I, a Heroic Soldier from the Last Demon War, Became a Father to a Pair of Demonic Beast Children. Am I Really Fit to be a Dad to These Adorable Kids?

02: Now What?

Adam dismounted his horse with ease, giving its neck a small pat as it huffed. The air was scorching, dry, and smoky, with roiling and angry dark clouds.

The source would be obvious to even a small child. A great caldera rising high into the sky, belching noxious smoke into the air that lingered unnaturally while lava flows lazily trailed down.

Death Mountain. The place where fortune came to die, or so Chef Charlie had told him once. Lots of people went there, and lots died. Never successfully settled, but rumor of riches, ancient treasures, good iron, silver, even gold, in its depths always kept new victims coming

Adam had liked Chef Charlie. He’d made good biscuits and snuck Adam extra rations back when Adam was a lot younger in the army. Shame he got carried off by a griffin.

Intel was limited. The volcano was controlled by a powerful monster, likely a fire dragon, but age, size, temperment, if it had a mate, if it had minions, were all unknown.

Likewise, his resources were limited. He had his horse, which was not trained for calvary charges and he considered more emergency food if necessary, his armor, his mace, shield, and himself. There were no reinforcements expected until two weeks in.

Not ideal, but he’d faced worse situations in the Demon War.

It was time to get to work.

~~~~

The battle was short, fierce, and victorious.

There was next to no point in stealth as Death Mountain itself may have had foliage and cover on its sides, but the caldera itself was bare rock scorched by lava and fire. He marched up there, the dragon noticed, and they fought.

As far as dragons went, he’d seen better. It was decent size, but nothing like the elders. Those were true monsters, whose breath could burn entire towns to the very bedrock and left nothing but ashes and melted armor of even the best fighters.

This one’s age also showed. It made errors, like assuming Adam couldn’t jump high enough to grab onto its side as it flew, nor trying to dislodge Adam by diving into the lava to make him retreat.

It died crashing into the ground as Adam choked it out. Easiest way to kill most dragons, provided you had the strength for it, as their scales were a bitch and a half to pierce, and their bones were reinforced with iron and harder than steel. Adam could smash them apart, but dragon materials were valuable and the bone splinters worth significantly less than a whole carcass that could be broken down into materials for arms, armor, reagents, and food.

Adam grunted, popping his shoulder back into place. Its thrashing had gotten him good at the end there. Looking over its long corpse, easily fifty feet from head to tail, he estimated it’d stay good for two or three years. Fire dragon flesh was notoriously resistant to spoiling and insects would even die trying to eat it, although larger creatures were fine. Even tasted nice raw, like smoked meat, and was quite nutritious.

Which was nice given that trying to cook fire dragons was a lesson in futility.

“Well. Better finish checking its lair,” he commented to himself, leaving the carcass where it laid.

Who knew, it might have some goodies stashed away. Although Adam hoped it wouldn’t be another princess. He’d had enough of princesses.

Finding the dragon’s lair in the Caldera wasn’t difficult, given he’d spotted it emerge from its cave at the highest point available. The trail there was littered with basalt, lava, and not much else, until he got closer and started finding charred bones.

There were a lot, easily a whole village's worth, by his estimates, but they weren’t human. Few were intact, but the skulls had sharper canines, plus the snake like ribs were a tell. At least two species, although he wouldn’t be surprised if there were more. Shame his bone carver buddy had died in the vortex incident. That guy knew his bones and could have identified them instantly, plus likely would have made a mean blade with the dragon’s femurs.

Inside was an expansive cavern, including a lava pool for presumed bathing in and a boiling hot spring. Little treasure was around, though, leaving Adam a bit disheartened. The dragon must have been recently established.

But, at the back of the cave, he found a giant boulder blocking a chamber. Grunting, he pushed it out of the way and was surprised first by the smell of unwashed bodies, but then he saw them.

A kitsune and a lamia, both children, were huddling in the corner. They gasped when they saw him and promptly fainted.

“Shit,” he muttered, realizing the situation had gotten more complicated.

~~~~

Adam did not know what to do about children.

He’d joined the army young, and his earliest memories of the orphanage were hazy at best. Some childish laughter, and that was about it.

As an adult, as a soldier, he’d almost never encountered children at all. This was because he was constantly fighting, and being sent to the worst of the battles the war had to offer. On those battlefields, children had no place. Raging demons, monstrous chimeras, dragons whose wrath burned beyond belief, were the bread and butter of such fights. Any child in or around them was assuredly dead.

He’d heard rumors of scouting forces, raiders among the calvary who had struck into the demon lands and had ‘killed’ the young ones before they could become a threat, but that had always sat ill with him.

