully.

Sunburn felt weird. She hadn't felt disgust or fear. She wasn't the slightest bit nauseated. She was actually felt a bit of joy, which caused the young adult SandWing beside her to shake in fear. His expression was lifeless and pale.

Cactier had seen her kill every single one of them, with a cute smile. Her features were bathed red.

His fear for her had risen to a new level. He had decided to never offend a monster like her, even at the cost of his dignity. He trembled slightly before giving up all resistance. He had a certain limit, and she had crossed it numerous times.

Sunburn pointed at Cactier and shouted in a commanding tone, "Do you know where Hyena's Fury is?"

Cactier quickly nodded, hoping not to grab the attention of the small demon.

"Find me in Hyena's Fury after you clean up these corpses. My name's Sunburn, so don't forget!"

Before Cactier could answer, she rose into the sky, flying off into the now risen sun.

She had cast a spell on herself and him.

The first spell was on her: enchant myself to forever have the same soul, no matter how many spells I cast.

The second was on him: enchant this dragon to become obey my every command, become loyal to me and never betray me for 5 years.

At first Cactier wanted to fight back, he wanted to scream, he wanted to chop her into pieces and each her flesh. But something inside him changed… his heart thumped at the sight of Sunburn.

He tried convinced himself it was the spell but… he could feel the fake loyalty clearly. He tried to fight back against it but it was similar to an immoveable mountain against the speck that was his will. He tried to change the artificial emotion planted but he couldn't

But this feeling… he felt as if his heart had instantly accepted it. He tried to hate it with all his might. He tried to remove it. Nothing worked.

After an hour of trying to resist the feeling he unwillingly let it be. He tried to accept the reason he stopped was because he had already tried but he knew it was something else.

Cactier shook his head and focused at the task at hand. He started at the corpses in disgust before trying to think of a plan.

Later, when he had finally buried all the corpses and removed the blood from the grass, he stared into the sun.

However, the moment he looked into it, he remembered the silhouette of Sunburn. He shook his head in anger and wondered why he would have such thoughts.

The large male SandWing opened his wings and launched into the sky, rushing towards the direction of Hyena's Fury.

-2.53 hours later-

Cactier never realized how hard it was to travel. Since he was the son of some rich royal advisor, he never had to do anything for himself. After all, why did he? He had everything he wished for a step away. And even then, he had servants bring it to him; so traveling in the smothering heat was torture.

But every time he wanted stop and rest, he felt the nagging urge to continue. An eager voice inside of him yelled don't you want to see your master Sunburn? Hurry or else she might become displeased!

He hated it so very much, but continued.

At long last, he had spotted land buildings and tents in the flat desert landscape. Relief spread through his body as he asked his voice if he could rest now.

He furiously shook his head, while interrogating himself. Why are you asking permission from a voice in your head?!

Nothing made sense! Why was he like this now?!

Cactier rushed towards Hyena's Fury and pushed those thoughts to the back of head. Maybe if he suppressed them enough, they wouldn't come back.

When he arrived his first thought was to find water and food. He had packed a pack of gold to purchase anything he wanted. He looked around before spotting a stall with his favorite snacks: cooked snakes.

He quickly went up to the stall and asked for a bowl of cooked snakes while showing a few gold coins in his palms.

The vendor nodded politely the moment he spotted the coins. He grabbed a bowl from under his stall and places it in front of Cactier.

He then pointed at three types of snakes he had.

The three containers had worn out signs with the words: Sidewinder, Desert Rattlesnake, and King Cobra

He contemplated for a moment before asking for a bit of each. The store vendor quickly nodded and started to fill his bowl. Cactier started to drool at the sight of the snakes and stopped putting pressure on the other voice.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the voice demanded angrily Well, aren't you going to get some for Master?

Cactier retorted with the amount of money he had. He only had about 10 more coins in his little pouch.

What's more important?! HUH?!

Cactier admitted defeat and asked the store vender for another bowl of snake while taking out a few more gold coins.