A surprise?

Melita looked at the bright smile on her friend's face, and although she was now full of what she had seen and heard in the Loren continent, she couldn't help but feel a curiosity and anticipation of the "surprise" in Noretta's mouth, and with this expectation, she and Noretta returned to their residence in the coastal camp together.

The makeshift houses made of recycled materials and boulders on the shore are still rudimentary, not as simple as the once splendid upper palace of Tallund, or even the houses of the human kingdom on the Loren continent today, but these shelters built by her compatriots brick by brick still give Melita a sense of reassurance. After passing through the camp that has expanded a lot, she returned to the door of her "home" after a long absence, and the moment she stretched out her hand to open the door, the feeling of "going home" arose spontaneously in her heart, which made her smile reassuring and her mood relaxed.

Then she saw the dragon egg standing in the largest clearing in the house, and the magical runes that had been placed around the dragon egg—they were clearly thermostatic and energy-stored, and the warm breath and arcane circulation they emitted were slowly being released, nourishing the egg with its pale yellow shell and lilac spots.

In the corner of the room, an oval-shaped culture sac can be seen that has been opened, apparently the dragon egg was previously placed in this container, but now it has lost its function, and the hatch has been opened as a container for miscellaneous items, which is full of Norita's personal belongings.

Melita: "......"

"I adopted a dragon egg!" Noretta's voice suddenly came from behind her at this time, which woke up Melita, who was a little stunned, "It's a beautiful blue dragon, just like you - in fact, I wanted to adopt a white dragon at first, but after thinking about it carefully, I want to watch the small Melita grow up little by little......"

A dragon egg, a dragon egg...... Melita's heart jumped suddenly, and somehow she remembered the scene when she suddenly received a message from Cecil in Dragon's Landing Fort not long ago, and two sentences began to echo in her mind: "About the dragon egg sent by Talrond...... and "Speak......

For the first time in her life, she found out that she was allergic to "dragon eggs" - not to the dragon eggs themselves, but to the word.

"Melita?" Noreta noticed that her friend suddenly fell silent, and couldn't help but show a somewhat worried look, "What's wrong with you?" Is it too tiring to fly long distances? Sorry, I just wanted to surprise you, forgot you need to rest......"

"Ah, no, it's not that I'm tired, I'm just ......" Melita opened her mouth, completely unsure of where to start, and could only point to the dragon egg in the room and the corners of her mouth twitched twice, "So this is the surprise you prepared for me?" ”

"yes," Noretta nodded, a little overwhelmed, apparently her friend's reaction was very different from what she expected, "Didn't we talk about adopting a dragon egg?" But before the application was submitted, you suddenly received a mission to go to Loren - during this time, the situation in the camp was improving, the food supply and everyone's survivability had improved, and the Argondol side opened up more dragon egg adoption quotas, so I went to apply for one? I didn't expect it to be passed so quickly......"

Speaking of which? The White Dragon lady looked at Melita's expression with some concern: "Don't you want to adopt again?" But the adoption of dragon eggs is a very serious matter, and once you apply, you can't ......"

"Huh? No? Of course not," Melita finally broke free from the two sentences that were playing on a loop in her head. She knew that her reaction had caused Noretta to misunderstand, so she quickly waved her hand vigorously? "Am I happy? We've certainly said we're going to adopt dragon eggs before, and hatching one more baby dragon is also contributing to the revival of Tallrond, which is a good thing - I'm just a little ...... Surprised, and a little nervous. ”

"Nervous?" Noretta looked Melita up and down suspiciously several times? "What's so nerve-wracking about this?"

Because the egg he just gave to Cecil a while ago has already begun to speak! Because Ryujin has now become an egg that drinks tea and reads the newspaper all day and can talk!!

Melita's face changed twice? Eventually, all the words came back to his throat - these things were not to be passed on until they were reported to the authorities, even if Norreta was a good friend.

"It's nothing, maybe it's a bit too much to experience in the Loren Continent, I haven't gotten used to it all of a sudden," Miss Blue Dragon tugged at the corners of her mouth? Smiled a little awkwardly, and then turned his attention to the egg in the center of the room? After her mind calmed down, she finally had some real sense of what was happening in front of her? When he looked at this dragon egg, his eyes couldn't help but soften, "Dragon egg...... Not so long ago? I never imagined that I would one day choose to hatch a dragon egg...... I've always felt that this kind of thing is far away from me? It won't have anything to do with me for at least twenty millennia. ”

Noretta looked at Melita? She seemed to sense that the other party had something to hide, but years of understanding between friends made her not ask about this issue, but nodded lightly: "Of course I understand, after all, I, like you, am also a high-level employee customized by a biochemical company, no parents, no siblings, no innate social relationships, family tendencies have become weak due to genetic adjustment, under normal circumstances, the upper-level dragon clan customized by the company like us is likely not to incubate their 'children' in their lives...... But now everything has changed. ”

Melita smiled, and suddenly looked at the dragon egg with some curiosity: "By the way, have you decided on a name?" ”

"Not yet, I'm going to wait for the little ones to hatch," Noretta shook her head, "There are two other families in the camp who have also claimed their eggs, and everyone is ready to wait for the hatchlings to hatch before naming them." ”

"Family...... It's a distant concept for custom employees," Melita couldn't help but sigh softly, and then suddenly became a little curious, "But then again, isn't the hatchling of our hatchlings equivalent to having two 'mothers'?" ”

"What's wrong with that?" Noretta blinked, "The young dragon next door to us will have three fathers in the future!" After all, everyone has adopted dragon eggs - there are not many conditions for forming a normal family in this wasteland now......"

Melita thought for a moment, and suddenly it felt like there was nothing wrong with it......

