I was sitting in on a lesson as my paladin master, Delvo was teaching the younger recruits and apprentices. I was trying my hardest not to fall asleep during another one of his tirades, when my lover Sharonna started whispering sweet nothings in my ear.
"Right now I really want to lock you in a closet with me. Again," she magically threw her voice from across the room.
"Not now, love," I tried to whisper back, but my magic isn't nearly as precise as hers, so several younger paladins definitely heard me.
"Adiran, boy," Delvo said, "You and Sharonna better not be up to something again, or do want latrine duty extended for another three months?"
"No sir," I said folding my hands behind my back.
"Good, where was I? Oh yes, our world Cadionia has enemies from all sides, metaphysically speaking. There are the demons of Pandemonium, and the Chronovores from the Time Between Times, as well as all manner of monsters on this very world. All of these horrors are beyond mortal capabilities, but we are beyond mere mortals. We are paladins and we-"
"Pardon me, Master," a younger recruit said, "What about dragons?"
"Dragons, yes. I don't think we need to fear them any longer, at least not for a very long time," Delvo said, "The last invasion from Sindara was over a century ago, and three of the five times they've tried ended in failure."
"True," the apprentice continued, pointing out the window, "But they are the closest threat." I turned to look out the window and as always, Sindara, the dragon homeworld, hung splendidly in the evening sky, flanked by its two bright moons.
Everyone grew up hearing tales of our sister planet, that it was as hostile to human life as it was difficult to reach. Supposedly human magic didn't work on that world, so only a magician of dragonblood could even hope to reach SIndara by portal. The only man I knew who had been there and lived to tell the tale was in the room with me, Master Delvo.
"They aren't a unified threat," he explained, "Sindara is home to four races of half-dragons, and only of those, the drakes, have ever shown any organized hostility towards humanity. And even then, three of the five invasions have been a single king and his army with more ambition than sense. Individual dragons may still be a threat to us, but Sindara as a whole is not."
"I wouldn't mind another invasion," my friend and comrade Hastor said a little too loudly, "Considering most of them are women." This caused a chorus of groans and sighs from the entire room.
Then there's that, the thing that made Sindara infamous more than any invading army of half-drakes ever could.
"Let it go, Hastor," I said, "You'll never even see a Sindaran harem, let alone be the king of one."
"This again..." Master Delvo said rolling his eyes, "Yes, it's true that female half-dragons outnumber the men, and yes it's true that the women are naturally inclined to join harems, and yes, the men do hibernate for up to two decades at a time. But it is not, and I quote "a constant orgy of sexually repressed, feral women." And no, I did not have a harem of followers when I was there!"
"Nobody asked that, you old scoundrel," Sharonna teased the old man.
"Fine, if you're all going to bother me about this all night, let's get all of the misconceptions out of the way," the old paladin said.
"In the distant past, a unified human and dragon civilization tried to create a hybrid race that could live freely on both planets. They created four races of half dragons, drakes, lungs, coatls, and sea-serpents, or merfolk. For some reason, wyverns and hydras were not chosen for the experiment, although it's likely because of their extreme aggression.
"What about dragonbloods, sir," Sharonna asked, "You and I don't look like dragons."
"And yet we can't even tell the difference," I said to her.
"I take that as a compliment, you know," she threw her voice back to me and I grinned. She had a point. Although she was human, dragonbloods like her were universally more attractive from the high saturation of magic in their veins. Even Master Delvo was still handsome, I supposed, in his old age.
"The dragonblood was their first attempt," the old paladin explained, "And it wasn't what they wanted, otherwise there were be a lot more of us today."
"Second misconception," he continued, "most Sindaran's do not have wings, and even fewer breathe fire, ice, or whatever. Only half-drakes have any kind of powerful magic breath, and only three of the four races have wings at all. Lungs are the only ones that never do. Wings are also a recessive trait passed on by the father, however women can also reproduce asexually, which is called parthenogenesis. So, women born without a father cannot grow wings, and these ones make up most of the population."
"Third misconception, the harem process is not a free for all orgy; it's meticulous, and highly regulated, involving long drawn-out breeding contracts. It's more like a meritocracy. While the men hibernate, the women compete with one another in all fields of pursuit. Some take on grueling quests and treasure hunts, some hone their magic, others try to create a single work of art or project so they will be noticed, and the ones with the greatest accomplishments are given first breeding rights."
"And the final misconception for the night, the men are not all violent, uneducated, hulking brutes, although gods know they haven't ever tried to make a good impression. If anything, their training and education is even more rigorous because they have to make up for spending most of their lives in hibernation. So, if you do ever find yourself on Sindara, you won't impress an entire harem by proving you can count past ten."
"You don't talk about your time on Sindara very much, master," someone said.
"Partly because I have to debunk everybody's hypersexualized prejudices every time it comes up."
