"Pretending to be a dragon? An Imposter in our mountain? If there is, do not kill them. I will do much, much worse to them." The irate black dragon Matriarch demanded.
"Just give me a bit of time. I will have to see them before I will know, and it won't be easy to get a good look at all the dragons here in the mountain." Cain agreed.
"Then it's decided. Nobody leaves. Come to the Ancient and make your mark on this scroll. Only once every dragon in the mountain has the enchantment will I allow anyone to exit." The Ancient Black Dragon declared.
A piece of black parchment appeared in front of Cain, completely blank, but with a set of runes at the top that Cain recognized as the Dragon version of a percentage completion indicator. The mark would fade with every mark and only vanish when every living being in the area had marked the parchment.
"Ladies, step up and mark the scroll. Just put your hand on it so that the Matriarch can tell who you are and that you don't have their stolen property." Cain instructed his Disciples.
They had just arrived, so it clearly wasn't them, but that didn't matter to the enchantment. Everyone had to be inspected, and if they came close while carrying the egg or had handled it at any point, the Matriarch would know.
Dragons were bound to their offspring with a mental link. The fact that someone had actually managed to steal it at all was shocking, and the moment that it hatched, she would be able to find her child again, so Cain wasn't sure what the end goal was if there was one at all.
It was possible that someone simply bore a grudge and wanted to take the egg and hide it to upset her.
One after another, the girls stepped up and marked the scroll, with their full names and species appearing on the parchment.
When Luna placed her hand on it, the gigantic head of the Black Dragon snaked forward to get a better look, verifying for herself what she had seen when the girl touched the scroll.
"This one, she is your daughter, isn't she? Such a thing shouldn't exist if it weren't for one of you." The Dragon asked, with a hint of mischief in her voice.
"She is. Her mother is back on the Mortal Plane world that the Creators made so long ago." Cain agreed.
"Don't speak their true names here. The Human Gods have put a taboo on them, and it will draw their attention. They are still holding a grudge over their failure to take a Mortal Realm world." She informed Cain.
"Noted. That's the last thing I need. We just need to finish up the quests and find a way back to the Ancient home, so I can meet the rest of my children." Cain agreed.
"Is the quest to merge with that Dragon Core?" She asked.
"Yeah, that's the quest. I am getting there. It just takes experience and time."
"If you find the thief or my egg, I will fix it for you. Even after you merge with it, that Core is still damaged." She decided.
Just Merging with it would be enough to bring Cain into the Immortal Realm, so if it was still damaged, he should be incredibly powerful once it was fixed. That would make it much easier to find a way to open a portal between Realms.
Tena was watching the interaction between the three, wondering how the Dragon knew that Luna was Cain's daughter with just a glance when she heard a group of dragons giggling and felt the eyes on her back.
"Is there something stuck to me? My sisters often play pranks." She asked the juvenile dragons.
"No, it's just that we never saw a Dragon Monk before. Do you worship Dragons, so you wanted to imbue your skills with our power? Or what?" The leader of the small group asked.
"It just seemed like the best way." Tena shrugged, not wanting to deal with a bunch of stuck-up Draconic schoolgirls.
She had seen enough of their types of personalities inside the Sects to know what they were up to, and she was in no mood to get into it with them, at least not here inside a mountain full of Dragons.
"Children, behave. The Human is right. It is the best way, even if they only know a pale imitation of what we do. What is your name, human? Since we are all locked in here until the scoundrel who offended the Divine Black Mistress is found, perhaps you would like to learn a few new things?" A dragon in the form of an old man with a long golden beard and bald head suggested.
"It is an honor to learn from an Elder. I am the only one following this path in our group, and I am a bit stuck on my path forward." Tena replied.
"Well, the Golden Dragons can cure that. There is nothing that we cannot do is the mightiest and noblest of Dragons." The man insisted.
"Stuck up old codger." One of the youths whispered under her breath, only to get a blast of golden fire in the face for her trouble.
"I am old, not deaf. You young punks would do well to remember it." He replied, then led Tena away by the hand.
One after another, the Dragons signed the sheet, marking their presence with a charm that only the Black Dragon Matriarch could sense, but the more that signed it, the happier she was becoming.
"Penny, you have a tracking spell to find specific objects, right? Can you use it on the other eggs in the nest and see if you get any sense of another one here in the mountain? There is a chance that they only hid their traces from Dragon Magic." Cain suggested to the druid, who was the only one of the disciples other than Luna, if she merged with a tracker, that could do it.
Penny cast the spell, then frowned. "It only has a range of a hundred meters. That doesn't even take me across the room."
Well, that was unfortunate.
"Then stand here next to me. If anyone has it hidden, you might be able to tell."
The chances were very slim, but it made the Black Dragon happy, so Cain was willing to go with it for as long as necessary.
It seemed more likely that whoever it was had either already left or they would be the one trying to avoid coming in to be marked on the list now that so many measures to find the egg had been taken.
It took them four hours to mark down everyone in the room, and the result was as Cain had expected. They were all dragons, and none of them had any traces of the egg on them.
Once they were finished, the Black Dragons in the mountain started leading the others inside to be checked. They were all equals inside the mountain, and the dragon's personal spaces were somewhat sacred to each other, but for an incident this large, they were willing to cooperate. At the very least, their cooperation meant that the Divine Black Dragon wouldn't make life unnecessarily hard on them.
She had already cast a barrier over the mountain so they couldn't leave, and all of the livestock were outside, leaving them to eat stored meals. That wouldn't be acceptable to them for long.
Just after the first room was cleared, the old Golden Dragon returned with Tena in tow to make his mark before returning with her to his study. Tena didn't seem to be in any distress, so Cain just waved goodbye as they left and let her find her own inspiration for her next Class Advancement.
"That Golden Dragon isn't a Dragon." Cain pointed out, indicating the sheet, where it clearly said "Chronomos, Deity" at his place in the list.
"Oh, we all know. But he has been masquerading as a Golden Dragon for so long that nobody minds." The Matriarch informed him, accompanied by the agreement of the next few dragons in line, all transformed into either whelps or humanoids, so they could line up more effectively.
She clearly trusted the old man, so Cain would as well. Learning from a Dragon was great. Learning from a fully-fledged Deity would be even better for Tena.
The next dragon in line tapped the sheet, and Cain smiled down at her humanoid form with pure white scales.
"What's so funny?" She asked.
"A memory. I have an Opal Prismatic Dragon as a friend at home, and she is obsessed with sweet things. The peanut butter on your cheek reminded me of her." Cain replied.
The dragon swiped her cheek clean in horror, realizing that he wasn't lying, then shrugged. "Peanut butter is good. Possibly the best thing that humans have come up with."
"Talk to Luna when you get a chance. She also loves sweet things, and I think she might be able to get you some new peanut butter snack recipes." Cain recommended.
"Your daughter? I will find her. I think she was headed for one of the restaurants." The dragon agreed, pointing toward a building at the edge of the central area.
"Remind her not to explore out too far. She is an inquisitive one, and she tends to wander off if there are interesting things." Cain requested, making the dragon laugh as she walked away.
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