6 – As the Son of a Dragon (1)
“How do I read this now?”
“Drakea Rosaria!”
“Exactly. You’re really good at teaching.”
Eating delicious food every day,
Sleeping in a clean bed with my mom every day.
Days spent studying under the blue sky.
I wondered if it was all a dream, but the warmth that touched my cheeks was too real to be fake.
“Now, will you write your name once?”
Even though the first two notebooks were filled with black words,
I didn’t stop pushing the pen onto the pages of the third notebook.
Just the warm gaze of the yellow eyes could give me the strength to keep writing.
“Exactly.”
“Russel!”
Apple, meat, steak, fork, knife, spoon, plate,
Potato, carrot, tomato, soup –
I continued writing down the things I liked,
Trying my best to imitate my mom’s crooked handwriting.
Pressing the pen with my fingers firmly.
Unaware of the burning redness at the tip.
“Nothing is easy at first.
Writing words is the same.”
That’s why my mom gently took my hand, made me stop, and put down the pen.
The softness that traveled through my skin couldn’t be more pleasant.
Instead of feeling regret for stopping writing,
I preferred my mom’s gentle touch.
Stroking my forehead, pushing the warmth gathered in her hands into my forehead.
“For example, like this… summoning fire from your hand.
And making it several times hotter.”
And then, he held onto me tightly and lit a small flame in front of my eyes,
Soon, he turned it into a small ball.
“The power that symbolizes my element,
Absorbing and devouring the coldness of the world.”
And then, he moved away from me and continued to show me the ball,
Then he jumped out of the window and spread his large wings.
My mother, flying up and blocking the sunlight –
“Illuminate this land with the power that conquers the world.”
She showed me a fireball on her hand, like a sun.
So hot that sweat dripped,
Emitting a blinding light that hurt my eyes.
“Uh, ugh…!”
It felt like another sun was rising in the sky.
Just a few days ago, I felt like I would freeze to death in the winter wind.
Now, it felt like I was welcoming summer, watching my mother in the hot room.
Did she notice me?
She waved her hand in the air once, and the light momentarily shrunk and eventually disappeared.
Then, a cool breeze instantly came in through the open window.
“Wow…”
The direction it came from was exactly where my mother was flapping her wings.
Seeing her getting closer to the point where I can see her smiling face, I waved my hand.
“How is it?”
“It’s amazing!”
“That’s why you don’t need to be discouraged.
As you grow older, you will mature,
During that time, you will continue to practice.
Then, like this mother, you will be able to write beautifully.”
Wiping the sweat off my hair, my mother pressed her forehead with her thumb.
Like when she engraved patterns on my head.
“How is it this time?”
There was a sizzling sensation, but at that moment it didn’t hurt too much –
“It’s hot.”
She looked at me with yellow eyes.
“It seems to have been absorbed well. Luckily.
I was wondering what to do if your body didn’t match my power.”
She gently pulled down my long bangs, tidying them up so they wouldn’t poke my eyes,
while patiently waiting for my mom to wipe away the remaining sweat with a hand towel.
“But mom, can I try to create that fire?”
A sudden curiosity arose.
And my mom’s laughter emerged.
“I was waiting for you to say that.”
It seemed like there was a lot I could learn from my mom.
***
“Ssshh-“
“Phoo hoo, there’s no need to exert so much force.
I told you it wouldn’t work from the beginning.”
Even though I was trying to use the power as my mom instructed,
all that came out of my hands was sweat, not fire.
For a long time, I couldn’t imagine what fire looked like,
or how it felt.
There was nothing I could imagine about them.
“Don’t raise your temperature too high. How about taking a break?”
“It’s difficult… huff, huff…”
Instead, I felt my strength draining –
But I was too exhausted to think about it any further.
“Here, have some cold water.”
With those words, what touched the bowl was –
Water filled with ice.
“Wow!”
Transparent ice that you could only see in a winter lake was now in a glass.
“How did you do that?”
“That’s magic.
Of course, even as someone who can control fire, there are limits to what I can do.”
“Can I also create ice?”
“Well,
as long as my mark is on you…
it might be difficult.”
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The ice collided with each other, making a delightful sound.
It was a little sad that I couldn’t create it, but I didn’t mind too much.
The water that went into my mouth was incredibly refreshing.
“Foo-haah.
Why does the water that Mom gives taste so good?”
“It’s just ordinary water.
That – ugh. Is it really that delicious?”
Even if my grandmother said the food was delicious, she would often get scolded.
Even if I left a fart and made things boring, I was often told not to do it.
But Mom was kind.
More than I imagined,
more than I wished for.
A harmonious family that I only met in my dreams.
With shadows cast upon their faces,
Mom and Dad holding my hands.
But now –
“Yes!”
With scary yellow eyes,
with sharp horns and a long, thick tail –
a dragon smiling at me, with its red hair flowing over its ears,
it was my mom.
“Then let’s practice again.”
When the sun sets behind the mountain, then let’s eat again –
And afterwards, would you like to listen to an old story,
Or would you prefer to read a book?”
“Please tell me an old story. An old story!”
My mom brings me things I will always love,
And gives me what I want.
“Well then, sit down again and focus on your hand.
Draw strength from your forehead…”
Following the soft voice, I gather strength,
Feeling my mom’s hand firmly holding my shoulder, I gather strength once more.