Give Adam an opponent to fight, and he’d finish it to the bitter end. But some of those men mentioned chasing them down and talking in the same tone as nobles talking of a fox hunt.

Ultimately, Adam’s decision was decided by his own history.

His childhood was a hazy mist lost of time, but he remembered being small, weak, and crying outside a burning home, sobbing for people whose faces he’s forgotten. But, a spider woman, an arachne, one of the deadliest among the enemy, had came upon him in that Hell.

By the usual stories, he should have died. Instead, as the fires threatened to consume him, she’d…

Thrown him in the nearby stream. There, the water protected him until the village finished burning down and he was found by a wandering patrol shortly after.

In the end, he resolved to spare them. He was doubtful they’d be threats at their age, and moreover…

He’d seen enough death.

…

Ultimately, he took them back with him. Inaction would see them expire in the caldera. What plans the dragon had for them, he had no idea, but the crunched and charred bones were a good indicator.

He sacrificed his bedroll and tent to let them sleep somewhere more comfortable, and set about working.

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d roughed it beneath the scars with nothing but his pack for a pillow.

The next morning, they still slept, so he got to work on making breakfast. He had rations, but why eat rations when there was fresh dragon meat available?

You had to cut the meat thinly, and then soak in fresh water for a bit, but if you did that it would actually cook. For today, he made a few skewers and set it to cook over the campfire. One for him, and two for the children when they awoke.

Gradually, as the sun began to rise, he heard movement from the tent.

A single Kitsune ear poked out, flicking and listening as the Kitsune child became curious about the scent. A light hissing from the Lamia had the fox child slip back into the tent, but a few moments later their noses poked out once more.

He knew better than to say anything, as his voice was rough and harsh from a long time using it in battle. They would come out on their own time, if they were hungry enough.

Which, judging from the pitiful growls their bellies were making, they really wanted some food.

Slowly, they snuck out of the tent, low to the ground and looking anywhere but directly at him as they sniffed around for the food. Delicious, warm food that would help them in the long run if they ate it.

“Hey there,” he said, trying to moderate his voice as he could and cursing how rough it sounded. “'I’m, uh, Adam. What are your names?” he tried.

“…Myrrr,” the fox child whimpered a little, shrinking away from him towards the shadow as he paid attention to them.

The Lamia child hissed, sticking close to the Kitsune and trying to hide in her dirty hairball of a tail.

Adam frowned, and was a little unsure. That was about as non-threatening as he could be.

Unbidden, a memory came to him. It was one of the times he’d actually been in an intact town. Sure, it had been awaiting a horrifyingly powerful demonic assault, but it had been a town. One of the soldiers had been trying to befriend a scared stray cat who refused to approach, and he’d done so by offering food, but also not looking directly at them. Instead, he would only glance, out of the corner of his eye. Gradually, the cat had approached until it was in petting distance.

It then scratched the fuck out of his hand. But Adam had no better ideas…

Adam turned away a bit, not looking directly at the two. Instead, he just enjoyed the nearby stream burbling.

The two slowly snuck up, looking at the cooked skewers, and took some. But they didn’t stay close, they snatched some and moved to the other side of the fire, as though trying to use it to block his sight of them.

It was adorable, and he could still see them just fine, but they shared some food even as he put more skewers on the fire.

They were really hungry, it seemed. Who knew when they had last eaten? Given their state, it must have been a while. Well, it wasn’t like he didn’t have enough meat. He did have a whole dragon, after all.

This process, ultimately, repeated several times. They didn’t eat as much as he would, usually, but given their size, it was impressive.

Gradually, though, with only a minimum of hissing and wariness, they got full and drowsy, before they fell asleep leaning against each other. He put the two back to bed in his bedroll, tucking them in, and turned back to his camp.

It was a definite work in progress, and right now anyone could just walk into it. He needed to start working on the defenses, and to do that, he needed wood.

With that, he stretched until he popped his arms, and then walked off to the nearest copse of trees to begin harvesting wood.

He had a job to do, after all.

~~~~

AN:

Lu: Took a little while irl to get started on this but there has been nothing but good things coming and I really do appreciate Hidden and Kitsune for dragging my butt to the chat to do this. Thanks, guys.

Kitsu: This is genuinely a really fun story, and I can’t wait to do more of it tbh. Once we get a third chapter done, we’ll be posting this on places like Questionable Questing and Royal Road, especially as this story is entirely non-lewd, so we can actually have a bit of fun with it there.

And hey, if we start making money from publishing it, we’ll be able to give Lu a bit of cash back, even if it probably won’t be much at first. Like an investment!

HiddenMaster: Indeed. This fic has some fun potential as a sort of village building type of story.

But it’s a lot of fun, and I am eager to explore more.

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