Then she thought of another question: "By the way, how long will it take for our dragon eggs to hatch?" ”

"This dragon egg has hatched in the third stage of the hatchery, and its protective sac has been keeping the egg alive since then, so it looks like it will be successfully hatching in a short time - maybe less than a month," Noretta said immediately, "Now I have set it up with a constant temperature and replenish the consumption of these runes with my mana every day - if you come to help [Nameless] in the future, we can take turns staying next to the egg, and it may be even more efficient to hatch." ”

Melita's expression became strange as she imagined that she would soon begin to try to hatch eggs, she couldn't tell if it was anticipation or nervousness, but when she saw the smile on Noretta's face and heard the sound of her compatriots building camp outside the door, those turbulent thoughts finally calmed down, and the strange expression finally converged into a smile.

"Of course, I'll come to help as soon as possible—but before that I have to make a trip to Argondol, where Speaker Andal and Leader Hlagor are still waiting for my debriefing."

……

The mountain city of Argondol, the name of this glorious place, has been destroyed by the devastating war, and the temples and temples that citizens were proud of have been reduced to the remnants of the mythological era.

The reborn Argondol is located on the edge of the ruins of the old city, next to the foot of the main peak of Agondor, which was once part of the "lower Tallund", and before the war, it was crowded with dense buildings and cobweb-like three-dimensional traffic bridges that covered the sky and the area was shrouded in artificial twilight for most of the day, even during the polar day—and then, everything changed, and the war destroyed everything, as well as the layered structure of Tallund, The massive buildings and traffic grids that obscure the sky melt into part of the earth, remnants of ruins or newly built rudimentary complexes...... Today is a fair bath in the sunshine brought by the great sun.

Standing on a high platform in the center of this temporary "capital", Hageor reflected the distant scene of the city in his pale golden vertical pupils: a group of dragons were clearing the ruins in the southwest corner of the city, and in the absence of heavy machinery, they could only rely on their natural strength and magic to complete this difficult task. The wreckage of the ruins, which consisted mainly of molten metal and high-strength polymers, is being systematically removed.

Rather than being destroyed, what is cleared from the rubble is first sent to the nearest "dismantling site", where Andal instructs the young dragons to use their ancient wisdom to build a large elemental quenching pit there, and Baloger leaves behind drawings and other materials to help the mechanics understand how to disassemble the scrapped facility from the basic materials that can still be used.

The "garbage" dug up from the ruins will be given a new identity in the dismantling yard: they are all invaluable resources in the rebuilding of the city.

Hragore looked at the city's growing complexes, everything that had been expanded from the "refuge camp" of the recent past, and though it had grown several times in size, it was still essentially like a much larger refugee camp: rough but functional makeshift houses, public facilities built on the sturdy frames of old factories, improvised machine stations and medical stations scattered throughout the city, all neatly arranged, There's not much beauty to speak of.

Since the last "beacon fire" was lit, Agondor has become the largest gathering place on this plain, and more and more of the displaced compatriots have gathered in this shelter, some of them were found by patrolling squads, and some of them came to seek refuge on their own initiative, these compatriots have relieved the urgent need for labor, but also put the carrying capacity of Agondor to the test, so everything here must be practical - no matter what the appearance is, at least to make sure that the compatriots have a tile to cover themselves.

However, in Hlagor's view, this hastily built city of refuge may not be beautiful enough, but it has another kind of "beauty" that touches the heart, and those rough and even ugly buildings are full of some kind of living power, which is the "soul" of the dragons who have lost 1.87 million years, compared to the splendor of Tallund, which is more like a carved tomb - the bones buried in it have long since rotted.

The sound of footsteps came from beside him, waking Hragor from his thoughts, and the former High Dragon Priest followed the prestige to see Andal's figure appearing on the high platform.

"The mission led by Melita has returned from Loren," Andal said to Hragere, "and they are now resting in 'Marina County.'" ”

"Coastal County" is the name given by the dragons to the forward camp on the Broken Coast, and now as the scale of the camp gradually expands, and the boundaries of the safe zone along the Broken Coast gradually stabilize, this slightly poetic and beautiful name has gradually taken on a veritable flavor.

Hragor nodded: "The last news they came from was the official establishment of the Theocratic Council and the first supplies of the Food Council will be gathered in the northern port of Cecil in the near future - both pieces of news are enough to boost everyone's morale, especially the second one." ”

"We didn't expect the Loren States to organize such aid on such a large scale and so quickly," Andal said with emotion, "Originally, according to our expectations, even if Melita had persuaded several of the richest human nations in the shortest possible time, the preparation of aid would have to wait until at least the end of summer in the northern hemisphere...... Even wait until late fall, when we face food shortages that could last for months. ”

Gawain Cecil...... This time, Tarlund owes a huge favor. Hagere said in a deep voice.

"Our gods seem to have preceded before they left, that the greatest variables of civilization this season will be focused on that human," Andal pondered, "and for this he even put his legacy in his hands—and though we have been freed from the shackles of faith, we must admit that the gods' judgments are far longer than mortals." ”

"Inheritance...... Hellagore's expression suddenly became a little strange as he listened to Andal's words, "Actually, I'm still a little unsure, when the god left a message saying that he would give 'all this' to Gawain Cecil, and whether this 'everything' includes the egg - after all, there are two interpretations of this sentence, and 'everything' can also refer to 'everything' in terms of knowledge and intelligence......"

"Why did you suddenly think of this again?" Andal couldn't help asking, "We've all already sent the egg." ”

“…… Again," Hagere thought for a moment and smiled with relief, "Maybe I'm just a little sensitive about this matter - in any case, this land is not only our former prison, but also has bound him for millions of years, and now that his 'legacy' can leave here for the distant continent of Loren, he must be glad if he still knows." ”

"I think so too."