Page 67 of Escaping my Dragon

“No. They are servants whose only task is to cater to my needs.”

“And these drones, are made by you.”

“I thought I already explained that to you.”

“You did, but can you detail it again for the audience.”

Leviathan sighed. “Drones are created by bathing suitable ovum with my essence.”

“Bathing in this case means inseminating. And where are you getting the eggs from…”

“You.” He purred huffing smoke through his nostrils.

Joslyn exhaled. “Perfection.”

“To clarify, you’re saying you can procreate with other species.” I kept the focus on the topic and not his claiming of the content of my ovaries.

“Yes.”

“I have to ask, was it your mom or dad who belonged to the alien subspecies that conceived you?”

“What?” Leviathan exclaimed and I chugged ahead.

“When we previously spoke you mentioned arriving here in a shell that birthed you indicating you were created elsewhere. So who made you? You claim your kind don’t share planets. If that’s the case, then it seems likely you’re not just an alien to Earth, but also half alien from the planet you were made.”

“You would insult me and call me impure!” Shock more than rage tainted the exclamation.

“Just asking a question. I’m going to assume you don’t know who your mommy and daddy are. Wouldn’t it be wild if they made you as a drone to serve them?”

“I am not a drone and I am not a half-breed, either.”

“How can you be sure if you’ve never met your parents?” I hammered, probably harder than I should have, but the more info we got, the better before time ran out.

“I just know. Unlike humans,” a word uttered like a slur, “We are born with knowledge.”

“Which seems kind of awful when you think about it. I mean you landed here millions of years ago, back in a primitive time. No one to talk to. No one comparable enough mentally to be a companion. It must have been lonely.” It might seem like a strange shift in tactics, but again, I sought information.

“A god has no need of friends.”

“No need, or you are too much of a jerk to have any?”

“What does a friend offer than I can’t take?”

“Well, for one, they’re around, so you’re not alone. They listen if you have something exciting, or sad, or absolutely tea-licious to tell. They laugh if you fall on your ass and then offer you a hand back up. They share a tub of ice cream with you so the calories don’t count. They make life better.”

“Until they betray you,” Leviathan growled before suddenly slipping off the peninsula, the turmoil of his passage causing the ground to shake. The vibration set my feet sliding and digging in my heels didn’t stop my descent and I fell off the edge⁠—

—into the arms of my soldier.

Chapter Twenty-One

The interview ended abruptly as I slid into the water, looking to cool my ire. The liquid around me simmered and bubbled. The aquatic life caught in the sudden boiling heat began to float. A quick inhalation dragged them into my gullet, and I squirted out the water through my nose before swallowing the remainder.

The nerve of my servant with her insulting impertinence. Pointing out I had no friends. As if I needed any. Implying I might be genetically imperfect. I was a god. Look at me. My size. My greatness. My powers! And yet… the question she posed bothered. Who had created me? I had no memory, no inherited knowledge of my provenance, nothing. However, if I examined the facts, it seemed rather likely I was not pure, but rather a mixed product. Something I should have grasped, seeing as how the only progeny I could create, those I called drones, required biological matter locally available. I did have to wonder at the size of my original inseminator and egg provider, though. I’d arrived in a stone ovum big enough to cause a catastrophe. Meanwhile, the drones I’d created during my waking periods in the past had emerged from eggs I could have crushed easily with one claw.

I’d managed the largest when fertilizing dinosaur clutches. The drones from those batches had lasted through several awakenings. The ones who replicated with other creatures? Not as hardy.

Velma’s eggs, for example, while copious within her body, would result in tiny specimens, and, given what I knew of human infants, would likely prove unviable. However, I did find myself curious to see what a mix of my greatness with an evolved human would produce. My last attempt had been before they’d managed speech and some semblance of cognizance.