I couldn’t see fire coming from my hand until the sun set.
***
“Come on, don’t sulk like that.
Can you bring me those onions over there?”
“Yes…”
In the spacious kitchen where the sound of a knife striking the cutting board can be heard,
I open a drawer in the corner and take out an onion to give it to my mom.
“Don’t be too sad.
Because it’s your first time practicing today, surely you’ll get better the more you practice.
If your forehead feels hot, it’s enough.”
“But my forehead also hurt a lot when I think a lot.”
When I saw my grandmother lying down, her hands and feet were cold but only her forehead hurt.
It was the same when she accidentally dropped a plate she treasured.
“Yes, that’s it.
Magic is about imagining strength,
Begging the scattered forces of nature and elements.
I’ve thought about something like this, what if it really happens –
And I’m asking you that.”
The skin of the onion is peeled off in an instant, and a piece falls into the pot with a splash as my mom cuts it with the knife she held.
“Now, Russell.
We need potatoes this time.
Do you like potatoes a lot?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
“I piled up so many potatoes in the basket.
It would have been harder if I didn’t know that you liked them.
Oh, right. We also need carrots – should we definitely get one?”
“Uh -“
Did I catch on that he dislikes it?
It seemed like he noticed that I only put one carrot in the basket.
“You need to eat a variety of things to grow well,
You need to know how precious everything is… That’s what you need to understand.”
As she stirred the boiling soup, Mom’s face looked somehow dark.
Even though she was in front of the fire, her yellow eyes did not look pleasingly sad.
“So hurry up and bring it.
I’ll try to make it as delicious as possible.”
“Yes.”
Leaving behind the quiet crackling sound of the fire, I approached the basket again and took two big potatoes.
And one small carrot… No,
I took one big carrot.
Carefully so as not to spill the vegetables that filled my arms.
“Here.”
“Right. Oh, wait a moment, will you?”
Mom, who received the vegetables, neatly laid out the soil-covered ones,
She held up one potato in front of my eyes.
“A shyly dressed potato.
Let me show your beautiful essence.
Shining like a white statue,
Smooth like marble.”
And in an instant, she peeled the potato’s skin as if peeling an onion.
“Is this, is this also magic?”
“Didn’t I tell you?
If it looks interesting to nature and the elements, they’ll listen and give it to you.
Of course – convincing them is a different story.”
The tongue that my mom stuck out didn’t seem much different from mine.
If I had to say, my mom’s tongue was a bit longer and bigger.
“So, do I have to grow a little more too?”
“Read books, broaden your knowledge.
When you can fully visualize the world in your mind, then you’ll be ready.
That’s why mom is trying to teach you various things, right?”
Peeling off another potato skin with a shluck, my mom handed me a carrot.
“For now, let’s start by getting acquainted with carrots in the kitchen.
Have you ever used a kitchen knife? How about a peeler?”
I shook my head at my mom, who showed me knives of different sizes.
Knives were too dangerous, my grandmother made sure I didn’t use them.
She would scream, saying who would suffer if I got hurt,
and would chase me away when I offered to help.
“Well then, let’s practice with mom from now on.”
But my mom was different from my grandmother.
She showed me more things,
and tried to help me understand.
By performing various forms of magic.
“So that my child’s hands don’t get hurt.
To have the hardness of a knight’s armor.
The lightness of the air.
And the flexibility of flowing water.”
When her whispered words turned into a warm red light and wrapped around my hand,
my mom picked up the knife –
“If it hurts, you have to tell me. Got it?”
And gently placed it on top of my finger.
“Because I mustn’t get hurt. It’s just in case the magic fails and I get hurt.”
“Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
Naturally, I lightly replied, trusting my mother,
And indeed, even though the knife pressed against me, I felt nothing.
The knife only lightly touched my skin.
“It seems to have worked.
So now, let’s try peeling the skin.
Half of it is for mom, and the other half is for Russell.”
Among the two carrots, the larger one was for my mother,
And the smaller one was for me,
The carrot slowly started to shed its skin.
The orange clothes that were smoothly peeled off in a single line were truly thin.
With a knife bigger than my hand, my mother calmly peeled off the skin.
When it finally finished, there was an orange snake twisted in my hand.
“Like this.”
“How do I do this? With the knife, like this, like this?”
As my mother tried to hold the big knife, she instead handed me a small knife.
“When you grow up, you can use this knife, but originally, you use a small knife like this.
It’s much lighter.”
So, as instructed, I carefully made a knife pocket on the carrot.
“Right, and gently slide it…”
But perhaps I applied too much force.
Snap – the knife went too far –
“Oh my, I gave it too much force…!”
The carrot was cut off, just like that.
However, the skin and flesh were still visible, so if I do a little better…
“Echo.”
If I do better.
“Hmm…”
If you do well!
“Again?”
If you do well…
“…the carrot has become a good for nothing?”
I didn’t do well.
In the end, the crooked, round carrot, unable to become like my mother, became so different that it could be called a completely different carrot.
My mother laughed as she compared the two.
“It’s okay, Russell. It’s your first time.
You can’t do anything well at first. You understand now, right?”
But in the end, as I saw the orange pieces breaking apart and falling into the pot, I nodded my head.
It seemed like I would need a lot of practice to become like my mother.
If I couldn’t do it immediately, I would try to follow as quickly as possible.
