Various little blurbs about Kochev

The young half-elf's eyes opened as he appeared to be in an endless limbo made out of the dark, illuminated only by the billions of stars surrounding him. In front of him, a gargantuan green dragon with a body that seemed to be endlessly long. It smiled at him, he stared at it.

And then he sighed.

"You're never going to let me have a decent night's sleep are you?", He said as he looked up at the beast. It shifted itself to not be that much in Kochev's face anymore. At least he remembered that that was something incredibly uncomfortable. The Dragon opened its maw and spoke in a cheerful tone, "Oh you exaggerate! It's not like I ever get to see you at any other point, you know? I have to regularly see my child, my heir!" He proudly stated. Kochev stood up from his kneeling position and crossed his arms. "What even is the point of me being your successor? All you do is talk to me and keep me from dying of the disease that should've killed me years ago. What do you want from me?" He asked the Dragon. He was quite annoyed, it happened at least thrice a week that the Dragon bothered him, even if it was for completely insignificant things. The dragon's expression softened a little as he chuckled.

"You are far too young to begin the actual training. I'm just preparing you mentally for it all!", He told him, "But fair enough. You wish to know why I need you? Then I'll show you my child.", He said. A bright, beam of blinding light started enveloping Kochev, forcing him to close his eyes. He hated that he always had to transport him around using blinding light, it got annoying after the second time. Once he could open his eyes again he looked out from his position. They were just above the nine realms, their light shining cheerfully. But the Dragon pointed him to look at the more important part of this view- The holy tower. The Anchor that held this place together. Once it went past the clouds it turned into a beam of light, obviously no member of the tower would ever be able to tread there. Kochev looked at the Dragon with a questioning expression.

"My child, I'm sure you have noticed that magic has not been working that well at the borders of the realms?" The Dragon asked. Kochev nodded in response. "Well the reason for that is quite simple. There just isn't enough to go around, the anchor struggles to keep everyone stable and fed and yet those fools insist on finding and adding more realms to the network, causing more strain on the poor thing." He told him. Kochev nodded in agreement. "It's why I stopped scouting for new realms. It wasn't fun almost getting stuck just because I was on the border." Kochev said to the dragon, who chuckled. Of course. The Dragon found that one moment incredibly funny, when his transportation spells refused to work for three days. The Dragon continued. "So you must also understand that the only way to stop this is to reduce the strain." He said in a cold tone.

"We have to get rid of them. Destroy them, let them fall. It's the only way to save An Domhan. Of course, if we don't want to sacrifice the majority then sacrificing the minority would be fine too. I know you sneak out into the second and third realms despite me telling you not to." The Dragon said. Kochev casually avoided eye contact, not confirming his statement. "Those places are pushing An Domhan to its limits, taking as much as it can without causing the Anchor to actually activate its measures against such things."

"So you want to destroy the other beasts' realms? Weaken them? Betray them?" Kochev asked him, though his voice didn't indicate that he was against this. He seemed to just want clarification, and this quite pleased the Dragon. 

"We have no other choice. They haven't listened to reason, and can't seem to realize the damage they're causing. They don't want to accept that creatures in their realms must die in order to keep the system running, and that you can't use high amounts of magic constantly without detrimental effects. If it wasn't for me, you would have been in the hands of the Unicorn.", The Dragon said. "And she would have killed you within days, thinking that the way to deal with your disease is to just give it more magic with no control or limit. And if you would have miraculously survived, she would use you as propaganda to convince everyone she deserves to have the first realm. She is not to be trusted with anything.", The dragon's teeth were bared as he grew agitated thinking about the Unicorn and the destruction she could have caused. He took a moment to calm himself down however, not wanting to frighten Kochev and make him see his ways through fear. He turned his head to the young half-elf and faintly smiled before closing in on him. "You must understand that we are the only ones that know how to protect An Domhan. It is our duty. It is your duty. And you have to be ready to replace me if anything must go wrong. Do you understand now?" 

Kochev stared at the dragon, still processing all the things that were told to him. He hadn't been this straightforward before, so it came quite as a surprise, but he trusted the Dragon. 

"Yes, Father." He said, expressionless.

And then he woke up.