"But if you had the choice, would you go back?" the student asked.
"No," Delvo said, "I made far too many enemies on that planet. There is nothing that could make me willingly go back."
Years later...
"Hastor what have you done?" I screamed over the roar of raw magic. The other paladin stood over the broken portal ring with his equally broken hammer hanging uselessly in his hands.
"I thought I could end this!" he shouted back as Sharonna tore a demon limb from limb with her mind. A pillar of stone which was easily fifty tons crashed within mere meters of the three of us.
"It's time to leave!" I commanded.
"What about Master Delvo?" Hastor asked as we tried to run for the exit, but another pillar fell and blocked our path.
"I'm right here!" the old man croaked while holding a dirty rag to his bleeding shoulder.
"Master, you're hurt!" Sharonna said.
"We don't have time to worry about it now," he said, "Make for that portal!"
"We don't know where it goes!" Hastor shouted.
"It goes away from here!" I shouted back as we ran for dear life. All around us more and more portals opened like gaping mouths, and demons poured out like locusts. Somewhere in the fray, I spotted the summoner responsible for all of this, but he was soon swarmed by an army of his own making that he had no hope of ever controlling. Hastor made it first, checked to make sure we were relatively safe, then dove through the portal that didn't lead to Pandemonium, the realm where all the demons were coming from.
"Master, get in!" I called to the old paladin who stumbled through and disappeared. Sharonna stole a foolish but desperate moment for a passionate kiss.
"Whatever happens I love you!" she shouted.
"I love you too, now go!" She dove through and I dove in right after. Unfortunately, before the tower collapsed on top of us, killing all of the demons that had appeared inside of it, one of them like a huge bat or a gargoyle flew through it right after us. As soon as I came out the other side, I was falling.
For a brief second, I screamed in sheer terror, fearing that I would fall to my death. Fortunately though, I was only a few meters above a body of water. I still landed hard enough to knock out of me though. My whole body stung where it had impacted the water, and I was stunned for a moment before remembering to swim. Then I thrashed my way back to the surface and gasped for air.
The portal was still wide open, but as I wondered how to reach it, dozens of shadowy tendrils reached out and I dove back underwater right before the demon swooped down and nearly snatched me in its talons. I hurried towards the shoreline and hauled myself up onto the muddy bank while coughing up water. I turned around as the demon circled back and howled at me, then I drew my sword and made ready for the inevitable swipe of its venomous claws. However, right before it collided with me, an arrow whizzed right past my head and hit the demon in the shoulder. It shrieked more in shock than in pain and I dove out of the way as it tumbled uncontrollably into the mud. I tried to take its momentary confusion to chop off its head, but then I heard a warning cry.
"Behind you!" I turned just in time to see a creature like a crocodile, but much larger and covered in scales made of crystals, lunge at me from the water. I sort of dodged out of the way, but the creature hit me with the side of its head and tossed me into the mud. The demon saw it was outmatched by this other creature and flew off, but the other predator turned back to me and opened its maw again. Then another arrow hit the predator right in its eye, it roared in pain and anguish, then slid back into the water. The demon flew back into the portal, the tendrils of shadow retracted, and the portal closed leaving me stranded... wherever I was. I sighed with resignation and sat up rubbing my temples. This day just become a lot more complicated. Footsteps squelched in the mud behind me, and I had no time to reach my sword. Not that I needed to.
"Are you alright?" my rescuer asked.
"Get back!" I said trying to scoot away in the mud. She had a human face, a very attractive human face at that, but her four, curly horns made me think she was a demon at first. As I looked closer though, I was only slightly more relaxed. Her eyes were entirely bright green, and her pupils were slits like a cat or a snake. Her cheekbones and chin were covered in fine, purple scales which continued down to her long flexible tail which swayed back and forth behind her. She wasn't a demon at all, but a half-drake. I also noticed two moons in the sky, and deduced that there was only one place where I could be.
"Who are you, and where am I?" I asked, "Is this Sindara?"
"Wait, you're a human, aren't you?" She got a little too close for comfort and I tried to scoot back but she reached for my cheek with one of her scaly, clawed hands.
"And a man at that!" she said.
I caught her wrist before those claws could potentially slash at my face and repeated my first question, "Who are you?"
"Oh, sorry," she said pulling away, "My name is Ilnara, and yes, welcome to Sindara. And you are?"
"I am Paladin Adiran Horas. Not Adrian, Adiran," I said. People always messed that up, so I had to always had to clarify.
"You're a knight? What brings you to Sindara, Paladin?" Ilnara asked as she offered me her hand.
"I promise I won't hurt you," she said. I cautiously accepted and she helped me to my feet.
"It was an accident," I explained, "We never meant to come here at all."
"We?" Ilnara asked.
